USA > Kansas > Atchison County > History of Atchison County, Kansas > Part 38
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
ALVA CURTIS TRUEBLOOD.
Alva Curtis Trueblood, a former Atchison merchant and city official and Union veteran, now deceased, was born in Salem, Washington county. Indiana, in 1838, a son of Dr. Joshua and Zelpha ( Arnold) Trueblood, natives of South Carolina, who emigrated from their native State to Indiana in the early pioneer days when the Indians were still camping on the streams and roaming the forests of the Hoosier State. The parents of A. C. Trueblood settled in Salem and he was there reared to manhood, receiving his educa- tion in the district schools and the Seminary at Battle Creek, Mich., where he was graduated. After his graduation in the classical course at Battle Creek. he returned to his home town of Salem and embarked in the newspaper busi- ness, purchasing the Salem Times, which he edited until the outbreak of the Civil war. He enlisted at the first call for troops issued by President Lin- coln and was mustered in as a member of Company H. Thirteen regiment, Indiana infantry, under Captain Sales, who was later promoted to the rank of colonel, private Trueblood being successively promoted to a second lieuten- ancy and then to first lieutenant of his company. Later, he was commis- sioned a captain and remained Captain Trueblood until the close of the war. He saw much active service during the great rebellion and was under fire with his regiment at the very first battle in which it was engaged, at Green Brier Mountain, W. Va. Captain Trueblood fought in thirty-six terrific battles during his term of service, and was engaged in the nine days' battle at Cold Harbor under General Grant. Captain Trueblood often gave a vivid and heart-rending description of the terrific slaughter of human lives which took place at this great battle, and told of how a person could walk for miles on the dead bodies with which the field was strewn. His time of enlistment expired while the battle of Cold Harbor was in progress, and he then re- turned to his home, where he was married December 20. 1864. to Hattie Allen.
Mr. and Mrs. Trueblood resided in Salem, Ind., until after the close of the war when he entered the mercantile business in Salem and was very suc- cessful. His health failing him it was deemed advisable that they seek a new home in the West. During his business career he had invested in Atch- ison county land, and they came to this county in 1880, settling on their farm in the spring of that year. They remained on the farm but a short time, however, until Mr. Trueblood regained his health, in a measure, and then removed to Atchison, where he embarked in the queensware business, which he conducted for about three years. He was then elected city clerk and held
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this office for about ten years. Captain Trueblood died April 16, 1904. Mr. and Mrs. Trueblood have reared the following children : Albert, now en- gaged in the newspaper business at Sacramento, Cal .; Victor T., manager of the Van Noys News Company, of Kansas City, Mo .; Paul T., a traveling salesman, residing in Grand Island, Neb .; Owen T., of Kansas City, an ex- press messenger of the Missouri Pacific railroad; Nellie, a graduate of Mid- land College, and a teacher in the Ingalls school; Norvel died in 1867, at the age of four years. The mother of these children was born in March, 1840, a daughter of Thomas and Annis (Brinkley) Allen, both natives of West Virginia, and pioneer settlers of Washington county, Indiana. She was educated in the common schools of her native county and attended the Salem Female College. Thomas Allen, father of Mrs. Trueblood, was proprietor of a cotton and woolen manufactory at Salem, and was forced to pay Gen. John Morgan and his raiders the sum of $1,000 to prevent the burning of his mill. when Morgan and his troops made their memorable raid and burned the depot at Salem and raided the stores. Thomas Allen and wife were the par- ents of eight children, six sons and two daughters. Three of the sons were Union soldiers, William Allen, the twin brother of Mrs. Trueblood, serving in the same regiment with Captain Trueblood.
Mr. Trueblood was an efficient and capable city official during his many years of service in the city clerk's office and had many warm friends in Atchison. He was allied with the Republican party and was prominent in the affairs of his party. He was well known in Masonic circles and was high in the councils of the Masonic lodge, being master of Washington Lodge, No. 5, of Atchison, Kan .. for several years, and was a leading member of the Grand Army of the Republic, both of which bodies officiated at the cere- monies held when his body was laid away for the long rest.
WILLIAM J. CLEM.
