USA > Kansas > A biographical history of central Kansas, Vol. I > Part 46
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many years. He served four months in the German army. At the age of twenty-seven years he came to America, embarking at Bremen for New Orleans on a sailing ves- sel, and was sixteen weeks in making the voyage, the ship having encountered a storm in which it came near being wrecked. From New Orleans he made his way up the river to St. Louis, Missouri, where he landed with plenty of clothing and bedding but with very little money. April 11, 1849, he mar- ried Henrietta Hartman, whose birth place in the fatherland was identical with his own and who was born in 1832. They had tivelve children, of whom ten are now living and they have fifty grandchildren and about twenty great-grandchildren. Mr. Krey left St. Louis in 1850 and bought forty acres of land in Iowa, on which he paid four hun- (red dollars, money he had accumulated at his trade as a shoemaker. In 1880 he re- moved to Missouri, where he improved a . farm of two hundred acres, which he sold in the fall of 1885 and removed to Kansas, here purchasing his present farm of one hun- dred and sixty acres, on which he made a cash payment of eight hundred dollars. He worked at shoemaking one year after he settled in Missouri, but since then he has done nothing in that line. In politics he has been a Republican since the Civil war. He and his wife are German Methodists and. services of that denomination were held in his house two years, while during two suc- ceeding years he preached to a German con- gregation in his native language.
Frederick Krey was reared to a farm life and educated in the common schools. He was married June 21. 1874, to Martha Grose- close, who was born in Missouri, January 10, 1856, a daughter of Adam and Mildred (Ashier) Groseclose. Her father died at the age of fifty-four years, leaving a widow and five children who were named as follows : George, a farmer near Sylvia; Mary, who married Adam Shaverbush, of Hayes town- ship; Martha, the wife of the immediate sub- ject of this sketch; Eliza, the wife of John Yust, a biographical sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work; and Emma, who married Henry Lynden, of Oklahoma Terri-
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tory. Mrs. Groseclose died in April, 1885, aged fifty-four years. Mr. Groseclose was a farmer in Missouri and the children were reared in that state.
Frederick Krey began active life as a farmer on his father's farm in Missouri, where he remained two years, until he re- moved to Kansas, where he began his ca- reer in a box house covering a ground space of fourteen by sixteen feet on a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres. That small building, once his resi- dence, he now utilizes as a hen house. He is now the owner of two quarter sections of land-one in Hayes township, and a section and a quarter in Stafford coun- tv. He farms his three-quarter-section in Hayes township, pastures stock on a three- quarter-section and rents two quarter-sec- tions. He usually has from fifty to two hun- dred head of cattle and raises annually from twenty-five to forty calves. His stock is of the short-horn variety, of good grade and brings good prices. He sells the milk of eight cows to a creamery. He has from ten to fifteen horses and raises several every vear. Wheat is his leading crop to which he devoted two hundred and sixteen acres in 1901, the average yield being fifteen to | twenty-five bushels per acre. He plants seventy-five to one hundred acres to corn and harvests from twenty-five to fifty bush- els per acre. He planted and has brought to maturity a five-acre orchard, which yields fruit in considerable variety. His large and fine farm house was erected in 1885 and an addition to it was erected in 1900. His commodious red barn was erected in 1885 also. Mr. Krey is a Republican in politics, and is active in local affairs and for two vears has held the office of school director. Being a man of much public spirit he may be safely depended on to do his utmost to assist any measure which in his good judg- ment is calculated to advance the public good.
Frederick and Martha ( Groseclose) Krey have had eleven children: John is a far- mer in Stafford county on a two-hundred- and-twenty-acre farm. He married Mil- dred Pruner and has one son. Anna mar-
ried Bernard Mckeown, a farmer living a mile and a half east from Mr. Krey and who is also in the livery business at Sylvia. They have three children. Ella died at the age of seven years, on May 22, 1885. Gertrude died at the age of four years, June 5, 1885. Nettie Josephine married Benjamin Bagle, of East Cooper, Stafford county. Mattie Birdie is an attractive girl of fifteen years, who is acquiring an education and giving special attention to music, in which she is taking lessons on the organ. Harvey Frederick is a manly boy of twelve years. Cephas Marion is nine years old. Ralph Gilbert was born in 1893, Francis Clarence in 1896 and Talta Leo in 1899.
WILLIAM R. PENNINGTON.
