From A
Biographical History of Central Kansas, Vol. I, p. 382
published by The Lewis Publishing Co, Chicago & New York, 1902
KINSEY SHAW
A prominent and extensive farmer and cattle-raiser of Grant township, Rice county, is Kinsey Shaw, who settled on section 13, twenty-four years ago, becoming one of the pioneers of that section of the country. He is a native of Ohio, his birth having occurred in Coshocton county, on the 6th of June, 1832. His father, James Shaw, was born in Maryland, in 1782, and was a farmer by occupation, owning three hundred acres of land, which was covered with a heavy growth of timber when he bought it, and which he cleared and placed under cultivation. He married Miss Sarah Treadway, of Maryland, in which state they were married. They became the parents of eleven children, seven sons and four daughters, all living but two sons, Dan and John, who served through the Mexican war, married, and both died in Coshocton county, Ohio, in the year 1899, aged, respectively, seventy-four and seventy-five years. One sister lives in Oklahoma and another in Kansas. The father of this family died in Ohio, in 1862, and the mother some six years later.
Kinsey Shaw, whose name introduces this record, was reared upon his father’s farm, early becoming familiar with all the duties and labors that fall to the lot of the agriculturist. Thus he gained that practical knowledge which fitted him for carrying on farming on his own account when he grew to man’s estate, but it left him little time for study and his love for his dogs and gun robbed him of many golden hours that should have been devoted to his books, so that his education was very limited. He remained at home until twenty-seven years of age and then went to Hancock county, Illinois, and worked out by the month for George W Berry, who was a trader. This occupation just suited Mr Shaw, as he had a propensity for it from his youth when he used to buy shoats to speculate on. He worked for Mr Berry for three years and then married his employer’s daughter and settled on his maternal grandfather Howe’s farm in Illinois. In 1865 he left his home in Illinois and went to Clark county, Missouri, where he bought timber land, for which he traded and improved a farm of one hundred and sixty acres and gave one thousand dollars in money. He engaged in farming and stock-raising in Missouri for ten years and made money, especially on his stock. He had two carloads of cattle and one of hogs which he shipped to Chicago and sold at a good profit. In March, 1877, he bought one hundred and sixty acres of railroad land in Kansas of the Santa Fe Railroad Company, at six dollars and sixty cents per acre, and as his financial resources increased he bought other tracts until he and his sons now own eight hundred and eighty acres of land in a body, or one and a half sections. He is engaged in general farming and stock-raising, making a specialty of short-horn and polled Angus cattle. He has fed from one hundred to five hundred head at one time. His large red barns and fine residence are surrounded by shade and fruit trees which he has planted, and everything about the place is neat and thrifty in appearance, indicating the careful supervision of the owner, though he is now somewhat broken in health and leaves the active labors of the farm to his sons.
On the 1st of January, 1861, was celebrated the marriage of Mr Shaw to Miss Sarah E Berry, who was born in Kentucky in 1842, and unto them have been born eleven children, namely: William, an eccentric bachelor; George, who married and has one son and three daughters; Viollette, wife of Joseph Staley, by whom she has three sons; Warren, who is married and has one son and one daughter; Edward, still single; Jesse, who is married and is living on his own farm; Daniel, still single and living in Oregon; Fannie, who married Frank Bruce, and has two children; Bertha, who is still single and lives in Hutchinson; Thomas, at home; Gertrude, now sixteen years of age; Edward, the fifth child in order of birth, is a bachelor with peculiar tastes and traits. He has marked and phenomenal ability in computing figures which he does mentally and with great rapidity. When given a date of birth he can in an incredibly short time give the age of the person in years, days, hours, minutes and seconds, and this is but one of his rare gifts and talents. He reads many things in sounds that others do not understand. Is a great student of nature, in which he takes great delight, seldom rides but is a great pedestrian.
Fraternally Mr Shaw is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and politically he exercises his right of franchise in support of the men and measures of the Democratic party. He has always been a very energetic, progressive and enterprising man and has been very successful in all his undertakings in life so that he now has a comfortable competence.