Sedgwick County KSGenWeb
Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.
Chapman Brothers 1888
Pages 496 - 497
HORACE E. ROUSE, who has spent the most of his life on the western side of the Mississippi, is now comfortably located on section 27, in Garden Plain Township. His boyhood home was in St. Francis County, Mo., where his birth took place June 13, 1862. He is a young man just beginning the battle of life, and possesses the elements which in the course of ordinary events will bring him to a successful issue.
Horace E. and Melissa (Banta) Rouse, the parents of our subject, were natives respectively of Massachusetts and Indiana, and the father, who had served as a soldier in the Union army, died from the result of measles at Jefferson Barracks when our subject was an infant of but six weeks old. The mother, after her sore bereavement, removed with her little family to a point near the city of Burlington, Iowa, where she purchased ten acres of land, and with her two boys made a comfortable living. After remaining ten years a widow she was married to William H. Ball, a farmer of Indiana, who removed later to Southern Kansas and preempted land in this township, which they occupied thirteen years. They then sold out and removed to Mead County, this State, where they now live on a homestead.
The only sister of our subject died when a babe of six months, and his only brother, Wallace T., who was born on the 29th of November, 1859, is County Clerk of Barber County, this State; he is married and has two children. Horace E. continued with his mother until reaching his majority, but worked by the month to aid in the support of the family from the time he was thirteen years old. The money which had been paid his mother as a pension he invested in land about the time of reaching his twenty-first year, and this is now the property of our subject. The next most important event of his life was his marriage, which occurred on the 1st of January, 1885, the maiden of his choice being Miss Anna, daughter of David and Hannah (Kerr) Voris, who were natives of Kentucky and New York City, respectively. Mrs. Rouse was born April 24, 1863, in Switzerland County, Ind., and removed with her father to Nebraska when a maiden of seventeen. Her mother, who was born Dec. 30, 1845, died in Indiana on the 5th of November, 1882. Mrs. Rouse has five brothers living who are residents of Nebraska. They are named respectively: Sanford Sparks; Curtis E., now a resident of Clay County; Abram, of Phelps County; John Kerr and James McGee. Her father served as a Union soldier four years, and although he saw considerable fighting was fortunately never wounded or captured by the enemy. He is still living, a resident of Phelps County, Neb. Her only sister died when seventeen years of age. Anna was but eleven years old when she was deprived of a mother's care, and was subsequently her father's housekeeper until her marriage.
Mr. Rouse at the time of his marriage had $200 at interest and one horse, with which he proposed to commence the more serious battle of life. Greatly to the distress and disappointment of the young people he was unable, by reason of sickness, to labor the following summer, but in due time recovered, and although suffering considerably from ill-health and some other misfortunes, considers that he has reason to be thankful for his comfortable home and the other blessings which he enjoys. The little household has been brightened by the birth of two children: Wallace T., who was born May 21, 1886, and Everett Wesley, Aug. 21, 1887, both natives of this county. Mr. Rouse is a Republican, politically, and with his estimable wife, an active member of the Baptist Church, with which they both became identified when about sixteen years of age.
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