USA > Kansas > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery County, Kansas > Part 48
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In the common schools of his native county. Joel W. Reed secured
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sufficient education to equip him for a useful life, though it was difficult to hold him to his school work. To him it seemed cruel to have to study history while it was being made so rapidly on the battlefield. He yearned to be at the front and ran away twice, in his efforts to get into the army. Finally, on the 6th of March, 1865, being then fifteen years and nine months old, and, according to authentic records, the third youngest sol- dier to enlist in the war, he became a private of Company "K," Thirty- third Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He was too late, however, to see any active service. Joining Sherman's army at Newburn, North Carolina, he was a witness of the surrender of Gen. Johnson; and, after partici- pating in the Grand Review at Washington, received his discharge, at Louisville, Kentucky, July 21, 1865.
After the war, Mr. Reed worked on the farm until 1868, when he came out to Illinois, on a visit to a sister, who lived at Louisville. Here, during the next two years, he learned the baker's trade and, in 1871, came to Kansas. He worked at Wichita for several months and then came to Elk City. In August of 1872, he became connected with the "Katy" railroad, as cook, and followed that business, at different points, until 1874. Returning to Elk City, he farmed for some six years and then took up the business in which he is now engaged. He has long been the lead- ing contractor and builder of the town and specimens of his handiwork are seen on every side. He has put up nearly every building of importance in the city, erected within the past two decades.
Mr. Reed has always been exceedingly active in the social life of the community. He is a member of the Blue Lodge and Chapter, and is a Scottish Rite Mason. The Woodmen number him among their most val- ued members, and he is a Good Templar, a member of the Eastern Star, of the Carpenter's Union, and is officer of the day in the G. A. R.
The wife of Mr. Reed was, prior to her marriage, in 1878, Miss Mat- tie Monfort. She is a native of Indiana, the daughter of John Monfort, and was born March 1, 1862. To her have been born : Lela, deceased in in- fancy ; Stella 1., deceased at three years ; Orion O., a farmer in the Indian Territory ; Sheldon M., a schoolboy ; and New Floyd. Mrs. Reed is quite as helpful, in social and religious circles, as her husband, being a member and treasurer of the Seventh Day Adventist church, while Mr. Reed is a member of the Friend's church.
In all the varied activities of life, Mr. Reed has been true to his best conception of right and has a good citizen's pride in supporting every measure which makes for the good of his fellowmen. Elk City has no more loyal citizen, and the esteem in which he is held is uniform.
SAMUEL H. BARR-One of the younger attorneys, who is rapidly achieving distinction at the bar of Montgomery county in the face of a
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keen competition, is the above-named gentleman, whose forceful and in- telligent methods have marked him as a future leader in a wider field than the local courts.
Samuel H. Barr is a practicing attorney, located at Caney, where he has established a reputation for careful and painstaking effort in his chosen field. The decade, immediately preceding the Civil war, is remem- bered as being one of the heaviest, in matters of immigration, ever known in this country. These immigrants came from every quarter of the globe, but owing to local conditions in Ireland, that hardy race furnished the largest quota. Among the number, were the parents of our worthy sub- ject, Robert and Jane (Lord) Barr, the year 1858 being the date of their arrival in America. They settled in or near Virginia, Cass county, Illinois, later removing to Beardstown, then to Rock Island, Illinois. Then they turned their faces westward and located near Independence, Kansas. Here the father died, at the age of fifty-eight, the wife still sur- viving and residing on the old homestead. To these parents were born eight chilren, Samuel H. being the second.
Samuel H. Barr was born in Virginia, Cass county, Illinois, on the 16th of April, 1861. He received a fair education in his youth, his ap- plication being of such nature as to fit him for teaching, which vocation he took up, on coming to Kansas with his parents, in 1882. He made a reputation as one of the best of the county teachers and wielded the fer- ule for a period of six years. During part of this time, he bosied him- self with the study of law, under the guidance of Hon. S. C. Elliott, of Independence. In 1888, he was admitted to the bar, and came to Caney the same year. His success was assured from the start and his connec- tion with the interests of the little city has been of the highest value in the intervening years.
