USA > Kansas > Atchison County > History of Atchison County, Kansas > Part 52
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Lafayette T. was reared on the ancestral farm in Coshocton county, Ohio, and received his education in the district schools of his neighborhood. He learned in his youth to do the hardest kind of farm work and was taught by his parents the best methods of tilling the soil. When a young man he be- came imbued with the desire to locate in the West where opportunities seemed to be greater than in his home State, and he saved his earnings toward this purpose. Not long after his marriage he came to Kansas, in 1882, and lo- cated in Benton township, Atchison county. His cash capital being limited to the sum of $300, he deemed it advisable to rent land for the first year, then bought his first farm of 160 acres at the purchase price of $25 per acre. This
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farm was necessarily bought on time, but with good management and in- dustry, Mr. Hawk was enabled to pay out and add considerably to the im- provements of his place, which is one of the most attractive in the county and one of the most fertile and productive. Mr. Hawk also added ninety acres to his land holdings in later years, and invested his surplus in western land which he traded for the Effingham Hotel property which he now owns. He is a stockholder and director of the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Effing- ham, he is also a stockholder in the Midnight Oil Company, a producing concern with headquarters at Morris, Okla.
Mr. Hawk was married March 21, 1874, to Miss Harriet Pitt, of Coshocton county, Ohio, and who was born in Kentucky. To this union have been born the following children: Charles, who served in the Twenty-second regiment, United States infantry, during the Spanish-American war, and is at present chief of police at Shawnee, Okla .; John D., a prosperous and pro- gressive farmer in Benton township: Margaret, wife of Clem Higley, a farmer living in Center township, near Pardee ; Homer, who was killed in a railway accident in October, 1913; Fred, died in April, 1913, and who had held the position of cashier of the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Effingham prior to his death; Wilbur D. Hawk, business manager of the Atchison Daily Cham- pion, and former deputy warden of the Federal penitentiary, Atlanta, Ga .; Mrs. Mary Foster, of Trenton, Mo .; Robert, a farmer in Benton township ; Clifford, a farmer and auctioneer in Benton township, and Vera, at home with her parents. The mother of these children was born, November 8, 1851, in Kentucky, a daughter of William and Frances ( Phillips) Pitt, the former a native of New Jersey and the latter of Vermont. In 1853 Mrs. Pitt and their children removed to Coshocton county, Ohio, Mr. Pitt having died when Mrs. Hawk was an infant. Two of the three children were reared: Mrs. Hawk and Mrs. Lenore ( Miller), who died in September, 1915, at Carlton, Ohio. Mrs. Pitt's second marriage was with Dr. Ephraim P. Stewart, of Coshocton county, Ohio, where he practiced after moving from Carroll county, Ohio, his birthplace.
With the exception of a few years spent in Atlanta, Ga., with his son. Wilbur D., when on duty as deputy warden of the Federal Penitentiary, Mr. Hawk has lived continuously in Atchison county, since 1882, and has taken an active and influential part in the affairs of the county. He is a stanch Republican in his political affiliations, but has never sought political prefer- ment. He and the members of his family are affiliated religiously with the Lutheran denomination, which was the faith of his father. He is prominent in lodge circles and is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows,
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and the Knights and Ladies of Security. He is one of the original Central Protective Association members and is a charter member of Sunny Hill Lodge, No. 158, of Effingham, and is prominently connected in Central Protective Association circles throughout the State of Kansas, having organized seven lodges in this State.
JAMES R. GRAGG.
For nearly fifty-nine years James R. Gragg, wealthy farmer and stock- man, of Lancaster township, Atchison county. Kansas, and the present town- ship treasurer, has lived in Kansas, and is one of the real pioneers of the State. Since a lad six years of age he has been a resident of Atchison county, and has lived to see the once wild and barren prairie become one of the garden spots in America, and has seen the towns and cities grow within the borders of the county where once was a wild, unbroken waste. When a boy he was taught by his father that the greatest returns from the pursuit of agriculture could be obtained by the raising and feeding of live stock, and he has en- deavored to follow his father's teachings in this respect and has met with success, resulting from following a definite plan of getting the best results from his efforts. He is a descendant of a southern pioneer family, who were among the original settlers of eastern Tennessee, and again were pioneers in Clay county, Missouri, early in the nineteenth century. It is a topic of inter- est to compare the comfortable residence and farm buildings of Mr. Gragg, at this day. to the log cabin in which he was reared, and the stock shed made of poles and slough grass, which his father was forced by necessity to erect in the early days of the settlement of Kansas. Few families settled in Lancas- ter township as early as the Graggs, and in point of years of residence, James R. is probably the third oldest living settler of the township.
