Barber County Kansas
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Barber County Kansas |
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Medicine Lodge and Barber County again mourn the loss of a distinguished citizen and a pioneer businessman. Edward H. Youmans died on Friday, August 14, 1903, at 2:30 p.m. He had been in poor health for more than a month but was not bedfast. While complaining a little, he attended to his business regularly and none of his friends even suspected that his ailment was so serious.The immediate cause of his death was heart failure. His physician, Dr. T. A. Coleman, says this was brought about by poison absorbed by the blood from jaundice which was the disease proper. The morning before he died he was out of doors as usual and said he was feeling better. Death ensued soon after a vomiting attack and before his wife and friends realized that his condition was serious.
Funeral services were held at the family residence on Monday afternoon at 3:30, conducted by Elder R. H. Tanksley, pastor of the Christian church. Out of respect to the deceased and his relatives, all the business houses were closed from 3 to 5 o'clock and a very large concourse of people gathered to pay their last tribute to a worthy man and one of the county's earliest citizens.
Those from a distance who attended were William Youman's and son, Thomas, of Osawatomie, brother and nephew; W. W. Standiford and son, Burney, of Woodward, Ok., brother-in-law and nephew;
L. A. Eby , of Acme, Texas. Former partner in business, Mance Nicholas, nephew, of Newkirk, Ok. After impressive services at the home the remains were interred in Highland Cemetery.Edward Hunt Youmans was born at Washington, New Jersey, April 4, 1836; died in Medicine Lodge, Kansas, August 14, 1903, and his age therefore was 67 years, 4 months and 11 days.
In the year 1857 he removed from New Jersey to Osawatomie, Kansas, where he worked in a mercantile store one year. In 1858 he engaged in business in partnership with A. Hunt at Indianapolis, Kansas, then a small town within two miles of Osawatomie, which has since been disorganized. He remained in business there, and was postmaster of the town, until 1860, when he moved back to Osawatomie and enlarged his store and remained in business in that city until November 30, 1877, when he came to Medicine Lodge. Since that time he has lived here continuously and has come in contact with all who have come and gone. During his career in this city he was a member of various firms. He first entered a partnership with his brother in law, W. W. Standiford, and the name of the firm was Standiford & Youmans until about 1884 when it was enlarged by the addition of Richards & Rogers, a Wichita firm. Three years thereafter Col. C. H. Eldred purchased an interest and Richards & Rogers retired. The style of the firm remained Standiford, Youmans & Eldred until the winter of 1890 when Messrs. Eldred and Standiford retired and the business was conducted in the name if L. A. Eby & Co. This partnership was dissolved in the summer of 1902 and since that time Mr. Youmans has conducted the business alone.
He was married in Miami county, Kansas, Nov. 27, 1862, to Barbara J. Standiford who survives him. He is the seventh to die, eight brothers, the only survivor being William Youman of Osawatomie, who was in attendance at the funeral.
Eugene Youmans, his nephew, and son of a brother who died in new Jersey a few years ago, has been assisting him in his business ever since boyhood. He has always been one of the mainstays of the business and feels the loss of his uncle very keenly.
"Uncle Ed," as he was familiarly known, was one of those warm hearted, cordial men who make a community pleasant, a man of business sagacity and at the same time cordial and sociable among is fellowmen. He has gone through all the hardships and privations of frontier life but always triumphed and through it all held the love and esteem of his people. He came to Medicine Lodge before it was more than a cattle camp but he had caught the Kansas spirit - he had the energy and confidence demanded for the occasion and the result was that he won his way to success and prosperity. His life was one of usefulness. His counsel and citizenship were invaluable to his town, and after the shadows had hovered over him in people who knew him united in saying that "a good man is gone."
The sudden grief of Mrs. Youmans is very hard to hear. The shock came so unexpectedly that it was very severe and only those who have had the misfortune to part with a life companion know how to fully sympathize.
Edward YOUMANS Edward Youmans, everybody knows him as Uncle Ed, but in deference to his years, he is now 64, we call him Edward, is a product of New Jersey, the land of trusts and kissing bugs, who came to Kansas in 1857, settled in Osawatomie, then a far west frontier town, and engaged in the merchandise business. As the frontier moved so did Uncle Ed. He was acute, wide awake, kept pace with the movement of events, and wherever the frontier was, there was he, with his stock of merchandise, from Osawatomie to Medicine Lodge, where he pitched his tent and opened up business in 1877, just 20 years later, and here he remains today, doing business at the same old stand, one of the few survivors of the halcyon days when no door locks were needed, drinks were two for a quarter and all other things in proportion. When no man, cowman or cowboy, was refused credit, or called for change when he paid a bill. He has often sold from $1,600 to $2,500 worth a day, his average for a year being anywhere from $100,000 to $150,000. While at the same time he gave away thousands of dollars to people in hard luck, who had to live some way. Riding the wheel of fortune, he has been sometimes on top, at others under, until at present he is comfortably situated, doing a fair business, with one of the loveliest homes in the city, one of the very few left of the "old timers" who wear their hearts upon their sleeves and do not know the meaning of littleness and trickery.
-- From "Men Who Have Taken a Prominent Part in Developing the Stock Industry in Barber County", Medicine Lodge Cresset, March 2, 1900.
Edward Youmans, of the firm of Standiford, Youmans & Rogers, general merchants, was born in New Jersey, in 1836. He was reared in the mercantile business, in which he embarked for himself at the age of twenty years. He came to Kansas in 1857, and opened business in Osawatomie, Miami County, where he continued until 1878, when he came to Medicine Lodge, Barber County, and established his present business. In the mean-time, he was carrying on a farm, and was also in the cattle business for eight years in Miami County. Mr Y. improved two farms of 160 acres each in Miami County. In 1860, he was married to Miss B. J. Standiford, of Missouri. Mrs. Y. is a member of the Christian Church. Mr. Y. is a genial gentleman, full of energy, progressive ideas and public spirit, and has done a great deal toward building up his town, and enthusing his townsmen to the performance of improvements in various directions. He has been, for a number of years, one of the largest cattle men in Southwestern Kansas, and also controls one of the largest commercial houses here.
-- History of the State of Kansas: Counties, Towns and Villages., Andreas, A. T., Chicago, 1883.
Also see:
Stella (Stevens) Youmans, wife of Eugene Youmans, Sr., sister-in-law of Edward Youmans.
Thanks to Shirley Brier for the above obituary and to Ellen Bisson for the news article!
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