USA > Kansas > Atchison County > History of Atchison County, Kansas > Part 66
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organization of the Cummings State Bank. He became the cashier of this institution and has given evidence of decided financial and business ability of a high order in his vocation. Besides his banking interests Mr. Barber has land holdings in Colorado and western Kansas. He makes his residence at 1020 Santa Fe street in Atchison.
The marriage of H. J. Barber and Miss Eva Wertz was solemnized in February 19, 1002. Mrs. Barber was born the twenty-sixth of May, 1878, in Pennsylvania, a daughter of David and Eliza Wertz, both of whom were born and reared in the Keystone State. David Wertz was for many years a mer- chant at Parnell, Kan., and is now living in retirement at that place. The mother of Mrs. Barber is now deceased. One child, Mary Reta, born August 13, 1904, has blessed the marriage of Herbert J. and Eva Barber.
Politically, Mr. Barber is a Republican, and has held the office of trustee of Mt. Pleasant township for four years. He and his family are religiously affiliated with the Baptist church. He is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Washington lodge, No. 5, of Atchison, and the Modern Woodmen of America. Mr. Barber is a booster and public-spirited citizen by nature and is always ready and willing to support anything for the good of the community and the people. Every civic program which will have a tendency to benefit the whole of the people finds him as one of its warmest supporters.
ROBERT PINDER.
Robert Pinder, the efficient and capable manager of the Effingham Lumber Company, while having been a resident of Effingham but a few years, has so identified himself with the life of the community and taken such an active part in the city's affairs, that his citizenship is an important and component part of the body politic. He is a hustler in both thought and deed, and strives to advance his city as well as managing his business at profit, and so as to gain increasing prestige for the lumber com- pany's business, which has been under the present management since 1912. The company conducts a general lumber business, and sells all kinds of build- ing material, such as farm gates, Crown and Tulsa silos, of superior make, tiling. roofing and roof paints, etc. The sheds and yards cover six lots, and Mr. Pinder employs two men to care for the business. The president of the company is W. C. Alexander, of Atchison; the vice-president is T.
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B. Pinder, of Clifton. Kan., and the general manager and secretary-treasurer is Robert Pinder, with whom this narrative is directly concerned.
Robert Pinder was born September 5. 1872, in Timberland. England, a son of John and Anna ( Burton) Pinder, who were farmers in their native country, and about 1894 immigrated to this country and settled on a farm near Everest, Kan., where they died. In 1886 Robert was indentured at Martin- dales, England, for three years and one and one-half years at Horncastle, to grocery and provision merchants, with the understanding that he was to receive his hoard and lodging, and his father was to provide for other neces- saries, such as wearing apparel, and medicine. in case of sickness, His periods of indenture required both day and night service and to play no games, or frequent taverns or dice tables, or contract matrimony, or buy and sell. For an American boy to be required to do anything of this sort would be considered the rankest injustice, and he would rebel at being com- pelled seemingly to sacrifice his liberty and become a bound employe for so long a time. But such is the custom in England, and the training which Robert Pinder received during his four and one-half years of indenture proved exceedingly valuable to him in later years. After serving his time as an apprentice he continued in the provision business for three and one- half years longer, and then came to America, journeying direct to Doniphan county in 1894. In the spring of the following year he moved out on the farm owned by his father, who had brought the entire family, with the exception of one brother, to this country. He assisted his father in the cul- tivation of the farm for four years, and then accepted a position in the lum- ber business of E. L. Alexander, at Everest. Kan., in the spring of 1899. Three months later he became manager of the Purcell Lumber Company, at Purcell, Kan., and remained in this position for three years, following which employment he was manager of the Alexander Lumber Company at Havensville, Kan .. for over ten years. In the spring of 1912 Mr. Pin- der came to Effingham and took charge of the Effingham Lumber Com- pany. His success in the lumber business has been marked and rapid, and is an indication of true and tireless business ability of a high order. He is secretary and a stockholder of the Alexander Lumber Company, a large con- corn; secretary of the Harrison Lumber Company, of Garnett. Kan., and is interested in this concern as a stockholder. Mr. Pinder also administered the family estate after his father's death in 1900. and his mother's demise in the year following. There were eight children in the family : Frederick ilied in infancy ; John W .. living in England: Edith Mary, wife of William
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Pinder, of Huron, Kan .; Robert; Charles, a farmer living near Huron: Henrietta died at Everest: Emma A., wife of Arthur Harris, of Everest ; Thomas Benton, in the lumber business at Clifton, Kan.
