USA > Kansas > A biographical history of central Kansas, Vol. II > Part 126
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Returning to his home Mr. Miller en- tered business life and was with the express
mary. E. miller
Coromiller
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company at Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania. Later he engaged in dealing in garden prod- ucts for ten months and then learned the potter's trade, engaging in the manufacture of earthenware at Slalington, in Lehigh county, Pennsylvania. As a companion on the journey of life he chose Miss Elizabeth Dyer, their wedding being celebrated on the 22d of December, 1869. She was born, reared and educated in Pennsylvania and is a daughter of Richard Dyer, whose birth occurred in Doylestown, Bucks county, Pennsylvania. Her mother, who bore the maiden name of Caroline Hoffman, died in 1877. They were members of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, and they had six children, of whom four reached years of maturity, namely : John T., of Norristown, : Pennsylvania ; Mrs. Miller : Emma L., who is living in Allentown, Pennsylvania; Laura J. : James L ... who died at the age of twenty- two years ; and one who died in infancy.
In 1874 Mr. Miller went to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he accepted a position as foreman and superintendent of the large brick plant, remaining in charge for three years. He then came to Kansas, taking up his abode in Crawford county, but after three years disposed of his business interests at that place and removed to Neodesha, Wil- son county, Kansas, where he conducted a pottery, which he sold in 1884. He was also for three years in the nursery business as one of the officers and stockholders of an ex- tensive firm carrying on a large trade under the name of the Kansas State Nursery Com- pany. In 1884 he came to Lyons, where he was engaged extensively in the brick busi- ness, manufacturing almost all of the brick that was used in the construction of all the brick buildings around the square. He was also proprietor of the Miller Pottery Plant. which he sold for thirteen thousand dollars. He then came to Maple Grove Stock Farm and has since been engaged extensively in the raising of horses. He located upon his farm in 1889 and has made it one of the best improved properties in this portion of the state. He has some of the best standard- bred horses in Kansas, including Woodfield! No. 2192, which be purchased at a cost of
forty-five hundred dollars. There are now eighty-five head of horses on the farm and tite pictures resemble a me sind dos. owing to the splendid grade of horses which he raises. Mr. Miller ships to New York city, where he has sold a great many show horses and high-acting horses, for which he has received from one to two thousand dol- lar -. He has a fine three-quarter mile track located on the farm, large barns, sheds and feed lots. His pastures rival the famous pastures of Kentucky and he raises alfalfa in large quantities in order to provide a win- ter supply of feed for the horses. The farm derives its name from a beautiful ten acre grove of maple trees of large growth. The residence is a commodious two-story dwell- ing, standing upon a natural building se Upon the place there is also a tvo -- for. building thirty by fifty feet which he uses Drills, the most popular drill of the kind now manufactured. It can be used for mak- ing both small and large drills for wheat and corn stalks. and the large drill is the best in the world. This implement has proven of great benefit and value to the farmers and is now finding a ready sale upon the market.
The home of Mr. and Mrs. Miller has been blessed with two sons: Clyde and U. R., both of whom are young men of pleasing address and good latines salins. who assist their father in the care of the farm. In his political affiliations Mr. Mil- ler is a Republican and is an active worker for his party and friends. although he is never desirous of office for himself. He has a frank and cordial manner which makes him popular with all classes, while Maple Grove Farm is : el the cordial welcome which is ever extended to all of their many friends.
The Maple Grove Stock Farm is located seven miles east and three miles south of Lyons. This farm is noted for many more high-acting horses than any stock farm west of the Mississippi river. They have in the stud four high-acting stalli -. W Ferenzie Boy. Maplewood and Fit. Any one wishing to buy higherdes choses
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are especially invited to come and examine their stock. His drill business has been moved to Newton, Kansas, where he has associated himself with a few enterprising citizens and organized a stock company, with a capital of one hundred thousand dol- lars. They have erected a large factory and are now manufacturing the Miller Grain Drills on a large scale. The name of the company is the Miller Grain Drill Manufac- turing Company, of which W. W. Miller is president and general manager ; J. A. Ran- dall, vice-president ; C. M. Glover, treasurer and secretary. Besides the drills they are now manufacturing other farming imple- ments. The youngest son, U. R. Miller, is associated with his father at Newton, and has charge of the works as superintendent of the plant. The oldest son, T. C. Miller, is manager of the Maple Grove Stock Farm, and both are young men of promise, well started in life. It is left with these young men to keep up the great name and business established by their honored father, and it cannot be doubted that they will do so, for both of them are energetic and have the necessary business capacity to go on with this enterprise. Mr. Miller himself is act- ive in business and still in the prime of life, being good for many years to look after his enterprises. He disposed of one-fourth of his interests to the parties interested with him, still owning three-fourths of the busi- ness, which gives him full control. It can- not be doubted that a bright future awaits this new concern, which is due to the genius and enterprise of W. W. Miller.
