USA > Kansas > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery County, Kansas > Part 57
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Mr. Sturtevant traces his people back to early New England stock : indeed. to the very beginnings of civilized life in that section, as a relative of the family was one of the men who stepped out of the Mayflower's crowded cabin to the historic Plymouth Rock. On his mother's side he is connected with the noted Blair family, her mother having been a sister of John 1. Blair, who attained distinction in New Jersey state Democratic politics.
Shepherd T. Sturtevant, father of our subject, born in 1824, married Olivia M. Cooper, and resided for a number of years in Yates county, N. Y. He was a carpenter and cabinet-maker and late in life moved to Reed City, Michigan, later. to Mason, Michigan, where he died in 1900. the wife passing away a year later. They were devoutly and sincerely relig- ious people, life-long members of the Methodist church, in which the father filled all the offices to which laymen were eligible. They reared three children : Frances, now Mrs. William Adams, of Mason, Michigan ; Alta F., Mrs. C. D. Francisco, of Reed City, Michigan, and Ira JJ., who forms the subject of this brief review.
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Ira J. Stutevant was born in Yates county, N. Y., April 12, 1860. He was brought up to his father's trade and remained at home until after the family had moved to Michigan, in 1880. In 1887, he came out to Coffey- ville, and, after remaining two years, during which time he was married, returned to his Michigan home.
Eighteen months was a sufficient time to induce his return west. This time he first tried Guthrie, Oklahoma, but, after six months, was in- duced to go to St. Louis, as pattern-maker in a foundry. Here he spent a period of two and a half years, and then came to Coffeyville, where he has since resided. In this city he followed his trade for a time, then clerked in the hardware house of A. P. Boswell & Co., and at the date of the or- ganization of the Coffeyville Furniture Company, in October, 1897, he be- came its manager, a position which he has since filled with satisfaction to the company.
In the social life of the city, our subject has been a prominent factor. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen and of the I. O. O. F. In this latter organization he has attained prominence, being Past Grand and Past Chief Patriarch. He is at present chairman of the board of trus- tees, and has served as a delegate to the grand lodge. Mr. Sturtevant is not actively engaged in politics, but nevertheless delights in furthering the interests of the Republican party at every opportunity.
Mr. Stutevant's marriage, spoken of above, occurred in the fall of 1888. Mrs. Stutevant was Lillie E. Gentner. She was born in Missouri, and is a daughter of Charles F. Gentner. To the parents have been born two sons: Charles S. and Ira A.
MRS. LETITIA DAVIS-The subject of this article came to Mont- gomery county when it was being rapidly settled up and located, with her husband, in Sycamore township, near the Verdigris river. The date of the advent hither was the spring of 1881 and it is more than twenty- two years now that she has been identified with Kansas affairs.
Mrs. Davis is a native of Columbus, Ohio, and was born March 24, 1843. Her father was John E. Godown, a Jerseyman, whose parents were farmers near Lambertsville, that state. Ile was one of Iven Go- down's children, as follows: Elizabeth IIoff, Darich, Mary A., Rebecca. George, Jacob and John E. The last named married Fannie Ilogueland. a daughter of Henry and Kate Hogueland, of New Jersey. Their children were : Catherine, Mrs. Emily Barlow, Mrs. Elizabeth Skinner, of Inde- pendence, and Mrs. Letitia Davis.
Letitia (Godown) Davis grew up in Jersey and Montgomery coun- ties, Illinois, whither her parents migrated, in her childhood. She was married, in the latter county, to Samuel Jones, a Jerseyman and a son of Samuel and Charlotte Jones. By this marriage of Samuel and Letitia
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Jones, two children were born, namely : Fannie, who first married Alfred Dyer and had two children, Otto and Carrie, and whose present husband is Amos Linscott, with two children, Charles and Linn. Charles JJones is Mrs. Davis' second child. In 1875, our subject became the wife of Jef- ferson M. Davis, an Illinois man. This marriage produced four children, as follows : Laura, wife of Peter Trimmel, of Wilson county, with a child, Buanna; Ida, who married Joseph Obermier, of Montgomery county, with one child, Glenn ; and Floyd and Robert Davis, yet with the family home. Jefferson M. Davis died August 16, 1889.
JOHN H. BATES-John H. Bates, a well-known resident of Mont- gomery county, was born in Princeton, Illinois, August 27, 1852. He was a son of Jacob P. Bates, a native of Massachusetts, and a grandson of George Bates, also a native of the old"Bay State," where his family of fifteen children were born and reared. The children of the last named were: Erasmus, Russel, JJacob P., George, Joseph, Henry, of Springfield ; Isaac, of Salem, Oregon ; Sarah Van Horn, Julia Perkins, Almeda Em- ery, Ora, deceased ; Lucy Edson, of Canada, and three died in infancy.
