USA > Kansas > Woodson County > History of Allen and Woodson counties, Kansas > Part 62
USA > Kansas > Allen County > History of Allen and Woodson counties, Kansas > Part 62
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To John M. Thomas and wife were born seven children, viz .: Edgar N. Thomas, Harry E. Thomas, Elma M. Thomas, Estella J. Thomas, John E. Thomas and Charles and Eva Thomas.
Harry E. Thomas was reared in Jefferson, Indiana, and was a pupil in the schools of that place till he was fifteen years old. He worked on the farm in summer and in the saw-mill in winter, in early youth, and had just entered his 'teens when he took up his first lessons at the carpenter's bench. It seems but natural that he should be an apt pupil with tools, since his ancestors were mechanics and his own inclinations sanctioned the step, and it is not surprising that he should become an efficient workman with little instruction. He worked with his father till a strong desire to see the west seized him and he quit and came to Kansas. He struck the State with less money than would board him a day at a first class hotel. He added his
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name to the small force of mechanics in Iola and followed his trade, with scarce an interruption, for ten years. In 1896 he formed a partnership with I. E. Patterson and established a third lumber yard in Iola, carrying, also, builders supplies, but in 1898 the firm dissolved and Mr. Thomas retired. In 1899 he opened his yard in East Iola, commonly called Bricktown, and has a well-arranged, well-equipped and prosperous yard, having since taken as a partner his brother-in-law, G. W. Lawyer.
November 11, 1884. Mr. Thomas married Sadie E. Lawyer, a daughter of Ira B. Lawyer, one of Allen county's leading pioneers. Four children have been born of this union: Fannie, deceased; Ira, Frank and Lloyd Thomas, deceased.
Harry Thomas is not only prominently known in business but he is equal- ly well-known politically in Iola. His splendid sense of the proprieties of business and his intense loyalty to honor were qualities which caused his selection for Councilman at two different times. Politics was not permitted to govern his official conduct and only needful municipal legislation did he countenance and support. He is a Republican, but not because his father and his grandfathers were. He occupies an unshakable moral attitude toward questions of public polity and in social intercourse and is universally regarded as a patriotic and worthy citizen.
D AVID ROBINSON, Iola's old time painter, was born in Peoria county, Illinois, February 3, 1838. He is the ninth of twelve chil- dren and son of George and Maria (Gaylord) Robinson. He was reared upon a farm and was educated in the manner common to the country youth of that day. About the time he was just of age he joined a party and crossed the plains to Colorado and was associated with the western wilds till 1860 when he returned east and stopped in Breckenridge, Missouri. When the war came on he joined Company G, 33rd Missouri regiment of Federals and saw four years of service in the western department of the Union army. His division was the ist and his corps the 16th and he participated in inuch hard service and in many warm and severe engagements, chief among them being Helena, Arkansas, Red River expedition, Chico Lake, Tupelo, Nashville and under thirteen days fire at Fts. Spanish and Blakely at Mobile. He was first sergeant of his company at the end of the war.
David Robinson spent the few years succeeding the war and until he came to Iola in Galva, Illinois. He learned the painter's trade in his native State and has made it his life work. He followed his brother, Gay- lord, to Allen county and reached here in 1870. For thirty years he has wielded the brush in Iola and he is the oldest of the craft in point of resi- dence. He was married here in 1883 to Myra, a daughter of A. L. Dibble, deceased, who came to Iola in 1880. The latter was born in 1827 in the State of New York and was married to M. J. Lord. Of this union three children were born, viz .: N. E. Dibble, of Philadelphia; Delia, who married Willard Lord, and Mrs. Robinson.
Mr and Mrs. Robinson's only child is Miss Florence. Mr. Robinson
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is a Republican and he and his wife are active members of the First Baptist church of Iola.
