USA > Kansas > Crawford County > A Twentieth century history and biographical record of Crawford County, Kansas > Part 21
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Mr. Gunn moved to Girard in 1892, and for the following year read law in the office of James T. Bridgens, being admitted to the bar in 1893. He purchased the Arcadia Now's in January. 1804. He moved to Mississippi in 1896 and in February founded the Quitman Herald, and in November, 1896, founded the Wayne County ( Mississippi) Newes. In 1897 he returned to Crawford county, and in March assumed control of the Arcadia Times, and has managed that publication ever since.
Mr. Gunn was made a Mason in Mulberry, Kansas, in 1886, and was master of that lodge in 1892: affiliated with the lodge at Waynes- boro, Mississippi, in 1896, and with the Arcadia lodge in 1898, being master of the lodge in 1902. also in 1905. He joined the Modern Woodmen of America at Girard in 1802, transferred to Arcadia in
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1894, and was venerable consul in 1900-02 and is the present clerk. He was a charter member of the Home Builders' Union at Arcadia. and was master builder in 1902 and 1903. He united with the Meth- odist church on January 4. 1903, and was shortly afterward chosen one of its trustees. Mr. Gunn published a history of his family in 1891. containing the names of nearly four thousand of his relatives. In 1893 he published and collated all his early poems, sketches, and various writings. In his official career Mr. Gunn was appointed postmaster by President Benjamin Harrison of Coalvale. Kansas, the second ap- pointment in Crawford county by that president.
LEWIS MARTIN.
Lewis Martin, editor and proprietor of the Walnut Eagle and its job printing plant, has an acknowledged high rank among the news- paper men of Crawford county, and the journal of which he has been editor for the past eighteen years has its fitting description in the his- tory of the press of Crawford county, to be found on the earlier pages of this work. Mr. Martin has a somewhat conspicuous place in the county because of his resolute and successful opposition to the liquor traffic, and the Eagle is the only pronounced temperance organ of the county. He has all the aggressiveness, devotion to principle, sympathy with general progress and upbuilding in the county, and the power and acumen of the editorial writer which make the successful and useful editor, and his and his paper's worth in the county entitles him to the esteem and regard in which he is held.
Mr. Martin was born in Prussia, January 3. 1849, a son of Peter and Charlotte Martin, also natives of Prussian Germany. His parents came to America in 1849. locating first in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. but in 1856 moved to Hancock county, Illinois, and both died in that state.
Mr. Martin had a public school education and afterward attended
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the Central Wesleyan College at Warrentown, Missouri. For several years he was engaged in teaching school, and in 1887 he arrived in Kansas and purchased a half interest in the Walnut Eagle. He has maintained this paper at a high standard, has always given his readers the news and something worth reading, and it has a good circulation throughout the county. About six years ago Mr. Martin, through the columns of his paper, began a crusade against the open saloons of the town. operating against the state law. This was an up-hill and bitter fight. and the mayor of Walnut offered fifty dollars to have the paper run out of town, and a mob also made an attempt to drive out the editor. But the final victory lodged with the Eagle, and Walnut at present is without saloons. Mr. Martin was one of the organizers of the first law and order league in this state, and he is now its secretary. with R. W. Preston its president.
Mr. Martin is a member and the secretary of the Lodge No. 69 of the Woodmen of the World. He and his family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and he takes an active part in church work and has been one of the church trustees for four years. He was mar- ried, at West Point, Illinois, March 30. 1881. to Miss Eliza Wilson, a (laughter of J. B. Wilson, who formerly lived in Illinois, but now in Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Martin have one son, John Arthur Martin. who is twenty-three years old, and is employed in the Eagle office.
D. M. WHITEHEAD.
D. M. Whitehead, prominent and well known in Hepler as a breed- er of Short-horn and Polled Durham cattle, has had a most successful career since coming to Kansas over twenty years ago. He began life without money capital, and at the present time has much to show for his forty odd years, both in the way of material circumstances and in the wealth of wholesome esteem which he has gained among his friends and associates in Crawford county. He has one of the model stock farms.
