Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 256 - 259 

JOHN T. GILES settled on section 36, Park Township, in July, 1878, and is located five and one-half miles from the corner of Douglas avenue and Main street, Wichita, the land adjoining him having been laid out in city lots. This, it will at once be seen, renders his property exceedingly valuable, that portion of the farm being estimated as worth $250 per acre. As an agriculturist and a citizen, Mr. Giles possesses all the qualities requisite for good standing in a community comprised of more than the average of intelligent and enterprising men.

      Our subject, a native of Spencer County, Ind., was born on the 16th of February, 1850, and is the son of Gentry and Elizabeth (Hackleman) Giles, natives respectively of Kentucky and Spencer County, Ind. Gentry Giles left the Blue Grass regions when a young man, and making his way to Spencer County, Ind., was there married to Miss Hackleman, who died when her son John T. was a lad thirteen years of age, at the home in Spencer County, in 1863. The father is still living, and has married his third wife.

      The mother of our subject at her death left eleven children, seven sons and four daughters, ten of whom survive. These are named respectively: William T., Rebecca, Mary, John T., Maggie, Franklin, Francis, Andrew, Alva and McClelland. They are mostly residents of Kansas and Indiana. John T., in common with his brothers and sisters, was reared upon the farm, and received his education in the common schools. On the 20th of March, 1873, a few weeks after passing his twenty-third birthday, he was united in marriage with Miss Maggie McCombs, at that time a resident of Spencer County, but a native of Allegheny, Pa., where she was born Aug. 6, 1850. Mrs. Giles removed with her parents to Ohio when a child, and subsequently to Indiana, where her mother died in 1863. The father died in Sedgwick County, Kan., in 1886.

      Mr. Giles, after his marriage, continued a resident of Spencer County; here he became the owner of forty acres of land, which he sold in 1878, preparatory to his removal west of the Mississippi. In the summer of that year he made his way to this county, and soon afterward purchased 152 acres of unimproved land in Park Township, upon which he has since continued. From the primitive soil he soon, by a process of skillful cultivation, began to reap some of the finest crops of Southern Kansas, which brought him a good market price, and he soon found himself on the highway to prosperity. He invested his surplus capital in additional real estate, and now is the owner of 308 broad acres, finely improved, enclosed with good fences, and with a handsome and substantial set of farm buildings. Of late years he has given much time and attention to the raising of high grades of stock, and in all his labors has met with more than ordinary success. His property upon coming to this State amounted in value to probably $600, and from that modest beginning, he has made his way unaided to his present financial position.

      To Mr. and Mrs. Giles there have been born six children--James, Ida, Mamie, Willie, Bertha and Nellie. Our subject, politically, votes the straight Democratic ticket, and has served as Justice of the Peace in Park Township. He and his excellent wife are members in good standing of the Baptist Church at Wichita. In addition to the ordinary operations as a farmer and stock-raiser, he keeps a dairy of about thirty cows, and finds a ready market for the milk and cream at Wichita. As representing the excellent class of farm homesteads in this county, we give a full page view of the property of Mr. Giles.

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