Cloud County
KSGenWeb
MURT DAILEY.
Murt Dailey, who is prominently known as one of the
efficient commissioners of Cloud county as well as a valued citizen, came to
Kansas in the autumn of 1876, and located a claim in Jewell county which he sold
in 1882 and bought a farm in Summit township where he engaged in agricultural
and stock-raising pursuits with marked success. His efforts were so well
rewarded that he removed to Ochiltree county, Texas, in 1886, where he could
pasture his increasing herds over a larger territory. Success followed him
there, but owing to financial reverses he lost money in the removal. Nothing
could foreshadow his old love for Kansas, hence in 1894 he returned, and after
one year in Jewell county purchased one of the finest farms in Summit township,
lying in that magnificent stretch of country adjacent to Scottsville. Mr. Dailey
was born in County Kerry, Ireland, in 1848. He emigrated to America with his
parents, Frances and Johanna (Casey) Dailey, and settled in Southern Iowa,
Appanoose county, when that country was in a pioneer state. They subsequently
removed to Missouri. Francis Dailey lived to see his entire family grown and
established in homes of their own. The mother died in 1898, in Beloit, at the
home of Dr. Dailey, a brother of our subject. Mr. Dailey is a veteran of the
civil war, enlisting December 13, 1863 in Company D, First Missouri Cavalry. He
was but fifteen years and three months old when he joined the army. Company D,
along with fragments of other companies, were merged into Company A, First
Missouri Cavalry. Their warfare consisted principally of guarding against the
raids of the Younger and James boys. They were in a general engagement against
General Price in his last invasion. Mr. Dailey says, he "did not miss any of the
show" but was engaged in active service the entire time. His, company was
mustered out at Benton Barracks, Missouri on July 11, 1865.
Mr. Dailey's
first wife was Elizabeth Stevens, who died in the autumn of 1886, leaving
thirteen children, ten of whom are living, four daughters and six sons. He was
married in 1888 to Miss Nora Griffin, his present wife. The Daileys are members
of the Catholic church. Mirrella, the eldest daughter is a sister in the convent
at Leavenworth, Kansas. Mr. Dailey has always been prominent in politics and has
filled various public offices. During the latter part of the seventies he was
elected trustee of Jewell county and commissioner in 1880, having served about
two years of the term (of three years) when he removed to Cloud county. While in
Texas he was elected county treasurer of Ochiltree county. In 1901 was elected
to his present office. He has served on the school board continuously wherever
he has lived, one of the best references a man can give. He is an active member
of the Grand Army of the Republic. Mr. Dailey is a good citizen, an excellent
manager, hence well qualified for his responsible position, the duties of which
he is ably discharging.
DAVIDSONS OF GLASCO.
The lives of the Davidsons have been so interwoven
with the history of the Solomon valley that to know one is to know the other. Of
the older Davidson families there are two brothers, Garrett and E.C. They are
the sons of Levi and Charity (Handley) Davidson.
Levi Davidson was a
farmer. He died in 1880. The mother died in 1853. The paternal grandfather was
Genaja Davidson who was a soldier in the Revolutionary war at the age of twelve
years. He married and emigrated to Kentucky in the early settlement of that
state and was twice captured by the Indians. The last time, he had started out
for an arm full of wood when he was seized by the savages and carried away. His
wife did not know his fate and had not received a word from him until he
returned seven years later carrying an arm full of wood which he said was the
one he had started for when captured.
After demonstrating to the Indians
that he was a good shot and lucky huntsman, they treated him well, as he made a
"good Injun." Another man was taken prisoner about the same time who did not
have the strength to keep up in the tramp and dropped back. His fate was never
known, but in all probability he was tomahawked.
Ganaja Davidson moved to
McCordsville, Indiana where he died. The maternal grandfather, Lieutenant
Handley was a native of Connecticut. He emigrated to Ohio in an early day and
located in Perry county, near Columbus, where Charity Handley Davidson was born.
He was a Lieutenant in the war of 1812.
EZEKIAL CALVIN DAVIDSON.
E.C.
Davidson, the subject of this sketch, has gained a record in the Solomon valley
for the perserverance, pluck and courage with which he bore the hardships
incident to building a home on the frontier. But the spirit which led him to the
new West served him through a long seige of toil, disappointments, failures,
drouths and grasshoppers. Though not the first to pitch his tent in the
undeveloped country, E.C. Davidson was early on the ground, and his lands to-day
bear little resemblance to the government claim he secured in 1869.
The handsome
and commodious residence has long since been substituted for the dugout or cabin
of primitive days. His herds of fine bred cattle have supplanted the horned
Texas steer and the poorly constructed stables have given way to the immense
bank barn that is filled to the rafters with the sweet scented alfalfa and
golden grain. In fact, everything has been transformed from a mere prairie claim
to a well tilled and improved farm.
E.C. Davidson is a native of Franklin
County, Ohio, born in 1847. When sixteen years of age he came with his brother,
Garrett, to Illinois, and settled on a farm near Bushnell, where he lived seven
years. In 1869, he came to Kansas and rented land in Washington county for one
year, in the meantime coming to Cloud and selecting a homestead, his present
country place.
He was married in 1870, to Anna Franks, whose parents were
early settlers in Kansas. Mr. Davidson started in life with practically none of
this world's goods, but he secured a wife who has very materially assisted in
gaining the competency they now enjoy. She shared nobly the trying ordeals of
the early settlers' wives and is his better half in the truest sense of the
word. They adapted themselves to circumstances, and their little cabin was
polished with content, happy in their dreams of the future. While their larder
was sometimes lacking in variety, there was never a scarcity of meat.
Mr.
Davidson was a typical frontiersman, fond of the hunt, and his trusty rifle has
been the means of bringing about many a repast fit for the gods. Buffalo and
antelope were plentiful, with droves of wild turkeys and flocks of prairie
chicken and quail. He brought in game by the wagon load. He was also fond of the
chase and retains a special weakness in this direction, keeping a kennel of dogs
for this pastime. He has quite an interesting collection of coyote, fox and
jackrabbit trophies.
However, he is a thorough agriculturist, taking
great pride in his crops of wheat and alfalfa. This year (1901) he has two
hundred tons of hay in his barn. The yield from this alfalfa ground netted him
$50 per acre. He has been feeding and shipping cattle for more than fifteen
years, which was the beginning of his prosperity. He is a Short Horn breeder and
has one hundred and fifty head of fine cattle. He has just completed one of the
most perfectly planned feeding barns in this or any other country. Its
dimensions are 43x64 feet, with a basement. He constructed another large barn
64x64 feet, in 1889.
To Mr. Davidson belongs the distinction of hauling
the first building material that went into the present town of Beloit, which is
in all probability a bit of hitherto unwritten history. When making his second
trip from Washington county to the Solomon valley, he was accosted by a citizen
of Abilene, who asked his destination. Upon being told it was Glasco, he said he
had some lumber he wanted hauled to Willow Springs, (now Beloit) and offered
five dollars for the transportation of it to that place. This was May 5, 1870,
and the lumber was for a Mr. Elliott, who built the first shanty on the town
site.
Mr. Davidson relates many interesting reminisences of pioneer
times, buffalo hunts, etc., some of them appearing elsewhere on these pages. It
was several years before the Davidsons' began to prosper or even possessed a
cow. The new comers were handicapped in so many ways they could not progress
rapidly. Again, after raising the grain there was no market nearer than Clay
Center. He says on one occasion he hauled a load of rye to that town, which
required three days time, receiving but twenty-five cents per bushel.
He
has always raised hogs and got his start in this industry by delivering fourteen
bushels of corn to Matt Wilcox in exchange for two Chester White pigs. It took
Mr. Davidson a dozen years or more to put his land under cultivation. His
efforts were retarded because he did not have sufficient teams or grain to feed
them.
Mr. and Mrs. Davidson have an interesting family of three sons and
one daughter, who are all useful members of society, viz: William (see sketch),
Lorean, (see sketch); Retta, the only daughter is an accomplished young lady.
She is a student of Lindsborg College, where she is taking a special course in
music. She is a graduate of the Glasco high school and on her third year of the
college course. Joseph N. graduated from the Glasco high school and is a law
student in the Kansas State University.
Mr. Davidson is a Democrat in
politics and is a member of the order of I.O.O.F., of Glasco lodge.
GARRETT DAVIDSON.
Careful speculation, good judgment and close
application to his business interests have made Garrett Davidson the Croesus of
Cloud county and he is still active on a business career. He had acquired a good
start before coming to Kansas but earned every dollar of his belongings through
his own personal efforts. He possessed an indomitable will, pushed westward and
soon occupied a foremost place among the moneyed men of Cloud county. He has
built up a competency on the foundation he laid early in his career and may
still be considered in the prime of life. Like his brother E.C. he is fond of
the chase and the music of his hounds has made merry many a chase for the
running to earth of the yelping coyote.
Mr. Davidson is a native of Ohio,
born May 2, 1841, in the town of Dublin, built on the old lime stone rocks of
Franklin county, Ohio. His mother having died when he was twelve years of age,
he worked for a cousin several years for his board and clothes. He then started
out to make the record herein recorded.
