History of Butler County Kansas, Part 80

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

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Mr. Dodge was married on September 24, 1873, to Miss Loretto Claypool, a daughter of Harrison and Edith Claypool, pioneers of Iowa, where the father died in 1853. Later the mother married J. H. Clark, and, in 1872, the family came to Butler county, Kansas, and were one of the pioneer families of this section. Mrs. Dodge was the only child born to her mother's first marriage, and the following children were born to her second marriage: A. B. Clark, Fresno, Cal .; H. H. Clark, Modesto, Cal. ; Mrs. Mary Pierce, Los Angeles, Cal. ; and John H. Clark, Jr., Oakdale, Cal. To Mr. and Mrs. Dodge have been born the follow- ing children: George C., Benton, Kans .; William Robert, Pueblo, Colo .; Mrs. Lotta Maxwell, Neosho, Mo .; Frank E., Hudson, N. Y. ; and B. E., Madison, Wis. Frank and B. E. are civil engineers, and are graduates of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, where they took the civil engineering course, after having graduated from Fair- mount College, Wichita.

Mr. Dodge is a prosperous and substantial farmer and the Dodge family is well known and highly respected.

Albert Sunbarger, a prosperous farmer and stockman of Sycamore township, is a native of Ohio. He was born in Hocking county in 1873, and is a son of August and Minna Sunbarger, natives of Germany who immigrated to America in 1867, and settled in Ohio. They made the voyage across the Atlantic in an old time sailing vessel, and were three months on the voyage. Twenty-two of the passengers died while cross- ing the ocean. When the father landed in New York he had only ten dollars, in money.

The family remained in Ohio for eleven years, and in 1878, came west, locating in Sycamore township, Butler county, where the father bought eighty acres of land. Here the father began farming, in a small way, under the adverse conditions of pioneer days. He had only one horse, with which to begin, but by exchanging work with neighbors he succeeded in getting his team work done. He managed to get along the first few years and finally began to prosper until he became one of the well to do men of Sycamore township. August Sunbarger and Minna Reifstahl were married in Ohio, March 31, 1867, and the following chil- dren were born to that union : August, Columbus, Ohio; John, Tarkio, Mo .; and Albert, the subject of this sketch.

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Albert Sunbarger received his education in the public schools and began life as a farmer and stock raiser, which has since been his occupa- tion. He owns the home farm in Sycamore township which consists of 400 acres of well improved land. He carries on general farming and stock raising, and is also quite extensively interested in dairying.

Mr. Sunbarger was married in August, 1898, to Miss Mattie Tibbets, a daughter of Henry J. and Euphemia (Mather) Tibbets. Henry J. Tibbets was a soldier in the Civil war and served in Companies F and D. Second regiment, Colorado infantry. At one time he owned the land at Augusta, where the glass plant is now located. He died in 1907. and his widow now resides at Verona, Wyo. To Mr. and Mrs. Albert Sun- barger have been born four children, as follows: Lee, Grace, Steven and Alice Maleta. Mr. Sunbarger is one of the substantial men of Sycamore township, and is what might be termed a twentieth century farmer and stockman.

Austin L. Drake, a well to do farmer of Murdock township, has been a resident of this county for forty-four years, and has contributed his share, as a pioneer and successful farmer and stockman, in reclaiming the great American desert, and developing the prosperous county of Butler. Mr. Drake was born in Erie county, New York, November 22, 1841, a son of George W. and Jane Drake, natives of New York, who spent their lives in Erie county.

Mr. Drake was reared and educated in his native county and was there married to Miss Margaret A. Murray, a daughter of Henry and Nancy Murray, both natives of Ireland, who settled in Erie county at an early date, where they spent their lives. Mrs. Drake is one of six sur- viving children born to her parents, the others being as follows: Peter, Buffalo, N. Y .; John, Glenwood, N. Y .; Thomas, Cedar Falls, Iowa ; Benjamin, London, Ontario, one of whose sons is now serving in the medical department of the British army in Turkey, and Mrs. Mary Hodge, Omaha, Neb. To Austin L. Drake and wife have been born the following children: Charles M., Avalon, Mo .; H. Lee, Sargent, Neb .; Frank A., Wichita, Kans., and Ray S., Calgary, Canada.

