USA > Kansas > Woodson County > History of Allen and Woodson counties, Kansas > Part 22
USA > Kansas > Allen County > History of Allen and Woodson counties, Kansas > Part 22
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Mr. and Mrs. Manbeck's children are: Gertie, wife of Charles Collins, of Kimball, Kansas; and Neda, Annie, Ida, Clara, Dora, Edward, William, Charles and John Manbeck Jr.
For many years have the Manbecks been identified with the Evangeli- cal church. Our subject is a steward and is treasurer of the Golden Valley congregation. He is a Republican and a pronounced enemy of the doc- trines of modern Democracy.
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JOHN H. ARMEL-It is surprising what an active part young men play in the business affairs of a community, and among the leading representa- tives of commercial interests in Humboldt is John H. Armel, who was born in Aurora, Indiana, on the third of January, 1864 His father, Daniel Armel, was a native of Pennsylvania, and when a young man re- moved to the Hoosier State where he became acquainted with and married Miss Keturah Hare. In 1864 they removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, where the father became connected with the porkpacking industry, continuing in that business until 1872, when he came to Kansas and purchased a large tract of land southwest of Humboldt. In 1877 he removed his family to this State, located on his farm and engaged in the stock business, raising and shipping cattle and other stock. That enterprise continued to claim his time and attention until his life's labors were ended in death. He passed away on the 9th of January, 1893, at the age of seventy-three years, but his widow is still living in Humboldt at the age of sixty-six.
John H Armel spent the first fourteen years of his life in the State of his nativity and then accompanied his parents on their removal to Kansas. He assisted his father in business and after the latter's death assumed the management of the business. In 1895 he removed to Humboldt, where he began dealing in real estate in connection with the stock business and to the dual pursuit he now devotes his energy, managing both with ability.
In 1894 Mr. Armel was united in marriage to Miss Georgia Amos, a daughter of G. A. Amos, of Humboldt. Their marriage has been blessed with three children: Robert, Nat and Dorothy. Throughout the years of his manhood Mr. Armel has been connected with business affairs in Allen County and his capable management and keen discernment have placed him in an enviable position in commercial circles.
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J OEL MOORE O'BRIEN-The spirit of self-help is the source of all genuine worth in the indvidual and is the means of bringing to man success when he has no advantages of wealth or influenee to aid him. It illustrates what is possible to accomplish when perseverance and determina- tion form the keynote to a man's life. Depending upon his own resources, looking for no outside aid or support, J. M. O'Brien has risen from a posi- tion of comparative obscurity to a place of prominence in the commercial world, and as proprietor of a leading mercantile establishment in Hnm- boldt he is widely and favorably known.
He is numbered among thie native sons of Allen County, his birthi having occurred on a farm two miles north of Humboldt, on the roth of November, 1872. There he spent his boyhood days, working in the fields, the meadows or the garden. His education was acquired in the common schools and in the high school at Chanute, and from the latter institution he was graduated. He also attended Baker University, a two years course in commercial business, after which he gained a certificate with the signature of President Quayle attached. Going to Chanute he obtained a clerkship in a grocery store and there put to the practical test the knowledge which he had gained. He afterward accepted a position as a traveling salesman and when he had saved up five hundred dollars he began business on his own account, purchasing a small stock of groceries. From the beginning his trade steadily and constantly increased. His kind and oblig- ing manner and his honorable dealing won him a liberal support and his increasing trade forced him to secure larger quarters and increase his facili- ties. He began business in Humboldt in 1897 and is now housed in a large store building, with a stock valued at three thousand dollars. In 1899 his sales amounted to five times his stock and in 1900 to seven times that amount. His success is due to the fact that he has ever been most diligent and enter- prising; that he has always secured the benefit of the discount on bills, never allowing them to mature; and that a most straightforward business policy has been followed by him.
He has served as superintendent of the M. E. Sabbath school five years and is connected with the church as treasurer and trustee. He was president of the Fraternal Aid Association two years.
C HARLES C, THOMPSON has passed his thirty-two years in Allen County. He settled in Marmaton township, before it was estalished, and he has grown old in the citizen service in a State that has been both a surprise and a disappointment. He came to the county March 3, 1869, and found three dead claims which he proceeded to contest the title for. He re-entered them and some years after it was thought his title was surely coming to him he was notified that the Government had cancelled his claim, with other lands, in favor of the Gulf Railway Company. It was
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some years before he got this matter reversed and the land again subject to homestead entry and it was done through an act of Congress. The Kansas delegation in Congress at that time was of so little importance that it could not even get the attention of that body long enough to present a grievance of this character and matters looked desperate for a time. Finally Con- gressman Dick Yates, of Illinois, introduced a bill explaining the situation and asking for the reinstatement of the claims of actual settlers and it was done without delay. This action confirmed the belief that Mr. Thomp- son would receive patents for his land and he did without much further delav.
