USA > Kansas > Woodson County > History of Allen and Woodson counties, Kansas > Part 59
USA > Kansas > Allen County > History of Allen and Woodson counties, Kansas > Part 59
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In July, 1864, he enlisted as a private in Company C, Twenty- eighth Michigan Volunteer Infantry. After serving in the ranks for six months he was promoted to First Lieutenant and transferred to another Company of the regiment, of which he was put in command,-its captain being ab- sent on detached service,-and which he continued to command during the remaining eighteen months of his service.
After being mustered out in June, 1866, after two years of hard and gallant service under the flag of his country, Lieutenant DeClute returned to Coldwater and resumed his place behind the counter, where he remained until 1879, when he formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, W. W. Anderson, and together they came to Iola, Kansas, and engaged in the clothing business.
Up to that time most of the stores in the then small village of Iola, had carried stocks of "general merchandise," a little of everything, and the old settlers will remember well what a shaking of heads there was when it was announced that the new firm was going to run an exclusive clothing store, and how general were the prophesies of failure. But the new firm didn't fail. It started out at first in a small way, with a limited stock in a small building about the middle of the block facing the square between Madison avenue and West street. But by and by the stock grew larger and it was only a few years until it was announced that the new firm had bought the most prominent corner in town and would put up a brick and stone building. So it came to pass that the prophesies of failure ceased and the clothing house of Anderson & DcClute became known all over the county as one of the substantial commercial enterprises of Iola. And while the senior member of the firm,-whose death in 1892 was deeply deplored, -was personally popular and well liked, it was generally recognized that the long experience and the shrewd business sense of the junior partner were the largest factors in achieving what has certainly been most gratify- ing success.
After the death of Mr. Anderson and of his wife, which occurred in 1899, Mr. DeClute bought the interest of their heirs and has since been sole proprietor of the business. It has continued to grow, and has in- creased to such an extent that it has been found necessary to build a two- story addition to accommodate the large stock made necessary by the en- larged demands of the trade.
It often happens that business success is achieved at the sacrifice of personal popularity, but in the present instance this bad rule has fortu- nately not held good. There are plenty of good reasons for this, but the principal one, doubtless, is the fact that Mr. DeClute is one of the most public spirited of all our citizens. The money he has made here he has spent here,-in putting up a fine business block, in building for his family a handsome and commodious home, and in extending his business. He is
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always prompt and liberal in subscribing to any fund that may be needed for some public purpose, or in taking stock in any enterprise that is started to benefit the town, or in giving time and toil to help make a success of any public entertainment. He is intensely loyal to the town and amply de. serves the success he has won and the esteem in which he is held.
Mr. DeClute was married at Coldwater, Michigan in 1861, to Miss Jeannette Davis, and the son, George, that was born to them, after serving with gallantry as a volunteer in the First Illinois through the Cuban cam - paign in the war with Spain, is now assisting his father in the conduct of his business. Mrs. Jeannette Davis DeClute died in 1877, and in 1879 Mr. DeClute was married to Miss Mary Anderson, who, with their daughter, Louise, constitute the family which adorns one of the happiest as well as one of the prettiest homes in Iola.
J AMES TAYLOR, of Iola, one of the well known and progressive re- tired farmers of this city, has been a resident of the county since 1879. He came into the county in March of that year from Johnson county, Kan- sas, and located upon section two, township twenty-four, range twenty, Osage township. This tract was a piece of raw land and Mr. Taylor set about bringing the soil under subjection and making such improvements as were necessary to insure the family comfort. His industry brought him a good degree of prosperity and he increased the area of his original quarter by one-half. In December of 1895 he came to Iola, for the purpose of re- tiring from further active business.
Mr. Taylor was born in Montgomery county, Missouri, June 12, 1830. His father, Joseph Taylor, was one of the pioneers of that county, having located there in 1826. He opened out a farm near Danville and remained in the vicinity till 1842 when he went into Livingston county where he lived until 1865 when he went to Boone county and remained there until he died in 1885. He was born in the state of Maryland in 1804, went into Kentucky at an early day and removed from Simpson county, that state, to Missouri. His wife, nee Jane Doss, was born in 1806 and died in 1875. Their children were: Mary, wife of James Hicks, resides in Chillicothe, Missouri; Artemicia, married Hampton Livingston, Davis county, Missouri; Susan, wife of William Parks, Boone county; Lucretia, who married George Hubbard, Montgomery county; Martha, deceased, married Thomas Patton, Montgomery county; Catherine, Boone county, Missouri, wife of John Patton, deceased; Wesley, of Kincaid, Anderson county, Kansas, Samuel Taylor, deceased, Thomas Taylor, of Oklahoma; Julean Sharp, of Pattens- burg, Davis county, Missouri.
