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Chase County Kansas Historical Sketches


1863 - 2003



HENRY VAN BUSKIRK FAMILY

Including NATHAN SCOTT FAMILY-1860
NELSON WAGONER FAMILY-1860
CHARLES BROILES FAMILY

The Chase County census of 1860 shows that Henry Van Buskirk, a native of New York state, and his family, lived in Bazaar Township at that time. The immediate family consisted of Henry, aged 63, and his wife, Betsy, aged 58, both of New York. The name and place of birth would indicate that they were of Holland Dutch ancestry. Be�sides these two, were two sons, John and Lawrence, also born in New York. John's wife, Hannah, was from Pennsylvania and Lawrence's wife, Elsa, was from Vermont.

There were also two daughters. First: Mrs. Virelia Scott, aged 38, wife of Nathan Scott, aged 49. Nathan Scott was a farmer and hailed from Maryland. This Mrs. Scott was known to a later generation as Aurelia, (not Virelia). The two Scott children were Charles, aged 11, and Catherine, aged 1. The child was really named Alice Cath�erine, and she was born February 3, 1858, in Illinois. Her brother, Charles, was also born in that state. This would indicate that the Scotts lived for some time in that state before coming to Kansas.

Second: Betsy Wagoner, wife of Nelson Wagoner, aged 33 and 36 respectively. Betsy's name was really Elizabeth, but she was always called Betsy. Nelson Wagoner was from Pennsylvania and was a cobbler by trade. The Wagoner children were William aged 13, Henry aged 11, Harriet aged 3, (all born in Illinois), and a child two months old born in Kansas. This last child was Adelbert, always known as Bert. Harriet must have died in childhood as nothing more is known of her. (For further notes on Betsy Wagoner see Life of Ben Landsbury, and Life of Henry Wagoner).

These folks all lived on land in Bazaar Township, near the present Baker schoolhouse. It was east of the present Highway No. 13 and adjoined the present Seward Baker place on the south. It extended east to and across South Fork. They lived in various houses but the exact location is not known, except that the Nelson Wagoner home was at the west side near the present, (as then) highway. A few years ago, a few trees still marked the site of the yard.

We do not know how long Henry Van Buskirk lived. There was an early day cemetery on the east side of South Fork, probably on their land. It has now been turned into a cultivated field and the grave stones have been moved. It was in that cemetery that Henry was buried in all likelihood, his wife and other members of his family. The wives of Lawrence and John must have died very soon, for under date of June 30, 1861 we read that John Van Buskirk was married to Sarah Ann Oldsbury, and under date of July 1, 1867, it is mentioned that Sarah Ann Buskirk married Cyrus Brown. That might indicate that John was dead by that time, but no one seems to know. Later Lawrence married Mrs. Fleming, a widow, and mother of Louise Fleming Wagoner, wife of Henry Wagoner.

We do not know when Nathan Scott died, but his widow, Aurelia, married a Mr. Ketch and lived with hire on his farm, an eighty at the head of Stakebake Creek. She spent her last few years in a little home in Matfield Green and is buried in the Matfield Cemetery. Charles Scott's life ended in tragedy and he died by his own hand.

About 1873 Alice Scott married a Mr. Turner. The records of the Probate Court have a note saying that two weeks elapsed between the granting of the license and the performing of the wedding as the bride was under sixteen and it took that long to get the consent of the par�ents. Nothing more is known of this marriage and within a few years Alice married a Mr. DeWitt, brother of Mrs. Elihu Mitchell of the Bazaar neighborhood. This marriage also went on the rocks, and the couple separated; Mr. DeWitt took the one child, a son, to a home near Mexico, Mo. Later Alice married Charles Broiles.

The Broiles family lived on the Ketch eighty and rented land from the Roglers for thirty-three years. For many years they lived on the James Jackson farm which had become a part of the Rogler holdings. Mrs. Alice Broiles died September , 1917, and Mr. Broiles lived until about 1934. Both are interred in the Matfield Green Cemetery. Their children are: Delbert M.; Lily Bradley; Nathaniel, died in early man�hood; Tempy, only daughter, married John Paul; Joseph; Ivy; Otto; Virgil; Henry, deceased. We do not have the date of Nelson Wagoner's death. His widow, Elizabeth, married Benjamin Landsbury, and went to live with him in his home, a quarter of a mile west of the District No. 12 schoolhouse. When Mrs. Wagoner married Ben Landsbury she was the mother of three sons, William, Henry and Bert. In October, 1867, William mar�ried Mary E., daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Augustus M. Landsbury. Their life together was short, as not many months after their marriage, William suffered an accident from a run-a-way team which caused his death.

In November, 1868, Henry Wagoner married Nancy M. Lannum, daughter of Mrs. Nancy Ann Lannum White. (See Henry Wagoner History). Mr. and Mrs. Landsbury, "Betsey" and "Ben" to everybody, farmed their small five acre patch of ground and grazed sheep on the other 155 acres until about 1883, when they moved to Florence, Kan., and after two years there, to Hugoton, Kan. There Mr. Landsbury died and his wife returned to Matfield Green, where she resided until her death in 1907, at the age of seventy-eight years.

District No. 12 never succeeded in getting a good well on the school grounds and "going for water" was one of our greatest out-door sports. We went to either of two springs-one on "Granny" Lands bury's place on South Fork, the other up the draw on Ben's place. When we little girls went, we chose to go to the spring on Ben's place, for his wife, Betsey, kept a flock of ducks and if we kept our eyes open, we usually found two or three of the bluish tinted eggs lying on the ground along the stream. These we would carry to Betsey, who would then invite us to come in and watch her spin yarn from the wool from their sheep. That was a sight to remember! Then, outside was that delectable herb-garden, with its "Speargrass" (asparagus) for bouquets, sage, catnip, tansy, saffron, hore�hound and rosemary! Betsey was always ready to give us a few sprigs of speargrass to go with our wild flower bouquets or a leaf of rose�mary to crush in our hands for its refreshing odor.





Chase County Submitted Historical Sketches
compiled and abstracted from the Chase County Courant, Chase County Leader, other sources and newspapers
by Lorna Marvin
Please submit your historical sketches.



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