USA > Kansas > Nemaha County > History of Nemaha County, Kansas > Part 37
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Mr. Peret is an independent voter, who does his own thinking along political lines. He and his good wife are members of the Methodist
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church. Mr. Peret is senior commander of the Grand Army Post at Seneca, Kans. He is one of the grand old men of Kansas of whom it is a pleasure to have written this brief review. To the mind of the writer there are no Americans worthy of more honor and distinction than the brave fellows who marched to the strains of martial music beneath the folds of the American flag and fought on the great battlefields of the South in order to preserve the Union from dissolution. They, the men in the ranks, under the leadership of the greatest generals of the age, bestowed an untold blessing upon mankind for centuries to come in making the sacrifices necessary to accomplish the end sought by Presi- dent Lincoln. Commander Peret is one of these, and he enlisted in the Union army imbued with the idea that slavery was a sin and it was his patriotic and religious duty to shoulder a musket and assist in bringing about the conquest of the South and the preservation of the Union.
Barnard Winkler .- The late Barnard Winkler was a pioneer of Kansas and one of the best known citizens of Nemaha county. His life was well rounded and the years of his earthly sojourn were replete with industry and good deeds, which will make him long remembered. Bar- nard Winkler was born in Oldenburg, Germany, January 5, 1841, and was a son of Barnard Winkler. He left his native land in 1867, immi- grated to America and settled in St. Louis, Mo., where he followed the carpenter trade for a year, and then came to Kansas. Mr. Winkler first settled in Brown county and bought forty acres of land, upon which he erected a two-room house, which served as a residence for him and his bride during the first years of their struggle for a competence in Kan- sas. Mr. Winkler hauled the lumber from White Cloud with which to build this little dwelling, ten feet square. He did all of his own car- penter work and broke up his forty-acre tract with the aid of an Indian pony and one horse. Four years later he sold this farm and bought seventy-two acres on the county line, which he improved. Times were hard for Mr. and Mrs. Winkler during those early years and they suf- fered many privations in trying to make ends meet. They bought a lumber wagon for $10, used chains and old harness for tugs, with a leather line on one side and a rope on the other. They farmed this tract until 1889, then sold out and came to Nemaha county, Kansas, where Mr. Winkler bought 160 acres of land in Richmond township. This farm was the permanent home of the Winkler family until 1909. He improved the farm and made it very attractive and profitable, so that he and his family lived in comfortable circumstances. This Kansas pioneer died September 12, 1910, in Seneca, where the family moved in 1909.
Barnard Winkler and Miss Mary Wempe were married February 3. 1869, in Atchison, Kans. Mrs. Winkler was born October 2, 1852, in Effingham county, Illinois, and is a daughter of Herman Henry and Alexandrina (Jensen) Wempe, natives of Oldenburg, Germany, who settled in Kansas in the spring of 1861. (See biography of Anton
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Wempe for a complete account of the Wempe family in America and Kansas.) Anton Wempe is a brother of Mrs. Winkler. Eleven children were born to Barnard and Mary Winkler, as follows: Henry, a farmer of Nemaha county, Kansas ; Barnard, living on a farm near Kelly, Kans .; Charles, of Seneca; Anna, wife of F. M. Sears, proprietor of the Bonair Hotel, Seneca; Elizabeth, wife of C. Schneider, living on a farm east of Seneca ; John S., a farmer in Nemaha county east of Seneca ; William, cultivating the home place; Frank, deceased; Joseph, Seneca, Kans., a well known horse and mule dealer, married Minnie Robertson; Mary, deceased, was twin sister of Joseph Winkler; Anton, deceased.
Mrs. Winkler was reared to maturity in St. Clair county, Illinois, and received a good common school education. When twelve years of age she went to work in the fields, binding wheat in the shock by hand. When she and Mr. Winkler were striving to get ahead, she nobly did her part and ably assisted in building up the family fortunes. Mrs. Winkler hauled hogs to market when the market price was just enough so that she received $2 for hauling five or six porkers, going twelve miles to Wetmore from their home, for a neighbor. They thought this amount of money was a small fortune in those days, and that they were amply repaid for the trouble of hauling the animals. The Winklers lived on the farm until 1909 and then removed to town for a well earned retirement in peace and comfort. Mrs. Winkler is the owner of 160 acres of land and has city property in Seneca. Mr. Winkler, wife and children were all members of the Catholic church.
