JONATHAN PEARSON COLYAR       GRAVESTONE PHOTO                      

Researched by Margaret E. Haynes:

 

JONATHAN PEARSON COLYAR

          This is the son of John Elbert COLLYAR (above).  Jonathan known as J. P. COLYAR, was born in Michigan and moved to Missouri with his father about 1850, and then he lived in Chanute area and then in El Dorado and is buried in El Dorado.  I have lots of info. on him and also his obit in Chanute and in El Dorado.  The biography for him appears in The History of Butler Co., Kansas by Volney P. Mooney, includes information about the C.W. service of himself and his father.  Jonathan said he served in an Iowa Regiment and that he signed up in Burlington, Iowa, and he was mustered out in New York Harbor.  The government site of Soldiers and Sailors of C. W. show him serving in Company A, of the Fourth Iowa Infantry Regiment.  (He had cousins in Iowa and in Indiana as well as Michigan that served.)  In the Soldiers & Sailors Gov't website he is shown as Jonathan Colyar, Co. A., 4th Iowa Infantry.  In the Iowa State Archives site he is shown as John Collier in the Roster of vets in the 4th Iowa Infantry, this is the person that I believe is Jonathan Pearson COLLYAR.  He is shown as CO. A, 4TH IOWA VOLUNTEER INFANTRY, COLLIER, JOHN, AGE 29, RESIDENCE: FIRST CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT, NATIVITY INDIANA, ENLISTED OCT. 5, 1864.  MUSTERED IN OCT. 5, 1864.  MUSTERED OUT JUNE 24, 1865, IN NEW YORK CITY.  (This is the only John or Jonathan Colyar or Collier there is, and the age is right and Jonathan said he was mustered out in N. Y. Harbor.  I read the history of that Regiment at the Iowa C.W. website and it sounds like one tough fighting unit  The fact he served in an Iowa unit may have been because he lived in Missouri or because of his relation in Iowa, I don’t know.  I am sending you info. and his obits for your site.

 

          PLEASE NOTE: By the way, my lookup in the Iowa C. W. website said it only showed one John E. COLLIER in a Kansas Cavalry Regiment (that would be John Elbert, Jonathan’s dad.)

         

          RE: JONATHAN: I have a copy of his application for Invalid Pension on March 19, 1883 (or 1873), as Jonathan Colyar, Service: ?Unassd. & A, 4 Iowa Inf., Application #476439, Certificate #480424, applied from Kansas.

 

          Jonathan Pearson “J.P.” COLYAR, was born June 14, 1835 in Cass Co., Michigan, the son of John Elbert and Hannah (Reams) COLLYAR.  Jonathan Pearson COLYAR retained the old spelling of his surname as COLYAR, but his father John Elbert COLLYAR changed the spelling to COLLYAR when he moved with his second wife Mary from Cass County, Michigan to Missouri just after 1850.  It is not known if this was actually changed by John Elbert COLLYAR or if it was a matter of records and clerk’s spelling.  Jonathan Pearson COLYAR died January 29, 1923 in Chanute, Neosho Co., Kansas; and his body was transported to El Dorado for burial beside his first wife Olive, in West Cemetery, now known as Sunset Lawns Cemetery, in El Dorado, Butler County, Kansas.  He was married the first time on April 4, 1858 in Shelby Co., Missouri, to Olive Marie SHELTON.  Olive was born October 2, 1834, in Hannibal, Marion Co., Missouri; and died April 13, 1916, in El Dorado, Butler Co., Kansas, and was buried in West Cemetery now known as Sunset Lawns Cemetery, in El Dorado, Butler Co., Kansas. 

          Jonathan, often shown as J. P. COLYAR, came to Butler Co., Kansas in 1882, while in employment of a grading gang that was constructing a railroad into El Dorado from Fort Scott, Kansas.  He continued to work in construction until in later years, he was engaged in the draying and transfer business.

