USA > Kansas > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery County, Kansas > Part 75
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Home life with Mr. Kring began October 28. 1880, when he was hap- pily joined in marriage with Alice B. Brumbaugh, a native of Illinois, and a daughter of Alexander and Elizabeth (Hawtome) Brumbaugh. Mr. Brumbaugh died, in 1896, at the age of seventy-three, and Mrs. Brum- baugh is a resident of Marysville, Kansas. Besides Mrs. Kring, there were four chidren : Bertha, Mrs. Charles Ewalt, of Clearfield, Iowa; Oli- ver P., a painter and paper-hanger, of Cherryvale; Emma, Mrs. Frank Hutchison. of Marysville, Kansas; and Mae, Mrs. Edward Reed, of Marysville.
To Mr. and Mrs. Kring have been born : Bertha, Madge and Mae, and the mother and twc oldest daughters are members of the Presbyterian church. Mr. Kring is a member of the I. O. O. F., the Modern Woodmen, and of the A. O. U. W. Politically, he is a Republican, and is ranked among the most substantial and worthy citizens of the city.
F. WISDEN-Among the progressive farmers of Fawn Creek town- ship, the name of Frank Wisden is very well known. He is a native of Kansas, being born in Montgomery county, on the 5th of June, 1878. His father, Thomas Wisden, was three years old when he was brought from England by his parents, who resided, for a number of years, in Ohio. where Thomas grew to manhood and married. In 1872, Thomas Wisden moved to Kansas and married, in 1876, Margaret Conklin, a native of Ohio, who came to Kansas in the same year. This union was productive of two children : Frank, our subject, and a daughter, who died in infancy.
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Frank Wisden was brought up in Montgomery county, receiving a common school education, and living with his parents, until his marriage, which event took place on November 2, 1898. His wife was Miss Ella Robertson, a native of Montgomery county, and daughter of James and Sarah (Graham) Robertson. Mr. Robertson died in 1880, at forty years of age. He is survived by his wife, now living in Liberty ; James N., liv- ing in Illinois: Joel, living in Oklahoma Territory, and Ella, wife of Frank Wisden.
After his marriage, Mr. Wisden started farming on his own account. Hle rented a farm, for two years, and, by good management and close at- tention to business, he was enabled to accumulate enough to purchase one hundred and fifty acres of farm land, northeast of Coffeyville. This he farmed until 1901, when he sold out and bought one hundred and sixty acres on Onion creek, three and one-half miles west and three-fourths mile south of Coffeyville. One lmudred acres of this farm is fine bottom land, the rest being good upland pasture, on which is located a nice little cot- tage and good bank barn, both of these buildings being sheltered from the north winds, by a fine oak grove, adding much to the appearance and valne of this farm and forming a fine feed lot for the high grade stock (horses, hogs and cattle), which Mr. Wisden is raising. He keeps the best of horses, the kind which can be hitched to the plow, or make a stylish appearance, when driven to a buggy.
Mr. and Mrs. Wisden have no children. In politics, Mr. Wisden is a Republican, and. in energy, he is a Kansan, and, with his Kansas energy and his inherited English sturdiness, he makes a tine model for all young men of Montgomery county.
STARKEY II. TUCKER-The subject of this personal mention is well known among the farmers of Rutland township, where he has resid- ed since 1877, the year he made settlement in Montgomery county. His homestead is in section 10, township 33, range 14, and he is the owner of three hundred and twenty acres of land.
Mr. Tucker is one of the progressive tillers of the soil and. while he began his operations on a rudely-improved quarter section, his success has put him in possession of a tract twice that area, substantially im- proved and under a good state of cultivation. Farming in Kansas has regnited the same tenacious industry, as farming in Kentucky, in Taylor county in which state on subject was born. July 10. 1816.
le came to his majority in his native heath and acquired the rudi- ments of a common school education. He was twenty-six years of age when he located in Hart county, Kentucky, and twenty-nine years of age when he became a citizen of Montgomery county, Kansas. In this county
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he settled, by purchase, the tract entered by Jonathan Welden and passed. by deed, to Andrew Stamp, whose title came to Mr. Tucker.
The Tuckers of this strain were, originally, from Virginia. Edwin Tucker, father of Starkey II., was born in the "Old Dominion" and ac- companied his parents into Taylor county, Kentucky, when a boy. He was one of the following family : Barnard, John, Isaac. Nancy, Jefferson, Mrs. Mary A. Wise, Eliza and Edwin. The last named came to maturity as a farm boy and married Diana Hays, of Marion county, Kentucky, a daughter of Starkey and Nancy (Wilkerson) Hays, born in Virginia. Four sons were born as a result of this marriage, viz: Willis, of Taylor county, Kentucky; Starkey Il., of this notice; William, of Oklahoma City, and Norman, of Taylor county, Kentucky.
