USA > Kansas > Brown County > Annals of Brown County, Kansas : from the earliest records to January 1, 1900 > Part 54
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Hon. Joseph D. Hardy, who has third term polling more than his twice represented Brown county in party vote.
the legislature at Topeka, is a pio- Mr. Hardy was an active member of the Alliance at its organization in 1889. At the first Peoples' Party convention held in the county in July of that year he was elected a dele gate to the state convention at To- peka where he was made chairman of the credential committee. At the county convention of the party that year he was made the nominee for the legislature and later in the cam- paign was endorsed by the Demo- cratic county convention. At the fall election he received 2408 votes, his Republican opponent, A. Carothers neer of the class of 1858. He came to Brown county in March of that year and preempted the land comprising part of the land where he now lives. He located however at Hiawatha and commenced freighting from White Cloud to Hiawatha and pur- sued this and various other pursuits until he began to improve his land. In August 1860 on account of the ex- tensive drouth he returned to New York and in August 1862 enlisted in Company F of the 118th New York Infantry and served until the close of the rebellion. He {retained his receiving but 2050. Two years later Brown County claim however and in he was renominated by the Popu- 1866 returned to it and has since re- lists and again endorsed by the Dem- sided there.
He has increased his holdings un. til to day he owns 360 acres of rich and well improved with a fine real- dence, large barn and graneries, fine orchards .. "and other extensive im- provements. In 1873 when the Grange movement was organized in Brown county Mr. Hardy became He was also a delegate to the Peo- one of thegcharter members of the ples' Party National convention at Fairfield Grange. In October of that Sioux Falls, S. D)., in 1900 which
ocrats, but the county went Republi- can that year and he was defeated for reelection along with the rest of his ticket. He was a delegate from Kansas to the Peoples' Party Na- tional convention in 1896 which nom- inated Wm. J. Bryan for President and Tom Watson for Vice-President.
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ANNALS OF BROWN COUNTY.
nominated W. J. Bryan for Presi- he has 200 acres. In 1858 he waselected dent and Chas. A. Towne for Vice- justice of the peace and served con President.
tinuously in this office for thirty-twc Mr. Hardy was born at Westport, Essex county New York August 2nd 1835. His father was a soldier in the war of 1812 and his grandfather was a soldier in the Revolution. He re- celved the advantages of a common years when his mantle fell upon his son James for a two years term at which time it was returned again. He has been a stalwart Republican all his life and has been frequently honored by his party. He has been school education and taught a num- township trustee and county com- ber of years in his native state be- missioner and has heid various other fore coming to Kansas. He is a stu- minor offices. For forty-one years dent of economic and political ques- tions, has a well selected library on these subjects and keeps fully abreast of the times. Mr. Hardy was mar- ried in June 1866 in New York to Margaret Orminston daughter of John and Margaret Orminston of good old Scotish stock. They have two daughters, Isabella, and Linda a graduate of Kirksville school of Osteopathy. Mr. and Mrs. Hardy are both members of the Congrega- tlonal church.
Isaiah P. Winslow
Most everybody in Brown county knows Squire I. P. Wilson of Pa- donia He was one of the Maine pioneers who came to Kansas in 1857 to help make this a free state. The Squire was born in Caso, Maine, Jan. 23, 1825. He worked on a farm summers and attended school win- ters until he was seventeen years of age when he learned the trade of a tanner and currier which he followed SQUIRE ISAIAH P. WINSLOW. until he came to Kansas. In 1857 he he has been the clerk of the Padonia became interested in the Kansas school board. Squire Winslow is struggle and determined to come and one of the oldest masons in length of help make Kansas a free state and membership, if not the oldest, that so became a Member of the Saco there is in Brown county. Be was association which had been or- made a Master Mason in 1845 and ganized for that purpose. He pre- affiliated with the Hiawatha lodge empted the land adjoining the town soon after its organization. He is of Padoula where he now lives and "also a member of the Mount Horeb has increased his holdings until now Chapter and Hiawatha Commandry
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ANNALS OF BROWN COUNTY.
MR. AND MRS. J. M. MARCUM.
No. 13, K. T. Mr. Winslow was Mrs A. C. Stillwell, Mrs. James A. married in 1856 to Hanna S. Leavitt, Winkler, Mrs. Lon Stoffer and Mrs. of Parsonsfield, Maine. Their family David Work, all of Robinson town- consists of two and three daughters; James, a prosperous farmer of Padonia township, Mary,
ship, Mrs. J. W. Rogers of Fostoria, Pottawatomie county, Kansas, Joshua Marcum of Black well, O. T., wife of H. G. Wilson of Padonia, James Marcum of Robinson and John Julia, wife of Albert Vaughn, now Marcum of Hiawatha.
