Cloud County
KSGenWeb
GEORGE E. HIBNER.
One of the old
settlers of Cloud county is George E. Hibner, who located three miles west of
Concordia in 1867, and was the second sheriff of Cloud county, Quincy Honey
having preceded him two terms. Mr. Hibner served with honor to himself and when
his term expired he stepped down and out with the good will and best wishes of
the people. He has been engaged in farming since that time (January, 1872,) has
prospered abundantly and is ranked with the best citizens of Sibley township.
HILLHOUSE FAMILY.
The history of this extraordinary family
has been interwoven with the country since its earliest settlement. They have
had experiences enough to fill a fair sized volume of Hillhouse reminiscences of
pioneer and frontier life. John Hillhouse and his wife, Jeanette (McClair)
Hillhouse, were natives of Scotland. They were born in Ayrshire and Lenarkshire
in the years 1834 and 1832, respectively. They were married in their native land
August 5, 1853, and eagerly longed to try their fortunes in the new world of
which such fabulous stories were told. They came to America in 1856 with their
little family which then consisted of themselves, William A. and Jessie. They
landed in Boston, May 1, 1856, came to Chicago when there were not more than
three hundred houses and on through Rock Island and Davenport to Iowa City, the
terminus of the railroad. Here they bought an outfit and made an overland trip
across the plains to Salt Lake City where they landed in October, 1856. Salt
Lake City, was then far remote from civilization, and Brigham Young ruled the
territory with a rod of iron. The opposition of the Hillhouse family was early
recognized in the church, and not only were they refused the privilege of
earning their bread, but constant and unendurable vigilence was exercised by
there persecutors, lest they should leave the city.
It was in April,
1857, that this family with no supplies but a little flour aboard a hand cart,
quietly left the city one morning and hurried away to join a train of emigrants,
on its return to recross the plains, and two days journey out. The escape of the
little band was early learned in the city and a posse of seven mounted Danites
started rapidly in pursuit, overtaking them early in the morning several miles
into and over the mountains, and almost within sight of the train to which they
were eagerly and rapidly hurrying. The horsemen drew down upon them with drawn
revolvers and commanded them to retrace their footsteps under penalty of instant
death. Mrs. Hillhouse refused point blank to return, telling them they had
starved while there for want of work, and that they were not spies as charged
but were to return to Scotland from whence they came. The men finally decided to
let the mother and children proceed, but Hillhouse was dragged from his family,
returned a prisoner to Salt Lake, more than two and one half years elapsing
before the family were reunited.
The day was far spent, and night, cold,
snowy and blustry was already there. The attempt to push on and reach the train
that night was for the weeping mother, children and sister of Mr. Hillhouse to
lose their way, and surely perish from hunger and cold. With a little shovel
Mrs. Hillhouse scooped away the snow, placed the children under the cart,
covered them as well as possible and settled down to watch through that long,
dreary winter night for the first gray streak of dawn that would light them on
their way toward the train. But the longest night will pass, and with the
children in the cart and with blinding tears this woman pushed out for she knew
not where. Toward the middle of the afternoon a party from the train who knew of
the intended escape and that the fugitives were to join them on the second day,
rescued and took them into camp. Their destination was Plattsmouth, Nebraska,
and the journey began. The train was heavily loaded but the little sack of flour
was taken aboard and Mrs. Hillhouse with the two children in the cart tramped
five hundred miles, the distance to Fort Laramie. The incidents of this journey
alone would fill many columns. Plattsmouth, Nebraska, was finally reached and
through the influence of kind friends who had heard of her adventures and
heroism, the mother mourning her husband as dead, found work. Mrs. Hillhouse had
learned the dressmaking trade in Scotland and did fine needlework which enabled
her to support her little family while Mr. Hillhouse was detained in Salt Lake.
Within a year she was running a successful dressmaking establishment in their
new home.
Mr. Hillhouse after the separation in the mountains was taken
to Salt Lake a prisoner and threatened with death. In the autumn of 1857, he
escaped, joined an emigrant train bound for California and there found work.
Through the medium of letters to the old home in Scotland, the husband and wife
were finally notified of each other's existence and address, but not until all
hope had been abandoned of the return of Jeanette, who liked the new land and
decided to stay. Her return was expected and not until then was word to be given
her that her husband still lived; but the return did not come, and Mr. Hillhouse
was finally notified of the whereabouts of his family. He immediately sailed
from San Francisco for New York and then crossed the continent again, to
Plattsmouth, where the family were reunited.
For reasons concerning his
health, another move was made to Platte county, Missouri, in 1859, where, in
those troublesome days of business uncertainties, and dangers of war, peace came
not; but the trials of former days were to be renewed in other and equally
distressing ways. Mr. Hillhouse enlisted in Company K, 18th Missouri Volunteer
Infantry, January 2, 1862, and was discharged the following August. There was no
peace, no security in Missouri for them; the father was hunted day and night by
prowling bands of bush-whackers and guerrillas. His property or possessions were
taken or destroyed as fast as accumulated, and Mrs. Hillhouse was frequently at
the point of pistol or bayonet, commanded to reveal the hiding place of her
husband. Some of his escapes were little less than miraculous. Many and frequent
were the skull and cross bone notices to leave, the torch applied to the little
log house and the children, William, Jessie and Margaret (there were three now)
threatened with death; until with an outfit such as they could muster from the
wreck and ruin of the past, the family left Missouri overland for the Solomon
valley in Cloud county, Kansas.
This country was being surveyed, opened
to soldiers and widely advertised. They arrived in March of 1866, and on April
1st located a homestead on the Solomon river, then Shirley county and not
organized. The buffalo came to drink from their watering place. After
homesteading, the munificent sum of twenty-five cents was the entire cash
possession of the family. They were the only family for miles up or down the
river except the Hendershots and Robert Smith. The family would often cry for
joy at the appearance of a covered wagon.
At that time there were no
suppiles[sic] only as freighted from Leavenworth. The Indians were alert,
hostile and every moment to be feared and dreaded. Prairie fires laid waste
possessions, droughts, floods and grasshoppers were to he met and endured.
Scarcely a page of the life of the frontier but was to be filled out to the last
line. While attending to the duties entailed upon farm life Mrs. Hillhouse would
often be left alone with her three children. During the raid of 1868, their
barn, corn and crib was burned by the Indians, a horse was stolen and the family
pursued while enroute to the stockade near Minneapolis. This flight was made in
a two-horse wagon. The Indians came within two hundred yards of them, but when
they discovered the "Jim Lane" cannon in position they fled to the hills and far
away. However, had they known the cannon was not primed they might not have been
so quickly routed. The company were indebted to Mrs. Robert Smith's ingenuity;
she took the bail off the coffee pot to prime the cannon. The party went on
unmolested to Lindsay, where the little handful of settlers had congregated for
protection. Two weeks later they returned. These families had gathered together
for many miles around; some of the women and children were walking, some of them
old and crippled, some screaming, others crying or praying.
A company of
the United States infantry camped at the Hillhouse homestead. They had plenty of
rations and the English captain relished the buffalo meat pie made by Mrs.
Hillhouse. About this time a gentleman of noble bearing came with a party of
friends to hunt buffalo. Mrs. Hillhouse cooked their supper and furnished them
with a night's lodging. A week later, a Mr. McMillan of Harvard University with
a guide, in search of rations, came and revealed the fact that she had
entertained an English nobleman, for her guest was none other than the Prince of
Wales.
The first season Mrs. Hillhouse had a beautiful garden in the low
land near the river but one day a rise came and swept the whole thing away. She,
with William and Jessie planted nine acres of corn by cutting an opening in the
sod with an ax, placed the corn and with their feet pressed it into the earth.
John Hillhouse was visiting relatives in the west, Idaho and Utah for the
purpose of regaining his health. He was at Heber, thirty miles out of Salt Lake,
enroute home when he was stricken with an attack of heart trouble. In a few
hours the man who had braved the dangers few men are called upon to undergo,
dangers of land and sea, of Indians, Mormons and Gentiles, the horrors of war,
terrors of the bushwhackers torch and the midnight assassin, privations and
hardships of frontier life, days and weeks without food enough to sustain life
and family, the discouragements of grasshoppers, drouth, etc., the heart that
experienced all of these without surrender to fear, at last before the king of
terrors ceased to beat, on August 1, 1892. Mrs. Hillhouse, a remarkably
vivacious and interesting woman, survives him. She is thoroughly Americanized
and prefers this to her native country, but is ever pleased to hear of
prosperity in Scotland. But with all the hardships endured she is loyal to
America and prefers her adopted home. She still retains the old homestead and as
they had the choice of practically any location it is one of the finest farms in
the Solomon valley.
The seven children are as follows: William A. (see
sketch) Jessie, wife of D.D. Williams, a carpenter of Glasco; they are the
parents of six children; Frank, Alice, wife of Walter Purcell, of Oklahoma,
Maggie, wife of Herman Mann, Jessie, Nellie and David. Madge A., wife of M.L.
Hare, a druggist of Glasco, Kansas. Mary, wife of J.V. Bartow, in the employ of
Chapin & Sweet as second miller in the Delphos mills; they have two children,
Earl and Willie. James Robert, station agent at Delphos, Kansas, where he
married Miss May Jones. David, a farmer and lives on the old homestead, married
to Mary Olmstead of Glasco. Catherine, wife of A.E. Abbott, for seven years a
Cloud county teacher; he is a graduate of the Salina Normal and is now teaching
on his third year in District No. 47.
Mrs. Hillhouse is a member of the
Presbyterian church, christened in her native country by the old Covenanters.
