USA > Kansas > Woodson County > History of Allen and Woodson counties, Kansas > Part 47
USA > Kansas > Allen County > History of Allen and Woodson counties, Kansas > Part 47
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F RANKLIN ROOT .- The late Franklin Root, ex-County Superintend- ent of Public Instruction of Allen county, was one of the noble characters and honored citizens of his county. Few men possessed, in as high degree, the confidence and esteem of his townsmen and few men more sincerely merited that confidence so extended and so marked.
While in Allen county Mr. Root made himself as much a part of the- county as though he had been born here and his life of usefulness to it be- gan from the week he set foot upon its soil. As educator, as Christian- gentleman and as model citizen he performed his part and well and effect- ively it was done, leaving the impress of his beautiful life and stainless. character wherever he mingled in business or society.
Frank Root was born in Pekin, New York, May 4, 1826. His early · life was rural in environment, for his father, Elias Root, was a farmer. The latter was born in Mansfield, Connecticut, June 8, 1781, and was there married to Anna Belding, who was born in Conway, Massachusetts, July 12, 1790. Of their seven children Frank was the only one who identified himself with the West.
In preparing himself for the duties of lite Franklin Root attended the Lewiston, New York, Academy and the Lockport Union School. He en- gaged in teaching and continued the work several years, finally abandon- ing it when he was appointed to a position in the revenue service at Sus- pension Bridge, New York. He spent eight years in the customs service and was as efficient and popular as a customs collector as he was as a teacher of the American youth. In 1871 he came to Kansas and took the school at Geneva, Allen county. His success there, and his apparent personal fitness for the office, led the Republicans of the county to name him for county superintendent. He was first appointed to fill an unexpired term and was then elected to fill the remainder of that term and twice to fill full terms of two years each. It is doubtful if any public officer held the universal esteem of his constituents to a greater degree than did Mr. Root. To the teachers he was a fatherly adviser and a tower of strength and to the district board and patrons he was a wise counsellor and sincere friend, and all worked in practical harmony together.
Upon retiring from office Mr. Root was associated with H. L. Hender- son in the hardware business, afterwards with W. A. Cowan in the grocery business. The last years of his life he was with A. W. Beck as his
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book-keeper and so long as he possessed the strength he filled this posi- :tion. He was a long sufferer from asthma and this finally terminated his life. He died at Hot Springs, Arkansas, May 29, 1886, and was buried at Iola.
April 18, 1867, Mr. Root was married to Lucinda Pletcher, a daughter of David and Elizabeth (Pletcher) Pletcher. They had no children, save those they adopted and elsewhere referred to herein.
H TELL EVANS, a member of the drug firm of Evans Brothers, is a · son of one of Allen county's pioneers. His father was Hon. John M. Evans, who represented Allen county in the State Legislature near the close of the sixties and who was, at the time of his death and for some years prior, a prominent merchant of the county, doing business at Ge- neva. The latter was an Indiana settler and came into the county in 1857. He entered the quarter section in Carlyle township known now as the "County Poor Farm" and resided upon it till the year following the close of the war when he went to Geneva. He was associated with L. L. North- rup in a general store and was stricken down in the prime of life thirteen years after his advent to the county.
H. T. Evans is the fourth of a family of six surviving heirs of John M. Evans. He was born at the old homestead in Allen county Jauuary 29, 1863, just two years after Kansas' natal day. The early part of his life was passed in Geneva and since 1876 he has lived in Jola. He secured an ordinary training in the common schools and in his youth he engaged to learn the carpenter trade. He worked many months with the late S. P. Overmyer and it might be said that that odd character taught him the prime mysteries of the craft. One of the last acts of our subject, as a me- chanic, was to erect the frame work and do the finishing on Evans Brothers' store.
When Mr. Evans first engaged. in business it was as a partner with M. L. Miller, the firm being "Miller & Evans, undertakers." Two years after the formation of the firm he purchased the interest of Mrs. Miller and conducted the business alone. The disastrous fire of 1891 swept away three-fourths of his resources and wiped out a business that had been estab- lished only four years. The firm of Evans Brothers grew out of that con- flagration. Tell and William J. found it necessary, from force of circum- stances, and mutually helpful to unite their shattered resources in an effort to regain a place in the business world of Iola. They purchased the lot upon which was the old Stevenson drug store and erected Iola's first hand- some business house. In 1892 the firin opened their, now famous, drug and stationery house, one of the conspicuously attractive places in Iola.
