History of Atchison County, Kansas, Part 47

Author: Ingalls, Sheffield
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Lawrence, Kan., Standard Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1032

USA > Kansas > Atchison County > History of Atchison County, Kansas > Part 47

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

492

HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY

for itself and the fairness of his decisions is proverbial. Judge Jackson is remarked frequently for his kindness of heart, and soon after he was admitted to the bar the opportunity came to him to "return good for evil" in one particular case. A lad with whom he had come into contact on the school ground at Marysville, and who had tried to impose on him, with the result that strained feeling existed for many years between them was the beneficiary of his goodness. This lad, then grown to man's estate, came to the judge in Atchison and asked him to assist him in getting employment. The judge did so and earned the thanks of his boyhood enemy.

Judge Jackson's wedded life began April 26, 1894, when he was united in marriage with Edith Fox, of Atchison. To this union have been born two children : Jared Fox Jackson, born November 19, 1895, and now a stu- dent in the law department of Kansas University ; Edward Valentine Jackson, born June 6, 1900, a student in the Atchison High School. The mother of these children is a daughter of Jared Copeland. ( See sketch of Jared Cope- land Fox elsewhere in this volume. )

Judge Jackson is fraternally affiliated with the Masonic Lodge, Wash- ington, No. 5, of Atchison, the Knights of Pythias, the Elks, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, and the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity of the Kansas State University. He is a liberal contributor to charitable and religious denomina- tions, and is usually found in the van of all projects which have for their pur- pose the betterment of his home city and county.

ROY C. TRIMBLE.

In Roy C. Trimble, sheriff of Atchison county, the people have an effi- cient and capable public official, who believes that his duties are paramount over all other considerations, and he has shown by his steadfast and unswerv- ing loyalty to the ethics of his office that he is a man eminently fitted for high public office. Mr. Trimble is a young man to hold such an important office, but is old in ability and experience. He is a native of Atchison county, and a son of James M. and Margaret E. (McCreary ) Trimble.

Roy C. Trimble was born August 11, 1877, on a farm, four miles south- west of Atchison. His father, James M. Trimble, was born September 10. 1843. in Buchanan county, Missouri, and died in January, 1910, in Atchison county. He was the son of Benjamin F. Trimble, a native of Kentucky, who immigrated to DeKalb. Mo., where he conducted a blacksmith and wagon re- pair shop, and later removed to Texas. After a residence of some years in

493

HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY

Texas he settled in Atchison county, where the son, James M., bought a farm which he cultivated until 1905, when he disposed of his land and invested in a livery business. He was thus engaged until his death. During the Civil war, Mr. Trimble was enrolled in the State militia. Benjamin F. Trimble was one of the early pioneer settlers of Atchison county and owned a farm near Effingham. The children of James M. Trimble are J. P., a railway mail clerk on the Central Branch railroad; A. F., a rural mail carrier ; K. S., a farmer, south of Atchison; E. S., a resident of Lake Ballinger, Wash. : Roy C., and T. O., a ranchman, near Seattle, Wash.

The mother of the foregoing children was Margaret E. McCreary, born in 1850 and died in 1890. She was a daughter of Solomon McCreary, a pioneer settler of Atchison county, who had a farm eight and one-half miles south of Atchison. Solomon McCreary was born in Clay county, Missouri, in 1822, and died in July, 1911. He was a son of Elijah McCreary, and was the youngest of a family of thirteen children. The family is of Scotch- Irish ancestry, and originally settled in South Carolina. S. K. came to Kansas in 1854, first settling in Leavenworth county, and four years later moving to Atchison county. He bought a land patent from a Mexican war veteran, and made his home on the pioneer farm until his death. His chil- dren were as follows: Mrs. B. Frank Trimble, Mrs. Margaret Trimble, de- ceased; Mrs. Nellie Adams; Cora, deceased; W. S., deceased; Mrs. Nettie Perkins, Leavenworth ; S. K., and Mrs. Grace Sahnon, of Los Angeles.

Roy C. Trimble was educated in the district school No. 5, located south of the city, and resided on the farm until 1905 when he was engaged in the livery business with his father, continuing until the latter's death, after which he conducted the business for a few years and then traded it for some real estate. He was first a candidate for sheriff in 1912 on the Republican ticket, but lost out by 288 votes. He was again a candidate in 1914 and won by the considerable margin of 700 votes.