Her parents were Hugh and Jeanette (McKenzie) McClair, natives of the highlands
of Scotland. Her father was a seafaring man, being a mariner on a ship under
Admiral Nelson. Her paternal grandfather was a factor to the Duke of Argyle, one
hundred and seventy years ago. Hugh McClair was stolen when a boy and for twenty
years it was thought he had drowned at sea, but he had been sold to a pirate
vessel instead. An uncle, her father's only brother, was a sergeant in the
British army. Her maternal ancestry, the McKensies were all well-to-do Scotch
people, overseers of coal works, merchants, etc. - [After an illness of several
months, Mrs. Hillhouse was deceased in April, 1903. - Editor.]
HON. WILLIAM A. HILLHOUSE.
The early life of W.A. Hillhouse is woven with
the story of the Hillhouse family related in the preceding chapters. He is a
prominent citizen and the present efficient postmaster of Glasco. He is a native
of Scotland, born at Lenarkshire in 1854, and a son of Mr. and Mrs. John
Hillhouse. He was educated in the common schools of Missouri and Kansas and
began his career farming; took up a homestead in the Solomon valley, where he
lived until 1885, when he became associated with his father and J.E. Olmstead,
Sr., in the grain business, and built an elevator. At the expiration of one year
Mr. Olmstead retired from the business and the firm was continued by the father
and son until the death of the former in 1892. Mr. Hillhouse continued the
business alone until 1897, when he was appointed postmaster of Glasco.
He
was married in 1883 to Vira McCullough, a daughter of James T. McCullough, who
died April 5, 1885. Mr. McCullough was born near Athens, Ohio, December 14,
1820. His paternal grandfather was a soldier in the Black Hawk war. Mr.
McCullough was married to Mary G. Brown January 29, 1843, and moved to Marshall
county, Iowa, in 1864, where he followed blacksmithing. Mrs. Hillhouse is one of
twelve children, eight of whom are living: James and Robert, of Iowa; Mrs. Joe
Olmstead, of Glasco; Mrs. Oscar Hillan, John, William and Oscar. Mrs. McCullough
died February 9, 1878, and the father with his family moved to Cloud county,
Kansas, in 1879. In 1881 he was married to Mrs. A. Patrick, who survives him.
Mr. McCullough was a good man, faithful in the discharge of his duties and had
been a member of the Presbyterian church for many years. Mr. and Mrs. Hillhouse
have one daughter, Nellie, a graduate of the Glasco high school, class of 1901.
She is a qualified assistant in the postoffice and thoroughly competent in that
capacity. Mrs. Hillhouse is also registered in the postoffice department.
Mr. Hillhouse is a Republican and has figured conspicuously in the political
arena of Cloud county. He served four years as deputy sheriff of the county,
under John D. Wilson two years, 1880-1, and under a brother, Daniel Wilson, two
years, 1882-3. Mr. Hillhouse has served three terms as mayor of the city of
Glasco and at various times as member of the city council. Has been a Mason for
twelve years and has occupied the chair as master of Glasco lodge; is an Odd
Fellow, having been a prominent member of the order for twenty-four years and
helped to organize the lodge at Glasco. He is also a member of the Modern
Woodmen, Royal Neighbors, Fraternal Aid and Sons of Veterans.
CARL HITCHCOX.
One
of the successful farmers of Grant township is Carl Hitchcox, son of William
Hitchcox of the preceding sketch. He came to Kansas with his parents and with
them settled on the farm just east of Jamestown. He was born in Cass county,
Michigan, in 1864. Cass county is in the extreme southern part of the state and
the farm where our subject was reared is near the city of Elkhart, Indiana. He
attended the common schools of that vicinity, but, not having attained his
majority when he emigrated to Kansas, he became a pupil in the Jamestown
schools. He has always been a farmer; one of the practical kind that makes
farming a successful and profitable industry. He began by renting land of his
father and gained rapidly until two years later he had at one time three farms
rented.
In the autumn of 1891, he bought two hundred acres of state land,
two miles northeast of Jamestown, then owned by Laban Lockard. A small granary
and stable with one hundred acres of ground under cultivation, constituted the
improvements. Mr. Hitchcox steadily gained until he now owns a half section of
land. Seven years ago he built a handsome cottage of eight rooms; prior to this
he had provided for his horses a substantial barn.
Mr. Hitchcox made his
start and acquired the bulk of his property through raising wheat, but as a sort
of side issue he transacts a mule business. Buying the animals when about two
years old, he raises and disposes of them at the home market. To gain his
present standard was not accomplished without reverses, crop failures, etc.; but
by judicious management he has always kept above the tide and won out. Wheat
raising is his favorite industry and the present year (1902) he has sown about
two hundred acres. He intends dealing more extensively in mules, however, and
raising more alfalfa for pasture.
Mr. Hitchcox was married in 1896, to
Miss Millie Gee, of Edgar, Nebraska, where she had lived since a child of three
years. Her parents, Isaac and Jennie (Scriven) Gee, were natives of Ohio. After
a few years residence in Indiana they emigrated in an early day to Carroll
county, Iowa, where Mrs. Hitchcox was born and lived until she was three years
of age. Her father is a retired farmer and now resides in Edgar, Nebraska. To
Mr. and Mrs. Hitchcox one son has been born, Rolla Worth, a promising little
fellow, aged five. They are members of the Jamestown Methodist Episcopal church.
Mr. Hitchcox, like his father, is a Republican and has always affiliated
with that party. Our subject has always left a great many of the smaller duties
of life for his father to attend, and has been more or less dependent upon the
performances of these little items, while he shouldered the more weighty affairs
to lesson the burdens of his parent's declining years. Along these lines a good
story is told of him: He had not been out from under the parental roof but a
brief time when one night soon after his marriage the locality was visited by a
heavy storm, and his wife awakened him, saying, "Carl, it is raining, you had
better put the window down." Whereupon he drowsily responded, "Pa will put the
window down." Notwithstanding this little episode he is a man of energy and
sound judgment that have won for him valuable interests, and is ranked among the
well-to-do farmers of that section.
WILLIAM HITCHCOX.
One
of the most genial and highly respected citizens of Jamestown, William Hitchcox,
emigrated to Kansas in 1880, and bought the original homestead of E.J. Marsh.
The capital he represented would aggregate about two thousand dollars and unlike
so many people who brought their shekels to Kansas and lost them, the subject of
this sketch accumulated more. He owns and lives on a farm adjacent to Jamestown,
one of the best improved properties in the township. There is one hundred and
sixty acres of land now under a high state of cultivation. It was entirely
without improvements except a few acres of sod turned and "a two shilling house"
as Mr. Hitchcox expressed it. A small addition was built to the shanty and in
this unpretentious dwelling the family spent their first two years; then built
the handsome nine-room cottage they now occupy. There are also substantial
barns. The land is second bottom and produces wheat and alfalfa principally,
since corn is not a part of the crop. His alfalfa field consists of forty acres
and Mr. Hitchcox expresses the opinion that this forage crop is one of the most
paying industries in Kansas.
Mr. Hitchcox was born on a farm in Cass
county, Michigan, in 1835. His parents were Jairus and Loana (Blakely) Hitchcox.
His father was a native of the state of New York, born in 1798. He emigrated to
Michigan in 1828, when that country was a pioneer state, and helped to drive the
troublesome Indian from that part of the country. He died in 1850. Our subject's
mother was also of New York birth; she died in their Michigan home in 1871. Mr.
Hitchcox was one of ten children, five boys and five girls. Four sons and one
daughter are living. The sister, Mrs. Charles, is a resident of Cedar Rapids,
Iowa. James Hitchcox lives on the old homestead in Michigan, F.A. Hitchcox
resides in the same township, and Lucius Q. also lives there and is a
horticulturist and farmer.
Mr. Hitchcox grew to manhood in Cass county,
Michigan, was educated in the common schools and lived there until coming to the
fair state of Kansas. He was married in 1858 to Elizabeth, the daughter of
Samuel Z. and Mary (Mechling) Jones. Her father was of southern birth; he was
born in Virginia in 1817. When about eighteen years of age he emigrated with his
parents to Goshen, Indiana, where he shortly afterward learned the blacksmith
trade which became his occupation, though he owned a small farm. In 1843 the
family moved to Cass county, Michigan, where he died in 1864. Her mother was
born in Pennsylvania, in 1818 and with her parents settled in Indiana, where she
met and married Samuel Z. Jones. She still lives in Michigan with one of her
daughters and is eighty-four years old.
Mr. Hitchcox when a small lad
accompanied his father on a trip to Indiana and when, at what was later his
father-in-law's home, it was proposed, in a jesting way, that they give or take
the boy and girl. When the suggestion was offered neither parent forsaw that a
similar proceeding would at some future time take place without their
solicitation, for when the shy youth and blushing little maiden grew to manhood
and womanhood they carried out the premature proposition, our subject marrying
the little girl he met that day.
Mrs. Hitchcox is one of eleven children
- three sons and eight daughters; among them was a pair of twins. There are but
four of the eleven living. Her two sisters and a brother are all residents of
Michigan. To Mr. and Mrs. Hitchcox four children have been born. Their eldest
daughter Delphine, a promising young woman, died in 1880 seven months after
their arrival in Kansas - at the age of nineteen years; Lettie, the wife of T.D.
Clemons, is a daughter; Carl (see sketch); Bertha, an estimable and amiable
young woman, lives at home.
Mr. Hitchcox is an exponent of Republican
principles and has served as treasurer of his township, For several years he was
a member of the school board and did much to advance educational interests. He
is one of those jovial, good-natured men who evidently set store by the old
adage
"Care to our coffin adds a nail, no doubt;
And every grin so
merry draws one out."
Mr. Hitchcox and his family are among the
prosperous representative citizens of their locality. The latch string of their
pleasant, hospitable home is always hanging out, and a cordial welcome is
extended to their large circle of friends and acquaintances.
