A biographical history of central Kansas, Vol. II, Part 29

Author: Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York Chicago: The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 1084

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JOHN B. KEELEY.

John B. Keeley is a wide-awake and progressive farmer of Rice county, who makes his home in Sterling township, and his energy and indefatigable labor have brought to him a very comfortable compe- tence. He was born in Chester county. Pennsylmia, en the 20th of July. 1853. and his father. Daniel Keeley, was 1 :p in the same locality in October. 1825. - The grandfather, John Keeley, was a native

farmer of the Keystone state, Barn har Mat- gomery county. He married a Miss Re- becca Christman, and they reste! . and i ur daughters, who married and pentel in Pennsylvania, where all are still living with the exception of the father of ..... ject and one sister. After arriving at vers of maturity Daniel Keeley marriott atherine Benner Hartman, of Chester county, Penn- sylvania. the wedding being celebrated in 1850. They became the parents . i six che dren : Mary, the wife of Owen Milten ley- lips. a farmer of Chester county, l'easy- vania ; Clara Virginia, the wife of A. M. F. Steitler, a merchant of Uwchland, Pennsyl- vania : John, of this review : Esther M .. wife of Winfield Scott Todd, als. i Uweh- land: Francis M., who is engaged in mer- chandising in Philadelphia; and Mary, the wife of Charles K. Knight, of Connecticut. The mother of this family died in 1899, a: the age of sixty-eight years, and the father passed away in February, 1800. He wasa successful agriculturist and was enabled to provide well for his family. Both he and his wife were members of the Baptist church and were earnest Christian people who en- jeved the love and confidence of all who knew them.

Mr. Keeley, whose name forms the cap- tion of this review. acquired a good English education in the common scherts near his home and spent one term in the State Nor- mal School at Westchester. Pennsylvania. In the spring of 1877, when aher: twenty- four years of age, he came to K ... purchased his first farm. comprising two hundred and forty acres of land. later he returned to the Keystone state and was there married. on the 15th . i Februar .. 1880. to Miss Emma J. Richards n. a . - ter of Themas and Eliza ( Tompkins ) Rich- andson. both of whom are mw decente. They left four children. The father ment dealer, carrying on business a ny And line for several years. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Keeley have been born six children: Dan- iel. now seventeen years of age: Edith, aged sixteen : Hattie, fourteen years of age: Sim- ner. Emma and Ray. aged respectively twelve. ten and seven years.

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BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.

Mr. Keeley owns four hundred acres of land in the home farm, which is splendidly improved, and in addition he has twelve hun- (red and eighty acres in his stock ranch in Rice county. In 1896 he erected a beautiful and commodious residence. He has a large fruit orchard and twenty acres of timber. most of which is planted. He grows wheat and corn, producing about twenty-five hun- dred bushels of wheat and three thousand bushels of corn annually. He also keeps on hand one hundred head of cattle, ten horses and he feeds about one hundred and fifty hogs and one hundred head of sheep each vear. He has been enabled to provide an ex- cellent home for his family and to supply it with all the comforts and many of the lux- uries of life. He is a most progressive. wide-awake farmer, and his business affairs have been attended with a high and well merited degree of success. In politics he is a Democrat on national issues, but at local elections votes independently. In 1900 he was elected county commissioner, overcom- ing the usual Republican majority of two hundred and fifty. Socially he is a Master Mason and is identified with the Independ- ent Order of Odd Fellows and the Ancient Order of United Workmen.

PETER TANNER.

No history of Jewell county, Kansas. would be complete without mention of Peter Tanner, whose residence here antedates that of every other citizen of the locality. He came here in 1869, when the wild prairie stretched for miles around without habita- tion save those of the red men, whose thier- ing pro pensities and vengeful spirit endan- gereil not only property but also life. 1 dleht . f gratitude is certainly due the brave men and women who made their way to the frontier. being the advance guard of civili- zation which has converted the wild regions int .. beautiful homes and productive farms. while industries and commercial interests have been introduced and churches and sch Theuses have been built, indicating the

intellectual and moral status of the com- munity. While Mr. Tanner experienced many hardships and difficulties and braved dangers he also met with prosperity as the years passed and is now the possessor of a very desirable property.

