A biographical history of central Kansas, Vol. I, Part 104

Author: Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York Chicago: The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 970

USA > Kansas > A biographical history of central Kansas, Vol. I > Part 104

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The principles of industry were incul- cated in the mind of William Raup, the sub- ject of this review, while he was a mere lad, for he early began to assist in the work of the farm, the while attending the public schools of the neighborhood as opportunity afforded. He continued on the old home- stead until the outbreak of the war of the

William Raufin Gran & Rauh,

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Rebellion, when his intrinsic loyalty prompted him to tender his services in sup- port of the cause of the Union. Accord- ingly, in 1861, he enlisted in Company A of the Sixth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, commanded by Colonel Ricketts, while his company was in command of Captain Sam- uel Watters. Mr. Raup continued to ac- tive service for a period of three years, with- in which time he participated in a number of the most important engagements inciden- tal to the great fratricidal conflict, including the battles of Antietam, South Mountain, Gettysburg and the Wilderness, beside many others. In the battle of the Wilderness he received a slight wound, but was not inca- pacitated to any extent during his entire term, which was marked by devoted and unflinching attention to the duties devolving upon him, implying toil and privation and imminent danger for the major portion of the time. He made a good record as a sol- dier and after receiving his honorable dis- charge returned to his home in Pennsyl- vania, where he continued to follow farming.

In Columbia county, Pennsylvania, on August 1. 1869, Mr. Raup was united in marriage to Miss Mary E. Kunkle, who was born in that county, being the daughter of Daniel and Lydia Ann (Fahringer) Kun- kle, both natives of the Keystone state, where they passed their entire lives. Of their eleven children, nine lived to attain maturity, namely: Sarah, Andrew, Will- iam, Charles, Eli. Mary E., Harriet, Eliza and Jeremiah. Andrew. Charles and Eli were soldiers in the Civil war. The father, who was a blacksmith by trade and who was engaged in agricultural pursuits, died at the age of seventy-eight years, and his widow died in Columbia on the 13th of November, 1901. having attained the age of eighty-five years. Mr. and Mrs. Raup are the parents of four children, of whom we offer a brief record, as follows : Charles, who is a successful carpenter and builder of Kingman, married Eva Hovey, and they have one child. Walter; Eliza J. married Oliver Kinney. of Cheney, Sedgwick coun- ty, and they have four children, Clarence, Mazie, Mabel and William W .: Cora B. is

the wife of James H. King, of Allen town- ship, and they have two daughters, Beryl and Iona; and John, the youngest of the children, is a sterling young man, who is his father's able coadjutor in carrying on the work of the homestead.

Mr. Raup came to Kingman county in 1879 and took up a tract of the fine Osage Indian land, upon which he erected a box house, fourteen by sixteen feet in dimen- sions, where he and his faithful wife estab- lished themselves and prepared to make a home. That they endured many depriva- tions and inconveniences, and that they la- bored with all the strength of mind and body, it is scarcely necessary to state, but prosperity attended their efforts as the years passed by and they have now one of the valuable farm properties of this county, the same being improved with a modern and spacious dwelling and other excellent build- ings, while the harvests come with each suc- cessive year and the herds of cattle yield due recompense for the care and attention be- stowed. Success has come to them and it has been gained by worthy means and is the just reward of years of toil and en- deavor. They have reared their children to lives of usefulness and honor, and may now look back with satisfaction upon the early years, when, side by side, they laid the foundations for their prosperity. They have the esteem of the people of the community in which they have lived for more than a score of years and are honored for their sterling worth of character. In politics Mr. Raup is a stanch Republican, and he has served three years as township trustee and for nine years as a member of the school board of his district, ever showing a deep interest in all that touches the general wel- fare of the community. Mr. Raup maintains a deep concern in his old comrades in arms and is a popular member of the Grand Army of the Republic.

HON. SAMUEL RITTER PETERS.

The ancestors of this distinguished Kan- san, on both sides, were Germans. The family were among the earliest residents of

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Baltimore, and at one period in the state of Maryland were the proprietors of exten- sive tracts upon which portions of the great city are built.

