USA > Kansas > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery County, Kansas > Part 79
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Miss Mary E. Owen became the wife of Mr. Harrison on the 28th of March, 1872. She is a native of Tennessee and is the daughter of Ed- ward L. and Nancy Owen, the former deceased at seventy-two years. September 7, 1901. Mr. and Mrs. Harrison are the parents of five chil- dren-Edward S., of Ardmore, I. T., married Angie Lawrence; Sallie B., now Mrs. F. W. Sherman. with two children: George and Howard, the latter deceased; William O., at home; Maud E., Mrs. M. C. Burton, and Thomas, who resides at the family domicile.
Mr. and Mrs. Harrison are most worthy members of the community where they have spent the major portion of their lives and the respect in which they are held is most uniform.
JOHN W. MILLER is a well known educator and farmer of Syca- more township. He has spent a long and active career in the educa- tional life of the county, and has also been most helpfully prominent in matters of moral and religious moment. He has taught not less than twnty-tive terms of school within the bounds of the county, has served his township as trustee for a number of years, and has for seven years been Superintendent of the Congregational Sunday School of Sycamore and also President of the Sunday School Association.
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Mentioning briefly the special points in the family history of Mr. Miller, the biographer notes that the family is traced to the Blue Ridge mountain country of West Virginia, where JJohn Miller, our subject's grandfather, was born, and whose union with Sally Sands, also a native of that state, resulted in the birth of eight children: Mrs. Sally Addi- son, John J., Matthew, Mrs. Margaret Baughman, Mrs. Sarah Hamrich, Mrs. Lonisa Dodrill and Mrs. Polly Cutlip.
Of this family, John J. was our subject's father. He was born in Braxton county, March 6th, 1833, where he married Diana M., a daughter of Adonijah and Sally A. (Rodgers) Harris, all of whom are natives of West Virginia. The children of JJohn J. Miller were-Nannie W., who married Sam Terry, and resides in Clackamas county, Ore .; John W., the esteemed subject of this sketch; Sarah, wife of Win. Terry, who resides in Bristol, 1. T., and-Matthew, of Grand Forks, B. C.
Owing to the unsettled state of the country at the beginning of the Civil War, Mr. Miller removed his family from Braxton to Marion coun- ty, West Va., where they continued to reside until 1866. In that year they came out to Iowa, but, after a period of three years, settled at Car- thage, Mo. Here they remained a little over a year, and then came on to Montgomery county, where, in the spring of 1871, they filed on a claim in section 26. township 31, range 15, Sycamore Tp. Here the usual prim- itive style of box house was constructed, which served to protect them from the weather until the great tornado of 1873 passed over the coun- try. This storm completely destroyed the home of the Miller's, and the commodious frame dwelling which is there now took its place.
In fraternal life Mr. Miller is quite active, being a member of the Masons, of the Modern Woodmen of America, and of the A. H. T. A. Ile is one of the popular and efficient educators in the county, and numbers his friends among all classes of society.
IRA N. TOWELL. The worthy citizen whose name introduces this biography owns and resides on one hundred and fifty-six acres of section 32, township 33, range 15, Independence township, where he settled on his advent to Montgomery county. in the year 1881. His farm was partly improved by William Atkinson, a former owner, and was once owned by the pioneer E. P. Allen. Mr. Towell emigrated to this state from Parke county, Indiana, and is one of several of the Friends' sect who made settlement in Montgomery county about that time.
Parke county, Indiana, is where Ira N. Towell was born April 7. 1856. His father, Isaac Towell, was a native of Orange county, the same state, was born in 1817 and died in Montgomery county. Kansas, in 1900. Henry Towell, grandfather of our subject. was a North Carolinian- from Orange county -and one of the carly settlers of Orange county, Indiana. He was descended from the early American Quakers and, if
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it could be traced, no doubt the family has some Colonial history. Isaac Towell married Amy Marshall, a daughter of William Marshall. whose daughter Sarah was Isaac's first wife. By his second marriage Isaac Towell was the father of William H., who died in the Union army; Eliz- abeth E., who died single; Elwood H., of Parke county, Indiana; Hiram L., of Fountain county. Indiana; Ruth, wife of Ira Hadley, of Bolton, Kans. : Sarah, who married Llewellyn Bowsher; Ira N., our subjeet, and Lydia, who died young.
