A biographical history of central Kansas, Vol. I, Part 44

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 44

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in the lumber business ju Canada, with his brothers, under the firm name of McLaurin Brothers, having control of extensive yards in Montreal and Lachine.

In 1887 was celebrated the marriage of Mr. McLaurin and Miss Georgia Long. a daughter of D. B. Long of Ellsworth, who is extensively engaged in dealing in cattle. They now have two living children,-Ber- nice and Genevieve. Mr. McLaurin is a member of Ellsworth Club, and is identified with Ellsworth Lodge, No. 146, F. & A. M., in which he has filled all of the chairs, and with Wichita Consistory. No. 2, S. P. R. S. His political views are in harmony with the principles set forth by the Democracy, and he is recognized as an active and effective worker in the interests of the party. He has served as a delegate to the county, congres- sional and state conventions, has been chair- man of the county central committee and is now a member of the congressional commit- tee. He has never entered the political arena as an office-seeker, yet his fellow townsmen, recognizing his worth and ability, have twice elected him to the position of mayor of Ellsworth, and his administration has been one characterized by a progressive spirit. He is a man of keen discrimination in business affairs, and he capably controls extensive interests, his well directed labors having gained for him a position among the prosperous residents of his adopted county.

JAMES M. WILSON.

James M. Wilson occupies the position of clerk of the circuit court of Ellsworth county, and on the roster of the county of- ficials appears the name of no man who is more faithful to duty or who enjoys in a higher degree the confidence and good will of his fellow townsmen. He was born in Bath, New York, September 12, 1864. a son, of James and Lucinda ( McKey) Wilson, both natives of Scotland. Comming to Amer- ica, they resided for some years in Bath, New York, and at the time of the civil war the father enlisted for service in the Union army,

as a member of Company A, Ninety-first New York Infantry, with which he remained until the close of hostilities and the declara- tion of peace. While he was in service at the front his son James was born. The father of our subject died in 1881, at Bath, New York, In his family were seven chil- dren, five of whom reached mature years, namely : Mary, the wife of A. Highman, a real-estate dealer of Ellsworth ; William M., who is engaged in the bakery and restaur- ant business at Dodge City, Kansas; Isa- bel, the wifeof C. J. Evans, a prominent attorney of Ellsworth; Charity, the wife of J. A. Chase, a banker of Mountain Grove, Missouri, and James M. Two sons, John and Samuel, died in childhood.

James M. Wilson was reared in his na- tive state and his boyhood days were spent under the parental roof. His youth was passed in school. pursuing his studies in the public schools of Bath, New York. When fifteen years of age he became an apprentice in a book bindery at Albany. He followed that line of work until the spring of 1882, when he determined to try his fortune in the west, and made his way to Ellsworth, where his sister, Mrs. Evans, resided. Here he accepted a clerkship in a gocery store, where he was employed for five years. He then became a clerk in the office of the county attorney. under his brother-in-law, Mr. Evans, acting as deputy, and after- ward serving as deputy register of deeds. In the fall of 1897 he was elected to his present position, as clerk of the cir- cuit court, and that he has been most loyal to bis duty is indicated by the fact that he has been twice re-elected.

On the 24th of July, 1890. occurred the marriage of Mr. Wilson and Miss Addie MI. Myers, a daughter of C. L. and Anna ( Hal- stead) Myers. She was born in Illinois, and came with her parents to Ellsworth county, her father being one of the early settlers here. He engaged in the nursery busi- ness near the city and planted all the shade trees in Ellsworth, caring for them until they were in good growing condition. His death occurred August 16. 1000. In his political views Mr. Wilson is a Republican and has

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served on various committees and attended various conventions. He has taken an active part in the work of the Sons of Veterans and served on the staff of J. Redmond, of Wich- ita, in the capacity of division surgeon, traveling throughout the state. He is a man of sterling purpose, splendid characteristics and of genial manner, and is a popular, well known and highly esteemed citizen of Ells- worth county.

DAVID C. CHAMBERLIN.

David C. Chamberlin, the popular pro- prietor of the City Hotel of Pretty Prairie is a self-made man in the fullest and best sense of the term, for at the early age of nine years he started out to fight life's bat- tles and in the contest he has won the vic- tory. To-day he is numbered among the successful men of his locality and all that he possesses has been acquired through his own unaided efforts, his life proving that prosperity is not a matter of genius, but the outcome of persistent and honorable pur- pose.

