He is a citizen of Battle Creek, Ia., Ida County, and an ex-soldier of the Civil War. He was born in Ashtabula County, Ohio on September 22, 1837. He was raised on a farm in the Territory of Iowa, Linn County. He had his school lessons in a primitive log schoolhouse of Iowa. In 1862, he answered Lincoln’s call for more men for the Civil War. In 1881 he came to Ida County and bought a tract of land in Grant Township and engaged in farming.
He married Amanda Marsh in Linn County, Iowa, when he was 22 years of age. She was a native of New York and a daughter of Ellison B. and Huldy Marsh. Mr. and Mrs. Usher had 10 children: Mary E., Ada M., Ermie G., David E., Herbert M., Huldah Anna, Malvina Jane, Gilbert Nelson, Della , and Elsie M.