The KINGSBURY Family

Clyde (Jack) & Kingsbury Family

Clyde C. Kingsbury was born near Harris (Anderson Co.), Kansas on 5-31-03; the first of seven children of Elmer E. and Rose B. (Stout) Kingsbury. (See Kingsbury history elsewhere.) After several moves the family with five children moved to Sumner Co., Ks. in 1910 and lived near Ashton, Ks. from 1911-19. Two more children were born in Sumner County. The family then moved to a farm west of Dexter (Cowley Co.) Ks in 1920. Clyde (Jack) rode a horse to Dexter to attend High School. He graduated from High School in 1923 with a class of three members.

He taught school at Union Ridge one year and later attended business college at Winfield, Ks. He also worked as a mechanic at the Sandstrum-Snyder garage in Dexter.

He married Julia May Clark on 9-27-28. She graduated from Dexter High School in 1928. May Clark was born on 8-13-07 to Ora (Pidge) Clark and Eva (May) Clark.

Jack and May lived on a oil lease near Virgil (Greenwood Co.), Ks two years where their first child, Clyde Chester Kingsbury was born on 7-31-29. They moved back to Cowley County to a farm west of Dexter owned by Pat Fry in 1930. Anna May Kingsbury was born there on 5-5-31.

Keith Kingsbury was born on 12-17-36 and Clark Kingsbury was born on 3-17-38. The children attended grade school at Prairie Ridge and high school at Dexter. The family moved to a farm south of Otto (Cowley Co.), Ks. and lived here from 1939 until Jack's retirement in 1968. The children attended grade school at Beaver Creek and high school at Dexter. Jack served on Grant township board for twenty years.

Jack and May moved to Cedar Vale (Chautauqua Co.), Ks in 1968. Clyde C. (Jack) Kingsbury died on 9-9-85 at the age of eighty-two and is buried in the CedarVa1e, Ks cemetery. At the time of his death, he was survived by his wife, May, four sons, one daughter, thirteen grandchildren, and ten great-grandchildren.

May sold their home in Cedar Vale, Ks and moved to the Cedar Apartments in Cedar Vale in 1986 where she now lives.

Their son, Clyde Kingsbury and wife, Jessie, live on a ranch near Sedan, Ks. Kenneth Kingsbury and wife Hazel live on a ranch near Grainola, Ok. Daughter Anna May (Kingsbury) Olson and husband Andy live on a ranch near Council Grove, Ks. Son Keith is at Seminole, Ok. He works at Tinker Field, Oklahoma City, Ok. Son Clark Kingsbury and wife Marguerite live at Great Bend, Ks. He is manager of Mid-West Energy. There are now thirteen grandchildren and sixteen great-grandchildren.

Submitted by May Kingsbury
Scanned out of the Cowley County Heritage book, pg 216.

Elmer E. and Rose B. Kingsbury Family

Elmer Eugene Kingsbury was born 4-24-1876 at Benton, Ill. His father, Jonathan Kingsbury, died in 1891 in Illinois. Elmer came to Anderson Co., KS when he was 21 and lived with a brother, Charley, on a farm near Harris. Their mother, Matilda Peterson-Kingsbury, came soon after to keep house for her sons. Charley's farm was near one owned by Thomas Stout, father of Rose Blanche Stout-Kingsbury, born 8-24-1880. The Stout family moved by train from Stoutsville, Ohio when Rose was three months old.

Elmer and Rose were married 12-24-01 at Garnett, KS. They lived for a time with his mother on the farm she had inherited in 1899 from son Charley. Elmer and Rose's family included: Clyde C. (Jack), b. 5-31-03, Harris (Anderson Co.),KS; Neta L, At(. b. 7-15-05 Alton (Osborne Co.,), KS; Lawrence Delbert (Bill), b. 4-25-07, Alton; Ethel Mae, b. 10-17-08, Harris; Anna Luciel, b. 10-14-10, Harris; Ora Irene, b. 10-17-12, Ashton (Sumner Co.) KS; and Jennie Aileene, b. 7-2-15, Ashton.

Due to hail ruining their wheat crop in Osborne Co., they sold their land and moved back to Anderson Co. Later they sold that farm and bought unimproved acreage near Ashton. They built a house and barn and lived there from 1911-1919. In 1920 the family moved to a farm northwest of Dexter (Cowley Co.). Elmer and Rose were living there when Elmer died 1-2-43. Rose then moved to Dexter, renting the farm. She died 7-14-66. Both are buried in the Burden, KS Cemetery.

