USA > Kansas > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery County, Kansas > Part 36
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
Boone. These Allens came originally from the North of Ireland and settled in Rockbridge county, Virginia, about 1630.
William B. Allen married Huldah Wilcox, whose Puritan ancestors came to America in the seventeenth century and settled, of course, in New England. Huldah Allen was boru in Connecticut of "Bay State" parents and was a daughter of Eli Wilcox. Seven children were born to her and her husband, as follows: Martha, deceased; Jennie. deceased; the latter the wife of A. B. Nibbs, of Houston. Texas; Harriet B., de- ceased wife of John Cunningham, of Coles county, Illinois: Edward P., our subject ; Mary, deceased, married William Hunter, of Houston, Tex- as; and Ella M., widow of George W. Reed, of Coles county, Illinois.
E. P. Allen acquired a liberal education in the schools of Greens- burg, Kentucky. In 1861, he enlisted in the Thirteenth Kentucky Infant- ry, Company "E." as first sergeant, under Colonel Hobson. The regiment saw its first service in Kentucky and was in battle at Mill Springs, was at Shiloh, Perryville, Stone River and in minor engagements and skirmishes. Mr. Allen was promoted in three months to be a lieutenant, and was discharged as such in Louisville, Kentucky, at the expiration of three years.
The mercantile business attracted Mr. Allen immediately after his release from the army and he engaged in it at Mattoon, Illinois. He re- mained there till 1867, when he returned to his native town and opened a store, continuing business there for two years, when he again sought Coles county, Illinois, and resided, and was in business, in Mattoon, till the fall of 1870, when he started overland on his journey to Kansas, arriv- ing in Montgomery county, October 16. of that year.
Everything was "out of doors" in Montgomery county at that early time and there seemed nothing to do but to farm. While the prospect was not the most exhilarating, our new-comer had no intention of turning his back on it, and he took up his sand-hill "claim" on Clear creek, as noted elsewhere in this article. Two years a farmer and four years a merchant, brings us to the autumn of 1877, when he was elected register of deeds of the county. His election was a special compliment to him, for it was accomplished in thefaceof great political odds, his party, the Democratic, being several hundred votes in the minority. He was reelected in 1879. serving with great efficiency and justifying in every way the confidence his Democratie and Republican friends reposed in him. From 1884 to 1886, his attention was given to the insurance, loan and real estate busi- ness. his office being at the corner of Main and Sixth streets. His pe- enmiaryresources at this time were assuming respectable proportions and his manner of handling them revealed his financial ability. He became a pation, and then a friend, of the First National Bank of Independence. and its stockholders made him a director in 1885. In 1886, the then cash- ier of the bank sold his interest to Mr. Allen, the management reorgan-
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ized and he was chosen president. He has succeeded himself in that office forsixteen years, and, with his able assistants, has made it an institution as safe and enduring as time itself.
May 2. 1865, in Coles county, Illinois, Mr. Allen married Mary F. Vansant, a daughter of Isaiah Vansant, of Fleming county, Kentucky. Mrs. Allen was born August 27. 1846, and is the mother of : Mattie N., wife of James F. Blackledge, of Caney, Kansas ; Edith, Lillian and Annie. The family are members of the Independence Presbyterian church and are highly and most honorably connected in their social ties.
Mr. Allen was made a Mason in 1861. He has taken the Blue Lodge, Chapter and Knight Templar degrees and in his life exemplifies the prin- ciples of the order. He is a Kentucky Democrat and is as loyal to his party tenets as he is to the rules which govern his moral and exemplary life.
JACOB SICKS-The generations of the future who inhabit Mont- gomery county will wish to know something of the people who snatched this municipality from nature's embrace, and wielded the brush with which its surface has been adorned with landscape and garden and beautiful homes. They will expect to find, for their information, a record of the characters who have been conspicuous players in the drama of civil and municipal affairs while the county was being launched and started on its voyage through time. By a knowledge of their forefathers, they may be able to explain some otherwise mysterious phenomena of their posterity and thus intelligently account for things done or not done. It is important then, as well as in good taste, to preserve, with other civil records of the county. the life work of its worthy pioneers, as gleaned at first hand from the very actors themselves.
In the subject of this article. we have presented for review a settler whose coming into the county was from the very first, whose connection with its history has been modest yet energetic and whose character as a citizen and a man has wielded an influence potent for good in the younger generations of his race.