Mr. Marcum was born Sept. 13,
deceased, Carrie, wife of Clinton Longfellow of Padonia and George 1832, In Lee county, Va. When he who lives at Cook, Neb., where he was sixteen he went to Tasswell, has been a railroad operator for the Tenn., where he attended Glen Uni- last twelve years.
Mr. and Mrs. J. M. Marcum.
On the first day of March, 1901, Mr. and Mrs. J. M Marcum celebrated their golden wedding at the family home four miles north of Robinson. Ten children, fifteen grand children, and one great grand child have spring of 1856, when they moved to blessed this union of half a century. Kansas, settling at Iowa Point, where" they lived until 1860, when they moved over into Brown county where they have lived for more than The children are all married, but one, and with two exceptions they all live in Brown County. They are: and preempted the family homestead, Mrs. John Stoffer, Mrs J A. Batson,
versity and then served a three years' apprenticeship as a tanner. Mrs. Marcum, whose maiden name was Nancy George, was born in Patrick county, Va., on July 9th, 1832. They were married March 1st, 1851, and emigrated that fall to Andrew coun- ty, Mo., where they lived until the
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ANNALS OF BROWN COUNTY.
MR. AND MRS JACOB J. WELTMER.
forty years. They have seen all the hardships and vicissitudes of pioneer life in the early Kansas days and are now enjoying the rich rewards of their labors, being blessed with ex- cellent health, possessed of a fine home and surrounded by their chil- dren and grandchildren.
Jacob J. Weltmer.
In 1856 Kansas had no law to legalize marriages and so pioneer Jacob J. Weltmer and Elizabeth Belk, daughter of the pioneer John Belk, left their cabins on the Walnut and went to Buchanan county Mis- souri and were married. The jour-
Mr. Marcum has been a life long ney was made with an ox team, the Democrat and prides himself on the fashionable method of transporta- fact that he has voted that ticket tion in that day. Mr. Weltmer's ever since he arrived at his majority. claim was near Padonla in what is Both Mr. and Mrs. Marcum are ear- now Hamlin township. Here they nest Christians but hold to the be- lived until 1863 when they moved to lief that there is no warrant in the their present farm three miles west Scriptures for church denominations and one half mile north (f Hiawa- and so have never connected them- tha. Mr. Weltmer was born selves with any sectarian denomina- near Harrisburg, Pa., May 30, 1833. tion. They are active members of In 1851 he came to Missouri with his the Church of God and belong to the parents who located about twenty congregation which worships at the miles from St. Joseph. In 1855 he Green Door school house. walked to Brown county and took
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ANNALS OF BROWN COUNTY.
up his claim. Mrs. Weltmer was Kentuckian and was born April 27 born in Kentucky in 1835 and came 1811. to Missouri when quite young. To them have been born seven children five of whom are living. They are, William W. of West Portland, Ore- gon, John D. present county clerk of Brown county, Lewis O., Charles H. and Mrs. J. H. Wiskerson, all of Brown county. : Mr. Weltmer. has been treasurer of school district No. 2 for nearly half a century and has always taken a warm interest in ed- ucational efforts. He is a strong Republican and has been a delegate to a great many of his party conven- tions. In 1867 he was elected coun- ty commissioner, without opposition serving in this capacity for a term of three years. He is a Mason having belonged to Hiawatha Lodge No. 35 -ince 1863. Both Mr. and Mrs. Weitmer and their entire family are members of the Christian Church. Mr. Welt- mer remembers when Dr. Parker started the Brown County Union in 1861. He was present when the first paper was taken off the press and carried this copy away with him and for a number of years preserved it as a curiosity. Mr. and Mrs. Weitmer have been through all the trials and hardships incidental to a pioneer life in Kansas They are honored and respected by all who know them and have the satisfaction of seeing their children grow up honored and respected and success- ful members of the community which they helped to found.
John Belk.
He never owned slaves and was opposed to the institution of slavery. In 1837 he left Kentucky and after one year's sojourn in Illin- ols came to Missouri and preempted land in the Platte Purchase. The atmosphere in the Platte Purchase was not congenial for a man of ab- ofition tendencies, and the first opportunity that presented itself he left for the new Kansas country. He took his claim in the south west part of Padonia township in 1854 before the surveyors had run their lines. Here he lived during the rest of his life and the land is owned today by his heirs without the scratch of a pen either in the way of a transfer or a mortgage ever have been put on record against it. The patent from James Buchanan to John Belk telle the whole story.
