USA > Kansas > Johnson County > History of Johnson County, Kansas > Part 26
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Harry Bradshaw is the leading household furnishing goods dealer of Olathe, Kan. The career of Harry Bradshaw is a striking example of what the American boy can accomplish by industry and determination under adverse circumstances. He was born in Buchanan county, Mis- souri, March 29, 1860, son of John and Sabrina (Sparks) Bradshaw, both natives of Kentucky. The father died when Harry was two years old, and the mother married Henry J. Culp, who is now deceased. The mother resides in Kansas City, Kan., and is eighty-four years old. She
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comes from a family noted for their longevity, her mother being ninety- nine years and eight months old when she died. Harry Bradshaw was the only child born to his parents. The family came to Johnson county in 1867, crossing the Kaw river on a ferry boat and located near De- Soto. Harry was never especially devoted to his step-father, and when a child of only nine years of age, left home and notwithstanding that he was frail and delicate and a victim of rheumatism at that early age, he went to work for farmers in the neighborhood and on many occasions hoed corn on crutches for fifteen cents a day. He worked as a farm laborer until he was twenty-one years old, sometimes attending school during the winter months. He then came to Olathe and entered the employ of E. S. Saunders, as a piano and sewing machine salesman in Johnson county and for fourteen years followed that line of work for Mr. Saunders, and was a remarkable success as a salesman. He has driven every inch of road in Johnson county and perhaps is more famil- iar with every locality in the county than any other man within its bor- ders. In 1895 he entered the employ of Willis Keefer, as clerk, and after remaining there for a time, was engaged in the livery business for a year. He then entered the employ of John Elder in the furniture busi- ness, and in 1903 engaged in the household furnishing business for him- self. He started in a small way but under his capable management his business had a rapid development. His entire capital, twelve years ago, consisted of $400 in cash, and today he has the largest furniture stock in Johnson county and does a large cash and installment business. His store is located in the Hyre building on East Park Street and has a floor space of over 8,000 feet. Mr. Bradshaw was united in marriage in 1882 to Miss Lilly McKnight. She was born near Lawrence, Kan., and is a daughter of John McKnight, a native of Illinois and one of the pioneer settlers of the Kaw valley. He homesteaded the place where Mrs. Bradshaw was born and spent his life there. His wife died in Olathe some years after his death. To Mr. and Mrs. Bradshaw have been born two children: Sadie, now Mrs. Henry Gardner, of Olathe, and John O. Both Mr. Gardner and John O. are employed in Mr. Brad- shaw's furniture store. Mr. Bradshaw is a Republican and has served as constable and been under-sheriff of Johnson county. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Methodist Episcopal church.
Deitrich Busch is one of Johnson county's most successful farmers, and resides at Lenexa. He was born in Brunswick, Germany, January I, 1853, a son of John and Zena (Bohlman) Busch. The parents spent their lives in their native land and made farming their life occupation. Four brothers of the Busch family came to America. Henry came in 1863 and located in Cincinnati, Ohio, Hermann came with Henry and located in Preble county, Ohio, and another brother, Caspar, who is now a prosperous farmer in Olathe township, immigrated to America and
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joined the other two brothers at Cincinnati, and in 1869 Deitrich came to Preble county, Ohio, where the other three brothers had located in the meantime. Deitrich Busch remained in Preble county until 1872, when he came to Kansas, locating in Johnson county. When he arrived here he had very little money, perhaps about $200. The father had given each of the boys $50 when they left home and Deitrich had saved a little out of his earnings while in Ohio. He worked for his brother, Herman, for two years after coming to Kansas, and then worked for six months for W. P. Haskins, and then worked for his brother, Caspar Busch, for seven years. He first bought forty acres of land for $850 and has continued to buy additional land and add to his original holdings until he now owns two farms in Shawnee township, one of 160 and the other of 120 acres. This land cost him in different lots, at various times, from $40 to $70 per acre, and at the lowest estimate, it would now be worth $125 per acre. Both his farms are well improved, with good buildings, and under an excellent state of cultivation ; and in appearance these places have few equals, and no superiors, in Johnson county. Mr. Busch now makes his home at Lenexa, where he has a nice residence, and has lived there since 1914. He was married, in 1882, to Miss Katheryn Brandt, a native of Germany, born in 1860, and came to America in 1880, and to this union have been born three children, as fol- lows: Zena, who married Jesse Moody, of Shawnee township, and they have one child, Katheryn ; John, farmer near Lenexa, married Flor- ence Klingler and they have two children, Lois Grace and Robert John; and Herman, farmer near Lenexa, married Edria Soller; a son, Richard Henry, was born to them September 4, 1915. Mr. Busch is one of John- son county's foremost citizens who by his industry and enterprise has made himself what he is today.
