A biographical history of central Kansas, Vol. I, Part 60

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 60

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William C. Mitchell. the father of our subject, was born in Kentucky, in 1807, and his death occurred in Indiana, on the 30th of July, 1885. In the latter state he was uni- ted in marriage with Elizabeth Francis, also a native of Kentucky, and they reared six children, namely: Elizabeth M., the widow

of I. H. Waynick, and the mother of a large family of children; Martha A. Norris, of Chariton, Iowa, and she has one son ; David T., who served as a lieutenant colonel dur- ing the Civil war, and now resides in Co- lumbia, Missouri, and has two sons and a daughter ; Nancy A. Douglas, a widow, and her only son is also deceased; W. H., the subject of this review ; and James E., a lum- ber dealer of Indiana, and he has five chil- dren. The mother of this family passed away in death when our subject was but four years of age, and the father afterward wedded Mary J. Erwin, who bore him four sons and one daughter. Two of the sons, Samuel E. and Lewis V., reside in Indiana, and a third, George E., makes his home in Oklahoma, near Augusta. The oldest son, Bennett, died when he was three years old, and Katie, the daughter, at the age of five years. The second wife died about a year after her husband's demise.

William H. Mitchell, of this review, was reared as a farmer boy in his native state. On the 9th of July, 1861, when in his sev- enteenth year, he responded to the call of his country, and at Bedford, Indiana, became a member of Company A, Twenty-fourth Indiana Infantry, and was a brave and loyal soldier for three years, during which time he took part in the battles of Black River, Grand Prairie, Shiloh, and in the siege of Vicksburg, besides many skirmishes. Re- turning from the war in 1864, he again took up the quiet life of a farmer at his father's home, but in the fall of 1865 he went to Iowa and entered school. His failing eye- sight, however, caused him to leave the school-room, and in March, 1866, he once more returned to Indiana, where he remained until the following December. He then came to Neosho county, Kansas, where he pre- empted a claim of one hundred and sixty acres and for a time made his home with his brother, D. T. Mitchell, who had come ' to this state in 1865. In August, 1867, how- ever, our subject returned to his old home in Indiana, and on the 26th of September of that year was united in marriage to Amanda Wood. In company with his brother, James F .. and others, Mr. Mitchell and his bride

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drove through to Kansas, locating on the claim which he had entered in Canville town- ship, Neosho county, on Elk creek, where they resided in a box house sixteen by twen- ty-four feet. His wife bore him three sons, one of whom, Olla E., was born June 22, 1868, and now resides near Augusta, Okla- homa. He has a wife and two sons. An- other son, Jesse W., resides near Bedford, Indiana. He is married and has a son and daughter. The twin brother of Jesse W. died in infancy. The mother of these chil- dren has also passed away, dying on the 19th of September, 1869. For his second wife Mr. Mitchell chose Nancy L. Stipp, their marriage having been celebrated on the 7th of September, 1870, in Indiana, after which he again returned to his Kansas home. In 1873 he sold his farm in Neosho county and again made the journey to Indiana, where he farmed on rented land until Aut- gust, 1884, and in that year located perma- nently in the Sunflower state, purchasing the farm which he still owns, then a timber claim. On this farm Mrs. Mitchell died May 18, 1895, leaving nine children, as follows : Caddie A., wife of J. W. Spilman, of Okla- homa, and they have two sons; Virgil W .. a farmer of Huntsville; Lotta P., wife of Joseph Vazes, of St. Louis, Missouri, and they have one son; David B., and Michael F., born June II, 1883, both prominent young farmers of Kansas: Mattie E. and Hattie M., born January 15, 1886, and are still at home : James L., born November 14. 1888: and Grace E., born March 12, 1891. Two of the children are deceased .- Amer- ica M., who was born on the 25th of March. 1875, and died on the 25th of September of the same year, and Edward, a twin brother of Virgil W., who died in Indiana, Novem- ber 27, 1877. Mr. Mitchell has been a third time married, in Hutchinson, Kansas, on the 26th of November, 1896, Mrs. Frances J. Cox becoming his wife. She is a native of Jackson county. Indiana, and came to Kan- sas in 1885. She has one son by her former marriage, Herber W., a resident of Hunts- ville township. He is married and has one SON.

