USA > Kansas > A biographical history of central Kansas, Vol. I > Part 17
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MERICAN STEAM .. AUNDRY. -
AMERICAN
AMERICAN STEAM LAUNDRY.
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prise that they have not found it necessary to continue all of their capital in the busi- ness, but have made judicious investments in farm property, which is well improved and now contributes not a little to their income.
JACOB A. YOUNG.
The fine farm of three hundred and twenty acres on sections 14 and 23, Roscoe township, owned by Jacob A. Young is the visible evidence of his well spent and useful life. His property has all been acquired through his own efforts: Industry and per- severance have formed the foundation stones upon which he has reared the superstructure of his success. He is a native son of Penn- sylvania, his birth having occurred in Mif- flin county, that state, February 4. 1845, his parents being Jolin and Harriet (Rudy) Young, both of whom were natives of Penn- sylvania. The family removed from Penn- sylvania to Cedar county, Iowa, in 1864, and from Iowa to Kingman county, Kan- sas, being among the early settlers there. The father pre-empted a claim and through his remaining days resided thereon, devot- ing his energies to the development and cultivation of his farm. His wife died on the same farm in 1898, at the age of sixty- nine years. In their family were thirteen children, ten of whom are living: Jacob A. ; Daniel J., a farmer of Roscoe township, Reno county; Noah, of Oklahoma Terri- tory; Adam, of Hutchinson; Jolin, a resi- dent of Lincoln township, Reno county; Mrs. Amanda Knight; James, of Okla- homa ; Ella, the wife of Grant Lee; Mrs. Ab- bie Brady, of Kingman county; and Alli- son, a resident of Pretty Prairie, Kansas. Those deceased are: Lewis and Elizabeth, who died after reaching mature years ; and one who died in infancy.
In his parents' home Jacob A. Young spent his boyhood days, and when only seventeen years of age he enlisted as a de- fender of the Union, becoming a member of Company I, Twelfth Pennsylvania Reserves of McCall's Division, which went with Mc- Clellan's command into the Peninsular
campaign. After the seven days' engage- ment at Richmond the Union troops fell back to the James river, where Mr. Young was taken sick, and after some time spent in the hospitals at Fortress Monroe and Hampton Roads he was discharged, in No- vember, 1862. Not content to thus end his military service, he re-enlisted, in February, 1864, as a member of Company B, One Hundred and Forty-seventh Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and was transferred to the Army of the Tennessee, going to Bridge- port, Alabama, where he joined Sherman on the march to the sea. When that was accom- plished, showing that the strength of the confederacy had been darwn from the inte- rior to protect the borders, he proceeded with his command to Raleigh, North Carolina, then on to Washington, where he partici- pated in the grand review, the irost cele- brated military pageant which the continent has witnessed. In July, 1865, he returned to his home, having received an honorable discharge.
After the war Mr. Young remained in Pennsylvania until February, 1866, when he joined the family in Iowa, where he worked on his father's farm for a year and then rented land in order to engage in farm- ing on his own account. He resided in Iowa until February, 1874, when with his wife and two children he came by team to Kan- sas, accompanied by two other families, that of George Fisher and of S. M. Hegarty, the latter a cousin of Mrs. Young. Reaching Reno county he stopped the first season in Albion township, where Alexander He- garty, a cousin of S. M., had settled in 1873. He raised one crop here and in the spring of 1875 came to his claim, constituting his present homestead. He secured one hun- dred and sixty acres on section 23, Roscoe township, and a timber claim, constituting the southwest quarter of section 14. He lost all of his crop of 1874 on account of the grashopper scourage, and like many of the other pioneers in the winter of 1874 and 1875 he had to resort to any available means of earning a livelihood. He joined what was known as the "horse brigade," engaged in freighting to the distant, markets of
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Hutchinson and Wichita. In the fall of 1874 he had gone to the mill in Sterling, then called Peace, driving his team, and during his absence his stacks were struck by lightning, causing his stable to burn, also his cows, hay and grain, his team being for- tunately saved on account of the trip he was making. He then built a new stable, but within two weeks it was destroyed by another fire. In the year 1875 Mr. Young again made a start and from that time on has been more fortunate. He is now en- gaged in general farming and stock-raising and keeps from fifty to seventy head of cattle. He makes quite a specialty of dairy- ing, milking from fifteen to twenty cows, and this branch of his business adds mate- rially to his income.