He comes from the "land of the mid- night sun," his birth having occurred in Norway, near Stavanger, his parents being Torger and Carrie Tanner. The father was a blacksmith by trade and died when his son Peter was only eight years of age. His widow afterward came to Illinois and spent her last days in the home of her daughter in Illinois, where she died at the age of eighty years. Both were consistent members . of the Lutheran church.

Left fatherless at the age of eight years. it became necessary for Peter Tanner to earn his own living and he herded cattle and sheep, in which service he remained in the employ of one man for about four years. He then became herder for another man who gave him his board, clothing, and about four dollars per year. When sixteen years of age he began learning the shoemaker's trade, which he followed for a number of years. He was a young man of twenty- three when he determined to try his fortune in the United States, believing that he would have better opportunities in this country than in his native land. In April. 1864. he landed on the American coast and made his way across the country to Rock county, Wiscon- sin, where he secured work upon a farm for sixteen dollars per month. He considered that a princely salary. It was more than his brightest dreams had anticipated, for in the old country he did not make that much in a year. After about six months had passed he began working for his board and the privi- lege of attending school, as he wished to acquaint himself with the English language and to gain a broader knowledge as a prep- aration for the practical duties of life. For three or four years he also engaged in raft- ing on the rivers of Wisconsin and then came to Kansas, where the government of- fered splendid farming facilities to those who would locate upon and improve the land. He was in debt when he arrived in

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this country, but his energy and economy enabled him to meet his obligation, and with a desire to secure a home of his own he made his way westward.

In March, 1869, Mr. Tanner arrived in Jewell county, Kansas, with a capital of over six hundred dollars which he had saved from his earning. He secured his claim and began its development, but while he was away from home-gone to aid in the burial of some friends-the Indians stole every- thing which they could carry away from-his place. In 1870 they also stole his horses. but those he afterward recovered. His first home, was a double log house, sixteen by twenty-four feet, but that the Indians burned the first year. He then lived in a dug-out for four years, after which he erected an- « ther log cabin, which was his home until 1891, when it was destroyed by fire. He replaced it by his present attractive and com- medicus residence, which was erected at a cost of two thousand dollars in 1892. The following year he built an octagonal barn at a cost . f over three thousand dollars, prob- ally the best barn in the state. He owns two hundred and forty acres of rich and arable land and carries on general farming and stock-raising. cultivating those crops best adapted to this climate and keeping on hand good grades of cattle, horses and hogs.

Since securing the right of franchise Mr. Tanner has supported the Republican party, his first vote having been cast for General Grant in 1876. He formerly belonged to the Grange but has taken no very active part in political or society interests. preferring to give his attention to his farming, in which he has met with excellent success-his prop- erty being the visible evidence of his life of industry, energy and honest toil.

ALEXANDER MEANS.

Alexander Means, one of the leading agriculturists and stock-raisers of Barber county, was born in Marion county, Indiana. April 17. 1848. His father. James R. Means, was born in North Carolina about

1815. and when sixteen years of age re- moved with his parents to Marion county. Indiana, the family locating in a densely timbered region, where they created a 1 g cabin and established a home. There, at the age of seventeen years, James R. Means was united in marriage to Anna Hutchinson. and they began their domestic life on a part of the old home farm which he had inherited and to which he added from time to time un- til he became quite an extensive land owner. In 1857 he sold his possessions there and with two teams of horses, four yoke of oxen and two wagens came with his family to eastern Kansas, locating in Anderson coun- ty. The trip consumed six weeks, and our subject, who was then a lad of nine years. was greatly pleased with the newness and novelty of the journey. At West Point, near Kansas City, they were warned that the border war was raging in eastern Kansas. but they pressed on undismayed and reached their destination on the Ist of May, 1857. and in a log cabin on their claim they made their home for two years. They then built a fine house on their claim and kept he telen the stage line between Ohio City and Leroy. where Mr. Means established the first 1: s :- office and the place was called Cresco. He kept a change of horses for the stage line and there made his home for ten years, dur- ing which time his sons carried on the work of the farm.

