USA > Kansas > Woodson County > History of Allen and Woodson counties, Kansas > Part 49
USA > Kansas > Allen County > History of Allen and Woodson counties, Kansas > Part 49
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Mr. Bartlett severed his connection with the paper later on and Mr. Ritter assumed charge of it. The Allen County Herald, a Democratic paper published in Iola at that time, was absorbed by him and consolidated with the Farmer's Friend. The business of a Populist lawyer and weekly newspaper of the same political faith seem to go well together and Mr. Ritter continued them for many years. In 1896 he was nominated by his party for
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County Attorney and endorsed by the Democrats and elected. After his term expired he again took up his private practice and newspaper work and is still at it.
Among the young ladies who attended the Rocklow school during the time Mr. Ritter taught it was Miss Hattie Welker. In 1893 Mr. Ritter made a trip to Minnesota where Miss Welker was visiting relatives and they returned married, very much to the surprise of their friends and rela- tives here. They have two girls, Neva and Casandra. They live in a pleasant home at the corner of Broadway and South Elm, in Iola.
D ELMER PIERCE NORTHRUP, chief of the mercantile interests of the Northrup estate and son of the late L. L. Northrup, was born in Iola July 20, 1867. His birth occurred in the house which is the residence of Dr. Fulton on North street, and all the years of his youth and middle life have been passed in Iola. He passed through the grades of the city schools, almost to graduation, and, at the age of eighteen, took a permanent position in the store of O. P. Northrup & Company. This was not a new experience for him for his father had been a merchant many years before and either conducted a business or had an interest in one all the years he lived in Iola and thus his sons grew up in the business. When the Northrup interests were separated into distinct departments our subject became the head of the drygoods division. He was amply equipped to ac- cept the responsibility and "Northrups" has continued to be, as in the past, the popular trading point in the gas belt.
The firm of Northrup Brothers came into existence in 1890 as succes- sors to O. P. Northrup & Company and is composed of F. A., L. L. and D. P. Northrup. The special educational equipment of our subject for any line or department of the Northrup interests was secured in Eastman Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York. He took a course there in 1885 in which he secured that thorough drill necessary to convert theory into practice.
Mr. Northrup's interest in matters pertaining to Iola is a lively and growing one. His mind is on his store by day, with his family at night and on Iola all the time. He has aided liberally any movement to adver- tise his town or to make it bigger and better. He is fond of sport and he enthuses over baseball and the fair. He is interested in the cause of labor and encourages its efforts and entertainment in Iola. He believes in high- er education and represents the third ward on the Board of Education. He is in sympathy with fraternities and is in good standing with the Knights of Pythias and the Elks. He is a man with strong likes and dislikes and while his friends are legion you can count his enemies on the fingers of one hand. In politics he is a Republican in State and National matters but in local affairs his ticket often suffers some modifiation to adjust it to his
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views. His universal popularity is attested by his election, without oppo- sition to a place on the Board of Education in 1899.
October 9, 1889, Mr. Northrup was married in Iola to Docia, daughter of Riley Young. Mrs. Northrup was born in Allen county June 9, 1869. The children of this union are: Gladys Young, born July 29, 1890; Lewis O., born Jannary 28, 1893, and Lillian, born June 29, 1896.
C CONSTANTINE G. MULL, is one of Allen county's early settlers. He came amongst the pioneers of this county in 1866 and settled in Carlyle township on a farm in section 25. township 23, range 18. He was reared a farmer and when he established himself in the new west it was but natural that he should turn his attention to the farm and field. He had had ample training and it was not surprising that he should succeed. He remained with the farm for nearly thirty years, leaving it only when the death of his wife deprived him of a companion and rendered the old home dreary and depressing.
Mr. Mull was born near Rockville, Indiana, October 3, 1842. His father was Jacob Mull, born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and a country school-mate of James Buchanan, the fifteenth President of the United States. Mr. Mull was born November 5, 1805, was married in Lancaster county about 1836 and removed to Columbiana county, Ohio. In 1840 he settled in Parke county, Indiana, where he became one of the prominent and successful farmers of his day. He spent his last years in Rockville, dying there in 1874. He was a son of Nicholas Mull, a German by birth who died near the place of his settlement in Pennsylvania. He seems to have had an only son, Jacob, whose sons, alone, bear the family name of this American branch.
