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 60
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HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
of repairs and they remodeled, refurnished and transformed it into a hotel which received a patronage consistent with its management.
Shelby county, Missouri, is the birthplace of Mr. Oakes. He was born in 1869. His parents are Emery and Hester (Short) Oakes. His father was born in Vermont, but was reared in the states of Michigan and Iowa. His parents having died when he was a boy, he drifted about considerable. In 1879 he emigrated to Decatur county, Kansas, where he homesteaded land. In 1882 removed to Cloud county and bought land near Miltonvale. I11 1893 became a resident of Oklahoma, where he now lives on a farm. Mr. Oakes' mother was of Kentucky parentage and German origin. Her father was a Methodist Episcopal minister, and two of her brothers were clergymen. One brother. John Short. is an ex-sheriff of Decatur county, Kansas. Hon. R. O. Elting, the representative of Ness county, is a brother-in-law. She was previously married to Aljournal Vaniver, a soldier of the Civil war, who was massacred by Quantrell's band at Centralia, Missouri, while the troops were en route home. There were two children by her first marriage, a son and daughter. The son, Marion MeClelland, was deceased from lead poisoning in 1887, while working in the lead mines. Laura Virginia is the wife of Madison Warring. superintendent of a street railway at Seattle, Washington.
Mr. Oakes is the eldest child of his mother's second marriage. The other children are: George W., a miner of McAlester, Indian territory: Charles Oscar, a successful stockman and speculator of McLoud, Oklahoma: Mary Ellen, wife of Richard Lyon, an Englishman and wealthy farmer, owning land and stock in Kansas and Oklahoma: John Wesley, an extensive farmer near McLoud, Oklahoma: Alice Dora, a young woman at home. is a grad- uate from the Clay Center high school: the youngest child is a son, Alfred Emery. Mr. Oakes's father served "Uncle Sam" with the Third Missouri Cavalry. Company I. under General Steele. Ile was the regimental black- smith and served three years and eight months.
Mr. Oakes received a good common education in the schools of Mis- souri and Kansas. He entered upon a career for himself at the age of ten, experiencing the seamy side of life for several years. His father after hav- ing lived in western Kansas was in limited circumstances, and he contributed a part of his earnings to the family. In 1889 he worked in the round house and Burlington & Missouri yards at Denver, and for a brief time was brake- man on the road.
In 1892 he returned to Kansas and the following April was married to Miss Lenora Moger, a daughter of John Moger, of Glasco (see sketch). This prosperous and happy couple embarked on the sea of matrimony with none of this world's goods, but their perseverance and good management have been rewarded by a handsome competency. They are both endowed with the qualities essential to success in life. The first year after their mar- riage Mr. Oakes rented two hundred acres of land and was thwarted in this undertaking by a failure of crops.
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HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
At the opening of the Strip in 1803 he went to Oklahoma, took up a claim and the following spring moved his family there, remaining until the autumn of 1896. With eighty-five dollars he came to Glasco and in partner- ship with his father-in-law established a livery stable, under the firm name of Moger & Oakes, which was the starting point of a turn in his fortunes. January 16. 1897, the firm leased the Spaulding House. One year later Mr. Moger withdrew and Mr. Oakes assimned full control. The hotel was scant- ily furnished but under his management was put in good and comfortable con- dition. During the summer of 1807 Mr. Oakes secured a position with the Deering Implement Company, working in Oklahoma and holding down his claim, proving up on it that autumn, and rented the land. His share of wheat the first year was twenty-three hundred bushels, which averaged seventy- five cents to the bushel. In 1804 this ground threshed out forty-two bushels to the acre and the following year he had a yield of from twenty-eight to thirty bushels per acre. He rented three years; each of them were fruitful seasons.
In 1899 he sold the livery business. The following year he sold his farm and purchased the hotel property, in the meantime continuing on the road selling machinery. Mrs. Oakes superintended the hotel operations, building up a substantial trade and making it a financial success. They made many improvements in the hotel, refurnishing, painting and papering the interior, and a large veranda added greatly to the comfort of their guests. In April, 1901, they sold this valuable property to Nick Klein, of Beloit. Mr. Oakes bought the building for a consideration of one thousand dollars. expended about twelve hundred dollars in repairs and sold for forty-eight hundred dollars. The family then moved to Beloit with the intention of mak- ing that pretty little city their permanent home. But Mr. Oakes had oppor- tunities presented whereby he would be remunerated for making a change. hence he sold his handsome home in Beloit and settled near Walter, Okla- homa, where he bought a claim and after he has secured a title will in all probability make a home in Walter or some nearby town.