He had received but a few months
schooling during the winter months for as soon as the sugar making season
arrived, both teacher and pupils adjourned from the old log school house to
assist at the sugar camps. Mr. Davidson's career began by working on a farm at
$11 per month. His duties consisted of clearing ground, picking up chunks from
the newly made fields, and farming. His first worldly possession was a young
horse purchased in exchange for three months labor plus $1, which he invested in
a straw hat and a pair of overalls. The following year he earned enough to buy a
$40 colt and then rustled and skirmished around until he purchased a wagon. His
next project was to rent a farm in Madison county, Ohio. From this date he began
to accumulate the origin of his present financial standing. In 1862, he drove a
team down into Lexington, Kentucky, then a wintering quarter for horses and
troops, furnishing rations and feed. In 1863, he moved to Illinois, where he
bought sixty acres of land three miles distant from Bushnell. In 1865, he
enlisted in Company C, 151st Illinois Volunteers. His company did not see active
service but went as far south as Kingston, Georgia, where they guarded the
railroad and scouted around on dark nights over the corduroy roads. After being
discharged at Springfield, Illinois, he returned home and resumed his farming
operations.
Mr. Davidson is a man of keen perception and foresight and
this coupled with his energy has made him prosperous in every undertaking. He
engaged in buying, feeding and selling stock on his farm in Illinois and
acquired a good start before coming west. In 1874, he emigrated to Cloud county
and bought the D.W. Teasley homestead relinquishment, paying $1,000. About one
year later he bought eighty acres of the Edwards homestead and shortly afterward
the "Goddard eighty." In 1880, he purchased the Capt. Snyder farm and forty
acres of school land on the Solomon river; in 1896, seventy-five acres of the
Bond estate; in 1897, he bought a half section of State land from Samuel Beard
and the "Samuel Fuller homestead," one of the best farms on the Solomon river;
in 1898, the two hundred and twenty acres of land sold at administrator's sale
to settle up the Hostetler estate.
Nearly all of his farms are bottom
land. Stock raising and feeding cattle and hogs has been Mr. Davidson's strong
point. He keeps a herd of about one hundred high grade cattle and one hundred
head of hogs. This year (1901) he is feeding ground wheat to his cattle as an
experiment. The proportion is one-third corn, two-thirds wheat ground and mixed.
He raises wheat extensively and has never had an entire failure. Several seasons
his land has produced forty bushels per acre.
Mr. Davidson was one of the
first growers of alfalfa in the neighborhood, and sowed it as an experiment. One
year he sold $1,000 worth of seed. In 1901, from twenty-two acres there was a
yield of one hundred and three bushels of seed and ninety-two tons of hay, and
this one of the dryest years ever known in Kansas. The one hundred and three
bushels of seed at $5 per bushel netted him $515; the ninety-two tons of hay at
$7 per ton netted him $644, a total of $1,159 thus being produced from
twenty-two acres of alfalfa. He has a fine producing apple orchard of about two
hundred trees and a considerable number of peach trees which yield well.
When Mr. Davidson bought the Teasley homestead there were but few improvements,
a small cabin, a shed and corral. In 1875, he built a large stone residence
situated in a grove of tall cottonwoods set out by himself and Mrs. Davidson.
The lumber for this residence was hauled from Clay Center via Concordia. In 1892
he built a barn 50x96 feet, the first commodious barn built in the neighborhood.
Mrs. Davidson before her marriage was Catherine Gross, a daughter of Thomas
and Margaret (Cargy) Gross, of Ohio, near the city of Columbus, where Mrs.
Davidson was born and grew to womanhood. Her father died, when she was eight
years of age and her mother died in 1898, at the age of ninety-three years. Mrs.
Davidson is one of ten children, three of whom are living: a sister, Sarah, the
wife of Levi Cooper, a farmer of Solomon township, and a brother James, a farmer
living in Indiana. Mrs. Davidson had three brothers in the war, who enlisted
from their Ohio home. They died from illness contracted during the service. Mrs.
Davidson is a true helpmate and is entitled to much of the credit for her
husband's prosperity. She is a true patriot of Kansas now, but in the early days
would watch the emigrants coming in and weep for her eastern home.
Politically Mr. Davidson is a Populist. In 1889, he was elected county
commissioner on the Democratic ticket, which showed his popularity, as it that
time his district was very strong in its Republican majority.
Mr.
Davidson was practically the banking firm of the Glasco, community for many
years, making it possible for many of his neighbors to buy more land or for some
man to increase his business capital by a loan. He never oppressed a debtor, nor
forced the payment, allowing all the time required for paying the loan; thus his
wealth has made him a public benefactor.
JOHN M. DAVIDSON.
The subject of this sketch, J.M. Davidson, is one of the original settlers
of Republic county. He left his home in Belleplain, Marshall county, Illinois,
in the autumn of 1870, and wintered in Nebraska. In March of the ensuing year he
emigrated to Kansas and homesteaded land on Elk creek, in Richmond township,
Republic county. At the age of fourteen years Mr. Davidson was apprenticed for
three years to G.W. Derry, of Vermont, Illinois, a blacksmith, at thirty dollars
per year.
Our subject was married in 1856 to Miss Mary Hull, of Vermont,
Illinois. She died in Cuba, Kansas, in 1888. To this marriage three sons and one
daughter were born, viz: Levi, born in 1857, is a resident of Norwalk, Ohio.
John A., born in 1858, a liveryman of Cuba, Kansas, is an extremely successful
business man. Mary Etta, born in 1860, is the wife of G.W. Warren, of Hastings,
Nebraska. Mr. Warren is a railroad conductor now in the employ of the Michigan
Central. Robert, born in 1861, is a miner of Leadville, Colorado. Mr. Davidson
was married to his present wife in 1891. She was Mary F. Campbell, of St. Louis,
Missouri. Her parents died when she was a child, leaving three orphan children.
The others are Mrs. VanGordon, wife of Dr. H.N. VanGordon, a veterinary surgeon
of Clyde. A brother, William Edward, is a farmer of Phelps county, Missouri. Mr.
Davidson built the first dwelling house in the town of Cuba. Republic county,
and established the pioneer blacksmith shop there. He owns a business house and
a residence property there at this writing.
He did blacksmithing from the
founding of Cuba until 1894, when he became associated with John Frederick in a
shop in Clyde, succeeding Mr. Frederick's father, Clyde's pioneer smith. The
firm has recently dissolved partnership. Mr. Davidson has sold his residence and
expects to return to Cuba in the near future. When Mr. Davidson came to Kansas
his finances were limited and he witnessed many discouraging days, living on
corn bread and corn coffee. There was not much demand for blacksmithing in the
early 'seventies and Mr. Davidson secured a job of cutting cord wood. He
procured a new ax and about the first time he made use of it almost amputated a
foot which practically disabled him, but the wolf stood at the door, and for
months he rode ten miles to his work. Mr. Davidson has participated in numbers
of buffalo hunts. Would often take his family and go camping. While on one of
these trips they were in the midst of a stampede, the buffalo coming in droves
down a ravine and almost capsized their wagon. From this herd Mr. Davidson
killed three. When on a hunting expedition with a friend, John Garrett, they
arose early one morning to find the country east and west of them a perfect sea
of buffalo. They killed nine of them before breakfast. By way of expressing
their feelings on this occasion, Mr. Davidson archly remarked, "Roosevelt's
overcoat would not have made us a vest that morning," as they reported their
bounty. When hunting buffalo to secure their hides they have brought down as
many as one hundred and fifty in one trip and sold them as low as fifty cents
each. Upon one of these hunts they were caught in a snow storm near the Colorado
line. When they arose in the morning they found upon the swell of ground where
they were camped the "beautiful" had fallen to a depth of about three feet. They
were not prepared for such a storm and with their horses came very nearly
perishing. Luckily they had plenty of feed for their horses and buffalo meat for
themselves, but their clothing was insufficient for such a storm. During this
blizzard a herd of thirty or forty buffalo passed near the camp, but with their
benumbed and gloveless hands they could not prepare for action and allowed them
to pass unmolested. On several occasions they brought home buffalo calves, one
of which he raised to be more than a year old.
Mr. Davidson is an old
veteran of the Civil war. He volunteered his services to the Union army in the
Fourth Illinois Cavalry, Company G, under Captain Harvey D. Cook, with Colonel
T. Lisle Dickey in command. He continued in this capacity from September, 1861,
until he was discharged and relieved in 1864. He was chosen orderly to General
Wallace. For a considerable length of time his regiment was body guard to
General Sherman. At the national encampment held in St. Louis a few years ago
Mr. Davidson was the means of identifying and bringing together two brothers of
his company who had not seen each other since the war.
Mr. Davidson's
parents are both living in Mackinaw, Taswell county, Illinois, at the advanced
age of eighty-eight and eighty-seven years. His mother was Mary Ann Hill, a
daughter of Colonel Ira Hill, who participated as a leader of a regiment in the
war of 1812. The Davidson family had a reunion in 1899, after a separation of
seventeen years. The eldest and youngest children of the family had not met for
twenty-four years. This venerable couple celebrated their golden wedding and
upon this occasion about four hundred guests partook of a wedding feast spread
on long tables in a grove, that fairly groaned with its weight of good things.
Mr. Davidson is a "dyed-in-the-wool" Republican and the first police judge
in the town of Cuba. He is a Mason of prominence and a member of the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows for seventeen years, and has been associated with the Clyde
Grand Army of the Republic since its organization. Since the above data was
prepared Mr. Davidson and his family have removed to Cuba, their former home.
Mr. Davidson and his wife are good citizens, hence Clyde's loss is Cuba's gain.
HONORABLE LOREAN FOREST DAVIDSON.
The Davidson Hardware
company is not a corporation. It is the style under which E.C. Davidson and his
sons L.F. and J.M. conduct business. They represent one of the leading firms of
the city of Glasco and have contributed very liberally to the town's prosperity.
