USA > Kansas > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery County, Kansas > Part 43
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95
In the performance of duty, Mr. Hays was always willing and prompt, as a soldier. and the fear of man was not in him. When off duty, he often ventured far beyond the lines of the camp, irrespective of the proximity of guerrilla bands, and the boys claimed that he knew everybody within five miles of camp. Just before the end of the war. Colonel Leghman ordered him off of the picket line and into the hospital for treatment, and the surgeon who examined him. discharged him and sent him home to die. "But Bill wouldn't die. His mother patched him up with some herbs" and his iron constitution did the rest. Although he recovered, he is troubled with a recurrence of his army affliction, pe- riodically, and has frequently been brought near death's door. While his service and his ailments from service would entitle him to be a pen- sioner on the roll of honor. he has never drawn one cent from the gov- ernment since it settled up with him at the close of the war.
Resuming civil life, Mr. Hays went south, but found the feeling against the Union soldier too bitter to warrant his remaining, and he took Horace Greely's advice and "came west to grow up with the conn- try." In 1868, he camped on the Osage Diminished Reserve for the first
376
HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
time and roamed over the southwest awhile. Deciding to locate in Montgomery county, he first located a claim at the junction of the Verdi- gris and Elk rivers, but the sudden overflow caused him to change his plans and he entered land just below"Hell's Bend," on the Verdigris, "where Hell broke loose regularly, once a week." He fought off and out- stayed the claim-jumpers, destroyed their foundations and tore down their houses, while he, himself, made his home in his wagon-box.
lie engaged in the cattle business in his new home and was dis- puted the right to either cut hay, or even live on the land. After some trouble, peace was made with Mad Chief and his band of Osages, and lit- tle, save the thieving and petty offenses of the Indians and Hell's Bend's gang, served to worry or disturb the pioneers. Mad Chief was a lieuten- ant in "Beever's band," the chief of which accosted Mr. Hays with the query as to why he was there, and ended the interview with the threat that every white man would be driven off of the reservation. The pow- wow ended in a compromise between Hays and the Indians, after a day's wrangle, Hays agreeing not to put up hay only on the Elk river bottom. He permitted the Osage ponies to feed at the stacks in winter, and presented the chief a beef, whenever the cattle were brought in. Mr. Hays' first hay was burned by Indians as soon as it was put in windrow.
On one occasion, Mr. Hays broke up the firing of his haystacks by the Indians, by taking one of them out of the crowd and driving him across the prairie, for punishment, at the hands of the Indian agent. At another time, he returned a bunch of horses to some timid settlers from a northern county, simply going into a corral where the Indians had driven them, cutting them out and driving them off, after the band had demanded money for their ransom, and refused to deliver them up to their owners. At several times, Mr. Hays was ordered off the reserva- tion by the agent. but he forgot to go. Because of his firmness with the Osages, some of them felt a grievance toward our subject, and made ef- forts to run him off, but they made no headway at this. This dissatis- faction continued till the spring of 1870, when the Osages fired all the hay he had and left him without feed for his stock, burned some of the cattle in the corral, and many calves in the prairie grass.
From 1869 to 1871, there were three log houses burned on Mr. Hays' «laim, two box houses destroyed and four log foundations cut up and burned. His claim was ordered vacated by the agent, who told him, through letters, that he never should have a foot of the Diminished Re- serve. Once he sent U. S. Marshal Hargrave to arrest him and take him out of the Indian country, but for some good reason, the marshal didn't do it, and after an acquaintance had sprung up between them, Hargrave said, one day. "Bill, if I had known the kind of a man you are. I don't know where you would be today. I started to arrest you once. by order of 1. T. Gibson, and on my way up I met a lot of Osages going
377
HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
down to the agent with a story of your 'round-up' with them, and the version they gave of the affair, led me to think you were the devil, and I had no business with yon without soldiers."
Every summer, for fourteen years, Mr. Hays spent the summer on the trail. He operated in Kansas and the Territory and everybody seemed glad to meet "Bill Hays," from Red river to the Kansas line. He had several hundred acres fenced, in the Cherokee Nation, and, under the act of the Council, no man was allowed to fence more than fifty acres. But many fenced a thousand acres and. often, the Cherokee officer's depu- ties came along, with their wire cutters, and let down fences every- where. An old Irish woman complained to the authorities that "it bate the divel that thim houns coot ivry body's fince but thot mon Hoais, and divel the bit did the slinks touch et !"