FRANK HOAGLAND.
Among the early settlers of 1865, who took an interest in
the welfare of Clyde was F. Hoagland. He started a blacksmith shop in connection
with B.V. Honey, living in Clyde for several years, when he removed to Ellsworth
county, Kansas. Mr. Hoagland was a highly respected citizen and enterprising
man.
THOMAS B. HOLTZMAN.
T.B. Holtzman, the subject of
this sketch, came to Kansas in 1873, without capital but with an abundance of
that goodly heritage, pluck and enterprise. He began life on a farm in a very
humble way, having lived in a dugout for three months. He then built a one-room
house known as a "box house," paid seven dollars per thousand for the shingles
and hauled them fifty miles. Mr. Holtzman was single at that time - when girls
were at a premium. His father filed on land adjoining and a few years later they
built a comfortable stone house on his homestead.
Mr. Holtzman is a
native of West Virginia, born on a farm in Preston county in 1849. His parents
were John and Hannah (Trowbridge) Holtzman. His father's birthplace was
Maryland, but early in life he removed with his parents to West Virginia. John
Holtzman with his family emigrated to Missouri in 1871, and two years later to
Kansas. He died in 1892, at the age of sixty-two years. The Holtzmans, as the
name implies, were of German origin. The Trowbridge ancestors were an old
English family and settled in Virginia in an early day. His mother died in 1885.
Mr. Holtzman is the only living child of a family of three children, the other
two having died in infancy. Mr. Holtzman and his father bought twenty-five head
of cattle and a yoke of oxen. This purchase consumed all their capital, but
their stock increased year by year until now he owns two hundred head which is
one of the finest bred Shorthorn herds in the state. He has raised many hogs,
marketing several car loads per year, often netting him twenty-five hundred
dollars annually. In 1893 his hogs brought eight cents per pound. He gives
considerable attention to fruit raising. Mr. Holtzman's farm is a sort of
market, as he buys much of the surplus feed that is raised in his neighborhood.
He also raises horses and mules and has some fine stock in that line. Mr.
Holtzman is an extensive land owner. In 1882 he bought forty acres adjacent to
his original claim from the proceeds of a load of hogs. In 1894 he purchased two
hundred and forty acres lying one and three-quarters miles south and one-half
mile west of his homestead, and in 1893 inherited his father's land. In 1901 he
bought three hundred and thirty acres of land in Lawrence township, a fine
property with one hundred and twenty-five acres under cultivation, watered by
never-failing springs and intersected by Salt creek. Mrs. Holtzman homesteaded
land which she still retains. It is situated opposite the home place. They own a
total of eleven hundred acres of valuable land. This estate has by the magic
hands of industry become one of the most admirably conducted farms in Cloud
county and yields a handsome income. The buildings of this fine country place
all indicate there is a thorough and practical farmer at the helm. In 1882 Mr.
Holtzman erected a handsome modern dwelling of nine rooms, surrounded by a
well-kept lawn and located on one of those high points that afford a commanding
view of the surrounding country for many miles. A year later he erected a
commodious barn.
Mr. Holtzman was married in 1877 to Maggie, a daughter
of Sanford and Mary (Patterson) Halbert. Her father was an old Virginian, born
in 1808, and came to Kansas with his family in 1871, and filed on land near the
Holtzman homestead, where he died in 1893, at the age of eighty-seven years. Her
mother was born in Pennsylvania in 1812, and died at the age of thirty-six
years.
Mr. and Mrs. Holtzman are the parents of two children, the eldest
is a son, Homer, who is interested with his father on the farm and gives promise
of becoming like his sire, a success in life. He has been educated in the home
district and one year in the Salina Wesleyan College. The daughter, Mae, a
bright and promising young girl, is a student in the Great Western Business
College of Concordia, taking a commercial course. She also possesses a good deal
of musical talent. Mr. Holtzman is in sympathy with the Republican party and
works for its principles.
J. W. HONEY.
J.W. Honey, editor of
the Miltonvale Record, a newsy little sheet, well patronized by business men
through its advertising columns, is a Kansan by birth and breeding. He was born
near Fort Riley in 1865. His father, B.V. Honey, was one of the state's old
pioneers, settling near Leavenworth in 1858, and a few years later located near
Fort Riley, where he lived until 1808. In that year he came to Elk township and
settled on Dry creek, subsequently moving into Clyde, where he started a
blacksmith shop and soon afterward engaged in the mercantile business and became
a prominent merchant.
In the
early days, before the founding of Clyde, Mr. Honey took an active part in
church and Sabbath school work. B.V. Honey was an old Vermonter. He died in
Clyde April 22, 1890, at the age of sixty-five years. He was twice married. His
first wife was Martha L. Curtis, who died, leaving a daughter. In 1847 he was
married to Miss Laura Morley, who survives him and lives alternately among her
children, of whom there are six.
J.W. Honey came with his parents to
Clyde when he was three years of age, where he was educated in the graded
schools and lived until three years ago. Mr. Honey is also a photographer and
has a well patronized gallery in Miltonvale. He was married in 1889 to Edith N.
Florer, who was born in Iowa. but has lived in Kansas since she was two years
old. She is associate editor and assists in photography. To Mr. and Mrs. Honey
have been born four children, two daughters and one son living, the eldest child
being deceased.
Mr. Honey is a Republican and advocates those principles
in his paper. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America. Mr. and Mrs.
Honey are members and regular attendants of the Methodist Episcopal church.
Addenda - Mr. Honey has recently sold his interests in the Miltonvale
Record.
RANDAL HONEY.
One of the most prominent of the old
settlers of Elk township was the late Randal Honey, born at Windsor, Vermont,
February 2, 1820. Mr. Honey came of hardy, loyal New England stock. His
grandfather served in the Revolutionary war and his father, Joseph S. Honey,
fought under General Wade Hampton with the Army of the North in the War of 1812,
taking part in the famous battle of Plattsburg on Lake Champlain, in the autumn
of 1814, when two thousand British attacked the American forces numbering but
fifteen hundred, and were repulsed and driven back. In 1838, when eighteen years
of age, Randal Honey moved with his parents to Trumbull county, Ohio; the trip
was made by way of the Erie canal and lake steamer. After locating at this point
he learned the carpenter trade; though he did not follow it through life, it
served him well in after years in helping build up and improve a new country.
On February 3, 1842, he was married to Miss Polly A. Phillips, of Trumbull
county, Ohio. The hearts united on that day remained linked together not alone
by the laws of the land, but by bonds of love and tenderest affection which grew
stronger, tenderer, sweeter as the years rolled by till death bid them part more
than three score years later. For sixty eventful years this couple journeyed
side by side along the pathway of life; strongly up the steeps of life, bravely
along the crest of middle age, trustingly, peacefully, serenely, down the
western slopes toward the setting sun. In 1856 Mr. Honey and his family moved
overland to Wisconsin, locating in Jefferson county. Here they made their home
until March, 1864, when the homestead lands in the great new west prompted
another change and they came to Kansas, locating in Cloud county (then Shirley).
Mr. Honey took his homestead on the Republican river at the mouth of Elm creek,
eleven miles east of where Concordia was located several years later. The
homestead taken at that early day was still his when called to his eternal home
thirty-eight years afterward. When Randal Honey and his little family arrived
there were but eight families located in the little settlement on the banks of
Elm creek. The vast stretch of prairie on all sides furnished grazing ground for
countless thousands of buffalo. The nearest postoffice and the nearest store
were sixty miles away. Every family within forty miles were neighbors. Only
people who have helped develop a new country can appreciate the homes obtained
by these pioneers who risked their lives and braved the hardships and privations
incident to the frontier. Mr. Honey built for himself a hewed log house and laid
therein a puncheon floor. That house stands today, but with its shingled roof
and siding over the logs it would scarcely be recognized by those who saw it a
third of a century ago when it was the most commodious house in the county, and
sheltered all the inhabitants of the settlement on those nerve-trying nights
when Indian rumors filled the air and it was uncertain whether or not the
morning dawn would find all scalps in place. In those early days Indian raids
were common, bountiful harvest uncommon and tried men's nerves and tested their
courage and resourcefulness. Through all those years of danger, hardships and
privations, through Indian scares, hot winds, grasshoppers and other
discouragements, the subject of this sketch never wavered; with unshaken faith
in the future of the country, with calm determination and a resourceful nature
he bore his full share of the burdens and with a willing hand lent courage to
others.
A great reader he kept posted on the events of the times and took
a lively interest in politics, but quiet and unassuming, he never sought
political preferment. To him, home was everything. Probably the only office he
ever held was that of postmaster at Elm Creek before and during the time of the
Waterville-Beloit stage line. Ever brave hearted and cheerful, always good
natured and generous to a fault he had no enemies and his friends were limited
only by the extent of his circle of acquaintances. Such in brief was the life of
this good man and when the summons came March 5, 1902, he met his death as he
had met the difficulties of life, calmly, peacefully, and with a heart as pure
and a faith as simple as that of a child.
His aged wife, his companion
for sixty-two years, two daughters and two sons survive him. The four children
are Mrs. Rosella Wilcox and Mrs. Kitty Zedeker, both of Cloud county; Elson H.
Honey, of Cuprum, Idaho, and Henry R. Honey, of Mankato. His eldest daughter,
Rosella (Mrs. Matt Wilcox), taught the first school, and hers was the first
wedding solemnized in the county. - [The above in substance was taken from the
Mankato Advocate. - Editor.]
CHARLES HORN.
