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1999 Queries For
Chautauqua County Kansas
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Only queries pertaining to Chautauqua County, Kansas are posted here.

SKAGGS, Charles Sun May 02, 1999
Charles (b. Jan 1832)and Annie Skaggs (b. Nov 1837) were residents of Washington TWP, Chautauqua Co., KS in 1880 and 1900 census and of Sedan in 1910 census. He is my gg grandfather. Looking for any information on their date of death and their burial. Will gladly supply additional Skaggs family data on request.
Contact Clifford Anderson - andersoncd@earthlink.net


STOUT, David and Addie Mon Oct 18, 1999
David Stout and Addie JOHNSON were married in Sedan,Kan. Oct.23,1886 their son William was born at a railroad camp called Yates Center. It is possible that David's father Eli Stout was also in the area. Any info would help.
Contact Dennis Nelson - denel_99@yahoo.com
SUTTON, George Sat Mar 20, 1999
We are searching for information on the George Sutton family. He was married to Myrtle Mae RICE. Their children were George, Charles William "Bill" and Elizabeth. Bill was born in Cedar Vale in 1921. Elizabeth was born in 1926. Not sure about their brother George. Any help would be most appreciated.
Contact Sharon Pierpont - sap67209@aol.com
Contact Frank Thompson - Basstbn@prodigy.net URL www.familytreemaker.com/users/t/h/o/Franklin-B-Thompson/index.html
WELLS, Jesse Mon Nov 08, 1999
Looking for my grandfathers' brother, Jesse Wells and wife Binnie GREEN buried in Chautauqua County, Kansas. Jesse Wells was the son of James Watson Wells and Lucinda J. ROBERSON. Binnie Green was the daughter of W. Y. Green and Minta LEE. Belknap & Sedan areas.
Contact Leonard Cade - calocade@kalama.com
WILSON, James Reed (J. R.) Sun Oct 17, 1999
James Reed (J.R.) Wilson, the only son of Jeremiah Wilson and Martha REED, was born March 3, 1817, probably in Montgomery County, Kentucky (see Volume I). J.R. was remembered by his granddaughter, Mattie Cabler BARNETT, who took care of his appearance during the last eight years of his life, as "a tall man, rather thin but not poor. He was always kind to those who did as he thought right. He always wanted to be right, or always thought he was." Mattie went on to say, " I can see since I got older that he was very self willed, or headstrong, but he was loved and respected by everyone who knew him. He was a cow man in his younger years in Texas and came to Kansas in 1881. [He] bought cattle and horses. He had lots of hired help, families and extra men." "[J.R.] liked to ride horseback and did as long as he could get on a horse without help. He did not want to be helped and waited on. He was always doing something. He made (a) garden and let the girls (granddaughters) work with him in the garden. He did lots of reading, also whittled a lot. [He] swatted flies with a fly swatter he made of a boot top and a cherry twig. He never had screen doors." "[J.R.] was a good looking man, very stately, and dressed the same every day: boots, dark pants, a wool shirt and long underwear in winter, and drawers in summer [with] a dark cotton shirt. [He wore] a wide rim hat all the time. Very good looking to me. His eyes were blue and his hair was dark, but always white when I knew him. He had a long white beard and he wore his white hair long. I don't remember who kept his hair and beard cut to suit him." The photo of J.R. looking like a Presbyterian patriarch was taken about 1889. In April 1834 James Reed Wilson joined the White River Presbyterian congregation with Ezra Wilson (c.1785-), perhaps his uncle, George W. Cosby, Ezra's wife, Nancy (a daughter of Abner HAMILTON?, and Ezra's children, Eliza Ann and Abner. The group was inducted at the Cane Hill Campground by Rev. J.M. Blair, James Buchanan and William Reed, elders. Ezra was a resident of Crawford County until the 1840's and last served as an elder in the White River congregation in Washington County in 1835. In May 1839 J. R. Wilson and George A. Pettigrew were on a jury which acquitted Willis Wallace of killing a Cherokee named Orr on the Trail of Tears as it passed through Fayetteville, Arkansas. On November 12, 1839, James Reed Wilson married Elizabeth (Betty) PETTIGREW (1820-1854) in Prairie Grove, Arkansas. Elizabeth was born in Gallatin County, Illinois. Her parents, Charles and Nancy Pettigrew, were Cumberland Presbyterians. According to the first congregation minutes, they joined the Cane Hill Congregation on August 30, 1828. The Pettigrews transferred to the Prairie Congregation in 1831. Several of the Pettigrews were active in journalism and politics. Elizabeth bore James seven children, All but William (Billy) in Washington County, Arkansas. In later life Billy was vague about his birthplace, giving various places where his father had resided, including Missouri and Kentucky, but Billy was also probably born in Washington County, Arkansas. Elizabeth Pettigrew Wilson's first child, Charles L. Wilson, was born in 1840. Charles married Mary Jane KIRBY about 1875. On November 3, 1840, J. R. Wilson and Elizabeth Pettigrew Wilson sold 80 acres in Washington Co., Arkansas, to Nimrod Stevenson for $300.00. 