USA > Kansas > Woodson County > History of Allen and Woodson counties, Kansas > Part 19
USA > Kansas > Allen County > History of Allen and Woodson counties, Kansas > Part 19
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Robison Lent grew up, from seven years of age, in Kansas. The
WOODSON COUNTIES, KANSAS.
ffamily came into Bourbon county in 1861 and remained there twenty years. He received a country school education and was thrown upon his own resources at about sixteen years of age. He was a wage earner by the month for some time but farmed rented land as his first independent venture. Grain raising, with some stock as supplementary, is his forte and he is regarded as one of the reliable, trustworthy and liberal citizens of Marmaton township.
Mr. Lent was married in Bourbon county, Kansas, November 1, 1877. to Miss Belle West, a daughter of James R. West, a well-to-do and well known farmer of that county. The latter was a pioneer to Bourbon county and located there from the state of Arkansas. Mr. and Mrs. Lent's chil- ·dren are James Chester, Charles Walter, Bert Robison, Estella Jane, Thomas Homer, Orlie Belle, John Franklin and Clyde Leroy Lent.
The Lent political history is somewhat mixed. Our subject's father was a Democrat but his posterity are republican. A son, John W. Lent, served in the 5th Kansas, Company K, and died after two years of service during the war of the Rebellion. Robison Lent has no interest in politics beyond that of a citizen. A membership on the East Maple Grove school board comprises his record of office-holding.
C KORWIN B. KEITH, one of the old settlers of Marmaton township and a citizen who has performed an honorable part in the development of Moran and vicinity, came into Allen county in 1869 and located in Iola. He associated himself with Cyrus M. Simpson and engaged in mercantile pursuits. For ten years he was a citizen of the county seat and when he removed it was to locate in Gilfillan, Bourbon county, where his chief interests were for another ten years. His interests in Gilfillan were with the famous stone quarries there and while that notable place was the scene of his business activities his residence was, in the main, in Fort Scott.
In November 1892 Mr. Keith came to Moran. He opened a grain, coal and feed store and has since conducted that business. The ownership of a good farm in addition to the possession of an established business in Moran identifies him with the affairs of Allen county, permanently. Before coming to Kansas Mr. Keith resided in Ogle county, Illinois. He went into that county with his parents in 1853 from his birthplace, Huron county, Ohio. He grew up in Ogle county and obtained his education in the country schools and in Rock River Seminary at Mount Morris, Illinois. His father was Carlos Keith and his grandfather was Caleb Keith, both of whom were natives of the state of Vermont and went into Ohio as pioneers. The Keith ancestry were among the first settlers of New England. One of them, Rev. Jas. Keith, was the first minister of the town of Bridgewater, Massachusetts. He married Susanna D. Edson.
Carlos Keith, father of the subject of this review, died in Iola in 1872 at the age of seventy-five years. His marriage with Elvira Pond was pro-
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ductive of five children of whom Corwin B. is the fifth. The latter was born July 24, 1841. The other survivors are Carl P. Keith, of Moran, and Elvira, wife of J. T. Rhoades, of Vermont.
August 2, 1862, Corwin B. Keith enlisted in Company A. Second Illinois Cavalry and was detailed as Gen. Ord's escort and latter as Gen. Logan's escort. He was in the battles of Tallehachie, Willow Springs and the regiment took part in the campaign about Vicksburg and was after- ward sent across into Louisiana and up Red River. Mr. Keith was dis- charged from the service in March 1863. He took up farming upon his return to Ogle county, Illinois, and remained in that vocation till his departure for Kansas.
Mr. Keith was married first at Mound City, Kansas, in 1870 to Miss Ella Morse, who died in 1874. December 19, 1899, he was again married to Mary Businger, of Bowlusville, Ohio. No children resulted from either marriage.
The Keiths of the olden time were Whigs. Those of the present are Republicans. For his political conviction Corwin B. is especially known and while he is not in the active work of the party he is at all times interested in its success.
