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 62
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After the war Mr. Head resumed farming in Miami county until 1885. when he came to Glasen and became associated with Charlie Matcher in the lumber yard, which they subsequently sold to the Chicago Lumber Com- panv. Since then Mr. Head and his sons have farmed together. In 1899 he bought the handsome Parks residence property, one of the most impos- ing homes in Glasco.
Mr. Head was married in 1860 to Sarah E. Hull, a member of one of the old Kentucky families of Lexington. Mr. and Mrs. Head's family consists of three children, two sons and a daughter. James R., the eldest son, is married to Nellie, daughter of Ferd Prince, of Glasco. They are the parents of a little daughter, the first grandchild in the Head family. The other children are Ivan F. and Sarah F. In political principles Mr. Head is a Democrat. In bearing he is a true southerner, possessing that chivalrous and courteous manner that years in the western country could not efface.
M. F. DUBY.
The enterprising firm of M. F. Duby & Company is composed of M. F. and George Duby. They are dealers in' gentlemen's furnishing goods. boots and shoes, and represent the Royal Tailors of Chicago, one of the
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HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
largest tailoring establishments in the world. Beside the above named stock they carry a full line of optical goods, are both registered opticians and are building up an excellent reputation and lucrative business in this line. They established their present business August 1. 1901, by buying the stock of J. W. Hare & Son. Their capital stock is about six thousand dollars, and they own the building they occupy-a two story stone structure. 28x80 feet in dimensions.
M. F. Duby, the senior member of the firm, is a native of Missouri, born in East St. Louis. His father, Charles Duby, was a school teacher, expert accountant and bookkeeper. He was employed in the Ohio & Mis- sissippi Railroad Company's office three years. He served three years in the Civil war with an Illinois regiment. While in the service he was trans- ferred from the army of the West to the South; mails were very uncer- tain at this period and not hearing from him for more than a year, and supposing him dead, the mother with her little family emigrated to Nebraska, arriving in Omaha. April 14. 1865, the day President Lincoln was assas- sinated. Assuming that she was the head of the family, she took up a home- stead on an island in the Platte river. They were the first settlers on this island and it took their name and still remains known as "Duby's Island." It consists of one thousand five hundred acres. After the war the father returned to Missouri, where he had left his family, and learning they had settled in Nebraska, he repaired to that country, luckily appealed to a man who knew the family, and found the mother with her four sons and one daughter settled on their homestead. This was during the early settle- ment of that state. when the Indians were numerous, and game and fur- bearing animals plentiful, but the Indians were pretty well civilized and gave the settlers but little trouble. Mr. Duby's grandparents emigrated from France to Canada, where Charles Duby was born. Mr. Duby's mother's people were of Ohio birth: her ancestors were of Scotch origin.
M. F. Duby was reared on a farm and received his education in the common schools of Nebraska, where his father taught several terms. In 1883 he moved to western Nebraska and from there to Alabama, where he became a cotton planter. Two and a half years later he emigrated west. locating in Washington, where he operated a logging camp very success- fully, employing from eighteen to twenty men. After selling his interests there he traveled extensively in search of a suitable location and in 1901, he with his brother, and their families, came to Glasco and embarked in their present business.
Mr. Duby was married in 1877 to Clara E. Long, of Pennsylvania birth, who came with her parents to Nebraska in 1865. Mr. and Mrs. Duby's family consists of six children, three daughters and three sons, viz : Everard Forest, aged twenty-four, is an attorney located in Seattle, Wash- ington. He is a graduate of the State University at Seattle and a member of the law firm of Steiner. French & Duby. Charles Ferdinand, twenty-one years of age, is proprietor of a restaurant® and lunch counter in Glasco.
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HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
May Agnes, aged nineteen; Jesse James, aged seventeen ; Pearl Mand, aged ten, and Eva Elsie, a little girl of three years. The two last named were born in the state of Washington.
Politically Mr. Duby is a populist. They occupy one of the best resi- (lence properties in Glasco-an imposing two-story nine-room modern house.
GEORGE S. DUBY.