One of the most
successful and highly respected citizens of Glasco is Charles Horn, a retired
farmer. Mr. Horn is a son of Christopher Horn, a farmer who died in Illinois in
1852. Mr. Horn came with his parents from near Weisbaden, Germany, where he was
born, to America when nine years old and settled in St. Clair county, Illinois,
where he grew to manhood. His father having died, Mr. Horn was thrown upon his
own resources early in life, hence received a limited education. When he came to
Kansas in 1869 his possessions consisted of a wife, one child and five dollars
in money, but by careful management which did not admit of luxuries they lived
comfortably. During the Indian uprisings he carried a brace of pistols for
protection as he followed his plow. They committed serious depredations above
and below the river from the point where they were situated, but his family
providentially escaped.
The Horns lived in a dugout for one year and upon
occasions of severe storms it rained about as hard in the interior as upon the
outside of their abode. The inmates stood over the stove with an umbrella over
their heads, with mud six inches deep over the floor. A year later they built a
log house of one room, with dirt roof and floor. Not until three years later did
they live under a shingled roof and on a board floor. In 1879 Mr. Horn built a
comfortable house, where they resided until 1899, when he bought the desirable
Courtney residence, with its avenue of beautiful trees and wide lawn, where they
live and expect to spend the rest of their days, reaping the comforts they are
so justly entitled to. Mr. Horn's homestead was the original claim of Isaac
Dalrymple. It lies just south and adjacent to the town of Glasco. He has added
other lands and now owns a tract of four hundred and eighty acres in the same
vicinity.
Mr. Horn was married in 1867 to Julia Bittner, a daughter of
Henry Bittner, an Illinois farmer. To Mr. and Mrs. Horn seven children have been
born, five of whom are living, viz: Louisa, wife of Samuel Crow, a farmer of
Mitchell county; Adeline, wife of Frederick Dimanoski, a successful farmer of
Solomon township; Otto, a farmer with residence near Glasco; Henry, also a
farmer with residence near Glasco, and Fritz, who farms and operates a threshing
machine engine. Mr. Horn advocates the principles of the Democratic party, but
votes for the man rather than the party. He was reared in the Lutheran church
and himself and family are leading spirits of the Glasco congregation.
JOHN G. HOSE.
In the year 1871, J.G. Hose arrived in Cloud
county, Kansas and located the land in Elk township from which his present fine
farm has developed. His financial resources at this time summed up a total of
fifty cents, but by daily labor he soon saved enough to secure the homestead
papers. Mr. Hose bought the relinquishment of John Garrison. There was a dugout
on the claim and in this pioneer abode the settler "bached" as was the custom
when the newcomer was not the happy possessor of or accompanied by his wife and
family.
The birth place of Mr. Hose is Massillon, Ohio, born in the year
1848. The parents of Mr. Hose were of German birth; early in their married life
they emigrated to America and settled in Ohio. While yet in his boyhood his
parents removed to Indiana where our subject grew to man' estate. His father
died in 1890, preceded by the mother in 1886. Mr. Hose is one of seven children,
all of whom are living with the exception of one brother, who died of small-pox
in Mishawaka, Indiana, in 1902. David, the eldest brother resides in Colorado
Springs, Colorado; he is a carpenter by trade. Two sisters, Mrs. L.J. and F.D.
Smith are residents of Clyde and two sisters live in Indiana.
Mr. Hose
was married in 1866, to Sarah Steiner, whom he knew as a playmate in his Indiana
home. In 1891 the husband and five children were left to mourn the loss of wife
and mother. Their first born, Harry Hose, is a young farmer of Elk township, and
married Miss Jennie Smock. To their union a pair of twin sons have been born,
Roy and Ray, aged five years. Daniel E., the second son is a prosperous farmer
living near Hollis, he married Miss Mollie Bowersock and they are the parents of
a son and heir, aged about one year. Daisy, Charlie and Hattie are unmarried and
live at home. The latter is her father's housekeeper and assumes the cares of a
matron with grace and tact.
Early in life Mr. Hose learned the carpenter
trade and many of the best residences in the township are monuments of his
workmanship. As an agriculturist he ranks with the first. To be a successful
farmer does not consist alone of plowing, seeding and sowing but requires
far-seeing faculties, the same well balanced ideas that are essential to the
prosperous merchant or banker, study of the many and varied details. For several
years Mr. Hose owned and operated a threshing machine and in this calling, along
with his building and farming interests, all of which he plied with diligence,
Mr. Hose found himself prospering. In connection with his threshing experiences
Mr. Hose referred to the grasshopper year and its effect upon the grain. One
man's stacks were alive with "hoppers," a mixture of half and half, but fearful
if postponed there would be no grain left he had it threshed and afterward run
the cereal through a fanning mill. While the thought of the jumping insects
being beaten through with the grain is not a wholesome one, those days of
anxiety and strenuous times, supplies pardon for any reproof that might be
offered for the offense. They found the pests very troublesome, as their oily
bodies would gum and stop the belts of the machine.
In the early
'eighties Mr. Hose erected a three room frame cottage and four years later built
a two story front, which makes a commodious residence of little rooms, with
verandas and bay windows. This one of the best country homes in the community.
His farm is well improved, with good barn, sheds, and an inexhaustible well of
pure water. If pumped constantly night and day the flow would not be lessened.
In politics Mr. Hose is a Democrat. In religious proclivities he and his
family are members of the Christain church, Clyde congregation, in which he is
serving as a deacon. Our subject and his family are among the prosperous and
representative people of Elk township and their prosperity has been justly
earned.
MRS. CATHERINE HUBBARD.
Mrs. Catherine Hubbard,
widow of the late Thomas Storm Hubbard, who was one of Glasco's most eminent
citizens, is a native of Reading, Pennsylvania, born in 1818. She is the
daughter of Charles Kessler, a native of Germany, who came to America in about
1800, and settled in Reading, Pennsylvania, where he edited one of the first
papers circulated in that city, The Reading Eagle, which is still published by
descendants of the Hubbard family.
When Mrs. Hubbard was eighteen years
of age she came with a younger sister to Cleveland, Ohio, and in 1837, just
after the Black Hawk war, to Dixon county, Illinois, then on the frontier. Here
she met and married Mr. Hubbard, who was born in the city of New York in 1815,
and lived there until about twenty-five years of age. In 1837, he emigrated to
Dixon county, Illinois, where he took up government land. In 1840, he emigrated
further west, beyond the frontier into the wilderness of Iowa, among the Indians
and buffalo.
In 1879, they came to Cloud county, and bought the
Whitebread homestead, where they built one of the best homes in the community.
Mr. Hubbard, who died in February, 1899, in his eighty-fifth year, was a very
remarkably well preserved man, retaining all his faculties. He was a man
thoroughly posted on politics, took an ardent interest in all political affairs
and was public spirited and enterprising.
To Mr. and Mrs. Hubbard four
children have been born, two sons and two daughters; Catherine, who lives at
home with her mother, was editress of the Glasco Sun from 1888 until 1893; she
had previously worked in the office; in her earlier life she was a school
teacher. Victor operates the farm; Florence, wife of John Lawrence, a farmer
near Dixon, Illinois; Charles, whose wife was Margaret Sutton, a sister of Mrs.
Lon Ainsworth. Their residence is Denver, Colorado.
Mrs. Hubbard's farm
consists of one hundred and twenty acres. In connection with their residence is
a handsome lawn with many beautiful flowers and shrubs, surrounded by a fine
avenue of cedars, which they have set out and witnessed the growth of. They have
planted and distributed more flowers perhaps than any one in the vicinity of
Glasco.
JOHN HENRY HUFF.
J.H. Huff was for twelve years
the genial proprietor of the Clyde House, (now the Commercial). He was a
prominent citizen and came to Clyde in 1871. He served several times as marshal
and on the board of council. He ran for sheriff in 1882, and was defeated by Dan
Wilson. Two years subsequently ran again and was defeated by Ed Marshall. Mr.
Huff was an old soldier and spent eighteen months in the Andersonville prison.
He died at his home in Kingfisher, Oklahoma, February 11, 1894. His remains were
brought to Clyde for burial where he had a son and two daughters resting in Mt.
Hope cemetery.
W. A. HUFF.
W.A. Huff, editor and
proprietor of the Clyde Republican, is one of the rising young newspaper men of
Cloud county. He has been practically reared in a printing office; began setting
type as a printer's "devil" when eleven years of age in the office of H.J.
Hulaniski, the well known journalist, at that time of Glen Elder, now editor of
the Ouray Plaindealer of Ouray, Colorado. Since that time Mr. Huff has been
continuously associated with newspaper work and has been interested in different
enterprises along this line, leasing offices, etc. Mr. Huff has recently put in
a one and one-half horse-power gasoline engine and removed the plant from his
small frame building, near the foot of Washington street, to the second floor of
a substantial brick structure in the business part of the city. The Clyde
Republican is a well printed four-page sheet, with a large circulation. Mr. Huff
is a Republican, not aggressive in his opinions, yet has the moral courage and
fearlessness to express his views through the columns of his paper. Beside
newspaper work all kinds of job work is done. Beginning with 1890 Mr. Huff
edited the Huron World of Huron, Atchison county, Kansas, for five years.
Mr. Huff was born, in Eddyville, Wapello county, Iowa, in 1874, and came to
Kansas with his parents in 1880. After living in Concordia three years, they
removed to Glen Elder, where they resided ten years and where Mr. Huff attended
the high school, and later received an academic education in the Goelette
Academy, of Mitchell county, Kansas. Mr. Huff's maternal grandparents were
instrumental in establishing this school, which is a Quaker institution. Mr.
Huff's parents are M.A. and Ruth (Hadley) Huff, both descendants of old Quaker
families. Our subject's grandfather, who was at one time at the head of the
Quaker church in Mitchell county, is now living with his daughter in Iowa and is
ninety-seven years old. His father, M.A. Huff, now lives in Jackson county,
Kansas. The Huffs originally came from Germany. His grandfather came to America
and settled in Indiana, where M.A. Huff was born. The Hadleys came from England
and were of the William Penn sect of Quakers.
