A biographical history of central Kansas, Vol. I, Part 54

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 54

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of the farm. Their daughter, Minnie E., married Edward Kiemel, a farmer of Hayes township. Mildred A. is a charming girl of seventeen years, who is preparing to teach music. Ross M. is fifteen years old. Al- bert M., fourteen years of age, Lorin P., eleven, and Earl E. is nine. Their daugh- ter Pearl, twin sister of Earl E., died in in- fancy, and their daughter, Ruth E., is five years old.

ISAAC A. HOPKINS.

All those valuable traits of character which contribute to the success of a high- minded man in one walk of life will as sure- ly advance the interests of a first-class man in an entirely different walk of life: hence those qualities which enable a man to achieve distinction in our geat cities will as surely make a man prominent and honored amid other surroundings. In any case, character is the keynote of success, and it is character that has enabled the subject of this sketch to win the esteem and confidence of those with whom his lot is cast and with whose public interests he has much to do.

Isaac A. Hopkins, chairman of the board of county commissioners, was born at Na- chusa. Lee county, Illinois. October 15, 1846. a son of Thomas and Polly ( Edson) Hopkins. His father was born in Connecti- cut in 1800. and his mother was a native of Massachusetts. His grandfather in the pa- ternal line was George W. Hopkins, who was born in Rhode Island. His great-grand- father, Samttel Hopkins, also a native of Rhode Island, was a brother of Steplien Hopkins, who attained undying fame as one of the signers of the declaration of inde- pendence. In 1778 Samuel Hopkins organ- ized a company for service in the Conti- mental army, which was assigned to the Nineteenth Regiment of Continental troops. That patriot, who lived to be nearly one hundred years old, died about 1820. By trade he was a blacksmith. He had twelve sons and two daughters. One of his sons was impressed and compelled to serve in the British navy, and Eseck Hopkins, a near

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relative, was the first admiral of the Ameri- can navy. George Hopkins, born February 20, 1775, just before the battle of Lexington, became a seafaring man and was a soldier in the United States service in the war of 1812. He married Sarah White, of Rhode Island. and removed to Pennsylvania and thence to Lee county, Illinois, about 1846, after his son, who was the father of the sub- ject of this sketch, had settled there. His brother. Wiham, was a pioneer settler in La Salle county, Illinois, and operated the ferry at Ottawa for years, until he came to his death by drowning.

Thomas Hopkins, father of Isaac A. Hopkins, was born in Connecticut, February 4, 1809, and at the age of twenty-one went to Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, where he engaged in the log and lumber busi- ness. He is described as having been a strong, rugged and athletic man, who could do an extraordinary amount of work with- out much fatigue. From Pennsylvania he removed to Cataraugus county, New York, where he followed lumbering until 1844, when he located in Lee county, Illinois, there purchasing land and engaged in farm- ing. In 1850 he crossed the plains to Cali- fornia, as wagon master for a party who went there with ox-teams. After two years he returned to Illinois by the Nicaraugua route. In 1870 he went to Union county, Iowa, and he died in Afton, that county, December 7. 1892, and his wife passed away in 1878. Thomas and Polly ( Edson ) Hop- kins had six children, four sons and two daughters: Mary, who married Captain J. T. Hale, of Company B, Twelfth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, who fell while leading a charge at Fort Donelson; Russell D., of Wilson, Kansas, a veteran of the Civil war, and has been twice elected to the office of treasurer of Russell county, Kansas, and for seven years his daughter, Minnie, has been deputy treasurer; Franklin E., a farmer in Madison county, Nebraska; Isaac A., the next in order of birth; Emily F., who married Joseph Mostoller, a veteran of the Civil war, and lives in Union county, Iowa: Thomas H., a contractor of railway

construction, and is operating in the north- western states and territories.

Isaac A. Hopkins was reared to the life of a farmer boy of all work and gained a primary education in the public schools of Lee county, Illinois, and was for a time a student at Lee Center Academy, one of the oldest educational institutions in northern Illinois. At the age of twenty he began in the winter months to organize and teach country schools, and he was thus employed during a portion of the year for some time, devoting himself to farming during the spring, summer and fall months. In 1868, when he was twenty-two years old, he went to Union county, Iowa, where he taught and farmed until the fall of 1877, when he re- moved to Ellsworth county, Kansas, and took up a homestead in what is now Sher- man township. He improved his farm and added to its acreage until he owned four hundred acres, on which he made his home for ten years. For five years after he came to Kansas he taught school during a portion of each year and in 1882 he was elected county superintendent of public schools, which office he filled two years.