Realizing the late start in a new business, he took up the study of pharmacy with the determination to win. And though studying only at home, with the assistance of other members of the firm, and taking the
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correspondence course of the National Institute of Pharmacy, of Chicago, Illinois, (of which he has a diploma) was ready for the State Examina -- tion of Pharmacists, in the minimum of time of experience, as prescribed by the Kansas laws, and was passed by the board at the head of a class. of fifty-five.
September 29, 1896, Mr. Evans married Aline Peterson, a lady of social and musical prominence who located in Iola in 1886. She was born. in the city of Chicago and reared in Plattsburg, Clinton county, Missouri, and, in1 1895, took a course in the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. The children of this union are Telline and Emily J. Evans.
Mr. Evans began the exercise of his elective franchise in 1884 by cast- ing his presidential ballot for the "Plumed Kuiglit," the great Secretary Blaine. His party fealty never suffers by defeat. Twice has he seen . the banner of progress and prosperity fall into the hands of his political com- petitors and as many times has he helped to reclaim it and to restore it to its own. In local matters he has done only that which would tend to the best public service for Iola. Being in strict accord with the spirit of pro- gress in public education he was nominated for the Board of Education in. 1900 from the Fourth ward and elected. He is one of the first members of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and has represented the Iola body in the State Grand Lodge.
UDGE ALEXANDER WILLIAM J. BROWN, the late pioneer and Captain of Company F, Sixth Kansas, war of the Rebellion, was one of the locally conspicuous characters on the Kansas frontier. His prominence lies in his being a settler at such an early date and from his various rela- tions to the settlers along the Neosho and its tributaries in Allen county. He, in company with his son, Alexander H. Brown, left Saline county , Illinois, in the month of May, 1855, with an ox team for Kansas. They crossed the Mississippi at St. Louis, . the Missouri at St. Clarles and at Rock Port, keeping the western trail to the Kansas line twelve miles south of Kansas City. They were headed for the Neosho Valley but soon after they entered the Territory the road disappeared and their last fifty-five miles was made without pilot or guide other than the sun and stars. On
entering the county the little caravan went into camp a half mile north and about two hundred yards east of where North Maple Grove school house now stands. It was the month of June and the heavy rains had swollen Deer Creek so that it could not be forded. Some settlers were discovered to be on the south side of the creek and, while delayed, they were "hel- loed" over and found to be of the same family, but of the tribe of Isham. Isham Brown and Dallis Martin on Deer Creek, Moses Followell on Elm Creek, the Baker brothers on the Neosho River and Mr. Ferguson on Rock Creek, were the persons who reached this locality ahead of Judge Brown. The latter crossed the prairie from Deer Creek to Rock Creek and
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there located by purchasing Mr. Ferguson's interest in a claim for $roo in gold, a yoke of cattle and a wagon. His was the first permanent settle- ment on Rock Creek and the second permanent settlement in the northern part of Allen county, for none of those mentioned above, except Dallas Martin, remained amongst us till a very recent date.
The condition of our subject was a trifle extraordinary and very un- usual for he came to the county with sufficient means to count him as a wealthy man, whereas, the average pioneer found himself exhausted in purse by the time he had passed the first winter in his new home. This fortunate condition of the Judge's was turned to the public as well as to his personal good. It enabled him to confer acts of charity where it was most deserving and appreciated and in many ways did his benefactions contri- bute to the comfort and happiness of the first settlers of his locality.
There was the largest possible opportunity for engaging in the cattle business and this our subject did in connection with the subjugation and improvement of his farm. He was one of the successful men of his time and was one of those men whose opinion is sought and valued for its wis- dom and a gentleman whose interest in any public matter assured the more unanimous co-operation of the citizens. He was one of the early Probate Judges of the county and he performed the first marriage ceremony in Allen county. His selection to the captaincy of a company in the volunteer service shows him to have been in accord with the patriots of '61. His regiment, the Eighth, was made a part of the Sixth Kansas and was ren- dezvoused at Fort Scott. The Judge resigned in less than a year and re- turned to civil pursuits. He died in 1866 at the age of fifty-two years.