Among the well known and highly es- teemed citizens of Reno county and one of its oldest residents is William R. Penning- ton, the proprietor of the noted Penning- ton orchards, located in section 4, in North Reno township. The birth of William R. Pennington was in Sullivan county, Penn- sylvania, on September 13, 1843, and he is a son of J. R. and Susan ( Rodgers) Pen- nington, the second child in their family of five children. The mother of our subject died while the latter was still young. The father remarried, but no children were born to the second union. In 1854 J. R. Pen- nington moved to Lee county, Illinois, and remained there for eleven years, engaged in farming, removing thence to Jones coun- ty, Iowa, where he continued some five years, later settling for the same period on a farm in Marshall county, Iowa. The next change of residence was to Marion county, Kansas, and later to Reno county, where he died in 1899, at the age of eighty- two years. He was a worthy and consist- ent member of the Methodist church, and a stanch believer in the principles of the Democratic party. The grandfather of our subject was Jesse Pennington, and he came from England and established his home in Pennsylvania.
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William R. Pennington of this biog- raphy was eleven years of age when the family located in Illinois and there had some school advantages, accompanying his father to Iowa and remaining with him un- til twenty-one years of age. In February, 1865, he enlisted in Company G, One Hun- dred and Fifty-sixth Illinois Infantry. With his regiment he went from Louis- ville to Chattanooga, thence to Georgia, and from there back to Memphis, finally return- ing to Springfield, Illinois, where he was discharged, the war being over. After this experience he settled down to the peaceful vocation of farming, following the same in Cedar and Marshall counties, Iowa, until 1873, at which time he came to Reno coun- ty. Here he took up a homestead claim of the quarter section which he now owns, on April 7. 1873. At that time the country surrounding the beautiful home of Mr. Pennington presented a treeless prairie, ex- tending for miles westward without a break. wind-swept and uncultivated, still the home of many wandering bands of sav- ages and sometimes visited by the wild ani- mals of the locality. Mr. Pennington went through many of the trials of pioneer life and had some losses, but it is upon record that he never accepted assistance which was sent by the east to the Kansas pioneers after their losses through the visitation of the grasshoppers. Mr. Pennington was confi- dent that the soil of Kansas would produce wheat while many of his neighbors devoted their sole energies to corn. When the grass- hoppers came he thus lost less than others. His wheat became such an abundant and flourishing crop that agriculturists from far and near came to admire and went away to follow his example. Very early in his ex- perience our subject saw the advisability of raising cattle, and has always done some- thing in that line, and now has some sixty head.
In 1880, with John J. Measer, Mr. Pen- nington started into raising nursery stock. and at the same time he set out a number of trees for an orchard, as an experiment. He has continued to increase his orchard and now includes eighty acres of his own
land and seventy acres of his son's land, the one-hundred-and-fifty-acre tract being known as the Pennington orchards. Here the yield has been abundant, principally of apples, although the yield of cherries, plums, peaches, apricots, pears, grapes and berries has also been very satisfactory. Mr. Pen- nington has three hundred acres of tillable land and does some grain raising. For ten years he very successfully managed the nursery business, but as his orchards pros- pered he found more profitable use for his land. The trees planted by him, not includ- ing those raised and distributed through his energy, have completely changed the ap- pearance of the country, and have had a noted climatic influence. In 1892 lic erected his fine, modern residence and here enjoys the results of his former industry and intelligently applied energy.
The marriage of Mr. Pennington was in Iowa, in 1869. to Miss Lucinda Jeffs, and three children have been born to this union : Leon, a well-known horticulturist of this township: Rella, who married George Kearney, of Grant township, in Reno coun- ty ; and Harold. Mr. Pennington has been a prominent member of the Republican party and for three years has efficiently served as township treasurer. When he settled here there were neither school nor church edifices, and he has been an organ- izer of both, contributing time and money to advance both educational and religious enterprises. In the interests of the Presby- terian church he has been particularly act- ive, of which he has long been a member and for twenty years an elder. He did much to assist in its establishment here. Fraternally he is connected with Joe Hook- er Post. No. 17, G. A. R.
DANIEL E. REID.
