USA > Kansas > Woodson County > History of Allen and Woodson counties, Kansas > Part 21
USA > Kansas > Allen County > History of Allen and Woodson counties, Kansas > Part 21
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Previous to this time, Jerome W. Delaplain, on the 16th of May, 1866, had married Sue F. Gifford, who was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and whose parents were of English and German descent. Jerome Dela-
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plain and his wife came with the family to Allen County and purchased of Oliver Redfern the south west quarter of section five, township twenty-five. range nineteen, then a part of Iola township, of which James McDonald was trustee. Houses were few and far between and were scattered along the streams. Prairie fires were frequent and often destructive, much time being consumed in guarding against and fighting them. The blanketed Indian still hunted over the prairies and sometimes would get the deer the Delaplain boys were after. Soon, however, the country became more thickly settled with the white people, who purchased farin lands of specu- lators, railroad companies or of other settlers. The Pickells, Ohlfests, Monforts, Frinks, Johnsons, Crowells, Ports, Renisbergs and others came.
During the period of these arrivals petitions, at first unavailing, began to find their way to the county commissioners asking for the establishment of a new township. Finally, as the result of the earnest effort of Mr. Pickell, the petitions were granted. At the Jacob Sikes school house on Elm Creek, a half mile north of the present site of the Allen Center school house, a general gathering of the voters was held. John Woolems, a Dem- ocrat, was nominated for trustee and J. W. Delaplain, a Republican, for township treasurer, but the latter did not like the idea of a fusion ticket, and at a consultation which was held it was decided to cut loose from the fusion movement and put a straight Republican ticket in the field. Ac- cordingly notices were posted for a primary of Republican voters at the old log schoolhouse on the Riley farm about three-fourths of a mile east of the I. N. Port corner. At that primary J. W. Delaplain, refusing any place on the ticket, his father, J. P. Delaplain, was nominated for trustee, J. L. Arnold for treasurer and Alvin Harris for clerk. They were all elected and Mr. Delaplain served for two terms in that office and one term as jus- tice of the peace. In 1874 Jerome Delaplain was appointed township treasurer to fill out the unexpired term of George Hopkins and by re-elec- tion held the office for eight years, when he refused to again become a candidate.
The subject of this review passed through the usual experiences of pioneer life, The house which stood on his one hundred and sixty acre farm was a log structure, sixteen by sixteen feet, with rough board doors and one small window, while a spiit board roof was held in place with the weight of rocks and poles. Between the rough boards of the floor rattle- snakes sometimes made their way into the cabin, and the first winter a small, striped perfumed cat got in. The large rock fireplace in one end of the room, together with a cook stove in the center of the room, did not prevent the young wife's feet from getting badly frosted. Such were the hardships of pioneer life in Kansas! Times were very hard. On one oc- casion they were eating their last loaf of bread, not knowing how or where to get more, yet it came without calling for "aid."
Mr. Delaplain's mother, now eighty-three years of age, yet resides with him. Unto him and his wife, while they were living in the old cabin, a son was born, May 15, 1869, to whom they gave the name of Charles W.
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He llved to young manhood and then died. Another son, Alfred G. Dela- plain, was born December 5, 1874. In March 1891, Jerome W. Delaplain purchased thirty-one and a fourth acres of land near Iola, now in Brooklyn Park, and moved from Elm to Iola township that the children, Alfred and the adopted daughter, Nellie, now Mrs. C. D. Eakin, of Gas City, might have the advantages of the Iola schools. There he resided for six years, and about the time of the beginning of Iola's prosperity he sold his prop- erty at an advance and, crossing East street, purchased the Chatfield prop- erty, little dreaming that it would ever be a part of the new city of Iola.
During the last three years of the great rebellion, J. W., E. W. and J. B. Delaplain served their country as enlisted members of Company D, One Hundred and Twenty-Second Illinois Infantry, which formed a part of the Sixteenth Army Corps, which marched, starved, feasted and fought according to the fortunes of war and all the time loyally promoted the cause of the Union. While a resident of Elm townphip J. W. Delaplain was a worker for the Republican party, often serving on central committees or as a delegate to the different conventions of county or district. He was prom- inent in the school work of his district and altogether has held rather more than man's share of the minor offices of district or township-a fact which indicates his high standing among his fellowmen.
