History of Butler County Kansas, Part 45

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


USA > Kansas > Butler County > History of Butler County Kansas > Part 45


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Dr. Perkins received a good common school education in the public schools of Harvey county, and began teaching when she was sixteen years of age, and after teaching five terms took a course in nursing in Axtell Hospital, Newton. She then entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Kansas City, Kans., where she was graduated with a degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1897, and immediately opened an office in El Dorado and began the practice of her profession. She has been uniformly successful in her professional work from the start, and for a number of years has ranked as one of the leading physicians of Butler county. Her practice is of a general nature and extends over a large area surrounding El Dorado as well as in the city of El Dorado. She is a close student of the science of her profession and aims to keep posted in the rapid strides that are constantly being made in that most important of all professions.


Since she began the practice, Dr. Perkins has taken post-graduate work in the Post-Graduate Medical College of Chicago, and in 1914 she was a member of a party of American physicians who made a clinical tour of Europe, visiting the leading hospitals of the principal cities of the Old World. Before embarking on their trip for Europe they visited the principal hospitals of Philadelphia and New York. While in Europe they visited Paris, Berne, Zurich, Munich, Vienna, Dresden, Leipsic, Ber- lin, Jena, Heidelberg, Frankfort on the Maine, Cologne, Brussels, Amster- dam. London, Edinburgh. Glasgow and Liverpool, and from there sailed for New York. While on this tour they saw some of the most eminent surgeons of the world operate. Notable among whom was the man who is now chief surgeon of the German army, and another is now chief surgeon of the Austrian army. This was an interesting and instructive trip and of inestimable value to those who were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to take it.


Dr. Perkins is a member of the County, State and American Medical Association and at various times has held all the different offices of the county association. She is a member of the El Dorado school board.


J. W. Watkins, a well known carpenter and contractor of Potwin, is a native of Virginia. He was born in Taylor county that State, March 4, 1863, and is a son of Samuel and Susan ( Osborn) Watkins, natives of Pennsylvania, the former of Welsh and Scotch descent, and the latter of French and English ancestry. This branch of the Watkins family was founded in New England in Colonial times and later they settled in


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Pennsylvania. Samuel and Susan (Osborn) Watkins were the parents of thirteen children, of whom J. W. was the tenth in order of birth. A brother of J. W., William, enlisted at President Lincoln's first call for troops during the Civil war, and served in a West Virginia regiment. He served under Generals Hooker and McDowell, and was with Sherman on his march to the sea and also served in the Army of the Potomac for a time under Grant.


J. W. Watkins was reared on the home farm in Virginia, and in ear- ly life learned the carpenter trade with his older brother, Richard, who was an expert workman. The father died in 1874, when J. W. was about nine years of age, and in 1882 the mother with her five children came to Butler county, Kansas, and settled on a farm one and one-half miles east of Potwin. One son, William, had preceded the family to Butler county, coming here in 1870, and homesteaded a quarter section in the vicinity of Potwin after coming to Butler county with his mother, J. W. Wat- kins, worked with his brother Richard, who at that time was the leading contractor and builder in and around Potwin, and eventually J. W. be- came a contractor and builder on his own account and since that time has successfully followed that line of work. He has built some of the best residences in Butler county, as well as many high class residences in Wichita and other places.


Mr. Watkins was married in 1898 to Miss Zooa Ella Poe. a daugh- ter of Cornelins and Sarah (Rogers) Poe, natives of West Virginia and very early settlers in Butler county. To Mr. and Mrs. Watkins have been born the following ,children: Arthur Preston, Frederick Samuel Roger Williams, Elizabeth and Joseph Wade. Mr. Watkins is a member of the Knights of Pythias, and his political affiliations are with . the Democratic party. During his career as a builder, he has won a reputa- tion for honest and reliable work throughout this section of the State, which coupled with his high class workmanship places him in a class where much ordinary competition is eliminated.