William J. Clem, deceased farmer and horticulturist, of Shannon town- ship. was born June 9, 1851, in Randolph county. Virginia, a son of Aaron Clem, who immigrated to Kansas in 1863 and settled on Independence creek, near the Doniphan-Atchison county line. On the farm, which his father owned in this pioneer settlement of Kansas, William was reared to young manhood, and married, after which he lived on a farm in the southern part of Doniphan county for four years, then moved to the Myers farm, which
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he and his wife purchased some years later and cultivated until March of 1898. In this year he purchased the fine farm which is now owned by his widow and immediately began improving it. This farm consists of sixty acres and lays within a few miles of Atchison in a northwesterly direction. Its acreage is divided as follows: Twenty acres of apples and small fruits, and forty acres of farm land and pasture. Realizing that it was necessary to follow intensive farming on a sixty-acre farm, Mr. Clem set out an orchard of 350 trees, which have been bearing prolifically for several years. An attractive farm residence, set in a fine lawn in which shrub- bery and flower beds please the eye, together with a good barn and silo, greets the eye as they stand out on a rise of land. Mr. Clem was a very in- dustrious farmer, a good citizen, and a kind father and husband, and will long be remembered by those who knew him best and were aware of his many excellent qualities. He departed this life on May 26. 1906. He was a mem- ber of the Baptist church and a Democrat in politics.
W. J. Clem, and Laura E. Myers, his widow. were married June 16, 1879. and to this union were born children, as follows : Mrs. Effie Randolph, of Atchison, who is the mother of two children, Elizabeth and Bernice; Mrs. Clara Waltz, of Shannon township, and mother of one child, Virginia Frances; Mrs. Addie Underwood, residing on a farm in Shannon township, who has one child. Spencer Eugene; Mrs. Laura Demmel, living near Rush- ville, Mo., and mother of one son, Raymond ; Albert, married Ella Turner, and Edgar, at home ; Mrs. Lissa Marie Altauf, of south Tenth street, Atch- ison; Frances and Jessie, at home. Mrs. Laura E. (Myers) Clem was born June 9, 1859, in Buchanan county, Missouri, a danghter of Augustus and Hulda (Snyder) Myers, natives of Germany and Indiana, respectively. Augustus Myers was born in 1825 and died October 6. 1909. His parents with their family immigrated to this country from Germany in 1831. Augustus was reared on a farm, south of St. Joseph, and was there mar- ried. His wife, Hulda, was born in 1831 and died October 8, 1907. She came with her parents to Buchanan county, Missouri, in 1841. There were nine children in the Myers family, namely: Hiram K., deceased: Edward S., deceased : William H., living in Doniphan county . Mrs. Laura E. Clem, with whom this review is directly concerned; Winslow, of Gower, Mo .; Charles W., of Lancaster township, this county ; Mrs. Dora Augusta Saeger. of Quincy, Ill .: Mrs. Malinda Frances Underwood, of Shannon township: and Ray Evans, of Seattle, Wash. The Myers family came to Atchison county in August of 1875, living in Atchison until February. 1876, and set- tled on a farm in Shannon township, which he purchased from Andrew
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Evans, living on their place near Good Intent, until March of 1891, when the old couple sold their farm to Mr. and Mrs. Clem, and retired to a home in Atchison, where they died. Augustus Myers was a soldier in the Union army and served for a few months under Captain Snyder, an uncle of Mrs. Clem.
Mrs. Clem and her children are all members of the Christian church and take an active part in the social and religious affairs carried on by the large membership of this flourishing denomination. She and her sturdy sons carry on the farming operations in a creditable and profitable manner and are happy and contented. The boys are greatly interested in athletics and were an important part of the winning church baseball team during the season of 1915. A happier nor more contented family can not be found in Atchison county. Mrs. Clem is a capable and intelligent woman who did not hesitate to take over the management of the farm upon her husband's demise and has made a success of the undertaking.
JARED COPELAND FOX.
The late Jared Copeland Fox was one of Atchison's ablest citizens, pub- lic spirited, a successful financier and a familiar figure in the leading circles of the city for many years. Merchant, banker, scholar, a kind husband and father, his demise left a void which can never be filled. Coming of a dis- tinguished family, born October 30, 1841, in Chili, N. Y., his life bears out the oft repeated assertion that lineage and birth have something to do withi shaping a man's destiny, and influencing his career. His parents were Jared Ware and Mercy Chapman ( Copeland) Fox. Jared Ware Fox was a son of Alanson and Elizabeth ( Ware) Fox. His maternal grandfather was Jona- than Copeland, who married a Miss Wells at Charlton, Mass., who was a di- rect descendant of Ruth, a daughter of John and Priscilla Alden. On April 2, 1816. Jonathan Copeland was commissioned a captain in the militia and adjutant on the governor's staff of Massachusetts in 1816. In 1819 he was appointed a brigadier commander of the State militia. After his marriage he removed to New York and was there a colonel in the State militia of New York. He held five different commissions in Massachusetts and New York. The Fox family is of English descent and originally settled in Connecticut. The maiden name of the wife of Col. Jonathan Copeland was Rebecca Ed- wards and she was a connection of the family of which Rev. Jonathan Ed-
&. C.Fa
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wards was a member. Colonel Copeland had three children : Mercy. Eliza- beth and the Rev. Jonathan Copeland, a Congregational minister of New York, who conducted an academy in that city and one of whose pupils was Philip Armour of beef packing fame. Jonathan was born October 16, 1786, died in 1858 in New York ; Rebecca was born in 1790, died February 6, 1863. in Kansas.