In October, 1869, Jacob Sicks came into Montgomery county, Kan- sas. It was on the 18th of that month that he drove on to the side-hill on the southwest quarter of section 4. township 33, range 15, and thereby did the initial act toward making that spot of ground his permanent and future home. While he was complying with the formalities of the law in the matter of a homestead, a little log cabin, 14x14 in dimensions. grewout of this side-hill as if by magic, and the first family in that neigh- borhood was soon housed without either door or floor. It is nearly thirty-four years now since that eventful day on which one of the most attractive and fertile farms in the county was born. By the
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
industry of man has wild nature departed and by the toil of his household has Jacob Sicks become the owner of an estate which provides him and his with all the comforts and some of the luxuries of life.
From the advent of the first white man to the departure of the Ind- ian, Montgomery county was on the frontier. Its few settlers were har- rassed and belabored by hungry Red Men from the bands of Big Hill Joe, Chetopa, Strike Axe and Black Dog, all of which chiefs had camps some- where in the county. In 1870, the government treated with the red man for his title to "The Diminished Rserve" and he was removed to his new conniry-"The Osage Country-" just south of the Kansas line. The aborigines gone. Montgomery county seemed to acquire civilization by leaps and bounds and the old landmarks of the county felt very much penned up, so rapidly did settlers flock in and take possession of the un- claimed lands. While Mr. Sicks adjusted himself to the frontier condi- tions of the sixties, was satisfied with his lot and content with the honor of being a pioneer, he was nevertheless pleased with the advent of neigh- hors and extended to them a helping and friendly hand. He was poor himself. when he unloaded his goods at the door of his log cabin home in 1869, but "the wolf was kept away" while his family was growing up and increased prosperity came to him yearly until he felt warranted in retir- ing from active farm work.
Jacob Sicks was born in Boone county, Indiana, November 2, 1837. His father, Philip Sicks, settled there two years before, and was a resi- dent of the county till 1888, dying at the age of eighty-three years, Philip Sicks was a native of Nicholas county, Kentucky, and was a son of Jacob Sicks who was killed by a corn thief at middle life and left two sons and a daughter, namely : John, Philip and Rebecca; the last named becoming the wife of William Beckner and passing her life in Rush county, Indiana. Philip Sieks married Nancy Slain, the issue of the union being ten children, as follows: Sarah J., who married James Cun- ningham; Mary, wife of James Siddons; Mahala, who became Mrs. George Cross; Francis M .. who took to wife Margaret Siddons; Thomas O., whose wife was Susan Elder; Jacob, our subject ; Lucinda, who mar- ried Sammel JJones ; John N .. who married, first. Nancy J. Davis and, after- ward, married Mrs. Siddons; and Amanda, wife of George Beadles. The mother of these children died in 1848.
Jacob Sick's youthful advantages were exceedingly limited. His education was, of necessity, neglected and he grew up in the timbered country of the "Hoosier State" a lusty, industrions honest but un- learned youth. Nature always comes to the relief of the less fortunato of her kind and she endowed our subject with commendable auxiliaries toward surmounting obstacles through life. He was converted in youth to the Christian religion and strength of character and purpose have come to him along life's pathway to not only enable him to live right but
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ITISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
to accomplish a modest but good work for the Master. Twice he felt called to the ministry but each time he resisted through fear of weakness and inability to achieve results, but the third time he yielded to the de- mands of the Spirit and has for fifteen years done an irregular and sup- plementary work in the pulpit of the Christian denomination.
November 4, 1858, Mr. Sicks was united in marriage with Sarah F. Utterback, a daughter of Henry Utterback, of Kentucky. Mrs. Sicks was born in Putnam county, Indiana. November 28, 1840, and is the mother of the following sons and daughters: Mary E., deceased, married N. Londry and left three children; Maria M., of Mound Ridge, Kansas, is the wife of John Edington ; Philip, of Iola, Kansas, is married to Mary Christy; Thomas, of lola, Kansas, married Dora Bordenhammer, de- ceased : Emma, wife of Ed Main, of Montgomery county, Kansas; John, of Independence, is married to Ella Barlow; Lizzie, deceased, married Ed Adams, who is now the husband of her sister. Annie; Vernelia, wife of Thomas McMahan: George, of the old homestead, is married to Laura Moore; Mittie, who died at fifteen years; and Charles, the only child left under the parental roof.
