USA > Kansas > Atchison County > History of Atchison County, Kansas > Part 83
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
Indiana, and in 1842 they removed to Buchanan county, Missouri, and located near St. Joseph. The father was a cooper and worked at his trade for a short time at Rushville, Mo., and in the spring of 1843 he settled one mile south of Dekalb, where he conducted a cooper shop for eight years. He then bought a farm three miles north of Dekalb, where he followed farming for twelve years, or until 1863, when he traded his place for a farm in Doniphan county, Kansas. Three years later he sold his Doniphan county farm and removed to Atchison, where he spent the remainder of his life in retirement.
William and Nancy (Hartsock) Holmes were the parents of the follow- ing children : John William, Eliza Ann, Peter, Alfred; James Isham, the subject of this sketch ; John, Francis, Marion, Loma. Ann, Perry. Praeter B., Isaac, Susan Ann, Lethia Maria, Joseph, and Henry.
James Isham Holmes was reared amid the pioneer surroundings of the times and received such education as was available under the conditions, and when twenty-two years old went to Doniphan county, Kansas, where he worked in a flouring mill one year. He was then engaged in various vocations, includ- ing farming, cutting cordwood, railroading and lumbering, when he engaged in breaking prairie in the vicinity of Atchison. He followed that vocation for some time when he engaged in farming in Atchison county. He sold his farm in 1868 and shortly afterwards bought another place of eighty acres, and bought more land as the opportunity offered, and now owns a fine farm of 240 acres, where he has resided for the past forty years. He is one of the suc- cessful farmers of Atchison county and has prospered.
Mr. Holmes has been twice married. His first wife was Rose Ann Wood, to whom he was married in 1861. She died February 9, 1862, leaving one child, William H., who resides in Atchison. His second marriage took place September 17, 1863, to Jemima E. Pruitt, a Missouri girl, born in 1844. Three children were born to this union : Perry, a railroad man, residing in Salt Lake City, Utah; Nancy Emily, now deceased : Minnie married Mr. Bisel, and is now deceased. She was the mother of three children. Lawrence, Milburn, and Othello.
Mr. Holmes has been a student of men and affairs all his life. He has read extensively during his entire life and is one of the best posted men on general topics in Atchison county. He is a typical representative of the Amer- ican pioneer who courageously conquered the wild and unbroken West and made of it the great agricultural and commercial empire that it is. He and his accomplished wife, who has been his helpmate and companion for more than a half century, are now spending the sunset of their lives in peace and comfort in their beautiful home which their industry has provided.
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
EDWIN TAYLOR SHELLY, M. D.
For thirty-five years Dr. Edwin Taylor Shelly has been a successful medical practitioner in the city of Atchison. Dr. Shelly was born in Quaker- town. Pa., February 6, 1859, and is a son of William N. and Anna ( Taylor ) Shelly, both of whom were natives of Bucks county, Pennsylvania. Rev. William N. Shelly, the father, was a United Brethren minister, whose ances- tors came originally from Saxony, Germany, in 1765 and settled in Mont- gomery county, Pennsylvania. He departed this life in 1893. at the age of seventy-nine years. Mrs. Anna ( Taylor) Shelly died in 1881, at the age of sixty-four years.
Edwin Taylor Shelly was the only child by the second marriage of Rev. William N. Shelly. He received his early education in the Quakertown high school and then taught school for two years. He began the study of med- icine in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1878. graduating therefrom in 1881. After practicing his profession for a few months in his home county Dr. Shelly removed to Eden, Kan., where he prac- ticed for three years. He then moved to Huron, Kan., where he remained for two years, previous to locating in Atchison in May, 1886, where he has since maintained offices.
Dr. Shelly is a member of the Missouri Valley Medical Society, the Atch- ison County Medican Society, the Kansas State, and the American Medical associations, and is a member of the Kansas Academy of Science and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has twice served as president of the Northeastern Kansas Medical Association. He has en- deavored to keep pace with the progress made in his life profession and has pursued post-graduate courses in the University of Pennsylvania, the Post- Graduate School of Chicago, and the Sloan Maternity Hospital of New York City. Dr. Shelly has been an occasional contributor to the various medical journals, and articles from his pen have appeared in the Journal of the Ameri- can Medical Association, the New York Medical Record, and other medical publications. He has always devoted himself exclusively to the practice of his profession. In politics, the Doctor is an independent Democrat, and has always taken a great deal of interest in civic and economic questions.
