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 74
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The village now consists of a store of general merchandise operated by A. E. Danderand, and one of the best equipped blacksmith shops in the county, owned by E. N. Burgeson. ( see sketch. )
In 1893 a church was erected by the Methodist Episcopal society at a cost of one thousand one hundred dollars. The congregation was organized a year prior. The church was built by a subscription and a donation from the church extension board. The Macyville school is one mile north of the town. Mr. Macy made the entry, and furnished money to pay for the ground which the district refunded him later.
Some dozen years ago there were three stores in Macyville and the little town did a flourishing business, as Mr. Macy's books show sales of over two hundred dollars in one day. Including all who received their mail there, the village numbered in its palmy days two hundred inhabitants. The location is a beautiful one and a fine view of the country is had for many miles around.
THE SUMMITT FREE BAPTIST CHURCH.
The society of the Summitt Free Baptist church was organized in 1882 by Reverend I. T. Bradbury. a venerable and worthy man, and held their services alternately with the Methodist Episcopal society in the High- land Methodist Episcopal church which stood on the same site of the present edifice and was built in 1876-7 by the Methodist Episcopal society.
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The first pastor was George Winterburn. The church was built by the people of Summitt township, the ground donated by D. M. Stockton, a member of the Baptist society. These two societies worshiped alternately until 1893, when the Methodist Episcopal church people sold to the Baptists and erected their church at Macyville.
The Baptists tore down the old building and in the autumn of 1893. built and dedicated a church at a cost of $2.000 The aisles and pulpit are carpeted, seated with modern pews at a cost of $200, and the church is a credit to the country, being better than many in the smaller towns. There is a basement where societies and socials meet.
They have a cemetery adjacent to the church ground. also donated by D. M. Stockton. The body of Miss Amanda Canticld was the first to be interred there. The cemetery is kept in good condition and surrounded by a woven wire fence.
The first pastor of the Sunimitt Free Baptist church was E. ... Phillips, who resided in the township. The first influential pastor was B. F. Zeil, of Marion, Ohio, an active and zealous worker. Reverend W. P. Van Wormer also did good work. Under the pastorage of J. B. MeMinn. of Tamarora, Illinois, a wonderful revival work was done. He was in charge two and one-half years.
The Sunday-school has been an important factor in the church work. Last year they had a membership of one hundred and twenty-cight. with M. A. Stockton as superintendent. Deacons are J. S. Abbey. Winfield Tufts and M. A. Stockton. The present pastor is Reverend B. Haines. entering upon his first year. The church has never been without a pastor since its organization. They have ninety resident members, and one hundred and twenty including non-residents.
The church has had several important revivals when from fifteen to fifty additions were made. The Woman's Missionary Society was organ- ized in 1887, with Mrs. N. L. Abbey. president. They have raised about $1,200, which has been used largely in furnishing the church, and have paid from $50 to $75 towards the pastor's salary. To Mrs. Abbey much credit is due for her active work in the church society. They have a Church Endeavor which was established in 1893, of about thirty active and associate members.
GEORGE W. MACY.
Among the early farmers who still remain on their original homestead is G. W. Macy, the venerable landmark and founder of the little hamlet of Macyville, who traces his lineage back to the Mayflower. Mr. Macy is a native of North Carolina, born in ISI9. lle is a son of Asa and Hannah (Stanley) Macy, both of whom were born on the Island of Nantucket. The Macys were of Quaker origin and left England their native land. where they were oppressed, and sought liberty in America : settling on Nan-
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tucket Island. In 1780, they joined a larger body of Friends who came over from England and settled in North Carolina, among whom were the Stanleys, his maternal ancestors, who were also adherents to the Quaker faith.
This family of Stanleys were a branch of State Superintendent Stan- ley's and Governor Stanley's ancestors. Mr. Macy's maternal grandmother was a Worth. The Macy ancestors for two generations lie buried in the ancient Deep River cemetery of North Carolina.
Mr. Macy retained the Quaker principles instilled into him from infancy and did not enter the service of the United States at the breaking out of hostilities in 1861. During this year he was enroute to Kansas, but owing to the turbulent times stopped in Indiana. In 1863, he again started for the "Sunflower" state, but the war was waging fiercely and they were mak- ing things "hot" up and down the Mississippi. When the Macys arrived in Keokuk they met recruiting officers who declared a willingness to make it safe for them to travel through the country, and they journeyed overland to Syra- cuse, Nebraska, where Mr. Macy procured a homestead and farmed until 1871.
