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 70
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Mr. Neal is a native of Ohio, born in 1834 on a farm near Urbana, Champaign county. His father was St. Ledger Neal, a native of Maryland, born near Hagerstown in 1805. but who came to Ohio when a young man,
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where he lived until his death in 1865. Mr. Neal's grandfather. Aquilla Neal, was also a native of Maryland. The Neals were of English and Irish «lescent. Mr. Neal's mother was Clarissa ( Pearce ) Neal. born and reared in Urbana, Ohio, her father having moved there from Kentucky in 1801. Her brother. Milton. was the first white child born in Urbana, then an Indian village. Mr. Neal's mother died in 1891. Hle is one of eleven children, ten of whom lived to maturity. Mr. Neal lived on the farm until the age of nine- teen years, when he went into a machine shop as an apprentice, working at his trade most of the time until 1886.
He was married in 1863 to Sarah Jane l'itzer, daughter of Jacob and Almeda ( Rexford ) Pitzer. Her father was born in Kentucky and when two years old came to Ohio with his parents and settled in Brown county, on the Ohio river, where he grew to manhood. He learned the shoemaker's trade, which he followed along with hunting and trapping. for several years. then moved to Indiana and later to Illinois, where he died in 1844. Early in life he lost a limb. The Pitzers were of German origin, Mrs. Neal's grandfather coming from Germany.
Almeda ( Rexford) Pitzer was born in Jefferson county, New York. When four years of age she went with her parents to Michigan, and the fol- lowing spring the war of 1812 began, during which time they were stationed at Fort Huron for protection from the Indians. Peace was made when she was seven years oldl. which event she remembers distinctly and about this time her father moved to Lower Sandusky, Ohio, where she was reared and married. She was married in 1826 to Jacob Pitzer, who died in 1844. She was again married in 1847 to Jolin D. Armstrong, who died August 21. 1853. Mrs. Armstrong is the mother of twelve children, ten of these by the first marriage and two by the second. Five of them are living. Mrs. Armstrong is living with her daughter. Mrs. Neal, at the age of ninety-five years. She has a sister in Fort Collins, Colorado, who is eighty years of age, and a brother two years her junior. Philander Rexford, whose address is 408 Park avenue, Syracuse, New York. The following was clipped from an October 1. 1901. issue of the Post-Standard, Syracuse. New York :
"Philander Rexford. of 408 Park avenue, this city, was not only alive at the time of Perry's great victory over the British on Lake Erie in 1813. but he lays claim to have been practically an eye witness of the famous naval battle. He was within hearing distance of the guns, and although he is now a man ninety-two years of age, his recollection of the engagement and the events surrounding it seem quite distinct.
"Mr. Rexford was born in Sandy Creek, Jefferson county, New York. September 5. 1800, and in 1811 moved to Detroit, Michigan, with his par- ents. In the following year the war of 1812 was declared, and subsequently Detroit and the entire Michigan territory was taken by the British. The Rexfords were forced to leave their home with many others of Detroit and found refuge in Fort Huron, at the mouth of the Huron river.
"Detroit at that time. Mr. Rexford says, was but a small village.
40
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HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
was, however, the key to the northwestern part of the United States and its surrender by Hull was a blow to the American army.
"It was while at Fort IJuron on Lake Erie that Mr. Rexford heard the booming guns of the battle. He was then a boy of four years and the engage- ment occurred but a few miles from the fort.
"Ile says he remembers distinctly the excitement in the fort and the ramarks of the American soldiers as broadside after broadside shook the air : 'There goes another broadside,' they would say, or .There's a breaker for Barkley's ribs.' Barkley was the British commodore. Many such ejacula- tions Mr. Rexford remembers and also the scenes of rejoicing at the announce- ment of the victory. The men and women in the fort went wild with joy and excitement. Guns were fired and drums beaten.
"Hull was immediately forced to retire from Detroit and the refugees were allowed to return. The grandmother of Mr. Rexford had been taken prisoner at the capture of Detroit by Hull, and was forced by the British sol- ‹liers and Indians, who composed his force, to walk from the homestead into the city, carrying her six-year-old child. The distance was long and she suffered many hardships.
"Ohio at that time was filled with British soldiers and the scarlet coats were common sights. At the close of the war many of the soldiers in the northern territories were discharged and found their way to England by traveling across the country. Mr. Rexford remembers seeing many of them. In many cases, he says, the American settlers extended courtesy to them, but in many other cases it was hard for Americans to treat them as anything but enemies.