Irvin Johnson, retired farmer of Seneca, Kans., comes of an inter- esting family. His father led a romantic life in the pioneer days, having journeyed to California behind oxen and sailed back via the long sea route.
Mr. Johnson was born August 17, 1857, in California. He was the son of Richard and Eliza (Metler) Johnson, to whom these four children were born: Isaiah, deceased; Lydia, Mrs. Thompson, living on the old family farm, Nemaha county, Kansas; Ella, wife of Mr. Zimmerman, of Seneca. Kans .; Irvin, of whom this sketch is to deal.
The father was born April 29, 1833, in Indiana. His father was Ebenezer Johnson, a stanch man of Scotch-English blood. The mother was Elizabeth Tandy before her marriage to Ebenezer and they lived on their farm in Indiana, but moved to Iowa in the early days. In 1852, Richard Johnson and his brother-in-law, Isaiah Metler, took an over- land trip to California by ox team. Six years later he (Richard) re- turned to Missouri and shortly afterward bought 160 acres near Baker's Ford, in Nemaha township, Nemaha county, the date of this transaction being July, 1860. During the next eleven years he farmed this place, making improvements constantly and at the end of that period he sold out and bought land in Richmond township, where he lived until seven years before his death, in 1913, when he came to Seneca. At that time he held 800 acres of land which he had acquired by hard work and careful
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management. Richard Johnson's political career was a noteworthy one, he having been elected State representative on the Democratic ticket in 1870 and to the office of sheriff two years later, in 1872. Later, he was county commissioner of Nemaha county, and worked hard in the interests of the public. He never held office for personal profit or glory, and was always deeply interested in the matter of public welfare. Proof of his ability to give the people good administration lies in the fact that he was repeatedly elected on the Democratic ticket in a district where the Republican party was well organized and very strong. Personal friendship and a conviction that he could give good service led to scratched tickets on the part of many who were in the habit of voting the Republican ballot straight.
The mother of Irvin Johnson was born in Ohio, August 2, 1833, and died in 1914, in Seneca, Kans., where she and her husband had lived since 1905. They were married in 1852 in Iowa.
Irvin Johnson was reared on the farm and went through the usual hard life of the boy on the farm. He, as all farmers' boys in those days, was deprived of good school facilities, and was able to attend school only three months of the year. Until he was twenty-one years old, he remained at home, working on his father's·farm, but when he became of age, he rented land from the elder Johnson, and worked this until 1907, when he moved to Seneca, Kans. Two years later he engaged in the poultry business for a time, but retired, intending to take life easy the remainder of his days. But he could not be idle, and in October, 1915. he was back in the harness again, managing his poultry business, of which he disposed March 1, 1916. Mr. Johnson owns 160 acres of land in Richmond township, Nemaha county, and also has considerable property in Seneca.
In 1880, he was married to Ellen Burger, and to this marriage these six children were born: Mrs. Effie Stevens, of Bethany, Neb .; Louis, deceased ; Cland, farmer, Richmond township, Nemaha county ; Cleve, cashier at Missouri Pacific depot, Seneca, Kans .; Wanda. wife of E. Britt, Seneca, Kans .; Mildred, living with her parents.
Mrs. Johnson was born December 26, 1855, near London, Ontario, Canada. She is the daughter of Hiram and Jane (Metcalf) Burger, who came to Nemaha county in 1855, where her father was a farmer.
Mr. Johnson is affiliated with the Democratic party. He is not a member of any church, but attends.
Elmar Roy Mathews .- This is a story of a man who has reached . success through the university of hard knocks. Keen judgment and efficient business management have brought him to conspicuous success among the business men of Seneca, Kans., where he conducts a grocery store.
Mr. Mathews is a native Kansan, having been born in Seneca, January 15, 1870. He is the son of Hiram W. and Sarah Jane Skin- ner (Wetmore) Mathews, to whom two children were born, Charles
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E., a retired farmer of Seneca, and Elmar Roy, the subject of this sketch. The father was born in Indiana, and for further details of the parents of Elmar Mathews, read the sketch of his brother, Charles E., which appears elsewhere in this volume.