Mr. Thompson left Marion County. Ohio, December 8, 1868, for Kan- sas. He ran into Pleasant Hill, Missouri, by rail and remained there till spring. He purchased an ox team for $150.00 and started out in Febru- ary. through the mud, for Allen County, and reached here as above stated after inany trying and vivid circumstances. He had a supply of funds to sustain him through the first season and, as it happened, he got a crop. His faith in Kansas became more and more firmly established as each suc- ceeding year yielded its abundance and there was little to mar the family happiness and comfort till the "bug year" of 1874. With this exception there has been a constant era of material improvement in our subject's con- dition since his advent to the State. He owns one of the good farms in Marmaton township, containing 160 acres and situated in section 10, town 25, range 21, and an 80 acres in section 4.
Mr. Thompson was born in Marion County, Ohio, November 2, 1840. His father, Edward Thompson, was born in Virginia in 1802 and, in 1812, went into Kentucky with his parents. The family came north into Ohio some years afterward and six miles east of Springfield, that State, Thos. Thompson, our subject's grandfather, is buried. The latter's children were; John, Edward, Madison, who died near Lodi, Illinois; Thomas; Nancy, who married James Nephews; and Sarah, wife of Josiah Olcott.
Edward Thompson married Ellen Foose and both are buried in Ohio. Seven of their nine children grew up, viz .: Jane, wife of S. H. King, re- sides in Marion County, Ohio; Isabel, who died in 1899, was the wife of Benjamin Sharpless; Thomas, died in 1899; Sarah E., married Paul Sharp- less, of Huron County, Ohio; Edward, in Arappahoe County, Colorado; Ann, wife of John Duffy, of Kenton, Ohio, and Charles C. of this sketch.
Charles C. Thompson was reared amid rural surroundings and ac- quired very little school training. He was married in Marion County, Ohio, March 14, 1865, to Matilda Messenger, a daughter of Orrin Messen- ger. The children of this union are: Minnie, who died in 1880, Edith, wife of Dan Hoadley, has a son, Harry Hoadley; Homer; Evaline, Edwin and Orrin all died of diphtheria in 1880; Charles, Wayne, Edna and Sarah. Homer Thompson lives in Marmaton township, Allen County, and has two children, Bertha and Percy Thompson.
In April, 1861, Mr. Thompson enlisted in Company H, 4th Ohio in- fantry, three months service. He was discharged for disability but was
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again under arms as a member of the State militia and was called out in the defense of Cincinnati from Confederate invasion.
In politics the old line of Thompsons were Clay Whigs. Chas. C. Thompson was a Republican till the Peoples Party movement came along. He had discovered a line of proceedure in the practices of the old party which did not seem to him just and proper toward the masses of the people and he cast his political fortunes with the new party.
N ELSON J. SHIVELY, of Marmaton township, is one of Allen Coun- ty's progressive and prosperous farmers. He settled here in 1882 and was an emigrant from Marshall County, Indiana. He was born in Elkhart County, Indiana, January 16, 1853. His father, Isaac Shively, of Osage township, Allen County, was born in Ohio in 1830 and went into Elkhart County, Indiana, in early life. He married Catharine Leer, who died in Allen County, Kansas, in 1886 at the age of fifty-one years. Their children are: Nelson J .; Fernandes, deceased; Amos, of Osage township; Edward; Charles and Alice Shively of Elreno, Ok- lahoma.
Our subject began life at about eighteen years of age as a farmer and has continued it since with varying degrees of success. He was induced to come west by the heralding cry of "cheap lands" and in 1882 he brought his small amount of resources into Allen County and made a payment on his first eighty acres of land, in Osage township. He exchanged this for the southwest quarter of section 20, town 24, range 21 and took on a debt of sixteen hundred dollars. This he has succeeded in liquidating and has purchased an additional eighty acres and has the whole clear of in- cumbrance.
Mr. Shively was married in Marshall County, Indiana, February 6, 1879, to Ella Caldwell, a daughter of Archibald Caldwell, who went into the Hoosler State from Virginia. Mrs. Shively died February 13, 1899, leaving five children: Grace A,, Opal, Alice, Carl and Harry.
