USA > Kansas > Cloud County > Biographical history of Cloud County, Kansas: biographies of representative citizens. Illustrated with portraits of prominent people, cuts of homes, stock, etc > Part 38
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96
Mr. McLean is a Republican of pronounced type. He is not identified with any denomination, but contributes to the Catholic church, of which his wife and children are members. Hidden in a bower of trees on a knoll near the center of the farm, a few rods distant from pretty Lake Sibley. stands the pleasant home of the Mcleans, where stranger or friend will always find their "latch-string hanging out." for their hospitality is as proverbial as Mr. McLean's individuality.
CHARLES DANIEL AVERY.
Charles D. Avery, the subject of this sketch, is one of the old residents and honored citizens of Sibley township, who emigrated to Kansas in 1872. The first year of his residence in the state he lived on a rented farm six miles south of Blue Rapids. The following winter ( 1873) he came to Cloud county and paid John Taggart, a brother of Oscar Taggart, of Concordia, eight hundred dollars for his homestead right and moved his family on the farm, where he continued to reside, and where he has acquired a commodi- ous home, after long years of privations and reverses incident to grass- hoppers, prairie fire and drouth. The former did not damage him as seri- ously as the prairie fire that came in March of that year and burned the corn in his cribs, along with some hogs. In scorching the latter, forty or fifty little motherless pigs were more or less ruined : a new harvester, for which he had just paid one hundred and twenty-five dollars, his new wagon, fan- ning mill. wheat and oats in the granary; all were consumed and the house only saved by the most strenuous efforts. This was a serious loss to a man just starting in a new country and several hundred dollars in debt. but upon this foundation Mr. Avery has gained a competency and a desira- ble home.
375
HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
Mr. Avery is a native of Niagara county, New York, born in 1839. He is a son of Daniel and AAlmeda ( Lewis ) Avery. His father lived in Ver- mont. the place of his nativity, and that of many generations of Averys until after his marriage. when he removed to the state of New York, where he resided until his death in 1880. He was a blacksmith and farmer by occupation. Mr. Avery's mother died in 1860. Our subject is the second youngest child in a family of thirteen children, only one of whom besides himself is living. Mr. Avery was reared in the family of a paternal aunt and drifted away from the hearthstone of his parents.
When the contest between the north and south was inaugurated, Mr. Avery joined the Twelfth New York Independent Battery Light Artillery, with its quota of one hundred and twelve men under Captain W. H. Ellis. He enlisted November 20, 1861. for three years, and when his time expired re-enlisted and demonstrated his patriotism by serving until the close of hostilities. His company were in the front rank at the battle of the Wildler- ness and Shelton Farm. They had four guns taken by the enemy at Jerusa- lem Plank Road. They participated in the engagement at Ream's Station. one of the hardest fought small battles in the history of the Civil war. While they were stationed at Fort Haskell in front of Petersburg a shell was sent in their midst. They saw it advancing and as they dodged behind various places of protection the iron sphere exploded, sending its missiles in every direction, but fortunately no one was hurt.
Mr. Avery was slightly wounded from the explosion of a shell. The soldiers were quartered in a bomb-proof retreat where they slept. It was a sort of dugout. The earth was excavated to a depth of five feet and covered with dirt, well packed down. Each apartment consisted of four bunks. with three men to each berthi. Mr. Avery had been doing guard duty and had repaired to this place of safety for a few hours' rest and sleep. He had just retired in one of the bunks, when with a terrific noise a shell of about sixty pounds weight came crashing through. As it exploded he was struck on the wrist, which cracked the bone and disabled him for duty for ahout five weeks, but instead of going to the hospital he remained in the battery. Mr. Avery, with two cousins, were comrades, all going into the service and returning together. Their company was under the charge of three different captains. The first was discharged for disgraceful con- duct : the second was George F. McKnight, and he was succeeded by Charles A Clark. The two latter were from Buffalo, New York. Soon after the war Mr. Avery settled in Jackson county. Michigan, where he was married to Miss Mary E. Wilcox in 1867. To their union seven sons and three daughters were born. viz: Charles Avery, their eldest child, is a well known photographer of Concordia. Several illustrations in this volume show the excellent character of his work. Arthur, whose personal sketch follows this of his father. Lewis is a farmer of Sibley township. Myrtle is the wife of John Taylor, of Sprague. Nebraska. Guy is a jeweler of Hanover. Kansas. Cecil, who was recently married and lives on the home-
376
HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
stead. Lulu is the wife of William Clark, a prominent and well-to-do young farmer of Sibley township. Ralph, a young man of twenty, who is teaching his first term of school in district No. 95. He graduated from the Great Western Business College in 1902. Roy, the youngest son, is aged six- teen and Juanita, a little daughter, aged eleven. Mrs. Avery, who was a very estimable woman, was deceased in May, 1804. The Averys are highly respectable people, as well as prosperous. They are members of the Method- ist Episcopal church of district No. 95.