A. W. J. Brown was born in Kentucky. He went into Saline county, Illinois, with his mother and step-father, Mrs. and Mr. Daniel Coy. He was limitedly educated, was fond of books, a student of history-ancient as well as modern-and, while interested in politics, was not a politician. His three half-sisters were Rhoda, Elizabeth and Martha Coy. They married David Evans, Samnel Miller and Jacob Barker, respectively, and passed their lives in Illinois.
Our subject's first wife was Eliza Barger who died near Iola in 1861. For his second wife he married Mrs. Margaret Robinson, a daughter of the pioneer physician Dr. John Hart, who came to Allen county in 1857. The children by his first wife were: John L., deceased, ex-sheriff of Allen county; Alex. H., born March 12, 1840; Lottie, wife of John H. Harris, also one of our pioneer citizens; Julia, who died young; Eliza, recently de- ceased, wife of John E. Thorpe, an Iola patriot and a pioneer; William, Albert and Mattie, wife of Lee Patton, of Indiana. A son by his second marriage is Orlie Brown, of Oklahoma.
Alexander H. Brown has, with the exception of two winters, been a resident of Allen county for a term of forty five years. This is a longer term than any other man now in the county has to his credit. He was a farmer and stock man and trader till 1884 when he took up his residence in Iola. He has been identified with the "ins and outs" of county matters nearly ever since the war. Whatever he could do in any way to advance
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the general interest of liis town or county he has done, or in whatever way he could assist a neighbor in distress or help a brother over a piece of "corduroy" his hand was ready. In 1885-6 he was Deputy Sheriff of Allen county. Like his father, his Republicanism is of the staunchest variety. He was married March 20, 1864, to Annie L., a daughter of Jonathan Masterson, who came to Kansas from Bloomingtou, Illinois. Mrs. Brown was born July 17, 1845, and died October 18, 1900. Their children are: Minnie, wife of P. L. Augustine; Hattie, wife of George Fryer, and Miss Ella Brown.
JOHN A. RICHESON-One of the unique characters, whose life was spent in Iola and whose original traits will remain fresh in the minds of his acquaintances and friends, is the late John A. Richeson. He passed twenty-four years in Allen County-the most of them around Iola-and he demonstrated that his chief quality was industry. He was born of humble parents and his child opportunities were those of the wage earner at what- ever came in his way. He learned no trade and seemed to have no genius or special adaptation for mechanics. He drifted along through life from place to place-till he reached Iola-having little more of life's riches than would sustain life. His notions of industry were that it should always be practiced. It was the corner stone of comfort and riches and the promoter of good health. He loved to work at good pay, but if he could not get such a berth he took one with poor pay rather than none. When jobs around Iola were scarce he plied the trade of fisherman. This occupation no doubt, sustained his family and supplied his few personal wants many times in the absence of steady employment. Another, and a favorite. occu- pation of his was selling soda pop. His voice was heard at nearly every fair, picnic and show at Iola crying the sale of these goods. He possessed peculiar and successful qualities in the conduct of such a business and the profits he reaped always went to the support of his well trained and honora- ble family ..
Johnny Richeson was born at White Hall, Indiana, March 4, 1852. He was a son of William Richeson, an early settler in Indiana and an old soldier. His business was that of shoemaking and he died at Renssalaer, Indiana. William Richeson married Lizzie E. Jackson, who was Johnny's mother. The latter came to Kansas, and to Allen County, many years ago and it was her last sickness that brought her oldest child, our subject, to the State, August 4, 1875.
December 24, 1878, Mr. Richeson was married in Iola by Judge Boyd to Roena Wright, a daughter of Amos Wright. The Wrights came to Allen County from McLean County, Illinois, in 1869. The Richesons finally located on State street where Johnny purchased a small amount of property and erected a modest dwelling. His surplus earnings were de- voted to the improvement of and betterment of his home and when he died,
Frances stilson
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February 16, 1900, his family was provided with the means to straighten up all his affairs and to secure them against the storms of adversity.
Mr. and Mrs. Richeson's children are; Louie, Charles A., Harry A., Lydia E., Warner A., Addie D., Oril L., William E. and Thelma Richeson.
