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 67
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More than nine months elapsed and no message was forthcoming from the little crew of brave and daring men until one Sabbath morning, to the joy and satisfaction of the whole community. Elder Smiley appeared in the congregation looking younger and better that when he had departed .on this perilous journey. A meeting was appointed for Monday following and the good Ekler reported as follows: "I have faced more dangers than I could tell you about in a week, but thanks be to God I am safe, and sold the Hour at twenty-seven dollars per barrel." He then presented a hugh buckskin "poke" and poured on the table such a pile of Spanish gold as that primitive people had never seen. The church debt was paid and the pastor. Reverend Joseph Smith, our subject's grandfather, made independent, and there was cause for universal rejoicing. Te relate Eller Smiley's experiences on this jour- ney wouldl fill a volume. It was before the days of navigation and he made the return trip from New Orleans on foot and was twice captured by the Indians.
Mr. Smith's maternal grandmother was Eleanor Adams and after hier
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husband's death she married Isaac Stout, of Rome. Adams county, Ohio. Isaac Stom was captain of an Ohio regiment in the war of 1812, and a major in the Mexican war. Mr. Smith was born in Lewis county. Ken- tucky. April 13, 1811. He is a son of Alexander and Margaret ( Stout ) Smith. His father was a native of Pennsylvania, and subsequently emi- grated to Kentucky, where he was a farmer and boat builder, following the latter avocation on the Ohio river. His mother was born in Ohio but of Scotch parentage. He removed with his parents from Kentucky to Mis- souri in 1857, and returning to visit friends in his native state during the period of the gathering war clouds, he joined Company 1. Fourth Ken- tucky Infantry, under Colonel Speed S. Fry, and during his three years of service protecting the glorious stars and stripes for, though he was a Ken- tuckian born and bred, he was loyal to his country-he participated in thirteen engagements. Thirteen has been Mr. Smith's lucky number, always producing good fortune. He was born on the 13th instant and many of the important or weighty matters of his career have seemingly hinged upon this ordinarily condemned numeral.
Mr. Smith's career and that of the members of his regiment were dis- tinguished by fearlessness of danger and undaunted spirit. They fought valiantly in the battles of Mill Springs, Kentucky, the second days" fight at Shiloh. Chichamanga, Missionary Ridge and siege of Atlanta. His Com- pany experienced the greatest hardships while on the MeCook raid. Of their nine hundred and fifty-two brave soldiers, all but one hundred and twenty were killed. wounded and captured. Company 1, after a hard and well- fought struggle, was forced to surrender. The Confederates came upon them about daylight and were driven back, but the rebels were reinforced and as the Union soldiers repaired to a crossing further down the stream they suddenly found themselves in the midst of an overwhelming number of rebels, and but fourteen men of Company I escaped, four were killed, nine wounded and the others taken prisoners. Mr. Smith was one of the fortunate fourteen, but while cutting his way through he was slightly wounded in the hand. When the little fragment of men swam their horses through the Chattahoochee river and reached the Union lines at Marietta fourteen days later they were exhausted. They had been almost con- stantly in the saddle and five days during this time were without sleep, and with but very little to eat.
After serving three years. two months and sixteen days, Mr. Smith was honorably discharged, returned to his home in Carroll county, Mis- souri, and a few months later emigrated to Kansas and on October 19, 1865. he filed on a homestead, his present fine country seat, then on the frontier. Could Mr. Smith and his father's family have "dipped into the dim future" and foreseen all the sorrows and horrors of Indian warfare, their hopes for a home in the "wild west" would have died within them. After filing on his land and building his dugout, fourteen dollars, a wagon, a span of horses, and a cow represented Mr. Smith's capital stock. The
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second year the Indians stole his horses and the cow died. The Union Pacific railroad was under course of construction and he became an employe, earn- ing enough to procure another start in life and in December, 1866, he was married to Mary Ann Hendershot, who came to Kansas from Ohio with her parents a short time previously. They are still living in the Solomon valley just over the line from Cloud, in Ottawa county.