Mr. Huff was married in
1896 to Cora Godown, of Beloit, a daughter of A.L. Godown. She is a graduate of
the Beloit high school and a refined gentle woman. Her mother was a Dixson and
in her father's family is a deed for one hundred and sixty acres of land where a
part of the city of London is located, written some two hundred years ago. Mr.
and Mrs. Huff are the parents of two bright little boys, Gerald and Harold, aged
four and two years, respectively. Mr. Huff has been for more than two years a
member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and is master workman of the Clyde
lodge. He is a member of the Sons and Daughters of Justice and several fraternal
orders. He is also interested in the Beaumont Lawton Oil Company, of Lawton,
Oklahoma, he being assistant manager of the corporation.
JAMES HURLEY.
One of the progressive farmers and stockmen of Lyon township is
the subject of this sketch, James Hurley, who came to Kansas in 1870, from the
northern part of Iowa, Mitchell county. Mr. Hurley is a native of southwest
Ireland, born in County Kerry in 1839. He was educated in the parochial schools
of Ireland and when about nineteen years of age emigrated to America. Mr. Hurley
was in the employ of the government five years with the First Army Corps along
the Potomac; was in the supply car service.
He afterward returned to
Pennsylvania and thence to Maryland, where he was married in 1868 to Nora
Collins, also of Irish birth. Her father emigrated to America and settled in
Washington, District of Columbia, where he died in 1875. Soon after their
marriage Mr. and Mrs. Hurley located in Iowa and shortly afterward emigrated
with teams to Fort Scott, Kansas. Not being pleased with that country they came
to Junction City. There were a number of families who came together and traveled
about hunting a location. In the party were the Dillons, Pierce Butler, Thomas
Butler, Keith and Downey.
They made a stop at Asherville, Micthell
county, where they met an old soldier who told them the Indians were coming.
Instead of going further west they turned backward and located in Cloud county,
took up homesteads, built log houses and proceeded to build homes. Mr. Hurley's
possessions were less than four hundred dollars. It was a dry year and the
prospect was a gloomy one. They had to travel to Salina to mill, for their
groceries and seed wheat; they took their revolvers to guard against the
Indians, but they had been driven further west.
Mr. Hurley was able to
sustain his family after the first year by hard work and economy. By degrees he
has prospered until he now owns one of the best homes in Lyon township. He was
more fortunate than most of his neighbors and kept out of debt, and never
mortgaged his land only to buy more. He has a herd of native cattle; is grading
them with Herefords and Shorthorns. He owns six hundred acres of land in Lyon
township, good bottom corn land, and wheat land. In 1890 he had sixty acres of
ground that yielded thirty-seven acres of wheat per acre. In 1898 Mr. Hurley
erected a handsome nine room, two-story, frame house. His place is well
improved, good barn, out buildings, an enclosed shed 80x20 feet in dimensions,
which accommodates eighty head of cattle.
Mr. and Mrs. Hurley are the
parents of eight children, viz: Mary, wife of Edmond Colton, of Kansas City, an
engineer on the Rock Island Railroad; Timothy assists his father on the farm;
Anna, wife of John Butler, a farmer of Lyon township: Margaret, William, Eliza,
Helen and Frank. Mr. Hurley is thoroughly Americanized and loyal to his adopted
country where he has spent the better part of his days, built a comfortable home
and prospered.
GEORGE W. HUSSEY.
Too many such
enterprising men as G.W. Hussey could not establish themselves in a community.
It is men of his stamp that have made the Solomon Valley "blossom as the rose,"
and the poet's dreamy imagination characterized by hundreds of charming homes
and cultivated fields.
The Husseys have one of the most inviting homes in
the county. A handsome residence with an avenue of tall shade trees on one side
and a fine hearing orchard on the other, where in the autumn sweet cider fresh
from the mill is dispensed with a hospitality that implies "our latch-string is
always hanging out."
Mr. Hussey is a native of New Vienna, Ohio, born in
1844. His parents were William and Ann (Clouser) Hussey. The Husseys are of
Quaker origin and settled in Ohio more than a century ago. The Clousers were
from North Carolina. Mr. Hussey worked on a farm until eighteen years of age
when he enlisted in the country's service with Company G, seventy-ninth
Regiment, Ohio Volunteers. His company was at the front and distinguished itself
for valor and courage. He served almost three years. After the war he returned
to Ohio, where he engaged in various things: - farming, railroading, operating a
saw mill, learned the machinist's trade and run a threshing machine.
In
1883, he came to the Solomon Valley and was joined by his family a year later.
He operated a threshing machine in the Solomon Valley for five years, threshing
most of the wheat in his vicinity. In 1888, he bought two hundred acres of the
farm where he now lives and later added eighty and now owns two hundred and
eighty acres. He raised wheat, corn and alfalfa until 1898, when he began stock
raising with seventeen thoroughbred Hereford cows, He now owns forty-four head
of cattle which are registered, down to calves a few months old. His cattle are
the cream of fifty-five different herds. His cow "Gem of Loraine" is almost a
fac simile of the famous "Carnation." Another cow was imported directly from
England. He has volumes containing the age, owner and breeder of every graded
animal in the United States, and has the pedigree of all his cattle and can
trace the origin of every animal in his herd. He has lately disposed of four
Hereford bulls, which brought him good round figures. His cattle are well cared
for and his beautiful herd is worth going miles to see.
Mr. and Mrs.
Hussey were married in January, 1881. Mrs. Hussey was Mary Hodson, of Ohio. Her
parents were Allen and Martha (Burton) Hodson. She is one of four children,
three of whom live in Ohio. The Hodsons are old settlers of Highland county,
Ohio, sixty miles southeast of Cincinnati.
Mr. and Mrs. Hussey's family
consists of five interesting children, viz.: Maud, a graduate of the common
school and on last year of the high school course in Glasco; Clyde, aged sixteen
years, on last years course of the Glasco high school; Arthur, May and Lelia,
aged thirteen, eleven and four years respectively.
Mr. Hussey's farm is
under a high state of cultivation, commodious barns, and sheds, windmill with a
tank attached that holds two hundred and eighty barrels of water. Politically he
is a Republican. His family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. He is
a prominent Mason and a member of the Glasco lodge.
WILLIAM J. ION.
One of the most eccentric characters and interesting individuals of
Cloud county is W.J. Ion, of Grant township, whose farm lies on the, northeast
quarter of section 21, town 5, range 5 west. In the Ion family William is an
ancestral name, dating back many generations, and also a historical one,
covering kings, poets and other great men. Mr. Ion is a native of
Merionethshire, Wales. His birthplace was Castleton, where he opened his eyes to
the light of day, October 29, 1846. Castleton derives its name from Wentlouge
Castle, the present seat of Sir George Walker, a brother-in-law of Lord
Tradegar.
When Mr. Ion was a small boy his father was deceased and his
mother returned to the home of her parents. Her people were mechanics, and
driftinG in their footsteps, our subject began learning a trade in the iron
works of Ebbwvale, when a youth of ten years. Subsequent to his mother's second
marriage, home became distasteful to him and the aspiring youth decided to
forsake the parental roof and try his fortunes in America, where many of the
same foreign birth had preceded him. With a wild stretch of imagination and only
four cents in his pocket the venturesome lad of fifteen years arrived friendless
and alone in the great metropolis. As he was brought face to face with the stern
realities of his condition, the little stranger was plunged into deepest
melancholy. His sad face attracted the attention of a kind hearted physician,
one of his own countrymen, whose sympathy brought valuable assistance. There was
a transition in the sad faced boy as his benefactor led him to a good hotel,
ordered food for the young emigrant, followed by a collection, whereupon enough
money was received to secure him transportation to Pittston, Pennsylvania, where
he was given employment in the coal fields. The realization of his hopes were
not what he had contemplated. To a youth of his tender years, who knew no
language but that of his mother tongue, the arduous life in the coal regions was
disillusioning to his dreams of the New World, and had his finances been equal
to his longing for a mother's loving care, the ties of home and associates, he
would have indulged his heart's longings by returning to Wales.
"Breathes there a man with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said
This my own, my native land;
Whose heart ne'er within him burn'd
As home
his footsteps he has turn'd
From wandering on a foreign strand."
There
was no alternative for Mr. Ion - by force of circumstances he was compelled to
push on, and he joined the army, which proved one of the best trainings he could
have had, for in the service he not only rapidly acquired the English language,
but gained an insight into the manners and customs of his adopted country. Mr.
Ion enlisted in the regular army, served the term of enlistment, which was three
years, and was discharged with the word "excellent" inscribed on his papers.
He enlisted in 1864 and was made a corporal of his division, which was
Company E, First Battalion, Sixteenth United States Infantry, and was offered
the promotion to orderly sergeant if he would re-enlist. The discipline Mr. Ion
received in the service was equivalent to years of ordinary experience.
After his withdrawel from the army, Mr. Ion located in Indianapolis, Indiana,
and worked at blacksmithing with one of his countrymen for one year, when he
removed to St. Clair county, Illinois,, and resumed that vocation. He later
settled in Ray county, Missouri, and worked in the mines near Camden for a brief
time.
The fame of Kansas was being proclaimed throughout the world and
our subject became ambitious to own and operate a farm, and forego a previous
desire for the gold fields of Colorado. Hence, in 1869, he moved further
westward, and upon reaching Topeka, he decided the state held forth wonderful
inducements. While visiting the land office in Pottawattomie and Marshall
counties, Mr. Ion met with parties who induced him to join them on a trip to
Cloud county. This was in 1870, and his comrades were Columbus Hinman; J.F.