          Jonathan and Olive COLYAR had seven children, three daughters: Laura Ellen COLYAR (an adopted daughter), Mary Virginia COLYAR, Frances Morton COLYAR, and four sons: John Griffith COLYAR, William Tecumseh Sherman COLYAR, Julian Harkness COLYAR, and George Washington COLYAR.

After his first wife Olive died, Jonathan Pearson COLYAR married the second time about 1917-1918, to Sarah Elizabeth (maiden name unknown), she was born about 1839, in Kentucky, both of her parents born in Kentucky according to the 1920 census; she died Feb. 20, 1922, in Chanute, Neosho Co., Kansas, and according to her obituary she was buried in Clements, Kansas.  About 1917-1918, Jonathan P. and Sarah Elizabeth COLYAR had moved to Chanute, Kansas, from El Dorado, Kansas.

 

From the Chanute Daily Tribune, Tuesday, January 30, 1923, pg 1:

 

J. P. COLYAR’S FUNERAL

Services at 9 in Morning at Daughter’s Home,

1620 S. Highland (Chanute).

 

          Funeral services for J. P. Colyar will be held tomorrow morning at 9 o’clock from the residence of his daughter, Mrs. Monroe Smith, 1620 S. Highland Avenue, in charge of the Rev. W. M. Marcin, pastor of the First Baptist church.  The body will be taken to El Dorado for burial.  Mr. Colyar died yesterday morning at 11 o’clock.

          He was almost 90 years of age, veteran of the Civil War and an early Kansas settler.  He had resided here the past five years since the death of Olive, his first wife, at El Dorado.  Three sons and one daughter also survive.  They are John Colyar of Erie; George Colyar of Neodesha; and Julian Colyar of Bingham, Utah; and daughter, Frances Morton (Colyar) Smith of Chanute.  (His second wife Sarah Elizabeth Colyar died in 1922.)

 

 

Obituary: Jonathan Pearson “J.P.” Colyar, El Dorado, Butler Co., Kansas

 

From the El Dorado Times, El Dorado, Kansas, Wednesday, 31 January 1923

 

BRING PIONEER HERE FOR BURIAL

 

The body of J.P. Colyar of Chanute, a former resident of El Dorado, will be brought here this afternoon for burial in *West Cemetery (Sunset Lawns cemetery).  Funeral services were held at Chanute yesterday.  Mr. Colyar was 86 years old.  He came to El Dorado in 1881 as a sub-contractor on the Mission Pacific, which was under the construction here at that time.  He lived here until five years ago, when he moved to Chanute. Mrs. Colyar is buried in *West Cemetery.

 

* West Cemetery is the old name for this cemetery as it was on the west side of town.  Currently it is called the Sunset Lawns Cemetery (2007).

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This is Funeral Notice in El Dorado, Butler Co., Kansas, for his first wife, OLIVE MARIE (SHELTON) COLYAR,

 

From Walnut Valley Times, El Dorado, Kansas, Thursday, 13 April 1916

 

MRS. COLYAR WILL BE BURIED FRIDAY

 

The funeral of Mrs. J.P. Colyar, who died at her home on Taylor Street Wednesday, will be held from the Baptist church at 2 o'clock Friday.  The services will be conducted by the Rev. C.H. Wareham, of Wichita.

(Buried at West Cemetery, now known as Sunset Lawns Cemetery [2007].)

 

Jonathan Pearson COLYAR and Olive (SHELTON) COLYAR had seven children, three daughters: Laura Ellen COLYAR (an adopted daughter), Mary Virginia COLYAR, Frances Morton COLYAR, and four sons: John Griffith COLYAR, William Tecumseh Sherman COLYAR, Julian Harkness COLYAR, and George Washington COLYAR.

