USA > Kansas > Johnson County > History of Johnson County, Kansas > Part 41
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by fourteen different companies. It seems that each company had a few miles of track which were later consolidated into one company. During the years 1885-6-7 he had charge of the Omaha division of the Missouri Pacific, and was engaged in the construction of that for three years. In 1887 he became general superintendent of the Kansas City, Ft. Scott and Memphis railroad, now the Frisco system, and took charge of the maintenance, operation and machinery, which included everything but the financial department; nearly all of the Birmingham division was constructed while he was superintendent of that road. On July 30, 1895, he resigned on account of failing health and in 1897-8 he acted as agent for the receiver of the Kansas City National Bank. In 1902 Messrs. Keith & Perry prevailed upon him to go to Lufkin, Tex., and take charge of the construction of the Eastern Texas railroad from Lufkin to Ken- nard, and he was the first general superintendent of that railroad and later became its president. He remained there two years. In 1906-7 he had charge of the construction of the Girardeau, St. Louis & Texas rail- way, which is now a part of the Frisco system. For the last five years Mr. Fagan has been connected with the Kansas City Terminal Railway Company as material inspector. In recent years he is not inclined to take on as much railroad grief as he was accustomed to handle in the earlier days when his constitution could stand the strain. From 1869 to 1895 he did not lose over ten days of application to business. He had made his home in Johnson county since 1903. Mr. Fagan was united in marriage July 1, 1860, to Miss Amanda Simonton and they have one child, Cosette, now the wife of S. E. Ferguson, a sketch of whom appears in this volume. Mr. Fagan has never belonged to any lodges except the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and he withdrew from that in 1871 when he became a railroad official, as he thought it might not be consistent or advisable to be a member of that order and serve in the capacity of an official.
Allen R. Millikan, a successful farmer of Olathe township, was born in Johnson county, Kansas, April 5, 1868. He is a son of Branson and Harriet (Shoop) Millikan, both natives of Indiana. Branson Millikan first came to Johnson county, Kansas, in the fall of 1857. The following spring he brought his family here and preempted land. They came by river steamboat, landing at Westport, Mo. Branson Millikan was a successful farmer and spent his life in that occupation after coming to Johnson county. He died in 1890 and his wife died in 1903, and their remains are buried in Olathe cemetery. Allen R. Millikan was reared to manhood in Johnson county and educated in the Lone Elm school district and has made farming his principal occupation. He has a fine farm of 160 acres, located in Olathe township about a mile west of Bonita. This is the place that his father homesteaded in 1858. It is one of the best improved farms in the county and presents a beautiful appearance, with its large modern residence surrounded by a beautiful lawn studded
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here and there with imposing evergreens. Mr. Millikan is an up-to-date farmer and has been very successful. He was married in April, 1894, to Miss Helen Kelly, a daughter of Alexander Kelly, a Johnson county pio- neer, the personal history of whom appears in this volume in connec- tion with the history of the Kelly family. To Mr. and Mrs. Millikan have been born three children, as follows: Madeline; Branson and Will- iam Allen. Mr. Millikan is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows of Olathe, No. 59, joining in 1892, and belongs to the Grange at Lone Elm, joining this order in 1886. All the improvements on his farm except the house which was built in 1884, have been made by Allen R. Millikan. Mr. Millikan is an extensive feeder of cattle and hogs and has a silo 16x33 feet and a 40x60 feet concrete feeding floor and a shed over a part of the floor is 24x60 feet.