Mr. Siek's disposition and inclination have not led him to figure much in the public affairs of Montgomery county. He is a Democrat of the ancient school and has manifested a strictly conservative attitude toward all movements looking to a striking innovation or serions depart- ure from the old regime. By this attitude some would infer that he op- posed public progress and is against new ideas, but it is purely from his desire to occupy a position not too far in adance of the old way that he takes this stand. With his neighbors and friends he is cordial and oblig- ing and exercises a practical charity wherever the circumstances war- rant. lle is fond of his family and has reared them in the fear of God and to become honorable men and women. In his declining years he is in the enjoyment of some of the practical blessings and luxuries of life. Natural gas and the daily delivery of mail at his own door lead him to praise the achievements of modern progress. A moment's reflection lo- eates him, with meager means and a small family, on the bleak prairio with a temporary shelter in 1869. and, thirty-four years later, in the full- ness of years and with family grown up and scattered, we see him pro- vided with a comfortable home. overlooking a splendid farm, and made comfortable by the reward of toil, and with the fondest wish at his fin- ger tips.
WILLIAM COTTON-Near the rural village of Costello, resides one of the leading farmers of Montgomery county, William Cotton. He is a native of the "Blue Grass State" where. in 1832, he began life in Madi- son county. His father, Thomas Cotton, was a son of Charles Cotton who
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
came from Virginia and was one of those sturdy pioneers who redeemed the wilds of Kentucky for civilization. The mother of our subject was l'anlina Brandus, of one of the early pioneer families of Kentucky, who came into that state from North Carolina.
William Cotton is one of a family of six children, of whom four are now living. viz: James, who resides in Missouri; Elizabeth and Lucinda are deceased ; Mary, the wife of John Graves, resides in Illinois; Belle is living in Indiana, the wife of Squire Tatum. The parents of this fan- ily removed from Kentucky to Indiana where William was reared to farm life.
At twenty years of age, our subject married Ann, daughter of Dr. Travis McMillan, of Girrard county, Kentucky. To them have been born : Bettie, wife of John Drybread. a farmer of Louisburg township; Clar- ence, who married Catherine Hand, who died leaving five children, viz : John, Emma, Prentice, William and Clara. Prentice, the third child of William Cotton, resides in California with his wife, nee Juliet Stewart ; John M., a bank clerk residing in Elk City, married Mamie, daughter of John Castillo, of Lonisburg township; his two children are Clyde and Cornelia.
The coming of William Cotton to Montgomery county in 1885, con- stituted a distinct gain to the population of the county, as his citizenship since then has been such as to deserve the plaudits of all worthy members of society. In political affairs, he supports the principles of Lincoln and McKinley, and he and his family are active members of the Christian church. They are held in great respeet in the neighborhood in which they have passed the years since their coming to the county, and are deserv- ing of mention in a volume devoted to Montgomery's best citizens.
JOHN C. PAGE-One of the well known of the later settlers of Montgomery county is John C. Page, of Independence township, whose lot was cast here in April. 1883. He purchased eighty acres in section 6. township 33, range 16. known as the Wiley Wise farm. Ile came here from Crawford county, Illinois, where he was born on the 17th of Decem- ber, 1824. His was one of the old families of the "Prairie State," his father having migrated thereto in 1818, the year of the admission of the state into the union. Jesse Page, father of our subject, emigrated from Virginia to the new sate on the prairie. He was born in the "Old Domin- ion State" in 1777 and came to manhood there. He was a son of Robert Page whose three sons, David, Joel and Jesse, settled in Illinois. Jesse Page spent his life as a tiller of the soil and in 1854 he married Polly Ar- nold who lived to the age of eighty years. Illinois was not yet rid of its Indian population when the Pages settled there and for some years af-
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
terward they roamed at will abont the homes of the new settlers. It was the Miami tribe that our subject remembers distinctly as being and af- filiating with the pioneers of Crawford county. Jesse Page's children were: Robert A., who died in Oregon; Benjamin, who died in Illinois; Rachel, of Flat Rock, Illinois, married Samnel Stark: John C., Pinnin- nah, of Martinsville, Illinois, is the wife of William Patterson ; James, who died at Hebron, Illinois; and two died young.
