History of Butler County Kansas, Part 85

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

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Herman T. Foskett was one of a family of four children born to Fordyce D. and Lydia (Phillips) Foskett, as follows: Amarilla, now the widow of H. H. Hulbert, a pioneer settler of Butler county ; Hosea G., deceased ; Ella C. married P. W. Crawford, Seville, Ohio, and Ifer- man T., the subject of this sketch. About ten years after the death of the husband and father, Mrs. Foskett and her son, Herman T., then a boy about sixteen years of age, Jeft Ohio and came to Kansas, coming as far as Florence by rail. They lived about a year with Mrs. Foskett's daughter, Mrs. H. H. Hulbert, and in 1872 homesteaded a claim on section 17, Faidview township. They built a small cabin, 12x14 feet, and bought a yoke of oxen and a wagon for $110. Mrs. Foskett wanted a cow and started out with her ox team and boy in search of some one who had a cow for sale. She was directed to a Mrs. Cowley, who lived two miles north of El Dorado, where she bought a cow, for which she paid $50, $5 for a pig. and fifty cents each for three hens and a rooster. When Mrs. Foskett had loaded her pig and chickens in the wagon and tied the cow behind the wagon and was ready to start with her oxen, Mrs. Cowley remarked that when she reached home she could imagine that her place was well stocked, that the bawling of the cow, the bleating of the calf, the cackling of the hens, and the crowing of the rooster ought to make her think that she was living on a real farm.

Thus Herman Foskett and his mother started in the stock business in Fairview township, and in a few years they were well on the road to prosperity. They have always raised considerable stock and conducted

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quite a large dairy, keeping from eighteen to twenty cows. Mrs. Fos- kett's butter was always in demand and she found a ready sale at top prices for it. Even during grasshopper year, when other settlers were hard up, and many were forced to accept aid, the Fosketts were in a fairly prosperous condition. They had a nice orchard of about 100 trees when the grasshoppers came, and in order to save the trees from de- vastation, Mrs. Foskett went from time to time among them, shaking the grasshoppers off each tree and succeeded in saving the trees from complete destruction, which was the fate of most of the young orchards of the country.

Mrs. Foskett and her son operated the farm jointly until 1907, when Herman bought his mother's quarter and now owns 240 acres of well improved and productive land near Rock creek, a tributary of the Whitewater. Mr. Foskett was married in 1882 to Miss Euretta Ruther- ford, a daughter of Daniel Rutherford, who came to Kansas from south- ern Ohio. To Mr. and Mrs Foskett have been born two children : Edith L .. deceased, and Ethel Lydia. The Foskett family is well known in Butler county and are of the representatives of this county.

H. Charles Stephens, a successful farmer and stockman of Fair- mount township, has been brought up in the stock business, and since his boyhood, has been identified with that industry on an extensive scale. Mr. Stephens is a native of Kansas, born at Peabody. Septem- ber 22, 1884. He is the eldest son of Henry and Louisa (Merkle) Steph- ens, the former a native of Germany and the latter of Illinois. Henry Stephens was nine years old when he and his widowed mother immigrat- ed to America and settled in LaPorte county, Indiana. A few years later. they removed to Iroquois county. Illinois. They remained there until about 1872, when Henry Stephens came to Kansas. He was about twenty- one years old then. He bought three quarter sections of land in Marion county, and after improving one quarter, he sold it at a very good profit and later he improved the other two quarters, building a large rock barn and a good residence, making of it the best improved farm in south- western Kansas at that time, and sold it for $10,000, which was consid- ered a high price in those days. Shortly after selling that property, Mr. Stephens bought ten sections of land in Butler and Marion counties and later established what was known as the Stephens Ranch on a part of it in Butler county. He stocked his place and engaged in the cattle busi- ness, following the old ranchers' ideas of handling cattle until 1895. He then conceived the idea of a better plan of conducting the cattle busi- ness. He built an elevator and equipped the place with proper machin- ery for grinding feed. etc., and in 1897, he bought twenty acres of land adjoining the Sante Fe stockyards at Peabody, where he built an eleva- tor with a capacity of 50,000 bushels of grain, and installed modern ma- chinery, and during the next four years, he fed and fitted for market over 6,000 head of cattle, and the combination of his ranch with this plan of feeding proved most profitable. In 1902, Mr. Stephens sold his ele-

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vator and feeding station, at Peabody, to Arnold Berns, who is now con- ducting the business along the plans which Mr. Stephens followed.