B ARTHOLOMEW A. LONGSTRETH, one of the substantial and representative farmers and early settlers of Deer Creek township, came into Allen County, Kansas, October 2, 1869, and became a permanent settler. He purchased the northeast quarter of section 21, township 23, range 19, one of the "settled" places, with log cabin (fit only for firewood) in which he was glad to make his home. Looking about for the settlers who were here then, Adam Maier. David Funkhouser, Al Weatherman, Thos. Day and William Wise are all gone. Liztown, then a trading point near thr county line, has long since passed out of existence and the new towns of Colony and Lone Elm have profited by its demise.
Settling the frontier was no new business to Mr. Longstreth for he had passed some years in the wilds of Kansas before the Civil war and was familiar with the hardships and trials incident thereto. Upon coming of age he journeyed into Wisconsin and from that State across into Leaven- worth County, Kansas, on an exploring "voyage." It was 1857 when he went to Leavenworth and an opportunity to join a party of surveyors pre- sented itself and he accepted it. Kansas was then being sectionized by the government and the party to whom he belonged did the work of running off the lines and setting the corners up the Smoky Hill River almost to its head, and to the Nebraska State line. D. L. Lakin, of Alabama, had charge of this party and our subject aeted as chainman. The latter was out among the buffaloes and coyotes from July to December, in the per-
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formerance of his duties, and communing with nature in her homely garb. In 1858-9 and 1860 Mr. Longstreth was engaged as a farm hand or in get- ting out logs and lumber around Leavenworth. Following this he re- turned to Ohio and was married and engaged in farming. Upon his return to Kansas with his family he camne by train to Ottawa where he provided himself with implements, furniture and other effects necessary to supply a cabin and to cultivate a small farm and paid $20 to have it all freighted down to David Funkhouser's near Carlyle. He took possession of his farn and began his third of a century of successful cultivation of Allen County soil.
B. A. Longstreth was born in Muskingum County, Ohio, August 10, 1834. He is a son of Philip Longstreth, born in Pennsylvania, settled in Ohio as a boy and died in Muskingum County in 1886 at the age of eighty-three years. His father. Philip Longstreth, went into Ohio in the first years of the 19th century and opened a farm in the Muskingum valley.
Our subject's mother was Anna Giger, still living at eighty-seven years of age. Her children are: Bartholomew A .; Catharine, wife of Philip Vance, of Morgan County, Ohio; Daniel Longstreth, of Muskingum, County; Mary Ann, who resides in Zanesville, Ohio; Julia, wife of Mr. Shreir, and Priscilla, wife of Mr. Clager, both of Muskingum County, and James Longstreth.
Mr. Longstreth acquired little education. He was the oldest child and he was looked to to help clear the farm. He applied himself faithfully in the aid of his parents till his twenty-first year when he started on the western trip which brought him his frontier experience. In August, 1863, he was married to Lorena Stoneburner, a daughter of Israel Stoneburner and Miss Busch, the latter of whom crossed the Atlantic from Germany. Mrs. Longstreth was born in Ohio and is the mother of the following chil- dren: Anna, wife of C. H. Wilson, County Surveyor of Noble County, Ohio; Laura, wite of C. E. Walters, of Colony, Kansas; Frank; Fred, of Anderson County, Kansas, who married Clara Delp, and Della and Floy Longstreth, in the family home.
The interested searcher for the political history of the Longstreths will find the early ones Democrats. B. A. Longstreth espoused that faith until his advent to Kansas. His observation of matters political, then, caused him to change front on the two great parties and he has since voted and worked with the Republicans. Mr. Longstreth's applied industry for nearly a third of a century in Allen County has brought its reward. The raising of grain and stock and the investment of his surplus in real estate has expanded his acres and makes him the owner of one of the most de- sirable stock farms and feeding-grounds on the creek. His record as a citizen has kept pace with that as a farmer. He enjoys the confidence of a wide circle of friends by whom he is regarded as an honorable, public- spirited and successful citizen.
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W ILLIAM J. RUMBLE, one of the well known farmers and stock men of Marmaton township, came to Allen county January 13,
1882. His location was upon section 35, township 24, range 20, one of the first class tracts of land in Allen county and of which he owns the north- west quarter. As a resident of Kansas he has been engaged extensively in the beef cattle business and is widely known as a feeder and furnisher of butchers stuff. For sixteen years he was proprietor of a meat market in Moran, a business which he conducted as an adjunct to his other and reg- ular business of supplying beef cattle to butchers. Since his retirement from the "block" the management and cultivation of this farm and of the north half of section 10, same township, have required much of his per- sonal supervision. During the year of 1900 he handled about 500 head of fat cattle and as a feeder his herd numbers into the hundreds of head.