John C. Page passed his childhood and yonth amid surroundings .very primitive and rude. The country schools of his day afforded him his elementary education and at twenty years old he spent a year in the city schools of Terre Haute, Indiana. He became a teacher at the conclusion of this school year and was engaged actively and successfully in the work for a period of seven years. He became a farmer about this time. in a small way, and began the improvement of a new farm. His record as a teacher induced his political friends to make him a candidate for the office of county superintendent and to this he was elected in 1860. He filled the position so satisfactorily that he was reelected in two years for a second term. At the close of his public service he engaged in other bus- iness but was called to serve in another official capacity in 1866 by his election to the office of county treasurer in which he also served four years. Going out of office in 1870, he took up farming and never after- ward filled an office of such responsibility. He continued his efforts at farming till 1883, when he disposed of his interests in Illinois and came to Montgomery county, Kansas.
In January. 1851, Mr. Pago married Fidelia Newlin, a daughter of Nathaniel Newlin and Elizabeth, his wife. The Newlins came to Illinois from North Carolina about 1816 and were a large and numerous family. Of this marriage, Mr. Page is the father of: Harry, of El Paso, Texas; Genevra, wife of John Ferguson, died at Emporia, Kansas, leaving three children ; Eulalia, deceased wife of George Higgins, died at Neodesha, Kansas, in 1887; and Chester, of Paris, Texas. Fidelia Page died in 1863, and the next year Mr. Page married Phebe Mecker, who bore him : Belle, wife of James Doily, of Mayfield, Kansas; Emma, a teacher of Cripple Creek, Colorado, was educated in Marshall, Illinois and is single; Olive. of Ft. Worth, Texas, is the wife of E. C. Cochrain, editor of one of the Ft. Worth papers. Mr. Page was married a third time, February 17. 1875, to Mary Smith. a daughter of A. J. and Elizabeth Smith, of Johnson county. Indiana, where Mrs. Page was born September 18. 1845. A. J. Smith was born in New Jersey and his wife, nee Elizabeth Darrell, was born in Indiana. Mr. Smith died in 1897. in Johnson county. Indi- ana, at the age of seventy three. His children were: Mrs. Page, Ursula, deceased wife of James Balser: Sarah, who married Wallace Bears and resides in Whiteland, Indiana; and Martha, now Mrs. George Darrell, of Johnson comity, Indiana. Mr. Page and his present wife are the par-
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
ents of one child, a son, Manford, who married Rose Carle and has a son. Alfred C.
The political history of the Pages is told in the one word-Demoe- racy. Our subject was elected to public office as such in Illinois and he has affiliated with the same party in Kansas. He was prominent in the Farmers' Alliance in Montgomery county and supported heartily, fusion, as opposed to the dominant party. and is in harmony with the Bryan idea as expressed at Kansas City.
JAMES HAMILTON STEWART-The late subject of this review was one of the substantial, worthy and honored citizens of Independence township. Montgomery county. He became identified with its affairs as a farmer on his entrance to the county in 1883 and from thence forward to his sudden taking-off won the regard of his fellow townsmen.
Mr. Stewart settled on section 23, township 33, range 15, in which he owned one hundred and sixty acres, well improved. well tilled and profitable. When he took possession of it a small stone house, a shed for stock and some plowed land were the extent of it improvements. Being from Pennsylvania, from which state come nothing less than efficient men, he was possessed of the plans for a pattern farm and the industry to carry them out. General farming ocenpied his attention and his prosper- ity showed itself in the ever-advancing condition of his premises. He was no less worthy as a citizen than as a farmer. He believed in and practiced the golden rule. Right was always might with him and it won him the universal regard of his neighbors. He was a man of conviction and when he took a position it took evidence to remove him. His preju- dice in favor of some family enstom may have given rise to some friendly criticism of him but his heart was right and he never intentionally gave personal offense. lle had a firm belief in the reward after death and the teachings of the Holy Word served to guide him in his daily walk. He was a member of the Jefferson congregation of the Methodist church and when he died, November 8. 1897, one of its substantial supports was taken away.
In Washington county, Pennsylvania, Mr. Stewart was reared but his birth occurred near Bethany. West Virginia, on the 24th of January, 1841. lle was a son of a farmer, JJames H. Stewart. His mother was Sarah Balwin, a daughter of Levi Baldwin, a blacksmith who had the distinction of once having shod the horse of General Washington, as that officer was passing through Pennsylvania. When Mr. Stewart was five years old his father died and his mother then took her family to Washing- ton county, Pennsylvania, where she remained till her death in 1894. Her children were: James H., of this notice ; Thomas, of Pittsburg. Pennsyl-
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
vania : Elizabeth J., widow of Robert Sweeny, of Wheeling, West Virgin- ia ; William. of Chattanooga, Tennessee ; Annie, wife of Jacob Laughman, deceased, of Washington county, Pennsylvania.