Mr. Chamberlin was born in Beaver county, Pennsylvania, October 9, 1837, his parents being David and Jane (Bradly) Chamberlin, both of whom were also natives of the Keystone state. The father was a farmer and blacksmith by occupation and after his sons became old enough they per- formed the work of the farm while he de- voted his attention to the smithy. About 1858 he removed to Brooks county, West Virginia, and within a year was drowned in the Ohio river. In his political faitli he was a Democrat and in religious belief was a Methodist. In his family were twelve chil- dren, one of whom died in infancy, while the remaining eleven grew to years of ma- turity. Two of the sons. Alexander and Jacob, were soldiers of the Civil war and the latter was killed at the battle of Richmond. while the former was crippled for life in the same engagement by his horse falling upon him. The family became scattered and trace of some of them were lost. George lo-

cated in Vermont, Fulton county, Illinois, and in 1860 removed to Iowa. He devoted his energies to the milling business, which he learned in early life. James, the second son of the family, went to California in 1849, returned in 1852, and then again made his way to the Golden state, where he was living when last heard from. The other members of the family, with the exception of our subject. all remained in the east.

When only nine years of age David C. Chamberlin began working in the coal mines of Pittsburg as a driver. for which service he received one dollar per day. He re- mained as an employe in the mines until eighteen years of age when he went to Ver- mont. Illinois, where his brother, George, was engaged in the milling business. For three years he remained in Fulton county, that state. employed as a farm hand, and then went to Schuyler county, Illinois, where. on the 28th of November, 1860, he secured as a companion and helpmate for the journey of life Miss Elizabeth Garrison. Af- ter their marriage he rented land in Schuty- ler county, where he carried on agricultural pursuits until the fall of 1869, at which date he went to Bates county, Missouri, and purchased a small farm of fifty-three acres. He was there engaged in general farming and stock raising until 1875. when he lost his place through an imperfect title.

On the 24th of July, of that year, he started with team and wagon, accompanied by his family of three children, to Kansas. His wife had died a short time before. On the IIth of August, he arrived in Reno county, where he located a claim, compris- ing the southeast quarter of section 23. township 26, range 7-what is now known as Roscoe township. Thereon he erected a small frame house with basement and had a comfortable. if small, home. In February, 1886, however. Mr. Chamberlin lost his farm residence and all that it contained by fire. This was during the terrible blizzard of that year. With characteristic energy he began the development of his land and car- ried on the raising of grain and stock at that place until 1887. when he removed to Hutchinson, where he was employed in a

MR. AND MRS. D. C. CHAMBERLIN.

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packing house for eighteen months. On the expiration of that period he returned to his farm, which was his place of residence until May. 1895, when he again put aside agricul- tural pursuits and came to Pretty Prairie to take charge of the hotel. He rented the property for the first two years and then purchased it, and as the increasing business necessitated he has made commodious addi- tions. In 1901 he again enlarged his facili- ties by erecting a good two-story building adjoining the main structure, and fitting it up for business houses below and sleeping apartments above. His hotel receives a very liberal patronage, owing to the excellent manner in which it is conducted, being sur- passed by no hostelry in a town of this size in central Kansas. During two years of the time he has conducted the hotel he was also owner of a livery business, but in the fall of 1901 lie disposed of this. The City Hotel is noted for all that makes a hotel attractive-good wholesome fare, clean beds and cordial and accommodating manner in the host. All these make the hostelry a homelike place to the "knights of the grip" and other travelers. In addition to the ho- tel Mr. Chamberlin still retains the farm and the rental derived therefrom adds materially to his income.

Mr. Chamberlin was a second time mar- ried November 19. 1876, Mrs. Sonora Ar- mond becoming his wife. She was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, a daughter of William and Margaret ( Buttemer) Haywood, both of

In childhood they came to America and were married in Cincinnati, from which city the father engaged in steamboating on the Ohio river and eventually lost his life in that way when Mrs. Chamberlin was only a little child. He owned a farm on the Ken- tucky side of the river just below Coving- ton, where the family resided until Mrs. Chamberlin was eight years of age, when the mother sold the farm and removed with her family to Edgar county, Illinois, locat- ing in Paris, the county seat. Subsequently they came to Kansas and after living in Os- wego for three years went to Montgomery county, this state, where Sonora Haywood

was married to Henry Armond. He lived for only about a year, leaving to the care of his widow an infant daughter, Flora Ar- mond, who makes her home with her mother and greatly assists her in carrying on the home farm. By his first marriage Mr. Chamberlin had three children: Arbina F., deceased wife of F. L. Landis, of Fulton county, Illinois : Eugene D., a prosperous farmer of the same county : and Zetta. By the second mariage of Mr. and Mrs. Cham- berlin five children have been born: Min- nie, the wife of William Seward. a dealer in agricultural implements in Kingman, Kansas : William, of Pretty Prairie : Mabel. the wife of K. Turner, a traveling sales- man in the employ of the T. B. Hate Grocery Company, of Omaha, Nebraska: Louis Frank : and David A.

