USA > Kansas > Woodson County > History of Allen and Woodson counties, Kansas > Part 25
USA > Kansas > Allen County > History of Allen and Woodson counties, Kansas > Part 25
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Our subject was born in Clayton county, Iowa, September 8, 1855. His father's name was John Smith and the latter went into that state from Pennsylvania in 1850. In 1857 he returned to his original home in Latiobe, Pennsylvania, and there reared his family. He was a carriage maker and was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania. in 1824. He was a son of Jacob Smith, a wagon maker.
John Smith married Adeline Cook who died in Pennsylvania in 1893. Their five children are: Henry B .; George C., of Jamestown, North Da- kota; Emeline, wife of Peter Albaugh, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; Blanche, wife of Clark Thomas, of Moran, and Grant Smith, of Chicago, Illinois. The father of the family resides in Jamestown, North Dakota.
H. B. Smith left Pennsylvania before he came of age and returned to the state of his birth. He had learned his father's trade and this he made his means of support for some years. He worked in Clayton and in Mc- Gregor, Iowa, before his return to the Keystone state. He remained a year in Latiobe, Pennsylvania, and then made his final trip west. He spent a few months at his trade in Atchison, Kansas, and was induced to desert it for a time, by visions of a free home in the west.
May 2, 1883, Mr. Smith was married in Moran, Kansas, to Miss Orpha E. DeHart, a daughter of Elisha DeHart, who came to Kansas from Morgan county, Indiana, and who is a well known, industrious and re- spected citizen of Moran. Mr. and Mrs. Smith's children are: Leroy, Pearl B. and Ralph.
As a citizen Mr. Smith is modest and unassuming, yet alive to his own interests and to those of his town. He is a member of the township board and has spent nine years on the school board.
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WOODSON COUNTIES, KANSAS.
JOSEPH CLARENCE NORTON, Allen County's practical and theoretical Agriculturist, and a farmer whose fame extends beyond the confines of his own State, came into the county in 1872. His father, Joseph G. Norton, came out to Kansas in 1871, as a representative of a colony of Ohio emigrants and purchased for them a tract of land in Anderson County, of John W. Scott, agent of the L. I. and G. Railway Company. The colony came out and settled their new purchase and called their station on the line of the Santa Fe road "Colony." The town which this name was given to was called by the old trailers, to and from Lawrence "Divide." Colony was applied to this high point about 1872 when these Ohio soldiers took possession of their lands. Mr. Norton was not pleased with this location and the same year went into Marmaton township, Allen County, and pur- chased a tract. In company with Mr. Norton were other Ohio settlers, Mr. Schlimmer, Mr. Whitney and Fred Wagoner who also located in Allen County. The first postoffice was Johnstown which in a few years gave way to the Fairlawn postoffice, established in the house of Mr. Fehlison who looked after.its affairs and the mail matter of the neighborhood till Moran was founded, when it was discontinued. Mail was delivered by pony carrier twice a week and the settlers felt themselves fortunate in receiving such favors at the hands of the government.
J. Clarence Norton was born at Montville, Waldo Conuty, Maine, December 28, 1857. His father was born at Castine, Maine, April 21, 1824, and his environments in youth were entirely rural. His father, David Norton, had charge of the County Poor Farm for many years and was a local official for a long period. He was born in Maine and died in Des Moines, Iowa, and was a son of Joseph Norton, an old whaling-ship master. The latter had made several trips around the world before the Revolutionary war and sailed into the harbor of San Francisco and shot buffalo where the Presideo now is located and used water from the spring at the Golden Gate. The original Nortons were aboard the Mayflower and are buried at Plymouth, the site of their settlement.
Joseph G. Norton married Jane Cram, who died in Allen County in 1886. Their children were: Ida; deceased wife of John Carter of Iola; Ada, wife of George S. Davis, of Iola; Joseph Clarence; Etta, wife of George Mausy, of Rushville, Indiana.
Joseph G. Norton passed his early life as a boot and shoemaker. He left Maine in 1862 and located in Covington, Kentucky, but worked in Cin- cinnati, Ohio. Before reaching Cincinnati he lived in Quincy and Brain- tree, Massachusetts, and spent some time in Columbus, Ohio, upon his ar- rival in the State.