Our subject's early life was that of a farm boy. He attended school only a few months and at the age of twenty years left the farm and learned the carpenter trade. He took on mason work and brick laying about the same time and became quite proficient in all three trades. Foi thirty years
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he followed his trades, making them his chief livelihood, and even some residents of Allen county can testify to his skill in these lines.
"Uncle Jimmy" Taylor, as he is familiarly addressed, is the architect of his own fortune. He was thrown upon the world, as many farmer's sons are, without a dime and he accumulated very little until he deserted his trades. In the fall of 1864 he went to Colorado and located at Black Hawk, in the vicinity of which he prospected for ore and located a few claims but could not develop them. While in the west his wife died, at Canon City, Colorado, and when he returned to this state in 1875 he pos- sessed less resources than when he went away. He located in Johnson county, this state, on a farmi near Olathe.
Mr. Taylor has been three times married. His first wife was Polly Ann Brumnitt who died at Utica, Missouri. One of her three children survive: Mrs. Sarah J. Artega, of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Mr. Taylor's second wife was Jeraldine M. Dennison. Her heirs are: Samuel G. Taylor, of Canon City, Colorado, and John W. Taylor, who died in Iola March 31, 1901. Mr. Taylor's present wife was Maggie Shuey, whom he married in Johnson county, Kansas. To them was born one son who has been an invalid all his life.
More than thirty years ago our subject joined Canon City. Colorado, Lodge No. 7, of Odd Fellows and he has maintained his membership in the order since. He is a known Democrat, one of positive opinions and only exercises liberality and impartiality as to candidates in local affairs.
Mr. Taylor was prominently identified with the movement to secure cheap gas for fuel in Iola and upon the consolidation of the two gas com- panies he became connected with the active operation of the consolidated plant. He has done a fair share of the building up of the city, having erected several houses, one of which, his residence, is one of the attractive homes in Iola.
D AVID SMITH, whose remarkable influence as one of the early teach- ers of the county has been elsewhere noted, was born October 13, 1822, in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, of Scotch-Irish parentage. The following year his parents removed to Stark county, Ohio, and settled upon a tract of land where the city of Massilon now stands. David, thie oldest of five brothers, lived and worked upon the farm and in his father's tannery until about his eighteenth year. Up to this time his educational advantages were very meager. The country was new, a tribe of Indians occupied a part of the county for several years, schools were short, poor and primitive, teachers poorly qualified and books scarce. His nineteenth year he spent in the Twinsburg Academy, taught by Rev. Samuel Bissell, at that time one of the largest and most popular schools in northern Ohio. The next two years he taught school and then entered Western Reserve- now Adelbert College-then located at Hudson, now at Cleveland, Ohio.
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Here and at Jefferson College at Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania, he spent his time while not teaching till his graduation at Jefferson about the year 1847. He also received a diploma from Adelbert. Immediately after graduation he was called to the principalship of the Old Pisgat Academy, near Lexing- ton, Kentucky. Two years after he entered the Western Theological Seminary at Allegheny, Pennsylvania. Completing his theological course he married Miss S. E. Clarke, a teacher at Northfield, Olio, and immedi- ately answered a call to take charge of the academy at Winchester, Ten- nessee. A year later he was called to the chair of mathematics in Burett College, Spencer, Tennessee. A few months after upon the death of the president he was chosen president of the college-about 1857. He held this position till the Civil war closed the college.
Leaving Spencer, Tennessee, in 1863, in troublesome times-times that tried northern men's souls-he settled in Olney, Illinois. Here he taught for a year, when he was called to take charge of the schools at Shawnee- town, Illinois. In the year 1866 he resigned his position at Shawneetown and accepted the call to Geneva, Kansas, and the following year settled at Carlyle where he continued to teach until his death, April 10, 1878.
Professor Smith was of the old Puritan type, a stern disciplinarian, a rigid observer of the strictest religious rules, -a combination of teacher and preacher whose influence was wide and lasting. His memory will be revered as long as any still live who were the beneficaries of his training.
