Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Page 481 

CALVIN RACE, who in connection with farming is engaged as a dealer in real estate, in Valley Center Township, makes his home on section 4, where he has a farm comprising eighty acres of good land. Of this he took possession in the spring of 1876, and gave to it his entire attention for a period of eleven years, and then, in partnership with A. H. Giffin, became interested in real-estate matters, taking an office in June, 1887, on Fifth street, in the village, where they have since operated quite profitably.

            Our subject was born in Wayne County, Pa., Aug. 29, 1831, and is the son of Alvin and Mary (Monroe) Race, who are now deceased, the mother dying in 1872, in Jones County, Iowa, at the age of sixty-eight, and the father at his home in Valley Center, of this county, in 1881, after reaching his fourscore years.

            Alvin Race, the father of our subject, learned the miller's trade in his native State of Pennsylvania, which he followed there for a period of thirty years, and thereafter engaged in agriculture in Wisconsin thirteen years. Thence he removed to Iowa, where he farmed another thirteen years, at the expiration of which time he wisely retired from active labor, although superintending the operations of a farm in Valley Center Township, which he occupied until his death. The remains of the father were laid to rest in the cemetery at Sedgwick City.

            The subject of this history left home at the age of twenty-one years, and commenced an apprenticeship at the carpenter's trade, which he followed for thirty-one years thereafter, and up to about two years ago. While a resident of Delaware County, N. Y., he was united in marriage with Miss Anise M. Moore, on the 21st of May, 1854, and they began life together in a modest home at Fair Water, Wis. Mrs. Race was born in Delaware County, N.Y., in 1834, and is the daughter of William Henry Moore; he and his excellent wife are both now deceased. Anise was their fourth child, and departed this life at her home in Valley Center Township, on the 23d of February, 1879. She was also buried in Sedgwick Cemetery, the funeral services being conducted by the Rev. I. N. Fry.

            Of this marriage of our subject there were born eight children, namely: Augustus C., Ella A., Stella A., Edwin II., Calvin H., Anise, Chester and Myrtle, all of whom are living. Augustus married Miss Clara Carpenter, and is in the office of the County Treasurer at Wichita. Ella is the wife of O. F. Nelson, a stock-dealer in Nebraska. The others are unmarried and at home with their father.

            Mr. Race, on the 26th of February, 1880, contracted a second matrimonial alliance, with Miss Sophelia Wilson, who was also born in Delaware County, N. Y., Aug. 23, 1838, and is the daughter of G. P. Wilson, a well-to-do farmer of the Empire State, who died in 1884; the mother is still living there. The parental family included eight children, of whom Mrs. Race was next to the eldest. Of her union with our subject there is one child, a son, George P., who was born Nov. 2, 1883.

            Mr. Race is a straight Republican, politically, and in the spring of 1886 was elected Justice of the Peace of Valley Center Township, and still holds that office. He has carried on his farming operations with excellent results, and is numbered among the representative men of his township.

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