A biographical history of central Kansas, Vol. I, Part 51

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 51

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Jir. McKinnis chose as a companion and helpmate for the journey of life Miss Eliza- beth Collins, who was born in Galena. Illi- nois, June 19, 1845. and she has indeed been a valuable assistant to him. She was reared in Iowa, but was left an orphan when thir- teen years of age, by the death of her moth- er. her father having passed away when she was three years of age. She was a daugh- ter of John and Vinson (Ray) Collins, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the lat- ter of Boston, Massachusetts. When four- teen years of age her father left his home in the Keystone state and came west. He never returned. so that little is known concerning the history of the family. He devoted his life to agricultural pursuits. His wife was a Presbyterian in religious faith, and their children were: Henry W., who was starved to death in Libby prison while a member of the Union army: Elizabeth, now Mrs. Mc- Kinnis: and William H., who entered the army but never returned, so that his where- abouts are not known. After the death of her first husband Mrs. Collins became the wife of F. Farrell, and they had three chil- dren .- Samuel. Francis and Thomas. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. McKinnis has been blessed with three children : James W .. who was born in Iowa and is now a black- smith of Lyons; and George A. and Laura 1 .. twins, who were born in the sod house on the . Id family homestead. The former 's now a farmer and the latter is the wife of Charles E. Moody, an agriculturist living in the Indian Territory. They also have three grandchildren. George K., Frank L. and Ira D., sons of James W. McKinnis.

The subject of this review is in religious inith a Universalist, and in political faith is a stalwart Populist. He has been called upon to fill some township offices, but has never been a seeker for political preferment.

He has desired rather to give his time and attention to his business affairs and has therein prospered. As one of the honored pioneers of the county he certainly deserves mention in this volume, and with pleasure we present his record to our readers.

WILLIAM HODGSON.

Natives of England have proven good American citizens and have become known in all parts of our country for their industry, integrity and patriotism. A prominent English-born American citizen of Reno county, Kansas, is William Hodgson, a farmer, stock-raiser and fruit-grower on section 20, Reno township, whose post- office address is Hutchinson.

William Hodgson was born in Cumber- land county, in the north of England, De- cember 25. 1842, a son of Attherington Hodgson, also a native of Cumberland county, who took his given name from his mother's family. Attherington Hodgson was a son of William Hodgson, who in his day was an immensely wealthy land pro- prietor, and was given an excellent educa- tion in English universities and became a man of fine scholarly attainments and pow- erful intellect. He was married in England to Rebecca Smithson, also a native of Eng- land, where they resided some time after they were married. Eventually, owing to some disagreement with his relatives, Attherington Hodgson came to America, and not long after his departure the subject of this sketch was born. A year after he went away his wife, who then had three small children, followed him and the family located in Taunton. Massachusetts. Up to that time Mr. Hodgson had never found it necessary to follow any occupation and he then took up the work of block-printing, a trade connected with the manufacture of American cotton prints. He was thus em- ployed until about 1850, when he moved with his family to Steele county, Minnesota, where he and Thomas Smithson. his brother-in-law. each located on a quarter section of government land.

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The port of Minnesota to which refer- ence has been made was at that time one of the extreme cutposts of civilization on our western frontier and was on the border of a wilderness infested by Sioux and Win- nebago Indians, who while not hostile to the whites were constantly engaged in tribal warfare and once fought a desperate battle near Mr. Hodgson's homestead. The fam- ily encountered many trials, hardships and privations in that new country and there came a time when they were compelled to seek the wild products of the woods near their home in order to eke out an existence ; but as the years went by their fortunes im- proved and Attherington Hodgson became a prominent man in that part of the country and filled many local offices. He was long active in the promotion of public education and influential in township. county and state affairs. He was an earnest abolition- ist, and once said in a public speech : "There is one law that I will break-I will protect runaway slaves." Such unfor- tunates were often sheltered under his roof and on one occasion he harbored two slaves, a man and a woman of prominence, who had made their way thus far from Charles- ton, South Carolina. The woman was a daughter of Ex-Senator Reeves, of Vir- ginia, and the man was known as Craft; and they played the role of mistress and servant so cleverly that they had escaped all suspicion, for she was nearly white and was educated and of refined appearance and man- ners, and at times, to keep up appearances, she would cut her companion severely with a whip, to which indignity he submitted with the deference due to a servant from his mistress. The pair left Mr. Hodgson's place at twelve o'clock at night and arrived safely in Canada, and the man, who had struck Mr. Hodgson as being remarkably intelligent, was afterward heard from as a lecturer in England. Originally an old-line Whig, Mr. Hodgson naturally gravitated into the Republican party, of which he was an ardent member from its organization un- til the end of his life. He and his wife had both been baptized into the English church. The latter died in 1861, and Mr. Hodgson

remained on his farm in Minnesota until his death, which occurred in 1886.

