USA > Kansas > Woodson County > History of Allen and Woodson counties, Kansas > Part 24
USA > Kansas > Allen County > History of Allen and Woodson counties, Kansas > Part 24
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Humboldt and again engaged in the implement and real estate business. In this business he was fairly prosperous and built up a good trade. In 1 892 he disposed of his implement stock and entered the real estate busi- ness and in this he is still engaged. Mr. Burtis has been a successful business man and although starting in life with the burden of debt he has succeeded in accumulating enough of the world's goods to place him in easy circumstances.
January 26, 1869, Mr. Burtis was married to Miss Helen E. Snyder, a native of Illinois. Mrs. Snyder's father lives with them and is hale and hearty at the ripe age of eighty-three. To them have been born four chil- dren: Maggie A., wife of A. F. Fish; Chauncey H., married Irene Moore; Edith Mand, wife of S. S. Jackson, and Walter.
Mr. Burtis is a member of the Fraternal Aid Society. Politically he is a Republican.
F REDERICK W. FREVERT-One of the successful business men of Humboldt is Frederick W. Frevert, whose father is Frederick Fre- vert, one of the pioneers of Woodson County, Kansas, whose history ap- pears herein.
Our subject is the eldest child and was born in Lee County, Illinois, March 20, 1857. A year after his birth his parents removed to Kansas, settling in Woodson County. Mr. Frevert grew up on the farm and re- mained with his parents until he was twenty-six years of age. At this date he went to Humboldt and secured a position with the well known merch- ant, Moses Neal, in his dry goods store, working two months for his board, when he was given a small salary. He remained with Mr. Neal six months when he secured a position as deputy postmaster under Mrs. Ella Kimball, and remained in the office during her term of office. Afterward he secured a clerkship of B. S. Smith with whom he remained for two years. He then formed a partnership with A. Wedin in the grocery business and the firm existed about two and a half years, being dissolved by the retire- ment of Mr. Wedin. Mr. Frevert has since conducted the business alone.
Mr. Frevert was married in the fall of 1888 to Mrs. Ella Kimball, under whom he had served for six years as deputy postmaster. Mrs. Kimball is a daughter of E. C. Amsden, of one the early sheriffs of Allen County. Two children have been born to them, Frederick and Robert.
Politically Mr. Frevert is a Democrat, but further than casting his ballot he has never taken any part in politics,
H ONORABLE EDWARD D. LACEY, of Marmaton township, ex- Representative to the State Legislature and ex-County Commission- er has been a citizen of Allen County more than twenty-one years. He
En Lacey
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came amongst us in the fall of 1879 and purchased the northwest quarter of section 23, town 24, range 20, a piece of wild prairie belonging to the "Peck land." He was from Illinois and Illinois emigrants possess the energy and the industry to successfully combat the trials and obstacles always encountered in the settlement of a new country. Then it is not a matter of wonderment that his one-time pasture should rapidly take on the appearance of a well-managed and well-improved farm.
Mr. Lacey migrated to Kansas from Champaign County, Illinois, to which State he moved some time after the war. He was born in Jackson County, Michigan, June 23, 1843, and was reared in Licking County, Ohio. He was a son of Sandford Lacey who went into Michigan from New York and died in 1855. He married Louisa Parmelee and our subject is their first child. The latter grew up in the country and was educated in the district school. The elementary principles of an education were about all that could be acquired from that source, in the days before the war, and these Mr. Lacey secured and supplemented with practical experience in the warfare of life. His first efforts in the direction of individual independence were put forth the first year of the Civil war. He enlisted August 12, of that year in Company A, 17th Ohio infantry, Col. J. M. Connell. His regiment was mustered in at Zanesville and was ordered into Kentucky. Its second important engagement was the one at Perryville, Kentucky, in October, 1862. Mr. Lacey was in the battle of Shiloh and in the Murfrees- boro fight, where he received a wound through the right thigh in the second day's engagement. He lay in the field hospital three months and was then sent to hospital No, 7, at Nashville. Upon his recovery he was transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps by orders of the War department. . His command was the 15th regiment, Company F, and he was Clerk in the Provost Marshal's office for nearly one year. He was then transferred to Washington, D. C., and, soon after, was ordered to Chicago where he acted as drill-master till his muster out of the service September 25, 1864. The following lettet explains itself:
"To All Whom It May Concern:
"I cheerfully recommend Corporal Edward D. Lacey as an houest and upright young man, smart, intelligent, devoid of all bad habits, and in every respect a soldier and a gentleman. He has served in my Company for ten months, the most of which time he has acted as sergeant. He has always performed his duty with credit to himself and the Company. He has been highly spoken of by all the officers he has served under, is well posted in tactics, is a good drill master and would do honor to the service as a line officer. His descriptive list from his former Company, Company A, 17th Ohio infantry, shows that he was wounded in the right leg at the battle of Stone River, January 1, 1863. SAMUEL MCDONALD,
Second Lieutenant, Commanding Co. F, 15th Reg. V. R. C. . Dated Camp Douglas, Chicago, Il1., October 26, 1864."