The region of the Territory was a wild country until recent years. It was full of bandits and petty thieves, and the only two subjects dis- cussed by them, apparently, was "cattle and kill." The marshal rounded up a motley crowd of law-breakers every year, and yet each year the erop grew larger. Mr. Hays was brought into contact with them, in the course of his work, but escaped their wrath, and had no se- rions mixup with them. The Daltons were bad, but no worse than some others. He met them often, and saw them the day they lay dead in Cof- feyville, when they tried to outdo Jesse James, by robbing two banks at once.
In manner and bearing, Mr. Hays is unassuming and unpretentious. He is averse to pushing himself forward and reserves no special merit to himself. He has led a successful life and been a conspicuous and use- ful citizen of Montgomery county, and it is meet that some such ex- tended mention of his experiences as this should appear in a history of his own county. He has never married. having passed his life in the families of neighbors or tenants, and being "uncle" to them all.
Farmingand the raising of stock have constituted only a small portion of the interesting experiences in the life of Mr. Hays. He was in the banking business, when the panie of 1892 came on, and the story of his defense of the depositors, against the attempted assimilation of the bank's funds, to their own advantage, by some of those near to the insti- tutior's management, would furnish something of a sensation to the patrons of the defunet bank.
Mr. lays makes no pretense to political leadership and has little sympathy for professional politicians. He has no use at all for the chronie office-seeker, and not the greatest regard for the candidacy of any man looking for votes. However, against his wishes, he was nom- inated, in 1881, for county commisioner, and was pitted against the "political sweep-stake as a vote-getter in Montgomery county," whom he defeated. It was during his official incumbeney that the outstanding
378
HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
warrants of the county were called in, paid off and cancelled, and the county levy reduced from one dollar to seventy cents. The county did business on a cash basis and, so far as the member from Sycamore was concerned, "the board turned its back on all proposed contracts that contained nothing but cheap talk, smiles and boodle."
THOMAS FRANKLIN BURKE-Ex-register of deeds, Thomas F. Burke, of Independence, has resided in Montgomery county twenty years. Fourteen years of that time he was engaged in farming in Syca- more township, and only abandoned rural pursuits to assume public office, to which he had just been chosen. After five years of official ser- vice, in one of the most important positions in the gift of the people of Montgomery county, he retired, and became a member of the real estate firm of Heady & Burke.
Mr. Burke's parents were early settlers of Macon county, Illinois, Micajah Burke, his father, emigrating from Hardin county, Kentucky, in 1832, and founding the family on the bleak prairies of the "Sucker State." Virginia was the original American home of the family, and early in the century just past, John II. Burke, grandfather of our sub- ject, joined the throng of immigrants to Kentucky, remained there some years, and accompanied his son, Micajah, into Macon county, Illinois, where he died, in 1854. He was a shoemaker by trade, married and had a family of two sons and six daughters. James Burke was his other son and lie brought up a family in Illinois.
Micajah Burke was born in Virginia in 1803 and died in 1863. The Jabor of the farm furnished him with employment through life and he and his wife, nee Luey Ann Pasley, of Kentucky, reared a family of seven chil- dren. Mrs. Burke was a daughter of Rev. Ilenry H. Pasley, a Methodist minister of Hardin county, who was a native of the State of Kentucky. Mrs. (Pasley) Burke died in 1892, at seventy-two years of age, being the mother of: John H., of Macon county, Illinois; James W., deceased; Robert Y., of Iola, Kansas; Thomas F., Adelpha C., deceased, wife of Henry Stevens, of Macon county, Illinois; Joseph W., of the home county in Illinois ; and Lewis D., of Pueblo, Colorado.