John R. Thorne, secretary of the Patrons' Fire and Tornado Associa- tion, Olathe, Kan., is a veteran of the Spanish-American war and former county attorney of Johnson county. He was born at Gardner, Kan., De- cember 17, 1873. and is a son of George A. and Emma (Fulcher) Thorne, the former a native of New Hampshire and the latter of Ohio. George A. Thorne was a son of Rufus Thorne, and when a boy came west with his parents who located at Detroit, Mich., for a time and later removed to Monmouth, Ill. The family resided there for a time and Rufus Thorne served as postmaster of that place. He was a veteran of the Mexican war. In 1857 the Thorne family came to Kansas, locating near where Gardner now stands and Rufus Thorne and his son, George A., both took up homesteads. They drove the entire distance from Monmouth, Illinois, to Johnson county with an ox team and prairie schooner and were among the very first settlers of Johnson county. Even ox teams were scarce in those days, and for a number of years in the early days they broke prairie for the settlers and were also engaged in freight- ing across the plains. George A. Thorne made four trips, one to Salt Lake City, one to Ft. Laramie, Wyo., and two to Santa Fe, N. M. When the Civil war broke out, he enlisted at Paola in August, 1862, in Company I, Twelfth regiment, Kansas infantry, and served three years, being mustered out in August, 1865. At the close of the war he returned to Johnson county and was engaged in farming near Gardner, with the exception of the last few years of his life which he spent in retirement. He died October 1, 1912, aged seventy-six years. His wife died in June, 1895, aged forty-six. They were the parents of seven children, as follows: Alice M. married T. B. Ott, Gardner, Kan .; Eva F. married W. A. Jarboe, Olathe, Kan .; John R., the subject of this sketch; George A., Jr., married Edna Armstrong, resides at Howard, Colo .; Edgar F. married Ella Gary and resides at Smuggler, Colo .; Charles F. married Lydia Upchurch and resides at Silverton, Ore., and Bert W. married Nellie J. Atwood and resides at Smuggler, Colo. John A. Thorne was educated in the district
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schools of Gardner township and the Gardner High School. In 1894 he engaged in teaching in Johnson county and followed that occupation until the breaking out of the Spanish-American war, when he enlisted at Paola, Kan., June 14, 1898, in Company I, Twentieth Kansas regi- ment, and served with that famous Funston regiment from Kansas, throughout the entire campaign in the Philippine Islands. They first went directly to San Francisco where they remained in camp until Octo- ber, when they embarked on the U. S. transport "Indiana," bound for the Philippines. Mr. Thorne was with his regiment in every engage- ment in which they participated as follows: Philippine insurrection, February 4, 5 and 6; Caloocan, February 10; defense of Caloocan, Feb- ruary II to March 24; battle of Tullojan River, March 25; Polo, March 25; Malinta, March 25; Marilao, March 27; outpost skirmishes, March 28; Battle of Bocava, March 29; Guiguinto, March 29; advance on Malolas, March 30 and 31 ; defense of Malolas, April I to 24; battle of Bagbag River, April 25; Rio Grande, April 26 and 27; Santo Tomas, May 4; defense of San Fernando, May 6 to June 25; batttle of Bocolor, May 24; engagement north of San Fernando, June 16; recon- noisance of Santo Rita, May 25; Bulacan, April I, and Paranique, August 2. Mr. Thorne was discharged October 24, 1899, at San Francisco, Calif., and returned to Johnson county. In the fall of 1900 he was elected clerk of the district court and reelected to that office in 1902, serving four years. During that time he also read law in the Kansas City Law School for two years and at the expiration of his term of office entered Kansas University at Lawrence and was graduated in the class of 1906, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He was then admitted to the bar and engaged in the practice of his profession at Olathe. In the fall of 1906, he was elected county attorney of Johnson county, serving one term. He then followed the practice of his profession until 1914 when he became secretary of the Patrons' Fire and Tornado Association and has since served in that capacity. Mr. Thorne was married June 4, 1901, to Miss Ada, daughter of S. J. Cham- berlain, of Gardner, Kan. She was born near Spring Hill. her parents having settled in that part of the county in the early seventies. To Mr. and Mrs. Thorne has been born one child, Robert Lane. Mr. Thorne is a member of the Masonic lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, No. 19, Olathe, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Olathe Grange. Both he and Mrs. Thorne are members of the Order of the Eeastern Star and the Presbyterian church, in which Mr. Thorne has been an elder for the past ten years.
