USA > Kansas > Crawford County > A Twentieth century history and biographical record of Crawford County, Kansas > Part 18
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
Aroused by a spirit of patriotism. Mr. Shafer in that year offered
15
240
HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY
his services to the government, donned the blue uniform and became a member of Company H, Ninety-second Illinois Infantry. With his command he went to the front and participated in the battles of Nash- ville, Fort Blakeley and Mobile. He was mustered out on the 6th of May, 1863, and then returned to his farm in Illinois, but in December of the same year he once more enlisted, this time becoming a member of a battery in the Second Illinois Light Artillery, with which he served until the close of hostilities. He then received an honorable discharge at Springfield, Illinois, in August. 1865. He had been a most loyal soldier, unfaltering in his performance of any duty assigned him and following the old flag wherever it led.
In 1866 Mr. Shafer sold his farm property in Illinois and removed to Madison county, Iowa, where he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land. making his home thereon for about three years. In 1869 he came to Crawford county and secured a claim, but afterward gave this to his brother, while he turned his attention to the business of buy- ing. feeding and shipping stock. He followed that pursuit for eight years and then purchased a farm on which he engaged in the cultivation of grain as well as in stock-raising. He had at one time four hundred acres of land, but has since sold one hundred and eighty acres of this. . In October. 1885. he removed to Girard, became identified with its com- mercial interests as a lumber merchant, forming a partnership with J. Q. Bell. After three years he sold his interest to Mr. Bell, and soon after- ward became proprietor of a lumber yard at Farlington, Kansas, but when two years had passed he disposed of that business and returned to Girard, where he opened the lumber yard which is now conducted under the firm style of Thomas Shafer & Son. They have the largest yard in the city and are doing an extensive business, having secured a patronage which is very gratifying. Their business methods will bear the closest investigation and scrutiny, and their success has been based upon un- tiring diligence and honorable dealing.
Mr. Shafer is a member of General Bailey Post No. 49. G. A. R ..
241
HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY
and he gives his political allegiance to the Democracy and has served as alderman of Girard from the third ward. He was married December 6, 1876, to Miss Mary E. Nect. a daughter of Jacob Neet, one of the hon- ored pioneer settlers of the county. They have two children, Harry L .. who is his father's partner and is married and lives across the street from the paternal home ; and Minnie, the wife of John Whalin, of St. James, Missouri. In 1902 Mr. Shafer erected a nice modern residence, which he and his wife now occupy, and in social circles of the town they are accorded a place of prominence in recognition of their sterling worth.
JAMES BRAINERD SMITH.
James Brainerd Smith, capitalist and member of the real estate firm of Smith and Miller, at Pittsburg. Crawford county, has been one of the foremost business men and financiers of this city and county for the past twenty years. For several years he was engaged in the mercantile business, but since then has directed his attention and energies mainly to operations in real estate and money transactions. Many enterprises in the county have received their impetus from his firm, and with his suc- cess he has promoted the prosperity and welfare of his community.
Mr. Smith was born at Rosamond. Christian county, Illinois, Octo- ber 19, 1859, a son of Brainerd and Nancy Ophelia ( Hawley ) Smith. His father was born at Amherst, Massachusetts, and was educated in Amherst College. He prepared himself for the ministry, but on account of poor health had to change his plans. He came to Illinois in the late fifties, and began farming on a place near Rosamond. Christian county. In 1865 he removed with his family to Normal, Illinois, in order to give his children the advantages of the school facilities there, and his three sons and three daughters all received their advanced training in that city. Mr. Smith, Sr., died at Normal in 1879. but his wife is still living on the old homestead at Normal. The name of one of their sons, Will- iam Hawley Smith, is a householdl word throughout the middle west.
242
HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY
He is one of the most popular lecture platform stars, and is not only a repository of wit, humor and pathos, but is noted as a litterateur and literary critic of great ability. He was associated as a co-lecturer with Bill Nye during the last tour of that celebrity. William Hawley Smith makes his home in Peoria, Illinois.