Mr. Rumbel was born in Schuykill county, Pennsylvania, December IO, 1864. He was educated in the country schools, and learned the butchers trade in his youth. He is a son of Joshua Rumbel, of Moran, who was also born in Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, April 28, 1832. He is a grandson of Henry Rumbel, a farmer, born in Montgomery couuty, Pennsylvania. The latter followed lumbering, farming and kind- red businesses, and was successful. He moved into Schuylkill county at eleven years of age with his father, Jake or John Rumbel. Henry Rumbel died in the county of Schuylkill in 1875 at the age of sixty-nine years. He married Salane Andress and their children were: Henry, Rebecca, Daniel, Joshua, John P., Jacob and . Mary, wife of G. T. Reber, of Berks county, Pennsylvania.
Joshua Rumbel grew up on his father's Schuylkill county farm and was educated in German in the country schools, but picked up an English education. He began life as a farmer and lumber manufacturer and con- ducted a large business and acquired some wealth. He disposed of his interests in the east and came to Kansas and invested in lands and stock. He was one of the organizers of the Moran Bank and was connected with its affairs till its failure in 1898.
Joshua Rumbel was married first in 1853 to Louisa Singley who died from the effects of an injury at the hands of the Kansas and Pacific Rail- road Company. Their children are Albert H., of Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania; Josiah, of Parsons, Kansas; Lawrence, of Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania; William J., our subject; Mary A., deceased; Richard, de- ceased, and Emma N., wife of C. R. Richard, of Greensboro, Maryland.
William J. Rumbel was married in Allen county. Kansas, November 9, 1886, to Dessie M. Keith, a daughter of C. P. Keith. Their children are Neta, Vernie and Oliver.
From the earliest time the Rumbels have been Democrats. The rare departure was when Joshua Rumbel supported Abraham Lincoln for President. Our subject was schooled in the principles of Democracy and has kept the faith. He is one of the active party leaders and conventions of the "opposition" without his presence, are rare indeed.
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HISTORY OF ALLEN AND
G EORGE MANVILLE BROWN was born in Otsego, New York, on the 9th day of January, 1813. He lived on a farm until he was thirteen years old. At that time his parents moved out to the western part of the state and he went to live with a brother, supporting himself and at- tending school. His school work was prosecuted with such vigor and success that at the early age of seventeen he became a teacher, an avoca- tion which he followed for upwards of thirty years. In 1857 he left New York and came to Kansas, locating in Geneva township, Allen county, where for ten years he farmed the land now occupied by Mr. B. O. Miller. In 1871 he was elected Register of Deeds and removed to Iola which has ever since been his home. He held the office four years, and then after a vacation of two years, he was again elected and served four years more. Since retiring form office the last time he has not been actively engaged in business but has devoted his time to managing the property he had ac- quired. Mr. Brown was married at the age af twenty-two to Miss Caroline Griswold, deceased, of Bath, New York. Five children have sprung from this union, of whom but two, Mrs. D. D. Spicer, of Geneva, and Miss Flora Brown, are still living.
During the long years he has been a resident of Iola and Allen county Mr. Brown has had the unqualified confidence of all who knew him. And during the later years of his life, this confidence deepened into affection. He was an honest man, who feared God and loved his neighbor and did his duty; and he had his reward in a serene and cheerful old age and in the love of troops of friends. No man was ever more ready for the great change, and few men have left behind them a more fragrant memory.
W ILLIAM BUCHANAN, among the representative citizens of Iola, is a son of Irish parents, Robert and Mary A. (Craig) Buchanan. The latter came to the United States in 1811 and chose Kentucky as their place of residence. Bourbon county became their permanent home and in that municipality he plied his trade of coverlet weaver. He went into Rush county, Indiana, and took a "claim" in the Rushville swamps. He died at Riddles Mills, Kentucky, in 1827 at about forty years of age. His wife died in Rush county, Indiana. Seven of their children grew to be men and women, viz: Mary, who died in Larned Kansas, was the wife of Joseph David; John, who died in California in 1849; James, who died at Garnett, Kansas, in 1890; William; Robert, who died, also, at Garnett, Kansas; Samuel, who died at Welda, Kansas; Jennie, wife of William W. Innis, of Rushville, Indiana.
