USA > Kansas > Johnson County > History of Johnson County, Kansas > Part 47
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY, KANSAS
D. H. Ryan, of Stilwell, has been a resident of Johnson county for over fifty years. Mr. Ryan is a native of Canada and was born near Kingston in 1839. His parents were Daniel and Jane (Hall) Ryan. Daniel Ryan was a native of Ireland and in early life learned the miller's trade but later made farming his chief occupation. He died in Canada in 1842. Jane Hall, his wife and the mother of D. H. Ryan, was born in England of English parents, and came from a distinguished line of ancestors. Her grandfather was an officer of high rank in the English army. When Jane Hall was about six months old, her parents removed to Ireland and settled in the Parish of Longford. Eight years later she went to Canada with a brother, older, and located in Quebec ; later she met and married Daniel Ryan and the family re- sided in Canada until 1845, or three years after the death of Mr. Ryan. The mother and children then went to Rochester, N. Y. They lived at Rochester, Geneva and Ithaca for a time, when they came to Kansas and the mother died here in 1895. D. H. Ryan received a good common school education and remained at home and assisted his mother until he was eighteen years old. At that early age, April 17, 1858, he enlisted in Company I, Fifth regiment, United States infantry. His command was immediately sent to Utah to deal with the Mormon trouble. This was an expensive expedition which results did not justify, according to history. In 1860 the regiment to which Mr. Ryan belonged was sent to New Mexico, where they were engaged in Indian fighting for a time, and when the Civil war broke out, they were transferred to Texas and operated in that department. On April 17, 1863, Mr. Ryan having served his term of enlistment, which was five years, was honorably discharged. He then came to Kansas and after remaining in Lawrence a short time, went to Leavenworth and in the fall of 1863 went from there to Denver, driving an ox team from Leaven- worth to that place. In 1866 he returned to Kansas and went to Olathe where his brother, George Ryan, was keeping a hotel at the time. Shortly after coming here Mr. Ryan bought eighty acres of land in Aubry township. This was the beginning of his success in Johnson county, and he continued to buy land from time to time and improve it until he now owns 220 acres of some of the best land in Johnson county. He is now retired and has a fine home in Stilwell where he resides. He is a stockholder in the Stilwell State Bank and is a Democrat. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and is a successful man of affairs and is one of the well known men of Johnson county and is held in high esteem. Mr. Ryan was married February 5, 1892, to Mrs. Ellen (Young) Perry, a daughter of Allen Young, a native of North Carolina. To Mr. and Mrs. Ryan have been born two children, Lela and Mary.
Price K. Hendrix, cashier of the State Bank of Stilwell, is a former sheriff of Johnson county, and has a wide acquaintance throughout eastern Kansas and is well and favorably known. Mr. Hendrix was
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born in Nicholsville, Jessamine county, Kentucky, March 3, 1865. He is a son of Samuel P. and Elizabeth (Lyne) Hendrix, the former a native of Virginia and the latter of Kentucky. Samuel P. Hendrix was born in 1814 and died in 1900; he was a son of Thomas Hendrix, or Hendricks, as the name is spelled both ways. The Hendrix or Hendricks family of Virginia is a very large family and widely scat- tered. Former vice-president, Thomas A. Hendricks, belonged to this family. Thomas Hendrix, the father of Samuel P., died when Samuel was a child two years old. The boy's mother took him from Virginia to Kentucky, where he grew to manhood and was married. In 1856 he removed from Kentucky to Missouri, locating near Independence, Jackson county, and two years later, or in 1858, came to Kansas, where he remained until the fall of 1861, when he returned to Ken- tucky, remaining there until 1872. He then came to Johnson county with his family and settled on his Government homestead three miles south of Olathe. He improved his farm, prospered and spent the re- mainder of his days there and died in 1900. Samuel P. and Elizabeth (Lyne) Hendrix were the parents of the following children: John C. died in 1914, at the age of seventy; James M. died in 1880; Charles T. resides in Kansas City, Mo .; Samuel P., Jr., died in 1889; Mary J. died in 1882; Matty J. died in 1896; Price K., the subject of this sketch, and Elizabeth A. reside in Kansas City, Mo. Price K. Hendrix re- ceived his education in the Lone Elm public schools and St. Benedict's College, of Atchison, Kan. He then followed farming for a few years and in 1888 engaged in the mercantile business at Paola, Kan. The following year he entered the Willis Keefer hardware store at Olathe, where he worked for four years. He then engaged in the mercantile business and also handled grain, coal, etc., at Bonita, Kan., and was thus engaged for twelve years, when he was elected sheriff of Johnson county in the fall of 1902 and reelected to that office in 1904 and served until January 1, 1907. He then traveled in New Mexico and Old Mexico for a few months for his health and in October, 1907, came to Stilwell as cashier of the State Bank of Stilwell. Mr. Hendrix was practically the organizer of this institution although former Pro- bate Judge S. L. Long had done the preliminary work of organization but the bank was not put into successful operation until Mr. Hendrix took hold of it. The bank was chartered October 27. 