Having served his country in time of war more than three years, Mr. Lacey was content to return to civil life. He re-engaged in farming in Iro- quois county, Ill., to which point his mother's family had removed during
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his absence. He was married there January 31, 1867, to Mary E. Culbert- son, a daughter of Joseph Culbertson, now a resident of Iola. Mr. Cul- bertson was born in Ohio, in 1821, and was married to Pernetta Matthews. Mrs. Lacey is the fifth of eight children.
Mr. and Mrs. Lacey's children are: Joseph Lacey, postinister of Savonburg, Kansas, is married to Claudia Southard; Emma Lacey, who is the wife of Harry Keith, of Marmaton township; Reuben C. Lacey, of Marmaton township, is married to Rose Evaus; Quincy E., near Moran, is married to Daisy Eflin; Melvill, Pearl G., and Bulah are with their parents.
Edward D. Lacey became a Republican long before he could vote. His first vote was cast while in the army. One of the first things he did upon reaching Allen County was to identify himself with the Republican organization of the county. His frank and earnest manner and his in- telligent bearing made him a valuable acquisition to the party and he soon took rank as one of its leaders. He was urged forward as soon as he could be prevailed upon to accept a nomination and was elected township trustee three terms. So conspicuously efficient were his services in this capacity that he was earnestly supported in his candidacy for the Legislature in 1887. He was elected by a good majority and re-elected in 1889, serving four years in all. He served on some of the important committees of the House and introduced House Bill No. 91, providing for the care of old soldiers, in indigency, outside of the Alins house. He was the author of some measures of local importance, only, and was always on the alert in the interest of wise and wholesome laws for the State. He was on the Joint Committee with Murray in preparing the Prohibition law, now in operation, and was one of its earnest supporters.
The same year he retired from the office of Representative Mr. Lacey was nominated by his district for County Commissioner and was elected. He was again elected in 1895 and was the Board's Chairman the last four years of his service. One thing was especially characteristic of Mr. Lacey's public service. He was always well enough informed to have a decided opinion ou matters of public policy and whenever called upon for it it was always forthcoming. He was a guiding spirit of the County Board while an incumbent of the office of Commissioner and if he was unpopular with a few it is accounted for by the fact that they were not his invited advisors.
As a business man Mr. Lacey is successful and conservative. He has extended his domain materially by the addition of another eighty to his original tract and his individual prosperity is noted in other lines of indus- try. He is a member of the Methodist congregation of Moran of which body he is one of the Trustees, being Chairman of the Board.
AMES MCKINNEY WILLIAMSON, who was for years engaged in the harness and saddlery business in Iola, and but recently retired, located in Allen county in 1883. His first years in the county he passed
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on the farm, but, having served his apprenticeship, without being bound, at the saddlery and harness trade and having an opportunity to ac- quire the business exclusive, in Iola, he purchased the Hart stock and conducted an honorable and profitable business till 1900 when "William- son & Sou," the successor of J. M. Williamson, sold its business to Mr. Hartung.
Mr. Williamson came to Kansas in 1871 and took a claim in Butler county. From this claim he moved to the city of Eldorado and was a resi- dent there at the time he removed to Allen county. His native place is Mercer county, Pennsylvania, where he was born August 1, 1840. His father, John L. Williamson, was a farmer and, to some extent an iron ore dealer. He was born in Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, but reared in Mercer county. He died in Butler county, Kansas, in 1882 at the age of eighty-two years. In early life he was in line with Democracy but in' 1848 became a Whig and later a Republican. George Williamson, a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and a son of Thomas Williamson, passed his active life at farming in Northumberland county, Pennsylvania. He is buried at Salem church in Mercer county. His forefathers were of Scotch and Irish extraction.
