USA > Kansas > Woodson County > History of Allen and Woodson counties, Kansas > Part 15
USA > Kansas > Allen County > History of Allen and Woodson counties, Kansas > Part 15
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104
Mr. Hall then completed his arrangements for a home by his marriage to Miss Florence Larnbie, in 1875. Their children are: Lottie, wife of Joseph Reynolds; Nettie, Mary, George and Grace, who are still with their parents. For eleven years after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Hall resided in Michigan, but in 1884 became residents of Denver, Colorado, where he carried on business as a contractor and builder until 1893, the year of his arrival in Allen county, Kansas.
In Allen county Mr. Hall purchased a farm of eighty acres in Cottage Grove township, five miles south-east of Humboldt, and has erected upon it a nice residence, a good barn and many other improvements found upon a farm of the twentieth century. Depending entirely upon his own re- sources he has worked his way upward, brooking no obstacles that could be overcome by determined purpose and honorable labor. This has been the strongest factor in his success. While residing in Denver he was appointed city inspector and held that position for four years. For seven years he was chairman of the county central committee, and has always taken an active part in political work, doing everything in his power to promote the growth and insure the success of the party in which he firmly believes.
D UNCAN-Among the settlers of Allen County who located along the Neosho River in the early seventies and who has maintained his home here since is James P. Duncan, ex-Register of Deeds of his adopted county. In November, 1870, he drove his teams and a small bunch of cattle onto
128
HISTORY OF ALLEN AND
the premises of Wm. L. Zink, three miles northwest of Humboldt, where he made his first but temporary home. He resided in this portion of old Humboldt township till 1881, serving one-half of this time as Trustee of the township, when he removed to Humboldt and it was from this latter point that he was appointed, by the Board of County Commissioners, Reg - ister of Deeds to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Jesse Fast. In this position he served nearly seven years, or until January, 1890.
The subject of this review left the wooded country of Indiana in 1865 and made his residence respectively in Cooper County, Missouri, Douglas County, Kansas, and in Grundy County, Missouri, before his arrival in Allen County, as above stated. He was born in Putnam County, Indiana, March 22, 1840, was reared "in the clearing," and "niggering off logs" and burning brush formed a goodly share of his youthful occupation. He was three times enlisted in the Civil war, first in the 78th Indiana Volun- teers; second, in the 115th Indiana Volunteers, Colonel Hahn, and third. in the 11th Indiana Volunteers, Colonel Lew Wallace. He served in an humble capacity "with the boys" and when his services were no longer needed he was discharged and returned home.
October 24, 1858, occurred the marriage of the subject of this review. His wife was nee Mary Ellen Bailey, a notice of whose ancestry will appear farther on in this article. Eight children resulted from this union, viz: Annie, who died at one year old; Lew Wallace; Nora C. and Dora C , twins, born November 3, 1863. The former married Orlando P. Rose at Humboldt, Kansas, June 19, 1883, died October 29, 1884, leaving a son, Ora D. Rose, of Kansas City, Missouri; Dora C. married the husband of her sister, Or- lando P. Rose, and resides in Kansas City, Missouri; Horace Otho, who died October 30, 1886, at nineteen years of age; J. Edgar, who died in April, 1873 at four years of age; Harry Evert, born December 24, 1871, is practicing dentistry in Humboldt, Kansas and M. Agnes, born February 28, 1874, married Ernest L. Brown and died July 22, 1898, leaving two dangli- ters, Nita and Lois.
In an effort to trace up the Duncan genealogy, as in every other like effort, it will be necessary to bring in the names of heads ot families remote from the subject hereof, but as this volume is devoted in a measure to the preserving of records along these lines, for the satisfaction and enlighten- ment of their posterity, none of the family names will be omitted from this record whose strain can be shown to have effected the subject hereof or his posterity.