1907, with a capital stock of $12,500. It has a surplus of $6,250, deposits of $45,000, and undivided profits of $1.200, and owns its own building. The officers are as follows: President, M. A. Kelly ; vice-president, W. M. Moon ; cashier, Price K. Hendrix; assistant cashier, J. A. Mundell. Directors: M. A. Kelly, W. M. Moon, E. K. Gibson, L. V. O'Keefe, J. W. Adams, Gust A. Zimmerman and J. T. Hudson. This bank has enjoyed a substantial growth and increasing business since its doors were opened to the public for business, and has never paid less than
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six per cent. dividends, besides over $500 has been invested in furni- ture and fixtures out of its earnings. The bank is equipped with a modern vault and burglar-proof globe safe. Some of the best business men and farmers of Stilwell and vicinity are interested in this bank, and it is a very substantial institution and is in a prosperous condition. Mr. Hendrix has a farm of eighty acres in Miami county and a fine residence at Stilwell, and also a business block there. He is a Demo- crat and has always taken an active interest in the affairs of his party. He was the first Democratic sheriff ever elected in Johnson county and with a normal Republican majority, he carried the county by a majority of 800. He is a member of the Fraternal Aid and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, No. 59, Olathe, and has been a member of that lodge for twenty-five years. Mr. Hendrix was married in July, 1887, to Ella J. Smith, a native of Georgetown, Colo. She is a daughter of Peter J. and Amilda Smith. To Mr. and Mrs. Hendrix has been born one child, Claude Ray, born April' 15, 1888, the star pitcher for the Chicago Federals, 1915. He was educated in the Olathe High School, St. Mary's College, St. Mary's, Kan., and Wichita College. Since childhood he has manifested great ability as a ball player and particularly as a pitcher. His great ability in that direction was recog- nized while at St. Mary's College and he was a great favorite in amateur and college baseball. He began his professional career with the Lincoln club of the Western League when he was nineteen years old. He was with the Pittsburgh Nationals for three years, and made a great record, and in 1914 signed with the Chicago Federals and again in 1915, and he is regarded by fans and those who know as one of the greatest baseball pitchers in the country.
C. E. Zehring, a prosperous farmer of Johnson county, who owns a fine farm of 400 acres of well improved land, in Aubry township, five miles east of Spring Hill, is a native of Indiana. He was born in Miami county in 1856, and is a son of Christian and Marjory Zehring. Chris- tian Zehring was born in Ohio and his wife was a native of Pennsylvania. Christian Zehring was a saw-mill man in Indiana in early life and in 1865 removed to Kansas City, Mo., and worked at the carpenter's trade about five years, when he came to Kansas and located in Aubry town- ship, Johnson county. He bought 160 acres of land and engaged in farming. He prospered and bought more land and at the time of his death, in 1894, owned 640 acres. He was a successful farmer and busi- ness man and took a prominent part in local politics. He was elected county commissioner of Johnson county two terms in succession and conducted the affairs of the county in the same business-like manner which characterized his private career. C. E. Zehring operated the home farm with his father and when the latter died he made provision that the home farm should be divided between C. E. and his only sister, at the death of the mother. Since that time C. E. has added eighty acres to
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his holdings and now owns 400 acres. He is a large stock raiser as well as farmer and is one of the successful men of Johnson county. Mr. Zeh- ring was married in 1889 to Miss Elvina Lagalle, a daughter of Peter Lagalle, a native of England but of French descent. Mrs. Zehring was born on the Isle of Guernsey and came to Kansas in 1883. To Mr. and Mrs. Zehring have been born three children: Wilber, Grace and Floyd, all residing at home. Mr. Zehring is a Republican and a member of the Masonic lodge at Spring Hill, and is also a member of the Grange.