I. A. Zimmerman, a prominent farmer and stockman of Plum Grove township, is a native of Ohio. He was born near Urbana, Cham- paign county, October 19, 1848, and is a son of Isaac and Elizabeth (Miller) Zimmerman. The Zimmerman family is an old American family of German descent. Isaac Zimmerman, the father of I. A .. was a son of George and Barbara (Norman) Zimmerman, the former a native of Germany, and the latter of Virginia. They were married in Rocking- ham county, Virginia, and shortly afterward, migrated to Ohio. They drove from Virginia to Ohio with ox teams, and settled in the wilder- ness of Ohio, which was then a new and undeveloped State. They built a little cabin on the banks of Owen creek, and shortly afterwards, removed to the Nettle creek bottom. Here George Zimmerman built his pioneer log cabin, and cleared away a little ground where he fol- lowed farming of the primitive, pioneer nature of that day. This was considerably over one hundred years ago, and that same place is still


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the home of one of George Zimmerman's descendants, being owned by Isaac Zimmerman, a brother of our subject, and here is where I. A., the subject of this sketch, was reared to manhood. He was one of a family of eight children.


Mr. Zimmerman came to Kansas in 1883, and the following year, settled in Butler county, and bought half a section of land in Fairmont township. He sold this later, and afterwards bought another half sec- tion in Plum Grove township, which is his present home. This is one of the best farms in Plum Grove township, and Mr. Zimmerman is rec- ognized as one of the successful stockmen and general farmers of Butler county.


On April 28, 1872, Mr. Zimmerman was married to Miss Martha Comar, who died October 19, 1878, leaving two children: A. G., El Do- rado, and Alice, wife of Joseph Sicklebower, El Dorado. After the death of his first wife, Mr. Zimmerman married Mary Barger, who died January 19, 1880. No children were born to this union. January 28, 1882, Mr. Zimmerman married M. M. Yates, a native of Miami county, Ohio, and to this union the following children have been born: Carrie, the wife of James Dooley, Newton, Kans .; Nettie, wife of W. M. Day, Kansas City, Mo .; Lutie, wife of Jason Markee, Butler county ; John, resides at home with his father, and Lydia, wife of P. M. Puckette, farmer, Plum Grove township.


Mr. Zimmerman is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows, Peabody Lodge No. 113, and his wife is a member of the Rebekahs; and politically he is a Democrat.


T. P. Mannion, the capable and efficient postmaster of El Dorado, Kans., is a Butler county pioneer, coming here when he was a child, one year of age, with his parents. T. P. Mannion was born in Macon. City, Mo., March 2, 1866, and is a son of John and Margaret Mannion, natives of County Galway, Ireland. The father came to America in 1848, and the mother in 1849. They were married at St. Louis, Mo., in 1856, and for a few years after their marriage made their home in St. Louis, and the father followed steamboating on the Mississippi river, between New Orleans and as far north as navigation extended, until 1861. He then engaged in farming, near Macon, Mo., until 1867, when he removed to Kansas, and located in Butler county, settling on 160 acres of land, nine miles southwest of El Dorado, in what is now Spring township. He was probably the first man to prove up on his homestead in that township, and an unusual thing about the Mannion homestead, is that it was never mortgaged, nor never on the delinquent tax list, which may be taken as an index to the thrift and industry of John Mannion and his family.


At the time that the Mannion family settled in Butler county, the country was in a wild and unbroken state, and the broad prairies of Butler county seemed to be in about the same condition that the hand


Mannion.


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of the Creator had left them. There were still many Indians in this vicinity, and the Mannion family had just cause to fear uprisings of hostile Indians, along the border at that early day. The early day prairie fires, which, now and then, swept over the plains like the wind, was another source of great danger to the early pioneers who settled here about the same time.


The first home of the Mannion family was a pioneer log house, without a floor and with a straw roof, which was on the place when the father bought it. This makeshift of a home, however, was replaced by a more pretentious structure, built of hewed logs and well finished, a few months after the family settled here, and in the early days this residence was one of the best built in that section of the country at that time. About twelve years later a large frame residence was built, which is still standing. It was the scene of many early day social gatherings, such as dances, parties, etc., and some of the early church services were held here. Rev. Father Schurtz conducted services here at an early day. He was one of the pioneer priests of this section and is remem- bered as a splendid Christian gentleman.