After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Drake came to Kansas, locating in Murdock township, Butler county, where they bought a claim of eighty acres, and have since added 160 acres to their original possession. which is now one of the valuable farms of Murdock township. They lo- cated here March 14, 1872, which was an early day in the settlement of But- ler county. Conditions were primitive, conveniences few and life on the plains in those days was not only, not a luxury, but a positive hardship. When the Drakes came here there was no house to afford them shelter on their claim. Mr. Drake bought enough of walnut logs to build his house, and dug the cellar preparatory to erecting his little home, but he did not have sufficient money to build, so he covered the cellar which he had dug with the logs for a roof and they lived in the cellar for a time. During the grasshopper year, he had a good crop of corn which made

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one good square meal for the grasshoppers. However, he struggled on through these lean years of the early days, and was often forced to make great sacrifices to get a little money with which to buy the bare neces- sities of life. He has eut wood and hauled it to Wichita, a distance of about thirty miles, for which he received $3 a load, the trip requir- ing about three days, but those times have long since passed, and today Mr. Drake is one of the prosperous citizens of Butler county, and the success that has come to him is justly merited.

When the Drake family settled in Murdock township, game of all kinds was in abundance, and deer frequently came to a spring, that is on their place, for water. Mrs. Drake says that her greatest dread of the early days was her fear of the Indians, as there were a great many bands of them wandering around the country at various times, and when they came to her place she frequently gave them corn and chicken rather than take the risk of offending them by refusing. However, they never did any harm with the possible exception of some petty pilfering. Mr. and Mrs. Drake have lived to see Butler county grow up, as it were, and while they have been contributing their part to the betterment of the community, they have also succeeded in a financial way, which should be a source of gratification to them, as an assurance of peace and plenty in their latter years.

Mrs. August Breidenstein is one of the pioneer women of Syca- more township, who experienced many of the hardships and uncertain- ties of pioneer life in Butler county. She is a native of Germany, and came to this county when quite young. She first located in Illinois, where she was married to August Breidenstein, January 1, 1871. Four- teen years later they came to Kansas, locating near Rosalia in Butler county. The first few years here were years of hardship and discour- agements. One year their crops were entirely destroyed by hail, and they suffered loss from prairie fires and other misfortunes incident to life on the plains, and Mr. Breidenstein worked at anything that he could get to do in order to make a living for his family the first few years. Later success came, and at the time of his death in 1905, he was well-to-do. Mrs. Breidenstein now owns land in the Augusta oil field.

To Mr. and Mrs. Breidenstein were born the following children : Mrs. Rose Waltman, Jacksonville, I11 .; Lillian V .; Mrs. Gloria Hoy, Cassoday, Kans .; Mrs. Daisy Wright, Decatur, Ill. ; Mrs. Ivan Wester- house, Burns, Kans .; Sule Edward and Charles William, who are de- ceased. Mrs. Breidenstein talks very interestingly of pioneer days, and is a great reader and well posted on events generally.

Robert E. Templeton, a large land owner of Sycamore township, and one of the most extensive cattlemen in Butler county, is a native of Ohio. He was born in Greenfield, March 17, 1874, and is a son of John B. and Catherine Templeton, natives of Ohio. The father was quite an extensive cattleman in Ohio, before coming to Kansas. In

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1884, the family came to this State, first settling in Coffey county, near Burlington. They remained there but a short time, however, when they came to Butler county, where the father purchased the Blaker ranch in Sycamore township. This is one of the famous cattle ranches of the early days, in Butler county, and was formerly known as the Skinner ranch. It contains 800 acres, and is an ideal location for the cattle business. The father carried on an extensive business here dur- ing his life time, and raised and fed both cattle and sheep extensively. He died in 1909, and the mother now resides in El Dorado. They were the parents of the following children: . Mrs. Melva Evans, Denver, Colo .; Mrs. Anna Wilbur, El Dorado, Kans .: J. C. Templeton, Lewis- ville. Ark., and R. E. Templeton, the subject of this sketch.

At the death of his father. Robert E. bought the home ranch and is continuing the cattle business there, and is meeting with well mer- ited success. He is a cattleman from the ground up, having been reared in that line of business, he is familiar with the many angles of it, which would be strange and new to a tenderfoot. He is feeding about three hundred head of cattle, as this article is written, and he has about 225 acres devoted to general farming, exclusive of his pasture land where he raises feed for his cattle. He does his marketing most advan- tageously at the Kansas City stock yards.

