A biographical history of central Kansas, Vol. II, Part 9

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

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service with his command, having partici- pated in a number of hard-fought battles. On the expiration of his three years' term of enlistment be veteranizel and remained in active duty until the close of hostilities, his services covering a period of over four years. During his army career he received only slight wounds and was never taken prisoner, never failing to respond to roll call. After a creditable military record he was again honorably discharged and returned to his home in Meigs county.

Hle then purchased and located upon the farm where he yet resides and has since given his entire attention to agricultural pursuits, having abandoned the blacksmith's trade except as he works for himself. He has never aspired to political not riety, and is a plain, honest farmer, honored and re- spected by all who has the pleasure of his acquaintance. In his social relations he is a member of the Grand Army of the Re- public. His first wife, the mother of our subject, was a daughter of Benjamin Piper. a native of Ohio and of Irish descent. He was also a prominent farmer of Meigs coul- ty, Ohio, for many years, and his death there occurred when he had reached the ripe old age of ninety-five years. His children were as follows: John, James, Benjamin, Sarah, who became the wife of T. McCally, and Catherine. The children born unto Mitchell and Catherine Ward are: Charles E., our subject; Benjamin and Sarah, who died when young; Eva, who became Mrs. Webb ; Hays; and Clarence. The mother of this family was called to her final rest in 1882. in the faith of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which she was a worthy and con- sistent member. The father was again mar- ried, choosing for his second wife Miss Irene Grate. a native of Ohio and a daugh- ter of John and Esther Grate, and they had one child. George Ward. Mr. and Mrs. Ward still reside on their old homestead in Ohio, where they are enjoying the fruits of a well spent life.

Charles E. Ward, whose name intro- duces this review, received his elementary education in the common schools of his na- tive place, after which he was a student in

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Ewington Academy for four years. After leaving that institution he was engaged in teaching school for five years. When only fifteen years of age Mir. Ward had begun reading medicine, and while i Ih wing the teacher's profession he also read medicine under the preceptorage of Dr. G. K. Ewing, also accompanying him on his professional visits, and in this way he gained a through understanding of the diagnosing of disease. The year 1887 witnessed the arrival of Dr. Ward in the Sunflower state, and during his first three years in Kansas he was en- gaged in teaching school. In 1890 he at- tended medical lectures at the Starling Med- ical College, of Columbus, Ohio, where he also took two full courses of study, graduat- . ing at that institution in 1892. He next became a student in the College of Physi- cians and Surgeons, of Cleveland, Ohio. Thus well equipped for the practice of his chosen calling, he came to Little River, Kansas, in the fall of 1892, where he imme- diately opened an office. He soon became well known as an able and competent phy- sician and surgeon, and as the years have passed he has built up a large and constantly increasing patronage, his ability being such as to gain for him the confidence and high regard of all with whom he comes in con- tact.

On the 22d of April, 1895. occurred the marriage of Dr. Ward and Mrs. Eva L. Dary, who was born in Illinois, July 17, 1868. a daughter of William and Rosamella (Hoyt) French, natives of Ohio. The fa- ther was a farmer by occupation, and his death occurred in May, 1891, but his widow is still living and now makes her home in | ty. Kansas, and homesteaded a quarter sec- Geneseo, Kansas. They became the par- ents of nine children, namely: Curtis : Ro- setta : Elizabeth, now Mrs. Brubaker; Will- iam: Rhoda, now Mrs. Gable: Mary, who became Mrs. Brooks: Eva L. the wife of our subject : Oliver : and Maggie, who became Mrs. Adams, but is now deceased. The parents were consistent and worthy members of the Christian church. Eva L. Professor George acquired his early ed- t:cation in the common schools of this coun- tv, and later attended the State Normal School at Emporia one year. He was next Ward came to Kansas with her parents when twelve years of age, and was here married to Mr. Dary, a native of Canada.

who was then employed as a clerk in a hard- Ware store. They had one child, Velma. who was born in 1889, and she is now being reared in the home of Dr. Ward. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Ward has been blessed with me son. Charles E. who was born June 11, 1898. Dr. Ward is a prom- inent Mason, being a member of Little River Lodge, No. 194, and is also a member of the Woodmen of the World and of the Knights of Pythias fraternity. The family occupy a leading position in social circles, where true worth and intelligence are re- ceived as the passports into good society. In his business ventures the Doctor has been very successful, his enterprise and energy overcoming all obstacles and enabling him to reach the plane of affluence.

