USA > Kansas > Johnson County > History of Johnson County, Kansas > Part 44
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY, KANSAS
ever since. At present he is a member of Shawnee Lodge, No. 561. Mr. King believes in going forward. He is a strong advocate of progress and modern methods. He was one of the first to advocate good roads and never ceased advocating them, and he is entitled to a great deal of credit for the rock roads which have already been built in Johnson county.
Florence McCarthy, one of the leading citizens of Edgerton, Kan., is a pioneer of Johnson county and has been an important factor in this county for a number of years. He is a native of Ireland, and was born in County Cork, November 16, 1847. He is a son of John and Mary (Coughlan) McCarthy. Florence McCarthy came to America when nine years old to join his parents here, who had preceded him about seven years. The father came to America first and for a time was located in Quebec, Canada. He was later joined by his wife and went to Ohio. He was a railroad contractor and did considerable railroad construction work in Ohio and later went to Kentucky where he fol- lowed that line of work and came to Johnson county, Kansas, in 1857. Here he bought three quarter sections of land and engaged exten- sively in stock raising, and spent the remainder of his life. Florence McCarthy is the oldest of a family of four, the others being as follows : Hannah, a Sister of Charity at Topeka, Kan .; John W. resides near Edgerton and Ellen married E. H. Dyer, Topeka, Kan. Florence Mc- Carthy was married in 1873 to Miss Ellen Dyer, a native of Wiscon- sin. Six children were born to this union, as follows: Josephine Haney, deceased ; Katherine Hale, deceased ; Mabel Griffin resides near Edger- ton; Esther De Tar resides near Edgerton; Vincentia resides at Edger- ton and Edward H. resides at Edgerton. Mr. McCarthy takes an ac- tive part in the public affairs of his locality and is known as one of the substantial men of Johnson county. He has served on the school board for a number of years and has been township trustee. The family are members of the Catholic church, and he is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and prominent in the affairs of that lodge. He has held the highest office in the local lodge and was a delegate to the Grand Lodge.
Sherman Kellogg, a prominent citizen of Stanley, has been a resident of the Sunflower State for over a half a century, and is well known in Johnson county. He is a native of Vermont, and was born in the moun- tains of that State at Rochester, May 5, 1833, and is a descendant of prominent New England familes who trace their lineage back through an honorable line of ancestors for many generations. Sherman Kellogg is a son of Sherman and Rebecca (Eaton) Kellogg, also natives of the Green Mountain State. Sherman Kellogg was a Congregational min- ister, born at Castleton, Vt., January II, 1797, and married Rebecca Eaton, September 6, 1821. She was a native of Castleton, Vt., born Feb- ruary 20, 1798. Sherman Kellogg, the father of the subject of this sketch, was a son of Saxton Kellogg and Sally Fuller, the latter being
MR. AND MRS. FLORENCE MCCARTHY AND FAMILY.
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY, KANSAS
a descendant of Benjamin Franklin. The first record that we have of the Kellogg family appears among church records of the fourteenth cen- tury at Strathford, England. There is some evidence of the name back as far as the invasion of William the Conqueror, but this is not authenti- cated. Nicholas Kellogg, of Strathford, was born in 1488, and married Florence Ilall, of Debden, Essex county, England, and the Kellogg fam- ily was founded in America in 1637; Joseph, Daniel and Samuel Kel- logg came from England and settled in Connecticut, that year, and the 25,000 Kelloggs, more or less, that are scattered throughout this country are descendants from those three brothers. Rebecca Eaton, the mother of Sherman Kellogg, the subject of this sketch, was a daughter of Daniel Eaton and Nancy Chester. The former was born in Vermont, February 23, 1762, and was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. His wife, Nancy Chester, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, August 22. 