History of Butler County Kansas, Part 54

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

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removed to Augusta in 1901, and in February, 1902, received the ap- pointment of rural mail carrier, and since that time has faithfully and efficiently served as carrier on rural route No. 2. During all these years in Uncle Sam's service he has discharged the duties of his office in a way that has given him a wide acquaintance, and made many friends among his many patrons with whom he comes in contact on his daily trips. He has won the reputation for not being the sordid, crusty kind of a public official who doles out public service according to metes and bounds prescribed by the department, but is cheerful and accommodating and couldn't be otherwise if he tried, because that is his nature. He has driven an automobile on his route for the past two years.

Mr. Beck was married in 1904 to Miss Maggie Treadway of Platte county, Missouri, a member of a pioneer family of that section, and a former schoolmate of Mr. Beck. To this union have been born five children, as follows: Mrs. Pearl Brown of Kansas City, Kans .; Mrs. Sophia Bornholt, Hutchinson, Kans .; George; Roy and Margaret, living at home.

Mr. Beck is a member of the Masonic lodge, Augusta; the Fra- ternal Aid Union, and the Kansas Fraternal Citizens, and is local dep- uty of the latter order. He is also a member of the Anti-Horse Thief Association. He is a substantial citizen, a progressive man and a loyal Augustian, and says, "Augusta is the best town in the United States."

Charles H. Stewart, now deceased, was a Butler county pioneer, and a Civil war veteran who served with distinction throughout that great conflict. He was a man who always coolly and courageously performed his duty whether it was amidst the bursting shells of the bat- tlefield, or in the ordinary quiet walks of civil life. That he had the courage of his convictions, both in times of war and in peace, may be truthfully said of him.

Charles H. Stewart was born in South Granby, Oswego county, New York, December 9, 1843, and was a son of Simon and Maria (Woodruff) Stewart, both natives of New York. The Stewart family were very early settlers in that section of New York State, and for a number of years lived in the neighborhood of a place called Stewart's corner, settling there about the time of the French and Indian war. The paternal grandfather of Charles Stewart served in the War of 1812. He was of Scotch descent. Maria Woodruff, the mother of Charles H. Stewart, was also a native of New York and of English descent. Simon Stewart, the father, was a lumberman and shipped his lumber from Oswego county in his own boats. Later in life, he removed to Onon- daga county where he spent the remainder of his life.

Charles H. Stewart was reared in New York State and educated in the public schools, and before he reached the age of eighteen, on Sep- tember 16, 1861, he enlisted in Company B. First New York light artil- lery, under Captain Petitt. His term of enlistment expired December 24,

CHARLES H. STEWART

MRS. CHARLES H. STEWART

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1863, and on the following day he re-enlisted as a veteran volunteer, serv- ing until after the close of the war, receiving his final honorable discharge June 18, 1865. Mr. Stewart participated in the following engagements, in his long and eventful military career: Fair Oak ; Redoubout No. 5. near Richmond : Savage Station ; White Oak Swamp and Nelson's Farm ; Malvern Hill: Hanison's Landing; Vienna; Antietam; Charlestown, W. Va., Fredericksburg; Second Fredericksburg: Chancellorsville ; United States Ford : Gettysburg; Mine Run ; Wilderness ; Spottsylvania Court House : North Ann River; Ponunkly River; Bethany Church ; Cold Harbor : Siege of Petersburg, near Avery House ; Siege of Peters- burg, near Yellow Tavern ; Siege of Petersburg, near Popular Grove Church ; Siege of Petersburg at Fort Clarke and Siebert. During his career, he was under fire 361 days, but was never wounded, nor in a hospital, although he had some very narrow escapes. During one en- gagement a horse was shot from under him, and at another time one of the tugs of his harness was cut by a bullet, and altogether his military record was one of unusual merit in which his family may take a just pride.

At the close of the war. Mr. Stewart returned to his New York State home, and after spending a few days there he went to the Penn- sylvania oil fields. July 5. 1865. This was about the time of the great oil excitement in the vicinity of Oil creek. He was connected with the oil business there for a couple of years, being engaged in constructing oil tanks on Oil creek and for a time was in the employ of Frank Tar- bell, father of Ida Tarbell. In 1868, Mr. Stewart went to Kankakee, Ill., where he married Miss Rachael E. Rowley, the marriage taking place No- vember 30, 1868. She is a daughter of William G. and Elizabeth (Ries- dorph) Rowley. The former was born in Kentucky, of Pennsylvania parents, who were temporarily residing in that State for the purpose of settling an estate, consisting of a plantation, including the negroes, which his mother had inherited. The family returned to Philadelphia. Pa., where William G. grew to manhood. Elizabeth Riesdorph, mother of Mrs. Stewart, was born and reared in New York City, and was a descendant of early Holland settlers of what is now New York City.