The Oakes home is blessed with two interesting children, a son and a daughter : Lawrence LeRoy, a manly little fellow, aged eight years, and Statia Pauline, a bright little girl, aged six. By the removal of Mr. and Mrs. Oakes. Glasco lost two of her most useful and highly esteemed citizens, who. by their enterprise and natural ability, had drawn around them a circle of warm friends. They had a hard struggle the first few years of their mar- ried life and fully deserve all the future promises them.
MORTIMER L. WOODWARD.
M. L. Woodward, an old resident of Cloud county, now living in Glasco. is a native of Coshocton county, Ohio, born December 25, 1839. His par- ents were Mahlon and Mary A. (Darby) Woodward, both natives of Mary- land, who emigrated to Ohio in an early day and on to Iowa in the early set-
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HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
tlement of that state. His father was a farmer and homesteaded in Cloud county, near Glasco, in 1871, and where he died in 1891. The Woodwards were of French origin. The Darbys were southern people. The Darby an- cestors were among the early settlers of Virginia, near Alexandria, and were slaveholders. Mr. Woodward is one of ten children, seven of whom are living. Mrs. George W. Bartow, of Lyon township, is a sister, and Rezin D. Woodward, a farmer near Clyde, is a brother.
Mr. Woodward began his career as a farmer and came to Kansas in May, 1870. After a sojourn of a few months in Washington county. took up a homestead, the farm where Michael Dillon now lives. He lived on this homestead sixteen years and changed his residence to Glasco. Mr. Wood- ward, with two of his brothers, enlisted in the army. Mr. Woodward en- listed in the Forty-fourth lowa Infantry, Company G, under Captain Shaw and Colonel Henderson. the latter a brother of the speaker of the house of representatives. He enlisted in March, 1864, and served one year. Most of the time they were quartered in Mississippi and Tennessee, doing guard duty. His brother, Rezin, of Company I, Fourteenth lowa Infantry, was wounded at Fort Donelson, disabled for service and discharged. James was a mem- ber of the Third Iowa Infantry. Ile entered at the first call and served until the last.
Mr. Woodward was married December 6, 1871, to Sarah Lavinia Jor- dan. To Mr. and Mrs. Woodward have been born seven children, six of whom are living, viz: Allie L. has been a Cloud county teacher for about eight years. She is now employed in the LaVeta (Colorado) public schools. She graduated from the Glasco graded school in 1894, and afterward took a teacher's course in the Salina Normal. She has literary tastes, is poetically inclined and finds inspiration in the mountains of Colorado. Nelie is a suc- cessful Cloud county teacher now employed in District No. 6. She is a graduate of the Glasco school and was a student of the Salina Normal in 1901. She is talented in music and has been organist of the Christian church in Glasco for several years. Myrtella has been engaged in teaching six years. She is now employed in District No. 93, near Concordia. She is a graduate of the Glasco schools. Orpha is one of the most successful teachers in the county. She is now employed at Superior. District No. 100, one of the best schools in the county. The first month her school made an attendance of 99.8; the enrollment is thirty. She is a graduate of the Glasco high school of the class of 1899. In1 1900 she graduated from the Baker Academy and took part of a year in the freshman course of Baker University. During her school course her work ranked best for seven years and received four scholarships offered as premiums, Bethany, Ottawa, Salina Wesleyan and Baker; she chose the latter. She represented Solomon and Lyon townships in the county contest in mathematics. This was in 1893 before she entered the high school. She brought back the prize from the Glasco school. The Woodward daugh- ters are highly educated, intelligent young women of refined tastes. Hanson S., their eldest son, aged seventeen years, is a student of the Chillicothe (Mis-
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HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
souri) Business College. Morris, a little son six years of age, is the second boy and youngest child.
Mr. Woodward is a Populist in politics but his daughters take issue against him politically and are Republicans. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic of Glasco and has held the chair of adjutant for ten years. The family are members and regular attendants of the Christian church. The Woodwards have a comfortable residence and pleasant home in Glasco, and are among that city's most esteemed citizens.
GEORGE R. COLWELL.
