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 68
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In 1883. he came to the Solomon Valley and was joined by his family a year later. He operated a threshing machine in the Solomon Valley for five years, threshing most of the wheat in his vicinity. In 1888. he bought two hundred acres of the farm where he now lives and later added eighty and now owns two hundred and eighty acres. He raised wheat, corn and alfalfa until 1898, when he began stock raising with seventeen thoroughbred Hereford cows. He now owns forty-four head of cattle which are regis- tered, down to calves a few months old. His cattle are the cream of fifty- five different herds. Itis cow "Gem of Loraine" is almost a fac simile of the famous "Carnation." Another cow was imported directly from Eng- land. He has volumes containing the age, owner and breeder of every graded animal in the United States, and has the pedigree of all his cattle
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and can trace the origin of every animal in his herd. He has lately disposed af tour Hereford bulls, which brought him good round figures. Ils cattle are well cared for and his beautiful herd is worth going miles to see.
Mr. and Mrs. Hussey were married in January, 1881. Mrs. Hussey was Mary Hodson, of Ohio. Her parents were When and Martha ( Burton ) Hochson. She is one of four children, three of whom live in Ohio. The Hodsons are old settlers of Highland county, Ohio, sixty miles southeast of Cmemnati.
Mr. and Mrs. Hussey's family consists of five interesting children, viz .: Mand, a graduate of the common school and on last year of the high school course m Glasen; Clyde, aged sixteen years, on last year's course of the filasco high school : Arthur. May and Leha, aged thirteen, eleven and four years respectively .
Mr. Hussey's farm " under a high state of cultivation, commodious barns, and sheds, windmill with a tank attached that holds two hundred and eighty barrels of water. Pohtically he is a Republican. His family are mem- bers of the Methodist Episcopal church He is a prominent Mason and a member of the Glasco lodge
HUBERT F. KING.
The subject of this sketch. H. F. King, is one of the solid, substantial farmer- and stock men of Lyon township. He started upon his career with- out a shilling in his pocket. but by shrewd management and industry, has gained a comfortable fortune. Through these qualities a magic change has been brought about and today his farm products and stock interest- yield him a handsome income.
Mr. King was born in Trumbull county, Ohio, in 1852. His parents were Richard and Maria ( Wiley) King. His father was a native of Con- necticut, but removed to the state of New York and later to Ohio. He visited California in 1854 and after remaining in that state several years returned to Ohio, where he died in 1860. He was a wagon and carriage maker by trade. Our subject's paternal grandfather was a patriot of the Revolutionary war, and the bayonet he carried is in the possession of one of Mr. King's brothers, and bears the scars of many battles. Mr. King's mother was born in Cattaraugus county. New York. She was of English ancestry. Mr. King received a common school education and continued to live in Trumbull county until he attained his twenty-fifth year. He was but eight years old when his father died and his mother's limited means of support prompted her to find a home for her son where he could earn his board and clothes. When seventeen years of age, he started out with the determination to stem the tide of fortune upon his own responsibility and resources. After working as a farm hand one year, and about the same length of time in a cheese factory, he entered the employ of an extensive tinware concern and sold their goods throughout the country districts. With
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this firm he acquired his start in the world, saving a thousand dollars in the five years he was associated with them. Imbued with the desire to own land he came westward and after looking over the situation in Iowa, he came with his brother. C. C. King to Kansas, in 1878, and homesteaded in Ottawa county. He also secured a timber claim adjoining. In 1878. Mr. King bought one-half section of land where he now lives. It was an un- improved tract, owned by James R. King, an iron bridge manufacturer of Ohio, to whom it was deeded by a brother, Chas. King. Mr. King sold his homestead in Ottawa county, but retained the timber claim and bought eighties. He now owns eight hundred acres of valuable wheat and pasture land, five hundred acres of which is under fence. The family lived in a base- ment from 1883 until 1897, when it was used for a foundation for a sub- stantial frame house. The farm.is well equipped with stock, barns and sheds. He keeps a herd of about eighty head of Herefords and feeds a half hundred hogs in ordinary years.
January 2, 1880, Mr. King was married to Caddie Stoddard, a daugh- ter of Frank and Delia ( Earl ) Stoddard. Her father was born in Chenango county, New York, January 8, 1838, and was married to Delia Earl. July 3, 1861 : she was born in Delaware county. New York, in 1840. Mrs. King was also born in Delaware county, in 1862. When about eight years of age she came with her parents to Rock Island, Illinois. One year later they re- moved to Macon county, Missouri, where they lived on a farm for eight years. They then came to Kansas and are now residents of Norton. Her father was a member of Company K, One hundred and Forty-fourth New York Infantry, served throughout the Civil war and was mustered out in August, 1865.