In 1887, Mr. Hopkins removed from his farm to Ellsworth, where for three years he was engaged in the grocery trade, but gave a portion of his time to agricultural in- terests. In 1890 he returned to his farm and remained there until March, 1897. when he moved back to Ellsworth. He is now the owner of twelve hundred acres and raises and sells one hundred head of cattle each year, and while he lived on his farm he made a specialty of breeding full blooded Percher- on horses. He made his start as a stock- man in buying, selling and trading such stock as he believed he could handle profit- ably. His homestead place is well situated in section 34. township 16, range 8, and is well equipped with everything essential to successful .farming.

Since his young manhood Mr. Hopkins has been active in public affairs, especially in connection with educational matters, and he has for four years been a member of the school board of Ellsworth county and a

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member of the board of examiners of that body. In 1888 he was elected to the office of county commissioner from the second district of Ellsworth county and has been four times re-elected to that office, in which he is now serving his fifth term; and for nine years he has been chairman of the board. He has also served as clerk of the township board one term, and altogether he has filled offices for seventeen years during the quarter of a century he has lived in Kan- sas. Politically he is a strong Republican and he has served as chairman of the county central committee and as delegate to the county and congressional conventions. He was received as an Entered Apprentice, passed the Fellow Craft degree and was raised to the sublime degree of Master Ma- son in Afton, Iowa, Lodge No. 151, A. F. & A. M., and served as past commander of Elmer Ellsworth Post, No. 22, Grand Army of the Republic. He enlisted in the Third Regiment, Illinois Cavalry, in 1864, after having been several times refused by recruit- ing officers on account of his youth. A com- rade, who enlisted with him and who was his messmate during active service in Ala- bama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Missouri, was Colonel O. Summers, of Portland, Ore- gon, who went to the Philippines with the rank mentioned and gained promotion to brigadier general. In the fall of 1865 Mr. Hopkins took part in the campaigns against the Sioux Indians in Dakota, and was dis- charged from the service October 10 of that year, at Fort Snelling.

Mr. Hopkins was married at Afton, lowa, November 18, 1869, to Effie K. Sum- mers, a daughter of John and Annie (Don- nell) Summers and a sister of General Sum- mers. The following facts concerning their children will be found interesting in this connection. Their daughter Kate I., is the wife of Harold Johnson, official stenograph- er of the circuit court of St. Louis, Mis- souri. Annie taught school ten years in Ellsworth county, five years of the time in the city of Ellsworth and is now a teacher in the Ellsworth high school. She is a gradu- ate of the state normal school and is consid- ered one of the most efficient teachers in

Ellsworth county. Eugene O. was gradu- ated in the Ellsworth high school and in the Southwestern Business College, of St. Louis, Missouri, and is chief clerk for Colo- nel A. S. Towar, assistant paymaster gen- eral of the United States army. Stephen I. was graduated in the Ellsworth high school and in the Southwestern Business College of St. Louis, Missouri, and is an efficient sten- ographer and bookkeeper. He is private sec- retary for J. W. McKee, of Little Rock, Ar- kansas, who is superintendent. of the St. Louis & Iron Mountain Railway Company. Bessie was graduated in the high school at Ellsworth and has since been the housekeep- er for her father. Mr. Hopkins' first wife died in August, 1887. In December, 1888, he married Jessie Brough, who died in Sep- tember, 1896. He had one daughter by his second marriage, Louise M., who is now in school. Mr. Hopkins first came to Kansas when the country around Ellsworth was prairie land and only two houses were to be seen there; and he has not only grown up with the country but as a public-spirited cit- izen he has greatly assisted the county in its wonderful development.

JOEL M. ANDERSON.

Joel M. Anderson is one of the honored veterans of the Civil war, one of the pioneer settlers of Reno county and now one of the reliable and enterprising business men of Hutchinson, where he conducts a real-estate, rental and loan agency. He was born in Guilford county, North Carolina, April 16, 1841, a son of William D. and Sarah ( Loud- er) Anderson, who were also natives of North Carolina and were of Scotch ancestry. The father was a pioneer minister of the Wesleyan Methodist church. Reared in a locality where slavery existed, the wrongs of the system appeared strongly before him and he did not hesitate to openly and fearlessly express his disapproval thereof. In fact he talked so strongly against it that his neigh- bors denounced him and he prudently left the south, going to Henry county, Indiana.

