USA > Kansas > Marshall County > History of Marshall County, Kansas : its people, industries, and institutions > Part 49
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Reared at Mechanicsburg. John L. Davis was early trained to the trade of carpenter and cabinet-maker by his father, who gave him a bench and tools in his shop when he was a boy, telling him to go to work and make whatever he wanted to, and he was working at his trade in that city when the Civil War broke out. In 1863 he enlisted in Company C, One Hundred and Thirty-fourth Regiment. Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and served with that command for four months. His brother, Joseph Davis, served through- out the war as a soldier in the Thirty-second Ohio Regiment. In 1870 John L. Davis came to Kansas and located at Frankfort, where for two years he was engaged as a builder and then, in 1872, began farming on a place just north of the town. . At the same time he opened and began oper- ating the first retail meat market opened in Frankfort, but presently sold that and bought a tract of one hundred and thirty-five acres south of the town, which he proceeded to develop. When Mr. Davis took possession of that farm it had a little two-room house on it and that he enlarged and built other and adequate buildings until he came to have one of the best-equipped farm plants in that part of the county. He now owns a splendid farm of two hundred acres and is regarded as being quite well circumstanced. In addition to his general farming Mr. Davis also for years was quite exten-
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sively engaged in the raising of live stock. Since his retirement from the farm and removal to Frankfort his son. Joseph Davis, who is making his home on the place, is operating the farm and is doing very well.
On November 28, 1861, eight or nine years before coming to Kansas. John L. Davis was united in marriage, in Ohio, to Esther Cox, who was born at Salem, in Columbiana county, that state, December 25. 1844. a daughter of Samuel and Rachel Cox, both of whom were born at Edinburg. Pennsylvania, and to this union three children have been born, namely : Ora. who married M. M. Haskins, of Frankfort, and has five children, Frank, Harold, Fletcher, Hazel and Davis; Elizabeth, who married W. J. Gregg, of Frankfort, and has five children. Gerva, Gracia, Geraldine, Gilbert and Edward, and Joseph, mentioned above as operating the old home farm, who also is married and has five children. Hazel, Norma, Madia. Joseph Leroy and Carrel. In addition to the fifteen grandchildren here mentioned, Mr. and Mrs. Davis have three great-grandchildren. Catherine, Ellen Ora and Marshall Haskins. The Davises are members of the Presbyterian church and have ever been warm supporters of the same, as well as all other local good works. Mr. Davis is an active member of the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic, in the affairs of which he for years has taken a warm interest. and Mrs. Davis is a member of the Woman's Relief Corps and of the local chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star, in the affairs of both of which organizations she takes an active interest. being conductor and past matren of the latter society.
PETER SHROYER.
In point of continuous residence Peter Shroyer, the well-known pioneer farmer, now living retired at Marysville, is the oldest living resident of Marshall county. He came here in 1857, there being at that time but two other families within the present confines of the county, and has lived here ever since. During all that time he has never employed a physician for his own use and has likewise never had personal use for a dentist. his teeth to this day being perfectly sound. Mr. Shroyer attributes much of his present soundness of teeth to the fact that in the early days out here he ate so much frozen bread and dried buffalo meat that his teeth were kept in per- fect condition and he never developed later troubles of that sort. : Mr. Shrover also claims to have shucked more corn than any man in Marshall
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county. He began when five years of age and even since his retirement from the active labors of the farm continues to "take a hand" during corn- husking season and can keep up his row with the best of them.
Peter Sliroyer is a native of the old Buckeye state, but has been a resi- dent of Marshall county since he was nine years of age. and has consequently been a witness to and a participant in the development of this county since the earliest days of settlement hereabout. He was born on a farm in Perry county. Ohio, near the town of Thornville, July 30, 1848, a son of John and Mary ( Zortman) Shroyer, natives of Pennsylvania, both of Dutch stock, the former a son of Philip Shroyer and the latter a daughter of Peter Zortman, the Shroyer and Zortman families being early settlers in Perry county, Ohio. It was there that John Shroyer was married and established his home. He became a farmer and was the owner of one hundred and sixty acres of land. In 1853 he sold that farm for thirty dollars an acre. accepting partial payments for the same, and with his wife and six children came to Kansas. Three years later he returned to his old home in Ohio to collect the final payment and found that in the meantime the farm that he had sold for thirty dollars an acre had been resold for one hundred and five dollars an acre. John Shroyer and his family crossed the country to their destination in Marshall county in a "prairie schooner," which they had amply freighted with provisions for beginning life anew on the plains be- fore leaving St. Joseph. They had three horses upon arriving in this county, but these presently died and for ten years John Shroyer conducted his farm- ing operations with oxen. Upon arriving in this county the Shroyer family settled on a farm on the Blue river, at the point where the railroad station of Shroyer, named for the family, is now located, and there erected a log cabin and set up a home. In that humble habitation the family made their home for years, or until a more commodious and convenient house could be built.