James R. Gragg was born February 5, 1851, in Clinton county, Missouri. He is a son of Jefferson and Mary (White) Gragg. to whom fifteen children were born. Four children, two sons and two daughters, are still living, as follows: Mrs. Mahala Martin, Gower, Mo .; James R .; Mrs. Alice Muks, near Oklahoma City, Okla .: and Bishop or Bascomb Gragg, Stafford, Kan. The Graggs are of Irish descent. The father of James Gragg was born in 1814 in eastern Tennessee. When he was a child his parents removed to Clay county, Missouri, where he grew up as a farmer. In the spring of 1856 Jef- ferson Gragg came to Kansas and settled in Leavenworth, where he had taken a claim. He sold this a year later and came to Atchison county, and
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preempted 160 acres in section 24, Lancaster township, on which James R. is now living. He paid $1.25 an acre. As soon as he took charge of the land he built a log house, twelve feet square and also erected a hay barn with a slough-grass roof. He brought a covered wagon to Kansas and lived in it until the log house was ready for occupancy. During the border war he was forced to return to Missouri for three months, but at the end of that time came back to Kansas and continued to improve his farm. It was slow work, as he did most of the plowing with oxen and this took a great deal of time, but he was able to accumulate a little money slowly, and in ten years erected a better house on his place. He had a hard fight for existence the first few years in the face of crop failures, droughts and grasshoppers, but when he retired, about 1890, he owned 640 acres of land which he divided among his children, and lived with them until his death, April 10, 1910. His wife, the mother of James R. Gragg, was born in Clinton county, Missouri, in 1816, and died in 1912. She was the daughter of Robert White, and her mother bore the maiden name of Cooley. Both parents were members of the South Methodist church, and helped to organize and build the Bethel church in Grasshopper township, which was one of the early Methodist churches in Kan- sas. Both parents are buried in old Huron cemetery.
James R. Gragg. the subject of this sketch, was reared on the farm where he now lives, and attended school in Lancaster and Huron, Kan., although his early educational opportunities were limited. In early days the father and his son were stock buyers on a large scale. The father did the actual buying, and the son had charge of the herds on the prairie. They did a large business in trading and buying and selling stock, and the son has continued this until the present time. James has always lived on the Gragg land and was with his father until the latter retired in 1890 and the land was divided. James later bought out the other heirs and now owns 1,040 acres in Atchison and Wabaunsee counties, 560 acres of this land being lo- cated in Atchison county, with three sets of farm buildings. He gives a great deal of attention to the stock selling part of his business, and feeds and win- ters 150 head each winter. On December 25, 1872, Mr. Gragg married Mrs. Viola A. Norris, who was born May 26, 1855, in Buchanan county, Mis- souri. She is a daughter of David and Martha (Cook) Norris. The father's family came from Kentucky and the mother's from Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Gragg have two children : Jefferson K., born February 23, 1875, in Atchison county, Kansas; married in October, 1894, to Ella Walls, and has two chil- dren, Paul, aged twenty years, and George, aged twelve years. He is now engaged in the live stock commission business in Kansas City, Mo., and Arch,
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born May 3. 1889, who is farming on the home place, married March II, 1914, to Edna Wilson, of Lancaster township, a daughter of J. E. Wilson. Jefferson, the older son, completed a course in the Atchison Business Col- lege. Mr. Gragg is a Democrat, and has been a member of the school board, and is now treasurer of Lancaster township. He is a member of the Meth- odist church and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Modern Wood- men of America.
URI SEELEY KEITH.