George Wedd, president of the Spring Hill Grange Fair Association, and a prominent farmer and extensive stock breeder, of Spring Hill township, is a native of New York. He was born in Monroe county, New York, June 9, 1855, and is a son of Henry and Jane (Converse) Wedd. The father was a native of England and came to America in 1833 when twelve years old with his parents, who settled in New York. In 1858 Henry Wedd and has family, consisting of his wife and five chil- dren, came to Kansas. Four more children were born to them after com- ing to this State. The father had been in Kansas a year previously and spent some time in the vicinity of Lawrence. The family spent the first winter in Kansas City, and in the spring of 1859, came to Johnson county and located in Oxford township. Later the father bought land and lo- cated in Shawnee township where he still owns his farm and now resides with a daughter at Lenexa. He is ninety-four years old and as robust and active, both physically and mentally, as the average man of sixty. Henry Wedd has made his great success in life in the cattle business and has successfully been engaged in that business for a number of years. He has specialized in feeding Short Horns and Herefords and still turns off about a carload annually. He is just as active in the conduct of his business as he was fifty years ago. His wife died in January, 1910. George Wedd, the subject of this sketch, grew to manhood on the home farm in Johnson county, and attended the district school. In 1883 he was united in marriage to Miss Adda Kelly, a native of New York, born March 23, 1863. She is a daughter of J. H. and Emily (Huffman) Kelly, natives of New York. They began their married life on a 120- acre farm in Shawnee township, and fifteen years later they removed to Spring Hill township on the farm where they now reside. It consists of 160 acres of some of the finest land in Johnson county and corners on the corporation limits of Spring Hill. Mr. Wedd, besides being an exten- sive farmer and general stockman, is the largest breeder of Poland China hogs in the county, and has some of the finest specimens of that breed on his place to be found anywhere. His male hog. "Wedd's Long King." weighs 1,000 pounds. He usually has about 200 head of hogs on the place. To Mr. and Mrs. Wedd have been born three children, Ralph, Pearl Emily and Stella Lee. Ralph is a full partner with his father in the farm and stock business and they do business under the firm name of George Wedd & Son. Ralph Wedd was born in Shawnee township,
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February 23, 1884, and after receiving a high school education he entered into partnership with his father in 1907. He is a member of the Ma- sonic lodge at Spring Hill. George Wedd is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and one of the prosperous and progressive citizens of Johnson county. The Spring Hill fair, of which Mr. Wedd is president, is one of the few fairs in eastern Kansas that have been successful. It has just held its eleventh annual meeting and the exhibits in stock, farm products, poultry, etc., were the finest of any of the years past. As president of this association, Mr. Wedd and his son have done mucli towards making the fair the success that it is.
S. E. Ferguson, the well known freight and passenger agent for the Frisco lines at Olathe, is a native of the Keystone State. He was born at Latrobe, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, September I, 1863, and is a son of Dr. E. and Martha J. (Baker) Ferguson. The father was a native of Indiana county, Pennsylvania, and was a practic- ing physician. He came to Kansas in 1878 and was engaged in the practice of his profession here for a number of years. He died in Penn- sylvania, July 6, 1890, while there on a visit. Martha Baker, S. E. Fer- guson's mother, was also a native of Indiana county, Pennsylvania, and a daughter of Rev. H. B. Baker, one of the early-day Methodist ministers in Pennsylvania. Martha (Baker) Ferguson died March 19, 1908. S. E. Ferguson is one of a family of five, as follows : H. B. is a dentist, Iola, Kan .; Dr. W. A. was a prominent physician and a specialist at Atchi- son, and died March 21, 1889; Ella May married Dr. W. A. McKelvey, of Atchison, and died June 1, 1890; S. E., the subject of this sketch, and Dr. C. S. S. E. Ferguson received a good common school education in the public schools of Latrobe, Pa., and read medicine for a year. He was sixteen years old when the family came to Kansas and he went to work in the Missouri Pacific railroad offices at Atchison, as expense bill clerk. This was the beginning of his railroad career and after serving in that capacity about two years he entered the employ of the Santa Fe Railroad Company, at Atchison, and after two years was transferred to Kansas City, and from there to the general offices of the company at Topeka, and held the position as chief rate clerk until 1882. He then entered the employ of the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Memphis Railroad Company in their general offices as chief clerk to the chief engineer and held that position for ten years. In 1899 he accepted his present position at Olathe and has been here ever since, and has had twenty-six years of continual service with the Frisco Railroad Company. Mr. Ferguson has been inspector for the bureau of high explosives and in that capacity traveled in most of the states of the Union. He was united in marriage in No- vember, 1899, in St. Paul, Minn., to Miss Cosette Fagan, a daughter of W. W. Fagan, a sketch of whom appears in this volume. To Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson have been born three children: William, a graduate of Kansas University, now city editor of the Dallas "Dispatch," Dallas,
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Texas; Philip Mitchell, a senior in Kansas University, and Nanette, also a student at Kansas University. Mr. Ferguson is a Republican and takes an active part in political affairs. He stands high in the councils of his party and has served as treasurer of the Johnson county central commit- tee. He has served on the Olathe school board and was a member of that body when the new ward school was built. He is a Knights Tem- plar Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine, and also belongs to the Knights of Pythias. He belongs to the Episcopal church. Mr. Fer- guson is a public-spirited man and is widely known in eastern Kansas.