James Brainerd Smith graduated from the Normal public schools and then attended the Northern Illinois Normal at that place. He was engaged in teaching school for three years in central Illinois, after which he engaged in the mercantile business at Winona, Illinois. He remained there until September, 1883, and at that date came to Pitts- burg, Kansas, which has been the center of his business interests and home ever since. He first went into the dry-goods business with his brother, George K. Smith, who is now secretary of the National Lum- bermen's Association at St. Louis. The firm of Smith and Smith con- tinued for four years, and after its dissolution Mr. J. B. Smith became the partner of Henry C. Willard, a pioneer merchant of the town, under the name of the Willard Mercantile Company. Mr. Smith was con- nected with this firm for three years, and on June 1, 1890, he went into the real estate, financial and loan business with C. A. Miller, under the name of Smith and Miller. This soon became the leading firm of its kind. in this section of the state, and the business has been continued with increasing prosperity from year to year. They own large and valuable additions of real estate and coal lands in Pittsburg and vicinity. having three hundred acres of valuable coal land at the edge of the town. Recently, in connection with capitalists from Kansas City, they organized the Pittsburg Smelting and Mining Company. The company have purchased the old Hobart zinc smelter near Pittsburg, built at an original cost of eighty thousand dollars, and this was one of Pittsburg's most profitable industries until it was abandoned owing to the opening up of gas fields further west. The company has remodeled and rebuilt the plant, and will soon make the zinc industry once more a part of the wealth-producing enterprises of Pittsburg. Mr. Smith holds the office
243
HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY
of secretary-treasurer in the Pittsburg Smelting and Mining Company.
For sixteen years Mr. Smith was secretary of the Pittsburg Building and Loan Association, which has had a remarkably successful and bene- ficial career in Pittsburg. He affiliates with the Benevolent and Protec- tive Order of Elks and with the Masons, and is accounted one of the most public-spirited, solid and substantial citizens of Pittsburg, and has the entire confidence of the investing public.
Mr. Smith was married at Gardner, Illinois, to Miss Lucy E. Armi- tage, and they have five living children : Victor A., Edgar Z., Ernest Q .. Willard Hawley and Eleanor.
FRANK LAUGHLIN.
Frank Laughlin, who is the author of the history of the press of Crawford county to be found in the general history portion of this volume, is a newspaper man of long and varied experience, and has been very closely identified with the publie press of this section of the state of Kansas. During his earlier years he engaged in several vocations. huit in the end found journalism the most inviting and congenial occupa- tion, and in the past twenty-five years has made its pursuit the most snecessful and worthy aim of his endeavors.
Mr. Laughlin, whose full name is William Franklin, was born on a farm near Sidney, Ohio, January 26. 1854. a son of W. D. and Permela Laughlin. His father in his early life was a steamboat captain and served in other capacities in the river boating business, but later took up the occupation of farmer. He and his wife were both of Irish stock.
Mr. Frank Langhlin, after his common schooling, attended the Sid- ney high school and the Wesleyan University at Bloomington, Illinois, and also graduated from the business college at Bloomington. While passing the years of his boyhood in Sidney he learned the printer's trade. although he did not for several years make that the basis of his career. He left university on account of overtaxed eyesight, and then followed
244
HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY
the railway train service until he attained the position of conductor. From that he drifted back into printing. He was one of the editors and proprietors of the Girard Herald for several years, and has also had experience on the metropolitan dailies. For the past twelve years he has been city editor of the Pittsburg Daily Headlight, and as a citizen and in his editorial capacity has taken much interest in the public ad- vancement and welfare of both city and county. Most of his twenty- five years of newspaper experience has been in southeastern Kansas and southwestern Missouri.
Mr. Laughlin was married at Girard. Kansas, July 3. 1877. to Miss Grace E. Burnaugh, and they have two children: Mrs. C. V. Stewart, born November 12, 1878: and Harry Langhlin, born in August, 1888.
EDWIN V. LANYON.
Edwin V. Lanyon, president of the National Bank of Pittsburg, is one of the foremost business men and industrial promoters of the city and county. The name of Lanyon appears frequently throughout this work. the family history and enterprises forming an integral part of the annals of Crawford county, as well as of several other industrial centers of the middle west. Mr. E. V. Lanyon is of the second generation of this remarkable family of financiers and industrial magnates, and has done his full share in building up the great interests under the Lanyon name and in making for himself an honored career among his fellow citizens.