Mr. Pinder was married November 1, 1900, to Harriet M. Pinder, who was born in Denton, a daughter of A. G. Pinder, a farmer, residing near Huron, Kan. Four children have blessed this union: Ruth Mary, born in November, 1901; Cecil Francis, born in 1903; Leslie Benton, born in 1906; John Sylvester, born in 1909.
Mr. Pinder is a progressive Republican, and has pronounced and de- cided views upon independence in politics, and believes in "a government of the people and by the people," and not for the benefit of the favored few. He is affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal church, and is fraternally allied with the Knights and Ladies of Security, and the Lumberman's "Hoo-Hoo" society.
THOMAS J. POTTER.
For twenty-four years Thomas J. Potter has served the people well and faithfully as postmaster of the town which was named in honor of his father, Joseph Potter, one of the distinguished pioneer settlers of Atchison county. Kansas. Thomas J. Potter was born January 29, 1856, on a farm which later became the townsite of Potter, Kan., and was settled upon by his father in 1854. Mr. Potter probably holds the record for long and continuous residence in Atchison county as a native son of this county. He was a son of Joseph and Minerva (Wiley) Potter, natives of Kentucky and descendants of colonial ancestry, Thomas Potter, father of Joseph, tracing his ancestry direct to a member of the colony founded at Jamestown, Va., by Capt. John Smith, in 1607. Thomas Potter, grandfather of T. J., was born in old Vir- ginia, and was a pioneer settler in Lincoln county, Kentucky.
Joseph Potter was born in 1819 in Kentucky, married there and reared a family. When Kentucky began to take on a crowded condition, which was inimical to a great many of the early settlers of the Daniel Boone class, Thomas Potter conceived the idea of migrating westward, as Boone had done. Accordingly, he sent his son, Joseph, to the wild country of Saline county, Missouri, to find out about the fertility of the land, and to determine whether or not the country was suitable for settlement. Joseph made the trip in safety and made a favorable report on his arrival home. The family, there-
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upon, disposed of their land holdings in Kentucky and made the overland trip to Missouri, finally locating in Buchanan county of that State, near the town of DeKalb, in 1846. Here Joseph Potter was married in 1851 to Minerva Wiley, whose parents had migrated from the old home in Kentucky to Buchanan county, Missouri, about the same time the Potter family had settled there. Three years later, in 1854. Joseph Potter and his wife re- moved to Atchison county and filed upon an 160 acre claim, on part of which acreage the town of Potter is now built. This was some years before Kan- sas became a State, and about the time the great struggle between the pro- and anti-slavery men was beginning for the control of Kansas. Joseph Pot- ter was a strong anti-slavery man, who was not afraid to voice his convic- tions in unmistakable language at any and all times. He was firm in his belief that slavery was an evil which should be abolished, and his aggressive- ness led him into frequent conflicts with the pro-slavery advocates. He was one of the able and fearless leaders of the anti-slavery contingent in Atchison county, and many times he was threatened with physical violence. At the time of one of the territorial elections, only three Free State votes were cast in Joseph Potter's precinct. Four thousand votes, a number far in excess of the actual number of voters in the territory, were cast at this election, and pro-slavery men came from Missouri, and even from Kentucky, and voted several times in favor of making Kansas a slave State.
Joseph Potter was a Mexican war veteran. He enlisted in 1846 as a pri- vate soldier in the regular army of the United States, and served throughout the Mexican conflict under Col. Sterling Price. When the Civil war broke out he was appointed recruiting officer for the Federal Government, and later served as a captain in the Kansas State militia. Joseph Potter served one term as a member of the State legislature. In the year 1886 the town of Potter was established and named in his honor.