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By occupation Mr. Stoddard has always been a farmer and carpenter. Of a large family of children he is one of five that are living. A sister, Mrs. Mary Teed, of Denver; a brother at Asbury Park, N. J .; Chester Stoddard is a resident of Sidney, New York; and George, of Moline, Illinois.
A brother, the late C. H. Stoddard, who started life in a very humble way. became prominent in both social and financial circles. From a "gin- seng" peddler he rose to prominence, acquiring a fortune and an enviable reputation as a civil engineer and financier. For forty years he lived in the city of Rock Island, Illinois. Early in life he learned engineering. receiv- ing academic instructions in Oxford academy. New York. following that vocation throughout the states of New York and Pennsylvania. He assisted in laying the first railroad over the Alleghany mountains in 1849-50. He was principal of the public schools of Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. In 1851 he located in Rock Island, where he was engaged in civil engineering for forty years. He assisted in locating the Rock Island railroad from Daven- port across the state of Iowa ; also the old Rockford, and the Rock Island and St. Louis railroad, now the C. B. & Q. During the early part of his career he devoted much time in locating government lands in lowa. He repre-
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sented many financial interests; was a stockholder in the Rock Island Watch Company: the Rock Island Glass Company, and the Rock Island Stove Company, and was a director of the Rock Island and Milan railroad; the Rock Island National Bank and the Moline National Bank.
Mr. King is the eldest of six children. - three sons and three daugh- tera,-all of whom are living. Earl, the eldest son, is a bridge builder, and resides in Trenton. Nebraska: Charles is a farmer of Lyon township; Anna is the wife of Freeman Nicholson, of Norton, Kansas: Hardin is a farmer of Norton county; and Myrtle, the youngest daughter and child in the family.
Mr. and Mrs. King's family consists of four children. Their eldest, Richard Franklin, graduated from the Glace high school and has taught two terms of school. He made a record worthy of mention. While attend- ing the Glasco high school, he rode from home, a distance of six miles, through all sorts of weather and was neither tardy nor absent for one year. He has just attained his majority and occupies a prominent place in the manage- ment of the farm and stock. Clara Stella is an accomplished young lady of considerable muycal talent. She graduated from District No. 40. in 1001, and is now a student in the Gilasco high school. The two younger children are Horace and Ams Alberta. Politically, our subject is a Republi- can. Mr. and Mrs. King are very worthy people and contribute to the sup- port of every worthy cause.
LEWIS M. RISHEL.
1 .. M. Rishel is one of the rising farmers of Summit township. He is a native of Illinois, born in Henry county in 1858, and a son of Benjamin Franklin and Martha Jane ( Burdine) Rishel. His father was a native of Pennsylvania, born in 1835. Mr. Risher's grandfather emigrated from Ger- many. his native land, and settled among the Pennsylvania Dutch of that state in an early day. His maternal grandparents came from England and also settled in Pennsylvania. The Rishels emigrated to Illinois, where L. M. Rishel, one of their nine children. was born. When he was nine years old they moved to Johnson county. Missouri. In 1873 they emigrated westward and setded in Dallas county. Jowa. Three years later Mr. Rishel came to Kansas and bought a farm eleven miles west of Beloit, where he lived six years.
In 1888 he married Amanda, a daughter of that worthy and much esteemed pioneer. Allan Teasley. To Mr. and Mrs. Rishel two little daughters have been born, Flora May and Rhoda Fern, aged respectively, twelve and ten years.
Mr. Rishel's farm. which he bought three years ago and where he now lives, consists of one hundred and sixty acres, which is mostly wheat land. The school building of district No. 54 is located on his farm. Mr. Rishel
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votes with the Populist party. The family are members of the United Breth- ren church, Honey Creek congregation. Mr. Rishel is an honest, industrious farmer and highly respected citizen.
HENRY COLTON.