On the 20th of October, 1870, Mr. Young was united in marriage to Miss Sarah E. Hegarty, a native of Pennsyl- vania and a daughter of S. K. and Rebecca (Lanborn) Hegarty, who were also born in the Keystone state. Unto our subject and his wife have been born nine children : Samuel E., a farmer of Roscoe township: Albert D., an agriculturist of the same town- ship; Paul J., at home ; Rebecca A., the wife of E. P. Young, a teacher of Roscoe town- ship; Rosa, Della, Pearl, Elizabeth and Helen, all yet with their parents. The mem- bers of the family belong to the United Pres- byterian church and in its work take an act- ive part, while Albert D. is very prominent in temperance work. In politics Mr. Young is an ardent Republican and a member of the Republican executive committee, while to various local and state conventions he has been sent as delegate. He has been es- pecially prominent in local affairs and has filled nearly all of the township offices, in- cluding those of trustee, treasurer and clerk, at the present time acting as treasurer. He has also been a leader in the work of secur- ing good schools and his service on the school board has been very effective. His name is on the membership roll of the Odd Fellows lodge in Pretty Prairie and his brethren of the order have honored him with various offices. Both he and his wife belong to the order of Rebekahs, of which she is
past grand. He is also identified with Joe Hooker Post, No. 17, G. A. R. He is a good citizen and gives hearty co-operation to every movement for the general good. Christian, educational, social and material interests have been promoted through his efforts, and while the county has benefited by his labors he has also won for his family a comfortable competence and well deserves the proud American title of "a self-made man."
A. L. SPONSLER.
The name of this gentleman is one which stands conspicuously forth on the pages of Kansas' political history. He has been an active factor in shaping the affairs of the government in the west, and is widely recog- nized as a Republican leader who has la- bored earnestly for the success of the party and yet has never placed partisanship before citizenship or self-aggrandizement before the national good. Close study has given him a keen insight into the important polit- ical problems, and his interest in the issues of the day that affect the state or national weal or woe has ever been of the highest.
The Sponsler family are of Pennsyl- vania-Dutch extraction, and according to well founded tradition the first of the name to come to the new world was a captain in the French army, who came to America during the French and Indian war. After hostilities had ceased hie located in Phila- delphia, from which place the Sponsler fam- ily in America dates its origin, but in after years they spread over the colonies as farm- ers, merchants and mechanics. The pater- nal grandfather of our subject was Lewis Sponsler, who resided in Perry county, Pennsylvania, where he was employed in a factory, and there his death occurred at an early age. Lewis Sponsler, the father of our subject, was born in that county, October 3. 1825, and was there reared to manhood and learned the wagon-maker's trade, which he followed for a number of years in Cum- berland county, Pennsylvania. In 1849 he was united in marriage to Maria Wolfe,
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who was born in Lancaster county, Penn- sylvania, in September, 1827, a daughter of Christian and Sarah ( Stoner) Wolfe. On both the paternal and maternal sides Mrs. Sponsler was descended from German an- cestry, and her grandfather, Henry Wolfe, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war.
In. 1856 Lewis Sponsler removed with his wife and four children to Keithsburg, Mercer county, Illinois, where for four years he was engaged at the carpenter's trade, and on the expiration of that period he pur- chased a farm seven miles east of that city, which he continued to operate until 1881. In that year he retired from the active work of the farm and located in Aledo, Mercer county, where he spent the remainder of his life, passing away in death on the 4th of April, 1893. Throughout his entire life he never courted notoriety or sought the honors of public office, preferring to devote his energies to his business, his church and to the advancement of the principles of Repub- licanism. For many years he was a leading member of the Presbyterian church, and was ever active and earnest in its support. Al- though his educational opportunities during his youth were limited, in later years he be- came a great reader and acquired a most re- markable knowledge of Biblical, ancient and modern history. He is still survived by his widow, who makes her home in Aledo, hav- ing reached the seventy-fourth milestone on the journey of life. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Sponsler was blessed with seven chil- dren : William J., who came to Reno coun- ty, Kansas, in 1874, and is now a prom- inent farmer and stock-raiser of Reno town- ship; Sarah, the wife of W. D. Reynolds, of Morton Mills, Iowa, where he is engaged in the breeding of Angus cattle; George \V., who is also a farmer and breeder of Angus cattle and resides in Mercer county, Illi- nois : Alice M., who makes her home with her mother in Aledo, Illinois ; A. L., the sub- ject of this review; Anna, the wife of L. Mc Whorter, who ranks among the foremost breeders of pure Angus cattle in the United States, having held the office of president of the National Association of Angus Breed- ers in 1900, and his home is in Aledo; and
John L., who was formerly engaged with his brother A. L. in the newspaper business in Hutchinson, but is now a journalist of Lawton, Oklahoma.