One of the most cherished of the friendships of this hardy pioneer was that of the late Senator John J. Ingalls, a friendship which began in the troublous days preceding the Civil war, and endured until death parted them, long afterward. Mr. Potter's first impression of John J. Ingalls was obtained at an anti-slavery meeting held in Mount Pleasant township, and he was fond of relating the occurrence after the Senator became a Nation-wide character of prominence. Joseph Potter was the political leader of the anti-slavery party in that section of the State at the time, and Mr. Ingalls, then a young man of twenty-five, had opened his law office a few weeks previously in the old town of Sumner. Kan. Ingalls spoke at this meeting, and it is recalled,
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that as he arose to speak, a tall young man, pale and slender, the impression that he made upon his audience was small, and there were those present who even sneered when he began to speak. It was not long. however, as the future senator swung into his theme, until he convinced his auditors that he hrad a thorough knowledge of Kansas conditions, and could speak with an eloquence and honesty of delivery that was convincing. The listeners who came to scoff, left the meeting as warm admirers of Mr. Ingalls, and Mr. Potter was forever afterward his warm supporter.
Joseph Potter and his wife were the parents of eight children, as fol- lows: Celia J., wife of T. Lawler, of Cowles, Neb .; Francis, living on the old home place in Walnut township; Alice P., residing on the home farm; Josephine P., wife of J. W. Miller, of Atchison; Thomas J. ; Samuel L., a banker, living at Cutbank, Mont .: John J., also living on the old homestead.
Thomas J. Potter was born and reared on the old home farm of the Potter family, and followed the occupation of a tiller of the soil until he was twenty-seven years of age. He was appointed postmaster of the town of Potter, and was re-appointed in 1898, and has held the office continuously ever since. He was married in 1882 to Fannie M. Brown, a daughter of John Brown, of Missouri. Two children bless this union: George Potter, in the United States mail service in Chicago, Ill., and Garland J., wife of Charles Pruitt, of Sioux Falls, S. D. The mother of these children died in February, 1906. In the year 1913 Mr. Potter took for his second wife, Mrs. Estella Everhardt, widow of Charles Everhardt, and a daughter of N. D. West, a native of New Jersey, who settled in Kansas in the early territorial days.
Mr. Potter is politically allied with Republican party and is a supporter of Republican principles. He belongs to the Christian church, and is fra- ternally affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America.
BENJAMIN F. SHAW.
Benjamin F. Shaw, hardware merchant, of Potter, Kan., is a native of Atchison county, and is one of Potter's younger successful business men. He was born October 11, 1882, on a farm in this county. He is a son of Henry and Martha (Nelson) Shaw, the former a native of Roodhouse, Ill., and the latter of Missouri. Both parents are of English ancestry. Henry Shaw came to Kansas in 1867 when a young man twenty years of age. When he came here he had a cash capital of about $100. He was of a saving disposi-
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tion, however, and it was not long until he became the owner of a fine farm of 320 acres in Leavenworth county, Kansas. He is now residing in Leaven- worth, living on a small farm of twenty acres within the city limits.
Benjamin F. is the fourth of six children born to Henry and Martha Shaw, and is the only son. He spent his boyhood days on his father's farm and attended the district school in his neighborhood. When nineteen years of age he came to Potter and entered the employ of L. M. Jewell, in his gen- eral merchandise store. He began working for a salary of sixteen dollars per month. When Mr. Jewell took charge of the Potter State Bank as cash- ier, Mr. Shaw was placed in charge of the Jewell lumber yard and furniture store. Shortly afterward he was enabled to purchase a half interest in the furniture store. Within a year he sold his interest in the furniture business and bought a half interest in the hardware store of J. C. Helvey. Upon Mr. Helvey's death, three years later, Mr. Shaw purchased his former partner's interest, and has since conducted the business entirely in his own name, as the sole proprietor. Mr. Shaw! has met with signal success in his business ven- ture, and has grown with the town of Potter. He has increased the value of the hardware stock in his establishment from $2,200 to over $7,000. In addition to his business he is the owner of farm lands near the town of Pot- ter. This is a considerable accomplishment for a young man who began his career with practically no capital, but a willingness to do the best he could, and endowed with plenty of energy and intelligence.
Mr. Shaw was married in November of 1904 to Miss Louise Bessler, of Leavenworth, Kan. His political affiliations are with the Democratic party, and he is fraternally connected with the Modern Woodmen lodge.
LAWRENCE GRIFFIN.
A review of the life of the late Lawrence Griffin, of Effingham, Kan., is the story of a poor Irish lad who left his native land, served his adopted country in the Civil war, became a pioneer in Kansas, and was a railroad builder and successful farmer, and in the course of years realized in full his boyhood dream of wealth and position in the great, free land of America.