1764, and was a descendants of the Stuart family that was banished from Scotland on ac- count of religious controversies. Rev. Sherman Kellogg, the father of our subject, preached in Hubbardtown, Orwell, Rochester, Montpelier and Norwich, Vt., and Whitehall, N. Y., and died at Farmington, Ill., in October, 1848, and his wife died March 3, 1856. They were the parents of the following children : Cloe Eaton married William Badgers; Harriett Chester married Albert Johnson ; Mary Emeline married Ira Winchell; William Pitt married Mary Emily Wills; Sherman, the subject of this sketch ; Sarah Rebecca married Dennis Winchill ; and Adelia Adelaide married Oliver Coomes. William Pitt Kellogg, an older brother of Sher- man, was for a number of years a prominent factor in national affairs and a leading attorney who now resides in Washington, D. C. He was colonel of the Seventh regiment, Illinois cavalry, and became a brigadier- general. He was one of the electors for Lincoln from Illinois in 1864, and was appointed chief justice of Nebraska Territory by President Lincoln, and in 1865 was appointed collector of the port of New Orleans by Lincoln, and his commission as such was signed by Lincoln on the afternoon of the day that he was assassinated and is said to have been the last document signed by the martyred President. William Pitt Kel- logg served two terms in the United States Senate and also was United States representative from Louisiana and served as the governor of that State from 1872 to 1877. Sherman Kellogg received his education in the public schools of Vermont and attended Norwich University, and in 1848 went to Illinois with his parents, and there followed farming. In 1856 he went to Iowa, locating in Jasper county. He bought a quarter sec- tion of land there, twenty miles east of Des Moines, for $1.25 per acre. After improving this he sold it for $10.00 per acre in 1864 and came to Kansas, locating in Atchison county. He bought a mill near the Kickapoo Indian reservation and sawed lumber and ground corn, most of his customers being Indians. About this time he joined the Kansas militia and was ordered to Fort Leavenworth on account of
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY, KANSAS
General Price's threatened invasion. His enlistment was dated May 14, 1864, and he was discharged, October 27, 1864. He was a member of Company G, Twelfth regiment, Kansas cavalry, and participated in the battle of Westport. In April, 1867, he came to Johnson county, locating at Stanley where he engaged in the dairy business and manufactured but- ter for four years. He made a special high grade and has sold butter in Kansas City, for which he received as high as forty-five cents per pound. In 1887 he engaged in the hotel business at Stanley, having erected a new building there for that purpose. He still conducts the hotel at Stan- ley and is one of the veteran hotel men of Johnson county. Mr. Kellogg has been twice married. He was first married to Miss Lydia Margaret Graham at Prairie City, Iowa, in 1857. She was born February 13, 1841, and died January 6, 1871. The following children were born to this marriage: Horace Morrell, born July 31, 1860, married Dora Bell Brackenridge, is a carpenter and resides at Stanley; William Pitt, died in infancy; Ernest Atherton married Ella M. Porter and resides at San Antonio, Texas; Clarence Herbert married Minnie Orlena Perrin, now resides at Charles City, Iowa; Charles Cushman married Effie Graham and lives at Kansas City. Mo .; and Frederick William married Mabel Brown and resides in Oklahoma. Some time after the death of his first wife, Mr. Kellogg married Mrs. Mary Jane (Kennedy) Nuckols, a native of Crawfordsville, Ind., and to this union were born two children : Maude Elizabeth married George H. Grigsby, Stanley, and Claude Sherman mar- ried Pansy C. Tinsley, Stanley. Mr. Kellogg is a Republican and has al- ways taken active interest in political affairs and shortly after coming to Kansas, was elected justice of the peace in Atchison county and served four years, and after coming to Johnson county he was elected to that office and has served in all, forty-nine years, as a justice of the peace in Kansas. While Mr. Kellogg has heard and decided hundreds of law suits in all these years, it is a safe guess that he prevented more law suits than he has decided. He believes in arbitrations and has always used his in- fuence to bring about an amicable settlement of any differences between neighbors and is known in his bailiwick as the peacemaker. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, having been asso- ciated with that organization for twenty-nine years.
