Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 260 - 262 

DELOS CROSBY. Sedgwick County can boast of quite a number of enterprising and thorough-going farmers who are giving the greater share of their attention to the rearing of fine stock, and thus enhancing materially the value of the cattle in Southern Kansas. Among this class of citizens there is probably none who takes a higher rank than the subject of this narrative. His specialty is Galloway cattle of high grades, and at the head of his herd is a bovine imported from the Lowlands of 8cotland, where the breed originated. He has met with eminent success in his operations, and is numbered among the wealthy and prosperous agriculturists of Illinois Township, and has his homestead on section 31.

      Mr. Crosby is a native of New York, and was born March 17, 1823. His parents, Timothy and Mary (Kinney) Crosby, were also natives of New York, and resided there many years. His father was a cabinet-maker by trade in his younger days, but adopted farming as a vocation later in life. He was a local preacher of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and did considerable work in the vineyard of our Lord. He was a Democrat, politically, and a strong anti-Mason, and numbered among his acquaintances the celebrated Morgan, whose name has come down in connection with the secrets of Free Masonry. He was married three times, his first wife being Miss Mary Kinney, the mother of our subject, who bore six children, as follows: Delos, the subject of this sketch, and his twin brother Carlos, the latter of whom married Miss Emily Hill, and died March 8, 1864, leaving three children; Helen, Mrs. Buker, who died in 1863, leaving three children; Sarah, who married James Cargill, died in Ohio in the summer of 1857, leaving one child; George, who married Miss Caroline Hallowell, and died in Washington, Iowa, in March, 1867; and Timothy, who died in infancy, in the spring of 1836. The mother of our subject died in Illinois in the fall of 1836. She was a sincere and consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and possessed the warmest esteem of all who knew her.

      The second wife of Mr. Crosby, Sr., was Miss Rebecca Davis, who became the mother of five children, as follows: Martha Ann, who married Frank Williams, is the mother of three children and is living on a farm in Illinois; John, who died at the age of thirteen years; William, a resident of Ulysses, where he is engaged in the mercantile trade, married Esther Moore, and is the father of one son; Emily, who was living in Minnesota when last heard from, and Susan, who died in childhood. After the death of his second wife, our subject's father was again married, but his third wife died in Washington, Tazewell Co., Ill.

      The subject of our sketch removed with his parents to Illinois in 1836, and received his education in the district schools of New York and the Prairie State. He remained at home with his father, assisting in the duties of carrying on the homestead until marriage. This happy event, the most important of his life, took place on the 27th of February, 1844, at which time he was wedded to Miss Cynthia Ann Brady, a native of Virginia, born June 24, 1828. She is the daughter of William and Mary (McClintock) Brady, both of whom were natives of the Old Dominion. Her father died at the age of forty years, in Illinois, to which State he had removed, and her mother, who was born in 1802, died Feb. 27, 1844, in Illinois, having borne a family of five children, as follows: Lucy, who died at the age of two years; a daughter who died in infancy unnamed; Cynthia Ann, Mrs. Crosby; Robert, a resident of Pekin, Ill.; and Susan, who married Benjamin Hyers, who is operating a machine-shop in Illinois, and is quite an inventor of machinery.

      The father of Mrs. Crosby dying as mentioned above, his widow married David Corwin, and afterward died, leaving her husband a widower the fourth time. Mr. Crosby was engaged in various businesses in Illinois until 1874, during which year, with his family, he came to Kansas and settled in Sedgwick County, where he has since resided. On starting in life he received a present of seventy acres of land from his father, which he disposed of for $210, and his wife falling heir to eighty acres of land from her parents, which she sold for $240, Mr. Crosby with this little capital engaged in the mercantile business in Illinois. When the great Rebellion broke out he was financially ruined by the rapid depreciation in the money of State banks and by many of his customers enlisting, leaving him to hold their promises to pay, a great many of which he holds at the present day. After considerable discouragement in the Prairie State he finally came to this locality and is now the owner of 160 acres of well-improved and highly cultivated land, upon which he has a good orchard and small fruits in abundance.

      Mr. Crosby is a Republican in politics and has been since the birth of that party, casting a ballot for John C. Fremont in 1856. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and a Class-Leader in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mrs. Crosby has also been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church for forty years. He is the Superintendent of the Sunday-school and gives a large share of his time to promoting the interests of religion. He is an able learner and a strong advocate of the principles of prohibition, and was a member of the Rechabites, the oldest temperance organization known, and of the Sons of Temperance. He is a man worthy of the highest respect, and enjoys the esteem of the entire community, in which he labors to bring about every enterprise that is calculated to elevate mankind.

      The family of Mr. and Mrs. Crosby consists of the following children: Mary Susan, who was born Sept. 2, 1847, and died Dec. 7, 1848, in Tazewell County, Ill.; Caroline M., who was born Dec. 7, 1849, and died April 13, 1851; Alice Ann, who was born Nov. 27, 1852, and died Dec. 7, 1853; Frank, whose birth occurred Jan. 7, 1855, married Miss Mary Manning, who died in August, 1881, and was the parent of four children, three of whom are dead; he was again married, to Ellie Thompson, who became the mother of three children, and makes his residence in Wichita; Charles, born March 9, 1858, died Oct. 27, 1871, in Mercer County, Ill.; William, born Feb. 13, 1861, is now residing in Comanche County, Kan.; Don C., born June 9, 1864, at home; Theodore D., whose natal day was March 16, 1867, is now at home, and Robert Ellis Crosby, born July 29, 1870, died Feb. 9, 1872.

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