Mr. Barr's chief business is in his law practice. but he finds time to devote to other interests, in some degree. He is looked upon as one of the staunch wheel-horses of the city, having put his shoulder to the wheel in the dark days when the future looked somewhat dubious. If it had not been for a few kindred spirits, Caney would most likely have been a mere way station, on the "road to nowhere." Mr. Barr is one of the stockhold- ers and secretary of the Caney Gas Company, which he was instru- mental in organizing, in 1900. Another successful local institution with which he is connected, is the Caney brick plant. which is fast becoming one of the leading industries of the city. In municipal affairs, he has been most helpful, serving as eity attorney for a number of terms, and for five years was an active and valued member of the school board.
Mr. Barr has a natural taste for politics and has been exceedingly helpful in promoting the interests of the party of Jefferson and Jackson, in whose principles he is a thorough believer. As chairman of the County Central Committee, from 1888 to 1900, he led many successful
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campaigns, and succeeded in unifying the party in the county, in a great degree. From 1900 to 1902, he was a member of the State Central Com- mitte, where his counsel was of great value to the party. Socially, Mr. Barr affiliates with the Knights of Pythias, the A. O. U. W. and the Mod- ern Woodmen of America. The friends of this popular attorney are unanimous in predicting a more than ordinary career for him, and he holds, in a marked degree, their respect and admiration.
JOHN M. ALTAFFER-The sunny southland has contributed liber- ally of its native sons toward the sterling citizenship of our western commonwealths. They have been young men reared under the malign in- fluence of an unholy social institution, whose destruction they offered their lives and sacrificed all, save honor, to prevent, and who have, in the military camp and on the field of battle, been made conversant with their power and worth and have songht out the plains of the west as offering the greater opportunity for working out their own destiny. In propor- tion to the great western flood, the current of this immigration has been inconsiderable, but its character, when viewed from its influence upon the social and political fabrie of a new state, has rendered it an important factor in the formation of our new century civilization in the west. As pioneers in the settlement of the western prairies, they have manifested the same sincere determination in the development affairs of their munici- palities as their neighbor from other climes and with different youthful environment. Their object has been to promote a civilization of the com- mon people; to foster a spirit of personal freedom, consistent with the rights of all and the laws of their state, and to encourage a feeling of brotherly love among a people with a common cause. This presents the situation, as applicable to the normal settler from the South, and illus- trates the attitude of the subject of this review, during the period of his residence in Montgomery county.
John M. Altaffer is one of the characters of Montgomery county. He settled here on the 28th of February, 1872, during the formative period in municipal and social affairs, and immediately identified himself with it all. He purchased a farm in section 17, township 33. range 16, the property of Lee Fairleigh, and resumed the occupation of his youth-farming. During his thirty-one years, his interest in agriculture, as a farmer, and as the U. S. Government's reporter on crop conditions, together with his inclination toward active participation in municipal, social and political affairs have marked his prominence as a citizen of his county. Condi- tions made it necessary for him to move into a pioneer's "cabin." His career has been spiced with some successes and some reverses. He has kept pace with the onward tendency of his county and his estate of three hundred and twenty acres, marks, in a degree, the extent to which his industry has been rewarded.
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By nativity, John M. Altaffer is a Virginian. He was born in Rockingham county, "The Old Dominion," January 19, 1845. His fath- er, Renben Altaffer, was born in the same county, in 1800, spent his life at farming, and died in 1860. The latter was a son of a Pennsylvanian and a grandson of a Swiss settler of the "Keystone State." Joseph Alt- affer, our subject's grandfather, moved his family down into Virginia, near the close of the eighteenth century, and spent his remaining years in Rockingham county. He married Miss Seevly and was the father of three sons and nine daughters. Those who ean now be identified were: Renben, father of the subject of this sketch; John and Joseph. Of the daughters, Margaret married a Saufley, Susan married Jacob Whitmer, Ann married Daniel Whitmer and Sallie married Benjamin Byerly. Reuben Altaffer married Salome Whitmer, a daughter of Martin Whit- mer, of German descent, who settled in the "Old Dominion" from Penn- sylvania. Mrs. Renben Altaffer died, in December. 1896, at eighty-seven years of age, leaving five children, namely: Martin J., of Rockingham county. Virginia; Elizabeth A., wife of Peter W. Hartman, of the same Virginia county; Margaret F., unmarried; John M., of this notice, and Benjamin F., deceased.
