USA > Kansas > Woodson County > History of Allen and Woodson counties, Kansas > Part 58
USA > Kansas > Allen County > History of Allen and Woodson counties, Kansas > Part 58
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For several months he engaged in farming and cattle raising iu Ken- tucky, but in January, 1866, came to Kansas, residing in Leavenworth until the following fall, when he came to Allen county, settling in Iola town- ship. Here he has since devoted his energies to the cultivation of his fields and to the raising of stock, and is today numbered among the most ener-
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getic and prosperous citizens of his township, owning five hundred and twenty-eight acres of valuable land.
Mr. Bale was married in Hart county, Kentucky, November 28, 1866, to Miss Anna DeFever, who was born in that county, December 19, 1851, a daughter of William DeFever, a native of the same county, and of French descent. Mr. and Mrs. Bale became the parents of three sons: Irvin, who was drowned in the Neosho river at the age of seven years; Wallace and Frank, who are residents of this county. Mr. Bale exercises his right of franchise in support of the men and measures of the Democracy, but has never been a professional. Socially he is a Royal Arch Mason. Through the legitimate channels of trade he has risen to an enviable position financial- ly, and at the same time has commanded and enjoyed the respect of his fellow men by reason of his well spent life.
W ILLIAM T. HALL-In enumerating the successful farmers of Allen county the name of William T. Hall should not be omitted. He is not one of our pioneers but his residence among us entitles him to be : classed with the permanent people and responsible for a fair share in the development of his county.
Mr. Hall was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, April 12, 1838. His ancestors were among the first to settle that region and were there when the French controlled old Ft. DuQnesne, now Pittsburg. His grandfather, an old German, went into Allegheny county, Pennsylvania in 1768, and there passed his remaining years. One of his sons was Robert Hall, our subject's father. The latter was born in 1808 and died in 1887. He married Grace Bell whose family settled in Allegheny county, as early as the Halls, their land being on Chartiers Creek. Upon the old farm stands the stone mansion which was erected as a means of defense against the Indian attacks of that day. The town of Carnegie covers some of the Bell land, and one of the Bells still owns the stone house and lot.
The Bells were originally Irish and Mr. Hall's great-grandfather Bell was a Revolutionary soldier in our war for independence. Joseph Hall, the old German above referred to, came into western Pennsylvania from New Jersey. He served his country in one of the early wars of our country and William Hall possesses a powder horn which the old patriot carried through - out his service and which has become one of the heir-looms of the family. The Halls and Bells were farmers, in the main, but James Bell, maternal grandfather of our subject, operated a distillery as well.
The children of Robert and Grace ( Bell) Hall are: William T .; James F., of Allegheny county, Pennsylvania. The former was put to learn the buggy and wagon-makers trade upon approaching man's estate and in 1859 he made his way westward to Owen county, Indiana. He took up the carpenter trade there and followed it in the two counties of Owen and Sullivan so long as he remained in the State. He helped build the theatre
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in Brazil and was two years in the construction of the residence of Judge Hanna at Curryville, Indiana.
As a pupil in the country school Mr. Hall made satisfactory advance- ment and was considered one of the first in his class. His only experience as a teacher was when he filled his teacher's place for three months the last term he attended. In 1854 Mr. Hall was married in Owen county, Indi- ana, to Mary Wallace, a daughter of John and Margaret (Willie) Wallace. The Wallaces came from the Parish of Zaneygred, Scotland, and of their five children Mrs. Hall is the only daughter surviving. The sons are: David, James, Samuel and John Wallace.
Our subject's children are: Margaret, wife of David E. Earl, of Bronson, Kansas; Annie, wife of Ernest Pancoast, of Stroud. Oklahoma; R. W. Hall, whose wife was Miss Gertie Flake, and Misses Mattie, Frances E., Eva and Ross Hall.
In 1879 Mr. Hall came to Kansas. The appearance of Allen county satisfied him and he purchased a partly improved farm of Elias Norman. This tract is the northwest quarter of section 16, township 25, range 20, and lies on either side of a fork of the Marmaton river. The improvements con- sisted of an old building, scarcely deserving the name of house, and a piece of tillable land. For some years he gave his own time largely to the car- penter's bench and left the actual work of sowing and reaping to the family. His last work as a mechanic was done on the Snyder barn some ten years ago and since then his farm has occupied him fully and well.