Jacob Mull married Mary A. Durrah, whose father, William Durrah, was a tailor in Columbiana county, Ohio. Mary A. Mull died at Rock- ville, Indiana, in 1885, at the age of seventy-three years. Her children are: Elizabeth, wife of Henry Burford, of Marshall, Indiana; Lucinda, widow of J. F. Clark, of Rockville, Indiana; Susan, deceased, married William Snell; William D. Mull, who was killed by a maniac while sheriff of Parke county, Indiana; David H. Mull, of Mercer county, Missouri; Con G .; Martha, widow of William Elliott, of Rockville, Indiana; John, who died in Montgomery county, Kansas; Henry, on the old home in Indiana, and Martin Mull, who was killed at Ingalls, Kansas, by an accidental shot.
Our subject possessed the advantages only of the country youth of the early days in Indiana. When he left home it was to go into the army. He enlisted in Company F. Eleventh Cavalry, Colonel "Bob" Stewart, of Terre Haute. He was mustered in at Indianapolis and his regiment was sent south to General Thomas' army. His company was so situated that his first year or more was spent fighting Bushwhackers. The first Rebel
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commander to engage their attention was General Joe Wheeler. The main campaign in which the Eleventh was engaged was the one at Franklin and Nashville, Tennessee, and at the latter place Mr. Mull was discharged after two years of service. This military experience served to stimulate in him a desire for other similar service later on and when the opportunity came to join a Kansas regiment to fight the Indians and recapture the white women who had been taken by them he enlisted in the famous Nine- teenth Kansas. He was on the march through Texas and the Territory where their mission was accomplished. The women were surrendered and the campaign ended with the close of winter. The winter of 1868 was a long and cold one and those who saw service in the marching across the trackless plains, through snow and ice and under the protection of Heaven alone, are to be praised for their heroism and revered for their self- sacrifices.
Mr. Mull brought a small sum of money with him to Kansas. He in- vested it in wild prairie and out of this he proceeded to develop a home. When he had done this he found it agreeable to himself to entertain matri- monial thoughts. He made the acquaintance of Miss Laura Adams and married her at Carlyle in September 1871. Mrs. Mull was a native of Parke county, Indiana, and died without heirs, 1891. In November 1896, Mr. Mull married Mrs. Ella Curnutt.
Mr. Mull is an enthusiastic Grand Army man and his Republican pro- clivities are among his pronounced characteristics.
A RTHUR LEROY TAYLOR, of Iola, whose career of above thirty years in Kansas, has established for himself a reputation for business and a character for integrity, nnimpeached, throughout southeast Kansas, is particularly well known to the lumber trade of this section. Long years of connection with these interests have not conspired to bring about this prominence so much as the spirit with which he conducts his business and the enthusiasm which he maintains for the success of the "Hoo Hoo" tribe. His long residence in Kansas almost makes him a pioneer yet lie has accomplished more for his locality than many pioneers and his individuality is firmly stamped upon whatever is honored with his serious atteintion.
Rock Island, Illinois, is the birthplace of Arthur L. Taylor. He was born April 5, 1848, was reared in the country, largely, and is a son of Clinton G. Taylor. The latter went into Rock Island county in 1842 from Jefferson county, New York. He was born in the Empire State in 1809 and of English descent. Our subject's great-grandfather was a soldier of the American Revolution.
Clinton G. Taylor was a self-made man, a teacher in early life and taught one of the first schools to be held in Rock Island county. He was one of the conspicuous men of the early days in western Illinois, was a
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Whig and, later, a Republican, and was appointed by the Lincoln adminis- tration Revenue Assessor in that State. He died in Galesburg, Illinois, in 1884. He was a strict Presbyterian and his son, Rev. Mark B. Taylor, is a prominent Congregational clergyman, of Brooklyn, New York. He married Eliza M., a daughter of Asa Barnes, of Jefferson county, New York. Mrs. Taylor resides in Ottawa, Kansas. She was born in 1810.
Clinton G. Taylor was the father of Mrs. F. A. Cobb, of Ireton, Iowa; Mrs. A. P. Gibson, of Neosho county, Kansas; Rev. Mark B. Taylor, Past Chaplain of the National Grand Army of the Republic; Arthur L. and Mrs. Ella Tabor, of Ottawa, Kansas.
