Barber County Kansas

Clarence and Maude Ella Martin

by Helen J. Moss

From The Chosen Land: Barber County, Kansas, page 315.
(published 1980)

James and Charlotte Martin and their nine children left their home in Morgan County, Ohio in 1878 and came to Kansas, settling on a farm in Ottawa County. In 1884 they came to Barber County and settled on a farm near Gerlane and lived there until his death in 1908. Charlotte Martin died in 1909. Both are buried in the Gerlane Cemetery.

My father, Clarence Martin, one of their sons, was born in Triadelphia, Ohio, on August 9, 1871. He was 13 when he came to Barber County, I don't remember Grandma Martin, who was a Seventh Day Adventist and very strict in the raising of her family. She was also very kind to us kids.

Clarence went to school in Barber County and business college in Harper, Kansas. Aftergraduating he taught school in Barber County and later in Woods County, Oklahoma.

He was married February 24, 1895, to Maude Ella Talbott, daughter of Benjamin F. and Celinda Talbott, also of Barber County. They went to Oklahoma after the opening of the Cherokee Strip and staked a claim in Woods County, near Woodward. Harry, Ben and Maude were born there.

In 1902 they moved back to the farm near Gerlane and lived there until 1912. Jimmie and Mary were born in Kiowa and Helen, Bill and Dixie were born in Gerlane. In 1912 we moved to Lake City, where Maxine was born in 1914. All of us went to school in Lake City, and that is where we had our happiest times. There we owned the grain elevator, ice plant and alfalfa mill, and farmed; so we all had to work hard. The boys were all good mechanics.

We moved to Coldwater, Kansas in 1920 and to Wichita, Kansas in 1921. Dad moved back to Barber County in 1930 and ran the elevator in Gerlane and then moved to Wichita in 1933. He passed away in 1937. Mother passed away in 1940.

Harry married Hazel Fager and had 4 children. He passed away in Alaska in 1975. Maude married Calrence Fager and had 5 children. She passed away in Raton, New Mexico in 1971.

Ben lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He is a retired conductor from the Santa Fe Railroad. He married Lotie Meadows and had one daughter.

Mary and Don had one boy. She passed away in Raton, New Mexico in 1970. Jim married Julie Lindsey of Wichita. They had 3 children. He passed away in Cimarron, New Mexico in 1970.

I, Helen, married Arthur Moss of Wichita and have two children.

Bill married Ida Mae Brown of Sun City, Kansas. They have 3 boys.

Dixie married Herbert Harris of Sharon and had a daughter and a son. She passed away in Medicine Lodge in 1976.

Maxine married Kenneth Schiff of Sharon. They have 2 children and live near Sharon.

My parents were good and honest and always willing to help anyone in need. My dad taught me to trust everyone and to be a good neighbor.


Also see:

Maxine Phyllis (Martin) Schiff

Kenneth Lawrence Schiff, husband of Maxine Phyllis Martin.

Mary (Huffaker) Schiff

William C. and Mary (Reinke) Schiff


Thanks to Shirley Brier for finding, transcribing and contributing the above news article to this web site!



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