Mr. Lanyon was born at Mineral Point, Wisconsin, in 1863, that town having been the point of settlement when the Lanyons came from England, and there they made the beginnings of the zinc industry which made their fortunes. His parents are Josiah and Jane (Trevorrow) Lanyon, the latter a native of England and the former a native of Min- eral Point, although of an English-born father. Josiah Lanyon came to
RESIDENCE OF E. V. LANYON
E.r. Lugon
249
HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY
Pittsburg in 1882 in connection with the Pittsburg smelter established at that time. He and his wife now live in Mineral Point, Wisconsin.
Mr. E. V. Lanyon was reared and received most of his education at Mineral Point, Wisconsin. He came to Pittsburg with his father in 1882, and learned the zinc smelting business throughout and became con- nected with the industry. He was later with the smelter at Iola. Kan- sas, and afterward at Neodesha, where he remained until November, 1903, when he returned to Pittsburg as a place of residence. He is president of the Lanyons' bank in Pittsburg. the National Bank of Pitts- burg, whose important place among the financial institutions of this part of the state is detailed in another part of this work. He devotes all his time to the banking business, and has proved himself to be pos- ยท sessed of the characteristic financial ability of the family.
Mr. Lanyon was elected mayor of Pittsburg in April. 1897, and gave a most business-like and creditable administration for two years. Pittsburg has been his place of residence and center of activity for over twenty years, and he has always been found a most enterprising factor in promoting its development and welfare. He is a Republican in poli- tics. Fraternally he is connected with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and with other societies.
Mr. Lanyon was married in Pittsburg in 1889 to Miss Lydia Scott. daughter of Thomas L. Scott, whose history and important connection with the city of Pittsburg is given elsewhere in this work. Mr. and Mrs. Lanyon have three children, Margery. Edwina and Dorothy.
O. A. REES.
O. A. Rees is lessee of one of the large coal mines of Crawford county, Cherokee Coal and Mining Company No. I, located at Cherokee. and he is well known both as a business man and public-spirited citizen. He has been connected with the coal mining industry most of his active life, and has been singularly successful in this line of work. At the
250
HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY
mine where he now has charge the monthly output runs from two to three thousand tons per month, of several grades, obtained from a fine three and a half foot vein. Between fifty and a hundred men are em- ployed at good wages at the mine, and the entire operations are con- ducted in such a way as to reflect credit upon the manager. Mr. Rees is both a theoretical and practical miner, has studied and worked at the industry in all its details, and is recognized as one of the most progres- sive and successful operators in Crawford county. He was located at Fleming in this county for three years, where he was superintendent of W. Coal Mine Company No. 3. and for some fourteen years was at the Osage mines.
Mr. Rees was born in Brooklyn, New York, forty-five years ago, being a son of John and Elizabeth (Mills) Rees. His father died in Kansas at the age of sixty-four. He was a merchant for many years. He was one of the most ardent supporters of the Republican party from the time of its organization until his death. He was at the conven- tion which first established the party in national politics, when General Fremont was nominated for the presidency, in 1856. Fraternally he was an Odd Fellow. His wife was a native of Liverpool. England, of a good English family, and she too is now deceased.
Mr. Rees was reared in New York and Vermont, and has supple- mented his public school training by practical and close attention to af- fairs, and has always been successful in his various undertakings. At the age of twenty-three he was married in Osage county, this state, to Miss S. Jenkins, who was born in Pennsylvania, but was reared and educated in Kansas. By this union there are eight children, as follows : Anna, Stella, Fred. Thomas, William, Mattie, John and Irene. Mr. Rees affiliates with the Masonic order at Osage City, and in politics he is liberal in his beliefs. He assisted in making up the reports for this district of the United States government geological survey in 1904. He is popular with his employees, and frank and cordial with all his associates.
251
HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY
CHRISTOPHER C. GRACEY.
Christopher C. Gracey, who owns and resides upon a nice inte estate of forty acres in Osage township. is one of the old settlers of Crawford county, having come here in 1869, when the prairies still stretched almost continuous from one boundary line to the other. only broken here and there by a cultivated field and a newly established homestead. He has accordingly witnessed the development and trans- formation which have since taken place in the county, and as he has borne his part most creditably in all the activities to which he has been called he merits mention in the history of his county as a man of worth and public-spirited citizenship.
