Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 1005 - 1006 

EDWIN D. MUNN, one of the solid men of Wichita, came to the city in 1879, but not being quite ready to locate, returned to his home in Ohio, and made his next venture to Kansas four years later. He then took up his location in Clearwater, and occupied himself in the hardware business, and now represents a large amount of real estate in this part of the county. He has been largely occupied of late years in the transfer of real estate, and has built in Wichita seven fine houses, besides one at Clearwater, in Ninnescah Township. He was also at one time the owner of 160 acres of land in Minneha Township. In 1885 he removed to the city of Wichita, and to some extent has been dealing in real estate for himself.

             The early home of our subject was in Augusta Township, Oneida Co., N. Y., where he was born on the 4th of February, 1828. His parents, Sherman and Harriet (Smith) Munn, were natives respectively of Hartford, Conn., and Oneida County, N. Y. The paternal grandparents of our subject, Asa and Eunice (Cassidy) Munn, were of New England birth and parentage, and extensively engaged in farming pursuits. Grandfather Munn served as a soldier in the War of 1812.

             Sherman Munn early in life left the farm and learned the trade of cabinet-maker, which he carried on in Augusta, Oneida Co., N. Y., and died there in 1851. The mother subsequently took up her home in East Cleveland, Ohio, where her death took place in 1884. The parental household included two children, of whom our subject is the only one living.

             Edwin D. Munn continued on the farm with his parents until a youth of sixteen years, then commenced an apprenticeship at the tinsmith trade, at which he served four years, and was thereafter employed in Medina County, Ohio, and vicinity, as a journeyman three years. After his marriage he engaged in the stove and tinware trade at Medina three years, then leaving the town, purchased a farm of 123 acres, and carried on agriculture afterward for a period of eighteen years. He now concluded to return to the village, and invested a part of his capital in hardware and stoves, and continued in trade at Medina, this time for seven years. Then, determined to seek the West, he came to this county and located in Clearwater, as indicated above. 

            Mr. Munn was married in his native county, Oct. 10, 1850, to Miss Sarah J., the daughter of John and Deborah (Hanchett) Mead, natives of Cayuga County, N. Y. The paternal grandfather of Mrs. Munn, William Mead, married Miss Eunice Brown, and the family generally engaged in farming pursuits. On the mother's side the grandparents were David and Diantha (Rood) Hanchett, who were natives of Massachusetts.

             John Mead with his family left New England in 1833, and settled near LaFayette in Medina County, Ohio, where they spent the remainder of their lives. Of the five children born to them only two are living, Mrs. Munn and her brother Albert. To Mr. and Mrs. Munn there were born five children: Albert E. married Miss Emma, daughter of A. J. Cook, of Wichita, and they became the parents of two children, Gertrude and Edwin, the latter of whom died at the age of fifteen months; George L. Munn married Miss Viola, daughter of O. S. Churchill, of Chardon, Ohio; the only child of their household is an adopted son, Richard H. Harriet D. is the wife of W. S. Bernard, of East Cleveland, Ohio, and the mother of two children--Edwin M. and J. W. Frank D. and Lodie E. continue residents of Wichita with their parents.

             Our subject is an earnest Republican politically, and while a resident of Ohio was Alderman of the city of Medina. The family are all connected with the Presbyterian Church at Wichita, in which Mr. Munn officiates as Elder. They are now residing at their handsome home on Fairmount Heights, corner of Fifteenth street and Fairmount avenue.

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