USA > Kansas > Brown County > Annals of Brown County, Kansas : from the earliest records to January 1, 1900 > Part 63
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and heated with a furnace. The Mr. Lichty was elected County various places on the farm are con- Commissioner in 1893. He served nected with a telephone. so that Mr. one term, declining a re-election.
544
ANNALS OF BROWN COUNTY.
...
RESIDENCE OF FRED ISELY, FAIRVIEW.
This is the only public office he has his native county until September, ever held, although he has been an 1872. He landed in Brown county active politician and has taken a September 17 of said year. He prominent part in Republican poli- started on the prairie to open his tice in the county ever since he has Walnut township farm, hence is one been a resident here.
Four years ago Mr. Licty was elec- ted president of the Brown County Farmers Mutual Insurance Company and has been re-elected every year since then He has done good faith- ful work for this organization which he considers one of the most credit able organizations we have in this county. Mr. Lichty is a Mason, be- creek, fine springs and excellent longing to the Hamlin Lodge and Mount Horeb Chapter at Hiawatha but he has no other lodge affiliations.
of the pioneers of the township. He kept adding to the buildings and otherwise improving the farm until it is one of the best farms in the county. It consists of 240 acres of fine up-land and is enclosed with substantial fences, has a fine orchard and is in a high state of cultivation. It is abundantly watered by spring,
wells. The residence is 18x32 with an ell 16x26. It is two stories high and contains ten rooms and cost some- thing over $2,500. Mr. Isely was the Frederick Isely. first man in the township to build a bank barn. It is 40x64 feet with Fred Isely, of Fairview, Kansas, room for ten horses, fifty head of was born November 18, 1831, in cattle, eighty tons of hay and 1500 He lived in bushels of grain. Also the usual out-
Holines county, Ohio.
545
ANNALS OF BROWN COUNTY.
T-TENDELHC
C. F. LUCAS.
buildings such as corn cribs, granary, born in Holmes county, Ohio, April Implement house, etc. He has gone 21, 1839. They have had one child, a through the trying ordeals of fires. son born in 1861, who died when he In April, 1874 his first stable with was six years old. Mr. and Mrs. new wagon and new farm machin- Isely are very active and consistant ery was burned and in 1887 his resi- members of the Reformed church at dence was burned to the ground. Fairview. Mr. Isely has been one of
In 1892 he built a fine residence in the elders since 1873, when the con- Fairview to which he removed and gregation was organized. He has resided there as a retired farmer to attended as a delegate many of the enjoy the fruits of his labors. But meetings of the district and general he still continues to look after his Synods and is in thorough touch farm and directs its management with its work,
During the thrilling experiences of
He was married November 3, 1859, to Miss Pauline Geiger, who was the civil war he was drafted in Octo-
546
ANNALS OF BROWN COUNTY
TRENGOO KE
RESIDENCE OF C. F. LUCAS, ROBINSON.
ber, 1862, for nine months. He re- always ready to help with his coun- ported at camp Mansfield and was sel and his purse in the advancement there quite awhile. He being the of any public enterprise.
last one to takecare of the old home- stead and the aged parents, it was inevitable that he should return,
C. F. Lucas.
The lumber trade of Robinson and hence he paid fora substitute to take vicinity is well handled by C. F.
his place. This inability to defend Lucas who keeps a good stock and his country has ever since caused him who makes and keeps customers by In politics he is a life his affability and courteous treat- mnuch regret. long Democrat. In Holmes county ment. Mr. Lucas is a Marylander, he held the following offices: Town- being born in Queen Ann county, ship trustee, land appraiser and November 20, 1866. He inherited his member of the school board. In politics from a long line of Democra- Brown county he was elected treas- tic ancestors. He was educated in urer of Walnut township four times. the Maryland public schools and He has served as a member of the came fresh from them to Huron, city council of Fairview and as treas- Kansas, in 1889 where he engaged in urer of the city schools. All his pub- the lumber business. Here he staid lic trusts were filled with credit to until 1893 when he took charge of the himself and his electors. He is held Robinson yards. He has been may- in high esteem in the community. or of Robinson, Master of the Robin- He is a public spirited man and is son Masonic lodge and Venerable
1
547
ANNALS OF BROWN COUNTY.
