USA > Kansas > Crawford County > A Twentieth century history and biographical record of Crawford County, Kansas > Part 26
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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY
But it is not I.
Now in life immortal hovering, Far away I roam. This was but my house, my covering,
'Tis no more my home.
This was but the cage that bound me ;
I, the bird, have flown.
This was but the shell around me;
I. the pearl, am gone.
Over me as over treasures
Had a spell been cast.
God hath spoken, at his pleasure
I am free at last.
Thanks and praise to him be given,
Who has set me free ;
Now for evermore in heaven
Shall my dwelling be.
There I stand his face beholding,
With the saints in light;
Present, future, past unfolding,
In that radiance bright. Toiling through the plain I leave you,
I have journeyed on.
From your tents why should it grieve you,
Friends, to find me gone?
Let the house. forsaken, perish,
Let the shell decay ; Break the cage. destroy the garment- I am far away. Call not this my death, I pray you,- 'Tis my life of life- Goal of all my weary wanderings,
.
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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY
End of all. my strife.
Think of God with love forever,
Know his name is Love:
Come to him. distrust him never,
He rewards above.
I behold each deathless spirit.
All your ways I view : Lo! the portion I inherit Is reserved for you."
Jonathan Bayless came with his parents, Samuel and Mary, from New York city to Adrian, Michigan, when he was, three and a half years old. When he was seventeen years old he began teaching in the winter seasons. His first school was at Medina, Michigan, then for two winters at Sylvania, Ohio, for two winters at Monroe City, Michigan, and then at his home school. He assisted his father on the farm during the bal- ance of each year. He continued in this way until he was twenty-five years old, and then, on March 1, 1854. married Miss Eugenia Briggs, a daughter of William R. Briggs, of Lenawee county. Michigan. He and his wife at once took up their residence on their own eighty-seven acres near Adrian. By this marriage there were three sons and two daughters : Ella M., wife of W. L. Eddy, living near Girard, Kansas ; to them have been born five children, Frank Bayless, Eugenia May, who died in infancy : Leonard Jonathan, Lucy Isabel, Henry Newton. Na- thaniel, living in Girard, married Fannie Straub, and they have two children. John Henry and Pearl Ida. Irving J., in the hay, grain and coal business in Kansas City, married Lillian Estella Terry, of Fort Scott, Kansas. Mary L. married H. W. Barclay, the proprietor and operator of a corset factory in Newark, New Jersey: they have two children, Gaylord .A. and Mary Louise. William B. died in infancy.
March 10, 1864. Mr. Bayless sold his farm in Michigan, and on March 1, 1865. opened a drug and grocery store in Mendota, Illinois, where he did well for a time. But finding that more than half of his
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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY
customers were Germans who wanted a treat to beer after each purchase (something he could not conscientiously do), he decided to sell out and go elsewhere. On December 18, 1865, he sold all his property in Men- dota, and in the following spring bought lots and built a store in the new town of Pleasant Hill, Missouri, and he and his brother Benjamin engaged in the furniture and undertaking business. In August of the same year, while on a trip to purchase goods, he was taken suddenly ill at St. Louis with typhoid fever. Mrs. Bayless came to take care of him, and was stricken with the same disease and died September 24, being buried in the St. Louis Evangelical Alliance cemetery, now called the New Pickers cemetery.
On August 5, 1867, Mr. Bayless was married at Adrian, Michigan, to Miss Charlotte Briggs, a sister of his first wife, and she died at Pleas- ant Hill, Missouri, of typhoid fever, August 30, 1868, and is buried beside her sister in St. Louis. Mr. Bayless married for his third wife Miss Mary E. Curtiss, in Racine, Wisconsin, December 28. 1870. One daughter was born of this union, Delia R .. who died in infancy, and Mrs. Mary E. Bayless died Februry 28, 1874, she and her little daughter being buried in the cemetery at Girard, Kansas.
In the summer of 1871 Jonathan and Benjamin Bayless sold their business in Pleasant Hill, Missouri, and dissolved partnership. Benjamin going to Denver, Colorado. Jonathan, because of poor health, came to Crawford county and settled on a farm of one hundred and sixty acres five miles northwest of Girard, which land he had purchased two years before of John H. Gorden. He reached Girard on January 17, 1872. and lived on his farm until the spring of 1890. He devoted his time and efforts to general farming and the handling and raising of stock. He also planted, as soon as he came to the county, an apple orchard of forty acres. He gradually added to his landed possessions in this county until at one time he owned seven hundred and sixty acres, but now retains only three hundred and sixty acres.