Mr. Smith's father located a homestead on Brown creek. in Mitchell county, in 1866, and was the earliest settler in that vicinity. With the build- ing of the railroad the Indians assumed a more hostile attitude. Prior to this event the Cheyennes, Sioux and Arapahoes were friendly and would camp near by, but they were opposed to civilization and with the buikling of a railroad through the country they realized their hunting grounds would soon become cultivated fields and the buffalo would be no more. Thus think- ing the settlers were encroaching upon their rights, with savage threats they ordered Mr. Smith's father to leave the country, but he was heedless of their declarations until they murdered Bell. Bogardus, the Marshall boys and young Thompson. Directly after this raid took place Mr. Smith and his brother AAlex moved their father's family onto what is now known as the Thomas Bennett farm, two miles southwest of Delphos. They had laid in a supply of provisions, prepared comfortable winter quarters and the father, with his two sons and their families feeling more secure, occupied the same dwelling. Although they felt a security in numbers they were destined to share the awful fate of many pioneers. Our subject, with a younger brother. had gone to Asherville for the purpose of joining a militia that was being organized for the protection of settlers. During their absence the father and son. A. C. Smith, were plowing furrows around some hay stacks to protect them from the prairie fires that were so common in those days, and while engaged in this, a party of Indians rode up from behind and shot them both down. The women ran screaming from the house, entered the brush along the river, waded through the stream for a considerable distance that the savage demons might lose trace of them, and finally dragged themselves out of the water, and with hearts wrung with anguish and despair they crawled into the underbrush. These terror-stricken women-the mother and her two sons' wives-supposed the father and son were killed outright and knew not what fate, perhaps a thousands times worse than death, woukl be imposed upon them. But their screams had frightened the cowardly murderers, for an Indian is only brave when all the advantages are his. Who can imagine the horror-stricken scene that presented itself to the broth- ers on their arrival home the next morning to find the father still living, but with a mortal gunshot wound through the shoulder near the lung, and with a spear, which had gone through his mouth and passed to the outside of the neck, knocking several of his teeth out. He died at 10 o'clock A. MI .. shortly after their arrival. The brother whose body was not found until two days later, was shot in the back and presumably in his attempt to cross
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the river was drowned. Not content with the heinous crime already com- mitted, the Indians had entered the house and destroyed everything possible. They ripped open four large feather beds, broke in the staves of three bar- rels of molasses, and in one conglomerated mass were feathers, flour, molas- ses, coffee, sugar, etc. They carried away all the sugar and coffee they could and made a hurried flight, thinking the women of the house might appear with reinforcements at any moment. The family had provided a year's supply of provisions that had been hauled from Salina. On this same raid Mrs. Morgan was taken into captivity. Several years elapsed ere this family re- covered from the shock of this terrible scene and the mother, completely bent and broken down with sorrow and grief, could not throw off the burdens of her cares, and after one year of repining, joined her husband and son in their "eternal home."
Mr. Smith returned to his homestead, where they eked out an existence until 1872. During that year he received one hundred dollars additional bounty and this money he invested in twenty five calves. Two years later he sold them and invested the proceeds in fifty calves. Two years hence he sold this herd and bought one hundred head. fed and shipped them on the market. This was the starting point of his financial success. He bought more land and more cattle. Instead of selling his stock he raised corn, fed it and reduced the bulk instead of shipping the grain. He and his sons now own one thousand two hundred and forty acres in Cloud and Ottawa counties, with over one thousand acres under cultivation. He has a herd of about two hundred finely bred cattle, and of this number one hundred and twenty-five are Herefords. His farming is diversified, wheat, corn and alfalfa being his principal crops. He was among the first farmers to intro- duce the raising of alfalfa into his community.
To Mr. and Mrs. Smith have been born eleven children, seven of whom are living: four sons were deceased in infancy. Frank Wiley, born March IO. 1870, is married to Maretha Carter and lives on an adjoining farm. America, born March 5. 1873. is the wife of Pierce Lynch, a farmer living in Oklahoma: they are the parents of one son, Ernest. Minnie Myrtle. born May 5. 1873. is the wife of William Jones, a farmer of Ottawa county : their children are Esther and Lucy. Alexander, born October 17, 1875: Leroy, born May 31, 1877: Alva, born August 25 1881, and Archie, born February 24. 1886. The four last named are unmarried and living at home. Bertha Ellen Lyons, born March 10. 1892, is a little girl whose parents died and she has found a home with the family of Mr. Smith. Their children have been educated principally in the schools of Delphos, driving to and from. Leroy graduated from the Delphos high school in 1898, and took a business course in the Wesleyan College of Salina, and was a student one year in the State Normal of Emporia.