E. B. LEWIS
Consul of the Woodmen at Robinson. He is a member of the Royal Arch Chapter R. A. M. at Hiawatha and also a member of the Hoo Hooes in which all the good fellows in the lumber trade are supposed to belong.
and Mrs. Lucas are members of the Episcopal church and hold their membership with St. John's Parish in Hiawatha.
Eugene B. Lewis.
Mr. Lucas was married in 1890 to Eugene B. Lewis, of Irving town- Miss Laura V Willis, a native of ship, is one of the most prosperous Talbot county, Md They have three farmers of the county. He has made children, Lawrence aged nine, Edith money out of Brown county soil. He aged six and Howard Franklin not was born in Andrew county, Mo . vet one year old. They have one of September 15, 1856, and is a son of the most pleasant homes in Robinson Captain Win. Lewis, late of Irving and are noted for their good cheer township. He received his education and generous hopitality. Bo h Mr. in Andrew county, Mo., where he re-
WHATIAM M. WELLCOME.
FRANKLINS FNOGHI
J. P. DAVIS.
جدة
549
ANNALS OF BROWN COUNTY.
MR. AND MRS. WM. H. JONES.
mained until 1880 when he moved to Dickinson, Robt Raymond Hall, Brown county, locating in Padonia Bryan and Philip Sydney, Mr. township. In 1885 he bought the Lewis has been a lifelong. Democrat and looks forward to the time when his five boys will help wipe out the farm where he now resides in Irving township and last year added an- other one to it one mile south of his Republican majority in Irving town- home place. This makes him 304 ship. He is a Mason and belongs to acres of good land, all improved with Hiawatha Lodge No. 13.
good houses and barns, orchards and other improvements. Mr. Lewis was married April 15, 1885, to Miss
Wm. H. Jones.
There is one unique character who Lulu Dickinson, daughter of John C. figured in the early history of Brown Dickinson, of Irving township. Their county whose name ought not to be family consists of five boys and two lost to fame. He was christened daughters. They are: Chas W., William H. Jones but was familiarly Grace, Geo. Dickinson, Catharine known as "Nigger Bill Jones" or
550
ANNALS OF BROWN COUNTY.
"Abolition Jones." Mr. Jones was termined to come to Kansas. An born in 1815 near Louisville, Ken- ox team, a wagon, a couple of cows, tucky, of pro slavery parents When some household goods and a big a boy he attended a slave sale and family of children comprised his the spectacle of children torn from worldly possessions. Reaching their parents and husbands and Brown county he settled on what is wives separated from each other, now the Geo. Kelly farm northwest made such an impression on him of Hiawatha. Here he at once laid that he swore eternal hostility to out an underground railway from the institution of slavery. Missouri to the Quaker settlement at
Kentucky was not a good field Pawnee, Neb. How many passen- for exploiting this doctrine and he gers were taken over this route will moved into Indiana and later, in 1.840, on into the forests of Michigan where he settled near Cassopolis. Here he hewed out a farm, grew rich and raised a family. Between times he ran trains on the underground railway and no distance was too long or night too dark for him to help along a run-away fugitive on his way to Canada.
In 1847 a posse of Kentucky slave owners camped for the night near Mr. Jones' place with a party of thirteen recaptured slaves. Mr. Jones raised a party and liberated the slaves. A Michigan county his tory in telling the story says:
"The leading spirit in this re en- counter was Nigger Bill Jones who. after disarming one of the raiders. who drew a revolver on him, and forcing the Rev. Stevens to carry the picanniny and another of the party CHESTER G. JONES. to relinquish his horse in favor of a wench, was shackled at his own re- never be known, but his son Chet es- quest with a slave and so remained timates the number at from 200 to until after the party reached Cassop- 400. The story of one of these trains olis."
is told in the Annals of Brown
A law suit followed and eventually County, page 28.
found its way up to Chief Justice Taney for adjudication. It was fi- was one of the first to advocate the raising of a colored regiment, and as soon as the state had determined to
fortune and left him dead broke.