John Huff, of Olathe, has been a resident of Johnson county for forty- five years and is one of the successful men of affairs of the county. Mr. Huff was born in Adams county, Illinois, in 1845, and is a son of John and Mary (Bruner) Huff, the former a native of Westphalia, Prussia, and the latter of Pennsylvania. They were married in Ohio about 1840 and were the parents of the following children: William, Becky and Lucy died in infancy; Aaron spent his life in Illinois, died in 1910; George, a sketch of whom appears in this volume; Lydia, died in Illinois in 1913; Mary died in Illinois at the age of seventeen; Frank resides at Sugar City, Colo .; Jacob, Barry, Ill .; James, Barry, Ill .; Alice
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY, KANSAS
married James Richardson, Barry, Ill .; W. E., Kingman, Kan .; Martha, married Clarence Hern, Waketa, Okla .; Emma, married Joe Cummings, Waketa, Okla .; Rachel married John Purcell, Winfield, Kan., and John the subject of this sketch. John Huff received his education in the com- mon schools of Illinois and later took a commercial course in the Com- mercial College at Quincy, Ill., and also attended school in Cleveland, Ohio. When he was seventeen years old he went to Quincy, Ill., shortly after the Civil war broke out, and endeavored to enlist in the service, but was rejected because of the fact that he had lost two fingers in early life. At the age of twenty-two he engaged in teaching school in Illinois and followed that vocation there until 1871 when he came to Kansas and located in Johnson county, ten miles east of Olathe. In the spring of 1873, he bought forty acres of land in Oxford township and later sold that property back to his brother from whom he had purchased it and about a year later, bought eighty acres, three and one-half miles north of Olathe. He moved on the place in 1877 and in 1881 bought eighty acres more adjoining that place and in 1901 purchased an additional 160 acres, and now owns 320 acres of some of the best land in Johnson county. In September, 1908, he bought four and three-fourths acres on North Walker Street, Olathe, where he now resides and is practically re- tired from active farming operations. Mr. Huff was united in marriage in 1873 at Westport, Mo., to Miss Viroqua Chaplain, a native of Illinois, her parents being pioneers of that State. Mrs. Huff departed this life May 12, 1915, and her remains are buried in the Olathe cemetery. To Mr. and Mrs. Huff were born ten children, all born in Johnson county except Leta, who was born in Illinois, and eight of whom are living. They are as follows: Leta married Fay Cotham, Kansas City, Mo .; George died at the age of thirteen; Ida died at the age of six; William married Stella Watts and resides on the home place, north of Olathe; Albert married Bertha Haskins and resides at Nezperce, Idaho; Della married Roy Walters and resides at Nezperce, Idaho; Minnie married Carl Hopkins and resides ten miles east of Olathe; Harley is unmarried and resides in Kansas City, Mo .; Lorena and Naomi reside with their father in Olathe. When Mr. Huff located on his place north of Olathe, it was practically raw prairie land and without any improvements, but by close application to business he has made of it one of the fine farms of Johnson county. Notwithstanding the fact that Mr. Huff has had more than his share of misfortune, in the way of accidents which have re- sulted in crippling him in a way that would have incapacitated the aver- age man from business, Mr. Huff has gone on and in the face of various handicaps of this kind has succeeded to a marked degree. In early life he met with an accident which resulted in the loss of two fingers, as re- ferred to above. In 1865. while engaged in operating a threshing ma- chine in Illinois, his left arm became entangled in the gearing of the cylinder which resulted in such serious injury that amputation was neces-
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY, KANSAS
sary. In the fall of 1908 he was thrown from a mowing machine and in that accident lost the sight of his right eye. Notwithstanding these var- ious injuries he has gone on and succeeded far beyond the average Johnson county man and is one of the substantial citizens of the county.
William W. Anderson, a member of the board of county commission- ers and one of the representative farmers and stockmen of Johnson county, is a native son of Kansas. He was born on the farm where he now resides, about a mile south of Wilder, January 29, 1872, and is a son of Thomas and Jane B. (Beaty) Anderson. Thomas Anderson was a native of Glasgow, Scotland, born in 1836, and died March 31, 1904, and came to America with his father in 1844, at the age of five years. The father was a stone-cutter and later followed contracting in this country, and had a contract on canal construction in Virginia that re- quired three years to complete. He then went back to Scotland and later returned to America where he spent the remainder of his life. Thomas Anderson came to Kansas in 1857, locating at Leavenworth, where he remained about a year and shortly afterwards returned to Missouri. He remained there until the Civil war broke out when he went to Milwaukee, Wis., riding on horseback the entire distance, which was something over 500 