William Buchanan was born in Fayette county, Kentucky, in 1820. He spent the first seventeen years of his life in Kentucky doing farm labor in the fields with the blacks at twelve and a half cents a day. He got as little education, in a school house, as it was possible for a boy to get and he was convinced early in life that his hands would be his capital. When
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he went into the beech woods of Indiana and grubbed and chopped in the clearing he got ten dollars a month for his labor. By this means he man- aged to get together an ox team with which, in 1842, he crossed the prairies to the new state of Iowa. He decided to settle with the Sac and Fox Indians at Princeton, in Kislikekosh county, afterwards Albia, Monroe county. This he did finally and remained in that state
thirty years. Mr. Buchanan quit farming ultimately and engaged in the dry goods and grocery business in the same town. He purchased the only flouring mill in the city of Albia and operated it twelve years. This period covered the Civil war era and many were the soldiers' widows and soldiers' wives who were the recipients of his benefactions. He disposed of his Iowa interests in 1866 and came to Allen county the next year. He located in Iola and engaged in the manufacture of furniture. His factory was located on the lot just north of the Presbyterian church and he oper- ated it two years. He erected the first fine house in the city of Iola and was just prepared to enjoy life when financial reverses overtook him and he was left nearly penniless. He started again, with his raw steers, renting a piece of grub land on the river. He raised his first crop on supplies pur- chased on time,-corn one dollar a bushel. After his second marriage he located on the tract north of Iola, where he lived so long, and continued to repair his financial losses.
Mr. Buchanan was married first, in 1842, to Mary A. Stephenson. She died in 1869 and in 1872 he married Harriet M., a daughter of Stark Edwards. The Edwards were originally from Connecticut, but more re- cently from Cleveland, Ohio. Mrs. Buchanan was one of the early teachers of Iola and she died here in February 1897. Her only heir is Don C. Buchanan, one of Iola's young business men. He is married to Mary E. Dugan.
William Buchanaa's first children are: George, a soldier, who died in 1867; Melissa, relict of W. Morgan Hartman, of Iola; Jessie, wife of W. J. Evans, of Iola; Maggie, who married H. H. Funk and resides in Iola; John Buchanan, who married Cynthia Zinc and left a family, at death, in Bourbon county, Kansas.
Mr. Buchanan's first presidential vote was cast for Willian H. Har- rison. He remained with the Whigs until it merged into the Republican party and he has since been a loyal and constant supporter of it.
E LLERSLIE W. TREGO-Men who change business in middle life are, as a rule, in the same predicament as the men who swapped horses while crossing a stream. Rarely do men, after their business habits are formed and their success in a given line demonstrated, change the course of their training without handicapping themselves or meeting with serious and and positive reverses. Especielly is this true where the successful farmer deserts his post and embarks in the mercantile business. Ellerslie W.
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Trego was a successful farmer in Ailen County for many years. When anything was accomplished on the farm in his county he deserved credit for a part of it. His industry and tenacity overcame difficulties that would have defeated a less determined soul and as the years went by he found himself climbing steadily up the ladder of success. But he was not doing as well as he wished. He was ambitious to accomplish more and in a different line. In his case "old man well enough" was not good enough and his old quality of determination prompted him to change his business. There seemed an opening in Humboldt for a hardware business, in addi- tion to the two already established there. Merchandising is directly oppo- site in business principles to that of farming and this few farmers readily realize. Mr. Trego must have discovered this for his entrance upon it was signaled with success from the start. He purchased the small stock of C L. Rice who was doing a fair business with a new stock, and engaged in business in December, 1898. To the surprise of his farmer friends Mr. Trego attracted business. Each quarter showed an increase over the pre- ceding one and each year a greater volume of business than the one before. It was soon discovered that E. W. Trego was not only a successful farmer but that he was a successful merchant as well. He even surpassed, in substantial earnings, his achievements upon the farm maintaining the same good credit and the same business integrity that characterized him as a farmer.
E. W. Trego was born in Bucks County. Pennsylvania, July 4, 1861. He is a son of the late Dr. Albert Trego who came to Allen County in 1878 and settled upon a farm in Salem township. The family started to Kansas from Mercer County, Illinois, but set out for the west from Bucks County, Pennsylvania. For many years the Tregos were identified with the Keystone State, Lewis Trego, our subjecs's grandfather, being born therein.