Mr. Gracey also deserves mention as one of the soldier citizens of the county. On the 21st of August. 1863, being at that time sixteen years of age, hie enlisted at St. Louis, from Bond county, Illinois, in Company D (later transferred to Company E), Third Illinois Cavalry, under Captain Joseph K. McLean and Colonel Karahan; from Benton Barracks they were sent to Little Rock, and later formed General Steele's body-guard : were at Memphis, Nashville and at various other points in the Mississippi valley: were ordered to Fort Snelling, Minnesota. to quell the outbreak of the Sioux Indians, and that rough-rider service took them all along the northern border toward Canada and in the Dakotas. Mr. Gracey received his honorable discharge at Springfield, Illinois, in October, 1865. after having seen hard service in the army and gaining an excellent record as a soldier although still a boy when he was discharged.
Mr. Gracey was born in Madison county, Illinois, in 1847, being a son of William and Caroline (Campbell) Gracey, his father a native of Tennessee and of an old family of that state and his mother a native of North Carolina. The parents both died in Illinois, the father in Han- cock county. He followed the occupation of farmer, in politics was a Democrat, and he and his wife were members of the Methodist church.
252
HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY
They had six children, five sons, John, William, Joseph, Christopher C. and George, and all of them were soldiers. William D. died at Little Rock. Arkansas, in the fall of 1863, and George, the youngest, was drowned in the Ohio river in the spring of 1865.
Mr. Gracey was first married to Miss Kate Smith, a native of Kentucky, a daughter of Asa and Nancy Smith, also of that state. This first wife died in Coffey county, Kansas, leaving two sons, Willard and George. Mr. Gracey afterward married Mary Etta Thompson, a daugh- ter of George and Sarah Thompson, of Madison county, Illinois. There are two children by this union. Frank and Verda. Mr. Gracey is a Republican in politics, and is affiliated with the Grand Army of the Re- public.
JAMES U. TREADWELL.
James U. Treadwell, the well known jeweler and also serving as one of the city fathers of Pittsburg, has spent all the years of his ma- jority in this city and has prospered with the advance of time. He is an excellent business man, with a reputation for honorable, fair dealing in all his relations with men, and his career has been according to his just merits and true personal worth.
Mr. Treadwell was born at Fort Browerton, Oneida county, New York, in 1864, being a son of E. A. and Fidelia ( Means) Treadwell. His father was born in Onondaga county, New York, and lived in that state for a number of years. In 1867 he brought his family to Hills- dale county, Michigan, where he was engaged in farming for several years. While in that county his wife died, in 1868. In 1882 he and the other members of the family came out to Crawford county, Kansas, where he took up a farm in Baker township, two and a half miles east of Pittsburg. He continued his farming operations there until recently, when he retired and moved to Pittsburg, which is now his home.
Mr. James U. Treadwell spent the years of his life preceding his
253
HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY
coming to Crawford county on a farm, and had a substantial public school education. Shortly after his arrival in this county he came to Pittsburg and went to work in the Lanyon smelter, which had just been started up. He remained at that work for two years, and then estab- lished his present business of jeweler and watchmaker. He has gained the confidence and the patronage of the citizens, and his trade has been on the steady increase during all the twenty years since it was estab- lished. He has a nice store at 421 North Broadway, and his stock is one of the best in the city.
Mr. Treadwell is a stanch Republican in politics. He is deeply interested in the welfare and progress of his city, and in April, 1903. was elected to the city council as the representative of the third ward. He has given of his time and efforts in a public-spirited and generous manner to the administrative affairs of the city. Mr. Treadwell has fraternal affiliations with the Modern Woodmen of America.
Mr. Treadwell was married at Pittsburg December 25, 1894. to Miss Rosie Brewer, and they have one daughter, Majil.
LEWIS HESS.
Lewis Hess, the well known stock farmer at Hepler, has passed all his life since boyhood in Crawford county, and has gained a most creditable degree of success both as a farmer and business man. He has been identified with the progressive movements in the county, and has often been found among the cohorts of progress and upbuilding and in the promotion of some especially worthy enterprise. Public trusts have also been confided in him, and he has never lacked the eminent degree of public-spirited citizenship for which our German-American residents are noted.