In the meantime he had not given up his longings and intentions of emigrating to the fair land of Kansas to secure homesteads for his children. and accordingly disposed of his Nebraska land and on April 24. 1871, ate dinner on the ground he afterwards homesteaded. Mr Macy had two brothers-in-law who had visited this country in 1858, and their glowing description of Kansas inspired him with zeal to come. He took a pre- emption claim which he held for his son. A. N., until he became of age. His other son. A. F., had attained his majority and secured an adjoining claim: and a son-in-law. the late John Beesley, located land in the same locality.
Mr. Macy was married in 1842 to Lydia Gordon, a native of North Caro- lina. and a daughter of John Gordon whose ancestors were from the High- lands of Scotland. The Gordons were also non-combatants in Revolution- ary days and during the Rebellion, for they were also of the denomination of Friends. Her paternal grandfather was beaten on the head by the Tories and had three ribs broken, while they were trying to compel him to enter the ranks of the Revolutionary service, but he was a Quaker, remain- ing firm in his faith and refused to go. John Gordon died in 1846. His wife died in 18.44 They lived in North Carolina all through the war and received harsh treatment from both sides. Mrs. Macy's parents are both buried in Deep River cemetery.
To Mr. and Mrs. Macy five children have been born, three of whom are living: Asa Franklin. Alfred Newton and Mary Jane, widow of John Beesley. Mr. Macy cast his first vote for William Henry Harrison, a Whig; he has since voted the Republican ticket. He has served as justice of the peace. He is member of the Society of Friends at North Branch, just beyond the Jewell county line.
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Mrs. Macy who had been his constant companion through life ched in 1881, and Mr. Macy lives with his children.
Asa F. Macy. the eldest son of G. W. Macy, is a carpenter. farmer, and stockman, living on his original homestead adjoining his father's. Ile was married in 1874. the memorable grasshopper year. to Clara 1. Gilliland. Her father was James Gilliland, who came to Kansas in 1872. from Missouri, and settled in Republic county near Wayne, where he died in 1874. Her mother died in 1900. She had lived with Mrs. Macy more than twenty years.
Mr. and Mrs. A. F. Macy are the parents of five children, Bert E., who farms with his father; Mary Edna, wife of H. C. Moore, a farmer one mile east of Macyville; Avis, wife of George Dildline, a farmer one mile north of Macyville; and two little sons, Emery and Eeverett. A. F. Macy is a Republican in politics and was the nominee of his party for commissioner against Peter Hansen in 1892. He has been clerk of the school board in district number fifty-one for twenty years and township clerk for three years. He and his family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church.
Alfred N. Macy, the youngest son, owns one hundred and sixty acres of land on the original town site of Macyville. He was married in 1884. to Laura Rushton, one of the estimable daughters of Enos Rushton (sce sketch). To this union five children have been born, four of whom are living: Roy E. (deceased), Irena J .. Jessie O .. George H. and Oliver H., aged fourteen, thirteen, eleven and eight years respectively.
The Macys, both A. F. and A. N .. are progressive. industrious and representative farmers of the Macyville community.
JOHN BEESLEY.
One of the most prominent farmers and stockmen of Summit town- ship was the late John Beesley, a native of Montgomery county, Indiana. born in 1847. He came with his parents to Missouri in 1855. and shortly afterwards located in Alba, Iowa, where his father died in 1861. In the spring of 1862, though but fifteen years of age. Mr. Beesley enlisted in the eleventh Missouri Calvary. He was not old enough to enlist for active service. so he entered the ranks as a bugler, and was known to his comrades as the "bugler boy."
He carried a saber, gun and revolvers and was chief bugler of the regiment until 1865, when he was mustered out at New Orleans, Mr. Beesley was wounded in the left hand, his horse was killed under him, and he was captured and paroled five days later. His hand was not dressed until he returned to the ranks at Duvall's Bluff. Arkansas. Mr. Beesley ex- perienced many close calls and carried eleven bullet scars on his person (none of which caused serious wounds) and had four horses shot from under him. He was under the command of General Steele. When he applied for his pen-
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HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
sion in 1881. Doctor Slade, the physician who dressed his hand, wrote to know, "if he was the little boy whose hand he had dressed."