The politics of the Halls and the Bells were somewhat divided. Some were Democrats and some were Whigs. In these matters our subject lias little interest. On national questions he is with the Democrats but on local candidates he is both and neither according to the character of the 11011- inees. In secular matters he was schooled in the faith of Calvin and be- came a Baptist only when circumstances placed him without the influence of the United Presbyterian church.
J OHN WALTER SCOTT was born near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, August 29, 1823. His father was Alexander McRay Scott, who was born at Alexandria, Virginia, August 19, 1800. His mother was Mary Dean, who was born in New Jersey or Pennsylvania in 1799. His paternal grandfather was John Scott, who migrated from Belfast, Ireland, soon after the Revolution, landing first at St. Thomas, West Indies, but soon after going to Norfolk, Virginia, and thence to Alexandria. His paternal grandmother was Margaret Kenna, the daughter of an English sea captain. Nothing farther is known of the paternal line, except that "in the beginning" one "John," a ship joiner, migrated from Scotland to the ship yards at Belfast, Ireland, and was there called "Jolin, the Scot," to differentiate him from other Johns, which name, of course, soon became
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John Scott, which it still remains. The John Scott who migrated to Ameri- ca was a shoemaker by trade. He was killed by lightning when about sixty years of age. His wife died in Indiana about 1853, of old age. Alexander Scott, the father of our subject, was a machinist and mechanic, although he always lived on a farm. He died at the age of sixty-four in Bloomington, Illinois, of cerebro spinal meningitis. His wife has previously passed away in Kentucky at the age of forty-four, of malarial fever.
Jolin W. Scott's maternal grandfather was Samuel Dean, a Revolution- ary soldier in the New Jersey line. He afterwards served under "Mad Anthony" Wayne in the Indian wars and was severely wounded in the hip, making him lame the remainder of his life. He was probably of Danish descent and was a farmer. He died at the age of eighty-six from the effect of his wounds. Nothing more is known of the family on this side.
John W. Scott was the oldest child of Alexander and Mary Dean Scott. He had three brothers, Samuel, William and Harmon, and five sisters, Martha, Mary, Jennie, Margaret and Hannalı. Of this family only Margaret and Jennie now survive.
When John W. Scott wasthree years of age his father bought a farmi ad- joining the Braddock Field property, near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and there most of his childhood was spent. He worked on the farm in summer and in the winter attended such schools as the uncertain condition of the country afforded, in this way acquiring the rudiments of a fair English edu- cation. In 1840 he went with his father to Gallatin county, Kentucky, where he worked on a farm and in a saw mill for three or four years. The work proved too heavy for him and his health giving way he secured a position as private tutor in the family of Dr. William B. Chamberlain, in Warsaw. Kentucky. He taught the children of his employer the rudi- ments of English and received from him in return a smattering of Greek, Latin and mathematics. He afterward taught school in various portions of the county during the winters and read medicine with Dr. Chamberlain. In 1846-7 he took a course of medical lectures at the Starling Medical College, Columbus, Ohio, and in the spring of 1847 began the practice of his profession at Hopewell, Indiana. After practicing there for two years he took another course of lectures at the above college from which he grad- uated in the spring of 1849, returning at once to his practice in Indiana. December 13, 1849, he was married to Maria Protsman, the neice of his former preceptor, Dr. Chamberlain, and continued in the practice of medi- cine at Hopewell and Franklin, Indiana, until 1857 when he came to Kan- sas. He bought an original interest in the townsite of Olathe, which had just been located, and in connection with one Charles Osgood, built the first house erected on the townsite. In the fall he returned to Indiana and the following spring brought his family to Olathe. Owing to the unsettled condition of the country and the scenes of violence that were continually occurring in the town Olathe was not then a desirable place of residence. and so in June of 1858 Dr. Scott removed with his family to Allen county and took up a claim near Carlyle where he lived for the next sixteen years.