Clarence was a lad of fourteen years when he came to Allen County. He had had ample opportunities for education and graduated from the Covington high school. the youngest in his class. He early developed a talent for newspaper work and got his first experience on the Iola Register. Its editor, Mr. Perkins, retained him as a paid correspondent, the first of the kind in the county. The subject of farming attracted him and he has
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done much of it in an experimental way. His discoveries he has made known from time to time in his letters to the Kansas Farmer and The Rural New Yorker to which publications he contributes as a pay corre- spondent and at good pay. He was the first to bale corn fodder and to in- vent a machine for baling. a description of which operation was published in Coburn's "Forage and Fodder" and he was the first to discover a met h- od of preserving and keeping Irish potatoes two years. His articles have attracted a wide interest among professional and experimental farmers and he has addressed the State Board of Agriculture of Kansas, as the invited guest of the Secretary on different occasions when officers of Agricultural societies of other states were in his audience. Mr. Norton is also a student of farm stock and all his property of this description is registered.
Mr. Norton has kept weather records for thirty years and for the last six years has kept the United States official records for this county, being a regular weather bureau observer and supplied with government instru- ments. There are instances where his records have been called to settle damage suits with railways. He wrote a book on Weather Talks that was published in the Register in the winter of 1895-6. Also another book pub- lished in the Kansas Farmer on Potato Growing, and he has for two years been at work on the Kansas Farmer's Handy Guide which is now running in the Kansas Farmer and will be out in book form early in 1902. It is a reprint of a collection of thirty years from all the leading farm papers in the world.
Mr. Norton has been quite a sportsman and has hunted all over the northwest. In 1883 he brought from the Cascade Mountains a cap- tured bear cub and that a year later he gave to the St. Louis Zoo, the largest bear they ever had. He also gave to the Smithsonian Institute at Wash- ington, D. C., the only specimen the world ever heard of in its life-a Maltese skunk-a hybred cross between a white skunk and a mink and its value is beyond estimate. This animal was captured on his farm in Allen County, Kansas.
Mr. Norton has for several years been an introducer of worthy farm machinery through the Kansas Farmer and he has a valuable collection. He introduced the Early Kansas potato that was originated by William Hankins of Iola, and it is favorably known all over the United States, being one of the best yielders at the Rural New Yorker's testing trials, among one hundred other varieties. Also the Kansas Snowball, a new seedling from the Common No. I potato.
Mr. Norton was married to Frances Coe, of Ashtabula, Ohio. She died in 1892 leaving a son, Louis Norton. Mr. Norton then married (in 1893) Elba Ashcraft. Their children are: Everett and Annie P.
In politics the Nortons have all along been Republicans. The St. Louis platform did not conform to the ideas of our subject on the finance question, in 1896, and he supported the candidate of the Democratic party. The question of expansion being of more personal concern and of greater national importance he supported Mr. Mckinley in 1900 on that issue. Outside of questions of citizenship he takes no special interest in local affairs.
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D OCTOR JAMES E. JEWELL, of Moran, a member of the Board of Pension Examiners for Allen County and for two terms Health Officer of the county. is a gentleman most honorable, and highly esteemed. His attitude and bearing are in themselves a moral lesson and his pro- fessional integrity and professional competency are matters of general recognition.
Dr. Jewell came into Allen County permanently Oct. 9, 1892, and located in the new village of Moran. He came from McMinn County; Tennessee, where he had located in 1871. In 1868 he went into the South with his father-in-law and engaged in the saw-mill and lumber business in Talledego, County, Alabama. After he had remained there three years he went into East Tennessee and was located near Athens eleven years.
Dr. Jewell was born in Chenango, County, New York, not far from Norwich, December 26, 1846. His father, Dr. James Jewell, was born at Durham, Green County, New York, December 6, 1818, and died in Catskill, N. J., May 15, 1884. The latter was schooled and trained for an educator and graduated in the Vermont Medical College. He was engaged in regular practice, in New York, trom graduation to his death. He pos- sessed a fine intellect and an inordinate love for his profession and his entire makeup rendered him one of the marked men of his county. He was descended from Massachusetts stock and from Revolutionary ancestors. His father was a Congregational minister.
Among the Revolutionary patriots who aided in the capture of the first British soldiers who ever surrendered to Americans was Seth Clark, our subject's great-grandfather. He was one of General Warren's men at Boston and, while awaiting the turn in events which forced the English to hand the city over to the Americans, he made, and decorated with Boston scenes, a powder-horn which our subject possesses and which is to descend to successive generations of the family.
