Alfred H. Elmore

ALFRED H. ELMORE is of a sturdy race of farmers, has made agriculture his chief pursuit and nearly all his children are of the same mold and tendency. He has acquired a competency by his labors in Kansas and is now living retired at Rozel. He came out of Mason County, Illinois, and settled in Barton County, Kansas, in 1898. Some time prior to his coming he had bought a quarter section of well improved land in that county. This quarter had a good house, barn, wells and other improvements, including substantial fences. The two years he spent in Barton County were excellent crop years. His experience there caused him to desire more land, and in 1900 he sold his possessions and bought three quarters of section 27, township 21, range 19 in Grant Township of Pawnee County. This land had no improvements and he paid $5,000 for it, at the rate of about $10 an acre. Here he built a one-story, six-room frame house, barn 36 by 36, shed on two sides, with mow capacity thirty tons. Here he engaged in wheat raising as his chief effort and out of the proceeds was able to purchase in 1905 a quarter of section 27, township 21, range 19, for which he paid $1,800. This land included a part of the present site of Rozel.

At that time the country was all open and unfenced. The Village of Rozel contained, besides the railroad station, only two dwelling houses and one store. In this community Mr. Elmore has since confined his efforts and for the last two years has lived practically retired, his sons looking after the farm operation. In 1907 he bought the west half of the northwest quarter of section 34, township 21, range 19. This was also unimproved, but in the meantime he has given it house, barn, sheds, granary and other facilities to make of it a first class farm. Besides his extensive farm holdings Mr. Elmore is a stockholder in the Pawnee County Fair Association. In politics he is a democrat, though not an active party man. He has served on the school board and as justice of the peace, and is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and, the Modern Woodmen of America. He himself is a Methodist and Mrs. Elmore is active in the Baptist Church and the Ladies Aid Society.

Mr. Elmore was born January 20, 1857. His grandfather, Peter Elmore, was a Kentucky farmer and died about 1860, at the age of sixty-five. His children were: Mary, who married Jim Cantrell; Joseph; Martha, who married Willis Skaggs; Mrs. John Walker; Julia, who married Peter Skaggs; John; William R.; and Clay. All of them lived in Green County, Kentucky, and all are now deceased except Clay.

John Elmore, father of Alfred H., was born in Green County, Kentucky. In 1881 he moved to Mason County, Illinois, and spent the last three years of his life at Rozel, Kansas, where he died in 1911, at the age of seventy-four. He married Martha Rison, a daughter of Henson Rison, who came out of Old Virginia in the early days and passed through the Cumberland Gap to Kentucky. Martha Rison was about five years of age when the family went into Kentucky. She died in Mason County, Illinois, in 1915, at the age of eighty-three. Henson Rison married a daughter of Dave Lawson, and their children were: Alfred, of Green County, Kentucky; Cynthia, who married John Rafferty, of Green County: Adaline, who became the wife of Louis Cantrell; Mrs. Martha Elmore; Dave, who died at Peoria, Illinois; John, who died in Green County, Kentucky; and Jim, who is living at Peoria, the only one of the family still surviving.

The children of John and Martha Elmore were W. R., who died in Larue County, Kentucky, in 1917, at the age of sixty-one; Alfred H.; Alice, wife of J. R. Johnson, a piano salesman at Louisville, Kentucky; D. M., a farmer in Pawnee County; Julia, who died unmarried at Mason City, Illinois, in 1913, at the age of forty-five: Laura, wife of Milton Ruble, living near Jacksonville, Illinois; Mattie, wife of Charles Ballew, a farmer at Mason City, Illinois; Josephine, who died at Buffalo, Kentucky, in 1899, the wife of William Pearce; Victor, who died at Conway Springs, Kansas, in 1902; and Newman, a farmer at Mason City, Illinois.

Alfred H. Elmore was married September 10, 1874, to Mary Scott, a daughter of Ned and Lucy Jane (Cantrell) Scott. Her father was a farmer in Green County, Kentucky, and died in 1856. His brothers and sisters were: Robert, who died in Green County; Hardin, who was killed by bushwhackers during the Civil war; Jim, who died in Green County, Kentucky; Anna, who married Mr. Black; Polly, who married Jim Hedspeth. All of these lived in Green County, Kentucky, and all are now deceased. Ned Scott's wife was a daughter of Asa and Nancy (Lewis) Cantrell of Kentucky. Nancy Lewis was a daughter of Jim Lewis. The children of Asa Cantrell and wife were: Lewis, Jim, George, John, Achsa, who married William Warren, Cynthia, who married Alfred Risen, and Isabel, all of whom lived in Green County, Kentucky, and are now deceased.

Mrs. Elmore, who was born July 29, 1855, had the following brothers and sisters: Elizabeth, who died in 1911, at the age of seventy, the wife of Joshua Lewis, of Green County; Asa; William; Alexander; all of these being deceased except Asa and William, who are living in Green County, Kentucky.

Mr. and Mrs. Elmore have taken all the more pleasure from their profitable enterprise as farmers because they have been the more able to provide for their children. The oldest of these is John, a farmer in Woodward County, Oklahoma. He married May Thompson, and at her death she left four children, Merle, Lyle, Clara and Viola. John Elmore by his second marriage to Maude Woolsey, has one child, Willard Woolsey. Jefferson Elmore, who lives at Berry, Illinois, married Ada Babcock, and has three children, Henry, Cecil and Lloyd. Melissa is the wife of Arch Hall, of Pawnee County, and has two sons, Russell and Alfred. Mattie is the wife of Dave Candilish, an employe of the Topeka Oil Company at Topeka, Kansas. Everett, a farmer in Pawnee County, married Ethel Logan and has a son, Everett Jr. Frank is unmarried and is in the United States Navy, Great Lakes Station. Irwin, of Pawnee County, married Jimmie Bush and has two sons, Giles and Joseph.