"Through struggles to success" is the epitome of the life record of Daniel E. Reid, who now occupies a prominent and honored position in financial circles in cen- tral Kansas. Residing in Hutchinson, he
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is there engaged in the banking and broker- age business and is the well known vice- president of the State Exchange Bank. In one of his witty after-dinner speeches Chauncey Depew said : "Some men achieve greatness, some men are born great and some men are born in Ohio." The last is applicable to Mr. Reid and it is also a well known fact that his good fortune has been achieved-through untiring perseverance, honorable effort and commendable de- termination and ambition. Such a life record is well worthy of emulation and proves that success is not a matter of genius but the outcome of well directed labor.
His birth occurred in New Paris, Ohio, October 3. 1844, his parents being William B. and Mary A. (Jones) Reid. His pa- ternal grandfather, Adam Reid, was born in Rockbridge county, Virginia, and was a soldier under General William Henry Harrison in the Indian wars. His wife was Hannah Reid, and among their chil- dren was William B. Reid, who was born, reared, lived and died in Jefferson town- ship, Preble county, Ohio. In early life he learned and followed the hatter's trade. He recruited a company for service in the Mexican war and was chosen its captain. but although the war closed before his troops were called out he was always known as Captain Reid. About 1850 he located on a farm, where he spent his remaining days, his death occurring in 1889, when he had reached the age of eighty-two years. His political support was first given the Whig party and on its dissolution he joined the ranks of the new Republican party. Although he was not identified with any religious denomination he believed in the doctrines of the Christian church, attended its services and gave to the support of the cause. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Mary A. Jones, was born in Fred- erick county, Maryland, and when a child accompanied her parents to. Preble county, Ohio. She was a cousin of Colonel Ethan Allen, the distinguished Revolutionary sol- dier. Her mother, Mrs. Helen Jones, lived to the extreme old age of ninety-two years and when she removed from Virginia to
Ohio she liberated all her slaves. Like her husband, Mrs. Reid believed in the faith of the Christian church and was a constant and faithful member thereof, ardently en- dorsing its teachings. Her death occurred in 1884. In the family were six sons and four daughters: Susan, the wife of Joseph Miller, of New Paris, Ohio; Adam, of New Westville, Ohio; Celestia, the wife of Allen Holderman, a merchant of Camden, Ohio; Martha A., the wife of Washington Clark, of New- Paris, Ohio; George J., a resident farmer of Preble county; Daniel E., of Hutchinson, Kansas; William B., of New Paris, Ohio; Lurton D., a resident farmer of New Madison, Ohio; and Charles S., also of New Paris.
In the days of his youth Daniel E. Reid enjoyed the advantages of a country boy who takes from the hard work of the farm time for study and self-improvement. That such surroundings in boyhood are an actual advantage to a man in this country is prov- en by the innumerable company of success- ful men whose career began on the farm. It is thought by some that the pressure of poverty is in the nature of a discrimination against a man in the race of life, but the truth is that the old-fashioned country homestead has produced nearly all of the successful men of this generation, because it produces health of body and mind as well as of moral disposition-three things that are the chief conditions of success. Attending the neighborhood school through the short winter sessions and working in the fields in summer, the youth of our sub- ject was passed until he was sixteen years of age, when, on the 16th of August, 1861, he responded to the first call for troops to serve for three years and enlisted in Company E, Fifth Ohio Volunteer Cavalry. He participated in the battles of Shiloh, Corinth, Iuka and the Atlanta campaign. He was captured at Corinth and held as a prisoner at Mobile, Montgomery, Atlanta, Weldon, Libby and Belle Isle for eleven months and twenty-one days. When cap- tured he weighed one hundred and sixty pounds and when paroled only ninety-three pounds. During the cold winter of 1863-4
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he suffered all the horrors that have ever been depicted in relation to life in the southern prison pens. They had no fuel, tents, blankets or shelter of any kind and the awful prison fare was served in starva- tion quantities. On the 21st of March, 1804. he went home on parole, rejoining his command at Huntsville, Alabama, in June following. He remained in the serv- ice until after the campaign of Atlanta and the expiration of his term of service, being discharged December 3, 186.4.
After liis return from the war Mr. Reid began farming on his own account, renting the old homestead until he was able to pur- chase a farm, which was his home until 1884. when he sold his property in Ohio and came west, locating first in Kansas City, where he was for five years engaged in the loan and brokerage business. In the meantime he was looking about him for a favorable location and in 1889 he chose Hutchinson as the place offering the best inducements. Accordingly he took up his residence here, where he has since engaged in the loan and brokerage business, buy- ing and selling farm and city property and negotiating loans. In March, 1899, he erected a bank building and in company with Joseph and Willis Baker organized the State Exchange Bank of Hutchinson, Kansas, with Joseph Baker as president, Daniel E. Reid, vice-president, and Willis Baker, cashier. This institution was based upen sound business principles and has ever enjoyed an unassailable reputation and a liberal patronage.