A common school education was all that Ira N. Towell acquired, and that in the country school. He passed his majority around the parental hearthstone and when he came to Kansas his parents accompanied him, his mother dying near Bolton in 1883. JJanuary 2. 1885, he married Miss Belle Farlow, a daughter of Joseph Farlow, a worthy citizen of Bolton. Three children have .come to cheer and bless the home of Mr. and Mrs. Towell. namely: F. Ernest, born Nov. 18, 1886 : Arthur. born Feb. 2, 1890, and M. Gobla, born Feb. 9. 1894.
General farming is the industrial line in which Mr. Towell has achieved his success. He has been busy all his life and by this practice has maintained himself minenmbered and able to meet all obligations. De is liberal in politics and is a Wooodman.
JOHN ATKINSON. Those who have passed a score of years in the vicinity of Bolton are familiar with the name introducing this article. Its owner is one of the modest farmers of Indepnedence township and is situated on section 30, township 33, range 15. He cast his fortunes with Montgomery county in August, 1881, and is an emigrant from Parke county, Indiana, where his birth occurred Nov. 26. 1834. His father, Thos. Atkinson, settled in the wooded country of Parke county in 1831. and was one of those who spent his life battling against nature and with nature in the physical development of his section of the Hoosier State. He was born in Orange county. North Carolina, in 1796, and died in 1871. just as he was nearing his home while returning from a visit to his native heath. He was a son of John Atkinson of North Carolina Quaker stock, whose antecedents separated from the parent church in Pennsylvania and established themselves in the "Tar Heel State." Thos. Atkinson married Marjorie Lindley, a daughter of David Lindley, also from North Carolina. The children of this marriage were: Jonathan, Mary, wife of Levi Dix: Sarah, whose first husband was Thos. Marshall and her second, Mr. Bedford; Dixon, David, of Parke county, Indiana; Eleanor, who died single; Samnel and John, twins, and Emily, of Parke county, Indiana.
John Atkinson of this sketch, attained his majority on the farm of his parents, in which community he acquired a good common school edu- ,cation. He accepted the calling of his fathers as his own and devoted
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ISAAC JAMES AND WIFE.
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himself intelligently to the tilling of the soil. For a life companion he chose, in February, 1863, Mary Ellen Atkinson, a daughter of Hiran and Amy (Marshall) Atkinson, who has shared with him his successes as well as his reverses, for forty years. In company with the Lindleys and Towells they came to Montgomery county in 1881, and have since re- sided on their farm. Mr. Atkinson is a minister of the Friends church and has served his community in that capacity. He is comfortable in his surroundings, enjoys the luxuries of natural gas and, as a citizen, is interested in the civil affairs of his municipality.
ISAAC JAMES. On a farm of three hundred and twenty acres in Louisburg township resides Isaac James, one of the leading agricultur- ists of Montgomery county. His residence on this farm dates from the year 1884, and he is a native of Missouri, where he was born near Jeffer- son City. Cole county, in 1847. He is a son of Mitchell and Margaret (Glenn) James, and is a maternal grandson of JJames Glenn, one of the earliest soitlers in Monitean county, Missouri. The latter gentleman was born in Tennessee and immigrated to Missouri at a very early day. Our subject's father is now residing in High Point, near Jefferson City, Missouri, at the age of seventy-nine years, but his mother died in 1886. They were the parents of eight children, of whom Isaac is the eldest. The others are : Cynthia, wife of Jacob Cook, of Missouri ; Maggie, Mrs. John Louis, of Missouri; Mary, now Mrs. Failing; William, who resides in Missouri; Rosa, deceased: Bettie, wife of J. C. Richel, of Missouri, and Katie, who married Merido Harris and who also lives in Missouri. After the death of the mother of these children, the father again married, his second wife's name having been Beckie Mackines, who is the mother of four children.
In 1872. Isaac James was joined in marriage with Louisa Richel. This lady was the daughter of John and Rickey ( Withanna) Richel. The family was of German stock and came from the Fatherland in 1853 and settled in Missouri, where they became well-to-do farmers. The father is now deceased, while the mother still resides near Russelville, Missouri. There were eight children in the family, of whom four are yet living.
Mr. and Mrs. James are the parents of nine children: William. born March 30, 1874. married Emma Ellington, of Montgomery county, and is a farmer, with one child named Isaac; Maggie A., born February 8, 1878, was a twin of John F .. the latter deceased in infancy: Andrew C., born November 10, 1879; John C., born September 28, 1881; Dora A., born November 20, 1883, died August 21, 1884; Mattie, born November 20, 1885; May Belle, born January 30, 1889; Milton, born April 5, 1891; Louis A., born August 9, 1893, and Olive M., born November 5, 1895.