The earliest record of the Duncans of this strain, finds them located in the counties of Culpepper and Fauquier, Virginia. Out subject's great grandfather was one of two men, Charles or William Duncan, whose father, it is believed, was the Scotch ancestor who was responsible for the estab- lishment of one branch of this American family. Three children of this doubtful ancestor referred to above are known to have survived. as follows: Henry, the grandfather of James P. Duncan, Charles, who reared a family in Missouri, and a daughter who married a Covington, after whom the city of Covington, Kentucky, was named. Henry Duncan was born about
129
WOODSON COUNTIES, KANSAS.
1780, and during the last decade of the 18th century migrated to Bath County, Kentucky, where, about 1803 he married Polly Combs. Their children were: Matilda, who married Coleman Covington, her cousin, and a woolen manufacturer; James, father of our subject, born in 1806; Margaret; Miranda, who became the wife of William Barnett; Hiram, Jep- tha, Grauvil and George. Henry Duncan died in Cooper County, Missouri, where some of his sons reared families.
James Duncan, father of our subject, was married in Kentucky to Aunie Proctor, a daughter of James B. and Elizabeth Proctor. The last named married a daughter of an old well-to-do planter, Valentine and Elizabetlı (Hicks) Tudor, of Madison County. Kentucky, and went up into Indiana about 1830, and settled in Boone County. His sons-in-law James Duncan, David Hedge and John Blackburn all passed their lives between North Salem and Lebanon and in that section the venerable couple lived honorable Christian lives and died. The children of James and Annie ( Proctor) Duncan were: Mary, who married William Woodard, left two children at death, Leonidas E. A,, and Froncy: Coleman C., who resides in Clay City, Indiana, married Lizzie Glenn and reared Dr. Walter C .; William, May and Franka; Dr. William, who died without heirs just after the war; Annie, wife of Champ C. Yeager, of Allen County, Kansas, is the mother of three surviving children, James L., of Oregon, Mary E., wife of E. W. Trego, of Allen County, Kansas, and Fancis M., of St. Joseph, Missouri; James P. Duncan, our subject; Miranda, wife of Andrew J. Stephens, of Rich Hill, Missouri, with issue as follows: James, Dillon, Annie L. and William; George W. Duncan, who married Nan Davis, has two children, Elmer, of Colorado, and Mrs. Luin Davis, of North Salem, Indiana; John W., who married Betty Owen and died near Humboldt, Kansas, February, 1898, leaving Pheres, Mrs. Frelia Stewart, Emmert, of the Indian Territory, Mrs. Thella Booe, of Indiana, Bertha, Buhlon and Olin; Almanda (Duncan) Ray, deceased, left five children in Indiana; Nancy Duncan, who married John Gosnold, of Kansas City, has four chil- dren: Laura, Bessie, Edna, and Nina; Kittie Duncan, deceased, wife of William Long, left four children near Holden, Missonri. James Duncan's first wife died in 1855 and a few years later he married Mrs. Amanda Dean, who bore him Ruth, Belle, Elmer and Della, twins, Charles and Minerva. James Duncan and his sons were in the main, farmers. He was one of the old line Whigs of Putnam County, Indiana, and became a Republican upon the organization of that party. His sons were all patriots during the Rebellion and three of them rendered active service in the army. He passed away in 1885 in North Salem and is buried at Maysville, Indiana.