Mrs. Stewart was born in Sullivan county. New York. Her father was a lumberman in the early days in that State. His wife died in New York State in 1863, and the following year, he removed with his family to Muscatine county, Iowa, where they remained about a year when they removed to Kankakee, Ill., arriving there April 9, 1865, the day that General Lee surrendered. The father bought a farm about ten miles from Kankakee, and Mrs. Stewart, who was then quite a young girl, taught school in that locality two terms. Shortly after her mar- riage. the Rowley family and Mr. Stewart came to Kansas in the fall of 1868. They crossed the Kaw river and went to Shawnee county where her father had homesteaded the previous spring. After living in Shaw- nee county for ten years, Mr. and Mrs. Rowley returned to Indiana

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where they remained until 1882, when they came to Butler county and later removed to Wichita where the father died. Mrs. Stewart was one of a family of nine children, the two younger sisters being of the sec- ond marriage of her father. The children are in order of birth as fol- lows: Nathan, deceased ; Henry, deceased ; Rachael, Mrs. Stewart, the subject of this sketch ; Mary, married Aaron Blakeman, Baldwinsville, N. Y .; James, lives in Idaho; Lucy, married Thomas St. Denis of Wichita, and is now deceased ; Walter, lives in Alaska ; Emma, married Charles Richards, lives in Seattle; and the two half sisters are Cora, married Harry Foster, Muskogee, Okla., and Kate, married Mr. Daven- port of Seattle, Wash.

After spending the winter of 1868-69 in Shawnee county, Mr. and Mrs. Stewart returned to Oswego county, New York, where Mr. Stew- art was engaged in the milling business ten years. In 1879 he came to Butler county and bought a farm in Benton township where he built a good substantial house, which was one of the best in the neighborhood. After he had completed his home, Mrs. Stewart and the children joined him here. His farm was well improved and was one of the best farms in Benton township. which he sold later for $10,000, and bought 320 acres, one mile north of his first home. In October, 1900, he disposed of his property in Benton township, and moved to El Dorado, where he bought a comfortable home, and later purchased 520 acres in Chelsea township. He died at his home in El Dorado August 19, 1904. Mr. Stewart was a staunch Republican, castng hs frst vote for Abraham .Lincoln for president. He was prominent in lodge circles, being a Royal Arch Mason, a member of the Knights of Pythias, and the Grand Army of the Republic. He was a student all his life, being a great reader of the best authors, and also kept himself well posted on current events.

To Mr. and Mrs. Stewart were born the following children: Wal- ter C., was a resident of Pittsburg, Kans., and died at Neosho, Mo., in 1913, aged forty-three years; Ernest H., a farmer, Fairview, Okla .; Car- rie, the wife of E. A. Berry, near Fort Cobb, Okla .; and Charles Du- wayne, operator for the Santa Fe railroad at El Dorado, Kans. He served in the United States marine corps and was on duty on the battle- ship, North Carolina, when the bodies of the Maine victims were taken from Havana harbor to Arlington cemetery, on board the North Caro- lina. He received his discharge at Norfolk, Va., shortly afterwards.

Mrs. Stewart resdes at El Dorado and is an unusually capable woman. She is a prominent member of the Woman's Relief Corps, having been a member of that organization for a number of years. She has been a delegate to five State conventions of that order, and was a delegate to two National conventions, one at Washington, D. C., and the other at Rochester, N. Y. She is also a member of the Eastern Star and the W. B. Club, and is a member of the State Federation of Women's Clubs. Mrs. Stewart bears the distinction of having served

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on the first jury in Butler county composed of women. She is an exten- sive traveller and is well informed.

Dr. M. Corcoran, a leading veterinary surgeon of Butler county, located at Augusta, is a native of Nebraska. He was born in Pawnee county, that State, and is a son of Patrick Corcoran, and his mother bore the maiden name of Kelly, natives of Ireland. They were the par- ents of four children, as follows: Mrs. Anna Delaney, Wymore, Neb. ; Mrs. Mary Culver, Bainville, Kans. ; John, Rose Hill, Kans .; and Dr. Corcoran, whose name introduces this review. Dr. Corcoran received a good education in the public schools of Nebraska, staying with a physi- cian. Dr. Cave, now of Wichita, Kans. After completing his prepara- tory education, Dr. Corcoran entered the St. Joseph Veterinary College at St. Joseph, Mo., where he took a three years' course, and was grad- uated in the class of 1913 with the degree of Doctor of Veterinary Surg- ery, and a year later took a post graduate course. During one year of his college course he practiced part of the time in Iowa, and after grad- uating, came to Rose Hill, Butler county, where he was engaged in the practice about seven months.