On a farm. near Port Republic, Virginia, onr subject came to man- hood's estate. He had scarcely passed beyond the schoolboy period, when he enlisted-September. 1861-in the state militia, preliminary to the service to come later. In the spring of 1862. he was mustered into the Twelfth Virginia Cavalry, under Col., afterward, Gen. Ashby. The regi- ment was a part of the army of Northern Virginia, and under the com- mand of "Stonewall" Jackson. It participated in the heavy campaign- ing of that famons chieftain. It was stationed at Harper's Ferry. after the Union forces surrendered there, and went, next, into the valley of the Shenandoah and met Sheridan's forces at Cross Keys and at Travellion Station. During the last months of the war, it was in Wade Hampton's corps, Gen. Rosser's division, and took part in the great cavalry fight, when the final movement ont of Richmond took place. Mr. Altaffer left the regiment. after the tight at High Bridge, on the retreat from Rich- mond, and was at his home, fifty miles away, when the final dissolution and surrender of the Confederate army took place.
After the war, Mr. Altaffer spent two years on his mother's farm, straightening matters up and restoring the old home to something like its ante-bellum condition. He spent the next two years on bridge work on the Mississippi river, the notable structure of this kind on which he was employed being the Quincy, Illinois, bridge. Returning home, in 1869, he was married. JJanuary 19, of that year. and the following three years he passed as a farmer.
Mrs. Altaffer was Lucy J. Williams, a danghter of James and Sal- Hie ( Hooke) Williams, of Scotch-Irish and English-Irish extraction. Mrs.
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Altaffer's great-grandfather was an American emigrant from the Brit- ish Isles. The children of James and Sallie Williams were Martha, de- ceased ; and Mrs. Altaffer. The father died in 1857, at thirty-nine years and the mother, in 1848, at twenty-seven years. Mrs. Altaffer was born August 12, 1847, and has no children. She and her husband are members of the United Brethren church.
Mr. Altaffer came to his majority, a Democrat. He acted with that party, in Kansas, till the Fusion idea took prominence, when he joined forces with the opposition to the Republican party and became one of its active and influential factors.
During President Grant's first term, Mr. Altaffer was appointed statistician of the Agricultural Department for Montgomery county and, for thirty years, he has made monthly reports to the department, as tq erop conditions, yields per vere, and other information regularly re- quired. He also keeps a weather record for the government and, during the summer season, makes weekly reports of his observations to the state bureau at Topeka.
ALFRED J. UITTS-Alfred JJ. Uitts came, with his parents, to Montgomery county, in 1874. He was born April 1, 1858, in Johnson county. Indiana, and at the age of eight years, the parents moved to Boone county, Indiana, and from there, came to Kansas. They located on a farm of one hundred and sixty aeres, three miles west of Independ- ence, for which the father paid $4,000. After his death, Alfred purchased the shares of the other heirs to the property, and is now the sole owner of the old home. In addition to this, he is owner of eighty acres in Syca- more township, and rents, from an annt, one hundred and thirty-five acres, where he lives ; besides, he owns eighty acres in Independence town- ship.
Johnson R. Uitts, the father, was born near Louisville, Kentucky, January 25, 1826. His whole life was spent on the farm, and he had no other interests, ontside of the occupation of farming. He lived in Ken- tueky until he was twenty-five years of age, then removed to Indiana, where he remained twenty years, afterward coming to Montgomery county. His death occurred in Howell county, Missouri.
Johnson R. Witts, by first marriage had two children: Frank, of Parsons, Kansas, and Naomi White, of Montgomery county, His second wife was Margaret Brennermer, a native of Ohio, and to her were born two children : JJasper and Alfred J., our subject.
Alfred J. Citts was educated in the public schools of Indiana and Kansas, which he attended until he was twenty years of age. Having been educated in the public schools, his interest in them has been constant and helpful in his home community. He has been, for many years, a member
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of the school board, and in a social way, holds membership in the A. H. T. A.
November 5, 1879, Mr. Uitts was united in marriage with Laura A. Utterback, a native of Johnson county, Indiana. She came to Montgom- ery county, Kansas, in 1869, with her parents, Iverson and Elizabeth (Parkhurst ) Utterback, native Indiana people.
Mr. and Mrs. Uitts have only one child : Iverson, who married Corda Van Ansdal, a native Kansas girl.