miles, and enlisted in the First regiment, Wisconsin infantry, and served for three years in the army. At the close of the war he returned to Missouri and in 1866 came to Johnson county and located on a farm in Monticello township where he spent the remainder of his life. His widow resides on the home place with her son, William W., the subject of this sketch. She was born in Union Grove, Wis., of Scotch parentage. William W. Anderson is one of a family of seven children, six of whom are living, as follows : John mar- ried Grace Turk in 1895 and resides at Perry, Iowa, and is trainmaster on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railway; Robert K. is unmarried and resides in Spokane, Wash .; Milton H. married Mamie Pourcley in 1896, is the manager of the Diamond Seat and Body Company, Kansas City, Mo., and resides at Randolph, Mo .; Thomas, city electrician of Seattle, Wash., married Ethel Johnson in 1907; Ralph W., traveling salesman for the Union Carbide Company, Chicago, Ill., married Jose- phine Goldsworthy in 1903; and William W., the subject of this sketch. William W. Anderson was reared and educated in Johnson county. He then went to Union Grove, Wis., where he learned telegraphy and for ten years was in the employ of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Rail- way Company as a telegraph operator and station agent. In 1902 he re- turned to his Johnson county home and, on account of his father's fail- ing health, took charge of the home farm and since that time has devoted his attention to farming. Mr. Anderson makes a specialty of raising horses and mules and has some of the finest Percheron horses and jacks in eastern Kansas, and is recognized as one of the successful farmers and stock breeders of Johnson county. He has taken an active
A
HOME OF W. W. ANDERSON, COUNTY COMMISSIONER
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY, KANSAS
interest in public affairs since returning to Johnson county, and has served two years as treasurer of Monticello township, and in 1912 was elected county commissioner from the second district which consists of Olathe, Monticello and Spring Hill townships. He was united in marriage January 15, 1900, to Miss Margaret Shea, of Oconto, Wis. Her father was born in Canada and her mother in Scotland. To Mr. and Mrs. Anderson have been born eight children, as follows: Ken- neth, Grace, Catherine, Margaret, Mary, Thomas, Charles and Wilma. Mr. Anderson has proven himself to be a painstaking and efficient public officer, and is one of Johnson county's substantial citizens.
W. C. Brown, president of the Patrons' Fire and Tornado Associa- tion, Olathe, is a native of lowa. He was born in Lee county, March 4, 1856, and is a son of O. D. and Elizabeth (Stephenson) Brown, the former a native of Athens county, Ohio, and the latter of Parkersburg, W. Va. They were the parents of ten children, four of whom are living, as follows: Austin married Nora Getman and resides at Cedarvale, Kan., was postmaster of Cedarvale for eighteen years; Anna married Horace Jackson, Olathe; Eliza married James A. Reeds, Waldo, Mo .; and W. C., the subject of this sketch. W. C. Brown was ten years of age when the family came to Kansas and located in Monticello township, Johnson county, and has resided on the place which his father purchased in 1866. His father bought the place from the widow of a Shawnee Indian, named Nor Walla Possa. Although a young man, Mr. Brown has seen many changes in Johnson county. He knew many of the old pioneers who set- tled here in the fifties, and saw early-day conditions at a time of life when they made a lasting impression on his memory. He distinctly recollects J. E. Corliss, after whom Corliss station on the Santa Fe railroad was named, and also John Kenton, Nick Jefferson, A. M. Piper, Chris Wag- ner, an old Civil war veteran who still resides in Monticello township, and J. M. Hadley, the first justice of the peace in Monticello township. W. C. Brown was married to Miss Lena Junod, of Athens, county, Ohio. Her parents were early settlers of that section of Ohio. To Mr. and Mrs. Brown have been born the following children : Louie married W. H. McGee, of Olathe ; Fred O., Colorado Springs, Colo .; Paul married Agnes Purdom and resides in Monticello township; Dwight resides at Buffalo, Mont., and Joyce, a student in Kansas University, Lawrence, Kan. Mr. Brown was one of the original organizers of the Patrons' Fire and Tor- nado Association of Kansas, and has been a member of the board of directors ever since the organization, and for the last three years has served as president. This association began business in 1889 with $50,- 000 in risks. They met with severe competition from the very start, because they proposed to give their members insurance at actual cost, which was a very good reason for opposition on the part of the old-line companies. The plan of this association has proven to be an unqualified success. They are absolutely solvent, that is, they could pay every obli-
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY, KANSAS
gation including a refund of unearned premiums and could go out of business tomorrow with their books balanced. This association has had a remarkable growth and at present carries $22,000,000 in risks in thirty- one Kansas counties.
