Jesse Henry Briney

JESSE HENRY BRINEY, county attorney of Rawlins County, was a homesteader and farmer in that district of Kansas long before he determined to qualify himself for the profession of law, which he has honored since his admission to the bar twenty years ago.

Mr. Briney was born in Warren County, Indiana, June 5, 1864. His grandfather, Stephenson Briney, was born in Germany in 1794. In 1801 the family came to the United States and settled out on the western frontier in Darke County, Ohio. Later they moved to Boone County, Indiana, where Stephenson Briney was a pioneer farmer and where he died in 1869.

P. S. Briney, father of the Atwood attorney, was born in Darke County, Ohio, in 1824 and when a boy accompanied his parents to Boone County, Indiana, and after attaining an independent position himself he moved to Warren County in that state. He farmed there a number of years and from 1870 to 1890 had his home in Fremont County, Iowa. In 1890 he went to Nebraska and died in that year at Stratton in that state. He was a republican and an active supporter of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Briney first married Miss Meek, who bore him a son, Richard B., of Abilene, Kansas, and a daughter Isabel, who died in Nemaha County, Kansas, in 1885, as Mrs. J. Diffenderfer. Mr. Briney married for his second wife, Elmira Henderson, who was born in Warren County, Indiana, in 1838 and died at Colorado Springs in February, 1915. She was the mother of five children: P. Loren Briney, a tailor at Santa Ana, California; Lida E., who died in 1890, at Stratton, Nebraska, the wife of George L. Burney, a farmer now at Blue Mound, Kansas; Jesse Henry; Frank W. Briney, a farmer near Atwood; and Clarence E., a carpenter living at Colorado Springs.

Jesse H. Briney received his education in the rural schools of Warren County, Indiana, and Fremont County, Iowa, and also attended a normal school at Bloomfield, Iowa. These early educational advantages were finished when he was about nineteen years old. He then resumed his place on his father's farm, but soon after reaching the age of twenty-one started out seeking land of his own. His quest brought him to Rawlins County in 1886. Here he homesteaded a quarter section, took a timber claim, and was busied with their development for nine years. Later he sold these claims, although he still owns a large stock and grain farm of 480 acres two miles southeast of Atwood. He lived on his homestead for nine years and in 1895 came into Atwood, having been elected clerk of court in the fall of 1894. He was re-elected in 1896 and was one of the popular officials at the courthouse for two terms. While there he took up and mastered the fundamentals of law, was admitted to the bar in 1898, and since that year has carried on a gratifying and successful practice at Atwood, combined with the real estate and abstract business, with offices on Fourth and State streets. From 1902 to 1904 he was county attorney of Rawlins County and in 1918 was again called to the responsibilities of that office. He is a democrat. His church affiliations are Presbyterian, and he is a past noble grand of Atwood Lodge of Odd Fellows.

Mr. Briney owns a home that furnishes recreation and employment for all his leisure time. It comprises a block of ground, with a modern residence, surrounded by shade and fruit trees.

On December 25, 1888, in Rawlins County, he married Miss Cady E. Chadwick. Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. George Chadwick, are both now deceased. They were farmers in Fremont County, Iowa, and her father at one time was a leading stock dealer in that section. Mr. and Mrs. Briney have three children: Roy S., born December 21, 1889, was educated in the local public schools, graduated from the county high school in 1911, and for three years was a teacher in the public schools of Rawlins County and one term principal of the Atwood schools. He then joined his father in business, an association that still continues. Bernard C., the second son, was born August 8, 1891, and is a farmer near Atwood. Fern, born November 20, 1902, is still in school.