William Hodgson was the third in or- der of birth of his parents' family of eight children, seven of whom are living. Rich- ard Hodgson, M. D., a retired physician of Stonham, a suburb of Boston, Massachu- setts, pursued his professional studies at Heidelburg, Germany, and received three diplomas and during the years of his active practice was known as one of the ablest physicians in southeastern Massachusetts. Elizabeth married E. J. Crandle, a promi- nent citizen and farmer of Deerfield, Steele county, Minnesota. Miss Jennie Hodgson lives with her sister, Mrs. W. J. Sponsler, in Reno township. Attherington Hodgson, now living retired at Chicago, Illinois, was formerly engaged extensively in the stock business in Kansas, Montana and Indian Territory. Thomas Hodgson, M. D., gained his medical diploma in Boston, Massachu- setts, and since 1873 has been practicing his profession successfully at Middleborough, Massachusetts, where he is very popular. Mary married W. J. Sponsler, a farmer, stockman and fruit-grower, who lives in the south half of section 20, Reno township. Sarah, while on a visit in Massachusetts. contracted a severe cold, from the effects of which she never recovered and died in Reno township about 1879.

Mr. Hodgson received the rudiments of his education in Massachusetts and finished his schooling in the little log school house near the family home in Steele county, Min- nesota. When not attending school or working on the farm he amused himself by hunting or fishing with the Indians. At the outbreak of the Civil war his patriotic spirit impelled him to enlist in the service of his country and his father permitted him to choose between going to war or going to college. Without any hesitation he enlisted in Company E, Fourth Regiment, Minne- sota Volunteer Infantry, at Fort Snelling. Minnesota, October 1, 1861. His regiment was sent to the frontier to relieve regular troops who were going south and did gar- rison duty there until April 20, 1862, when it was sent to the seat of war. It was at

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the battle , Farmington, the siege of Cor- inth and participated in the battle of Iuka, September 19, 1862, in the battle of Cor- inth, October 4 and 5 following, and was in the overland expedition which had for its object the capture of Vicksburg, when Grant's base of supplies were broken up. Then the regiment returned to Memphis and during the winter of 1802-03 it assisted to guard the railroad line between Memphis and La Grange.

March 1, 1863, Mr. Hodgson's regiment left Memphis in company with Ross' and Buford's brigades of Quimby's division of the Thirteenth Army Corps on the his- toric expedition to Yazoo pass. A squad of cavalry from this command, with the assist- ance of two gunboats and the ram India- nola, cut the Mississippi levee on the Mis- sissippi side seven miles below Helena, Ar- kansas, and then the expedition proceeded as far as Greensburg, on the Yallabusha river, and from there returned to Helena. From there the regiment was sent to Milli- ken's Bend and formed a part of the army engaged in the campaign which resulted in the capture of Vicksburg; and during that campaign it took part in the battles of Fort Gibson, Forty Springs, Raymond, Jackson and Champion Hills and in the assault on Vicksburg, May 22, 1863, in which Com- pany E was terribly cut up, Mr. Hodgson and one comrade being the only ones of its members who reached the most advanced point in its forward movement. In the as- -ault on Fort Pemberton the Fourth Minne- sota was held in reserve, but Mr. Hodgson seized his musket and joined the attacking force and received a gunshot wound in the forehead, which rendered him unconscious for two hours, his life being saved only by the heavy visor of his cap which had only u few minutes before been lowered to pro- tect his eyes from the rays of the sun which was shining in his face. Though his skull was slightly fractured, he sprang up as soon as he recovered consciousness and noting the fact that the fight was still raging grasped his musket and fought desperately . for perhaps three-quarters of an hour, until he fainted from pain and exhaustion. He

lay on the field until almost morning, then recovering consciousness he dragged him- self to the Union lines and there lay in a bomb-proof for two or three days until he was able to report for duty.