Mr. James passed the period of his youth on the home farm in Mis- souri, where he received a good comon school education, remaining on the homestead until the year after his majority. In 1884, he came to
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Montgomery county and located on a farm in Louisburg township, on which he has continued to reside to the present time. Ile has at sundry times added many substantial improvements to this farm and it is now regarded as one of the most valuable in the township. He devotes it to general farming and stock raising. It is located in what is called the Gas Belt and was leased by Mr. James for oil and gas purposes to an Elk City company.
Mr. James has always taken a helpful interest in the public affairs of the community in which he resides, and has filled some of the minor offices. Ilis political principles are those of the reform party. In ro- ligious matters, he ascribes to the tonets of the Presbyterian faith. while his wife is a member of the Lutheran denomination. Mr. and Mrs. James are highly respected members of society in Louisburg township, where they are held in very great esteem by their many friends and neighbors.
ALBERT G. HARPER. The gentleman whose name initiates this brief article came to Kansas in the year 1870, and became a resident of Montgomery county in 1885. March 15 of the latter year, he took up his residence in Independence, where he has, practically, since, maintained the same, and has for thirteen years been superintendent of the city water works. For seven years he has represented the Third ward of the city on the Board of Education and in this prominent way has exercised a beneficent influence on public education in Independence.
Born Jannary 9. 1850, in Warren county, Ohio, Mr. Harper is a son of Benjamin Harper, whose life was passed as a farmer, and who was born in the same county and state with his son in the year 1818. He entered the Union army, joining the 125th IM. Inft. in 1862, and taking part in the battle of Stone River, among others, and dying in Cumber- land Hospital, Nashville, Tennessee, in January, 1864. He was a son of Joseph Harper, who passed away in Warren county, Ohio, and had a family of three sons. Benjamin Harper married Sarah Hitesman, who is a resident of Independence. Kansas. Their children were: Win. II., of Jeffersonville, Ind .; Mrs. C. H. Thompson, of Lamar, Col .; Mrs Maggie Jennings, of Chandler, Oklahoma: Albert G., of this notice, and E. S. Harper, of Coffeyville, Kansas.
The common schools provided Albert G. Harper with a liberal edu- cation. Hle attained his majority on the farm and began life as a farmer. In 1860, he came west to Vermillion county, Ilinois, where he was en- gaged in his native calling ten years, at the conclusion of which period he came to Kansas and became a resident of Parsons. He was engaged on the construction of the city water plant of that city and when his connec- tion ceased there he came to Independence, where he was employed in a like capacity. With the exception of two years passed in Newport, Ar- kansas, as Supt. of its water works, he has been a continuous citizen of Montgomery county for eighteen years. He became Supt. of the water
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plant of this city in 1890, and the best service that can be given Inde- pendence, with the present water system, is directed from the offices of the water Supt.
In April, 1871, Mr. Harper married Margaretta Sandereook, of Par- sons, Kansas. Mrs. Harper was a daughter of Benjamin Sandercook and she died in 1883. By this marriage the following children were born: Frank, Edward 11 .. Grace and Weaver. March 15, 1887, Mr. Harper married Celia Logue, a daughter of Ambrose Logue and a native of Illinois. Mr. Logne was a Maryland man and died in Woodson county, Kansas. Mrs. Celia Harper was born in the month of March, 1856, and is the mother of two children, namely: Florence and Albert.
Mr. Harper is a Republican without equivocation. is a Workman and a Select Knight and a member of the United Brethren church.
HIRAM REEVE. a native of Vigo county, Ind., was born Jannary 26th, 1832, and lived there until he came to Montgomery county, Kansas, in the fall of 1880 and located upon a farm of eighty acres in section 6-32- 16. He came to Kansas with a team and a family, which consisted of a wife and six children. He erected the dwelling and barn which are now on the place, and set out an orchard of many varieties of fruit trees, and made many other improvements.
At the beginning of the Civil War he was rejected for physical rea- sons-on account of poor teeth.
Hiram Reeve was a son of Zadoc Reeve, a native of New England. The father lived in his native state until his marriage, when he went to Evansville, Ind., and there worked for a number of years as a ship carpenter. Then he bought a farm in Vigo county, and there spent the remainder of his life. His father was Elias Reeve, a native of New York, and was of English descent. His mother's maiden name was Mary Colton. She was a native of New England, and a daughter of Nathan Colton, also of New England birth.