When the Shroyers settled in Marshall county there were but two other families in the county and Indians still were numerous and wild game plentiful. The markets for the grain raised in this part of the state then were at Leavenworth and at Atchison and until the railroads came this way a long trip to market was necessary on the part of the early settlers, while the nearest mill was at St. Joseph until the Hutchinson mill was built at Marysville. Buffalos still were roaming the plains in countless numbers and it was the practice of the settlers to go out on a buffalo drive and put up enough meat for a year's supply. Wheat was threshed by the primitive method of having the cattle trample it out, the grain then being winnowed
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in the wind, but the market for wheat was so limited in those days that it rt t infrequently sold for as small a sum as twenty-five cents a bushel in the Atchison market. John Shroyer put in much of his time as a freighter and it was while thu, employed, in 1963, that he met his death. He had just returned from a freighting trip to Ft. Kearney and had gone to Leaven- worth for a load of provisions. On coming down a steep hill out of Leaven- worth he fell off his wagon and was killed beneath the wheels. It was three weeks before word of his death could be brought to his family. Ilis widew survived him for seven years, her death occurring in 1870, she then being fifty-four years of age. John Shroyer and his wife were the parents of nine children, three having been born to them after they came to this county. Of these the subject of this sketch is the eldest and the others are as follow: Philip, who owns the old Shroyer farm in Elm Creek town- ship, but is now living at Granite, Oklahoma, Peter Shroyer's eldest son running the farm for him; Hiram, who lives near Shroyer: John, who lives in Oklahoma: Benjamin Franklin, who lives near Oklahoma City: Mrs. Harriet Hammet, of Shrover: Mrs. Amanda Griffin, of Blue Rapids: Mrs. Mary Bender, of Commanche, Oklahoma, and Samuel, of Oklahoma City.
As noted above. Peter Shroyer was but nine years of age when he came to this county from Ohio and he grew to manhood on the home farm in Elm Creek township, from early boyhood taking his part in the work of developing the pioneer farm. When but a boy he went to St. Joseph and drove back three yoke of oxen. With these cattle he broke the first ground on the bottoms at Shroyer. continuing to use cattle in his farming opera- tions until he was twenty-five years of age. When twenty-one years of age he homesteaded a tract of land across the river from Shroyer and in that same year, 18% (, bought an additional "eighty." For twelve years, or until his marriage in 1881. Mr. Shrover "batched" on his place and after his marriage continued to live there for twenty-four years, at the end of which time he retired from the active labors of the farm and moved to Marys- ville, where he and his family are very pleasantly situated, having a beau- tiful home in the north part of the city, the house being surrounded by at- tractive shrubbery and a five-acre grove which forms part of the place. lending greatly to the attractiveness of the same.
In 1881 Peter Shrover was united in marriage to Emma Rowe, who was born in lowa in 1864, daughter of Allen and Euphemia ( Riley ) Rowe. who came to Marshall county about 1875, and to this union four children have been born, namely: Violet, who is at home; Jesse E., who is operat- ing his uncle's farm at Shroyer, the old original Shroyer place: Mrs. Rose
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Woods, of Joplin, Missouri, and Peter A., who is at home. Mr. and Mrs. Shrover are members of the Church of Christ ( Scientist) and take a warm interest in the affairs of the same. Mr. Shrover is a Republican and has even given his close attention to local political affairs, but has not been a seeker after public office. As the oldest living pioneer of Marshall county his life is a veritable Epitome of the history of this county and there is per- haps no person in the county who has a more vivid or distinct recollection of the incidents of pioneer days hereabout than he. In the days when he drove the three yoke of oxen from St. Joseph to Marshall county the site of the present city of Marysville was marked by the presence of a lone shanty and there was nothing but an Indian trail leading to his home at Shroyer. Despite the hardships he underwent during the pioneer days, Mr. Shroyer is still a very vigorous man and continues to take an active interest in current affairs.