In I911 he located at Augusta and has built up an extensive prac- tice throughout Butler county, and is frequently called for professional services in other parts of the State. Dr. Corcoran is recognized as an unusually skillful veterinary surgeon. He is capable and painstaking and is recognized by other members of his profession as being a close student of the rapidly advancing science of veterinary surgery, and thoroughly posted in the intricate details of his profession.

Dr. Corcoran was united in marriage in 1913 at Wichita, Kans., with Ella Dobbins of Augusta. They have two children, Edward Vol- ney and Helen Margaret. Dr. Corcoran is a member of the Mystic Workers of the World, and one of Augusta's most progressive citi- zens.

H. G. Russell .- The noble pioneer men and women who endured the hardships and vicissitudes of early life on the plains, and laid the founda- tion for later industrial development and social betterment are rapidly disappearing. H. G. Russell whose name introduces this sketch is a notable member of that band of noble pioneers who has passed to the great beyond. He was born in Athens county, Ohio, in 1834, and died at his home in Augusta in March, 1913. He is survived by his venerable wife, Mrs. Sarah Russell, who is a typical representative of the best type of American womanhood. She was born in Tazewell county, Illinois, in 1841, and now resides in Augusta, Kans.

Mr. and Mrs. Russell came to Butler county, Kansas, in 1870, and settled on Four Mile Creek. They bought 160 acres of land upon which they built a small frame house and later as their means permitted built a more pretentious residence and made substantial improvements. They had sold 40 acres of their land prior to 1909, and that year disposed of the balance of their farm properties and bought property in Augusta,

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where Mrs. Russell now resides. They lived on the old homestead for forty years and formed many attachments for the old place, but in de- ciding to move to Augusta they took into consideration the many added comforts and conveniences, which they found more suitable to them in their declining years.

To Mr. and Mrs. Russell have been born five children, four of whom are living : Warren is a carpenter and lives in Illinois; Mrs. James Bel- ford lives in Wichita; Mrs. Clara Harrison died in 1905 at Wichita ; Charles, Macon, Ill., and Mrs. Bertha Cook lives near La Junta, Colo.

Mrs. Russell has many interesting recollections of early day life in Butler county. She has experienced all the various freaks of nature and surprises of the elements that were in store for the early settlers of Kan- sas. She relates an incident of when a cyclone blew away their barn, and uprooted their orchard and performed the various pranks known on- ly to cyclones. She was here in 1874 when the grasshoppers swept down in great clouds on the unsuspecting early settlers and destroyed everything in sight. She says that all they had left after the visit of the grasshoppers was one mess of roasting ears. Mr. Russell at that time was one of the distributing agents for the Aid Society who were providing for the destitute, but he managed to get along and refused to accept any aid for himself.

Mrs. Russell is one of the interesting old ladies of Butler county and may she live long to recount her pioneer experiences for many years to come.

Carl F. Buck, a leading manufacturer of Augusta, Kans., is a native son of Butler county. He was born in Augusta in 1878, the only child of F. C. and Mary S. (Dix) Buck. The father was a native of Maine and an early settler of Butler county, and during his lifetime was prominent in the political life of the county. He served as county surveyor a num- ber of terms and died in 1881 when Carl F. was three years old. Mary S. Dix was born in Indiana and is now a resident of Butler county, re- siding on a farm three miles northwest of Augusta.

Carl F. Buck received a good common school education, and after- wards attended the State Normal School at Emporia, and after leaving school returned to his home in Augusta in 1879 and became interested in the bee business. He began in a very humble way, and at first had only two stands of bees, and at the same time began dealing in supplies for bee keepers. His business developed rapidly and in 1899, he en- tered the wholesale business and began selling to dealers as well as to bee keepers. In 1905 he engaged in the manufacture of the Weed process comb foundations, and this business has developed beyond all anticipated proportions. He is one of the large manufacturers of this product, so essential to successful bee keepers, in the United States and at present there are only five other factories in the United States sim- ilar to this one. He carries a large supply and at the present time has about three car loads of the finished product on hand. He ships his product to nearly every State in the Union.