Henry Colton is a progressive farmer and one of the most extensive breeders of hogs in the county. He has at this writing ( November, 1901) one hundred and ten head of fine thoroughbred Chester Whites that are his especial pride. Among this number are fifty-two which he is feeding for the market. He has six brood sows whose increase aggregates fifty- six pigs. He has one pedegreed sow and nine thoroughbred pigs. Mr. Colton raises on an average from one hundred and sixty to one hundred and seventy pigs annually. During the month of September, 1900, he sold ninety-three April pigs for six hundred dollars; lumped them off to a Kansas City hog buyer. The proceeds of his sales in 1900 were $1,285.
The first ten or a dozen years of Mr. Colton's sojourn in Kansas he says "he had to rob Peter to pay Paul." and "rob Paul to pay Peter," but he had worked other people's land long enough and wanted a farm of his own, so he came to Kansas, the poor man's land, to secure one. In March, 1884, he bought what was the original homestead of John Pace, one of the early settlers of Cloud county. Mr. Colton put most of the improvements on the farm, remodeled the house, erected a substantial barn, sheds, a model and modern poultry house, etc. He was burdened with a debt of two thous- and nine hundred dollars hanging over his head, but 1900 found him one of the most prosperous farmers and stockmen in the Solomon valley, with his farm clear of debt. He bought corn, fed hogs and raised good wheat; these were the industries that brought him to the front. He has been very successful the past four years.
Mr. Colton is a native of Jefferson county, New York, born February 12. 1838. He is a son of William Henry and Lucretia ( Felt) Colton. His father was a Canadian by birth and served in the Patriot war of 1838, from which he never returned and was presumably killed. He was a blacksmith and wagon maker by occupation. The Felt ancestry were from the Green Mountain country of Vermont, and subsequently settled in Jefferson county, New York. To this union three children were born. Edward and Edwin, twins. Edwin was a resident of Ottawa county for twenty-six years. In 1898 he moved to Oklahoma, where he now lives on a farm near Kingfisher. When her family of boys were small Mrs. Colton broke up housekeeping. Edward was placed with a family with whom he became dissatisfied, ran away from home at the age of fifteen years and has not been heard from since.
Mr. Colton received a limited education, working in summer and at- tending school in winter. He located in Indiana when nineteen years of age and began farming for himself. In 1866 he emigrated to Benton county,
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Iowa, where he farmed until coming to Kansas in 1884. Mr. Colton was married in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1802, to Esther Clark, a daughter of D. L. Clark, of Huron county, Ohio. Mrs. Colton was a successful school teacher in Ohio and Indiana. Her mother died when she was three years okl and her father when she was nine.
To Mr. and Mrs. Colon have been born six sons and six daughters, viz. : James H., a farmer of Meredith township, married to Lydia Bates; they are the parents of one child. Neva. Edwin, employed as fireman on. the Rock Island railroad, married Mary Hurley, a daughter of James Hur- ley ( see sketch) they are the parents of three children. Ray. Frank and Theresa. Eva. the widow of William Mantz, is the mother of three chil- dren. Nona, Stella and Constance. Nelle, wife of Edwin Throckmorton, residents of Golden, Colorado, where he is employed as clerk in a store. He is a printer by trade. They have two children, Clare and Esther. Cyn- thia, wife of A. Q. Holbert, a farmer and stockman of Meredith township; their family consists of two children, Fred and Lottie Marie. George, a member of the police force of Denver, Colorado, married Isabella Berry, of Denver, formerly of Lincoln, Nebraska. Adelia. Lawrence and Laura, twins, (the latter died in infancy ) : Lucretia and Lenard, twins (the latter died in infancy), and Lester Grant, who was born on the anniversary of President Grant's birthday, and was named for that statesman. Adelia and Lucretia, prepossessing young women, are members of the household.
Mr. Colton is a Populist, politically. He has served his township two years as trustee, three years as treasurer and a member of the school board for several years.
HANS ASMUSSEN.
One of the prosperous farmers of Solomon township, who has helped to demonstrate what a poor man can do in Kansas, is Hans Asmussen, an industrious Dane. He was born in Denmark in 1853. When a boy he was apprenticed to a miller and worked in a flouring mill three years. When twenty-one years of age he entered the military service, as is the custom of his country, and served one year.
In 1882. he left his native land to find a home in Kansas. He came direct to this state and bought the original homestead of Moses Louthan, on Third creek. The land was under a fair state of improvement, but he built a substantial stone residence of six rooms the same year. In 1895 he built an excellent barn thirty-four feet square. This farm of two hundred and twenty-two acres is an exceptionally good one, well watered and well timbered.