The children of Elias and Mary Reeve were: David. Lovica Hollo- way, of Great Bend, Kansas; Minerva Coltrin, of Indiana; Hiram, our subject ; Mary Haymaker, of Indiana, who lives on the old homestead. and George. Hiram Reeve married Elizabeth Reeves, a native of Vigo county, Ind., and a daughter of John and Jane (Carico) Reeves.
The greater part of the life of Mr. Reeve has been spent on the farm, where he has been most successful as a tiller of the soil. lle is well known for his strict attention to business, his honesty and integrity. For some time he served as a member of the school board, always per- forming his duty to the best of his ability, and for the best welfare of the school.
The family consists of six children: Alonzo, of California; Belle Hitchcock, of Los Angeles, Cal., who has one child, Raymond Leon ; Carleton, of California ; Cora, and Myrtle Walker, both of Montgomery
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county; the latter having two children living: Stella and Loyd-Earl, another child, died at the age of 18 years.
JOSHUA PERKINS was born in Warren county, IN., January 26, 1851. His father, D. R. Perkins, was also a native of Illionis, his death occurring in 1886, at the age of sixty-one. To Mr. Perkins and wife, Maria, were born eleven children: Albert and Eliza, of lowa; Franeis, Joshua. Stephen, Rachel Coats and Abigail Ringle, all of Montgomery county, Kans .; Ephraim, of Oklahoma; Evaline, who died in Iowa in 1871; Minnie Rutledge, of Carthage. Mo .. and Jasper, of Chautauqua connty, Kan.
Joshua Perkins was the fourth child and with his parents removed to Iowa when he was only four years old and remained there until he was of age. His education was obtained in the common schools of the state where he was reared. At the age of twenty, he left his parents in Iowa and, with a team and wagon, drove to Montgomery county, Kans. Here he located in Sycamore township on section 32-31-15.
Mr. Perkins' marriage occurred August 5, 1875, his wife being Maria Overman, who died March 16th, 1903. and was a daughter of J. R. and Charlotte (Ramsey) Overman. Their family consists of tive children: Mrs. Della M. Swan, of Cherryvale. Kans., who has one son, Truman ; Mrs. Minnie Swan, a resident of Montgomery county, whose two children are: Thelma and Paul; Walter D., of Montgomery county, who has one daughter, Ruth ; Lottie Hobson, of the same county, and Bessie, at home.
Mr. Perkins has always resided on the farm and has been very suc- cessful as a farmer. He has shown the greatest interest in public affairs and has served fifteen years as a member of the school board. He has never been an office seeker, but has been pleased to aid by his vote in placing in office good men holding to the principles of the party of Thos. Jefferson. Mr. Perkins kept the county poor on his farm for five years. Socially, he is a Modern Woodman and his wife was a member of the Royal Neighbors.
GEORGE M. SEACAT. M. D. It is possibly true that the family physician comes nearer to the inner life of his fellow man than any other, unless it be the physician of the soul. It becomes an absolute necessity therefore that the medical fraternity should be closely safe-guarded in the matter of character. The physician should be sincere and honest and as efficient as it is possible in this latter day of advanced medical science. Possibly no other physician in the city of Cherryvale comes nearer to the ideal physician than the gentleman whose name initiates this review.
Dr. Seaeat was born near Palmira, Harrison county, Indiana, and spent the period of adolscence in the health-giving labor of the farm. He received a fair district school education and later matriculated at
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the National Normal University of Lebanon. Ohio, where he graduated in the scientific course. in 1882. He entered the school room as a teacher, aud after several years of successful experience he took up the study of medicine, attending his first course of lectures at Keokuk, Iowa. He then enrolled as a student at the Kentucky School of Medicine, at Louis- ville, in which institution he graduated, in 1885. He then came to Kan- sas, where, for several years, he practiced at Kinsley, in Edwards county. He located in 1896, in Cherryvale, where he has acquired a most enviable practice. During his residence here, he has participated actively in pub- lic affairs, having been a member of the City Council for a number of years.
The Doctor and his family are leading members of the Methodist Episcopal church and are esteemed members of the most exclusive social circles of Cherryvale. Eminent in his profession, noble and pure in his character, Dr. Seacat is respected in all walks of life.
