History of Butler County Kansas, Part 52

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 52


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Mr. Fenton is one of the pioneers of Butler county, who came at a time when he had an opportunity to experience all the vicissitures of the carly settlers on the plains. He grew up with Butler county, so to speak. Just as he was endeavoring to get a start in life, and trying to dodge dry seasons and tide over crop failures, the grasshoppers swept down upon him in 1874, and he suffered the common lot of his neigh- bors, and almost everything that he had in the way of growing crops was


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destroyed. He relates an incident of a prairie fire in 1872 which started in the vicinity of Newton, and swept everything before it for miles and miles, and he says, that for days after the fire had passed over, the air was filled with ashes and soot, wafted about by the gentle Kansas breezes made life almost as unendurable as the fire itself. But withall, and notwithstanding grasshoppers, prairie fires, hot winds, dry seasons and wet seasons, Kansas has been good to him, and like many others, he is in a comfortable financial condition, and able to spend the remainder of his days in retirement, and is one of Butler county's honored citizens.


On the seventeenth day of April, 1916, Mr. and Mrs. Fenton started East to visit old friends. After stopping at Memphis, Tenn., Louisville, Ky .. Cincinnati, Ohio, Hamilton, Ohio, and Richmond, Ohio, where Mrs. Fenton had a stroke of paralysis which proved fatal. She died there May, 19, 1916, at the residence of her niece. Her body was brought to Augusta and buried in Elmwood Cemetery, Monday, May 22, 1916.


George Fairbank Fullinwider, was born in Mechanicsburg, San- gamon county, Illinois, October 19. 1854. He is the eldest son of Mar- cus Lindsay Fullinwider and Sarah Calista Fairbank. His father was a native of Shelbyville, Ky., of German descent, and one of the pioneers of Sangamon county, Illinois. His mother was a native of New Hamp- shire of Scotch ancestry. His grandfather, Rev. George Fairbank, and whose name he bears, was one of the pioneers of Methodism in Il- linois, a co-worker with Peter Cartwright. J. L. Crane, Hiram Buck and others of blessed memory. When George Fullinwider was three years old his mother died, and, with his infant brother, he was taken to the home of his grandparents, then at Georgetown, Ill., where he remained until August, 1863, when his father having married again, George went home with him to Champaign, Ill. In March, 1867, his father removed to Vermillion county, near Fairmount, where he had landed interests and where George remained until he came to Kansas in January, 1883. In 1871 his stepmother died, and the family was badly broken. His father remained on the farm, however, and George remained a part of the time in that vicinity and a part was spent near the old home in Sangamon county.


December 7. 1876, Mr. Fullinwider married Miss Priscilla Jester, the eldest daughter of a prominent farmer in the community. With no chil- dren of their own, they adopted a motherless baby girl in 1884, and she was the light of their home until her marriage to William J. Thompson, a prominent young farmer near El Dorado. The past ten years, two motherless babes, a little niece and nephew, have shared their home and love.


In August 1882 Mr. Fullinwider purchased a farm in Rosalia town- ship, the southwest quarter of section 3-26-7. At that time the Santa Fe branch from Florence, which extended to Douglass was the only railroad in the county. Surveys for the Missouri Pacific had been made and the stakes stood in the prairie grass, but the road had not been


GEORGE F. FULLINWIDER


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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY


built west of Eureka. Track was laid to El Dorado in January, 1883. Rosalia township was but thinly settled, and much of pioneer days re- 111ained. In October, 1885, he removed to the farm on which the town of Pontiac is located and remained there until the fall of 1886, when he again moved to a bottom farm on the Walnut, three miles northeast of El Dorado. He remained there until March, 1887, when he moved to El Dorado and engaged in the marble business. In March, 1890, he accepted a position on the reportorial staff of the Daily Walnut Valley "Times." He continued in this position until April 1. 1897, when he pur- chased a one-half interest in "The Advocate," and later became sole pro- prietor. He conducted the paper for sixteen years, or until September, 1913, when he sold it. He then returned to a position on The Walnut Valley "Times," 'which position he holds at present. He has the distinc- tion of ranking as the second oldest newspaper man in Butler, having completed twenty-six years of active work. J. M. Satterthwaite, of The Douglass "Tribune," is the oldest, in point of service.