G. S. DUBY, the subject of this sketch, is the junior member of the firm of M. F. Duby & Company. He is a native of Marysville, Ilinois, and like his brother received his early education in the common schools of Nebraska. He completed a course in optics in the Omaha Horological and Optical School, graduating in 1803. Prior to this he had taken a corre- spondence course in the Chicago Optical Institute. Mr. Duby has fitted hundreds of pairs of glasses in Nebraska and has also worked extensively in Iowa, Colorado, South Dakota, Kansas and Missouri He lived in Nebras- ka from 1863 until August. 1901, when he located in Glasco. He traveled nine years with optical goods and jewelry. He has taught thirty-seven pupils and most of them are practicing.
Mr. Duby was married to Mary E. Gilbert, who was reared in Mem- phis. Tennessee. They are the parents of three boys and one girl. Mildred, William, Forest and Otis. Politically Mr. Duby is a populist.
By their courteous and accommodating manner and a desire to please the public. . M. F. Duby & Company have built up an excellent trade. They are energetic and reliable business men who deserve to succeed .- [In May, 1902. the Dubys disposed of their Glasco interests and returned to the state of Washington, their former home .- Editor. ]
G. B. VANLANDINGHAM.
: Perhaps no individual of the Solomon valley is better known than G. B. VanLandingham. He is a public spirited, enterprising man and has done his full share toward the improvement of his section of the country, and is ranked among its most trustworthy citizens.
The place of his nativity is Palmyra, one of the most beautiful little cities in the state of Missouri. He was born September 30, 1845, and lived in his native state until coming to Kansas in 1871. Mr. VanLandingham received his earlier education in the common schools of his county and after- ward took a course in the Palmyra College. In 1863 he was enrolled in the state militia under Federal authorities and again in 1864, but was each time rejected for active military service by the examining surgeon on account of a crippled ankle.
Since coming to Kansas he has been engaged in various enterprises- agricultural and mercantile. He homsteaded a claim in the Solomon valley, farmed successfully for many Years and was associated with his brother-in-
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HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
law, Owen Day, in the hardware business at Glasco, for a period of about ten years. He is also a stock auctioneer and has conducted many sales, extending over this and adjoining counties and is acknowledged as one of the best in the country.
Throughout his life Mr. VanLandingham has been a devoted worker in the interests of the Democratic party, and in 1887 received from his con- stituents the nomination for sheriff of Cloud county against Edward Mar- shall, and made a formidable foe, but was on the wrong side to be elected in this county. The vote stood one thousand five hundred and forty-three for Marshall and one thousand four hundred and forty-one for VanLanding- ham. Although he has a "will of his own" he is not aggressive. He is a philanthropic, honorable, high minded man, full of generous impulses and his career is marked by many kind deeds. Ile is extensively known over Cloud county and none of her citizens possesses the general good will of the people to a greater extent than he, and he is one of the old-timers who witnessed the marvelous growth of this fair state. and is pretty well satisfied with the world as it is revealed in Kansas.
JAMES H. D. PILCHIER.
A prosperous and progressive farmer of Lyon township is J. H. D. Pilcher, whose advent in Cloud county was in December of 1871, and on the 8th of January, 1872. he homesteaded his claim. Mr. Pilcher is a native of La Salle county, Illinois, born January 5. 1850. When about five years of age the family moved to Livingstone county, Illinois, where they continued to live until coming to Kansas. Mr. Pilcher is a son of John Wesley and Eliza ( McIntosh) Pilcher, who were married in 1847.
J. W. Pilcher was born in Ohio in 1821 : his father was born in the state of Maryland in 1793 and died when his son J. W. was three years of age. His mother was Margaret Courtney, came from Ireland to America and settled in Virginia in the colonial days of that state, and in that portion now included in West Virginia, where numerous antecedents still live. J. W. Pilcher's parents were married in Virginia and went to Ohio, where he was born in 1821 : his father died in 1850, at the age of fifty-seven years; his mother died in 1868, at their home in Livingstone county, Illinois, where they had moved in 1847. J. W. Pilcher emigrated to Kansas in 1873 and took a homestead in Lyon township, about six miles northeast of Glasco, where he lived until three years ago, when he retired from farm life and moved into Glasco, where he now lives at the age of eighty-one years.
Our subject's mother was a daughter of Daniel and Cornelia ( Cress- field ) MeIntosh, of Ohio, born in 1825. Mrs. McIntosh was the widow of John Crouch, who died in Indiana, where they had located .- leaving his wife and a daughter, who died unmarried at the age of forty-three years. Her second husband, John Crouch, of Ohio, died at the age of thirty-six years, leaving his wife and two daughters, one of whom is Mr. Pilcher's
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HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
mother, and the other is a resident of Ottawa, Ilinois. Mrs. Crouch re- moved to Illinois and died in that state in 1850.