Lawrence Griffin was born in County Galway, Ireland, in 1838, a son of poor Irish parents. When a boy in his teens he immigrated to America and joined his brother, Michael, in Ohio, and there engaged in farm work for a living. He worked his way westward, and at the outbreak of the Civil war
I. Griffin
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was driving a stage coach out of Springfield, Ill., where he enlisted August 3, 1862, in Company C, Twenty-seventh regiment, Illinois infantry, and served until his honorable discharge, September 20, 1864. He fought in many im- portant battles, among them being Belmont, Mo., Union City, siege and cap- ture of Island No. 10, Farmington Mills, siege and capture of Vicksburg, Lookout Mountain, Mission Ridge, and the battle of Chattanooga. After the war he went to St. Louis, Mo., and from that city made his way to Atchison, where he took a contract under J. P. Brown for building a portion of the grade of the Central Branch railroad, at that time under course of construc- tion. His first job was the grading of one mile of road called section 20 in partnership with a Mr. Keean. In partnership with James Brady he then graded two miles of road near Wetmore, Kan. He saved his money which he made from his grading operations and in 1867 was married and purchased a farm of eighty acres near Arrington on the creek bottoms. He was com- pelled to leave this place after one year on account of ague and invested in 160 acres of land north of Arrington, which he later sold and bought 160 acres of higher land four miles west of Effingham. This was prairie land which he at once began to improve and made into a permanent home for his family. He and his wife first lived in a small house and were often discouraged and faced failure many times, but persistence and fortitude finally won out and they became the possessors of 400 acres of well improved land on which were erected two sets of farm buildings. Three hundred and twenty acres yet re- main intact of the original holdings, which are rented to tenants. In 1908 Mr. and Mrs. Griffin left the farm and purchased a handsome residence in Effingham where Mrs. Griffin now resides.
Mr. Griffin was married November 25. 1865, in the old St. Benedict's Church in Atchison, to Miss Ellen Gallagher, the marriage ceremony being performed by Father Timothy. Ten children have blessed this union, as follows: Michael died in infancy ; Martin Lawrence, a farmer at Wetmore, Kan .; Ellen, wife of James Bergen, Graham county, Kansas; Elizabeth, wife of Michael Murphy, Dallas, Texas; Anna, at home with her mother ; Patrick Henry, conducting a livery business at Effingham; John J., cultivating the home farm; Frank, agent for the Southern Life Insurance Company, Wichita Falls, Texas; Walter L., a traveling salesman, Dallas, Texas, and who grad- uated from the Atchison County High School, and studied two years at St. Benedict's College : James Ambrose, also a graduate of the Atchison County High School, and now a stenographer in the office with his brother at Dallas, Texas. The mother of these children was born September 15, 1850, at La Salle, Ill., a daughter of Martin and Anne (Corcoran) Gallagher, both of
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whom were born in County Mayo, Ireland. They came to this country when young and Mr. Gallagher took up a homestead in Illinois and also engaged in freighting from La Salle to Chicago. He died in 1851, and the widow, accompanied by Ellen and two sons, came to Atchison county in 1860 and made their home here. Mrs. Gallagher married again, her second husband being Frank Cullen, who preempted land near Muscotah, upon which the family moved from Atchison in 1863. Mr. Cullen died in 1888. The mother of Mrs. Griffin died in 1890, at the age of sixty-six years.
Lawrence Griffin was a member of the Catholic church and was always a liberal contributor to the support of that denomination, giving substantially in aid of the building of the Catholic church in Effingham. While he was a rough and ready type of man who took the world as he found it, he was very moral and believed in living according to the golden rule. He was very charitable to the poor and worthy and was a kind husband, and a loving and in- dulgent father, whose sole aim in amassing a comfortable fortune was to pro- vide well for his wife and children. In this aim he succeeded.
CHARLES E. BARKER.
The Nation owes a debt to the veterans of the Civil war, who gave the best years of their young lives to the defense of the Union, and marched under the star-spangled banner under the leadership of such heroes as Grant, Sherman and Sheridan, which can never be fully repaid. The ranks of the grand army of brave and true men who have worn the blue are gradually thinning out, and where once they were numbered in hundreds and thousands throughout this broad land, there are now but few in each community. These veterans were of the salt of the earth, and no better type of manhood ever trod the earth or marched to the strains of martial music than the old guard, which saved the Union, at the call of Abraham Lincoln. Living on a farm, in the northwest part of Benton township. Atchison county, Kansas, is a sur- vivor of General Sherman's victorious "march to the sea." Comrade Charles E. Barker gave three years of his life in the defense of the Union and flag, and has a war record which has been equalled or surpassed by but few men who shouldered a musket to save the Union from dissolution.
