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Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Waldorf

Samuel Waldorf, a well-known successful farmer and stockman of Prospect township, is a Butler county pioneer who for over forty-five years has been an active factor in the agricultural development and the cattle industry of Butler county. Mr. Waldorf is a native of Ohio, born in Holmes county in 1839. His father was William Waldorf and his mother bore the maiden name of Elizabeth Hensley. William Waldorf was a native of Vermont and of German descent, and his wife was a native of Harding county, Ohio, and a descendant of a sturdy Pennsylvania Dutch family. The surviving children born to William Waldorf and wife are as follows: Samuel, the subject of this sketch; Mrs. Mary J. Cramer, Mansfield, Ohio; Mrs. Anna N. Appleman, Corsica, Ohio; Mrs. Sarah E. Wrenn, Boston, Mass.; William C., El Dorado, Kans., and Mrs. Elvira E. Gilbert, Hutchinson, Kans.

Since coming to Butler county in 1872, Mr. Waldorf has been engaged in farming and stock raising, and is still operating his fine farm of 200 acres in the southern part of Prospect township. The location of his place is ideal, and it is about equal distance to El Dorado or Augusta, and about four miles from Leon. Mr. Waldorf is one of the old time cattlemen who appreciated the days of open range, and while he is one of the successful stockmen of today, he says that the good old days before the advent of fences and the settlement of the country were the halcyon days of the cattle man, which is true, for it is really a hard matter for the cattle man of the old school who rode the open range to feel comfortable and at ease when he is confined within the limitation of wire fence from Pittsburg, Pa.

Mr. Waldorf was married in 1866 to Miss Martha L. Mitchell, of

Ohio, who was born in Marrow county. She is a daughter of Andrew and Martha Nixon (Kilgore) Mitchell, natives of Pennsylvania, and of Scotch-Irish descent. The late President McKinley was a second cousin of Mrs. Waldorf. To Samuel Waldorf and wife have been born the following children: Mrs. Ida C. Hildreth, Wichita, Kans.; Mrs. Mary A. Conkling, Salina, Okla.; Mrs. Millie L. Patterson, El Dorado Kans.; Mrs. Martha I. Marshall, Leon, Kans.; Mrs. Musie T. Lightwine, deceased; Mrs. Georgia E. Madill, Newton, Kans.; William J., Lebo, Kans.; John M., Mulvane, Kans.; Harvey K., Harper, Kans.; Mrs. Hattie O. Mossman, Rosalia, Kans.; Samuel E., Corbin, Kans., and Barney B. M., Leon, Kans.

Mr. Waldorf is a Butler county pioneer who well remembers the early days of inconvenience and hardship incident to the settlement and development of a new country. When he came to Butler county there were no improvements. Money was scarce and there was hardly any market for what little produce the early settlers had to sell, and it was rarely they needed a market, for, in fact, they had very little to sell. There were no railroads in Butler county and supplies were mostly hauled from Emporia, and even from more distant places. Mr. Waldorf hauled the first wheat that was ever ground at the old mill on the Big Walnut river, near El Dorado, and this wheat was raised from seed which he bought with money from the sale of his only wagon, and during that winter he lived chiefly on corn bread and water. He is a typical representative of that class of hardy pioneers, who by self-sacrifice, courage and industry, not only laid the foundation for Butler county, but established the great empire of the West and in so doing, established permanent homes for themselves and their posterity, and laid the foundation for the world's highest civilzation.[sic]

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