J. 11. D. Pilcher is one of six children: Ella, who had lived and cared for her aged parents, died unmarried in 1895, at the age of forty-three years. Josephine, wife of James Fletcher, a farmer and veteran of the Civil war, living in Lyon township. Cornelia Belle, wife of J. B. Rice, a farmer near Fairmount, Nebraska. Eugenia, deceased at the age of twelve years, and Vice, deceased at the age of twenty-one months.
The Pilchers lived like the average settler, in a dugout, cooked over a fireplace and endured all sorts of inconveniences for a period of six years. Ile then built a more modern house, with floor and roof, the cellar of which is now under his present residence. The first year he did not own a team, but managed to hold down his government claim and live; though he was reduced in currency until he could not buy a postage stamp. For the last few years Mr. Pilcher has made wheat raising his chief pursuit. He has raised a good many hogs and has always had some cattle to sell. Mr. Pilcher has forged to the front and today owns two hundred and forty acres of fine land. In 1878 he built a comfortable stone house and in 1891 a substantial barn. His country place is neat and attractive and has every ap- pearance of thrift and enterprise.
He was married in October. 1877, to Sarah R. Courtney, who is entitled to her share of the credit for the success of her husband. She is a daughter of Robert W. and Lydia ( Smyth) Courtney. Her parents were both of West Virginia, -Monongalia county, near Morgantown,-where Mrs. Pil- cher was born. Her father was a farmer and when Mrs. Pilcher was eight years old the family moved to Livingston county, Illinois, and settled on a farm. In 1872 they came to Kansas and homesteaded land in Meredith township. Her father died in 1885, and her mother resides in Delphos, with a daughter .- Mrs. Ida St. Clair. Mrs. Pilcher is one of twelve chil- dren, nine of whom are living and all in Kansas, except one. Samuel, who returned to their oki Virginia home.
To Mr. and Mrs. Pilcher ten children have been born and all are living, viz: Lewis and Frank are interested with their father in farming and stock raising. Harry. Chloe, Grace, Lester, Raymond, Bert, William, Mckinley and Gay. Mr. Pilcher votes the Republican ticket, and is a member of Delphos Lodge, Ancient Order United Workmen. Mr. Pilcher is an honest, industrious farmer, who commands the respect and esteem of all who know him. He is liberal and progressive and a man that benefits a community by his living example of pluck and energy .- [ Since the above sketch was written. Mr. Pilcher's venerable parents have passed over the "Great Divide." They died but a few hours apart, after a happy wedded life of fifty-five years. They were aged eighty-one and seventy-six years, respec- tively, and had been residents of the Solomon valley for more than thirty years. They were universally respected and consistent Christians-mem- bers of the Methodist Episcopal church .- Editor. ]
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HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
JAMES F. PILCHER.
The subject of this sketch is J. F. Pilcher, a brother of Charles Pilcher. and like him is one of those hard working, progressive, self-made farmers. J. F. Pilcher left his birthplace, Livingston county, Illinois, where he was born in 1855. and emigrated to Cloud county with his father's family. When he arrived at his majority he began his career as a farm hand and the same year filed on a homestead, his present farm in Lyon township. eight miles northeast of Glasco. He bought the relinquishment of a man by the name of Correll, who had broken a few acres and built a dugout, for which Mr. Pilcher paid three hundred and fifty dollars. From this raw claim of prairie he has developed one of the finest wheat farms in the Solomon valley, and it is under an excellent state of improvement and cultivation. In 1879 Mr. Pilcher built a small stone residence and in 1899 added a two-story front, which makes a commodious residence of eight rooms.
Mr. Pilcher was married in 1879 to Helen A. Newell, one of the amia- ble daughters of Adrastus Newell (see sketch). She was a teacher in the early settlement of the country and is an intellectual and cultured woman. They are the parents of seven children living, and one deceased. Myrtella, the eldest daughter. is married to Allen Everley, a farmer of Lyon township. The eldest son, Robert, who has not attained his majority, assists his father on the farm. The younger children are Stella, Claude. Arthur Lois and Glen.
Mr. Pilcher is a sympathizer with the Democratic party and socially is a member of the Woodmen order of Glasco. The Pilchers are all indus- trious, honest people, and good, reliable citizens,-the kind to be depended upon when any enterprise is on foot for the good of the community.