C' HARLES A. JAPHET-One of Allen county's early settlers-not classed with the pioneer-is Charles A. Japhet, Iola's efficient and widely known veterinarian. In 1872 he sought Allen county as his future abiding place and was induced to believe that much of the wild land then abounding in the eastern part of the county was subject to settlement, as public lands, and he bought the right of a settler to the claim, in Salem township now the property of Harry Boeken. He contested the right of the purchaser to ownership and possession and, seeing that there was no chance for the settler as against the railroad, he sold his improvements and closed his fight after three years of interesting. exciting and stubborn resistance. He purchased a farm in the southern part of Iola township and, after cultivating it a few years, came to Iola and opened a breeding barn. This was succeeded, in part, by the livery business and when he closed out this business it was to go on the road introducing an invention of his own patent. He is the inventor of one of the best selling washing machines yet put on the market and it was the sale of this that occupied his time for about five years. To say that he made a success of his venture is putting it mildly, as he became the owner of lots, lands, stock and chattels in many of the counties of Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas. All of North Missouri will remember Charley Japhet who made headquarters within their border for months at a time, spent his money freely and did an immense and legitimate patent-right business to the surprise and delight of his stranger neighbors. When he had gathered together the results of his tour on the road Mr. Japhet returned to Iola and, while he has done something at farming, he has been more devoted than ever to the profession he acquired in his youth from one of the great surgeons of the country, L. M. Briggs, State Veterinary, of New York.
Charley Japhet was born in Shenango county, New York, Septem- ber 24, 1848. His father, Albert Japhet, was born in the same county in 1817 and died there in 1861. The latter was a thrifty farmer and a son of one of the pioneers to Shenango county from the State of Connecticut. The family came originally from England, the remote settler and Colonial pioneer being our subject's great-grandfather.
Albert Japhet married Polly Ingraham, whose people were also front the "Wooden Nutmeg State." Their family consisted of George Japhet, of Courtland, New York; Eliza A., wife of F. C. Stork. of Shenango county, New York, and Charles A,, our subject.
Charley Japhet was left an orphan by the death of his father in 1861. By this circumstance he was dependent upon his resources, in a great measure, for his education and youthful training. He remained with the farm two years and then sought employment in a hoe factory at Oxford,
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New York. At the age of seventeen years he went on the road with the noted New York Veterinarian, Dr. Briggs, and, in the next two years, he secured that actual experience and practice that largely settled his career in life. In order to better equip himself for the profession he attended lectures at the Veterinary Hospital at Poughkeepsie, New York, but he did not en- gage in veterinary work at once. He was married rather early and he located in a small place and went to butchering. He had a contract for furnishing meat to some railroad builders and was in a fair way, as he felt. to reap a reasonably good reward for his labors, when his pay master drew his funds and departed, leaving our subject practically and suddenly "flat." Soon after this he gathered together his scant effects and came to Kansas. His object in coming west was to seek some point where homes could be gotten with more ease than in the old states. His condition upon his arriv- · al at Ft. Scott was one requiring positive and early industrial activity and he secured a place in Latimer's nursery, Linn county, by the day. He was given the position of salesman the next year, on commission, and he began to gather moss rapidly. He remained in that county two years and while there served as Constable, which yielded a few dollars to his strong box. He came to Allen county with the funds necessary to locate himself as herein mentioned and for the past fifteen years the battle has been a com- paratively easy one. He has been in Kansas thirty years and when he came to it his resources amounted to $32.00 and a few household goods. He owns now a farm of four hundred acres in Osage township, Allen county, one hundred and seventy acres in White county, Arkansas, and town property in Augusta, Burlington and Iola, all of which gives him a degree of financial independence which ought to come with thirty years of honorable toil.
Mr. Japhet was first married in Shenango county, New York, in 1866, to Edna E. Bartholomew, a daughter of John Bartholomew. She died in Iola, August 7, 1884, leaving three children: Eugene, of Tacoma, Washing- ton; Emogene, wife of Charles Youngs of Oxford, New York, and Berton Japhet. In 1855 Mr. Japhet married Lizzie Heath, a daughter of Amos Heath. The children of this union are: Cora, Frank, Agnes and Mabel. In New York, Kansas, and elsewhere the Japhets are Republicans. Our subject is an Odd Fellow.
W ILLIAM D. CHASTAIN, M. D., of Iola, whose professional and social life has withstood the public scrutiny in Allen county for more than two generations and whose characteristics and personal attain- ments mark him as one of the conspicuous citizens of Iola, came to us from the state of Kentucky November 15, 1870. He was born in Logan county, that state, December 27, 1846, and is a grandson of one of the pioneers of the "Blue Grass" state. William Chastain, who introduced the family name into Kentucky, was a descendant of Huguenot French settlers of North Carolina. He went into Kentucky before it became a state and was,
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consequently, one of the first tillers of its soil. He died rather early il life, leaving, six sons: Edward, Edmund, Willis, Boone, Jackson and Isham. Some of these left Kentucky many years ago and located in Ben- ton county, Missouri. He had two daughters: Mrs. Moss, of Spring- field, Missouri, and Mrs. Mosley, who lived and died in Kentucky.