Dr. James Jewell married Almyra Day, a lady of New England stock, but born in Schoharrie County, New York. Her birth occurred in 1818 and her death the year of her husband's. Both lie in Moran cemetery. Their children are: Dr. J. E. Jewell; Mary A., wife of Henry L. Bassett, of Moran; Rev. Stanley D. Jewell, of Butler, Missouri, and the late Anson Jewell.
Dr. Jewell's youth was passed chiefly in school. From fifteen to twenty years of age he was a photographer in Catskill and Prattsville, New York. February 11, 1868, he married May R. Coe, whose father, Daniel Coe, founded and endowed Coe College at Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He was a successful farmer in the Catskills of New York and died in Talledego, County, Alabama. He was twice married, his second wife being Mrs. Mercy (Wattles) Cowles, the mother of Mrs. Jewell.
It seems but natural that our subject should become a physician. His father's prominence and success in the craft and his own associations with the latter during his bringing up led him to a determination to pre- pare for a life of medicine. It was rather late in life that he began the
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actual work of preparation but it was better, thus, on the whole, for his faculties were then fully developed and matured. He entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Baltimore, Maryland, and took the highest honors in a class of one hundred and forty-three at graduation. In appre- ciation of this mark of excellence the faculty presented him with a gold medal, properly inscribed, which is his constant companion, as it were. The Doctor completed his course in 1881 and opened an office first at Athens, Tennessee, where he remained until his location in Moran.
Dr. Jewell's only surviving child is a son, James Ralph Jewell, a student in Coe College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. A son, Walter Jewell, died in Moran in 1892 at the age of twenty-two years.
The Presbyterians of Moran have had an active aid in Dr. Jewell. He has been connected with that church officially many years and much of its substantial progress has been due to his efforts. The Republican party of Allen County has felt the beneficent effect of his influence and cooperation and has honored him twice with election to the office of Coroner. His own little city has called him to the Mayoralty and all his official acts have been inspired by a desire to do absolute and accurate justice at all times and to all men.
S AMUEL C. VARNER is one whose name is inseparably interwoven with the history of Moran. He belongs to that class whose ability and character are making a deep impression upon the life of this rapidly de- veloping town. In this broad state with its abundant room for individual enterprise with its hearty appreciation of personal worth and its splendid opportunities for individual achievement, the man of ability finds the very largest sphere for usefulness and the gratification of personal ambition. His abilities will be discovered, his integrity will find appreciation, his public spirit will meet with recognition, and he cannot but become prominent. Mr. Varner is an illustration of this fact. He has done much to advance the material interests and substantial upbuilding of Moran.
A representative of sturdy Pennsylvania ancestry he was born in Monongahela, Washington county, that state, December Io, 1845. His parents, John M. and Lucinda (Collins) Varner, were also natives of Pennsylvania. During his boyhood he accompanied them to Canton, Illi- nois, and from 1856 until 1867 his home was in the "Prairie State." Dur- ing a part of that time he pursued his education in the public schools. When the war broke out he entered the army and served with distinction in the Sixty-seventh and One Hundred and Forty-eighth Regiments of Illinois Infantry, receiving well merited promotion He enlisted as a pri- vate of Company B, in the One Hundred and Forty-eighth, was promoted to first lieutenant and held other responsible positions by appointment. When the stars and stripes had been planted in the capital of the southern confederacy and hostilities had ceased he returned to his home.
In 1867 Mr. Varner removed to Iowa and in 1880 came to Kansas,
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locating in Colony. Being of an earnest, self-reliant nature, he was fully prepared for business and at once took a leading position in commercial circles. He made his lumber yard at that place one of the leading enter- prises of the time in Anderson county. Quick to note an opportunity offered and with a mind trained to take advantage of favorable business possibilities, his lumber business was a success in every particular. Be- lieving in the future of Moran he determined to locate at that place and extend the field of his operations. Accordingly in 1883 he opened his lumber yard there and also embarked in the grain business. Two year- later, in 1885, he extended the field of his labors by adding a hardware store, placing his stock on sale in a small frame building on the east side of Cedar street. That was the modest commencement of his present mam- moth commercial enterprise. Soon those quarters became too small and in 1888 on the west side of Cedar street he erected the first brick building in the city. His hardware store soon took first rank in the county and would be a credit to any city in the state. Again he extended the field of his labors by organizing the firm of J. J. Varner & Company and opening an extensive store with a complete stock of merchandise.