Several interesting things happened while the family growing up but only a couple are related here. In 8-28, two men attempted to steal our car. Dad heard the barn door opening, where the car with keys in it was parked. He took the shotgun and went to investigate. Going through a grove of trees, he saw the car coming toward him. He called "Halt," but the men ran down the road toward their parked car. Dad shot intending to scare them. He asked Bill to bring him his rifle and hearing a noise around their car, shot at it. When they caught the men the next day, Dad learned one was behind the steering wheel when he shot the rifle, breaking the windshield. When the men were in the Cowley County jail, they were observed to be picking at themselves - they had been hit with buckshot. The Courier carried a news item, " Farmer Shoots Straight. " That was the only time the Kingsbury" made the front page!

There were many nicknames in our family. Grandpa Stout nicknamed Clyde "Jack" and Lawrence "Bill." When we moved to Cowley County, Mom thought it apropos to eliminate nicknames. At a meeting of the Prairie Ridge Mothers' Club, she was speaking of Clyde and Lawrence when one of the ladies asked, "You have four sons? I know you had Jack and Bill but didn't know about Clyde and Lawrence." Mom gave up and more people know them as "Jack" and "Bill" than as Clyde and Lawrence.

Submitted by Aileen Rotha
Scanned out of the Cowley County Heritage book, pg 216.

Lawrence D. (Bill) Kingsbury Family

Elmer Eugene Kingsbury and Rose Blanche Stout Kingsbury moved to Sumner County from Anderson County in 1911. In 1919 they bought a 360 acre farm five miles west of Dexter in Cowley County. With their seven children they moved to this farm in the early part of 1920. Their children. were: Clyde (Jack), Neta, Lawrence (Bill), Ethel, Luciel, Ora, and Aileene. The children all attended the Prairie Ridge country school and all seven graduated from Dexter High School. Lawrence, who has always been known as Bill, at age twelve helped his father drive their livestock from Sumner County to Cowley County near Dexter. Because of the distance it was necessary to spend the night on the road, so they put the livestock in the Stockyards at Hackney, Kansas, overnight.

When Bill became twenty-one he began working for the City Gas Company. While living in Augusta, Kansas, he met and married Violet Ruth Daniels on July 31, 1932. Violet had come to Augusta in the fall of 1931 after receiving her education in the Missouri schools and teaching in a country school. While living in Augusta they had two daughters. They are Phyllis Jean Kingsbury (b. 5/31/38) and Donna Lea Kingsbury (b. 6/17/40).

In 1949 Bill left City Service Gas Company and stated working for Michigan Wisconsin Pipe Line Company. To do this the family moved to Sandwich, Illinois. In 1950 Bill was transferred to Abilene, Kansas, where the family lived for the next twelve years. While living in Abilene both daughters graduated from high school and Emporia State Teachers College. Phyllis received her masters degree there in 1963 and her Ph.D. from Oklahoma University in 1968. In the fall of 1968 she started teaching at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, in the biology department. While on sabbatical in 1988 she received a second masters degree in science education from the University of Texas at Austin.

The second daughter, Donna, taught high school in Wichita, Kansas for five years. In June of 1966 she married Donald Ray Murphy in the First Baptist Church in Augusta, Kansas. They have two daughters Delynn Ray Murphy (b. 1/1/72) and Dayna Leigh Murphy (b. 1/23/74).

In July 1962 Bill was transferred to Meade, Kansas, by the Michigan Wisconsin Pipe Line Company as Superintendent of a gas compressor station. Bill took early retirement in 1969 and with his wife, Violet, moved to Winfield, Kansas. He had lived out of the county forty years when he moved back.

Bill was Master of the Masonic Lodge in Augusta, Kansas, in 1946 where he also belongs to the Augusta Chapter of the Eastern Star.

Violet has been a member of the Eastern Star and the Rebekah Lodge for over fifty years. She has been a member of the Daughters of the American. Revolution since 1973.

Bill and Violet have belonged to the First Baptist Church in Augusta, Abilene, Meade and Winfield a total of over fifty years. They will celebrate their fifty-eighth wedding anniversary in 1990.

Submitted by Violet B. Kingsbury Scanned out of the Cowley County Heritage book, pg 216 & 217.