When the war broke out Mr. Jones
nally dropped from the docket, but in dragging its weary way through the courts it had eaten up Mr. Jones' enlist the colored man he began act- ive work as a recruiting officer. In
This was in 1857. and then he de- Sol Miller's paper, the White Cloud
551
ANNALS OF BROWN COUNTY.
Chief, under date of A gust 21, 1862, Ben F. of Hiawatha. Both Mr and is the following item:
"W. H. Jones, of Hiawatha, is recruiting for the contraband regiment and requests ns to an nounce that he is paying two dollars per head for buck niggers-that is for every negro man brought over from Missouri, he will pay two dollars to the persons bringing him over.
Mr. Jones' recruits were mustered in as Company C of the contraband regiment and at the close of the war many of them settled down in Brown county.
Mrs. Jones are members of the Baptist church of Hiawatha.
Eli Zimmerman.
Eli Zimmerman, of Fairview, the well known auctioneer and breeder of Poland China swine, was born November 13, 1836, in Tuscarawas county, Ohio. The family were Swiss and came to Ohio in an early day. ¡ Mr. Zimmerman lived in Ohio until 1865 when he moved to Benton county, Iowa. Here he resided until ty, settling three miles west of Hia- watha. fere he resided until 1897 when he sold his farm and bought again one mile south of Fairview
In 1866 Mr. Jones moved to Jasper county, Mo. He soon moved to Southern California where he died in 1874 when to moved to Brown coun- 1890. Mr. Jones was married in Anderson, Indiana in 1839 to Kath- erine Messick. Their family consist- ed of one daughter and five sons: Sarah, who died in infancy, Chester
Mr. Zimmerman began to raise Po- G. of Brown county, DeWitt Clinton, land China hogs in the spring of 1875. a farmer at Dewey. Ind. Ter., Wil- The next year he started his herd berforce, an Attorney at Joplin, Mo., James Monroe, a farmer near San hogs in the county. He originated Francisco, Cal., and Orlando Ellis, deceased. which was the first herd of registered the Sunset strain of stock so well known to all breeders of fine stock
Chester G. Jones, the oldest son of and from his herd has come some of Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Jones, is the the most noted prize winners of the superintendent of the Brown County country.
He turns off an annual Poor Farm. He was a small boy crop of about 100 head, all of them of when the journey was made from the Sunset, Black U S Wilkes, Chief Michigan to Kansas and walked the Tecumseh 2nd and l'om Corwin 2nd whole distance driving the cows be- families
Mr. Zimmerman is astock- hind the wagon. He enlisted in holder in the Standard Poland China Company A of the 9th Kansas Cav- Hog Breeders Association and is con- alry and was appointed a corporal. nected with a number of the best live He served four years and then re-en- stock and agricultural papers. As listed. After the war he returned to an auctioneer Mr. Zimmerman has Brown county where he has since re- called more sales than any man in sided. He is a member of Hiawatha the county and his record of $9,580 Post 130 G. A. R. He has served as for a single day's work has never city marshal of Hiawatha and as been equalled. He called his first superintendent of the poor farm sale in 1857 when he was 21 years old. since 1902. Mr. Jones was married Mr. Zimmerman was married Dec. 12, 1867 to Mary A. Carey, a. March 11, 1860, in Ohio to Miss Anna daughter of R. B. Carey. They have Blotter. They have six children: two sons Charles C. of Hamlin and Otto, born August 18, 1864, a resident
552
ANNALS OF BROWN COUNTY.
ELI ZIMMERMAN
of Oak Hill, Kansas, and a minister members of the Reformed church at in the Free Methodist church; Dora, Fairview.
born Oct. 19, 1866, wife of Samuel Bowen, of Oskaloosa, Kan ; Mary, born March 15, 1869, wife of Tom
David Evans.
