Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 894 - 897

WILLIAM R. ALBERTSON, a lively representative of the agricultural interests of Valley Center Township, is operating on 320 acres of land on sections 9 and 10, and in addition to the ordinary cultivation of the soil he is giving considerable attention to the raising of blooded stock, usually keeping a herd of from fifteen to twenty head of fine cattle, besides horses and swine.

            The farm of our subject includes 320 acres of land, occupying a part of sections 9 and 10, where he located in August, 1882. He spent his early years in Wayne County, Ind., where he was born Sept. 21, 1831, and is consequently little past his prime, and finds himself watching with the interest of twenty years ago the growth and development of the great West. He is the offspring of a good old family, being the son of Joshua and Abigail (Ratliff) Albertson, who were natives of North Carolina, where the father acquired his first knowledge of farming and subsequently learned the trades of carpenter and millwright. They removed to Indiana during the early settlement of Wayne County, where the elder Albertson, erected many of the mills adjacent to the now flourishing city of Richmond, which was then but a hamlet. The mother, who had been reared in the Quaker faith, died at the homestead in Wayne County, on the 5th of June, 1853, aged fifty-four years. The father survived his wife over a quarter of a century, and rested from his earthly labors on the 16th of April, 1879. A Whig in early manhood, he later joined the Republican party, and took an active interest in public affairs.

            The children of Joshua and Abigail Albertson, thirteen in number, included six sons and seven daughters, one of whom, Elmira, died when about one year old; another died unnamed in infancy; the others were: Eli, Eliza, Milton, Benjamin, Martha, Sarah; William R., of our sketch; Cyrus, Ellen, Elizabeth and Rebecca, all of whom lived to attain their majority. Of these there are five surviving, namely: Eli, William R., Cyrus, Rebecca and Elizabeth.

            Young Albertson, when twenty-two years of age, engaged to work the old homestead, upon which he continued one and one-half years longer, and thence removed to another farm near by, where he operated three years. At the expiration of this time, resolving upon a change of location, he crossed the Mississippi into Mahaska County, Iowa, where he spent the following winter, and in 1855 settled in Pottawatomie County, Kan., about forty miles west of the present flourishing city of Atchison. After a brief time he changed his residence to Pleasant Hill, and then to Leavenworth, but not being able to content himself in the West at this time returned to his old home in Wayne County, Ind. He subsequently lived in Jay and Hamilton Counties, farming in the latter about twenty years, and in 1882 sold out and made his way to this county, where he has since remained.

            The wife of our subject, to whom he was married while a resident of Wayne County, Ind., on the 30th of September, 1852, was formerly Miss Rebecca, daughter of Michael and Mary (Etter) Fouts. The parents of Mrs. Albertson were natives respectively of North Carolina and Pennsylvania, and are members of the Dunkard Church. The father followed farming in Wayne County, Ind., the greater part of his life, and there his death took place on the 27th of December, 1876. The mother followed on the 3d of August, 1879. Their family consisted of five sons and eight daughters, namely: Susan, Abigail, Elizabeth, Mary, Rebecca, Aaron, Jane, Jackson, Catherine, John, Sarah Ann, an infant who died unnamed, and David. The latter is now a lawyer of Jay County, Ind. Only seven of the children are living, and are residents mostly of Indiana, Nebraska and Kansas.

            The five children of Mr. and Mrs. Albertson are recorded as follows: Mary A. was born Jan. 30, 1854, and was married, in 1873, to William H. Purkey; they have had eleven children, five of whom are deceased, and are carrying on farming in Valley Center Township. Sarah E. was born Sept. 26, 1855, and died Oct. 2, 1856; Joshua R. was born July 30, 1858, and married Miss Eliza Martin when twenty years of age; they have one daughter, Lilian, and since 1885 have been residents of Wichita. Martha Jane was born Dec. 19, 1859, and is the wife of William Shaw, of Sedgwick City; they have two children - Gracie V. and Nellie. John H. was born Oct. 4, 1861, and married Miss Jennie Crawford, by whom he is the father of one child, a daughter, Hazel.

            Mr. Albertson votes the Republican ticket, and with his estimable wife, has been identified with the United Brethren Church for some years. He was elected Director of School District No. 61, in 1885, in which office he has since been retained.

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