"Mr. Rexford was at Fremont, Ohio, when Major Crawn with one hun- dred and thirty men in Fort Stevenson, defeated seven hundred Indians and several hundred British and their allies. It was thought by the attacking party that a breach had been made in the walls of the fort and hundreds of men were poured into the trench which surrounded it. While in this trench the Americans opened fire with a gun stationed in a block house so situated that its fire swept the trench. The gun which did the execution was known as 'Betsy,' and is still at the fort.
"Mr. Rexford says that he remembers the remark of an Irishman taken prisoner at the battle. 'Sure,' said Pat, 'I thought it was a hog pen we were attackin', and I found it a hornets' nest.'
"Mr. Rexford visited the coal fields of Pennsylvania, where he made a study of the economical use of that fuel. In 1863 he came to Syracuse. where he was engaged by the salt companies to instruct their firemen in the use of coal, it at that time being a new fuel.
"Since then he has been engaged in the same business, although his present age prevents his engaging as actively in it as formerly. His pet theme is the lessening of the smoke which curls from the chimneys of the city factories.
" Although the brother and sisters have not seen each other for twenty-
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HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
five years, they correspond regularly. All are well preserved and active. considering their great age and bid fair to live many more years."
To Mr. and Mrs. Neal have been born three children, two of whom are living, viz: Philander Rexford, traveling salesman for the S. F. Baker Medicine Company, of Keokuk, Iowa, and who was formerly a farmer of Lyon township, where he still owns land. Ile is a very successful salesman and collector. Some ten years ago lie was married to Miss Addie Jones, a Glasco girl. They have one child, Paul Rexford, a bright little boy of nine years. Clara, wife of Price Baker, of Glasco, salesman for the Cham- pion Machine Company. They have three daughters, Lois N., Lottie May, and Margaret Maud. Mr. and Mrs. Neal lost a daughter, Olive E., a prom- ising young lady of seventeen years, who died December 3, 1891. She was a graduate of the Glasco schools, and died of spinal meningitis, brought on by overstudy.
Mr. Neal is a Republican and cast his first vote for Salmon P. Chase for governor of Ohio. It was not his fault that he did not serve in the late war as he was examined and rejected three times. Mr. Neal was the first trustee and assisted in laying out the first roads in Lyon township. Mr. and Mrs. Neal are members of the Methodist Episcopal church.
ADRASTUS NEWELL.
Another of those old landmarks of Solomon township is Adrastus New- ell, whose present good financial standing has been attained entirely through his own perseverance. His reputation for honesty and integrity is an envi- able one, his hospitality is well known and his friends are legion. He lives one mile east of Glasco in one of those good old-fashioned farm houses whose exterior and interior bespeak all the comforts a well-to- do farmer and his family can enjoy. His home is presided over by Mrs. Newell, who is a true helpmate to her husband and who possesses that most desirable attribute. an excel- lent housewife, as the neatness of their home testifies.
Mr. Newell is a native of Jeffer- son county, New York, born near Sackett's Harbor in 1831. He is a MR. AND MRS. ADRASTUS NEWELI son of Origen Stores and Sarah (Baker) Newell. His father was born in Vermont, October 4. 1802, and when five years of age moved with his parents to the state of New York. Arriving at mature years he became a farmer, emigrated to Wisconisn and
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HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
settled in Jefferson county, forty-five miles distant from the city of Mil- wankee, where he died in 1808. Mr. Newell's grandfather was in the war of 1812 Mlr Newell says he remembers him distinctly, as he occasionally applied the chastening rod to him. an occurrence often made indelible on the memory of a boy. His paternal great-grandparent emigrated from ling- land to Vermont and was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. Mr. Newell can only recall his mother as she was robed for burial. She died when he was but four years of age. He remembers his maternal grandfather who was very inuch of a recluse, hence Mr. Newell knows but little of his ma- ternai ancestors other than they were of Holland origin. Mr. Newell was one of eleven children. There were seven by a second marriage. Of these he only knows of a brother, living in Wisconsin, and a sister in Idaho.
Mr. Newell began at the foundation when he entered upon a career for himself. He worked at anything he could find to do, on the farm, teaming, and gathering wood ashes for a soda factory um those days ashes were col- lected for the manufacture of soda). Later he worked in the Wisconsin pineries for $17 per month. Out of his earnings he saved enough to buy the undivided half of a three hundred and twenty acre tract of land seven- teen miles from Green Bay, and fourteen miles from Appleton, Wisconsin. Ile paid $150 in gold for a yoke of oxen. The land was heavily timbered. He cleared one hundred acres in one year, employing five men. Mr. Newell says he worked so hard and tried to accomplish so much that he shingled a barn by moonlight. He would start to market with a load of wheat at 5 A. M. l'erhaps his breakfast would le a biscuit frozen so hard he could scarcely eat it. There he lived thirteen years and i 1866 came to Kansas.