Elmar R. Mathews grew up in his birthplace, Seneca, and attended the city schools. In 1892 he went to Shenandoah, Iowa, where he took a business course. In 1894 he returned to Seneca and was employed in the Wells law office as stenographer, which position he held until 1896. For several years immediately following, he worked at various busi- nesses, and later began farming near Seneca, where he owned 100 acres of land. In 1913 he came back to town, buying the grocery establish- ment which he now operates, and which ranks with the most up-to-date stores in the State. His business is handled in the most economical way and he numbers among his patrons some of the best residents of Seneca. He lives in his comfortable home on the outskirts of town, where he has twenty acres of land well kept, which provides a beautiful setting for his home.
In 1895 he was married to Mary Grace McCulloch, and to this marriage four children were born: Two dying in infancy; Mary, born in 1903, and Paul, born in 1910, both living at home. Mrs. Mathews is a daughter of Samuel McColloch. She is a graduate of the Shenandoalı College of Music, Shenandoah, Iowa, and is a very talented woman.
Mr. Mathews is not a member of any church, though he attends religious services quite regularly. He belongs to the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and the Modern Woodmen of America.
Ira K. Wells .- Inasmuch as it has been demonstrated that heredity and environment play a distinct and important part in the development of the individual, and forms the basic groundwork of whatever he is ex- pected to accomplish during his span of life, then Ira K. Wells, able attorney of Seneca, Kans., was endowed beyond the ordinary, and has undoubtedly inherited many distinguishing characteristics of his father, the late Judge Abijah Wells. He of whom this review is written was reared in the legal atmosphere, and had the advantages of a practical training under the tutelage of his father; who was a leader of the Kansas bar and a jurist of note. A thorough academic education preceded his practical training, and the two combined resulted in a finished product ---- an attorney of acumen and decided ability.
Ira K. Wells, of the firm of Wells & Wells, legal practitioners. Seneca, Kans., was born in Seneca, June 18, 1871, and is a son of the late Judge Abijah Wells, concerning whose life an extended review ap- pears in this volume of historical annals of Nemaha county. Mr. Wells received his primary education in the public schools of his native city. and graduated from the Seneca High School. His aptitude for the higher studies, and his marked preference for the profession of law, demon- strated that this inherent ability and proclivities destined him for the bar, and he accordingly matriculated in the law department of the Kan-
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sas University, graduating therefrom with the degree of Bachelor of Laws, in 1893. He immediately became associated with his father in the practice of law, and upon his father's demise, in 1915, assumed full charge of the law practice of Wells & Wells.
The political and civic career of Ira K. Wells has been a note- worthy one, and has been marked by devotion to duty, which has won him the confidence and praise of his fellow citizens. He, like his illus- trious father, has been politically allied with the Republican party, and stands high in the councils of his party. Mr. Wells was elected to the office of county attorney in 1900, while serving as city attorney of Seneca. He filled the office of county attorney successfully for two years, and then devoted himself to his private practice. However, he is the present city attorney of Seneca. He served as a member of the board of education of Seneca and took considerable interest in the cause of education, and is still interested in this phase of the civic advance- ment of the city. The latest and highest honor which has come to him from his political party was his selection as a delegate to the Republican national convention at Chicago, held June 7, 1916, from the First Con- gressional district of Kansas. For the past fourteen years. Mr. Wells has been chief of the Seneca Fire Department, and it is through his in- fluence and guidance that the fire department of the city has been kept to a considerable degree of efficiency.
Mr. Wells was married May 7, 1896, to Miss Zula M. Thompson, a daughter of the late Judge J. F. Thompson, former district judge, and a sister of United States Senator William H. Thompson. This union has been blessed with two children, as follows: Loretta, aged sixteen years, a member of the senior class of the Seneca High School. and Dora, aged thirteen, freshman in the city High School.
Mr. Wells is a member of the Universalist church, and is the present chairman of the board of directors of this church, which his father as- sisted in founding. He has been one of the foremost active supporters of the community movement in Seneca, and is president of the Seneca Community Association.
He is fraternally affiliated with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and is high in the councils of this order, being a member of Seneca Lodge, No. 39, Blue Lodge ; affiliated with the chapter and also Seneca Commandery, No. 39, and has taken the degree of the Mystic Shrine at Leavenworth, Kans. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Modern Woodmen and the Knights and Ladies of Security. As an attorney, Ira K. Wells is an unqualified suc- cess ; his citizenship is in keeping with his high standing in the com- munity, and he is ever found in the forefront of all civic movements tending to the advancement of the best interests of Seneca and Nemaha county ; his breadth of mind, genial, whole souled manner and attributes and the ability to make and retain friendships, bid fair to place him in the high places in the years to come. Good nature and an obliging dis-
(24)
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position have endeared him to his friends, who are legion, and he is de- servedly popular among all classes.
