USA > Kansas > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery County, Kansas > Part 89
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The social life of Mr. Conner is marked by a genuine interest in conditions about him, his keen insight into affairs causing his selec- tion as a member of the school board and as trustee of his township. He is active in religions affairs, being a member of the United Brethren church at Radical, of which he is class loader. He is a thorough be- liever in the fraternal principles, and is prominent in the Woodmen, the Royal Neighbors, the Fraternal Aid. the Home Builders' Union. and the A. H. T. A. Mr. Conner is a staunch Republican and is looked upon as available timber for future political preferment, should he so desire.
As to family history, the following is to the point: Jesse Con- ner, grandfather of our subject, married Betsy Landis, both natives of the Keystone State. Their children were: Jacob, Mary Harles, Susan Zeigler. Isaac, Sarah, Elizabeth and Abram. Of this family, Isaac
EDWARD HOBSON AND FAMILY
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
married Hannah Haldeman, also a native of Pennsylvania, and a daughter of Samuel and Harriet (Horning) Haldeman. Of their children our subject was the eldest, the others being as follows: Har- riet Woody, of Montgomery Co., Kansas; Ella McMillen, now deceased; Sarah Pittman, also of Montgomery Co .; Abram, of Brown county, Kansas; Milton, a clerk in the office of the Kansas City Star, and Elmer, who resides with our subject.
Samuel H. Conner began his domestic life in 1885, at which time he brought to his home Mary, daughter of Judge Daniel and Sarah (Boyer) Cline. Mrs. Conner was born in Carroll county, Ind., and came to Kansas in 1869. Five bright children are inmates of the Conner home, their names being: Ola, Nellie N .. Esther, George, Leslie and Daniel W.
EDWARD HOBSON-This personal reference pertains to one of Montgomery county's pioneers, Edward Hobson, of Rutland township. He accompanied his parents hither in 1870, from Keokuk county, Iowa. where his birth occurred March 21. 1855, and where he resided until he was fifteen years of age. The settlement in Montgomery county was made in Independence township, where the father purchased the Geo. Brown claim of a quarter section, which was the family abiding place till 1876, when the family settled on the farm now owned by E. M. Koger, where the father died, on section 26, township 32, range 14, in Rutland township.
The Hobsons of this notice emanated from North Carolina, where Joseph R. Hobson, father of our subject, was born. He was a son of Joseph llohson, of Guilford county, that state, who pioneered to Indiana in 1821, where he ran a saw-mill and a grist-mill of the primi- tive horse power pattern. He left that state with his family when his son Joseph was eighteen years old and settled in Henry county, Iowa, where he died, engaged in the mercantile business. The children of Grandfather llobson were: Peter, Mrs. Edis Collins, George, Mrs. Eleanor Hadley Rogers, Mrs. Mary Radcliff, Joseph R., Mrs. McGown. Samuel, and Mrs. Hannah Rickley. Joseph R. Hobson married Mary Had- ley, a North Carolina lady and a daughter of Joseph and Mary (Hin- shaw) Hadley. The issue of this Hobson union were: tool, Ann, who first married Mahlon Hadley, but is now the widow of t. D. Engle, cf Kansas City. Kansas; George, of Independence. Kansas; Joseph. deceased; Martha, wife of Albert Johnson, of Independence, Kansas; Edward our subject. and Isaac. Joseph R. Hobson married Cyrena Coberley for his second wife. She was a North Carolinian and a daugh- ter of Renben Coberley.
Edward Hobson has resided at his present location, on section 26. township 32. range 14, in Rutland township, since attaining his major-
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ity. He has been identified with all the work of farm development of his half section of land, and has given a good account of his twenty- seven years of active, independent life. In addition to his farming. he follows threshing during the season. He was nited in marriage with Orla M. Davis in 1877. She was a daughter of Anderson and Mary J. (Jones) Davis, and a native of Jefferson county, lowa. Two children, Orwin and Avril, have resulted from their union. Orwin is married to Mattie Baker, of Jewell county, Kansas, and now resides on a part of the home place.
Mrs. Davis still lives on the home farm in Rutland township; her husband dying in 1897, aged sixty-eight years.
Mr. Hobson is a Populist, has been township clerk and has served his school board ten years. He is a Modern Woodman and an active member of the Friends' church.
JOHN O'BRIEN-Mr. O'Brien, now a retired citizen of Independ- ence, was for many years identified, as a farmer and stockman, with the rural community of Liberty township, in which he settled and took a claim in the year 1869. This great length of residence in the county and the fact of his settlement on the then frontier, entitles him to be the distinction accorded pioneers, and as such, his life record appears on the pages of this volme for the information and gratification of posterity.
