History of Butler County Kansas, Part 44

Author: Mooney, Vol. P
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Lawrence, Kan. : Standard Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 946


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usually successful business man. He loved horses and always kept the best. He was a close student of men and affairs. He was a thorough home man and a great reader and had a style of dry humor which sparkled with philosophy. He was a man of keen foresight and good judgment and his judgment was recognized by those who knew him, he often being called upon to arbitrate differences which arose between his acquaintances. He died October 10, 1906. The estimate in which he was held by those who knew him is best expressed in the language of Edward P. Ellett, an old friend and associate, who said of him, "He was a good fellow, a good citizen and a square man."


On April 9, 1878, M. S. Munson and Genevieve Mather were united in marriage at Council Grove, Kans. She was born in Kansas City, Mo., while her parents were temporarily residing there en route to Kansas. Mrs. Munson belongs to one of the historic pioneer families of Kansas and is a descendant of colonial ancestry. She is a daughter of J. P. and Sallie (Deming) Mather, natives of New York, the father of Jefferson county and the mother of Otsego county. The Mather family is of Eng- lish descent and trace their ancestry back to the twelfth century in the mother country. This family was founded in New England, according to the first official record, in 1623, and many conspicuous members of the Mather family appear in the early history of New England, among them being Cotton Mather, a prominent figure in American literature during colonial days.


J. P. Mather and Sallie Deming were married at Spring Creek, Warren county, Pennsylvania, February 11, 1841. They lived in Erie county, Pennsylvania, and owned land on the present site of the city of Corry, making their home in that locality until 1857. The father was extensively engaged in the lumber business and rafted lumber down the Ohio river to Cincinnati for a number of years. In 1857 he had a great amount of lumber on hand, owing to his inability to run rafts on the river the two preceding years on account of low water. Being unable to sell his lumber in Cincinnati when he reached that point, he went on down the Ohio river and up the Mississippi, and after selling most of his lumber at St. Louis, he went up the Missouri river to Leavenworth, where he sold the first shingles to be sold in Kansas, and after disposing of his lumber he bought machinery for a flouring and saw mill, which he shipped from St. Louis by river transportation to West- port, which is now the site of Kansas City. He had determined to haul his mill machinery to Council Grove and build a mill near the Kaw Indiana reservation, but when he reached Westport the Border war was raging with such fierceness that he decided to remain there for a time. However, the following year, or in 1860, he continued his journey with his mill machinery and erected a mill at Council Grove, according to his plan. This was the most distant mill west located in Kansas and the third one to be built in the State, the other two being at Lawrence and Fort Scott.


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The Mather mill at Council Grove on the Neosho river was a sub- stantial three story building, built of brick, and was located near the old Kaw mission, the brick being manufactured on the east side of the river. When this mill was built it was a great wonder to the 3.000 Kaw Indians who lived on the reservation there and they called Mr. Mather Ta-poos-ka. Mr. Mather also built a twelve-room house in the vicinity of the mill, which in those days was considered a mansion. The house is still standing and is in a good state of preservation. This is one of the historic places in Kansas. Mrs. Mather, who was active in the carly suffrage movement in Kansas, entertained in this house, Susan B. An- thony. Elizabeth Kady Stanton and other prominent women of the times. J. P. Mather spent the last six years of his life in Emporia, where he died on May 8, 1905, aged ninety years, and his wife departed this life December 13, 1908, aged eighty-eight years.


To Mr. and Mrs. Munson were born the following children : Wilbur, operating the Chelsea township ranch ; Elmer, also on the Chelsea town- ship ranch ; Arthur, an electrician in the employ of the Pacific Electric railway in Los Angeles, Cal .; Inez, at home, and Mahlon A., a student in Leland Stanford University, Palo Alto, Cal.


Mrs. Munson had an opportunity to observe much of the early life in Kansas, living in such close proximity to the Kaw Indian reservation, she had an opportunity to study the "Noble Red Man" in his native heath, and she has had many exciting experiences with Indians. She has seen three thousand Cheyenne redskins on the warpath, and at one time a drunken Indian came to the Mather home and threatend to scalp her, demanding $5 and some flour. Her sister covered the Indian with a revolver, whereupon the inebriated child of the forest departed. Mrs. Munson could speak the Kaw language fluently, and knows a lot about the traits of Indians. When she was a girl she owned an Indian pony and was some rider, too.