G EORGE W. FISHER-In selecting candidates for public office politi- cal parties rarely fail to follow other courses than the one dictated by their trusted leaders and in no instance is this fact more strikingly true than in the minority party whose candidates must go before the voters, in a local contest, upon their individual merits, as citizens and men, rather than upon their unpopular political platform. The political situation in Allen county leaves the People's party and the Democratic party, combined, in the minority and in the selection of their candidates for the various offices to be filled by the election of 1900, no more honorable or conscientious nominee appeared on the Fusion ticket than that for Representative to the Legisla- ture. George W. Fisher. All the years since his majority have been passed in Allen county, near Iola, and in enumerating our worthy citizens it is with pride that a reference is made to the subject of this sketch.
George Fisher was born in Park county, Indiana, May 13, 1862. He is a son of the late John Fisher, a farmer and a native of Brown county, Ohio, who died in Iola township in 1886 at sixty-two years of age. The latter went into Park county, Indiana, in 1828 and was married there to Elizabeth, a daughter of Isaac and Mary (Cox) Gooding. He was all Ohio emigrant and was a son of John Fisher, a soldier of the War of 1812 and a Whig in politics who went into Ohio from Washington county, Penn-
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sylvania, and took up land there in an early day. He took his family of six sons to Park county, Indiana, in 1828 and died there leaving six sons and two daughters, who reared families. The children of his son, John Fisher, were: J. Wesley Fisher, of Allen county; Nathan Fisher, of Marshall, Illinois; Malinda, deceased; George W .; Thoms F., of Hansford, California, and Allen G. Fisher of Allen county.
George W. Fisher was a youth of nineteen years when he came to Allen county. He was liberally educated in the common schools and had had instruction, specially, in book-keeping and writing. He reached his twenty-first year as a farmer and his continuation of it evidences the fact that his success is of the certain and enduring kind. Since the death of his mother February 14, 1899, he has resided alone upon the old family home in section 13, town 24, range 17, where he owns a farm of one hun- dred and sixty acres.
The platforms of modern Democracy and of the People's party find responsive chords in the organism of the Fishers and their faith is pinned to the ultimate triumph of all the elements opposed to the doctrines of the Philadelphia convention of 1900. George Fisher is not a Populist for office, for Populists seldom get offices in Allen county. He is not an office-seeker and in the campaign of 1900 it is doubtful if he even hinted in the presence of a voter that he desired his support at the polls. His election would have meant that Allen county would have had a Representative who would not fail to protect her by at least his vote against any effort to deprive her of her dearest resource by a foreign corporation.
M ARTIN L. DECKER, ex-Treasurer of Allen county, was born in Wallertheim, Darmstadt, Empire of Germany, December 8, 1837. He was born in the same honse with his father, John A. Decker and with his grandfather. Both grandfather and father were wine growers, cultivat- ing large farms planted to vineyards. John Decker was married to Philipina Weinheimer and Martin Luther was the third of eleven children. He emigrated to the United States in 1853 and, on his sixteenth birthday, arrived in LaSalle county, Illinois. He crossed the Atlantic in the sailer Powhattan, bound from Rotterdam to New York, fifty-two days at sea. Young Decker stopped on a farm near Mendota, Illinois, and worked for wages three years. In 1856, in company with an uncle he immigrated to Iowa and then to Minnesota where, at Austin he ran a saw-mill till 1858. While in the mill he invented a machine for sawing eve-troughs, probably the first one in existence, but which was never patented nor followed up with a profit.
His entry to Kansas in 1858 was celebrated by the preempting of a piece of land near Goodrich, Linn county. In 1859, having sold his claim he crossed the line into Allen county and worked on a farm on the Osage, for Johnston Mann. In the spring of 1861 he enlisted in Company C,
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Third Kansas cavalry, Colonel Montgomery. In 1862 the regiment was disorganized and Company C was transferred to the 9th Kansas cavalry. In its periods of marching and counter marching this regiment visited Ft. Riley, Kansas; Ft. Gibson, Indian Territory; Kansas City, Trading Post, Kansas; Lawrence, Kansas; Little Rock, Ft. Smith, Duvall's Bluff and campaigned on the White and Mississippi Rivers. He was discharged from tlie service November 23, 1864, at Leavenworth, Kansas, having done his whole duty toward the flag of his adopted country.