Ile had served his country the last year of the war in Company .1. First Wisconsin Cavalry, under General Wilson of Cuban war fame, who had command of all the cavalry of the army of the Tennessee. Mr. Newell was promoted to commissary sergeant. Ile was discharged in Wedgefield, Georgia, returned to Wisconsin and the following year soll his farm. Mrs. Newell's people had preceded them to Kansas and he had heard a great deal about the state during the war. These were the inducements which brought them here, and at the persuasion of friends he filed on a homestead three miles north of Glasco, which he sold later with the intention of going to California, but when the opportunity presented itself he realized more forcibly than ever before that Kansas was a great and prosperous state, and, concluding to remain, he bought his present valuable farm in 1883. Mr. Newell has improved this place, making it one of the finest in the country. His residence is a commodious one of eight rooms, splendid barns, sheds for vehicles and implements, shelter for his cattle and a capacious gran- ary.
When in Wisconsin, Mr. Newell with his sisters, attended the Oneida Mission church, where he met Mary \. Frost, a teacher in the Mission school, whom he married in 1856. Mrs. Newell was born in the state of Ohio. When she was five years of age her parents moved to New York
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HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
where they remained seven years and then removed to Wisconsin. Her father was Aaron Frost, a native of New Hampshire. He emigrated to New York, where he married, and afterward settled in Ohio. He was burned to death in 1845 along with his residence or burned so badly that he diedl as a result. A band of robbers were infesting the neighborhood. A man whom he knew to be one of the party was tolled into the Frost residence and his attention occupied until another party who had received a signal from Mr. Frost summoned an officer. The man was arrested. found guilty and sen- tenced to five years in prison. At the expiration of his teim Mr. Frost's residence was burned to the ground and six weeks later his saw mill. um- doubtedly the work of an incendiary. Their home was in Ashtabula county. on the shores of Lake Erie.
Her mother was Almira Sterling of New York. Mrs. Newell's ma- ternal grandmother was a Whittlesly, who was married in Connecticut. and made the trip to Vermont four times on horseback. The first time she traveled alone, the second with one baby, the third with two: after that they became too numerous to travel on horseback. Mrs. Newell's great- grandfather was a member of the famous "Boston Tea Party." a name popularly given to the famous assemblage of citizens in Boston. December 16. 1773, who met to carry out the non-importation resolves of the colony. Disguised as Indians, they went on board three ships which had just arrived in the harbor, and threw several hundred chests of tea into the sea. The Whittleslys were of English origin, as were also the Sterlings.
To Mr. and Mrs. Newell five children were born, four daughters and one son, viz: Alice. wife of Gilbert Fuller ( see sketch ). Helen Agnes. wife of James Pilcher ( see sketch ). Fannie A., wife of D. F. Sheffield (see sketch). Hattie H., wife of Elsworth Woodward, a farmer of Os- borne county, Kansas. Seth Paul is associated with his father on the farm. He is a graduate of the Glasco high school and took a two year's prepara- tory course in the Wesleyan College at Salina. The two eldest daughters took a two years course in the Concordia Normal School and taught until their marriages. The daughters are intellectual women. good wives and mothers.
Mr. Newell is a Republican and takes an active interest in political issnes. The family for years have been members of the Methodist Episcopal church. The Newell residence is a home for all the pastors. When the church is in need of finances or work to be done, Mr. Newell is called upon. He is generous, public spirited and a supporter of every worthy canse. Has been post commander of the Grand Army of the Republic of Glasco for the past five years.
Mr. Newell is one of the few pioneers left of 1868. who gathered to- gether for work while others stood guard upon some high point of ground where they could scan the country over for a glimpse of the wily red man. The first thing in the morning, with gun in hand, was to take a survey for the Indian and at night the same thing was repeated: During the times of
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HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
Indian scares they would often join the settlers at the stockade. The buf- falo and antelope furnished an abundance of meat. On one hunt Mr. Newell and his party brought in several quarters of buffalo and seventeen wild turkeys.
Their first Christmas dinner in Kansas was distinguished by wild tir- key, and no finer roast could be produced from out the barnyard flock of do- mestic fowls. The country resounded with the yelp of hungry coyotes and often while milking the cows these hungry beasts would come within a few feet of them and lick their chops like dogs.
