Sedgwick County KSGenWeb
Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.
Chapman Brothers 1888
Pages 469 - 471
GEN. BEROTH BULLARD EGGLESTON, a capitalist and a distinguished citizen of Kansas, lives in Wichita. He has occupied a prominent position hi the public affairs of our country, both as a soldier and as a statesman. He is of New England ancestry—a hardy, self-reliant people, with much force of character and fine courage. His grandfather, John Eggleston, was a native of Massachusetts, and of English descent. He was a farmer by occupation, and after marriage and the birth of two children, he removed to Corinth, Saratoga Co., N. Y., at the time of the Revolution. That part of the country was then a wilderness, and there was not another white family within twenty miles of them, but plenty of the Saratoga Indians, with whom he had some trouble. He was a vigorous man, and was endowed with great courage, and was full of resources. At one time Indians came with the determination to entice him away from his house and kill him. He, with great coolness, told them if they would help him split a log in two he would afterward go with them. At the same time, pointing to a log into which he had driven a wedge, he told them to put their hands into the opening and pull it apart. The unsuspecting savages innocently complied with his request, when he knocked the wedge out, and had them caught fast. He then despatched them to the "happy hunting-grounds." The home he built for himself and family in the forests of Saratoga County was a commodious frame house, two stories in height, 20x40 feet, sills fourteen inches square, posts twelve inches square, and a porch across the front of the house. When they first moved there, for a year or two they depended on the game they shot for meat. He and his wife remained residents of their pioneer home until death. His life was prolonged many years, and he was considerably over ninety years old when he paid his debt to nature. To him and his wife were born the following children: John, Amos, Benjamin, Arter and Lovina.
The old homestead fell to Arter Eggleston, father of our subject, who was born thereon in 1784. He married, in his native place, Lovina Prosser, a native of the same county. By that marriage he had four children, namely: Amos, Draper, Joseph and Seth. Draper and Seth are now living in Ohio. Mrs. Eggleston died, and for his second wife Mr. Eggleston married Clarissa Barrus, a native of Brattleboro, Vt., where she was born in 1781. By this marriage they had three children—Cromwell, Beroth B. (our subject) and Lovina. The latter married James Gibbons. Cromwell lives in Ohio, engaged in farming.
The grandfather of Gen. Eggleston on his mother's side was Jonathan Barrus. He married Marcia Allen, youngest daughter of the celebrated John Allen, of Revolutionary fame. He was a brother of Ethan Allen, and is said to have been the planner of all their daring exploits, among which was the capture of Ticonderoga. Jonathan Barrus, the grandfather, served as a Third Lieutenant of dragoons for three years in the Revolutionary War. He was also in the Continental Army when the Declaration of Independence was declared.
The father of our subject moved with his family, in 1833, to Hocking County, Ohio, that part which is now known as Vinton County, and purchased a farm near New Plymouth, where he and his wife made their home until death, his occurring in 1864, and hers in 1865. They commanded the respect and confidence of everybody about them, and he was well known all over the country as "Honest Uncle Art."
The subject of this sketch was born in Corinth, Saratoga Co., N. Y., July 14, 1818. He spent his youthful days on the home farm, and in attendance at the winter sessions of the district school, one mile away. He still has a vivid recollection of his childish school days, and of the old Scotch schoolmaster who presided over the school, who considered the half-dozen black-birch sticks with which he armed himself every morning before proceeding to the scene of his daily labors as more effective than moral suasion in keeping his unruly subjects in order.
Our subject remained an inmate of his parents' home until he was fifteen years old. At that early age, shortly after the removal of his father to Ohio, he went to work by the month as clerk in a store in Plymouth, Ohio. He remained there about four months, then went to Chillicothe, in the same State, and there apprenticed himself to the firm of D. Adams & Co., with whom he remained four years, receiving in return for his services his board and clothes. When he went there it was agreed that he should be sent to school, if it were necessary, to make him a business man. It probably was not deemed necessary, as he was never sent to school. He, however, acquired a clear insight into the business, and an experience which was beneficial to him in after life. After he left the employ of that firm he engaged in business in Chillicothe with Charles Cornwell, under the firm name of Eggleston & Cornwell. They carried on that enterprise for eighteen months, but it proved to be a disastrous venture. Our subject then read law in Chillicothe for three years, and traveled through the county doing a large collecting and pettifogging business. From that he turned his attention to the lumber trade, with Mr. Massie, of Massieville, six miles from Chillicothe. While residing there, Mr. Eggleston received the appointment of Postmaster from President Fillmore, and he retained the office three years. He and Mr. Massie afterward extended their business to include farming, leasing 1,700 acres of land two miles south of the city of Chillicothe. At the end of two years Mr. Massie died, and the partnership being thus dissolved, Mr. Eggleston, in company with Job Stephenson, engaged in farming near Yellow Bud, in Ross County, where they had 2,600 acres. They continued to conduct their farming operations until the last of June, 1861. At that time our subject began his career as a soldier, and all private considerations of his large business interests were put aside that he might go to the battlefields with the other brave defenders of our country and its institutions.