WILLIAM C. HUXTABLE.
The late William C. Huxtable, for years one of the substantial farmers of Marshall county, who died at his home in Frankfort in 1915, was a native of England, born there in 1833, and there grew to manhood. In 1857, he then being twenty-four years of age, he came to this country and settled in New York state, where he engaged in farming and where he was married in 1862. After his marriage Mr. Huxtable continued farming in New York until 1871, in which year he emigrated to Kansas with his fam- ily and became one of the pioneers of Marshall county. Upon coming here he bought a homesteader's right to a tract of land one mile north of Frank- fort and there established his home, continuing his residence there for ten years, at the end of which time he moved five miles northwest and bought a fine farmi of one hundred and ten acres of bottom land in Rock township, where he remained, successfully engaged in farming, until his retirement from the farm and removal to Frankfort, where he spent his last days. As he prospered in his farming operations he added to his land holdings and was the owner of a quarter of a section in addition to his home farm. Politically, Mr. Huxtable was an independent Democrat. He had served on his local school board and was treasurer of the school district for some time.
In 1862. William C. Huxtable was united in marriage, in New York state, to Maria Page, who was born in 1841, daughter of William and Betsy
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Page, natives of England, and to that union five children were born, namely : Mrs. Sophia Hunt, who lives on a farm near Blue Rapids, this county, and has seven children, George, Harry, Kittie, Archibaldl. Ruth, Lawrence and Letha: Mrs. Bertha Flinn, who lives northwest of Frankfort and has four children, Roy, Bessie, Lydia and Clarence: Mrs. Minnie Carver, who lives on a farm northwest of Frankfort and has three children, Nina, Gladys and Homer: William B., of Blue Rapids, who married Bessie Saville and has two children, Clark and Viola, and Edgar, a farmer, living south of Frankfort, who married Effie Saville, who died in 1916, leaving two chil- dren. Dorothy and Marvin. Since her husband's death in 1915 Mrs. Hux- table has continued to make her home in Frankfort, where she is very com- fortably situated. She is a member of the Episcopal church, as was her husband, and has ever taken an earnest interest in church work, as well as in other good works of the community in which she has lived since pioneer days.
DAVID DELAIR.
The Dominion of Canada has given to the United States some of her best citizens and most progressive men, who have come to this country where they have met with singular success and have become recognized as among the progressive and substantial people of the community in which they located. The greater number of these people who left their native clime, to seek a home in a new country, came with the determination to make good, and obtain a home worthy of the name, for themselves and those dependent upon them. With this determination and the inborn spirit to succeed these people are today among the substantial and influential resi- dents of the various states of the Union. Among the number who were natives of Canada and later came to Kansas, is David DeLair, who came to the United States when a young man, and has risen to a place of influence and prominence. He was born in Haldimand county, Ontario, Canada, on March 16. 1848, and is the son of John and Rachel ( Hodge ) DeLair.
John and Rachel DeLair were natives of Canada, the former having been born on April 29, 1799, and the latter on March 26, 1800. John DeLair was the son of French parents, who came to Canada. Rachel's forefathers were of New England descent. Mr. and Mrs. DeLair received their education in the schools of Canada and there they grew up and were later married. To them were born the following children: Edmund, whose
DAVID DE LAIR AND FAMILY.
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birth occurred on April 11, 1830; Mary, who was born on March 31, 1831 ; Francis, July 22, 1832; Samuel, September 13, 1834; Peter, February 4, 1837: Matilda, May 24, 1839; Nancy, April 5, 1841; Jane, born in 1845; David, March 16, 1848, and Clement, August 20, 1849. Of these children all are now deceased with the exceptions of Nancy, Jane and David. Samuel died in 1865; Matilda Kronk died at Tacoma, Washington, and Clement died in the mountains of Colorado. Nancy Williams lives at Tacoma, Washington; Jane Murdy is a resident of Dunville, Canada. Mr. and Mrs. DeLair were highly respected people and were of the farming class in their native country, where they lived their lives and where they were prominent in the social and the religious life of the community.