PROFESSOR EMMETT D. GEORGE.

Prominent among the successful edu- cators of this section of the state is Pro- fessor Emmett D. George, now superin- tendent of the schools of Mankato. He is a native of Kansas, born in Ionia, Jewell county, May 3, 1873, and is a son of Hiram L. and Margaret ( Wilson) George, who were born and reared in Indiana. The fa- ther spent his boyhood and youth upon a farm in his native state, and from there re- moved to Newbern, Iowa. in the early `60s. In the Hawkeye state he turned his atten- tion to commercial pursuits, and became a large and well-to-do merchant. Disposing of his store in 1871, he came to Jewell coun- tion of land in Ionia township, to the culti- vation of which he devoted his energies until called to his final rest in the spring of 1898. He was one of the prominent early settlers in this locality, and was widely and favorably known all over the county. His widow still survives him and continues to make her home in Ionia.

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a student at the Salina Normal University, Salina, Kansas, where he was graduated in the spring of 1899. Prior to this he had engaged in teaching, having first turned his attention to that profession in 1890, and he taught several terms before completing his education, all in this county. In 1899 he was appointed principal of the Mankato high school, and the following year was made superintendent, which responsible po- sition he has since filled in a most capable and satisfactory manner. He has met with remarkable success as a teacher and ranks high among the foremost educators of the state. An advocate of progress and re- form, he has brought the Mankato schools to a high grade of efficiency.

At the home of the bride in Burlington, Coffey county, Kansas, Professor George was married August 6, 1900, to Miss Jes- sie MI. Walker. She is a graduate of the Kansas State Normal and a member of the Christian church, and both are very popu- lar socially. In his political views the Pro- fessor is a Populist, and ran for county su- perintendent of schools on that ticket in 1894, but was defeated by a very small ma- jority, there being candidates of both the old parties in the field against him. Aside from his school duties he has gained an enviable reputation as an orator and lecturer, his services being in frequent demand from various parts of the state. Fraternally he is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and the Masonic order. For four years he has now made his home in Man- kato, and is to-day one of the most highly respected citizens of that place.

ENOCH C. MARKS.

Another retired farmer and stockman of Reno county, Kansas, who has the distinc- tion of having come of old colonial stock, is Enoch C. Marks, of No. 306 A avenue, east, Hutchinson. He was born near Syracuse, Onondaga county, New York, February 23, 1830, a son of Enoch Marks, who was born in Connecticut October 1I, 1803. Enoch Marks was married May 25, 1826. to Mar-

garet Welton, who was born in Hartford. Connecticut, January 3, 1808 a daughter of Joseph and Ellen Welton, both of whom were natives of Connecticut. & Their mar- riage was celebrated at Hartford, and short- ly afterward they removed to New York. where Mr. Marks farmed until he was ap- pointed by Governor Silas Wright superin- tendent of the state salt works at Syracuse, which position he held for several years. Eventually he removed to Chicago, Illinois, where for some time he loaned money and speculated in real estate. Before this he had employed his business ability and capital in the same manner in Connecticut and New York as occasion had offered and had ac- cumulated some little money. His good wife, the mother of the subject of this sketch, died in Chicago April 25, 1882, and the husband and father died there July 12. 1887. Originally Mr. Marks was a Demo- crat. but during the closing years of his life he affiliated with the Republicans. He was reared in the Universalist faith, but was not an active sectarian. His wife was a mem- ber of the Protestant Episcopal church.

Enoch C. Marks was the third child born in a family of thirteen, several of whom died in infancy and only four survive. Those who are living are Enoch C., Phoebe, Louis and Watson. Phoebe is the widow of A. O. Butler. Louis, who served his country as major of the One Hundred and Twenty- second Regiment, New York Volunteer In- fantry during the Civil war, is now engaged in the banking and wholesale grocery busi- ness at Davenport, Iowa. Watson is con- nected with his brother's business in the same city. The folowing children of Enoch and Margaret ( Welton) Marks at- tained to maturity and are now dead : Charles Rollin Marks died at Hutchinson, Kansas, at the age of seventy-two years; Welton Marks died in Chicago, Illinois: Si- las Wright Marks died in the state of New York.