Mr. Bayless was married to his present wife October 4, 1874, her
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maiden name being Rebecca A. Hartsock, a daughter of Lewis Hart- sock, a farmer of Crawford county. They moved from the farm to the city of Girard in the spring of 1890, where they have a pleasant and comfortable home in which to pass their remaining years, both being in good health for their age.
GEORGE A. ROBINSON.
George A. Robinson, stonemason contractor, has been a successful, reliable and well known citizen of Cherokee for the last twenty odd years. Having mastered a fine trade in his youth, he has never lacked for occupation of all his energies, and he has been able to accomplish much, both from a financial standpoint and in what concerns the general wel- fare and progress of his community. He is also esteemed as one of the host of Grand Army men now being so rapidly thinned by the hand of death. and his loyalty not only to country but to all that he has held best in life has never been questioned.
It was near the shores of Lake Champlain, at Fairfax, Vermont, where Mr. Robinson, shortly after he had attained to man's estate, ten- dered his services to his country. He enlisted in September, 1862,.in Company K. Eleventh Vermont Artillery, twenty-four hundred strong. From camp at Brattleboro they were ordered to Washington, and were at Fort Lincoln a week before being sent into the real field of war. At the battle of Cold Harbor Mr. Robinson received a bullet wound in the right hand, and was also injured by a splinter from a gunstock. His wound was a bad one, threatening blood poison and gangrene, and for a long time he was in the hospitals at White House Landing, German- town, New York, and then at Montpelier in his native state. He finally started again for the front, but was not allowed to proceed and by order of President Lincoln received an, honorable discharge after giving a most creditable and self-sacrificing service to his country.
Mr. Robinson was born at Fairfax, Vermont, November 18. 1840,
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being a son of George and Joanna (Aldrich) Robinson. His father. of English ancestry, was blind for many years, and died at Cherokee when seventy-six years of age. The mother, a native of Massachusetts. and whose ancestors came over in the Mayflower, died at the age of seventy-eight. Both were exemplary members of the Baptist church. and people of eminent worth and respectability. There were two sons in the family, and Wilber is a resident of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
In 1881 Mr. Robinson moved to Cherokee, this county, where he has since been a resident. He owns a valuable tract of land south of town which is underlaid with coal, and when developed this will be one of the paying coal properties of the locality. Mr. Robinson as a contractor in stonemason work has done most of the work at Cherokee and vicinity since he located here, and has made a fine record in this line of business activity.
Mr. Robinson was married in Vermont to Miss Armina C. Felton, who was born, reared and educated in that state, being a daughter of Benjamin and Lucia (Parker) Felton. Mr. Robinson is a Republican in politics, adhering to the Lincoln type of political leaders. He is a frank and genial man in all his relations with friends and business asso- ciates, and has deserved the prosperity and esteem which have come to him.
RALPH P. GORRELL.
Ralph P. Gorrell. proprietor of the Bowman Furniture Company of Pittsburg, Kansas, has had a most successful business career since coming to Pittsburg twenty years ago. He is a typical business man, devoting his best efforts to his affairs, and he has the satisfaction of knowing that he has the best establishment of the kind in southeastern Kansas. This success has been entirely of his own achieving. for he began as a clerk in the concern of which he afterward, by successive pro- motions, became sole owner.
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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY
Mr. Gorrell was born in Tyler county, West Virginia, in 1860, being a son of P. W. Gorrell. His father was born in West Virgina. His mother was Jamima Pritchard.
Mr. Gorrell came with the family to Hancock county, Ohio, when he was a child, and was reared and received most of his education in Findlay. He came west to Pittsburg, Kansas, in 1884. and has been connected with the furniture business practically ever since that time. At the time of his coming the town was just beginning its great boom. which has resulted in making it one of the most important cities of this section of the state. In 1888 he became an employe of H. S. Bowman. He learned every detail of the furniture business, including undertaking and embalming, and was made undertaker of the firm. In 1894 H. S. Bowman (now deceased) retired from the business, his place being taken by his father-in-law, F. A. Gaskell, although the concern still remained Bowman and Company. Mr. Gorrell remained as the real head of the business until 1899, in which year he bought the store of Mr. Gaskell. and has since conducted it with most flattering success. The location is 117-119 East Fourth street, where large and ample quarters are occu- pied. The business is still known under its old name of the Bowman Furniture Company, and it is the largest and best equipped furniture and undertaking establishment in southeastern Kansas, and with the largest volume of trade transacted.