David DeLair received his education in the schools of Canada and there grew to manhood. At the age of twenty, in 1868, he decided to seek a home in the United States. He at once came to Kansas and here he established himself on a homestead in section 18, Balderson township, Mar- shall county. He was accompanied to this country by his brother-in-law, Mr. Kronk, who also homesteaded in the township. Mr. DeLair for ten years lived by himself on his homestead, which he developed and improved, and where he met with much success on his new claim, in the pursuit of general farming and stock raising.
In 1880 David DeLair was united in marriage to Margaret Cameron, who was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on July 18, 1848, the daughter of John and Margaret Cameron. Her father died in the native land. Mrs. DeLair received her education in New York City. She came over as a child and spent her younger days partly in Illinois and Nebraska. Some time after the death of the husband and father, the mother with her daughter and sons decided to come to the United States. They located in the city of New York, where they remained for some years, and in 1871 they left their home in that city and came first to Illinois and then to Nebraska, where they bought a homestead on Mission creek. There the mother made her home until the time of her death some years ago at the age of eighty- three years.
To John and Margaret Cameron were born the following children : Robert, Ellen, John, James, Peter and Margaret. Robert died at the age of eighty-two years; Ellen Chapman died in the state of Massachusetts in 1916 at the age of eighty-two years: John died at the age of seventy-eight years; James departed this life at the age of seventy-six years, in Furnas county, Nebraska, and Peter lives on Mission creek, Nebraska.
After having selected his claim to a homestead, Mr. DeLair at once (35)
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proceeded to build for himself a cabin. He cut the logs for his house, on Indian creek. The building was twelve by fourteen feet and was boarded up and down, and in this he made his home during the time he developed his farm. In 1884 he disposed of his homestead and moved to Nebraska. where he lived for nine years, when he returned to Kansas and established his home on the farm, on section 17. Baklerson township, this county, which he had purchased before he moved to Nebraska. On his return to the farm he made many additional improvements and put the farm under a high state of cultivation. Here he engaged in general farming and stock raising until December, 1915, when he retired from the activities of farm life and became a resident of Oketo. He is now the owner of one hundred and sixty acres of land in Marshall county and one hundred and sixty acres in Stephens county. Oklahoma, and is today one of the substantial and highly respected citizens of the county.
Mr. and Mrs. DeLair are the parents of four children. Lillie, the wife of C. J. Swanson, of Leadville, Colorado. She was born on May 31, 1881. and grew to womanhood on the home farm; Claude was born on December 4, 1883, and is on the home farm: Clyde, a twin of Clande, died at the age of seventeen years, and Russell, who was born on June 10. 1885. is a farmer of Wakefield, Kansas. Mr. and Mrs. DeLair are active members of the Baptist church, and Mr. DeLair is a member of the Modern Wood- mien of America.
WILLIAM D. WARNIC.A.
William D. Warnica, one of the real pioneer farmers of Marshall county, now living retired in his pleasant home in Frankfort, is a native of Canada, but has been a resident of the United States since he was a child and a resident of Kansas since the year 1860. when he became a home- steader in Wells county, this state, where he made his home, one of the foremost pioneers of that part of the county, until 1907, when he retired from the active labors of the farm and moved to the nearby city of Frank- fort, where he since has resided. He was born at Berry, near Toronto, in the Dominion of Canada, December 19, 1848, son of Joseph and Melvina (Denure ) Warnica, both natives of New York state and the former of German descent, who had settled in Canada after their marriage.