Mr. Shively is one of the leading and active Republicans of Allen County. He frequents county conventions of his party and can be de- pended upon not only to support the whole ticket but to work for its success at the polls. He is identified with the Osage Valley Baptist church.
D R. GEORGE B. LAMBETH, of Moran, Allen county, can justly and rightfully be regarded as a pioneer Kansan. All but seven years of his life have been spent in and all he is and all he possesses are of Kansas. He was born in Bolivar, Tennessee, July 22, 1855, and the next year his
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father migrated to Bentonville, Arkansas, from which point, owing to the outbreak of the war of the Rebellion, he fled northward and settled in Bourbon county, Kansas. Allison G. Lambeth, our subject's father, volunteered his services to General Blunt, as a scout, and aided in piloting that officer into northern territory. The General's army was raised and made up of loyal men of that region, largely, and Mr. Lambeth's family accompanied it out of the Confederacy.
The late A. G. Lambeth was born in Randolph county, North Caro- lina, in 1828. His ancestors have resided in the United States since early in the nineteenth century and are of English origin. Mr. Lambeth was a highly educated and cultured gentleman and was, in early life, a professor of languages in Emery and Henry College in Virginia. The last years of his active life were spent on the farm in Bourbon county and he died in Moran August 4, 1899.
Dr. Lambeth's mother, nee Sarah J. Williams, still survives. She was born at LaGrange, Tennessee, in 1830, and is of English stock. Her children are: Mrs. Jennie Mulley, of Fort Scett, Kansas; Dr. G. B. Lambeth: Henry W. Lambeth, a prominent farmer and Trustee of Marma- ton township, Allen county; Hugh N. Lambeth, near Blackwell, Okla- homa, and J. Braxton Lambeth, of Allen county.
Dr. Lambeth was a student in the district schools of Bourbon connty in his youth. He was a farmer till he passed his majority, when he selected medicine as a profession. He read with Dr. A. L. Fulton, now a . prominent surgeon of Kansas City, Missouri. and did some practice even before he finished his three years' reading. He entered the St. Louis Medical College in 1876 and spent four years there. The year 1888-9 he attended the Kansas City, Missouri, Medical College and finished its course to graduation.
Dr. Lambeth located in Moran and opened an office in 1884. He took rank early as a successful practitioner and, with the lapse of time, his practice has extended to all the country, for miles around Moran, and with it his reputation as a genial and pleasant gentleman.
Dr. Lambeth was married in Bourbon county, Kansas, July 2, 1884, to Mary G. Tennyson, a daughter of the pioneer Rev. Rutherford Tennyson. The latter was born January 10, 1804, and died in 1872. He came into Kansas from Tennessee and was married to Mary T. Robinson. Their children are: Wesley Tennyson, a prominent and successful farmer near Uniontown, Kansas; Levi Tennyson, of Prairie Lee, Texas; Mrs. S. B. Holt, of Bourbon county, Kansas; Mrs. I. I. Brown, of Ozark, Missouri, and Mrs. Lambeth. Mr. Tennyson came to Kansas in 1855 and his family was one of the most widely known and honorable in Bourbon county.
The Dr. and Mrs. Lambeth's children are: George S., Alfred T., Phyllis J., Hugh W. and Esther.
Allison G. Lambeth, politically, allied himself first with the Whigs and then the Republicans but his last presidential vote was cast for the candidate of the Chicago platform of 1896. Dr. Lambeth first trained with the Republicans. In 1884, when modern Democracy first triumphed, he
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voted the Democratic ticket and has espoused that cause since. He was appointed a pension examiner for Allen county and served through Cleveland's second administration, and, for twelve years, he has been local surgeon for the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Company.
D OUGLAS ARNETT, of Iola, father of the Iola Telephone Company and one of Allen county's pioneers, came to Iola in the fall of 1860. He was then a child of two years and was, then, the youngest member of his father's family. James B. Arnett, his father, began his westward migration from Pike county, Illinois, a few years before the Civil war, and went to Fort Smith, Arkansas. In this city our subject was born Novem- ber 21, 1858. Being a man of the North the near approach of hostilities between the two opposing sections of our country caused him to return to the object of his sympathies hence, his advent to Kansas. J. B. Arnett was born in Pike county, Illinois, November 8, 1834, and was essentially a farmer until his removal to the Rocky Mountain country where the stock business has engaged his attention.