After selling the Peabody station, Mr. Stephens and his sons went to Jackson county, Missouri, where they bought 400 acres of land where they established a similar institution, and the youngest son, John Steph- ens, now owns and is operating it, successfully. Henry Stephens was a man of unusual foresight and business capacity. He came to Kansas with about $4,000 capital, and at the time of his death, November, 1913, his estate was conservatively estimated at $175,000.

H. Charles Stephens, whose name introduces this sketch, owns 400 acres in Fairmount township, which is a part of the original Stephens ranch, and is, no doubt, the best equipped ranch for cattle feeding today in Butler county. Ile has a commodious barn, 70x144 feet, grain ele- vator, and grinding machinery. His barn has a capacity of 200 tons of hay, and his stables are capable of accommodating 200 head of cattle. In addition to his extensive cattle feeding business, he is also breeding Percheron horses and mules on a moderate scale. However, cattle and hogs are the chief factors of his business.

Mr. Stephens was married in 1912, to Miss Julia Baird, a native of Comanche county, Kansas, and reared in Wyandotte county. Her fath- er, H. L. Baird, was one of the first homesteaders in Comanche county, coming from Ohio to this State. Mr. and Mrs. Stephens have two chil- dren, H. Charles, Jr., born March 10, 1915, and Alice Louisa, born May 19, 1916.

Thomas J. Whiteside, a pioneer farmer and merchant, now de- ceased, was born in Coshocton county, Ohio, May 22, 1844, a son of Jen- kin and Elizabeth (Neighbor) Whiteside, early settlers of Ohio. Jenkin Whiteside was a native of Tennessee, and a son of James Whiteside who emigrated from Ireland to the United States prior to the American Rev- olution. After coming to the United States James Whiteside, in the course of a few years, went to central Tennessee, where he was married and lived for many years, when he removed to eastern Ohio with his family and settled in the heavily timbered country near Wills Creek. He bought land in Coshocton county from a Philadelphia land company, who had bought a large tract of land when Ohio was still a part of the Northwest Territory. Here James Whiteside spent the remainder of his life.

Jenkin Whiteside was one of their younger children. He was born on the plantation in Tennessee and was a young man when his parents went to Ohio. He was married in Ohio to Elizabeth Neighbor, a native of Pennsylvania, her parents being of German descent. Jenkin White- side and wife were the parents of nine children, of whom Thomas J. was the fourth in order of birth. He grew to manhood on the farm in Co- shocton county and attended the district schools. On August 22, 1862, he enlisted in company A. Eighty-eighth regiment, Ohio infantry, under the command of Captain Henley. They were of the Home Guard of

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Ohio and had the Knights of the Golden Circle under surveillance. He was discharged July 1, 1865.

Mr. Whiteside was united in marriage to Miss Amanda Jane Roach, a native of Guernsey county, Ohio. She was born January 29, 1847, and was a daughter of William and Mary (Cochran) Roach, na- tives of Ohio. The Roach family came from Dublin, Ireland. Mary Cochran was a daughter of William Cochran. After their marriage Thomas J. Whiteside and his wife settled on a farm in Coshocton county and lived in Coshocton and Guernsey counties about three years, and in the fall of 1869 went to Iowa. In April, 1871, they started in a covered wagon to Kansas. The journey required about four weeks over bad roads and in wet weather and after reaching Humboldt, Kans., where the land office was located, they decided to locate in Butler county. After reaching Towanda, the party camped for a few days and Mr. Whiteside located a claim in Murdock township. They built a small sod house and covered it with a wagon cover, and lived in it that fall, when they moved into a more pretentious home where they lived until the fall of 1874.

After the ravages of the grasshoppers, and a deed for the farm was secured from the Government, the family started for Ohio and, after a stay of about a year in Illinois, they reached Ohio. In 1879 they re- turned to the Kansas farm where they lived until 1888, when they re- moved to Brainerd, where Mr. Whiteside owned a livery stable and gen- eral store. After the railroad was built through Whitewater, the livery stable was traded for land in Missouri and the family moved to Maries county, Missouri, where Mr. Whiteside died March 8, 1893, when the family returned to Butler county.

Mr. and Mrs. Whiteside were the parents of the following children : U. G., born February 22, 1866, Butler county : William C., born August 7. 1868, Whitewater, Kans. ; Bertha E., born August 29, 1871, and died June 6, 1896; E. W., born September 21, 1873. Butler county, Kansas : Frank M., born January 20. 1877, died February 2, 1900: Thomas and Jennie, twins, born November 10, 1879, Jennie is now the wife of Roy Nye, Butler county. Kansas ; John, born December 16, 1882; Olive M., born May 9. 1885, married C. H. Shuman, Butler county ; Mary T., born December 5. 1887, married J. C. Fresh, El Dorado, Kans. All the members of the Whiteside family are industrions, thrifty and prominent in Butler county.