Mr. Mitchell now owns a beautiful farm

of four hundred and forty acres, and in ad- dition to cultivating this large tract he also has charge of another farm of two hundred acres. He is principally engaged in stock- raising, making a specialty of the breeding of swine, of which he raises from five hun- dred to nine hundred dollars worth a year. He is also engaged in the raising of red short-horn cattle, of which he has about six- ty-two head, and in addition to his extensive stock business he also follows diversified farming. In his business affairs he has met with a creditable and gratifying success, but untiring labor has been the secret of his prosperity and has won for him the high po- sition which he now occupies in the business world.

In political matters he was formerly identified with the Republican party, but dur- ing the past few years he has given his sup- port to the People's party. For two terms each he served as a trustee and justice of the peace, and in 1890 was elected to repre- sent his district in the legislature, to which position he was re-elected in 1892, partici- pating as a member of the "rump" house, but the disability thereby incurred was re- moved to the supreme court. He was chair- man of the committee on militia in 1891, was one of a committee appointed to investi- gate the Judge Theodocia Botkin case, and was one of the board of managers before the senate in the impeachment trial. He took an active part in the Greenback movement of 1876, headed by Peter Cooper, and was a member of the first Greenback club in Bed- ford, Indiana. Since 1876 he has been in the front ranks of the Reform party, and was active in the railroad bond controversy in 1886-7, in Kansas. While a resident of Indiana he was a member of the Patrons of Husbandry, in which he served as president, secretary and lecturer. In 1898 he took an active part in organizing the Farmers' Alli- ance and was president of the sub-alliance and vice-president of the county alliance. He also lectured at many meetings and was first elected to the legislature as an Alliance member. He assisted in organizing the first G. A. R. post in Lawrence county, Indiana, of which he was senior vice commander for

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some years and till coming to this state, when he was transferred from the Depart- ment of Indiana to that of Kansas and be- longed to Meade Post, No. 14, of Sterling, Kansas. He would have remained a mem- ber of it had not certain members made a po- litical party out of it, that is to our subject's mind, and rather than violate his pledge and constitution of the organization he asked for and received his discharge. A man of dis- tinctive ability and one whose character is above a shadow of reproach, he has been faithful to the highest positions in which he has been called upon to serve, and is widely known and respected by all who have in any way been familiar with his honorable and useful career.

GEORGE A. APPEL.

George A. Appel is one of the leading and representative citizens of Rice county. His record as a business man and as a sol- dier has been so honorable that he has gained the confidence and good will of all with whom he has been brought in contact. For twenty-four years has Rice county been his home, years largely devoted to the best in- terests of his adopted county.

Mr. Appel claims Illinois as the state of his nativity, his birth having occurred in Madison county, near Alton, in 1842. His father. John Appel, was born in the great empire of Germany, and was there reared and educated. When a young man he bade farewell to his native land and sailed for the United States, locating at once in Madison county, Illinois. In that county George A .. the subject of this review, was reared to manhood. At the outbreak of the Civil war he became one of the boys in blue. enlisting in the Ninety-seventh Illinois Volunteer In- fantry, and served as a loyal and patriotic soldier for three years and three months. He took part in many battles and skirmishes. enduring all those hardships and privations which were known only to the brave sol- diers of the Civil war, and during his army experience his health was greatly injured.

After the close of hostilities he received an honorable discharge, and with a creditable military record returned to his home and family.

Mr. Appel was united in marriage with Elizabeth Bloenker, who has proved to him a true and loving helpmate. The lady is a native of the far off country of Germany. Soon after their marriage our subject and wife located in Christian county, Illinois, where they resided until 1877, when they came to Rice county, Kansas. Their first tract of land consisted of one hundred and sixty acres of raw prairie, on which they erected a sod house, and in that little pioneer home they began the battle of life on the western frontier. The Appel farm now com- prises six hundred and forty acres of the best farming land to be found in central Kansas. The place is adorned with a beau- tiful residence, and three large barns furnish shelter for the stock and grain upon the place. He also owns a large elevator, which has a capacity of seven thousand bushels of grain, and which was erected at a cost of one thousand dollars. On the lawn are found beautiful shade trees, flowers and shrubs, and one of the attractive features of the place is a fish pond, one hundred and fifteen by one hundred and fifteen feet. In addition to his extensive agricultural inter- ests Mr. Appel was one of the promoters of the Bushton Bank.