His two sons, William and King, came to Brown county with their father and also took claims on the Walnut. Mr. Belk had ten children, eight of whom grew to manhood and womanhood. They were Eliza- beth, wife of Jacob J. Weltmer; Wil- liam, now a resident of Cawker City; James K., a resident of Liberal, Mo .; John C., now in the Klondyke, and Frances, Nathan, Jeremiah and Sidney, who are dead. His son Sid- ney was a soldier boy. He died in the service and was brought home to Padonia for burial. Mr. Belk was a Republican and a Methodist. He was chairman of the board of super- visors of Irving township in 1859
One of the active pioneers who is He died at the home of his daughter, remembered with the most kindly Mrs. Jacob J. Weitmer, Jan. 20th, , feeling by the early settlers is father 1894, and was laid to rest in the John Beik of Padonia He was a Padonia cemetery.
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ANNALS OF BROWN COUNTY.
GEORGE W. SEAMAN.
Geo. W. Seaman.
was foughtin February 1859. Brown George W. Seaman, the deputy was headed for the North with eleven sheriff and jailer of Brown county, is runaway slaves and Marshal Woods one of the earliest pioneers in the was out with a posse looking for history of the county. He is the son him. Woods and his posse reached of Squire I. N. Seaman and Julia A. the Seaman farm ahead of Brown. Hayes and was born at Port Clinton, In a little time Brown's wagons Ohio on January 20, 1846. The fami- could be seen coming from the direc- ly came to Brown county in 1856 and tion of Topeka. Wood became ex- located in the southern part of Loch- cited and began to hand out buck- nane township in the territory now shot by the handful to Squire Sea- belonging to Jackson county. Their man
Mr. Seaman asked what he first home was a log cabin with a was to do with them, he having no dirt floor and a blanket for a door. gun, and was told to protect him- It was on Mr. Seaman's land that self. As Brown's party came nearer John Brown's Battle of the Spurs Woods fright increased and he ex-
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ANNALS OF BROWN COUNTY.
claimed My God there is 500 of them Brown county locating on his farm and yelling to the men to conceal near Claytonville where he lived un- themselves he jumped on his horse til last year when he came to Hla- and started for Atchison as fast as watha to serve as deputy sheriff. He he could ride Long before Brown is a mason, a member of the G. A. R. reached the Seaman farm the last of and belongs to the Royal League Woods posse had disappeared in hot and the Knights and Ladles of Secur- fight. Woods was last seen going ity. He was married in 1871 to Miss through Muscotah thirteen miles Anna E. Smouse, daughter of Mr, away bareheaded and still on the and Mrs. Samuel Smouse of Hiawa" run. The subject of this sketch is tha. They have six children: Sam- probably the only living witness of uel, now & resident of Colorado. the battle which John A. Martin Julia B., wife of U. G. Hauber, of dubbed the Battle of the Spurs.
Mission Township, Ella May, wife
The Seaman farin was also a sta- of G. V. Koch, a prominent business tion on the underground railway man of St. Joe and one of the Board and is the place to which Nigger Bill of Alderman of that city, Pearl B., Jones sent Col. Ege's nigger as de- Frederick H. and Alfaretta. Both scribed on page 28 of these annals. Mr. and Mrs. Seaman are members In 1862 George W. Seaman then a lad of the United Brethren church. of sixteen ran away from home and enlisted in Company (+ of the Second Nebraska. This regimeut saw four- James B. Mitchell. teen months service under Gen. Sully then mustered out Mayor Steve
James B. Mitchell, the pioneer against the Sioux Indians and was druggist of Robinson, was born in Washington county, Wisconsin, in Hunter and County Surveyor T. J. 1850. He came to Wathena with his Marion were comrades of Mr. Sea- parents in 1859 and resided there un- man in this period of his army ser- til 1874. Here he learned the drug vice. Mr. Seaman next enlisted in trade and began business for himself. the Fourth Kansas Battery with his He was clerk of Wathena one term father and youngest brother and and township clerk of Washington later was transferred to Company township for two terms before leav- M of the 16th Kansas Calvary regi- ing Doniphan county. In 1874 he ment. He was with the party that moved to Robinson where he has helped chase Quantrell out of Law- conducted a drug store and book rence and assisted in repelling the business ever since. He was post- Price raid. He was mustered out master of Robinson for eleven years May 15, 1865 and then attended St. and has been a member of the school Benedict's College at Atchison for board of district 26 a good share of one year. In 1866 he went to Mon- time since he has resided in Robin- tana and spent two years in mining son. He is a strong Republican and and contracting. In 1880 he moved has been a party worker ever since to Colorado where he lived for twelve reaching his majority. He was his years. Here he was engaged in min- party nominee for county treasurer ing, merchandising and publishing a in 1889 but a party feud lead to hls paper. He also served one term as defeat by a small majority. In 1894 postmaster. In 1893 he returned to he was elected clerk of the District
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ANNALS OF BROWN COUNTY.