A splendid specimen of that sturdy Davis, of Oskaloosa. Kan .; Mattie, Welch stock which has contributed born Oct. 3, 1871, wife of Dr. W. A. so well to the building up of this McKee. of Fairview; Clinton, born western country is found in David Jan. 23, 1874, now of Arlington, Colo. Evans, of Padonia township. Mr. and Lottie, born May 22, 1877, wife Evans was born in Carmarthen coun- of Clinton Miller, of Atchison, Kan. ty, Wales, May 30, 1819, and although Both Mr. and Mrs. Zimmerman are he has passed the four score year
553
ANNALS OF BROWN COUNTY.
DAVID EVANS AND HIS GRANDSON RODERICK JOHN RICE
mark, thanks to a vigorous consti- county who were induced to locate tution and excellent habits, he is to- here through the influence of Mr. day as hale and hearty asmany men Evans. Mr. Evans has always taken who cannot count half as many a prominent part in public enter- years. Mr. Evans was brought up prises and is justly regarded as one on a farm and received the advan- of the most enterprising and pro- tages of a common school education. gressive citizens of the county. He and one year at a boarding school. has a fine farm of 280 acres well im- Hecontinued to reside in Wales until proved with a fine residence, good 1869 when he came to Kansas, locat- barns, handsome lawns and fine ing in Brown county. Here he was shady groves. The rural route founder of what is known as the brings him the daily mail and he says Welch settlement. This settlement he would not think for a moment of consists of many of the best citizens surrendering these advantages for a and most substantial farmers of the life in town. In politics Mr. Evans is
554
ANNALS OF BROWN COUNTY.
a strong Democrat. He is a great since which time he has been a resi reader and keeps thoroughly posted dent here He owns a fine, well im- on the issues of the day and his polit- proved quarter section of land, four ical affiliations are the result of con- miles northwest of Horton, which he viction and not of chance. Mr. Ev- runs successfully in addition to the ans was married in 1848 to Miss Ann school work which he does He has Bowen, also a native of Wales. Ten been a teacher for twenty-seven children were born to them, Sarah, years, has held a first grade certiti- William, Jane, Letetia, wife of James cate since 1884 and enjoys the distinc- Joslin, John, Margaret, Mary Ann, tion of being the longest in continu- wife of Edward Rice of Butler county, ous service of any teacher in Brown Ellen, David and Frances, wife of Rev. A J. Haggett of Hiawatha. Mrs. Evans died in 1897, loved, re- spected and esteemed by all who knew her. Mr Evans is an earnest member of the Baptist church to which he has belonged since 1854 For many years he was a member of the church at Hiawatha but when the new Bethel church was organized near his home he transferred his membership to that place. Here he holds the office of deacon Believing firmly in the doctrines taught by the Master he has sought by a long life of usefulness to put them into prac- tice in his daily walk and as he nears the end of the journey of life he might well say with the prophet of old that he has fought the good fight. Brown county has been bettered by his residence in it and she needs more good citizens like David Evans
W. E. TIFFANNY
William E. Tiffanny.
county. He has announced that he will ask for the Republican nomina-
William E. Tiffanny was born at tion for County Superintendent at Tuppers Plains, Megs county, Ohio, the next primaries of that party and August 3, 1858, and came from good with his extensive acquaintance and old Puritan stock. Hewaseducated long record of successful services, at the Tuppers Plains seminary and ought to prove an easy winner. Mr. in 1883 completed the teacher's course Tiffanny has been a member of the at Campbell University at Holton, M. E. church since 1876. For tifteen Kansas. He came to Kansas March years he has been Sunday school 10, 1881, settling first in Jackson superintendent and a good worker county, but in the following January in Sunday school affairs. He has he moved to Brown county, Kansas, been one of the strong supporters of
555
ANNALS OF BROWN COUNTY
MR. AND MRS. M. C. WILLIS
the Brown County S. S. Association now resides which he has improved and was elected its president at the and made one of the best farms in annual meeting in 1901. Mr. Tiffanny Irving township. He also rents an was married December 21, 1893, to adjoining quarter and farms that Miss Mary Denton of Doniphan in connection with his own place. county. . They have three children, In 1898 he was nominated and elected Inez, born 1894, Fern, in 1896, and trustee of Irving township. Reelect- Emil born in 1901.