Mr. Asmussen was married, in 1883. to Mary Hansen. a sister of Mrs. Fred Beck. Their family consists of four boys and one daughter. Chris. a young man of seventeen years. assists with the work on the farm; Henry. Anna Maria. Jens Peter, and Carl. are aged fifteen, thirteen, eleven and nine years, respectively.
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HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
BERT PORTER.
The subject of this sketch, Bert Porter. is one of the enterprising young men of Cloud county, who within a short period of time has risen from a farm hand to one of the most prominent farmers and stockmen in the Solo- mon valley. He has made a wonderful record, perhaps no man in the county can produce a better one. Ten years ago, Mr. Porter's worldly possessions consisted of a span of horses. He became associated with his father and bought the Vance Thompson homestead in 1891. In 1899 he purchased his father's interest in the farm and now owns four hundred and eighty acres of land with two hundred and eighty acres under cultivation. Eighty acres of this lies along Fisher creek, is heavily timbered and is a very valuable piece of ground; the other two hundred and forty acres are in Summit town- ship.
Mr. Porter married at the youthful age of eighteen years. December 28. 1888. Florence, one of the five daughters of Henry Stout, at this time a farmer near Simpson, but now living in the vicinity of Clyde. Her sisters are. Minnie, wife of Frank Campbell, a farmer of Republic county, ten miles north of Concordia; Maggie, wife of James Joslyn. a farmer of Republic county ; Nellie, wife of Ulysses Nicols, a farmer near Randall, Randall county, Kansas; Myrtle, who was adopted into the family of D. Joiner, her mother having died when she was an infant two weeks old. The Joiners live on a farm near Virgil, New York. Mrs. Stout was Mary Long, of Iowa.
Mr. Porter is a son of Major and Eliza ( Forgy ) Porter. Major Porter was born in Thelma, Fulton county, Ohio, in 1833. In his early life he was a carpenter and shoemaker. In 1875. he located in Clay county, Illinois. In 1884, he came to Brittsville, where he worked for five years at carpentering, then began farming, which occupation he followed until his wife's death. when failing health caused him to retire, making his home with his sons until his death in the autumn of 1901.
Bert Porter is one of two sons; his brother E. H .. is a blacksmith and wheelwright, located in Glasco. When Mr. Porter was married he began the stockraising business with one cow, a calf and a hog presented to Mrs. Porter as a wedding gift. He now raises from two to three hundred hogs annually and keeps on an average one hundred head of cattle. He has placed nearly ali of the buildings on the farm. as it was in an unimproved state when he bought it.
In 1900, he built a large basement barn. 32x64 feet in dimensions. The basement (used for feeding purposes) is 32×52. His farm is equipped with all sorts of modern farming implements and machinery. It is said the largest and best span of mules ever in Cloud county were raised on his farm. Many buyers pronounced them the best they ever saw. They were seventeen and one-half hands high and weighed one thousand five hundred pounds each. They were dead matches, Mr. Porter being the only person who could
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distinguish them, and he did not want to be very far away. He sold them when the mule market was low for three hundred and forty dollars. One year later they would have brought an advance of one hundred dollars. If Mr. Porter accumulates in the same proportion in the next ten years he will certainly be one of the best demonstrators of what energy can do in Kansas without capital.
ANTON SPARWASSER.
Anton Sparwasser, an industrious German farmer of Solomon town Shop, is a fair representative of his thrifty and enterprising countrymen. Though Mr. Sparwasser is American born, the German largely predominate- and he can scarcely speak the English language. Ilmons is las native state. born in Monroe county, m 1847. His father was Anton Sparwasser and his mother before her marriage was Christine Kern, both natives of Nassau. Germany. They came to America m 1831, and settled in Monroe county. Illinois. The father ched in the spring of 1877, and the mother the following autumn. Mr. Sparwasser is one of seven children, six of whom are living. They are all residents of Monroe county. Illinois, except himself.
Mr. Sparwasser came to Kansas in the autumn of t890, with a cipital of $2.500. He bought two hundred and sixty acres of land (the Turkeyon homestead) for a consideration of $3,000, and built a house at a cost of $1,000; he also bought teams, farm implements, two cons and a few calves. The famous possibility of a Kansas farmer had been recited to him and Mr. Sparwasser had no hesitancy in becoming involved. He, with his sons. farmed one hundred and sixty acres of rented land in addition to his own and fortunately had a large yield of wheat and corn that year, which he fed to cattle and hogs and doubled his investment : another illustration of the hundreds of farmers who have done likewise.