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In the fall of 1859 he was elected to the Territorial legislature which met at Lecompton and afterwards adjourned to Lawrence, -the first Free State legislature. He was re-elected in 1860 and was chosen Speaker of the House, In 1861 he was elected a member of the first State legislature, and in the absence of the Speaker presided during most of the session. During this session Fort Sumpter was fired upon, and at its close most of its miem- bers entered the Union army. Dr. Scott enlisted in the Fourth Kansas Volunteer Infantry and was elected surgeon. He served with the Fourth during the fall and winter of 1861-2, being in charge of the general hospital at Fort Scott. When the Third and Fourth regiments were consolidated and became the roth Kansas he became the surgeon of that regiment and served until May, 1863, when he resigned on account of the long and serious illness of his wife. In the fall of the same year, his wife's health having been restored, he re-entered and served to the end of the war, re- turning then to his Carlyle farm.
In 1866 he was elected to the State Senate, was elected president pro tem of that body and presided during the session on account of Lieutenant Governor Greene serving as Governor, vice Governor S. J. Craw- ford resigned. Although always interested in politics and often actively en- gaged in the contests as a member of conventions and as a speaker in the campaigns, and frequently mentioned as an available candidate for Congress and other high positions, he was not again a candidate for any office during the remainder of his residence in Kansas.
Almost from his first location in the state Dr. Scott had interested him- self actively in the various projects looking to the building of railroads into this section of the State. Among the numerous meetings and conventions held in the interest of these projects the most important was a convention held at Topeka in the year 1859. The purpose of this convention was to agree upon a system of railroads upon which the State would go to Con- gress, asking for land grants to aid in the building of the roads, and the chief contest was between the proposed line from Leavenworth south (now the Southern Kansas) and the proposed line then designated as the Border Tier road (now the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Memphis. ) The commit- tee appointed to draft outlines of the system of roads decided in favor of the Border Tier, leaving out the Leavenworth, Lawrence and Galveston, as it was then and for many years afterward called. As a dissenting member of this committee Dr. Scott made a minority report in favor of the L. L. and G., and succeeded in carrying it through the convention, thus securing the grant of land which made possible the building of that road. When the company was organized he became one of the directors, and when the road was finally built, in 1869, he was appointed Land Commissioner. He re- mained in that capacity eight years, during which time he was the chief agent in securing the railroad title to the land to which it was entitled and in disposing of the lands to settlers. During most of this time also he was a member of the State Board of Agriculture, taking an active and efficient part in organizing and conducting the State Fairs which were a feature of those early years. From 1873 to 1879 he served as Regent of the State
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University, helping to lay the foundations of that great institution.
After closing his connection with the railroad he returned to Iola, the- family having removed from the Carlyle farm to that place in 1874, and in 1876 engaged in the drug business, purchasing the stock of John Francis. In 1883, without solicitation on his part, he was appointed agent for the- Ponca, Pawnee and Otoe Indians taking charge of the Agency January I, 1884. He served in this position until October, 1885, when he resigned and returned to Iola to resume the conduct of his drug business. He con- ducted this business until 1891, when he sold it to J. H. Campbell in order to accept an appointment as Inspector for the Bureau of Animal Industry. He was assigned to duty at Kansas City and served until 1893. when he- resigned. Desiring to retire from active business he went with his wife and daughter Belle, then constituting his family, to Clifton, Oklahoma, to visit his oldest son, who had taken a claim there. The climate and country pleased him so well that when the Oklahoma school lands were thrown open he leased a quarter section and with the energy which always characterized him proceeded to improve it, as if he were in his youth instead of in his seventieth year. He lived there quietly and happily until the fall of 1898. when his neighbors, almost without respect to party, although he was still an ardent Republican, as he had been since the organization of that party, insisted that he serve as their candidate for the Territorial legislature. He reluctantly consented, and was elected, although the district contained a largely adverse party majority. He was not in his usual health when the session opened early in January, 1899, and in going to the Capitol he suffered some exposure which brought on an attack of pneumonia which resulted in his death, which occurred January 19, 1899. In honor of his memory the legislature adjonrned and a committee of its members was ap- pointed to accompany the remains to Iola where they were interred. A. further and most touching proof of the respect and affection in which he was held by his colleagues was given by the fact that during the entire re- mainder of the session his chair on the floor of the house remained draped, and every morning there was on his desk a bouquet of fresh flowers. And so he died as he had lived, honored and beloved by all who knew him, a man who loved his family with a rare devotion, who was an important and influential factor in the development of two new States, who served his State and his country, in office and out of it, in peace and in war, with great ability and with incorruptible integrity, and who in all the relations of life was worthy of love and honor.