Mr. Smith is a staunch Republican, and was appointed one of the first commissioners of Cloud county in 1866: he did not qualify for this office, a
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severe blizzard preventing his appearance, but assisted in the organization of the county. It was some time after Mr. Smith's advent in the county before Delphos, Beloit or Concordia were even thought of, and he knew every settler within a radius of many miles or between Solomon City and the head of the Solomon river, until 1870. Socially, Mr. Smith is a member of Delphos Lodge, Knights of Pythias, and was commander of Wilder- ness Post No. 116, Grand Army of the Republic, of Delphos. Mr. Smith's brother, A. C., was the first county clerk elected in Ottawa county, but was killed before entering upon the duties of that office.
After living seven years in a dugout Mr. Smith built a two-room log house and the old landmark still stands as a monument of the shelter afforded in the primitive days. In 1893 he erected a handsome eleven-room residence, which is situated in one of the bends and on the banks of the Solomon river. This stately home is the outcome of years of suffering, privation, bloodshed and harrowing hairbreadth escapes. There are good outbuildings with stable room for fifty head of horses and sheds for all his cattle. An orchard loaded with the crimson and golden fruit and a mill from which was dispensed deliciously sweet cider is one of the author's most pleasant recollections.
Mr. Smith has witnessed the change and progress of a sandy desert, where the buffalo and Indian roamed unrestricted, into one of the most magnificent agricultural and stock raising countries in the United States, with handsome residences and fine barns ou nearly every quarter section ; school houses and churches that compare with those of any state in the Union, the telephone system, free rural-mail delivery at nearly every house and the recipients of these favors a contented and happy people. The present pros- perous conditions do not bear out the statement made by General W. T. Sherman, while commanding the United States army in 1866, who, when appealed to for protection by the settlers of this locality, replied. "The settlement is one hundred miles too far west : that country is only fit for the Indians and buffalo."
Mr. Smith's only surviving brother, John S. Smith, is a well-to-do retired farmer, residing in Beloit. He settled in Mitchell county in April. 1866. and underwent many turbulent experiences with the redskins, at one time losing all his stock through them. Jolin S. Smith was moving a family to Wamego, Kansas, and with them passed through Leavenworth the day prior to Quantrell's raid and massacre. They were allowed to pass through at the instigation of some Missouri abolitionist refugees.
Mr. Smith, the subject of this sketch. is awake to the interests of agri- culture and stockraising: he is a director for the fifth district of the Co-operative Grain and Live Stock Association, and was recently re-elected to serve his second year.
Mr. Smith retains his Kentucky hospitality and the guest. whether friend or stranger, receives the welcome hand of fellowship his countrymen are famous for extending.
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WILLIAM PARKER.
The subject of this sketch, William Parker, is a progressive, industrious and exemplary young man, the "Good Samaritan" of hus father's family. for through his efforts the old homestead has been redeemed-saved from the mortgage auctioneer's hammer. He now owns the farm, having bought the interest of the other heirs, and is in a fair way to become one of the leading farmers of the community.
About one year prior to this writing ( November, 1900) he sold his cattle down to one con and three helfer .. He now owns a herd of thirty- three well graded Shorthorns. Mr. Parker came to Cloud county when twelve years of age, but for several years, dating from the time he was four- teen years old he traveled about dong various things; mined in Colorado. worked in the smelters of Leadville, drove cattle in Arizona and labored in the lead mmes of Jophn, Missouri. He returned home in 1901, after his mother's death and came into possession of the farm. In the meantime he had contributed the greater part of his earnings to prevent the mortgage from sweeping in the home.