Mr. Fullinwider, like his ancestors, is a Methodist, and for the past thirty years has been a licensed exhorter in the church. At one time he had charge of the Chelsea circuit, which then comprised Chelsea, Satchell Creek. Cole Creek, Durachen, Pontiac and Rosalia. He served these points ably and satisfactorily, doing most of his studying be- tween the plow handles while caring for his farm. He did this extra work. that the regular pastor might be enabled to go and file on a claim in western Kansas. He has served with distinction as Sunday school superintendent, and was for several years president of the Butler County Sunday School Association. He has conducted many funerals in these years and has always been ready to go where he was needed at any time. He has always been interested in the church and Sunday school work, has been a strong advocate of temperance and a firm adherent of righteousness in all things.


In 1871 he joined the Independent Order of Good Templars, and has since remained a member of that worldwide organization. At the Topeka session of the Grand Lodge in 1893, he was elected to the of- fice of Grand Secretary of Kansas and held that position for fifteen years. During this time he spent not only his time but his money in the promotion of the cause of Good Templary, represented Kansas in the In- ternational Supreme Lodge at Boston in 1895, and in Toronto, Canada. in 1897. In 1902, he was again elected to represent Kansas in the ses- sion held in Stockholm, Sweden, and was the only Kansan on the floor of that august assembly. On this trip he made a tour of the continent and visited Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Holland and Eng- land. He learned much of the Old World and its people. In the line of duty, in connection with the temperance work, he has lectured many times, has traveled in thirty-six States and territories and the Dominion of Canada, has crossed the Atlantic twice, the North Sea twice, sailed hundreds of miles in the Baltic and its tributaries, has seen the Hebrides".


(32)


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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY


Islands, the coast of Scotland, the Shetland Islands, the coast of Ire- land and the coast of Newfoundland. To him this experience has been one of the most interesting and educational of his life.


Politically Mr. Fullinwider is a democrat, and his entire sympa- thies and interest lie in the direction and along the line of the interests of the common people, and especially of the laboring classes. He has been honored on several occasions by election as delegate to State con- ventions. Especially was this true during the Populist regime. He was very active at that time and during those years. He was a delegate to the last National convention of the Populist party, held at Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and was closely associated with men of National as well as State reputation.


J. W. Jennings, a well known contractor and builder of Augusta, is a Butler county pioneer, and has spent forty-five years of his life in this section of Kansas. Mr. Jennings was born in Adams county, Ohio, February 10, 1853, and is a son of W. E., and Sarah J. (Collings) Jen- nings, both natives of Ohio. They were the parents of nine children, four of whom are living: E. W., Augusta, Kans .; G. O., Golden, Colo .; Mrs. D. U. Rowland, Augusta, Kans .: and J. W., the subject of this sketch. The Jennings family came to Kansas in 1871 and located in Clif- ford township.


J. W. attended the public schools in Ohio, and after coming to Kan- sas, attended school in a log school house in Clifford township, and he and his father built the first school house in that district, known as the Wilcox school house. He remained at home until 1878, when he went to Peabody and worked at the carpenter trade, and afterward returned to Butler county and followed farming in connection with his trade. In 1885. he built the Central Hotel and the Potwin Hall at Potwin, Kans., and later conducted that hotel for two years. He then returned to Peabody, working at his trade, until 1889 when he returned to the old homestead in Clifford township. In 1891 he went to Oklahoma where he followed farming until 1904, when he came to Augusta and since that time has devoted himself exclusively to contracting and building. During these years he has erected a great many business buildings and residences in Augusta. He built the Leonard block, the Warren Brown residence, the Peckham building, the McCool building, the Bausinger & Fuller building, and did the finishing work on the George W. Brown State Bank. He has built altogether over fifty residences in Augusta, and at this writing, has seven in the course of construction.


Mr. Jennings was united in marriage, April 22, 1880, to Miss Anna L. Deweese of Marion county, Kansas, and they have one child, Mrs. Alice Rosecrans, who resides at Augusta. She has one child, Audene.


Mr. Jennings is a member of the Masonic lodge and is a Royal Arch Mason. He also belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows. He is an expert mechanic and has worked at the carpenter trade most of the time for over fifty years, and he says that he can do as much work as any man on the job today, but that he won't.