January 30, 1841, John O'Brien was born in Pike county, Ohio. His parents, Enoch and Naney (Walls) O'Brien, were both natives of the same county with hhuself, the father born in 1808, and the mother in 1809. Elijah O'Brien, paternal grandfather of our subject. settled in Ohio early in its history as a state, served as a soldier in the War of 1812, and followed the trade of a clock and gunsmith. He was an ex- pert workman, and in this his son, Enoch, also excelled. He died at the age of eighty-four. Only three of the nine children of Enoch and Mary O'Brien survive, namely: Nancy, now Mrs. William Minnick, of Mont- pomery county, Kansas; Moses, a farmer of Liberty township, the same county, and JJohn of this notice. A sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Addie, died in Denver, Col., in July, 1901, leaving a daughter, Mrs. Matt Griffin of Montgomery county.
The Pike county, Ohio, schools furnished John O'Brien with a fair knowledge of the three "R's" and he was an active aid about the family homestead during the period of his minority. He left home for the west a young man of twenty-eight, his bosom welling with hope for his future, as he should carve it out of the wild and unschooled regions of Kansas. He entered land in Montgomery county and passed more than thirty years in the somewhat monotonous occupation of building and developing a home. The results of his efforts, coupled with those of tis ulomestic aids, are shown in the possession of two hundred and binary
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
acres of land, an estate worthy to be referred to as the achievement and chief event of his life.
March 11, 1875, Mr. O'Brien married Jennie Bronghton. a daughter of Edwin and Laura (Hartwell) Broughton, who settled in Kansas in 1869. By trade Mr. Broughton was a cooper, and in 1894 he died, aged seventy-nine; his wife surviving till 1900 and dying at the age of eighty years. Both were members of the Methodist church, and their family comprised three children, namely: Samuel. of Cherryvale, Kansas; Mary A., deceased, and Mrs. O'Brien. Three children, also, have come to adorn the home of Mr. and Mrs. O'Brien, viz: Claudie V., wife of Albert Slater, of Montgomery county, Kansas, with children : Mabel A., Bessie G. and Floyd E .; Oscar L. O'Brien, a student of the county high school, and Edwin E., with a surveying party in Oklahoma. A son, Will, died in infancy.
Mr. O'Brien's efforts in Montgomery county have not only been of valne to the county, but gratifying to himself. He came here poor, single-handed and alone, but possessing plenty of that essential element in one's make-up to achieve a modest ambition. Ile has lived the vir- tues of character he possesses, has performed a citizen's duty as he saw it, and has retired with the good wishes of a whole community.
HENRY BERENTZ-Looking back to the days immediately she- ceding the Civil War, there now seems almost a divine prescience in the great Jefferson's purchase of this western country in 1803. For, after that sublime struggle in the cause of human liberty, the boundless prairies were ours to be thrown open to the gallant boys who had so gloriously participated in its splendid achievements. One of these gallant hoys was the subject of this sketch, Henry Berentz, who settled in Drum Creek township in 1869. and who has been an active participant in the marvelous growth which has come to the county since that date.
The Berentz family is of pure German extraction. Grandfather Be- rentz was the progenitor of the family in this country, he having been a resident of Baltimore, Maryland, prior to the Revolutionary struggle, in which he took a patriot's part. He, later, settled near Harrisburg, Pa., where he reared his family and passed away. The father of onr subject. Christian Berentz, was there married to Henrietta Oaks and, later, removed to Ohio, where he was engaged until his death. in the ministry of the German Reform church. Ten children were born to these parents, as follows: Caroline, who married Fred Oxenbeine, a farmer living near Nashville, Tenn .: Henry, Christian W., Mary Ann. who married Henry Windell, deceased, an Illinois farmer; ferry. a Civil War veteran. of Labette county, Kansas; Dwight. a veteran, living in Ohio; Michael, of Liberty township; Mahala, of Illinois; Susan, of Ohio; Martin, a veteran. living in Oswego, Kansas.
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
Henry Berentz was born in the city of Harrisburg in 1833, and in early boyhood was taken to Ohio, where he received a fair education. Prior to the war, he went ont to Illinois and was located at Danville, when he answered the call to arms in 1862. Enlisting as a private in Company "F." 35th Ill. Vol. Inft., he was sent to the front and became a part of the Army of the Cumberland. He helped whip Bragg at Stone River, then chased him to Chickamanga, and was present at that bloody defeat of the Union army. But this was compensated for at the glorious battle of Missionary Ridge, which proved a fitting close for our subject's military career, for, here, he was wounded on the 25th of Nov., and, after five months in the hospital, at Quincy, Ill., he was placed on guard duty at Rock Istand until his muster ont in August.