H. H. Hulburt, a pioneer of Butler county, and an early day edu- cator. now deceased, was born near Seville, Medina county, Ohio, March 22, 1848. His parents were pioneers of the western reserve, a land grant located in the northern part of Ohio.

H. H. Hulburt was reared in Medina county, Ohio, and received a good common school education. On March 22, 1868, he was united in marriage, in Medina county, Ohio, with Miss Amarilla Norton Fos- kett, a daughter of Fordyce and Lydia Foskett, both descendants of pioneer American families. After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Hul-

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burt settled at Seville, Ohio, where Mr. Hulburt followed school teach- ing, principally, in the winter time, and farmed during the summer sea- sons.

In the spring of 1871, the Hulburt family came to Kansas, coming as far as Emporia by rail where they took the stage coach for El Do- rado, arriving at the latter place at 1:30 in the morning. Shortly after coming here, they homesteaded in Fairview township, their claim being the northeast quarter of section 26. IIere they built a little cabin 12X14 feet, and began life on the plains of Butler county. In the fall of that year, Mr. Hulburt was employed to teach a school in Plum Grove town- ship, on the present site of Potwin, and for the next fifteen years, he was one of Butler county's well known and successful school teachers. He was also engaged in farming, although naturally, he was inclined to intellectual pursuits, and never ceased to be a student throughout his life. He was the first clerk of Fairview township. He died July 6, 1898. He was a man of deep, religious convictions, a member of the Baptist church, and a good citizen.

After the death of Mr. Hulburt, Mrs. Hulburt continued the busi- ness of the place with the same uniform success, with which it had been previously conducted. Shortly before Mr. Hulburt's death they had bought eighty acres more, for which they had gone into debt. She soon paid out on this, and has prospered and made money. She has raised cattle extensively, and gone into dairying to quite an extent, and has won a reputation in that line of work for making a very superior grade of butter. She is a woman of unusual business ability, and has success- fully carried out any projects which she has undertaken. She has been a member of the Baptist church for many years, and has been very active in the work of that denomination.

To Mr. and Mrs. Hulburt have been born five children, as follows: R. C., farmer. Fairview township: Grace, married Carl Parsley, and they live near El Dorado; Chester, lives at Meade, Mcade county ; 'Laura, deceased, and two other children who died in infancy. The Hul- burt family are well known in Butler county, and belong to the pio- neers who reclaimed Butler county, from the great American desert. and builded one of the great counties in the State of Kansas.

J. C. Ferguson, a Butler county pioneer, who settled in the vicinity of Whitewater over forty-five years ago, is a native of Kentucky. He was born near Hartford. Ohio county, October 5, 1841, and is a son of John E. and Christine (Taylor) Ferguson, both also natives of Ohio county, Kentucky. John C. was the youngest of a family of six children, and he and his brother, G. W., are the only members of the family now living.

John C. Ferguson remained in his native State until 1865, when he removed to Illinois, locating in Macon county. At that time land could be bought in that part of Illinois for from $12 to $16 per acre, and Mr. Ferguson speculated some in city and suburban real estate during his res-

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idence of five or six years in Decatur, Il1. In 1870 he came to Kansas and settled on eighty acres of land in Butler county, which is now occuiped by a part of the city of Whitewater. He remained there but a short time, however, when he filed on a quarter section, one mile east of the present site of Whitewater. His claim was "jumped," and for a number of years the matter was in litigation in the Butler county courts, and finally Mr. Ferguson received his land patent. He says that the litiga- tion cost him considerably more than the land was worth at that time, but that he felt his claim to be a just one, and fought it out, regardless of costs or consequences, and won. He resided on this claim for a number of years when he sold it and bought some school land in Harvey county where he was successfully engaged in farming until 1908, when he re- moved to Whitewater where he has since resided, and is one of the sub- stantial men of the community.