His literary hobby is history, especially when it concerns his home county and State, and this volume has been decidely enhanced in value by his contributions to the end that the people of Nemaha county may have a work worth while.
Miss Abbie W. Kennard .- Kansas presents opportunities for wom- en to enter the learned professions and the marts of trade and finance, not usually offered the feminine residents of older States. It is not unusual to find women of decided ability who are capable of holding their own in competition with the stronger sex in the various cities and towns of the State. Miss Abbie W. Kennard, real estate and insurance agent, Seneca, Kans., is a good example of the successful business woman of the present age. Alone and unaided except by her own ef- forts and spurred by ambition, she has won a substantial place for her- self in the real estate and insurance field.
Abbie W. Kennard was born at Barnesville, Belmont county, Ohio, August 27, 1860, and is a daughter of Eli and Mary (Edgerton) Ken- nard. Eli Kennard was born near Mt. Pleasant, Ohio, in 1816, and was a son of William and Rachel (Drubree) Kennard, descended from old Quaker stock, which had its origin in America with the advent of the followers of William Penn in Pennsylvania in the seventeenth century. William and Rachel Kennard were both natives of Bucks county, Penn- sylvania. William was a noted Quaker preacher who traveled exten- sively over the eastern States, expounding the doctrine of his church. Eli Kennard was a miller, tinsmith, and farmer during his life, and died at his home in Barnesville, Ohio, in 1885. He was the father of the following children: Anna and William, deceased; Jesse, engaged in real estate business at Lawrence, Kans .; Rachel, deceased; Mary, living at Barnesville, Ohio; Sarah J., a teacher in the Quaker schools of Philadelphia; Alfred E., Barnesville, Ohio; Elizabeth, deceased ; Abbie, with whom this review is directly concerned, and who was the sixth child born. The mother of the foregoing children was born in 1824 at Summerton, Ohio, and was a daughter of James and Anna (Hall) Edgerton, both of whom were natives of North Carolina. The Hall family left their Carolina home and traveled to Harrisonville, Ohio, via the ox wagon route in the early days of the settlement of the Buckeye State. Mrs. Kennard died in 1900.
Miss Abbie Kennard received her elementary education in the Friends' Boarding School at Barnesville, Ohio, and after graduating from this school, she pursued a normal teachers' course at the West- town Friends' Normal School in Pennsylvania. She taught school in Pennsylvania until 1887, at which time she came to Seneca, Kans., and joined her brother, Jesse, who had come West, and established a vari- ety store in Seneca. She remained with her brother until his removal to Lawrence, Kans., in 1910, and was appointed acting postmaster in
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that year as his successor. Previously she had served as her brother's deputy in the postoffice. Miss Kennard began writing insurance in 1908, and is now handling fire, bondings and life insurance for eight well established companies. It was only natural for her to become inter- ested in real estate, and she has been successful in handling Kansas and western lands and city properties. She has an interest in land in Barber county, Kansas, and is a shareholder and treasurer of the Best Slate Company, of Kansas City, Mo., whose field headquarters and plant are located at Nema, Ark.
While Miss Kennard has remained true to her Quaker teachings and training, she has become actively interested in the community church movement in Seneca, and is connected with the World's Chris- tian Temperance Union in a prominent way, being much interested in the uplifting of humanity and the betterment of social conditions-a field of endeavor for which her birth and training has eminently fitted her. Miss Kennard is one of the founders of the rest room in Seneca, and has been treasurer of the organization supporting this valuable addition to the civic and social life of Seneca. She is in sympathy with the progressive political movement, and has been active in civic and political matters in Seneca. She has served as city treasurer of the city for three years, and well merits the confidence and high esteem in which she is held by all who know her.
Otto A. Kelm, one of the progressive business men of Seneca, has lived all of his life in the town where he now resides. He was born September 19, 1876, in Seneca, Kans. His parents were Albert and Anna (Pertosek) Kelm, to whom were born these three children: Otto, of whom this sketch is to treat at length; Fred, carpenter in Seneca, Kans .; Anna, living with her parents.