Mrs. Munson is a woman of unusual ability and takes a prominent part in the social and civic life of El Dorado and Butler county. She is a member of the W. M. B. Club and has been president and also treas- urer of the local club and was the first recording secretary of the Eighth District Federation of Woman's Clubs. She was auditor of the State Federation of Woman's Clubs. She was the first to introduce civic beautifying in El Dorado, offering prizes for the best results and through her efforts the Chautauqua was established here. She is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and is a Repub- lican.


Mrs. Munson served on the first woman's jury in the District Court of Butler county. This jury returned a verdict after three hours of de- liberation on a case which had been previously tried before a jury of men who had failed to agree. Thus the theory of the dark ages that women do not agree as well as men was exploded.


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Henry W. Schumacher, a prominent member of the Butler county bar, has practiced law in El Dorado for thirty-two years, and during that time he has established a well earned reputation as an able, con- scientious and successful lawyer. Mr. Schumacher was born in New Richmond, Clermont county, Ohio, March 19, 1858, and is a son of Henry W. and Magdalena (Wetzel) Schumacher. The father was a native of Oldenberg, Germany ; he was a sea faring man, and made his first voyage to America about 1825, and about 1840 settled permanently in Philadelphia, Pa. Magdalena Wetzel was a native of Wurtemburg, Germany, and immigrated to America with her parents who settled in Philadelphia when she was three years of age. She was reared in that city, where she was married to Mr. Schumacher, and in 1840 they removed to Ohio, settling at New Richmond, Clermont county, where they reared their family and spent the remainder of their lives. The mother died in 1883, and the father survived about one year, when he passed away.


Henry W. Schumacher, whose name introduces this sketch, was one of a family of eight children, three of whom are now living, as follows: Lena, unmarried, resides at New Richmond, Ohio; Mrs. Mary Yeager of Leavenworth, Kans., and Henry W. Mr. Schumacher spent his boyhood days in New Richmond, Ohio, and was graduated from the New Richmond high school, May 17, 1878. He then attended the Clermont Academy, Clermontville, Ohio, after which he taught school and read law at Batavia, Ohio. He was admitted to the bar, September 10, 1879, and engaged in the practice of his profession at New Richmond, Ohio, and while thus engaged he served one year as city attorney. In the fall of 1882 he came to Kansas and taught school that winter in Morris county; in 1883 he came to Butler county, and during the school year of 1883-84, he was principal of the Douglass schools, and in 1884, he located at El Dorado. where he has since been successfully engaged in the practice of his profession.


Mr. Schumacher is a close student of the law and is the possessor of a well balanced legal mind. He has gone on the theory laid down by eminent legal authorities, that, "The law is a jealous mistress," and has never taken on any side lines, but has devoted himself exclus- ively to the practice of law, and his career is an exemplification that his theory was correct. Mr. Schumacher has served two terms as county attorney of Butler county and has served several years as city alderman and is a member of the El Dorado city council at the present time. He is a Democrat, prominent in the councils of his party, and for years has taken an active part in local politics; he has served as chairman of the Democratic central committee, and has been a delegate to many county and State conventions. In 1913 he was his party's candidate for district judge of the Thirteenth judicial district, and made a remarkably good showing in that he reduced the normal Repub- lican majority to about one-half.


HENRY W. SCHUMACHER


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Mr. Schumacher was united in marriage at El Dorado, Kans., to Miss Minnie L. Lafferty, a native of DeWitt county, Illinois, and a daughter of James and Julia (Feris) Lafferty. Mrs. Schumacher came to Butler county, Kansas, with her mother, who later returned to Illinois, her father having died when she was a small child in DeWitt, Ill. To Mr. and Mrs. Schumacher have been born two children: Allene, married R. WV. Brown, an El Dorado merchant, and Julia, cashier and circulation manager of The El Dorado Daily "Republican." Mr. Schumacher has been a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows for thirty-three years, and also holds membership in the Modern Woodmen of America, Knights of the Maccabees, Royal Neighbors, and the Kansas Fraternal Citizens. He is a member of the German Lutheran church.