L.F. Davidson is at the head of the management. His business sagacity
coupled with his pleasing and cordial manner make him as popular as he is
prominent. He has been reared in the Solomon valley and inherits the dauntless
spirit of his father. When this company organized in 1897, its assets consisted
of $2,000 and its stock was principally farm implements. Their place of business
was a basement room.
In the autumn of 1898, they purchased the Geiger
stock of hardware, also the building they now occupy, known as the Glasco State
Bank building, a large stone structure fifty-two by eighty feet in dimension and
two stories in height. The front rooms on the second floor are occupied as
offices and the rear is fitted up for an opera house. They now have in course of
erection another building adjoining the one they already have and occupied by
their stock of hardware. It is of stone, forty-six by one hundred and fifteen
feet, and two stories in height. It is to be used for a wagon carriage and
implement house to their rapidly increasing business. The second floor will have
a row of offices in the front, something much needed in Glasco, for there are
few available office rooms in the city. Their buildings are lighted by acetelyne
gas from their individual plant.
In 1899, this firm increased their
capital stock to $9,000. Their present stock will invoice about $12,000. Their
first year's sales were $11,000, the second year's sales $25,000 and the present
year (1901) $80,000. They sold a total of nine threshing outfits the season just
ending; of these they sold three in one day and drove eighty-two miles. In the
three years they have been in business they have disposed of one hundred and
twenty-one Champion harvesters which netted a total of $17,725. In 1900, they
sold two car-loads of buggies and the present year, three car-loads, and one
carload of wagons, with three car-loads of Fuller Lee Havana drills.
They
carry in stock a full line of shelf hardware, tinware, cutlery, paints and oils.
Being amply supplied with capital this company buys direct from the
manufacturers in large quantities, and practically controls the sale in the
Solomon valley, transacting an enormous business.
Mr. Davidson was one of
the fifty-five hardware men of Kansas that were recently so royally entertained
by the Avery Manufacturing company of Peoria, Illinois. The keys of the city
were given them, they were badged and everything they demanded was forthcoming.
Mr. Davidson was born on the old homestead in 1874. He received his early
education in district fifty-eight and the graded schools of Glasco, followed by
a course in the Ottawa University. After leaving that distinguished seat of
learning he taught a few terms of school very successfully, but was destined for
a business career rather than that of an educator.
He was married in
1898, to Sadie Burnett, who was a Cloud county teacher. She is a daughter of
L.C. Burnett, dealer in general merchandise and one of Glasco's old residents
and highly respected citizens. Mrs. Davidson is a cultured woman of literary
tastes and considerable musical talent. The walls of their home resound to the
laughter and frolic of two children; Keith Bruce, a little fellow of two years
and Fay Ilma.
Mr. Davidson is a Populist in politics but the kind that
counts his friends among the ranks of all parties. He was mayor of the city of
Glasco in 1900-01 and performed the duties of that office with dignity and
credit. He is prominent in lodge work and is a member of the following orders:
Ancient Free & Accepted Masons, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Woodmen, and
Knights of Pythias. He is council in the camp of Woodmen order, and holds the
office of chancellor in the Knights of Pythias. Mr. and Mrs. Davidson are
members of the Baptist and Christian churches respectively.
WILLIAM DAVIDSON.
The subject of this sketch, William Davidson, is the
eldest of E.C. Davidson's family. He was one of the first white children born in
the Solomon valley and is loyal to the place of his nativity. He was born June
3, 1871, on the old homestead, where he grew to manhood. He was educated in
district No. 58. He farmed with his father until 1897, when he bought one
hundred and sixty acres of land known as the Cal Lawrence homestead.
Mr.
Davidson remembers when the Solomon valley was one vast prairie covered with the
big stem blue grass and when there were neither fences nor trees. Born in a
dugout, he grew up with the prosperity of his native state. He also recalls
"hiding out" from the savages, who fortunately turned out to be emigrants in
search of homes in the far West.
"Wid," as he is called, is a big hearted
fellow who never seems to get tired and is a hustler without limit; another one
of those typical hale-fellow-well-met western men, whose hospitality is
proverbial. He owns one of the good farms of the Solomon valley, adjoining his
father's land, which is rapidly undergoing improvement. Their residence is a
neat cottage home.
His family consists of a wife and two bright little
children, a daughter and a son, Vera, aged five, and Bryan R. aged three. Mrs.
Davidson was Arvilla Williamson, a daughter of Enoch Williamson, (see sketch.)
She is a women of refined tastes and matron over the domestic affairs of the
farm. They were married in 1892.
Mr. Davidson has just finished a large
and substantial barn which, standing as it does on a prominence of ground, can
be seen for miles around the country. It is a basement bank barn fifty-four by
thirty-six feet in dimensions. In seeking for water Mr. Davidson met with rather
a strange phenomenon, He bored down seventy-five feet and struck a vein of
strong salt water. A few feet to the west of this he bored down with a common
post auger and struck water at the depth of eighteen feet, which is of a fine
quality and quantity, supplying water sufficient for all his stock.
He
keeps about twenty-five head of cattle and raises hogs, but his chief industry
is wheat growing. Politically he is a Democrat. He is a member of the I.O.O.F.
and A.O.U.W. lodges at Glasco.
HONORABLE GOMER TALIESIN DAVIES.
For more than, a score of years Gomer T.
Davies has been at the head of a western newspaper, and notwithstanding the
political animosities that have arisen from time to time, he has stood firm and
steadfast by the convictions he deems best for the people and the country. Mr.
Davies has been intensely devoted to his chosen field, and the result of his
close application is obvious in the well-edited columns of the Kansan and the
patronage it receives from the citizens of Cloud county.
In an article
contributed to the official report of the seventeenth annual convention of the
National Editorial Association, which convened at Hot Springs, Arkansas, April
15-18, 1902, George W. Martin, secretary of the Kansas Historical Society, among
other fetching things, with reference to Mr. Davies, says: "The country
newspaper publisher is a man unto himself. There is no other like him. His
wrestle for the provender which supports life, his contests with the world and
the devil in behalf of all that is good, necessitates a variety of talents, a
vigilance and an industry, wholly unnecessary with Mr. Morgan or other mergers,
who simply float along with millions and billions accumulated near the mouth of
the great river of commerce and industry. It is the man at the head of the
stream, with nothing but what nature has given him, who performs miracles with
this old world of ours, and who gives to the current its direction for
usefulness that causes the wheels of production to go round.
"The country
newspaper publisher is the most important of all the factors at the beginning of
things. It is he who gets near the home, who is known and read in every
household of his bailiwick. Every line in a country newspaper is read by the
grown folks and the children alike in each household where it enters, and not
merely skimmed over, or only headlines read, as is the case with the city
papers. Hence there is no overestimating sway of the rural newspaper.
At
this convention Mr. Davies was honored by one hundred and seventy-seven of the
two hundred and seventy-seven votes cast that elected him second vice-president
of the association, and, referring to this consideration, Mr. Martin further
says: "It is a matter of interest to all, and of good judgment upon the part of
the National Editorial Association, that, at its late meeting, it came to
central Kansas for one of its vice-presidents. The association is to be
congratulated that in its selection of Gomer T. Davies, of the Concordia Kansan,
it has an all-around bunch of Kansas nerve and inspiration, of editorial and
business ability, and of general usefulness to the fraternity and to the
public." And the state at the meeting of their last Editorial Association
recommended Mr. Davies for the office of first vice-president, to be determined
when they meet in Omaha, in July, of the present year (1903). He was president
of the Kansas North Central Editorial Association in 1896, and for 1901 was
president of the Kansas State Editorial Association.
He is prominent in
various social orders, has passed through all the chairs of the Odd Fellows
lodge and is one of four candidates for grand master of the order. He is a
member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, Knights of Pythias, Woodmen of
America and the Order of Elks. Mr. Davies is a significant member of the
Concordia Commercial Club and one of the directors of the Kansas Historical
Society, in which he and every loyal citizen of the state takes pardonable
pride.
Mr. Davies' success has been phenomenal. He started in the news
paper business with but two dollars in his pocket, but he appealed his case to
the enterprising people of Kansas, to win or lose his small capital - and won.
His standing, socially and financially, indicates the verdict. He owns his
office, a two-story brick building, ninety feet deep, equipped with the most
modern machinery; a farm within a mile of Concordia, and a comfortable home in
the city.
The birth of Mr. Davies occurred at Pont-y-pridd,
Glanmorganshire, South Wales, January 25, 1855. Mr. Martin says: "One would not
think this of him at all, for he is just as rational as though born in Podunk
township, Pennsylvania: Posey county, Indiana, or on the White Rock In Kansas.
He emigrated to America in 1863. After a residence of a few years in
Pennsylvania he removed to Livingston county, Missouri; but, imbued with the
same spirit as many foreign-born people adopting America for their home. He left
the scenes of older civilization and moved further westward, into Iowa, where he
lived from 1869 until 1882, when he wisely turned his attention towards
northwest Kansas and in 1883 purchased the Republic County News, his first
newspaper venture. While editor-in-chief of this paper Mr. Davies was twice
elected by the Republican party to represent his district, which comprised the
north half of Republic county, in the state legislature, sessions of 1887 and
1889. November 18, 1896, Mr. Davies bought the Kansan and removed to Concordia.
He was married in 1879 and his family consists of a wife and seven children.
The journalistic career of Mr. Davies is characterized by his sense of
discrimination between right and wrong, and his acuteness along these lines is
evinced by the abiding good will of the people, who demonstrate their approval
by a renewal of their subscription annually. There are few homes the Kansan does
not reach.