After the war Mr. Beesley returned to a sister in lowa and soon after entered upon a freighting expedition across the plains, a business he followed for three years, through Colorado, Arizona and Wyoming as far as Fort Bridger. For a period of five years there were few nights that he slept under shelter.
In the spring of 1860, he visited Nebraska City where he met and married Mary Jane Macy, of Syracuse, Nebraska, a daughter of G. W. Macy ( see sketch) -. They came to Kansas with her father's family in 18;1. and landed on the ground which they afterward homesteaded. April twenty-fourth. Their nearest neighbor was four miles distant. A re- union was held by the Macy family twenty-five years from that day, and there were twenty five Macys present-one for each year. There had been . but one death in the meantime of the original settlers, the wife and mother, Mrs. G. W. Macy.
Mr. Beesley advocated the principles of Prohibition, was an active member of the Free Baptist church, and superintendent of the Sabbath- school at the time of his death, September 14. 1901. He was a gentleman of high Christian character and a director of the church for years. To Mr. anl Mrs. Beesley nine children have been born, eight of whom are living, viz: Dell. wife of Alvin Hart, a farmer near Jennings, Oklahoma ; Lydia C., wife of Alva Taylor, a farmer with residence in Glasco; David F., Fred N., and Harvey are all farmers living in the vicinity of Macyville; Josie V., a young lady of sixteen years, and John L. and Thomas Macy, aged twelve and eight years respectively.
Mr. Beesley was the youngest member of the Concordia W. T. Sher- man Post, Grand Army of the Republic. Seventeen of the members of this body attended his funeral.
JOSEPH GUIPRE.
Joseph Guipre, one of the enterprising sons of Andrew Guipre, is rec- ognized as one of the most successful farmers and stockmen in Summit town- ship. In 1881. he purchased the Mrs. Andrew Collins homestead which he has improved, built a handsome residence and commodious basement barn. His land is a producer of large yields of corn. In 1889. he had a total of 6.600 bushels from a field of one hundred acres. He has some fine graded stock among his herd which ranges from forty to fifty head of cattle. The Guipres, like most of the Kansas farmers, have acquired their money rais- ing cattle and hogs.
Mrs. Guipre, a lady of culture and refinement, was Olive, one of the estimable daughters of the late Enos Rushton, who was known to almost every Cloud county citizen. One little son gladdens their home: Enos, the namesake of his grandfather. aged eleven years. Mr. and Mrs. Andrew
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Guipre are members of the Catholic church and all of their sons have been baptized in that faith. Politically they are Republicans. As citizens, they rank among the best families of the community.
JOHN S. ABBEY.
J. S. Abbey, the subject of this sketch, came to Cloud county in 1877. and settled in Summit township where he is familiar with each feature of progress made during his existence there. Mr. Abbey's experiences have been varied and numerous. He is a very interesting narrator of "war ro- mance" and takes great pride in relating them. He and his excellent wite have proved themselves to be people essential to the success and prosperity of the vicinity in which they reside. They are foremost in every worthy cause or enterprise that tends to the advancement of their community.
Mr. Abbey was a native of Lake county. Ohio, President Garfield's birthplace, born in 1839. He is a son of William and Sarah ( Wallace) Abbey. His father was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1807. His mother was also born on English soil. Her birth was in 1803. They were the par- ents of two sons at the time they crossed the water, the eldest of whom died while enroute to America and was buried at sea. They emigrated to AAmer- ica and settled on a farm in Lake county, Ohio. In 1841, they emigrated to Nebraska, and settled in Salem where he died in 1881. Of the family of eight children there are but four living, one sister in Fairmont, Nebraska and one in Warren, Illinois and a brother in Falls City. Nebraska.
Mr. Abbey had just attained his majority when the call for men to pro- tect the stars and stripes was made and he was among the first to respond. HIe hastily repaired to Chicago, where he enlisted in Company A, Fourth Illinois Cavalry, in 1861, serving three years and three months. His com- pany won honors and distinction as General Grant's escort. They joined his forces at Cairo, remaining with him until Vicksburg was taken, and then went to Meridian, Mississippi and back to Vicksburg and up the Red river with General .A. J. Smith. They were on detached service the greater part of the three years. President Garfield was on General Rosecran's staff and Mr. Abbey was one of the orderlies who carried despatches from Grant to Rosecrans. Mr. AAbbey was at Holly Springs, Mississippi when General Forrest marched in. Mr. Abbey experienced a wild and dangerous ride of seventy-five miles. He started just as old "Sol" was sinking to rest and arrived at the pickets of General Sherman's ranks just as the sun arose above the horizon. He demanded an audience with General Grant but was refused until he could prove his identity, and then was made the hero of the hour, for he was prostrated from fatigue and the excitement occasioned by mivet- ing a band of guerrillas twelve miles ont from General Grant's quarters, who began a fusilade of firing on sight, but the brave orderly put the spurs to his horse-a fine animal of the French-Canadian breed-and as they pur- sited him the twelve miles the bullets whizzed near and all around hmmm, but
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HISTORY OF CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS.
he kept running and gained the packets unharmed but completely overcome physically.