In his political views Mr. Chamberlin is an advocate of the principles of Democ- racy as expounded by Jefferson. He has never sought nor accepted office save that of constable of Roscoe township, which he filled for two terms of two years. Frater- nally he is connected with Pretty Prairie Lodge, No. 447. I. O. O. F. He is one of thie sterling citizens of the county, honored for his upright life, straightforward busi- ness methods and his genial nature.

DAVID MORTON THORNLEY.

For many years David Morton Thorn- whom were natives of Sheffield. England. ' ley has been successfully engaged in busi- ness in Reno county, Kansas, locating here before the establishment of the town of Turon. He has seen with pleasure the wonderful growth and development of this favored section, and has been identified1 with its progress in many ways.

The birth of Mr. Thornley occurred in Clermont county. Ohio, in the same section inf which General Grant was born, on De- cember 3. 1823. His grandfather, Ephre- ditus Thornley, was born in King George county, Virginia, and later moved to Ken- tucky, where he died in 1814. having reared three sons and one daughter. The latter became Mrs. Beckett and after marriage re-

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moved to Daviess county, Indiana. The three sons were: Enoch, who settled eighteen imiles north of Indianapolis, Indiana, and became well known in that locality as a scholarly man and a wonderful mathema- tician : Thomas, who remained in the south and became a large slave owner and for a number of years operated a plantation on the ground which during the Civil war be- came the camp of the United States troops during the siege of Vicksburg, and Reuben, who became the father of the subject of this sketchi, and was born in Cynthiana, Harri- son county, Kentucky, in 1798. His death occurred in Dewitt county, Illinois. Sep- tember 6, 1846. The mother of Mr. Thorn- ley was named Anna Walriven, and she was born in Ohio in 1802 and married in 1818. Her parents were Samuel and Eliza (Sargent) Walriven, who were natives of Maryland and who settled in Clermont county, Ohio, in 1796, when it was a dense forest and wild beasts had not yet been ex- terminated. The land was located two miles from the Ohio river and was both valuable and productive. The children born to Reuben Thornley and wife were as follows : Samuel, who died at the age of two years ; Edward, who was born in 1821, is now a farmer in Nebraska, having removed there from Iowa in 1885, and to Iowa in 1852 from Dewitt county, Illinois : David Mor- ton, of this sketch; Leroy, who was killed in the Mexican war, at Cerro Gordo, where he is buried; Eliza Hall, who married and died in Dewitt county, in 1897. leaving a large family ; Sally and Rebecca, who were twins, and both are now deceased, leaving large families ; Lucy Aun Hall, who is mar- ried and a resident of Dewitt county : Mary Walker, who resides in Hydeville. Cali- fornia: Enoch, who is a farmer of Dewitt county, Illinois, and served four years in the Civil war, in the Tenth Illinois Cavalry ; James A., who removed here in 1868 and died in Leavenworth, Kansas. soon after : Susan, who is a resident of California : and Peter A., who died in childhood, in 1851. .After the death of the father the mother married Jesse Stout and bore one son, which died in infancy. the mother's death

taking place in 1884, and she was buried on the home farm by the side of hier first liusband.

David Morton Thornley was reared on his father's farm, which consisted of four hundred and eighty acres, two hundred and forty of which was in timber and the remain- der in prairie land. Here the parents settled in 1863. Mr. Thornley being the first man to locate out on the prairie. His nearest mar- ket was Chicago, and the long journey was made with ox-teams, it being necessary to camp out on the way. The first house he built was of logs, with dimensions of eight- een by twenty feet, and the floor to the loft or attic was made of boards, four feet long, riven out with a frow. He recalls very dis- tinctly the sudden, terrible cold which fell over the country in December, 1836, when the mercury fell to thirty-six degrees below zero, following a thunder storm.