Jacob P. Bates, our subject's father, married Elizabeth Parks, a na- tive of Massachusetts and a daughter of Nathan Parks. Their marriage produced Le Roy S., of San Antonio, Texas; George P., of Sherman, Texas : John H., of Montgomery county ; Helen J. Innes, Lulu B. Hyde. Emma 1., of Massachusetts, and Frank E.
When John H. Bates was a child in arms, his parents removed to Knox county, Illinois. Here he was kept in the public schools until he was fifteen years of age, when his father, who was an agent for the New York Home Life Insurance Company, died, leaving a large life insur- ance. With this money, the children were enabled to acquire a more lib- eral eduration than the common school afforded and John was placed in school in Galesburg, where he was a student or two years. At the age of twenty, he came to Ottawa county, Kansas, and secured a elaim of one hundred and sixty acres, but was compelled to wait one year before en- tering it. He remained there seven years, when, in an effort to better his condition, he made a number of moves, staying but a few years in pach place. Ile visited the following places: St. Joe, Missouri; Ottawa county. Kansas; Rogers, Arkansas; New Mexico, Pierce City, Missouri, and Montgomery county, Kansas. In the spring of 1893, he located in Montgomery county, on one hundred and fifty-eight acres of land, in sec tion 6-32-15.
Mr. Bates' marriage occurred July 6, 1878. His wife was Eliza, a daughter of John Q. and Patience Adams, the father being a native of Ireland and the mother of England. To Mr. and Mrs. Bates have been born £ve children : Alberta Smith, of Montgomery county, who has one
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child, Dean; Edna C. Ellis, of Montgomery county ; Dora E., Piercy A. and Ielen ; the last three are all living at home.
Mr. Bates has had many and varied experiences. He was at Rogers, Arkansas, during the boom, and made good money, but, afterward. lost a large portion of it in New Mexico. No other experience is so varied as that of cow-boy, in which capacity he worked. for some time,as a young man, driving on the trail. However, the greater part of his life has been spent in farming, and probably no other farmer is held in higher respect, as is shown by his repeated elections to office. as a member of the school board of his district. He has served. in this capacity. for nine consecu- five years, and is fitted by education, experience and ability, to work for the best interest of education.' He also acted as township trustee in Ot- tawa county. He is a member and trustee of the Second Baptist church of Independence, and is also a member of the A. I. T. A .. the Sons and Daughters of Justice, and the F. A. A.
JOHN 1. HILL-One of the prominent business men of Coffeyville is John 1. Hill. president and general manager of the Coffeyville Merean- tile Company, doing a wholesale grocery business. He has been a resident of the city since 1898 and has shown, in numerous instances, that he has jis interests at heart. He is a Kentuckian, by nativity, and his par- ents, Nathan and Margaret (Malcolm) Hill. moved to the "Blue Grass State," in 1860, from the western part of Virginia. They settled in Can- nonsburg, where the father conducted a mercantile business, until 1877, when he moved to Cherokee county, Kansas, and where he engaged in farming. He subsequently removed to Wilson county, and, shortly be- fore hus death, to Topeka.
Nathan Ilill was born in Virginia, November 23. 1837, and died in Topeka, Kansas, JJuly 31, 1901. He was a man of restless energy and good business capacity, and, in the different communities in which he resided, claimed the respect and esteem of all. The parents were both members of the Methodist church, the mother being, now. a resident of Chicago. Their five children were: Felicia J., now a resident of Los An- geles, California, the wife of J. W. MeKinley. contractor and carpenter; Olive C. Hill, lives near Charleston, West Virginia; Charles, deceased, was a merchant in lowa City, lowa; and Margaret, who resides in Chi- rago, the wife of E. Il. Guise. John 1. is the eldest of the family.
