1905 History of Crawford County Kansas

John Wesley Michael, a well known and prosperous farmer in Grant township, has during a residence of twelve or thirteen years in this county advanced to a position of esteem and influence in his community, and as a man of enterprise and public spirit in all that he undertakes he is a factor that makes for the well-being and material progress of Crawford county.

Mr. Michael began his career of usefulness at an early age, when as a mere boy of fourteen years, in May, 1863, he enlisted in Company E, One Hundred and Fifteenth Indiana Infantry, and went away to fight in defense of the Union and all it represented. The regiment went into camp at Camp Carrington, Illinois; was ordered to Cincinnati, thence to Louisville, and on to Cumberland Gap, where it was under General Hooker; marched and saw much severe campaigning throughout Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia. Mr. Michael was sick with the measles for a time in the hospital, and in February, 1864, received his honorable discharge at Indianapolis, Indiana.

Mr. Michael was born in Edgar county, Illinois, near Paris, in 1849, the year of the exodus to the California gold fields. His father, a native and reared and educated in Pennsylvania, came from that state to Indiana in young manhood, settling in Parke county on the Wabash river, and later moved to Edgar county, Illinois.

Reared on the old Illinois homestead, where he was taught the value of honest toil, and receiving his education in the schools of his locality, he grew to manhood there and from youth up has been engaged in farming pursuits. He came to Crawford county in 1892 and bought one hundred and sixty acres in Grant township, on which he has erected a good modern house, furnished in taste and comfort, and which he has so conducted and improved as to make his estate one of the best in his neighborhood. He has taken much interest in the affairs of his home community, has supported and favored progress in education, good roads, moral and religious environments, and has utilized all opportunities to make himself a man of worth not only to himself and family but also to society in general.

Mr. and Mrs. Michael have four children: Mrs. Bertha Hand, of Wilson county, Kansas; Alta; Clarice and Henry, of Crawford county. Mr. Michael is a strong Republican in politics, and he and his wife are members of the Methodist church.