A. S. CLOUD, M. D.
Among the distinguished representatives of the medical profession in Barber county, Kansas, is Dr. Cloud, who has maintained his home in the thriving town of Kiowa since 1885, thus being one of its pioneer physicians and surgeons, while he is known as a public-spirited citizen, contributing a due quota to the advancement of local in-
terests through tangible aid and influence. He is a man of high intellectual and pro- fessional attainments, and his kindly and genial nature and abiding human sympa- thy have gained for him the affectionate regard of the many families to whom he has ministered in the trying hours of sick- ness and distress.
The Doctor is a representative of prom- inent old southern families and is himselt a native of that section of the Union, hav- ing been born in Morganton, Burke county, North Carolina, in' 1844. The original American ancestor of the family was native of England, whence he emigrated to this country prior to the war of the Revo- lution, in which representatives of the name took an active part as soldiers of the Con- tinental line while the family records also bear evidence of patriotic services rendered in the early Indian wars and the war of 1812. The father of our subject was Rev. R. P. Cloud, who was one of the promi- nent clergymen of the Baptist church in the south, a man of marked intellectuality and noble character. He was a zealous and devoted worker in the vineyard of the Di- vine Master and made his life a distinctive power for good. He died in 1852, aged about fifty years. His widow, whose maid- en name was Catherine Hildebrand, was a member of one of the distinguished old families of the south, and was a woman of signal refinement and culture. She lived to attain the venerable age of ninety-one years, her death occurring in North Carolina, where she had so long maintained her home and where she was loved for her gentle graciousness and noble characteristics. The subject was one of nine children-four sons and five daughters.
Besides receiving the unmeasured ad- vantages of a cultured and refined home, Dr. Cloud was enabled to prosecute his studies under most favorable conditions. He was a student in Buford College, of Tennessee, at the time when the conflict between the north and the south was pre- cipitated, and his sympathies were naturally enlisted in support of the section under whose institutions he had been reared. He
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showed his loyalty to the Confederacy by leaving school and returning to his home in North Carolina, where, in 1861, he raised a company which was mustered into the service as Company E. Sixteenth North Carolina Infantry, the Doctor being cap tain of the company. He was an active par- ticipant in the famous charge of General Pickett at Gettysburg, and was captured and held as a prisoner for about nine months after which he rejoined his regiment and thereafter was with General Lee in prac- tically all of the operations of the Army of Virginia. For gallant service and abil- ity he was promoted to the office of lieu- tenant-colonel, and was in command of his regiment in many battles and skirmishes through the Old Dominion state.
After the close of the war Dr. Cloud began the work of preparing himself for that noble profession to which he has de- voted his life and in which he has attained high prestige. In 1868 he was graduated in the University of Louisville, Kentucky, and thereafter he entered the St. Louis Medical College, at St. Louis, Missouri, where he was graduated as a member of the class of 1870, receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine. He has ever con- tinued a close and careful student of his profession and has kept constantly in touch with the advances made in the sciences of medicine and surgery. The Doctor took a thorough post-graduate course in the New York Polyclinic, in New York city, and was there graduated in 1894. He was en- gaged in the active practice of his profes- sion in Missouri until 1885, when he lo- cated in Kiowa, Barber county, Kansas, where he has achieved a high place in the esteem of the community and distinctive precedence as a representative of his pro- fession, to which he has now devoted his attention for nearly thirty-five years. He is a member of the Kansas State Medical So- ciety and commands the confidence and re- spect of his medical confreres. He served for many years as surgeon for the Mis- souri Pacific Railroad. In politics Dr. Cloud has ever been an ardent and uncompromis- ing supporter of the principles and pri-
cies of the Democratic party, and he has been an active and valued worker in its cause, whch he has advocated as a public speaker in various campaigns, having reeng- mized power as an able and forceful speaker, and while he was a resident of Missouri he represented his district in the legislature of the state, in which connection he ren- dered most effective service and gained uniform commendation on the part of it constituency .