CHARLIE DAVIS.
Charlie Davis, one of the oldest
settlers of Cloud county, was the first merchant the county ever had. He opened
a store in a log cabin in Clyde in 1865, where he remained until 1873, when he
moved with his family to Glen Elder, Kansas, where he lived until his death,
April 2, 1881.
ISAAC B. DAWES.
The Dawes
family sprung from good old English stock; the ancestors came early to America
and established the family name from which the subject of this sketch owes his
origin. Isaac B. Dawes was born in eastern Ohio, in the year 1827, his parents
having removed there when that state was considered the "far west" and when they
were in danger of being scalped by the savages or devoured by the wild beasts
that roamed the forests. The Dawes family were all patriots and served their
country with unflinching courage. His father served in the war of 1812.
Our subject was one of the honored veterans of the Civil war, whose devotion to
his country was tested by service on the battlefield. He was a member of the
137th Indiana, Company D, under Captain James Sewell and Colonel E.J. Robinson,
regimental commander. Mr. Dawes enlisted in May, 1861, serving until he was
mustered out at the close of the rebellion. He received the appointment of
orderly sergeant at the beginning of his enlistment. His men were not well
drilled recruits, having had neither time nor opportunity for military tactics,
and in a time when veterans were needed, but they were called into active duty
and filled the places of two old regiments on guard duty where they were given
the opportunity to demonstrate their courage and valor.
After being
honorably mustered out, Mr. Dawes returned to his family and resumed farming
until 1878, when he, with his family emigrated to Kansas and settled on their
present farm, when the silence of nature was unbroken by the locomotive's shrill
whistle, but "to those who wait, all things come," and in a brief time they were
in the midst of a busy traffic of a great railroad system.
Mr. Dawes was
married in 1850, to Julia Maxwell, and three years later removed to Indiana,
where their seven children except the eldest were born. Of this number, five are
living, viz: Samuel F., the eldest son, resides with his father and is a
successful, intelligent farmer and stock raiser. The second son, the Honorable
F.B. Dawes, is a Leavenworth attorney and ex-attorney general of the state of
Kansas. He established for himself a national reputation and is one of the most
gifted orators in the state. The numerous positions of trust to which he has
been called have been successfully filled and his popularity is well deserved.
His success is not due to an inherited legacy or adventurous circumstances, but
to his unbending will, application and sterling integrity. The daughters, three
in number, are estimable and intelligent women. The eldest is Mrs. M.E. King, of
Clay county, near Idana. Luella is her father's housekeeper. She has been a
teacher of Cloud and Clay counties for a period of eight years. Mrs. Iva B.
Mock, the youngest daughter, resides on a farm in Oklahoma.
Politically,
Mr. Dawes is a staunch Republican, and during President Harrison's
administration was appointed postmaster at Miltonvale, holding that office from
1889 to 1893. Miss Luella Dawes was his deputy and made an efficient clerk. Mr.
Dawes has held various township offices. He was elected justice of the peace of
Starr township and held the same office in Indiana. Mr. Dawes emigrated to
Kansas with limited means but a stout heart and hewed his way through many
obstacles in his path; with a will he put his shoulder to the wheel and it
turned.
He erected a small house one and a half stories high, the most
pretentious in the neighborhood, and proceeded to otherwise improve the
homestead. He with his son, keeps a herd of about sixty head of graded Shorthorn
cattle and raises hogs extensively. He has built up by degrees a comfortable and
pleasant home, a well improved and equipped farm, where he may spend the
remainder of his days in quiet comfort and in the enjoyment of peace and plenty.
Mr. Dawes is recognized by the community as a thoroughly true and upright
man, courteous to everybody, a helpful citizen and revered by all. He is the
youngest and only living child of a family of eleven children, having buried a
sister, the last surviving member except himself, in 1900. They all lived to
maturity and reared families. Mrs. Dawes, who was deceased in July, 1898, was a
woman possessed of a gentle, sympathetic nature, which drew around her a large
circle of friends and acquaintances, and her demise was universally mourned.
Miss Dawes is actively engaged in the profitable and interesting pursuit of
poultry raising from an incubator which has a capacity for one hundred and
twenty eggs. There is special attraction watching and waiting for the hatching
day of the incubator and witness it turn out one hundred or more downy little
chickens, and see them develop into hens or the lusty, crowing chanticleers. She
expects as a season's output, the brood to number four or five hundred. Miss
Dawes and her brother are chicken fanciers and received first prize at the
Salina fair in 1902, on their pure bred Plymouth Rock fowls, bred from the
famous Conger strain, which is their specialty. In addition to this branch of
poultry raising, they take great pride in their pure White Holland turkeys and
Mammoth Pekin ducks, which are fine specimens; the latter carry on their
conversation much after the fashion of plain every day ducklings. The barnyard
filled with the fine Plymouth Rock chickens, beautiful White Holland turkeys and
gabbling ducks, was an interesting sight to the author at feeding time.
The Dawes family are worthy, active members and supporters of the Christian
church of Miltonvale, of which Mr. Dawes is an elder.
OWEN DAY.
Owen Day, one of the old
residents of Cloud county, is a retired farmer and merchant. He was born in the
little town of Warren, Marion county, Missouri, in 1841. His father, Thomas Day,
was born in Ohio but reared in Virginia and emigrated to Missouri in 1839. He
was born in 1801 and died in Marion county in 1855. He was a farmer and
carpenter by occupation. His mother, before her marriage in 1827, was Hannah
Corder, born and reared in Virginia. The Corders were among the colonists of
that state and were slaveholders. Mr. Day's mother was born in 1809, married
when but sixteen years of age and became the mother of fifteen children. She
died in 1871. His parents were slaveholders and when the negroes were
emancipated his mother read the proclamation and informed them they were free to
either go or stay. But one of them departed, a young negro woman, who returned
ten days later. When Mr. Day, with his family, visited his old Missouri home
fourteen years ago, their aged cook of slavery times gave them a dinner.
Mr. Day's ancestors were patriotic, two of his uncles serving in the War of
1812, and his maternal grandfather in the War of the Revolution. Mr. Day had
finished the common school course and had just entered upon high school work
when the war was declared. His parents being slaveholders engendered in him a
tendency or inclination to defend their property and in 1862 he enlisted in
Captain Valentine's company of Porter's regiment, in the Confederate ranks.
While in the enemy's line they were disbanded and with other comrades made their
way south, under the protection of Quantrell, the noted guerrilla chieftain.
Among Mr. Day's associates were Captain "Bill" Anderson and his brother "Jim,"
who were schoolmates of Mr. Day in Missouri. They were on the south side of the
river and resorted to all manner of strategy to pass through the lines and over
the Missouri. They stopped over night at Roanoke with parties whom they had been
referred to and pursued the journey the next morning, traveling toward the river
during the night time, but before morning Mr. Day and his companion after
crossing the river grew sleepy and fatigued and concluding to rest they tied
their horses to a stack of oats and sought the inviting shelter of a hedge,
where they slept soundly until sunrise, and upon awakening from their slumbers
found themselves along side a public highway in imminent danger of falling into
the enemy's hands. They met a brother Confederate, who assisted them in finding
a boatman, who rowed them over the river, while their horses swam one on either
side of the boat. Upon gaining the ranks they joined the command of Colonel
Shelby. Mr. Day's two older brothers served in the southern army, the eldest
responding to the first call. Mr. Day was among those who surrendered at Austin,
Texas, August 5, 1865. He experienced his principal service through Arkansas,
but also operated in Texas, Tennessee and Louisiana.
During the
hostilities he was on five raids through Missouri and with Price in his
expeditions. He participated in the battles of Helena and Little Rock, Arkansas,
seven days' fighting with General Steele, Cape Girardeau, Marshall, Springfield,
Missouri, and many other minor engagements. He was struck by a spent ball on the
shoulder, but not seriously wounded. Mr. Day's mother was a woman of
considerable courage and great nerve. During the turbulent war times in
Missouri, Colonel Glover and some of his men endeavored to force an entrance
into their residence at an early hour before the household, including her
daughters, had arisen. She refused them admittance until they could make their
morning toilets, and while defending their honor a warm volley of wrathful words
ensued; Colonel Glover called her a liar and she in return gave him a violent
slap in the face.
After the war Mr. Day settled at his old home, but one
year later located South of the Missouri river. In 1872 he was married to Amanda
VanLandingham and the same day started overland in a "prairie schooner" bound
for Kansas, and located on the land he had homesteaded the year prior, five and
one-half miles northwest of Glasco, where they lived until the autumn of 1886,
when he sold, and, becoming associated with J.R. Fuller in the hardware
business, moved his family into Glasco. One year later Mr. Fuller sold his
interest to G.B. VanLandingham and the firm continued until the autumn of 1894,
when Mr. VanLandingham retired and the firm became Day & Day, the partner being
the son, Samuel T. They conducted a successful hardware business, until 1900 and
were succeeded by T.W. Nicol. Mr. Day was appointed postmaster, under
Cleveland's second administration, and served a little more than four years. He
has been trustee of his township, a member of the school board for several
years, a justice of the peace, and is a notary public.
Mr. and Mrs. Day
are the parents of one son and two daughters. Samuel T. is a graduate of the
Glasco common school and was a student for one year of William Jewell College at
Liberty, Missouri, one of the best institutions in that state. He was married in
1898 to Miss Bessie Miller, of Liberty, who is a daughter of Robert Miller, the
founder of the Liberty Journal and a prominent journalist for many years. Her
mother's people, the Wilsons, are a family of politicians and prominent people.