Thomas F. Burke grew up in the country where school advantages were not of the first order. Ilis enlistment in the army, for service in the Civil war, marked his exit from the domestic and parental fireside. He joined Company "A," One Hundred and Sixteenth Illinois Infantry, first, Col. Tupper, and, later, Col. Maddox. The regiment formed a part of Grant's army, operating on the Mississippi river, and its first engage- ment, in which Mr. Burke participated, was at Haines' Bluff. Then came Champion Hills, and the siege and capture of Vicksburg. The army then came up the river to Memphis, and started on its journey from
379
HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
there to join the Federal troops, operating in the east. Mr. Burke took part in the Missionary Ridge battle and was present, with his regiment, at the relief of Gen. Burnside, at Knoxville. Tennessee. During that win- ter, the command with which Mr. Burke was serving, was stationed at Larkinsville, Alabama, and the following spring, it took up the work of the Atlanta campaign, at Resaca, Georgia. Was in battle at Dallas, Big Shanty and Kennesaw Mountain, in which latter the troops charged the Confederates and captured their redoubt. The One Hundred and Six- teenth then went to Rossville, Georgia, on orders, and was in the fight of the 21st and 22d of September. in front of Atlanta. On the 28th, it was at Ezra Chapel, where Mr. Burke was struck on the head with a Rebel ball, which, in time. caused blindness of the right eye. After a term in the hospital. at Marietta, Georgia. he returned to his regiment. and was in the fight at Jonesboro. The command then marched back to Atlanta and followed Hood to the Tennessee river. near Chattanooga; returned to Atlanta and took up the march "to the sea." Mr. Burke par- ticipaied. with his company, in the charge on Ft. McAllister, at Savan- nah, in which engagement he was color bearer, and he believes he placed the first banner of the stars and stripes on the Rebel works. At Savannah the One Hundred and Sixteenth Illinois was embarked aboard a ship for Pocataligo, South Carolina, where it disembarked and went to Charleston and on to Goldsboro. North Carolina. Took part in the engagement at Bentonville. North Carolina, marched on through Raleigh, to Petersburg, and into Richmond, Virginia, the late Confeder- ate capital. Leaving there, the army marched to the Grand Review at Washington, D. C., and terminated its services and celebrated its vic- tories in the grandest military display the world ever saw. Mr. Burke was discharged at the Capital, but was mustered out at Springfield, Illi- nois, with a promotion from private to color-sergeant, and with three years of ardnous and patriotic service to his credit.
On returning to his old home, our subject donned the habiliments of a farmer and resumed civil pursuits where he left off three years he- fore. For thirty-two years. in Illinois and in Kansas, he continued at his favorite calling. and only separated from it at the behest of the people to assume public office.
October 22, 1871, Mr. Burke married Ellen Nesmith. a daughter of Samuel Nesmith, a lawyer by profession and an Ohioan by birth. The Nesmiths were English, their family home being Londonderry, which this branch left, came to America, and settled at Londonderry, Connecticut, away back in Colonial times. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Burke are: Walter S., of Denver, Colorado; Alice G., wife of Morris Humes, of Em- poria, Kansas; Bessie F., and Arthur N., of Denver, Colorado.
In his political life, Mr. Burke is an avowed Republican. He has ever taken a keen interest in local polities, and was first elected Register
380
HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
of Deeds in November, 1897, by a majority of sixty-six vots, being the only candidate on his ticket to "pull through." In 1899, he was reelected, this time receiving a majority of three hundred and fifty-two votes, and being again the only Republican candidate to win on the county ticket, except the surveyor and coroner. His service as county recorder was ef- ficient and pains-taking and it included the time from January, 1898, to January, 1903.
THOMAS WHISTLER-What shall Montgomery do when these "first settlers" have passed to their reward? There seems to have been something in the virgin soit of her boundless prairies which inoculated them with the virus of contentment and good nature, patriotism and devotion to the state of their adoption. They broke the sod and from its upturned loam, drew inspiration for the battle of life, which carried them safely through the heat of the day. and which still gives forth its benign influences as they enter the evening shades. Retired from the activities of life, they yet exercise a potent influence in the conduct of affairs in the wise council which they give to the younger generation.
In Thomas Whistler, of Elk City, is found one of these first settlers of the county, the singularly correct life which he has lived having brought to him, in a large measure, expressions of appreciation and good cheer from a very wide circle of friends. Mr. Whistler is a native of Maryland, born in the county of Baltimore. November 9. 1836. Samuel Whistler, his father, and Elizabeth Ford, his mother, were natives of Pennsylvania and Maryland, respectively, and in their day, were loyal and respected citizens, whose lives were without blemish. The father was a worker in iron and also followed the plow in season. He died at the age of fifty-six years, his wife surviving him some years, and passing away during the 60's. There was a family of six children: Abram, John and Elizabeth are now deceased: Lottie, Mrs. Richard Herbert, a widow, living in Pennsylvania; Mary, Mrs. Thaddeus Crow, resides in Virginia ; and the subject of this sketch.
Mr. Whistler was roared to the rigors of farm life, and there devel- oped that constitution which has carried him through nearly seven decades of a busy life. He worked on the home farm until September of 1862, when he caught the step, which swung past him, for the battle- fields of the south and took up arms for the defense of the Union. His enlistment was as a private soldier in Company "G." Second Maryland Volunteer Infantry, Army of the Potomac. His service was entirely in the east, his company being in many of the great struggles which took place between Lee and the different leaders on the Union side, and stood grim and silent across the pathway of that proud chieftan at Appomat- tox, as he vainly endeavored to extricate himself from the toils. During
BENJ. MURPHY.