In 1874 Dr. Cloud was united in mai - riage to Miss Nettie S. Robinson. dong ter of Richard H. Robinson, of Columbia. Miss uri, the family being one of distinction and prominence in the history of tas em monwealth. Hon. O. Robinson, an uncle of Mrs. Cloud, was speaker ci the hense of representatives in the Missouri togain- ture, and another uncle. Judge Kissen. was for many years one of the distinguished representatives of the judiciary of the state of California. The Doctor and Mrs. Chart have two sons,-R. R., who was graduated in the law department of the University of Missouri, at Columbia, as a member of the class of 1901, and when is now established in the practice of his profession in Kansas City: and Wendell Il .. who is engaged in business in the same city.
CHARLES HERBERT SWEETSER.
Among the well known men of Hutchin- son. Kansas, no one conducts a more flour- ishing business than does Charles Herbert Sweetser, who is engaged here as a dealer in real estate, loans and general auditing and adjusting of accounts.
The native home of Mr. Saveser wat i Essex county, Massachusetts, where he was born on September 9. 1849, his par- 1 .... ing Charles A. and Hester Ann ( Jayne) Sweetser. The grandfather of our subject was Charles Sweetser, a soldier in the war of 1812, who was born about 1793 and be- carne prominent in public affairs, a member of the legislature and a leader in politics. His father established a business which re-
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mained in the family through four genera- tions. the Sweetser snuff being an article of commerce which has gained world-wide fame.
Charles A. Sweetser, the father of our subject, continued in the tobacco business and became prominent and wealthy. In pol- itics he was a stanch Whig, later becoming a Republican, and although he declined po- litical honors, his brother became well known in that line. The mother of Mr. Sweetser of this sketch came of noted ancestry, her grandfather, William Chadwell, serving with distinction in the Revolutionary war, and was brevetted for bravery. The two children of this marriage were Charles Her- bert and Susan A., the latter the wife of Arthur B. Smith. This good mother died when our subject was still young, but his father reached the age of eighty-four years. He gave up active business cares in 1875, and his present home is in Cliftondale, Essex county, Massachusetts.
Mr. Sweetser, of this sketch, is noted as being the only expert auditing accountant in the state, and he has a reputation as one of the most able men in Kansas in his line of work. His early education was obtained in the common schools, and he then spent five years in the Chauncy Hall military school at Boston, Massachusetts, where he was pre- pared for college with a view to entering upon the study of law, but on account of impaired hearing he was obliged to relin- quish his cherished ambition in that direc- tion, realizing that a professional life could not be his. Entering into business by the time he was twenty-one years of age, he had been made the head of his department in a commission house, and remained with the same firm for three years, leaving them to enter the tobacco business with his father, where he continued for ten years. At that date he came west to take charge of the Sorghum Sugar Works, which he had con- tracted to manage and cover all expenses for thirty thousand dollars a year, his figures being later proved correct. He cultivated one thousand acres of cane and manufac- tured it into sugar, employing one hundred and twenty-five men. Two years were
given to this enterprise. He has also been very successful in his real-estate business, and has made several additions to the city, the first one being the Sweetser & Medbury addition and several others, and also has the handling of a great deal of both city and farming property. He handles a large per cent. for non-residents and is thoroughly equipped for this work. He furnishes re- ports for eastern parties and is not only the accountant of many companies and corpora- tions here but is often called in that capacity to other cities. Much money is placed in his hands by eastern parties for loaning pur- poses, and so thoroughly is he acquainted with conditions that all of these are very satisfactory.