Edwin A. Legler, former postmaster and a well known merchant of Lenexa, Kan., is a native of Johnson county. He was born on a farm near Lenexa, December 7, 1868, and is a son of Fred and Martha Jane (Spalding) Legler, the former a native of St. Louis, born in 1847, and the latter of Tennessee, born in 1848. Fred Legler, the father, was a son of Adam and Elizabeth Legler. Adam Legler died in Johnson county in 1893. He was a native of Switzerland and immigrated to America when a young man and first settled in St. Louis, Mo., where he worked at his trade. He was a cheesemaker. In 1864, he came to Kansas, com- ing up the Missouri river by boat. He located in Shawnee township, Johnson county, about a mile east of Lenexa. He bought land from the Shawnee Indians when he came here and remained on his original homestead until his death; his wife also died on the old home farm. Fred Legler, son of Adam Legler, settled on a farm adjoining his father's place and resided there until 1912, when he removed to Lenexa. He still owns his farm which is well improved and contains 160 acres ; besides this he owns considerable town property in Lenexa. Edwin
(17)
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A. Legler is one of a family of four children, born to Fred and Martha Jane (Spalding) Legler, as follows: Edwin A., the subject of this sketch; Adolphus, station agent for the Missouri, Kansas & Texas rail- road, at Eddy, Tex .; Frank, McPherson, Kan., and Mrs. Elizabeth Starr, who resides with her parents. Edwin A. Legler received his education in the district schools of Johnson county and Central Wesleyan College, Warrenton, Mo. He farmed for some years and was a telegraph opera- tor for a time, and in 1893 engaged in the mercantile business at Lenexa, Kan., and has been in business there longer than any other merchant. Mr. Legler started in business with very limited capital. He had only $128.00 in cash when he opened his store at Lenexa, but he has prospered and added to his stock and today is one of the extensive merchants of Johnson county. By close application to business and following honest methods, he has won the confidence of the public and built up a large trade. He owns his own store building and considerable other town property in Lenexa. He takes a deep interest in the development of the town of Lenexa because he and Lenexa have grown up together, and have more than a passing interest in each other. He has been a factor in the development of the town ever since it started. He was appointed postmaster of Lenexa, March 2, 1903, and served until Febru- ary 1, 1915. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is a Republican. Mr. Legler was married, September 15, 1897, to Miss Effie Williams, a native of Lenexa and a daughter of A. P. and Martha Jane Williams. Mr. and Mrs. Legler have one child, Lois Mil- dred, five years of age. One son died in infancy.
Eldon Vincent Knox, chief of the Olathe fire department, is a native son of Johnson county. He was born in Olathe, December 2, 1885, and is a son of William A. and Eliza (Orr) Knox, both natives of Ohio, the former born in 1853 and the latter in 1855. They were married in Illinois and are the parents of six children, five of whom are living, as follows : Maud, married W. G. Tainter and resides at Olathe; Gertrude, married W. B. Rebsamen and resides in Olathe; Edna, married Will Sutton, Kansas City, Mo .; Marie, married Guy Johnson, a farmer north of Olathe, and Eldon Vincent, whose name introduces this review. Eldon Vincent Knox attended the public schools in Olathe and Kansas City, Mo., and worked at various occupations until 1909 when he came to Olathe and entered the employ of Hodges Brothers, where he remained until October, 1912, when he became chief of the Olathe fire depart- ment, and has held that position to the present time. The Olathe fire department is unusual in its efficiency for a town the size of Olathe. They have a high-power automobile hose-truck, which is also equipped with a modern fire-extinguisher and the organization is such that they practically have ten firemen on duty. Added to this equipment and ar- rangement Olathe has a water system with an ample supply of water with high pressure which gives to Olathe, perhaps, the best fire protec-
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tion in the State of Kansas. Mr. Knox was married at Leavenworth, Kan., September 11, 1911, to Miss Carrie Alice Petry. She was a native of Osceola, Mo., born December 2, 1889, and died February 2, 1915, leaving one child, Doris Neoma, born July 22, 1912.
Mr. Knox is a member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, the Independ- ent Order of Odd Fellows, the Kansas Fraternal Citizens and the Masonic lodge. He has been interested in fire protection since his boy- hood and has made a careful study of fire-fighting and fire-prevention in Kansas City and elsewhere, and is especially well equipped in theory. and experience for the position which he holds.