Hannum, the late John Wilson, ex-sheriff of Cloud county, Reverend J.P. Sharp
and Mr. Hatcher, who afterward became sheriff of Mitchell county.They drove
overland with a two yoke ox team and traveled as far west as Rooks comity,
looking over the land in Cloud, Mitchell, Osborn, Smith and Rooks counties, but
found no country that surpassed Cloud county, where the most of the homeseekers
in the party located, where three of them still remain - Ion, Hinman and Hannum
- and where John Wilson died. While enroute to the country further west they
camped on Mr. Ion's present farm, the land that attracted his attention at the
time they were quartered there, for it was beautifully situated in the
magnificent Buffalo creek valley, intersected by that stream and covered with a
luxuriant growth of grass.His comrades rather derided his choice of a claim, but
after roaming around for a considerable length of time, he saw nothing so near
his ideal for a home, and notwithstanding the derision of his friends he
returned the following spring, made entry upon this land and has never repented
his choice of a homestead. Assisted by W.R. Ansdell, James Carter and James
Kiggan, Mr. Ion erected a cabin 13x13 feet in dimensions, with a roof of poles
and Kansas soil. Mr. Ion began making history early in life and continued long
after this period, for like all the pioneers he met with reverses and hardships.
Mr. Ion descends from British stock. Both his paternal and maternal
ancestors were reared in the highlands of Great Britain. His mother having
mourned the death of her family, joined her son in 1879 and at the age of
seventy-five years is a bright, vivacious little woman, who enjoys life with Mr.
Ion and the comforts of his home. She clings to the pleasant memories of her old
associations and is fond of conversing in her native tongue, the Welsh language.
Mr. Ion was married October 19, 1881, to Miss Minerva L. Patty, whose father
was of North Carolina birth; her mother was a native of Pennsylvania. They both
drifted to Ohio, where they met, were married and later removed on a farm near
Indianapolis, Indiana, where Mrs. Ion was born. Mrs. Ion is a woman of more than
average intelligence, a lover of literature, and manifests a marked interest in
her husband's researches. Four children came to brighten the Ion home, three of
whom are living. The eldest son, H.M., graduated in the common branches and from
the Jamestown High school. He is a remarkable student and inherits his father's
fertile mind. Ivor S., has more of a taste for athletic sports and although not
of a studious bent, is a statistician and during the Spanish-American war,
though a mere child, he memorized and could give the displacement of every
vessel or man-of-war that sailed the seas in the interest of the two countries.
Their only daughter is Gwladys, a promising young girl of fifteen years.
The educational advantages of Mr. Ion were very meager, though from childhood he
longed for knowledge, craved an education, and had his earlier life admitted of
an academic training, his extraordinarily retentive memory would have enabled
him to distinguish himself. However, he has studied and read until his mind is a
storehouse of useful, practical and historical knowledge. He is a rare
conversationalist, and can entertain his listeners with an unlimited recital of
poems, of which Burns is his favorite, bits of historical lore, and scenes
incident to travel, as he can recall and relate in a graphic way all the
incidents of his ponoramic life and retains the contents of every book he has
read, either ancient or modern. He is interested in pre-historic lore. Evidences
point to his farm having been a location where implements of war were
manufactured. Flint is foreign to this locality, where various varieties of
arrow points are found. He also has a pre-historic hammer, and several have been
found on his land. From these facts it is concluded the material was brought
from other parts of the country to the "blacksmith" in that locality. Mr. Ion
possesses many trophies and relics, some of which would be valuable acquisitions
to the cabinets of the Smithsonian or Cooper institutes
Mr. Ion owns four
hundred acres of land, two hundred and forty of which is fertile bottom land,
and in a seasonable year, as in 1892, it produces fifty bushels of wheat to the
acre, and fine corn. He is also an entensive stockman, raising both cattle and
hogs. His cattle are of the Polled Angus breed, and at the head of his herd he
has a fine pedigreed bull. Mr. Ion is a Republican, but admits having wandered
away from the fold. He has filled minor offices and has been a member of the
school board. He was reared in the Church of England. The Ions have a commodious
home, situated about two miles east of Jamestown, to the comforts of which their
labors justly entitle them.
THOMAS JEFFERSON JACKSON.
T.J.
Jackson is one of the pioneers of Kansas. He settled temporarily in Irving,
Marshall county, in 1866, where his wife had relatives living. In December of
the same year he located a claim in Shirley county (now Cloud) in that part of
Lawrence that was afterward included in Elk township. He still retains the
homestead which he traveled all the way from Indiana to secure, but lives in the
city of Clyde where he has made a comfortable home. He met with many hardships
and his courage was extinguished to the extent of desiring to return to his home
on the Wabash, but he was too poor for the undertaking. He lived on his
homestead nearly thirty years and unlike most of the Kansas farmers, never had a
mortgage hanging over his head. Mr. Jackson was among the party who engaged in
the search for Miss White who was captured by the Indians. He has killed many
buffalo. While on one trip in the region of the Salt Marsh, his party was
compelled to stop while a herd of buffalo passed. There were thousands of them
packed closely together. As they approached, their hoofs sounded like the
rumbling of distant thunder. The company repaired to a knoll and waited for them
to pass which required about two hours. The herd was a quarter of a mile in
length. The buffalo did not seem excited but marched in an unbroken line.
The birthplace of Mr. Jackson was Indianapolis, Indiana. He was born in
1829. His mother died when he was a boy and he was reared in the home of an
uncle in Logansport, Indiana, until the age of eleven years, when he began life
for himself. Mr. Jackson has a brother, Noah M., living at Afton, Union county,
Iowa, and a sister, Mrs. Martha A. Bully, near Eaton, Ohio. Mr. Jackson was
married in 1848, to Mary E. Short, who was born in Delaware, in 1831. She is a
daughter of Joe and Nancy (Benson) Short. Her father was born in 1812, and her
mother in 1810. Aaron, William and Reuben Short, well known citizens of
Concordia are her brothers. Another brother, Jacob Short, is a resident of
Florida. The youngest brother lost his eyesight from fever at two years of age
and died when eleven in Indianapolis. To Mr. and Mrs. Jackson eight children
have been born, five of whom are: Martha, wife of Sherman Baker of Riley county,
Kansas, a prominent farmer and stockman. John Marion, a successful man engaged
in the implement business in Clyde. Edward Washington, deceased at infancy. Mary
Ann, deceased at the age of ten years. Schuyler Colfax, died at the age of two
years. Ella Etta, an invalid. Lucy May, was the first girl baby born in the Elk
creek addition; she is the wife of C.E. Merritt, a hardware man with residence
in Augusta, Oklahoma. Mary Elizabeth Shayler, with her two children, Walter A.
and Lottie L., make their home with the family of her father.
Mr. Jackson
votes the Republican ticket and cast his first ballot for Winfield Scott. In
state affairs he has supported that party ever since. In local affairs he gives
preference to the best man. For many years Mr. Jackson was an anti-secret
society man, but overcame his prejudices twelve years ago and became a member of
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Mr. and Mrs. Jackson are members of the
Christian church and are also active in temperance work. To see Mrs. Jackson one
would not suppose she had passed through the vicissitudes of life and reached
the mile stone of three score and ten, as she looks a much younger woman. Mr.
Jackson is an honorable, honest man, held in the highest esteem by his neighbors
and friends.
HONORABLE E.J. JENKINS.
Colonel E.J. Jenkins
was one of the foremost men in Concordia. He was an earnest, untiring worker for
the advancement of Cloud county. He was a native of Ohio, but came to Donovan
county, Kansas, in an early day, where he practiced law and represented that
county in the Kansas legislature with distinction, both as a senator and member
of the lower house.
He was prominent in political and social circles and
all public enterprises. He did much for Concordia and personally was immensely
popular. He was one of the pioneers of Kansas and was the faithful receiver of
the Republican valley land office from its creation in 1870 until a short time
before its removal. He was acknowledged to be a man eminently fitted for the
position, hence his continued service with the government.
JOHN W. JOINER.
J.W. Joiner, one of the pioneer settlers of Elk township,
located in Cloud county, September 30, 1870, and bought the Harley Williams
homestead where he has since resided. The Joiner home is an exceedingly pleasant
one and bespeaks all the comforts and conveniences of a well appointed farm
house.
Mr. Joiner's capital of five hundred dollars that he brought to
Kansas was well invested. He, with his sons William L. and John E., own a
section of land that averages well with the magnificent farms of that vicinity.
They were very recently offered $6,700 for one quarter section. Mr. Joiner, like
many Kansans had a rough up-hill climb and has doubtless been oftentimes wearily
discouraged, but after darkness comes dawn, and with the first streak of
approaching light, renewed courage to push on. Instead of the present commodious
residence and broad fields of cultivated land there were but a few acres of sod
turned and a log house with one room below and a loft above. At a trifling
expense they obtained a "roof-garden," not so extended as those that grace some
of our modern cities, but where the sunflower and tall grasses grew in
abundance, for the covering was of Kansas soil. This little cabin was later
provided with a shingled roof and they continued to occupy it for five years and
as all old settlers testify "there were passed the happiest days of their
lives."
Mr. Joiner was born in the northwestern part of North Carolina,
in the town of Sparta, in 1833. His paternal grandfather was of English birth
and settled in North Carolina in an early day. Our subject's father died on the
homestead in the early 'seventies, a few years later he was followed by the wife
and mother who also died in the old southern home. She was of German origin, her
father having been of German birth. Her maiden name was Hopper. Mr. Joiner is
the fifth child of a family of nine, all of whom but one are living and all but
the subject of this sketch are residents of North Carolina.