James H. Stewart acquired a country school education, or, perhaps, better. a common school one, and learned his trade before the war came on. Ho enlisted for that struggle in 1861, in Company "C." Twenty-sec- ond Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry. He served with the Army of the Potomac in the Shenandoah Valley and his regiment formed a part of Sheridan's cavalry. He took part in Hunter's Raid and the Battle of Cedar Creek and remained in the service until the war was over. Return- ing to civil life he resumed his trade which he followed till he started to Kansas.
December 20. 1866, Mr. Stewart married Elizabeth R. Deltes. a daughter of John Deltes and Margaret Geyer, husband and wife, both of German birth. Mr. Deltes died in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1885, and his wife preceded him two years. Their native province was Wittenburg. Their children were: Amelia, married Charles Schmidt and died in Wash- ington county, Pennsylvania, in 1892; Rosa, who died in Chicago in 1896, was the wife of Charles Leonheaus; Mary. of Baltimore, Maryland, is the wife of James Bamber; Catherine, of the same city, is now Mrs. Bishop Carnan; Maggie, single and residing in Baltimore; John, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; and Mrs. Stewart, who was born April 17, 1847.
The children of Mr. and Mrs. Stewart are: William H., of Niotaze, Kansas; James H., of Cherryvale; George W., of Independence; Mary E., Charles S., Samuel H., Estella O. and Lulu E., all at home except Samuel, who resides in Kansas City.
Mr. Stewart took a warm and patriotic interest in county polities. He was a Republican and was often a delegate to party conventions. He was a member of the Grand Army and interested himself generally in whatever seemed for the upbuilding and welfare of his county. He con- tracted rheumatism while in the army and was afflicted all his remain- ing years, this being the prime cause of his sudden demise.
ANDREW J. COLLINS-One of the early settlers and prosperous farmers of Montgomery county is the subject of this personal sketch. He came to the county in 1877 and purchased a farm on the "Tenth street road" which he occupied some six years and then purchased a new and unimproved quarter of prairie land in section 21. township 30, range 15, which he occupied and went through the formula of bringing under subjection. as settlers were wont in pioneer days. As he prospered he added another eighty acres to his already half section and now he owns
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
five eighties, or four hundred acres, the majority of which represents the accumulations aecruing to him and his industrious family in the quarter of a century they have spent in Kansas.
Mr. Collins has been and is a farmer, pure and simple. The grow- ing of grain and the handling of stock in a modest way are the important things with which he has had to deal and, on the whole, he has achieved a degree of the thrift which only determination and perseverance can win.
County Meath, Ireland, was the birthplace of Andrew J. Collins. His natal day and year was April 17, 1839, and his parents were Daniel and Mary (O'Brien) Collins, who brought their family to the United States in 1849 and landed at Castle Garden in New York. Princeton, New Jersey, was their objective point and there the younger generation grew up. They had a family of fifteen children, all told, but those now living are : Matthew, of Hoboken, New Jersey ; Andrew J., of this notice; Michael, Daniel, and Catherine, who married Patrick Campbell and re- sides in New Jersey.
Andrew J. Collins acquired only a limited edneation in the inferior schools of his time and place and at the age of twenty-two he married and settled down to the toil of the farm. In 1866, he migrated to Illi- nois and stopped in Sangamon county, where he resumed farming and followed it until his removal to Kansas.
In April, 1861, occurred the wedding of Mr. Collins to Ann Clark, a lady of Irish birth and a daughter of Owen Clark, of County Cavan. Mrs. Collins died in Montgomery county December 8, 1898, and was the mother of Thomas and John, of the family homestead ; Andrew, de ceased; Willie, Laura, widow of Henry Mollidor; and Sarah, wife of Herbert Hill, of Independence.
Mr. Collins is a Democrat and has been road overseer of his road district for twenty-five years.
MARY A. KEESLER-Since the year 1872, the subject of this bi- ographical review has been a resident of Montgomery county. She accom- panied her husband to the county two years previous and their settlement was made near Havana, but this settlement proved to be little more than temporary and in 1873, they came into Cherry township where Mrs. Keesler has since lived and where her husband passed away.
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