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William Hitchcock, proprietor of the Hitchcock Dry Good Com- pany of Augusta, is one of Butler county's most progressive merchants. He is a native of Kansas, born at Circleville, and is a son of William and Mary (Hart) Hitchcock, who were the parents of four children, as follows: Charles, farmer, Belle Plaine. Kans .; Holton, merchant at El Dorado: Mrs. Fannie Swallow, Wichita, Kans., and William, the sub- ject of this sketch.


William Hitchcock received his education in the public schools, and has been brought up in the mercantile business. When a boy he began clerking in a general store at Belle Plaine, Kans., and soon afterwards embarked in business with his father and brother at Syracuse, Kans., conducting a store there from 1886 until 1890. He then came to El Do- rado, Kans., and in partnership with his father and brother, Holton, opened a general store. They were unusually successful in this venture, and it developed into the leading department store of the county. In 1910, William disposed of his interest to his brother, and engaged in the dry goods business at Hutchinson. In 1912 he sold his Hutchinson busi- ness, and came to Augusta, engaging in the dry goods business under the firm name of the Hitchcock Dry Goods Company, which is one of the enterprising mercantile institutions of that progressive city. Mr. Hitch- cock carries a complete line of dry goods and ladies furnishings, and since coming to Augusta has built up a large business and earned a reputation for square dealing and honest goods. His stock is of a high class assortment, and he carries many of the best known makes of high class goods, and his store is a model of up-to-date merchandising. Mr. Hitchcock's force of clerks is an efficient organization and the many cus- tomers of this store are always assured of good value, good service and courteous treatment.


Mr. Hitchcock was united in marriage at El Dorado, Kans. in 1896, to Miss Bertha Bourne of that city. Four children have been born to this union, as follows: Frances, graduate of the Augusta High School, class of 1914, and now a student in Kansas University, Lawrence, Kans .; William, a student of the Augusta High School, and a member of the class of 1917; Everett, also a student in the Augusta High School and a member of the freshman class, and Constance, who resides at home. Mr. Hitchcock is one of the progressive business men of Augus- ta, and takes a keen interest in the development and welfare of his adopt- ed city.


J. R. Switzer .- While the building of cities and towns, and the erec- tion of magnificent buildings is, in a general way. brought about by the concerted action of communities, it requires a certain individual genius to carry out the plans and erect, in material and finished form and de- velop the ideals of others. J. R. Switzer, whose name introduces this review, is one of the few whose mastery of the art of building has played no small part in the construction of some of the most important buildings of Butler county, as well as elsewhere. Mr. Switzer is a native


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of Perrysville, Ind., and a son of W. P. and Ella ( Rabb) Switzer, na- tives of Indiana, who were the parents of three children, as follows : Lou, Augusta : Alfred, Spring Ranch, lowa, and J. R.


J. R. Switzer received his education in the public schools of Indiana and La Cygne, Kans,, graduating from the high school of the latter place when nineteen years of age. He then learned the mason's trade. He then followed superintendent of construction work for a time in the southern States, and in 1880 came to Augusta, Kans., and since that time has been active in construction work as a contractor and superintendent. He built the Peckham building, postoffice building, telephone build- ing and the High School Building at Augusta and superintended the construction of the Butler County Court Flouse at El Dorado and the Carnegie Library at Newton, Kans. He also superintended the erection of the court house and jail at Pratt, Kans., as well as a number of other minor buildings. He was appointed city engineer of Augusta in 1908 and has held that position to the present time and in that capacity drew the plans and specifications for the Angusta waterworks dam across the Walnut river and constructed the electric light plant of Angusta.


Mr. Switzer was married in 1891, to Miss Nettie Reed, of Augusta. her parents being pioneers of Butler county. To Mr. and Mrs. Switzer has been born one child. Fred, who is proprietor of the City Bakery and Cafe of Augusta. Mr. Switzer is one of the progressive and pub- lic spirited citizens of Augusta whose enterprise has made possible great- er Angusta. J. R. Switzer has always affiliated with the Democratic party, taking an active part. For sixteen years he was local committee- man. He served four years as secretary and treasurer and was chair- man of the county committee for four years. He was a member of the Congressional Committee for twelve years and a member of the State Committee for eight years, a position which he still holds.