Sheriff Trimble was married November 2, 1904, to May Florence Hart- man, who was born near Purcell, seven miles southwest of Atchison, and is a daughter of Ex-Sheriff F. C. Hartman, now deceased. To Mr. and Mrs. Trimble have been born the following children: Guy Roy, born August 7, 1905: Cynthia Grace, born May 2, 1907; Clara May, born May 10, 1913. and Henrietta Gale, born June 4, 1915.

Mr. Trimble and wife are members of the Presbyterian church. He is fraternally affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Fraternal Aid. Mr. Trimble is likeable, and has a winning personality which goes far toward making him a successful and popular official. Such enco-

494

HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY

miums and praise as have come to him for his conduct of the duties of the sheriff's office are well deserved and he is constantly widening his circle of friends.

CHARLES J. CONLON.

Charles J. Conlon, a prominent attorney of Atchison, who is now serving his second term as county attorney, is a native of the Empire State. He was born at Orwell, Oswego county, New York, October 31, 1860, and is a son of James and Anna ( Bowen) Conlon, the former a native of New York and the latter of Ireland. Anna Bowen, the mother, came to America with her parents, William and Nancy Bowen, when she was thirteen years of age. James Conlon was born in Onedia county, New York, and was a son of Charles Conlon, a native of Ireland, who immigrated to America in 1814 and settled in Oneida county, New York, where he spent the remainder of his life. James Conlon grew to manhood in Oneida county, and in 1859 was married and about a year later removed to Oswego county, bought a farm and followed farming there until 1867. He then returned to Oneida county, where he remained until 1870, when he came to Kansas, locating in Atchison county. He bought a farm about a mile and one-half southwest of the city of Atchi- son, where he was successfully engaged in farming and stock raising until about a year prior to his death, November 1, 1899, at the age of seventy-three. He was a very successful farmer and a highly respected citizen, and at the time of his death owned 200 acres of valuable land, which is still owned by the Conlon family. He was a life-long Democrat and a member of the Catholic church. His wife died September 22, 1898, aged sixty-three years. They were the parents of the following children : Anna M. married Peter Donovan, now deceased, and three children were born to this union, Peter, Fredrick and Charles, and after the death of her first husband, Anna M. married John Mc- Inteer, who is also now deceased and she resides in Atchison : Charles J., the subject of this sketch; William H. resides on the old homestead; John F., farmer, Atchison ; James D., plumber, St. Louis, Mo. ; Letitia M. McKenna, Denver, Colo., and Fred J. died in Atchison at the age of thirty-three years. He was a machinist and well and favorably known in Atchison county. Charles J. Conlon was educated in the public schools, St. Benedict's College. Atchison, Kan., and Whitestown Seminary, Whitestown, N. Y., graduating from the latter institution in the class of 1882. He then entered the law de- partment of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, Mich., and was

495

HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY

graduated in the class of 1884 with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He then engaged in the practice of his profession at Atchison. Kan., and has continued in the practice to the present time. He was elected county attorney of Atchi- son county in 1912 and reelected to succeed himself in 1914. Mr. Conlon is a capable lawyer and is a fair and fearless prosecutor. Mr. Conlon was united in marriage February 14, 1903, to Miss Mae Flanigan, a native of Os- wego county, New York.

John F. Conlon, farmer, was born October 15, 1865, in the town of Or- well, Oswego county, New York. He was educated in the common schools of his native town and later attended the Whitestown Seminary at Whites- town, N. Y. After coming to Atchison county, Kansas, in 1885 with his par- ents, he studied at St. Benedict's College. He remained with his parents on the home farm southwest of Atchison until their death, and managed the estate for several years thereafter successfully.

THOMAS O. GAULT.

Personal achievements of the individual are always worth recounting when he has accomplished something worth while. There is considerable satisfaction in the latter years of the life of an industrious couple, who, having begun at the foot of the ladder of success and having climbed up- ward by degrees, have attained to a state of wealth and comfort by the time middle age has been reached. Thomas O. Gault and his wife, residing in a beautiful farm home in the northeast part of the city of Effingham, are among the most respected citizens of Atchison county. Mr. Gault is one of the large land owners of the county, and while not an old resident he can lay claim to the fact that he was a homesteader in Kansas back in the "grasshopper" era, and has had as many ups and downs as the average western pioneer.

