Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Page 1083

JAMES P. ROYAL, who is recognized as one of the wealthy and prosperous farmers of Waco  Township, is the owner of 440 acres of fertile land, adjoining the town of Oatville.

His farm is convenient to school and church, and supplied with a good set of frame buildings, including two tenement houses, and all the other improvements requisite to the carrying on of agriculture in a profitable manner. The homestead was built by our subject from an uncultivated tract of land, which his industrious labors and good judgment have transformed into one of the most valuable pieces of property along the southern line of Sedgwick County. In his stock-raising operations Mr. R. makes a specialty of mules and hogs, while his horses and cattle will compare favorably with those of his neighbors. His place has been selected as one among the many to illustrate in this volume. 

Tippecanoe County, Ind., is the birthplace of our subject, where he began life at the modest homestead of his parents on the 12th of April, 1849. His father, Thomas Royal, Esq., was born in April, 1824, in Butler County, Ohio, where he was reared, and married Miss Rebecca Cheneowith, a native of the same county, who was born in 1824. They removed in 1848 to Indiana. Thomas Royal cultivated a portion of the soil of the Hoosier State for a period of twenty-one years, and thence removed to Cowley County, Kan., where, with his excellent wife, he is still living. 

The children of the parental household are recorded as follows: The eldest child died in infancy unnamed ; John T. married Mrs. N. Elder, and is a banker at Augusta, in Butler County, this State; Harriet became the wife of Henry Smith and the mother of one child, a son, Arthur, and died in the city of Wichita in the year 1874; Celestia A., who has been blind from her birth, was educated in the School for the Blind at Indianapolis, from which she was graduated, and is now at home with her parents; W. I., unmarried, is farming in Clark County, this State; Eliza J. is the wife of Frederick Smith, a retired farmer of Wichita, and they have two children; Betsey E: married James Berrell, of Clark, Kan., and is the mother of three children; Rachel A., Mrs. Jesse Reeves, is living on a farm in Clark County, Kan., and is the mother of two children; Eldie E. died in Indiana when about two years of age. 

Mr. Royal, of our sketch, was reared in the common schools of Dayton, Ind., and continued under the parental roof until reaching his majority. He commenced farming on his own account, and took up his residence in this county in 1870. While a resident of Kansas he was united in marriage with Miss Minnie Miller, April 6, 1876, and the young people commenced life together in Sedgwick County. Mrs. Royal is the daughter of David H. and Susan (Winders) Miller, who were natives of Maryland, but are now residents of Wichita. She was born Aug. 5, 1856, and was the eldest child of her parents' family. Her eldest brother, Harry, married Miss Bell Turner, and is carrying on farming near Wichita; they have one child. Mary is the wife of J. N. Forey, a mechanic by trade, and they have one child; Charles is unmarried, and a professor of music in Wichita; Susan died when quite young. 

Our subject and his wife are the parents of two children only : Claude, born March 20, 1878, and Blanche E., June 21, 1882. Mr. Royal votes the straight Republican ticket, and has held the school offices of his district. From the date of taking up his residence in Waco Township he has been recognized as one of its most valued citizens.

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