Starkey H. Tucker married Lucibra Smith in his native state. She was a daughter of Richard and Rachel ( Hays) Smith, and is the mother of seven children, namely : Ida, Edwin, William, Bertha Burgey. of Mon- tana ; Richard, Otto and Orville.
Mr. and Mrs. Tucker are members of the Southern Methodist church and have reared their large family to men and women of usefulness and honor.
PERRY N. ALLIN-Prominently and successfully identified with the grain business in Coffeyville, is Perry N. Allin, whose name initiates this personal review. He is a son of the well-known farmer, William H. Allin, of Fawn Creek township, and was born. April 16, 1866, in Cedar county, Iowa. He accompanied his parents to Montgomery county, Kan- sas, when a youth of fourteen, and his primary and higher education were obtained in the country and in the Coffeyville schools.
Assuming his station in life, at twenty years of age. he took up cler- jeal work, in the First National Bank of Coffeyville, spending four years there. The two years succeeding, he passed in the employ of the Adams Grain Company, of Coffeyville, and, the next year, he spent as an assistant in the Caney Valley Bank. Returning to Coffeyville, be engaged in the grain business, as an employee and partner, in the Adams Grain Com- pany. In July, 1901, he found matters in the company working some- what to his own disadvantage and, in July, 1901, organized the Perry N. Allin Grain Company, operating twenty-five grain stations, with gen- eral office at Coffeyville, Kansas.
Aside from his personal and individual business, Mr. Allin is con- nected with some of the prominent institutions of his town. He has served eight years as secretary of the Board of Directors of the First Na- tional Bank of Coffeyville, of which board he is a member; and he is a stockholder in the Peoples' Gas Company. He is a Republican, in poli-
CEO. H. PICKER AND WIFE
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ties, and a Mason-Keystone Blue Lodge and Chapter, of Independence, St. Bernard Commandery, Wichita Consistory-Scottish Rite.
June 10, 1891, Mr. Allin married Anna McCoy, a daughter of Wil- liam McCoy, of Coffeyville. Grace and William Perry are the children of this marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Allin are members of the Methodist church. He is a Knight of Pythias, an A. O. U. W., an Elk and a Wood- men of the World. He is a member of Keystone Lodge, No. 102, Coffey- ville; of Keystone Chapter, No. 22, Independence, Kansas; St. Bernard Commandery, No. 10, Independence, Kansas; Wichita Consistory, No. 10, Wichita, Kansas, and of Abdallah Temple, Order of the Mystic Shrine, Leavenworth, Kansas.
Mrs. Allin is Worthy Matron of Coffeyville Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star.
GEORGE H. PEKER-The subject of this sketch was born in Lincolnshire, England, on the 15th of April, 1850, and died at his home near Coffeyville, Montgomery county, Kansas, October 16th, 1901. His parents came to America in 1852, settling at Fremont, Ohio, where they lived until 1865, when they moved to Auburn, Indiana.
Mr. Picker learned his trade while in Auburn, that of brickmason, stonemason and plasterer. In 1872, he was married to Miss Lucy Jones, who, with one adopted danghier, still survive him. In 1877, they moved to Kansas, settling on a farm near Coffeyville, where they lived until his death.
Mr. Picker was a contractor and builder and worked at his trade and was also quite an extensive farmer. He was connected with the Coffeyville Vitrified Brick and Tile Company, and was a member of the Coffeyville Camp No. 665, M. W. A. He was a good citizen and neighbor, and in his death the community lost a good man. He was generous to a fault and was loved and respected by all who knew him.
THOMAS J. BOOTH-A citizen whose interests have been so diversi- fied, whose business connections so substantial and whose character comparatively so nuiqne, can not fail to prove of interest to the peruser of local history and should have a place in the detailed affairs of the locality which it is the purpose of this volume to record. Thomas J. Booth was in Montgomery county ahnost from the beginning and from a beardlessboy toa man in the afternoon of life, his history has been inter- woven with that of the moving spirits in the every-day affairs of the county and presents a record of successes which indicate, unmistakably, a genius for grappling with men and affairs.