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of the county, complete in all conveniences and accessories, and no finer cattle are raised within the boundaries of the state than are to be found on his farm.
Mr. Whitehead was born in Ripley county, Indiana. August 12, 1860, being a son of John A. and Minerva (Isgrigg) Whitehead. His parents came to Kansas in 1883, and his father died here in 1893. at the age of sixty, but his mother is still living, making her home near Hepler.
Mr. D. M. Whitehead was reared to manhood in Indiana, and there received a public school education, which was further supplemented in the Normal College at Mitchell, Indiana. He entered the occupation of school teaching when nineteen years old, and in the spring of 1884 came out to Kansas and accepted the principalship of the schools at Hepler, holding that position for five years, and was then at Monmouth two years, and at McCune one year. After these eight years of faithful work in Crawford county schools, he began farming as a permanent occupation. He had bought a farm of eighty acres when he first came to the county, and he still owns this as his home place. It is one of the best improved places in the county, and he takes the more pride in it because he has placed all the improvements on it himself. He resides in a nice modern cottage, and has recently completed a fine stock barn, forty by thirty-two feet, which he erected especially for the care of his fine stock. In October, 1901, while drilling for water, he struck a gas vein, and natural gas now supplies his light and fuel. During 1903 he sold six thousand dollars' worth of fat stock, which indicates the extent of his operations in this special line of agricultural activity.
Mr. Whitehead is a member of the A. H. T. A. of Walnut, and he and his wife are members of the Christian church. He is independent in politics, but his beliefs are those of the Democracy. He has served his district as school director. In 1004 he received the nomination as state senator on the Democratic ticket, but in the election was defeated like many other good men who supported their belief and principles. Hc was married. September 26, 1888, to Miss Julia Anna Curry, of Ohio,
Win Braden
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and by this marriage there was one child. Julian, born October 13, 1889. and its mother died on the day following its birth. On June 30, 1894. Mr. Whitehead married his present wife. Cora M. Taylor, of Cherokee. Kansas.
WILLIAM H. BRADEN.
William H. Braden, county commissioner of Crawford county and the past fifteen years engaged in the livery business in Pittsburg, is one of the county's old and prominent pioneer settlers. When he located in Crawford county nearly thirty-five years ago the bare prairies had hardly a fence and offered free range for cattle from one end to the other. Furthermore, the great mineral resources of the county had not even been opened up, much less developed, and the thriving cities of Pittsburg and Girard were not yet in existence. It is clear, there- fore, that in locating a farm, improving it with hedges and fences and buildings and cultivating the soil, Mr. Braden bore an important part in the early agricultural and industrial history of Crawford county, and both for this and for the worthy efforts he has devoted to the public welfare and official management of township and county affairs fully deserves the high esteem in which he is held from one corner of the county to the other.
Mr. Braden was born in Richland county, Ohio, in 1844. a son of Samuel and Susan (Bidinger) Braden. His father was a native of Pennsylvania and a farmer. He moved to Richland county, Ohio. and later to Noble county, Indiana, where he died in 1809, when over ninety years of age. His wife, who was of a Pennsylvania Dutch family, died in 1852.
Mr. Braden was quite young when the family moved to Noble county, Indiana, and there he received most of his education. In 1862 he enlisted at Ligonier. that county, in an independent cavalry regiment. the First Indiana Cavalry, the volunteers furnishing their own horses.
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His troop was assigned to duty in Missouri, and was at Pilot Knob and Iron Mountain. His first engagement was at Fredericktown, the next at Cottonplant, and then was in skirmishes as they made their way south into Arkansas. His troop was General Steele's escort when Little Rock was taken. Later, at Pine Bluff, he was in the fiercest fight of his experience, when Price and Marmaduke attacked the Union troops at that place. He also participated in the battle at Helena. Arkansas, and subsequently did service in Tennessee and Mississippi. He was honorably discharged at Ditvall's Bluff, Arkansas, in 1865, at the close of the war.