Thomas O. Gault was born November 7, 1849, in Wycomico county, Maryland, a son of Archibald and Eliza (Littleton) Gault, natives of Mary- land, and descendants of old American colonial families. The ancestry of the Gault and Littleton families dates back to the earliest days of the settle- ment of the eastern coast of America. Archibald was the son of Obid Gault, who was a soldier in the War of 1812, and was an early pioneer settler of Indiana. Eliza Littleton was a daughter of Thomas Littleton, and died when Thomas O. was seven years of age. Archibald Gault emigrated from Mary-

490

HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY

land to Ripley county, Indiana, about 1859, and settled on a farm south of Pierce City, or near Stringtown. This was in a timbered country, and he lived there only three years, returning to Maryland during the dark days of the Civil war, where he remained until the war was over. In 1865 he re- turned to his farm in Ripley county, and cultivated his Indiana farm until old age overtook him, and he finally returned to the old home in Mary- land, there spending his declining years, dying in 1900, at the age of eighty years.

Thomas O. Gault was educated in the district schools of Ripley county. Indiana, and began working at the hardest kind of farm labor when yet a boy. When he attained his majority he came to the great West, where opportunity seemed to beckon with a more lavish hand than among the hills and forests of his native county and State. He located in Jasper county, Iowa, and worked at farm labor until twenty-five years of age, then came to Kansas and homesteaded a Government claim in Phillips county. This was a sad experience, however, as the grasshoppers came along soon after- wards and "cleaned out" the crops of the homesteaders in his neighborhood, and he abandoned his claim and left the country. He returned to Jasper county, Iowa, in 1873, where he remained for three years, after which he remained in Iowa, locating in Pottawattamie county in 1878, where he had purchased a farm. He and his wife developed the farm and prospered for a period of fourteen years. Selling out their Iowa farm at a good round price in 1903. they located in Effingham, where they have resided since March of 1903. Mr. Gault invested his capital in Kansas and Missouri lands and has made money since he came to Kansas. Being gifted with the money- making instinct and capacity, he has dealt somewhat in land and been suc- cessful in his farming operations in Atchison county. He is the owner of an eighty acre tract of valuable land, purchased in 1902, adjoining Effingham. Kan., on the northeast, and has one of the most attractive modern farm homes in the county. He owns at the present time a total of 582.5 acres of land, 262.5 acres of which is located in Grundy county, Missouri, and the rest in Atchison county. He has a large farm of 240 acres near Pardee in Center township, which is one of the best improved tracts in the vicinity. This farm was purchased in 1902 and is equipped with excellent buildings. including a house of twelve rooms and three good barns.

He was married on March 4, 1888, to Miss Melissa Drury, of the town of Drury, Rock Island county, Illinois. They are the parents of two children : Essie. at home with her parents, and Pearl, wife of William Thomas, a son of Robert M. Thomas, of Effingham. Mrs. Gault was born March 4, 1861,

497

HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY

in Drury, Rock Island county, Illinois, a daughter of Eli and Margaret (Hubbard) Drury, natives of Wayne county, Indiana, and Bedford county, Pennsylvania, respectively. Mr. Drury served as postmaster of the village named in his honor in Rock Island county for thirty-five years, and was filling the office at the time of his death, in 1892.

Mr. Gault is a stockholder in the Farmer's Mercantile Company of Ef- fingham. He is a Republican in politics, but is an independent voter, who believes in doing his own thinking as regards the merits of respective can- didates for office and the principles which influence good government. He became an Odd Fellow in Marshall county, Iowa, in the early eighties, and has continued in good standing in the order to the present time. One of the incidents of his early career which left an impression on Mr. Gault's memory, which time has never been able to eradicate, was his first Kansas experience. He was so thoroughly cleaned out during the great grasshopper scourge in the seventies, in Phillips county, Kansas, that he was forced to walk the entire distance from Blue River, Kan., to Atchison.

WILFULL A. STANLEY.

Wilfull A. Stanley, a Civil war yeteran, who perhaps has had more mili- tary experience than any other man in Atchison county, is a native of New Jersey. He was born at Salem November 26, 1838, and is a son of Joseph C. and Rebecca D. (Gosline) Stanley, both natives of New Jersey and de- scendants of colonial ancestors, who trace their family genealogy back for several generations in this country. The first white child born in the English colony that settled in New Jersey, opposite Egg Harbor, was an ancestor of Wilfull A. Stanley. Joseph C. Stanley, the father of Wilfull .A., was a son of Friend Richard Stanley, who was a soldier in the War of 1812. The Stanley's were Quakers, but there were a great many fighting Quakers dis- tributed along the line of descent. Friend Richard was a son of John Stan- lev, who was a Revolutionary soldier and served in Lighthorse Harry Lee's cavalry. He was captured and confined in a British prison ship for some time. He lived to be a very old man and died in 1845, at the age of 102. He was very active physically and mentally to a very old age. Wilfull A. Stanley was reared in New Jersey and received a common school education. On December 22, 1860, he enlisted as a private in the United States marine : and after making a trip around the world was detailed in 1861 as orderly to Admiral Dahlgren at Washington, D. C. He also served as orderly to Com-