In recognition of his gallantry the Fourth Minnesota was designated as the first to march into Vicksburg after the sur- render of that Confederate stronghold, and there it was stationed until after the battle of Chickamauga, when the command tej which it was attached was ordered to Mem- phis. From Memphis it was sent on a four- hundred-mile march across the mountains to the relief of General Thomas, who was shut up at Chattanooga besieged by the Confederate General Bragg. On this long. weary march the army suffered terrible hardships. On reaching Lookout Moun- tain it skirted that eminence at night and during all of its slow progress over a dis- tance of thirteen miles not a member of the command was permitted to speak or light a match. It was two o'clock in the mern- ing when the river was reached, and Colonel Tourtellotte volunteered to cross over with his regiment and capture the Confederate picket line on the other side, and Company E. of the Fourth Minnesota, led the advance in canvas boats. The fog was so dense that at the time nothing could be seen, and Mr. Hodgson, who was an expert riverman. stood in the foremost boat holding his hand in the water, feeling the force of the current to determine the direction it should take. When a landing was made the Confederate camp fires were visible and the entire force, which constituted the Confederate picket line, extending for a distance of three-quar- ters of a mile, was captured, the prisoners numbering one hundred and sixty-nine. At daylight pontoons were thrown across the river and the army was soon crossing. The next day Mr. Hodgson fought gallantly in the battle of Missionary Ridge. The regi- ment wintered at Whitesburg, on the Ala- bama river, and as Wheeler's cavalry was stationcd on the opposite shore there were many skirmishes.

March 20, 1864, Mr. Hodgson was granted a veteran furlough for thirty days,

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and after he rejoined his command he took part in the campaign against Atlanta, and when the Federal forces reached that point his regiment was ordered to the railroad line. between Chattanooga and the front. The fourth Minnesota, the Eighth Wiscon- sin and the Ninety-third Illinois were sta- tioned at Allatoona Pass, to guard that in- portant point, when they were attacked by French's division of Hood's army and a desperate fight ensued. which lasted from ten .\. M. until two P. M. It was to the Federal soldiers engaged there at that time that General Sherman sent his famous mes- sage, "Hold the fort for I am coming." Mr. Hodgson was color bearer huit he stuck the staff of his flag in a crevice in the ranti- part of the fort and got a gun and fired round after round at the enemy until com- pelled to return to his colors by his superior officers, aand then as soon as he was no longer under restraint he climbed a persim- men tree which grew within the fort and fired rapidly for half an hour, during which time he was a target for hundreds of Con- federate sharpshooters, the balls from whose guns struck the trees but did not injure him. Some idea of the fierceness of this fight will be afforded by the statement that of a Fed- eral force of seventeen hundred and fifty- three seven hundred and fifty-two were killed and wounded, while the Confederate loss was twenty-two hundred. After that Mr. Hodgson fought under General Sher- man until after the fall of Savannah. He took part in the battle of Bentonville, South Carolina, and in the final movement which resulted in the surrender of Johnston's army and his regiment had marched back as far as Raleigh when news was brought to the victorious Federals of the assassination of President Lincoln. In the grand review at Washington. District of Columbia, after the confederacy had been overthrown, the gal- lant Fourth Minnesota was the first in line in Sherman's army and Mr. Hodgson was the first color-learer in that regiment. He was mustered out of the service July 19. 1865, and a month later his regiment was disbanded at St. Paul, Minnesota, and twe

weeks after that he re choed hf fried di -- charge and was paid off.

Returning to his old home in Steele county, Minnesota, he remained with his father until November 8, 1865. when he married, at Deerfield, that county, Miss Ellen Ware, a native of Pennfield, Monroe county, New York, born October 18, 1846. a daughter of the Rev. Thomas and Sophia ( Mixer ) Ware. Mrs. Hodgson's grand- father in the maternal line was a veteran of the war of 1812. The Rev. Thomas Ware was descended from Scotch covenanters and was born in the north of Ireland. He was pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church. and died at Owatonna, Steele county, Min- nesota, September 17, 1884, while his wife died at the same place September 13, 1896. For some time before her marriage Mrs. Hodgson taught school successfully in Min- nesota.

After his marriage Mr. Hodgson bought an eighty-acre farm in Minnesota from his father-in-law and lived upon it until 1867, when he removed to Springfield, Missouri. where for a year he was engaged in land- scape gardening. Then he located in Jas- per county. in southwest Missouri, where he remainedl until the spring of 1873. when he settled in Reno township, Rend county, Kansas, where he had taken up a soldier's homestead, which he has since improved into the fine farm on which he now lives. He and his wife and their babe made the journey from Missouri in a wagon, arriv- ing April 14. He erected a ten-by-sixteen- foot house, a mere makeshift. for a resi- (lence, and broke forty acres of his land and planted it to corn. The next year he planted sixty acres to corn and raised a good quan- tity of wheat and oats, but most of his crop was destroyed by grasshoppers and drought. In 1894 he added to his farm the northeast quarter of section 20, and now owns two hundred and forty acres. He has an or- chard of forty acres, about three acres of which is devoted to peaches, the remainder to apples, his apple trees being from eight to twenty-five years old. In 1901 he had a hundred acres of wheat, one hundred and

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twenty deres Af corn and fifteen acres of alfalfa, and he usually keeps from forty to fifty head of cattle and does considerable business in breeding, buying and selling good stock.