CHARLES H. PILCHER.
The subject of this sketch is Charles H. Pilcher, a progressive farmer and stockman of Lyon township. Mr. Pilcher was born in Livingston county, Illinois, in 1865. He is a son of Robert and Ery Ann ( McCashlan) Pilcher. Robert Pilcher was a native of Ohio, born in Clinton county in 1822. In his early manhood he moved to Wayne county, Indiana, where he married in 1843 and four years later moved to Illinois.
In 1877 Mr. Pilcher with his family emigrated to Cloud county and bought the relinquishment of the Thomas Jones claim, which he home- steaded and where he lived until a short time prior to his death. He was stricken with a paralytic stroke in 1892, and another on July 22, 1895. from which he did not recover. He was a highly respected citizen and his last days of suffering were marked by his fortitude and patience. Mrs. Pilcher. the wife and mother, was born in Frederick county, Virginia (now West Virginia). on the same day of the same year as her husband. October 7. 1822. She died of heart failure in 1891, at the age of sixty-eight years and
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HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY. KANSAS.
three months. Mrs. Pilcher became a faithful member of the Methodist Episcopal church at the dawning of womanhood and her life was character- ized as that of a consistent Christian woman.
To this worthy couple eight children were born, six of whom are living, viz : Charles H .. the subject of this sketch: Mary, wife of Donald Gray, a carpenter of Glasco; William, a farmer five miles east of Glasco; James, a farmer of Lyon township: Rilla, wife of William Mathews, a farmer of lyon township, and Robert, who conducts a barber shop in Glasco.
Charles H. Pilcher is the youngest child, and lives on the old homestead, having bought out the other heirs to the estate. He has one hundred and sixty acres on Chris creek. His farm is well improved, well timbered and has two splendid springs that afford ample water for stock. He has fifty-five head of native cattle and keeps from thirty to forty head of Poland China hogs. Mr. Pilcher has been twice married. His first wife was Alice Eber- hart, who died in 1801 at the age of twenty years. They were the parents of three children, two of whom died prior to the mother's death, while the other, an infant, followed shortly after. In 1894 Mr. Pilcher was married to Adah Maud Snyder, one of the estimable daughters of Captain Snyder, an old settler of the Solomon valley. They are the parents of two children, Leta Bell, born in Cloud county, Kansas. December 5. 1897, and Clifford Leroy, born October 1. 1899.
JOHN HENRY LIBBEN.
J. H. Libben, an industrious and frugal German, came to America in 1874. After farming in lowa two years, Mr. Libben came to Lyon town- ship, where he homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres, and he is now one of the most prosperous farmers and stockmen of that community. He has purchased adjacent lands until he owns seven hundred and fifty acres in Lyon township and one hundred and thirty-five in Solomon township, most of which is wheat and pasture land. He keeps a herd of about seventy-five head of native cattle, and seldom has less than one hundred head of hogs. The first two years on the homestead were spent in a dugout which then gave place to a new frame dwelling that has been enlarged and is now a comfort- able and commodious country residence. In 1001, true to the German char- acteristic, he erected an excellent barn.
Mr. Libben was born in 1839. in Ostfriesland, Germany. He is one of four children, and the only one in America His parents both died in Ger- many. Mr. Libben was married in 1881 to Anna Doretha Horn, a daughter of Fred Horn, who died in 1889. Her mother is a resident of Cloud county and lives on a farm near Fisher creek. To Mr. and Mrs. Libben five chil- dren have been born, four of whom are living, viz: Frederick, a student of the German Conforming School at Glasco, under the tutorage of the Luth- eran minister of that town: Annie, deceased ; Henry. a student of the district
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HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
school attending the Conforming school on Saturdays; Etta, aged six, and Theodore, an infant.
Mr. Libben is a Republican in his political affiliations and the family are members of the Lutheran church.
L. NOEL.
Mr. Noel located in Glasco July 1, 1884, where he has lived continu- ously ever since, and became one of the business men of the Solomon valley. Mr. Noel is a native of Iowa, born in Henry county in 1853. His parents were early settlers, coming from Tennessee to lowa. Mr. Noel began his career as a painter in a wagon factory, following that vocation for twelve years.