JOHN C. WOODIN .- Connected with the industrial interests of Allen county, Mr. Woodin is engaged in the manufacture of brooms in Iola, having followed this enterprise during the greater part of an active business career. He was born in Painesville, Ohio, December 29, 1844, his parents being J. H. and Rachel (Hitchcock) Woodin. The father was born in New Haven, Connecticut, in 18r, and in that city spent his boyhood days, the grandfather there following the blacksmith's trade. The latter died when his son was only thirteen years of age, at which time J. H. Woodin was practically thrown upon his own resources. In 1828, at tlie age of seventeen he removed to Ohio, in company with his brother-in-law, George Mygatt, an architect, under whose direction he learned the trade of a carpenter. In the spring of 1847, Mr. Woodin went to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he was employed as a journeyman, and also worked in the machine shops of that city until 1853, when he removed to Peoria county, Illinois, making his home upon a farm there until 1866, when he came to Allen county, Kansas. He took up his abode in the western part of Jola township, and there died in 1892. He was married in 1834, in Painesville, Ohio, to Rachel Hitchcock, who was born in New York, in 1811, a daughter of James Hitchcock, a Methodist minister, who removed from the Empire State to Ohio. Mrs. Woodin died in Kansas in 1891. By her marriage she became the mother of two sons and three daughters: James L., who died in Iola in 1895, and was an ex-sheriff of Allen county; Mrs. Mary E. Hurt, of Farmington, Illinois; J. C., of this review; Eliza-
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beth, deceased, wife of William Best, of Neosho Falls, Kansas; and Frances J., deceased, wife of Robert Works, of Humboldt, Kansas.
J. C. Woodin was reared on the home farm. Through the winter months he pursued his education in the district schools, and in the summer months he followed the plow and assisted in the work of the harvest fields. After he had attained his majority he began farming and stock raising on his own account, but later turned his attention to the manufacture of brooms, which business he is still following. As the output of his factory is of a superior grade he receives a liberal patronage and is therefore enjoy- ing a good income.
On the 23rd of December, 1874, Mr. Woodin married Miss Kate Mccullough, who was born in Waterproof, Louisiana, March 18, 1856. Her father, William McCullough, was a native of Ireland, and emigrated to the United Stated in 1846. In 1848 he was married in Rondout, New York, to Jane Duncan, also a native of the Emerald Isle. With his family he removed from New York to Indiana, where he followed the brick mason's trade. For a time he resided in Louisiana, engaging in the same business, but on account of his union sentiments he was compelled to leave there at the time of the Civil war, making his way to Texas. and thence to. Mexico, where he took passage on a sailing vessel for New York. From the last named place he went with his family to Illinois and subsequently to Kansas City, where he resided for about twenty years, when, hoping to benefit his health by a change of climate he came to Allen county. Here his death occurred in 1891. Mr. and Mrs. Woodin have become the parents of three sons and two daughters: William J., Fred, Anna, James and Lettie, who are still under the parental root.
AMES COLLINS STRONG, son of the late Dr. Henry Strong, of Moran, came to Allen County in 1874, and located upon section 25, al- most adjoining the town of Moran. He was the eldest son of Dr. Strong, who brought his family to Kansas in order that he might the better locate themn and establish them more advantageonsly about him. The latter made the selection of their future home and upon this he resided until the family home was broken up by the death of his wife.
Dr. Strong was one of the characters of Allen County. He was a gentleman of learning and of much force and foresight. He was one of the old-time practitioners and his life, from first to last was an open book for the inspection of all. He was northern by birth but somewhat southern by environment and training. Many years of his life as a young physician were passed in the heart of what afterward became the Southern Confeder- acy and it was but natural that he should absorb many of the habits and customs of the southern people. He left the South, though, before the questions which almost severed the Union came to be agitated with fatal seriousness and returned to live with the people and institutions of the North.
Dr. Henry Strong was born in the state of New York, October 9, 1811,
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and was prepared for his profession in the Louisville, Kentucky, Medical College. He was a son of Rev. Henry Pierce Strong and a grandson of Adonijah Strong. Rev. Henry Strong was born February 2, 1785, and married November 16, 1810, to Laura Clark, who was born at Danbury, Connecticut. Rev. Strong was a graduate from Yale College, and of Andover Theological Seminary.
Dr. Henry Strong was one of a family of eight children. He began life at Buffalo, New York, and about 1833 went to Cold Springs, Miss., to locate. He remained there about twenty years (from 1833 to 1853) and returned north to Rockford, Illinois. He felt that the South was a poor place in which to rear a family and this impelled him to desert it. He spent the years from 1853 to 1874 in Winnebago County, Illinois, and arrived in Allen County, Kansas, December 4, 1874. He brought with him three sons and four daughters, all of whom survive.