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About 1858 he removed to Decatur county, Iowa, where he remained through the resi- due of his days, giving his time and energies to ministerial work. His death occurred in February, 1890, and his wife survived him less than a week. Their influence was strongly felt for good in every community with which they were identified and their memory remains as a blessed benediction to all who knew them. They were the parents of eight children, one of whom has now passed away-Solomon, who was a member of the Third Iowa Cavalry in the Civil war and died in the service in Louisville, Ken- tucky. Those still living are: Rhoda, the widow of W. H. Sanford, of Leon, Iowa; John C., a farmer of Kennard, Indiana ; Isaac B., a farmer of Cadiz, Indiana : Joel M. ; Mary A., the wife of J. P. Dunn, a mer- chant of Abbeyville, Kansas ; William S., a farmer of Ringgold, Iowa; Irene, the wife of Peter Deck, an agriculturist of Abbey- ville. Kansas.

Joel M. Anderson was about eleven years of age when his parents removed from North Carolina to Indiana, locating upon a farm on which he was reared. In the primi- tive schools of the time he obtained his ed- ucation, remaining at home until he had ob- tained his majority when he started out upon an independent business career as a farmer, renting land in Decatur county, Iowa. Soon afterward he purchased a small farm in that locality and continued its culti- vation until he came to Reno county, Kan- sas, in the fall of 1873. Four horses were used in drawing a covered wagon in which were his wife and three children, together with some household effects. Mr. Ander- son located a homestead claim on the north- west quarter of section 34, township 23. range 8, and during the fall and winter broke sod. In the spring he rented some land which had been broken the past year and planted forty acres in corn, but lost his entire crop on account of the grasshopper scourge of 1874. All vegetation was de- stroyed, and having nothing remaining to live upon he again loaded up his effects and returned to Iowa, where he spent the winter, earning a living for his family by working

for a dollar per day with his team. By his first experience he was "silenced but not sub- dued," and in the spring of 1875 he again started for Kansas, once more to face the difficulties and trials of pioneer life. That year he planted only a small crop of wheat for he did not have money enough to pur- chase the seed. His first home was a one- story house, fourteen by sixteen feet, in which he lived for several years, when he en- larged and improved it. He engaged in general farming and stock-raising and soon had a good herd of cattle. He remained upon his farm until September, 1888, when he purchased his present residence and re- moved to Hutchinson to assume the duties of the office of county treasurer.

Mr. Anderson had been elected to that office on the Republican ticket in the fall of 1887 and served for two successive terms of two years each, being re-elected in the fall of 1889. In 1885 he had been elected county commissioner from the third district to serve one year, filling out an unexpired term, and on the expiration of that time he was re- elected for the full term of three years but resigned the office when elected county treas- urer. In 1895 he was elected police judge of Hutchinson and acted in that capacity for two years. He was also township trustee for three years and was one of the organiz- ers of school district No. 58 and served as treasurer of the school board for nine years. He has thus taken a very active part in pub- lic affairs and no trust reposed in him has been betrayed in the slightest degree. In the discharge of his duties he has been prompt and reliable and his official record is without reproach. He is a leading Repub- lican of the county, has served on the Re- publican central committee and has fre- quently been a delegate to the conventions of his party. His public honors have come to him unsought, his fellow townsmen call- ing him to office because they recognized his trustworthiness and ability.

On another occasion Mr. Anderson man- ifested his loyalty to his country and that was during the dark days of the war of the Rebellion. On the 8th of August, 1863. he enlisted as a member of Company C. Ninth

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Iowa Cavalry, under command of Colonel Drummond, of Cedar Rapids. The regiment was assigned to the western division and he saw two years' hard service, doing much scouting and escort duty, guarding wagon trains in Missouri and Arkansas. At length he was mustered out on account of disabil- ity in 1865 with the rank of corporal. Since his retirement from office his business in- terests have been confined to real-estate deal- ing. to renting property and making loans, and. he has also been administrator of es- tates and guardian of children. He is a man of superior business judgment and unques- tioned honesty in whose hands public and private interests are perfectly safe. He has in charge the renting and care of some forty residences in Hutchinson.