Joseph Warnica was a carpenter by trade. In 1857 he moved with his family from Canada to Michigan and located within six miles of Grand
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Rapids, on the plank road between Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo, and there opened a tavern, also continuing to follow his trade as a carpenter. When the Civil War broke out he enlisted his services in defense of the Union and in 1861 went to the front with the Michigan Engineer Corps, only to find a nameless grave on some battlefield of the South. The last heard of Joseph Warnica was in 1863. He left a widow and seven children. Of these chil- dren the subject of this sketch was the fourth in order of birth, the others being as follow: Peter. an early settler in Kansas, who is now living in Texas; Joseph G., who also enlisted in the Michigan Engineer Corps for service during the Civil War, went to the front with his father, received his honorable discharge in 1864, later became a pioneer in Kansas and is now deceased: Mrs. Melvina Crandall, who died in Colorado in 1911 ; George A., a substantial farmer living near St. Joseph, Missouri; Calvin, a farmer living west of Frankfort in this county, and James, of Junction City. Kansas. In 1873 the Widow Warnica left her home in Michigan and came to Kansas, taking a homestead five miles west of Frankfort, in this county, where she spent her last days with her three youngest children, her death occurring there in 1876.
In 1869, some little time before his twenty-first birthday, William D. Warnica came to Kansas with a view to finding a home in the then rapidly developing state. He found conditions in Marshall county to his liking and homesteaded an "eighty" in Wells township, four miles west of Frank- fort. At that time he had very little money and the beginning of his oper- ations there was on a very modest scale. He put up a log "shack," twelve feet square, for a claim shanty and started in developing his homestead. In 1872 he married and established his home on that tract, gradually con- tinuing to develop and improve the same until he had an excellent farm. Though, in common with all the settlers throughout this part of the state, he suffered many hardships and privations during the days of the grass- hopper plague and the destroying hot winds, he had the courage to "stick it out" and in time was amply rewarded. As he prospered in his operations Mr. Warnica gradually added to his land holdings until he became the owner of a fine farm of two hundred and forty acres, on which he erected a substantial and commodious dwelling and good farm outbuildings, hav- ing one of the best-appointed farm plants in that part of the county. There he made his home until 1907, when he retired from the active labors of the farm and moved to Frankfort, where he is now living and where he and his wife are very comfortably situated.
Mr. Warnica has been twice married. It was in 1873, about four years
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after coming to this county, that he was united in marriage to Hannah Osborn, who was born in Illinois, daughter of Robert Osborn, who came to Kansas in 1867, and to that union four children were born, namely: LeRoy. a farmer of Wells township, this county, who married Florence Ettenboro, a daughter of Charles Ettenboro, and has five children. Thelma, Everett, Wayne, Marvin and Freda: Alfonso, a clerk in a hardware store in Montana, who married Eunice Rogers and has one child. a son, Earl; Bessie, who married Wilbur J. Land, who is farming the Warnica home farm in Wells township, and has three children, Vernon. Fletcher and Geneva. and Robert, also farming in Wells township, who married Edna McConkey and has two children. Evelyn and Etta May. The mother of these children died in December. 1910, at the age of fifty-six years, and in November. 1914. Mr. Warnica married Mrs. Mary E. ( McElroy ) Mclain. widow of Lloyd Mclain, a farmer. merchant and former postmaster of Frankfort, and a daughter of Benjamin and Mary (Thomas) McElroy, who came to Kansas from Wisconsin in 1856 and homesteaded a place in Vermillion township, this county. thus having been among the very earliest settlers in that part of the county. Benjamin McElroy was a veteran of the Civil War, having served as a private in Company G. Thirteenth Regi- ment, Kansas Volunteer Infantry, in which he enlisted in 1862 and with which he served until discharged on a physician's certificate of disability, his service having been rendered in Arkansas and Missouri, serving under Captain Blackburn. Upon settling on his homestead farm one and one-hali miles west of where the city of Frankfort later sprang up, Mr. MeElroy put up a log cabin and established his home there. His wife died the year fol- lowing, in 1857, and he continued to make his home there until 1875, when he moved to Frankfort, where he died in 1894. Mrs. Warnica was but six months old when her parents came to this county and was still but an infant when her mother died. She has an elder sister, Mrs. Ann J. Rountree. now living in western Kansas.
Mr. Warnica is a Republican and during his long residence on the farm in Wells township held various township offices, having been a mem- ber of the township board for thirteen years and holding the position of clerk and treasurer of the same. In other ways he gave of his services to the public welfare and was helpful in promoting the interests of his home township from pioneer days. Mr. Warnica is a Mason and a member of the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and of the Daugh- ters of Rebekah. Mrs. Warnica also is a member of the latter order and of the local chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star and both take a warm
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