Mr. Hodgson is a Republican in politics and has often been a delegate to county con- ventions of his party. He is a member of the Knights and Ladies of Security and of Joe Hocker Post, No. 17, Grand Army of the Republic, of Hutchinson. He has filled the office of township trustee and has been a member of his township school board ever since his settlement in Kansas. To Mr. and Mrs. Hodgson have been born children as follows : Minnie R., the wife of Charles Theiss, a farmer, who lives a mile and a half east of Nickerson, Reno county; Alice and Ella, who died in infancy in Jasper county, Missouri; Edward R., who operates a part of his father's farm; Herbert C., who lives with his father and assists him in the man- agement of all his important business affairs; William, who is a member of his parents' household and belongs to the Sec- ond Regiment, Kansas State Guards.

On the section on which Mr. Hodgson has his homestead six hundred wagon loads of buffalo bones were gathered up after the buffaloes had become extinct in that locality, and during the hard times of the pioneer period the people made them a source of revenue. During the summer following Mr. Hodgson's settlement in Kansas a buf- falo was killed on Main street in Hutchin- son. There were many wild horses in the country and sometimes some of them would coax off team horses and mules. In the fall and winter of 1873 Mr. Hodgson went out with hunting parties to a distance of twenty- five miles and assisted in kiling many buffaloes for their meat and hides. and on one occasion. from a knoll which commanded a wide view, he

herd (f that ex- saw a buffaloes

tended even beyond the limit of his vision. Sometimes a single herd passing over a farm would trample and totally ruin a whole crop. though the animals never paused to eat corn or other grain. After the buffaloes were gone people hunted their

bones for years. Mr. Hodgson has many interesting reminiscences of early days in Kansas and of the dangers and perils of the Civil war, but, so modest is he, he cannot be induced to talk for publication about many events in which he was conspicuous and not at all about certain ones in which his neighbors say he played the part of a hero. There can be no doubt that his war record is as good as that of any man in Kan- sas, and he is an earnest, patriotic citizen of the most substantial personal worth, a gen- tle and benevolent man, whose sense of hon- or is high and whose deportment in all re- lations of his busy and useful life has been admirable and in all ways worthy of emula- tion by young men.

RICHARD H. HOLTON.

The. name of Richard H. Holton is deeply engraved on the pages of Reno county's history, for through many years he has been a most important factor in the agricultural and financial interests of this section of the state. The splendid success which has come to him is directly traceable to the salient points of his character. With a mind capable of planning, he has combined a will strong enough to execute his well- formulated purposes, and his great energy, keen discrimination and perseverance have resulted in the accumulation of a handsome property, which places him among the lead- ing and substantial citizens of southern Kan- sas.

Mr. Holton was born in Hancock coun- ty, Illinois, on the 4th of May, 1870, and is of Scotch-Irish descent. His paternal grandfather was one of the early pioneers of the Prairie state, having been one of the first to locate in the vicinity of Plymouth, Hancock county, and during the entire period of his residence there he was engaged in the tilling of the soil. His death there occurred many years ago. He was the fa- ther of three sons,-Charles, a minister of the Baptist church : Wallace, a prominent farmer and stock-raiser of Hancock county,

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Illinea, of which place his brother Charles is also a resident ; and Wesley. the father of our subject. The latter also claimed Illi- nois as the state of his nativity, and he was reared to manhood on his father's farm near Plymouth. During the war of the Rebel- lion he offered his services to the Union cause, his military career covering a period of a year and a half, and after his return from the war. about 1868, he was united in marriage to Hattie Polite, a native of Ohio. When a child she was taken by her parents. Richard and Nancy ( McElhaney) Polite. also natives of the Buckeye state, to Illinois, the family locating in Hancock county. She has two brothers and two sisters liv- ing: R. H., a prominent stockman of Guth- rie, Oklahoma: Levi, a farmer of Osawat- omie, Kansas: Sadie, wife of J. J. Samp- son, a farmer and stockman of Lacygne, Kansas; and Nancy, wife of Sol Fry, a brick-mason of Carthage, Missouri.