Mr. Avery is a Republican politically and has held various township offices. He is an active member of the Grand Army of the Republic.
WILLIAM LAAYTON.
William Layton, an enterprising farmer of Buffalo township came to Kan- sas as early as 1863, when the state was designated as "bleeding. suffering Kan- sas," and settled in Nemaha county, near the Brown county line. He freighted in 1865 from Nemaha county to Fort Collins, over the unsettled plains when the mail was carried from Atchison to Denver, Colorado, in stage coaches. Marysville, Kansas, was about the size of Jamestown, and Beatrice, Nebraska, could not boast of much more than a dozen houses.
Possessed of the restless spirit that pervaded most men at that time. Mr. Layton sold the land he bought in Brown county, and in 1873, in com- pany with his brother, pushed westward into Cloud county, where he bought the relinquishment of Charles Il. Salters. They were visited by a heavy rain soon after moving into their new quarters-a combination dugout and log hut with dirt covered roof, which was practically dissolved and washed away under a three days' pouring down of the elements. They spent six weeks in that abode, and as if to make it more uninhabitable the place was infested with myriads of fleas. The house was then enlarged by adding a few logs, covered by a shingled roof, and pronounced one of the best dwellings in the country; not without a little sarcasm, perhaps, for the settlers began to feel a little envious of the new comer who located in their midst and did a little too much "fixin' up."
Although Mr. Layton has experienced numerous discouragements, withstood two grasshopper raids-for the one that visited Nemaha county in 1866 exceeded the ravages of this insect in Cloud county in 1874-he is loyal to the state, came to stay and does not regret it. Taking his own experiences as a basis, he asserts anyone coming to Kansas with a stock of perseverance and well directed energy, can make a success, and also con- tends when all the advantages are considered there is no better country on earthı.
Mr. Layton's farm consists of three hundred and twenty acres. For several years he carried on diversified farming, but of recent years he has given his attention to wheat raising and the growing of alfalfa. One season he had a tract of two hundred acres that yielded twenty-eight bushels of
377
HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
wheat per acre. He has a field of fifty-five acres of alfalfa and considers this one of the best crops grown in this part of the country, from a financial standpoint.
Mr. Layton has an interesting war record. On January 1, 1862, he enlisted in Company H. Thirty-second Ilinois Volunteer Infantry, and served until the following September, when he was discharged for disability, occasioned by a gunshot wound received in the evening of the first (lay's fight at Shiloli. His right arm was broken, but with his left he picked up his gun, resolving he would not leave it for the rebels. He also received a gunshot wound in the thigh and still carries the ball. During the few months he served in the army he was taken at a rapid gait and experienced hard fighting. After the battle, our subject was numbered with the slain. but instead of being dead, he, with others, were thrown into a cotton gin. which was converted into a temporary hospital, its puncheon floor strewn with wounded soldiers. Had he been left there for any length of time, Mr. Layton would have succumbed, for his wounds were of a dangerous char- acter. But a boat came cruising down the Ohio river for the purpose of rescuing the boys of the "Buckeye" state who were in the improvised hos- pitals. Realizing that a little strategy meant salvation for him, Mr. Layton feigned he was from that commonwealthi and was tenderly carried on board. Upon arriving at Cairo, he acknowledged the deception, revealed his iden- tity and beat his way home on a train. But his ardor had not cooled, and as he stood watching the soldiers marching to the front great tears would well up in his eyes because he could not join their ranks again. The Thirty- second was a depleted regiment. Every commissioned officer went down in the first battle of Shiloh; also every non-commissioned officer with the exception of two. The regiment was almost exterminated, but Mr. Lay- ton's brother, Preston, came throughi without a scratch. Mr. Layton was a sufferer from his wounds for a period of fifteen years.