Il1 1888 Mr. Varner established what was known as the S. C. Varner Bank, which in 1892 was re-organized under the name of the Peoples Bank with Mr. Varner as president. In 1890 he completed the magnificent brick block which stands as a monument to his activity, energy and suc- cess. Giving personal supervision to his varied business enterprises he has at all times been master of the minutest details of each, so that he is ever able to thoroughly meet every call of an immense business that would ordi- marily require the combined skill of the individual members of a strong company. Although the year 1893 was a period of financial depression in many departments of trade, Mr. Varner, owing to his careful management, found that his business not only held its own but was increasing, making necessary additional room. He therefore erected the opera house block ou the east side of Cedar street, utilizing the first floor as a ware-room. This is a handsome brick structure which is certainly a credit to the city. Mr. Varner's public spirit, his pride in his adopted city and his faith in its future led him to believe that his investments in improvements would be appreciated. Having early established his commercial standing, which was recognized by all the leading houses of the country, Mr. Varner con- tinually added to his business, carefully managed its interests, and maintained unassailed his reputation for commercial integrity, so that when the period of financial depression came upon the country, he still enjoyed the public confidence that had been earned by honest effort. The words of commendation which he now receives from the leading wholesale houses of the country are well-deserved tributes to his ability and his high standing.
On the 27th day of September, 1863, Mr. Varner was married to Miss Annie McCord, a highly accomplished lady of Canton, Illinois. They have never had any children of their own but adopted a daughter whom they reared to adult age. Mr. Varner exercises his right of franchise in
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support of the men and measures of the Republican party, but has never sought or desired office. He was elected mayor of Moran in 1896 and his administration was one of worth to the city. Socially he is a Knight Templar, Mason and also belongs to the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, the Ancient Order of the United Workmen and the Grand Army of the Republic. Men with minds that are as alert and broad as his are never narrow; and men who, like him, view public questions, the social organi- zation, politics and all the relations of life comprehensively and philo- sophically are magnificent supporters of the best interests of humanity.
ESSE H. COFFMAN-One of the successful and representative farmers J of Allen County is Jesse H. Coffman, of Moran. He came to the county in 1884 and purchased the old "Fair Lawn" farm, the northeast quarter of section 34, town 24, range 20. He was a pioneer to Neosho County, from which point he located in Allen County. In 1868 he pre- empted a claim on the Osage Ceded lands and was a party to the famous law-suit which arose over the title to that land, much of which lay in Neosho County.
Mr. Coffman came west from Adams County, Indiana, where he was reared from boyhood. He was born in Fairfield County, Ohio, December 17, 1839. His father, David Coffman, was born in the same county in 1809 and was there married to Rebecca Hughes, a daughter of Jesse Hughes, a soldier of the War of 1812. Mr. Hughes came from Pennsylvania into Ohio as a pioneer and David Coffman came through that State from Vir- ginia on his way to Ohio. The Coffmans are one of the old American families and some of them were patriots of our Revolution. Our subject's great-grandfather was one of them and he was killed while in the service.
David Coffman died in 1872 at the age of sixty-three years. His wife died the same year. Their children were; Mary E., who resides in Adams County, Indiana, is the widow of the late Basil Hendricks, her second husband; Sarah A., wife of Henry Steele, of Pleasant Mills, Indiana, Harriet O., widow of Alexander Eichar, who resides with our subject: Jesse H .; Isabel, wife of David Springer, of Van Wert County, Ohio, and George M. Coffman, of Erie, Kansas.
Jn 1861 President Lincoln appointed J. H. Coffman postmaster of Pleasant Mills, Indiana, which office he resigned in 1862 to enlist in Com- pany E, roth Ohio cavalry, Ciptain Fehlison and Colonels Smith and Sanders. The regiment was under Kilpatrick and took part in the cavalry work around Atlanta and Savannah. It returned north through the enemy's country to Richmond, Virginia, where it was embarked on a transport for Baltimore and from that point was shipped to Cleveland, Ohio, where it was mustered out of service in August, 1865. Mr. Coffman took part in all the serious engagements with which his division was concerned and notwithstanding the frequency with which he was under fire during his
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three years' service he received no wounds. He was mustered out as first duty sergeant of Company E.