Mr. Joiner
was married in 1866 to Emeline Edwards, also of southern birth. Her father was a
slaveholder for a short time. To Mr. and Mrs. Joiner have been born eleven
children, six of whom are living; four were deceased in early infancy. The angel
of death visited this family and claimed one of their daughters, Myrtle E., a
bright and promising young woman of twenty-one years. She was a pupil of the
Clyde high school, preparatory to entering upon a commercial course. Caroline is
the wife of C.A. Parker, a harness dealer of Clyde. Phoebe J. is the wife of
A.C. Garwood, they reside in Sacramento, California. Sarah E., is the wife of
William Trowbridge, a farmer of Elk township. Nellie, is the wife of Burt Arten,
a carriage and wagon repairer of Clyde.
Mr. Joiner was a soldier of the
Confederacy; he was conscripted and served one and one-half years, entering the
second year of the campaign and remaining until he was discharged for
disability.
There are ever some incidents occurring to give a merry side
to the darker one, and many amusing episodes with contingent circumstances have
mitigated the woes of soldiering. Mr. Joiner relates the following: There were
thousands of "Yankees" and a few "Johnnies" marching through a field when one of
the rebels fell wounded. Mr. Joiner and a comrade lifted him from the ground and
tenderly carried him across the rough land. When they had gained a place of safe
retreat their burden softly remarked "let me see, perhaps I can walk now,"
whereupon the two weary and almost breathless soldiers of the gray placed their
cumbersome load on its feet. The next moment he was running at full speed,
faster than his rescuers could possibly have done after transporting so many
pounds avoirdupois over the broken field.
Just after the close of the war
with its attendant horrors and scenes of bloodshed, Mr. and Mrs. Joiner with
their three little children emigrated to Indiana, and six months later to
Harding county, Iowa, where they resided until coming to Kansas, the "mecca" for
homeseekers. He made a wise choice and does not regret the venture, although he
would have returned and declared his intention of doing so as soon as financial
conditions would permit, but says he would not know where to better his present
condition, and is well content to continue in the home where every comfort is
provided. One of the more recent branches of diversified farming in which they
are engaged is their herd of twelve milk cows. At times this number is exceeded.
The milk is sold to the creamery. Mr. Joiner has also been successful in hog
raising; he sold one thousand dollars worth in 1900. They also find profit in
poultry.
Mr. Joiner is one of the most reliable, honorable, and highly
esteemed citizens of Elk township and there is no more loyal or useful citizen
in the community. He is generous, just and kind. Mrs. Joiner is a worthy and
most excellent woman; she has done her full share toward acquiring their present
competency. The family are members of the Baptist church of Clyde. Mr. Joiner
has been identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows for more than
thirty years.
EVERETT W. JORDAN.
Everett W. Jordan, a son
of William Jordan, is one of the rising young men of Lyon township. When six
years of age he came with his parents from Nova Scotia to Kansas and remains a
resident in the community where he was educated and grew to manhood, and where
the family settled in 1870. He is one of the young men who have "grown up with
the country," and has witnessed the wilderness don its robes of prosperity. The
Jordan's first residence in Kansas was a blacksmith shop and later they built
the first stone residnce in their neighborhood.
At the age of seventeen
years, Mr. Jordan's father gave him his time and rented him the farm. That
season 1882 he raised an enormous yield of corn and cleared $500. The following
year he bought the old Halleck homestead and built a four-room cottage 24 by 24
feet in dimensions, and otherwise improved the place. He bought the original
Adrastus Newell homestead in 1898, which is adjacent, making a half section in
his farm and one of the best properties in the county. He changed his residence
to the latter farm, added to and remodeled the house, and made a comfortable
place of abode of the old cabin which was one of the old landmarks of the
Solomon valley. This was the stronghold of the community where the settlers
gathered to protect themselves against the Indian depredations. Openings were
left between the logs for port holes. While the cabin was in course of
construction the settlers worked with Winchesters strapped to their backs, while
with a field glass one of their number kept an outlook for the approach of the
savages.
Mr. Jordan's land is well watered and timbered, Chris creek
running through his farm. He has a shed on the creek bank which affords
excellent shelter and feeding facilities for his stock. Most of his land is
wheat round with two hundred acres under cultivation. The season of 1900 he had
a yield of fifteen hundred bushels of wheat. Mr. Jordan raises considerable
stock; keeps a herd of about forty native cattle, fifteen head of horses, ten of
them work horses, and from fifty to sixty head of hogs.
Mr. Jordan was
married in 1892, to Pet Sterling, a popular and successful teacher of Cloud
county, for five years. She was a graduate of the Concordia High School, class
of May 16, 1888. She graduated at the age of sixteen taking the last two years'
course in twelve months. She is a daughter of John C. and Margaret (Chadwick)
Sterling.
Mrs. Jordan came from near Des Moines with her parents to
Kansas when about eight years of age and settled on a farm near Jamestown,
moving into Concordia one year later where her father represented a sewing
machine company, and was well known throughout the county. He was a native of
Illinois, and when a young man moved to Missouri where he tendered his services
to sustain the flag of the Union, but was rejected on account of an unsound
ankle which had been broken. Affairs waxed too warm in Missouri and he emigrated
to Iowa where he lived until coming to Kansas. He was a school teacher in his
early life in the state of Missouri, and here he met Margaret Chadwick as one of
his pupils, the young woman who afterward became his wife. Mr. Sterling died
after a long and painful illness in the city of Concordia in the springtime of
1901.
The Chadwicks were of English origin and there is an estate in
England that has been in litigation for several years. Mrs. Sterling was born in
Kentucky, and with her parents came to Missouri. She was a pupil of her father
and all their eldest children received their early education under his tutorage.
Mrs. Sterling now lives in Concordia but expects soon to make a permanent home
with her daughter, Mrs. Jordan.
To Mr. and Mrs. Sterling eleven children
were born, eight now living. Olive, wife of Joe Glasgow, a farmer near
Courtland, Kansas (she was a teacher for ten years, was principal of the
Garfield school in Concordia for three years and taught in the grammar
department of the Belleville graded schools three years. Mrs. Glasgow is a woman
of literary tastes. She is the mother of two children, Gwendolen and DeWayne);
C.A., familiarly known as "Bob" Sterling, a furniture dealer of Clyde (he is
married and has one child, a little son, Worth); Rose, a dress-maker of
Concordia; Lemuel, with his wife and one child, John C., live on a farm near
Plymouth, Oklahoma; Nellie, and her sister, Rose, in Concordia; Willie, has been
in the employ of a mercantile company in Leonardsville, Kansas for six years,
only being out of the store about a month during the entire half dozen years he
has been in their employ. He is a steady, exemplary young man who did much
toward the support of his afflicted father. He is at the head of the enterprise
and is a trusted employe. Forest, a young man of eighteen years of age is also
in Oklahoma.
Mr. and Mrs. Jordan are the parents of three bright and
interesting little daughters: Fern, Mamie and Gladys, aged respectively eight,
six and four years. The political views of the Jordan house are divided, Mr.
Jordan being a Populist and his wife a Republican. Mr. Jordan is a member of the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows of Glasco. He is a man of cordial manner, a
thrifty, industrious and practical farmer. There is an atmosphere of true
hospitality pervading their home and Mr. and Mrs. Jordan are most excellent
people.
WILLIAM JORDAN.
William Jordan, an old resident of
the Solomon Valley, came to Cloud county from Cornwallis valley, Nova Scotia, in
1870. He came with his wife and children and his children's children to make
homes in the "Far West," and consequently ticketed to Topeka, where they came in
contact with emigrants who were enroute to Smith county and induced the Jordan's
to join them with that destination in view. As they passed through the beautiful
Solomon valley they were pleased with the country and its prospects, but went on
into Smith county. The outlook in that county not being to their liking they
returned shortly afterward to what they deemed a more civilized country and took
up the homesteads where they still live.
Mr. Jordan's parental
grandfather was of English birth and lived and died on the estate where he was
born. His father emigrated to the rugged shores of Nova Scotia before the
Revolutionary war. Mr. Jordan's maternal ancestors were of German origin and
settled in Connecticut prior to the Revolutionary war and rather than become
traitors to their mother country during that period they removed to Nova Scotia.
Mr. Jordan was married to Elizabeth Ward in 1846. All of their eight
children but one are living in Cloud county. Aaron Edmond is a farmer of
Meredith township: Anna J., an unmarried daughter at home; Lavina, wife of M.L.
Woodward, of Glasco (see sketch); Celeste, wife of C.E. Martin of Lane county,
Kansas; Norman, a farmer of the Solomon valley; Judith, wife of S.W. Waggoner, a
farmer of Arion township; Eunice, wife of A.D. Atkinson, a farmer of Cloud
county, and Everett, whose sketch immediately follows.
Mr. Jordan has
three hundred and sixty acres of land which is nearly all wheat ground. Mr.
Jordan is a Populist in politics.
D. H. JUDY.
D.H. Judy is
proprietor of the popular and leading millinery store of Concordia, and we may
safely say one of the best appointed stores of Cloud county. This prosperous
business was established in 1889 and since that time has been conducted
continuously, with credit to himself and to the benefit and delight of the
public at large. He carries a stock of twenty-five hundred dollars and has made
for himself and family a beautiful home; its modern conveniences are in great
contrast to many of the earlier homes of Kansas, which were built of sod or
small dugouts scarcely large enough to hold the few worldly goods brought by the
owners from their old eastern homes.
Mr. Judy is a native of Xenia, Green
county, Ohio, born in 1838. His parents, Absalom and Martha (Ford) Judy, were
natives of Virginia and were farmers. Both the paternal and maternal
grandparents were slaveholders, but disposed of them and moved into Green
county, Ohio, in an early day. Subsequently Mr. Judy's parents emigrated to
Indiana, where they died, his father in the year 1887 and his mother in 1896.
Mr. Judy is one of ten children, five of whom are living, one brother near Ft.
Scott, Kansas, and another at Abilene.