The subject of this sketch was educated in the common schools of New York state so far as was possible during the winter terms. In the spring, summer and fall he assisted in the work of the farm until he embarked in active life for himself. When

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he was sixteen years old his father proposed to him that he should give him his services until he should be twenty-one years old, at which time he would pay him two thousand dollars,or, at the young man's option, offered to educate the latter to that age and give him nothing else, allowing him a little time to decide which proposition he would accept. The young man informed his father that he preferred to remain with him and get the two thousand dollars, provided the father would allow him all the education possible in view of a fair construction of the con- tract. To this the father consented and the young man attended winter terms of school until he was nineteen years old. In 1850 his father sold him a farm of three hundred and twenty acres in LaSalle county, Illi- nois, at eight dollars an acre and credited to him the two thousand dollars he had earned. At the age of twenty-one he left New York alone and proceeded to his field of operation, making the trip to LaSalle county, Illinois, almost entirely by water, utilizing the canal, the lakes and such rivers as lay in his way. His farm was new prairie land and his beginning upon it was the be- ginning of its cultivation. He went to work upon it with a will to succeed, made many improvements put some of his land' under cultivation and for twenty years was one of the leading stockmen in LaSalle county, for he kept a set of the American Herd books, bred full-blooded shorthorn cattle and owned more pedigreed cattle than any other man in his part of Illinois. He took great pains to keep his stock up to the high standard he had established and at one time purchased in the east a single ani- mal for three hundred and fifty dollars. He finally sold out his entire herd and after farming his land for twenty-one years he sold it and bought a farm of two hundred and forty acres in DuPage county, Illinois, which he operated successfully for four years, then sold it and went to Reno county, Kansas, where he bought three-quarters of a section of land in Salt Creek township from the Santa Fe Railroad Company. La- ter he bought two entire sections and op- erated his whole acreage almost exclusively

as an immense stock farm, raising many cat- tle, sometimes owning as many as two hundred and fifty at once, and constantly buying, feeding and selling cattle. In 1879 he removed to Hutchinson and bought his present home. He owns another house and lot on Sixth avenue, east, in Hutchinson, and retains six hundred arces of his farm land on sections I and II.

Mr. Marks is regarded as one of the prominent citizens of Reno county. He has taken the first three degrees in Masonry and is a Republican in politics. He was married November 2. 1853. in LaSalle county, Illi- nois, to Mary S. Libby, who was born in Portland, Maine, in 1830, a daughter of : Cyrus and Rebecca ( Strout) Libby, natives of the Pine Tree state. Mr. and Mrs. Marks have had three children. Their daughter, Frances died in LaSalle county, Illinois, at the age of four years and three months. Their son, Morton Lewis, born September 5, 1856, is in the employ of Pur- cell & Company, at Chicago, Illinois. Their daughter, Mary, married W. W. Shuler, a lawyer, who lives at Bowling Green, Ohic.

JOHN J. CLOUD.

The man whose name is above has at- tained success in Bennett township, King- man county, Kansas, as a farmer and stock- man, and has a pleasant country home on the southeast quarter of section 12, that township. his postoffice address being Nor- wich.

John J. Cloud was born in Greene coun- ty. Missouri. September 8, 1849, a son of Calvin and Elizabeth (Kershner) Cloud, who were born in east Tennessee, his mother in Hawkins county. His father was a pio- neer settler in Greene county, where he came in 1832 and took up land in 1845, which he improved and on which he lived until 1884. when he died at the age of sixty-five years. For twenty-five or thirty years he filled the office of justice of the peace and he was otherwise prominent in local affairs. His mother died at their old Missouri home in

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1894. William Cloud. father of Calvin Cloud and grandfather of John Cloud, was born in Tennessee, and accompanied his son Calvin to Missouri. Thence he went in 1858, with two of his sons and a son-in-law, overland to California, locating near Sacra- mento, where he died. He has children named as follows: Calvin, Orvill, William, John, Martha ( Mrs. Simpson), and another daughter who married a man named Allen. Calvin Cloud had ten children : Louisa, who is the wife of P. L. Wills. of Kingman county ; John J., of Bennett township : Mary, who married John Wills, of Sumner county ; Thomas H., who lives in Sumner county ; Martha, who married Mark Gault and lives in Arkansas: Sarah, who married John Kinser and is dead; Lucy, who is the wife of Robert Wrightman, of Kansas City, Mis- St uri : William, who owns part of the old family homestead in Missouri: Harriet, who married Seymore Chapman, of Christian county, Missouri; and Edward, who lives on the old family farm in Greene county, Missouri.