Dr. Shelly has been twice married, his first marriage occurring in 1885 with Miss Mary A. Schletzbaum, of Eden, who died in 1897, leaving two sons, namely : William L., a farmer, residing on rural route No. I, south of Atch- ison, and who is a graduate of the Manhattan Agricultural College: Ralph A .. a graduate of the engineering department of Manhattan College, and now
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
employed in the Buick automobile factory at Flint, Mich. His second mar- riage was with Miss Lillie E. Allen, of Atchison, in 1899. To this union have been born two children, Esther, aged thirteen years, and Allen Parker, seven years old.
EDGAR WATSON HOWE.
Edgar Watson Howe, journalist and author, was born at Treaty, Wa- bash county, Indiana, May 3, 1854, a son of Henry and Elizabeth (Irwin) Howe. In 1857 the Howe family moved to Harrison county, Missouri, where Edgar was educated in the common schools until twelve years of age, when he began working in his father's printing office. Henry Howe, a Methodist minister, was described as a "fierce abolitionist." and published a paper at Bethany, Mo. At the age of fourteen the strict discipline of his erratic father became too much for the spirit of the boy and he left home. E. W. Howe is next heard of in Golden, Colo., as editor and publisher of the Weekly Globe, at the age of eighteen. A year or so afterward he was connected with a paper at Falls City, Neb., where in 1875 he married Miss Clara L. Frank. Five children were born to this union. and three are living. In 1877 Mr. Howe came to Atchison, Kan., where he established the Atchison Globe. This paper was not long in finding its way to recognition among the news- papers of Kansas on account of the personality injected into it by its editor, and for more than thirty years it has been one of the most widely quoted publications in the whole country. The recent edition of the Encyclopedia Brittanica refers to it. Mr. Howe has the happy faculty of being personal in his comments without giving offense. The informal way of dealing with matters in his paper has always been relished by Kansans and has attracted favorable comment in the more conventional parts of the country. The mag- azines, in reproducing some of his refreshing paragraphs, have referred to "Ed" Howe as the best country-town newspaper reporter in America. He has the faculty of seeking the points overlooked by the majority and of working them up into paragraphs having a combination of sarcasm and good humor that is irresistible.
Mr. Howe's first work of fiction was "The Story of a Country Town," published in 1882, which has been for more than a quarter of a century among the standard books of America. It has been classed by such eminent critics as William Dean Howells as one of the ten best American novels. This hook did not run its course as the average popular novel does ; its human inter-
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
est has taken lasting hold on the public. Other works of fiction which Mr. Howe has since written are: "The Moonlight Boy," "The Mystery of the Locks," "An Ante-mortem Statement," "The Confession of John Whitlock." His "Lay Sermons" contain a great deal of good, sound philosophy of life, and from the pages of this book may be deducted a very practical code of ethics. In 1900, at the time Dr. Sheldon edited the Daily Capital in Topeka for a week in the way he thought Christ would do, Mr. Howe added to the gayety of Nations by accepting an invitation from the Topeka State Journa! and running it for a week the way he thought the devil would run a news- paper.
In 1906 Mr. Howe made a long trip abroad, which resulted in "Daily Notes of a Trip Around the World," in two volumes, which has been praised as highly as any book of travels in recent years. Two years later he wrote "The Trip to the West Indies," as a result of a winter cruise. His latest book is "Country Town Sayings," a collection of his paragraphs in the Atchison Globe.
Mr. Howe's country home at Atchison is one of the most carefully and artistically arranged homes in the State. It is a bungalow, overlooking what is said to be one of the three finest views in Kansas. It was built by its owner as a place to retire when he became old, as he believes that too many people stand around in other people's way. True to his instinct of the unusual he named it "Potato Hill." At the age of fifty-six years he retired from active management of the Globe. It was predicted by those familiar with his tireless energy as a newspaper man that he would soon be back at his desk in the Globe office, but such was not the case. After revising the "Story of a Coun- try Town" for the stage he began the publication of Howe's Monthly, which, within a few months became the western rival of the Phillistine, published at East Aurora. N. Y., and is considered by many to have out-classed Elbert Hubbard's magazine. The Edward Howe paragraphs have been syndicated. and appear in the leading dailies of the country. In an attempt to account for the popularity of these paragraphs and the other writings of Mr. Howe. Walt Mason in the American Magasine, says: "There is always, in every- thing Ed. Howe writes, the element of the unexpected. It is present in all his books-one of which ranks with the best in American fiction-and it is in his briefest paragraphs, and that is why he is inimitable. Others may adopt his style and mannerisms, but they can't borrow the strange, original intelli- gence that eternally ignores the obvious and seizes upon the bizarre, showing how much of the bizarre there is in every-day commonplace life."
