WILLIAM H. SLOAN
South Kansas Tribune, July 5, 1916:
William H. Sloan Aged
Seventy-Two
After a short illness of two weeks with pneumonia death came to the pioneer William H. Sloan, near the Quaker church in Elk valley eight miles northwest of the city at the age of 74 years, t months and 16days. He had lived an active life, had unusual good health and a hard worker. He was born in Ohio in Hardin county in 1842 and when a youngster enlisted in the Ninth Ohio cavalry, Company G, and was with Sherman in the great march from Atlanta to the sea, and was discharged in 1865 after the civil war closed. He remained in Ohio for three years, when he came west in a covered wagon camping out along the roadsides. In 1868 the Osage diminished reserve became an attractive spot for the white man who wanted to elbow the Indians out of the finest portion of Sunny Kansas and William Sloan and his ever present neighbor, A. J. Inscho awoke one morning to find themselves in Elk river valley, one of the prettiest they ever saw, and there they drove their stakes and each “claimed” a quarter section of the finest land and there they lived in sight of each other, then each man married and reared their families and lived practically forty-eight years.
From his little shack of logs covered with clapboards, with mother earth for a floor, a coffee pot, one frying pan and sack of corn meal, and Indians for neighbors, Mr. Sloan began his career of prosperity until he owned the farm which is now 800 acres in a high state of cultivation. Mr. Sloan was an active Republican and public spirited citizen and had valuable investments in bank stocks and other lines.
In early days Mr. Sloan found a life companion in Miss Rhoda Debo, daughter of the Hoosier pioneers Mr. and Mrs. William Debo, and to this union were born one son Homer and daughters Ethel, Jessie, Helen and Fay, who survive him.
Mr. Sloan was an enthusiastic Mason, being a member of all the degrees including Knights Templar and affiliated with the Shrine at Leavenworth and the Consistory at Wichita. The funeral was held at the home Monday afternoon and interment in Mount Hope.
From History of Montgomery County, Kansas, By Its Own People, Published by L. Wallace Duncan, Iola, Kansas, 1903, Pg. 293-294:
Sloan, William H. Bio
Louisburg township became the home in July 1868 of William H. Sloan, one of the solid men of Montgomery county, who shares in large part, the credit for the splendid development that has since come to the county. As stated in the review devoted to the Inscho family, these two gentlemen came together and filed on adjoining claims, Mr. Sloan’s quarter being on section 13-32-14. Here he passed through all the trials incident to pioneer life and is now enjoying the fruits of his well-directed efforts, being at the present time in possession of a farm of 845 acres and having his home, since 1900 in Rutland township.
He landed on his claim that hot July day with a frying pan, a coffee pot, an axe, a sack of corn and a piece of bacon; having come from Hardin county, Ohio. He put up the usual 14x16 house and the following year began farming operations. He soon became well acquainted with the Indians and though not being able to “conjure” them as his friend, “Medicine Man” Inscho, still, he lived with them in comparative peace. He became especially well acquainted with interpreters Alvin Wood and Paul and with Chiefs Nopawalla, Chetopa and Strike Axe, and found them, in many respects, not wanting in the noble qualities of the “Fenimore Cooper” Indian.
As time passed, Mr. Sloan gave his best endeavors to the establishment of schools, churches and other civilizing and refining influences and has always been particularly jealous of the good reputation of his township and county. He has served faithfully in the unpaid offices of township trustee and on the school board and is ready at all times to enter into any enterprise that will advance the public good. He is an old time Mason, belonging to all the different branches of that noble order, from Master Mason to Mystic Shrine.
Touching briefly on the family history of Mr. Sloan, John Sloan, his grandfather was an Irishman of the Reformed Presbyterian faith who, together with a family of eleven children, came to America and settled on a farm in Ohio. The names of these children were: William, Samuel, Joseph, John, Thomas, James, David, Robert, Margaret, Elisha and Fannie. Of these, William married Ann Scott, also a native of the Emerald Isle, who became the mother of: Sarah A. Weaver, Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Stewart, Mrs. Frances J. Shaw, Margaret H., Mrs. Agnes L. Stewart, John, William H. and Joseph G.
William H. Sloan married Rhoda Debo, a native of the “Hoosier State” and daughter of William and Henrietta Debo. These parents were children of the pioneer families of that state and passed their lives in the cultivation of its soil. To Mr. and Mrs. Sloan have been born: Homer, Ethel, Jessie, Helen and Fay.
Born January 15, 1842, William Henry Sloan was reared in his native county of Champaign, in Ohio, and was at that age when the blood runs most freely, when the darkening clouds of the Civil War gathered in terrible array. He chafed under home restraint until September 1864 when he enrolled as a private in Company G, Ninth Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, under Col. William Hamilton, General Kilpatrick of the Third Cavalry Division, Army of the Cumberland, commanding. He reached the front in time to take part in Uncle “Billy” Sherman’s picnic excursion to the sea, and participated in the closing scenes of the war in the Carolinas. His mustering out occurred at Concord, North Carolina in July 1865, when he returned home, to ne’er again engage in mortal strife with his fellowman.