John J. Cloud was reared to farm life and acquired such an education as was avail- able to him in broken winter terms at com- mon schools. Appreciating the value of an education, he attended school one year after he attained his majority, which he has never had cause to regret. After that he cleared and worked some of his father's land and farmed other rented land until 1877. then, leaving at his old home a wife and one child, he went to Kansas with his brother- in-law, P. L. Wills. and his uncles, John and Dewitte Kershner, reaching Kingman county. September 22. He took up some government land, erected on it a box house. covering a ground space of fourteen.by six- teen feet, and sowed ten acres of wheat on land across the line in Sedgwick county, three miles distant from his claim, besides breaking out his east and south hedge rows. and in November returned to his family in Missouri, where he remained during the winter of 1877-8. He had gone away on his own birthday (September 8), and had reached home again on his wife's birthday. March 25, 1878, he started back to Kansas.

taking with him to his new home his wife and their infant child. Fred J. Cloud, who is now editor of the Norwich Herald. He brought along sufficient provisions to last his small family for a year. including good old Missouri bacon, and though he found little time for hunting he managed to vary the diet of the family with prairie chickens and jack rabbit steak. That year he broke forty acres of land, planting twenty acres of it to sod corn, and harvested the wheat he had sown the previous fall, which threshed out fifteen bushels to the acre. His original house was not altered until 1895, when an addition was built to it. It possesses some historic interest because of the fact that it was the third house erected in Bennett town- ship. In 1899 he built his barn, which cov- ers a ground space of thirty-two by thirty- two feet, and he has erected necessary out- buildings from time to time.

When Mr. Cloud first came to his place in Kansas, it was literally covered with buf- falo bones, which were gathered up during his absence in Missouri by the army of men, women and boys that at that time went over the prairies hunting bones for profit. Since the removal of John Kershner and M. V. Bennett, who came to the locality during the spring preceding the arrival of himself and his companions, Mr. Cloud has been the only original settler remaining in his vicin- ity. During the early years of his residence there he witnessed about every kind of inci- dent of pioneer life and experienced about every kind of hardship, privation and incon- venience. Wichita. forty-five miles away, a round trip to which consumed three days, was the nearest railroad point. and .Afton, eighteen miles distant, contained the nearest store and postoffice, until a store. postoffice and blacksmith shop was established at Lev- ey. The milling points available to him were Wichita. Anthony and Wellington, the nearest of which was thirty-four miles distant from his home. He broke his land and put it under cultivation as rapidly as possible and now has one hundred and forty acres yielding good crops and twenty acres devoted to pasturage. In the spring of 1879 he set out six hundred peach trees and a

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considerable number of apple trees. He has since set out more trees and has an excellent orchard of twelve acres. An important in- terest with him is dairying, and he always keeps twelve to fifteen cows.

Mr. Cloud takes an active interest in public affairs and has always been identified with measures for the advancement of mor- ality, Christianity and education. He was one of the organizers of school district No. 21, and since that time has been a member of the school board almost continuously, as its first clerk and for nine years as its treas- urer, and he has filled the office of treasuer of his township and other positions of trust and responsibility. He is Republican in principle but is an independent voter, and in local elections supports men and measures which he believes will best serve the inter- ests of his township and county. He is a past master of his lodge of the Ancient Or- der of United Workmen. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church and have always been active in church affairs. They took a prominent part in the organization of Milton Methodist Episcopal church, of Eden township, Sum- ner county, and later transferred their mem- bership to the Methodist Episcopal church in Norwich, of which he has been steward for several years and in which he has been active.

February 4, 1876, Mr. Cloud married, in Christian county, Missouri, Mary J. Wills, daughter of Lewis and Elizabeth (Crabtree) Wills and a native of the county mentioned. Her parents were born in east Tennessee, her father in Carroll county, in 1810, and they were pioneers in Christian county, Missouri, which was formerly a part of Greene county, locating there in 1844. In 1838 Mr. Wills had gone from Tennessee to Virginia and there he and Miss Crabtree were married. He became a successful farmer and stockman and was noted for his industry, energy and honesty. He died at his old Missouri home in 1879; his wife died in 1893, almost eighty years old. They had ten children, concerning whom the following information is available for the purposes of this sketch: Susan married William Gib-

