Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 611 - 612

JAMES R. SITES, attorney-at-law by profession, but a man also fond of agricultural pursuits, is carrying on dairying and stock-raising on one of the finest farms in Sedgwick County. He came to this section of country in April, 1883, and is recognized as a valued addition to the community. The main points of an interesting history are substantially as follows:

            Our subject is a native of Butler County, Ohio, where his birth took place Aug. 5, 1842. He is the son of Jacob Sites, a Virginian by birth, and a farmer by occupation. In 1839 he left the Old Dominion, taking up his residence in Butler County, Ohio, and was not long afterward married to Miss Lydia Reed, a native of that county, and daughter of Robert and Lydia (Thomas) Reed. In 1845 they removed to Franklin County, Ind., where the father is still living, and having been born in 1820, is now in the sixty-eighth year of his age. The mother died in January, 1884, while on a visit to her son, our subject, in this county, and was sixty-six years of age.

            Mr. Sites was the eldest of the six children born to his parents, and besides himself there are but three now living, namely; Lydia H., the wife of C. Eggleston, of Franklin County, Ind.; George T., a resident of this county, and Jacob W., who lives in Wichita. James R. was but a boy when his parents removed from Ohio to Indiana, where he completed his education in Brookville College, from which he was graduated when twenty five years of age. He entered upon the study of law under the instructions of Messrs. Adams & Berry, of Brookville, and subsequently took a full course at the Michigan State University, at Ann Arbor. After being admitted to the bar he commenced the practice of his profession at Hamilton, Ohio, where during a period of thirteen years he built up a lucrative business, and was one of the most successful trial lawyers of that city. From there in 1883 he came to this State, and soon afterward purchased a quarter of section 27, which was then in a virgin state, and besides the care of this Mr. Sites also has at present control of 320 acres elsewhere, which provides him with the facilities for dairying and stock-raising, and upon which he resides. He finds a market for his dairy products in Wichita, in which city he also has a law office, and is enabled to give considerable time to his profession, while he employs men to operate his farm.

            The wife of our subject, to whom he was married Dec. 31, 1867, was in her girlhood Miss Elmira, daughter of Jeremiah and Elizabeth (Floyd) Fowler, who was born in Franklin County, Ind., May 31, 1848, and resided there until her marriage. Her father died in Union County, Ind., at the age of sixty-one years. The mother is still living there, and is now nearly fifty-eight years of age, having been born July 15, 1830.

            The children of Mr. and Mrs. Sites, six in number, were named respectively : Edward M. Martha A. died Feb. 15, 1888, at the age of eighteen years ; William E.; Jacob J., who died at the age of two years and seven months; George F., who died at the age of one year and five months; and John Wesley. Two of the deceased children were taken from the household circle within one week of each other in 1875.

             Mr. Sites, politically, is a strong Republican with Prohibition tendencies, warmly interested in the success of the temperance movement and though, while in Ohio, he was active in politics, has declined, becoming an office-seeker, preferring to give his, attention to his personal interests. Both he and his estimable wife, socially, belong to the Knights and Ladies of Honor. There is no section of country where greater enterprise is displayed than in and around Wichita. It seems that the most wide-awake men of almost every community of the more Eastern States have left their old homes and come here, where they find ample room to expand and display their ability in a business way. Prominent among them stands Mr. Sites, whose portrait we present to our patrons.

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