Maria Protsman, wife of John W. Scott, was born on a farm nine miles north of Vevay, Indiana, July 19, 1829. Her father, William Protsman, was born in Danville, Kentucky, February 5, 1801, and came to Indiana in 1814 where he worked with his father at farming and wagon making. He opened a large farm near Vevay and reared children as follows: Flora, Maria, Emarine, Isaac, Ellen, Adelia, Charles, Fannie, William, Alexander of whom Flora, Maria, Emarine, Charles, William and Alexander still survive. William Protsman died in 1866. His father was John Protsman, who emigrated from Germany with his father's family about the year 1769.
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In the family there were four brothers and two sisters. As a mere boy John Protsman served as a teamster during the Revolutionary war. In 1792 he was married in Philadelphia to Nancy B. Recknor and soon after- wards moved to Ohio, going from there to Kentucky and finally to Vevay. Indiana, where he died at the age of seventy-eight. He was a carpenter and farmer. His children were David, Samuel, John, William, Nancy B., and Elizabeth. Nancy Recknor, wife of John Protsman, was also of German descent, her father and mother emigrating from Germany a little before the Revolutionary war. Her father was a soldier and was killed at the battle of Bunker Hill. Her mother died the year following at Phila- delphia, and the two children, Nancy B, and John, were taken and reared by their grandmother. When they were grown John went to the South and that was the last known of him.
Polly Campbell Protsman, the mother of Maria Protsman Scott, was born in Kentucky April 9, 1809, and died at Vevay, Indiana, in 1890. Her father was William Campbell, who was born in South Carolina in August, 1776. Her mother, Polly Brown, was born in Kentucky, June 17, 1783, and was married to William Campbell June 17, 1800. William Campbell died February 4, 1832, leaving a family of nine children, as follows: Jeannette, Jemima, Elizabeth. Susan, Polly, Samuel, James, and William. Polly, his wife, died in 1868, at the age of eighty- five years.
The children of John W. and Maria P. Scott were: William Alexander, born September 29, 1850; Walter Winfield, born September 4, 1853; Clara Belle, born September 14, 1855, Angelo Cyrus, born September 25, 1857; Charles Frederick, born September 7, 1860; Emma Louisa, born April 23, 1865, died September 4, 1879; Susie Flora, born April 6, 1867, died September 1, 1873; Effie June ( Mrs. E. C. Franklin) born August 4, 1871.
M RS. MARY FORD, of Marmaton township, one of the pioneers of that portion of Allen county, is the widow of John O. Ford who settled on the wild waste of land in the, then, new township, in the year of 1876. Her husband died in November 1877 and she was left with a family of young children to battle with the difficulties incident to the settlement of a new country.
This prominent and worthy family emigrated from Peoria, Illinois, where John O. Ford had grown up from his fifth year. The latter was born in Devonshire, England, in 1841, and his wife in the same shire October 14, 1848. Each came to the United States with their parents, the former in 1855 and the latter in 1850. Both families located in Peoria county, where their children were reared on the farm. Mr. Ford's father, William Ford, had four sons, one of whom, Henry Ford, still resides in Peoria county. Mrs. Ford's parents were Thomas and Sarah (Fewins) Torrington. MI. Torrington died in 1864 and his widow is the wife of
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Richard Bailey, of Allen county, Kansas. Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Thomas; Woods, of Marmaton township, are the sole survivors of the Torrington family of six children.
John O. Ford brought his effects to Allen county in a chartered car. He was a gentleman with much hope and ample industry and it must have been a source of gratification to himself to locate in a new country where- all were poor alike and where each possessed the same advantage with his. neighbor. Of his five children the eldest, at his father's death, was twelve years. These children are all married and reside within reach of their mother. They are, William T., who married Florence Lamb and has five. children: Blanche, Harry, Edna, Leta and Raymond Ford; Charles Ford, who is married to Maggie Davis, has two children, Eugene and Leslie Ford; Anna, wife of Neal Ford, of Allen county, has two children. Marie and Nina Ford; Laura, wife of James Robb, has five children, Mildred, Alice, Agnes, Philos and Arthur Robb; and Mabel, who is the wife of Albert Smith.