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son, of Greene county, Missouri; Catharine is Mrs. Calvin Woody, of Springfield, same state: Peter L. is a prominent citizen of Kingman, Kansas; Hettie married John Woody, a farmer of Tulare county, Cali- fornia ; John F. is a farmer in Sumner coun- ty, Kansas; C. D. lives in Greene county, Missouri ; Lewis P. is a liveryman in Chris- tian county, that state; George is a farmer and stockman of the same county ; Charles is a stock dealer at Ozark, Missouri: Mary J. is the wife of the subject of this sketch and has borne him six children: Frederick J. Cloud, editor of the Norwich Herald, is one of the youngest and brightest newspaper men in southern Kansas; Lulu is the wife of John Gosch, who is a farmer in Allen town- ship; Oscar is a student of Wichita Business College; Montie H. and Mark E. are stu- dents in the Conway high school. The youngest is named Lillie G. Mrs. Cloud has been an able and devoted assistant to her husband in all the vicissitudes of life since they were married. She cheerfully undertook the hard life of a pioneer on the prairie and rendered him invaluable aid in founding a home. In many ways she has been an efficient worker for reform and good morals, notably as one of the organizers and leaders of the Woman's Christian Temper- ance Union, at Norwich.

L. BRAYTON.

Thirty years ago central Kansas was a wild region, unclaimed and uncultivated. Only a very few settlers had come into this desolate region to establish homes and the work of progress and improvement seemed scarcely begun. Great changes have since been wrought and the finely developed farms, good homes, the churches, schools and industries, all indicate that hard work has been performed by the early settlers. Among this class is numbered L. Brayton, and his farm with its splendid improvements is a proof of his active business career.

Mr. Brayton was born in Warren coun- ty, New York, August 1, 1841, a son of

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William and Altha Ana ( Bishop ) Brayton, both of whom were natives of the Empire state, where they were married. The former was a son of John Brayton, who was born in New York and was of English descent. Some of the members of the family in the earlier generation loyally aided in the strug- gle for independence as soldiers in the American army during the war of the Revo- lution. The grandfather of our subject was a Baptist in his religious faith and his wife belonged to the Methodist church. They had seven children .- Moses, Asa. Warren, Lois. Polly, Phoebe and Diantha. In his early business career William Bray- ton, the father of our subject. engaged in merchandising and later he Icated on a farm where he reared his family and finally settled in Port Edwards, where he spent his last days, dying at the ripe old age . i tighty- six years. He was well educated and was a competent school-teacher. successfully fol- lowing that profession in his early life. He took quite an active interest in public affairs and voted with the Republican party, but was never an aspirant for political honors. although he served as justice of the peace and filled some minor positions, discharging his duties in a manner most satisfactory to his constituents. His wife died October 10. 1854. She was a daughter of Jesse Bishop, a Connecticut blacksmith, who in later life followed farming in New York. His chil- dren were Mary A., Susan, Sarah, Nelson, Hiram and Linus. They had seven children. as follows: Bishop, deceased ; Harrison, of Colorado; L., of this review; John, a resi- dent farmer of Rice county; Adelaide, the wife of J. Rumsey: Cordelia, who married A. W. Rumsey; and Alpha, wife of G. De- vine. The father of these was a Methodist in his Christian faith.

L. Brayton was born and reared on the old family homestead in New York, and the common schools afforded him his educa- tional privileges. He remained with his parents until he had attained his majority and then made his way westward to Kan- kakee county, Illinois, where he purchased a farm which he conducted until 1868. He then returned to his native state and was

married. after which he took his bride to Illinois, remaining in Kankakee county until 1869, when he once more went to New York and operated the homestead farm for three years. His next place of residence was in Ohio, where he continued for a year, and in 1874 he came to Kansas, locating upon a homestead claim. That year the grasshop- pers destroyed everything raised and the outlook was a gleemy one. Many of the settlers returned to their old homes and Mr. Brayton would have done likewise had he had money enough to make the trip, but fate decreed that he should stay, and now he rejoice that it was " , for in later years he ha- prospered. With everything to make and nothing to lose, he began life in the Sunflower state and built a sod stable and sod house, living in the latter for seven years, when he built a small frame house, which in 1893 was replaced by his present commodious and substantial two-story farm residence. He has good barns and other outbuildings on the place, with an orchard and groves, the many improvements indi- cating that his has been a busy and useful life. He has added another quarter section to his homestead and now owns three hun- dred and twenty acres of valuable land about two and a half miles south of Little River. He started here with a team of Texas steers. did his own breaking and as it was a long time before he fenced the place he picketed his stock and was always on the watch so that the stock should not get into his grain fields. He now carries on general farming and handles stock, and in both branches of his business is meeting with gratifying suc- cess. Through his own efforts he las ac- quired a good property and is rated among the substantial farmers of the community.

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A biographical history of central Kansas, Vol. II, Part 9

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