When Ohio was admitted into the Union as a state, the family removed into the cen- tral portion of the new commonwealth and settled in what is now Fairfield county. In that county, on the 23d day of March, 1816, Lewis S. Peters, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born, and died in 1897. He was one of a family of twelve children. He married Margaret Ritter, the only daughter of Henry Ritter, who emigrated from Penn- sylvania to Ohio in the early days of the set- tlement of that state, and was one of the first to locate in Pickaway county. The mother died in September, 1861, at the age of forty-two years. Both father and mother were members of the Methodist church.

Samuel Ritter Peters, whose middle name is that of his mother, was born on the home farm in Walnut township, Pickaway county, Ohio, August 16, 1842. As was the fortune of hundreds of other boys of that era in that relatively new country, he worked on a farm during the summers and attended the country district school in the winters until he had arrived at the age of seventeen years, when he was sent to the Ohio Wesleyan University, which was un- der the control of the Methodist Episcopal church. He remained there for two years, when, imbued with the martial spirit awak- ened in the north by the hostile attitude of the south in its attempt to sever its connec- tion with the Union, he enlised, on the 29th day of October, 1861, in Company E, of the Seventy-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry. With his regiment the young soldier, not yet twenty years old, took a prominent part in many of the principal engagemen's of the war, from the second battle of Bull Run up to and including the famous victory at Get- tysburg, after which he, with his regiment, was transferred to the western army, join- ing it at Chattanooga. He made the won- dierful "march to the sea." under General Sherman, thence to Richmond and wit- nessed the collapse of the Rebellion. His

military record shows him to have been an excellent soldier, having successfully passed through the grades of private, non-commis- sioned officer, second and first lieutenants and adjutant, and he was mustered out as captain of his company.

At the close of the war he returned to his studies at the Ohio Wesleyan University, but becoming dissatisfied with his surround- ings left there and entered the law depart- ment of the celebrated University of Mich- igan, in October, 1865. He was graduated in March, 1867, and, imbued with a desire to see something of the great west, he deter- mined to look up a location where he could begin the practice of his profession, his choice of all others from his earliest recol- lections. Upon arriving in Memphis, in the northeast portion of Missouri; he was in- duced to settle there and at once entered into practice. He soon acquired a very lucra- tive business, which continued for five years, when, in consequence of incipient lung trouble, in February, 1873, he sought a more congenial climate, locating in Kansas, fix- ing upon Marion, the county seat of Marion county.

In a little more than a year after his ad- vent into the new state, his political career began, which continued uninterruptedly un- til the summer of 1890, he declined further political honors, returning to his first love, the practice of law.

In the fall of 1874 he was elected to the state senate for the district comprising the counties of Marion, Chase and Morris. At that particular juncture, in Kansas, the "Grange" was at the height of its political prestige, and, as in the case of the "Alliance" to-day, it hated everything that savored of the name of lawyer; but so great was the personal popularity of Mr. Peters that he de- feated his opponent nominated by the Grang- ers, and took his seat in January, 1875. On the eighth of the following March he was ap- pointed judge of the ninth judicial district, to succeed the Hon. W. R. Brown, who had been elected to the forty-fourth congress from the third district. The very next day Judge Peters entered upon the duties of his

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new position. The vast territory over which he had jurisdiction was composed of eight- een organized counties in the central and southwestern portions of the state, which, be- sides its immense area, was a trying region in which to hold court, in consequence of the lawless element that roamed, regardless of the rights of individuals, over the immense prairies in the great district. But Judge Peters was equal to the task and adminis- tered the law fearlessly, in a short time bringing order out of chaos, which was rap- idly assisted also by the influx of a magnifi- cient immigration into the new country. The character of the litigation, as may well be imagined, among such a heterogeneous population, was as diversified as was the varied aspect physically as the region itself ; but, notwithstanding all this, Judge Peters was three times elected to the difficult posi- ton without opposition. As the code of the state abolished all distinctions between the forms of law and equity, his court had juris- diction in all law and equity cases and also in crimes and misdemeanors. Perhaps no judge in the United States ever before had such a checkered career, so far as the diver- sity of suits is concerned that were brought before him to decide. It was certainly a trying time and taxed not only his judicial brain but also consumed all his hours. When not on the bench he was occupied in cham- bers or poring over decisions to be promul- gated the next day; and, notwithstanding this multifarious exercise of the judicial pre- rogative, Judge Peters' decisions were never reversed by the supreme court of the state in a single criminal case during his long term of service on the bench !