Mr. Gorrell was married in Pittsburg, in 1894, to Miss Mollie Crow- ell. a sister of the well known Pittsburg druggist, T. J. Crowell, whose biography appears elsewhere in this work. One daughter has been born of this marriage, Christine.
JESSE R. CARPENTER.
Jesse R. Carpenter, register of deeds of Crawford county, is an old and well known citizen of Crawford county, with whose various interests he has been actively identified for over thirty years. He has been one
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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY
of the successful farmers and also a business man of the county, and has also been prominent in the public affairs of his locality. He is rec- ognized and esteemed as a substantial and progressive citizen, strictly honest and reliable in his dealings. and dependable as one who will exert his powers for the general welfare and the advancement of the com- munity's best interests.
Mr. Carpenter was born in Union county. Ohio, March 10, 1846. and was a son of Jesse and Elsie (Ryan) Carpenter, both natives of Virginia. His father was a farmer, and followed that pursuit in Ohio from 1837 until his death in 1875. when aged sixty-six years. His wife died in 1867, at the age of fifty-six.
Jesse R. Carpenter was educated in the common schools of Union county, and followed the employments of the ordinary farmer boy, remaining under the parental roof until he was twenty-two years old. He then rented a farm and continued independent agricultural operations until 1873. He arrived in Girard, Kansas, on the 16th of May, 1873, and bought some land east of the city, which property he still owns. He successfully followed farming on this place until 1888. and in that year he was the triumphant candidate for the office of clerk of the district court. He then moved into Girard and held that office for four years. after which he was in the grocery and market business until 1895. In that year he went back to the farm and was employed in its cultivation until September. 1903, when he once more became a resident of the city and rented his farm. He was elected register of deeds in 1902, and gives his time and attention to the transaction of the duties of this office. He is a stanch Republican in politics, and has held nearly all the town- ship offices.
March 20. 1879. Mr. Carpenter married Miss Janet McMurray, a daughter of James McMurray, of Girard. They have eight children : Gertrude I. is assistant teacher in the high school of Girard; Margaret. the wife of Edward E. McFarland, of Pittsburg, Kansas; Elsie, who is teaching southwest of Pittsburg: and John M., Clark B., Florence,
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Janet L. and Jesse R., at home and in school. Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and he is a member of the Knight Templar Masons.
IRA CLEMENS.
Ira Clemens, a prominent coal operator and very enterprising young man in the industrial circles of Crawford and Cherokee counties, is now permanently located at Pittsburg, from which point he carries on his extensive mining and prospecting ventures. His active business career of a little more than a decade has been crowded full of work in various lines, and his industry and business acumen have resulted in a very de- sirable degree of success and gained him in large measure the esteem and high regard of his fellow citizens and associates.
Mr. Clemens was born among the Ray county hills of Missouri. in 1873, being a son of John H. and Julia ( Pollard) Clemens, the latter being of Tennessee ancestry and a native of Missouri. The paternal side of the family is Kentuckian by virtue of the residence and birth in that state of Mr. Clemens's father, grandfather and great-grandfather. After the war his father moved to Ray county, Missouri, and in 1882 came to Kansas, settling in Weir. Cherokee county, where he still resides. He too has been engaged in mining operations since taking up his abode in this state, and has coal mining interests in Cherokee county in con- nection with his son Ira. He has taken an active interest in the politics of that county, and once held the office of deputy sheriff.