Robert M Miller.
ed in '99 and again in 1900. He is recognized as one of the leading Re- publicans of Irving township and that party doubtless has more hon-
Robert M. Miller who has served Irving township three times as its ors in store for him should he turn trustee, is a Marylander by birth. his attention to politics. Mr. Miller He was born in Allegany county, was married June 10, 1884, to Miss December 6, 1863. When he was thir- Carrie Gibson of Irving township. teen he came to Brown county with They have five children. Harry, Roy, Mary, Leslie and Cordie.
his parents who located in Robinson township, He received a common school education and worked on the David S. Jones. farm until he was of age when he David S. Jones, one of the prosper- started out for himself. In 1891 he ous farmers of Brown county, was bought the quarter section where he born in Pittsburg, Pa , January 10,
556
ANNALS OF BROWN COUNTY
1×53, but was raised in Ohio. Here the state militia. He was elected to he was educated in Ewington Acad- the state legislature in 1866 and elected emy. In 1877 he came to Brown a second time in 1875. In 1883 he county and located in the northern went to California where he con- part of Padonia township where he tinued to reside until his death, resided until 1901 when he moved to January 6, 1902. The remains were the farm which he purchased one brought back to Horton where they mile north of Hiawatha. Mr. Jones were interred. , The funeral services is a Democrat and has been one of were conducted by the members of the workers of the party during the Hiawatha lodge No. 35 A. F. & A. M. more than twenty years that he has of which Mr. Willis had been a mem- resided in the county.
He has been ber for many years, assisted by Rev. township clerk, township treasurer Mr. Mayor of the Methodist church of and member of the school board in Horton of which denomination Mr. Padonia for a number of years. He Willis had been a member for many was married in 1879 to Miss Mabel years. Fry of Brown county, daughter of Mr Willis was married in 1852 in Mr. and Mrs. F. M. Fry. They have Union county, Tenn., to Miss Elizabeth O.le son, Freeman, who has just Carter. Five children born to them reached his majority and who, like are still living: Frank L., a member his father, votes the Democratic of the present board of county com- ticket.
Martin C. Willis.
No history of Brown county would be complete which did not contain a sketch of M. C. Willi», one of the pion- eer settlers of Mission township. Mr. Willis was born in Clarborne county, Tennessee, July 20, 1830. In Decem- ber, 1855, he located in Doniphan coun-
missioners of Brown county; Chris .- topher C., of Brown county; Wil- liam D., of California; Susan Mary, wife of William R. Honnell of Horton; and John D., of Oklahoma. Mrs. Willis died in 1880 and Mr. Willis was married again in 1886 to Mrs. Sarah Tarr, who still survives him.
Henry Isely. Page 493
Henry Isely, of Fairview, was born ty but the next year he moved to in Holmes county, Ohio, Sept. 1st, Brown county, locating one mile north 1841, and is the youngest son of Chris- of Kennekuk. His farm which was tian and Barbara Isely, natives of known as Locust Grove, eventually Switzerland who immigrated to this embraced 720 acres and was noted for country in 1831. Mr. Isely obtained its fine improvements. Mr. Willis his first schooling in one of the old- dealt extensively in stock and was a fashioned log-cabin school houses. most successful business man.
Later he attended the high schools
Mr. Willis always took a prominent of Massillon and Berlin, Ohio. Here part in all public affairs of the county he fitted himself for teaching and and was universally recognized as one taught in his native state until 'Sep- of her most influential citizens. In 1863 tember, 1862, when he enlisted in Co. he was elected county commissioner and C. of the 67th Ohio Volunteer In- reelected in 1865. When the Price raid
fantry. This regiment is quoted as threatened the state he served as cap- one of the three hundred fighting tain in the 19th Kansas regiment of regiments in "Fox's Regimental
557
ANNALS OF BROWN COUNTY.