For nearly eight years he continued to work carnestly and industriously in every part of his immense judicial district, when, in January, 1883. having at the previous No- vember election been voted by the people to represent them in the house of congress, he resigned. This was at the time of the new apportionment for representatives, and he was elected at large to the forty-eighth con- gress. His seat was contested, in conse- quence of the provision in the state consti-

tution that sought to make a judge ineligible to any other position during the term for which he was elected; but this provision, Judge Peters claimed, did not apply to any one who had been elected to congress, as that body, under the constitution of the United States, was made the sole judge of the eligibility and qualification of its mem- bers. In April, when the question came be- fore the house, he made an argument cover- ing the legal questions involved, and the re- sult was that he was declared to be entitled to his seat by an almost unanimous vote. Thus this vexed question was settled for all time to come,-one which has been of serious disturbance to the political affairs of the state, and which has been the means of keep- ing out of the race for congressional honors more than one aspirant on the local bench, who were eminently qualified for the posi- tion and were urged by hosts of adherents to accept a nomination. That Judge Peters was clearly right on this question, is now conceded by all lawyers.

Judge Peters' opponent in this race for congress was the notorious Sam Wood, who, after a turbulent career in Kansas, at last met a tragic death at the hands of a western desperado. Judge Peters was elected sucess- ively to the forty-ninth, fiftieth and fifty- first congresses, with scarcely any opposi- tion that might be considered worthy of the term, so popular was he. His district is now covered by thirty-six organized coun- ties.

In the forty-eighth congress Judge Peters served on the committees on commerce and election of the president and vice-president ; in the forty-ninth and fiftieth, on post offices and post roads ; and in the fifty-first, on ap- propriations and patents. His most notable speeches were on the interstate-commerce law and counting the electoral vote, which was delivered during the sessions of the forty-eighth congress. His speech in the forty-ninth congress in defense of the home- stead settler was a masterpiece of the dis- cussion of the rights of the settler on the pub- lic domains, for which he was a champion in every sense of the word. During his last

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term in congress Ne delivered able speeches on such important matters as the tariff, the Pacific mail-steamship subsidy and the rela- tions of the Union Telegraph Company to the land grant railroad lines.

Judge Peters was succeeded in public life by Jerry Simpson, who defeated the Re- publican nominee at the ensuing election. Simpson has since become a character of national interest. Judge Peters is young yet, and if at any time he should decide to re-enter the arena of politics, there is no doubt he would be welcomed and placed in any position he might seek.

In January, 1890, he wrote a letter to his home newspaper, "The Newton Daily Republican," declining again to become a candidate for further congressional honors, in which he announced his intention to re- turn to the practice of his profession. In the following July he entered the firm of Ady & Nicholson, in Newton, and at once began a lucrative business. The style of the firm is Ady, Peters & Nicholson, the senior member. Joseph W. Ady, being the United States district attorney for Kansas.

Judge Peters was married on the 18th of April. 1867, to Miss Amelia C. Doan, of Circleville, Ohio, a lady of education, ac- complishments and fine presence. Mrs. Peters was a universal favorite in Washing- ton society and her departure from the cap- ital of the nation was deeply regretted. They have one child, a son, Fletcher B. Peters, now thirty-two years of age, who has com- menced the study of law, and promises to fol- low closely in the footsteps of his distin- guished father.

The Judge was grand commander of the Knights Templar in Kansas in 1882-3 and was the first past commander of the Judson Kilpatrick Post, No. 36, of the G. A. R., of Newton. He is also member of the Knights of Pythias and the Odd Fellows organiza- tions.

In June, 1895, Mr. Ady severed his con-

nection with the firm, since which time the style of the firm has been Peters & Nichol- son.

MARTIN HOAGLAND.

During the recent years the average char- acter of public office holders have been ele- vated very materialy. Formerly men were given important official positions who had made a failure of life otherwise, but the tendency of late has been to choose to pub- lic office men who have proven themselves efficient in private enterprises. Such a well tried and satisfactory official is Mar- tin Hoagland, commissioner of streets of Hutchinson and also connected with the United States mail service.