JOSEPH H. REID-One of the younger members of the agricultural class, but whose parents were early settlers in the county, is Joseph H. Reid, who resides on a farm of one hundred and twenty acres, one mile from Elk City. James W. Reid, his father, was a native of Tazewell county. Illinois, where he was born, in the year 1845, the son of James H. Reid, a native of Virginia, who located in Tazewell county, Illinois, in the early part of the nineteenth century.
In 1847. he, with his family of five children, removed to MeCracken county, Kentucky, where he continued to reside until his removal to Montgomery county, Kansas, in 1868, where he died. He was the parent often children, as follows : Milion E .. Mary, Newton. James, Sarah-these having been born in Illinois; and Napoleon, Scott, John, Danghtery F., and Almerinda. Of this family, James married Sarah Mikel, the date of their marriage being. December 21, 1870. The event took place in Inde- pendence township, of this county, and to their marriage were born three children, the first an unnamed infant, deceased; Joseph H., who consti- tutes the subject of this review; and the third child, who also died un- named.
The mother of these children was born in Adair county, Missouri, in the year 1849, and was a daughter of Edward and Lney (Newton) Mikel. Her father was a leading farmer of that county and, in 1869, came to Montgomery county, Kansas, and settled on a claim in Inde- pendenee township. He preempted one hundred and sixty acres of land, six miles southwest of the county seat, where they have continued to re- side, and where they reared a family of twelve children, six of whom are now living, viz: Hugh, who resides in Schuyler, Missouri; Sarah, the mother of our subject; Martha J., married James Edwards, and resides in the Indian Territory; Adaline, who married Enos Berger, of Okla- homa; Emma, wife of Edward Staley, of Independence township; and Alfred, of the Indian Territory.
Joseph H. Reid is the only living child of his parents, and was born in Independence township, in 1873. He has passed his entire existence within the bounds of the county, receiving a good distriet school educa- tion. He has always been connected with the farming industry and, in
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1896, he purchased his present farm of one hundred and twenty acres, lying in Louisburg township, ten miles from the county seat. He is a young man of integrity and perseverance and the success which has at- tended him in these, his early years, augurs well for an encouraging future.
CHARLES H. KERR-A representative of a pioneer family and one of the successful young business men of Independence, is Charles H. Kerr. He was born in this city October 29, 1873, and is a son of the late well-known John Kerr, one of the pioneer mechanics of the county seat. The latter came here. in 1870, and erected a frame building in the hollow that originally crossed the townsite and used it, for a time, as a carriage and wagon shop. The building stood till the fire of 1884, when it was consumed and the brick storeroom, three doors north from the First Na- tional Bank, rose on its site.
JJohn Kerr came to Montgomery county, Kansas, from Canada. He was born in the Province of Quebec. in 1836, and was of Scotch parents. He married Lydia Suisser, a lady of German blood, but of Ohio birth. His wife was a native of Williams county, Ohio, and was married in that county, , January 1, 1867. She resides in Independence, Kansas, at the age of sixty-three years, while her husband passed away in 1902. Their only child is the subject of this brief review.
The public schools of Independence gave Charles H. Kerr his educa- tion. He completed the high school course, at the age of seventeen, and then took a commercial course in Spaulding's Business College, in Kan- sas City. Engaging in business, he employed with the drug firm of O. J. Moon, of Independence, at ten dollars per month, as a druggist's appren- tice. After ten months, he went to John St. Clair and still later, into the service of F. F. Yoe, of Independence. Leaving this last firm, he went to Ft. Scott, Kansas, and took a position with Hunter, the druggist, for a time. On deciding to change employers again, he went to Cedarvale, Kansas, where he was with R. H. Rowland till, moved by a desire to en- gage in business for himself, he opened a drug store in Elk City, in 1898, which business he lost. by fire, January 12, 1902. While in Elk City, he promoted and placed on its feet, a gas and oil company, which did some successful development and is now one of the substantial and permanent concerns of that locality. Returning to Independence, in the spring of 1902, he purchased, on June 1, the entire stock of the late O. J. Moon, his old employer, and his is one of the leading drug houses of the city. He has put in the finest drug stock in Southern Kansas, in the building lo- cated on the site once occupied by his father's carriage shop. This store is one of the sights of the city.
Mr. Kerr was married in Oak Valley, Kansas, October 29, 1900, his
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wife being Carrie Snyder, a daughter of J. K. Snyder, formerly of the State of Pennsylvania. A son, John Kerr, is the issue of this marriage.