Just after the close of the war our subject was married to Mary Good- pasture. whose father, John Goodpasture, was one of Nemaha county's pio- neers, having settled there as early as 1859. He had sold his farm in Illinois during the war, but the parties to whom he sold were unable to meet the payments and the property reverted to him. Later on he returned to Illi- nois, where he died in 1891. The Goodpastures descended from an old Holland family. Mrs. Goodpasture's maiden name was Emily Long, and she was of southern lineage. Mrs. Layton was a small child when her mother died, and she was reared by a step-mother, who is still living. Mrs. Layton is one of six children, four of whom are living: Mrs. Jobe, of Prescott, Arizona; Mrs. Sarah McCarthy, who resides on a farm near Jack- sonville, Illinois, and Samuel Goodpasture, of Concord, Morgan county, Illinois.
To Mr. and Mrs. Layton five children have been born. Their eldest child and only daughter married Robert Jones. She was a woman of gen- tle, attractive character, and her death in January, 1902, was mourned not
378
HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
only by her husband and family, but by a large circle of friends and acquaint- ances. George, their eldest son, is a successful business man and a mem- ber of the firm of Layton & Neilson, druggists. Concordia. Their second son, William Waldo, died at the age of six years. John M. and Roy B., the two younger sons, are practical farmers.
In 1884 Mr. Layton erected a handsome two-story residence of nine rooms, and in 1892 a fine basement barn. Anxious to have their home sur- rounded by a grove of trees, Mr. and Mrs. Layton planted six hundred box- elders, and many of these are living. Later they planted elms, ash and cedars with good results. While they were planting the switches that later developed into trees, their little family of children, now grown to manhood. watched the proceedings through the windows.
Mr. Layton is a min esteemed for his sterling worth of uprightness. Ilis career has been one of industry and perseverance, and his methodical system of farming has brought its returns in the development of a beautiful country place, where, surrounded by his excellent family, he enjoys the fruits of his labors. Socially, he has been a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows about twenty years, and also belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic. Politically, he is a staunch Democrat.
WALTER SCOTT FOSTER.
Among the young men of Concordia who are fitting themselves to suc- ceed in business enterprises on their own responsibility, as numerous others have done, is Walter Scott Foster, a trusted employe in the drug store of W. F. Neitzel. a position he has occupied for three years. Mr. Foster has not always been engaged in this capacity, but learned the harness trade in Scotland, his native country, and was in the employ of Thomas Lamay, of Concordia, for two years.
WALTER SCOTT FOSTER.
Mr. Foster is one of nine children born to George and Hannah ( New ) Foster. The late John New, one of Clyde's old residents, was an uncle of our subject, having been his mother's brother. Mr. Foster's father was formerly a druggist and chemist and owned a drug store in the city of Hull. He was also in the civil service for about fifteen years as revenue collector, but on account of ill health is retired from a business career. Mr. Foster has two brothers in Kansas and one
in Missouri, but the other members of the family are in England.
Mr. Foster was born in Scotland but is of English parentage. When
379
HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
a youth his parents removed to Yorkshire. England, where they still reside. Socially Mr. Foster is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America. He is a member of the Episcopal church of England. Mr. Foster is an ambitious young man, for whom it is not improbable the future holds marked success, for he is honorable, trustworthy and capable-qualities never over- looked in the business world.
ARTHUR AUGUSTIN AVERY.
The subject of this sketch is one of the prosperous sons of Charles D. Avery, of the preceding sketch, and one of the most well-to-do farmers and stockmen of Sibley township.
Mr. Avery was born in Jackson county, Michigan, near the town of Parma, in 1870, and was but two and a half years old when the family emigrated to Kansas: hence he is practically a product of the state. He was educated in the old Sibley school house, No. 16, on the original Sib- ley townsite, and taught school for three years, two years in Lawrenceburg and one year near Aurora. With the exception of this school work he has always been a farmer.
Mr. Avery was married in 1895 to Miss Mary Anna Iverson, a very (leserving and amiable young woman whose parents were old settlers in Sibley township. She is a daughter of the late Louis and Christine ( Han- son) Iverson, who homesteaded section eleven, the farm where Mr. and Mrs. Avery now live. The Iversons were of Danish birth. Her father was born in Schleswig-Holstein, March 28, 1827. He was a seafaring man for some years. making voyages from San Francisco around to Cape Horn. He subsequently located temporarily in California and engaged in the allur- ing occupation of gold mining, owned valuable properties and acquired a fortune, but lost the greater part of it in unwise speculation. After his wealth became shattered he gathered the fragments of his successes together. and acting upon Shakespeare's lines.