Losses." Itsloss during the service duty in Virginia until Oct. 16, 1865, was 142 killed and 151 who died from when he was mustered out at Rich- wounds or disease. Mr. Isely partic- mond. ipated in the sieges and capture of Mr. Isely is an enthusiastic mem- ber of the Grand Army. He is Com- mander of Sabetha Post and Que of the active workers in the state en- campment. He feels that the boys Morris Island, Charleston, Fort Sumpter and other noted strong- holds, and was in the bloody charge on Fort Wagoner, July 18, 1863. Af- ter this charge he was sent to the in blue are a little nearer and dearer hospital, where he was sick six weeks than any other class of meu and has of typhoid fever. In 1864 the regi- demonstrated on many occasions ment entered as a veteran regiment his loyalty to his old comrades,
and was placed in the Army of the On his return from the army Mr. James under General Butler. Mr. Isely took a course in Bryant & Stratton's Business College at C'leve- land and again taught school in Ohio until 1867, when he came west. He located first near St. Joe, Mo., where he taught school for three years. In September, 1870, he located
Isely saw pretty steady fighting from that to the close of the war. May 10, 1864, he was in the batt'e of Ches- ter station; May 20 he he was at Weir Bottom Church, and again in the en- gagements over the same ground on June 16, 17 and 18. In the following in Brown county and began to im- September the regiment spent a prove his farm. For three successive winters he taught the Fairview dis- whole month under fire near Peters- burg in front of the celebrated rebel trict school.
fortification Fort Hell, which had
When the Grange movement start- previously been mined and with its ed Mr. Isely joined in the work. When occupants, a Soutlı Carolina regi- the Farmers' Convention met in Hia- ment, blown up but was again re- watha in the fall of 1873 to select a built. . On Sept. 29 he was in the bat- county ticket Mr. Isely was nomina- tle of Signal Hill and Chapin's farm, ted for county clerk and was elected and on Oct. 1 in an action against by a handsome majority. Two years the rebel forces under Ben Hill. On later he was nominated by the Dem- ocratic and Independent Republican
Oct. 13 his com and stormed the en emy's works at Darbytown Road. conventions and again elected. In On Oct. 27 and 28 they fought in the 1877 he had no opposition in any battle of Charles City Road. On the party and was elected for a third 2nd of April Mr. Isely took part in time, a record that has never been the storming of Petersburg. His equalled in this county. During his command took Ft. Gregg which was six years' residence in Hiawatha he manned by picked men and ordered also served two terms on the city by Gen. Lee to be held at all hazards. council.
His command followed close on Lee's
In 1882, over his protest, he was retreat and engaged himat Jetters nominated for the legislature by the ville on April 6 and at High Bridge Democrats. 3 The district had a the next day, and were present on the strong Republican majority but Mr. 9th at the surrender at Appomattox. Isely was elected by a majority of 60. Here Mr. Isely was wounded by the His intimate knowledge of assess- bursting of a shell. He did provost ment and taxation gained during
558
ANNALS OF BROWN COUNTY.
MARTIN MEISENHEIMER, The Waterloo Veteran.
six years' experience as county clerk grass land. His large bank barn, being known to the Speaker, gave built in 1890, is 44x66 feet and will him a place on the important com- hold 150 tons of hay, 2000 bushels of mittee of Asses-ment and Taxation, grain, twelve head of horses and six- · where he did some good work for ty head of cattle His residence was the people of the state. Later when built in 1871 and remodeled in 1884. the Alliance was organized Mr. Isely It has twelve rooms and all the mod- was one of its supporters and he has ern conveniences. All the other im- been one of the leading and most in- provements are in keeping with these. fluential members of the Peoples Mr. Isely is also interested in sev- eral other ventures. He has been a Party ever since its organization
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