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
The personality of Mr. Howe as described by those who know him best. is that of a quiet, courteous gentleman, amiable and kind to all. His patience in teaching the young reporter and his indulgent ignoring of the mistakes of his office force, have been frequently remarked upon. It is said that he never discharged anyone, but always assisted them to make good. To those who have been associated with him he is a greater man than he is to those who only know him through the printed page, and the longer and closer the acquaintance, the more remarkable seems his genius.
WILLIAM F. SPEER.
William F. Speer showed his good judgment in coming to Kansas. It was not his fault that he was not born in the great Sunflower State, but he immediately recognized that the next best thing to being a native born "Jay- hawker" was to spend as many years as possible in the prosperous State, and although he was only three months old at the time he has never had occasion to reverse his judgment. In fact, he likes it better every year, and in all the fifty-five years he has lived in Kansas he has always held to his first prefer- ence for Kansas territory.
William F. Speer was born January 8, 1860, but when spring came his parents, Joseph and Mary (Fountain) Speer, whose history is written under the name of Anna D. Speer, a sister, came to Atchison county, Kansas, from their former home in Madison county, Iowa. The parents settled on the farm which William Speer now owns and brought him up in the way he should go, including some schooling at the district school house. His meagre time in school was only a breathing spell for the heavier duties which awaited him on his father's farm, and William was early drafted for service and had to help along with his eight brothers and sisters. When the father's estate was divided he bought the home place of 160 acres, which he has improved a great deal since that time.
In 1889 Mr. Speer married Cora Spangler, who was born March 6, 1866, in Malden, Ill. She was the daughter of LeRoy and Lucendia (Smith) Spangler. both natives of Ohio, who came to Brown county, Kansas in 1870, where they remained until 1876, when they moved to Grasshopper town- ship. Atchison county. They moved to Edmond, Okla., in 1900. The father died in 1913, at the age of seventy-four years, and the mother passed away in 1906, at the age of sixty-seven years. Mr. and Mrs. Spangler had six chil-
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
dren, as follows: Alfred, of Marion county, Kansas; George, of Edmond, Okla .; Cora, the wife of William Speer ; Joseph, deceased ; Curtis and Irvin, of Kansas City, Mo. Mr. and Mrs. Speer have seven children, all of whom are living at home, with the exception of Ralph, who is manager of the Muscotah farmers' elevator. The children living at home are : Lela, LeRoy. Lucy, Anna Belle, Frank, and Marjorie.
EDMUND BULLOCK.
Edmund Bullock, late of Muscotah, Kan., was born in January. 1838, at Cornwall, England, and departed this life July 27, 1892. He was a son of Frank Bullock, who with his family immigrated to Canada in 1846, and crossed the border to become a resident of the United States in 1853, finally settling in Wisconsin. Edmund was reared to young manhood in Wiscon- sin, and married there in 1869. Three years later, in 1872, he and his young wife came to Kansas, settling in Muscotah. Atchison county. Edmund Bul- lock was a skilled tinsmith, and his first work in Muscotah was the opening of a small shop which served as a place to ply his trade, and also as their home for some time. He prospered as time went on and added a stock of stoves and tinware, and later established a larger store and carried hardware of all kinds in stock. For several years after coming to Muscotah he made all of the tinware sold from his shop. For the first five years of their resi- dence in. Muscotah the tin, shop was divided and half of it served as a resi- dence for Mr. and Mrs. Bullock. A sister of Mrs. Bullock lived with them and conducted a millinery store in the living room. Mr. Bullock first worked in Greenleaf, Kan., when he came west, and Mrs. Bullock stayed with friends in Frankfort. He heard of Muscotah and decided to locate here.
Mr. Bullock was married in 1869 to Miss Emma Graham, a native of Wisconsin, and a daughter of Gustavus and Sarah Maria Graham, who were both born in New York State. For fifteen years previous to her demise Mis. Bullock's mother, Mrs. Sarah Maria Hale, made her home with her daughter, dying September 29, 1915, at the great age of 100 years and nine months.