Her grandfather was a noted general in the Confederate army. Samuel T. and wife
are the parents of two children, Roger Owen, aged two years, and an infant.
Estelle B. is the wife of Sherman Truex, whose parents were among the old
settlers of Ottawa county; their residence is Delphos. Mrs. Truex passed the
examination and finished the high school course of Glasco. Leta Catherine is a
graduate of the Glasco high school, and in 1901 graduated from the Lindsborg
College, in music and elocution. She has special talent and is a successful
teacher in music.
Mr. Day is a member of the Ancient Order United Workmen
Lodge at Delphos. He is a Modern Woodmen and an honorary member of the Fraternal
Aid. The Days have one of the neatest and most tasteful cottage homes in Glasco,
made particularly charming by a bower of fine evergreens and other trees. Mr.
Day is a good citizen, and though once a southern sympathizer heartily
affiliates with the people of his adopted home. Is one of them politically and
socially and no one enjoys a larger circle of friends than he and his estimable
family. Mrs. Day is a woman of culture and the daughters are accomplished and
possessed of many personal charms.
FREDERICK DIMANOSKI.
Another of those thrifty, frugal German farmers who have
found peace and plenty in the "Sunflower" state is Frederick Dimanoski, of Solomon
township. A native of Germany, where he was born in 1863, he emigrated with his
parents to America in 1872, and settled in Jefferson county, New York. In 1875
the family emigrated to Kansas, and after one year in Great Bend they removed to
Mitchell county, and bought land four miles south of Simpson, where his father
died in 1892. John Dimanoski, his father, was a native of Prussia. He was a
musician of prominence and for many years leader of the band and orchestra of
Falkenstein, Germany. His brother is an overseer in the locomotive building of
Berlin. Mr. Dimanoski's mother before her marriage was Esther Sukan. She lives
with her only daughter, Minnie, on the farm near Simpson. Of a family of five
children, but two are living.
Mr. Dimanoski received a good education in
both German and English and began his career as a farm hand and was in the
employ of James Robertson near Simpson four years. In 1884 he married Adaline, a
daughter of that worthy old settler, Charles Horn, of Glasco (see sketch). To
this union three children have been born, two daughters and a son. Carl
Frederick, the eldest child and son born in 1892, died at the age of eighteen
months. The little daughters are Irene L. and Freeda, aged seven and nine years,
respectively.
In 1890, Mr. Dimanoski bought the Howard homestead which
had but few improvements. In 1900 he erected a splendid barn 26 by 46 feet in
dimensions. Their residence is small but comfortable, and doubtless ere many
months have elapsed will be discarded for a new and more commodious one. This
excellent farm with its well kept orchards and finely cultivated fields,
consists of one hundred and sixty acres of fertile soil intersected by the
Solomon river which furnishes an abundance of water and timber. The chief
products of his fields are corn and alfalfa. He keeps a herd of thoroughbred
native cattle and in ordinary years from forty to eighty head of hogs.
Mr. Dimanoski is one of those good managers who never fail to prosper and
accumulate a competency and is destined to be one of the leading farmers of the
community. Both he and his wife are industrious people, good neighbors and
citizens.
GEORGE W. DOAK.
The subject of this sketch, G.W.
Doak, one of the enterprising and honorable citizens of Arion township, town
seven, is an old pioneer of Kansas. He first settled in Osage county, and with
his brother assisted in moving the Indians to the Creek reservation. In June,
the following year began a residence in Cloud county, filing on the homestead
where he now lives, before he had gained his majority.
Mr. Doak is a
native of Virginia, born in 1849, and possesses the true southern hospitality.
(For ancestry see sketch of Nathan Doak.) Mr. Doak is altogether a self-made
man. He had but $2.50 left alter filing on his claims. The first few years he
lived in a dugout and subsisted principally on game. He has feasted on many
juicy buffalo steaks. He owns at the present writing, two hundred acres of
finely improved land. Ash Creek and a small branch of Wolf creek run through his
farm. Mr. Doak gained his present good financial circumstances by raising,
feeding and shipping cattle and hogs, but the last few seasons has turned his
attention largely to wheat growing. He has one of the best residences in the
township, a commodious, well built eight room house.
Mr. Doak was married
in 1876, to Alice E., a daughter of Alfred and Elizabeth (Garner) Dotson. The
Dotson's were old settlers. They came to Cloud county in the early part of the
year, 1870, and settled on the west branch of Wolf creek. They recently sold
their land, retired from farm life and are living in Concordia. Mrs. Doak is one
of a family of six girls and four boys. Two sisters are in the western part of
the state, a brother and sister in Clay county, and the rest of the family,
reside in Cloud county. The Dotsons are of old Virginia stock. Mrs. Doak's
grandparents from both sides of the house emigrated to Kansas and both died in
Cloud county. Her father was a soldier in the Civil war, a member of the
Fourteenth Virginia.
To Mr. and Mrs. Doak three children have been born,
viz: Watt V., married Ora Bevin, a daughter of Lafe Bevin, one of the old
residents of Arion township. Watt V. is a farmer and owns land adjoining his
father on the west. He graduated from the Concordia high school in 1898. Daisy
is a student of the Concordia high school. Nellie, is the wife of S. Steele. Mr.
Steele bought a portion of his father's original homestead is a farmer. Mr.
Doak's political views tend toward populism. He has served as trustee of his
township for several years. He is a member of the Select Knights of Concordia.
When Mr. Doak came to Cloud county and filed on his government land it was
rather a desolate outlook - a wild unbroken prairie as far as the eye could
reach, but he set energetically to work and conquered the hardships which strew
the pathway of the early settlers in any country, and has made for himself and
his family an enviable home, where surrounded by peace and plenty he can enjoy
the fruits of his labors. He is one of the most esteemed and useful citizens of
the locality in which he lives.
NATHAN DOAK.
Nathan Doak, the
subject of this sketch belongs to that class of men that every community needs
more of. Though not exercising an outward show, greatly benefits others within
the range of his influence, and those who know Mr. Doak best speak most
enthusiastically of his good qualities. He visited Kansas while in the employ of
the government, removing the Sac and Fox Indians to the Creek Reservation in the
eastern part of Indian Territory.
Attracted by the possibilities of the
great future for the state of Kansas he came to Cloud county, the following
year, 1869, and homesteaded land in Arion township; he hewed logs, manufactured
shingles, and built the best house above ground in the community. Mr. Doak was
born in West Virginia, fifty-two miles from Parkersburg, on the Ohio river, in
1840. He lived in the place of his birth until he entered his country's service
in August, 1861. He enlisted for three years in Company C, Seventh West Virginia
Infantry. He was in the hospital from a flesh wound received in the battle of
Chancellorsville, and was off duty from May until the following September, and
consequently was among the supernumeraries who were mustered out when his
regiment was consolidated. They were under Colonel Joseph Snyder, and were
constantly engaged in active service, operating principally in East Virginia.
They took part in the battle of Gettysburg, Antietam, where his company lost
heavily, Fredericksburg and many skirmishes. Mr. Doak enlisted in this company
as a private and was promoted to Orderly Sergeant. In September, 1864, he
re-enlisted in Company C. Sixth West Virginia Infantry, under Captain Josiah
Bee. He was elected Sergeant and later promoted to Second Lieutenant, receiving
his commission just at the close of the war.
Mr. Doak's paternal grand
parents came from Ireland to Pennsylvania, where his father, Hiram Doak, was
born, and after his marriage with Elizabeth Joseph, also of Pennsylvania, they
settled in the part of the state since named West Virginia, where our subject
was born. He was one of eleven children, seven of whom are living. His brother
Almarine, was killed in the battle of Martinsburg, Virginia. George W., whose
sketch follows, is a brother. There are two brothers and a sister in Osborne
county, a sister in Nebraska, and Mrs Charles Dotson, of Concordia.
In
1873, Mr. Doak married a young woman who was reared in the vicinity of his
Virginia home. She is a daughter of Zachariah Dotson, who died in 1863. The
Dotson's were an old Virginia family. Her mother before her marriage was Eliza
Eddleblute, a native of Pennyslvania. Mrs. Dotson was a very remarkable
character, she came with her family of children and took up a homestead in Arion
township in 1871. She was born in March, 1800, and died July 26, 1899. Her life
was a long and eventful one and had she lived until next March, would have been
a centenerian. She was born one hundred and seventeen days after the death of
George Washington, and while Governor Adams was President of the young Republic,
which then numbered but sixteen states. Since then the nation has been involved
in eight wars, twenty-three presidents have been installed, and of that number,
twenty have passed into the unknown realms.
During her thirty-seven,
years of widowhood, she had lived with an adopted daughter that she had taken in
her heart and home when an infant but five months old. Between this child and
her foster mother, a remarkable attachment developed. This daughter, Ellen
Moran, is now living with Mrs. Truesdell, of Concordia. Mrs. Dotson was the
mother of eleven children, the grandmother of forty-seven children, and
seventy-six great-grandchildren. Three of her sons fought for their country and
remained with the flag until the last. Three of her daughters married military
men, soldiers of the Civil war. She sheared the sheep, spun the yarn. wove the
cloth and made it into garments for her children, thus within a few hours
converting the raw material into clothing. She was a woman of far more than
ordinary intellect and in her old age conversed intelligently of the progress
made and genius developed within the years of her eventful life, retaining all
her faculties to a wonderful degree.