A. J. Walker, of Olathe, is a Johnson county pioneer and a native of Kentucky, born in Green county in 1851. He is the son of B. B. and July Anna (Skaggs) Walker, both natives of Kentucky. The Walker family came to Kansas in 1858 and located in Monticello township, Johnson county. The father died in 1861 and the mother survived him for a number of years, and passed away in 1898; their remains are buried in Monticello cemetery. B. B. and July Anna (Skaggs) Walker were the parents of six children, four of whom were born in Kentucky and two in Johnson county and are all living, as follows: John T. resides in Olathe; Mary E. married Lizander Plummer and resides in Monti- cello township; Luther H. resides in Bates county, Missouri; Cynthia married J. F. Reed, deceased, of Kansas City, Mo .; F. R. resides at Bonner Springs, Kan .; and A. J., the subject of this sketch. A. J. Walker attended the public schools in Monticello township, and in early life engaged in farming and stock raising. After the death of his father, he bought the interest of two of the other heirs of his father's estate and followed farming on the old homestead, which his father preempted in 1858, when he came to Kansas. Mr. Walker bought ad- ditional land from time to time and now owns 320 acres, located within a mile of Monticello. Monticello was something of a thriving frontier town when he came here in 1858. It had six stores, two hotels, three blacksmith shops and three saloons. Many of the Shawnee Indians were still here and among those well known to Mr. Walker were Elias Flint and his brother, Levi, who attended Sunday school at the old Monticello school house. The Choteau brothers and John Silverheel and John Possum were also here. Mr. Walker was married in 1876 at Monticello to Miss Winnie Pate, whose parents were pioneers of West- port, Mo. Mr. Walker is one of the substantial old-timers of Johnson county.
George H. Hodges, former Governor of Kansas, is a native of Rich- land county, Wisconsin, born in 1866, and was three years of age when the Hodges family, consisting of father, mother, Frank, George and a sister, who is now deceased, came to Johnson county, Kansas, and located in the then little frontier town of Olathe. Their entire earthly possessions were loaded on a prairie schooner which was their means of transportation across the plains from Wisconsin to the new State of Kansas. The father was a school teacher and followed that profession . in the vicinity of Olathe, until his death, which occurred a few years after coming here, and the mother still resides in Olathe. The respon- sibilities of this life came to George H. Hodges at a tender age. When his father died, the boy seemed to realize the great responsibility that
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY, KANSAS
was resting upon his shoulders. To aid his brother in the support of a widowed mother and to do all in his power to get money enough to- gether to enable them to buy a little home of their own, were questions which agitated his youthful mind. His first employment was that of a herder of the town cows. In this work he joined his brother, Frank, for a few years. Soon afterwards he and his brother learned the trade of lathing and became experts in that work. They nailed the lath on hun- dreds of houses in Johnson county, and averaged about $3 per day each at that work. Later, George became a traveling salesman and traveled through parts of Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas and Nebraska. His next venture was the lumber business. He established his first lumber yard in Olathe with borrowed capital. He had been manager of a yard there and one day decided to go into business for himself and accordingly went to a banker, whom he had known from childhood, and borrowed $2,500. He purchased a stock of lumber and opened his yard. The first three weeks the total receipts of the Hodges lumber yard was twenty-five cents. It really looked blue for the young man, but the unconquerable spirit in him told him to stay with it, and success rewarded his efforts. He kept everlastingly at it, and a little later his brother, Frank, who had been teaching school, joined him and their business has reached undreamed of proportions. They now operate ten lumber yards in Johnson and adjoining counties and their sales amount to over $250,000 annually. Governor Hodges became an expert account- ant and bookkeeper in early life. A few weeks after his father died he purchased a set of bookkeeping books and studied at night. He is in a true sense of the word, a self-made man. He did not neglect his education, but like scores of other strong men of the country, the prac- tical benefits he derived, came from the school of hard knocks in carving out a name and place for himself in the business and political affairs of the State andNation. Mr. Hodges began his political career as a mem- ber of the Olathe city council, being elected for that office when he was twenty-one years and three months of age. During the time that he was a member of the city council he was active in promoting progressive measures for the development of his city, and it was during that time that Olathe had its first electric light. He took an active part in poli- tics since his boyhood, and in 1904 was elected State senator and re- elected to that office in 1908, and in 1912 was elected governor. The story of Governor Hodges' career as a public official is the story of pro- gressive legislation in Kansas. During his first two years in the Senate, that body passed eleven progressive measures and he wrote seven of them. Through his efforts and instrumentality some of the best legis- lation now on the statute books of the State were made laws, including the pure food and drug act, the Hodges road law, the law taxing express companies, the anti-pass, and the primary election law. Governor Hodges' administration is notable for the number of clean-cut progres-
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