After the war Mr. Abbey returned to his home. married and settled on a farm in Nebraska near Salem, where he lived until coming to Kansas in 1877. When he bought the J. I. Stevens homestead, one of the oldest claims in the township. The improvements have all been made by Mr. Abbey.
Mrs. Abbey vas Miss N. I. Tisdal. a daughter of Thomas A. Tisdal. who was a drover in an extensive way in a time when shipping facilities were very different from the present age The Tisdale were early settlers in Connecticut from Scotland. The original name which she has on a receipt dated 1800, is Antisdal, but was changed during her grandfather's time to Fiscal.
Peres Antival of Scotland came across the water early in the last cen- tury. He was stolen when twelve years old by a family of wealthy people and brought to America. They settled at Norwich, Connecticut where he married Mary Armstrong. She died in the year 1808, and lacked but one week of having lived a century. Phoebe Tisdal. Mrs. Abbey's great-grand- nie ther attended her funeral. She also lived to be almost a centenarian. The children of Peres and Mary, were Phimens, Lawrence, Silas and Dorcas. Plimens married, lived and died at Willington, Connecticut, His son Ches- te . moved to Ohio, where he died at middle age, leaving three sons. Luc- Jen, James and Martim, who lived in St. Joseph, Michigan, where their families still reside. Silas Amisdal, a brother of Plimens (Mrs. Abbey's great grandfather ) lived at Willington, Connecticut, and with his wife Betluah, and their son, Curtis and Silas and one daughter, Betluah, emi- grated to what was then called New Connecticut, the western reserve of Ohio, where they bought land and when Buffalo. New York was their nearest milling point.
This was in the beginning of the war of 1812, and they endured many hardship- on the way. It was a great undertaking to make such a journey in those days as northern Ohio, now so densely settled was then one vast forest. The roads were made by blazing trees. They emigrated into this country with two wagons, one drawn by horses and the other by oxen. Upon reaching Lake Erie, they traveled over the ice to their destination, Madison, Ohio. It required the entire winter to make the journey from Connecticut.
Silas Antisdal died September 13. 1817. and his wife in . 1824. They were both buried at Madison, Oho, where there is a large cemetery about half of whose dead are Mrs. Abbey's ancestors. They had nine children. Mrs. Abbey's grandfather was the eldest child. Curtis Antisdal, who changed the name to Tisdal, came to Ohio with his father. He was born in 1779. He was married in 1800, and he with his wife. Sarah Parker, lived at Willington, Connecticut and removed to Ohio in 1812. where he died in 1837. and his wife in 1865. Both lie buried in the cemetery at Madison, Ohio.
Mrs. Abbey's father. Thomas, was one of their seven children born at
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Willington, Connecticut, September 13. 1809, and was married to Marie Stowe of Astabula, Ohio, in 1833. She died March 24, 1837, leaving one child. Harriet, wife of J. W. Leverett of Griesel, Missouri, where they are both retired from a career as educators. In May, of 1842. Thomas Tisdal was married to Lois Day Gill, who died ten years later at the age of thirty- three years leaving five daughters, all of whom are living. Mrs. Abbey's father was a prominent man of Lake county, Ohio: bought cattle from all over the country and drove them through to New York and other cast- ern cities. Mrs. Abbey was his favorite child, often accompanying him on his trips. His pet name for her was "Moses." He died October 5. 1852. of consumption, and the wife and mother died twenty-nine days later. The daughters are Nancy Louise (Mrs. Abbey), who was educated in the Wil- loughby College, Ohio, and was a teacher for six years: Mary Elizabeth, wife of D. L. Wyman of Paynesville, Ohio: Sarah Parker, widow of II. C. Jennings, of Salem, Nebraska: Phoebe Ellen, widow of II. Q. Storer and Emma Lois, wife of J. J. Watchter, a merchant of Verdon, Nebraska.
