One of the most esteemed citizens of Solomon township is E.H. Louthan, a successful farmer and stockman. He is a product of the great commonwealth of Ohio, born in Columbiana county, in 1829. His father was an industrious blacksmith of Scotch, Irish and Dutch origin, born in PennsyIvania, near the Ohio line. He came to Kansas with his son, our subject, and was one of the earliest smiths on the Solomon. His maternal ancestors were from England.

Mr. Louthan, like his father, became a blacksmith and from him learned the trade which kept him employed for several years. At the age of twenty-four he took up a residence in Indiana where he lived nineteen years. In January, 1872, emigrated to Kansas and filed on a homestead located on the south side of the Solomon river, in Solomon township. Through the discouragements brought about by the hard times Mr. Louthan traded his homestead for land in Missouri and with his family left Kansas to take up their abode in that state, but when better days dawned for Kansas his family wanted to return and did so after an absence of five years. Not being able to secure their original homestead they did the next best thing, bought one on Fisher creek, and has since added other lands until he now owns four hundred and eighty acres of as fine land as can be found on the continent; it produces chiefly wheat and corn. To look over this valuable estate one could not imagine the hardships the owner with his family experienced. During their first sojourn in Kansas they lived in a dugout for three years. They then traded a gun for a house getting the worst of the bargain; the roof was of cottonwood that warped and poured the rain down upon their heads unstintingly, but later they shingled the roof and were quit[sic] comfortable.

Mr. Louthan was married, in 1858 to Jane Thackery, who died in 1869, leaving three children, one of whom is living, Catherine, wife of Alex Jackson of Lincoln county, Kansas. The others died in infancy. Mr. Louthan's second marrige was to Mary J. McNew, of Indiana, in 1872. To their union three promising sons have been born, viz: Elza Riley and Walter, the eldest and youngest sons, respectively, are the "main stays" of the family and tillers of the soil; and to their industry much is due for the developitient of this fine farm. James Quinton, the second son, was a student three years in the State Normal at Emporia, Kansas and while in this institution was unanimously chosen speaker of their senate, by both Democrats and Republicans. He is now a student in the Law Department of the State University at Lawrence, Kansas.

Mr. Louthan is a gentleman of the old school; courtly, kind and generous and his residence is one of those hospitable homes the Solomon valley is famous for. When twenty-three years of age he cast his first ballot in the presidential campaign for President Pierce, and has been a solid Democrat ever since, taking an interest in all political affairs, not for the sake of office but because he believes it to be the duty of every citizen.