Arthur L. Taylor spent the first twenty-one years of his life on the farm and was schooled in such institutions as were common to sons of farmers from 1855 to 1865. With the money he made at farming a rented place the year he became of age he attended Bryant and Stratton's College at Davenport, Iowa. He spent the following season at farming and, deciding to come to the western prairies, he drove a mule team through, in 1869, to Neosho county, Kansas. The first three years in Kansas were devoted to farming-at that time his favorite calling. He had the experience of every country youth in Kansas in the early 70's, that of breaking prairie with Texas steers. To this he owes the cultivation of his wonderful stock of patience, and, if he has departed from the training which he received at his mother's knee, it was this that caused it. In 1872 he was appointed Deputy County Clerk of Neosho county and served as such, and as Deputy County Treasurer, four years. In these capacities his natural business ability was given an opportunity to shine. His familiarity with the affairs of the county and his pronounced views with reference to the proper con- duct of the public business rendered him a formidable candidate for County Commissioner without his encouragement or consent. In 1876 he was elected to that office and served the county ten years, continuously, with great ability and fidelity. Mr. Taylor was a Republican the first five years of his majority but he fell out with the tariff, believing it to be "legalized robbery" and he became a Democrat. His election as County Commission- er occurred in a Republican district and while serving as such he was in the lumber business at Osage Mission, 110w St. Paul, Kansas.
In 1888 Mr. Taylor bought the S. A. Brown lumber yard in Iola and that year began a residence there which has been mutually profitable and pleasant to himself and his townsmen. Two years after his advent to the city he was elected to the Council and was chosen Mayor in 1897. He is one of the active members of the Commercial Club, and its President, and is the shaft which drives the machinery of the Allen County Fair Associa- tion. This latter not only requires days of unremitting toil but nights of worry and unrest, besides a yearly financial outlay. He has witnessed its periods of temporary adversity and has behield its era of great success and popularity.
Mr. Taylor was first married January 1, 1874, to Annie, a daughter of Dr. G. W. McMillin, whose former home was in Lexington, Kentucky. Mrs. Taylor was born in Lexington in 1851 and died in Iola January 23,
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1893. Her children are: Ella, wife of Adlai Ewing, was born August I. 1875; Clinton G., married to Pearl M. Harkness, was born September 15, 1877, and is associated with his father in business; Ray, born July 9, 1883; Irene, born November 8, 1886, and Genevieve, born June 18, 1891. Mr. Taylor was married June 24, 1896, to Mrs. Julia Archibald, a daugh- ter of W. B. Alcock, of Marietta, Ohio. Mrs. Taylor was one of the suc- cessful and popular teachers in the Iola schools for some years.
C HARLES CALVIN AUSHERMAN, of Iola, junior member of the well known firm of Cowan & Ausherman, and Allen county's popu- lar ex-sheriff, came into the county in 1880, a young man just turned twenty-one. He was born in Frederick county, Maryland, March 11, 1859, and spent his first sixteen years in the famous Middletown Valley. The Aushermans were among the early and thrifty settlers of that valley and were, as the name indicates, of German origin. The growing of grain and the raising of stock took up their time and attention and their prominence as such was a matter of common report during the first half of the present century. They were Whigs in politics and Dunkards in religion.
John Ausherman, our subject's grandfather, was born in the Valley and died there in 1864 at the age of seventy two years. His wife was Ldiay Arnold, and his children were twelve in number. John Ausherman's father was a German who settled in Middletown Valley during the closing years of the 18th century and his children were: John, Henry, David and Mrs. Slifer.
Samuel Ansherman, our subject's father, was born near Middletown, February 1, 1834, and died in Bourbon county, Kansas, September 15, 1891. He was married in Frederick county, Maryland, in 1856 to Malinda C., a daughter of Daniel Leazer. In 1875 Mr. Ausherman left Maryland for the west and located near Springfield, Missouri. In 1880 he came to the vicinity of Iola and in 1887 removed to Berlin, Bourbon county, and there died. Like his ancestors, Mr. Ausherman devoted himself to the farm and kindred enterprises and at times made money and at times lost. He became a Republican early in the history of that party and was a man of positive and outspoken convictions. His sons are holding up the banner with credit to the family name and are honored citizens of their respective communities.
The Leazers were also German. Daniel Leazer, or subject's maternal grandfather, was a well known blacksmith of the Valley and married Mary Gaver. Of their seven children Malinda C., was then seventh. She was born in 1838 and resides in Iola. Her children are: Ella, wife of John Moore, of Bourbon county, Kansas; Charles C .; Benjamin M., a leading lawyer of Evanston, Wyoming; Alta May, wife of Henry W. Lambeth, of Allen county; Will C., a grocer in Salt Lake, Utah, and Miss Kate Ausher- inan, one of Iola's talented teachers in the public schools.