"There is a tide in the affairs of men. Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune,"
he came to America, sanguine that good results would yet follow his under- takings. He made two trips across the United States and had selected a site near Omaha, Nebraska, for a home, but fell in company with some of his countrymen in Junction City, who were coming to Cloud county, Kansas. He joined them, established a home, returned to Denmark and married. Mr. Iverson prospered in Kansas and founded a permanent home where he died, surrounded by the comforts of life. July 19, 1899. Mrs. Iverson was born in Denmark June 12, 1846. She was deceased March 1868. leaving two daughters. Two sons were born to their union. both of whom were deceased in early youth.
Ida Christine has gained prominence as an educational worker and a
380
HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANS.IS.
teicher of music. She is now pursuing a classical course in Stanford Uni- versity. The rudiments of her education were acquired in joint district No. I. Cloud and Republic counties, and she taught two terms of school before going to California eight years ago. She was one of a party of tourists who visited the Paris Exposition, inchiding a trip to Austria, Ireland, Eng- land Scotland, Germany, Italy and many other places of interest. Her present aim and ambition is to complete a University course as a means of obtaining higher and more responsible positions.
Mrs. Avery was educated in the home school and is possessed of con- siderable talent in both music and art. She is a woman of many admirable qualities, and the interior of their home suggests the refined taste of its matron. After the mother's death, Mrs. Avery was her father's house- keeper. To Mr. and Mrs. Avery two children have been born Lloyd Law- rence and llelen Christine. Aside from the homestead Mr. Avery owns four hundred and forty-four acres of fertile bottom land along the Repub- lican river that is in a highly cultivated state. He keeps a herd of about one hundred and twenty-five head of native cattle and has a pasture of eighty acres along the river He raises on an average over one hundred head of hogs and has made his money in stock. Like most of the farmers along the Republican he raises corn and ships it in the form of cattle and hogs. Mr. Avery has enlarged .the residence, built commodious sheds and otherwise improved the homestead. From one of his adjoining farms Mr. Avery sawed thirty thousand feet of cottonwood lumber from a grove and avenue of trees that have sprung up into giants within a little more than a quarter of a century.
Politically Mr. Avery is a Republican. Hle has been treasurer of the school board for five years. Mr. and Mrs. Avery are among the representa- tive people of the community, are members of the district No. 95 Methodist Episcopal church and associated with all worthy measures for the improve- ment of the locality in which they live.
WILLIAM BAKER WILLIAMS.
William Baker Williams, better known to Kansans as "Greenback Will- iams," is one of the characters of Cloud county. When he came into the community in 1878 the currency question was at its zenith and he was an ardent "Greenbacker." There were four individuals in the vicinity of his home who bore the name of Williams. They were about the same age and were christened with similar initials. All these "Williams" received their mail through the Concordia postoffice, and to designate him from the others of like cognomen, and in accordance with his enthusiastic interest in the finan- cial question, he was given the sobriquet that made him famous. He is known far and wide, his name often appearing in the eastern papers, giving descriptions of him and his surroundings. \ new York paper recently pictured him as an eccentricity living on an island in the Solomon river. Since
381
HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
the currency question is a dead issue he votes the Socialist ticket. He has always been on the side of reform and his persistent views have been widely commented on. Though on the unpopular side politically, Mr. Williams is highly esteemed by his neighbors and is a good citizen.
He was born in Muhlenburg county, Kentucky, February 13. 1834. He received a limited education in his native state, but in his boyhood days the public school system was not what the bright boys and girls of to-day are favored with. To learn to read, write and spell, and perhaps "cipher" a little, was considered an accomplishment for a country bred boy. His parents were William and Lydia ( Studebaker ) Williams, of the same lineage as the noted wagon manufacturer. Our subject's paternal grandfather. also William Williams, was an American born and a soldier in the Revolu- tionary war. He was one of a family of twelve sons and one daughter. They all arrived at maturity, but during the Revolution became separated and lost to one another (although lie was the only patriot of the family) and many of them were never reunited. "Blue Jeans" Williams, of Indiana. a noted politician and attorney, is of the same ancestry. He was a bright man in his day, but eccentric. He insisted on wearing blue jeans long after that particular weave was out of date. This and other peculiarities won him the title that was never dispelled.