The subject of this sketch, G. R. Colwell, a farmer of Lyon township and representative citizen, is a native of Nova Scotia, born on a farm near Kentfield, in 1848. He is a son of James and Bunice (Jordan) Colwell. James Colwell died in 1888, never having removed from Nova Scotia, where his wife still lives. G. R. Colwell is one of nine children; two sisters and a brother in Kansas, the former in Wyandotte county and the latter, William Colwell. a prominent farmer of Lyon township, Cloud county. One sister is in Oklahoma and the other members of the family are in Nova Scotia.
In his earlier life Mr. Colwell had some very interesting experiences. When he came to the United States he was a mere lad. His destination was the west. He arrived in Jefferson City, Missouri, penniless, pawned his trunk to pay his fare to Kansas City, and from there he traveled around until he found work. The experience was a new one for him, never having been more than thirty miles from home. When he arrived in Kansas City he had seven cents, and five of that was required to post a letter to his mother, the remaining two cents being all the money he had in the world. and his trunk in Jefferson City. He tramped three days ere he found work. Too honest to steal, too proud to beg, he ate raw corn for sustenance. He finally applied to an old man by the name of Breyfogle to work for his board, who hired him at fifteen dollars per month. Out of his savings he bought a team. In the winter of 187.1 he emigrated to Cloud county and homesteaded the farm he still owns, four miles east of Glasco, section 9. The same year he returned to Nova Scotia and was married to Sarah McConnell, who died in 1873, leaving a son, who was also deceased at the age of ten years.
In 1877 he was married to Hester Wilson, who came to Kansas with her father. Frank Wilson, when she was a small girl. Mr. and Mrs. Colwell have two children : Ellen, wife of Cecil Martin, living on the old homestead. She was a student of the Concordia high school two years, and is talented in music. Frank, sixteen years of age. is in his third year in the Glasco high school. He is a farmer from choice but will not have the difficulties to sur- mount that his father had.
In the early 'seventies Mr. Colwell had hard rustling to keep the wolf from the door. He freighted and worked at various things; prospered per-
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haps as much as his neighbor, but accumulated very slowly until 1877. In the early part of the 'eighties he added one hundred and sixty acres of land to the homestead and a few years later another quarter section, until he now owns four hundred and eighty acres with good improvements, a fine apple orchard of two hundred trees which are sixteen or seventeen years old and fine bearers. Most of his land is wheat ground. In 1900 Mr. Colwell built a handsome cottage of six rooms in Glasco, where he now lives but still operates the farm.
Politically Mr. Colwell is a Populist. Himself and family are members of the Christian church. Mr. Colwell is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Fraternal Aid.
EDWARD R. HAYNES.
One of the old residents of Glasco, the first operator and station agent, and proprietor of the first hotel in the town, is E. R. Haynes, who located in Glasco in 1879. Mr. Haynes rode on the first train that came through from Solomon. He was appointed station agent November 1. 1879, and has held the position continuously until the present time. He had formerly been in the employ of the railroad as agent at Medina, Jefferson county, Kansas.
Mr. Haynes is a native of Lorain county, Ohio, which borders on Lake Erie. His father, Elijah Haynes, a blacksmith, was a native of Vermont. His paternal grandfather, too old to become a soldier of the Revolutionary war, shouldered a musket at the battle of Bennington, was wounded, and died as a result. The .Haynes were of English origin. In 1600 three broth- ers came to America; one settled in Massachusetts, another in Virginia and the third one in Illinois. Mr. Haynes' mother was Martha Stanton, born and reared in Penn Yan, New York. She was an own cousin of Secretary Stanton. President Lincoln's secretary of war. Her ancestors were of English extrac- tion and settled in the state of New York in an early day. Mr. Haynes was educated in the common schools of Ohio.
Soon after attaining his majority Mr. Haynes enlisted in Battery B (which was later merged with Battery K), Ohio First Regiment Artillery, serving two and one-half years or until his services were no longer required. He participated in the battle of Nashville. He did garrison work on the rail- road from Nashville to Sherman's Front, guarding the work and was in num- erous skirmishes. While at Chattanooga in 1864 Battery B was transferred to Battery K.