W. P. Switzer, the father, was born in Indiana in 1838, a son of Joseph and Eliza (Anderson) Switzer, the former a native of Pennsyl- vania and the latter of New York. They were the parents of five chil- dren, two of whom are living, as follows: George, lives in Illinois, and 1. P. Mr. Switzer was educated in the public schools of Indiana, and when the Civil war broke out, he enlisted at Danville, IH. in Company E. Thirty-fifth regiment, Illinois infantry, under Captain Oliver, and lat- er served under Captain Yohe. After his enlistment his command was sent to St. Louis, Mo., and from there to Springfield, and later to Rol- la. Mo., where they spent the winter. They then took part in the can- paign in pursuit of General Price's army in Arkansas ; later he participat- ed in the battles of Pea Ridge. Corinth, Resaca, Stone river. Chatta- nooga, Franklin, Nashville and Chickamauga. He was severely wound- edl at the battle of Chickamauga by a minnie ball which struck him in the right leg. just below the knee, and as a reminder of that inci- dent, he recently received a letter from the comrade who helped him off the field of battle when wounded, and in his letter the old comrade made


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the following statement : "If you don't come and see me, I'll always wish that I had let the rebels have you." Mr. Switzer was mustered out of service at Louisville, Ky., in_1865 at the close of the war and went to Vermillion county, Illinois, where he was engaged in farming a num- ber of years. In 1873 he went to Indiana and after spending four years in that State came to Kansas, locating near La Cygne, Linn county, where he made his home for twenty-five years. In 1903 he came to But- ler county and since that time has resided at Augusta. For a number of years he was engaged in the stone business but is now living prac- tically retired.


Mr. Switzer was married while living in Indiana, to Miss Ella Rabb and the living children of this union are as above mentioned. Mr Switzer is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Augusta Post, No. 105.


Mrs. Louisa Black Kirkpatrick .- In recounting the trials, hard- ships and adventures of the early pioneers who, by their courage, indus- try and foresight, laid the foundation for the development of the great West, it is a common fault of many historians to overlook, in a meas- ure, the part played in that great drama by the American pioneer woman. Following that misconception we fall into the error of pictur- ing the early pioneer as a man, wearing a buckskin coat and carrying a long barrelled rifle, or driving a team of oxen. We forget that the wives, mothers and daughters, who accompanied the small family ex- pedition across the great plains in the early days, with no particular point of destination, were the dominant factors in the early settlement of the plains. When the women came, settlements became substantial. . They were the anchors of the new civilization, and from that time on, the permanent settlements, upbuilding and development of the great American desert were assured.


Mrs. Kirkpatrick, who bore the maiden name of Louisa Black, may well be classed with those pioneer women, who bore their part nobly and well in the struggles of the pioneer days. She was born in Clinton county, Missouri, a daughter of William and Margaret (McClure) Black, the former a native of Pennsylvania, and the latter of Virginia. The Black family located in Missouri about 1850. and in 1856 came to the territory of Kansas and settled in Morris county, where they took a government claim of 160 acres of land, and the father bought an addi- tional 100 acres. In 1868 the Black family came to Butler county and settled on the Walnut river, near where Gordon is now located. Here the father took up government land and added to his original holdings until he became the owner of 480 acres. He followed farming and stock raising, and also was quite an extensive cattle dealer in the early days.


Louisa Black, whose name introduces this sketch, was united in marriage with Rufus Kirkpatrick, at El Dorado, Kans., in 1894. Mr. Kirkpatrick was born in Macon, Mo., in 1852, and was of Irish descent. He came to Butler county in 1868, and died in 1898, and his remains are


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buried in Fairview cemetery. By a former marriage, the following chil- dren of Mr. Kirkpatrick survive: Ernest Kirkpatrick, a carpenter of Neosho, Mo., and Mrs. Ethel Farrow of Gordon, Kans.


Mrs. Kirkpatrick is one of the few women now living in Butler county who experienced the various vicissitudes and uncertainties of early day life on the plains. She was here during the devastation of the grasshoppers. She frequently saw the prairie fires which was one of the most dreaded enemies of the early pioneers, sweep over the plains, leaving the country a blackened and charred expanse of ruin, to be fol- lowed by days of black dust and cinders which made life almost unen- durable.