Mr. Templeton was married September 7, 1904, to Miss Grace H. Young, a daughter of C. C. and Mary E. Young of De Graff, Kans. They have two children : Edgar A., born November 4, 1906, and John C., born September 8. 1909. Mr. Templeton takes a prominent part in the local political affairs of his township, and has served as trustee two terms, and has been a member of the school board ever since he was twenty-one years old. He is one of Butler county's representative cit- izens who have won a reputation for doing things.

Rev. E. Cameron, a Kansas and Butler county pioneer minister of the gospel, is a native of Ohio. He was born at Salem, October 10, 1838, and is a son of Josiah and Hannah Cameron. The father was born at Salem, Ohio, in 1804, his parents being pioneers of that State and of Scotch descent, tracing their ancestry to the nobility of that country. The mother was of English descent.

Rev. Cameron was married in 1865, to Miss Elizabeth Elliott, a daughter of John and Mariah Elliott, and to this union were born two children : Marvin, Oklahoma City, Okla .; and Adrian, of Kansas City, Mo. Mr. Cameron came to Kansas in 1878, and located in Chase county where he bought eighty acres of land. About eight years later he assisted in the organization of the Kansas Christian College at Lincoln, Kans., and was connected with that institution for twenty years, two years of which he was its president. In 1889 Mr. Cameron came to Butler county and while he has been engaged in general farming and stock raising. he has not given up his work in connection with churches and schools, all these years. His has been a busy life and his purpose and efforts to do good

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have not been in vain. He has held pastorates at Matfield, Green and Pleasant Center, and also taught school at Oakdale, Kans.

His career in religious and literary work has been a busy one. Aft- er coming to Butler county, one of the first inen with whom he became acquainted was Rev. Isaac Mooney of Towanda. Mr. Cameron attended the dedication of the First Christian Church at Towanda which was also the first one in the county, and he preached the dedicatory sermon. He has preached in a great many places in Butler county. He says when he did his first preaching in Butler county that it was in the real wild and woolly west. The young men came to church with their revolvers buckled on, and almost every man brought a dog with him, and the women brought their babies.

Mr. Cameron's first wife died in 1883 and in 1889, he was united in marriage with Mariah (Danby) Wilson, and two children were born to this union : Harry, who is engaged in teaching at Cassoday, Kans., and Ross, a student in college at Albany, Mo. Mr. Cameron has a broad ac- quaintance in Kansas and is held in the highest esteem by all who know him.

J. G. Green, a prominent farmer and stockman of Sycamore town- ship, is a native of Illinois. He was born in McDonough county, Octo- ber 8, 1858, and is a son of G. T. and Eliza Green. The Green family were very early settlers in Butler county, coming here in 1868. They settled on the Whitewater. near Towanda. Later, J. G. Green bought land in Sycamore township where he now owns several hundred acres and is one of the extensive cattlemen of Butler county.

Mr. Green was married in 1882, to Miss Elizabeth Fisk, a daughter of Erasmus and Ida (Amorette) Fisk; the former of Welsh descent and the latter of Irish ancestry. Mrs. Green's mother was a widow when she came to Kansas in 1881. They settled near Sycamore Springs. To Mr. and Mrs. Green have been born the following children: Mrs. Elsie Schroeder, Goddard, Kans .; Mrs. Mabel Kitzelman, Cassoday, Kans ; Ray, Anadarko, Okla .; Kittie, resides at home; Otis, De Graff. Kans. ; Holt, John, Elizabeth and Hazel, all residing at home.

Mr. Green has quite a humorous vein in his nature, and tells with much amusement, an incident that happened in his father's family in the early days. His father had bought some very choice seed corn in the ear, which he valned very highly. One day while he was away some travelers came riding through the country, on horseback, and stopped at the Green home and endeavored to buy some feed for their horses. Mrs. Green explained that the only feed they had was seed corn, and they of- fered her fifty cents per ear for enough for one feed. She finally con- sented to sell them a small amount, for which they paid at that rate. Finally they offered her a dollar an car for all the seed corn that she had. She was unable to stand the temptation of such an offer and let all the seed corn go, much to the disappointment of the father when he found it out.

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Mr. Green is truly a pioneer of Butler county who has made good, and is deserving of no small amount of credit for the great reputation that Butler county has gained for being the greatest cattle producing county of the State of Kansas.