T. P. Mannion has a store of interesting early day reminiscences, which he relates in a most interesting and entertaining manner. He re- members of seeing the Indians roaming over the plains in bands of vary- ing numbers, at different times, and he also recalls the time when hunt- ing parties went just a little west of Butler county on buffalo hunting expeditions, and recalls buffalo having been killed in the vicinity of Wichita. His first trip to Wichita was in 1876, on an occasion when his father and his sister, Kate, and himself drove to Wichita with two loads of corn which they exchanged for seed wheat. Mr. Mannion's first schooling in Butler county was in a log building, without any floor, the school being taught by Rev. Timothy Grow.


When the Mannion family settled in Butler county, Emporia was the nearest trading point of any importance, and the father frequently made the trip there for supplies, and sometimes he would be gone three weeks at a time on one of these trips. On one of these trips, he broke a wagon axle and had to go for miles to get it repaired, which required three days, and a new axle cost him fifteen dollars. We, of the present generation, in view of all modern methods of economizing time and an- nihilating space, can scarcely conceive of a condition of this kind, yet this is a fact, and such were the conditions which confronted the reso- lute men and women who laid the foundation for Butler county and the great progress which followed. This is not only true in Butler county but in hundreds of other counties, all over the great West.


John Mannion deserves to be classed as one of the pioneers of Butler county, who did his part nobly and well. He became a success- ful farmer and stock raiser and during his long career in Butler county he built up a reputation for honesty and integrity that will remain for many years to become a monument to his memory. He believed in


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square dealing. He died July 30, 1908, honored and respected by all who knew him. His widow now resides near Augusta, and belongs to that type of noble pioneer women who adapted themselves to the early day pioneer conditions, and furnished the husbands and children with the inspiration, without which the hardships and vicissitudes of those early times would have been unendurable.


John and Margaret Mannion were the parents of the following chil- dren : Mrs. Kate Shea. Wichita, Kans .; Mrs. Mary Lipscomb, Spring township; Mrs. Maggie Cody, Spring township ; Mrs. Lizzie Armstrong, Spring township; T. P., the subject of this sketch ; J. J., Augusta, Kans .; W. H., Lawrence, Kans., and J. C., Spring township.


T. P. Mannion was reared to manhood on the home place in Spring township, and after receiving a very good common school education, took a course in the Southwestern Business College at Wichita, Kans. About the time he completed his course of study, he was employed as a grain buyer for the Peavey Grain Company, with headquarters at Greensburg, Kans., and for three years followed that line of work. In 1894, he returned to the home farm in Spring township, where he was engaged in farming until February 1, 1904, when he canie to El Dorado and engaged in the grocery business. He sold this business shortly afterwards and was employed in the insurance business in El Dorado for a time when he engaged in the insurance, real estate and loan busi- ness for himself and was successfully engaged in that line of work, to which he devoted his entire time and attention, until April 6, 1915, when he was appointed postmaster by President Wilson. However, Mr. Man- nion still owns the insurance, loan and real estate agency which is con- ducted by his manager, Mr. Williams. Since receiving the appointment as postmaster, Mr. Mannion has been actively engaged in the duties of that office, the constant increasing patronage of which requires vigilent exercise of good business judgment and foresight, to meet the demands of the business. However, Mr. Mannion is equal to the occasion and is always on the job, and El Dorado has a postmaster who is a postmaster in fact, and the office is not a sinecure, like similiar positions are in many places. Mr. Mannion believes in the doctrine that public office is a public trust, and is fulfilling the letter of his belief.


Mr. Mannion was united in marriage February 5, 1896 with Miss Mary Hannon, a daughter of Richard and Mary Hannon, Butler county pioneers. To Mr. and Mrs. Mannion have been born the following chil- dren : May M., a graduate of the El Dorado High School and now stenographer in the law office of Kramer & Benson; William R .; Ag- nes Pauline, and T. P., Jr., all of whom are now attending school.


Mr. Mannion is a Democrat, and since reaching his majority has supported the policies and principles of the Democratic party. He has been active in both State and local politics, and he deserves as much, or more credit, than any other man in Butler county in maintaining the organization of his party in Butler county during some of the gloomy.


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periods of the past. He is a member of the Catholic church and a mem- ber of the board of trustees of the local parish, and has also been a liberal contributor to his church and is entitled to no small amount of credit for the establishment and maintenance of the local Catholic church.


