Perry A. Storer

PERRY A. STORER. The Storer family has lived in Kansas more than half a century. It pioneered to the extreme northeastern corner of the state when Perry A. Storer was a boy, and during a long and active life he has achieved a dignified position in his community and taken active part in business affairs at Portis. He is the manager of the Farmers Elevator Company and owns a large farm in this vicinity.

Mr. Storer comes of pioneer American stock, his great-grandfather having been born in New Jersey. The latter lived later in Pennsylvania, and when the region west of that state was an uninhabited waste except by hostile Indian tribes he ventured into its wilds for exploration, and in one encounter, as history records, killed three Indians at one shot. In order to save his life from Indian vengeance he had to return to Pennsylvania.

Ezekiel Storer, grandfather of the Portis citizen, was born in Pennsylvania in 1792. In early manhood he pioneered into Southern Ohio, and for many years lived on a farm in Perry County of that state. He finally retired and died there in 1879.

William Storer, father of Perry A., was born in Pennsylvania in 1817, and at the age of fifteen went with his parents to Muskingum County, Ohio, where he grew up and married. He spent his life as a farmer. From Muskingum County he went to Jackson County and then to Pickaway County, Ohio, and in December, 1867, brought his family to Doniphan County, Kansas, where he established his home on a new farm. In 1872 he went out almost to the verge of civilization in Kansas, to Osborne County, and homesteaded a quarter section. He lived there and developed a good farm and died on his homestead in 1906, when nearly ninety years of age. He became a republican in Kansas and was honored with several township offices. He was a very active member of the Presbyterian Church. William Storer married Elizabeth Moore, who was born in Ohio in 1822 and died in Osborne County, Kansas, in 1881. This pioneer couple had a family of nine children: Kittura, now living in Idaho, widow of a farmer, Frank Bradley; Anna, living in Portis, Kansas, widow of H. B. Smith, a former farmer and hardware merchant there; Elizabeth, living at Manitou, Colorado, widow of J. A. Fields, who was a farmer; E. C. Storer, a farmer who died at Colby, Kansas, in January, 1918; Jennie, wife of J. A. Doolittle, a farmer at West Plains, Missouri; L. F. Storer, an Osborne County farmer; Ella, whose home is at Lyndon, Osage County, Kansas, is the widow of H. M. Randall, a farmer; and Eunice, wife of G. S. Dew, of Burlingame, Kansas.

Perry A. Storer was born in Jackson County, Ohio, August 16, 1858, and was nine years old when his parents came to Kansas. He finished his education in the rural schools of Osborne County and lived at home to the age of thirty-one, working the farm and taking many of the responsibilities from the shoulders of his father as the latter grew old. After that he engaged in farming on his own account in Smith County, and was there until he removed to Portis in 1914 and took his present responsibilities as manager of the Farmers Elevator Company. He has a farm of 520 acres in Smith County, yielding abundant crops of grain and livestock, and also owns a modern home in Portis, built in 1914.

Mr. Storer served as trustee of Garfield Township in Smith County and also as township clerk and justice of the peace. He is a republican and a member of the Portis Camp, Modern Woodmen of America.

In March, 1896, in Osborne, Kansas, he married Miss Cora Hershey, born near Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Her mother is now Mrs. Rebecca Prince, of Portis. They have four children: Mildred, wife of Homer Hammond, a farmer in Smith County; Verdie, a graduate of the Portis High School, now helping her father in the elevator; Frances, a teacher in the local high school; and Andrew.

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