On October 31, 1889, Mr. Sweetser was married to Miss Amy May French, a daugh- ter of Dr. J. T. French, and the three chil- dren of this union are: Mary Louise, Charles Augustus and Susan Isabel. In 1890 our subject erected his handsome resi- dence, which is one of the most attractive in the city. Dr. J. T. French, Mrs. Sweet- ser's father, was born in Labanon, Warren county, Ohio, April 23, 1823. When three months old his parents moved with him to Shelby county, Indiana, where their nearest neighbor was nine miles distant. He lived on a farm there until he was nineteen years old, when he began the study of medi- cine, and while thus engaged also taught school for seven years. When twenty-one years of age he married Miss Mary Ann Crisler, of Shelby county, Indiana. At the age of twenty-six years he removed with his family, then consisting of his wife and three children, to Marion county, Iowa, where he devoted his entire time to the prac- tice of medicine and surgery. Eight years later he removed to Knoxville, Iowa, the county seat of Marion county, where he started a drug store, of which he was the proprietor. This store he conducted for twenty-seven years in connection with his practice as a physician and surgeon. He has lived in Knoxville and Marion county, Iowa, continuously for fifty-three years, and has held the largest practice of any physician in the county. In 1864 he was commissioned
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by the president of the United States as ex- amining surgeon for pensions and hell that position continuously until there was a board of examining surgeons appointed and or- ganized under Cleveland's first term as presi- dent. Dr. French was made a member of that board and has served therewith continu- ously since with the exception of two years, and at this time is the president of the board of surgeons. He is a member of the Ma- rion County Medical Association, the State Medical Society and the American Medical Association of the United States. Ile is in his seventy-ninth year, and is thinking seri- ously of retiring from active professional life.
Mr. Sweetser has always been a Repub- fican, but is not an active one, his business absorbing his time, but he takes considerable interest in the fraternal orders to which he belongs, being connected with William Sut- ton Lodge. A. F. & A. M., of Essex coun- ty, Massachusetts, of which he has been past master, and Reno Chapter, No. 34, R. A. M. The religious connection of the family is with the Presbyterian church. Mr. Sweet- ser is held in high esteem in Hutchinson on account of his business integrity, while his family is one of the leading ones in social life.
CHARLES W. SPAWR.
The American people will ever owe a debt of gratitude to the brave boys in blue who followed the old flag on many a southern battlefield and offered their lives and services that the integrity of the repub- lic might be perpetuated. The subject of this review is one of the veterans of the war of the Rebellion, in which he made the rec- ord of a valiant, faithful and loyal soldier, and he is to-day one of the honored pioneer citizens of Barber county. Kansas, having a well improved farm of eighty acres in sec- tion 17, Cedar township, his postoffice ad- dress being Sharon. He located in Harper county in the year 1882, where he took up a pre-emption claim, and there he continued his residence until 1899, when he came to
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Barber county, where he has ever since been successfully engaged in farming and stock- raising and where he is held in the highest esteem by all who know him.
Mr. Spawr is a native of the state of Illi- nois, having been born where the city of Bloomington now stands, in McLean coun- ty, on the 19th of January, 1834. Ilis father, George Spawr, was a native of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, and was of German lineage, being a son of Val- entine Spawr, who was a soldier in the war of 1812. George Spawr was one of the first settlers in McLean county, Illinois, where he located in 1824, and was in active service during the Black Hawk Indian war. He there married Rhoda Walden, of Welsh de- scent, who was born in Kentucky, and they became the parents of five sons and five daughters, of whom two sons and two daughters are living at the present time, our subject and his brothers Elijah and William having been soldiers in the war of the Re- bellion, as members of Illinois regiments. The father of our subject died in Illinois, at the age of eighty-six years. He was a carpenter by trade, was a Republican in poli- tics and was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, as was also his devoted wife, who passed away at the age of sixty- three.
Charles W. Spawr was reared and edu- cated in Franklin county of his native state, and there at the age of twenty-four was united in marriage to Miss Mary E. Up- church, who was also a native of Franklin county, and the daughter of William L. Up- church, who married Pennina Moberly. The latter was born in Kentucky and died at the age of thirty-five years, leaving seven children, three of the sons having been sol- diers in the Union army during the Civil war. the younge
Fort Donelson, Tennessee. William L. Upchurch was born in Tennessee and was one of the early settlers in Illinois, where he passed the remainder of his life, dying at the age of eighty-two years. He was a member of the Republican party from the time of its organization, and though beyond the age limit became a soldier in the war of
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the Rebellion, receiving a pension for his services after the close of the war. He was a mechanic by trade and vocation.
At Benton, Franklin county, Illinois, in August, 1862, Mr. Spawr enlisted as a pri- vate in Company A, One Hundred and Tenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, the regi- ment being commanded by Colonel Thomas S. Casey, of Mount Vernon, while M. D. Hogan was captain of our subject's com- pany. Mr. Spawr proceeded to the front with his regiment and was in active service until the close of the war, taking part in many of the important conflicts of that san- guinary struggle, including the battles of Perryville, Stone River, Chickamauga and on to the sea with Sherman. He received no serious injuries during his term of serv- ice, but on one occasion was slightly wounded below the left ear. He received his honorable discharge at New York city on the 30th of May, 1865, and then returned to Illinois, locating at Lexington, in his na- tive county. He retains his interest in his old comrades, and signifies the same by hold- ing membership in the post of the G. A. R. at Attica, Kansas.