Isham Chastain was the father of William D. Chastain. He was born in 1816 and died in 1851. He was amply educated and was a prosperous and successful farmer. He was a Whig in politics and was married to Angelina. a daughter of Daniel Bailey. The Bailey family was a promi- nent one in Logan county, Daniel being a prosperous and representative citizen.
Dr. Chastain's mother died in 1847 at the age of twenty-eight years. Her four children were: Mary, who married William Townsend and died young; James Chastain. so far as known a resident of Colorado; Fannie Chastain, a resident of Logan county, Kentucky, and our subject, the Doctor. A half-sister to these, Mrs. Cornelia Evans, is a resident of Logan county, Kentucky.
Dr. Chastain lived with the family of an uncle, Dr. J. R. Bailey, from infancy. Dr. Bailey was an extensive farmer, also, and our subject passed his time upon the farm until seventeen years of age. He attended the county seminary and afterward Bethel college at Russelville. He chose medicine for his life work and read more or less with his uncle. He spent two years in the medical department of the University of Louisville, Ken- tucky, from which he graduated in 1870, just prior to his departure for Kansas. He had never been in the west and his knowledge of Kansas and of Allen county, in particular, was obtained from friends. He opened an office in Iola upon his arrival here but the following year decided to try the experiment of locating in Osage township. This move did not realize as it was hoped for, in the matter of patronage, and he returned to Iola in six months.
Dr. Chastain's professional attainments have long been recognized and he has lield a high place in the esteem of the public since he came among us. His relation to his town, and the public generally, has been that of a liberal, judicious and progressive citizen and to the church that of a con- scientions, courageous Christian gentleman.
April 3 1873, Dr. Chastain was married in Iola to Alice F., a daughter of Rev. Samuel Price, now of Wellington, Kansas. Mrs. Rev. Price was Charlotte Alder and she and her husband were from Belmont county, Ohio.
The Dr. and Mrs. Chastain's children are: J. Earl, D. D. S., a grad- uate of the Iola High School and of the Western Dental College, Kansas City, was born February 14, 1874. He served as hospital steward in the Twentieth Kansas in the Philippine insurrection; Bertha, Mand and Fannie Chastain, both graduates of the Iola High School.
The politics of Dr. Chastain is unmistakable. He is known far and wide in Allen county, for his outspoken Republican sentiments, and, in years past, he has been regarded among the active local political workers. His name has been mentioned in connection with a nomination for county
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office but he would not sacrifice his profession to the requirements of a public office.
TOEL P. HAYES .- One of the early settlers west of the Neosho river in Iola township and one in whom his community has the utmost con- fidence is Joel P. Hayes. Mr. Hayes came into Allen county in 1870 and ·owns the south-west quarter of section 35, township 24, range 17. McLean .county, Illinois, was the home of Mr. Hayes prior to his advent to Kansas. He was a farmer near Lexington, that county, from 1865 to 1870 and dis- posed of his interests there and came west only to find a place where a man ·of small means could more easily and more quickly acquire a home. He had migrated to Illinois for the same reason but found land there, just after the war, beyond the reach of the poor man and this fact determined him, eventually, to make another move. .
Mr. Hayes was born and reared in Clinton county, New York. His birth occurred March 6, 1840, and his education was of the country and common school sort. He was born on a farm and his father was Asa Hayes whose origin is not certain but it is believed to have been Massa- chusetts. He was a veteran of the war of 1812 and fought in the battle of Lake Champlain near the site of which our subject was born. He married Laura Larkins who died in 1841 while her husband died in 1867 at the age of seventy-five years. Their children are: Hiram Hayes, of Whitewater, Wisconsin; Loyal Hayes, of Vermont; Christiana, deceased, wife of Luther Robinson, of Clinton county, New York; Harriet E., deceased, married Levi Stafford, of the same point; Loren and Enoch, deceased; Mary, wife of Stephen Alford, of Illinois: Charles, of Indiana; John Hayes, on the old homestead in New York, and Joel P., our subject.