Mrs. Ford gave her children a common school education in the home district and reared them all to become useful and honorable men and women. The earlier years of their lives were something of a struggle against adversities but as the children approached man and womanhood their labors were rendered with telling effect and their homestead, instead. of dwindling below its original size doubled it and Mrs. Ford owns one hundred and sixty acres in each of sections fourteen and twenty-two.
In public affairs and in party affiliations the Fords are Republicans. The young men are among the substantial young men of their township and it is much to the credit of the family that their neighbors and friends hold them in the highest esteem.
C NORNELIUS W. McNIEL, manager of the extensive interests of the Northrup Lumber Company, of Iola, has resided in Allen county for twenty-one years. He came to it in 1879 and purchased a farm near that of Daniel Horville, northwest of Iola, which he cultivated until 1883 when he sold it and moved into town. He took the foremanship of the, then, small lumber yard of L. L. Northrup and has remained with the business through all the years which have intervened and has watched its growth from the chief lumber yard of a small town to the leading one of the metropolis of the gas belt.
Mr. McNiel was born in Butler county, Ohio, November roth, 1834. Lazarus McNiel, his father, was one of the pioneers to that county where he opened out a farm in the heavy timber and cultivated it with success during his active life. He went into Ohio from near Harrisburg, Pennsyl- vania. He was born in this latter state, was a soldier in the war of 1812 and died just three days before his wife. He was one of the Jeffersonian and Jacksonian Democrats and when our subject changed the course of
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family politics by casting his ballot for Fremont in 1856 it was almost at the expense of his father's friendship.
Jane Hall, our subject's mother, was a daughter of Cornelius Hall, who represented his district, as a Whig, in the Ohio Legislature in an early day. He was likewise from Peunsylvania and was a farmer. Of six chil- dren born to Lazarus McNiel only two survive: Martha, wife of Thomas Mitchell, of Albany, Oregon, and Cornelius W. McNiel. Nancy, the oldest, married Dr. Alanson Smith and is deceased; Sarah J. died single; Maria H. married B. F. Fessenden and was killed, together with her hus- band, by a railroad train near Cincinnati; Rebecca C., died in Anderson, Indiana, in 1900, was the wife of L. H. Vinedge.
Mr. McNiel spent his youth and early married life in the country. He attended the country school, Hanover College and Miami University, at Oxford, Ohio. He took up the study of medicine soon after coming of age, with Dr. Newton, of Cincinnati, but was thought to be consumptive and was advised by the doctor to abandon his professional notions and go home to die. From thence forward his life was an out-of-door one and it was not till the close of the Civil war that he ventured away from his native state. In 1865 he moved to Pettis county, Missouri, and spent two years in farming. He started the town of Lamont, by building the first house in it, and was engaged in the lumber and grain business there till 1879, when he came to Kansas.
December 3, 1854, Mr. McNiel was married to Maria H. Gaston, a daughter of David Gaston, one of the early settlers of Hamilton county, Ohio. Mrs. McNiel died in 1883, being the mother of Harry L., of the firm of Brigham & McNiel, of Iola; Edward H., who died in 1894; Jennie McNiel; Walter S. and Bert L. McNiel, leading jewelers, of Iola.
C. W. McNiel has been one of the active citizens of Iola. He has not only gone about the transaction of his personal business with prudence and wisdom but in the conduct of public business he has exercised the same dis- cretion and business judgment. For five years he was a member of Iola's common council and was two years its Mayor and his accession to those positions are ample testimony to the efficiency with which he cared for a public trust. In politics he permits no man to outdo him as a Republican. As heretofore mentioned, he started with the party and his claim to a place of honor in the great and patriotic organization can not be disputed or disproved.
C HAUNCEY H. DECLUTE .- To know how to make money, to know how to spend money, and to know how to make and keep friends, - those are rare gifts, and the man who possesses all of them cannot make a failure of this life. It is because he possesses these gifts that the name of C. H. DeClute always appears in any list of the successful business men of Iola.
Chauncey Hovver DeClute was born in Monroe county, New York, in
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the year 1839. When twelve years of age the family removed to Cold- water, Michigan, where the boy attended the city schools until he reached the age of nineteen when he left the school room to take a place as clerk in a clothing store.
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