Charles E. Barker, well-to-do farmer, of Atchison county, Kansas, was born in Fulton county, Illinois, April 4, 1842, a son of John and Eleanor ( Rutledge) Barker. The father of Charles was born in Virginia July 20.
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1786, and learned the blacksmith's trade when yet a boy. He migrated to Ful- ton county, Illinois, as early as 1826, and there operated a blacksmith shop. He was twice married, his second wife being Eleanor Rutledge, who bore him three children: George R., deceased; James Lee, deceased; Charles E. The four children by the first marriage were Joseph, Jolin W., Sarah, and Elizabeth, deceased. The mother of Charles E. was born in Greenbrier county, Virginia, November 28, 1801, and died September 3, 1873. John Barker died in Fulton county, Illinois, in September of 1861.
Charles E. Barker grew up on his father's farm, and helped in the shop and on the farm until his enlistment, at the age of twenty years. At the outbreak of the war he harkened to Lincoln's call for volunteers to quell the rebellion of the Southern States, and went to Vermont, Ill., where he en1- isted in Company F. One Hundred and third regiment, Illinois infantry, August 14, 1862, under the command of General Sherman, and Mr. Barker acted as commissary sergeant in Tennessee and the South. He par- ticipated in the following engagements : Vicksburg, Mission Ridge, Kenesaw Mountain, Resaca, Ga., Peachtree Creek, Ga., Dallas, Gristleville, November 26, 1864, and many others, his regiment being in twenty-seven battles in all. He marched under Sherman's banner from Atlanta to the sea, and then marched in the Grand Review at Washington, D. C. He was honorably dis- charged at Chicago, Ill., July 7. 1865. He returned home after his discharge, and remained in Fulton county, Illinois, until 1883, when he disposed of his holdings there and went to Dade county, Missouri, where he bought a farm. He remained in Dade county for several years, living on various farms which he bought and sold. In August, 1887, he went to Furnace county, Nebraska, and purchased a half section of land, to which he added 160 acres later, which he sold in 1903 to his son, Harry. On March 1, 1891, he went to Brown county, Kansas, and lived there until his removal to Atchison county. In 1894 he came to Atchison county, Kansas, and bought 160 acres of land in the northwest corner of Benton township. He improved this farm and cul- tivated it with profit to himself. He maintains good graded live stock on his acreage and is considered one of the really successful agriculturists of the county. Nearly all of his land is sown to alfalfa and grasses.
On April 19, 1866, Mr. Barker was married to Mary E. Pontious, who has borne him six children, as follows: Leonard, a farmer, of Norton county, Kansas; Ira C., of Gooding, Idaho; Harry E., living in Brown county, Kan- sas; William L., a farmer, of Kapioma township, Atchison county, Kansas; Perry, residing in Stanford, Neb .: Nora, deceased. The mother of these
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children was born in Ohio, a daughter of Andrew and Ann ( Bear) Pontious, natives of Germany.
Mr. Barker is a Democrat of the old school, and is a firm believer in Democratic principles. He belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic, Ef- fingham Post, and numbers among the members of this organization many warm friends and comrades. He has taken his place in the community as a representative citizen, who enjoys the respect and esteem of all who know him. He can look back over his three score and thirteen years of life with satisfaction and realize with complacency that it has been well spent, and he has accomplished all that any good American could wish for on this earth.
JOHN E. SULLIVAN.
If a man has the inherent ability and energy in his makeup to enable him to succeed, he is going to do it. The life stories of all successful, self-made men bear out this contention, and there are numberless instances of success among the younger generation in the West which are well worth recounting. John E. Sullivan, real estate dealer, loan and insurance agent, of Effingham, Kansas, is a representative example of the class referred to in the foregoing statement. Mr. Sullivan was destined to succeed in his farming and business ventures, and, while a young man, he has already made his mark in the world, and is one of the substantial and influential citizens of Atchison county.
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