Mr. Hoagland was born on his father's farm adjoining the corporation line of Bar- dolph, McDonough county, Illinois, Decem- ber 18, 1843, a son of Oakey and Emily (Collins) Hoagland. Oakey M. Hoagland. the grandfather of our subject. emigrated from Scotland to the United States, locat- ing in Pennsylvania, whence he removed to Kentucky. He was reared in the latter state, and there married Ellen Batterton. Unto this union were born the following children : Belle B., who married T. J. Creel, who for years has been a merchant at Bardolph, Illi- nois, and has long held the office of post- master there; Kate F., who is the wife of George McCabe, of Gibson City, Illinois : Michael H., who went to the Pacific coast in 1849 and enlisted in the United States army in 1861, in Oregon, and saw much arduous service, which ended in his death while acting as escort to the United States mail during a terrible storm: Professor B. S. Hoagland, of Hutchinson, has been man- ager of the Kansas Musical Jubilee since its organization.

Oakey Hoagland, the father of our sub- ject, was born in Frankfort, Kentucky, April 1, 1803. About 1836 hie removed to Beardstown, Illinois, where for three years he was proprietor of a general store. From Beardstown he removed to Bardolphi, Mc-

Emma Hoagland

Martin Hoagland

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Donough county, where for eight hundred dollars he bought a half section of land con- tiguous to the corporation line. His first year's farming was so profitable that from the proceeds of his crop of wheat he was able to pay for his farm. Later he bought a quarter section of land, which increased the dimensions of his possessions to three- quarters of a section, and he prospered in a business way and won honors as a citizen of public spirit who was foremost in all pub- lic affairs. He held several official posi- tions and was a leader in organizing the first Presbyterian church at Bardolph, in which he was an elder as long as he lived. He furnished the timber which entered into the construction of its house of worship. He had previously been a member of the Pres- byterian church at Macomb, McDonough county, and was the owner of pew No. 80 in its house of worship until the day of his death. He was instrumental in securing the right of way for the Northern Cross Rail- road, now a portion of the Chicago, Bur- lington & Quincy system. He spent the years of his retirement in Bardolph and died there July 15, 1875. His second wife was Emily Collins, a native of Connecti- cut, and they had three sons, Oakey M., Willie, who died at the age of twelve years, and the subject of this review. The former enlisted in Company I, Fifty-seventh Regi- ment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and served under Sherman in his historic march to the sea. His health had been precarious before he entered the army and his physical disabilities had been augmented by the hard- ships he endured in the service and he has been an invalid ever since the war.

nois. December 5. 1861, he enlisted as a corporal in Company I, Fifty-seventh Reg- iment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and by successive promotion he served in every office up to that of first lieutenant, and at the grand review at Washington at the close of the war he commanded a company. On the 8th of February, 1862, his regiment went to Camp Douglas, Chicago, and from there it soon afterward went to the front. He fought under Grant at Fort Henry and at Fort Donelson, meantime participating in much varied and arduous service, in which he suffered severely from exposure, his regiment, scantily provided with blank- ets, camping on the ground in rain and snow. Later he fought at Shiloh and par- ticipated in the siege of Corinth and both battles at that place, and after that for some time his regiment was detailed to guard railways. He saw service under Sherman, when the latter marched his command to the relief of Thomas, who was besieged at Chattanooga, participating in the battles of Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge and. Snake Creek Gap. He served under Gen- eral Logan at Resaca, and during the siege of Atlanta was stationed at Rome, Georgia. After General Hood was defeated by Gen- eral Sherman and had started for Nash- ville, Tennessee, the command to which Mr. Hoagland was attached marched from Rome, Georgia, and pursued Hood about fifteen miles, when Hood's rear guard made a stand for battle and during an artillery duel that followed Mr. Hoagland was thrown to the ground and his left ear was rendered useless by the concussion of a large shell bursting near his head. At Rome Cross Roads his regiment constituted a portion of an advance force of about three thousand men, which was unexpectedly con- fronted by Wheeler's cavalry, twelve thou- sand strong. The situation of the little- band of Unionists was desperate, outnum- bered as they were four to one, but they were armed with Henry repeating rifles and fortunately had an advantageous posi- tion at the base of a triangle, the other two sides of which were formed by two con-

Martin Hoagland was reared on his fa- ther's farm in McDonough county and re- ceived his early education in the district schools near his home. Between the terms and at nights and mornings and Saturdays he assisted his father about the farm and store work.' At the age of sixteen he en- tered the old and efficient private academy of Mr. and Mrs. Branch at Macomb, Illi- nois, where he was a student for two years, and after that he was a student for two years at the academy at Prairie City, Illi- fluent rivers, which effectually protected.