At the breaking out of the Civil war. in 1861. the two oldest sons. James and Drugy. enlisted for service, leaving our subject a" 1 his younger brother. aged respectively intr- teen and twelve years. to take charge of the home farm. James enlisted at lola, hi- brother at Mound City, and both hecame members of Company H. Ninth Kan-a- Car- alry, and their services were in Arkansas Kansas and Missouri. They first served under Lyon, later acted as body guard to General Blunt and participated in the battle of Cain Hill and many minor engage- ments. Their military careers o vered 2 period of three years and they were mus- tered out at Leavenworth. In 1867 the fam- ily sold their possessions in Andersen c en- ty and removed to Fillmore county, Minne-

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BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.

sota, where the father became the owner of six hundred and forty acres of fine land, and at his death he was recognized as one of the leading citizens of the county. In polit- ical matters he gave his support to the Re- publican party. He was called to his final rest in 1873, and our subject, who had re- mained in Kansas, was refused his own money on deposit at the bank, on account of the terrible panic then prevailing, and he was thus unable to attend his father's fu- neral. His mother had died when he was but six years of age, and his father after- ward married Malinda Heath, who still re- sides in Minnesota. By his first marriage he had ten children, namely: Samuel, who clied in Indiana, at the age of two years ; Anna. who became the wife of Alex Joyce, and died in Marion county, Indiana, leaving four children; Elizabeth, the wife of James Hutchinson, a farmer of Coffey county, Kansas: Martha, the wife of Charles Bart- lett, a farmer of Erie, Neosho county, Kan- sas: Floyd, who owns and operates a farm in Anderson county, Kansas, within two miles of where his father first located ; James T .. a prominent farmer and stockman of Fredonia. Wilson county, Kansas ; Drury S .. also an agriculturist of that county; Alexander, of this review : Turrel. a farmer and stockman of Woods county, Oklahoma : and Daniel, a farmer of Fillmore county, Minnesota. By the second marriage three children were born : William Robert, a farmer of Fillmore county, Minnesota : and John F. and Madora, both on the home farm in that state.

Alexander Means, of this review. as- sisted his father on the farm in Anderson county until the removal of the family to Minnesota, when he entered the service of the Kansas & Pacific Railroad Company, re- maining with that corporation until 1868. In the following year he became a track layer and spiker on the Galveston road, working for two years between Olathe and Ottawa, and for the following six years was engaged in trapping for mink, otter, coon and skunk in Anderson county, following that occupation during the winter months,

while in the summer seasons he was engaged in breaking prairie and in butchering. His trapping operations proved very succesful, and at the end of each season he shipped from three to five hundred dollars worth of furs to New York. On the expiration of that period he turned his attention to agri- cultural pursuits, which he followed for two years.

On the 17th of April. 1878. in Ander- son county, Kansas, Mr. Means was united in marriage to Ida MI. Young, a native of Miami county, Indiana, and a daughter of James M. and Sarah ( Carlisle ) Young, na- tives of the Empire state, the father born February 4, 1821, and the mother on Janti- ary 17, 1823, and the former was of Eng- lish and the latter of Scotch and German descent. They came with their parents to Indiana in an early day and were married in Marion county about 18441. Ther. the father followed farming until 1869, and from that year until 1880 the family resided in Anderson county, Kansas. In the latter year they removed to Waverly, Coffey county, where the father died October 14. 1886, his wife surviving him until 1900, when she, too, passed away in death. They were both members of the Methodist church. They became the parents of ten children, namely : Adelia, the wife of Solomon Sea. a farmer of Marion county, Indiana : Maria. the wife of R. R. Groat, who follows agri- cultural pursuits at Madison, Greenwood county. Kansas: one who died in infancy : Mary E., Eliza. Mary A., Napoleon B. and Nancy, also deceased. Ida May, the wife of our subject : and William, an engineer of Laclede, Idaho.

After his marriage Mr. Means followed farming and stock-raising in Anderson county for a period of five years, when he came to Barber county, driving a herd of one hundred cattle as far as Dodge City, where they were sold. It was his intention when he started to go to Colorado, but hear- ing favorable reports of this county he made his way here, arriving on the 16th of June, 1883. Here he became the owner of the tract of one hundred and sixty acres cn

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BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.