At the age of twenty-two years Mr. Hayes began real life when he en- listed in Company H, One Hundred and Eighteenth New York Infantry. His colonels were, first Richard Keys and then George Nichols. The regiment was ordered to Fortress Monroe and was engaged at the battle of Bermuda Hundred. Mr. Hayes was in the heavy fighting at Cold Harbor and around Petersburg and with the Army of the Potomac to the end at Appomattox. Every day of the time from June 3rd 1864 to January Ist, 1865, he was in some engagement or skirmish and was in front of the mine at Petersburg when it was exploded, with so little advantage to the Union forces. From January Ist to April 9th, 1865, Mr. Hayes was on detail at General Gibbons' headquarters. He was discharged at Richmond, Vir- ginia, and was mustered out at Plattsburg, New York, in July after the surrender.
With a small sum of money Mr. Hayes went to McLean county, Illi- nois, and found a degree of prosperity there on the farm till 1870. He was married in McLean county in February, 1867, to Hannah J., a daughter of Henderson Crabb and Mary (Beech) Crabb. Mr. and Mrs. Hayes' chil- dren are: Luel, Herbert O. and Arza Clayton.
Mr. and Mrs. Hayes are members of the Methodist congregation in
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Piqua, Kansas. He was converted in early life and has found consolation in executing the will of the Master as laid down in the Scripture lessons. He is a firm believer in Providential control and supervision of the lives. and destinies of men. On three occasions would his life have been sacrificed. during the war, times when there seemed no possibility of preventing it, and but for the interposing hand of the Almighty he would have died around Petersburg. The elder Hayes' were followers of the faitli of Wes- ley and their relations to their church were as those of our subject, both official and private. In public affairs the Hayes' are no less out-spoken than in matters of religion. They believe in a government, local or general, being honestly administered by its patriotic citizens. For the purpose of a political home our subject has allied himself with the Republican party and in its tenets and declarations he sees the future of our domestic institutions.
W ILLIAM DAVIS, of Iola, seven years a Sunday School Mission- ary in Oklahoma, and a resident of Allen county for nearly a third of a century is a contribution from the citizenship of Indiana. He cast his lot with Kansas, and Allen county, in 1869, a time when good honest citi . zenship was in need of encouragement and reinforcement here, and when permanent settlements were only beginning to take substantial hold.
Of the eastern states whose sons were looking in the direction of the prairie states for settlement, just after the war, Indiana furnished her share and, from 1865 to 1875, they poured into Kansas in a steady stream. Johnson county, that State, gave Allen county many men whose character and personal worth won them a conspicuous prominence in the confidence of our citizens. William Davis is one of these. He was born in Franklin townsltip, Johnson county, Indiana, January 12, 1838. The blood of the Scotch and Irish courses through his veins and his remote ancestors were among the settlers of the Colonies and in the ranks of the Revolution- ary armies.
This family of Davis emanates from New Jersey. William Davis, our subject's grandfather, was born in Mercer county, that State, and came by wagon, westward to the Monongahela river, in Pennsylvania where he built a flat boat and floated down the river to Ohio Falls and from that point went into Mercer county, Kentucky. Farming was his vocation. He served in the War of 1812 from that State and, late in life, went into Clark county. Illinois, and died there in 1874, aged ninety years. He was a son of a Revolutionary soldier, married a Miss Covert and was the father of four sons and eight daughters. The sons were: John W., William Samuel and Daniel Davis.
John Davis, father of our subject, was born in Mercer county, Ken- tucky, February 17, 1813. He left his native State in 1822 and settled on the Ohio river in Switzerland county, Indiana. Two years later he went into Johnson county, and there lived a successful farmer and an honored
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citizen. Like his forefathers he was a Democrat, but the firing on Ft. Sumpter caused him to unite his political fortunes with the Republicans. He was a man of much piety, of strong Christian character and was a life- long Presbyterian. His first wife was Mary F., a daughter of William McGee from Mercer county, Kentucky. The McGees were a Scotch and Irish mixture while the Davis' proper are believed to be of Welch origin. John Davis' second wife was Martha. a daughter of John Vanarsdale. She resides on the family homestead in Johnson county, Indiana. Mr. Davis' first wife died February 14, 1853. Their children were: William, Martha J., deceased, married Elisha Vanarsdale; Mary E., deceased, married John W. Davis and lett two children; Daniel C. Davis, deceased; Rachel A .. deceased; Abraham V. and John H. Davis, both deceased, are children by his second wife. Mr. Davis died July 24, 1880. He was an intelligent, strong-willed positive citizen. His character showed in all his acts and his life was one good example to be followed with profit.