38 I
HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
these years of war, Mr. Whistler was fortunate in receiving no wounds and keeping out of the foul prison pens of the south. His discharge, in July of 1865, was received in the consciousness of having contributed his mite to the establishment of the principle that "all men are equal before the law."
Mr. Whistler returned to the farm, which he continued to till until the spring of 1872, when he joined the flood-tide of emigration, which was flowing to the west and which, landed him in one of the best counties in Kansas. He opened a elaim in Louisburg township, and, for twenty- one years, he passed through the experiences which were the lot of all the early settlers who worked hard and intelligently turned their erops. In 1893, he retired from active work, and has since lived in the enjoy- ment of the competence which his labors brought him. He still keeps in touch with the occupation which he has followed through life, having in his possession, three farms in the county, aggregating five hundred and fifty-two acres, all of it in the gas belt, and, therefore, of unusual valne.
Mr. Whistler has been thrice married. The wife of his youth was Mary E. Stockdale, whom he married in 1856, and who died at twenty- four years of age, in 1860, leaving two children: Mary and John. The son has been, for a number of years, a prominent factor in the county's affairs, having served in various offices of trust, and is now a repre- sentative of the county in the state legislature, having been elected by the Republicans of his district, in 1902. He made a good record in the halls of legislation and will be heard from in the future. He has been twice married, his first wife, Nannie Owen, dying in 1896. She was the mother of Burton. Thomas, Edward and Eva (twins), John, George and Anna. His present wife is a sister of the first, Eva Owen, whose one son is named after the martyr president, William MeKinley. The second child of our subject's first marriage was a daughter, Mary, who died in childhood. Mr. Whistler's second marriage occurred in December of 1862. to Agnes V. Hayes, who bore him a son, Thomas Seth, who died at one year, the mother dying in 1868. Ilis present wife was E. J. Seev- er, prior to December of 1872-the date of her marriage to Mr. Whistler. She is a native of Kentucky, and is the daughter of John and Mary Seever, both now deceased. She is a member of the Christian church, while onr subject contents himself with membership in that grand organ- ization, the Grand Army of the Republic. Both are the center of a very large circle of friends, who unite in unanimous appreciation of their many sterling qualities.
BENJAMIN MURPHY-The forerunners of civilization are the pioneers of a new country. They arrest nature. in her undisputed sway
382
HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
over the vast realm, and introduce an active, energetic force, armed withr the arts of peace and with a single thought-the building of homes. In this category of distinguished persons, our subjeet, Benjamin Murphy, belongs. He was here in Montgomery county among the first, neigh- bored-according to the custom-for a time, with the aborigines, and from the day of his advent, was consnmed with the idea of achieving a home. It was the 1st day of November, 1868, that he, with others from the same point, located on Elk river, taking his claim in section 9, town- ship 32, range 15, and also a part of section 10, embracing a quarter sec- tion, in all, which he improved and resided on for many years. His home is almost on the bank of the sinnons Elk and the substantial character of his domicile indicates the permanence which swayed him in an early day.
Mr. Murphy had been a resident of Kansas for ten years when he settled in Montgomery county. He was a pioneer to Coffey county and settled near LeRoy. from which point he brought his family to Mont- gomery county, in 1869. He was born in Posey conuty. Indiana, Jan- uary 16. 1834. and is a son of Jesse Murphy, who went with his father, James Murphy. into Posey county. in 1804, from North Carolina. James Murphy left Indiana and went to the Republic of Texas, where he could own slaves, and died in Anderson county, now the State of Texas, in 1861. His first wife was Elizabeth Cox, who died in Posey county, In- diana, being the mother of six sons, namely : Jesse. John, Aaron , James, who died in Oregon, Noah, and Thomas, who died in Texas. John died in Illinois, and Noah and Aaron died in Indiana, while Jesse died in Illi- nois, in 1850. Grandfather Murphy was a soldier in the war of 1812. and helped fight the battle of Tippecanoe, under Gen. Harrison.