After the close of his honorable service as a soldier of the Union army, Mr. Spawr continued to reside in McLean and Living- ston counties, Illinois, until the time of his removal to Kansas, in 1882, and since his removal to Barber county he has shown him- self to be a progressive and public-spirited citizen and has gained unqualified confidence and esteem in the community. He is a Re- publican in politics, and has been prominent in the affairs of the same in a local way, having long served on the county central committees in Illinois and Kansas, while his incumbency of the office of justice of the peace covers a period of sixteen years. Of the six children born to Mr. and Mrs. Spawr three are living, namely: John Logan, a resident of St. Louis, Missouri; Kate, who is the wife of William L. Demint, of Bar- ber county; and Charles W., Jr., also of St. Louis. The three deceased are: Rob- ert E., who died at the age of two and one- half years; George L., who passed away at the age of twenty-four; and Martha A. P.,
who became the wife of Dr. J. M. Knapp, and who died at the age of thirty-four years, leaving four children, of whom three are living at the present time.
JOHN R. McKEE.
John R. McKee is one of the leading dental practitioners of Anthony and is also the proprietor of the Montezuma Hotel, and in both lines of business activity his efforts have been far-reaching and effective. The Doctor was born in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, on the 3d of November, 1835, and is a son of W. W. and Martha ( Price) McKee, also natives of the Keystone state. The paternal grandfather of our subject, Thomas H. McKee, was one of the early pio- neers of Armstrong county, having located in that commonwealth in a very early day, when the Indians and wild animals were still numerous, and there engaged in trade and traffic with the red skins. He was a mer- chant tailor by trade, and was prominently identified with the early history of Arm- strong county. W. W. McKee, the father of him whose name introduces this review, followed the tilling of the soil as a life oc- cupation, and he, too, took an active inter- est in the public affairs of his locality. In 1867 the family left their Pennsylvania home for Lathrop, Missouri, where the fa- ther lived in quiet retirement until he was called to the home beyond, passing away in death in 1899, at the age of ninety-nine years. He became the father of five chil- dren, namely: Jennie, the wife of L. M. James, of Kansas City, Missouri: Thomas H., a prominent farmer and stock man of Clinton county, Missouri ; Lem. also an ag- riculturist of that county ; Addie, the wife of S. W. Johnson, of Oklahoma; and John R., the subject of this review.
John R. McKee spent the early years of his life on the homestead farm in Pennsyl- vania, and when twelve years of age accom- panied his parents on their removal to La- throp, Missouri, where he attended the com- mon schools of the neighborhood until his
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eighteenth year. Desiring to enter the pro- iessional field, he became an attache of a dental office in Lathrop, where for three years he pursued the study of dentistry un- der competent instruction, and in 1876, at the early age of twenty-one years, opened an office in his home town, where he remained until 1879. He then took up his abode in Denver, Colorado, where for two years he conducted an extensive city practice, and on the expiration of that period removed to Sabetha, Kansas. After a successful prac- tice of three years in the latter city he re- moved to Wichita, where he spent the fol- lowing six years, and while there residing became interested in city real estate, but lost heavily in the boom and collapse which fol- lowed, twenty thousand dollars, the earnings of many years of laborious toil, having been swept from him. About this time, too, his close application to his profession and the worry and care incident to his other busi- ness matters completely undermined his health, and he therefore concluded to aban- don his practice in Wichita for a less ex- acting one in a smaller place. Accordingly in 1889 he took up his abode in the thriv- ing young city of Harper, where he followed his chosen profession for the following five years, on the expiration of which period he came to Anthony, the county seat of Harper county. Shortly after his arrival in this county Dr. McKee became interested in ag- ricultural pursuits and stock-raising on an extensive scale, grazing from three hundred to four hundred head of cattle and annually feeding from one hundred to two hundred head. This venture, however, did not in any way interfere with his extensive dental prac- tice. which he has continued for over a quarter of a century. Since his arrival in Harper county he has occupied a front rank in the dental profession here, and by his skill and painstaking method of conducting his practice has estabished a reputation for re- liable work which yields him more than a local patronage. He has kept thoroughly abreast of the times along the line of his chosen calling, and has taken various pois :- graduate courses in Kansas City.
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