To Mr. and Mrs. AAbbey have been born five children : Don Wyman. married Clara Coen and they are the parents of four children, two of whom are living : Fred Almond aged nine and Oscar Tisdal, aged three. He is a prosperous farmer of Summit township. Sarah Lois, wife of C. A. De- Long, an extensive farmer of Osborne comity, where he owns four hundred acies of land. They are the parents of two children: Myrtle Leola, aged seven, and Jessie May, aged one and one-half years. William Herman Abbey, the second son, is a giant in proportion, standing six feet, six inches, in height. He is a postal clerk on the Missouri Pacific Railroad from Atch- ison to Stockton, is married to Myrtle E. Kingston and resides in Atchi- son. Fred Wallace, married Ida Belle Thompson and they are the parents of two children, Howard Soule and Walter Wallace, aged four, and one and one- half years, respectively. Jessie Ellen is the wife of Byron Wheeler, a far- mer living near Concordia. They are the parents of one child, an infant. Ruby Margurite. Both of these daughters, Jessie Ellen and Sarah Lois, are talented in music and intellectual women.
Mr. Abbey is a staunch Republican. Ile is a member of the Scotts ville Grand Army of the Republic. The Abbeys are members, ardent work- ers and pillars of the Summit Free Baptist church organization, which owes much of its prosperity to their ardent interest. They have a neat and com- modions farm residence where this estimable couple will in all probability spend their declining years.
GABRIEL CRUM.
Gabriel Crum, the subject of this sketch, landed in Cloud county in the year 1878, with fifty cents in his pocket and with a family that consisted of a wife who was ill and two small daughters, Effie and Iattic. He traded a horse for the improvements, and eighty acres of land, an uninhabitable
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dugout, belonging to Miss Manigan. He homesteaded the land and at once proceeded to build some sort of an abode. He earned the ridge log and poles for the roof by the primitive mode of exchanging work and in this case he labored seven days. After his house was built they did not possess an article of furniture to begin housekeeping on. Hle bought a stove on credit, also a bill of groceries ; hung on to his fifty cents like grim death and came home feeling like a king, one of the happiest events of his life. Soon after getting settled in their dugout they were deluged with rain. The water came up to the railing of their homemade bedsteads and they were completely flooded. When the water subsided they were, figurativly speaking, sunk in mud.
These are a few of the many hardships Mr. Crum and his worthy fam- ily endured during their early residence in Kansas. A threshing machine came into the community. The men who contemplated buying were inex- perienced and could not operate it. Mr. Dobbs, the agent who was selling them the machine, not having had much experience in adjusting machinery could not figure out the difficulty. Knowing Mr. Crum had worked in that capacity he sought him out and offered him twenty-five dollars to put the thresher in operation. Mr. Crum was overwhelmed by the munificent offer and arffirms that it sounded louder to him than the heaviest peal of thunder he had ever heard. He set about to solve the problem and found the sieve had been put in upside down. He adjusted matters quickly and set the wheels and belts in motion. Agent Dobbs was so overjoyed that his pros- pective sale was not cut short by the machine refusing to work, took Mr. Crum around behind the thresher and thrust thirty dollars into his hand in- stead of twenty-five dollars. Imagine the smile that enveloped Mr. Crum's countenance as he shoved his wealth deep down into the pockets of his panta- loons. They then considered his services indispensible and offered him two dollars per day, full time, wet or dry, and he worked for them one hundred and twenty-three days. This was where Mr. Crum got his start.
Mr. Crum is a native of Ohio, born in 1844. When one year of age his parents moved to Wabash county, Indiana, where they both died of lung fever, leaving two sons, himself, aged five and a brother one and a half years. They found a home with a family named Crasher and when twelve years old drifted into Illinois with a family by the name of Fox. The two boys remained together and both enlisted in the Thirty-ninth Illinois Regi- ment, Company B. which became one of the most famous that entered the Potomac valley.
They were in this company two years and eight months and then en- listed in the Eighth Illinois Cavalry, Company M. He was mustered out at St. Louis in June. 1865, having served the entire term. His brother, Will- iam, was killed at the first day's battle of Gettysburg, at the youthful age of nineteen years. He enlisted at the age of sixteen. That he might not be rejected he put eighteen in his hat and nineteen in his shoe and remarked that he was between eighteen and nineteen1. William was among the captured and
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