Briefly noting the salient points in the family history of Dr. Seacat, his parents are Hamilton and Mary A. (King) Seacat. They were natives of Harrison county, Indiana, where the father was an extensive farmer for a long period of years. The parents were both devoted members of the Methodist church. The father died in his native county. September 7. 1879, at the age of forty-eight years. His widow is still residing on the old homestead at the age of sixty-seven. It might be noted in passing, the Gresham family, of which Secretary of State Gresham was a mem- ber, is connected with the Seacat family, our subject's father having been a first cousin of Judge Gresham. A rather remarkable instance is worthy of noting here concerning the longevity and activity of this family. Our subjeet's great annt, Mrs. Sally Rumley-mother of Judge Gresham-on September 6, 1901. at the age of ninety-eight years (at her home near New Albany. Ind.) tasked herself, unaided, to prepare dinner for her fifty guests, who had assembled to celebrate her birthday, a task which she performed with apparent ease. She still resides in the same house to which she came as a bride in 1822.
In social affairs, he is a member of the Woodmen, of the Fraternal Aid and of the Sons and Daughters of Justice. Politically. he is an ardent Republican, and contents himself with casting his vote for the candidates of that party. He is a constant student of his profession and keeps in close touch with it. He is a close reader of the best literature and is a member of a number of the different associations, prominent among which is the National Association of Railway Surgeons, the American Medical Association and the Kansas Medical Association, and was the local surgeon for the Santa Fe Company for a period of eleven years.
Dr. Seacat's marriage occurred September 4. 1889, when Miss .J. Rosa Gramly became his wife. Mrs. Seacat is a native of Baltimore, Maryland, and is a daughter of Rov. C. H. and Chesta Gramly. Her
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father is a prominent divine of the Methodist Episcopal church and has lived in Kansas since 1885. Ile is now on the superannuated list and resides in St. Louis, Mo. Mrs. Seacat's mother died in 1879, aged thirty years. She was a woman of beautiful character and a consistent mem- ber of the Methodist church. The children born to Dr. and Mrs. Seacat are: Charles 1I. Gramly, Lester G. and Chester G (twins), the latter deceased at one year. The youngest child is Leora Gramly.
RICHARD H. DeMOTT. One of the well known pioneers of Mont- gomery county and a retired farmer of Independence is the gentleman whose name introduces this personal record. His advent to the county dates from 1869, and he was one of a colony of immigrants from John- son county, Indiana, several of whom performed an important part in the rural development of the municipality.
Richard H. DeMott was born in Mercer county, Kentucky, April 17, 1847. Ilis father, Peter DeMott, was born at Cove Springs, in the same county, in November, 1813, and was one of five sons of Lawrence De- Mott, who settled in Kentucky from New Jersey, where his ancestors settled in 1698. While the family came from Holland they were orig- inally from France. Lawrence DeMott died in Mercer county, Kentucky, and nearly, if not quite. all of his children removed to Indiana. where many of them died. They were: Low, William, John, Richard-all of whom passed away in Indiana-Peter, who died in Montgomery county, Kansas; Rebecca, who married Frederick Low; Sarah, who married John Robinson; Dorothy, wife of Eli Peters, and JJane, who became the wife of Merrit Cleveland. Peter DeMott married Indiana Drury, who passed away in Montgomery county, Kansas, in 1871. Her husband sur- vived her till 1901. when, in October of that year, he died, being the father of Margaret J., who married Alfred Carter; William L., of Mont- gomery county; Richard Il., our subject; Mary E., deceased wife of Will- iam Garrett; Nancy A., deceased wife of John Hamilton; Sarah D., now Mrs. Frank Boswell, of Indianapolis, Indiana; Martha R., wife of Joseph Reeves, of Pawnee, Oklahoma, and Maggie E., widow of Dora Parkhurst, of Indianapolis, Indiana.
The comon schools provided Richard H. DeMott with the rudiments of an education. ile began life as a farmer on his new farm in Mont- gomery county. He continued the calling without serions interruption till September, 1902, when he came to Independence to spend his de- «lining years, llis farm of six hundred and forty acres is one of the well improved and productive places of Independence township and he owns other lands in addition to this.
He was married in Johnson county, Indiana, in 1866, his wife being Matilda J. Parkhurst, a daughter of the pioneer and wealthy retired farmer, Robert S. Parkhurst, of Independence. The children of this marriage are: Lucinda, wife of A. R. Faetheringill, of Montgomery
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county; Chester W., M. D., of Independence, a graduate of Rush Medical College and practicing medicine with Dr. JJ. T. Davis, the firm being Davis & DeMott ; Pearl, Frederick F. and Lee C., twins.
On leaving Kentucky in 1856, Peter DeMott went up into Johnson county, Indiana, with which he was identified till 1869, when he gath- ered his effects together and drove his teams through to his destination in Kansas. He entered land near Independence and was an active farmer till 1874, when he became a member of his son Richard's house- hold and remained with him till his death.
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