S. S. Harsh, of Sycamore township, has been a resident of Butler county, Kansas, since 1871. He was born in Carroll county, Ohio, in 1852, and is a son of Philip and Sarah Ann (Beucher) Harsh. and is one of the following children born to them: Mrs. Lavina Parsons, Casso- day. Kans .; L. Harsh, Milt Harsh and S. S. Harsh, all of Cassoday. The mother died when S. S. was about one year old, and the father mar- ried again. In 1871 the Harsh family came to Kansas and located in Sycamore township. Butler county, where the father bought 160 acres of land. Their first home in the new country was a crude two-room affair, but about as good as the average pioneer home of that time. Em- poria was their nearest trading point of importance, and S. S. Harsh made the trip to that place frequently for supplies.

The Harsh family met with many disagreeable features and en- dured many privations and hardships in the early days. They passed through seasons of crop failures, fought prairie fires. and saw their crops devoured by grasshoppers. And, yet, with all these trials and vicissitudes of frontier life, the early settlers had many good times and much amusement. They had their parties, dances and literaries, and there was always something doing in the early days. Mr. Harsh says that he frequently drove fifteen or twenty miles to parties and took his best girl in a big farm wagon. He was the first young man in the neighborhood to own a buggy, and when he was not using it, someone else always was. It was in great demand among the young folks of the neighborhood. Mr. Harsh has made farming and stock raising his occupation and life study, and is one of the successful agriculturists of Butler county. He owns 600 acres of well improved land, and is rated among the prosperous men of Sycamore township.

Mr. Harsh was united in marriage, in 1883, to Miss Elizabeth Ann Bishop. a daughter of Elias and Nancy Jane Bishop, the former a native of Kentucky, and the latter of Pennsylvania. Mr. and Mrs. Bis- hop were married in Indiana, and were the parents of the following children: Mrs. Harsh: Mrs. Emma Earnest, Wichita, Kans .; James Edwin, Wichita, Kans., and Mrs. Permelia Harsh, Cassoday, Kans. The Bishop family was among the early settlers in Butler county. They came here in 1867, and the father located on 160 acres of land near Chelsea, buying the relinquishment of the claim for $400. The father built a two-room log house, and began farming and was success- ful from the start, which was very uncommon among the early pio- neers. He raised good crops of corn, which he sold for $1.50 per bushel, and their butter brought seventy-five cents per pound, and he had his farm paid for within two years after coming here. They had all the meat that they wanted, which consisted of prairie chickens, deer and

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wild turkey, which included nearly all the native delicacies of the plains. The Bishop family were always well provided for, and lived as well in those pioneer days as the person of average means does today. Of course they experienced many inconveniences. and a feeling of uncertainty in a new and untried country, and were subjected to Indian scares and the like. It developed, though, that the Indian scares usually circulated by white men who, after scaring the settlers out of the community by the circulation of a false alarm, planned to rob the places of whatever was left behind of any value.

Mrs. Harsh is one of the very earliest school teachers of Butler county, and taught the first school in Sycamore township, which she conducted in J. W. Parson's house. Mr. and Mrs. Harsh have no chil- dren. They are among the pioneers of Butler county, and are deserving of more than ordinary recognition in the history of their county.

Leonard Harsh, one of the large land owners of Butler county, has been one of the most extensive cattlemen in this section of Kansas for years. He was born in Carroll county, Ohio, in 1845 and is a son of Philip and Sarah Ann (Beucher) Harsh, natives of Pennsylvania and early settlers in Ohio. The mother died in 1855, and the father was mar- ried twice after this.

Leonard Harsh is one of the early settlers of Butler county. He came to Kansas in 1871, and located in Sycamore township in 1873, when he bought a quarter section of land upon which is located the famous Sycamore Springs. He immediately engaged in farming, giving special attention to stock raising. Even in the early days, he raised and shipped large numbers of hogs and cattle. In addition to those that he himself raised, he became an extensive dealer, and bought cattle, not only in But- ler county, but from other counties of Kansas, and even from Colorado and Texas. He has had his ups and downs in the cattle business, but in the main has made money, and is prosperous, and is today, one of the substantial men of affairs of Butler county. He has bought more land from time to time, as his business developed, and now owns 4,000 acres of land and is one of the largest stock raisers and dealers of Butler coun- ty. Many of his early day experiences in the cattle business are still fresh in his mind. On October 28, 1872, as he was driving a bunch of cattle, which he had bought in Marion county, a sleet storm came up. accompanied by a blizzard wind, and ten of his cattle were frozen to death. In 1871, his feed gave out during the winter, and over half his cattle died front starvation.