Uri Seeley Keith is one of the grand old men of Atchison. His career has been interesting, and borders upon the romantic, when many incidents in which he has figured are recounted. A valiant soldier of the Union dur- ing the Civil war, it fell to him to perform the arrest of Vallandingham in Ohio when his activities in favor of the Confederacy had rendered him obnox- ious to the State and Federal governments. Few men in Atchison have had a more varied or active life than Mr. Keith. He was born June 27, 1841, in Massillon. Ohio, the son of Fordyce M. and Parthena J. (Seeley) Keith, na- tives of New York and the Western Reserve of Ohio, respectively. Mrs. Keith was a daughter of Uri Seeley. Fordye M. Keith was born in 1816 and died May 14, 1906. He was a son of Ansell Keith, a native of New York. The Keith family is descended from two brothers who were sons of General Keith, at one time a field marshal in the Russian army. He was a Scotch-Englishman, who quarreled with Queen Elizabeth and left England to take service under Peter the Great of Russia. His two sons immigrated to America in 1690, one settling in New York and the other going to the South- land. Two branches of the family thus sprang from these sons of Marshal Keith. Brigadier General Keith served under General Washington during the Revolution and the General lived at the Keith home in New York for a time. Ansell Keith served in the War of 1812. The Seeley family originally settled in Connecticut. Uri Seeley was born in 1791 and settled in the West- ern Reserve on a land grant of 100 acres where he died. Ansell, the father of Fordyce M., and grandfather of the subject of this sketch, settled in Lorain county, Ohio, in 1832, near Elyria and was a contractor and builder. Data regarding the members of the family is as follows: Ansell Keith was born June 24. 1786, and Betsy M., his wife, was born January 2, 1794: Uri Seeley was born May 25, 1791, and died August 10, 1877. and his wife, Abbey, was born October 23, 1792.
U. S. KEITH
C. H. BURROWS. Commander G. A. R. Post No. 93.
CHARLES WILSON
MARY K. WILSON
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Fordyce M. Keith was born April 27, 1816, and died May 12, 1906. His wife, Parthena, was born August 4, 1816, and died at Seneca, Kan., February 18, 1893. He received an excellent education and was admitted to the practice of law in Ohio, practicing for some years at Massillon. He served in the Union army, enlisting in the One Hundred and Seventeenth regiment, Ohio infantry. and later the First Ohio heavy artillery. His service extended throughout the war from August 30, 1862, to August 1, 1865. He was a major in the One Hundred and Seventeenth regiment, Ohio infantry, and was created a lieutenant colonel in the heavy artillery August 1, 1863. He came to Kansas in 1866 and practiced law in Brown county where he served as county attor- ney. In old age he resided with his granddaughter in Oklahoma. He was the father of the following children : Uri Seeley ; Fordyce M., Jr., who died in Pueblo, Colo., August 1, 1900: Clarence M., and Herbert Brewster died in infancy ; Lamar Burrett, born February 22, 1847, and lives at Seneca, Kan.
Uri Seeley Keith was educated in the common schools of his native State. He enlisted April 20, 1861, when Lincoln issued his first call for troops. His first enlistment was in Company I, Eighteenth regiment, Ohio infantry, for a period of three months, which was extended to five months. He again en- listed in Company E, Eighty-seventh regiment, Ohio infantry, June 2, 1862, for four months. November 4, 1862, he enlisted in Company K, One Hundred and Seventeenth regiment, Ohio infantry, for a period of three years, or until the close of the war. He was promoted to the second lieutenancy of Com- pany C. First Ohio heavy artillery, December 23. 1863. The One Hundred and Seventeenth regiment was transferred to the heavy artillery organization May 2, 1863 with Mr. Keith as second lieutenant and later as first lieutenant of his company. He was regimental quartermaster sergeant of the One Hun- dred and Seventeenth regiment, Ohio infantry, and received his final discharge at Knoxville, Tenn., July 25, 1865, and was mustered out at Camp Denison, Ohio, August 1, 1865. This valiant soldier participated in the following en- gagements : Chickamauga, September 19-20, 1863 ; Knoxville, November 16 to December 9, 1863; Campbell Station, October 16; Carter Station, December 21; Lowden, October 15, 1863; Rogersville, December 19; Taylorsville, De- cember 19, 1863; Seaversville, October 9, 1864 ; Charleston, October 19, 1864; Cleveland, October 24; Columbus, October 27; Franklin, November 30; Nashville, December 12 to 16, and Duck River, December 18, 1864. He
served as quartermaster of the Second battalion of the First Ohio heavy artil- lery from April 1, 1864, to the close of the war. Other engagements in which he fought were : Rich Mountain, July 7, 1861 ; Gainesville, July 24, 1861 ; Red House, July 29, 1861 (Eighteenth Ohio volunteer infantry) and Harper's
35
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Ferry, September 14 and 15, 1862; South Mountain, September 13, 1862; Antietam, September 17, 1862 (Eighty-seventh Ohio volunteer infantry) Paintville, January II, 1863 ; Peach Orchard, January 27, 1863 (One Hundred and Seventeenth Ohio volunteer infantry). An interesting episode in Mr. Keith's career which has been published in various newspapers is worth record- ing. He was the man who arrested Vallandingham at Dayton, Ohio, May I, 1863. Early in 1863 while he was an officer in the heavy artillery, General Burnside, then in command of the Department of the Ohio, issued general order Number 38, which was especially obnoxious to southern sympathizers, the Knights of the Golden Circle, and Associated Sons of America, and kin- dred organizations which had for their object the placing of every obstacle in the path of the Federal Government and the overthrow of the Union. Val- landingham made an incendiary speech at Mt. Vernon, Ohio, on May I. Cap- tain Hutton of General Burnside's staff was detailed to effect the arrest of Vallandingham, who was to be transported to the rebel lines. Lieutenant Keith was second in command of the expedition. They reached Vallanding- ham's home at midnight, and knocked at the door, but the woman of the house stated that the object of their capture was not at home. Lieutenant Keith did not believe her and pushed open the door and rushed up stairs to find Vallandingham, who was in bed. When Keith broke open the bed room door ris prisoner rushed to the window and called "Asa," presumably in search of assistance, but no one came to his aid. He was then taken to Cincinnati and sent through the Union lines to the Confederate general, Bragg, for safe keeping.