Mr. Williams' father was a South Carolina planter and a slaveholder. He disposed of his slaves in 1847, but some of the family held them until the rebellion. The sentiments of his people were divided and represented both sides. His paternal ancestors were of Welsh origin, but as most Amer- ican born people whose forefathers settled in this country, he is a mixture of several nationalities -- Welsh. English, Scotch and German, the latter predominating, perhaps. When nineteen years of age Mr. Williams located in Woodford county, Illinois, where he worked on a farm until the winter of 1855. when he was married to Miss Esther Arrowsmith on the 24th day of December. She was a young English woman who came with her par- ents to America when she was twenty years of age and settled in Illinois.
After the war Mr. Williams removed to Buchanan county, Missouri. where he resided until 1870. In July of that month he located in Jewell county. Kansas, and homesteaded land. After a happy wedded life of thirty-six years Mrs. Williams died August 23. 1891. . To their union thir- teen children were born: seven lived to maturity, two sons and five daugh- ters. all of whom are married and have families. The two sons and one daughter are in Cloud county, two daughters in Nebraska and one in Iowa. A young German woman who was orphaned when a child, lives in the fam- ily of Mr. Williams, who was administrator of her father's estate. There were two sisters, Amelie and Martha. They were bathing in the river when the latter got in the water beyond her depth and was drowned. She was aged ten years.
Mr. Williams was married May 19, 1892, to Mrs. Maggie Harrison. of Jewell county, who is a most estimable woman. In 1877 Mr. Williams
4
382
HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
sold his farm in Jewell county and bought the original homestead of W. C. Williams, who contested the right to the claim, taken back in the sixties. He has placed all the improvements on the farm, which consists of one hun- dred and twenty acres in Buffalo township, five miles west and three and one-half miles north of Concordia. A commodious residence, substantial barns, orchards, a well kept blue grass lawn and fine shade trees; an ideal home, where Mr. and Mrs. Williams, who are praiseworthy citizens and neighbors, can spend their declining years, surrounded by many comforts.
EDWARD MARSHALL.
The subject of this sketch is Edward Marshall, now of Barnard, Lin- coln county. Kansas, but for years one of the best known and most highly respected citizens of Cloud county, both socially and politically. Mr. Mar shall is a native of "Merrie England." the land that has sent many of her stalwart sons and daughters across the blue waters of the Atlantic to assist in making this great commonwealth one of the foremost among the nations of the workd.
Mr. Marshall was born in 1843. and when a youth of twelve summers emigrated with his father's family to Nova Scotia, and two years later to Wisconsin, where he received a common school education, and when but eigh- teen years of age responded to the call of his adopted country for men and enlisted in Company H. First Wisconsin Infantry, serving three years under the distinguished General Thomas, in Sherman's army. After he was dis- charged he returned to Nashville, Tennessee, just as Hood made an attack on that city. and Mr. Marshall was commissioned captain of a company in the quartermaster's forces. He remained one year at Nashville, but finding himself at a disadvantage and unpopular because of his northern proclivi- ties, he returned to his former Wisconsin home and bought an interest in a stage line. Four years subsequently be removed to Dodge Center, Dodge county. Minnesota, where he, with other interested parties, established a grain, livery and implement business. During most of this time he served as city marshal. In 1872 he emigrated to Kansas and located in the unset- tled territory now included in Oakland township, which Mr. Marshall helped to organize in the summer of 1874. It included thirty-six sections of land, or six square miles. Here Mr. Marshall took adavntage of his homestead right and filed on one hundred and sixty acres of "Uncle Sam's" broad domain. He did not need to sing with the poet any more, "No foot of land do I possess, a pilgrim in the wilderness." Everything had a thrifty appear- ance and Mr. Marshall wanted quality rather than quantity, and so did not use his soldier's right and pre-empt a quarter section. This year was fol- lowed by drouth and grasshoppers and he witnessed the Arcadia transformed into a fruitless desert and underwent the hardships and discouragements of the average settler. Entering upon a political career. he left the farm in 1885. but retained his land until 1898. In 1895 Mr. Marshall was elected
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.