A pioneer of the county. Mr. Booth dates his advent here at 1870. when he accompanied his father's family hither from Des Moines county,
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
lowa, and settled on the raw prairie near White Post school house, six miles west and a little north of Independence. The father was Milton Booth who died after eight years of residence in the county, at seventy years old. Bedford county, West Virginia, was the latter's native place and, while he was of English extraction. he was far removed from his original British ancestor, who was his paternal grandfather. From West Virginia he came ont to Adams county, Illinois, where his family was born. His second wife was Agatha Adams, who died in Des Moines, lowa, being the mother of the following: Ellen, wife of JJonas Pickler, of Montgomery county. Kansas; Fred. of Darby. Montana; Minnie, deceased: Thomas J., of this record; Henry and Charles. decrased. By his first marriage there were four children : James, of Pueblo, Col. : Mrs. Susan Burnett, of Red Oak. la., and Marquis and Virginia. deceased.
In Iowa and in Kansas our subject acquired a liberal education in the common schools. He taught country school for a time, as an intro- duction to the serious side of life, and then, as the junior member of the firm of Shoemaker and Booth, engaged as a cattle dealer and shipper for nine years. This business gave him a wide acquaintance over south- ern Kansas and he knew personally nearly every permanent settler in Montgomery county. With the business of farming. and stock raising and as a feeder and shipper he was connected until 1894, when he became interested in mercantile pursuits, displaying the same aptness and adaptation for the new business as for the old. In 189t. he organized the Union Implement Company, of Independence, of which he is Secre- tary and Treasurer and active manager. This, with other important business interests in the county, employs him fully and warrants his characterization as one of the busy men of Independence.
In the month of October-23-1879. Mr. Booth married Amanda, a daughter of William Peebler, who settled in Montgomery county in the same year with the Booths. In April. 1901, Mrs. Booth died, leaving three children, as follows: Clyde. of Darby. Montana ; Nellie, book- keeper for the Union Implement Company, and Ethel.
Mr. Booth is connected with many secret and insurance orders and besides being a member of both Woodmen orders he is an Elk and a high Mason. He belongs to the Blue Lodge, the Chapter, Commandery, the Shrine and the Consistory at Wichita, 32d degree. He is a Republican, without apology for his faith, and is an active spirit in the promotion of enterprises looking to the public weal as well as to his legitimate per- sonal gain. He is not tied to formalities and not in sympathy with straight-jacketism on many lines but believes in a reasonable liberality of thought and action consistent with the duties of a good citizen. He is endowed with a wide streak of good nature, looks for the good side of all things and is universally popular as a citizen of the county.
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
THOMAS R. PITTMAN-For twelve years the trusted agent of "Unele Sam" in the Post Office in the rural village of Havana, is one of the best known and most popular officials in the southern part of the county. He landed in Montgomery Co. in the year 1873, and, for the first twelve years, was one of "Nature's Noblemen,"' near Havana. 11 1885. he moved into the village and served under the Cleveland adminis- tration as post master. Again in Cleveland's second administration he received the appointment and his incumbancy of the office has held to the present date, he being unable to subscribe to the Free-Silver heresy of William J. Bryan, and supporting the Republican candidate instead.
The birth of Mr. Pittman took place in Bucyrus, Crawford county. Ohio, on the 15th of March, 1843. His father, John Pittman, was a native of the Keystone State, where he married Louisa Rodgers. By occupation Jno. Pittman was a farmer, moving, in middle life, out to Crawford county. O., where he died in 1860, aged fifty-two years, his wife surviving him several years and dying at sixty. Their family num- bered ten children, four of whom are living-Elizabeth, wife of Joseph Williams, of Ohio; Benjamin, also in the "Buckeye State;" John, a farmer living near Havana, and Albert, also a resident of Kansas.
Thomas R. Pittman was the sixth child of the family and was reared to farm life, receiving a fair common school education. He cared for his parents until their demise and engaged in educational work in the common schools of Crawford county ; this running over a period of some twelve years. On the 17th day of Nov., 1870, he was joined in mar- riage with Mary E., a daughter of Jesse and Catherine Vore. Two years later Mr. Pittman removed to Montgomery county, and settled on a farm two miles northwest of Havana, where he lived for a period of twelve years. In 1885, as stated, he came to the village, where he acted as post master and set up a hardware business. His r residence here since that time has been continuous.
Mr. Pittman has always evinced a lively interest in the public affairs of Montgomery county, and has done much to bring about the splendid development that has come in years past to the county. In 1875, he was elected on the Democratic ticket as one of the Board of County Commissioners and served a term of three years. He has also served in the different township offices. During these years he has kept up his connection with farming interests and now owns a nice little farm, located near the town.