------

 

          Jonathan Pearson COLYAR’s second wife died in 1922, and this is the obituary for her in Chanute, Neosho Co., Kansas:

 

Obituary for Sarah Elizabeth COLYAR,

From the Chanute Daily Tribune, February 21, 1922:

 

 

 

MRS. J. P. COLYAR DEAD

 

Funeral Services in the First Baptist Church at 10:30 Tomorrow.

 

          Mrs. Sarah Elizabeth Colyar, wife of J. P. Colyar, died yesterday afternoon at 2:10 o’clock at the family home, 1702 South Edith Avenue.  Funeral services will be held tomorrow at 10:30 o’clock from the First Baptist church and the body will be taken to Clements, Kan., for burial.  The funeral party will leave at 1:30 tomorrow afternoon over the Santa Fe.

          Mrs. Colyar was 82 years old last December and has lived here with her husband for the past four years, moving to this city from El Dorado.  The old home is at Clements where burial will be made.  Mrs. Colyar leaves no children, her only relatives except her husband being nieces and a nephew, none of whom live here.

--

Pages 807-808, transcribed by Carolyn Ward from History of Butler County, Kansas by Vol. P. Mooney. Standard Publishing Company, Lawrence, Kan.: 1916. ill.; 894 pgs.

 

From HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY, KANSAS:

           

          "J. P. Colyar, of El Dorado, is a Civil war veteran, and comes from a long line of military ancestors who have distinguished themselves in all the principal wars in which this country has been involved. J. P. Colyar is a native of Michigan, born in 1833, and is a son of John E. and Hanna (Reams) Colyar, the former a native of Ohio, and the latter of Michigan. They were the parents of five children, of whom J. P. is the only survivor. After the death of the mother, the father married again, and three children of this union are living, John and Newton, who live in Oklahoma, and Mrs. Hannah Romne, Kansas City, Kans."

          "J. P. Colyar enlisted at Burlington, Iowa, during the Civil war, in an Iowa regiment of infantry, and during the course of his military career served in many of the southern States. He was with Sherman on the memorable march to the sea, and at the battle of Bloomington, N. C. had his collar bone broken while constructing breastworks. At Columbus, S. C., his knapsack was struck by a bullet. After the surrender of General Lee, Mr. Colyar was discharged at David's Island, New York Harbor. Mr. Colyar had thirty-two cousins from Cass county, Michigan, all of whom served in one regiment in the Union army during the Civil war. Mr. Coylar's father was also a Union soldier during the Civil war, enlisting at Humboldt, Kans., and served with a Kansas regiment until he was discharged on account of disability. His hearing was impaired, which was caused by the concussion of artillery firing. Samuel Colyar, grandfather of J. P. Colyar, served in the Revolutionary war, as did his father also, the elder Colyar having attained the rank of captain by the time the Revolutionary war closed."

          "J. P. Colyar came to Kansas in 1871, and settled in Chanute, his father having located there in 1850, which was a very early day in the settlement of that section of the State. Indians were numerous at that time, and there were very few settlers in that part of Kansas. In 1882, Mr. Colyar came to Butler county, while in the employment of a grading gang, constructing a railroad into El Dorado from Ft. Scott. Since coming here Mr. Colyar followed constructing, and in later years was engaged in the draying and transfer business."

          "In 1858, Mr. Colyar was married to Olive M. Shelton, of Shelby county, Missouri. Her parents were Griffith and (Paris) Shelton, pioneers of Shelton county, Missouri. To Mr. and Mrs. Colyar have been born the following children: Mrs. Mary Virginia Lewis, deceased; Mrs. Laura J., married and resides at Ft. Scott, Kans.; Mrs. Frances M. Smith, Chanute, Kans.; J. G. Okmulgee, Okla.; W. F., Emporia, Kans.; J. H., Salt Lake City, Utah; G. W., Neodesha, Kans."

          "As a soldier and pioneer. J. G. Colyar has performed his part nobly and well, and is a citizen well worthy of recognition in a work of this character."

(END QUOTE)