After the close of the war Mr. Haynes took a year's course in the Com- mercial College of Oberlin, Ohio. In September, 1868. he accepted the prin- cipalship of the North Lawrence schools, and a year later became principal of the Medina schools. In 1871 he engaged in the mercantile business in Medina and subsequently performed the duties of station agent in the same town. In November, 1879, he located in Glasco, where, as before stated, he became agent. his duties consisting of operator. express and station
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HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
agent. He also opened the Haynes House, a stone structure, the first hostelry in Glasco, and did a thriving business, trains at that time stopping for meals.
Mr. Haynes was married to Miss Eliza Love, of Bowling Green, Ohio, in 1870. She died November 18. 1895. To this union have been born four children, viz : Mattie,wife of J. W. Mahoney, of Grand Island, Nebraska, state agent for the Union Mutual Life Insurance Company, of Portland. Maine. They are the parents of three children. Wilber, Lewis and Susan. Mrs. Mahoney was a popular Cloud county teacher before her marriage. Seymour R., mail clerk on the Rock Island Railroad from Kansas City to Phillipsburg. Kansas. Grace L., who assists her father in the office, was a student of Oberlin College two years and took a course of music at Bethany College, Topeka. Lawrence, a young man of sixteen years, is a student pur- suing a classical course at Oberlin College, Ohio.
Mr. Haynes is a Republican in politics and a prominent member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Glasco. He is also an active member in the Grand Army of the Republic post of Glasco.
JAMES A. NICOL.
J. A. Nicol, a grain and stock buyer, now of Simpson, Mitchell county but until recently identified with the interests of Cloud county since 1893, is the senior member of the firm of Nicol & Nicol; the junior member is a son, James Herbert.
Mr. Nicol is a native of Marion county, Missouri, but when ten years of age he moved with his father's family to Shelby county, where he was edu- cated and lived until twenty-two years of age. He then started westward and went on to the Pacific coast, mining and teaming at Austin, Nevada, and Ca- lusa county, California. He was interested in the livery business at the latter place and when three years elapsed he returned to his Missouri home and en- gaged in agricultural pursuits until 1883. Deciding to go west again he went to Nebraska and settled in Othe county; one and a half years later he removed to Nuekolls county and in 1893 came to Kansas, and settled in the southern part of Cloud county, where he farmed successfully and raised and fed stock extensively.
The firm of Nicol & Nicol began business in Simpson in the month of July. 1900. They purchased the elevator, stock and trade of Ira A. Foote, a merchant of Simpson, who established the enterprise about eighteen years ago. The capacity of the elevator is about three thousand bushels. In con- nection with the grain business they buy and ship hogs and cattle. Mr. Nicol owns and operates a farm in Cloud county, comprising three hundred and twenty acres and one of the best improved properties in that vicinity. He has one hundred and sixty acres of wheat this year ( 1901 ) and forty acres of alfalfa. His land is well watered by three never failing wells and two wind- mills. His farm house is a commodious stone residence of six rooms.
Mr. Nicol's father was Henry N. Nicol, a native of Rappahannock
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HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
county, Virginia, born in 1810. He moved to Marion county, Missouri. in 1834 and died in Shelby county, Missouri, in 1868. Mr. Nicol's paternal grandfather came with his parents from Germany in his infancy and set- tled in Pennsylvania. Hle later settled in Virginia. Mrs. Nicol's people were Virginians.
Mr. Nicol was married in 1871 to Louisa Cochran, a daughter of J. W. Cochran. Her father came from Kentucky in his boyhood and settled in Missouri in 1832. He returned to Kentucky and married Margaret A. Mar- tin. To Mr. and Mrs. Nicol three children have been born: John W., a pharmacist of Walsenburg, Colorado, is a graduate of the Lawrence Univer- sity, class of 1900. James 11 .. who is associated with his father. took a two years' course in the Ottawa University. Lydia is a teacher in the primary grade of the Simpson schools. She taught two terms in District No. 39. She was a student of the Lawrence University one year. She and both her brothers were graduates of the common schools at Simpson and she and John W. are graduates of the Glasco high school.
Politically. Mr. Nicol is a Democrat. The family are members of the Baptist church at Simpson. He is a member of the Knights and Ladies of Security, Asherville Lodge No. 361. Mr. Nicol is a public spirited man, has had a successful business career and is ranked among the best citizens of his community. His children have had good educational advantages, and are useful members of society. Mr. Nicol has recently purchased the handsome Duby residence property in Glasco, where his estimable family will be an acquisition to the social circle.