George W. Tolle, secretary of the Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Butler county, has been a resident of this county for forty- six years and has seen many changes since he was a passenger on the old stage coach that landed him in the little town of El Dorado in 1870. When he came here there were only two or three houses west of where the Santa Fe railroad is now located, in the settlement of El Dorado. George W. Tolle is a native of Illinois. He was born at the old town of Nelson, now extinct, Coles county, in 1849, and is a son of C. J. T. and Mary (Wheeler) Tolle, the former a native of Kentucky, and the latter of Virginia. On his paternal side Mr. Tolle is a descendant of colonial ancestry of English origin. His great grandfather Tolle was a Revolu- tionary soldier and his grandfather served in the Black Hawk war. C. J. T. Tolle, George W.'s father, was a Methodist minister and spent his life in the ministry in southern Illinois. His wife also died in that State when George was a child.


George W. Tolle was educated in the public schools of Illinois and McKendry College, Lebanon, Ill. He left college at the close of his junior year and would have graduated the following year had he con- tinued his course. In 1870 he came to Kansas. At that time the Santa Fe railroad was not completed as far west as Emporia. He came di- rectly to El Dorado by way of Emporia, and was first employed as a clerk for J. C. Fraker & Company. Charles Folks was the junior mem- ber of that company and had charge of the El Dorado business, Mr. Fraker residing in Emporia. Mr. Tolle remained with them about two years, when he went to Douglass, Kans., and six months later returned to El Dorado and entered into partnership with H. H. Gardner, now deceased, under the firm name of Gardner & Tolle. They conducted a general mercantile business on South Main street in what was known as the stone store, near the corner of Central avenue, where Hitchcock's store is now located. This partnership continued to do business four or five years, when Mr. Gardner engaged in the banking business, and Mr. Tolle conducted the business alone until 1899, when he was elected county treasurer for a three-year term, and re-elected for a term of two years. He then served as deputy county treasurer for four years, when (28)


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he was again elected county treasurer for a term of two years. About a year after finishing that term of office he engaged in a real estate and farm loan business in El Dorado and has built up a very satisfactory business in that line. In 1914 he accepted the secretaryship of the Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Butler county, and since that time has capably conducted the affairs of that office in connection with his private business. He is also a justice of the peace, having been appointed by Governor George Hodges and elected to that office at the expiration of the term for which he was appointed.


Mr. Tolle was married in 1875 to Miss Mary E. Newbury, of Milton township, Butler county. She is a daughter of Walter Newbury and was born at New Albany, Wis. Her parents were natives of New York and early settlers in Butler county. The father died in 1911, aged eighty-three years, and her mother is well and active at the age of eighty-six years. To Mr. and Mrs. Tolle have been born eight children : Rena, wife of Dr. R. B. Earp, El Dorado; Ralph Preston, teller of the Farmers and Merchants National Bank, El Dorado; George W., Jr., conductor on the Orient & Mexican railway, and resides at Wichita; Harry M., salesman for a wholesale millinery house, St. Joseph, Mo .; Mary Esto, wife of W. H. Noble, El Dorado; Beth, married W. E. Bryant, Wichita : Ruth is teacher in the El Dorado schools, and Luther is a clerk in a furniture store at El Dorado.


Mr. Tolle is a member of the Masonic lodge and is a Republican. He and Mrs. Tolle are members of the Methodist Episcopal church.


C. A. Aikman, of El Dorado, is probably the most extensive seed and grain dealer in Butler county. He is a native son of Butler county, born in Benton township, July 5, 1874, and belongs to one of the prom- inent pioneer families of this section. His parents, William Allison and Martha Angeline (Graves) Aikman were both natives of Kentucky. The father was born in Laurel county, and was a son of John Aikman, a native of Carlisle, Pa. John was a son of Alexander Aikman, a native of Scotland, who came to America with two of his brothers, before the Revolutionary war, and was killed at the battle of Brandywine while fighting for American independence. His son, John, grandfather of C. A. Aikman, located in Kentucky about 1795, where he spent the re- mainder of his life. He was a devout Christian and lived an exemplary life.