When Johnny Richeson died he was a member of the Select Friends and of the Odd Fellows. It is the custom for the latter order to bury their dead, but, at his request, the order was not permitted to contribute more than its attendance at his obsequies. It was his disposition to be inde- pendent and to permit no one to put him under obligation to them. He desired to give full value for all he received and if he could not do this hie declined assistance.
M ISS FRANCES WILSON-Fifteen years of public service is sufficient to establish the good name of the person whose name introduces this review. It is an ample guaranty of all the elements which constitute integrity, truth and sobriety and these qualities are little more than an apology for the real attributes which enter into the mental composition of Allen County's lady Treasurer.
Frances Wilson was born in Allen County after the war of the Re- bellion. Her father, James H. Wilson, a worthy farmer of Iola township, came into the county near the close of 1863 to take up his residence permanently. He drove the Leavenworth, Lawrence and Humboldt stage, but upon leaving this employ he arranged with O'Brien. Scott and Amsden to care for their cattle around about Humboldt. He became so attached to the country that when his period of service as a cattle inan was terminated he decided to remain here and engaged in farming. In the spring of 1866 he resided on the Neosho River (on the Willenburg farm) where his daugh- ter and second child was born. He has vibrated between Iola and Hunt- boldt townships in these thirty-five years, finally becoming a fixture of the latter.
Mr. Wilson was born in Gurnsey County, Ohio, August 3, 1836, and is a son of Enos Wilson, a native of Maryland. The latter, with his wife, went into Ohio early and died when James was a small child. An uncle took the orphaned boy with the intention of bringing him up but he, too, died and the boy, at the age of six years, was forced to provide the greater part of his means of support. He got little chance to prepare himself along educational lines for the battles of life, as he became a farm hand from the first and remained one until he left Ohio. In 1854 he went to Champaign County, Illinois, and was engaged in farming until his entry into Kansas during the war period. In August, 1863, he was married to Rebecca J., a daughter of John Ellis, a native of Indiana.
Immediately after his marriage Mr. Wilson emigrated to Kansas. He took the boat at St. Louis for Lawrence and left that place on the last stage out before the guerrillas sacked the town. Their baggage containing all
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their personal effects were destroyed and thus they entered Allen County.
George, Frances and Samuel Wilson are the children of James H. Wilson. The former is an employee of the Santa Fe Railway Company, the last named is a progressive young farmer of Iola township, and Frances is the subject of this brief sketch.
"Frankie" Wilson is known to every tax-payer in Allen County. She began getting acquainted with them away back in the regime of "Pap" H. H. Hayward, for whom she engaged as a clerk in 1886. She wasmot specially equipped for such a responsible place but the good old man gave hier a chance and that was what she desired. She had attended the schools of her district and advanced far enough to have become a "common school graduate" had that ceremony been established in her day. In the Treas- urer's office her first years were those of a student. The numerous details of the office she set out earnestly to master and before her preceptor retired from office she knew them perfectly. When Mr. Cunningham took charge of the office he retained Miss Wilson as his deputy. This movement was in full accord with the sentiment of the public for she was even then regarded as necessary to the perfect and systematic conduct of the office. Having served through this term, the public was again gratified to learn that Mr. Nelson had arranged to keep her with him through his adminis- tration of the office. The same sincere service was rendered to him as was to his successor, Mr. Decker, through both of whose regime she was all but the chief of the office. In all clerical matters pertaining to the conduct of the affairs of the office Miss Wilson was reliable almost to infallibility. Her natural modest and retiring disposition coupled with her capacity and ability as an accountant made her a favorite with her predecessors and, when the time for the nomination of a new Treasurer approached, she was the favorite with the people.
Women seldom become politicians, save in Kansas. The calling is honorable when engaged in in response to a universal and enthusiastic outburst of the people. Her campaign for the nomination for County Treasurer was not a campaign. When it was known that she would serve in that capacity she was the nominee. People like to support their friends for office and she was everybody's friend.
When the convention was called she had been named in the primaries and all that was left was the formal announcement of the result. The election was almost as pronouncedly in favor of her. Her majority greatly exceeded the normal Republican majority in the county. She was installed October 9, 1900 and chose for her deputy one of the most popular men of the 20th Kansas, Lewis Coffield.