The birth of Mr. Hill. of this sketch, occurred in Boyd county. Ken- tucky, July 9, 1860. During the seventeen years of his boyhood in this county. he became thoroughly imbmed with the Kentucky spirit of cour- tesy, a fact which, in later years, had much to do with his great success as a traveling salesman. He seeured a good education and, after the fam- ily came to Kansas, taught school several terms, before he reached his
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majority. In the spring of 1882, he accepted a position with the Park- hurst. Davis Mercantile Company, of Topeka, and continned with them until 1898, in the capacities of bookkeeper and cashier. In the spring of that year, he came to Coffeyville and, in connection with several others, formed the company which has since carried on a wholesale business, un- der the name of the Coffeyville Mercantile Company. Incorporation was made on March 5, the officers of the company being : J. I. Hill, presi- dent ; R. N. Selby, vice-president ; J. H. Smith, secretary ; and M. S. Me- Nabney. treasurer. Under the energetic management of Mr. Hill and his associates, the company has had a prosperous and successful career, and has become one of the fixtures in the business circles of southern Kansas. The building occupied is 50x140, three stories and basement, covering. in all, 28,000 feet of floor space. The trade of the house is confined to Kansas, Oklahoma and the Indian Territory, the firm having six travel- ling salesmen, and employing ten persons in the house.
Mr. Hill's family consists of wife and six children : Anna May, George Irving, Maud, John W., Esther and Henrietta. The marriage of Mr. Hill occurred June 10, 1885, in Topeka. Mrs. Hill was Miss Fannie Kistler, a native Kansas girl, the daughter of B. F. and Sarah (Ham) Kistler. Mrs. Ilill combines qualities of gracionsness and true refine- ment. which make her a popular member of Coffeyville social circles. Both parents are active workers in the Methodist church, Mr. Hill being a trus- tee in the same, and the present efficient superintendent of the Sunday School.
Mr. Hill is prominent in the Masonic order, in the Woodmen and the Maccabees, and votes the Republican ticket. He is a live, earnest, helpful citizen, and deserves the large measure of esteem in which he is held in his adopted city.
JAMES W. BRAGG-An example of what conscientious effort and close attention to business will accomplish in sunny Kansas, is afforded in the career of James W. Bragg, a prominent representative of the agri- cultural interests of the county, for the past thirty-one years, living four and one-half miles northeast of Havana, on the farm which he reclaimed from the virgin prairie.
Mr. Bragg was born in Adams county, Illinois, on the 23d of Oeto- ber. 1845. Benjamin Bragg, his father, was a native of the "Green Moun- tain State," where he married Hannah Rich, born in New Hampshire. The parents removed to Illinois, in an early day, settling in Adams coun- ty, where they lived out their lives, the father dying at seventy-three, the mother three years later, at the same age. There were eight children in the family, all of whom are living, as follows: Benjamin, Marcellus. George, Mary, wife of Andrew Lindsey: Emily, wife of William Denny ;
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Sarah. Mrs. Moses Conover ; and Henrietta. now Mrs. Marion Spencer.
James Bragg was the sixth child of the family. He was brought up to farm life and received a fair education in the common schools of his district. He remained at home until he had attained his majority, and, on October 24, 1867, was joined in marriage with Ellen E. Smith, a daughter of William and Ellen ( McGuire) Smith, both of whom were natives of Ireland. The father came to America when but seventeen years of age, the mother also being in childhood when she made the journey across the ocean. They met and married in New Jersey and. later. came ont to Illinois, settling in Adams county. Here they resided until their death. They were the parents of : William J .. Edwin and Ellen.
Soon after the marriage of Mr. Bragg, he began to look about him for land for a suitable home. Land was high in the east and he. there- fore, resolved to try the west. In 1871. he landed in Montgomery comniy and soon found a farm to his taste, in the piece of land which he now owns. Industry. perseverance and discretion have supplied him with a competence for these latter days, and a home as good as can be found in the county.
In his social relations to the community, Mr. Bragg is in happy ac- cord with a large circle of friends and neighbors, who admire his many virtnes. He is a member of the A. H. T. A., and in political matters, is one of the leading Socialists of the county.
Mr. and Mrs. Bragg are the parents of four children, all respected members of society, two of the daughters having married prosperous young people of the neighborhood. Their names are: Mary C., wife of Dr. George Randall; Effie, Mrs. Walter Bowersock : Nannie and William, the only son, who died in infancy. Nannie is a popular teacher of this connty.
JOHN DUNCAN-In the year 1880, there arrived in Montgomery county the gentleman whose name is here appended and who now resides on a farm of two hundred and forty acres, five miles southeast of the connty-seat town of Independence. He has, since that time, been one of the county's most prosperous and representative farmers and has shown, by many actions, the splendid character of his citizenship.
John Duncan was born in Fulton county, Illinois, in the year 1852. llis parents were Solomon and Rebecca ( Emerine) Duncan. These par- ents were originally from the "Blue Grass State" and were farmers, as were, also, their ancestors. The maternal grandfather of our subject was a resident of eastern Kentucky, living in the beautiful section of the state where is now the city of Lexington, and where he cultivated one of the best farms in that section. He, later. removed to Montgomery coun- ty and settled a mile north of Independence, where he purchased a farm.