Dr. Strong was first married June, 1835, to Phebe Pomeroy, of Lyons, New York. She died at Cold Springs. Miss., in June, 1845, and May 12, 1847, he married Eloiza Collins, of Adams County, that State. March 29, 1862, Eloiza Strong died at Rockford, Illinois, and he was married the third time at Rockford, 1867, to Silina Davis an English lady. The doctor's . children are: Henry (the child of his first wife), Mary C., wife of Peter J. McGlashan, of Moran; James C., born December 24, 1849; William T .; Sarah O., wife of J. E. Montgomery, of Iola; Joshua Newton, of Des Moines, Ia .; Eloiza C., wife of G. M. Nelson, of Iola; Martha E., wife of C. M. Richards, of Iola, Kansas; Mrs. Caroline C. Millard, residing in Iola.
During the Rebellion the people of Rockford, Illinois, sent Dr. Strong to the front to care for the Illinois, and more especially the Rockford troops sick and wounded on the field. He went to the Bull Run battle ground and there plunged into the work of dressing wounds, working over the operating table, until all the wounded were cared for. He was made surgeon of the 74th Illinois, but was superseded by a young doctor who was seeking an opportunity to gain experience at the expense of the men. He was appointed surgeon of the goth Illinois, an Irish regiment, and re- maitied with it till the war closed, He was in twenty-two engagements, or under fire twenty -two times while in the performance of his duties. He let nothing interfere with the full and complete performance of that duty which contributed to the comfort of the sick and wounded. At the battle of Missionary Ridge he worked seventy-two hours dressing wounds, wear- ing out every other surgeon.
In politics the Doctor was originally a Democrat. During the war he was a firm friend of Lincoln, and after that trouble had passed away he became a potent factor in the moulding of local Democratic sentiment. In belief he was a Christian gentleman and was identified with the Presby- terian church, being one of the elders of the Moran congregation. He died at the home of his son, William T. Strong, July 5, 1898.
James C. Strong passed his youth and early manhood in Winnebago county, Illinois. His has been a life of devotion to the farm and he owns
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one of the attractive and productive places in Marmaton township. His career in Allen county has been an honorable, though uneventful one and the demands of the farm and field have occupied his time.
Mr. Strong was married at New Milford, Illinois, November 11, 1875, to Elizabeth L .. a daughter of John S. Watson, an early settler there and an Englishman. The children of this marriage are: Edith Eloiza, born June 6, 1878; Walter James, born January 18, 1883; and Curtis Henry, born October 30, 18,0, Mrs. Strong was born February 21, 1850, and is the second of four children: Eva, wife of George Skinner, of Winnebago county, Illinois: Robert S. Watson, of Chicago, and George A. Watson, of New Milford, Illinois.
Mr. Strong is a rock ribbed Democrat, has served a term as township clerk, treasurer of the township four terms and treasurer of the school district eleven years.
O BED KERR, of Marmaton township, Allen county, who has passed his score of years in the county, located upon a piece of raw prairie in the fall of 1878, his location being the south-west quarter of section 9, township 25, range 20. It was included in the "Peck" land and conse- quently, his title was never disputed by the League. It was well on toward winter when Mr. Kerr drove his mule team, a cow and two calves onto the spot which is now his home and started a camp. The ten dollars which he brought with him was unequal to the task of providing shelter for the family and he mortgaged his team in Humboldt to buy the lumber for his 14x16 shanty, ten feet high. A hard winter came on and the little mansion proved little more than a good wind-break, for it filled with snow as regularly as it fell.
He started farming with sowing eight acres of wheat which harvested only fifty-one bushels and it came at a time when the family was needing something to eat. These hardships all passed over, the difficulties were all overcome with the lapse of time and prosperity showered its blessings upon him as had adversity in the beginning. He has more than doubled the area of his original farm, having real estate in Elm township as well as in Marmaton.
Mr. Kerr came to Kansas in 1877 and spent the first year in Marshall county. He came from Union county, Pennsylvania, in Snyder county of which state he was born January 11, 1835. The Kerrs were among the well known people of that locality and one of the old German families of the state. Our subject's father was Jacob Kerr, a farmer, a son of Chris- tian Kerr.