John L. Williamson married Rebecca Mckinney, a daughter of Samuel Mckinney, who was born and reared in Center county, Pennsyl- vania. He was a farmer, a wool-carder and an ex-soldier of the war of 1812. He was awarded a medal by the state of Pennsylvania for gallantr / in the battle of Lake Erie. Rebecca Mckinney Williamson died in 1840. Her children are: Mary J., wife of Fohnestock Lightner, of Knox county, Iowa; Rachel E., wife of John Naix. of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and James M. Williamson.
Until he became old enough to care for himself Mr. Williamson made his home with his grandfather Mckinney. He hired out as a day work- man and by the month, as the opportunity offered, until beginning his trade. He left the bench to enter the Union army in August 1861, joining Company A, Seventy-Sixth Keystone Zouaves. For some months prior to the close of the war he was enrolling officer, being employed as such after his discharge from service in the field.
The Seventy-sixth Pennsylvania Zouaves rendezvoused at Camp Came- ron, Harrisburg, and was ordered to the front at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, and on to Hilton Head, South Carolina. It participated in the capture of Fort Pulaski, was in the fight at Pocataligo, and, in the spring of 1863, Mr. Williamson was discharged from it and soon thereafter was commis- sioned as enrolling officer, as above mentioned.
Mr. Williamson engaged in merchandising in a country store in Mercer county, Pennsylvania, upon resuming civil pursuits and followed it and farming three years each. He then came to Kansas in search of cheap lands and the claim he took in Butler county proved to be the dearest piece of real estate he ever owned.
June 1, 1864. Mr. Williamson married Lizzie L., a daughter of James Brandon. Mrs. Williamson died in 1873. Her children are: Mary J.,
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who married J. F. Shidely, of Fairhaven, Washington; Austa, wife of Charles Cadwell, of Harvey county, Kansas; and John H. Williamson, of Iola. In 1875 Mr. Williamson married Mary M., a daughter of Hansford Jones, whose original home was in West Virginia. The children of the marriage are: Horace Carl Williamson, who is married to Emma Butler and is one of the substantial young business men of Iola; Arthur Leroy, Earnest Wiley, James and Ruth Esther Williamson.
Mr. Williamson's first national ballot was cast for Lincoln for presi- dent. In 1872 he got into the Greeley movement but supported Hays in 1876 and has since been one of the staunchest advocates of Republican policies and Republican candidates at the polls. He was elected coroner of Butler county, Kansas, held many minor offices there and in Allen county, including councilman for the city of Iola. He is a member of the Grand Army and Past Commander of the Post, a director of the Iola Building and Loan Association and, above all, a citizen above reproach.
H ENRY C. ROGERS-The late Henry C. Rogers, of Bronson, was one of the characters of eastern Allen County, not alone because he was an honorable citizen but because he represented the age of pioneering in the county and because his death closed the chapter devoted to the liv- ing pioneers. He came to the county at a time when white men were a curiosity on our eastern border and when any piece of prairie from Rock Creek to the east line of Allen County might have been preempted or home- steaded. The settlements adjacent and tributary to where Mr. Rogers and his uncle settled were around the Turkey Creek post office and at Ira Hobson's mill on the Osage River, in Bourbon County. Prior to the Civil war the land between Moran and Bronson belonged to the Indians but they did not occupy it. They had, no doubt, abandoned it to whoever might settle it as per an act of Congress providing for the disposition of the public domain. To the few settlements made prior to the war, to the events affecting this locality during that struggle and to the period of settle- ment succeeding the war, including the fencing of the last tract of prairie "lying out," Mr. Rogers was an eye witness. He not only saw it all but he was a distinct part of it all and could his reminiscences have been gathered while in his physical and mental vigor they would have added much to the completeness of the story of the settlement and development of Allen County.
It was November 10, 1858, when Henry C. Rogers and D. V. Rogers, his uncle, stopped on the creek southeast of Moran. They were seeking a location and the uncle claimed the "Dick Gilliam" place and died on it in 1875. Young Henry remained with his uncle till old enough to enter land when he took up the south half of the southwest quarter of section 10, township 25, range 21, Marmaton township, and there resided till about
5
H. b. Rogers
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1880 when he sold and located on the county line south of Bronson two miles.