Returning from the field, Mr. Berentz farmed in Illinois until the date of his settlment in Montgomery. Marriage was an event of 1857 with onr subject, his wife having been Catherine Jane Doop, a native of Ohio. Mrs. Berentz is the daughter of Joseph and Catherine J. (Win- dell) Doop, early settlers in Monroe county. Ohio, where the mother still resides at the advanced age of eighty-nine years. She is the mother of nine children. Eight are living, as follows: Mary Ann, widow of Hiram Gibson, of Drum Creek township; David, a Civil War veteran, of Cherryvale; Mrs. Berentz, Calvin, a veteran, of Caney, la .; John, a veteran. deceased; Simon, a veteran, of Iowa: Philip, a veteran, of Okla- homa; Joseph, of Beaumont, Texas: Lucretia, who married Win. Good- ner and lives in Drum Creek township.
To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Berentz six children were born, viz: Elizabeth Ann, born July 18. 1859, now the wife of Clate Cole, farmor of Cherry township; her children are : Bart, Henry. John and Obediah; George, born October 8. 1861, married Florence Norris, and lives in Liberty township. one child, Lloyd; Henry, born April 21. 1863 ; Emma. born April 17, 1868. married Willis Kidd : her children-Guy, Marble. Luella and Hazel; Abraham E .. born May 26, 1872, married Elsie Van Dyne, her children-Katie and Roy: Effie, born June 15. 1878. is the wife of Harry Thomas, now deceased ; one child-Harry B.
The shades of evening are closing peacefully about the career of this respected citizen who can look back upon duty well and faithfully performed. Secure in the love of his comrades of the G. A. R. and his children, and in the respect and esteem of his hosts of friends, he and his good wife are enjoying the rest they so much deserve.
ROBERT L. NEWKIRK-The younger business element of Elk City. Kansas, has a worthy representative in Robert L. Newkirk, as- sistant manager of the Sloans-Behrens Milling Company, and a young man whose future may be easily forecast by reference to the capable manner in which he has handled himself thus far in his eminently suc-
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cessful business career. Mr. Newkirk is a product of the institutions and social environment of Elk City, and it might be added this taet easts no reflection upon either; for no more gentlemanly hustler can be found in the town's environs.
The parentage of Mr. Newkirk is responsible for a portion of his popularity, as they were among the chosen few of the old settlers' guard which moved in on the erstwhile "cowpunchers' trail" and redeemed Montgomery in the interest of good morals and better government. His father, Capt. W. C. Newkirk, was one of the defenders of the Union whose thoughts naturally turned to the child, born mid the throes of incipient rebellion, and where he was sure of finding other untold thous- ands whose blood had been spilled in securing to it. forever, the prec- ious birthright vouchsafed it by a liberty-loving people. Capt. New- kirk and his good wife were natives of the "Hoosier State." her maiden name having been Sarah B. Reynolds.
At the breaking out of the war, Mr. Newkirk promptly enlisted and for four years did his duty bravely. He died at the age of 62 years on the 9th of April, 1901, mourned by the entire community. Mrs. Newkirk contin- nes to be an honored resident and is held in the highest regard by all. Her children, of whom there are six living in the county, are all useful and respected members of society and reflect, in their sterling qualities, the careful training of their parents. Two are deceased-Carrie L., at eight vears, and Frederick R. at twenty-eight. Thomas R .. William T .. James L., and Alonzo are successful farmers of the county. The one daughter, Silver B., married Alonzo Smith, and also resides on a farmn.
Robert L. Newkirk, the sixth child of this family, was born on the home farm April 4, 1874. He graduated from the high school in 1899, and soon began his business career by the management of a creamery at Independence for a year. He then farmed for a time and in the spring of 1901, began his connection with the firm he now serves so acceptably. Like his Jamented father, Robert enters into every project which has for its object the betterment of conditions in his community, and the spirit which he infuses into any undertaking with which he is entrusted always carries it to a successful conclusion. He served during the year 1902. as clerk of the township. Of the fraternities, he affiliates with the Woodmen and the A. O. U. W. In politics he votes with the Democratic party.
The marriage of Mr. Newkirk occurred on the 24th of December, 1901. Mrs. Newkirk's maiden name was Rhoda E. Rains. She is a na- tive of Kentucky and is a daughter of Matthew and Mattie Rains, resi- dents of Independence. Mrs. Newkirk is the mother of two children, Burnell and Julius R.