After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Hol- ton located on a farm in Hancock county, Illinois, and there the former died in 1883. He, too, followed farming as a life occupa- tion, and in political matters he gave an un- faltering support to the Republican party. The mother was a second time married. .wedding P. C. Reger, and shortly afterward they removed to the west, locating first in Linn county, Kansas, and from there they removed to Jefferson county, Nebraska. Their next place of residence was in Kins- ley county, Kansas, thence removing to Larned, next to Reno and finally they lo- cated in South Hutchinson, where Mr. Reger engaged in buying and selling stock. By her first marriage Mrs. Reger became the mother of two children .- Richard H .. the subject of this review : and Lilly, the Trife of C. W. Granson, a prominent farmer of Valley township. Reno county.

The first twelve years of cur subject's life were spent in Hancock county, Illinois, his native place, where he attended the dis- trict schools. On the expiration of that period he removed with his mother to Linn county, Kansas, and after remaining with her for a time spent a year in Bates county. where he again attended scho l. The suc-

ceeding four years were spent in various hi- calities in Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska, during a part of which time he made his home with his uncle, R. H. Polite, in Bates county, Missouri. During those years he was engaged at farm labor, in taking care of cattle and at various other occupations. Returning to Larned, Kansas, Mr. Holton was there employed on the stock farm of a Mr. Ripley for one year, and in 1888 he came to Reno county, Kansas, locating eight miles south of Hutchinson, and dur- ing the following season he was engaged in agricultural pursuits with his stepfather, P. C. Reger. The following year was spent by Mr. Holton south of Hutchinson, and he then took up his abode four miles east of that city, where he remained for a short time. In the spring of 1893, in company with Samuel Spickard, whose history will be found on another page of this volume, he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of partially improved land where he now re- sides, and soon this enterprising firm began to do an enormous business in buying and selling stock. They also began adding to their landed possessions, purchasing the quarter section of land now included in Mr. Holton's present farm, and in the course of a few years they added the northwest quar- ter of section 7, next the southwest quarter of section 8 and later the north half of the southeast quarter of section 7, all in Valley township. Their next purchase of land con- sisted of the southeast quarter of section 12 in Clay township, after which they became owners of the northeast quarter of section - and also the southwest quarter of section 17, all having been purchased about the same time : next they bought three-quarters of the north half and the southwest quarter of section 27, Sumner township ; and after- ward the northwest quarter and the south- west quarter of section 15, also in Summer township.

Thus it will be seen that the firm of H. 1- ton & Spickard became owners of a mag- nificent tract of land, but on the 12th of December, 1901. this partnership was dis- solved and since that time Mr. Holton has carried on operations alone. He now owns

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about one tjomsand cigle hundred and forty acres of land, Weated in Clay. Valley and Sumner town-mp -. about one thousand acres of which i. under cultivation and the remainder is devoted to pasturage. On this magnificient estate he has erected a beau- tiful ten-room house, twenty-eight by twenty-eight feet. with a kitchen fourteen by sixteen feet, the latter having been built in 1897. He also has a large barn, forty- eight by sixty-two feet ; two cribs, each one hundred and forty by one hundred and sixty feet : a mill house, sixteen by twenty- four feet: an engine house, sixteen by twenty feet; and a blacksmith shop, in which he has a fifteen-ton scale, worth five hundred dollars. Three years ago he pur- chased a threshing outfit, with a Nicholas & Shepherd engine and a J. I. Case sepa- rator. His immense shed for storing his farm implements is one hundred and sixty feet in length, and is entirely filled with the latest and best improved machinery used in his extensive farming and stock-raising in- terests. Among them may be mentioned ten wagons, four binders, corn shellers and many other conveniences for facilitating his work. During the past year Mr. Holton devoted three hundred and ninety acres of land to the raising of wheat, and the re- mainder was planted with oats, alfalfa and corn, which yielded bountiful returns. Dur- ing the present year he has eight hundred acres planted with wheat and rye. Since 1889 Mr. Holton has also devoted a part of his time and attention to the raising of stock, and in his pastures at the present time may be found about one thousand head of cattle, one hundred and fifty hogs, fifty miles and twenty-five horses. Until recent years he mainly confined this line to buy- ing. feeding and selling, but a few years ago he began the raising of cattle, and he now has a fine grade of short-horns in his pas- tures in Sumner township. His plan in the past had been to purchase yearlings, which he would hold until about three years old and then sell, and in this way he consumed about five hundred bushels of corn annit- ally. From 1897 until 1898 he did an enor- mous stock business, having as high as

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A biographical history of central Kansas, Vol. I, Part 51

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