The paternal grandfather of "Doug" Arnett was John B. Arnett, who died in Fort Smith, Arkansas. His native state was probably Virginia. He emigrated westward to Pike county, Illinois, early in the history of that state and in 1858 took up his residence at Fort Smith, Arkansas. Of his ten children James B. Arnett was the tenth. The latter married, in Pike county, Illinois, Mary A., a daughter of William Mitchell. Mrs. Arnett died in Iola in September 1863, leaving an only child, J. Douglass Arnett. J. B. Arnett married for his second wife Hattie Barton. Their children are: Carrie, wife of William Mason, of Walla Walla, Washing- ton; Ella, who married Jesse Brown and resides in Arizona, and Adda, wife of John Whitlow, of Arizona.
Doug. Arnett has carved out his own destiny. He has taken care of himself since he was fifteen years of age. He was small of his age, and fond of horses, and for a livelihood he rode races at the fairs and old settlers will remember the two familiar faces who jockied the steeds at Allen county's first fairs, viz: Doug. Arnett and Rice Todd. Whatever came in Doug's way to do whereby he could turn a dollar legitimately he took ad- vantage of. While he worked he schemed and between the two he found it not a difficult matter, this bread-winning contest. At twenty-one years of age he married-made the only mistake of his life-and moved onto a tarm in Linn county, Kansas. This vocation was too slow and plodding for his makeup and he returned to his old home and engaged in the dray business. Arnett's dray was about the first regular one on the streets of Iola. It was only an ordinary affair, for the business didn't justify any other, and he did the driving, loading and collecting all himself and was not at all busy. He engaged in the livery and bus business, later, and followed the two with some profit about fifteen months. He then took the
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agency for the Standard Oil Company at Iola and expanded their business in Ailen and adjoining counties for nine years. Before severing his rela- tions with the Standard people he had conceived the idea of establishing a telephone system in Iola and had actually installed the plant in 1898. He secured the franchise for the company in 1897 and started his exchange in his residence, on West Madison avenue, with forth-three 'phones. The grocery of C. M. Richards was the only patron in that line of business when lie first started but the rapidity with which all the merchants got into line was remarkable. The business of the companay grew so rapidly that the domestic quarters were soon found to be too cramped and the exchange was moved into the Apple building on South Washington. It has now two hundred and fifty working 'phones and is keeping pace with the growth and extension of the city. In 1900 Harmon Hobart purchased a half interest in the system and the two partners. constitute a worthy and popular company.
Mr. Arnett married his second wife, Lillie Mckinley, in October 1897. Her father, J. B. Mckinley, came from Pennsylvania to Kansas before the war and was a soldier in the Ninth Kansas.
Our subject is an Odd Fellow, a Pythian Knight and a Rebekah. His belief in woodcraft has led him to join that order, also.
Doug Arnett has been one of Iola's tenacious citizens. His efforts have always been rewarded here and aside from this fact he has always felt an interest in the city and her people. While he is in business for profit his earnings are not all devoted to his own use. He regards money only for the good that it will do, and, while he is not prodigal in his expendi- tures, any enterprise promising good for Iola receives his substantial support.
S AMUEL H. EVANS, a traveling salesman residing in Pleasanton, is numbered among the native sons of Kansas. He was born April 12, 1861, the second son of the late honored pioneer, John M. Evans, of Allen county. Reared in Geneva and Iola, he secured a common school educa- tion and then began work at herding cattle on the prairies near Geneva. After the family removed from that place to Iola he secured a clerkship, which was his first experience as a salesman and gave him the foundation knowledge and training which now fits him for his present business duties. When the Missouri Pacific railroad was being builded through Allen county he worked with its surveyor on construction work, and later he was for a time with the firm of O. P. Northrup & Company, of Iola. Subse- quently he secured a situation as manager of a store in Bronson, Kansas, and afterward filled similar positions in Blue Mound, Kansas. Eventually in 1888 he accepted his present position as traveling salesman with the Ridenour Baker Grocery Company, of Kansas City, Missouri, and is now upon the road, being one of the trusted and capable representatives of that house.
In March, 1884, Mr. Evans was married, the lady of his choice being
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Miss Carrie Ellis, of Iola, a daughter of Seaman T. Ellis, who now resides in Oklahoma. Unto our subject and his wife have been born the following children: Brett M., Bruce E., Harry D., Margaret and Melvin, twins, and Robley D. They also lost twin daughters, Ruth and Rena, who died in infancy. Mr. Evans, whom everyone knows as "Harry," has become popular with many of the patrons of the house which he represents and also has many friends in the city of his residence. His manner is genial, courteous and kindly,-qualities which always win regard.