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
HOWARD M. HILL-The promotion of the stock and breeding in- terests of Montgomery county are successfully engaged in by the young pioneer settler whose name initiates this personal review. He is a sou of one of the pioneers of Wilson county, Kansas, and was reared from infancy within a score of miles of the scene of his present activities. The "Sycamore Springs Stock Farm" is the ontgrowth of his idea and the result of a bent exhibited by him from boyhood. His dominions comprise an estate of five hundred and twenty acres, stocked with the various farm animals and with registered heads for both his stable and his herds.
Having come to the adjoining county of Wilson in 1872, Mr. Hill is worthily designated in this article as a pioneer. The city of Neodesha was the scene of his boyhood and youthful activities, and from its high school he graduated at the age of seventeen. For a higher education and a broader culture, he entered the Kansas State University, from which he graduated in 1890, with the degree of LL. B. He did extra work in political economy and natural history and completed the law course of the institution also. On assuming a station as a business man he took the position of cashier of the Bank of Lafontain, which was established by his father, the veteran banker, William Hill, of Neo- desha. and conducted the affairs of the little institution during the five years of its existence. Following his natural tendencies he then de- voted himself to and became a positive force as a farmer. His interest in live stock was an absorbing one and took form in an ambition to become a breeder of blooded. or fine stock. Short Horn cattle and Per- cheron horses comprise his important registered stock, "Imported Mar- iner?' of the Scotch "Missie" family, bred by Win. Marr, being at the head of his herd, and Jena, of the Brilliant family, and bred by Dunham, Fletcher & Coleman, of Fort Wayne, Ill., is his famous Percheron stal- lion. A half dozen fine mares of the same blood were purchased with him at the Kansas City sale of Samuel Hanna, of Howard, Kansas, and by the diffusion of this blood with that of his large number of the coul- moner stock the general improvement is at once striking and apparent.
In 1898, Mr. Hill gave a sale in Kansas City of registered Hereford cattle raised on the Sycamore Springs Stock Farm, thirty-five head bring- ing an average price of four hundred and one dollars ($401.00), the high- est price ever brought at such a sale in Kansas.
Howard M. Hill was born in Baraboo, Wisconsin, Nov. 28, 1870. His father was born near Glasgow, Scotland, in 1832, and followed the trade of a printer when a young man. His parents brought him to the United States at ten years of age and stopped in Ohio, where he at- tained his majority. He learned the printer's trade and went into Wis- consin, Sauk county, where he published a newspaper for several years. He was married in that state to Ellen C. Maxwell, and of the union four sons were born, as follows: Arthur, Howard M., Bert and Irving. In
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
1872, he brought his family to the new village of Neodesha, in Wilson county. Kansas, where, the following year, he established the Neodesha Savings Bank, which grew to be a strong, safe and popular institution. William Hill is a quiet, unpretentious gentleman, genteel and courteous, with a decidedly commercial bent. His life has been moral and upright, if possible, to a fault, and his example to the world about him has been one worthy to emulate.
May 30, 1900, Howard M. Hill married Rebecca M. Campbell at Al- Inwe, Ind. Ty. Mrs. Hill is a daughter of R. M. Campbell and has two children: R. Maxwell and William. Mr. Hill is an Odd Fellow and is descended from Democratie ancestry.
ELIJAH D. HLASTINGS-The bar of Montgomery county will stand comparison favorably with any other county in the state. The members from Cherryvale are men of wide knowledge in the law and of successful and extensive practice. Among these is the subject of this review, E. D. Hastings, who has been connected with the development of the city since its inception; indeed he may be called the god-father of Cherryvale, as it was through his efforts that the town was incor- porated by Judge Bishop W. Perkins, and in whose office our subject was present ai the first election of officers for the new town.
Benjamin and Elizabeth (Smith) Hastings, the parents of our sub- jeet, were natives of the State of New Hampshire. Benjamin was a farmer and mill-wright and during his life was most widely and favor- ably known among the New Hampshire hills, living to the extreme old age of eighty-eight; his wife dying at eighty-three. They were devout and consistent members of the M. E. church and were highly respected citizens of the community in which they resided. They reared a family of ten children, of which Elijah was the eldest.