which his residence new stands, then but slightly ingpresed and let live Here forcel and on the place was a small inga um. Here he again offered the stack business. buying sixty five cows. Later he pre-empted an ad- joining tract of one hundred and sixty acres. where he eveste! a cabin fourteen by eight con fect, so after residing there a sufficient time to prove his land he moved his house to his original purchase, and he has since and led three additions, making it an attractive and cremation- darling ci -even rams. Hle has also added to his landed possessions until he now owns nine hundred and eighty- nine acres, all in one body and located on sections II, 12 and 13, and all is fenced. His land borders on North Elm creek to a distance ci . ne and a half miles, and much of his farm is rich bottom land, while thirty- five acres is under irrigation. The mill race, which runs near his farm, has formed four beautiful lakes, varying from one to two and a half acres in extent. and were st cked many years ago by the government with choice fish, and this probably affords the finest fishing in Kansas. Within the thirty-five acres which he irrigates lies his ten-acre orchard, which yields him an excel- lent crop each year, while five acres of his land is devoted to truck farming, selling an- mually about three hundred dollars' worth of garden products in Medicine Lodge, Pratt. Sawyer and other neighboring towns. He has never entirely outgrown his trapping in- stinets, and each year devotes a part of his time to looking after his traps along the creek. and at the present time he is shipping the por lucts of his winter catch of furs. im ng which are chte. I beat, muskrat. skunk, mink, coon and other furs.

Unto Mr. and Mrs. Means have been 1 ;rn ferr children. namely: Clarence A .. wi assists in the work of the home farm and like his father enjoys a few weeks of trapping cad; year: Calle, the twin sister of Clarence. WE ed in infancy: Harry J .. who is now attending schoci : and Clara. also in sch .. .. Mr. Means gives his political Stipp It & the Republican party, and since his residence here he has served in the ffice f trustee for two years and as a member of

it will board for fifteen years. He has

PHINEAS K. BILES.

Recently a resident of Cineand tan- shin, but now of Oklahoma, Phineas Knight Bile was for many years as well and as favorably known as any citizen ci Ottawa county, Kansas. He is honored as an early settler and leader in business activity and has done his full share in the work of ma- terial development and in the promotion of law. order and prosperity and in the encur- agement of temperance and morality. For thirty years he was a factor in the progress and prosperity of Concord township, and during that long period his life was to his fellow citizens like an open book and his deeds are known to them a- devis of good.

Phineas Knight Biles comes of gril old Quaker stock, and was born in Bucks Com- ty, Pennsylvania, December 19, 1841. The American ancestor of his family settled near Philadelphia, near Penn's Manor, son after the arrival of William Penn in America. Charles W. Biles, his father, was barn :1 the old Biles homestead in Bucks county. Pennsylvania, and was there reared and ed- ucated, and for some years was a successful teacher. A man of good intellectual ac- quirements and a sound judgment, he was chosen to the office of justice of the pesce and during many successive years wrote leeds on parchment transferring many acres of land in Bucks county. He married Su- sunnah Scott, who was born in Pennsylva- nia EScatch-Irish ancestry. He died at the age of sixty years, his wife at the age of sixty-five years, and they were deeply re- grote: is the many who had known them. P. Stical'y Mr. Biles was a Whig and later ? Reglen, and though his county was Strongy De cratic, his personal popularity was such that he was elected whenever he ch se to run for office.

Charles W. and Susannah ( Scott) Biles hel fe uir sons and two daughters, who were

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BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.

named as follows in the order of their nativ- ity: Alfred : Augustus and Maria Louisa, deceased ; Phineas Knight, of this review : Mary Jane : and Morris, who lives in Penn- sylvania. Phineas Knight Biles, the imme- diate subject of this sketch, was reared on . the old Biles homestead in Pennsylvania and received a good education in the common sch . Is and for some years divided his time between farming and teaching school. He was married December 19. 1867, to Miss Martha G. Cloud, who was born in Pennsyl- vania. December 19. 1843, a daughter of James Cloud, who was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, in 1812, and married Lydia Good, who died in 1845, leaving four children,-Joseph, William, Esther P. ( dead ), and Mrs. Biles. Mr. Cloud mar- ried a second wife, who bore him six chil- dren, four of whom are living. Miss Mar- tha G. Cloud, who became Mrs. Biles, was a woman of education and culture and many graces, who for a time was a successful and popular teacher.