To Mr. and Mrs. Doak five children
have been born. Their eldest child was the late Minor Doak, deceased September
8, 1902, at his home in Arion township. He was but twenty-eight years of age, a
young man in the prime of life, honored and esteemed in the community, and his
death was the occasion of universal sorrow. A wife and two children survive him.
Maud, the oldest daughter, is the wife of Urey Pitts, of Woodward, county;
Oklahoma; Eliza, Eva and Walter. Mr. Doak is a republican politically and works
faithfully for the principles of this party. He is a member of the G.A.R.,
Concordia Post. Mrs. Doak is a member of the Christian church, Range Line
congregation. Mr. Doak and his excellent family are interested in all
educational and worthy enterprises, contributing liberally to the support of
every cause pertaining to the good of their community. Mr. Doak's farm consists
of one hundred and sixty acres of fine land, and he occupies a pleasant cottage
home with his estimable wife, daughters and son. Mrs. Doak is a noble, motherly
woman, retaining the true southern hospitality that more than a quarter of a
century of western life has not obliterated, that gives one the assurance of a
hearty welcome.
SAMUEL DORAN.
Samuel Doran is one of the
early settlers and prominent men of Cloud county, emigrating to Kansas in
January, 1868, homesteaded a claim in Elk township and has been a continuous
resident ever since. Mr. Doran was born in West Virginia in the year 1838 and
was reared on a farm. His parents both died when he was but twelve years of age
and their orphans took diverging paths, Mr. Doran drifting to Ohio when
seventeen years of age, followed soon after by a brother and sister, who married
and moved to Kansas, which was the main-spring of the others emigrating to the
state of great possibilities, where fortunes do not lie scattered loosely about
but can be dug out of the soil. Mr. Doran has two brothers, David, of Republic
county, and Daniel, of Cloud. Both of their grandparents were slaveholders.
Mr. Doran received his education at Otterbein University, Ohio. After
teaching a short period he entered the Lebanon Normal School and later the
Central College at Amalthea. Mr. Doran is self-educated and from his emoluments
as a teacher paid for instruction at schools and colleges. From the age of
nineteen until his enlistment in the army Mr. Doran taught school. His duties of
army life were in the signal service of the Western Army, where he remained for
two years and three months. He was mustered out at San Antonio, Texas, going
thence to Pike county, Illinois, where he taught during the winter of 1866-7.
While in college he studied civil engineering. In the years 1869-70 Mr.
Doran was appointed probate judge to fill out the unexpired term of John Fowler.
In the year 1870 he was elected county superintendent, holding the office with
credit six years. In 1872 he was elected surveyor and held that position two
years and by appointment was given the same office in the year 1879. For the
first two years he held both the offices of superintendent of public instruction
and surveyor. At the expiration of that time he drew a salary, but could not
attend both; as the greater part of his time had to be given to the duties of
county superintendent, he resigned his office as surveyor. He later took up
surveying, which he followed from the year 1884 to 1892. Was elected to the
office of county surveyor in 1898 and has held the position up to the present
date. During the session of the last convention some of his friends asked him
"How long he was going to hold forth?" Mr. Doran took the strap off from his
compass box that he had carried thirty years and replied, he wanted it replaced
by one that would last another thirty years and at the expiration of that time
he "would not care who carried it afterward."
Mr. Doran was married in
the year 1872 to Mary McDonald, of Republic county, Kansas. Three children have
blessed their union: Albert E., Arthur L. and Myrtle. The eldest is a farmer
near Clyde. The second son is a bookkeeper located at Barstow, California.
Myrtle is in the sophomore class in the Clyde high school. Mr. Doran owns a
block of fruit and garden ground adjoining Clyde. In politics Mr. Doran is a
Republican and cast his second vote for Abraham Lincoln, but was reared a
Democrat. He is a Mason of over thirty years standing and also a member of the
Grand Army of the Republic and Ancient Order of United Workmen. He has figured
very prominently in the early and modern history of Cloud county, his services
as superintendent of schools in earlier days is an important part of the history
of Cloud county. Mr. Doran is well known and well respected by both colleagues
and citizens.
JAMES L. DOSTER.
J.L. Doster, the subject of
this sketch, is one of the most skillful engineers in the county. He has
manipulated the engine of the Clyde City Water Works since their construction in
1886, which is a guaranteed recommend as to his ability. There are few avenues
that require more skill or offer a surer opportunity for success than is found
in the profession of engineering. Mr. Doster is an agreeable, intelligent, well
informed man and rated among Clyde's most substantial citizens. The professor of
the high school sends his engineering class to Mr. Doster for practical
instructions, a pleasing feature to both Mr. Doster and the students. He
assisted in erecting the water works and placing the machinery, under the
general contractor, E. Suthin, whose employ he had been in for twelve years. Mr.
Doster entered upon the career of a machinist, but on account of ill health was
forced to abandon the occupation of his choice and learn the trade of stone
mason, which he followed for several years and drifted back to his first
ambition. He was with the Edison Electric Works of Topeka two years and in the
employ of a mining company, "The Jolly Tar," located at Victor, in the Cripple
Creek district. In the two years he was with this mining company he did not lose
a day or an hour; worked Sunday and every day until rheumatism drove him to a
lower altitude, and he came to Clyde, where he had previously lived.
Mr.
Doster is a native of Belle Center, Logan county, Iowa. His father was Silas
Doster, a blacksmith by occupation. He died when Mr. Doster was a small boy. The
Dosters were of Scotch-Irish origin and settled in Ohio at in early date. Mr.
Doster is one of five children, three of whom are living. Mrs. Tracy, of Clyde,
is a sister and Maggie, a dressmaker living in Topeka, where his mother now
resides. The Dosters emigrated to Jefferson county, Kansas, in the autumn of
1869. His mother married the second time to Ralph Bowers and they homesteaded
land in Jefferson county. Mr. Bowers was a mason by trade, and came to Clyde in
1870 and lived in that city about ten years.
Mr. Doster was married in
1880 to Martha Burges, whose parents were among the early settlers of Cloud
county. Mr. Doster is a Republican, a member of the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows, Knights of Pythias and Fraternal Aid. Mr. Doster purchased the old
Girard residence which is located in the vicinity of the water works. He
remodeled the house and made a comfortable home.
GEORGE S. DUBY.
G.S. DUBY, the subject of this sketch, is the junior member of the firm of
M.F. Duby & Company. He is a native of Marysville, Illinois, and like his
brother received his early education in the common schools of Nebraska. He
completed a course in optics in the Omaha Horological and Optical School,
graduating in 1893. Prior to this he had taken a correspondence course in the
Chicago Optical Institute. Mr. Duby has fitted hundreds of pairs of glasses in
Nebraska and has also worked extensively in Iowa, Colorado, South Dakota, Kansas
and Missouri. He lived in Nebraska from 1863 until August, 1901, when he located
in Glasco. He traveled nine years with optical goods and jewelry. He has taught
thirty-seven pupils and most of them are practicing.
Mr. Duby was married
to Mary E. Gilbert, who was reared in Memphis, Tennessee. They are the parents
of three boys and one girl. Mildred, William, Forest and Otis. Politically Mr.
Duby is a populist.
By their courteous and accommodating manner and a
desire to please the public, M.F. Duby & Company have built up an excellent
trade. They are energetic and reliable business men who deserve to succeed. -
[In May, 1902, the Dubys disposed of their Glasco interests and returned to the
state of Washington, their former home. - Editor.]
M. F. DUBY.
The enterprising firm of M.F. Duby & Company is composed of M.F. and George
Duby. They are dealers in gentlemen's furnishing goods, boots and shoes, and
represent the Royal Tailors of Chicago, one of the largest tailoring
establishments in the world. Beside the above named stock they carry a full line
of optical goods, are both registered opticians and are building up an excellent
reputation and lucrative business in this line. They established their present
business August 1, 1901, by buying the stock of J.W. Hare & Son. Their capital
stock is about six thousand dollars, and they own the building they occupy - a
two story stone structure, 28x80 feet in dimensions.
M.F. Duby, the
senior member of the firm, is a native of Missouri, born in East St. Louis. His
father, Charles Duby, was a school teacher, expert accountant and bookkeeper. He
was employed in the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad Company's office three years. He
served three years in the Civil war with an Illinois regiment. While in the
service he was transferred from the army of the West to the South; mails were
very uncertain at this period and not hearing from him for more than a year, and
supposing him dead, the mother with her little family emigrated to Nebraska,
arriving in Omaha, April 14, 1865, the day President Lincoln was assassinated.
Assuming that she was the head of the family, she took up a homestead on an
island in the Platte river. They were the first settlers on this island and it
took their name and still remains known as "Duby's Island." It consists of one
thousand five hundred acres. After the war the father returned to Missouri,
where he had left his family, and learning they had settled in Nebraska, he
repaired to that country, luckily appealed to a man who knew the family, and
found the mother with her four sons and one daughter settled on their homestead.
This was during the early settlement of that state, when the Indians were
numerous, and game and furbearing animals plentiful, but, the Indians were
pretty well civilized and gave the settlers but little trouble. Mr. Duby's
grandparents emigrated from France to Canada, where Charles Duby was born. Mr.
Duby's mother's people were of Ohio birth; her ancestors were of Scotch origin.
M.F. Duby was reared on a farm and received his education in the common
schools of Nebraska, where his father taught several terms. In 1883 he moved to
western Nebraska and from there to Alabama, where he became a cotton planter.
Two and a half years later he emigrated west, locating in Washington, where he
operated a logging camp very successfully, employing from eighteen to twenty
men. After selling his interests there he traveled extensively in search of a
suitable location and in 1901, he with his brother, and their families, came to
Glasco and embarked in their present business.