198

HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY

manding Officer C. R. P. Rogers. Mr. Stanley was at the taking of Hat- teras Inlet and the operations on Roanoke Sound in conjunction with General Burnside's expedition. He was at the engagement of Port Royal and served as orderly to Capt. C. R. P. Rogers there. He was also at the engagement at Ft. Walker. The "Wabash," upon which he was serving then, joined Admiral Farragut's fleet at New Orleans. Here Mr. Stanley was trans- ferred to the "Hartford," Admiral Farragut's flag ship, and served as orderly to Farragut and participated in the engagements at Fts. Jackson and Phillip, and was at the capture of New Orleans when he was again detailed to the "Wabash." Shortly after that he was taken sick with a fever and sent to the marine hospital at Brooklyn, N. Y. After recovering he was discharged, and with his discharge received a very complimentary letter from Admiral Rogers. After remaining home a short time he enlisted in the Second regi- ment, New Jersey cavalry. He participated in the battle of Nashville and was at the siege of Mobile. He went from there to Montgomery, Ala. About this time the war closed, but Mr. Stanley's regiment was kept in the South for nearly a year during the reconstruction period, and in 1866 he was discharged and returned to his New Jersey home. Mr. Stanley had learned the plasterer's trade when he was a young man and at the close of the war worked at it for some time, when the military spirit took possession of him again and he enlisted at Philadelphia, Pa., and was assigned to Troop L. Sev- enth United States cavalry, and was sent from Ft. Leavenworth to Ft. Mor- gan on the Platte river. Capt. Michael V. Sheridan, a brother of "Little Phil," commanded this troop and they were mobilized at Ft. Hayes for a winter campaign against the Indians in the Wichita mountains. This cam- paign was against the Arapahoes, Comanches and some other tribes. After an engagement with Lone Wolf's band the soldiers were forced to retreat, but soon after were reinforced at Big Timber by a Kansas regi- ment, and after that captured Lone Wolf and Satanta, chief of the Kiawas, and returned the Indians who had been on the war path to the Ft. Sill reserva- tion. After that Mr. Stanley returned to Ft. Leavenworth and had charge of the hospital stores for two years, when he was transferred to Wingate, N. M., where he also had charge of the hospital stores until 1872. when he was discharged and returned to New Jersey. In 1889 he came to Kansas, locating in Atchison, where he has since worked at his trade most of the time. He had lived in Philadelphia for some time and in Georgetown, S. C. before coming to Kansas, and came to this State on account of his wife's health. Mr. Stanley was married in 1877 to Mrs. Mary E. (Ingram) Fpuntain, a widow. She is a native of Bellefont, Pa., born June 25, 1842,

199

HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY

a daughter of Isaac D. and Deborah (Grant) Ingram, natives wf Pennsyl- vania and descendants of old Pennsylvania stock. Joshua Bloomfield Will- iams, a major in the Revolutionary war, and at one time colonial governor of New Jersey, was a grand-uncle of Mrs. Stanley's mother, and Mrs. Stan- ley is a Daughter of the American Revolution. She is a member of the Ladies' Corps of the Grand Army of the Republic, and is past department president of Kansas, and National press correspondent, and has filled all the offices from the local circle to the National. Mr. and Mrs. Stanley have one child, Leon Glen, born in 1881. He served in Troop B, Sixth United States cavalry. He was in China at the rescue of the foreign legations and sup- pression of the Boxer uprising and later served in the Phillipine Islands, and after three years' service he was honorably discharged. He was the first post printer at Ft. Leavenworth, and is now in the employ of the .Itchison Globe, in the capacity of pressman and mailing clerk. He married Sadie Wiggins, and two children have been born to them, as follows: Inez. Leona and Richard. Wilfull A. Stanley is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and has been adjutant of the Atchison post for ten years and is past commander.

CHRISTIAN W. STUTZ.