Young Ham's earliest political rec- ollections are of a man on a black horse riding through the settlement carrying the word to thefree state men not to vote. This was when the Lecompton constitution was submitted. Later on when at a sub- sequent election the free state men had decided to vote this same man went through the settlement carry. ing the word.
JAMES B. MITCHELL.
court and re-elected in 1896. serving the county four years faithfully and well and to the satisfaction of all who had business with his office. He is a prominent member of the I. O. O. F. and the Woodman fratern- itles and possesses the confidence and esteem of his neighbors and associ- ates. He was married Oct. 16, 1872, at Wathena to Miss Emma Bell. They have six children, Maude E.,
MAJOR G. HAM.
When the war broke out Mr. Ham account of his age. He then drove a team to Colorado and there enlisted In Company K of the Second Colora- do Calvary. He saw nine months of army life but the exposure to which
Grace, wife of F. B. Castle, of Troy, wanted to enlist but was rejected on Minturn, Vernon, Margaret and Nellie.
Major G. Ham.
Major Gillespie Ham was born in he was subjected left him a cripple Fleming county, Kentucky October for life. 16th 1848. He came to Kansas in 1857 with his parents who located fitted
Returning to Atchison County he himself for teaching and near Kennekuk, Atchison County. taught for 114 months in Atchison
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ANNALS OF BROWN COUNTY.
and Brown counties. In 1882 he farm near Padonla. There were no moved to Willis in this county. He cattle or hogs or grain in the coun- was elected trustee of Mission town- try to ship out and for two winters ship in the spring of 1885. That fall Mr. Chase an i his father James M he was elected Register of Deeds and Chase, familiarly known to the old moved to Hiawatha. In 1887 he was reelected Register of Deeds serving for four years in this office. His terin of office out he opened an ab- stract office in this city and has built up a good paying business in that line. He has served on the city Council twice and has been chairman of the Republicau County Central Committee four times.
Mr. Ham was married in 1875 to Miss Mary Kessler. Their fam- ily consists of three sons and one daughter: Nancy Alice, Win. B., who has charge of the Democrat's pressroom, Harry, and Edmund N.
settlers as Uncle Jimmle Chase bought furs and shipped them out. This was the first ready money that had ever been brought into the coun- ty and was a great boon to the set- tlers. From that time until 1880 Mr. Chase engaged in farming and stock raising and in buying and shipping stock. In 1882 when the Missouri Pacific was built across Brown County Mr. Chase moved into Pa- donla and in conjunction with his son Eddie A. Chase opened the mer- cantile establishment of E. Chase & Son. In addition to handling mer- chandise the firm bought and ship- ped grain and stock. The firm was dissolved some years later and the store was closed ont but Mr. Chase still continued in the grain and stock business. He also has extensive cat- tle interests in the western part of
Mr. and Mrs. Elbrdge Chase.
Elbridge Chase, the veteran Pa- donia grain buyer is one of the plo- neers of Brown County. He was born in Limington Maine July 24, the state. 1836 and was educated in the Acade- In 1863 Mr. Chase was elected county surveyor but refused to qual- ify. He is a Democrat in politics but takes little active interest in po- litical affairs. He belonges to no lodges and to no church. He has al- ways taken an active interest in all efforts to build up the county and is recognized as a publis spirited citi- my in his native town. In 1858 he came to Illinois but only stayed one year and then pushed on into Brown County and took aclaim. He stayed here about a year and then in 1860 he went further west and established a trading post on the Santa Fe trail at Pawnee Rock. The Indians were hostile and in less than a year the zer. His neighbors like to do busi- post had to be abandoned ,and Mr. ness with him and he handles practi- Chase returned to Brown, County. cally all the grain and stock that is He was one of the participants in shipped from the Padonla station.
the celebrated battle of Padonia in
In August 1863 Mr. Chase was which the Missouri raiders were put married to Almira Z. Grover a to route. In the fall of 1861 he enlist- Brown County school teacher and ed in the Missouri State Militia at daughter of J. Grover one of the pio- St. Joe and saw six months service neers. Their family consists of two against the bush whackers before his children, Eddie A., a prosperous company was mustered out. He Brown County farmer and Etta, wife then returned to his Brown County of W. R. Browing of Padonia.
