Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 688 - 690 

TUNIS V. HANKINSON. There are few men more worthy of representation in a work of this kind than the subject of this biography, who is passing the later years of his life on a comfortable homestead in Delano Township, the land on which he commenced operating in the spring of 1875. His has been a long and busy career, rich with experience, and in which he has established himself in the esteem and confidence of all who know him. His family history is of more than ordinary interest, the main points of which are as follows:

            The father of our subject, Lewis Ford Hankinson, was born in New Jersey, Sept. 5, 1792, and died at his home in Jerseyville, Ill., on the 29th of January, 1887. At the death of George Washington, in 1799, public funeral services were held all over the land in the same manner that the country recently mourned the death of Gen. Grant. Mr. Hankinson was then a lad a little over seven years of age, and marched with the procession of children into the church at Manalapan, Monmouth Co., N. J., in military order, each decorated with a white rosette. In 1813 he was a married man and worked by the year for a salary of $60. Slavery then existed in New Jersey, and he remembered to the day of his death the history of an event which at the time caused great excitement. A slave had been promised his freedom if he would set fire to a large hotel at Long Branch, which was heavily insured for the occasion. Suspicion was at once aroused, and detectives succeeded in securing a confession from the slave, who was sent to the penitentiary for life. The insurance money was never paid, it is hardly necessary to say.

            The commerce of the country was then carried on in sailing-vessels, before the day of steamboats and before railroads had been thought of. Middletown Point was the principal shipping point for Monmouth County. Sloops were there loaded with produce and sent to New York City, whence they returned laden with merchandise, and consumed a full week in making the round trip, a distance of less than forty miles.

            In 1817 Lewis Ford Hankinson left New Jersey for the great West. He settled first in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, and battled with the hardships known only to pioneers. He frequently afterward related his adventures as evidence of the hard times and credit system then prevailing, and how at one time having lost a horse, and being compelled to purchase another, he would only promise to raise the sum of $30 required at the end of two years. In 1819 he was so poor he could not even pay his taxes, which amounted to forty cents. This was in wide contrast to his later condition in life, as he became very wealthy.

            The father of our subject removed from Tuscarawas to Preble County, Ohio, and from there, in 1840, to Illinois. He selected his location in the eastern part of Jersey County, purchasing his land from the State Bank of Illinois, at Alton. There he spent the remainder of his days, becoming widely and favorably known throughout Jersey County. His labors were eventually crowned with success, and he became independent, having built up a fine homestead by the exercise of his own industry and perseverance, and secured a competency upon which to live in ease and comfort during his declining years. He was a patriarch after the manner of Bible days, his descendants being twelve children, fifty-three grandchildren, forty-one great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren, 110 persons in all

            The father of our subject was married in his native county to Miss Eleanor Foreman, a native of New Jersey, who died in Illinois in 1866. They were the parents of twelve children, and our subject, Tunis V., was born in Butler County, Ohio, Dec. 18, 1823. He was reared on the farm, and in common with his brothers and sisters received but a limited education. He was naturally bright and observing, however, and in keeping his eyes open to what was going on around him acquired a useful fund of information. At an early age he developed unusual talent as a mathematician and is remarkably accurate in his accounts.

            The family removed from Tuscarawas to Preble County, Ohio, where they remained about nine years, then took up their residence in Darke County. Tunis V. was seventeen years old when they went to Illinois. He subsequently shared in the excitement all over the country, during the "log cabin and hard cider campaign," and remembers how the fortunes of his father advanced step by step until the first primitive dwelling was abandoned for a handsome modern structure on the old farm, and the hardships and privations which they endured in those earlier years were gradually passed by and were remembered only in the light of contrast with the more prosperous days.

            When Mr. Hankinson was twenty-three years of age his father put him onto a quarter-section of land and told him if he would pay for it he might have it. In 1849, however, the young man was seized with the California gold fever, and in company with seven others crossed the plains with ox-teams, starting in the month of March and landing in the city of Sacramento in August following. Our subject went into the mines, where he worked three years and accumulated $4,000. With this he embarked in the cattle trade and lost the whole of it. He then tried farming on the Pacific Slope, with unsatisfactory results, and in 1856 returned to Illinois but little better off than when he started.

            The intention of Mr. Hankinson had been to merely make a visit to the Prairie State and then return to California. With this end in view he persuaded some friends to go back with him, and settling in California engaged in sheep-raising and other occupations until 1874. A part of that year and the next he spent in Illinois, and in the summer of 1875 came to Southern Kansas. Soon after his arrival here he purchased the southeast quarter of section 9, in Delano Township, of which he has since retained possession and to which he has added a like amount, so that he now has 320 acres, all under cultivation, with modern improvements, plenty of water, a choice assortment of live stock, and all the other appurtenances necessary for the convenience and comfort of the complete country home.

            The wife of our subject, to whom he was married on the 8th of May, 1879, was in her girlhood Miss Mary Fulton, the daughter of Thomas and Martha (Boyd) Fulton, who are both living in Ireland, where Mrs. Hankinson was born on the 13th of July, 1851. She came to the United States in 1878, alone, and is now the mother of two children: Eleanor, born April 3, 1882, and Martha, March 24, 1884. Mr. Hankinson is a Republican in politics, to which, however, he gives but little time and attention, his farming and stock-raising interests furnishing all the business to which he can conveniently attend. Both he and his estimable wife enjoy the friendship and acquaintance of a large number of the best people of Delano Township and vicinity.

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