In the social and religions life of the community, Mr. Pittman and his family have been exceedingly helpful, he, since 1899, having filled the pulpit of the Primitive Baptist church, in which organization he was ordained minister in that year. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen and, as stated, is a Republican in politics. The change of heart which he experienced in 1896, was due solely to the fact that he
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considered that Democracy had left him and that the Republican Plat- form met more nearly the views of government which he held to be correct. Upon his return from the Democratic State Convention that year, he immediately announced his intention. took the stump and proved one of the most valued workers for Republican principles which that party had, and since that time has been a staunch supporter of the party. To the marriage of Mr. Pittman six children have been born: Stella. deceased at twenty-eight; Jessie F., Bertha C., Nellie V., Clyde and Louis H. The standing of Mr. Pitman and family. in Havana and Montgomery Co. is of the best, and they are greatly esteemed by a very large circle of friends and acquaintances.
MRS. HATTIE E. GREENLEE. an esteemed resident of Sycamore township, was born in Woodbridge, N. J., November 28th, 1849. When only two years old. her parents removed to Morris, 1l., where they lived fifteen years, afterward locating in Lexington, Hl., and here the family remained until they removed to Cowley county. Kan., where they were residents twenty-seven years. In the spring of 1898. Mrs. Greenlee came to Montgomery county, and located on a farm of eighty acres, on which they now reside.
Hattie E. Greenlee was a daughter of Henry Jones, a native of England. Her mother's name was Isabelle Mennel, also a native of England. Hattie was their only child, and, on the 12th of January, 1870, she became the wife of John H. Greenlee, a native of Washington county. Penn. Mr. Greenlee was born May 8, 1845, and remained in his native county until twenty-one years of age. when he removed to McLean county. Ill. Here he remained until his marriage, when he came to Kansas. He was the son of William Greenlee, a native of Pennsylvania, and by occupation a farmer. The mother was Margaret Henry, a native of the same state. The family consisted of five children: John Hl .. Mary E., of lowa; Joseph E., of Winfield, Kan .; Jennie E. Pryor, of Newark, N. J., and Marens, of the Indian Territory.
John H. Greenlee was enrolled as a private in Company B, 152d Ill. Vol. Inft., under Captain isaac P. Strayer, and received an honor- able discharge at Memphis, Tenn .. September 11th, 1865. He engaged heavily in the stock business and became one of the largest dealers between Arkansas and Red Rock.
The family of Mrs. Greenlee consists of four children: Hampton II., of Montgomery county ; John M .. Mira M. and Lorrain.
J. HARDY SMITH-Mr. Smith represents the Kansas pioneer, hav- ing come into the state and established himself among its early settlers, in 1873. lle located on Onion Creek near the present site of Bolton,
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Montgomery county, but this stop was only temporary as he took up his residence in Chautauqua county, soon, and was a citizen there till 1884. Coming again to Montgomery county in 1894, he purchased the west half of section 32, township 33, range 16, and has, since that date, been occupied with its intelligent and successful cultivation and improvement.
J. Hardy Smith is a native son of Hamilton Co., Illinois, his birth taking place June 22, 1852. John R. Smith, his father, was a farmer and went into Ilinois in 1851 from Monroe county, Tennessee, where he had lived many years. He was born near Newburn, North Carolina, in 1820, and died in Chantanqua Co., Kansas-where he settled in 1873-in 1895. He was a son of Henry Smith, born also near Newburn, N. C., and died in Tennessee. Henry Smith married Sarah Cox and their children were: "Gatsie" who married John Presley and died in Tennessee; Sallie, died in Tennessee; John R., subject's father; Samuel II., of West Tennessee; Ann, who married Luther Hicks, of Hamilton Co., Il .; Augustus, of Dade Co. Mo .; and Salatha, of the Cherokee Nation, mar- ried John Redburn. John R. Smith married Nancy E. Fosha, a daugh- ter of Jesse Fosha, of the State of Tennessee. Mrs. Smith died in 1862, leaving the following issue: Sarah, who died in 1893, was the wife of Joseph D. Mezo; Wealthy J., who died unmarried: J. Hardy, of this sketch: Malinda, widow of James Neal, of Bolton, Kansas; Mary, who died in 1890, was the wife of J. B. Tame, of Chautauqua Co., Kansas.
