George F. Pond

William G. Cutler's History of the State of Kansas

BOURBON COUNTY, Part 13

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES (PADGETT - PRICHARD).

GEORGE F. POND, general agent of the Howe Sewing Machine Company, for Northern Kansas and Southern Nebraska, P. O. Godfrey, first came to Kansas in March, 1862, as a member of Company C, Third Wisconsin Volunteer Cavalry. His regiment served all through the war under Maj. Gen. Blunt in Kansas. After his discharge from the army in March, 1865, Mr. Pond returned to Kansas and located on Drywood Creek, near Fort Scott, where he resided one year, and was engaged in the milling business with his brother. From here he removed to Lamar, Barton Co., Mo., where he resided six years, and was engaged in farming. From Missouri he returned to near Godfrey, Bourbon County, where he has resided since. Mr. Pond and two of his brothers enlisted at Fairwater, Fond du Lac Co., Wis., October, 1861, in the same Company C of the Third Wisconsin Cavalry, and served until the close of the war. His eldest brother entered the service as Second Lieutenant, and was mustered out as Major of his regiment; his next eldest brother entered as a Sergeant and was mustered out as Second Lieutenant of his company. Mr. Pond himself preferred scouting duty to monotonous service of a soldier's life, which in a measure accounts for his non-promotion. He has frequently carried dispatches in company with one of his comrades from Fort Scott to Fort Gibson, without any rations or forage except what could be carried on their horses. The distance is 175 miles, and a trail went through the Indian Territory, and the journey was frequently made in three nights and two days. He participated in the battles of Montevallo, Honey Springs, Cain Hill, Lexington, Little and Big Blue, the massacre of Baxter Springs and numerous other minor engagements. Mr. Pond had the honor of capturing the notorious guerrilla, Captain Fa. Price, a nephew of the rebel Maj. Gen. Price. On the night of May 20, 1863, Mr. Pond in company with two of his comrades attacked Capt. Henry Taylor, a noted bushwhacker, who had sixty men under his command, and who was returning with nineteen Union prisoners captured by him in Kansas, to Missouri, and who had stopped on his way to rob and plunder the house of J. C. Ury, a famous Union scout. Mr. Ury and his father were taken prisoners by the rebel band. Mr. Pond and his comrades succeeded in stampeding the rebels, and in releasing all the prisoners taken by them except the father of Mr. Ury, who was slain in cold blood. For his daring deed Mr. Pond and his comrades, Elwin Weber, now a resident of Laramie, Wyoming Territory, and O. H. Carpenter, now a resident of Jasper, Mo., were publicly thanked in general orders issued by Gen. Charles W. Blair, then commanding the Union forces in Kansas. Mr. Pond first met Miss Ann Harrington, a native of Ohio, who subsequently became his wife, at Lamar, Mo. During the war in pursuit of bushwhackers, the rebels proving too strong for him and his comrades, they were forced to take to the woods where Miss Harrington found Mr. Pond, and supplied him with provisions while he lay concealed. He was married to her on December 24, 1865, at Drywood, Mo. They have six children living--Clarissa J., Junia L., Franklin W., Herbert G., Florence May and Eugene. Mr. Pond was in the State registering office in Barton Co., Mo., in 1866 and 1877, Justice of the Peace of Richland Township, Barton Co., Mo., for six years, or during the entire time he resided in the State, and was elected to this office when only twenty-one years old. He also was coroner of Barton Co., Mo., for four years. He is at present, and has been for the past five years, a member of the Board of School District, No. 80, Bourbon County, this State. He is a member of the W. H. Lytle Post, No. 32, G.A.R., of Fort Scott and Godfrey Lodge, No. 124, A., F. & A. M., and is at present W. M. of his lodge, and has held the same office for the past five years. He is also assistant lecturer of this fraternity for the State of Kansas. Mr. Pond was born in the court house in Libertyville, Lake Co., Ill., October 5, 1844. His parents removed when he was two years old to the Badger State, where he resided until he entered the United States army.