Edmund Bullock was a Union veteran, who enlisted in 1862 in the Twenty-fifth Wisconsin regiment of volunteers and served until the close of the Civil war, participating in several hard-fought engagements with his regi- ment. He was affiliated with the Grand AArmy of the Republic and the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. He was prominent in Masonic circles
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
and was well versed in Masonry. Politically, Mr. Bullock was a Republican, who voted independently on local and county matters. He was reared in the Episcopalian faith, but was a liberal donator to all denominations who sought his assistance. He was an honest, straight-forward citizen who was blessed with a jolly disposition and had a fund of anecdotes which he was continually retailing to a crowd of interested listeners, especially children who would gather around him at times when he was not busy and listened enthralled to his wonder tales. Mr. and Mrs. Bullock lived an ideal married life and were deeply devoted to each other.
PRESLEY H. CALVERT.
Presley H. Calvert, retired farmer, of Muscotah, Kan., was born Novem- ber 14. 1835. in Owington, Ky., a son of B. Warren Calvert, a native of old Virginia, and a direct descendant of Cecil Calvert (Lord Baltimore), who founded the Maryland colony in America. The mother of Presley H. Cal- vert was Lucy J. Hawkins before her marriage with Warren Calvert, and was born in Frankfort, Ky. In 1837 the Calvert family migrated from Kentucky to Platte county, Missouri, and were among the earliest pioneer settlers of that county. Being slaveholders in Kentucky they brought along the family slaves and improved 160 acres of land in Missouri. Both parents ended their days on the old home place in Platte county.
Presley H. was reared on the farm in Platte county and was educated in the Pleasant Ridge College, the same school attended by B. P. Waggener, of Atchison. He followed farming until the outbreak of the war between the States and then served three months in the army of General Price, being un- der the direct command of Captain Mitchell and in Steen's division. He fought at the battle of Lexington, Mo., in behalf of the Confederacy and received his discharge on account of sick disability at Osceola, St. Clair county. Missouri. After his marriage in 1867 he farmed for ten years in Platte county. Missouri, and then came to Kansas, settling on a farm three miles south of Muscotah in Kapioma township. For the first ten years Mr. Calvert rented land and then invested in 160 acres of good land three miles north of Muscotah in Grasshopper township. He improved this farm and resided thereon until 1805. He then rented his farm and moved to Muscotah. Mr. Calvert paid twenty dollars per acre for his land and sold it for $5.000 when He retired from active farm work. He is now making his home with Mr. il Mrs. Will Warren. Mrs. Warren is his niece.
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
Mr. Calvert was married in 1867 to Miss Core & Jackson, hard and reared in Platte county, Missouri, a daughter of Wallire Jackson, a modoyo wi Kentucky and an early settler of Missouri. Two children were born to this union : Edna and Charles, both of whom are deceased. Mrs. Calvert died in 1908, at the age of sixty years. Mr. Calvert has Icen a life-long Democrat of the old school. When a young man he formed one of the hardy army of freighters who crossed the plains to the Far West in charge of the great overland freight trains before the advent of the railroads. He crossed the plains on four trips to Salt Lake City and other western points in Colorado.
WILLIAM THOMAS WARREN.
William Thomas Warren is one of the younger generation of farmers in Atchison county, and is the owner of 320 acres of land one and one-half miles east of Muscotah on the White Way highway. He was born December 25. 1876, in Brown county, Kansas, and is a son of Rodney T. (born in 1846, died March 5, 1914), and Chariet ( Speaks) Warren (born in 1846). Both parents were born and reared in Kentucky and came to Kansas in the spring of 1876 and settled on a farm in Brown county. Later, in 1905, Rodney T. Warren bought a farm near Centralia in Nemaha county, and resided thereon until his demise. Mrs. Warren lives at Hiawatha, Kan.
\V. T. Waren was educated in the public schools of his native county and followed farming until 1903, when he left the farm and was employed in the retail meat market of Mr. Zimmerman, at Hiawatha, for a period of five years. He was then employed in the same avocation at .Atchison, Falls City. Neb., and Fairbury, Neb., until October of 1911. He then came to Muscotal and entered the employ of E. W. Allen, who conducted a grocery and meat market. He remained with Mr. Allen until 1914, and then he and Mrs. Warren invested their combined capital in 320 acres of land near Muscotah.
He was married on May 22, 1912, to Miss Ella, a daughter of .1. H. Calvert, grain merchant of Muscotah. (The reader is referred to the biogra- phy of A. H. Calvert, brother of Presley H. Calvert, for further details con- cerning Mrs. Warren's parents. ) Mrs. Warren served as the assistant cashier of the Muscotah State Bank for fifteen years. Mr. Warren is a Republican: in politics and attends the Congregational church, of which Mrs. Warren is a member.
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
WILLIAM MANGELSDORF.