The union of Mr. and Mrs. Appel has been blessed with seven children, namely : John H., who owns one hundred and sixty acres of land adjoining the old homestead : William E., Amelia M., George O .. Charles J., Orville and Albert, all at home. The sec- ond son, William E., is the proprietor of a large implement business in Bushton, where he carries a complete stock of wagens, car- riages, farm machinery and everything to be found in a first-class establishment of that kind. His business amounts to twenty-five thousand dollars annually, and his fair and honorable dealing have won him the con- fidence and good will of his fellow citizens. The father and sons give their political sup- port to the Republican party, and the former is a member of the Grand Army of the Re-

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public and of the Methodist Episcopal church. He co-operates in all movements and measures intended for the betterment of humanity, and to-day he is as true to his country and its best interests as when he fol- lowed the stars and stripes on the battlefield of the south.

WILLIAM MELVILLE.

Scotch thrift and industry have been ef- fective for progress and civilization wherever they have been made active, and Scotch emi- grants to America have assumed their full share of the burdens of citizenship and per- formed their part in the pioneer work that has come to their hands. Reno county, Kan- sas, has numerous citizens of Scotch birth, and one of the best known and most highly respected of them is William Melville, a farmer on section 22, in Hayes township, and whose postoffice address is Plevna, rural delivery route No. I.

William Melville was born in Perthshire, Scotland, January II, 1851, a son of David and Margaret (Laing) Melville. His father, who was a farmer and weaver, died in his native land in 1866, aged forty-eight years, leaving a widow and eight children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the first born. Mrs. Melville, who was born in 1822, died in Scotland in 1875. William received a good common-school education and then served a four years' apprenticeship to the trade of stone cutter. During the first year of this apprenticeship he received fifty cents a week and boarded himself. The next year he received seventy-five cents a week and during the two succeeding years he received one dollar a week. In 1872 he came across the ocean to Canada, under con- tract to work on the Intercolonial railroad in the province of New Brunswick. After three months labor there he went to Toron- to, Canada. He remained at Toronto three months and then went to Pittsburg, Penn- sylvania, by way of Buffalo, New York, and worked for a large concern there three years at from three to six dollars a day. He came to Kansas in March, 1876, and stopped at

Peace, now Sterling, whence he came to his present homestead of one hundred and sixty acres. He was accompanied to Reno county by Thomas Keddie, with whom he had boarded in Pittsburg and whose wife had gone to Scotland on a visit. He and Mr. Keddie kept house together on their claims until Mrs. Keddie returned and after that Mr. Melville again boarded with them until his marriage.

Mr. Melville was married November 23, 1879, to Miss Florence E. Castleman, who was born in Canada, a daughter of Robert D. and Sarah (Langhurst) Castleman. The father was born at Niagara, Ontario, and her mother in London, England. They had twelve children, of whom they reared six. Mr. Castleman, who was a farmer, died at the age of sixty years. His widow, now sev- enty-four years old, lives with her daughter, Mrs. Melville, and is the owner of a farm in Stafford county, Kansas. Mr. Melville began farming on new prairie land and has improved a fine farm on which he raises miscellaneous crops and fruit of many var- ieties. His farm is well provided with luxurious shade trees, which he planted with his own hands. He now owns one half-section of land and also a quarter sec- tion, forty acres of which is devoted to pasture and one hundred and twenty acres to wheat, of which he has grown from two thousand to three thousand bushels a year. His crop in 1901 was the best he ever har- vested.

In 1876 and in 1877 Mr. Melville had an exciting experience hunting buffalo in the buffalo in the panhandle of Texas, and while there he killed about twenty of the big ani- mals. At one time he saw a herd six miles long, a sight which, owing to the scarcity, of buffaloes, no man will ever see again. Politically Mr. Melville is a Republican, de- voted to the principles and work of his party. He has served twelve years as a member of the school board of his township and ably filled the office of township treas- urer for four years. He is a member of the Indepenent Order of Odd Fellows. Mr. and Mrs. Melville are not church members, but are liberal supporters of religious interests.

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He has made the Golden Rule the rule of his life and the man never lived anywhere in the world who could say that Mr. Melville had wronged him to the extent of one cent.