Osborne Mooney was born in Miami county, Ohio, October II, 1827. At an early age, his father removed to Allen county, Indiana, locating near the village of Huntertown, about ten miles from Ft. Wayne. There Mr. Mooney lived until the fall of 1872, when he came with his family to Kansas, settling on a farm on the West Branch of the Whitewater, two and one-half miles west of Towanda. This farm is still owned by his family, and was occupied by them until 1897, when Mr. Mooney retired from active life, and moved to El Dorado, where he lived until his death, February 2, 1908.


On August 23, 1857. Mr. Mooney was married in Allen county, Indiana. to Adelaide Kikley, also of that place. To this union were born three daughters: Frances E., Mrs Volney P. Mooney of El Dorado; Harriett E .; Mrs. William R. Green, of Towanda; and Nevada B., Mrs. William B. Gaskins, of Portland, Ore.


Mr. Mooney was pre-eminently a farmer, having followed that oc- cupation all of the active years of his life. He was especially success- ful in grafting fruit trees and producing budded fruit. This was his greatest interest. He was also a remarkable worker among bees. These, he went among fearlessly, holding conversation with them as he wrought. Had Mr. Mooney lived in a later day. he would probably have specialized in one of these professions with great profit.


Mr. Mooney enlisted in August, 1862, and with his two brothers and three brothers-in-law, served to the end of the war. His military life is epitomized in this: He enlisted in Allen county. Indiana, August 5. 1862. in Company C. Eighty-eighth regiment Indiana infantry. He participated in the battles of Perryville, Stone River, Hoover's Gap. Tullahoma, Hillsboro, and Elk River, Tennessee ; Dug Gap and Chicka- maugua, Lookout Mountain, Mission Ridge, Grenville and Ringgold : marched with Sherman in the Atlanta campaign and was in engage- ments at Buzzard Roost, Resacca, Dallas, Kenesaw Mountain, Peach Tree Creek, Atlanta and Utoy Creek ; was with Sherman in his famous march to the sea and was mustered out June 7. 1865. He was wounded at Perryville, Kentucky, by a gun shot wound in the mouth, breaking out his teeth and parts of his jaw bone. At Atlanta, he received a wound in the right shoulder, the ball passing through and lodging in his left breast, where it remained. He was bayoneted in the elbow at Kenesaw Mountain, causing a permanent injury, the arm being dis- located. He was of military stock. His grandfather, Freeman Mooney, was in the Revolutionary war under General Washington.


He was a Christian for over sixty years, and at the time of his death was a member of the Christian Church at Towanda. He was a member of W. H. L. Wallace Post 66, Grand Army of the Republic,


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and of Patmos Lodge No. 97, Masons. During his last illness his only desire seemed to be to have his wife, children and grandchildren at his bedside. All except one grandchild were present, one was unavoidably detained. His regret when called from this life was not the severing of the brittle thread of this existence, but was the cutting asunder of those ties of love and affection that bound him to those whose presence and companionship made life's labors a pleasure rather than a burden. In every relation of life Mr. Mooney was examplary, a thoroughly good man, a patriot, soldier, citizen, husband, father, friend and neighbor. He was honored widely as he was known.


W. H. Sluss, of El Dorado township, is one of the pioneer cattle men of Butler county and since locating here in 1870 has seen Butler county developed from a primitive prairie to one of the greatest counties in the State of Kansas; and has done his part as a pioneer, a business man and a citizen in bringing about this wonderful transformation in the brief space of less than a lifetime. Mr. Sluss was born in Frederick county, Maryland. November 16, 1839, a son of John and Susan (Far- ney) Sluss, both natives of Frederick county, and descendents of Colon- ial ancestors. Michael Sluss, grandfather of W. H., was a captain in the United States army during the War of 1812. W. H. Sluss' parents spent their lives in Maryland, where the father who was a farmer died in 1891, and his wife died the same year. They were the parents of six children, two boys and four girls, all of whom are living except one son.