W. C. BERNEKING.
W. C. Berneking, the subject of this sketch, 's a self-made man, can. ing his living since he was ten years old, being thrown on the world home- less and penniless it that age, and doing whatever he could find to do to gain a livelihood for several years.
Ile was born in Germany in 1856, and came to America with his par- ents when an infant, settling on a farm in Monroe county, Ilinois. Ilis father was Henry Berneking and died when his son. W. C., was ten years old. Ilis mother was Christina ( Bower ) Berneking and died while the jam- ily were enroute to America, and was buried at sea. Henry Berneking was a shoemaker in Germany but followed farming principally in America. Ile married the second time, and by this marriage several children were born, all of whom died. one daughter dying at the age of sixteen years.
Mr. Berneking had a brother, Fred, who went as a substitute in the army for their father who was drafted. and died of smallpox at Memphis, Tennessee. Ile had been discharged at the close of the war and had started home when he was taken ill at Memphis.
W. C. Berneking was married in the autumn of 1883. to Caroline Mar- garet Pape, a daughter of Henry and Wilhelmena ( Moenkhoff ) Pape, natives of Germany. Her father died in 1877 and her mother the last day of the year 1885. Her father was twice married. There were five children by the first marriage and eight by the second, four of whom are living, three daughters and one son, a sister, Mrs. Sparwasser, living in Cloud county, near Glasco, another Erstina Gerber, of Monroe county, Illinois, and a brother, Herman Pape, also of the latter place.
Mr. Berneking has prospered in Kansas. He came to the state with six hundred dollars and lived upon rented land seven years. In 1891 he bought the Al Edwards homestead near Simpson, which is one of the many good farms in that part of the county. He has now in course of erection a ten room, two-story frame residence. 44 by 34 feet in dimensions. He owns one hundred and sixty acres of land and raises cattle and hogs. He has a barn 48 by 60 feet in dimensions, and the Solomon river runs through his place.
To Mr. and Mrs. Berneking have been born seven children; six of whom
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HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
are living, the eldest having died in infancy. Louisa, sixteen years of age, Lydia, Henry, Mary, George and Catherine. The family are members of the Lutheran church of Glasco. Mr. Berneking is a Republican in politics, and socially is a member of the order of Maccabees at Simpson, Lodge No. 67.
JOSEPH H. MARTIN.
J. H. Martin of Solomon township, is a progressive and prosperous farmer. Mr. Martin farmed rented land until he bought a part of the "Jake" Cossell homestead, in 1897, which is situated one mile northwest of Glasco. A new and handsome cottage residence enhances the pleasing effect of this desirable farm of eighty acres.
Mr. Martin was born in McLean county, Illinois, in the year 1859, his parents being Robert and Maria (Sewerds) Martin. He is the second son of a family of nine children, seven living, viz: Charles Edgar, a farmer of Lane county, Kansas; Anna. wife of Norman Jordan, one of the most suc- cessful farmers of the Solomon valley; John D., a farmer near Des Moines, Iowa; Frank A., a farmer of Grove county, Kansas; Cecil a farmer of Sol- omon township, is married to a daughter of George Colwell, a far- mer living near Glasco; Emily, is the wife of J. H. Suiters, a farmer of Cove county, Kansas.
Mr. Martin was reared on a farm in Illinois and educated in the com- mon schools of that region. In 1879, he came to try his fortunes in the great agricultural state of Kansas and settled in Mitchell county, where he farmed until 1883, and then transferred his residence to Cloud county. His par- ents joined him in 1879, and, like him, changed their residence from Mitch- ell county to the vicinity of Glasco. His father died the same year ( 1883), and his mother in the spring time of 1890.
Mr. Martin was married in the spring of 1885, to Belle Snyder, a daughter of those old pioneers, Captain and Mrs. Snyder of Glasco. She is a woman of culture and refined instincts. They are the parents of one child, Roy D., aged fifteen years, a fine, handsome boy and a good student. Mr. Martin's political views are such as to cause him to vote the Demo- cratic ticket. Socially he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Modern Woodmen and Fraternal Aid Society of Glasco. He is one of the substantial men of the Glasco community and a good citizen and neighbor.
FREDERICK DIMANOSKI.