A. L. Sponsler, whose name introduces this review, was born in Mercer county, Illinois, April 30, 1860, and during his youth he was a student in the district schools of his neighborhood. Afterward he com- pleted the course in Knox Academy, at Galesburg, Illinois, after which he entered Knox College, of the same city, but left that institution after attaining the sopho- more year to engage in the study of law in the office of John C. Pepper of Aledo, be- ing then in his twenty-third year. He re- mained with his preceptor for two years, and was then, in May, 1885, admitted to the bar by the supreme court after a written examination. This event, memorable to him in itself was made doubly so by the fact that it occurred the day after John A. Logan, whose election he was advocating, was elect- ed to the United States senate for the last time and after one of the most memorable contests of the kind that has ever occurred in the United States. Immediately after his admission to the bar Mr. Sponsler began the practice of his chosen profession in Aledo, under the firm name of Pepper & Sponsler, which relationship was maintained until 1887, when he came to the Sunflower state, locating in Arlington, Reno county, with the intention of practicing law, but with the "Lost Heads," who were assembling in Kan- sas at that time to pursue a real-estate specu- lation, began booming Kansas town prop- erty to an extent never before or since re- corded. To such an extent did he partici- pate in this business that he found no con- venient opportunity for following his chosen profession, and it required two or three years after its abandonment to settle the affairs of his partnership.
In 1888 Mr. Sponsler made a remark- able race for the position of state senator. the convention meeting at Pratt, and after balloting for three days it adjourned to meet in Turon, Reno county, where it was also in session for about three days, but during this time our subject was called to Illinois by
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the sickness of his wife, and the convention, finding it impossible to arrive at a conclu- sion, adjourned sine dic. The next con- vention met in August, in Turon, and was composed of one delegate from each voting precinct of the counties of Reno, Pratt and Kingman. After several hundred ballots had been cast, in which Mr. Sponsler came within one vote several times and at one time within a half a vote of gaining the nomina- tion, he withdrew his name from further consideration, believing then that his nomi- nation was impossible, and Hon. Frank E. Gillett, of Kingman, was nominated. In the meantime Mr. Sponsler had also become in- terested in two newspapers, and in the fall of 1889 he removed to Hutchinson, where, in company with his brother John L., he be- gan publishing the Hutchinson Times, and in the following year the Times and Repub- lican were consolidated. The brothers con- tinued its publication until 1891, when they purchased the Hutchinson Daily News, in- cluding the job offices and book bindery, and thus they were engaged until 1895, when they sold their interests to W. Y. Mor- gan, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this volume. After retiring from journal- istic work the brothers engaged in the grain business, buying and cribbing corn in vari- ous towns in this section of the state, in which they continued for three years, their business having been carried on under the firm name of E. L. Wolff & Company. They were then engaged in various other enter- prises until the year 1899, when our subject purchased his present farm of four hundred and fifty acres and engaged in the breeding of registered short-horn cattle. At the time of the purchase the farm was raw prairie land, but he has since placed his fields under cultivation, has erected a good residence and has built substantial barns and fences. The farm is devoted to the raising of grass with the exception of one hundred and seventy acres, and he is now recognized as one of the leading breeders of registered short-horn cattle in the locality.
During all these years Mr. Sponsler has been actively engaged in promoting a num- ber of measures for the public advancement.