The father was born in Beto, Prussia, where he was taught the shoemaker's trade as he grew up. When a young man, he left Ger- many, and on coming to America, migrated west to St. Joseph, Mo. Shortly afterwards, he came to Seneca, Kans., and opened a shoeshop which he conducted in a prosperous fashion. Later he conducted a hardware store for George Williams in Seneca. In 1899, he died at Seneca, at the age of fifty-seven years. The mother was born in Aus- tria, and left there when a child, coming to Nebraska City, Neb. She was married at St. Joseph, Mo., and now lives in Seneca.
Otto Kelm attended the public schools of his native city, and after completing the elementary grades, began working as a laborer. At the age of eighteen, he went to work in a bakeshop to learn the baker's trade, and in 1908, opened a shop of his own, which has proven an unusual success. His natural business ability and excellent service and bakery goods account, in large measure, for his business success. Grad- ttally, he invested in other fields also, and is now a property owner and a shareholder of the Seneca Fair Association, among other things.
Mr. Kelm is a member of the Democratic party, and is interested
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in all public questions, though he has never sought political prefer- ment. He belongs to the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and has served as high priest and master of that order, always taking great in- terest in the affairs of his order.
In looking back over the career of Mr. Kelm, the striking thing about it is the wonderful rise he has made. Starting out without re- sources of any kind except determination and willingness to work, Mr. Kelm has risen until now he is one of Seneca's leading business men, and owns one of the finest bakeries in the State of Kansas.
William Dennis .- The career of William Dennis, mayor of Seneca, Kans., has been an interesting and noteworthy one from several view- points. He is a member of one of the oldest pioneer families of Kansas, and has had a political career which is worthy of mention in a favorable sense, having been twice elected sheriff of the county, filled several minor offices, and is now giving the city of Seneca one of the best ad- ministrations in its history. His popularity, ability to make and retain friendships, wide influence, his activity in behalf of the people and in advancing the interests of his home city and county, have been such as to place Mr. Dennis in the front rank of Nemaha county citizens.
The history of the Dennis family in Kansas began sixty years ago when Batson Dennis, grandfather of Willim Dennis, accompanied by his wife and family of five sons and a daughter, made the long and arduous trip from Illinois to the Kansas plains by means of ox teams and took up a large acreage of government land in Nemaha county, where they preempted land, for which they paid $1.25 an acre.
Batson Dennis settled on land directly south of Seneca, and his five sons, Samuel, Joseph, Jesse, John H. and Batson settled on claims along the Nemaha river south of Seneca. John H. Dennis, father of William Dennis, took up a homestead one mile south of the present town of Kelly, Kans. These were pioneer days in Kansas, and William Dennis remembers well the plentitude of wild game which abounded in the woods and plains bordering on the valley of the Nemaha.
The prairie land was broken up with the oxen, which had furnished their means of transportation from Crawford county, Illinois. Batson Dennis married a Miss Callender, who was his faithful helpmeet for many years in creating a home in the wilderness of Nemaha county. To Batson Dennis and his pioneer associates enough honors and en- coniums cannot be given for accomplishing the great and ardnous task of breaking the way for the later settlers and proving to the world that Kansas could be made into a comfortable place of habitation.
William Dennis was born in Crawford county, Illinois, June 9, 1854, and is a son of John H. and Ellen (Rich) Dennis. John Dennis was born in Kentucky, September 28, 1827, and was a son of Batson Dennis, who migrated from Kentucky to Illinois in the early forties. His father was a native of Kentucky, and his mother was born in Virginia, both of whom were descended from old American families from the Atlantic
WILLIAM DENNIS, MAYOR OF SENECA, KANSAS.
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seaboard. After the migration of the Dennis family to Kansas in 1856, John Dennis improved the land which he bought from the government, and became an extensive cattle raiser. This was due to the fact that there was much free range in those early days and the conveniences for grazing large herds of cattle were at hand. John Dennis died at his Kansas home in 1898. He was twice married, his first wife being the mother of William Dennis, and who bore him four children, all of whom are now deceased but William, the subject of this review. Mrs. Ellen (Rich) Dennis died in 1856. The second of of John H. Dennis was Miss Nancy (Thompson), a native of Indiana, who is now living in Seneca, aged eighty-two years.
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