J. F. McKaig, now deceased, was a Kansas pioneer who came to this State in the fifties and passed through all the troublesome period of the border war. Mr. McKaig was a native of the Buckeye State, born in 1832. He was the son of William and Elizabeth (Westfall) McKaig. When J. F. was a child, his parents removed to Indiana, locating near Logansport where the father engaged in farming and he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives there. In 1857, when J. F. McKaig was twenty-five years old, he left his Indiana home and came to Kansas, locating in Johnson county and preempted Government land and, prac- tically, from that day made Kansas his home. On December 25, 1861, J. F. McKaig and Miss Elizabeth Frances Danks were united in marriage. She is a native of Kentucky, born in Logan county in 1845, and is a daughter of John and Mary Ann Danks. Mrs. Danks was the eldest of a family of ten children. The father was a tanner by trade and followed that vocation in connection with farming the greater part of his life. The Danks family left their native State, Kentucky, in 1856, and first went to Leavenworth county, Kansas, where they remained from 1856 until March, 1858, when they came to Johnson county and here the father took up Government land in Olathe township. The family lived for a time a few miles from Wyandotte, and at that time Indians were numerous in that section of Kansas. Their nearest neighbors were a fam- ily of full-blood Shawnee Indians by the name of Tiblow. Mrs. McKaig says that their Indian neighbors were good neighbors and fine characters, and that they were well educated Indians and really cultured. The Danks family endured the many hardships and privations incident to the life of the early settlers of Kansas, and in addition to the obstacles which nature had placed in the path of the pioneer, they settled in the heart of the border war troubles, and experienced all the annoyances, losses and dangers incident to those thrilling days. Their horses were stolen at one time and the border ruffians were supposed to have committed the crime. After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. McKaig settled on the land which he had previously preempted and in 1869 built the stone house which is still the home of Mrs. McKaig. They engaged in farming, and notwithstanding discouraging years now and then, they prospered, and from time to time bought more land until the home farm now consists of 520 acres of valuable and well-improved land. Mr. McKaig devoted
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his life to farming, except the time that he devoted to the service of his country during the stirring days of the Civil war. In 1863, he enlisted in the Twelfth regiment, Kansas infantry, and for a time served as recruit- ing officer at Kansas City. In the winter of 1864 he suffered a severe attack of typhoid fever, and was mustered out of service in the spring of 1865. Mr. McKaig was a man of strong convictions, and was a strong Union man and an enemy to slavery. He was a charter member of the Grange, and a stockholder in the Patrons State Bank of Olathe. He was a life-long Republican and one of the strong men of Johnson county, whose efforts spelled success. To J. F. Mckaig and Elizabeth Frances (Danks) McKaig were born ten children, as follows: Horace died aged eight years; Mary married Thomas Patton and resides in Oklahoma; Eliza married John Allen and resides in Colorado; Robert lives in Miami county ; Flora married Walter Perkins, Colorado; John C. resides at Temple, Okla .; Cora married John Russell, Johnson county ; Nellie mar- ried David Rice, now deceased, and she resides at home ; Arthur, farmer, Johnson county, and Luther R., Johnson county. J. F. McKaig died May 8, 1904, and his widow, an estimable lady, now resides on the home place. Mr. McKaig's remains are buried in the Olathe cemetery.