On the 4th of December. 1867. Mr. Reid was united in marriage to Miss Han- nah Fall, a daughter of John L. and Re- becca ( Hart) Fall. She was born and reared in Preble county. Ohio, in the same neighborhood as her husband. They have an elegant home, beautifully and tastefully furnished and supplied with all modern improvements. including electric lights, hot and cold water and other accessories which add to the comforts and convenience of life. In his political views Mr. Reid is a Republican and for one term served as a member of the city council. taking an
active part in directing the affairs of the city. For thirty years he has been a mem- ber of the Christian church and much of the time has served on the official board as deacon. Mrs. Reid has also taken an act- ive part in religious and benevolent work and the poor and needy find in them warm friends. Mr. Reid is a member of Joe Hooker Post, No. I -. G. A. R., and his wife belongs to the Woman's Relief. Corps, in which she has served in several official positions. He is also a member of Reno Lodge, No. 140. F. & A. M., and Reno Lodge, No. 99. I. O. O. F. In the line of his military connection he has served as commander of his post, as representative to the state encampment and for one year was adjutant of his post. His life has been suc- cessful and commendable and without any extraordinary family connections or pe- entniary aid to assist him he has steadily ad- vanced to a prominent position in financial circles in central Kansas.
GEORGE 1. COLLETT.
One of the most popular places in Ells- worth, Ellsworth county, Kansas, is the "Postoffice Book Store" of George A. Col- lett, at the corner of Douglas avenue and First street. Mr. Collett carries a complete line of standard books, current literature, periodicals, daily papers and school books and school supplies. together with station- ery, notions and sundries, confectionery, ci- gars, tobacco and smokers' goods, and being a popular eitizen and his store the repository of articles of interest to persons of every age and class, he is achieving a success to which his fair and enterprising business methods justly entitle him.
George A. Collett was born at Cornwall, Vermont, October 25. 1855. a son of John and Hannah (Willis) Collett. His father was of French-Canadian birth and his mother, who was descended from English ancestry was born in New Hampshire. John Collett, who was a farmer, died in Ver- mont at the age of thirty-five years, when his
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son. George A., Ina , Idest child, was only six years old. Eugene. John Collett's sec- ond son. is a farmer in Union county, Ohio, and John Collett, his third son, has for some years been a proof reader in the office of the Denver ( Colorado) Times. After the death of the husband and father the family removed to St. Lawrence county, New York, where they remained until the subject of this sketch was twelve years old. when they removed to Athens county, Ohio, where they lived until 1879.
George A. Collett spent his life on a farm until he was seventeen years old, when he found employment in the office of the Athens Journal, at Athens, Ohio, where he worked two years as a printer and obtained a practical knowledge of country journal- ism. He passed the next three years in mer- cantile business at Coolville, Ohio. In 1879 he came to Ellsworth, Kansas, where for a short time he was employed in the office of the Ellsworth Times, but soon accepted a position with Gephardt & Huycke, in the Reporter office, where he was employed until 1885. In that year in company with Frank S. Foster, he bought the Ellsworth News, which then became the Ellsworth Democrat, and later the Ellsworth Messen- ger, which is still published by Mr. Foster. and with which Mr. Collett was connected ten years, until he was appointed postmas- ter at Ellsworth by President Cleveland. In 1894 he entered the book and stationery trade in a small way, and his management of his enterprise has been so efficient that his store is regarded as the best of its class in central Kansas.
Mr. Collett has always taken an active interest in public affairs. He was a member of the Democratic state central committee for many years and in 1888 he was a dele- gate the national convention, at St. Louis, which nominated Grover Cleveland for the presidency. Always an active partisan, he has rendered his party much efficient service. For three years he was clerk of the city council of Ellsworth and he has been a member of the board of education. He is a Knight Templar Mason, being past eminent commander of St. Aldemar Commandery,
No. 33. in Ellsworth, and is past noble grand of Ellsworth Lodge. No. 109, Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows. He holds membership in the Modern Woodmen of America and in the Ancient Order of United Workmen. Mr. Collett is an affable, cour- teous gentleman, whose list of friends equals his list of acquaintances, and he is one of the most popular and successful business men of Ellsworth. His executive ability was amply demonstrated during his admin- istration of the office of postmaster, which has never been filled more satisfactorily by any other incumbent.