S. E. Wilkinson, a progressive and prosperous business man of Olathe, is a native of the Keystone State. Mr. Wilkinson was born in Meadville, Pa., in 1856, and is a son of S. L. and Mary (Harper) Wilkinson, natives of Pennsylvania. S. E. is one of a family of five children, as follows : Minnie, a teacher of Meadville, Pa .; Edwin, a photographer, Roswell, N. M .; Ella, teacher of domestic science in the State University of Utah ; Maud, a stenographer, of Los Angeles, Cal .; and S. E., the sub- ject of this sketch. S. E. Wilkinson was educated in the public schools of Meadville, Pa., receiving a good high school education. At the age of eighteen he went to LaHarpe, Ill., and learned the tinner's trade, and after having served an apprenticeship, worked at his trade in various parts of Illinois for three or four years. He then went to Missouri and located at Independence where he worked at his trade six months. April 6, 1881, he came to Olathe, and entered the employ of A. J. Clem- mens. He worked at his trade in Olathe until 1900, with the exception of the years 1891-2 when he was in Colorado. In 1900 he opened a tin- shop on South Cherry Street, in partnership with Henry Nowling. They conducted this business for three years when Mr. Wilkinson located at 114 South Cherry Street, where he has since been engaged in business. Shortly after locating at the latter place he added plumbing to his already well-established trade, and today has the leading tinning and plumb- ing business in the city of Olathe. Mr. Wilkinson was united in mar- riage, February 3, 1897, to Miss Susie Welker, of Olathe. She is a native of Cape Girardeau, Mo. Mr. and Mrs. Wilkinson are well known in Olathe and Johnson county and have many friends.
Cal N. Smallwood, of Olathe, was born in Monroe county, Indiana, February 2, 1854, and is a Johnson county pioneer. He came to John- son county when he was a small boy, and has a distinct recollection of the early days in Lexington township, where he attended the pio- neer schools and grew to manhood. He is a son of Alexander and Cas- sinda (Zike) Smallwood, the former a native of North Carolina, born December 9, 1828, and the latter a native of Indiana, born in Monroe county, October 8, 1830. They were the parents of eight children as follows: Enoch, born in 1852, in Monroe county, Indiana; Nathan, born in 1856; Elijah, born in 1857; Rebecca Nichols, born in 1860, lives
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in St. Joseph, Mo .; Ella, born in 1862, died in Johnson county, Kansas ; Alexander, born in 1864; Ellsworth, born in 1869, deceased, and William, born in 1869, also deceased. The Smallwood family came to Kansas in 1865, when Cal N. was a little past ten years of age. They settled in Lex- ington township, and lived on a rented farm, owned by Charles Pellett on Kill creek, for the first season. The following year, the father bought 120 acres of Indian land from Thomas Bone. This was raw, unbroken prairie land and the father built a house, and broke some of the prairie the first year, and proceeded to improve the place and soon made of it a very fine farm, and, under a high state of cultivation. When the Smallwood family settled in Lexington township, there were a great many Indians still in that vicinity, and in the winter of 1867-8, forty or fifty Shawnee Indians camped near their place on Kill creek, before go- ing to their southern reservation. Mr. Smallwood says that he made many trips to De Soto with a small grist of corn, which he carried on horseback to the mill there to be ground into meal, and he recalls with much delight the excellent fishing to be found in the early days in the streams of Lexington township. He says the Indians were failures as farmers in Lexington township, but that the squaws raised small patches of corn, while the Indians traded ponies and hunted. Cal N. Smallwood was married in 1883 to Miss Jennie Russell, of Olathe township, and a member of one of the Johnson county pioneer families. To Mr. and Mrs. Smallwood have been born the following children: Viola, married J. C. Ferguson, Kansas City, Mo .; James Earl, married Lee Barton, of Texas, and they reside in Oklahoma; May, married Jesse McDonald, Olathe; Iva Pearl, married Charles Abell, Olathe, and John, born in 1898, resides in Olathe. Mr. Smallwood knew many of the very first settlers of Lex- ington township, among whom might be mentioned James Hawkins, Penner, Louis Hammer, Charles and Walter Pellett, Tom and Will Reed, and many others whose courage, foresight and endurance made Johnson county what it is today.