Charles C. Ausherman received a common school education. He
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knew 110 business but farming till he was twenty-five years old. He began his career as a merchant in Iola, with Hart & Welch. His next employ- er was D. B. Stephens and, finally, he became the trusted clerk of Cowan & Marsh. When Cowan & Norris entered into a partnership Mr. Ausher- man's name became second in the firm. In 1887 the firm of Cowan & Ausherman was formed and is one of the substantial concerns of the city. Mr. Ausherman is the active head of the institution and to his popularity is die, in great measure, the prosperity and perpetuity of the firm.
The fact that C. C. Ausherman got into politics when he became a voter and immediately acquired a following seems "a matter of course." His personal magnetism and his evident sincerity of purpose are the quali- ties necessary to leadership and it is but natural that he should become a prominent factor in the manipulation of party affairs. He was township clerk some years ago and when the county campaign of 1893 approached his friends insisted upon his candidacy for the office of Sheriff. He ulti- mately consented and won the nomination easily, and the election by a majority of 234 votes. His administration of the office was so efficient as to win him a second election by a majority of 913 votes, and he left the office the most popular ex-Sheriff of Allen county. He has served on the Iola city Council, both before and since its charter as a second class city, and represented the first ward till 1900. His attitude toward his city is that of a public-spirited and progressive citizen. Worthy enterprises ap- peal to bis liberality and worthy charities his financial support. He is well know as an Odd Fellow and is prominent in the "Knights and Ladies" order.
Mr. Ausherman was married December 20, 1893, in Coffeyville, Kan- sas, by Rev. Freed, to Sadie J. Proctor. Her father was Richard Proctor and her mother, Elizabeth Bratton. They were Kentucky people and came to Allen county in 1881. Mrs. Ausherman was born March 22, 1870. Harold P. Ansherman, our subject's only child, was born February 8, 1898.
JOHN SCHLIMMER, one of the substantial German-Americans of Mar-
maton township, has passed a quarter of a century in Allen county, upon section 3, town 24, range 20. He came to Kansas in 1875 from Hamilton county, Ohio, and was in company with a colony of settlers who located in both Allen and Anderson counties. He was not a farmer by training but conditions in this new country pointed to success in farming, if the proper energy and industry were present, and knowing that he pos- sessed both these qualities Mr. Schlimmer did not hesitate to try the ex- periment. With what success he has met it is sufficient to note the increased acreage of his farm and the improvements and the stock that are found thereon.
Mr. Schlimmer was born in Kur Hessen, Germany, October 24, 1839. He was a youth of seventeen when he started for the United States and his
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destination was Cincinnati. He worked as a journeyman blacksmith for Mr. Stacey, on Walnut Hill, Cincinnati, five years and then established a blacksmith and wagon shop on the same hill. In the fifteen years that he conducted it he accumulated the surplus cash he invested in his Kansas farm. Mr. Schlimmer left Germany alone with only scant means to pay his passage but a fair knowledge of the trade he expected to follow. He sailed from Bremen aboard the Harmonia, bound for Baltimore. He stopped a week in Frostburg, Maryland, to visit friends and then con- tinued his journey to Cincinnati.
Mr. Schlimmer's father, John Schlimmer, was a farmer and three of his six children are in the United States, viz .: Adam, of St. Joe, Missouri; John, and Henry Schlimmer, of Ansonia, Ohio. Mary, Elizabeth and Christ Schlimmer are in Germany.
Our subject was married in Cincinnati in 1861 to Elizabeth Neibert, who was born in the same locality with her husband. Their children are: Mary, wife of Fred Bratts, of Moran, Kansas; Conrad and Elizabeth Schlimmer.
Mr. Schlimmer's first vote was cast for Mr. Lincoln in 1860 and his ballot has been counted at each Presidential election since.