Mr. Thornley embraced every possible chance to obtain an education, attending a school away from home two years after reaching his majority and he was the first individual in that section to obtain a teach- er's certificate. He taught school very suc- cessfully for seven winters, leaving home in 1845. On February. 1849, he was united in marriage to Miss Mary J. Lapham, who was born in Edgar county, Illinois, and six children were born to this union, as follows : Margaret, who is the wife of D. Simedley, of Oklahoma Territory; Ann Eliza, who died at the age of one year : William Henry, who lives in Dewitt county, Illinois, and has five children; Florence, who is the wife of A. Lowe, and lives in Grove township, Reno county, and has five children; and Alta D. and Eva.

Mr. Thornley arrived in Kansas in March, 1886, and his first abode was the small frame house which forms a part of bis present handsome home. In 1900 lie bought a quarter section of valuable land in Gray county, his real-estate business en- abling him to select from a large acreage. His business has been as a commission deal- er in land, and probably no one in this lo- cality is better posted on values and loca- tions.

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Mr. Thornley joined the order of Odd Fellows in 1850, in Decatur, Illinois, and has been an active member ever since. In politics he is an ardent Republican, and he has efficiently served as justice of the peace and as notary public, and has taken an act- ive part in public affairs in Turon. Both he and wife are worthy and consistent mem- bers of the Methodist church, in which he is a trustee, and they are among the most highly esteemed citizens of this pleasant little town.

JOHN R. PRICE.

Among the substantial, prominent and highly esteemed citizens of Reno county, Kansas, is John R. Price, who owns large tracts of land in Miami township, in addi- tion to much other valuable property. His birth occurred in Breaconshire, South Wales, on September 16. 1826, a son of Rees Price, who was born in the same house. about 1799. The Price family occupied an estate of four hundred acres of valuable land for many generations, and in 1891. when Mr. Price, of this biography, with his two daughters, visited the old family home, he was offered the large sum of twen- ty-five thousand pounds for it. Here his great-grandfather was born and lived to an advanced age, and here his grandfather, Joshua Price, was also born, and lived to be ninety-six years old. Their remains lie in the little Episcopalian cemetery of the Stone church located there.

The father of our subject died at the age of forty-one years, of pneumonia, contract- ing this disease while seining fish. The mother of our subject was named Janet Jones, and was a widow living at Glyneath, Wales, at the time of her marriage to Mr. Rees Price, and lived to be ninety-four years of age, dying in 1873. She reared to maturity nine of her ten children, five sons and four daughters, one daughter dying at the age of three years. Our subject is the youngest of the sons, although he has two younger sisters. These nine children mar- ried, and the venerable grandmother was

permitted to see seventy-four grandchildren and fourteen great-grandchildren. Mr. Price comes of a family noted for its longevity. Two of his aunts are now liv- ing in Wales, near the castle of the great prima donna, Adelina Patti, and they have children who are old, the names of the aunts being Mrs. Sarah Evans, who is one hundred and six years old, and Mrs. Nest Morgan, who is one hundred and eight years of age.

The early educational advantages of our subject were very limited, but his schooling was not confined to books. The world and its great movements have been teachers, and few men have studied with greater profit. Seven years of his life in young manhood were spent in apprentice- ship, four to the trade of stone cutter (dur- ing which time he did a part of the work on Madam Patti's castle, for such the world will always remember her) and three in the building trade. In 1861 he came to Amer- ica, landing at New York, and as he wished to engage in gold mining he went to Cali- fornia, by way of the Isthmus of Panama, the trip consuming two months. Mr. Price was married in Wales, in 1856, to Margaret Jones, of his own neighborhood, and when he came to the United States he left her and their little son behind. His gold mining did not prove as successful as he hoped, and six years passed before he returned to his dear ones in the old country. When he returned, in 1867, he brought them with him and the family settled in Oskaloosa, Iowa, where they remained for fourteen years, and there the children were born, with the exception of the only son, Rees, whose death occurred in Hutchinson, Kansas, at the age of thirty- six years, of appendicitis. He came to Kan- sas after the World's Fair in Chicago. He was a man of great business ability, was in business with his father, and was president of the Hutchinson Salt Works. His wife and one daughter live in Geneva, Switzer- land, his estate being very large, and his life insurance amounting to ninety-seven thousand dollars.