It was through his efforts in 1892 that the Republican state convention was secured for Hutchinson, which was the first time it had ever been held as far west. During the pre- vious winter by his tireless activity he had succeeded in organizing the Hutchinson Commercial Club, and when the convention was secured for this city it was found that no building in Hutchison was large enough to meet its requirements. Then it was that the Commercial Club and other citizens erected the Auditorium. When Chester I. Long was nominated against Jerry Simp- son for congress in 1892 there was no one man who spent more time and money in the support of Mr. Long than Mr. Sponsler. He was chairman of the Reno county delega- tion to the state convention which met at Topeka in 1894, when the vote of Reno county nominated Governor Morrill, was a delegate to the National Editors' Associa- tion at Asbury Park, New Jersey, in 1893, and was a delegate to the Trans-Mississippi Congress in 1894. He has been in every session of the Kansas Legislature since 1889 as an observer and student of affairs. He was one of the chief organizers of the Cen- tral Kansas Fair Association, which was or- ganized in 1901, and of which he is now president, and was also one of the original promoters of the Kansas Day Club.
On the 27th of September, 1887, at the home of the bride in Aledo, Illinois, Mr. Sponsler was united in marriage to Minnie P. Bentley, who was born in the vicinity of that city on the 5th of September, 1862, a daughter of James L. and Nancy (Smith) Bentley, the former a native of Ohio and the latter of Aledo, Illinois. About 1855, when a young man, the father removed from the Buckeye state to Mercer county, Illinois, where he was engaged in teaching in the public schools and farming, and was very successful in both lines of labor. On both the paternal and maternal sides Mrs. Spons- ler is of Scotch and English ancestry, and the family located in America in a very early day. Mrs. Sponsler is active in Women's Club affairs and served as president of the Women's Club of the city of Hutchinson for the year 1899 and 1900. In his social
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relations Mr. Sponsler is eligible to member- ship in the following orders,-Ancient Or- der of United Workmen, the Woodmen and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is and always has been most liberal in sup- porting and promoting all measures for the public good, has always kept fully abreast of the times, and his large and well selected library contains only the most substantial works, in which history, both ancient and modern, has a prominent place. He is a man of strong mentality, keen discernment, great tact and resolute purpose. He com- mands the respect of his fellow men by his sterling worth, and Kansas numbers him among her honored residents.
J. W. CLARKE.
J. W. Clarke is the county attorney of Barton county and has attained a distin- guished position in connection with his pro- fession, which stands as the conservator of human rights and justice. His prominence is based upon a thorough knowledge of the principles of jurisprudence and of accuracy in the application of them to the points in litigation. Earnest and discriminating in his preparation of cases, a strong pleader before court and jury, he has won the favor- able commendation of the public and the complete confidence and high regard of his professional brethren.
Mr. Clarke was born in Liberty, Tennes- see, on the 22d of December, 1852. His fa- ther, Robert L. Clarke, was also a native of that state and a farmer by occupation. He learned and has followed the carpenter's trade and yet makes his home in Liberty. On the old homestead farm there the sub- ject of this review was reared and in the dis- trict schools of the neighborhood he acquired his preliminary education, which was sup- plemented by a course in the Cumberland University. He was graduated in the law department of that institution with the class of 1879, and thus prepared for his chosen profession he at once began practice in Smithville, where he secured a good patron- age. However, he became interested in the
great west, and having a desire to visit the country and see if its opportunities were such as represented, he came to central Kan- sas in 1884 in company with his two broth- ers-in-law. They went on a prospecting tour and visited all portions of the state, ultimately deciding that Great Bend was to ; have a bright future on account of its healthful location and natural beauty and Mr. Clarke concluded to locate here, at once opening an office. He was alone in business for a time but afterward was associated in practice with F. V. Russell for six years. He soon secured a large and growing pat- ronage as he demonstrated his ability to han- dle the intricate problems of jurisprudence. He is a fluent and earnest speaker and his oratorical ability, combined with his pro- found knowledge of the law, has gained him enviable and well merited distinction.
In 1880 Mr. Clarke was unnited in mar- riage to Miss Jennie L. Yelton, a daugh- ter of John P. Yelton, of New Middleton, Tennessee. She died, however, in 1897, at the age of thirty-seven years-leaving no children. Mr. Clarke was a second time married, July 16, 1901, to Miss Nettie Ber- nis, of Colorado Springs, Colorado. He is a prominent and valued member of the Masonic fraternity, has taken the degrees of blue lodge, council, chapter and command- ery and is a past master of the lodge. He is also connected with the Modern Woodmen fraternity. In his political views he is a Democrat and takes a very active part in political affairs, being an active factor in the campaign work. In 1900 he received the nomination for county attorney and being elected to that office is now discharging his duty in such a manner as to win the high commendation of the people for his faith- fulness and capability. .