Mr. Sparwasser has been married twice. He was married in 1871. to Anna Buck, who died, leaving four children, only one of whom is living, Caroline, wife of Phillip Ritzel, a farmer of Illinois. In 1878, he married Louisa Pape (a sister of Mrs. Berneking ) : their family consists of the following children : Henry, a bright and intelligent young man who has just attained his majority, is interested with his father in farming. He is a mem- ber of the Order of Woodmen, at Glasco. Herman, Fred, Anton, August. Emma. Lucy. Edward and Phillip, are the other members of the family.
Mr. Sparwasser is a Democrat, but cast his vote for Mckinley. The family are members of the Lutheran church at Glasco.
JOHN V. CUNNINGHAM.
J. V. Cunningham is one of those intelligent farmers and stockinen with whom it is a pleasure to converse. He came from Daviess county. Missouri,-where he had farmed from 1857 to 1883-10 Cloud county, and
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bought the farm he now owns and lives on in Lyon township. He is a native of Belfast, Highland county, Ohio, born in 1836, and a son of Will- iam M. and Sarah Ann ( White) Cunningham. His father was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, in the year 1808. He was a farmer and stockman by occupation, and when quite a young man he moved to Ohio. After a short residence in Gallia county he settled in Highland county, and in 1857 emigrated to Daviess county, Missouri, where he died in 1875.
J. V. Cunningham's paternal grandfather and great-grandfather emi- grated from the Emerald Isle to America in 1778. but were taken back by the British. They returned in 1784, and settled in Pennsylvania, and sub- sequently in Ohio, where they spent the remainder of their lives. Mr. Cunningham remembers having attended both of their funerals. His grand- father enlisted in the war of 1812, but was rejected for nearsightedness. He was born in 1772, and died in 1854 at the age of seventy-two years. His great-grandfather, who died at the age of one hundred and four, was born in Scotland in 1740, and died in 1844.
Mr. Cunningham's maternal ancestry were also of Scotch origin. Ilis maternal grandfather was a Caldwell, and was with the Cunninghams when they were returned by the British. Both families came later and settled at Belfast, Ohio, an Irish and Scotch settlement. Almost the entire population of this vicinity are descendants of these colonists. His grandfather White's homestead was purchased by the county to be used as an asylum for the poor and has become one of the most noted institutions of this kind in southern Ohio.
Mr. Cunningham received his early education in the old log school house near his home in Ohio and began his early career by learning the painter's trade. At the age of twenty-two he began farming, which he has followed ever since. He served his country in the late war and was one of Company D, Twenty-seventh Missouri Infantry, enlisting in 1862, and was in active service for two years. He was in the division of the Western army, and participated in the battles of Vicksburg and Chattanooga. Near the close of the war he fell sick and was discharged for disability. Mr. Cunning- ham is one of the few who never received nor made application for a pension.
He was married in 1872. to Ebrala Frances Severe, a daughter of John D. Severe, a farmer of Daviess county, Missouri, formerly of Knox county, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Cunningham are the parents of an engaging family of nine children, six girls and three boys, viz : Charlie O., Annie B., Orda .1 .. Ora S., Maud M., Jessie E., Erma E., Mary L., and Ruth.
Mr. Cunningham's farm consists of two hundred and eighty acres, upon which he raises hogs extensively and keeps an average herd of one hun- dred and fifty head of native cattle. They have considerable fruit of a great many varieties, and a fine orchard that yields regularly and abundantly.
Mr. Cunningham was a Democrat, but in recent years has affiliated with the Populist party. In Daviess county, Missouri he served as under sheriff and assessor. He has held the office of treasurer of Lyon township and is
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the present justice of the peace. He and his estimable family are members of the Church of Christ, of the New Range Line organization, which con- venes in the school building of district No. 50. He is a prominent member of Glasco Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.
CHARLES SMITLEY.
Charles Smitley, an okl soldier and resident of Cloud county, was born in Mercer county, Ohio, in 1838. He is of German origin. His grandfather and four brothers crossed the water to America during the Revolutionary war, took diverging paths and never met again. Mr. Smitley's father was Frederick Smitley. He was born in Ohio in 1807, and died there in 1804. Mr. Smitley's mother was Katherine Hanger, of Ohio. She was born in 1815. and died in 1884. She was of Ohio birth and German origin. The Hangers were Vermonters and her mother's people, the Eagles, were carly settlers in Pennsylvania.
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