Mr. Ira Clemens was reared and received most of his education at the city of Weir. At the conclusion of his school days he turned his attention to railroading. and for three years was a trainman on the Frisco System. He also spent a short time in Kentucky, and after that began his connection with the coal industry, working with his father. His interests have rapidly extended in this business, and as an operator he has a share in two mines in the vicinity of Pittsburg and in others
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in Cherokee county. One of the Pittsburg mines is a mile and a quarter west of town, being operated by Clemens and Son, and the other is a mile and a half north of the city, and operated by the Clemens-Sclanger Coal Company, Mr. Clemens being the managing partner of both these firms. In addition to the operation of the mines Mr. Clemens conducts a very important and valuable enterprise in running three drilling out- fits for the purpose of prospecting for coal in this district. With these he not only does prospecting on a large scale for himself and his asso- ciates, but also for other companies searching out locations for mines.
Mr. Clemens is a member of the Southwestern Interstate Coal Oper- ators' Association, and is otherwise prominent in business and social circles in Pittsburg and vicinity. He and his family have lived in Pitts- burg since January 27, 1904, and this is now his permanent home. His wife is Julia (Ryne) Clemens, and they have four children, Mary Mabel, John Ira, William Leander, Marguerite.
DR. ASBURY COKE GRAVES.
Dr. Asbury Coke Graves, eye, ear, nose and throat specialist of Pittsburg. Kansas, has a unique reputation for professional skill and ability throughout Crawford county and the entire southeastern part of the state. He has given the best years of his life to the medical pro- fession, beginning his preparation when a boy, and his subsequent career has been highly praiseworthy both because of his individual attainment and his great usefulness in the alleviation of human suffering and in advancing the standard of medical practice. Above all things else, Dr. Graves has never been content with mediocrity, however well he might have prospered from a material standpoint. After securing a high place in the regard of the people as a general practitioner, he turned his atten- tion to a more special field of labor, and after study and thorough prep- aration in the best schools at home and abroad he returned to this county and gave himself devotedly to the practice in which it is his
AG Graves
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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY
highest ambition to excel and thereby be of service to mankind. As a specialist he enjoys the co-operation and approval of the leading phy- sicians in this section of the country, and has sustained a reputation for the highest ability among the people who require his skill.
Dr. Graves was born in Huntingdon. Carroll county, Tennessee, in 1856. a son of Wilburn H. and Fronia ( Wethers) Graves. His father, a native of Tennessee and of North Carolina parents, was clerk of the county court of Carroll county for sixteen years, after which he devoted himself to the practice of law. He was a successful man, of ample means, and a prominent figure in Carroll county and a devoted member of the Methodist church. His death occurred in 1875. and his wife, who was a Virginian by birth, also passed away many years ago.
Dr. Graves received a good education to serve as a preparatory equipment for the medical profession. He was sent to the public schools in Huntingdon until fifteen years old. and then became a student in the Mems and Hughes school at Nashville, which he attended until 1873, in which year the cholera broke out in Nashville, and he then entered Mackenzie College at Mackenzie. Tennessee, where he remained three years. He then combined theoretical study with practical expe- rience in the office of Dr. McCall. at Huntingdon. and was under that distinguished physician's preceptorship for four years. He then entered the medical department of the Nashville and Vanderbilt University at Nashville, where he was graduated with the class of 1882.
His first practice in general medicine was in Chattanooga. Tennes- see. but he remained there only a short time, and on April 8. 1882. located at Cherokee, Crawford county, Kansas, which county has been the scene of his endeavors ever since. He was engaged in general practice there until 1887, and then, having had unusual success, he decided to specialize along the lines for which he had the greatest liking. He went to New York and took a special course on the eye, ear, nose and throat in the Post-Graduate Medical School of that city. Returning to Cherokee he carried on a highly successful practice in those branches for some years.
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He was still ambitious for further attainment and decided to pursue his studies under the eminent specialists of Europe. In 1897 he went to London and took a special course at the Royal Ophthalmic Hospital. From there he went to Vienna and was a student under Dr. Fuchs in the Allgemeines Krankenhaus, or General Hospital, of that city. Thus equipped, he returned and located at Pittsburg, Kansas, where his pro- fessional ardor and skill have since found useful fields of labor.
Dr. Graves is a member of the county and state medical societies and the American Medical Association. He served one term as presi- dent of the Southeast Kansas Medical Society and is now treasurer of the Crawford County Medical Society. He is on the staff of the Pitts- burg City Hospital. He enjoys politics as a recreation and diversion from his profession, and was recently elected a delegate from Crawford county to the third district Republican congressional convention. He is a man of fine qualities and universally esteemed.