December 8, 1864, Mr. Decker was married at Leavenworth city to Grace A. Thomas, who was born in England November 22, 1846. She was a daughter of Thomas H. Thomas and Mary Evans, the former a Welchman and the latter an English lady. The Thomas' came to Kansas in 1856, from New York State, and settled in Donglas county, near Lawrence.
After his marriage Mr. Decker farmed in Allen and Bourbon counties till the fall of 1867 when he removed to Leavenworth county, residing near Potter where he was a farmer and fruit grower till 1889. The latter year he returned to Allen county and purchased the Mann farm, in Osage town- ship two and a half miles east of Bayard. He resided upon this tract tliree years, then located in the town of Elsmore and engaged with a son in merchandising. After a three years residence in Elsmore he removed to Iola to assume the duties of county Treasurer.
Mr. Decker has always affiliated with the Republican party. This political relation is a matter in which he feels much warranted pride. The succession of events in the past forty years has shown that party to have been right on all great questions and to be right is to be patriotic. After a contest of a few weeks Mr. Decker was nominated for County Treasurer in 1895 and was elected the same year. He took possession of the office in October of the next year and held it four years. His administration cov- ered one smooth, unruffled and uneventful period of two terms and was one of the many clean and efficient ones of the past dozen years. He was seldom away from his office, was gentlemanly and obliging to all and gnarded with jealous care the receptacle of the people's funds.
Mr. and Mrs. Decker's children are: Jesse P. Decker, of Elsmore; Emma, wife of John Amann, of Jefferson county, Kansas; Grant P. and Martin L. Decker Jr .; Thos. H. Decker and Isaac Decker, of Allen county; Henry F. Decker, late with the United States Volunteers in the Philip- pines. He enlisted in Battery F, Third Artillery, and served in the Cuban and Porto Rican campaigns, Spanish-American war, and later in Com- pany F, 34th United States Volunteer infantry. Mary A., wife of R. Edward Glassel, residing in Joplin, Missouri; Elsie G., Ellen, Walter A. and Jolını A. Decker. It will be observed that Mr. Decker has eight sons who, with himself, cast seven votes for William Mckinley in 1900, being 110 doubt a record unequaled by any other family in Allen county.
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W ILLIAM T. BARNETT .- When ambition is satisfied and every ultimate aim realized then activity will cease and effort will end .. It is ambition which prompts man to continue in business, enables him to overcome obstacles and to persevere even when a seemingly adverse fate- thwarts him. His resolute purpose and determination forins the ladder on which he mounts to success. Mr. Barnett is one who owes his prosperity entirely to his own efforts, and his life record should serve as a source of inspiration and encouragement to others who are also forced to start out on an independent business career empty handed. He now resides on sec- tion 12, Iola township, where he has made his home since 1869.
He was born in Fulton county, Indiana, near Rochester, November 20, 1844, a son of Thomas W. Barnett, one of the earliest settlers in that county. His paternal grandfather, John Barnett, was born in Goochland county, Virginia, and at the beginning of the slavery trouble left the Old Dominion for Ohio. He and his family were of the Quaker faith and trace their ancestry back to Scotland through emigrants who came to America prior to the Revolutionary war. Politically they were all Whigs and Re- publican. Great strength and size were two marked family characteristics, nearly all of the men being more than six feet in height. Thomas W. Barnett was born in Dayton, Ohio, June 13. 1813, and in 1835 he removed to Fulton county, Indiana, where he developed a farm from the wild land, his home being a log cabin. He wedded Mary Troutman, a daughter of Michael Troutman, who was of Irish extraction and their eldest son, John A. Barnett, was the first white child born in Fulton county. Their other children were Michael I .; Sarah E., wife of John J. Carter, of Fulton county; William T., of this review; Emma, wife of Dr. Albert Coble, of Carroll county, Indiana. The father had accumulated a considerable for- tune when the war broke out, but while the war lasted he devoted so much of his tiure and means to the cause of the Union that most of his capital was dissipated, and at the time of his death in 1882 he was in but moderate circumstances. His wife died in Frankfort, Indiana, in 1891.