J. P. Lesueur, a Johnson county pioneer and one of the successful men of affairs of this county, is now living retired in Olathe. Mr. Lesueur is a native of Kentucky, born November 10, 1836. He is a son of Jasper C. and Catherine (Price) Lesueur. Catherine Price, the mother, was born in Kentucky, in 18II, and was a descendant of a promi- nent Southern family, and a first cousin of Gen. Sterling Price, the well known Confederate general. Jasper C. Lesueur was also a native of Kentucky, his parents being Virginians, and of French descent. He was one of a family of six children, as follows : Norcissa, Eliza, Mary, Susan, Jasper and John. To Jasper C. and Catherine (Price) Lesueur were born the following children : Susan, Mary, Sydney, Bettie, John M. and J. P., the subject of this sketch. J. P. Lesueur was educated in private schools and lived the life of the average boy in the early-day sur- roundings of his Missouri home, until the Civil war broke out. His
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sympathies were with the South by reason of environment and inherit- ance, and it was not by mere accident that he cast his lot with the lost cause. He enlisted at Antioch Church, four miles north of Kansas City, Mo., in the State militia and served under General Price. Later he en- listed in the regular Confederate army, April 1, 1862, at Van Buren, Ark. He served four years in all, and at the close of the war was pa- roled, at Meridian, Miss., in 1865. Mr. Lesueur had a long and event- ful military career, and was a participant in many of the important en- gagements of that great conflict. He was at the battle of Lexington, Mo., Elk Horn Tavern, or Pea Ridge, Ark., Farmington, Tenn., Corinth, Miss., Champion Hill, Miss., Inka, Miss., Grand Gulf, Miss., and many other engagements and skirmishes, besides the memorable siege of Vicksburg, where he was under fire for forty-seven days and nights
continuously. He had been under fire ten consecutive days before that,
Mr. which made fifty-seven days under continuous bombardment. Lesueur's description of the siege of Vicksburg gives a very good idea of the horrors of the war in the sixties. He was wounded at Vicksburg, being struck on the lead by a fragment from a bursting shell. He relates many instances, some pathetic and others humorous, of the days of his military experience. He relates an instance of finding a sentry, who was a raw recruit, asleep on duty one night. Mr. Lesueur took the gun from the sleeping sentinel, and the next day he was ordered to take the senti- nel who had slept on duty to General Price's headquarters, which was about fifteen miles away. General Price asked what the charge was against the soldier, and when told that it was sleeping at his post, while on duty, the general looked the young man in the eye, and said: "Do you know that the penalty for going to sleep while on duty, is death?" Mr. Lesueur says that General Price then proceeded to give the young man one of the most tender and touching lectures on the duties of a sentry that he ever heard fall from the lips of a man, and when he had finished the general turned to Mr. Lesueur and said, "Return him to his command." Two years later while Mr. Lesueur was campaigning in the South a Confederate soldier who recognized him asked if he remem- bered taking a gun from a sleeping sentinel at Horse Creek, Mo., and when Mr. Lesueur answered that he did, the soldier said, "Well, I'm the man, but no d-m man has ever gotten my gun since."
Mr. Lesueur not only experienced four years of real military life, but his home in Clay county, Missouri, was in the heart of the border war which was being waged for a number of years before the Civil war. Mr. Lesueur tells of a visit to his home by Jennison's Jayhawkers. They rode up to his mother's place, and demanded any firearms on the place and other valuables. Mrs. Lesueur had hidden their revolver, and after searching the place the Jayhawkers endeavored to take one of the horses from the place, but the animal seemed to know the nature and intent of the Jayhawker visitors and would not permit itself to be
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caught, and in making its escape from the Jayhawkers the horse jumped over a five-rail fence, and did not show up around the place again for five days. Mr. Lesueur first came to Kansas in 1857, but when he was here the county had not yet been surveyed and he did not remain long, but returned to Clay county, Missouri. After the close of the Civil war, he returned to his Clay county home where he remained un- til 1873 when he came to Johnson county, and bought 320 acres, six miles northwest of Olathe, for which he paid $10 per acre. He improved this place and followed farming and stock raising until 1904 when he sold it and removed to Olathe, and purchased ten and one-half acres within the city limits, which has since been his home. Mr. Lesueur was united in marriage in Clay county, Missouri, March 5, 1867, to Miss Frances Elizabeth Woods, a native of Clay county, whose par- ents were very early settlers of that section. To Mr. and Mrs. Le- sueur have been born eight children, as follows: Mattie, bookkeeper for T. M. Jones, Kansas City, resides in Olathe; Kittie, employed at the Institute for the Blind, Kansas City, Kan .; Nora, clerk in the Kansas City, Kan., postoffice; Nancy Wolverton, who resides in North Dakota ; Mary, resides at home with her parents; H. Clay, farmer in Monticello township; Jasper C., a farmer in Lexington township, and James, also a farmer in Lexington township. The Lesueur family is well known and highly respected in Johnson county. If Mr. or Mrs. Lesureur live until March 5, 1916, they will celebrate their golden wedding anniver- sary.