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Mr. Buck's factory at Augusta is large and well suited for the pur- pose of manufacturing his product. The main building is 25x125 feet, and is divided into six compartments, and in addition to this building he has a store house 25x50 feet. Comb foundation which is the chief pro- duct of his factory has become a commercial necessity with bee keepers who aim to conduct their business on the most profitable basis and get the best results. Mr. Buck says that it is a demonstrated fact that bees will consume 20 pounds of honey while making one pound of wax in the construction of the comb. The average price of the prepared founda- tion is 60 cents a pound and if the investment of that amount saves the bee keeper twenty pounds of honey at the average market price it is a simple process to compute the economy of using the product of this factory. Mr. Buck is a practical bee man as well as a manufacturer and keeps on hand about 170 stands of bees from which he ships large quan- tities of honey. The capacity of his factory is about 500 pounds of comb foundation per day.

Mr. Buck was united in marriage in 1900, to Miss Ruby McKittrick, of Augusta, Kans. She came to Butler county with her parents from Ohio in the eighties and they located at Augusta where Mrs. Buck was reared and educated. To Mr. and Mrs. Buck has been born one child, Floyd J., now a student in the Augusta High School. Mr. Buck is one of the progressive business men of Augusta where he and his wife are well known and have many friends.

John S. Loy .- In the death of John S. Loy which occurred at Au- gusta in 1899, the grim reaper gathered in another worthy Butler county pioneer who will long be remembered as one of the men who performed his part nobly and well, in laying the foundation for the fu- ture greatness of Butler county, and Kansas. He was a native of Ohio, born in Darke county, in 1836, and reared and educated in his native county, and in 1857, was united in marriage at La Fayette, Ind., to Mrs. M. J. Oldbury, a native of Gibson county, Indiana, born in 1839, who still survives him and resides in her comfortable home at Augusta. She is a representative of that type of womanhood who seem to become fewer as the years come and go, but perhaps not : it may be that our estimation of humanity changes as we grow older, and our viewpoint changes. Be that as it may, Mrs. Loy is a grand old lady and a credit to the county in which she lives, and she is rich in the possession of the love and esteem of all who know her.

After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Loy lived in Tippecanoe county, Indiana, near the famous old Indian battle ground. In 1859, they came to Kansas and settled at Cottonwood Falls, which was then in Wise county, but now Chase. These were real pioncer times in that section of Kansas and that settlement was well on the border of the frontier. Here Mr. Loy conducted a general store until 1868, when they came to Butler county, where the frontier had not yet disappeared. They took a claim of 160 acres, a half mile south of where Augusta now stands.

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When they came here the town of Augusta consisted of one log house, which was owned by C. N. James. He conducted a store, postoffice, school. Sunday school, and a residence in this log house, and it was also used as a polling place on election day.

Mr. Loy and a Mr. Palmer, who came with him, bought a saw-mill with which they sawed lumber for a house and erected a crude struc- ture 16x23 feet. Shortly afterwards, Mr. Palmer and a man named Tibbetts, each built a room for himself, adjoining the Loy residence, and they all practically lived in the same house for a time, or, in other words, they pooled their rooms and made a house which possibly might have furnished the idea of later combinations of big business, which has given our law-makers so much trouble in recent years. Mr. Loy was interested in the operation of the saw-mill until about 1879, when he followed butchering for awhile and later was engaged in the quarry business, shipping stone to Wichita. During the last twelve years of his life, he was practically retired on account of poor health. He, at one time. owned the site of the first grist-mill on the Walnut river, which was at the point where the South bridge crosses the river.

To Mr. and Mrs. Loy were born nine children, as follows: Louisa Catherine, married Matt Brooks, now deceased and they had five chil- dren, Addie Bell. Mary Diana, Mabel. John Alvin and Lola; Clara. died at the age of eighteen months: John Edward. died at the age of eighteen months ; Mrs. Georgiana Seaman, died at Augusta, and left the following children: Goldie; A. Z. : Mary; Lillie and Seth ; Arthur T., lives at Fowler, Colo .; Minnie Ellen, died at the age of seven ; Nellie Viola, died at the age of four: George, died in infancy; and Bessie Dickey, Cleveland, Texas. By a former marriage, Mr. Loy had one son, H. D. Loy. who now resides in Augusta, and who is to Mrs. Loy a real son. Mrs. Loy lives on the old home place where she and her hus- band settled in 1868, nearly a half century ago, and many fond recollec- tions, of when her heart beat young, and she knew not the limitations imposed by time, cluster about her in these, the sunset days of her life.