Mr. Eggleston enlisted in the 1st Ohio Regiment as a private, but when the command was organized he was elected Captain, and during the following years of strife he was conspicuous in camp and field for his ability, bravery, and devotion to the duties devolving upon him as a leader of men, and at the close of the war he retired from the army with a brilliant record and a high rank as an officer. In 1863 he was promoted to the position of Major, and within a year became a Colonel, and in March, 1865, was breveted Brigadier General, and held that rank when he was discharged from the army. In July, 1862, he was taken prisoner at Courtland, Ala., and remained for six months in the hands of the rebels before he was exchanged. He then returned to his command. He was always on the field when any engagement was going on, and when in Tennessee took an active part in the battles of Murfreesboro, Mission Ridge and Chickamauga. He was with Gen. Wilson in his raid into Alabama after Gen. Forrest, and there Gen. Eggleston dismounted his cavalry and with them captured Forrest's battery of artillery, for which gallant deed he received special commendation from Gens. Upton and Wilson.
Gen. Eggleston was with Gen. Kilpatrick when he started to go round Atlanta, and when Gen. Long was wounded the command of the troops fell to him. The General met the flag of truce at Macon, Ga., and by order of Maj. Gen. Wilson he took eighty dismounted men, and proceeded to Atlanta and received the surrender from Col. Glenn, and assumed command of the city. There he had absolute authority, excused the Mayor and all the city officers from further duty; also advised the Judges of the court to hold no more sessions; and the members of the Legislature who asked his advice were advised not to convene any more sessions of that body; established a military guard, and soon had the city under a quiet and orderly government. Jefferson Davis, and Mallory, Confederate Secretary of the Navy, and C. C. Clay, were prisoners under him at Atlanta. At the expiration of six weeks Gen. Eggleston was relieved by Gen. Alexander from his position as military commander of Atlanta, and ordered to proceed with his command to Orangeburg, S. C., and report in person to Gen. Gilmore, at Hilton Head. When he arrived there Gen. Gilmore immediately placed him on his staff as Chief of Cavalry for the Department of the South, which important and responsible position he held until he was mustered out of the service at Camp Chase, Ohio, Oct. 26, 1865.
After leaving the army Gen. Eggleston became a citizen of Mississippi, settling with his family on a plantation of 640 acres, near Crawfordsville, where he remained one year, engaged in the culture of cotton and corn. He soon became a conspicuous figure in the public affairs of the State. He was elected a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, held at Jackson, Miss., and was elected President of the Convention, holding that position until its close. After the formation of the Constitution he was elected Governor of Mississippi, but Congress would not then re-admit Mississippi as a State, and he did not take the gubernatorial chair. Gen. Eggleston subsequently came within two votes of being elected to the United States Senate from that State. He was appointed by Gen. Grant Assessor of Internal Revenue, and retained that position for four years. During his term of office he purchased an interest in the gas works at Columbus, Miss. This proved to be a very profitable investment, and he held it for six years.
In the year 1878 Gen. Eggleston disposed of his various interests in Mississippi, and with his family left his Southern home and came to Kansas. He first settled between the Big and Little Arkansas Rivers, where he purchased 160 acres of improved land, and on the rich soil of that valley resumed his old vocation as a farmer. At the expiration of three years he removed to the city of Wichita, and has ever since been one of the leading citizens of this flourishing metropolis of the State. He was elected Superintendent of the Water Works, and held that position until they were purchased by a syndicate. He is now Chairman of the Metropolitan Police Force of Wichita. He is a leader in the Republican party, and steadily upholds the principles for which he fought so nobly during the trying days of the Rebellion. He is a prominent Mason. His courteous and affable manners, together with his integrity and ability, have won for him the same high place in the regard of his fellow-citizens of Kansas that he has ever held among the people in other parts of the country where he has had a home.
Gen. Eggleston was married, in 1844, to Miss Martha Phillips, of Chillicothe, Ohio, daughter of James and Mary (Harr) Phillips. Her grandfather on her mother's side was the first Methodist preacher in Ohio. She was herself an honored member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and a woman of rare personal endowments, which made her beloved by all who came under her influence. Her death, which occurred June 13, 1867, at her pleasant home on a Mississippi plantation, was a sad loss to her many friends. To her and her husband were born five children, four of whom are now living, namely: Arthur, Clara, Mary and Laura. Arthur is a resident of Pratt County, Kan.; Clara is now Mrs. Junkerman, of Wichita; she has one child, Katie. Mr. Junkerman died in 1883. Mary is now Mrs. Charlton, of Wichita; Laura B. is Mrs. Myers, of Wichita.
A portrait of Gen. Eggleston is shown on an adjoining page of this work.
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