William Allison Aikman grew to manhood in Laurel county, Ken- tucky, where he resided when the Civil war broke out. He remained loyal to the Union and entered the employ of the Government in a re- sponsible civil capacity at Camp Dick Robison in charge of the black- smith work there, and had the supervision of several men. At the close of the war he engaged in the drug business in Kentucky, and in 1871 came to Kansas with his wife and three children, locating in Benton township, Butler county, where he took up government land, and fol- lowed farming and stock raising until 1883, when he removed to


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Towanda township, continuing in the same line of business until 1898, when he came to El Dorado, where he lived retired until his death, December 16, 1906. His wife, Martha Angeline Graves, was born in Madison county, Kentucky, and now resides in El Dorado, and is re- markably vigorous, both in mind and body, for a woman of her ad- vanced age. Her father, William Graves, was a prominent Virginia planter before the Civil war, but like many other of that war-blighted district, saw his fortune vanish in that great conflict. Mrs. Aikman was the youngest of a family of nine children and is the only one now living. C. A. Aikman is the youngest of four sons born to William Allison and Martha Angeline (Graves) Aikman. The others, all of whom were born in Kentucky, are as follows: G. P., attorney, El Dorado, Kans. : C. L., attorney, El Dorado, Kans., and J. S., a wholesale merchant at San Francisco, Cal. C. A. Aikman received a good common school ed- ucation, which was supplemented by a business course in the Wichita Commercial College. He began life as a farmer, and in 1898 engaged in buying and shipping field seed and grain and at the same time con- tinuing his farming operations. In 1903 his seed and grain business de- veloped to such proportions that it required all of his attention. About that time he purchased the old Christian church on North Main street, El Dorado, and converted it into a warehouse and erected an office in connection, and added coal to his other business. His business con- tinued to enlarge, and in 1910 he built an elevator on the line of the Missouri Pacific railroad in El Dorado.


Mr. Aikman was married September 20, 1905, to Miss Lucinda Green, a native of Sumner county, Kansas, and a daughter of D. M. Green, a Kentuckian, and early settler in Kansas, who now resides in El Dorado. To Mr. and Mrs. Aikman have been born two children : Conrad A., Jr., aged nine, and Daniel Robert John, aged four. Mr. Aikman is a Republican, but does not take an active part in political affairs. His genial manner and straightforward business methods have won him many friends in both the business and social sides of life. Mr. Aikman has a literary inclination and as a relaxation from the dull grind of every day business life, he frequently writes verse for his own entertainment, and many of his short poems are real gems of literature.


R. H. Julian, one of the pioneer merchants of Butler county, now engaged in the drug business at El Dorado, came to this county forty years ago. Mr. Julian was born at Hanover, in the northwestern part of Cook county, Illinois, in 1851. His parents, Richard and Eliza (Thompson) Julian, were natives of England and Canada, respectively. They located in Cook county in 1849 and lived in Chicago for a short time, and when the epidemic of cholera broke out in 1850 they left Chicago and located in Hanover township, Cook county. In 1852 they removed to Elgin, 111., where the father worked at his trade, which was that of a stone mason, during the remainder of his life; his wife also died in Elgin.


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R. H. Julian received his education in the public schools of Elgin and grew to manhood in that city. In 1876 he came to Kansas, locating at El Dorado, where he obtained a position with Dr. Gordon. About six months later, or in September, 1876, he went to work in Dr. Gor- don's drug store, where he learned the drug business. In 1879 he went to Towanda to open and take charge of a branch store for Dr. Gordon, and remained there about six months. Mr. Julian says that brief period was the most pleasant part of his career, and he treasures many fond recollections of the pleasant days and long evenings spent with his newly found friends and acquaintances of Towanda, many of whom are still living in the county, whom he numbers among his stanchest friends.


After spending about six months at Towanda, he returned to El Dorado and in 1880 entered the employ of W. Y. Miller as a clerk in his drug store, remaining in that capacity until July 26, 1886. He then en- tered the employ of the firm of Mckenzie & Evans, El Dorado drug- gists, until 1890, when he purchased their stock and has since conducted a drug store in El Dorado. When Mr. Julian purchased the business of Mckenzie & Evans the store was located on West Central avenue, al- most directly across the street from his present place of business in the Opera House block. He purchased the property where his store is now located in 1892, and moved his business into that store building in 1894, at No. 114 West Central avenue. The building is a substantial two-story brick structure with a basement, which he rents for a barber shop.