He came to Glasco with a small capital and bought an interest in the elevator of W. R. West & Company. In 1892 he bought their interest. The elevator was established in 1878, but has been repaired and enlarged until its present capacity is storage for twenty-five thousand bushels of grain. Mr. Noel owns a farm of one hundred and sixty acres of land one and one- half miles northwest of Glasco, and is president of the Glasco State Bank.
January 17, 1884, Mr. Noel was married to Martha McCormick, of Iowa. To this union three children have been born, Eva, Edgar and Sidney, aged fifteen, nine and six years respectively.
Mr. Noel was a Democrat until the adoption of free silver, and as there were no gold Democrats here he affiliated with the Republican party. He has held a membership in the Knights of Pythias lodge of Glasco for fifteen years, has been a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows for more than twenty years, and is a member of the Order of Woodmen.
ENOCH WILLIAMSON.
The subject of this sketch is Enoch Williamson, of Solomon township. He is a native of Indiana, born on a farm twelve miles distant from the city of Indianapolis. He is a practical and thorough farmer of life-long experi- ence and has been successful. His father was James Williamson, born in Ohio, on the Scioto river, and in the county that bears that name. He was a farmer by occupation, and died in 1853. When quite a young man he set- tled in Indiana, bought eighty acres of land and paid for it by applying his wages, eight dollars per month, which he received as a farm hand. He was killed while felling a tree. His son, the subject of this sketch, was chopping near by when the accident occurred. He found his father unconscious, re- maining in that condition until he died four hours later. Mr. Williamson's mother was Christina ( Shafer) Williamson. At the time of her husband's death she was left with nine small children, the youngest a babe in her arms, four months old. They lived in Indiana in the pioneer days of that state and when the woods were infested with wild animals. Bear were numerous and
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HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
the wolves howled in their door yards. The homestead is still in possession of the family and is now occupied by a niece.
Mr. Williamson, the second eldest child, was one of his mother's chief supports and operated the farm, hence he received a limited education. Ile is one of twelve children, eight of that number living. Three died in infancy. Wesley returned from the war broken down in health and died several years later, leaving a wife and three children. The other children are: Peter, a retired farmer and stockman of Bell county, Texas: Rosanna, widow of Martin Phelps ( they have two daughters and live near the okl homestead in Indiana ) : Barbara, wife of John Sharpe, a farmer of Champaign county, Illinois : Asa is a retired farmer of Indiana (he was a soldier in the Civil war ) ; Frank, a farmer of Indiana; John, a farmer and stockman of Collings- worth county, in the l'anhandle country of Texas; his wife died in August, 1900, leaving a daughter fifteen years of age He was an educator of consid- erable prominence and was principal of the Quaker high school of Ham- ilton. Indiana. and taught in the schools of Terre Haute. Margaret is the wife of Richard Power, and resides near the town of Nora, Indiana.
Mr. Williamson's mother came from Germany when twelve years okl. Her parents were very poor and during their voyage to America she with two of her sisters were sokl to work out the price of their passage across the water. They were left in Baltimore while the other members of the family went on into Ohio. The consideration was seven, five and three years labor, according to their capacity for work. She being the youngest was given over for seven years. The two eldest served their allotted time and sought their parents. His mother served her time out and entered the home of an English-speaking family, where she had a good home, but lost her native language entirely. During this period her mother died and she remained with this family until she was twenty-four years of age. She resented the act of her father having sold her and did not return home. She visited her sis- ters in Ohio and found two of them married to the Williamson brothers. She married a third brother, Mr. Williamson's father, and the three families moved to Indiana. She died on the old homestead, where they first settled. at the age of ninety years. She was a widow for over forty years.
Mr. Williamson removed from Indiana to northeastern Iowa in 1865 with an invalid wife, who died of pulmonary disease, leaving four children, three boys and one girl, but one of whom is living .- Frank B., an employe in the treasury department in Washington. District of Columbia. He made the best record in the civil service examination of any applicant in the state. He has held his present position two years. Prior to entering upon this work he was a traveling salesman. After his wife's death Mr. Williamson re- turned to Indiana and resumed his farming operations.
By a second marriage he was wedded to Mrs. Mary E. (Garrett ) Clark, a niece of his first wife. By a former husband she was the mother of three children, viz: Clara, wife of Adam Studt, of Glasco; W. L. Clark, a stock- man of Wyoming, and William S. Clark, a farmer of Solomon township.
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