40 acres were in section 9, township 15N, range 31W, and 40 acres were in section 9, township 15N, range 31W. Elizabeth's second child, William J. (Billy) Wilson, was born April 7, 1843. Billy's right arm was lost but nevertheless he excelled in every aspect of frontier life. Stories about his arm differ. John Francis (1908-1984) thought the arm had been bitten off by a mean horse before Billy was five years old. Others thought the loss was congenital. A non-family member once wrote that it had been ripped off by a hay bailer, which seems anachronistic, since we know the arm was lost before the 1860's. Billy married Emma .SHEEK about 1873. Elizabeth's third child, Nancy Alvira Wilson, was born February 7, 1846. Nancy married Albert J. ANDERSON on October 18, 1865. Elizabeth's fourth child, Lafayette Abraham Wilson, was born February 25, 1848. Fayette married Charity HENSLEY on December 2, 1880. Elizabeth's fifth child, James P. Wilson, was born in 1849. His wife was named Josephine, but always called Jennie. In 1849 J.R. joined the gold rush to California. He recalled crossing one gorge on a plank. His mule refused to try the plank. But once J. R. crossed and proved the plank safe the mule followed by itself. J.R.'s partner died in California. By the time J.R. returned to Prairie Grove, via Cape Horn, in 1851 there was nothing left for the partner's widow, or for J.R.. Elizabeth's sixth and seventh children were twins: George and Martha Emma Wilson were born March 17, 1852 (?). Martha married John Henry Anderson on June 8, 1867. George headed for the Arizona frontier when he was about 22 and he was often out of touch with the family. Elizabeth Pettigrew Wilson died November 10, 1854. She was buried in row 22 of the Prairie Grove Cemetery. On August 22, 1857, J.R. Wilson married his second wife, Nancy Jane HUGHES (1838-1870). J. R.'s second marriage was performed by Reverend William Reed (1819 KY-1866 AR), probably his cousin, of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Nancy was born at Cane Hill in Washington Co. Arkansas. She was a daughter of Nancy Jane Kirby and Aaron Hughes. The Kirby family had migrated from south side Virginia through Wilkes Co., North Carolina, and Greene Co., Tennessee. The Hughes family had migrated from Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania, through Augusta Co., Virginia, and Greene Co., Tennessee. J.R. was 40 years old and had five-year-old twins to care for when he remarried. Nancy Jane was a widow at age 19 and only two years older than J.R.'s oldest son, Charles. Nancy Jane had a year-old daughter, Artemesia HYSAW, from her first marriage to James Hysaw/Highsaw (1834 GA-1856 AR). It must have been difficult for Nancy to discipline her step children. Billy, proud and self-sufficient despite his handicap, was fourteen, five years younger than his stepmother. On February 9, 1859, J. R. Wilson and Nancy Hughes Wilson sold three parcels of land in Washington Co., Arkansas, containing 120 acres to John H. Goodman and S. Lefevere for $1350.00. The parcels were in section 16, township 15N, range 31W. Nancy Jane's first surviving child, Sarah C. Wilson was born about May, 1859, in Arkansas. Sarah married Alfred Sappington POLK about 1876. Later in 1859 James Reed Wilson moved his family to Texas. The Wilsons settled on the Keechi Creek in Palo Pinto County, Texas, near present-day Grayford. Most of the settlers ran cattle on the open range. A man was then considered prosperous if he had an estate valued at over $5000.00. The area was precinct 5 in the 1860 census. The Wilson's new neighbors were recorded in the 1860 census: W.W. Cochrane, a prosperous farmer from Georgia; Thomas & William Stevens, cattlemen from Kentucky; John Ballard, a farmer from Tennessee; Ben & William Harris, cattlemen from Missouri; Stephen Brannon, a cattleman from Alabama; Miles Edwards, a farmer from North Carolina; A.M. Hunter, a cattleman from Missouri; John Clayton, a prosperous cattleman from South Carolina; James Brown, a prosperous cattleman from Alabama; W.D. Conatser, a cattleman