Mrs. Kirkpatrick now resides in her cozy home at Augusta, well provided with an ample supply of this world's goods, being the owner of 146 acres of fertile valley land on the Walnut river, near Gordon, upon which is located several producing gas wells, and one oil well, producing 1,200 barrels per day, and other wells now being drilled.


Cora Norris, of Augusta, Kans., is a notable example of a success- ful Kansas business woman. Miss Norris was born in Walworth county, Wisconsin, and is a daughter of William W. and Sophia (White) Nor- ris, the former a native of Connecticut, and the latter of Maine. They were the parents of three children, as follows: Mrs. Mary J. Ryan, Augusta ; Mrs. Frances E. Sluss, lives three and one-half miles south of El Dorado and Cora, the subject of this sketch. The Norris family were pioneers of Butler county, coming here from Illinois in 1872. The father took a claim of school land in Spring township, where the family resided for more than twenty years. The father was a successful farmer and a highly respected citizen. He is now deceased, and his wife lives in Augusta with her daughter of whom this sketch is written.


Miss Norris was educated in the public schools of Butler county and the Augusta High School, and in addition to her school work, she received much private instruction from her mother, who, prior to her marriage, was a teacher, and in early life, was well equipped with a good education. Miss Narris taught school for a few years when she was appointed first assistant to Postmaster N. A. Yaeger at Augusta, and served in that capacity with two successive postmasters, P. W. Burdick and A. J. Ryan, and in all, held that responsible position for ten years. While employed in the postoffice, Miss Norris, being of a studious turn of mind, occupied her spare time in the study of short- hand, and later attended the Wichita Commercial College. She then accepted a position with G. M. Stratton at Clay Center, Kans., and later returned to Augusta where she is now engaged in stenographic work and the insurance business, principally fire insurance, represent- ing seven of the leading fire insurance underwriters, and has a very satisfactory and constantly increasing business. Her office is in the postoffice building. She is a charter member of the Triple Tie, and belongs to the Fraternal Aid Union; the Occidental Association; Fra- ternal Citizens and Order of the Eastern Star.


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J. D. Robson, owner and proprietor of the Robson Department Store, Augusta, Kans., is a progressive business man, and conducts one of the leading mercantile establishments of Butler county. Mr. Robson is a native of Scotland, born in Lin Lithgow in 1861, and is a son of Joshua Robson and Mary (Alice) Robson, both natives of Aberdeen, Scotland. They were the parents of nine children, seven of whom are living, as follows: Charles Edward, Washington, D. C .; Mathew, New York City; Mrs. Alice Carr, Middleborough, Scotland; Arthur Henry, John Thomas and Alexander St. Clair, all residing in Glasgow, Scot- land, and J. D., the subject of this sketch.


J. D. Robson was reared to manhood in his native land and Eng- land and received a very good education, attending the North of Eng- land Agricultural College at Great Ayton. His father was a shoe manu- facturer at Stockton, England, and young Robson learned the shoe mak- er's trade and was buyer for his father's factory and also worked in a retail store for a time. He then established a wholesale and retail busi- ness in which he was successful. While in Sunderland, England, buy- ing leather one day he met Henry Conyers, a wholesale leatherman, who advised him to invest all he had in leather and also all he could borrow. Mr. Robson took his advice and made a handsome profit, enough to es- tablish himself in business.


In 1884 he left England and came to America, locating at Pitts- burgh, Pa., where he remained one year. He then went to St. Louis, Mo .. and was in the employ of the J. G. Brandt Shoe Company as a re- tail salesman for three years, when he entered the employ of the Tenant Walker Shoe Company, afterwards the Tenant Stribling Shoe Company, as traveling salesman. Later he was employed by the Bradley and Met- calf Shoe Company; of Milwaukee, Wis., and in 1902 opened a racket store at Augusta, Kans., and a short time afterward installed a gen- eral stock of goods and opened a department store. His mercantile un- dertaking in Augusta was a success from the start, and he now carries an extensive stock of goods which compares favorably with department stores to be found in larger cities. Mr. Robson's varied experience as a manufacturer and wholesaler, is of inestimable value to him in the re- tail busnness. He knows the mercantile business from the beginning to the end. Since coming to Augusta he has taken an active part in the civil life of the town and has always been ready and willing to cooperate in any movement for the betterment or advancement of his adopted city.




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