Lew Wallace Duncan, second child of our subject, was born near North Salem, Indiana, June 22, 1861. His mother was a daughter of Zachariah Bailey, who was born in Kentucky in 1812 and was married to Eliza Frame. The father was a son of William Bailey, who was born March 6, 1784, and who married Margaret Green, born in 1790. Their children were; Lucretia, born in 1810, married Hiram Mitchell, and spent her life in Indiana; Zacharialı, born January 5, 1812, and died in Topeka,
130
HISTORY OF ALLEN AND
Kansas, July 7, 1889; John T., born Dec. 14, 1813, and died at Augusta. Kansas, and Chas. W., born January 24, 1816. William Bailey died about 1816, and his widow married Moses Vice, four years his wife's junior. The children of the latter union were: Maliala, Winey, Sallie Ann, Moses, Alafair and Nancy G. Matilda J. Zachariah Bailey reared his family in Indiana and in Johnson and Butler counties, Kansas. His twelve children were: John W .; killed at Winchester, Virginia; Mary E. who married our subject and died in Iola, Kansas, January 25, 1893, was born April 14, 1841; Sallie Ann (Bailey ) Welch, born August 2, 1843, died at Lawrence, Kansas, September 11, 1870; William F., born August 24, 1845, served three years in the 11th Indiana Volunteers during the Rebellion, resides in Topeka; Asbury H., born August 27, 1847, resides in Topeka; James M., born March 25, 1850, lives in Topeka, was married to Emma Clark and has a son Arthur; Lucretia M., deceased, married Chris Pickerell and left children: Hattie Fellows of Griswold, Iowa, and George. Lorenzo A. Bai- ley, of Colorado Springs, married Mary McCartney. He was born June 21, 1854. Matilda J. ( Bailey) Nordine, born November 3, 1856, has two sons and resides in Topeka; Zachariah C. Bailey, deceased, born May 17, 1859, was married to Florence Hart and left six children in Oklahoma; Eliza Charlotte (Bailey) Simcock, born January 20, 1862, resides in Topeka and has four children, and Phebe Alice, who died single. L. W. Duncan of this sketch, was reared in Allen County, educated at the Kansas State Normal school, taught school for a time, made abstracts of title two years in Allen County, was with a surveying party on the resurvey of the Utah Central Railway in the spring of 1890, spent the fall of the same year on the flax inspection force of the Chicago Board of Trade and in August 1891, joined the Lewis Publishing Company, of Chicago, and was in their em- ploy in various parts of the United States for nine years. In 1900 he engaged in the business of publishing histories. June 22, 1887, he was married to Annie M., a daughter of Benjamin and Fredrica (Zeigler) Keyser, Maryland settlers who came into Allen County in 1881. Mr. and Mrs. Duncan's children are: Edna L., born May 25, 1888; Alfa I., born May 29, 1889: Lue W., born July 14, 1890, and Clifford Morrill, born Nov. 8, 1894.
September 20, 1893, James P. Duncan married Mrs. Margaret Swear- ingen, widow of the late well known old soldier, Joseph Swearingen, of Iola. The latter left two children, Fuller Swearingen, who served in the 20th Kansas in the Philippine Insurrection, and Miss Josie Swearingen.
JOHN W. EDWARDS, the well known farmer and speculator of La- J Harpe, Allen County, came into Allen County, permanently April 23, 1879. His native place is Kendall County, Illinois, where his birth oc- curred March 2, 1845. Thomas Edward, his father, was a Welchman. born near Liverpool in 1812, and received what was then termed a liberal
-
John W. Eduardo Mifr.
Isaac &lese.
131
WOODSON COUNTIES, KANSAS.
education. He spent several years in the mercantile business in Liver- pool and came to the United States in 1842 in search of a patch of ground that he could call his own. Passing through Chicago when it was scarcely a village and not being satisfied with the wet low land where that city now stands, he wandered forty miles farther west and selected 160 acres of land near Oswego, Kendall County, Illinois, paying $1. 25 per acre. He was married to Susan Miller in 1842 and they lived on the Oswego farm forty- four years, until the death of Mrs. Edwards in 1886, when he moved to Allen County, Kansas. Here he resided with his son, J. W. Edwards, until his death, which occurred August 12, 1891. Their children are: Sarah, wife of Er Park, of Allen County, Kansas; John W., Mary J., who married James Andrews, of Plainfield, Illinois; Evan T., deceased; Melissa, wife of R. L. Manley, of Iola, and Melinda, wife of Riley Beach, of Big Springs, Colorado
Our subject grew up on the Illinois homestead and was schooled in a country school located on his father's farm. Afterward at Clark Seminary, Aurora, Illinois, and in Bryant & Stratton's Business College, Chicago.