Another of those thrifty, frugal German farmers who have found peace and plenty in the "Sunflower" state is Frederick Dimanoski, of Solomon township. A native of Germany, where he was born in 1863, he emigrated with his parents to America in 1872, and settled in Jefferson county, New
HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
York In 1875 the family engrated to Kansas, and after one year in Great Beard they removed to Mitchell county, and bought land tour miles south of Simpson, where his father died m 1802. John Dimanoski, Ins father, was a native of Prussia He was a musician of prommence and for many years lessier of the band and orchestra of Falkenstein, German llis brother is impreseer in the lecampane holding of Berlin Mr Dimanki's mother before her marriage was leather Sokan. She lives with her only daughter. Jamie, on the farm pear Simpson. Of a family of five dulden, but two
and began his career as a farm hand and was in the employ of James koh- erton ner Simpson four vers In the married Adaline a daughter of that worthy old settler, Charles Horn, of Glaser per sketchy). To this manon three children have been born, two daughters and a son Carl Fired- erick, the chest child and som born m 1802, ched at the age of eighteen ments. The little slaughters are Irene 1 .. and Freeda, aged seven and nine Jeir respective
In 1800, Mr Diman sky bought the Howard homestead which had but fuss improvements In tony he created a splendid barn 20 by gt feet in dimensions. Their residence is small but comfortable, and doubtless ere many months have elapsed will be discarded for a new and more commodi- ons one. This excellent farm with its well kept orchards and finely culti- vated fields, consists of one hundred and sixty acres of fertile soil inter- sected by the Solomon river sluch furnishes an abundance of water and tim- ber. The chef products of his fields are corn and alialia. He keeps a herd of thoroughbred mane cattle and in ordinary years from forty to eighty head of hogs.
Mr. Dimanoski is one of these good managers who never fail to pros- per and accumulate a competency and is destined to be one of the leading farmers of the community. Both he and his wife are industrious people. good neighbors and citizens.
DANIEL M. BOURNE.
The subject of this sketch. 1). M. Bourne, is a native of Massachusetts. born in South Dartmouth, a village on Buzzard's bay, in 1847. His father was an old sea captain of New Bedford. Massachusetts. and spent twenty- eight years of his hfe on the briny deep: went on ship as cabin boy and worked himself ap to captain. At the time of the gold excitement of 1849. he. with twenty-five others fitted up a vessel of which he was captain and sailed to California: sold their ship and engaged in mining. In 1851, he emigrated to Wisconsin and settled on a farm in Calumet county. where he died in 1895.
D. M. Bourne's mother was born on the island of Nantucket, and she was a lineal descendant of John Smith, who came on the Mayflower. Her
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HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
father was a seafaring man and operated a mackerel and cod fishing vessel. His fishing vessel was captured and taken by the British in the war of 1812. They selected his vessel from among many others because it was new, and took it in tow. The sailors pursued the British and when close upon them the British set fire to the vessel and turned it loose. Mr. Bourne's mother died in Wisconsin. Our subject is one of nine children, six of whom are living. Mr. Bourne was married in 1875, and in the autumn of 1876 emigrated to Kansas and bought the relinquishment of the Benjamin Billingsly home- stead, the farm where he now lives, which is one of the best in the county. He leit Wisconsin with nine hundred dollars ; paid six hundred dollars for the clum and two hundred dollars for a team. He now has a half section of land in Meredith and Lyon townships and one hundred and sixty acres of land near El Reno, Oklahoma. His Kansas farm is in a high state of im- provement : an imposing residence of nine rooms ; in 1898, he built a commo- dious barn. His chief industry has been raising wheat.
Mrs. Bourne, before her marriage was Amelia Spencer, of Calumet county, Wisconsin, where she was a teacher for several years. She is a daughter of Richard Spencer, one of the early settlers of Calumet county who came from Ireland to Wisconsin when he was nineteen years of age. and where he died in 1883, at the age of sixty-five years. Her mother was Sarth Thurston, a sister of C. W. Thurston of Delphos. She died Novem- ber 14, 1883 at the age of fifty years.
To Mr. and Mrs. Bourne seven children have been born, all of whom are highly intellectual and educated. Their sons are manly boys of good habits. Leona, is the wife of H. E. Conway, a farmer and nurseryman of El Reno county. Oklahoma. They are the parents of two children, Bessie, aged three, and Walter, aged two years. Mrs. Conway was a Cloud county teacher for several years. Harry, interested with his father on the farm. graduated in 1901, from the Manhattan Agricultural College. Bessie, now in her fourth year at the Agricultural College of Manhattan where she is taking a general course. Richard, in his third year at Manhattan. is talented in music and drawing. He is local editor of the Student's Herald, a weekly paper issued for and by the students of the College. Gordon is also a student in his first year at the same institution. Bertie and Essie, aged nine and three years, respectively. The boys work at home during the sum- mer months putting in wheat, etc. and in the autumn return to Manhattan.
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