Mr. Anderson was married July 31, 1862, in Iowa, to Miss Sarah A. Chambers, a daughter of Daniel E. and Elizabeth ( Brenneman ) Chambers. She was born in Pennsylvania, and by her marriage has be- come the mother of four children: William A .. who operates the old homestead in En- terprise township, Reno county: Ida L., the wife of M. Wilmott; Cora, who married John S. Dueber. a miller of Whitewater, Kansas; and Bertha, the wife of Walter Meade, a cigarmaker of Hutchinson. Mr. Anderson is an active and prominent mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he has served as trustee and elder. while in the work of the Sunday school he has been an important factor. He has served as teacher and Sunday school super- intendent while residing in the country and his interest in the church work has never abated. His life is in harmony with his profession-honorable and straightforward 'and crowned with the high degree of success which is ever accorded sterling worth.

EDWARD L. SMITH.

To trace the specific outcome of practi- cal genius must ever prove profitable indul- gence. It is conceded, however, that the

mere subjective possession of this almost in- definable attribute will not of itself insure either success or an application of practical value to the world. There must be a men- tality that will direct genius into the fields where good may be accomplished and pre- vent digression, or the turning of the power into abnormal or clandestine channels. Mr. Smith, however, has directed his efforts along the lines of practical business activ- ity, wherein he has won a handsome compe- tence, his path leading him to a position among the most prominent, trustworthy and representative citizens of Barton county. He is now president of the Citizens' Bank, in Ellinwood.

His birth occurred in Edwardsville, Illi- nois, and he is a son of Christian P. Smith and grandson of Phillip Schmidt. The grandfather was a native of Germany and at an advanced age came to America, locat- ing near Edwardsville, where he spent his remaining days upon a farm. Since the es- tablishment of the family in America, the name has undergone a change to its present form. Christian P. Smith, the father of our subject, was born in Marienhagen Kreis Vohl, Germany, and was sixteen years of age when he came with his father to the United States. For a time he worked at any honest employment which would yield him a good living. The family made their resi- dence in a very primitive home without a wooden floor and endured many hardships in gaining a start in the new world. When twenty-one years of age Christian P. Smith was the possessor of a blind horse and about eighty dollars in money, and his cash cap- ital he invested in land which was heavily timbered; but he converted the timber into money as fast as possible, selling it for use in the construction of plank roads, which were then very common but are now almost unknown. In this way he laid the founda- tion for his later prosperity. After a time he erected a sawmill and devoted a part of his attention to farming. During the war he received three dollars per bushel for wheat, for prices were very high at that time. His ardent labor, unflagging energy

Smith.

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and good business management have enabled him to wrest fortune from the hands of an adverse fate, and to-day, in addition to his beautiful home farm of six hundred and twenty acres, he is also the owner of seven hundred and thirty acres of other valttable land, while he also has much money loaned in Kansas. In all his business dealings he has been not only just but very considerate, and although his loans have been extensive, he has never, with one exception, been oblig- ed to foreclose on a mortgage. At that time the borrower had become discouraged and had run away. The farm which Mr. Smith took in payment for the debt is now very valuable. In 1889 Christian P. Smith, asso- ciated with Edward L. Smith ; C. M. Hanna, of St. Louis; S. H. Chatten, of Kansas City : C. O. Williams, and J. L. Ruddick, of Barton county, established the Citizens' Bank of Ellinwood, beginning business where the restaurant is now located north of their present business block. In April, 1899, the bank was reorganized under the name of the Citizens' State Bank, by C. P., E. L. and Mrs. M. S. Smith, H. P. S. Smith and G. H. Kaiser, and was capitalized for fifteen thousand dollars. It has a surplus of one thousand two hundred and fifty dollars, and an average deposit of one hundred and eight thousand dollars. This indicates very clearly that the institution has enjoyed a splendid career and has been one of the re- liable financial concerns of the county. In 1893 there was erected a fine brick bank building, two stories in height and twenty- five by sixty feet. It is supplied with Hall burglar and fire-proof vaults and is splen- didly equipped for carrying on the banking business along progressive lines.