He started in business as a bookkeeper in a plumbing establishment in Chicago, and later became a clerk in Smith Bros. wholesale house in that city. He returned to his father's farm some time later and remained a farmer in the vicinity some five years. He went into the butcher business in Oswego, Illinois and followed it with reasonable success six years. In the spring of 1879 he moved with his family to Allen County, Kansas and settled on and improved his present farm east of LaHarpe. His success as a farmer and stock dealer in Allen County has netted him a neat profit. His farm acreage has materially increased and his investments in other lines have shown him to be a man of good business judgment. In 1896 he became interested in Iola real estate and has owned and platted three ad- ditions and is interested in the fourth, east of town on the Jeffries tract.
Mr. Edwards was married at Sandwich, Illinois, June 29, 1870, to Alice, a daughter of John Pearce, an Ohio settler. The children of this marriage are: Arthur W., who married Sarah Lawler; Luther P., who married Nel- lie Walton; Clarence O,, who married Jennie Walton, now deceased, and Roy C., who is single and still at home. Mr. and Mrs. Edwards are raising their grandson Vernon Edwards. Mr. Edwards has been trusteeand record- ing steward since the organization of the M. E. church at LaHarpe.
IS SAAC S. COE-The subject of this review is one of the characters in the settlement and development of Allen County, where he has maintained liis residence for a third of a century, and is the Republican postmaster of LaHarpe. He arrived in the county June 28, 1868, and has led a varied life of farming, trading, breeding, and the like, and his home has been
132
HISTORY OF ALLEN AND
maintained either in Marmaton or Elm townships during all these years.
The record of Isaac S. Coe is not a briet one. His life spans a mighty space of time-a record breaking era-and to undertake to present in detail his successes and reverses and the innumerable incidents which have oc- curred to influence his life is a task not the province of this article to accom- plish. To note such events as serve as milestones in his career and to present such facts of family history as are necessary to identify the American race of Coes is all that is contemplated and attempted herein.
Isaac S. Coe was born August 16, 1822, in the township of Hemp- stead, Rockland County, New York. He was a son of Samuel I. and Mary (Conklin) Coe, both natives of that County, who were the parents of twelve children, viz .: Ann, Sarah, Elizabeth, Martha, George S., Mary, Samuel S., John S., Charlotte, Harriet, Isaac S., and Jesse S., all of whom mar- ried and reared families except Charlotte. In January 1827, the mother died and fifteen years later the father was removed unto the beyond.
Our subject resided with his married sisters during his boyhood and, at times, worked with their husbands at their business as "roust-about" in a store or what not, and was deprived in a large measure of the youthful privilege of obtaining a good school training. At fifteen years of age, having tried various occupations and with no special liking for any of them, his father put him to trade with the firm of Gale, Wood & Hughes, New York City, and he was later bound to John C. Moore, a carpenter and builder, with whom he became a skilled workman. His promise of the pittance of twenty-five dollars per year for five years, the term for which he was bound, not being forthcoming, and suffering the further neglect of poor clothing and insufficient food, he terminated the agreement by summarily quitting his master. His father then gave him the remainder of his time and he engaged with the great cab and coach maker of Newark, New Jersey, Gilbert and Van Derwurken. Wood & Hughes were his next employers and with this important firm he remained many months. Work growing scarce he went back to his old home near Haverstraw, New York, and set up his first independent business-at wagon-making-on the Nyack turn- pike. This shop he opened in 1840 and an era of prosperity opened up for the young mechanic. In the spring of 1841 he married Sarah E. Felter, of Bergen County, New Jersey, a daughter of an Englishman, Alexander Felter. Selling his shop and business Mr. Coe engaged in improving a new home nearby and following market gardening and poultry raising for the New York market. In ten years he had accumulated a few hundred dollars; and, with his family, emigrated to DuPage County, Illinois. In the town of Fullersburg he associated himself with his brother, John S. Coe, a fine blacksmith, and the two built up an immense business. It was soon necessary to enlarge their shop and many men were required to do their work instead of two. In August, 1854, his wife died and our subject sold his business and, after exploring Minnesota somewhat he settled at Faribault and set up business. Again he found things to his hand and prospered for the two years he occupied the shop. Selling out he took a claim near town and undertook to farm. This venture was disastrous and
133
WOODSON COUNTIES, KANSAS.