Dr. Graves was married at Cherokee, October 20, 1882, to Miss Jennie Campbell, and they have two sons, Wilburn H. and Bernard Coke.
DR. ARTHUR M. SMITH.
Dr. Arthur M. Smith has been engaged in the successful practice of medicine and surgery at Cherokee since 1897, and this period of pro- fessional service makes him the dean of Cherokee's medical men. He is a man of much ability both in his profession and as a business man and social factor, and he has made a most favorable impression and gained a very gratifying practice since taking up his residence here.
Dr. Smith was born in Windham county, Connecticut, in Deceni- ber, 1864, being a son of J. S. and Frances (Cornell) Smith, both natives of the state of Connecticut. His father died in that state, and his mother is still living on the old homestead in Windham county. She has a very old and honored ancestry in New England. Her father, William Cor- nell, was a member of the famous family one of whose members founded
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Cornell University. Her mother was a Monroe and a descendant of a Mayflower emigrant.
Dr. Smith grew up and received his education in his native state. He attended the Plainfield Academy, in Windham county, and the Wes- leyan Academy at Wilbraham, Massachusetts. At the age of eighteen he set out to make his home and fortune in the west, and, locating in Elk county, Kansas, went into the retail drug business at Howard. He began reading medicine in 1889, and later took the regular course in the Kansas City Medical College. where he was graduated in 1897. He came direct from college to Cherokee, where he opened his office in the spring of 1897, and he has been very successful in gaining and re- taining a large and permanent patronage from among the best citizens.
Dr. Smith is prominent in society circles, and professionally is a member of the county, district and state medical societies. Dr. Smith was married at Elk Falls, Kansas, to Miss Dora Longfellow.
DR. JAMES B. GARDNER.
Dr. James B. Gardner, physician and surgeon of Girard and health officer of Crawford county, is one of the most successful professional and business men of this city and county. He located here in 1888, and since leaving the drug business has taken a foremost place among the medical men of the county, being favored with a large and constantly increasing practice among the best citizens. Although he is now in the prime of life, his active career really extends over many years, for he was an energetic and progressive worker in the affairs of life when still in his teens, and his industry and hustling qualities have found full scope in various spheres ever since.
Dr. Gardner was born in Hanover county, Virginia, June 17, 1855, being a son of Thomas M. and Sallie B. (Quarrier) Gardner, the former a native of Virginia and the latter of Charleston, West Virginia. His father made his most prominent success in the practice of law, although
22
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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY
he was also a newspaper publisher. He made quite a reputation by the publication of his work on "Knownothingism," which was well received by a large circle of readers. He also owned a farm, which was adjacent to the Patrick Henry estate. He died in 1860, at the age of thirty-two years. His widow married Rev. Joseph Cross, D.D., LL.D., an Epis- copalian minister. She died in 1881 at the age of forty-eight. Dr. Gardner has a younger brother, Charles P., who has been cashier for the United States Express Company for the past fifteen years, and is a resident of Washington, D. C.
Dr. Gardner received his education at the hands of private tutors in Virginia and in the public schools at St. Louis, Missouri, but finished his education at the age of fourteen. From that age until seventeen he was employed in a tobacco factory in St. Louis. For the following five years he was of the firm of Gardner and Gaines, which published city directories. In 1877, with Ezra Cass, he conducted the Lee County Times at Paw Paw. Illinois, and after that for fifteen months had charge as foreman of the printing office at Russellville, Kentucky. In order to carry out his determination to become a physician he attended the Louis- ville Medical College, from which he graduated in 1881. He at once began practice in Franklin, Kentucky, under the firm name of Edwards and Gardner, and remained there with successful results until 1888, in which year he arrived in Girard. In connection with his practice he also conducted a drug business, with Dr. V. T. Boaz as the pharmacist. Two or three years later this partnership dissolved, and Dr. Gardner has since carried on a general practice in the city and county. He has been county physician for several terms, and for the past two years, as health officer of the county, was in official charge of the conduct of a thousand or more cases of smallpox, which was epidemic in the county, and his careful attention did much for the prevention of the further spread of the disease. He is examiner for several insurance companies, and for twelve years has been local surgeon for the Santa Fe Railroad. He has a full share of the practice of the county, and has made a most
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