Charles B. Smith, of Holliday, came to Kansas in 1869 and has spent forty-six years of his life in Johnson county. He is a descendant of pioneer American stock on the maternal side. The Buffington family, that history records as being massacred on Buffington Island in 1778, belonged to the same family from whom Mr. Smith's mother descended. The parents of Charles D. Smith were William L. Smith and Jacy Buf- fington, natives of Indiana. They were the parents of five children, as follows : Charles B., the subject of this sketch; Anna S. Frame, Bonner Springs, Kan .; Jesse, who was killed at the battle of Gettysburg, July I, 1863; Joseph, died near Monticello, 1896; and Lois, died at Monticello in 1896. Charles B. Smith was reared in Indiana, received a common school education and was working on the home farm, and in the spring of 1861, although but seventeen years old, when President Lincoln called for troops to defend the Union, he was one of the first to respond. He enlisted in April and served in the Army of the Potomac, participat- ing in most of the important battles of the war. He served under Gen- erals McClellan, Hooker, Burnside, Meade, Phil Sheridan and Grant. He was at Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, Uniontown, Fredericks- burg (both engagements), Chancellorsville, Culpeper Court House, Gettysburg, Wilderness, and to the best of his knowledge and belief he fired the first shot at the Battle of the. Wilderness. He was also
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at Cold Harbor, Petersburg and on the Wilson raid, down the Roanoke river, then back with the army to the Shenandoah Valley to intercept General Early's army that was marching on Washington. On Sep- tember 16, 1864, he was severely wounded in an engagement with Mose- by's men at Snicker's Gap on the Blue Ridge mountains. After being wounded, he was taken prisoner and after an investigation Moseby's men decided that he was so severely wounded that it would prove fatal, and they were indifferent about guarding him so he succeeded in escap- ing. At the close of the war he returned to Indiana, and in 1869 came to Kansas, and since that time has made his home in Monticello town- ship. Mr. Smith is very familiar with much of the early history of the lower Kaw valley. When he came here he met, and became very well acquainted with John M. Owens, who had lived in this section many years and who was married to a Shawnee woman and lived among the Indians and traded with them and he, at various times, related many 'early historical incidents to Mr. Smith. Owens told him that the flood of 1844 was two feet higher than that of 1903 and that in the flood of 1844 the first mill that was built in Kansas was washed away. This mill was located on Mill creek, on the farm which Charles Ellis now owns, and it was built for the Shawnee Indians by the Government. Owens also claimed that the first wheat grown in Kansas was raised where the Ellis farm now is, in 1844. Charles B. Smith has been twice married, his first wife being Amanda Carbaugh, a native of Indiana, to whom he was married in 1866. Six children were born to this union, as fol- lows: Anna. Forn in Indiana in 1867, died in Monticello, in 1879; Will- iam L., born in 1870, a railroad man, residing at Emporia ; Myrtle, born in 1873, died in Kansas City, Kan., in 1915; Ralph B., born in 1877, resides at Kansas City, Kan., and is an employee of the city ; Daniel, born in 1880, a farmer in Platte county, Missouri, and Bessie, born in 1883, died in 1884. All the children, except Anna, the oldest, were born in Johnson county. The wife and mother of these children died in 1908, and in 1915 Mr. Smith married Mrs. Anna Durcan, of Mound City, Kan. She was born in 1861 and is a native of Madison county, Illinois, and came to Kansas with her parents in 1870.
Patrick H. Murphy, a retired merchant of Spring Hill, Kan., has spent nearly fifty years of his life in the Sunflower State. He was born in County Armagh, Ireland, May 1, 1842, and is a son of James and Mary (McArdle) Murphy, both natives of County Armagh. James Murphy was a son of Peter and Nancy (Finnegan) Murphy. He spent his life in his native land. His wife, Mary McArdle, was a daughter of John Mc- Ardle. Patrick H. Murphy was one of a family of six children. He received a good common school education in his native land. When a boy of ten years old he secured his first position, carrying mail to some private families in Newton-Hamilton. He did this work in connection with attending school. When about fifteen years of age, like many other
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