JOHN S. JUDSON.
If a society of the sons of New York should be organized in central Kansas, sim- ilar to a club of the same name which exists in Chicago, it is probable that John S. Jud-
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son, of Kanopolis, would be one of its prom- inent members. Mr. Judson, who is man- ager of the Kanopolis Land Company, and one of the best known real-estate and insur- ance men in Ellsworth county, was born at Utica, New York, December 12, 1827, a son of Silas and Mary ( Lunnon) Judson. His father was a native of Connecticut, and his mother was born at Savannah, Georgia.
Mr. Judson was educated in the common schools in vogue in his part of his state in his boyhood and at one of the old-time acad- emies once so popular there. In 1849, he went to South and Central America, in the interest of his cousin George Curtis, and filled a responsible position in connection with the building of hotels and the establish- ment of transportation across the isthmus of Panama. After some years spent in that tropical and malarial region, he was taken suddenly and seriously ill and lay for three days helpless and unattended, and after his recovery he returned to the United States and located at Detroit, Michigan, where he remained a year and a half. From Detroit he went to the Saginaw valley, to the site of the now flourishing city of Bay City, to take a position as an accountant for a lumber firm which, while he was in its employ, built two new sawmills. While he was at Bay City the Bay City Salt Manufacturing Company was organized, the second salt company in Michigan, and he became one of its stock- holders and its secretary. Later, when the Saginaw & Bay City Salt Company was or- ganized he became its secretary and remain- ed with the concern in that capacity until it went out of existence. He then accepted the position of secretary and treasurer of the Saginaw River Towing Association, which owned a line of tugs plying on Saginaw river and bay, a position which he was event- ually compelled to resign because of his ill health and that of some members of his fan- ily. After living two years at Tampa, Flor- ida, he returned north and located at Spring- field, Ohio, where for several years he was in charge of the accounts of different firms. Later he was offered a position with the Kanopolis Land Company, of Kanopolis, as its accountant, and in April, 1888, he was
sent to Kanapolis to act as general manager for the company.
Soon after his arrival at Kanopolis Mr. Judson became convinced that there was an : immense amount of salt underlying the whole region round about the town, and after mi- nute examinations of boring made at Ell :- worth, he became convinced that salt-min- ing there was feasible. At last, after much correspondence and many earnest confer- ences, he succeeded in interesting the di- rectors of the Kanopolis Land Company, and after a prospect well had been sunk to a depth of eight hundred and eighty-one feet, which was accomplished between March I and 16, 1889, active operations were he- gun. The Royal Salt Company was organ- ized February 4, 1890, in which the stock- holders were members of the Kanopolis Land Company and others. A diamond drill was brought into requisition and a shaft was sunk, taking a core out of the earth to the depth of nine hundred feet. Operations on this shaft were begun May 12, 1890, and the plant was in operation February 28, 1891. Mr. Judson had charge of the dis- bursements of funds, etc., for the sinking of the shaft till 1891, since which time the work has proceeded under James Cowie's efficent management.
The Kanopolis Land Company was of- ganized in 1886, with Ross Mitchell as presi- dent, J. S.Crowell as secretary, F. M. Brook- walt as vice-president, J. H. Thomas as treasurer, and General J. Warren Keifer, as attorney. Other members of the com- pany were F. Halford, of Springfield, Ohio; General William Martindale, H. C. Cross and H. C. Whitley, of Empora, Kansas. The company purchased about four thou- sand acres of land. now in Ellsworth, Empire and Clear Creek townships, Ellsworth coun- ty. A portion of this land, at the Fort Har- ker reservation, includes the site and build- ings of the post. When it began operations there the company laid out the city of Kan- opolis. It erected the Kanopolis hotel, a three-story brick structure containing fifty rooms, and also more than a dozen dwellings and several other buildings. Since he came to Kanopolis Mr. Judson has had entire
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