In 1871 Mr. Biles located in Culver township, where in 1872 he took up a home- stead claim, which he began improving. In 1876 he returned to Pennsylvania and re- Mr. Sterling is a native of Sullivan county, Missouri, where he was born on the first day of the year 1861, being the son of Robert Sterling, who was born in the north of Ireland, where he was reared to the age of fourteen years, when he accompanied his parents on their emigration to America, in the year 1832. His parents, Henry and Martha Sterling, located in the vicinity of Mauchchunk, Pennsylvania, both having been well advanced in years at the time of their emigration. Henry Sterling died in the Keystone state at the patriarchial age of ninety-seven years. He was twice married, and of the first union two children were born-Adam, who died in Ireland, and Will- iam, who accompanied his father to America and died in Sullivan county, Missouri, where he was a farmer and stock-grower. By the second union there were seven children, namely : James, who was a blacksmith by trade, but who eventually became a farmer mained there three months, meantime visit- ing the Centennial exposition at Philadel- phia. In 1877 he bought a farm of two hundred and thirty-five acres, partly rich bottom land and well adapted to grain, grass and dairy purposes, and in fact to all the needs of general farming. His house, barns and cutbuildings were of modern construc- tion, and his place was provided with every appliance conducive to successful farming. He gave special attention to dairying and is a leading patron of Lindsay Creamery. He recently sold this farm and moved to a tract of school land near Dover, Oklahoma. and the property is also well improved. Mr. Biles is known as an influential Republican and he has filled important local offices, not- ably that of secretary of the township board and has served as member of . the school board. He and his wife and family are members of the Evangelical Association. They are well and widely known and their ; in Sullivan county, Missouri, where his

home is one of the most hospitable in the township.

Mr. and Mrs. Biles have had seven chil- dren, concerning whom the following items of information will be found interesting. Charles Henry Biles is their eldest son and child. Lydia is the wife of William Allen, of Minneapolis, Kansas. Susie is the wife of the Rev. Hans Steenbeck, of the Evan- gelical Association of Kansas. The others are named J. Osborne, Glaphrey, George P. and James R.

WILLIAM J. STERLING.

"Agriculture is the noblest of all alche- my." said Chatfield, "for it turns earth and even refuse into gold, conferring upon its cultivator the additional reward of health." This oldest of human vocations and noblest of them all has been honored by the suc- cessful career of the subject of this sketch, who is one of the successful and representa- tive farmers and stock-growers of Elwood township. Barber county, Kansas.

Orf Sterling & Life

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BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.

death ecurred: Henry there fell wed the same trade until his death : Robert, father of our subject : Wilson, who died in Sullivan county : and three daughters-Peggy Ann Smith. Elizabeth and Mary. Robert Sterl- ing. while still a boy, and shortly after his 'arrival in Pennsylvania, secured employ- ment on the Lehigh canal, and after follow- lng this occupation for three years he re- moved to Sullivan county, Missouri, where the secured, by entry and purchase, a tract of government land, and there, with the ex- ception of one year spent in Kansas, he passed the residue of his long and useful life. fhis death occurring June 15, 1888, at the age of fifty-seven years, having developed a fine farm of two hundred acres and being respected by all who knew him. About the year 1859 he married Mary R. Taylor, who was born in Tennessee, the daughter of Me- kin Taylor, and she is still living. making her home in Medicine Lodge. Barber county, Kansas, where she owns a good home, and being sixty-five years of age at the time of this writing, in 1902. She became the mother of seven children, of whom the sub- iect of this sketch was the first born, the thers being: Sarah, the wife of W. G. May, of this county; Nancy E., who be- ame the wife of Powell Willhite, and who lied in Hennessey. Oklahoma. in 1895: John. a farmer, of Barber county; Samuel, who likewise is engaged in farming and tock-raising in this county, while both he und his brother John have valuable landed und stock interests in Oklahoma : Jennie, the wife of M. M. Grever, of Barber county ; und Ida, the wife of Thomas Kenney, who s engaged in business in Medicine Lodge.

William J. Sterling was reared on the Id homestead farm in Sullivan county, Mis- ouri, and received a good common-school ducation. When he was twenty-three years of age he accompanied his brothers and sis- ers to Kansas, their goods being shipped by ailread to Harper, from which point they vere transported overland to Barber coun- y. where the different members of the amily entered pre-emption claims, our sub- ect securing a portion of his present home- 59

stead in this way, while the family main- tained their home in common for a time. . At the time they came here there were no other settlers, their only "neighbors" being ante- lopes and prairie dogs.

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A biographical history of central Kansas, Vol. II, Part 29

Author: Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago Publication date: 1902 Publisher: New York Chicago: The Lewis publishing company Number of Pages: 1084

Author: Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York Chicago: The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 1084