Mr. Hess was born in Hanover, Germany, January 1, 1851, being a son of Henry and Grace ( Brunjus) Hess. His parents brought their family to America in 1855 and settled first in Benton county, Missouri.
254
HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY
but in the early year of 1866 moved to Crawford county, or, as it was then called, the Neutral Lands. His father engaged in farming here during the remainder of his life, which came to a peaceful close in 1894. when he was eighty-two years old. followed two years later by the departure of his wife, then aged seventy-two years.
Mr. Lewis Hess attended school in Missouri, and after coming to Crawford county lived at home and followed farming until 1877. He then bought a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Sherman town- ship. but sold this in 1886 and moved into Hepler, where he first em- barked in the livery business and later in the general merchandise busi- ness. Since selling out his mercantile interests he has devoted himself most successfully to stock farming, and he has found this a most profit- able line of activity. He has a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, and eighty acres of this lies within the city limits of Hepler, and his residence is also in the town.
Mr. Hess was for some time a member of the Masonic blue lodge at Walnut, Lodge No. 229. He is a staunch Republican, and in public affairs has held the office of township assessor and school treasurer. Mr. Hess was married, January 31, 1877, to Miss Ella Carter, a daugh- ter of Albert and Mary Ann Carter. Her father died in 1890, at the age of sixty-five, but her mother is now living at the Hess home, being seventy-nine years old. Mr. and Mrs. Hess have had the following children : Charles, who was a brakeman on the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad, and was killed at Junction City about two years ago; Herman, who died at the age of eighteen months: James, who died at the age of six months; Ruth, who died when three years old; and Dwyer, who died when four months old.
GRANVILLE SIMEON SCOTT.
Granville Simeon Scott, of Osage township, has been a resident of Crawford county since 1869, being one of the old-timers. A man
255
HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY
of varied experience in life. having proved his usefulness and worth in all the departments of activity to which he has been called, and pos- sessed of that strict integrity of character which lends force and influ- ence to man in every age of life, he has not been otherwise than potent for good and the welfare of his community, and as such is esteemed by all his fellow citizens.
Mr. Scott is one of the honored veterans of the Civil war who have since taken up their residence in Crawford county and proved such a valuable addition to its sterling citizenship. He enlisted in Moniteau county, Missouri, in November, 1861, in Company I. Twenty-fourth Missouri Cavalry, going into camp at Jefferson City, under officers Captain Rice and Colonel Hall. He saw hard and constant service in what was in many respects the most dangerous battle ground of the war, on the western side of the Mississippi: was again and again in conflict with the troopers of Joe Shelby, Quantrell. Coffey, Anderson, and other of the noted rebel leaders, under whom the bloodthirstiest guerrillas and bushwhackers often served. He was at the fight at Tur- key creek, and in fact was all over the state of Missouri, experiencing many narrow escapes: was at Pisgah, and also had a severe skirmish in a tobacco field; and toward the end of the war went to New Mexico as a guard for a government train of supplies. After a long and wear- ing service he received his honorable discharge.
Mr. Scott was born in Monticello, Wayne county, Kentucky, Feb- ruary 25, 1830, being a son of William and Parnita ( Goodrich ) Scott. both natives of Kentucky. Both the paternal and maternal grandfathers served in the Revolutionary war, and the latter lived to the great age of one hundred and five years. The father was killed in an accident while living in Missouri, at the age of fifty-five. His children were : Granville S., Sarah A., Collie B., Allen, William, and James, who was killed while a soldier in the Confederate army. The mother attained the age of eighty-nine years. She was a member of the Baptist church.
Mr. Scott was reared in Cole county, Missouri. in a backwoods
256
HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY
country and period, receiving his educational advantages in an old- fashioned schoolhouse with slab seats and fireplace. In 1852 he was married to Elizabeth Jane Curnutt, who was born in Virginia, being one of the three children left at her mother's death at thirty-five. the others being Andrew J., who was a soldier in the Fourth Missouri Cav- alry, and Mary. Her father, who was a member of the Baptist church and a good and worthy man, died at the age of fifty-six. Mr. and Mrs. Scott came out to Crawford county, as has been mentioned, in 1869, and were among the first settlers at Girard. Later they moved to their present home. where he owns a nice little farm of forty acres and has all the comforts and conveniences which his lifetime of effort so well deserves.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.