William and Florence E. ( Castleman) Melville have had children as follows : Lulu, who married Henry Hibbert, a farmer of Hayes township; David Melville, who was a young man of high character and of great intellectual promise and was killed July 28, 1900, at the age of seventeen, by the explo- sion of a threshing machine boiler; Bessie, who is fourteen years old; Roy, who died at the age of one year; Nora, who is eleven years old; and Harley C., who was born July 6, 1899. The sudden and terrible death of Mr. and Mrs. Melville's son and son-in- law was a blow to them from which they are not likely soon to recover.

JOHN B. HARDING.

John B. Harding has for a number of years been actively engaged in farming and stock-raising in Kansas and now has charge of the Carlisle ranch in Kingman county, his place of residence being on section 32, Liberty township. He has under his super- vision twenty-two hundred acres of land, on which are pastured large herds of cattle.

Mr. Harding was born in Virginia, Jan- uary 12, 1848, and is a son of Jolin A. Hard- ing, who was born and reared in the Old Dominion and was a farmer and stockman, owning a rich tract of land. He was mar- ried in his native state to Mary Kiser, also of Virginia, and selling his property in that state he removed to Delaware county, Ohio. where he purchased a farm and also a saw- mill and woolen mill, located on Mill creek, a tributary of the Scioto river. These mills he operated in conection with the cultivation of his land for three years and then sold, giving his entire attention to agricultural pursuits. He also owned a residence and lots in the town of Bellpoint. After several years lie sold his property in Ohio and re- moved to Illinois, settling in Cumberland county and afterward going to Moultrie county, where he still resides, making his

home with his son Hiram. He is now eighty-seven years of age and is blind. His political support has always been given to the Democracy, and fraternally he is a Ma- son of high degree. His wife, who was a consistent member of the United Brethren church, died in Moultrie county, November 5, 1886. Of their family of seven children, five are yet living and our subject is the third in order of birth. The family record is as follows: Samuel, who is engaged in the cultivation of broom corn and the manu- facture of brooms in Piatt county, Illinois ; Catherine, the widow of William Wertz and a resident of Bement, Illinois; John B. : Su- sie, the widow of James Kirkland, of Be- ment ; Hiram, a farmer of Moultrie county, Illinois; Peter, who died in Cumberland county, that state, at the age of twenty years; and Walter, who died in Cumberland county, at the age of ten years.

In the usual manner of farmer lads John B. Harding spent his youth, giving his fa- ther the benefit of his services until he was twenty years of age. After engaging in agri- cultural pursuits for a year after his mar- riage in Delaware county, Ohio, he removed with his young wife to Cumberland county, Illinois, where he carried on the same pursuit for three years and then went to Moultrie county, where he remained until 1885. In that year he took up his abode in Harper county, Kansas, and in the following spring he removed to Barber county, where he pre- empted eighty acres of land in Sharon town- ship. After proving up this property he re- moved to the town of Sharon where he spent the winter and in the spring located on a farm a mile and a half north of that place. After a year he went to a farm five miles from Medicine Lodge, where he remained for ten years, there engaging in the culti- vation of his land, in the raising of stock and in the operation of a threshing machine.

On the expiration of that period Mr. Harding came to Kingman county and for a year was foreman of the Carlisle ranch. The following year he also remained on the ranch, operating it for a man from Arkan- sas who had rented it. Then he returned to Barber county and for one season was on

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the Tom Eads ranch, but the following spring he came back to the Carlisle ranch, where he has since resided. It is owned by Mr. Carlisle of Kansas City, and the main business is pasturing stock through the sun- mer and feeding them in the winter. The ranch comprises about twenty-two hundred acres in all, about fourteen hundred and forty acres being owned by Mr. Carlisle, while the remainder of the land is leased. Several hundred head of both cattle and horses are pastured here each summer and in the winter there are between two and three hundred head of cattle. Mr. Harding has charge of all the cattle, looks after the fences and has about two hundred and fifty acres of land under cultivation.

In Delaware county, Ohio, Mr. Harding was united in marriage to Sarah J. Sea- man, who was born in that county, a daugh- ter of David and Comfort Seaman, both of whom were natives of Ohio and both died about twenty years ago. Her father was a farmer by occupation. Ten children have been born unto them and the family circle yet remains unbroken by the hand of death. William is a farmer and stock-raiser located two miles east of Isabel, in Pratt county, Kansas; Mary is the wife of Wesley Clark, a farmer of Moultrie county, Illinois; Viola is the wife of Luke Chapin, a farmer and stockman living about a mile and a half from Medicine Lodge; Walter is a section boss located in Sedgwick county, Kansas; Anna is the wife of August Lonby, who is en- gaged in railroad work in Sedgwick county, Kansas ; Mattie is the wife of George Wood- ard, a merchant of Medicine Lodge; David E., Charles, Sadie and Georgie are at home. In politics Mr. Harding is a Democrat butt political office has had no attraction for him, he preferring to devote his time and ener- gies to his business affairs.