Capt. Emanuel Clark, a Civil war veteran who has been prominently identified with the development of Johnson county for fifty years, is a native of Pennsylvania. He was born on the banks of the Juniata river in Huntington county, March 13, 1830, and is a son of Thomas and Mary E. (Knoblach) Clark, the former a native of Huntington
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county, Pennsylvania, and the latter of Bedford county, and both de- scendants of old Maryland stock, the former of English and the latter of German descent. George Knoblach, grandfather of Mr. Clark, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. The Clark family removed from Pennsylvania to Union county, Ohio, in 1840. The father followed farming there until 1866 when he came to Kansas, locating near Gard- ner and was successfully engaged in farming for a number of years. He died in 1894, aged ninety years and six months. The mother passed away in 1886, aged eighty-nine. They were the parents of four chil- dren : Emmanuel, the subject of this sketch, and three sisters, who are now deceased. Emanuel Clark received his education in the public schools and at Mechanicsburg Academy, Mechanicsburg, Ohio, where he was graduated in the class of 1852. He followed teaching for eight years in Logan, Champaign and Union counties, Ohio, and when the Civil war broke out he enlisted at Raymond, Ohio, July 20, 1861, and became a sergeant in Company F, Thirty-first regiment, Ohio infantry. His first service was a detail assignment as brigade sergeant, some- times called master mechanic. He had charge of all the transportation, including wagon making and all marching equipment, horse-shoeing, etc. He had charge of from 100 to 400 workmen in his department. At one time he had 1,700 wagons. He remained in the position of mas- ter mechanic one year, during which time he was in Kentucky and Ten- nessee. Promotion did not come fast enough in that line and he re- turned to his regiment and was appointed orderly sergeant. He par- ticipated in the battles of Pittsburgh Landing, Murfreesboro, Tullahoma, Chickamauga, where he received a bayonet wound in his left side, Mis- sionary Ridge, Kingston, Buzzard's Roost and Resaca. He was also severely wounded at Resaca, receiving a gunshot wound through the heavy muscle of the left arm, also a gunshot wound in the left knee and was also struck by fragments from an exploding shell on the right knee, also shot in the left side over the heart, the ball following a down- ward course for about fourteen inches and was cut out in the field hos- pital. After having recovered from his wounds sufficiently he was detailed on a recruiting expedition for a time. He was promoted to sergeant major of the regiment on the field of Chickamauga for valorous conduct in action and on December 19, 1863, was commissioned second lieutenant and ten days later was promoted to first lieutenant. As second lieutenant he served in Company D, and as first liutenant in Company K, Thirty-first regiment, Ohio infantry. After fully recover- ing from his wounds received at Resaca, he rejoined his regiment August 17, 1864, on the Chattahoochee river, near Atlanta, and was appointed regimental quartermaster, ranking as first lieutenant. After a month he resigned this position to become adjutant of the regiment and served in that capacity until January 1, 1865, when he was commissioned cap- tain of Company A, Thirty-first regiment, Ohio infantry. His regi- ment then left Atlanta and marched north and participated in the bat-
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tle of Ringgold, N. C. Captain Clark then became a member of General Hunter's staff as topographical engineer and also adjutant general, serving in that capacity on the long march to Washington, after Lee's surrender. After the grand review at Washington he was examined and passed, the examination being the same as that required at West Point. He was offered an appointment as captain in the Forty-second regiment, United States infantry, regular army, but refused to accept it, as his mother requested him to abandon military life. He then re- turned to his Ohio home and resumed teaching in the same school which he had so abruptly left to join the colors four years previously. He first came to Kansas, however, and bought 240 acres of land near Gard- ner and returned to Ohio and after teaching school four months returned to Johnson county and engaged in farming. He has bought additional land from time to time and now owns about 400 acres of well improved land in Johnson county. Captain Clark resides in Olathe but super- vises all his farming operations, usually renting for grain rent. He raises considerable stock and frequently has as many as 100 head of cattle and 200 head of hogs. Captain Clark was married April 25, 1875. to Miss Jennie Wood, a native of Union county, Ohio, and a pupil of his when he taught school there. Mrs. Clark died March 6, 1877, and on November 23. 1880, he was united in marriage to Mary Elizabeth Brown, of Olathe, a native of Hartland, Me. Captain Clark is a Repub- lican and has been actively identified with that party since casting his first ballot. He has served as trustee of Olathe township and was a member of the legislature during the session of 1876-7. He is a charter member of Franklin Post, No. 68, Grand Army of the Republic, and was its first commander. He organized the relief corps in Olathe and is a member of the Grange and was instrumental in organizing the Grange lodge at Gardner, of which he is a charter member. He is the first man in Johnson county who paid his dues and became a full-fledged Gran- ger. He is a member of the Masonic lodge and the Methodist Episco- pal church and has been a trustee in that church for over forty years. He is a stockholder in the Grange store, the Denver Life Insurance Company, the Western States Portland Cement Company and the Sonoma Gold Mining Company. Mr. Clark has resided in the city of Olathe since 1880 and has a beautiful residence on East Park Street. He has always taken a deep interest in educational matters. While a resident of Union county, Ohio, he was president of the county school convention and was elected one of a committee to go to Coltim- bus and aid the legislature in forming better school laws. He was elected secretary of that committee which met with the Ohio legislature and it became his important duty to write many of the school laws of Ohio which are still on the statute books of that State. He was the author of the first county normal school law in the United States, as well as various other progressive school laws.