Mr. Duby was married in
1877 to Clara E. Long, of Pennsylvania birth, who came with her parents to
Nebraska in 1865. Mr. and Mrs. Duby's family consists of six children, three
daughters and three sons, viz: Everard Forest, aged twenty-four, is an attorney
located in Seattle, Washington. He is a graduate of the State University at
Seattle and a member of the law firm of Steiner, French & Duby. Charles
Ferdinand, twenty-one years of age, is proprietor of a restaurant and lunch
counter in Glasco. May Agnes, aged nineteen; Jesse James, aged seventeen; Pearl
Maud, aged ten, and Eva Elsie, a little girl of three years. The two last named
were born in the state of Washington.
Politically Mr. Duby is a populist.
They occupy one of the best residence properties in Glasco - an imposing
two-story nine-room modern house.
E.D. DUNNING.
The
jewelry store of E.D. Dunning, established in 1899, is especially worthy of
mention in the Concordia department of this volume. His stock of jewelry is very
complete, both with reference to quality and quantity, and has been selected
with a view of catering to the fashionable trade. In matters pertaining to
jewels and precious stones, Mr. Dunning is a recognized authority and his
judgement is trustworthy.
Mr. Dunning has grown to manhood in the city of
Concordia, having lived there since he was five years of age. His father, E.T.
Dunning, was one of the early merchants, and although retired from business
cares, makes Concordia his home.
WILLIAM MARTIN DURKEE.
Prominent among the pioneers of Aurora township is W.M. Durkee, who added to the
good citizenship of that community by casting his lot among them on November 24,
1871. He is a native of the state of New York, born May 26, 1836. His parents
were Lucius and Lucy (Farwell) Durkee. His paternal grandfather was the Scotch
emigrant to America and died at an advanced age where he settled in Cataraugus
county, where Lucius Durkee and also our subject were born. That part of the
country was a deep wooded wilderness; on these lands, remote from any settlement
and in a very early day, this Scotch emigrant selected a site whereon to build a
home. He assisted in the organization and naming of Farmersville township, where
the village that bears that name later sprang up. Mr. Durkee's father visited
Illinois in 1855 with the idea of locating in that state, but after looking over
the situation, returned home, where he lived until his death in 1885 at the age
of seventy-six years. The Farwells were of English origin. Mr. Durkee's mother
was of New York birth, but removed to Vermont with her parents when an infant,
where she grew to womanhood. They subsequently returned to New York and settled
in Rushford, Alleghany county, where she was married. She died in January, 1899,
at the age of ninety-one years, in West Salamanca, where they had resided
thirty-four years.
Of the twelve children born to Lucius and Lucy Durkee
but four are living: Our subject, a son in Michigan and two daughters in New
York. W.E. Durkee was married in Barry county, Michigan, where he had located
when about eighteen years of age, to Miss Harriett Backus, who was also of New
York birth. With his family, which consisted at that time of a wife and three
little daughters - having buried one in Michigan, - they started for Kansas. Mr.
Durkee had no boys to secure land for, the common apology, but was prompted to
try the virtues of a frontier life to recuperate his failing health, which
proved beneficial until 1889, when for four years he was confined to his bed
during the summer months; but since recovering from this physical collapse he
has been able to transact the routine work of the farm, though now retired and
living in Aurora. Mr. Durkee retains half of his original homestead and owns two
other good farms. His worldy possessions consisted of a team and a few dollars
in cash when he settled on the uncultivated prairie. To secure his homestead he
traded his horses and wagon for the interest of another party who had filed on
the claim as it must either be purchased or contested. For three years he
obtained the use of a neighbor's team by dividing the proceeds of the freighting
profits, and when he broke his ground would turn an equal amount of sod for the
man who furnished the team, thus making his means of livelihood doubly arduous;
and between these drawbacks - prairie fire, drowning by overflows or crops burnt
by the drouth there was meagre existence. Their first mode of conveyance was one
horse he had secured by trading around, hitched by chains to a sort of sled he
had manufactured with cottonwood poles turned up for runners. Neither did they
wait to be favored with a fall of snow, but after a shower of rain or a heavy
fall of dew, the Durkees could be seen perched on the box that did duty as a
seat for this queerly devised vehicle, wending their way across the prairies to
visit a settler. But the "bluest" day our subject ever saw dawn was in the
summer of 1875, just after the grasshopper raid. The family had survived the
winter in good condition, with enough wheat left over to seed a small field, and
unconscious of the depleted flour supply, without consulting the housewife, Mr.
Durkee, after sowing the last vestige of grain, said boastingly to his wife, as
he entered the house, "We will have flour enough next year." Whereupon she in
dismay lifted the flour sack, revealing to him that there was only about a
gallon of flour in the house and not one cent of money wherewith to buy more.
While brooding over the situation and casting about in his mind how to relieve
their condition and replenish their larder, there came a loud knock at the door.
In tones more forcible than eloquent Mr. Durkee bade him enter. The visitor was
E.L. Prince, "an angel of mercy unawares," for his mission was to engage the
assistance of his distrait neighbor in building a new school house, and a deal
was consummated whereby Mr. Durkee was to be paid one dollar per day and board.
He was comparatively a millionaire in a minute; the clouds that were hanging so
heavily about him were lifted, revealing the silver lining. The bundle of
groceries and dry goods purchased with the ten dollars for his ten days' work
made him the richest man in Kansas. But the dawning of the 'eighties found Mr.
Durkee gaining property, which he has continued to do until today he can live at
ease and enjoy his hard earned fortune.
Mr. and Mrs. Durkee are the
parents of eight children, six of whom are living, viz: Rosetta is the wife of
J.B. Springsted; Mary, the wife of Henry Rich, and Minerva, the wife of C.B.
Roach; all influential citizens and farmers of Aurora township. Arthur J. also
lives in Aurora township and is a prominent farmer. He married Cornelia Wheeler.
Alson and Nile are both unmarried. The former is a resident of Sedgewick county
and the latter of Aurora township.
Mr. Durkee is a stalwart Republican
and takes an ardent interest in political issues. He has filled the offices of
assessor and justice of the peace. For about twenty-five years he was a member
of the school board. After a strenuous life of labor, marked by many hardships
and reverses, Mr. and Mrs. Durkee are enjoying a serene existence in a
comfortable cottage home in Aurora, while their children, except one, are
settled in life and live near them.
CHESTER DUTTON.
Almost
concealed by the overhanging boughs of the surrounding park, picturesquely
situated on a semi-circular curve of the Republican river, in the midst of a
bower of foliage, where all nature seems hushed to a solemn stillness, except
the sighings of the Kansas zephyrs or the music of the birds, that supply an
orchestra each hour of the summer days, is the primitive dwelling, which the
author will affectionately christen "The Cabin," of that distinguished citizen
and pioneer, Chester Dutton.
There is no palatial residence, but the
old-fashioned hewed log house awakens a train of emotions beyond the power of
some stately edifice to Impart. Mr. Dutton chose this location because the high,
perpendicular banks, cut by the current of the river, formed an insurmountable
barrier to a sudden attack of the murderous Indian bands that roamed along the
frontier. The interior of the quaintly rustic home is wholly in harmony with its
environments and eloquent in its simplicity. Potted plants adorn the broad
window sills, and the profusion of books, periodicals and papers reveal the
assertion that its inmates are conversant with good literature.
Tradition
reveals the original Dutton was a Norman. A countryman from that kingdom once
said, the name Dutton was not Norwegian, but this is accounted for by the
descriptive title having been given after cognomens were acquired. In 1630 John
Dutton wandered from the inclosure of the fold and became a Puritan. The greater
part of the family are descended from him. Another branch came from John Dutton,
of England, who settled in Chester county, Pennsylvania, and purchased six
hundred acres of land from William Penn. The subject of this sketch originates
from the Puritan division, seven generations remote in America. An individual,
who was gathering names of Duttons, had found over two thousand, but among the
Christian names of the representatives he had secured there were no Chesters.
Joseph Dutton, of the second generation of Duttons, settled on the
Connecticut river, in the state of Connecticut, where our subject's father,
grandfather and great-grandfather, with their wives and children, all lived, and
were buried from this same homestead. The two former were born there. Four
generations resided there at one time. The estate is still in the hands of
relatives, but not a Dutton. Mr. Dutton's great-great-grandfather, whose name
was Thomas (as the two following were), when a very aged man came to live with
his son on the farm. The venerable father longed to visit a son in Vermont, but
in those days of horseback travel over mountainous roads, the journey proved too
arduous for his failing strength and he did not live to return. Thomas is a
family name; the Quaker of that title lived a century and two years. As the
Duttons emigrated westward the two families became associated together. The
Dutton ancestors were valiant patriots and served in the Revolution. Mr.
Dutton's three great-grandfathers commanded companies - Thomas Dutton, John
Woodworth and Stephen Mathews. The mothers of Mr. and Mrs. Dutton were cousins,
hence John Woodworth, their grandfather, was the great-grandparent of each. The
former led a company in the defense of New York city; his son, our subject's
grandfather, shouldered a musket and went to war at the age of sixteen years,
and was also in the resisting forces of the present great metropolis. The father
of our subject was Daniel Punderson Dutton, a New England farmer, and a brother
of the Honorable Henry Dutton, who was governor of Connecticut and judge of the
supreme bench. Ex-Governor Dutton's son was killed while leading a charge on a
battery in the battle of Cedar Mountain in 1862.