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their flanks and rear. The Confederate attack on their front was terrible. Charge after charge was made by the men in gray, who were literally mowed down by the re- peating rifles in the hands of the Federal troops until their dead formed a breast work in front of the Union position. For six hours the battle raged, until the three Federal regiments had nearly exhausted their ammunition, when General Logan sent troops for their relief and the Confederate force under Wheeler was totally routed.

Mr. Hoagland's regiment participated in the march back from the sea through the Carolinas, and at Columbia, South Caro- lina, the command was fired on by a Con- federate battery from the opposite side of the river. About forty cannons were trained on this battery by the Union artil- lery men, who destroyed it with a few rapid volleys. The state house was a tar- get for our batteries later, as well as other points in the city. From there Mr. Hoag- land's command marched to Cheraw in the same state, where several Union soldiers were killed and wounded by the explosion of a quantity of ammunition, which had been sent there from Charleston by the Con- federates. From Cheraw the Federal forces marched to Bentonville, North Caro- lina, where a severe battle was fought, in which Mr. Hoagland had his first experi- ence of fighting behind breastworks and which ended in a Confederate defeat. From Bentonville the Unionists marched to Raleigh, North Carolina, where they were stationed when Lee surrendered, thence pro- ceeded to Greensboro and were present at the surrender of Johnston's command; at Washington, D. C., as has been stated, First Lieutenant Hoagland commanding a com- pany in the grand review. During the war he was four times very near to death on the battlefield-once when a shell exploded very near to him, as has been narrated, once when a musket ball carried away one of his knuckles. once when a ball struck his watch and once when a ball struck his musket close to his hand and in front of his person.

When he was mustered out of the ser- vice Mr. Hoagland returned to Bardolph,

McDonough county, Illinois, and finding that his father had retired from active life and taken up his residence in the town of Prairie City, Illinois, he located on the lat- ter's farm and worked it successfully for three years. Then the older Hoagland re- turned to the farm and the son bought an eighty-acre place west of Bardolph, on which he put many improvements, cleared off the timber and built a good house and outbuild- ings. There he made his home until 1871, when he went to Reno county, Kansas, and took up a homestead claim on section 30, township 23, range 4, where he erected a frame building, a story and a half high and occupying a ground space of sixteen by twenty-four feet, which, with, twenty-five dollars in money, six months' provisions and other valuable property, was whisked out of existence by a cyclone May 15. 1872. He scraped up such fragments as were available and put up another house on the place, in which he lived three years or until he was able to erect a substantial brick-lined resi- dence. He gave his attention to general farming with much success and was the first to introduce nursery stock in Reno county, bringing from Prairie Citv and Blooming- ton, Illinois, in the fall of 1872, a car-load of young trees, which were ferried across the Missouri river at Atchison. He set out a ten-acre orchard and was so successful as a fruit-grower that he was awarded seventeen premiums at the county fair in 1879.

Mr. Hoagland also engaged extensively in breeding thoroughbred Berkshire hogs, beginning with three fine animals which he brought from Illinois in a box on the side of his wagon, and increasing his sales year after year until they were remunerative. He has added a timber claim of one hundred and sixty acres to his original farm. In 1883 he began buying grain for C. B. Myton, at Windom, McPherson county, Kansas, and continued at Pawnee Rock until the death of his employer, his annual purchases aggre- gating about thirty thousand bushels. He then removed to Hutchinson and bought the Central restaurant, which stood on the pres- ent site of the "A and A" drug store, which he conducted about a year or until he bought

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A biographical history of central Kansas, Vol. I, Part 104

Author: Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago Publication date: 1902 Publisher: New York Chicago: The Lewis publishing company Number of Pages: 970

Author: Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York Chicago: The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 970