The name of Mangelsdorf is indelibly linked with the story of the com- mercial development of northeast Kansas and the Middle West, and the Man- gelsdorf family is one of the most respected and substantial of Atchison, Kan. The review of the life of William Mangelsdorf, deceased, begins across the Atlantic in the Fatherland of Germany, where he was born and spent part of his youth, coming to America with his parents when twelve years of age. William not only achieved a wonderful success in business and accumulated wealth, but he assisted in making the family name known and respected throughout a great extent of territory wherever the output of the great seed house founded by him and his brother, August, carried its business. He left behind him a monument for business integrity and upright methods which has made his name universally respected and honored for years to come.
William Mangelsdorf was born in Armin, Prussia, February 15, 1845, a son of Christopher and Marie Anna Dorothy Mangelsdorf. Christopher Mangelsdorf died in Germany in 1849 and his widow married Andrew Stehwein, who with the family emigrated from their native land in 1849 and settled on a farm in Gasconade county, Missouri. In 1868 the family removed to Douglas county, Kansas, where they resided until the mother's demise. after which Mr. Stehwein came to Atchison to spend the remainder of his days with his children. Five children were born to Christopher and Maric Anna Mangelsdorf: Mrs. Anna Buhman, of Atchison, Kan. ; Henry, in New Mexico; Mrs. Dorothy Beurman, Lakeview, Douglas county, Kansas ; William, with whom this review is directly concerned; and August, residing in Atchison.
In 1868 William Mangelsdorf left the family home in Gasconade county, Missouri, and came to Atchison, Kan. His first employment in this city was as a laborer in various sapaeities until 1872. During the four years in which he was earning his living by the hardest kind of labor he was all the time obsessed with the idea that the mercantile field of the new country being developed afforded opportunities to become successful for an ambitious young man. He accordingly, carefully saved his money, and with a small capital embarked in business for himself. He was first engaged in the retail grocery business with John Ratterman under the firm style of Ratterman & Mangelsdorf, and remained a member of the firm until 1875, when he dis- posed of his interest in the grocery business and purchased a half interest in the retail grocery conducted by his brother, August Mangelsdorf. forming the firm of Mangelsdorf Brothers. It was about this time that the brothers
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
tried the experiment of adding a seed department to the grocery in order to meet a growing demand for farm and garden seeds. The experiment proved successful and the business grew even beyond the greatest expectations of the promoters. What was intended as a side line on their part developed into an extensive business which soon dwarfed the grocery trade ; it was not long until they engaged in the wholesale line: the enterprise grew to be one of the most important in northeastern Kansas, and was later incorporated as the Mangelsdorf Brothers Company. An extended mention of its develop- ment is to be found elsewhere in this publication. Not many years after the partnership of the Mangelsdorf Brothers was formed, William established another general merchandise store at Ellinwood, Kan., in 1877. and later another store at Bushton, Kan. The stores were conducted under the name of the Mangelsdorf Brothers Company, which was incorporated about this time, and the other partners in the various enterprises were .August Mangels- dorf, of Atchison, H. D. Back, of Atchison, Kan., and C. F. Stehwein, man- ager of the Bushton store. William resided in Ellinwood in active manage-
ment of the stores until 1895: then he removed with his family to his farm near there. In 1898 he moved to Bushton, taking the active management of the store at that place. He also established a banking business at Bushton which was successful from the start, and his activity in commercial life con- tinned until 1904. when he removed to Atchison, where he lived in retire- ment from active business pursuits until his demise, May 15. 1911.
Mr. Mangelsdorf was married August 6, 1875, to Miss Minnie Halling. and this marriage was blessed with six children, namely: Clara, residing in Pueblo, Colo .: William C., who also lives in Pueblo, Colo .: Edward F., a member of the Mangelsdorf Brothers Company: Minnie, at home; Frank A .. cashier of the German-American State Bank of Atchison: Albert H., cashier of the Farmers State Bank. Potter, Kan. Mrs. Mangelsdorf was born in 1854 in Pennsylvania, and died in Atchison, Kan., in 1904. Her father was an early settler in Kansas, and first resided in Doniphan county, where he preempted land on Independence creek, later removing to Atchison. William Mangelsdorf was a member of the Evangelical Lutheran church, to which denomination he was a liberal contributor. During his life he was a hard and indefatigable worker, who was ambitions to succeed and achieve a competence for his children. He was a liberal supporter of local enterprises, and was regarded as one of the wealthy and substantial citizens of Kansas, and will long be regarded as one of the leading figures of the commercial development of Atchison county and central Kansas.
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