William Davis, our subject, was educated in the better schools of his time and he reached his majority as a farmer. His first experiences away from the parental home were as farm hand and as clerk in a Franklin store. He entered the army at the first call for troops, joining Company H, 7th I. V. I. The regiment went into West Virginia and was engaged in the first battles of the war, Carricks Ford, Bealington and Laurel Hill. It was enroute home to be mustered out when, at Bellaire, Ohio, the joy over their successes was turned into gloom by the news from Bull Run. Mr. Davis was discharged in August and re-enlisted in Company F, 7th Infantry as private and went back into West Virginia. In December was in Cumberland, Maryland, aided in the relief of General Reynolds in West Virginia and in March, 1862, was in Winchester, Virginia. Skirmished through to Rockingham county, Virginia. as a part of Shields' Division and to Fredericksburg under General McDowell. The regiment hurried back to the Valley to catch Stonewall Jackson, but failed. Then went to Alexall- dria where it waited till the Pope campaign. It was in the battle at Slaughter Mountain and the preliminary skirmishes to second Bull Run. The 7th Indiana Infantry was in the fights at Chantilly, South Mountain and Antietam. At Port Republic a piece of Federal artillery was deserted dangerously near the Confederate advance and Mr. Davis was one of eight to volunteer to recover it. It was brought off under the fire of eighteen guns. At 2nd Bull Run, Virginia, the color bearer was killed and our subject caught the flag and carried it till a new detail was made. At Union he caught the flag under similar circumstances and was its bearer for the regiment till his promotion to orderly after the battle of Fredericksburg. He was in the Chancellorsville and Gettysburg campaigns and back to Mine Run on the Rapidan, the following winter. He was promoted to 2nd Lieu- tenant in February, 1863. In the battle of the Wilderness he was wounded in both thighs and lay for hours between the lines while the fight raged. He lay in the Wilderness hospital, and in the Lynchburg hospital for the convalescent, a prisoner. He slipped away from the Rebel lines on the 19th of June, 1864, and, in company with John A. Griffin made his way to
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the Union lines at Lynchburg. He was recaptured just before he reached the Union army but was only robbed and released. He was sent home, reaching there July 4th and found the family in mourning for him, as he was reported among the dead after the Wilderness fight and his capture had prevented the real facts from being known. He was discharged at the close of his enlistment September 20, 1864.
Mr. Davis engaged in merchandising at Franklin, Ind., and only closed out the business to come to Kansas. His first permanent location was in Iola where he established a business (a partnership) and conducted it till 1875. The following three years he spent in colportage work for the Presby- terian church traveling abont through Kansas and the Indian Territory. In the fall of 1878 he was elected Clerk of the District Court in Allen county, serving four years. He spent three years ou his Carlyle farm and in Janu- ary, 1890, began his work in Oklahoma as Sabbath School Missionary for the Presbyterian church. In the eleven years he has organized 147 schools, made 22953 visits and traveled 51165 miles.
In politics Mr. Davis is an uncompromising Republican. He became a protectionist when a boy from reading American history and cast his first Presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln.
Mr. Davis was married at Brownsville, Nebraska, May 16, 1872, to Candace, a daughter of Alexander Grimes. Her mother, Mrs. C. G. Boyce, resides with her. The Grimeses were from near Richmond, Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Davis' surviving child is Miss Grace E. Davis. born October 10, 1882.
W IILIAM BIRD, one of the pioneers of Allen county and a worthy representative of the brotherhood of farmers, is a son of Emmer Bird whose entrance to Allen county, as a settler, occurred in 1857. The latter brought his family hither from Lee county, Iowa, going to the latter place, as a pioneer, from Illinois. He was born in the State of Virginia in the year 1802, was married to Prudy Hamilton, who was born in Pennsyl- vania in 1804 and died in 1865 He was the father of Margaret A., wife of Daniel Horville; Jasper N. Bird, of Elk Falls, Kansas; Emerilla J., wife of John McGee, of Seattle, Washington; William, our subject; Samuel L., of Arizona, and George Bird, of Iola.
Emmer Bird settled on the east bank of the Neosho river, at the site of the water mill, purchasing the claim from Judge A. W. J. Brown. He lived there a brief and uneventful period and died in 1863. His wife died the year 1865.
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