JOSEPH GRANT CAVERT           

Independence Daily Reporter, Monday, July 7, 1913, Pg 1:

 

CAPT. J. G. CAVERT DEAD

HE PASSED AWAY YESTERDAY MORNING AT HIS HOME

FUNERAL TOMORROW MORNING

The Long and Eventful Career of an Honored and Respected Citizen

 

            J. G. Cavert, one of our old and highly respected citizens, passed away at his home in this city at 4:40 o’clock yesterday morning.

            The funeral will take place from the family residence, 322 South Pennsylvania avenue, at 9:30 o’clock tomorrow morning, under the auspices of the Elks lodge of this city, Rev. Floyd Poe, of the Presbyterian church, officiating.

            Mr. Cavert would have been 85 years old next September.  He has always been a very industrious man, only retiring from active business about seven years ago, on account of failing health.  Since his retirement it has been his habit to walk up town almost every day making his headquarters at the office of his son, H. O. Cavert, where he would meet his old friends.  Notwithstanding his advanced years and feeble physical condition he continued to take a lively interest in the affairs of life and it was always a pleasure to meet the old gentleman as he had had a varied experience in life and retained a fund of interesting anecdotes and incidents of his long eventful career that were interesting and instructive.  He was a generous hearted, kindly man and was loved and respected by his friends and neighbors.  He was an upright citizen, public spirited and loyal, and never faltered in doing his whole duty to the commonwealth, to his family, to his community in which he lived and standing as a man among men.

            J. G. Cavert was born in New York but went with his parents to Wisconsin in 1847.  His father was a descendant of an Irishman, who with a brother settled in New York state in the early days of the history of this country.  For some reason these brothers changed the spelling of the name from “Calvert” to Cavert.

            The subject of this sketch grew up and was married in Wisconsin.  When in the “sixties” his country called for men he entered the volunteer service, and was commissioned first lieutenant in the Third Wisconsin Cavalry, Company I.  He was afterwards promoted to a captaincy and was mustered out as such after having served four years, chiefly in the western department, where guerrillas and bushwhackers prevailed.  He experienced a long and hard service in the army.

            Following the war he remained in Wisconsin several years, engaged in the lumber business, but in 1876 he came to Montgomery county with his family and settled on a farm on Elk river in Sycamore township.

            Two years following the family came to Independence where Mr. Cavert has since made his home.  He was married twice, his second wife surviving him.  Of the first union four (seven) children were born, four of whom survive their parents.   Two of the children died when young, and a daughter, Mrs. Frankie Parker, died in Portland, Oregon, a few years ago.

            The surviving children, H. O. Cavert, and Mrs. Stella Flora, of this city, and Mrs. Mattie Calhoun and Callista Covert, of Tulsa, are all here to attend the funeral of their father. 

Independence Daily Reporter, Monday, July 7, 1913, Pg 1:

 

CAPT. J. G. CAVERT DEAD

HE PASSED AWAY YESTERDAY MORNING AT HIS HOME

FUNERAL TOMORROW MORNING

The Long and Eventful Career of an Honored and Respected Citizen

 

            J. G. Cavert, one of our old and highly respected citizens, passed away at his home in this city at 4:40 o’clock yesterday morning.

            The funeral will take place from the family residence, 322 South Pennsylvania avenue, at 9:30 o’clock tomorrow morning, under the auspices of the Elks lodge of this city, Rev. Floyd Poe, of the Presbyterian church, officiating.

            Mr. Cavert would have been 85 years old next September.  He has always been a very industrious man, only retiring from active business about seven years ago, on account of failing health.  Since his retirement it has been his habit to walk up town almost every day making his headquarters at the office of his son, H. O. Cavert, where he would meet his old friends.  Notwithstanding his advanced years and feeble physical condition he continued to take a lively interest in the affairs of life and it was always a pleasure to meet the old gentleman as he had had a varied experience in life and retained a fund of interesting anecdotes and incidents of his long eventful career that were interesting and instructive.  He was a generous hearted, kindly man and was loved and respected by his friends and neighbors.  He was an upright citizen, public spirited and loyal, and never faltered in doing his whole duty to the commonwealth, to his family, to his community in which he lived and standing as a man among men.

            J. G. Cavert was born in New York but went with his parents to Wisconsin in 1847.  His father was a descendant of an Irishman, who with a brother settled in New York state in the early days of the history of this country.  For some reason these brothers changed the spelling of the name from “Calvert” to Cavert.

            The subject of this sketch grew up and was married in Wisconsin.  When in the “sixties” his country called for men he entered the volunteer service, and was commissioned first lieutenant in the Third Wisconsin Cavalry, Company I.  He was afterwards promoted to a captaincy and was mustered out as such after having served four years, chiefly in the western department, where guerrillas and bushwhackers prevailed.  He experienced a long and hard service in the army.

            Following the war he remained in Wisconsin several years, engaged in the lumber business, but in 1876 he came to Montgomery county with his family and settled on a farm on Elk river in Sycamore township.

            Two years following the family came to Independence where Mr. Cavert has since made his home.  He was married twice, his second wife surviving him.  Of the first union four (seven) children were born, four of whom survive their parents.   Two of the children died when young, and a daughter, Mrs. Frankie Parker, died in Portland, Oregon, a few years ago.

            The surviving children, H. O. Cavert, and Mrs. Stella Flora, of this city, and Mrs. Mattie Calhoun and Callista Covert, of Tulsa, are all here to attend the funeral of their father. 

South Kansas Tribune, Wednesday, July 19, 1913, Pg. 5:

 

Captain Cavert Mustered Out

 

            After four score and almost five years, the death messenger came to Josiah Grant Cavert, at his home __South Pennsylvania avenue, July 7, 1913.  It was far back in the last century, 1828, near Albany, New York, where Mr. Cavert was born and there he was reared until the family became pioneers in Wisconsin.  He was stalwart and in the prime of life when he heard President Lincoln’s call, he volunteered and was mustered in the Third Regiment of Wisconsin cavalry as first lieutenant and saw much of hard service, being afterward promoted to captain and always on the front where there was danger, and served out full three years and almost another to preserve this a union of states.  He was a man of positive convictions and especially on political lines and always a good neighbor and citizen.  In the centennial year he with his wife, a sister of H. H. and Wallace Crane of this city and Mrs. Fitch, now of Arkansas City, came to this county and located in Sycamore on a farm.  Later they moved to this city where they lived until 1884 when his wife was called to her long home.  Three years later he was married to Mrs. Sarah C. Gary and for over a quarter century they have lived happily in the old home and she has cared for him through the afflictions as they came.  He was always prominent and active and for many years before retiring, was in charge of the street sprinkling department.

            The funeral was held at the home Tuesday morning in charge of the Elks lodge and Rev. Floyd Poe, pastor of the Presbyterian church, spoke comforting words to the bereaved.

            He is survived by his widow, Ho. O. Cavert and daughters, Mrs. Stella Flora of this city, Mrs. Mattie Cahoun and Callista Cavert of Tulsa.  His sister-in-law, Mrs. Fitch and brother-in-law, Wallance Crane, were able to be at the funeral but H. H. Crane is confined at home by a fall.

Contributed by Mrs. Maryann Johnson a Civil war researcher and a volunteer in the Kansas Room of the Independence Public Library, Independence, Kansas.