George Black, of Olathe, has been a prominent factor in the affairs of Johnson county for fifty years. He is a native of Ohio, born at Sidney, March 17, 1844, a son of James and Mary Eliza (Ainsworth) Black, the former a native of Pennsylvania and a member of the well known Black family, of that State, and a relative of Jeremiah Black, a former prominent statesman of the Keystone State. Mary Eliza Ainsworth came from Lan- caster, Ohio, and was closely associated with the Shermans of that section, famous in the military and civil history of the United States. She was a sister of Newton Ainsworth, one of the original Johnson county pioneers, extended mention of whom is made elsewhere in this volume. The family resided in Sidney, Ohio, until . 1866 when they came to Kansas and located in Johnson county and for the first year lived on Newton Ainsworth's place and then bought a place one mile west of Olathe and three and one-half miles south, where the father followed farming until his-death in November, 1876, at the age of sixty- three. The mother died in 1913, aged ninety-one. George Black was reared. in Sidney, Ohio, where he attended the public school and later entered the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, where he was a stu- dent when the Civil war broke out. He tried to enlist in 1861 but was rejected on account of being too young. However, he succeeded in pass- ing muster the following year and on September 15, 1862, enlisted at Sidney, Ohio, in Company I, One Hundred and Eighteenth regiment, Ohio infantry, as a private, and during the first year was promoted to sergeant and later to orderly sergeant and towards the close of the war was commissioned second lieutenant. His regiment was first sent to Kentucky and spent the winter in guarding the Kentucky Central rail-
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road. His command then went into east Tennessee and had a number of small engagements and skirmishes from Loudon, Tenn., and back. After the close of the east Tennessee campaign they started from Buz- zard's Roost and went south and during that campaign they had contin- ual fighting and took part in many important engagements. They then joined Sherman on his famous march through Georgia and to the sea, and took part in the battle of Resaca, Kingston, Mossy Creek, December 29, 1863, Monstown, March 10, 1864, Buzzard's Roost, March 9, 1864, Dallas, Ga., May 29, 1864, Lost Mountain, June 15, 1864, Pine Mountain, June 9, 1864, Kenesaw Mountain, July 1, 1864, Chattahoochee Heights, June 9, 1864, Decatur, July 19, 1864, Atlanta, July 20, and August 2-6, 1864, Lovejoy Station, September 4, Rome, Ga., October 13, 1864, Colum- bia, Tenn., November 27-28, 1864, Spring Hill, Tenn., November 29, 1864, Franklin, Tenn., November 30, 1864, Nashville, December 15-16, 1864. After the fight at Nashville, Tenn., they marched over to the Tennessee river and were taken to Cincinnati on a river transport and from there were sent to Washington, D. C., by rail, then by water to Fort Fisher. N. C. They then went up the Cape Fear river through the swamps to Greensboro, N. C., and joined Sherman's army again, and were there when the war closed. They then returned to Washington and then to Cleveland, Ohio, where Mr. Black received his discharge in September, 1865. Mr. Black during his military career had some very narrow es- capes, but he is a man who is not inclined to talk war. It seems that the war was mostly over with him when Lee surrendered. After receiving his discharge, he returned to Sidney, Ohio, where he remained about a year, and in 1866, came to Kansas where he engaged in farming and stock raising. In 1914 he moved to Olathe but continues to direct farm- ing operations on his 160 acres that is but a short distance southwest of town. Mr. Black was active in the Grange organization for a number of years and was one of the organizers in Johnson county. He secured the charter for the Johnson County Cooperative Association, which was the first charter of the kind ever granted in the United States. This was in 1876 and Mr. Black was the first secretary of that organization, and held that office for thirty-one years. He then became president of the as- sociation, serving in that capacity for five years. When he was associated with that institution it did a business of from $260,000 to $270,000 per year. He was also one of the promoters of the Patrons Cooperative Bank and procured the charter for that institution, which was organized in 1883. He was its first secretary and still holds that position. He was one of the organizers of the Grange Insurance Company and was the second secretary of that organization, holding the office six years. Mr. Black was married in February, 1869, to Miss Maud H. Ryan, of Sidney, Ohio, and they have one child, Effie R., now the wife of Dan T. Park, a merchant, of Perry, Kan. Mrs. Black was a daughter of William and Sarah (Graham) Ryan, the former a native of Ohio and the latter of
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