In Masonry, Mr. Kerr has taken all the degrees. He holds a member- ship in the Independence Blue Lodge and Chapter, in Abdalah Temple, at Leavenworth, and in the Wichita Consistory. thirty-two degrees. He is a Modern Woodman, a Workman, a K. of P. and an Elk.
ARTIIUR W. EVANS, M. D .- The profession of medicine in Mont- gomery county has been given a forward impetus and the medical staff strengthened and honored by the presence and active work of Dr. Arthur W. Evans, of Independence, whose worth inspires this personal review. For nine years, as a citizen and physician, has the doctor been identified with this county, and his skill in therapeuties, diagnostics and surgery, has won him a success which establishes him in the forefront of medical jurisprudence.
Dr. Evans represents the school of homeopathy and is a product of the Hahnemann Medical College, Chicago. His ability to thoroughly harmonize theory and practice and the personal traits, which contribute materially to his success, are peculiarly his own, and are in happy con- cord in his professional work. By education and training a Kansan, by inclination. purely western, but by nativity eastern, he was born in Cin- cinnati, Ohio, October 26, 1863. His father, Arthur Evans, is a native of Buckinghamshire, England. The latter was born in 1837, was a son of Noah Evans, who founded this branch of the family, in the United States, in 1849, and who, with his wife, lies buried in Spring Grove, near Cincinnati, Ohio. Noah Evans was a merchant in Hamilton county, Ohio, where our subject's father grew up and learned merchandising with a friend. The latter was identified with Cincinnati, until 1872, when he came out to Kansas and established himself, in Lawrence, till 1875, when he removed to Eureka, where he is engaged in the hardware business. He was married in 18-, his wife being Mary Leishun, of Wales, born in 1837. The three children of this union are: William A., of Eureka, Kan- sas ; Dr. Arthur W., of this notice; and Lucy, wife of Dr. Higgins, of Em- poria, Kansas.
The public schools of Eureka gave Dr. Evans his early training and he graduated at the academy there, at the age of nineteen. He took up the study of medicine, under Dr. W. H. Jenny, of Kansas City, and with Dr. Higgins, of Emporia. He spent four years in the celebrated Chicago medicalcollege, previously referred to, and graduated from it, in 1892. He took a post-graduate course, in the Chicago Polyclinic and located in Kan- sas City, Missouri, for the practice of his profession. In 1894, he estab- lished himself in Independence, Kansas, where his office has come to be thronged, daily, with the afflicted and the infirm, eager to be treated by his restoring hand.
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May 14, 1897, Dr. Evans married, in Independence, Mrs. Carrie Wallace, a daughter of Benjamin and Melitta Armstrong, and a grand- daughter of Col. N. B. Bristol, whose sketch appears, elsewhere, in this work. Mrs. Evans was born in Illinois, but has resided, since girlhood, in Montgomery county, Kansas. Dr. Evans is a Modern Woodman, a Knight of Pythias, an Elk, an Odd Fellow and a member of the Blue Lodge, Chapter, Commandery, Couneil and Shrine, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. His professional popularity scarce exceeds his social achievements and his sympathetic nature goes ont in professional ser- vices to the poor, as well as the rich. His liberality is extended toward worthy objects, in proportion to their importance, and his public spirit is of the substantial and ever-present kind.
SAMUEL M. PORTER-Montgomery county has reason to be proud of the high character of her bar. The past is secure, in the high standing attained by many of its members, while the many brilliant young men now practicing before her courts, bid fair to maintain the standard. The gentleman, whose name is presented above, has earned the distinction of occupying a leading position among the legal fraternity, not only of "his own county, but in many of the surrounding counties, as well. He is especially strong in the field of title law, and has given deep study to questions pertaining to the legal status of the Indian, before our courts. He has met and vanquished many of the best legal minds of the country, on these questions, and has established a reputation, for legal acumen, not surpassed by any of his cotemporaries.
Samuel M. Porter comes of a family, whose members have been hon- orably and prominently identified with the annals of our country, since the days of the great struggle for independence, and in which Moses J. Porter, grandfather of our subject, took a very prominent part, having been on the staff of General Washington, during that sanguinary conflict. The latter was the son of English parents, who had emigrated to the hills of Vermont, many years before the war. They there developed that inde- pendence of spirit, which characterized all the people of that section, and many of whom fought valiantly in the ranks, when the issue was joined with the mother country.
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