Mr. Parker i a son of Benjamin and Mary Ann (Sutton ) Parker, who were married in Ohio m 1853. Benjamin Parker is a native of Stark county, Illinois, born in 1835. He remained a resident of Stark county until 1857. when he moved to Vermilion county, Illinois, and in 1865, located in Kankakee. In 1873 he emigrated to Kansas. He has been unfortunate in his business relations, misfortune seemingly following him all through life. Ile has met with many adversities -- saw his fields divested of every blade during the grasshopper raids, lost several horses during the hard years and lived in a dugout from 1873 until 1880, and in 1885 built a comforta- able residence, which burned to the ground, compelling them to resort to the dugout until he could build again.
Mr. Parker served in an Illinois regiment in the United States service. being one of the two hundred and fourteen volunteers who went from his township in Stark county. William Parker is a grandson of James Parker, who was of English origin, but a native of Pennsylvania. He died in 1838. His paternal grandmother was Sena Murphy, born in Ohio, of Scotch par- entage. Her father was William Murphy, a captain in the Revolutionary war. She was three times married, once prior to her marriage with James Parker. Her first husband was a Mr. Miller, by whom she had two children. Nathaniel and Lydia. Her second marriage was with James Parker, and Benjamin Parker is the only living child of eight children by this marriage. He lives with his son, William Parker, the subject of this sketch. James Parker died in 1838. Mrs. Parker's third husband was William VanTassel. No children were born to this marriage.
William Parker is one of five children, viz: Theodore, a carpenter and joiner, with residence in Cripple Creek, Colorado. Elisha, contractor for paper mills of Oregon City. Oregon. He was an old settler and homesteader
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of Center township, this county, where he lived until 1888. and married Sarah, a daughter of William Dugan, an oldl resident of Cloud county. Nora, the only daughter, presides over her brother's household. Though thoroughly domestic, she is an accomplished young lady, a graduate of the Glasco schools. She raises poultry and makes upwards of thirty pounds ot. butter per week during several months of the year. She is a member of the Bethel Methodist Episcopal church.
WILLIAM PROSSER.
William Prosser, the subject of this sketch, is one of the most prosper- ous farmers of Meredith township. He was born in Schuylkill county, Penn- sylvania, in 1835. His parents were Edward and Mary ( Reese ) Prosser. Ilis father was of Welsh origin and born in 1806. His mother died when our subject was a mere child and he was reared by his grandfather, who was a farmer. Mr. Prosser's mother was a native of Wales and emigrated to America with her husband in 1829; her father was a miller.
At the age of ten years Mr. Prosser moved with his parents to Blooms- burg. Columbia county, Pennsylvania, and early in life learned the shoe- maker's trade. In the spring of 1857 he emigrated west, settling in Mt. Carroll, Illinois, where he worked at his trade and attended school until the spring of 1859, when, in company with a brother and several friends. he started overland for Pike's Peak. They arrived at Little Blue river and at this point began meeting "early starters" who seemingly were in a hurry to return and informed Mr. Prosser's party that the road was crowded with people al! on the "back track." They were loth to believe the report and remained by the wayside for several days to investigate and as a result they also retraced their journey and were very anxious to return where they could find employment. Arriving in St. Louis Mr. Prosser obtained work, which proved unsatisfactory, and he returned to Illinois, locating in Caseyville, where he remained until the breaking ont of the Civil war.
His brother located at Union City, Tennessee, where he worked at his trade, that of a plasterer. However, he had tarried too long and when he desired to leave they questioned his right. The condition of things was critical even at St. Louis, where martial law was in force. Mr. Prosser wrote him to the effect that if he would join him at Caseyville they would emigrate to the mountains together and thus avoid the "present trouble," but in the event that he joined the Confederate army our subject would be- come a Union soldier. The vigilance committee presented the letter, stat- ing they must know its contents, and after they were satisfied that the brother would leave the state, they gave him leave of absence and he made all haste to get away.