After the war Mr. Braden settled in McLean county. Illinois, and went to farming. From here, in 1869. he moved to Kansas and located in Crawford county. He bought land four miles west of the present city of Girard, and practically had to make the farm, as only a slight amount of work had been done on the place. He broke the ground by himself, and also set out the hedges, besides effecting the innumerable other improvements which made the farm a beautiful and productive piece of property. He lived there until 1878, when he was called by the voters to take the office of sheriff of the county, in which position he served two years. He was again elected to the office in 1882 and re- elected in 1884. so that he served altogether six years, or three terms. Following his official career he took his wife to Utah for the benefit of her health, and on his return embarked in the livery business in Pitts- burg, which enterprise he still continues. He is a successful business man, and in all the relations of his busy career has acquitted himself most creditably.
Mr. Braden has for a number of years been prominent in the councils of the Republican party. He was elected county commissioner in 1898, and was again elected in 1901, being now in his fifth year of that office. He is a good, careful, conscientious public official, and one in whom the people have a great deal of confidence. He affiliates with the Masonic order, being a member of the commandery at this place.
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and is also a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. Mr. Braden is one of the directors of the First National Bank of Pittsburg. He is president of the Old Soldiers' Reunion and president of the Lincoln Park Association. While he was living in McLean county, Illinois, Mr. Braden married Miss Wealthy Elizabeth Lott, and they have two children, Samuel Burr and William Orr.
JAMES W. AND SAMUEL T. MONTEE.
James Walter and Samuel Theodore Montee, the popular and well known druggists of Girard, Kansas, are sons of Frank and Mary E. (Purdom) Montee. Their father was one of the early pioneers of Kan- sas, having first come to this country during the dark and bloody days of 1857. He remained until 1861, and then returned to his Illinois home, whenee in 1873 he brought his family to Crawford county, Kan- sas, and engaged in farming. He is one of the best known breeders of fine Short-horn eattle in this county. He was elected county commis- sioner in 1895, and in 1900 was elected county treasurer, which office he held until 1904. He is now one of the highly respected residents of Sheridan township, having a nice farm in section 22.
Mr. J. W. Montee was born in McDonough county, Illinois, May 23. 1872, and was reared to manhood and has spent his life in Crawford county. In addition to his common school education he also attended the state normal school at Fort Scott. At the age of nineteen he took up the study of medicine with Dr. Gardner, of Girard, and two years later became a elerk in a drug store. During his three and a half years' elerkship he learned all the details of the business, and then bought out the Cushenberry drug store at Girard, which he conducted under the name of J. W. Montee and Company. In 1896 he sold a half interest to Mr. Frazier, but in February, 1904, bought the latter's interest and in turn sold it to his brother Samuel T. The brothers have a first-class
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establishment. conduct it on modern principles, and their fair and square dealing has gained them a large patronage.
Mr. J. W. Montee was married January 31. 1898, to Miss Lettisa S. Kennedy, who has been an orphan since she was six years of age. She is a member of the Presbyterian church. Mr. Montee affiliates with the local lodge of the Masons and also with Lodge No. 63, K. of P., belonging to the uniform rank of the order. He was elected to the legislature during the campaign of 1904. with one of the largest ma- jorities in the history of this the twenty-third district of Kansas.
Samuel Theodore Montee, the junior member of the firm, is a native son of Crawford county, where he was born January 27, 1875. After receiving his education in the common schools of the county, at the age of twenty-one he became a conductor on the Pittsburg street railway, in which work he continued until November, 1903. In February. 1904. as above mentioned, he bought a half interest in his brother's drug store. Mr. S. T. Montee was married May 24, 1899, to Miss Ida Downing, a daughter of Abraham N. and Martha A. Downing. Three children have been born of their marriage, but one died in infancy, and the others are Ruth D. and Ralph Cyril. Mr. Montee affiliates with the Knights of the Maccabees and with the Independent Order of Red Men. He and his brother are both Republicans, and the latter takes a prominent part in party affairs in this county.
CHARLES R. RICE.
Charles R. Rice, one of the owners of the well known and popular establishment of the Pittsburg Dry Goods Company, belongs to the class of young business men in Pittsburg, and by his progressive meth- ods and enterprise has built up one of the largest dry-goods stores in this section of the state. He has been reared to the career of a mer- chant, and has known no other occupation from the time of boyhood, so that he is thoroughly acquainted with all the details of the business, and
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is known everywhere as a shrewd. upright and successful young business man.