It was in Oskaloosa, Iowa, in 1873. that Mrs. Price, the beloved wife, was removed from the family circle, and three years

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later Mr. Price removed to Topeka, Kank sas. There he resided until five years ago, when he came to his present home and ranch, comprising twenty-two hun- dred acres. Here are raised in the greatest abundance wheat and corn, the land yield- ing from three to seven thousand bushels a year of the former, and from two to four thousand a year of corn and oats. He feeds all he produces except his wheat, and is obliged to buy corn, this not being remark- able when it is remembered that he raises from six to seven hundred head of cattle and from twenty-five to thirty-five head of horses and keeps many eligible to register, as they are full-blooded. This ranch Mr. Price bought eighteen years ago and he had Colonel Johnson as a tenant for some years. It was originally but raw prairie land, but is now attractive and valuable, with its groves of shade trees, four acres of pro- ductive orchards, and its cultivation and im- provement in every direction. The tenant house, with the barns and granaries, make a village of themselves, and here Mr. Price is preparing to erect a handsome, modern residence. This property is located one mile east of Turon, and all the land within that town, north of Price avenue, is located on what was a part of the estate. In addition to this magnificent property he also has his fine home in Topeka, which cost over thirty thousand dollars and a farm of one hundred and sixty acres near that city, valued at ten thousand dollars.

Mr. Price has been largely interested in contracting and building, principally in the line of railroad work. One contract alone. taken in Boston, amounted to four million dollars and was for a railroad in old Mexico, Mr. Price has built over three thousand miles of railroad west of the Mississippi river. Fraternally he has long been a valu- ed member of the Masonic order, and in pol- ities is a Republican. Although so well fitted to assume the responsibilities of office. he has always declared himself too busy. With him reside his two lovely daughters. Cordelia is the widow of Henry Stevenson, of Cayuga, New York, where he was a mer- chant. She was educated at Blauvelt Insti-

tute, in Boston, Massachusetts, and is pro- ficient in music, while her sister, Miss Jen- nie, is equally well educated in mathematics and art, both being charming and cultured ladies. Although Mr. Price has been de- prived of a wife's affection for twenty-eight years, he has found tender and loving care from his dutiful and beloved daughters.

PHINEAS C. BRANCH.

In a record of those who have been prominently identified with the development and progress of Reno county it is imperative that definite consideration be granted to the subject of this review. for not only is he a prominent representative of the agricultural interests of this favoned section, but has the distinction of being one of the pioneers of the golden west, with whose fortunes he has been identified for nearly thirty years, and so ordering his life as to gain and retain the confidence and esteem of his fellow men.

Phineas Colver Branch is a native of Vermont, his birth having occurred in Mid- dletown, Rutland county, on the 8th of July, 1824. His paternal grandfather. Daniel Branch, emigrated from Connecticut to Ver- mont with ox teams and covered wagons, taking with him his household goods, while the ladies of the family rode on horseback. He was a farmer by occupation and was a teamster in the Revolutionary war. Our subject's maternal grandfather, Nathaniel Colver, was a soldier in that remarkable struggle, and his daughter, the mother of our subject, cut and made the uniforms worn by a number of the soldiers in the war of 1812. Minor Branch, the father of him whose name heads this sketch, was born in Norwich, Connecticut, in 1769. and his death occurred in LaPorte county. Indiana, in 1838, at the age of sixty-nine years. He was a well educated man, and was an able and efficient teacher for his day, being an excellent penman. Our subject now has in his possession two choice souvenirs from his father's pen, one bearing the date of July, 1787, and the cther of February. 1794.

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When the trouble arose between the north and the south Mr. Branch, of this re- view, put aside all personal considerations and loyally responded to the call of his coun- try. In August, 1862, from Iowa, he en- listed in the Thirteenth Iowa Volunteer In- fantry. Company G, and served until the long and terrible struggle was past. He received an honorable discharge at Daven- port, Iowa. Prior to the outbreak of the re- bellion Mr. Branch was married, the wed- ding having been celebrated on the 14th of May, 1854. in Vinton, Iowa. The lady of his choice was Miss Sarah Chapin, who was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts, in 1826, a daughter of Stephen and Lovina ( Humis- ton) Chapin, natives also of the old Bay state. The Humistons were among the first settlers on the Connecticut river. After his marriage Mr. Branch removed with his wife to Galena, Illinois, locating next door to the leather store owned by the father of General Grant. From that city he removed to Iowa, securing eighty acres of unimproved land in Benton county, and to that place his wife's people had also removed. The year 1873 witnessed the arrival of Mr. Branch in the Sunflower state, where he secured a timber claim and a quarter section of prairie land in Reno county. His son also owns a half section here, and together they are farming the entire section, which is located in Med- ford township. The place is under a fine state of cultivation and is adorned with good buildings and beautiful shade and fruit trees.

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A biographical history of central Kansas, Vol. I, Part 44

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