It is a fact that criticism is one of the penalties of success. In the brief review of the life of our subject there seems to have been nothing but success, yet there is not in all Allen county one who would be warranted in engaging in other than favorable criticism of her years of public service. No person in public life in Allen county has so unanimously won the good will and confidence of the whole people as she, and no person, whether in public or private life, so richly deserves such unreserved endorsement and approval.
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H ENRY M. MILLER, of Iola, whose connection with the development of Allen county has extended over a period of twenty-one years and whose citizenship is a synonym for integrity, honor and patriotism, was born in Hayesville, Ohio, August 16, 1838. His father, Samuel G. Miller, was a doctor of medicine. The latter was fitted for his profession in Wooster, Ohio, in the office of Dr. Day. He practiced in Richland county, Ohio, till 1854, when he removed westward and settled in Washington county, Iowa. He died in 1894, at the age of eighty-five years and is buried in Minnesota. He is descended from the Millers of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and was a son of George Miller. His wife, our subject's mother, was Nancy J. McEwen, born in the State of Pennsylvania. She died in 1874 and is buried at Washington, Iowa. The children of their union are: Nancy J., Henry M., Samuel R., Elizabeth J., Mary E., George F., Ella May and Wilbur D.
Henry M. Miller is the second child of his parents. His life up to his sixteenth year was passed in Richland county, Ohio. At that age he ac- companied his parents into Iowa and soon engaged in teaching school. He taught in Washington and nearby counties for seven years, spending his spare hours and his vacations reading medicine as his calling and fully in- tended to enter a regular school (Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia,) when his preliminary preparation should be completed. He returned to Ohio about the time the war cloud broke upon the country and there responded to the President's second call for troops. He enlisted September 3, 1861, as a private in Company E, Third Ohio cavalry. He was promot- ed to Sergeant four days after his enlistment, while in camp at Monroeville, Ohio, and to Sergeant Major August 11, 1862, in the field while in Ken- tucky. March 21, 1863, he was promoted to ist Lieutenant, while the army lay around Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and April 24, of the same year, he was raised to the Staff Department and assigned to duty as Assistant Commissary of Musters on the staff of Brigadier General R. B. Mitchell, Ist Brigade, Ist Cavalry Division, Army of the Cumberland. He was trans- ferred to the staff of Gen. E. M. McCook, Ist Brigade, 2nd Cavalry division of that army, and again transferred, this time to the staff of Major General W. L. Elliott, Ist Cavalry division, Army of the Cumberland. His final transfer was to the Executive Staff of Major General W. T. Sherman where he was assigned to duty as Military Conductor of United States Military railroads, Army of the Tennessee. November 20, 1864, he resigned his position upon surgeon's certificate of disability, and accepted, soon there- after, the position of Paymaster, United States Military railroads in the office of F. J. Grilly, Nashville, Tennessee, Assistant Quarter-Master Gen- eral. August 20. 1865, he resigned this position and returned to pri- vate life.
In all Mr. Miller's service his positions were not sinecures. Duty called him where the fray was going on and he met the enemy with his comrades in many noted battles of the war. In 1862 he was in the engagement at Lexington, Kentucky; Franklin, Columbia; Woodville and LaVergne,
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Tennessee, and at the evacuation of Corinth, Mississippi. In 1863 he participated in the battles at Fayetteville, Shelbyville and Tullahoma, Tennessee, and in the brushes at Tuscumbia and Sand Mountain, Alabama. In 1864 he did his part in entertaining the Rebels at Snake Creek Gap, Pumpkin Vine Creek, Burnt Hickory, Crossing of the Chattahoocheend the siege of Atlanta. He took part in the following general engagements in which he received seven wounds as reminders of the execution of the enemy: Shiloh, Murfreesboro, Chicamauga, Resaca, Kennesaw, Peach Tree Creek and Atlanta, as before stated.
The war ended, Mr. Miller engaged in teaching school. From 1865 to 1870 he resided in Carroll county, Indiana, from whence he came west- ward to Bates county, Missouri. In 1873 he returned to Indiana and in 1876 came to Kansas. For some years he was traveling salesman with his home in Iola. He was engaged in the furniture business here in the early eighties and, succeeding in this, he was cashier of the Bank of Allen coun- ty nearly thirteen years. About a year after his retirement from the bank he became a candidate for the office of Clerk of the District Court and was elected to it in November, 1898. In the discharge of his official duties he has demonstrated rare ability as a competent and careful and painstaking officer.
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