The subject of this review was educated liberally in his native state and engaged in teaching country schools at the age of eighteen years. He continued the profession in Illinois and in Kansas till 1882, teaching his last term in Chautauqua Co .. Kansas. In 1884, he moved to the Cherokee Nation in the Indian Territory and was engaged in farming and raising stock there for ten years, his success at which providing him with the means whereby he was enabled to purchase and own his present estate. Returning to Kansas, he soon made the investment which put him in possession of his Independence township farm. As a home and an abiding place for contented and happy people, the farm was rather forbidding. It was unfenced, possessed no barns or sheds and no rezidence, save a small log house and a box loan-to. This condition has all been changed and the new residence, the fences and cross-fences and the general air of thrift, render the surroundings inviting and indi- cate its occupants as industrious and progressive people.
October 28, 1878, Mr. Smith married, in Chautauqua Co .. Kans., Belle Henry, a daughter of Monroe Henry who. with his wife, Melissa Gorby were the parents of Sterling, of Niotaze, Kansas; Anna, wife of C. H. Wells, of Vermontville, Mich .: Lucy, who married Joseph Elam, of Dewey, Ind. Ty .; Tommie, wife of K. J. Swearingen, of Romona, Ind. Ty., and Mrs. Smith, the oldest of the family.
The issue of the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Smith are: May,
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
Arthur, who married Golda Wagner and resides near Jefferson, Kans .; Bert, and Ethel.
A review of the Smiths' political history shows them to have been Democrats from an early time. Our subjeet has maintained the tradi- tions and practices of the family-of this branch-and has taken a lively interest in the political battles which have been fought in Mont- gomery county for the past eight years. He is treasurer of school dis- trict number 49-"Clear Creek"-and is a warm supporter of modern educational methods.
ABNER GREEN-The name which initiates this review. will possi- bly be more familiar to a large number of Montgomery county citizens than any other mentioned in this volume. In the three-fold character of one of the average farmers, a member of the county high school board, and proprietor of one of the best threshing outfits in the county, AAbner Green, of Cherokee township. has to do with many and varied interests.
Mr. Green is a Southern man, having been born in Chatham county, N. C., on the 6th day of October, 1842. The family have been residents of that state since Colonial times. Harlan Green was the father of our subject, and Mary Copland his mother. The mother died in 1851, and the father, taking his young children, came up into Indiana the same year and located in Orange county. for two years, and thence to Parke county, where he continued to reside until his death, at the age of fifty- four years. Three, only, of his nine children are now living: Yancy, Nancy, wife of John M. Teague; and Abner, the subject of this review. After settling in Indiana, the father again married, the second wife's name being, Mildred Ann Cooper, whose one child, Mary F., is the widow of Bruce Stanley, of Indiana.
A lad of nine years, when the family moved to the "Hoosier State." Mr. Green was there reared to farm life and secured a fair education. His father having died when he was but fourteen, he left home and went to live with James W. Russell, where he made his home the following four years. Ile then began life for himself and worked on farms in several different counties of the state until the date of his enlistment in the army, July of 1863. He became a private in Co. "B." 115th Ind. Vol. Inf. and was sent for service to East' Tennessee. The character of his service in the army was at once severe and nninterest- ing, as, by a chain of circumstances which neither he nor his superior officers could control, the regiment was kept on the march almost con- tinuously in the eastern part of the States of Tennessee and Kentucky. On many of these long marches the regiment was forced to forage upon the country for its subsistence, and many a day Mr. Green and his compatriots were obliged to purloin corn from the poor mules which
HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS. 667
accompanied the regiment. A forced march, which the regiment made one dark and stormy night, from Greensville to Bulls Gap, a distance of thirty miles, is particularly vivid in the memory of our subject, as many of his comrades were so exhausted that they died either on the way or after their arrival. Much is said in history of the credit due to men who bared their breasts to shot and shell, but every true soldier well knows that the long weary march, without proper sustenance, required as high a degree of patriotism as was shown anywhere. Mr. Green was not present at a single battle, but after his honorable discharge, in February of 1864, he could truthfully say that he had served his country faithfully and well.
Mr. Green returned to his home after the war and labored on the Huff farm until the date of his marriage, September 10, 1867. For the following six years he worked farms on shares, and by the day, when, by close economy, he was enabled to save enough to purchase a small farm. After two years, he removed to Sullivan county, where he spent four years very profitably and succeeded in saving enough to make his long contemplated removal to this state. In the spring of 1879, he purchased 160 acres seven miles northeast of Coffeyville, which remains his comfortable home today. Mr. Green purchased two other tracts which he has deeded to his children. The improvements which he has added to his farm from time to time, are such as to make it one of the most attractive farm properties in the county. To a large native grove, he has added many kinds of trees and shrubbery, his large two story residence being surrounded by tasty grounds planted with evergreens and all furnishing a very pleasing picture to the eye of the traveler.
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