The settlements on the prairies of Kansas in an early day were chiefly disturbed by the devouring flames of a prairie fire. This scourge visited every settler who made his abiding place in Allen County from the earliest time to 1880, and many of them more than once. It was no unusual thing to see everything swept away and a family left penniless after a liard summer's work. Thieves and maranders made occasional sallies into the settlements and plied their trade effectively but the vigilantes took frequent charge of them and left them alone in their solitude. The drouth of 1860 was a calamity visited upon the frontiersmen and, had not the winter fol- lowing been as mild and as gentle as that of Florida, great suffering among man and beast would have ensued. During the war the Bushwhackers and Butternuts did not disturb the peace and repose of eastern Allen County. Its able-bodied men all belonged to some military regiment and were called out only when the State was threatened with invasion. Mr. Rogers was a member of Col. Orlin Thurston's regiment of State guards which rendez- voused at Ft. Scott during the last Price raid.
H. C. Rogers was born in Vermillion County, Indiana. He started to Kansas from Vermillion County, Illinois, but his parents settled in Ver- million County, Indiana, and it is probable that there was where his birth occurred February 23, 1842. His father, Daniel Rogers, who left Vermont when young, was a pioneer to the above Indiana county. His parents no doubt accompanied him to the west for his father, Allen Rogers, resided in Indiana, Illinois, and lastly Iowa, where he died and is buried. His sons were: Elisha, Minor, John, Daniel and Jobe Rogers, all of whom reared families. Daniel Rogers married Mary Baldwin who died in Perryville, Indiana, in 1853. Daniel also died early in life. Their children were: Henry C .; Hannah, wife of Richard Davis, of Altamont, Kansas; Nettie, deceased, wife of Mr. Blair, of Neosho County, Kansas.
Henry C. Rogers was not an educated man. The circumstances of his time were such as to preclude the acquirement of more than the primary elements of an education. He was only sixteen years old when he assumed the responsibilities of a citizen in Allen County, where schools were the scarcest of necessities. Whatever of success has attended him has been the result of his efforts with stock and the farm. He was married June 10, 1865, to Miss Ruth Main, a daughter of John Main, a pioneer to the west from Virginia. Mrs. Rogers was born in Mongoha, Virginia, June 23 1846. The children of their marriage are: Charles, married to Cora Thompson, resides nearby; Henry C. Jr., married to Mary Goodno, resides on the homestead; Dora E., wife of Elijah Hodge, of Bronson, Kansas; Oscar V., married to Maggie Thomas, of Bronson, Kansas; Bertha May Rogers, a teacher; William and Roy.
Mr. Rogers' political affiliations were with the Republicans. In 1872 he espoused the Greeley movement but, using his own words, "never got into the Democratic party." He never took a very active part in local
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politics and the only office in which he consented to serve was that of school director which he held for twenty years.
When the day shall come when the contemporaries of the pioneers shall all have passed away and their lives and deeds are known only in history, then will their posterity come to a full realization and a just appre- ciation of them and their efforts. A word from those "who saw and did" is more to be desired than a volume from those who were not there and only heard.
Mr. Rogers' last illness was of long duration. He died November 30, 1900, and was laid away in the 59th year of his age.
G EORGE G. MAPES .- Few men are more widely and favorably known to the citizens of eastern Allen county than George G. Mapes the commercial traveler, farmer and stock man of Marmaton township. His home, "Shady Slope," just southeast of Moran, is one of the attractive farmsteads of the county and is the handiwork of its progressive and pros- perous proprietor.
G. G. Mapes was born in Princeton, Illinois, April 20, 1854. He was educated in the public schools of that city and graduated from the high school. His father, George W. Mapes, was born in the state of New York in 1828 and died at Des Moines, Iowa, February 2, 1898. In an early day the latter went into Ohio and later came westward to Laporte, Indiana, and was there married to Martha E. Dennison, a New York lady. Not long after their marriage the couple emigrated to Bureau county, Illinois.