Christian W. Stutz, a substantial farmer of Center township, Atchison county, was born and reared in Lancaster township, this county, and is a son of pioneer settlers of the county. The Stutz family came to Kansas from Missouri in 1859. Christian W. is a son of Christian and Catharine (Schweitzer) Stutz, both of whom were born in Germany from whence they came to America in 1855, and first settled in Jackson county, Missouri, com- ing from there to Lancaster township in Atchison county four years later. Christian, the father, was born in Germany, March 25, 1825. and when thirty years of age decided to locate in the new country where there were better opportunities for gaining a livelihood and laying up a competence. Accord- ingly, we find that after a residence of four years in Jackson county, Missouri, he came to Atchison county, and with his savings invested in eighty acres of timber and prairie land in Lancaster township. He hired a man to break this land with ox teams, and proceeded to cultivate his land. He made extensive improvements on his farm from time to time as he was able, and added to his acreage to such an extent that at the time of his death, December, 1808. he was the owner of 380 acres of land. Christian Stutz was the father of

500

HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY

seven children as follows: Mrs. Caroline Demel, of Central City, Neb .; Mrs. Katherine Wilkins, of Atchison, Kan .: Frederick, a member of the Atchison police force : Christian W .: Gustave, a prosperous farmer of Lan- caster township; John, a farmer in Center township; one child died in in- fancy. The mother of these children was born in Germany in February of 1829. and died in Lancaster township, in December, 1888.

Christian W. Stutz, whom this review directly concerns, was reared on the old home place of the Stutz family in Lancaster township, and educated in the Lancaster school. He assisted his father in the operation of the home farm until he was twenty-three years of age, and then began farming for him- self on land which he rented from his father. He continued to till the rented land for four years, all the time saving his earnings, with a view of eventually owning a farm of his own. He made his first investment in 1891 when he purchased and inherited, partly, eighty acres of improved farm land in section 8, Center township. He at once began to remodel the home and make extensive improvements, and it might be said that he has never ceased to improve his surroundings. In 1908 he erected a new barn, 50x50 feet, and now has one of the attractive places of his township and county. Mr. Stutz has continued to add to his land holdings until he is now the owner of 393 acres of land, all of which he has secured through his own efforts. Dur- ing 1915 he had planted 160 acres to corn which gave him an excellent crop. He keeps good graded stock and maintains a herd of Shorthorn cat- tle. He has made quite a reputation as a breeder, and in 1914 exhibited a "Mahrath Jack" at the Atchison county fair which was awarded the second prize. In addition to his farming interests he is a share holder in a copper mine located in Arizona.

Mr. Stutz was married in 1891 to Kathrine Walz, and of this union have been born ten children, as follows : Charles F., William, John E., Clara, a graduate of the Atchison County High School: Arthur, Mary and Marga- ret ( twins), the latter deceased ; Francis, Nora B., Reidel. all of whom are at home with their parents. Mrs. Stutz was born September 8, 1868, in Atchison, Kan., a daughter of Charles and Kathrine (Reidel) Walz, both natives of Germany. Charles Walz emigrated from Germany to Cincin- nati, Ohio, and there learned the butcher business and trade. When nine- teen years of age he left Germany to seek his fortune in America, and about 1857 came to Atchison and worked in the first butcher shop ever operated in that city. He later bought the shop of Phillip Link, and after operating it for a time bought a farm in Shannon township, where he lived until his death. in 1891. at the age of sixty-one years. Kathrine, his wife, was born

501

HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY

in 1842, and died on the old home place in Shannon township.

Mr. Stutz is a Democrat, but has never sought political preferment, hav- ing no time other than for the management of his large farming interests. He is fraternally connected with the Odd Fellows and the Fraternal Order of Eagles.

MICHAEL JOSEPH HORAN.

In observing the management of the leading commercial houses of Atchi- son, the fact is determined that, invariably, the executive departments are in charge of young men who have practically grown up with the business. The Dolan Mercantile Company is one of the oldest wholesale institutions of the city, and one of the most successful and substantial. Its affairs are con- ducted by young men who entered the employ of its founder when boys, and have advanced, step by step. in the management of the concern. M. J. Horan, the president of the Dolan Mercantile Company, began his career in a humble capacity in the business of which he is now the chief executive, and has be- come an honored and able member of the body of commercial men who have made Atchison preeminent among the cities of the West. The story of a self-made man is always interesting and this review is a story of a self-made man.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Atchison County, Kansas, Part 47

Author: Ingalls, Sheffield Publication date: 1916 Publisher: Lawrence, Kan., Standard Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1032

Author: Ingalls, Sheffield
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Lawrence, Kan., Standard Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1032