In his early manhood Christian P. Smith was tinited in marriage to Miss Frances Kaiser, and they now have six living chil- dren : Henry P. S., of Illinois ; Edward L .. of this review ; Mrs. Emma Bohm and Mrs. Clara Kriege, both of Illinois ; Ida, at home ; and Louis, who is a graduate of the Chicago Musical Conservatory and is now taking a three years' course in piano music in Ger- many, having splendid ability in that direc-

tion. The family is one of prominence in central Kansas, and Mr. Smith has contrib- uted in large measure to the substantial in- provement and development of this portion of the state through his extensive business interests and at the same time his labors have brought to him merited success. His life illustrates the possibilities that lie beiore young men of determined purpose who have the resolute will to dare and to do, and who are actuated by sound principles that will bear the closest inspection.

Edward L. Smith, whose name intro- duces this record, was reared and educated in Edwardsville, Illinois. As his health was somewhat impaired, he came to Kansas when a young man, hoping to be benefited by the change, and was so favorably impressed with the climate that in 1889 he accepted a posi- tion as assistant cashier in the Citizens' State Bank, of Ellinwood. Afterward he was made cashier and then president, and thus he stands at the head of the institution, successfully conducting its affairs. He is now thoroughly familiar with the banking business in all of its departments and his labors have been of marked practical value in the contintted prosperity of the institu- tion of which he is the chief executive.

Mr. Smith was united in marriage to Miss Mattie S. Harrison, a daughter of Ben- jamin L. Harrison, of Barton county, and their home is now blessed with two children ; Edward Aubrey and Elbert Francis. He has erected a very fine residence and the home is one of the attractive and pleasant ones of Ellinwood. Socially he is connected with the Masonic fraternity. He is a public- spirited and progressive man, and his aid is always sought in behalf of any measure or movement for the general good, for it is known that he will give his hearty support to every activity that will result to the bene- fit of the community. He has served as mayor of the city and as president of the school board, and in public office he has been found loyal and faithful. His genial man- ner and unfailing courtesy render him a pop- ular citizen and one well worthy of repre- sentation in this volume.

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FREDERICK BETTENBROOK.

As the owner of one of the finest farms in Ellsworth county, Kansas, Frederick Bet- tenbrook, is justly considered one of the substantial agriculturists of this section. His land is located in a most desirable locality, in section 15, Sherman township.

The birth of Mr. Bettenbrook occurred in Hanover, Germany, on February 28, 1845, and he is a son of Frederick and Mary Bettenbrook, the former of whom was a farmer in that country, although the condi- tions there were never so favorable as in this land. Our subject began to take care of him- self from the tender age of six years, remain- ing with the family until 1872, when he came came to the United States. His first work was in the employ of the Vandalia railroad. Terre Haute, Indiana, where he continued until he came to Kansas, in the same year, and he bought a claim of one hundred sixty acres, on Buffalo creek. About forty acres of land had been broken, and a small house, twelve by sixteen feet was standing, and in this tiny home he lived for two years and then erected a comfortable frame house.

Almost all of the early settlers in Kan- sas had much to contend with, and the case of our subject was no exception, the differ- ence being that he had endurance and cour- age and did not succumb to privation and misfortune as so many did. By 1885 he was able to buy the north one-half section where he now resides, and immediately made his home here. This was wild, prairie land and he broke all of the sod himself, made all the improvements and now deserves to enjoy the benefits. There is not a building here that he did not erect, and not a tree that he did not plant.

Mr. Bettenbrook now owns the southeast quarter of section IO, and the southwest quarter of section 15, and has five hundred acres under the plow, and the rest in orchards and pasture. and he raises great herds of Durham cattle, this breed being, according to his opinion. the best suited to this climate.

In his native land in 1866, Mr. Betten- brook was married to Miss Louisa Brummed and to this union have been born nine chil-

dren, as follows: Frederick, deceased; Henry, who resides on the old place on Buf- falo creek; Louisa, deceased; William, who resides in Garfield township, married Miss Mattie Plinsky, and they have two children ; John ; Frank ; August : Emma, deceased ; and a babe that died at birth, Mrs. Bettenbrook passing away in 1888. She had been a good, Christian woman, a devoted mother and an admirable helpmate for her husband.

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A biographical history of central Kansas, Vol. I, Part 54

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