Mr. Ferguson was married October 22, 1879, to Miss Mattie E. Pershing, a native of Pennsylvania, and a daughter of Isaac and Sarah Pershing, also natives of Pennsylvania. The Pershing family removed from Pennsylvania to Illinois, locating in Hancock county in 1855, when Mrs. Ferguson was four years of age. In 1875 they came to Kansas, lo- cating in Butler county. Mrs. Ferguson died September 9, 1907. She belonged to that high type of American pioneer women and lived a con- sistent Christian life. Mr. Ferguson is a Democrat, and is inclined to liberality and independence in his political views. Mr. Ferguson passed through the many hardships, incident to pioneer life, nearly a half century ago. When he came to Kansas, Butler county was almost in its primitive state, and when he reached here he had less than $25, but he was ready and willing to work for success, and he has succeeded. He is a man of strong will and tenacity of purpose when he believes he is right; and when he sets out to accomplish a certain thing, he is not easily pursuaded to abandon his purpose. He has been a student of men and affairs all his life, and possesses a broad field of human knowledge, gathered from the experience of a lifetime.

Wellington Sowers, a prominent Butler county farmer and stock- man who has been a conspicuous success, was born in Coshocton coun- ty, Ohio. His parents were Adam and Elizabeth (Malloy) Sowers, the former a native of Germany. They were the parents of four children, as follows: Adam M., died at Leon, Kans., at the age of forty-one, and left a widow, who now resides in Oklahoma ; Wellington S., the subject of this sketch ; Frank, Warsaw, Ohio, and Mrs. Laura Lowery, Warsaw, Ohio.

Wellington Sowers was educated in the common schools of his na- tive State, and after leaving school, worked by the month for thirteen years in Ohio and Kansas, and worked during that time for only two or three men. He says he "stole" the last employer's girl, for whom he worked, and has her yet. Mr. Sowers came to Kansas in 1885 and bought 520 acres in Bloomington township where he now lives. Since then, he has added 240 acres more to his holdings in Bloomington and

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Logan townships, and has followed farming and stock raising. His places are well improved with good dwelling houses, barns, feed gran- aries, etc. He usually keeps about 100 head of cattle, among which are some registered shorthorns, and twenty head of horses and mules, and sells a carload, or more, of hogs annually.

Mr. Sowers was married in April, 1890, to Mollie Butts of Little Walnut township. Her father, D. G. Butts, came to Butler county in 1870, and located in Spring township. He died in May, 1915. He was a prominent stockman and farmer, and well known throughout southern Kansas. Her mother, Rachel Butts, lives on the home farm.

Mr. and Mrs. Sowers have one son, Archie G., who married Grace Snodgrass, of Little Walnut. They are living on the home place in Bloomington township. Mr. Sowers is a progressive, public spirited citizen, and belongs to that type of men who do things every day. To the industry and ability of such men, Butler county owes its greatness.

P. R. Kinsey, a leading merchant of Rose Hill, Kans., was born in Ohio, October 25. 1862. He is a son of A. E. and Sarah (Rimes) Kin- sey, the former a native of Ohio, and the latter of Pennsylvania. They were the parents of eight children, as follows: William, janitor of the Washington school, Wichita, Kans .; James L., died in Leadville, Colo., during Leadville gold excitement; Mrs. Branson, of Wichita, Kans. ; P. R., the subject of this sketch; Charles E., Kansas City, Mo .; Mrs. Elizabeth Myers, Wichita, Kans .; Mrs. Sarah E. Landon, Derby Kans., and Albert, Topeka, Kans.

P. R. Kinsey came to Kansas with his parents in 1876; they located in Gypsum township, Sedgwick county, and bought 160 acres of school land. His parents spent their lives there. P. R. followed farming on his father's farm for a number of years, and in 1887, bought eighty acres, one mile north of Rose Hill. Since then he has bought eighty acres, which he sold a few years ago. Mrs. Kinsey inherited 160 acres of valuable land, making 240 acres in all. Mr. Kinsey has followed gen- eral farming and specialized rather in stock ; he fed a carload of cattle every year, buying and raising calves, which he found to be very profit- able. Mr. Kinsey left the farm in 1901, and came to Rose Hill, Kans., where he bought one-half interest in the Hall & Canfield store. The next fall, he bought Mr. Hall's interest, and has since been the sole owner and proprietor. He carries a stock of general merchandise which is kept up to the minute. He has a large patronage, which has been won by fair dealing and honest methods.

Mr. Kinsey was married November 28, 1886, to Mary J. King of Pleasant township. Her father, George King, was a pioneer of 1873. He was a native of Bedfordshire, near London, England, and died at Rose Hill, Kans., February 4, 1910, and is buried in Rose [Till cemetery. Her mother, Frances Jane Axtell, was also a native of Bedfordshire. England, and died at Rose Hill, February 5, 1907. Mr. King's hardest day's work, says his daughter, was when he walked eighteen miles to

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Wichita, cut a cord of wood and walked back home. The King family suffered many hardships in the pioneer days. The father cut wood on the Walnut river and hauled it with a team of horses to Wichita, where he sold it for $1.50 per cord. As Mr. Kinsey says, "That was not mak- ing money fast, but it kept them from starving."