William T. Barnett, the subject of this sketch, remained at home until twenty-five years of age, with the exception of the period spent at the front in the Civil war. He pursued his education in an old-time log school house, where he conned his lessons during the winter months in his early years. In April, 1863, at the age of eighteen, he enlisted in Company A, Twenty-sixth Indiana Infantry, under Colonel Clark, who is now a resi- dent of Frankfort, Indiana. The company joined the regiment at Raleigh, Missouri, and embarking on transports at St. Genevieve, Missouri, they went down the river to take part in the Vicksburg campaign. Landing at Haynes Bluff, they participated in the Yazoo river engagement, crossed the river at Youngs Point, and proceeded to a point below Vicksburg, thus closing up the line. There they participated in the siege and assault on the city, and took part in several' hotly contested engagements, one of which was a charge to get possession of the outer works. The Twenty- sixth Indiana was under the command of Major General Herren, then only
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twenty-six years of age. From Vicksburg they were sent up the Yazoo river, and after capturing Vazoo City, took part in the fight at Big Black river. After capturing and burning Edwards depot they returned to Vicks- burg, and then went on to New Orleans, where they were recruited, pro- ceeding thence to capture Morgan's Bend. While stationed on the Atcha- falaya they were captured by the Confederates and taken to Tyler, Texas. In November, 1863, they signed the parole and were sent to Shreveport for exchange. They were captured in the summer while on a scouting expe- dition and had very little clothing with them. They were also barefooted, when on the 19th of November, the weather turned very cold and the river froze over, so that the Confederates rode back and forth on the ice. The Union soldiers experienced great suffering there. Returning to Tyler after three months they remained at the latter place until July, when they were taken to the mouth of the Red river and exchanged. Going by way of New Orleans they rejoined the regiment at Fort Butler, Louisiana, and later participated in the capture of Mobile and Fort Blakelv. Passing up the Mobile river they captured Montgomery and Selma, and thence went to Meridan, Mississippi, where they captured General Taylor and thirty thousand men. On that march Mr. Barnett and many of his comrades were bare-footed and on very short rations part of the time. After that they were on detached service and our subject also acted as military court officer until mustered out at Vicksburg, January 17, 1866. During his service he received a severe wound in the right cheek from a musket ball.
When Mr. Barnett came to Allen county, he brought with him two hundred dollars in cash, which represented the sum total of his savings up to that time. On looking around for some time he decided to locate 111 Iola township and finally purchased eighty acres of land on which he now resides for eight hundred dollars, paying down two hundred dollars and giving a mortgage for the remainder. The improvements upon the place consisted of a house fifteen feet square and thirteen acres of broken ground. Mr. Barnett then entered the employ of John McClure, a well-known pioneer engaged with L. L. Northrup in the cattle business. He received twenty dollars per month and later he entered the service of Brooks & Arnold, who gave him twenty-eight dollars per month. He was thus em- ployed until he had paid off the mortgage, when he returned for a visit with relatives and friends in Indiana. On again reaching Allen county, he began the work of improving his farm in 1873 and kept bachelor's hall there. He had a yoke of oxen, a plow and a harrow. As the years passed he secured improved facilities and has continued the develop- ment and improvement of his place until he now has one of the most at- tractive farms of the neighborhood, having in the meantime extended its boundaries by the additional purchase of one hundred and sixty acres.
Mr. Barnett married Miss Mary E. Cox, daughter of Samuel W. Cox, a farmer and merchant of Harristown, Illinois, who removed from Ken- tucky to Illinois. Mis. Barnett has three brothers and two sisters: Henry and Ephraim, of Sumner county, Kansas; William, of Illinois; Mrs. Nancy
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Morrison, of Iowa; and Mrs. Minerva Bear, of Bearsdale, Illinois. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Barnett were born ten children. These are Mary E., wife of Robert Sullivan, of Allen county, Kansas; Centennial R., wife of Samuel E. Wilson, of Allen county; Thomas W., of Iola, died August 31, 1900; Florence, Elmer A., Harry C., Noble R., Chester R., Russell J. and Bruce, who are still with their parents.
Mr. Barnett cast his first vote for General Grant and has since been al active factor in local politics. He was elected trustee of Iola township, and by election and appointment has served for six terms in that office. In religious faith he is connected with the Society of Friends, but there is no church of his denomination in the neighborhood. His has been a useful and active life and there falls no shadow of wrong or suspicion of evil over the public or private career of William Thomas Barnett.
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