The old California trail passed through his farm and in the early days the old stage coach passed there regularly and great trains of gov- ernment supplies were hauled over this trail to Fort Sill and other fron- tier posts. Mr. Harsh recalls, among the early settlers when he came to Sycamore township, G. W. Snively, Hewin, Alpers, Sloper, McCable, Sylvester Myers, Uncle John Teter, J. K. Skinner and John Cameron. Notwithstanding the grief and many hardships of the early days the

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early settlers had lots of enjoyment at their dances and other social gatherings, frequently driving as far as fifteen miles to these affairs.

Mr. Harsh was married in 1884 to Miss Mame Bowman, a daughter of Valentine and Martha (Patterson) Bowman. Five children have been born to this union, as follows: Carl, Ross and Dwight, all living in Sycamore township; and Margery and Fern at home. The Harsh family is prominent in Butler county, and Mr. Harsh is one of our most successful citizens.

Eli W. Campbell, now deceased, was a Kansas pioneer and Civil war veteran and one of the early settlers of Sycamore township. Eli W. Campbell was a native of Ohio, born October 7, 1843. He was reared amidst the rural surroundings of the early days in Ohio, and received a common school edu- cation. He enlisted in the early part of the Civil war and served until the close of that great conflict, being in the army about four years.

After the close of the war, Mr. Campbell went West, and in 1869 he was united in mar- riage in Wisconsin to Miss Sarah E. Soper. She was born in Brooking, N. Y., in 1850, a daughter of Platt and Mary Ann Soper. In 1871 Mr. and Mrs. Campbell came to Kansas and settled in Florence. They lived in Marion county for eleven years, and in 1882 came to Butler county and located at Sycamore Springs. Here he en- ELI W. CAMPBELL gaged in the huckster business and had customers all the way from El Dorado to Cottonwood Falls. While Mr. Campbell was out on the road with the wagon, serving customers, Mrs. Campbell attended to the store which they kept in Sycamore Springs. She was also postmistress at Sycamore Springs, which at that time was quite a settlement. While keeping store at Sycamore Springs, Mrs. Campbell sold supplies to hun- dreds of immigrants and others who passed over this California trail. Sycamore Springs was a favorite camping place for travelers on account of its far-famed good water. Indians also camped in this vicinity fre- quently, in the early days.

Mr. Campbell was in bad health for a number of years, and, in fact, he was never robust after coming out of the army, and eventually was

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forced to retire many years before his death, which occurred March II, 1913. Therefore, it will be seen that the chief burden of maintaining a home fell to Mrs. Campbell, even before her husband's death. She was equal to the occasion, however, and is one of the best business women in Butler county, and, through her own efforts, has accumulated con- siderable property. And while she has been successful in a business way, she has also been a potent factor in shaping the civic and social life of Sycamore township. She has a rich store of early day remi- niscences which she relates in a most entertaining manner.

To Mr. and Mrs. Campbell were born the following children : Frank G., Wichita, Kans .; Mrs. May Cory, Sedan, Kans .; Mrs. Katie Diller, Cassoday, Kans .; Arthur P., Wichita, Kans., and Mrs. Edna Coffelt, Cassoday, Kans. The Campbell family is well known and highly re- spected. .

Joseph H. Myers is a native son of Sycamore township, born of pioneer parents. Mr. Myers was born near Sycamore Springs, May 20, 1881, and is a son of Sylvester and Mary A. (Stuller) Myers, both natives of Carroll county, Ohio. They were the parents of nine children, three boys and six girls, only two of whom are now living: John, who resides at Pratt, Kans. and Joseph H., the subject of this sketch. The parents lo- cated in Sycamore township in 1870, where the father and George Snive- ly bought 160 acres of land which was later traded to Leonard Harsh for eighty acres and is now a part of Joseph H. Myers' farm. The father found some timber along the creek with which to build the one-room, frame, 14x14-foot cabin, and hauled boards for it from Emporia.

The Myers family met with much discouragement during the first few years of life in the new country. However, one of their greatest mis- fortunes was the death of three of their children shortly after coming here. Life during the first years in Butler county was a serious struggle, the average settler had very little produce for sale, and there was prac- tically no market for what he did have. The Myers family sold eggs in El Dorado for three cents per dozen, with which to buy groceries and the price of the latter was altogether out of proportion to the price which they received for eggs and other farm produce, and very much in accord with the present high cost of living or more so.

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History of Butler County Kansas, Part 80

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