Dr. Albert Trego was born in 1826. He was liberally educated. prac- ticed medicine from his farm in Allen County and died June 6, 1893. He was a man of good address, with an intellect well balanced and well in- formed and was one of the leading men of Allen County. He was an active Republican for many years and his name was mentioned in connection with the nomination for the State Legislature He married Mary Etta Linton, who survives him. Their six children were: Ellerslie W., Albert, of Leadville, Colorado; Anna, wife of Mahlon Trego, of Harvey County, Kansas, and Mrs. Minnie Kirk, of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, surviving. Two are deceased.
E. W. Trego was educated in the common schools. His life, until his entry into the mercantile business, was entirely rural, where he learned and practiced the principles of industry. He conducted the farm operations in Salem township twenty years and took up his residence in Humboldt to be near his business. He was married July 19, 1885, to Mary E. Yeager, daughter of Champ C. Yeager, of Allen County, whose ancestors were iden- tified with Shelby County, Kentucky, but were originally from Madison County, Virginia. Mrs. Trego was a successful teacher in Allen County
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many years and was one of a family of three surviving children. Mr. and Mrs. Trego's children are: Willis A., Edward C., Homer, Linton L. and Elma.
As a citizen of Allen County Ellerslie Trego is one of the best. He inherited a desire to be in politics and he has permitted no opportunity to pass for its gratification. Until the reform wave swept over Kansas he was a Republican, as staunch as the most unyielding, but his opinions on pub- lic questions changed in 1891 and he joined forces with the Peoples party. He was elected trustee of his township four times and was the nominee for County Clerk on the Populist ticket in 1893 and made the race against James Wakefield. He has been one of the chief advisors of his party, in county matters, during many campaigns.
JOHN MANBECK-Pennsylvania has furnished Allen and other coun- ties of Kansas with many sturdy and industrious citizens whose efforts have added much toward the development of the State and in few instances, in Allen County, has such citizenship been more conspicuously apparent than in that of John Manbeck, of Marmaton township. It is scarce twenty years since he settled his family upon the northeast quarter of section 9, town 25, range 20, then a piece of unbroken prairie, and now his is one of the attractive, homelike and productive farms in the county. Mr. Man- beck was not enjoying a great degree of financial independence when he came to Kansas and he paid the railroad for his land in installments. At a time when he was nearing the plane of independence and was well ahead of his pursuers in the race of life, fire destroyed his barn and contents and struck him a paralizing blow. His horses, mules and his swine have thrived to aid him in retrieving these losses and he has replaced the build- ings with larger ones than before.
Mr. Manbeck was born in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, March 13, 1855. His father, Enoch Manbeck, was a thrifty and successful farm- er, born in the same county in 1820 and died there in 1896. The latter was a soldier in the Civil war, in a Pennsylvania regiment, while his son, Lucien, saw much hard service in the campaign around Richmond, was at the blowing-up of the Petersburg miile and, being captured, was impris- oned at Salisbury, North Carolina. Enoch Manbeck was the great-grand- son of an Irishman who settled in Pennsylvania among the Germans and lost thereby the identity of his nationality.
Enoch Manbeck married Harriet Straus, who still survives. Their children were: Lucien Manbeck, of Pennsylvania; Emma, wife of Franz Seltzer, of Pennsylvania; William Manbeck, of the home county; Charles, deceased; John Manbeck; Barbara, wife of Samuel Miller; James, deceased; Mary, wife of George Horn and Ida, who married George Seidle, of Schuylkill County.
John Manbeck worked with his father till his majority. He was
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placed on a monthly salary then for a year at ten and fifteen dollars a month and the second year he rented land and did his own managing. He farmed on "the halves" three years and was then induced to visit the west. He was so impressed with the situation in Allen County, Kansas, that he bought his land and moved his family hither soon thereafter.
Mr. Manbeck was maried in 1876 to Mary Dreibeldeis, a daughter of Daniel Dreibeldeis. The Dreibeldeis children are: Charles, Frank and Irwin Dreibeldeis, of Marion County, Iowa; Tessie, wife of William Irvin, of Moran, and Aaron Dreibeldeis, of Kansas City, Missouri.
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