Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 1026 - 1027 

CHARLES H. BARDSHAR is prominently identified with the vast stock-raising interests of Sedgwick County. He lives in Greeley Township, on section 15, his residence in this county dating from the fall of 1877. He was born in Castalia, Erie Co., Ohio, Dec. 6, 1854, being a son of Henry and Rilda (Smith) Bardshar, also natives of Ohio. His maternal grandparents were from New England, and his paternal grandparents were natives of Pennsylvania. The latter settled in Erie County, Ohio, in 1818, and being among the early settlers of that county, were obliged to clear their farm from the dense wilderness that then prevailed in that part of the country, The father of our subject was a life-long resident of Ohio, his death occurring there in 1857. He was a well-to-do farmer and stock-raiser, and left an extensive estate to his heirs. To him and his wife were born three children, two of whom are now living, Charles H. and Rachel Maria. The mother of our subject married James B. Snowden for her second husband, and died in Ohio in 1884. She had three children by her second marriage Margaret, Samuel H. and Ethel.

            Our subject was reared on a farm, and his education was conducted in the common schools until he was fourteen years of age, when he attended a school at Cornwall, on the Hudson River, for one year.  Afterward he entered as a student the St. Joseph University at South Bend, Ind. Our subject started in life with $5,000 from his father's estate, and has met with marked success in his business career, especially since he came to Kansas. At the age of seventeen he engaged in the grocery trade in his native town, but his business was afterward destroyed by fire. He then went South and passed one summer in the "land of cotton " with his grandfather Smith, a wealthy planter who owned two plantations in Louisiana, one at Baton Rouge and one at Mt. Pleasant. That gentleman started in life with but $50; be died worth $200,000.

            The year following his return from his Southern visit, our subject traveled in the interest of the South Bend Iron Works, introducing the Oliver chilled plow into Ohio, making large sales of the same throughout the State. In the fall of 1886 Mr. Bardshar married Miss Carrie J., daughter of Levi and Melissa Chamberlin, who was, like himself, a native of Castalia, Ohio. Her father died in Ohio, and her mother is still a resident of that State.

            After marriage Mr. Bardshar kept books for a milling company at Castalia until the following year, when he came with his family to Kansas, and settled where he now resides. He at first bought 250 acres of land, unimproved, for which he paid $6 an acre, cash. He has since added to his original purchase, and now has a valuable farm of 500 acres, all under improvement, and on which he has erected neat and commodious buildings. He has fifty head of Polled-Angus cattle, besides owning considerable stock of other strains, and he also owns a number of horses and hogs. For a few years before he engaged so extensively in the cattle business he raised sheep and dealt in live stock. He established the first furniture business at Mt. Hope, conducting the same for over a year.

            Mr. Bardshar is a valued citizen of this community; he has been an active agent in promoting the various schemes for its advancement, and has taken a conspicuous part in the administration of public affairs, his education and marked talent for business eminently qualifying him for any position to which he may be elected by the suffrage of his fellow-citizens. He has served as Township Trustee three terms, and has held the office of Township Treasurer the same length of time, and is frequently a delegate to political conventions, being a leading man among the Republicans of this county. He is a member of the K. of P., and holds the office of First Chancellor of Tasmania Lodge No. 120, at Mt. Hope.

            Mr. and Mrs. Bardshar's marriage has been blessed by the birth of six children, three of whom are dead, two dying in infancy and one at the age of five years. Their first child died when eleven months old, and then the two following children, leaving them childless. But they have since had three children-Harry, Edward J. and Rilda Marie.

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