Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 828 - 829

JOSIAH M. SAMUEL is engaged in the agricultural implement business at Greenwich, and also deals largely in grain and coal. He first saw the light in his father's house on the 19th of January, 1849, in Rockcastle County, Ky. He is a son of John C. and Margaret A. (Cook) Samuel, the former of whom was a North Carolinian by birth, and the latter a Kentuckian.

            The father was born on the 7th of October, 1818, and the mother about ten years later. John Samuel left his home in North Carolina when about sixteen years of age, and took up a farm in Kentucky in the woods. He commenced at once the arduous task of clearing it of the timber that at that period covered nearly the entire "dark and bloody ground." After making a farm of the place, he made it his home until 1854, when he removed to Hancock County, Ill., and settled near Carthage. For thirteen years in that place he was quietly engaged in agricultural pursuits, and then took up his line of march for Kansas, with the flood of emigrants who were coming hither at that time. He selected a home in Allen County, where he took up a homestead of 120 acres, and improved it, but finally sold that property, and purchased another in Bourbon County, where he and his wife now reside.

            During the year 1863, while a resident of Hancock County, John C. Samuel, the father of the subject of this sketch, enlisted in Company K, 146th Illinois Infantry. Shortly after he was mustered into the service he was detailed for duty under the Provost Marshal, under whom he held the rank of Orderly. Being "in his duty prompt at every call," at the close of hostilities he was honorably discharged from the service, and is now a member of W. H. Lytle Post, G. A. R., of Ft. Scott. He was the father of eight children -- Robert E., Archie L., Winfield S., Josiah M., Martha F. and Kittie. Two others are dead. Martha, Mrs. U. A. Coldbaugh, is a resident of Pekin, Ill.; Kittie, Mrs. Martin Smith, lives at Leavenworth, Kan.

            The subject of this sketch was ambitious his youth, and when but twenty years of age went to Bourbon County, Kan., where he worked on a farm for about a year. While in this place, in the fall of 1869 he married, and remained a resident of Bourbon County until 1881, engaged in tilling the land. At that time the city of Ft. Scott appearing to him to offer attractions not found upon the farm, he went to that city and engaged as salesman with an agricultural implement house. He was interested in the business at that place until the fall of 1884, when he removed to Sedgwick County, and located in the village of Greenwich. He began his life in this place buying grain for Durkey & Stout and the Goodlander Mill Company, on a salary. He still purchases grain for the first-named firm, and on his own account buys and sells agricultural implements and coal. When he began in this business one wagon represented his stock in the implement line, and one carload of coal the limit of his purchase in " black diamonds." To pay for even these he was compelled to borrow the money. But times have changed with him, the country has grown, and he has increased with it. His business from so small a beginning has attained large proportions, with a most excellent pecuniary result to himself. He no longer is necessitated to borrow to pay for his stock, and is growing daily more independent of circumstances.

            The marriage ceremony which united the two lives of Mr. Samuel and Miss Athalia Hall, was solemnized Oct. 7, 1869. The parents of the bride, Walter H. and Elizabeth (Minock) Hall, were Pennsylvanians by birth, and her father was by occupation a farmer. Both of them have passed to "the pale chambers of death, beyond the dark river." They were the parents of seven children, five of whom are still living. Mr. and Mrs. Samuel are the parents of five children: Walter J., born Dec. 23, 1870; Alfred A., Sept. 21, 1874; Archie C., May 1, 1877; Alta, Sept. 16, 1879, and Curtis M., Jan. 22, 1881. Mr. Samuel is a member of the I. O. O. F., in whose work he manifests great interest. Both he and his wife are actively connected with the Methodist Episcopal Church, are consistent and sincere Christians, and take a lively interest in any movement for the benefit of the religious portion of the community. In politics Mr. Samuel is a stanch Republican. 

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