W ILLIAM F. YOUNG, of Moian, Allen County, was born in Darke County, Ohio, on the 7th of January, 1856. His father, Elias Young, was born in Maryland, April 9, 1811, and married Sophia Edwards, a native of Ohio. When a young man he learned the plasterer's trade, which he followed for several years, after which he engaged in the milling business but followed farming many years previous to his removal to Kan- sas, in 1870. He located on a farm in Osage township, Allen County, three miles north of Moran, where he resided until his death, which oc- curred in February, 1900, when he was eighty-nine years of age. His wife still survives him at the age of seventy-seven years, and is living on the old homestead. They had five children, namely: Martha, wife of Theodore Wright; Leanida, wife of W. C. Carter; Rebecca, wife of W. D. Young; and Martin A., who is living with his mother on the old home- stead, while W. F. is the youngest of the family.
Mr. Young, of this sketch, spent the first fourteen years of his life in the State of his nativity and then accompanied his parents to Kansas. He remained with his father until eighteen years of age and then went to Fort Scott to complete his education in the high school. He also attended the high school at Iola and the academy at Geneva, Kansas, working on the farm by the month in the summer and, after completing his own mental training, teaching school in the winter. He followed that profession about three years. On the expiration of that period he went to Las Animas, Colo- rado, where he was engaged with a hardware, lumber and furniture firm for two years. Returning to Kansas he began business for himself in Moran as a dealer in groceries, feed and coal, carrying on that enterprise for nine or ten years. Since that time he has engaged in the real estate, insurance and loan business, and now handles much valuable property and writes a large amount of insurance annually.
On the 17th of March, 1886, Mr. Young was united in marriage to Miss Mary Rucker, a native of Indiana, who came to Kansas with her parents. They have two children, Louis, a bright little daughter born January 9. 1887, and Russell, born February 1, 1890. In his political affiliations Mr. Young is a Republican and socially he is connected with Moran Lodge, No. 459, I. O. O. F., and with the Knights and Ladies of Security. He and his wife have worked hard to secure a good home of
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their own and are now comfortably situated, being able to enjoy many of the luxuries of life. Without the aid of capital or influential friends he started out upon his business career and has steadily worked his way up- ward through determined and earnest purpose until now he occupies a creditable position among the honorable business men of his adopted county.
J OHN R. ANDERSON, one of the large cattle dealers of Allen and Bourbon counties and a member of the firm of Love & Ensminger, is one of the pioneers of Kansas. In April 1856 his father brought the family to Bourbon county and took up land in Franklin township. He was from Green county, Missouri, but was originally from Lee county, Virginia. In the latter place our subject was born October 4, 1839. His father, Charles Anderson was born in Tennessee in 1807 and died in Bourbon county, Kansas, in 1863. The family left Virginia in 1853 and made the trip to Missouri with a yoke of oxen, being two months on the road.
The original Anderson, and the one who established the family in America, was John Anderson, an Irishman and a blacksmith. His burial place is unknown but his wife is buried at Xenia, Kansas.
Charles Anderson married Anna Hester who died in 1893 at the age of eighty-one years. Her children are: Mary, widow of T. L. Charles, of Larned, Kansas; William C., of Xenia, Kansas; Catherine, deceased, mar- ried Mr. Adkinson; John R .; Elizabeth, wife of A. Williams, of Xenia, Kansas, and Letitia, deceased, who married J. F. Davis.
Our subject was seventeen years old when he came to Kansas. He aided his father in opening a new farm and herded and drove cattle for several years. He took a claim himself when he reached the required age and was interested in its initial development and improvement when the war broke out. He enlisted first October 10. 1861, in Company I, Third Kansas Cavalry and was transferred to the Sixth Kansas. He was mus- tered out of the latter regiment in September 1862, and, a year later, re- enlisted in the Fourteenth Kansas. During his first enlistment Mr. Ander- son fought bushwhackers in Missouri and the Indian Territory. While with the Fourteenth he was in the battle at Prairie DuChene, Arkansas, the chief one in which he participated. He was mustered out of service in June 1865 and returned to his home in Kansas. His history for thirty- five years can be told in a few words. His early training led him into the stock business soon after the war and for many years nothing else has claimed his attention. When the firm of which he is a member was formed he was chosen for the active management of its affairs. So extensive has been its operations and so closely has Mr. Anderson been confined to duty that the strain is telling upon him and the year 1901 will close his connec- tion with the business and he will rest.
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