from Alabama; Morgan Mullins, a cattleman from Virginia; David Cleveland, a surveyor from Alabama; William Mullins, a cattleman ! from Tennessee; Edmund Whatley, a prosperous farmer from South Carolina; Reuben Vaughn, a cattleman from Alabama; William Speaks, a prosperous cattleman born in Texas; David and John McClure, cattlemen from North Carolina; G.E. Peavler, a prosperous farmer from Missouri; Simpson Crawford, a prosperous cattleman born in 1826 in Kentucky (q.v.); Luther Brawner, a prosperous farmer from Maryland; John White, a salt maker from Kentucky; George Beavers, a cattleman from Tennessee who lived nearby. In the other direction from J.R. Wilson were Alfred Lane (q.v.), a prosperous cattleman who lived nearby; James McLaren, a farmer from Georgia; James Williams, a cattleman from Tennessee; A.C. Bingham, a cattleman from Kentucky; Wesley Sheek, a cattleman born in 1833 in Tennessee (q.v.); Charles Goodnight, a cattleman born in 1837 in Illinois (q.v.); Andrew Peters, a farmer from Tennessee; Adam Sheek, a "mechanic" born in 1802 in North Carolina (q.v.); Solon Loving, a farmer from Alabama; William Shook, a farmer from Tennessee; George Evans, a farmer from Georgia; Mary Bunch, a widow from Tennessee; Jesse Harding, a farmer from New York; A. Price, a farmer from Alabama; Michael Badey, a stone cutter from Ireland; Samuel Fruitt, a cattleman from Kentucky; T.R. Harris, a blacksmith from Arkansas; John Goldston, a saddler from Tennessee; John Browe, a blacksmith from Kentucky; William Crowe, a farmer from Missouri; William Blassinger; Frank Yelke, a cattleman! n from Germany; Wayne Wilson, a cattleman from Alabama, and his mother Sarah; John Carter, a cattleman from Virginia; Oliver Loving, a trader born in 1812 in Kentucky (q.v.); R.D. Miller, a farmer from Kentucky; Elizabeth Willett, a widow from Kentucky; James Loving a merchant born in 1837 in Kentucky; David Ford, a Mississippian; William Loving, a cattleman from Kentucky; S. Harrington, a blacksmith from Virginia; R.C. Betty, a farmer from Tennessee; and Sebom Ikard, a farmer from Tennessee. Prior to 1861 J.R. had at least three children, by which wife we are not sure, who died in childhood: Marion, Tom, and an unnamed infant. Nancy Jane's second surviving child, Mary Belle Wilson, was born July 20, 1861. Nancy married Thomas Franklin CABLER on December 1, 1880. During the Civil War, from 1863 to 1865, J.R. served in the Texas Home Guard. He then raised horses and cattle on the open range of Texas, Colorado, and Oklahoma for 20 years. He lost two entire herds of cattle to hoof and mouth disease. Like most cattlemen, J.R. respected nature. His life depended on the survival of his cattle and horses. Nature could be dangerous. Cougers and wolves preyed on cattle, and blizzards often left thousands dead. J.R. met nature half way. According to Martin Lane, whose grandfather lived near J.R. in Palo Pinto County in the 1860's, J.R. kept a bear chained to a tree near his log cabin. In the 1930's Martin Lane showed Lucille Garner, Buck (Leonard Edward) Wilson, and Ikey (John Francis) Wilson J.R.'s log cabin, then covered by siding but still inhabited, near Grayford, Texas. J.R. later kept deer at his ranch near Hewins, Kansas, in the 1880's. Nancy Jane's third surviving child, Henry Edwin Wilson, was born May 5, 1866. Henry married Polly CLARK in 1897. Nancy Jane's fourth surviving child, John Ambrose Wilson, was born April 7, 1869. John married Minea Elizabeth TURNER on July 4, 1894. During the Comanche uprising of 1869 when settlers of the cross timbers region of North Central Texas gathered for protection in "Citizen's forts". J.R. took his family to a citizen's fort called Fort Davis. The fort lay about ten miles north of the present city of Breckenridge, in Stephens County, on the Clear Fork of the Brazos River. Nancy Jane was shot during their flight and died before they got to the fort, early in 1870. Her grave has since eroded into a ravine. The exact circumstances of Nancy Jane's death are unknown, but her daughter from her first marriage, Aremesia Hysaw, blamed J.R. for failing to save her. Artemesia refused to accompany the Wilsons when they moved to Colorado, and even after J.R. settled in Elgin, Kansas, Artemesia wrote long bitter letters of recrimination. Eventually J.R. consigned Artemesia's letters to the fire, unopened, to preserve his peace of mind. It fell to Nancy (Later Anderson) to care for J.R.'s children by Nancy Jane Hughes. Life was hard for frontier women and Nancy undoubtedly missed her step-mother's help, but she cared for John Ambrose, Henry Edwin, Sarah, Mary Belle, and