He joined Mr. Prosser at Caseyville, and together they returned to Pennsylvania and enlisted in Company D. Eighty-fourth Pennsylvania Vol- unteer Infantry, under Captain Torick, with Colonel Murray as regimental
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e minder Mr. Prosser served almost four years, but his brother was killed in their first battle at Winchester, March 23, 1802 Mr. Prosser re cervel a flesh wound in the arm and was sent to the hospital at Philadelphia. rening until August. They left Harrisburg December 20, 1801. Their colonel was also killed at Winchester Mr. Prosser participated in the bat the of Bull Run September 2. 1802. Fredericksburg December 11 12, and Chancellorsville May 23. where he was taken prisoner and detamed in Richmond, Virginia; thirteen days later he was parole and sent to Camp Washington, where he remained until reforming his regiment the following Sep tember. He was in the battle of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania. Petersburg. Virginia, and various other engagements until August to, 1804, when he was again captured at Deep Bottom and cast mite Tabby prison, remaining two weeks. From there they were taken to Belle Isle and two months later to Salisbury. North Carolina, where he suffered intensely from hunger and exposure. In this prison there were nine thousand men on November 1 and the latter part of January, but four thousand remamed. They were deceased at the rate of fifty per day, piled on wagons like cord wood and hauled out. Viter leaving lally they expected better treatment, but with every change their condition grew worse and upon reaching Salisbury the crisis came and was fearful in its enormity On their camp, which consisted of seven acres of ground, the prisoners made bricks of mind and erected places of shelter, "inch melted with the first ram. So ravenons were they for food the stars- ing victims chewed the dried stumps of sorghum cane, extracted somp from meatless bones and afterward baked, broke and ate them. They were plays- ical wrecks and suffered all the horrors of a southern prison, but these brave men would rather che than enter the rebel ranks or go on to the fortifications. They had no shelter, but dug holes and piled sand over them for protection. Their rations consisted of raw flour with no means of cooking it and they were forced to eat paste. Mr. Prosser was released from this place of incar- ceration February 21. 1805. and placed in the hospital at Richmond, where he remamed two weeks. He was mustered out July 6. 1865. at Philadelphia, returned to Bloomsburg. Pennsylvania, and two years later emigrated to Collinsville. Illinois, where he worked at his trade. After various removals to different parts of that state, in 1884 he came to Cloud county and pur- chased the old Solomon Pace homestead in Meredith township, which he has improved and made one of the finest farms in that vicinity. He owns two hundred acres of land and makes wheat raising his chief industry.
Mr. Prosser was married in 1871 to Martha Medora, a daughter of Simon Smith, an old settler of Johnson county, Missouri, formerly of Ten- nessee. To Mr. and Mrs. Prosser six children have been born, viz: The eldest son. William F .. a farmer in Meredith township. married Gertie Upjohn ( they are the parents of one child. a little daughter. Ada ) : Mary, their only daughter. is the wife of Wilbur F. Powell, an Ottawa county farmer; Edward is a farmer of Lyon township: Howell is interested with his
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father; the two younger sons are Oliver and Emmett, aged seventeen and fourteen years, respectively.
Mr. Prosser is a Republican in politics and takes an intelligent interest in political affairs. The family are members and active workers in the Bethel Methodist Episcopal church of which Mr. Prosser is steward and trustee. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic Post of Del- phos. The Prosser home is a pleasant one and as the passerby approaches, his attention is attracted toward the neat and freshly painted cottage that bespeaks the comfort of its inmates and a fine bank barn that insures his stock are also well cared for. Mr. and Mrs. Prosser are good people and the class that every community needs more of.
GEORGE W. HUSSEY.
Too many such enterprising men as G. W. Hussey could not establish themselves in a community. It is men of his stamp that have made the Solo- mon Valley "blossom as the rose," and the poet's dreamy imagination charac- terized by hundreds of charming homes and cultivated fields.
The Husseys have one of the most inviting homes in the county. . \ handsome residence with an avenue of tall shade trees on one side and a fine bearing orchard on the other, where in the autumnm sweet cider fresh from the mill is dispensed with a hospitality that implies "our latch-string is always hanging out."
Mr. Hussey is a native of New Vienna, Ohio, born in 1844. His par- ents were William and Ann ( Clouser ) Hussey. The Husseys are of Quaker origin and settled in Ohio more than a century ago. The Clousers were from North Carolina. Mr. Hussey worked on a farm until eighteen years of age when he enlisted in the country's service with Company G. seventy-ninth Regiment. Ohio Volunteers. His company was at the front and dis- tinguished itself for valor and courage. He served almost three years. After the war he returned to Ohio, where he engaged in various things :- farming. railroading, operating a saw mill, learned the machinist's trade and run a threshing machine.
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