M. D. CURRIER.
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
Mr. Duncan was reared in his native county, where he received a good common school education. His youth was pased in the rigorous work of the farm and he remained at home until he was twenty-three years of age. At that time, he started out in the world for himself, renting a farm in the neighborhood, which he cultivated for a year, and as stated above, came to Montgomery county, where he has since lived. He owns one of the best farms in the county, well stocked with horses and cattle, and which he devotes to general farming. He is one of the most successful farmers of the county and is first and foremost in every cause which looks to the betterment of his fellow citizens about him.
Ile has not given a great deal of attention to public matters, but has held some of the minor offices in his township and is always on hand to aid. by his vote, the policy of the Republican party. In matters of relig- ious faith, he and his family are liberal supporters of the Methodist Epis- copal church.
The married life of Mr. Duncan began in the year 1878. when he was joined in marriage with Miss Allie Hart. She was a daughter of Rich- ard and Gertrude (Walker) Hart, and was born in the old "Green Mountain State" of Vermont. Richard Hart was a native of Old Virgin- ia. He is now deceased, but his wife still resides in Illinois, at a very ad- vanced age. Mr. and Mrs. Duncan have reared three interesting children, as follows: Homer, the oldest son, married Nellie Davis, daughter of John and Mary Davis of this county, and whose one child is: Bessie; Lot- tie. the elder daughter, is residing at home with her parents, and Edna, the youngest. is a school girl at home.
12 is not fulsome praise to say that no more substantial citizen re- sides within the borders of the county, than Mr. Duncan, and he and his family are hekl in the greatest esteem by a large circle of friends and neighbors.
MILO D. CURRIER -The retired mechanic and pioneer of Mont- gomery county, whose history it is the purpose of this article, briefly, to narrate, is Milo D. Currier, of Fawn Creek township, whose country es- tate challenges, in attractiveness and extent, that of any other citizen of his community.
It was not as a farmer, however, that his career has been spent and his success achieved -- although farming was the first occupation he learned-but as a mechanic and tradesman, which field of effort he occu- pied for, at least, a third of a century, and from which he retired, at Cof- feyville, in 1898, and soon thereafter, began the improvement and develop- ment of his present estate.
October 22, 1822, Milo D. Currier was born, in Montville, Medina county. Ohio. He passed his childhood amid village seenes and, on the
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approach of mature years, they were changed to the environment of the farm. When his father, Thomas Currier, gave up his trade of a stone mason, it was to accompany his two sons, Thomas M. and Milo D., to the farm, where he passed his last years as an invalid, alone, save for the companionship of his two faithful boys. The father was born in Vermont, in 1798, and died at the age of forty-seven years. His father, Sargent Currier, was a Vermont soldier in the American Revolution and received a wound, at the battle of Bunker Hill. After the war, some years, he pioneered to Ohio and settled near the city of Cleveland. In that local- ity, his family grew up and in Cuyahoga county, his remains lie buried. His son, Thomas M., married Fannie Dille, of which union our subjeet. Milo D., was a product.
When a little child, Milo D. Currier's mother died. He passed through the stages of childhood and youth without the loving and tender care and instruction of this good woman and, in early manhood, was handicapped by the physical incompetency of his father. When he was finally deprived of the presence of his father, by the arch-angel of death, he was then brought, consciously, face to face with the stern reali- ties of the world. In childhood, he lived about the community, among friends of the family, and really never learned the sacredness and the sweet influences of a home till he made himself a home and discovered them there. He was married, in February, 1845, to Lestina B. Tracy, a Vermont lady, and, in 1846, moved to Dane county, Wisconsin, where he purchased a modest farm, expanded it to two hundred acres. improved the whole and sold it and located in Marshall, Dane county. where he engaged in wagon-making. He carried on this business, in the "Badger State," till 1870, when he came to Kansas and settled in the town of Parker, Montgomery county, and, after remaining there at his trade five years, moved to Coffeyville, where he continued his trade for twenty- three years. or until his final settlement, as previously stated. He purchased a half section of land, six and one-half miles west of Coffey- ville, upon which he erected a splendid residence and other buildings in keeping with a highly improved farm. Here, in the company of the fam- ily of his daughter, he is enjoying an earned and deserved rest. His per- sonal apartments are fitted up to suit his tastes and an air of one in easy and comfortable circumstances pervades the surroundings. In 1856, Mrs. Currier died, and the next year he married Martha Morrell, who was his companion twenty-five years when she, too. died and has now no surviving issue. By his first marriage, Mr. Currier has a daugh- ter, Emma C., wife of M. S. Vogan, who is cultivating our subject's farm. Mr. and Mrs. Vogan's children are: Charles, Jonathan MI., Albert. Estella and Franklin. This is an industrious family and their conduet of the farm mark them as competent and successful farmers.