Mr. Hastings secured a good common school education; his first scholastic education having been received at Kimball Union Academy, in his native state, from which he graduated in 1856. He immediately took up the study of law, his preceptors being Amasa and Samuel Edes, of Newport, New Hampshire, and after three years' study he was ad- mitted to practice, and at once located at Charlestown, New Hampshire, changing his place of practice io Filton after a short period, where he entered the army, enlisting in the fall of 1861. in the 6th New Hamp- shire Vol. Inft. Ho immediately went to the front and his regiment became a part of the Army of the Potomac under, at that time, General Burnside. His first experience with powder and ball was at the second battle of Bull Run, where he received a painful wound above the right knee. He was sent to the Union Hotel Hospital in Georgetown, and after three months received honorable discharge from the army on account of disability. After a year of convalescence at home, he was
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
advised to go to a seaport town, and for seven years following was a citizen of Boston, Mass,, where he was check master for the Old Colony and Fall River Railroad, and later was an employe of the R. F. Briggs directory firm.
Leaving Boston. Mr. Hastings came west to St. Louis, Mo., where he engaged for a number of years in various pursuits. In 1871, he formed a law partnership with a Mr. Chapin and practiced for a number of years under the firm name of Chapin & Hastings, and then followed the life insurance business for a time. After ten years' residence in St. Lonis, he located in Cherryvale, the date of his arrival being August, 1878. Since that time he has been engaged in the practice of his pro- fession. For fifteen years he has been a partner of M. B. Soule, else- where represented in this volume. Three years later. having ill-health, he gave up the practice of law and has since been engaged in writing fire insurance, representing the Pandy Fire and Marine Company and the German American of New York.
During his residence in Cherryvale our subject has taken an active interest in the public life of the city, having served three terms in the City Council and a like period as City Attorney. In social life he is a valued member of the Masonic Order, having filled all the offices of the Blue Lodge, and in political matters acts with the Repulican party.
The marriage of Mr. Hastings was an event of September 6th, 186S. Mrs. Hastings' maiden name was Frances A. Corbin. She is a native of Newport, New Hampshire, and is the daughter of Dr. Walter and Olive F. (Fitch) Corbin. No children have been born to this marriage. The life which Mr. Hastings has led in Cherryvale has made for him a last- ing reputation among her citizens, for integrity and honesty of purpose, and both he and his wife number their friends by the legion in the county.
ELIAS THOMAS LEWIS-Among the substantial pioneers of Montgomery county is Elias T. Lewis, of Rutland township, whose set. ilement here was made in the month of June. 1871. On the 20th of that month he bought the claim right of Mark Beal and then, later. another eighty adjoining, the quarter in section 1. township 33, range 14, being then entered by himself and forming the nuelens of his first and perma- nent home.
Chief Nopawalla and his band of Osages were in the vicinity of Mr. Lewis' settlement and their presence for a few months served to remind the pioneers that their settlement was really on the frontier. White Hair and Big Chief were also within reach, but none proved a serions menace to the peaceful occupation of our subject of his newly acquired land.
Coming into the county single, as he did, Mr. Lewis went back to
E. T. LEWIS AND WIFE.
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KANSAS.
Henry county, Mo., in August, 1871, and returned with a wife. Their first home was a box house 14x16 feet and the foundation of their sur- cess was laid while occupants of this rude shanty. With its numerous additions it served as the family domicile till 1882, when the more pre- tentious residence of the present was erected. The first breaking on the farm was done by W. C. Lynch, who received $3.00 per acre for twenty acres. The farm was foneed and other improvements of a sub- stantial character came with the lapse of time and the outcome of the third of a century of labor on this rolling prairie is a half section of land, in two farms, equipped for profitable cultivation and contented occupation.
Elias T. Lewis was born in Roanoke county, Virginia, June 8, 1845. His growth to the approach to manhood was upon a farm, where the outbreak of the Civil War found him. State pride, if nothing more, prompted his enlistment in the Southern cause, and Chatman's battery of King's Battalion of Light Artillery became his command. He was in Echols' Brigade and onlisted as a private at Louisburg, Virginia. Flis first battle was at White Sulphur Springs, and in the valley of Vir- ginia he fought almost daily, with his command, against the forces of Sheridan. Strasburg, Winchester, Kerntown, Martinsburg and in the valley near Frederick City, Md., were scenes of engagements in which he took part. He was in Early's Raid through Pa. and Md., toward Washington, and got in sight of the national capital. Being driven back into Virginia the army fought nearly every day on the retreat to Richmond. Took part in the battle of Cold Harbor and Lynchburg, and thence back to the Shenandoah Valley, where some skirmishing oc- curred, and in the winter of 1864-65 went into quarters in West Vir- ginia. The spring campaign opened with many minor "settoos" with the Federals in the New State and when Leo surrendered, Echols' Brig- ade was at Christiansburg, in Montgomery county, West Virginia. ITere the command was disbanded on th 7th of April, 1865, and a few days later Mr. Lowis reached home just as the dinner horn was blowing.
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