Mr. Rice was born in Adair county, Missouri, in 1867, a son of James W. and Sarah L. ( Elliott ) Rice. His father was a native of Ohio, and followed the occupation of farming. He came west and set- tled in Adair county, Missouri, where he died in 1868, when his son Charles was one year old. Mrs. Sarah Rice is still living, and makes her home at Kirksville, Missouri.
Mr. Rice was taken to Moulton, Iowa, when he was quite young. and in that city was reared and educated. His mother had married J. M. Wight, a prominent merchant of that place, and when Charles left school he began work in his stepfather's store, where he mastered all the details of the mercantile business. He remained with his stepfather several years, and then held various positions with some prominent firms in Kansas, principally at Hutchinson, where he lived for five years and had a responsible position in a large store. In the latter part of 1900 he came to Pittsburg, and, in partnership with H. J. Toers, also of Hutch- inson, formed the Pittsburg Dry Goods Company. They opened up their store with a stock of forty-five hundred dollars' value, and the business has been so ably conducted and has become so popular that their stock is now worth eighteen thousand dollars, and the establish- ment is one of the largest dry-goods stores in this part of the state. occupying the large building at 301 North Broadway. It is a pur- chasers' emporium, with metropolitan features and facilities for meet- ing a high-grade demand, having an especially fine line of dress goods. silks, trimmings, linens and laces. Mr. Rice makes periodical trips to the eastern markets, where he is known as a shrewd and careful buyer; and in Pittsburg and Crawford county he is well known for his excellent business qualifications and for his straightforward. upright manner.
Mr. Rice was married in Galva, Kansas, to Miss Loti Prentice. and they have one son. Hugh Prentice Rice.
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REV. F. M. VERDAN. .
Father F. M. Verdan, the beloved pastor of the St. Aloysius par- ish, in Crawford county, with his church at the place called Greenbush, has been ministering to the spiritual needs of his people in this county for the past twenty years or more, and there is hardly a better known or more respected man of the county than this servant of God and the church.
The history of religion in southeastern Kansas, as, in fact, in the entire Mississippi valley, begins with the devoted efforts of the zealous, brave and persevering Jesuit fathers. These disciples of Loyola came to this part of the country in 1847, and covered all this territory on horseback, going for their mail to Fort Scott, and with their head- quarters at St. Paul, where their Indian converts had given them six- teen hundred acres of land. On one occasion Father Colton, who was a prominent pioneer priest, was riding across the plains to St. Paul. and on the approach of darkness and a very heavy hail storm, he was forced to dismount and cover his head with the saddle for protection. On the following morning he made up his mind to found a church where he had spent the night, and he accordingly erected a cabin six- teen by eighteen feet, and was given a tract of one hundred and sixty acres of land. This place was then known as Hickory, and is the site of the spot in Crawford county now called Greenbush. The pioneer church was at various times in its history used as a court house, town hall, schoolhouse. Before the erection of the present church edifice services were held in the house of Thomas Murnell. The present church was built in 1877-82, being five years in course of construction. At the present time another, and more substantial, church is being erected. It will be of stone, and will be the finest in the county.
Thus the history of this religious community forms no insignifi- cant portion of the record of Crawford county, and has had a really longer continuous corporate existence than any other organization or
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institution of the county. It was in the fall of 1881 that Father Verdan was assigned to this parish by Bishop L. M. Fink. He first came to Walnut, and then to Brazilton, where the first man he met was W. H. Ryan, the present mayor of Girard, who engaged a man to drive the Father to Hickory. Mr. Nicholas gave him a mule on which to make his pastoral calls, and thus he began his ministry. He had charge of the church of Girard, and had to cover a large area on horseback. The house where he now lives was finished on Christmas, 1882, and he has placed all the improvements on the ten acres about his home, such as vineyard, shade trees, fences, etc. His ministerial labors have been re- markably effective and influential for good, and he has the satisfaction of seeing a marked increase and growth in the size and social, moral and intellectual advancement of his parish.