Mrs. Kinsey had the dangerous and unusual experience of being bitten by a rattlesnake when a young girl. She was on the home place in Pleasant township, helping her father load oats at the time. The snake was thrown on the wagon with the oats where the girl was, and the reptile struck her three times with its poisonous fangs. Her father drove rapidly home, and then rushed to a neighbor, Mr. Sampson, one and one-half miles away for whiskey which he kept in the house. She lay for a week without being moved, and it was a miracle that her life was saved. She taught school for six years in Butler and Sedgwick counties, prior to her marriage. Her parents came direct from Eng- land and suffered many hardships before they got a foothold in the new country.

Charles V. Cain, a Civil war veteran and early settler who has been a dominant factor in the development of Butler county, is a native of New York. He was born in Elmira, November 12, 1840, a son of Wil- liam H. and Lucinda (Valleau) Cain, both natives of New York. William H. Cain was born in Oneida county, October 20, 1800, and died October 20, 1846. Lucinda Valleau was born in Tompkins county, No- vember II. 1813, and was a daughter of Theodore and Elizabeth (Lin- derman) Valleau, the father being a native of Orange county, New York, and the mother of Tompkins county. The Linderman family are of German descent, and the Valleaus are descendants of French Hugue- not stock, whose ancestors settled in North Carolina early in the eigh- teenth century. Lucinda (Valleau) Cain died in Butler county, Septem- ber 15, 1899, at the home of her son, William H. Cain.

Charles V. Cain was six years old when his father died, and in 1852, when he was twelve years of age, his mother removed with her family to Ann Arbor, Mich. About a year later young Cain went to live with a sister of his father in Dupage county, Illinois. After remaining there about three years he returned to New York and worked on a farm at Horseheads, near his old home. In 1859, he went to Rockford, Ill .. and the following spring went to Springfield, Ill. He was employed there by an old Kentuckian named Jack North. It will be remembered that Springfield was the home of Lincoln, and young Cain, who was an en- thusiastic Republican, attended the ratification rally at Springfield, after the nomination of Lincoln and he was rewarded for his enthusiasm by his Kentucky employer, the next morning, by being "fired." He then re- turned to Rockford and entered the employ of F. H. Manny, a manu- facturer of reapers who was a competitor of Cyrus McCormick.

He remained there until 1861, and a year later returned to Rockford, and on August 8. 1862, enlisted in Company K, Seventy-fourth regiment,

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Illinois infantry. His company was assembled at Rockford, and on Sep- tember 28, went to Louisville, Ky., under the command of General Buell. They participated in the battles of Perryville and Nashville, after which Mr. Cain was taken ill and sent to a hospital where he remained until March, 1863. He rejoined his regiment at Murfreesboro in June, 1863, and afterwards guarded supply trains near Chattanooga, in the Sequa Tchie Valley. After the battle of Chickamauga his command joined the main army at Chattanooga and took part in that battle and also the bat- tle of Missionary Ridge, and then was sent to Knoxville to the relief of General Burnside. During the winter of 1863 and 1864 he was detailed on foraging expeditions, and to operate grist mills in eastern Tennessee. They then went with Sherman and he was at the battle of Dalton and a number of other engagements along the line of that famous March, and after the fall of Atlanta, they were sent back to Nashville, and took part in the battles of Franklin and Nashville. On October 28, 1864, he was granted a thirty day furlough and upon his return served in the expedi- tion in pursuit of the Confederate general Hood, and spent the winter of 1864 and 1865 at Huntsville, Ala., and in the spring of 1865, started on a march north, through the mountains of Tennessee. and was in that locality when Lee surrendered. He was then ordered back to Nashville, where he was mustered out in June, 1865, and discharged at Chicago. I11.

Mr. Cain then returned to Dupage county, Illinois, where he re- mained until 1870, when he came to Butler county, Kansas, and bought 480 acres of school land for $4 per acre. Mr. Cain came to Kansas with a considerable amount of capital, compared with other settlers of that time, and was able to engage in farming and stock raising on quite an extensive scale, from the start. In the early days he gave employ- ment to a large number of men in connection with his various enter- prises and operations, and in that way helped the new country in a ma- terial way. He carried on large farming operations and prospered in the cattle business. In 1901. he sold most of his land, and since that time has lived in Potwin, practically retired.

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History of Butler County Kansas, Part 85

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