Mr. Julian was united in marriage to Miss Minnie L., daughter of Dr. J. P. and Martha (Rice) Gordon. Dr. Gordon was one of the very earliest physicians to locate in El Dorado. He came to Kansas from Mount Vernon, Iowa, where he had practiced his profession for a num- ber of years, and upon coming to this State, practiced for a time in Topeka, Auburn and Emporia, and in 1868 located here. He died in IQII, at the close of an active and successful professional career, and his widow now resides in El Dorado. Notwithstanding that she has reached the advanced age of eighty years, she is as keen in mind and as active physically as the average person of fifty or sixty.


Mr. Julian is a member of the Masonic Lodge, of which he is past master; he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, hoving been identified with that organization for over forty years. He is also a member of the Woodmen of the World and the Anti-Horse Thief Association. He is a communicant of the Episcopal church, and for a number of years has been junior and senior warden and treasurer of his congregation.


Mr. Julian has various interests in some of the leading commercial enterprises of El Dorado. He is a stockholder in the El Dorado Electric & Refrigerator Company and also a director and stockholder in the Butler County Telephone Company. He may be well classified as one of the old landmarks among the merchants of Butler county.


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Cyrus Austin Leland, of El Dorado, a successful lawyer and one of Butler county's most prominent men of affairs, was born at Ottawa, La Salle county, Illinois, August II, 1843.


Mr. Leland was educated in the public schools of Ottawa, Ill., at Williston Seminary, East Hampton, Mass., and at Yale University, and graduated at the last named institution in the class of 1865, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. IIe was prepared for law in his father's office, and was admitted to the bar at Ottawa, Ill., in 1867. From 1867 to 1877, he practiced law in Ottawa. In 1877 he came to El Dorado, Kansas, with his brother. Lorenzo Leland, Jr., and together established themselves in practice under the firm style of Leland & Leland. Lo- renzo returned to Ottawa in 1879, and from that time until 1888, our subject practiced alone. In the latter year he was elected on the Demo- cratic ticket to be District Judge of the Thirteenth judicial district and served in that capacity from 1888 to 1891, inclusive. He had previously served as city attorney and during Governor Glick's administration he was appointed a regent of the Kansas State Agricultural College. In 1892 he formed a partnership with Hon. C. L. Harris under the firm title, Leland & Harris. That partnership existed nearly eighteen years, or until dissolved in December, 1909. In January, 1910, he formed a partnership with K. M. Geddes under the firm name of Leland & Geddes, and later R. B. Ralston became the junior member of the firm, which was known as Leland, Geddes & Ralston. This firm was dissolved on April 1, 1916, since which time Mr. Leland has been practicing alone.


Judge Leland is a charter member of the Kansas State Bar Asso- ciation is a director of and attorney for the Farmers and Merchants National Bank at El Dorado.


Mr. 'Leland was married in December, 1870, to Nellie A. Thompson, his step-sister. To Mr. and Mrs. Leland have been born five children, of whom three survive. Two daughters, Flora and Cecil, are well- known in art circles and for a time maintained a water color studio in Kansas City, Mo. Cecil Leland, now the wife of Benjamin F. McKin- non, of Washington, D. C., was graduated in the literary department of Kansas University, and her sister concluded a five-year course at the Art Institute in Chicago, and was a member of the Chase Class at Flor- ence, Italy. Cyrus A. Leland, Jr., graduated from the electrical en- gineering department of the University of Kansas with the class of 1910, and is now superintendent of the electrical department of the Atchison Railway, Light and Power Company, Atchison, Kans.


Anna A. Perkins, M. D., El Dorado, Kans., is a prominent member of the medical profession of Butler county. Dr. Perkins was born near Amboy, Ill., in 1871, and when six years of age came to Kansas with her parents, Ansel A. and Orilla (Van Hausen) Perkins. The father was a native of Connecticut, and the mother was born near Montrose, Sus- quehanna county, Pennsylvania. After their marriage they removed to Illinois in the sixties, where they remained until 1877, when they


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came to Harvey county, Kansas, and located on a farm about nine miles northwest of Halstead. In 1881 they removed to Halstead and a short time afterwards to Newton, where the mother died in 1887. Some years later the father removed to North Dakota, but returned to Illinois, where he died in 1910. They were the parents of the following children : Floyd. Coldwater, Kans .: Ford L., Newton, Kans .; Hattie married L. C. Helbie, Coldwater, Kans .; Lida married B. P. Philip, and Anna A .. the subject of this sketch.




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