Alanson Fox, grandfather of Jared C., removed from Connecticut to a farm near Sherburne, N. Y., and here Jared Ware was born December 5. 1810. Rev. Jared Ware Fox was educated for the ministry, studying four years in Oneida Institute and one year in a seminary in New York City, and for fifty years preached the Gospel according to the Congregational faith. In the early days he was sent to Kansas by his church to establish and organize churches in the new towns and cities building up on the broad prairies. He formed a church at Burlingame and Ridgeway, Kan., making his home at the latter place and preaching throughout the country serving churches at Kunwaka, Waveland, Valley Brook and one year at Lawrence. He spent one year in Topeka in charge of a church in the capital city. He was a strong abolitionist and was in his natural element when he first came to Kansas in 1860, the year of the ""great drought." He took an active part in the relief work in Kansas at that time and sent his son, Jared C., then but eighteen years of age, back to Galesburg, Ill., where an old friend of the family re- sided, to gather potatoes and produce for the sustenance of the drought suf- fers. He died March 2, 1898, leaving the following children : Charles G .. on the old homestead at Ridgeway, Kan. ; Jared C .; Irving Dwight, deceased : Herbert Everett, of California ; Herman Elliot, Davenport, Iowa. The mother of these children, Mercy C. ( Copeland ) Fox, was born February 16, 1816. and died April 11, 1893.
Jared C. Fox received an academic education in New York and accom- panied his parents to Kansas. At the age of nineteen years he was first employed in a general store conducted by Crosby Brothers at Valley Falls, Kan., at a salary of $150 per year and his board. He yearned for a larger field and came to Atchison in 1862, entering the employ of William Smith, who owned a dry goods store. During a part of the Civil war he served as clerk in the commissary department at Rolla, Mo., under Major Grimes for two years. After the close of the war he was deputy county treasurer under Sam C. King, and upon Mr. King's resignation from the county treasurership. he was appointed to serve for six months finishing out Mr. King's unexpired term. He then served as deputy United States marshal under Charles Whit- ing. For some years previous to embarking in the drug business he was
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associated in the real estate business with H. Clay Park, former postmaster of Atchison and editor of The Patriot, and now one of the editors of the St. Joseph Newes. In 1869 Mr. Fox made the business venture which was the turning point of his fortunes and launched him on the high road to financial success. He entered into partnership with W. C. McPike, S. C. King and Frank Allen in the wholesale drug business. Later Mr. Fox and Mr. McPike became the sole owners of the business, Mr. Fox disposing of his interest to T. M. Walker and the firm removed to Kansas City, where it is still doing business under the name of the McPike Drug Co. Mr. Fox became interested in banking and at the time of his death was vice-president of the Atchison Savings Bank, the oldest State bank in Kansas. He conducted a loan busi- ness as his financial resources increased in strength and he became one of Atchison's wealthy citizens.
