1905 History of Crawford County Kansas

Hon. Asaph Newton Chadsey, who died at Cherokee, Crawford county, December 5, 1898, was for thirty years the best known business man of that town, and his death at the age of sixty years took away a man of great business and executive ability, of firm integrity and most beneficent character. He was known and honored throughout the county as one of its oldest pioneer settlers, and his life was throughout above reproach, of civic and personal purity, and wide usefulness in whatever realm his activity led him. He is remembered and loved for his unselfish devotion to family and friends, and he was always performing some unostentatious acts of kindness and charity which helped and made life's pathway easier for others. The story of his career is simple, for he pursued the goal of his ambition without many wanderings from the direct current and channel of life, but from the time he left the old Illinois farm for army service until his last days were ended in Cherokee his years were years of action and diligence with ever increasing success up to their conclusion.

Mr. Chadsey was born in Schuyler county, Illinois, January 8, 1838. His father was a prosperous farmer of that county. He was educated in the schools at Rushville, Illinois, and afterwards attended Berean College at Jacksonville, Illinois, where he graduated. In 1862 he went to Quincy, Illinois, and enlisted in Company C, One Hundred and Nineteenth Illinois Infantry, which was assigned to the Sixteenth Army Corps, Army of the Mississippi, under General A. J. Smith. He participated in the fighting around Vicksburg, in the Red River expedition, in the siege of Spanish Fort and Fort Blakely, was in the pursuit of General Price through Missouri, fought against Hood at Nashville, and his final muster out was at Mobile in September, 1865, when he had earned a most gallant army record.

After leaving the army he went to Chicago and took a course in Bryant and Stratton's Business College. In 1866 he came to Cherokee, Crawford county, or rather to the country that has since been organized into the present boundaries and political bodies, for this part of the country was then the Cherokee Neutral Lands. During the following winter he went across the state line to Lamar, Missouri, where he taught school one term, and then returned to Crawford county and went into the mercantile business at Monmouth. Three years later he came to Cherokee and established a store in partnership with Joe Lucas, this connection continuing for about three years. He continued in the mercantile business in Cherokee for the rest of his life, and the well-known Chadsey store, a substantial brick building erected thirty years ago, has since his death, been conducted by his eldest son, F. N. Chadsey. It has been one of the largest establishments in Cherokee for many years, and has always maintained a high standard of commercial excellence.

Mr. Chadsey was a very stanch yet exceedingly popular Republican, and extremely public-spirited. In 1887 he was elected a member of the state legislature from this county, being a colleague of Colonel Brown, of Girard, who was in the assembly at the same time. He served in the lawmaking body with honor and distinction. He was a prominent figure in public affairs in Cherokee. He was several times elected to the office of mayor and councilman, and was also clerk of the school board. He was a member of the official body when the county was organized, and was always enthusiastic in promoting the growth of his own town. He was a member of the Christian church, and fraternally was a Knight Templar and a Royal Arch Mason, was at one time commander of his Grand Army post, and identified with other social bodies.

Mr. Chadsey was domestic in his tastes, and lavished his affections upon his family, providing liberally for their education. He was married at Monmouth in 1868 to Miss Saline Elizabeth Adam, who survives him and with her younger children resides in the beautiful Chadsey home in Cherokee, where she is regarded with esteem befitting her own sweet character and noble life. Two of their children, Robert and Frank, are deceased. Those living are: Mrs. Ida Dorsey, the wife of G. A. Dorsey, a well-known scientist and the curator of the Field Columbian Museum at Chicago; Mrs. Florence Hare, the wife of H. B. Hare, of Cleveland, Ohio; Frederick Newton Chadsey, the merchant successor of his father; Miss Mildred, who is a graduate of the University of Chicago; and William Lloyd, attending college at Morgan Park Academy at Chicago.