Barber County Kansas

DAVID FRANKLIN PAINTER (1843-1924)

David Franklin Painter
At right: David Franklin Painter

Name: David Franklin Painter
b. 13 Nov 1843, Preble County, OH
m. 6 Dec 1866, Petersburg, IN
d. 9 May 1924, Medicine Lodge, KS
Spouse: Cynthia Ann Morton
Father: Samuel Painter (1803-1884)
Mother: Katherine Frank (1808- aft. 1870)

David Franklin Painter, a tall, fair, blue-eyed scrapper with auburn hair left his Indiana home in May 1862 to fight in the War between the States. He signed on with the 15th Indiana Volunteers, Light Artillery and was captured four months later on September 15, at Harper's Ferry, two days before the bloody battle of Antietam. He was released two months later a much older man--and had to be hospitalized for "mumps affecting the privates, catarrh and rheumatism affecting the heart". The 15th fought at Stone River on New Years Eve with terrible loss but nothing compared to its losses at the Battle of Chickamauga, September 20, 1863. David was there with the 15th. Battlefield casualties soared to 30,000, 3,000 of them Indiana Volunteers; one was David--stabbed by a fellow Union soldier. He was sent back to the hospital while the 15th fought at Lookout Mountain--and 202 were lost or wounded in the first 15 minutes of battle. No sooner was David released from the hospital, than he joined the 15th at Crab Orchard to move with Rosecrans from Chattanooga to Georgia. Along the way he went AWOL and landed in jail in Kingston, TN. He got out of jail just in time to join in the long journey through Georgia. By the Seige of Atlanta in September 1864 David was pretty much a wreck from dysentery, heart problems and you name it.

When the war was over he returned home, married Cynthia Morton and raised a family of 5. They struck out for the wheat boom in Newton, Kansas in the 1880s and obtained a homestead to some rather god-forsaken land outside Medicine Lodge Kansas shortly thereafter. He dug a home out of the gypsum hills and tried to farm. But drought struck and the crops failed. While his wife and children struggled to work the farm, Dave walked a twenty mile round trip each week to work as a day laborer in town. The Painters tried to raise corn but when a family he called 'gypsies' turned their cows into his corn, hot-tempered Dave chased the animals off hollering. The whole family assaulted Dave. The woman attacked him with a club, while the man stabbed him. Dave was sent off to Fort Leavenworth for treatment. Tough old Dave survived again. He lived to age 81.

(Sources: National Archives Military Service Record and Pension File of David Franklin Painter; U.S. Federal Census, OH 1850, IN 1860; 1870, David Stevenson, "Indiana's Roll of Honor, Vol. 1;" Cemetery Records, Petersburg, IN; Beverly McCollom, "Meanderings, History of Medicine Lodge, KS ")

The family of David Painter and Cynthia Morton, about 1880-1890. Photo courtesy of Marilou West Ficklin.
The family of David Painter and Cynthia Morton, about 1880-1890.
Photo courtesy of Marilou West Ficklin.

Meandering by Bev McCollom, August 18, 2008

Cynthia Ann (Morton) PainterSince having been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, I have thought a lot about my great grandmother Cynthia Ann (Morton) Painter (pictured at right), who had the same disease, but unfortunately lived in a day when there was little or no relief for it. In size she was very tiny, and I can imagine that pain wracked her small body.

Cynthia was born in March 4, 1846, in the Beech Fork area of Kentucky near Perryville to Elijah Morton and Nancy Crane Morton. Elijah was born at the North Carolina border near the Hico River and left there as a young child with his parents, Joseph and Jemima Harrel Morton for the Kentucky frontier. Of note it was reported that his mother, Jemima, was part Cherokee, but was terrified of Indians.

David Franklin PainterOn December 6, 1866, Cynthia married David Franklin Painter (pictured at right) in Petersburg, Indiana. All the Painter children were born in Petersburg. They were William Wilbert in October 1867; Charles Clement in August 1869, who was long-time editor/publisher of the Barber County Index and married to Miss Clara Minnick of Medicine Lodge; Cora Edith in October 1871, who married Samuel Adams of Medicine Lodge; Ora Kathryn in September 1873, who married George W. Horney of Medicine Lodge and became my grandmother; and Lillian Vicury Herr in October 1875, who married Uriah Clayton Herr, editor and publisher of the Barber County Index along with his brother-in-law, Charlie.

Their father, David Painter, was a strong, stubborn, hardworking veteran of the Civil War, tall, handsome, with auburn hair. He brought his family from Petersburg to Barber County in 1886. The Painters and their children lived in a dugout in the southwestern part of the county near Sexton.

And Dave was tough, having survived a stabbing from Harris Plotkins, a resident of the New Jerusalem community near Sexton when Plotkins had moved his cattle into Dave’s corn field. The knife wound nicked Dave’s lung, but he survived. Plotkins went to prison.

Dr. Lockwood asked the Painters to move to town so that he could keep a closer eye on his patient, who was improving. A weekly item was carried in the paper regarding his progress. Then during Plotkin’s trial, Dave took a turn for the worse. The Cresset carried this story:

"Dr. Gillette, assisted by Dr. Moore, on Monday performed an operation on Painter, who was stabbed by Plotkins. Painter’s lungs were penetrated by the knife, and as a result he is troubled by the pus sacks forming. Dr. Gillette opened up the old wound and got a large amount of putrid, offensive matter from Mr. Painter. The sick man is in very bad shape and as the wound is one that usually ends in death, the physicians are not over confident of Painter’s final recovery."

Dave continued to survive, and eventually was sent to the hospital at the Soldier’s Home in Leavenworth. On his arrival home, the Cresset reported: "Mr. Painter, who went to the Soldier’s Home for treatment for the wound . . . has returned. He says he received no attention at the home, but that the travel did him good and that he is much better than when he left."

When the Painter children had left home, Dave and Cynthia rented an apartment upstairs in the Cook Block, where they resided until Dave had another great idea. He had been given a pension; he was a good carpenter. Daughter Lillian and her husband were building a big new home at 321 North Main Street, just north of Buffalo Avenue.

David purchased the lots to the south, had Buffalo Avenue vacated, and built two new frame homes. He rented the house at 313 North Main, while he and Cynthia comfortably moved into the home at 315 North Main Street. Cynthia was able to enjoy life for approximately five more years. She was able to entertain her grandchildren in her home, which helped ease her pain somewhat, probably along with laudanum. Cynthia Ann Morton Painter died on January 27, 1917, in her home, where her funeral was held.

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Thanks to Marilou West Ficklin for contributing the above genealogical information and image to this web site and to Bev McCollom for her Meandering column.

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