Mr. Keith came west to Doniphan county September 8, 1865, and located in the town of White Cloud for a time and then came to Atchison. He bought a farm a few miles west of White Cloud which he cultivated until 1872, and then followed railroading for a time. In 1872 he was in the employ of the United States Government on the Great Nemaha Indian reservation. In 1875 he again returned to White Cloud and from there went to his farm, remaining until 1885 when he engaged in the hotel business at Hiawatha until 1890. He removed to Atchison in 1890, and was employed for a number of years as inspector of city contract work. He has superintended practically all of the paving and contract work which has been done in the city except during the past few years since his retirement. Many miles of paving have been honestly done under Mr. Keith's supervision and he has had charge of the building of practically all of the concrete culverts erected in the city. For four years he served as deputy sheriff of Atchison county.
Mr. Keith was married September 11, 1866, to Mary Frances Grossman,
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who was born in Massillon, Ohio, August 24, 1842, the daughter of Daniel and Martha Grossman, natives of Pennsylvania, and pioneer settlers in Ohio. The Grossmans moved to Ohio in 1836 and both died in Massillon. To Mr. and Mrs. Keith have been born the following children: Minnie L. born July 24, 1867, wife of J. R. Bailey, of Enid, Okla., and the mother of one child, Mildred, wife of Dr. Lee J. Render, of Falls Valley, Okla., and who also has one child, Bailey Adrian ; Mrs. Ruby V. Doyle, born April 1, 1870, and residing in Lincoln, Neb., the mother of one child, Halbert K. ; Edward C., and Charles R., born June 6, 1875, of whom Charles R. died May 24. 1898. and Edward C. married Elsie Schmitt, engaged in United States mail service. Mr. Keith's daughter, Mrs. Bailey, is a talented writer and has issued a volume of poems which has decided literary merit. She is counted among the leading authors of the "New State" and is fast gaining a place in the world of letters.
Mr. Keith has always been aligned with the Republican party and has been active in its councils during his long and busy life. He is a Mason and a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Post No. 93, having been quartermaster of the local post for the past eight years. He served as post commander at White Cloud, Hiawatha, and of E. C. Johnson post, of Atchi- son, which was later consolidated with Post No. 93. Few men can look back over long years crowded with incidents and with such activity as has fallen to the lot of Uri S. Keith, one of the last of the Old Guard who offered their lives that the Union might be forever preserved. As the years pass and time rolls on the ranks of those brave men who wore the blue are becoming thinner and their steps more feeble. It is only the more vigorous who have survived thus far and Mr. Keith is one of them.
CHARLES H. BURROWS.
Charles H. Burrows, Union veteran and clerk in the Missouri Pacific railroad offices at Atchison, has had a long and varied career in the railway service of the country. He is a native of the Buckeye State and was born at Cincinnati, November 19, 1843, a son of James H. and Nancy A. ( Lynchard) Burrows, both of whom were descended from old American families. James H. Burrows was born in Maryland and his wife was a native of Kentucky. The Burrows family settled in America in about the year 1647. There were at first two branches of the family, one of whom settled in Maine and the other on the south shore of Maryland. The great-grandfather of Charles H.