Mr. Currier's has been a life of activity. He has labored to gratify
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a modest ambition and, on its achievement, has retired to enjoy its fruits. He has never had political ambition and has done his whole duty. as he saw it, in simply voting the Democratic ticket.
EDMUND MASON-This gentleman is one of the most extensive farmers in Rutland township, where he settled, in 1869, on a portion of section 36. By careful management and close attention to business, he has. since that time, accumulated a large farm property, consisting of seven hundred and ninety acres, which he devotes, largely, to the rais- ing of stock.
Devonshire, England, is the place of birth of Edmund Mason, the year being 1846. He was a son of Thomas and Johanna ( Mason) Mason -of the same name, but no blood relation. These parents passed their lives in the old country, never having removed to America. A brother of our subject, JJohn Mason, came to this country in 1856. Edmund Ma- son remained in England until 1867. Four years later, a younger brother, James, came over and died at -Edmund's home, February 15, 1900. These three brothers, with another, Henry, were the only members of the fam- ily who left England. The father died there, March 22, 1856, while his widow survived him until the year 1889.
Reared to farm. life, Mr. Mason found himself in possession of knowledge which has stood him in good stead in the country to which he emigrated. He came immediately to Montgomery county and settled on the quarter section where he now resides. It was purchased of the state school fund and was without improvements. He was the first set- tler in this part of the township and, at different periods, as he increased in financial ability, he added to his domain, until he is now one of the largest land owners in the county. His success is dne wholly to his own efforts and the splendid judgment which he uses in the marketing of stock and the products of his farm.
Mr. Mason married Miss Bita Howard, of Chautauqua county, Kansas, in 1875, and they have seven . children, as follows: William, a farmer of Spring Creek, Kansas, born Angust 22, 1877, married Josie Brown. and has a daughter, Lena ; Ida. born October 14, 1879, is the wife of Barnard Lindley, of Independence, Kansas, and they have one child, Rex; Ira, born April 14, 1881, married Gertie Brooks and is a farmer. of Rutland township; their one child is Carrol; Stella, born in 1883, re- sides at home ; Charles, horn. May 15, 1885, is deceased; Delia, born in 1889, resides at home ; James, born in May, 1892, also resides at home.
Our subjert is a gentleman of fine, high, social and business stand- ing, and he and his family are respected and favored in the community where they have resided so long. He is a valued member of the Modern
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Woodmen, of the A. O. U. W. and that liberal social order, the B. P. O. E. His religious faith is of the Established church of England.
JEFFERSON GRIFFIN-Among the representative citizens of Liberty township, is this son of one of the early pioneers of the county- indeed it might he said, one of the earliest pioneers-as the family set- tled in Montgomery county in the year 1869, a period when all the county was given over to cattle raisers and the Indians.
Mr. Griffin is the youngest son of Lafayette and Catherine (Panthy) Griffin. He was born in Chariton county, Missouri, in 1861, where his par- ents were tillers of the soil. They removed, as stated, to Liberty town- ship, in 1869, and bought a claim there, where our subject now resides. Mr. Griffin was then a lad of but seven years of age and is, therefore, en- titled to be regarded as a citizen "to the manor born." He grew up among the multifarious duties of a pioneer farm and there developed that sturdi- ness of physical health and independence of character which has, thus far, distinguished him through life. He received a good district school education, but, on account of the limited means of his parents, was not able to add anything higher in scholastic training. His father died in 1861, and his mother is an inmate of a daughter's home-Keturah Hamilton's, in Independence township, and is hale and hearty at the age of seventy-five years. Their family consists of six children, all of whom are respected members of the different communities in which they re- side. The eldest is Keturah, who married Thomas Hamilton, of Inde- pendence township; her children are: Minnie and Artie. Frank married Stella Smith, a daughter of M. V. Smith, a farmer of the county; her children are: Ethel and Effie. Matthew married Delie Addy and her. daughter is named Mand. William married Jennie Frasier, whose two children are: Hester and Tracy; resides in Larned, Kansas. Mary, the next daughter, married David Clark and now lives in Mound City, Kan- sas. The youngest child was the subject of this sketch.
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