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Frank Champion, of Overland Park, is the Johnson county "bird man" and owner and proprietor of the Champion aeroplane, factory, of Over- land Park. Mr. Champion was born at Sherman, Tex., October 28, 1885, and is a son of Horace G. and Ida (Hussinger) Champion, the former a native of Antwerp, Ohio, and the latter of Missouri. They were married at Sherman, Texas, in 1884, and are the parents of two children . Maud, born December 16, 1887, at Sherman, Tex., and now the wife of George Heap, of San Diego, Calif., and Frank, the subject of this sketch. When Frank Champion was a baby his parents removed from Texas to Oklahoma City, Okla., where he was reared and educated. He attended both the grade and the high schools in Oklahoma City and after finishing high school, enlisted in the United States navy, ord- nance department, as gunner's mate, second class. He was first sent to the training station at Newport, R. I., and then on board the training ship "Hartford" for a three months' cruise. About 1905, he was assigned to the United States ship "Massachusetts," which went on a cruise to the Azore Islands, as escort for a torpedo boat flotilla that was on an endur- ance trip. After that the "Massachusetts" returned to Bar Harbor, Me. On account of an accident to the "Massachusetts," which sent her to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Mr. Chapman was transferred to the United States ship "Olympia" and went to Norfolk, Va., and then on a cruise to Europe and the West Indies, touching at Gibraltar, Trieste, Austria- Hungary, Corfu, Greece and Smyrna, Turkey. From Smyrna they went to Genoa and Villa, France, and Cherbourg, France, and from there back to Gibraltar, and thence to the West Indies, where they visited Jamaica, Havana, and other places, and finally ended up at the Catalena Islands. Mr. Champion was sent from there to Boston, when his term of enlist- ment expired and was paid off and honorably discharged. After leaving the navy, he located at Long Beach, Calif., and engaged in photography. Later he was press photographer for the Los Angeles "Examiner" and while thus engaged, became interested in aviation at the Domingos Aviation Field, near Los Angeles. He wanted to fly and believed that he had the courage to carry out his ambition, and on the eleventh day of January, 1911, he started for England and attended the aviation school at the Hendon Aviation Field near London. He was a little sur- prised when he reached there upon learning of the tuition fee for a course of training in flying. However, he went to Europe to learn to fly and that's what he proposed to do, and he, accordingly, laid down his thousand dollars, which was the price of the course. In addition to this the student flyer was required to pay for any breakage of the ma- chines or any other loss or damage incurred while taking the course. After taking his course and receiving his certificate of graduation, Mr. Champion returned to New York and after remaining there a few weeks went to California and began to give exhibitions and continued in that line of work until the fall of 1911. The following winter he represented
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the Moisant International Aviators, on the road, and in the winter of 1912-13 he constructed his first machine and the following season gave exhibitions on his own account. In 1914 he came to Overland Park and opened the Champion aviation factory. He has had two machines on the road giving exhibitions during the past season. Mr. Champion is known all over the country as an expert aviator and has given exhi- bitions in most of the western and central States, from Ohio to Califor- nia and from North Dakota to Texas. He was united in marriage at Chicago, October 28, 1910, to Miss Hazel Chapman, of that place.