ANNALS OF BROWN COUNTY.
MR. AND MRS. ELBRIDGE CHASE.
Joseph L. Armstrong. four votes cast in Brown County in 1864 for Geo. B. MeClellan. There were two votes cast for Mcclellan in Locknane precinct and two in Page's precinct, but only one was counted in Page's precinct, so the record at the county clerk's office shows only three votes. Mr. Armstrong used to tell che following story about the the missing ballot. Party feeling ran so high that year that it was not safe for a man to say he was a Democrat. A few days before elec- rated in Brown County there were tion he was in Atchison and brought
Joseph L. Armstrong died at his home near Willis on Oct. 4, 1901, aged 80 years and 3 months. He was born in Tennessee on July 4, 1821 and went from there to Illinois. In 1857 he moved to Brown County and settled three and a half miles east of where the town of Willis now stands. In Illinois he was married to Miss Sarah C. Herndon and they have raised a family of six sons and four daughters. When they lo- no white men living near them and the Indians were their only neigh- bors.
home fourteen Democratic tickets with him. He thought he could count that many meu among his
Although he took little active part neighbors who would vote that tick- in politics and seldom attended the et but when he went to see them he conventions, Mr. Armstrong was found them all afraid and a man a staunch Democrat and never failed named Jas. D. Harrison was the to go to the polls aud vote the Dem- only one who would take a ticket ocratie ticket. His was one of the and go with him to the polling place
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ANNALS OF BROWN COUNTY.
439
JOSEPH L. ARMSTRONG.
at Page's house. The tickets when folded could not be told from Repub- lican ballots and no comment was inade when they voted. Everything moved on swimmingly until the votes were being counted out that evening. When the first Mcclellan ticket was taken out of the box the judge who was reading the ballots off said, "Here's a MeClellan ticket. What had we hetter do with it?" Another one of the of the judges sald it was a legal ballot and would have to be counted with the rest of the ballots. Pretty soon the other tick- et was reached and this same judge said, "Here is another one of those dammed things," and he proceeded to tear the ticket up and throw it on the floor, so Mr. Armstrong does not know whether it was his ticket or Harrison's that was counted. An effort was made to find out who it was that had had the nerve to vote man Camp at Willis.
for McClellan but Messrs. Armstrong and Harrison concluded that discre- tion was the better part of valor and so kept their own counsel.
Mr. Armstrong was converted in early manhood and united with the Presbyterian church but afterwards cast hislot with the Wesleyan Metho- dists and was a member of the church at Willis at the time of his death.
Frank L. Willis.
County Commissioner, Frank L. Willis, is a Brown County pioneer. He was born in Union County, Ten- nessee, Feb. 22, 1856, and is the son of Hon. M. C. Willis, who played a very prominent part in the early set- tlement and development of the country. The family came to Brown County in 1856 and settled near the south line not far from Kennekuk. The nearest school in those early days was at the Indian Mission building which stood on what is now the east end of the Horton Townsite and here Mr. Willis com- menced his education. The teacher was Miss Irvin. afterwards Mrs. D. W. Wilder, and Mr. Willis recalls how Mr. Wilder, then a young editor at Elwood, used to come out on the stage to see the school maam.
Mr. Willis grew up with the coun- try and prospered with it. To day he owns a fine four hundred acre farm on the Hiawatha and Horton road, well improved and well stocked. Mr. Willis was married in 1882 to Miss Mary J. Stanley daugh- ter of J. D. Stanley of Horton. Their family consists of three girls, Bessie, Lulu and Clara, and four boys. Stanley, Carl, Paul and Homer. Mr. and Mrs. Willis are members of the Presbyterian Church at Horton and Mr. Willis is a member of the Wood-
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ANNALS OF BROWN COUNTY.
FRANK L. WILLIS.
Mr. Willis was raised a Republican He has familiarized himself thor- and has always taken an active in- oughly with the counties business terest in political affairs. He was and makes a splendid official.
treasurer of Mission Township for four or five years, and in 1894 was elected trustee serving one year and
The Idol Family.
The Idol family 1s justly esteemed declining to be a candidate for re- as one of the most influential fami- election. In 1897 the nomination for lies in Brown County. The father of Commissioner was forced upon him. the family J. M. Idol was a Kansas The district was supposed to be safe- pioneer, coming here in 1856. He was born near Salem, North Caro- ly anti-republican but after a spirited campaign Mr. Willis won out by a lina in April, 1833 and lived in that majority of 21. Last year he was re- state until he was nineteen years old, nominated and elected to succeed when he moved to Missouri, residing himself for another three years term. three years In Lafayette County and
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