George W. Mapes was educated and equipped for the ministry. He filled the pulpit of the Christian church in Princeton many years, following this service up with a like one for a period of years in Des Moines, Iowa. He was a gentleman of much force of character and a preacher with great power and conviction. He was highly educated, abreast of the progressive age in all literary and scholastic matters and was the instrument in the hands of Providence which built up a large congregation, numbering nearly fifteen hundred members, in the city of Des Moines. His widow survived him till July 27, 1900, dying at the age of seventy years. Their wedded life covered a period of nearly fifty years. A half century of con- tinuous usefulness, of wedded bliss, walking hand in hand and doing all things to the glory of God. Of their six children, five survive: Wheeler M. Mapes, of Redfield, Iowa, the first conductor to run a vestibuled car out of Omaha, and for twenty-three years in the service of the Rock Island Railway Company as conductor; Rosella F., wife of M. A. Hitchcock, of Des Moines, Iowa; George G. Mapes; Charles Mapes, of Hutchinson, Kansas, traveling for Selz, Schwab & Co., of Chicago, and Frank H. Mapes, a druggist of McComb, Illinois.
When George G Mapes began his career as a business man it was in the notion business. He covered the state of Kansas for five years selling
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notions to the merchants out of a wagon. His success was so marked that at the end of this period he established a wholesale notion business in Topeka, Kansas. In 1878 after four years of unremitting watchfulness and attention in the upbuilding of his business, he disposed of it and took a position with Florence, Jansen & Company. of Atchison. He represented them as a traveling salesman and remained with the house till 1881 when, on the first of July, he accepted a place with the Grimes Dry Goods Com- pany, in the same city, and was with them nine years as salesman on the road. Resigning this position he entered into an arrangement with the Hood-Brownbright Wholesale Company, of Philadelphia, to travel for them, which position he resigned after three years of service, to take charge of the Pennsylvania hotel at Moran, Kansas. Soon after this date he was offered the position of cashier of Varner's Bank in Moran and accepted, remaining with the institution five years and conducting the hotel at the same time. In 1894 he exchanged the hotel for "Shady Slope," a quarter section of land two and a half miles southeast of Moran, to which he moved his family and where he spends his time when off duty as a drummer. In 1895 he engaged with the Smith, McCord Dry Goods Company, of Kansas City, and five days in the week his time and energy is expended in their behalf.
The well known farm, "Shady Slope," is not one of those common- place resorts where the production of coru and hay are the chief source of revenue and the center of interest season after season. It is a place where there is intense activity the year round. First of all it has expanded from one hundred and sixty acres to four hundred acres in area and has taken on improvements commensurate with the growth and resources of the farmn. His herd of sixty registered Herefords, his string of trotters and the inis- cellaneous animals necessary to a well regulated stock farm furnish splendid evidence of the profitableness of intelligent farming and at the same time show Mr. Mapes to be a leader and not a follower in his under- taking. His horse flesh is among the best bred anywhere. One of them, "Betsy King" at twenty-two years, is the mother of nineteen colts, four of which have brought the sum of $6,000 and two others give promise of de- veloping into horses of much merit.
"Shady Slope" and its attendant and accompanying interests are the fruits of the individual efforts of G. G. Mapes. In the beginning, and when he loaded up his first notion wagon, his capital was too small for any other business. It was his all and upon his merits as a salesman aud his integrity as a man did he stake his future. Shady Slope answers how well he has done. Years of push and good management have counted for much and when the inventory is taken it will be found that he has been the maker and his wife the saver. Both are admirable traits and both go hand in hand to financial independence. July 6, 1881, G. G. Mapes was married to Laura E. Kindig, a daughter of David and Elizabeth (McCord) Kindig. The father was born in Virginia in 1816 and died in Washing- ton, Illinois, in 1892. His wife, a native of Tennessee, and Mrs. Mapes' mother, died at Washington many years ago. Mr. and Mrs. Mapes' chil-
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dren, surviving, are: Pluma, born April 1, 1884; Opal, born February 19, 1886, died at fourteen months; Ruby, born August 14, 1888.
Mr. Mapes has made no record in politics except for voting the Repub- lican ticket. He was elected to the City Conucil in Moran almost unani- moasly and, as a lodge man, affiliates with the Masons and Workmen.
H ENRY B. SMITH, of Moran, leading implement dealer and worthy citizen, came to Kansas in 1878 and stopped first in Atchison. Re- maining there a short time he went into Norton county, Kansas, took up a claim and tried farming in the short grass country eighteen months. Leav- ing the west he went to Parsons, Kansas, and spent one year there. Allen county was his next objective point and to this locality he came in 1881. He was in the county about three months before he entered the neighbor- hood of Moran. His first entrance into the town was in company with L. H. Gorrell with whom he soon after engaged in the implement business. The firm was Gorrell & Smith and it continued in business till 1887 when Mr. Smith purchased the interest of his partner and has since conducted the firm's affairs.
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