later Mary Belle's daughter Ada, as they were her own children. Nancy Wilson Anderson was lovingly remembered by Ada. Ada would later tell Lucille Garner what a wonderful woman Nancy was, and how when Ada needed a spanking, her aunt Nancy could not bear to punish her because, "the poor little thing hasn't got a mother". In the 1870's J.R. raised horses in the Arkansas River country in Colorado, near where La Junta was subsequently Located. J.R. accumulated a good herd of cattle and horses. and by 1875 J.R. had recovered from the crash of 1873. J.R. moved to Adobe Wells, in the Texas panhandle in 1875. A great granddaughter, Lucille Garner, described Adobe Walls as the most peaceful place she ever saw. In 1880 J.R. lost his third sizable herd, probably to the tick-born Texas Fever, and sold his holdings in the Texas panhandle. It was Doctor Theobald Smith, of Cornell University, who discovered that southern cows got mild cases of the fever as calves and thus became immune to the disease. In 1881 J.R. moved to a one-room log cabin near the big rock on the Caney River, five miles east of Hewins, Kansas, where he occupied the remaining seventeen years of his life with general farming and a modest attempt at stock raising. This cabin was often visited by his sons, who ran cattle on the diminishing open range in five states: Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado. Several grandchildren also stayed for over a year, but Mattie Barnett said the only relative from Arkansas who had visited J.R. after he moved to Kansas was his older sister, Malinda Wilson Ritter. When J.R.'s Cabler granddaughters came to live with him, after their father's death, he added a two story house about six inches from the old log cabin. The house had two rooms upstairs and two rooms downstairs. Buck Wilson recalls that a double barreled shotgun was hidden inside the stairway wall for the girls' safety. Even in the 1890's in Kansas, when the scale of his ranching was greatly reduced, Mattie Cabler Barnett recalled that "he had lots of hired help, families and extra men. [J.R.] "saw to it that most every one else around him went to Sunday school and church when there was services at Pleasant Valley School House. I never heard him pray but I know he did every night after he went to bed because he would hold up his right hand and he sat for a while. Then he would say good night and want Sissy and me to kiss him each night, which we always did. Oh, we loved him." Lewis Barnett, who worked for J. R. before he married Mattie Cabler, and lived to be 90, never saw his like. Lewis told Lucille Young Garner, "Oh, Lucille, you don't know what you missed by not knowing Grandpap." J.R. was described in a Jack County history as "unassuming, without ambition beyond success in his business ventures, [a man who] aided Democracy in politics and served in the Home guard during the Secession War." James Reed Wilson died February 3, 1898. His obituary in the February 20, 1898, issue of the Cedarvale Commercial describes J. R. as "a devoted Christian, admired by all his friends and respected by all who knew him. Before his death J. R. was confined to his bed for weeks, but was always patient and agreeable to those who attended him... His remains were buried in the cemetery on his farm, by the Pleasant Valley school house." Reverend Kidd preached J.R.'s funeral sermon from Hebrews 11:14, "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and embraced them, and confessed they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth, declaring plainly that they seek a better country."
Contact Peter Wilson - 8 East 25 St., Minneapolis MN5540 - 612-871-4807 - pmwilson@uswest.net
WOOD, Barton S. & Leesy A. Mon Aug 08, 1999
Hi. I am looking to find my Wood family. Father: Barton Stone Wood. Mother: Leesy (Lecia) Adeline COOPER Their children: Charles Henry, born 1865, where? died May 1938. William Lewis born 1868, where? died Dec 1939. Cornelia born 1870, where? Married? Died? Mina born 1872, where? Married Mr. AKIN, where? Boy Infant Wood born and died Feb 1876, where? John Pendleton born 1877, where? Married? Who and where? Died? When and where? Alice May born and died Mar 1880, where? Emma born 1881, where? Married Ed DEMOSS, when and where? She died when and where? Boy Infant Wood born and died Feb 1882, where? Jerry James (Jink) born 1884 in Chautauqua, Chautauqua, Kansas. Married 1907, where? He married to Ms Mary TINDLE. He died 1961 in Winfield, Kansas and is buried in the Grenola, Elk County, Kansas cemetery.
Contact Roxie Wheeler - roxi188441@aol.com

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