On Thursday, November 18, Ambrose DeLair passed away at the home of a daughter, Mrs. Jerome Newby, in Wichita.Funeral services were held in the Bethel school house in the southeast part of the county, where Mr. DeLair attended church. The services were Monday afternoon and were in charge of a former pastor, Rev. W. J. Thomas, of Isabel. Mrs. Fred Stitch of Wichita, sang, "The Old Rugged Cross," and "Face to Face," accompanied on the piano by Mrs. Donald Booth.
Burial was in Crown Hill cemetery at Coldwater. The pallbearers were four grandsons, Virgil and Ronald Newby and Ralph DeLair Jr., Wichita, Norman DeLair, McPherson, Kans.; also Arthur Patton of Cunningham, Kans., and Muriel Gregg of Coldwater.
Obituary Sidney Ambrose DeLair, son of Silas and Almira DeLair, was born in Kingsville, Canada, May 10, 1864, and passed away November 18, 1948, in Wichita, kans., at the age of 84 years, 6 months and 8 days.
During the early days of the new state of Kansas Mr. DeLair came to this commonwealth, settling at Clearwater, and after a number of years there came on west to the new county of Comanche when it was organized in 1884.
Here he continued to live and to become a distinct part of its development. Mr. DeLair had a great love for livestock and the great out of doors and as the years went on he became the county's largest buyer and seller of cattle and hogs, shipping them to market, not by the carload but by the trainload. There was scarcely a man in Comanche county who did not know Ambrose DeLair.
Mr. DeLair was united in marriage in Comanche county with Miss Grace Fretz on April 14, 1892. To this union were born three sons, Wayne A. DeLair of Cunningham, Kans., Roy H. Delair of Kutch, Colo., and Ralph E. DeLair of Greensburg, and one daughter, Mrs. Myrtle Newby of Wichita, all of whom, with the faithful wife, survive. Also surviving him are 15 grandchildren, 19 great-grandchildren, as we well as three sisters and two brothers of the Pacific Northwest.
As old age came upon Mr. DeLair he lost his eyesight, but with the true spirit of the pioneers who wrested a living from the forests of the land and the prairies of the midwest, he rigged up a wire which led from the house to the barnyard and he continued to feed cattle - though he could not see them.
For more than 30 years he was a teacher of a Sunday school class at the Bethel school house and was a keen Bible student who had a remarkable memory, He was faithful in attendance, even in his advanced years.
Mr. DeLair was a kind and loving husband and father and a good neighbor, always interested in the affairs of his community and county.
The Western Star, June 25, 1970. WAYNE DELAIR DIES IN WICHITA JUNE 17
Wayne A. Delair, son of the late Mr. and Mrs. S. A. Delair, pioneer Comanche county ranchers, passed away Wednesday, June 17, in Wichita. He was a retired cattle buyer and flour inspector. Born at Coldwater, he came to Wichita 21 years ago. At the time of his death he was 76 years of age. Survivors include his widow, Ethel M.; a son, Norman, Laramie, Wyo.; a daughter, Mrs. R. A. Patton, Cunningham; two brothers, Roy H., Cahone, Colo., and Ralph E., of Rockaway Beach, Mo., and a sister, Mrs. J. V. Newby, Wichita. Services were held at 10 a.m. June 20 in Resthaven Mortuary and burial was in Resthaven Garden of Memories in Wichita.
"Dad sang on horseback often. When he lived with and worked for Mr. and Mrs. S.A. Delair, Mrs. Delair taught him the song �The Unfortunate Man�. It was funny and fit Dad. I have never heard the song other than when Dad sang it, I don�t know if it was something that she wrote or something that she had learned as a child and passed it along to Dad."
-- Excerpt from Country Gal, a column in The Western Star by Vanita (White) Blundell (daughter of Vernie White), published 11 July 2006.
(Lyrics: The Unfortunate Man)
Postings in the site guestbook: Name: Scott Taylor
Email: scott.taylor@cox.net
Date: 2006-07-06
Comments: Your website is very informative and interesting, and it has provided much background information concerning my family (S.A. DeLair). Thank you for providing such a comprehensive and very personal view of people from Comanche County.
Name: Mada Newby-Drgac
Email: drgacmada@yahoo.com
Date: 2003-11-11
Comments: My great and gr-great grandparents are in Crown Hill: DeLair and Fretz. I hope to visit Coldwater again soon to do a little more genealogy research. This site is great for those of us that are hundreds of miles away. Thanks for all the hard work that goes in to making this site! Mada in Texas.
Name: Karen Ann Shockley Newby
Email: newbuttons@cox.net
Date: 2003-06-06
Comments: Thanks so much for posting the newspaper article from 1945 regarding Virgil DeLair Newby. He is my husband's uncle and he passed away in 1984. I had heard that he had been a POW and the article gave me more detail. You have all done a wonderful job!
Also see:
Capt. Henry and Juliette Fretz
A.J. "Jack" Hulsy. "Mr. Hulsy and his family lived in this county for several years prior to 1915, when they moved to California. While here Mr. Hulsy worked for some time for S. A. DeLair, and later the family lived on a farm about four miles southwest of town." -- The Western Star, July 17, 1925.
Thanks to Shirley Brier for finding, transcribing and contributing the above news article to this web site!
This website is being created by HTML Guy Jerry Ferrin with the able assistance of many Contributors. Your comments, suggestions and contributions of historical information and photographs to this site are welcome. Please sign the Guest Book. This page was created 05 July 2004 and was last updated 19 August 2006.