1905 History of Crawford County Kansas

Zenas M. Bogle, a retired farmer now making his home in Pittsburg, has enjoyed a most successful and happy career, and now when on the thither side of seventy years of age is passing a comfortable, contented and prosperous aftermath to previous scenes of industrious activity, in which he found a creditable solution for life's problems and gained a position of honor and esteem among his fellows. He has never sought to achieve by eclat the work placed before him in the course of duty, but by the simple and unaffecting performance of each day's tasks has won the commendation of his own conscience and evolved a life and character harmonious and worthy of the world's best praise.

Mr. Bogle was born in Perry county, Ohio, in 1833, being a son of Holmes and Mary (Kruson) Bogle. His father was a native of Pennsylvania, whither his ancestors, like so many of the Scotch-Irish race in the north of Ireland, had come and made settlement generations before. He was taken by his parents to the new state of Ohio in 1807, and grew up in Perry county and helped clear away the forests in which their pioneer home was located. Holmes Bogle lived and died in that county, as did also his good wife.

Mr. Zenas M. Bogle was reared to manhood on the Perry county farm, and when school days and boyhood pleasures were over he entered upon real activity as a farmer, which occupation he continued with excellent success in Perry county, Ohio, until 1882. In the spring of that year he came to Crawford county and bought a farm at the eastern edge of Sheridan township. He carried on active farming until a few years ago, since which time he has been retired and making his home in Pittsburg. He still owns his farm, which is now being conducted by his youngest son, Francis W.

Mr. Bogle has never taken active part in politics further than to cast an intelligent ballot for the man who seemed to him to represent the best principles of national and local government. His first presidential vote was given to Fremont, and first and last he has voted for the Republican candidates for the presidency. He is a life-long member of the United Presbyterian church, he and his wife both coming of stanch Presbyterian stock, and for many years he was a member in the church of that denomination at Beulah, in Sheridan township.

Mr. Bogle was married in Fairfield county, Ohio, in 1858 to Miss Margaret J. Barr, who became the mother of six children, the son Holmes P. being deceased. The others are Artemus M., Emma S., Elmer P., Essie L. and Francis W. Mrs. Bogle was the daughter of William and Sarah (Brown) Barr, and is a descendant of Robert Barr, a Scotch-Irishman who came from county Donegal, Ireland, to America in 1790, settling in Pennsylvania. William Barr was born in Pennsylvania in 1800, and came with his parents to Chillicothe, Ohio, in 1802, the year in which Ohio became a state of the Union, and they were among the first settlers in that historic town. One of the sons of William Barr, William Calvin by name, was a soldier in the Civil war for three years. The histories of the Barr and Brown families, of which Mrs. Bogle is a member, have been published, and reveal a long line of ancestors who were strong in their religious faith, and a number of whom attained great distinction in religious action as well as in other departments of life.