The three years intervening between his discharge from the army and his advent to Kansas Mr. Coffman spent at farming in Adams County, In- diana. He made the trip to Kansas in a wagon coniaining, besides his family, his personal effects. He disposed of his Neosho County farm at a fancy price and invested the proceeds in land near Moran. His farm comprises 330 acres conveniently situated and well stocked and well tilled.
Mr. Coffman was first married in 1867 to Anna R. McLeod who died in 1879, with issue as follows: May, wife of Marion Lee, of Los Angeles County, California; Edith I., wife of Chas. Weast, of Neosho County. In 1884 Mr. Coffinan married Laura E. Coe, a daughter of Orville L. Coe, of Geanga County, Ohio. Their child is Harold C. Coffman.
Mr. Coffman is a well known Democrat and is one of the party leaders in Allen County. He frequents county conventions and enthuses his coun- trymen in the faith in every political campaign.
W ESLEY N. JONES, of Marmaton township and a pioneer Kansan. has resided upon the southeast quarter of section 22, town 24, range 20, for the past ten years, having come into Allen County from the adjoining county of Anderson in the spring of 1890. In 1865 his father, John M. Jones, settled in the valley of Deer Creek, near Colony, Kansas, and became one of the substantial farmers of Anderson County. He emi- grated from Montgomery County, Illinois, where he was reared and married. He was born in Tennessee in 1826, was a son of Hugh Jones, and died near Colony in 1894. Hugh Jones left Tennessee about 1836 and improved a farm in Montgomery County, Illinois, where he settled permanently and died.
John M. Jones married Frances Grisham, a daughter of Spartan Gris- ham, who survives her husband at the age of sixty-nine years. Her chil- dren are: Mary, wife of W. H. Quiet, of Anderson, County, Kansas; Wes- ley N .; Emma, wite of Jesse Day, of Chase County, Kansas; Hugh Jones, of Boston, Massachusetts; a lawyer and a telephone promoter.
Wesley N. Jones was born in Montgomery County, Illinois, in May, 1854. He consequently grew up in Kansas from his eleventh year. His education was obtained in the early schools of Anderson County and he be- gan life as a farmer. In 1877 he was married in Allen County to Ella, a daughter of George H. Bacon, of Elsmore township. The children of this union are: Jesse M., Laura, Charles, George, May, Roy and Junia.
Mr. Jones made farming a success in Anderson County for several years and when he came into Allen County he purchased one of the good farms of his township. It is two and one-half miles northwest of Moran and was the "Snyder League claim." His surroundings present the ap- pearance of thrift and a degree of prosperity not uncommon with men of
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industry and ambition He is growing into the stock business and is reaching a plane of financial independence most desirable in the evening of life.
The Jones' have a reputation for staunch Republicanism. Our subject cast his first presidential vote for Mr. Hayes and his last one for William McKinley and the Republicans of Marmaton selected him for the candidate for Trustee in 1900.
G EORGE L. MERRILL, of the lumber firm of Adams & Merrill, of Moran, came to Allen County in 1883. At that time he located in the new and growing town of Moran, engaged in the business of contracting and building and for seventeen years has been regarded as an active mov- ing spirit in the affairs of his town.
Mr. Merrill was born in Concord, Morgan County, Illinois, May 10, 1860. His father, Spafford Merrill, was a mechanic. He crossed the . plains in '49 and remained on the Pacific coast several years, residing among the Indians and resting here and there alone, and without the sight of a white man for years. He made his way up into Washington and was one of the parties to name the city Whatcomb. He returned to Illinois with the proceeds of his trip, before the Rebellion, and engaged in mercan- tile pursuits in Concord. He joined the forst Illinois infantry as a private soldier and served over two years.
Spafford Merrill was born in New York February 5, 1825. His father was Aaron Merrill, born in Geneseo, New York, in 1798. The latter left New York with his family in 1829 and settled in Mahoning County, Ohio. He continued his westward trip in 1871 and died in Morgan County, Illinois, in 1874. He married Electa Wright and his children were: Mar- garet, Charles, Spafford, Benson, George, John and Emily, wife of W. H. McCartney, of Hopkins, Missouri. Benson resides in Jacksonville, Illinois; the others are dead.
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