DANIEL F. COLLINGWOOD.

The firm of J. A. Collingwood & Broth- ers, of Pretty Prairie, Reno county, Kansas, bankers, merchants and dealers in grain and live stock, is one of the leading business con-

cerns of central Kansas. It was established under its present style as a mercantile com- pany in 1896. Its elevator was erected in 1896 and has a capacity of thirty- five thousand bushels, accommodating the undivided products of the members of the firm, which aggregate from thirty- five thousand to forty thousand bush- els a year, mostly wheat. The demands upon it were so great that it soon outgrew its sur- roundings, and in 1901 its capacity was in- creased to sixty thousand bushels. As it stands now the Collingwood elevator is one of the largest and most completely equipped in the state, having the latest improved mod- ern machinery and conveniences for han- dling, cleaning and grading grain, operated by a sixteen horse-power gas engine.

This firm, composed of John A., James A., Daniel F. and J. G. Collingwood, owns a large general store, which is carried on in a fine brick building covering a ground space of one hundred by twenty-five feet, its stock of ten thousand dollars' worth of miscel- laneous goods being so arranged as to give it something of the appearance of a department store. This enterprise is under the personal management of Daniel F. Collingwood. The grain business of this concern aggregates three hundred thousand bushels a year, for it handles all the grain shipped from Pretty Prairie, which is the favorite market place in the heart of the best grain-producing part of the county. One of the most important features of the business of J. A. Colling- wood & Brothers is its farming and stock- raising operations, which are as extensive as any in their vicinity. The firm owns about five thousand acres of land within the bor- ders of the county, on about sixteen hun- (red acres of which it raises from thirty thousand to forty thousand bushels of wheat each year, and it has also three thousand acres in Ford and Kiowa counties.

John A., James A., Daniel F. and J. G. Collingwood are sons of Daniel and Mary (Newman) Collingwood. Daniel Colling- wood, a son of William Collingwood, was born in Wigham, England, in 1819, and when he was about sixteen years old was brought by his parents to America. The

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family located at Poughkeepsie, New York, where the elder Collingwood engaged in the manufacture of shoes, in which business Daniel was employed to some extent. The father lived only two years after his arrival in America, however, and the mother took her family to Cincinnati, Ohio, and domi- ciled it in a house owned by Abner New- man, father of Mary Newman, with whom Daniel became acquainted and whom he married April 23, 1842. Abner Newman was born in New Jersey, and married a Pennsylvanian woman of German ancestry. When a boy he was apprenticed to the trade of a plasterer and brick-mason. He became prominent as a contractor and builder, erect- ing many prominent buildings in Cincin- nati, and owned much valuable property the, e. . Mrs. Collingwood is one of his eight children, five of whom survive. Christina married V. H. Mason, of Orange county, Florida. George is a farmer in Iowa. Sa- rah married a Mr. Love and lives in Orange county. Florida. David lives at Indianapo- lis, Indiana. Matilda married Charles Sey- mour and is dead. Joseph died at Oakland, Kansas. Emma, who became Mrs. Robin- son, died at Indianapolis, Indiana.

At Cincinnati, Daniel Collingwood was engaged in the shoe business until 1843. In 1845 he removed to Connersville, Fayette county. Indiana, where he manufactured shoes quite extensively for three years, and then located on the Ohio river in Crawford county. Indiana, where he continued in the same business until his death, which occurred April 25, 1866. Here he added the tanning business to his manufacturing enterprise and in time it grew to such proportions that it overshadowed the original venture, for at that time there was a good demand for leather throughout the whole surrounding country, and the Ohio river supplied excel- lent shipping facilities not alone for hides and tanbark but for the finished product of the tannery. Mr. Collingwood was not only prominent in business affairs but in public affairs as well, serving for eighteen consec- utive years in the office of township trustee. Politically he was a Whig, later a Repub- lican, and in religion he was reared a Meth-

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A biographical history of central Kansas, Vol. I, Part 60

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