WV. H. Sluss received a good common scchool education in his na- tive State, and in 1863 went to St. Joseph, Mo. by rail, and later went down the river to Ft. Leavenworth, Kans. He was engaged in farm- ing about a year in that section when he returned to his Maryland home, and after remaining there four or five months went to Iowa with a view of looking the country over. He remained in that State about six months and then went to Illinois and after spending a couple of months there came back to Leavenworth, Kans., but remained only three months when he returned to his old home in Maryland again. He worked on his father's farm for two years, but during all this time had Kansas on his mind and constantly kept thinking to himself "I want to go back to Kansas." He was right. When he was in Kansas he saw opportuni- ties that the new State offered a young man, with ambition and a de- termination to win. In the spring of 1869, he went to Missouri and the following year came to Kansas, and preempted a quarter section of land, three miles south of El Dorado, where his present home is located. He built his first house about two rods north of where his present residence is located. The building is still standing and is built of native lumber which was sawed on Little Walnut Creek, with the exception of siding and shingles which were hauled from Emporia. Mr. Sluss "batched" for the first five years on his claim, which was not an unusual mode of living in those days. When he came here the country was in a crude and undeveloped state, and the blue stem grass was to be seen in every


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direction. Deer, antelope and all kinds of small game were plentiful. The prairie was almost alive with prairie chickens and wolves traveled in droves and their howls around the cabins at night kept the bachelors of the plains from getting lonesome. Mr. Sluss says in those early days that they had plenty of buffalo meat, and most everybody generally kept a good supply of it on hand. There were no buffalo in this immediate vicinity but there were plenty just a little farther west along the banks of the Arkansas. He says one peculiar thing about conditions of those days was that there were no flies, which would give rise to the suspicion that flies like politicians were a product of an older civilization.


Mr. Sluss had some capital when he came to Butler county and saw possibilities in cattle raising, and was one of the first to engage in that business here. He started in with the Texas long horns but soon raised the standard of his stock, making high grade Galloways his specialty. He has handled thousands of cattle, perhaps more than any other man in Butler county, frequently raising from eighty to one hundred a year. Mr. Sluss added more land to his original holdings from time to time, until he acquired about 1800 acres, but in recent years he has turned consid- erable land over to his children, giving each a half section, and his sons have assumed the active management of his broad acres while he is tak- ing life easy, as he is justly entitled, after the many years of a strenuous and successful business career.


Mr. Sluss was united in marriage in 1875, to Miss Frances Norris, of Spring township, Butler county, a daughter of Ward Norris, who came to this county with his family in 1872 and settled in Spring town- ship. Mrs. Sluss was born in Wallworth county, Illinois. To Mr. and Mrs. Sluss have been born eight children, six of whom are living, as fol- lows: Lula, married Herman Holem, El Dorado, Kans .; William, farm- er and stock man, El Dorado township; Ollie, married Stanley Skaer and lives near Augusta; Harrison, a farmer and stock man, El Dorado township; Russell, also a farmer and stock man, El Dorado township, and George resides at home with hs parents.


The hundreds of acres contained in the Sluss farm present an un- usually well kept appearance, and Mr. Sluss' home is one of the most substantial buildings to be found in the county. The first house that Mr. Sluss built on his place came very nearly being demolished by a cy- clone in the early days. Mr. Sluss was in the house when the cyclone struck it and he says he was not quite sure that he was ever going to be able to find his claim, after he landed, but he and the house both es- caped, not very much the worse for the experience. And when he built his present residence thirty-four years ago he made it a point to see that the entire structure was as substantial as expense and mechanical in- genuity could make it. The walls are of solid stone of unusual thickness and would seem to be immune from the average gentle zephyr.


Mr. Sluss has always been a Republican, but in recent years he is inclined to be independent in his political views and not bound to any


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particular creed. W. H. Sluss is one of the grand old pioneers of But- ler county and a work of ths character can cite the present and fu- ture generations to no better example of American manhood for their guidance and inspiration.


Nels C. Hanson, of Prospect township, is one of Butler county's representative citizens, and although not an early settler of this county he is proud of Butler county and Butler county is proud of him. Mr. Hanson is a native of Aalborg, Denmark, where he was born August 26, 1863. a son of Christian C. and Anna Hanson. When about six years old he removed with his parents to America after approximately a voyage of twelve days, landing at Castle Garden, New York. Coming directly to Towa, they located in Union township, Des Moines county. There the father who was a blacksmith, started a shop, and a year or two later was able to purchase a satisfactory location for a home. He first erected a log house in which the family lived for about fifteen years. He built a good frame dwelling. At about that time also he abandoned his trade and gave his attention exclusively to farming.




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