Frank Crawford, a prominent farmer and stock breeder of Aubry township, is one of the extensive land owners of Johnson county. In former years Mr. Crawford was a breeder of Morgan and Arabian horses, but now breeds exclusively gray Percherons, and usually has about 100 head of these horses on his place. At this writing he has 112. Mr. Crawford has also followed cattle and hog feeding on a large scale and has found this branch of the stock business to be very profitable. He usually feeds from 100 to 150 head of cattle and frequently has over 500 head of hogs. Mr. Crawford supervises the farming of all his vast acres and employes four men the year around. He has two tenants on his place besides the family that keeps house for him, as he is a bachelor He is a native of Coshocton county, Ohio, born March 29, 1859, and is a son of James and Augusta (Engleman) Crawford. James Crawford was a native of Ohio, and a son of Robert Crawford, a native of Ireland, and was born near the Killarney lakes. Robert Crawford came to America when a young man and was an early settler in Ohio. He died compara- tively young and was considered a very wealthy man for that time. James Crawford, father of Frank, was reared in Ohio, where he was married, and in 1864 removed with his family to Illinois. After one year he went to Cass county, Missouri, where he resided until 1880. He then came to Kansas, locating in Miami county, where he died in 1907. He was a very successful farmer and was a large land owner and when he died was in very comfortable circumstances. His wife died in 1903. She was a native of Pennsylvania and of German descent. Frank Craw- ford has made farming and the stock business his life's work and is one of Johnson county's most successful men. He is a Republican and keeps himself well posted on current events and the trend of the times. He is broad minded and liberal and belongs to that type of men who are conservative and maintain the equilibrium of society.
W. F. Wilkerson, editor of the "New Era" at Spring Hill, is one of the real progressive newspaper men of eastern Kansas. Mr. Wilkerson is a native of Missouri, born September 25, 1866. He is a son of W. C. and Elizabeth (Lunsford) Wilkerson. In 1885 the Wilkerson family came to Kansas, locating in Rush county, where the father took up Gov- ernment land. Here they encountered the many vicissitudes common to the lot of the pioneer of western Kansas; droughts and crop failures
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pursued them and after four years in that section the family removed to Woodson county, where the father bought land and engaged in farm- ing and prospered. He still resides in that county and is now counted among the successful and substantial citizens of the community. He is a Democrat and has always taken a keen interest in public affairs but never aspired to hold political office. His wife died in 1889. W. F. Wilkerson, whose name introduces this sketch, is the oldest of a family of six children. He received a public school education and remained at home until twenty-two years of age. In 1890 he began his career in the newspaper business, first being employed on the Yates Center "Advocate" in the capacity of "printer's devil" and remained with that newspaper for four years and reached the position of local editor and business manager. In 1894 he came to Johnson county as local editor of the Olathe "Tribune" and remained there until 1898 when he pur- chased the "New Era" at Spring Hill and has since published that newspaper. The "New Era" was founded in 1883 and is a weekly news- paper of unusual merit. Politically it is conducted strictly along inde- pendent lines and in its editorial columns deals fairly and fearlessly with all national and local questions of public importance. Mr. Wilkerson was united in marriage June 24, 1898, to Miss Birdie Smith, of Gardner, Kan. She is a daughter of Lee and Martha (Bergan) Smith, natives of Missouri, who came to Kansas in 1872, settling at Lawrence. The father was a blacksmith and wagon maker and worked at his trade there about two years when the family removed to Gardner, where the father conducted a blacksmith and carriage shop and prospered. He is a member of the Masonic lodge and the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows and politically was a Republican. He was a man of wide acquain- tance and made many friends. He was public spirited and always will- ing to assist the needy and lend his aid and influence to the betterment of the community. He died in 1884. Martha Bergan, Mrs. Wilkerson's mother, was born in St. Joseph, Mo., in 1849, of Kentucky parents, who were early settlers in Missouri. They settled in Johnson county near De Soto in 1859. Mrs. Smith now resides in Kansas City. W. F. Wil- kerson was a Democrat in early life, following in the footsteps of his ancestors, but as he grew to manhood some of the principles of the Democratic party did not accord with his views and his political atti- tude in recent years might properly be described as an independent Republican.
James Harvey Hancock, familiarly known throughout Oxford town- ship and vicinity as "Uncle Harvey," is an early settler of Johnson county, and comes from a family of American pioneers. James Harvey Hancock was born in Marshall county, Illinois, May 27, 1850, and is a son of William and Emily (Shepherd) Hancock, natives of Virginia and Ohio respectively. The Hancock family dates back to Colonial days in this country, and is of Irish descent. William Hancock, the father of James H., went from Virginia to Ohio when a young man, and there
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