The subject of this sketch began
his early studies in the country schools of Ohio and Indiana and later attended
the graded schools of Fairview. While a mere boy he clerked in a store and when
eighteen years of age left his home to make a career alone in the world. He
returned to Ohio, where he worked on a farm in summer and attended the high
school at Fairview during the winter season, and in this way acquired a good
common school education.
In September, 1861, he enlisted in Company E,
Thirty-sixth Indiana Regiment, under Captain S.G. Carney and Colonel Gross,
commanding. Their service took them through Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi,
Alabama and Georgia. His regiment showed great valor and bravery in some of the
important battles, among them Shiloh, Perryville, Stone River and Lookout
Mountain. His term of service expired soon after the taking of Atlanta, covering
a period of three years. After having been honorably mustered out of the army he
went to Indiana and worked on a farm during the summer of 1865. His brothers,
with the exception of two, were all soldiers of the Civil war.
While yet
a pioneer state, Mr. Judy emigrated to Iowa; remaining but one winter, he
removed to Missouri, where he taught school, his first and last experience in
that vocation. In the autumn of 1866 he returned to Iowa and in 1867 he engaged
in the drug business in Johnson City, St. Clair county, Missouri. Two years
later he sold his drug, store and after a brief sojourn in Ringo county, Iowa,
left there to explore the new country of the "great and only Kansas."
This occurred in 1870 and he settled at Clyde, where he occupied a position as
clerk in the drug store of J.S. Burns, and later clerked in the dry goods store
established by S.D. Silver until March, 1871, when Mr. Silver moved his stock to
Concordia, then the beginning of this thriving city. S.D. Silver failed shortly
afterward and the stock was bought in by R.E. Allen, of Leavenworth, and Mr.
Judy remained with him in the capacity of head clerk for seven and a half years
and during this period gained a large experience.
He then decided to open
a business of his own, and in 1879 formed a partnership with P. Levereaux, in a
general merchandise store, under the firm name of Levereaux & Judy. They
transacted an extensive and prosperous business for five years, or until Mr.
Judy's health failed, and he sold his interest in favor of H.N. Hansen. After a
rest from business cares of two years he took up a new field of work and opened
a real estate, loan and insurance business, which he conducted successfully
until the spring of 1889, when he sold and the following spring took a trip to
the Pacific coast, and on his return opened his present business enterprise as
before stated, a millinery store of vast resources.
Mr. Judy was married
in October, 1871, to Lucy Short, of Washington county, who was deceased in May,
1891. They were the parents of three children, two sons and one daughter: Hattie
is a resident of Boston, Massachusetts, in the employ of a publishing company of
that city. Charles A., the oldest son, is a graduate of the Commercial College
of Salina. he drew a claim at the opening of the strip in Oklahoma and is now a
resident of that country and occupies a position in a large dry goods
establishment of El Reno. Lora, the youngest son, is a student of the Great
Western Business College of Concordia.
Mr. Judy was married to his
present wife in December, 1893; Lizzie Page, a daughter of Owen Delaplaine, and
the widow of George Page. Mrs. Judy has readily and with rare intelligence
adapted herself to the millinery business and its requirements.
Mr. Judy
In his politics is a staunch and true Republican. He was president of the school
board for more than seven years, and during his reign all of the school
buildings, with the exception of one, were erected. He was police judge of
Concordia for a term of two years, has been city assessor for a period of
fifteen years and is at this writing (1903) a member of the school board. He is
a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the oldest initiatory
member and carries a veteran badge from this lodge. He is also the oldest member
from the Rebekah Lodge and the only existing charter member residing in
Concordia. He joined the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in the year 1872, is
the only one left of the original organizers, and has seen the lodge grow to its
present portions - one hundred and twenty-five members. Mr. Judy belongs to the
Ancient Order of United Workmen, also the Sons and Daughters of Justice and the
Grand Army of the Republic post. He joined the latter society in Clinton,
southwestern Missouri, in the year 1869.
Mr. Judy is an enterprising,
public-spirited man in any cause of interest to the welfare and progress of the
city. He never forgets where to put his hand when called upon to defray his
share for improvements, likewise he always has a fund for the needy, does not
proclaim his good deeds "from the house tops," but many live to bless his warm,
generous and helpful words of comfort and also the more substantial aid in times
of distress and want. He has walked over the site where Concordia now stands
when it was a bleak and barren prairie and was forced to go to Lake Sibley for
lodging. When on his first visit to Concordia J.M. Hagaman was running a ferry.
The evening shades were gathering and his fears of being benighted occasioned
repeated calls from Mr. Judy, which grew louder and more loud as he shouted and
hallowed, until at last, not receiving a response, he gave up in blank despair
and sought the protection of a friendly cottonwood, where he lay all night. The
next morning about nine o'clock he again called Mr. Hagaman to come and ferry
him across, whereupon he stuck his head out of the window of his cabin, and
coolly remarked, "You're in a h_l a hurry, there."
This same trip Mr.
Judy saw two women fighting something with clubs, he knew not what, but went to
their rescue, where he found them in a prairie dog den that was writhing with
countless "rattlers" that had come to take up their abode with these animals, as
is their habit. They killed thirty of them and left many on the field. The two
frightened women to whom Mr. Judy lent his valuable aid were Mrs. Collins (then
Mrs. Read) and her daughter.
During Mr. Judy's trip from Iowa to Kansas
he met with rather an amusing experience. He was overtaken by an Englishman and
they traveled together to Marysville and on to St. Joseph, thence to Atchison,
Topeka and Manhattan, and after leaving the last named town they met an old
fellow who told them of the Republican valley, and in company with two other
Englishmen they came to Clyde, and the following day repaired to a point two and
one-half miles north of Concordia, where they each located a claim and built a
dugout on the land to be filed on by Mr. Judy. The two Englishmen went to
Sibley, leaving Mr. Judy to hold the claims from the numerous "jumpers" of
government land. He sat up on the outside of the dugout until twelve o'clock,
imagining all sorts of horrors. He could nor endure the awful silence and when
midnight arrived he grasped his gun and started for Sibley to join his
companions. Fearful that the Indians were on his trail he did not venture to
even look backward, lest his scalp should soon be dangling from the belt of some
brave. After getting lost and wandering aimlessly about, at three o'clock in the
morning, footsore and weary, he finally reached their place of rendezvous, a
Sibley dugout.
GEORGE F. JUNEAU.
One of the progressive
and rising young business men of Clyde is G.F. Juneau, a buyer and shipper of
butter, eggs, and poultry, both live and dressed. Mr. Juneau embarked in this
enterprise in the month of January, 1901, and has been remarkably successful. He
sells to John Stewart of Concordia. Mr. Juneau did not start under as many
difficulties as Mr. Stewart, and had considerable more of this world's goods
than he. Mr. Juneau's capital, however, was but $450. One year later he refused
$5,000 for his produce business which tells the story of his success.
He
conducts his affairs in a way that brings the best returns, by sending wagons to
buy at stations and inland towns. He also handles old iron. Mr. Juneau bought
the old "Barons Reserve," one of the historical landmarks of Clyde. The abstract
books show where this property sold at one time for the dimunitive sum of $100
and at another date it brought $20,000. Mr. Juneau bought it for a consideration
of $857. It is one of the finest locations possible for his business. The
original old hostelry is still on the ground. The new part of the building
Juneau moved to the front of the wide lawn and converted it into a comfortable
residence. The grounds have numerous fine shade trees and the property is one of
the most desirable In the city. The block is intersected by the railroad making
a lot on the north, 640 by 485 feet, and one on the south, 302 by 455 feet.
Mr. Juneau was reared in the forests of Wisconsin, on a farm in the Green
Bay country, where he lived until sixteen years of age. He was born in 1866.
When sixteen years of age he worked on the railroad as fireman, continuing three
years. He was an engineer one year and served as brakeman two years, was then
promoted to conductor on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, where he
remained until 1894, when he came to Kansas City as yard-master for the same
company. He then entered the employ of the Rock Island Railroad as brakeman
which brought him in contact with the city of Clyde. Mr. Juneau worked himself
up from the foundation, serving long and faithfully, day and night; ofttimes
worked forty-eight hours without food or sleep. He is a thorough and practical
railroad man and can run a train second to none.
Mr. Juneau's parents
live in Wisconsin, and are aged respectively seventy-one and sixty-nine years.
His father is Maxim Juneau, a Canadian by birth. He came to Wisconsin when he
was but twelve years of age during the pioneer days of that state. He is still a
farmer and resident of that country. Mr. Juneau is a relative of the Juneau of
Alaskan fame and for whom the town of Juneau was named. He is also a
great-nephew of Solomon Juneau, the first mayor of Milwaukee. Solomon Juneau
came to Milwaukee when there were but few white settlers and married an Indian
squaw. However, he was a good citizen and did much toward the upbuilding of that
city. At the time of his death the city of Milwaukee erected a monument on the
lake front to his memory at a cost of $40,000. Mr. Juneau descends from a very
prolific race, he being one of sixteen children; but six of these are living,
all in Wisconsin, except himself. A maternal aunt living in Washington county is
the mother of eighteen children.
In 1898, Mr. Juneau was married to Emma
Giroux, one of Clyde's most accomplished and estimable young women. She is a
daughter of Francis Giroux. (See sketch of Joseph Giroux). One daughter,
Josephine, gladdens their home, aged one year.
Mr. Juneau is a Democrat
in politics. The family are members of the Roman Catholic church. Mr. Juneau is
a member of the order of Maccabees, Catholic Foresters, Ancient Order of United
Workmen, of Clay Center, and of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen of
Fairbury, Nebraska, Belleville and Clyde. Mr. Juneau's genial and sunny nature
surrounds him with a host of warm friends and admirers.
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