On December 22, 1868, Mr. Fox was married to a charming southern lady, Miss Virginia Alexina Tortat. This union was blessed by the birth of five children as follows: Jared Copeland, Jr., manager of the Howard Manufacturing Co., of Atchison, and father of eight children, Virginia Par- ker, Marjorie Parker, Jared Copeland, Jr., Parker, Amelia Joanna, Lawton, Edith and William Horan; Edith Fox Jackson, wife of Judge W. A. Jackson, and mother of two children, Jared Fox and Edmund Valentine : Henry Irving, wholesale druggist at Wichita, Kan., and father of Everett Cranson, Florence, Mary Anne and Sarah Virginia Fox: William Tortat, assistant cashier in the Atchison Savings Bank, and father of one daughter, Mary; Florence, at home with her mother. The mother of these children, Mrs. Virginia Fox, was born at Eufaula, Ala., December 20, 1847, a daughter of Henri Sylvest and Nancy (Decker) Tortat. Henri S. Tortat was born in October, 1811, in France. He was destined to be a clergyman by his parents, but, having no intention to enter the priesthood, took part in the three days' revolution against Charles X. He left home and joined an uncle who was an officer in the French army of occupation in Algiers in 1833. He came to America in 1836 when. a young man and was married at Wiscassett, Me .. to Nancy Decker, whom he met at Boston, Mass. After his marriage he took his bride to Charleston, S. C., and thence to Eufaula, Ala., and conducted a merchandise store there until he was induced to join a colony of southern people who were going to Kansas in May, 1857. When he came to Kansas he first took up a home- stead claim and then purchased a bakery at Tecumseh, Shawnee county, but died July 6, 1858, before he could get fairly settled in the new country. Seven children were born to and reared by Henri and Nancy Tortat : Henri Alexis, deceased ; Mrs. Amelia Caroline Barry, deceased ; Mrs. J. C. Fox : Jean Paul,
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deceased ; Augusta makes her home with Mrs. Fox; William Marshall, Pea- body, Mass .: Mary died at the home of Mrs. Fox. Six years after Mr. Tortat's demise, the mother and children removed to Atchison, where she died December 20, 1864.
In his younger days Mr. Fox was a Republican, but later became a Demo- crat and was a strong Cleveland adherent. He was a supporter of President Theodore Roosevelt during his first administration. He was a stanch sup- porter of Woodrow Wilson when Wilson was a candidate for the Presidency, but was generally broad minded in his political views. He was a member of Washington lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Knights Templar, a Mystic Shriner and an Odd Fellow; he was reared in the Congregational church atmosphere but after marriage chose to attend the Episcopalian church with his wife. His death occurred August 23, 1914, when a strong and noble character passed to the great beyond. Mr. Fox was blessed with a singularly happy temperament which manifested itself even on his bed of illness ; he was always good humored and had a strong sense of humor which, combined with a kindly disposition, made him a prime favorite with his friends and acquaintances. He was a great reader, an expert accountant, possessed a strong memory and was a S Shakespearean scholar, quoting from Shakespeare while lying on his couch awaiting the last summons, and also quoting the Twenty-first Psalm on his last day on earth. He served the city as a mem- ber of the city council and was president of the school board for a term, being of material assistance in handling their financial affairs, because of his genius in this direction.
JAMES EMERY PENNINGTON.
The Western Advocate, Mankato, Kan., in an issue of July, 1899, has this to say in part regarding one of the most remarkable family reunions ever held in Kansas or anywhere in the country: "Without doubt the most re- markable family reunion ever held in Jewell county has been for the past week at Burr Oak and among the various members of the family in that vicinity. It is the reunion of the eleven children, together with many of the sixty-four grand children of the late James Pennington and Susan Wisdom Pennington. The Pennington family is a Southern family, the elder Pennington being a native of Tennessee, and his wife of North Carolina. All of the eleven chil- dren, however, with the exception of the oldest son, were born and raised in Missouri. The Pennington family is remarkable in that there were just
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eleven children and they are all living and enjoying good health, although the youngest is now fifty years of age, the eldest being a little past seventy. These family reunions, which are an annual event, prove that the family tree, nour- ished by the good old warm Southern blood, is still hearing the fruits of hos- pitality and good cheer. Once a year they get together, parents, children and grand children, and the ties of family, of kinship, and affection are drawn a little closer. Hearts are cheered, lives are brightened and days are length- ened." Speaking of the gathering on Saturday of the reunion week, the Western Advocate goes on to say : "On this day a company of one hundred gathered around the banquet board, and the eleven brothers and sisters were weighed and their combined weight found to be 1,832 pounds, an average of 166 pounds each."
The father of this remarkable family was James Pennington, a native of Tennessee, born in that State in 1822, and was there married to Susan Wis- dom. They migrated to Missouri in the early thirties and settled in Nodaway county, developing a fine farm until the discovery of gold in California. James then set out across the plains and mountains to the gold fields of the New El- dorado in quest of fortune. While in California he became a freighter and transported flour and provisions to the mining camps afoot. He would carry a fifty pound sack of flour a distance of sixteen miles and was paid at the rate of $50 per sack for transportation, the flour costing $50 per sack at the point of purchase and heing valued at $roo when it was taken to its destination by the carrier. James, Sr., remained in California until 1851 and then returned to his home and family in Missouri, where he lived the remainder of his days, dying in 1878, in Platte county. James and Susan Pennington were the parents of eleven children as follows: William W., born in 1837, died Feb- ruary, 1913, at Lebanon, Kan. ; John Thomas, California, born in 1839: Mrs. Telitha Thorp, Marysville, Mo., born in 1841 : Mrs. Julia Denney, Benedict, Kan., born in 1842; Mrs. Clementine Conner, Santa Ana, Cal., born in 1844, a widow; Mrs. Nancy Miller, California, born in 1845, a widow ; James Emery, with whom this review is directly concerned: Mrs. Sarah Robertson, Elk City, Okla., born in 1849; Mrs. Mary Robertson, Burr Oak. Kan., born in 1853: Mrs. Cynthia Jane Judy, Burr Oak, born in 1855: Mrs. Rocksinah Graves, Burr Oak, Kan., born in 1857.