Mr. Collett was married October 29. 1876, to Miss Clara Streicher, a native of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, who is descended from a family prominent in military circles in Europe. They have three children, Tena E., Mame and John S.
C. M. BAY.
One of the most extensive farmers and stock raisers of Reno county is C. M. Bay, who resides on section 18, Roscoe township. He has depended entirely upon his own re- sources from early manhood and has met difficulties and disasters ; but the word de- feat does not appear in his vocabulary, and with undaunted spirit he faces every situa- tion and makes conditions result to his own benefit, where a man of less resolute pur- pose would be utterly disheartened and dis- couraged. Within the last three years he has become the owner of the extensive prop- erty interests which he now enjoys and his stock raising enterprise is represented by seven hundred head of cattle of good grades upon his ranches.
Mr. Bay was born in Gallia, Ohio, in 1858, a son of Joseph N. and Emily ( Camp- bell) Bay, both of whom were also natives of the Buckeye state. The father, a farmer by occupation, removed with his family from Ohio to Monroe county, Iowa. and now resides in Clark county, that state, en- gaged in agricultural pursuits and stock raising. He is a prominent citizen of the
I Bay
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locality and a leading representative of the Masonic fraternity. In his family were four children, of whom two are now living: C. M., who is the eldest, and Samuel E., a farmer of Roscoe township, Reno county.
During his infancy Mr. Bay was taken by his parents to Iowa, and there he was reared to manhood upon the home farm, ac- quiring his education in the public schools of the neighborhood. His mother died when he was only seven years of age, but he con- tinned with his father until seventeen years of age, when he left home to make his own way in the world. He began farming on his own account on a tract of eighty acres in Wayne county, Iowa, and after two years sold that property and with his capital pur- chasing two good teams and wagons, with which he started for Kansas in 1878. On arriving in Reno county he traded one team and wagon for the southwest quarter of sec- tion 19, Roscoe township-a tract of raw prairie land, on which he built a sod house. Immediately afterward he began improv- ing the farm, remaining thereon for two years. He also took up a. timber claim, on the same quarter, on which he planted about eleven acres of catalpa trees, from which he has sold for the last three years fence posts to the value of five hundred dollars each year.
In 1880 Mr. Bay purchased four hun- dred and eighty acres in Roscoe township on sections 28 and 29, and took up his abode on the northwest quarter of section 29. There he erected another sod house, in which he lived for a year and then removed to his present location on section 18, Ros- coe township. In 1882 he erected his pres- ent residence, hauling the lumber from Hutchinson.
In 1883 he removed from the farm to the town of Kingman, renting his land, and there engaged in the land and loan business, handling much property and carrying on an extensive business. He was also active in promoting various enterprises which proved of vahuie in promoting general prosperity as well as individual success. He remained in Kingman until 1890 and from 1884 until 1887 prospered, making one hun- dred thousand dollars, but during the finan-
cial panic of 1887-88, when there was 7 marked depreciation in the value of all kinds of property and because he had to make payment of some twenty thousand dollars of security debts, and in addition, losing thirty-eight thousand dollars in vari- ous corporations, he lost all in the general crash, saving only from' the wreck of his fortunes the timber claim on the southwest quarter of section 19, Roscoe township. In 1891 lie retired to the farm and again took liis place behind the plow. Gradually he gained another start and engaged in the raising of grain and stock. In 1895 he pur- chased one thousand head of cattle, which he kept for three years and then found the venture unprofitable. Since then he has been largely engaged in buying and selling land and in cultivating his fields and deal- ing in live stock. He now has thirty-six hundred and eighty acres. He cultivates about sixteen hundred acres and therefore annually harvests large crops. He also has about seven hundred head of cattle upon his place and among the leading and most ex- tensive farmers and stock raisers of the county he is numbered. When disaster has overtaken him, with renewed courage, his trouble serving as an impetus for greater diligence, he has taken tip the work of re- trieving his lost possession, and, with unfal- tering spirit. he has once more gained a place among the leading and prosperous business men of Reno county. Undoubtedly he pos- sesses business ability of a high order, to- gether with executive force. keen discern- ment and marked powers of management.
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