Jacob Kerr married Sarah Hummell, was reasonably successful in life and died in 1845 at the age of forty-four. His widow survived him more than forty-five years, dying in 1891, aged ninety years. Their children were: Leah, wife of Joseph Miller, of Northumberland county, Pennsyl-
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vania; Rachel, who married John Bere. of Union county, Pennsylvania; Kanez, of Allen county, Kansas; Obed Kerr; Jacob Kerr, who died just after coming out of the army; Sarah, who is Mrs. Joseph Miller, residing in Pennsyvania; Elizabeth, deceased; Susan, widow of Isaac Keyser, of Northlumberland county, Pennsylvania; Catherine, wife of Theodore Fegley, of Harvey county, Kansas, and Christian Kerr, of Benton county, Arkansas.
Being orphaned by the death of his father Obed Kerr was forced to "work out" very early in lite and at the age of fifteen years went to live with an uncle. He learned the carpenter trade with him and worked at it about five years. In addition to his country school advantages he put in a full year in a graded school. He was granted license to teach and did engage in that work several winters and clerked in a store at Mount Carmel in summer. He finally became a partner in the business and remained so for twenty years. When the crash came after the war the firm failed and Mr. Kerr suffered severe financial reverses. The two years succeeding his forced retirement from the counter, and prior to his advent to Kansas, he spent on a farm and he reached Marshall county, Kansas, with funds enough to provide for the wants of his family till a crop could be raised.
December 20, 1860, Mr. Kerr was married to Mary Heiser, a daughter of David Heiser. The children of this union are: Walter A. Kerr; Arie. Claire and Willis Kerr. The Kerrs are Republicans in politics and our subject has been one of the active and enthusiastic party men in Allen county.
S AMUEL MILES KNOX was born in Juniata county, Pennsylvania, November 11, 1826. The son of a farmer, his boyhood was spent after the usual fashion of American farm boys,-working hard during the long summer and going to school in the short winter. His first money was earned at the age of ten, when for three months he built the school house fires every morning for one dollar. He lias earned a good many dollars since then, but never one that gave him more satisfaction. The progress made in his studies is shown by the fact that at the age of seven teen he was employed by the school directors as assistant teacher,-at the munificent salary of four dollars a month ! The spring following he entered the Tuscarora Academy, and the next fall he secured a position as teacher at a salary of $18.00 a month,-boarding himself. Determined to secure an education if possible, he continued for two years to attend the Academy in summers, paying his way there by the money saved from the meager salary paid him as a teacher during the winter. From the Academy he went into the office of a physician and for two years gave all the time he could spare from the school teaching by which he earned his living to the study of medicine. After two years of this study he gave up
Am. Knop
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the idea of becoming a physician and for three years thereafter he was engaged in the business of selling books, especially German and English History of the United States, selling more of the German than of the English edition. Through the accident of being obliged to accept grain in payment of some debts owed to him by the farmers of the neighborhood, he was drawn into the lumber and grain business, which he followed success- fully for two years at Wyant a small station in Bureau county, Illinois, of which village he was the first postmaster. Abandoning his mercantile business he went to Princeton, Illinois, and began the study of law in the office of Milton T. Peters, a leading attorney of that section, and after the proper preparation was admitted to the bar. In 1860 he was made the Democratic candidate for Representative in the Legislature, but went down with his party in the election that followed. In spite of an adverse party majority he was elected county Judge of his county the following year and served in that capacity four years. Soon after his retirement from this office he made an extended tour of Europe. Returning from this trip his attention was attracted to the cheap lands then being placed upon the market by the western railroads, and he bought several of the tracts that he still owns in Allen county, Kansas. Becoming acquainted through these purchases with the managers of some of the land grant railroads he was engaged for the next several years as their agent for the sale of their lands, serving with marked success in this capacity the L. L. & G., the M. K. & T., the C. B. & Q., and the Union Pacific. His longest service in this line was with the Union Pacific with which he remained as Land and -Passenger Agent until 1897. Retiring from this employment he took up his permanent residence in Allen county and is now engaged on a large scale in the farming and stock business in Salem township.
This is the simple story, as briefly as it can be told, of a successful career, won without any outside help, through the sheer force of pluck, industry and character. To begin as a mere boy, to educate one's self, to win an honored place in a learned profession, to make one's force felt in great corporations, to amass a modest but sufficient fortune, and then to have sense enough, while yet hale and hearty to settle down to enjoy the fruits of his labor, -- that is a record any man may be pardoned for being proud of.