Father Verdan was born in Savoy, France, being one of a family of three brothers and the only one to take up the work of the church and to come to America. His younger brother became a noted surgeon in the French army, and died in Africa when only twenty-six years old. Father Verdan as a child was remarkably precocious. He could read as soon as he could talk, and at the age of nine years he began his studies preparatory for entrance to the priesthood. He found no difficulty in keeping up with his classes notwithstanding his youth, and he graduated from the highest institutions of learning in Paris. \t the age of twenty-six years he came to America and entered Notre Dame University in Indiana, where he learned the English language. He afterward went to New Orleans and was a teacher of languages in St. Isadore College for eight months. He was then ordained to the priesthood, and went to Montreal. where he remained only eight months because of a loss of hearing in one ear. From there he came to Craw- ford county, where he soon regained his hearing.
Father Verdan has built up his local congregation to about one hundred families. His work has been carried on in several communities of the county. At Walnut he had a good congregation for the first
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eighteen years of his ministry. He established at Greenbush a store, " postoffice, a creamery and a blacksmith shop. He also conducted services at Girard. He built Hiatteville congregation. He keeps himself well informed on all present day issues and affairs, and is a man of broad intelligence and sympathy as well as a sincere and earnest worker for . his Master.
F. L. KEELER, M. D.
Among the representatives of professional life in Crawford county is numbered Dr. F. L. Keeler, a physician and surgeon of Farlington, Kansas, who has become well equipped for his chosen field of labor and in the exercise of his professional duties has displayed marked efficiency and skill. He was born in Wayneville, North Carolina, on the 28th of December, 1857, and is a son of Albert and Amanda (Henry) Keeler, the former a native of Tennessee and the latter of North Carolina. The subject of this review was born during a visit which his mother was paying at her old home in her native state. Her death occurred in the year 1878 when she was forty-two years of age, but Albert Keeler is still living and now makes his home in Sevier county, Tennessee.
Dr. Keeler spent his early youth in Tennessee and pursued his education in the public schools, completing his education at Mountain Star Academy. He afterward engaged in teaching school for ten years, proving a capable educator who imparted clearly and readily to others the knowledge that he had acquired. On the expiration of that decade he took up the study of medicine in the office and under the direction of Dr. J. B. De Lozier, of Fairgarden. Tennessee, and after two years of preliminary reading he passed the state examination in 1892 and entered upon the practice of medicine. On the 7th of March, 1894. he arrived in Farlington, Kansas, and opened an office here, and the first day he received a call, and since that time his practice has constantly
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grown both in volume and importance. He has fully demonstrated his ability to cope with the intricate problems which continually confront the physician because of the complications which arise from disease, and he is continually promoting his efficiency by reading and investigation along medical lines, so that he keeps in touch with the best thinking men of the profession.
On the 12th of December. 1878. Dr. Keeler was united in marriage to Miss Priscilla D. Inman, a daughter of Daniel Inman, of Fairgarden. Tennessee. To the Doctor and his wife have been born four children. namely : Florence, who is engaged in teaching school near Walnut, Kansas: Pearl, who is also a teacher : Lelia May, at home ; and Cecil L .. who died at the age of two years. The mother and her daughters are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Dr. Keeler is identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and with the Fraternal Aid, both of Farlington. and also with the Modern Woodmen of America. He is now examiner for the second named. also for the Ancient Order of United Workmen and for the Modern Woodmen camp. His political support is given to the Republican party, but while he has firm faith in its principles and earnestly desires its success he has neither time nor inclination to seek office, preferring to give his time and attention to his professional duties, which now make heavy demands upon his energies, owing to the extent of his practice. He owns a fine residence and office in this place, and in addition he has two nice lots, upon which his house stands.
DR. WILLIAM WILLIAMS.
Dr. William Williams, a prominent and well known physician of Pittsburg, Crawford county, has been located in practice here since 1886, and has gained a reputation and a patronage among the best classes of citizens of which he may well be proud. He has relied on his own efforts for his advancement, and has throughout his career been
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