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settled first in Maryland and here his grandfather, William Burrows, was born and reared. The sons of the family were sea-faring men and several of the descendants of the first Burrows have been officers in the United States navy. Nancy A., wife of James H., was a daughter of Mr. Lynchard of Virginia, who became a pioneer settler of Kentucky, and married a member of the Talbot family, of Virginia. He had two sons and four daughters and came from Kentucky to Hamilton county, Ohio, in 1838. In 1845 James H. Burrows was married in Cincinnati where he made his residence. Upon the - outbreak of the Civil war both father and son, C. H., enlisted. The family removed to Springfield, Ill., in 1858 and here James H. operated a cooperage shop. As before stated, father and son enlisted in the same regiment, the One Hundred and Twenty-fourth Illinois volunteer infantry, on September 10, 1862, for a period of three years. The father died in the Union hospital at Cairo, Ill., after his honorable discharge on account of sick disability, in February, 1863. Charles H. fought in the battles of Champion Hills, Vicks- burg, Spanish Fort, Blakely, and took part in many other engagements until the close of the war. He was also engaged in the Mobile campaign. Charles H. was the eldest of a family of five children, namely : Charles H., James died in 1856; Mrs. Alice A. Direen, of Jacksonville, Ill .; William C., deceased ; Emma D., wife of Judge Henry Phillips, of Beardstown, Ill.
In 1873 he, with whom this review is directly concerned, left the old home in Illinois and began his railroading career which was eventually to end with his present berth in Atchison. Forty-two years of railroading, or rather fifty years of railway service with the exception of two years in the practice of law at Mondamin, Ill., is the proud record of this sturdy patriot. During this long period he has served as telegraph operator, superintendent of telegraph, engineer, brakeman, conductor, etc. He was in the employ of the Chicago & Alton railroad, the Wabash, the Gilman, Clinton & Spring- field railroads, while located at Springfield, Ill., and was in the employ of the Vandalia when it was building out of St. Louis. As early as 1868 he was in the employ of the Missouri Pacific railroad and was with the Denver and Rio Grande in the early days of its operation: was with the Ft. Scott & Memphis railroad one year; the St. Louis & St. Joseph road; was station agent on the old Hannibal & St. Joe road: served on the Chicago. Burlington & Quincy railroad in Missouri and Iowa; the Chicago & North- western ; the Sioux City & Pacific; the Fremont. Elkhorn & Missouri Val- ley roads. After a railroad experience in the states of Illinois, Iowa, Mis- souri, Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado, he came to Atchison in September of 1890, as a clerk in the offices of the Missouri Pacific railroad system.
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He was married August 10, 1871, at Lawson, Mo., to Susan E. Morrow, a native of Missouri, and daughter of Vincent Morrow. To this union has been born one child, Pearl, wife of Adolph Frailey. By a former marriage with B. F. Shumalt, Mrs. Frailey had two children, Ruth E. and Frances Shumalt. Mr. Burrows has been and is now an independent voter, not allied with any particular political party or creed. He is fraternally connected with the Sons and Daughters of Justice, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, and the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and has served as commander of the Grand Army Post, No. 93, of Atchison, for the past two years. Commander Burrows has the great distinction of having been one of the original organizers of the Grand Army of the Republic and has been prominent in the affairs of this great organization since 1866. In February of 1866, he assisted in the organization of Springfield, Ill., Grand Army Post, No. 2. He served as officer of the day when this noted post ( the second in America ) was organized.
JAMES EDWARD WILSON.
James Edward Wilson, farmer, of Lancaster township, Atchison county, was born December 14, 1865, on the farm which he now manages. He is a son of Charles and Mary K. (Brown) Wilson, who were the parents of eleven children, as follows: Sarah E. died in infancy ; Louise C. died when two years old; William M., deceased; Andrew J., Hill City, Kan. ; Martha E., deceased ; Nancy J., deceased; James E., subject of this sketch ; Julia A. Martin, Wa- baunsee county, Kansas; Charles T., Atchison county, and Samuel H., de- ceased. The father, Charles Wilson, was born February 7, 1827, in Bar- tholomew county, Indiana, a son of Martin and Elizabeth (Mitchell) Wilson, who migrated to Missouri. Charles Wilson left the farm in Buchanan county, was married and came to Kansas. In 1855 he settled on the farm which his son now owns in section 14, Lancaster township, Atchison county. The father with his wife and infant child went through many hardships in their pioneering days.
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