R OBERT ZIMMERMAN-The subject of this sketch furnishes a strik- ing example of what energy, coupled with tenacity and good judg- ment, can accomplish upon a Kansas farm. Twenty years ago Robert Zimmerman was not a citizen of Kansas. He was a poor laborer struggling with adversity in the mining district of Bureau county. Illinois. He came to the latter place an ignorant, inexperienced young Swiss in the hope of improving a condition of perpetual servitude in his native Switzerland. He was born of poor parents May 6, 1845, and had acquired such school and other advantages, at his twenty-first year, as were common to children in his station. His father, Jacob Zimmerman, died when our subject was a small boy and the needs of the family could only be provided for through the diligence and industry of the children. Robert was one of four and
next to the youngest child. In his youth he got into the silver mines of Switzerland and eked out an existence for some years. At the age of twenty-three' he decided to come to the United States, if he could make arrangements for the passage money. He secured a loan from a friend upon the promise that it should be returned ont of the first money earned in America. He reached this country in 1869 and went direct to the Illinois coal fields and secured work in the LaSalle mines. When he liad repaid his passage money he laid by his earnings and soon brought over the mother, one sister and two brothers. The family circle was again united and he devoted his energies to providing the means for a permanent home. By the year 188r he had amassed a modest sum and with it he came to the friend of the poor man, Kansas. He purchased an unimproved
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eighty cheap and from thenceforward was a farmer. His beginnings were very humble and his first years in Kansas were in the nature of a struggle for comfortable existence. He laid then the foundation for the comfortable surroundings, which are his in the years of his decline, and solved well the first problems in American agriculture. Each year found him a trifle in advance of the year before. His accumulations were invested in more land, from time to time, and he now pays taxes on a half section, one of the good farms on Big Creek. With his surroundings he presents, to a marked degree, an appearance of thrift and comfort. His cribs and mows are filled with the products of the farm and his yards of stock indicate from whence comes the reward for his toil. By close application he has reached a condition of financial independence exceeded by few farmers in his town- ship and he is regarded as one of the full-handed farmers of Elsmore.
In 1871 Mr. Zimmerman was married to Christina Thomas. Their family is a large one, twelve of their thirteen children being alive. They are Christina, Mary, John, Lillie, Clara, Thomas, Ella, Victoria, Olga, Julia, Nellie and Eva. Nine of the number are with the family home while three are married and building homes for themselves.
G AYLORD ROBINSON, highly regarded among the business men of Iola, and universally respected as a citizen, came to Allen county March 1, 1870. He came out of Illinois, his native state, being born in Peoria county, November 21, 1841. His father, George Robinson, was a farmer who located in Peoria county in 1835 and opened up a pre-emption claim upon which he reared his family. He was born in Otsego county. New York, and the son of an Irishman. His birth occurred in 1794 and his death on his Illinois farm in 1872. He was a plain quiet citizen, with- out fuss or show or desire for place. He was reasonably successful in his vocation and brought up his children to be useful men and women. His brothers were: Thomas, John, David, Matthew and Charles. Thomas. David and Charles left no families.
George Robinson married Maria Gaylord who died in 1873, leaving the following children: William, of Brimfield, Illinois; Thomas, deceased; Abigail, deceased, wife of C. C. Cady; Eliza, wife of N. Dunlap, resides in Dunlap, Illinois; Harriet, now Mrs. J. M. Miller, of Galva, Illinois; Charles, of Memphis, Tennessee; Lucy, wife of J. A. Nelson, of Benton, Iowa; Fannie, of Webb City, Missouri, wife of R. Loeb; David Robinson, of Iola; George, of Webb City, Missouri; M. Gaylord; Emeline, deceased, married the late James L. Woodin, of Iola.
Until his entering the volunteer army Gaylord Robinson was a farmer. He enlisted August 11, 1862, at Peoria, Illinois, in Company G, Seventy- seventh Illinois Infantry, Captain John D. Rouse, Colonel D. P. Greer, 13th Army Corps. His regiment was in the Army of the Tennessee till the surrender of Vicksburg when it was placed in the department of the Gulf.
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His division was the first to cross the Mississippi river when Grant's army was getting into the rear of Vicksburg. His first battle was at Arkansas Post, then followed Port Gibson and the other bloody ones leading up to the capture of Vicksburg. The Seventy-Seventh went to Matagorda Bay, Texas, late in the summer of 1863 but returned east in time to take part in Banks Expedition. At the battle of Sabine Cross Roads in this campaign our subject was captured and was confined in the Confederate military stockade at Tyler, Texas, till the end of the war. He was turned over to the Federal authorities in May and was mustered out July 6, 1865. He returned to civil pursuits in Illinois at once. He took up the trade of wagon-maker at Galva, with his brother and left the shop there to come to Kansas. He reached Iola with a capital of about thirty-five dollars. He did some building that summer but in the fall went into the wagon shop of Winans & Naylor. He was associated with L. H. Gorrell for a time in shop work and was joined by Weith & Cozine some years latter. The next five years Mr. Robinson spent on a farm near Iola which he traded, in 1885, for his Iola residence. He owns the west half of block 59, some of the most valuable property in the city.
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