James Emery Pennington, retired farmer of Potter, Kan., was born on a farm in Nodaway county, Missouri, October 30, 1847. He was reared on the farm in Missouri until seventeen years of age, and he then left home and crossed the plains. The occasion of his going was because of the fact that two brothers and three brothers-in-law had already enlisted in the Union army
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for service in the Civil war, and the father felt that he could nor spare his son, James E., so it was agreed between father and son that the boy should go west for a time. He made his way across the Missouri to Ft. Leavenworth and there joined an overland freight train which was bound for Salt Lake City, Utah. At that time all the freight and merchandise west of the Mis- souri river was transported in wagons, drawn by horses, mules or oxen. These wagons were loaded with from six to twelve thousand pounds of mer- chandise and were drawn by teams ranging in numbers from twelve to twenty- four animals. From twenty to forty men, wagons and teams constituted what was then known as a "freight train." The train to which young Pen- nington attached himself consisted of forty wagons, forty teamsters, two wagon masters, four assistants, two night herders, and two extras, in all, fifty men, four hundred and ninety oxen and a few horses for herding purposes. Being a farmer boy and having a working knowledge of animals, young Pennington soon made himself indispensable to the outfit and received the name of "Our Boy" from the other men in charge of the train. The train proceeded its long way over the plains of Kansas and followed the valley of the South Platte to the Rockies without mishap, other than a few Indian skirm- ishes. In October of 1864, "Our Boy" stood on the crest of the Rockies with one foot on the Atlantic and one foot on the Pacific slope. Winter soon came on and stock perished and they arrived at their destination in the dead of severe winter. Young Pennington spent the winter in the home of a Mor- mon family, consisting of a Mormon and his seven wives. From Utah he went north into Idaho and Montana, and in that region took up his favorite pursuit of freighting, which he followed for four years. His operations were mainly from Ft. Benton, the head of navigation on the Missouri river, to which point the river steamers carried the freight destined for the mining camps of the mountain regions. He, with others, transported the first quartz mill to the mining camp, later widely known as Butte City, Mont. He re- turned home in 1869 and lived there for three years, coming to Kansas in 1872. He had saved some capital which he brought with him to Atchison county, and invested this money in a herd of cattle which he grazed upon the free ranges, in this manner getting his first real start in life, and which was the beginning of his later prosperity. After his marriage in 1872 to Elizabeth Snoddy, he and his wife settled on the home farm of the Snoddy's, and at the end of one year the father of Mrs. Pennington deeded the young couple eighty acres of land which became the nucleus of their present acreage. This land is four miles east and one-half mile south of Potter, Leavenworth county, and the farm has been increased to 320 acres of well improved land. Mr.
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Pennington removed to Potter in the spring of 1916, from the farm in Leav- enworth county, and has recently completed a fine, modern, ten-room residence which will serve as his future domicile during the remainder of his days.
James E. Pennington was married February 1, 1872, to Elizabeth, daugh- ter of Thomas and Margaret (Brown) Snoddy, the former a native of Tennes- see, and the latter a native of Missouri. Thomas Snoddy first came to Kan- sas in 1854, and preempted the farm which he improved and where his children were reared. He was a Mexican war veteran and the Government gave him for his services a grant of land in northwestern Missouri, which he sold for $1,600, and with the proceeds of the sale built his home on his preemption in Kansas. The upper part of the house was used as headquarters for the Kickapoo Masonic lodge for many years. Thomas Shoddy was born August 27, 1825, and died October 8, 1909. His remains were interred in the Round Prairie cemetery. A remarkable fact about the Snoddy house is, that the roof existed without repairs for over fifty-five years and at the time of its repair by Mr. Pennington, the excellence of the material which went into the building of the house excited newspaper comment. Mrs. Pennington was born on September 25, 1856, and lived her whole life on the farm which her father preëmpted.
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