he spent much of his accumulations before he could stop the drift. In 1859 he left Minnesota with the remuant of his family and in June, 1859, stopped at Syracuse, Missouri. He bought the Overland Stage Company's shops and immediately stepped into a large business. He prospered there and remained at the helm of a growing business till the war cloud of the Re- bellion lowered upon him and forced his retirement.
The period of the Civil war now being on Mr. Coe's first service rendered was for the telegraph company, repairing their line from Syra- cuse to Springfield, Missouri. This was a trying and dangerous job and was accomplished by himself and an assistant. This completed he was ordered to take down and coil the wire from Jefferson City to Boonville which he did without injury from the enemy and on October 4th, 1861, he enlisted in the Sigel Scouts under Captain William Smallwood and was appointed 2nd sergeant. He was detached on the 15tl and made Gen. Sigel's chief scout. In this capacity he rendered much valuable service to the Federal commanders, Lane and Lyons, in Missouri, and experienced many hardships and privations incident to this peculiar branch of service. Being under the orders of General Osterhaus and once chafing under a stretcli of idleness he asked for some duty and was ordered to report to Captain Phil Sheridan. Sheridan appointed him to be inspector of mills for a radius of twenty miles: to learn their condition, their capacity, needed repairs and the amount of grain in store. Coe's last service as a scout was about Clinton, Missouri, in the interest of the ist Iowa cavalry and as an independent scont. August 13, 1862, he enlisted in the 33rd Missouri in- fantry, commanded by Clinton B. Fiske. He was appointed drill-master of the awkward squad and later made head quartermaster-sergeant for Adjutant Halloway and was still later promoted to sergeant major of the regiment. He was promoted in the spring of 1863 to 2nd Lieutenant of Company C and after the battle of Helena was raised to Ist lieutenant for gallant and conspicuous service as gunner. He was ordered to the command of Com- pany I of the 33rd regiment and remained in that position till near the end of the war. In the regular service Mr. Coe was in the following battles and expeditions: Yazoo Pass, Helena, Ark .; White River Expedition, Mis- sissippi Expedition, storming of Ft. De Russy, La .; destruction of Ft. Rollins, battle of Pleasant Hill, Cane River, Old River Lake, West Ten- nessee Expedition, battle of Tupelo, Nashville, and march to East Port, Mississippi, where he was detached by General McArthur to organize the ambulance corps of the western division. With all his equipment and paraphernalia in readiness, in three days he was ordered to Vicksburg to reorganize the corps there, but finding no purveyor there he was ordered to take his command to New Orleans, where it was fully organized and taken on to Dauphin Island in Mobile Bay. In pursuance of orders he finally found his command in front of Ft. Spanish in time to take care of the first wounded man from the field. At the close of the incidents around Ft. Blakely the hospital corps was ordered to Selma, Alabama, and there our subject established his headquarters. His final orders were to turn over certain property to the proper officer at Selma and still other property at
I34
HISTORY OF ALLEN AND
Vicksburg to the purveyor of the department and report at Benton Barracks to be mustered out.
Returning home to Syracuse, Missouri, sick, he recuperated some time before engaging again in civil pursuits. He repaired his property, run down by destructive usage by the military forces, and undertook to re- build and re-establish himself in his old home. In 1868 he disposed of his Missouri interests and became a settler on the prairies of Allen County, Kansas.