Like most Americans, Judge Knox knows but little of his ancestry. His grandfather, Hugh Knox, was born in Scotland in 1758, emigrated to America, settled in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, moved to Danville, New York, then to Ashtabula county, Ohio, where he died in 1851. His father, John Knox, was born January 6, 1789, in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and was a farmer by occupation. He served as a cavalry- man in the war of 1812, and died November 25, 1858, in Princeton, Illi- nois. His mother, Eunice Pauling, was born November 12, 1794, in Philadelphia and died July 12, 1858, in Princeton, Illinois. She was descended from one of the Quaker families who came to America with the Penn colony. Several of Judge Knox' maternal ancestors were soldiers in the Revolutionary war, one of them, Samuel Pauling, being with Wash-
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ington during the memorable winter of 1777-8 at Valley Forge, and later at the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.
On the 31st of December, 1854, Mr. Knox was united in marriage to Miss Hannan H. Weaver, of Allentown, Pennsylvania. Unto them have been born two sons and three danghters, four yet living: Anson H., who married Annie Dewey Whipple and who is now engaged in farming near Sheffield, Illinois; Mary K., wife of Justus Massillon Stevens, of Prince- ton, Illinois; Ada L , who resides with her parents; Samuel F., a practic- ing attorney of Chicago, Illinois, who married Edith Brown, of London, England. The children have been provided with very superior educational privileges, the two daughters completing their education in the languages in Dresden and Paris.
In his political views Judge Knox has been a life-long Democrat, is strongly in favor of the double standard of currency and had the honor of being a delegate to the national silver convention in 1896, which nominated William J. Bryan for president of the United States. He is a gentleman of broad general information, liberal in his views, and acts upon his con- victions. He is one of the most public spirited and enterprising citizens of Allen county. In 1856 he became a member of the Masonic fraternity and has taken all the degrees in blue lodge, chapter, council, commandery and Scottish rite branches of Free Masonry and held office in all the bodies. In his life, however, he exemplifies the spirit of mutual helpfulness and forbearance which forms the basic element of the craft. His has been an honorable career. He has never made engagements that he has not ful- filled nor incurred obligations he has not met. He is at all times straight- forward and reliable and stands as a representative of our highest type of American manhood.
D R. A. L. DORNBERGH .- Time has all but annihilated the pioneers of Kansas. The passing of years has thinned their ranks until there is only here and there one. In Allen county they are so rare as to become an object, almost, of curiosity. To have spent more than forty years in Kansas seems, at first thought, an improbability. Two score of years takes us so far out onto the frontier that it seems scarcely the abode of the white man. Yet it was and A. L. Dornbergh was among the number. He came here from Lockport, New York, as a young miller in 1859, remained in Humboldt a short time and having secured a claim near Humboldt proceded to build a house and moved thereon. His family consisted of self, wife and two sons and stepson H. D. Smith. It was with every expectation of turning the claim into a farm that he took possession of it, but in this he was disappointed, for in 1860 came the drouth, then 1861 ushered in the war which stopped all improvements. He entered the service as First Lieutenant of the Allen County Guards. This company with those of Woodson and Wilson counties was organized in the southern division and
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was called the 7th Regiment. Dr. Dornbergh was made Captain of his company September 3d, 1861. February 2nd, 1864, he received a commis- sion with the rank of Major and Aid de-camp on Major-General John B. Scott's staff. He was out almost from the beginning of hostilities till the end of the contest. He served on the border between Missouri and Kansas and saw and participated in much of the hard field work of the west. After the war Dr. Dornbergh was elected Probate Judge of Allen county where he served three terms consecutively of two years each, John Francis being his deputy. Retiring he devoted himself to the cultivation and improve- ment of his claim. He proceeded to plant forty acres of it to fruit and had about the first bearing orchard on the prairie. His fruit was the best qual- ity and was appreciated by his neighbors and friends toward whom he showed a spirit of liberality.
Dr. Dornbergh was a homeopathist, practicing in his own family before coming to Kansas, and when he took up the practice in this State, soon gained by his success and faithfulness such a large business that everything else was given up to that field of usefulness. Having spent nearly thirty- five years in medicine he retired from its general practice.
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