CHARLES HORN.
One of the most successful and highly respected citizens of Glasco is Charles Horn, a retired farmer. Mr. Horn is a son of Christopher Horn. a farmer who died in Illinois in 1852. Mr. Horn came with his parents from near Weisbaden, Germany, where he was born, to America when nine years old and settled in St. Clair county, Illinois, where he grew to manhood. His father having died, Mr. Horn was thrown upon his own resources early in life, hence received a limited education. When he came to Kansas in 1869 his possessions consisted of a wife, one child and five dollars in money. but by careful management which did not admit of luxuries they lived comfort- ably. During the Indian uprisings he carried a brace of pistols for protection as he followed his plow. They committed serious depredations above and below the river from the point where they were situated, but his family prov- identially escaped.
The Horns lived in a dugout for one year and upon occasions of severe storms it rained about as hard in the interior as upon the outside of their abode. The inmates stood over the stove with an umbrella over their heads. with mud six inches deep over the floor. A year later they built a log house of one room, with dirt roof and floor. Not until three years later did they 35
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HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
live under a shingled roof and on a board floor. In 1879 Mr. Horn built a comfortable house, where they resided until 18go. when he bought the desir- able Courtney residence, with its avenue of beautiful trees and wide lawn. where they live and expect to spend the rest of their days, reaping the com- forts they are so justly entitled to. Mr. Horn's homestead was the original claim of Isaac Dalrymple. It lies just south and adjacent to the town of Glasen. He has added other lands and now owns a tract of four hundred and eighty acres in the same vicinity.
Mr. Horn was married in 1867 to Julia Bittner, a daughter of Henry Bittner, an Illinois farmer. To Mr. and Mrs. Horn seven children have been born, five of whom are living, viz: Louisa, wife of Samuel Crow, a farmer of Mitchell county: Adelme, wife of Frederick Dimanoski, a successful farmer of Solomon township: Otto, a farmer with residence near Glasco; Henry, also a farmer with residence near Glasco, and Fritz, who farms and operates a threshing machine engine. Mr. Horn advocates the principles of the Democratic party, but votes for the man rather than the party. He was reared in the Lutheran church and himself and family are leading spirits of the Glasco congregation.
WILLIAM THOMPSON.
The subject of this sketch is the late William Thompson, who was one of the early settlers of the Solomon valley, and a man whose memory is held in reverence by all his neighbors and friends. He was the founder of the first Sabbath school in the vicinity known as Fisher Creek: the promoter of the first school, instrumental in the building of the first school house, and active in every enterprising project. His was a life full of good and noble impulses, and to such men as Mr. Thompson the Solomon valley country owes much of its development.
William Thompson was a son of Joshua and Anna ( Likes ) Thompson. Ile was a native of Harrison county, Ohio, born in 1815. In his early man- hood he moved to Vanceville, Pennsylvania, and shortly afterward received the appointment of postmaster and kept a village store for seven years. I 1855 he emigrated to Ogle county, Illinois, where he kept a hotel, or rather tavern, as they were called in those days. In 1871, during that period of emigration when every road was thronged with prairie schooners, freighted with families and their belongings, bound for the land of Kansas, the Thomp- sons came to the Solomon valley and took their places in the rank and file of those hardy early settlers. Mr. Thompson bought the Aaron Spalding home- stead. now owned by Mr. Louthan, and where they lived through sunshine and cloud until 1892, when they sold the farm and moved into Glasco, buying the home where Mrs. Thompson and her daughter now live. Mr. Thompson was stricken with paralysis and died in 1892. at the age of seventy-seven years.
Our subject was married February 29. 1839, to Mary Thompson, who is
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HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
a native of Flushing. Belmont county, Ohio, born in 1817. When Mrs. Thompson was ten years old her mother died and she was reared by her ma- ternal grandmother. In those days there were no railroads and she, in com- pany with a brother, walked to her grandmother's home, the distance being one hundred miles. Mrs. Thompson's paternal grandmother was a Canon, and the city of Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, was named for her brother. Her maternal ancestry were French. Her mother was Ann Groseau. Mrs. Thompson is a well preserved woman and though nearing the century mark, she is active in both mind and body. She is the only living member of a fam- ily of seven children. A brother, Samuel Thompson, died about two years ago, at the age of eighty-eight years. Her brothers were all tradesmen. noted for their honor and integrity.
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