Mr. Coe has been four times married and is now a widower. His first marriage occurred before he was twenty years of age, as has been stated, and the children of this union were: Sarah P,, Mary A., Arlena B., Ann, Jesse and Harriet E. In September, 1855, Mr. Coe married Mrs. Mary (Knapp) Bell, from whom he separated in Minnesota. In the year 1866 he married Nannie B. Tease, of Syracuse, Missouri, who died in 1868. ]n 1872 he married Mary Miller. She lived something more than ten years and again left him a widower. As a result of this sad incident Mr. Coe sold all his effects and spent some time on the road selling electric belts, medicines, notions and was engaged in this vocation when the election of 1896 occurred. With the assurance of there being a change in the post- mastership at LaHarpe, Allen County, he became a petitioner for the office and brought such influence to bear upon the department as to secure his appointment in April, 1897. He took the office the ist of May following.
In his political affiliations Mr. Coe has ever been a Republican. Since 1856 when that organization placed its first candidate in the field for presi- dent he has espoused the party principles and has modestly given its candi- date his support.
A SEPH E. WRIGHT, Assessor of the City of Iola, and for many years buyer and shipper of stock, was born in Ashtabula county, Ohio, December 15, 1840. His father, Ralph K. Wright, was a Conneaut township farmer, who was reared, lived and died in Ashtabula county, was born in Massachusetts September 5, 1803, and at the age of three years was brought to the Western Reserve. He was a son of Ralph Wright who opened out a farm in Conneaut township and died upon it about 1856 at the age of seventy-eight years. He was prosperous, thoroughly repre- sentative, a Free Soiler and then an Abolitionist. He married a Miss King and six of their eleven children lived to rear families: Ralph K., Abel K., Frank K., Sophia, wife of Seymour Stephens; Mary, wife of Conover Conover and Caroline who married Charles Simons, of Fairfield, Ohio.
Ralph King Wright was a thorough-going farmer who was born in Connecticut in 1808 and died in 1870. He married Ann Griswold and their children were: Harriet A., whose second husband was Edward Brooks. She resides in Conneaut, Ohio; Aseph Eugene; Josephine, wife of
135
WOODSON COUNTIES, KANSAS.
Luther Riplev, of Detroit, Michigan; Armena, of Detroit, is the wife of John Randall; Florence, of Couneaut, Ohio, is the wife of Lester Griswold; Vina, of Conneant. Ohio, married Forest Wellman: Electa, of Ashtabula, Ohio, wife of Alonzo Randall.
A. E. Wright secured a country school education and remained with the old home till twenty-three years of age. He earned his first money, as a youth, driving an ox team at thirty cents a day. He began life inde- pendently as a farmer, but was soon attracted to the Pennsylvania oil fields and spent a few years there with profit. In 1862 he went to Huron county, Ohio, where he devoted himself to the farm and stock till his removal to Kansas. In 1871 he came to Allen county and made per- manent settlement on a farm in Elni township. Some years later he located in Iola and engaged in the grocery business on the "Simpson corner." where the New York Store now stands. He was an Iola merchant nine years and was succeeded, in 1887, by Port brothers.
Mr. Wright engaged in the buying and shipping of stock some ten years ago. He has billed out many thousand head of both cattle and hogs and his face is a familiar one to the buyers and packers of Kansas City.
Notwithstanding Mr. Wright has been busy he has taken time to help in the political battles of Allen county. He was elected Trustee of Elm township and served three years and served in the same capacity in Iola township four years. He was elected Assessor of Iola in 1889 for a term of two years. His frequent re-elections are a sufficient guaranty of the efficiency of his public service and only once has he suffered defeat at the polls. He is one of the staunch Republicans of the county and, whether in success or defeat, he is always a Republican.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.