Mr. Dutton's mother was
Nancy Mathews. Thomas Mathews, her great-grandfather was born in 1700. The
inscription on the headstone that marks his grave in the ancient cemetery of
Watertown, Connecticut, reads: "He was a magistrate for over fifty years," which
would take his service partly under the crown. He died in 1798.
Chester
Dutton was born March 24, 1814. He is the eldest child and only surviving member
of eleven children. They all lived to maturity and all but two reared families.
William Dutton, the fifth child, was a West Point graduate, but resigned and
followed farming until 1861, when he valiantly led a regiment, commanding a
brigade of five thousand New York raw recruits. The brigadier general was ill
and the entire command was thrown on Colonel Dutton, the senior officer. The
vigorous action involved consumed his strength and he died of fever brought on
by overexertion. He died in New York city, where he had been brought by his
wife, on a boat that was sent up the Chickahominy river. One of Colonel Dutton's
closest friends at West Point was "Stonewall" Jackson, who was one degree below
him in scholarship. But when war was declared, the two gallant soldiers, who had
been comrades and classmates, took up arms against each other and the ranks of
the New England officer were cut to pieces by General Jackson's regiment.
Chester Dutton is the oldest of four surviving members who graduated from Yale
College in 1838. His fellow collegiates are Reverend William Thomas Doubleday, a
brother of General Doubleday, of Binghamton, New York, Theodore Sedgwick Gold,
who was secretary of the Connecticut board of agriculture from the time of its
organization until 1902, and the fourth member Henry Parsons Hedges, of
Bridgehampton, Long Island, who is an attorney, a judge, dispenser of the gospel
and a farmer. These venerable collegians have all passed the milestone of four
score years and all except Mr. Dutton attended the bi-centennial of Yale.
The principal ambition of Mr. Dutton's early life was to acquire a knowledge
of the law. With this ardent desire interwoven and uppermost in his heart, and
at the earnest solicitation of an uncle, who thought his kinsman particularly
adapted to the profession, our subject entered Yale. But just as he had laid the
foundation for the development of his career, the conditions were hopelessly
changed, the result of a physical ailment that caused an incurable affection of
the throat, rendered him unable to make use of the fine oratorical powers he
possessed - one of the first requisites of the advocate in the practice of law.
That Mr. Dutton was compelled to resign his chosen pursuit was a painful
disappointment is apparent by the shadow that overspreads his kindly face when
referring to his blighted hopes. Mr. Dutton was reared on a farm. He taught
school both before and after his graduation from college. He was principal of
the classical department of a proprietary school in Alexandria, District of
Columbia.
Mr. Dutton was married in 1842 to Miss Mary Ann Mellen, who was
born and reared at Wolcott, Wayne county, New York, where she was married and
resided until coming to Kansas - the only removal they have made during their
wedded life. Mrs. Dutton comes from Puritan stock. Richard Mellen was the
emigrant; he came over about ten years after the Mayflower, and settled in
Vermont, where Mrs. Dutton's father was born. Her mother was of Connecticut
birth. To Mr. and Mrs. Dutton ten children have been born, six of whom are
living. Their eldest son is unmarried, and after an absence of twenty years in
the far western country he returned to the old home and is living with his
parents. Chester and Judson Mellen are twins, born July 4, 1852. The latter
married Mary Elizabeth, the only daughter of James Taggart. Their farm is his
old home - the original Van Natta homestead. They are the parents of four
children, May, Effie, James Lee and an infant daughter. There are thirteen years
between the ages of the third and fourth child. John, with his family, lives on
an adjoining farm and has the management of the homestead. Henry Lambert Dutton
lives just over the line in Republic county. His wife, before her marriage, was
Lucy Dickerhoff, of Maryland. Their family consists of three sons and three
daughters, among them a pair of twins, which is remarkable for having been born
on July 4, 1882, on the anniversary of the birth of the twins in his father's
family, just thirty years prior. Minnie, their eldest daughter, is the wife of
William E. Brewer, and they are the parents of a little daughter, Mary
Henrietta, aged four. Lucy is the wife of Frank Crosson, a descendant of one of
the old Dutch families that settled near Philadelphia two hundred years ago.
Mrs. Crosson has been given a musical education and is an accomplished young
woman. Charles William, the youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. Dutton, is the present
treasurer of Dewey county, Oklahoma, and also served two years as county clerk
of Cloud county. They have been unfortunate in the death of their daughters.
Mary Arnot, whose husband was a son of James Taggart, married and removed to
near Knoxville, Tennessee, where she was deceased in 1896. Mrs. Taggart taught
the first school in the Dutton district. Death had previously claimed another
daughter, Julia, the wife of Stiles Platte. She died in Sibley township in 1887.
Thomas, a son, died at the age of six years. In 1900 George Dutton was deceased,
leaving a wife and four children. The Dutton family is among the most highly
esteemed households in the county. The name carries with it a guarantee of
sterling qualities. The sons are all men of honor, industry and public spirit,
always arrayed on the side of right and justice.
During the troublesome
Indian uprisings Mr. Dutton's keen intuition rendered him a valuable citizen.
When they came to Kansas in 1867 their home became a camping ground for the
emigrant and the location had previously been headquarters for the Indian. The
families were supplied with various kinds and calibers of guns and were prepared
to fire two hundred rounds. Had the savages not been aware of their defense they
would have been wiped out of existence. Mr. Dutton improvised a dugout to tide
them over until they could prepare the logs for a home, but the Indian troubles
came upon the settlers and retarded operations, hence they lived there until
1870, when they erected their present quarters. One would suppose the grove of
trees, which almost conceals their home, was a natural forest, but Mr. and Mrs.
Dutton planted them and under their personal supervision the tiny sprouts have
grown to towering heights. Personally Mr. Dutton is a man of acute perceptive
faculties and strong convictions; his opinions command respect from his friends
and acquaintances and are sought in matters of public and private import. He
takes a keen interest in all the topics of the past and present and is a
brilliant conversationalist. His countenance glows with kindness, amiability and
benevolence. He continues to be a close student. He is rather diminutive in
stature, and as sprightly in his movements as a youth. He is a vigorous,
polished, comely gentleman of the old school; his long beard and well crowned
head of hair are snowy white, and he enjoys life at the venerable age of
eighty-nine years. His personality impresses one with the thought that he might
have swung into the present from another era.
Mrs. Dutton is a gentle,
refined woman, whose eighty-six summers have set lightly on her brow, although
she is practically blind. They are an interesting couple, and happy is the guest
who whiles away a few hours beneath their hospitable roof. Although they have
passed the milestone of four score years - almost four score and ten - they are
not aged, for old age is associated with decrepitness. The relentless hand of
time has not borne them down with a weary load of years, for they are as active
as the average person at sixty. They will evidently continue in their cottage of
the early days until "gathered to their Fathers," in the little cabin so
charmingly situated, where the river, as it wanders on, seems murmuring of its
peaceful quietude and good will toward men.
LOT M. DUVALL.
The subject of this sketch is L.M. Duvall, one of the most successful
educators in this section of the country, and few have inspired their pupils
with greater or better influence tending toward a desire to excel in a higher
education, or infused into their minds those impressions that are never effaced
and with this training even under the most adverse circumstances men and women
do not often recede from their purpose.
Mr. Duvall came to Clyde as
principal of the high school, retaining that position four years with much
credit to himself and universal satisfaction to the scholars and patrons. His
work there was principally in the high school department; his specialties are
mathematics, history, botany, economics and the sciences. Mr. Duvall came to
Kansas in 1887, and that year and the two following he taught the Sibley school.
In 1895 he was employed in District No. 47 and during the two years he was
engaged there, several of Cloud county's best teachers were sent out. Miss Kate
Butler, of the Concordia high school, and her sisters, Rose and Frances, are
among this number.
Mr. Duvall substituted another teacher and taught an
unfinished term as principal of the Glasco schools. He was chief instructor of
the Nevadaville (Colorado) schools for one year. Mr. Duvall graduated from the
Central Normal College, of Indiana, where D.M. Bowen, Professor Miller, of the
Holton schools, and other prominent educators received their knowledge. Mr.
Duvall began his career as a "Hoosier" school master in Union county, Indiana,
where he was born and bred. Early in life he began reading law with the
intention of becoming a legal practitioner, but was drawn into other channels.
He read Blackstone when a mere youth and was admitted to the bar in Indiana; to
the district court and subsequently to the supreme court of Colorado.
Politically Mr. Duwall is a Republican and has been a candidate for office. In
1895 he received the nomination for county surveyor and was defeated by the
Populists, but ran one hundred ahead of his ticket. In 1902 he aspired to the
office of county clerk, subject to the Cloud county convention, and though he
ran well did not receive the nomination. Had Mr. Duvall been elected he would
doubtless have filled the office with the same excellent result that
characterizes his efforts as a teacher, but by his ambitions being thwarted the
schools of Glasco, where he is employed the present year, are insured of a
superior instructor, who will contribute very materially to the wisdom and
welfare of the rising generation of their city. In 1898-99-1900 and 1901 Mr.
Duvall was a member of the examining board of Cloud county.
Our subject
is a son of Ira P. Duvall, of Indiana. The Duvalls came to Pennsylvania and
settled there in the pioneer days of that state. His father was a farmer and in
his earlier life a potter by occupation. His mother was Elizabeth Gard, of Ohio.
Her ancestors were early settlers in Virginia. He is the eldest son and second
child of a family of mile children, all of whom are living, except the oldest
sister. Four members of this family are teachers. Mr. Duvall has been a member
of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows for ten years.
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