Mr. Loy, two daughters and a son, are buried in a private burial ground near the residence where the faithful wife and mother sees that their graves are carefully looked after.

L. S. Hall, M. D., of Augusta, Kans., is one of the pioneer physi- cians of that section, not that Dr. Hall is an old man, for he is just in the prime of his professional work, but when he began the practice of his profession in 1878, he began at Augusta, which was then a new country. During the days of his early practice on the plains, Dr. Hall had all the experiences of the average pioneer doctor. His practice ex- tended over a large scope of country, the roads were bad and frequent- ly there were none at all, and the doctor just followed the "trail." or rode horseback across the prairie, regardless of trail, and it was not an uncommon thing for him, on some of his eighteen or twenty-mile night rides, to lose his way on the prairie and spend the night by the side of a

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friendly hay stack, and when the sun rose next morning, get his bearings and proceed on his mission of administering to the sick and suffering. When he located in Augusta, the entire business district of the town con- sisted of one store building, which was occupied by Locke's drug store, located just north of where Etterson's store now stands. One of the first calls that Dr. Hall had after coming to Augusta was a confinement case, the birth of Carl F. Buck, who is now a prosperous manufacturer of Augusta, a sketch of whom appears in this volume.

Dr. Hall has been in the practice in Augusta and vicinity since 1878, and has been unusually successful in the practice of his profession. During the years of 1896 and 1897, however, he took a respite from the strenuous practice of medicine on account of failing health, and spent those two years at Clinton, Mo., when he again resumed his practice at Augusta.

Dr .. Hall was born at Spencer, N. Y., in 1855, and is a son of H. S. and Cornelia L. (Fisher) Hall, both natives of New York, and descend- ants of old New York State stock. They were the parents of eight chil- dren, as follows : Henry H., died in New York City ; Mrs. Olive H. Nor- ris, died at Spencer, N. Y .; May F., unmarried and lives at Spencer, N. Y .; Thomas F., El Paso, Tex .; Mrs. Emily C. Woodruff, now a widow and lives at Chautauqua, N. Y .; Dr. L. S., the subject of this sketch ; Mrs. Rosamond C. Valentine and Mrs. Catherine L. Fisher, both living at Spencer, N. Y. After receiving a good preparatory education Dr. Hall entered Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York City, where he was graduated in 1878 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and shortly afterwards came to Augusta and engaged in the practice of his profession as above stated.

Dr. L. S. Hall was united in marriage at Augusta, Kans., in 1880, to Miss Frances Houston, of El Dorado, Kans. Her parents were early settlers in Butler county, coming here from Iowa in the seventies. At the time of her marriage, Mrs. Hall was making her home with an uncle, Rev. L. Harvey, of El Dorado. To Dr. and Mrs. Hall have been born two children, as follows: Mrs. Gertrude E. Watt, the wife of a promi- nent real estate man of Kansas City. Mo., and Robert L., an employee of the Milwaukee and St. Louis Railway at Aberdeen, S. D.

Dr. Hall is a Democrat, and since coming to Kansas has taken an active part in behalf of the welfare of his party, and furthering the cause of the local Democratic organization. He has served as chairman of the Democratic County Central Committee, the Democratic Congressional Committee, and has also been a member of the Democratic State Com- mittee.

James A. Rhodes, now deceased, a veteran of the Civil war and Butler county pioneer, was a native of Indiana. He was born in 1827 and died at Augusta in 1888. During the second year of the war, he en- listed in the Seventy-first regiment, Indiana infantry, and served about three years or until the surrender of Lee closed the last chapter of that

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great conflict. During his term of service, Mr. Rhodes was twice cap- tured by the enemy. The first time he escaped after being a prisoner for a short time, and the second time he was paroled.

At the close of the war he returned to his Indiana home. Mr. Rhodes married Miss Lucy P. Richardson at Clinton, Ind., in 1854, who survives him, and now resides at Augusta, Kans. She was born at Clin- ton, Ind., and was a daughter of William A. and Sarah Ann (Parker) Richardson, who were the parents of nine children, only one other be- sides Mrs. Rhodes is now living. Dr. John F. Richardson, a prominent physician of Hunnewell, Kans. To Mr. and Mrs. Rhodes were born William A., who died in 1891, aged thirty-five years, and Flora, who re- sides in Augusta with her mother.

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History of Butler County Kansas, Part 54

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

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