Jesse Murphy was, like his father, a farmer. He married Sarah Russell, who survived him two years, and bore him four children, as follows: William. of Illinois; James, deceased; John. who lives in Illi- nois, and Benjamin, our subject. These sons grew up in the new eoun- try of Illinois, where there were few opportunities for boys without means and no advantages for an education worth the name. The conse- quener was, Benjamin learned little beyond reading, writing and a smat- tering of arithmetic. March 6, 1856, he married Sidney Tiner, a daugh- ter of Richard Tiner, from Tennessee. Mrs. Tiner was a Jenkins. Mrs. Sidney Murphy died in Montgomery county, Kansas, in 1873, leaving nine children, namely: Richard and Elmora, who died without heirs; Queen V., wife of Henry Primmer, of Pueblo, Colorado; William, of Labette county, Kansas; Emma, Mrs. John Hooper, of Montgomery county, Kansas; George, of Independence, Kansas; Effie, wife of J. H. Carpenter, of the Indian Territory; Jesse, and Ida, wife of William MeClond. January 25, 1876, Mr. Murphy married Mrs. Maria MeCarney, widow of Thomas MeCarney, and a daughter of John and Zernah ( Barn-
383
HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
hard) Black. Mr. Black emigrated from his native State of Pennsyl- vania, to Morrow connty, Ohio, where Mrs. Murphy was born, but now resides with our subject, at eighty-eight years of age. Mrs. Murphy was born August 12, 1843, and is the third child of her parents, the others being . Henry, of Greenwood county, Kansas; Ann E., wife of Joseph Underhill; Lydia, wife of William Sterling, of Henning. Minnesota. Ezra MeCarney, of Independence, Kansas, is Mrs. Murphy's first child. Her others are Ada, deceased; Cora, wife of James H. Newmaster, of Montgomery county, and Earl, vet under the parental roof.
Benjamin Murphy left Illinois in 1858, with an ox team, bound for the prairies of Kansas. He had scarcely become acclimated, when he respond- ed to the call of the President for troops to put down the rebellion of 1861. He enlisted in Company "F," Ninth Kansas Cavalry, at Iola, under command of Col. Lynde, and served on the border, between Missouri and Kansas, and in Arkansas and the Indian Territory, during his three year's period of enlistment. He was in the battle of Prairie Grove, and Newtonia, and saw much skirmishing and rongh-and-tumble service. His three and one-half years experience in the field fitted him for a life on the border and among the Red Men, when he came to settle in Montgomery county. Nopawalla's band of a few hundred Osages, was camped not far from his homestead, and Chetopa and Strike Axe were farther up Elk river, with the warriors of the tribe, and with these bands some little intercourse was indulged in by the settlers. The collecting of trib- ute off of the settlers and the satisfying of an unsatiable appetite, from the larders of the same, were the uses to which said settler was put. The Red Man also indulged in a little horse stealing, to break the monotony of the seasons, but the losses of the "Pale Face" on account of this di- version were insignificant.
Mr. Murphy has participated, with his fellow townsmen, in the af- fairs of local government, and has never failed to take the interest of a good citizen in political contests. He has served on the school board and once was postmaster of the little town of Radical. He holds a mem- bership in the United Brethren church.
CAPT. LYCURGUS C. MASON-In the following biographical re- view, posterity is tendered the salient events in the life record of the pio- neer, patriotic and honored citizen, of Independence, Capt. L. C. Mason. The date of his settlement, the period of his residence and the distin- quished character of his citizenship, all conspire to render him a person of renown, and it is these attributes which furnish the inspiration for this article, and the honor of the man which justifies its production.
The oracle of fate decreed his nativity a hallowed spot. Born where was nurtured the youth of our martyred President, and where conditions
384
HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
and circumstances justified his suggestive but commonplace title of "Rail-splitter." Lycurgus C. Mason grew up, amid the sacred memories of the President's youth, and came to manhood, strengthened and animated by the success of his public life. A native of Indiana, and of Spencer county. Capt. Mason was born October 1. 1840. His father, Christopher J. Mason, was born in Ohio county, Kentucky, in 1813, and grew up and married, in his native county. Ellen Morgan, and in 1832, crossed the sinnons and watery boundary of the state and settled in Spencer county. Indiana. There the frontier couple established themselves, in the heavy woodland, and began the process of hewing out a home. Like many of the Kentucky pioneers, the Masons were from Virginia, where J. H. Ma- son, the grandfather of our subject, was born, married Elizabeth Jack- son, a cousin of the famous ex-President and expounder of Democratic doctrine. and, about 1800, took his family into the new Commonwealth of Kentucky. Grandfather Mason was born about 1779 and died in Han- cock county, Kentucky, in 1863. His children were eight in number, and none. save Christopher J., emigrated from his Kentucky home. They were: James, Joseph, Henry. Christopher J., Mary, Margaret, Jane and Elvira.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.