History of Nemaha County, Kansas, Part 43

Author: Tennal, Ralph 1872-
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Lawrence, Kan., Standard Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 964

USA > Kansas > Nemaha County > History of Nemaha County, Kansas > Part 43

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David Durham Wickins .- "Fifty years a Kansan" is the record of David Durham Wickins, Union veteran, and former postmaster of Sa- betha, Kans., and one of the best loved and highly respected citizens of his community. Mr. Wickins was born on a farm in Will county, (now Kankakee), Illinois, July 16, 1842, and is a son of Joseph and Barbara S. (Durham) Wickins, natives of Tennessee, both of whom were members of old Southern American families. Joseph Wickins was a very early settler in Will county, Illinois, and removed from Tennessee to Illinois in 1834. He developed a farm in the Kankakee region and died in 1855, leaving a widow with five children, as follows: Thomas Wiley, mi- grated to Kansas, and died at Sabetha, Kans .; William, was accidentally drowned in the Kankakee river in 1854; Joseph, deceased; David Dur- ham, with whom this review is concerned; Frank, living in Kankakee. The mother of these children was born in 1816, and died in Illinois in 1882 in the sixty-sixth year of her long and useful life.

David Durham Wickins was reared on the farm in Illinois, and re- ceived such schooling as was afforded by the district schools of his neighborhood. When the first call for troops with which to quell the rebellion of the southern States was issued by President Lincoln in April of 1861, and Sumter had been fired upon, David D. Wickins was one of the first to respond to the call issued by the man who had been chosen from his own State to bear the burdens of a sorrowful time for the next four years. He enlisted in Company G of the Twentieth Illinois infantry regiment, and served for three years and three months. His regiment was an integral part of the Seventeenth corps, Army of the Tennessee, under the command of General McPherson. His first engagement was at Frederickstown, Mo. At midnight, on January 6, he was again under fire near Charlestown, Mo .; February 2, 1862, he was present at the cap-

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ture of Ft. Henry ; February 16 and 17, he participated in the assault upon Fort Donelson ; his next great battle was at Shiloh, April 6 and 7, 1862; Raymond, Miss., May 12, 1863. At the battle of Raymond, he was wounded in both hands and one leg-a bullet passing through the right hand-and he was incapacitated for an entire year, but served out his time of enlistment, and received his discharge at Chattanooga, Tenn., June 27, 1864.

He returned to the home of his mother in Illinois after the war, and remained at home until his immigration to Kansas in 1866. Wr. Wickins first settled in Brown county near Sabetha and broke up the virgin prairie soil of his farm with oxen during the first season . After his mar- riage in October of this year, he and his bride returned to Illinois, where they resided until 1873, and then made a permanent settlement in Sa- betha, where Mr. Wickins conducted a retail meat market. In 1874 he established the first transfer business in the city and operated it success- fully until 1880. He then engaged in the buying and shipping of live stock, and operated a coal business,in connection with his transfer busi- ness. He worked for a time in a hardware store. In 1882, he was ap- pointed appraiser of the Oto Indian reserve. Later he opened and con- ducted the first grocery store in Sabetha, in which the business was con- fined strictly to groceries and eatables, sometime afterward including it with a general store, which he eventually closed out and again operated a grocery store, until he engaged in the real estate and insurance busi- ness.

Mr. Wickins was married at Hiawatha, Kans., October II, 1866, to Amanda M. Hawkins, of Kankakee, Ill., and daughter of Almon Haw- kins, who immigrated to Kansas in 1859. Mrs. Wickins was born Decem- ber 12, 1848. The following children have been born to David and Amanda Wickins: Edward, Salt Lake City, Utah, chief clerk in the general offices and in charge of the freight department of the Oregon short line, married Ruth Posson and has two daughters, Gladys and Florence ; Kate E., wife of O. D. Gaff, Tacoma, Wash., has a son, Oliver, dentist in Chicago; Della, wife of A. F. Washington, St. Joseph, Mo., has one daughter, Katherine; Charles, St. Louis, Mo., engaged in the . commission produce business, married Zella Hyde.

Mr. Wickins is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Blue Lodge No. 162, and is affiliated with Grand Army Post No. 175 of Sabetha, Kans. He is the pioneer auctioneer of Nemaha county, and for forty years cried sales in northeast Kansas successfully. For eleven · years he was a member of the board of county commissioners, having been elected a member of the board in 1889 and served for eleven years thereafter. During his term as commissioner, the county jail was erected. Mr. Wickins was appointed postmaster of Sabetha in 1912 by President Taft, and served for four years, or until May, 1916. He has given the patrons of the postoffice an excellent administration, and has conducted the affairs of his important governmental position to the sat-

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isfaction of every one concerned, and faithfully performed the duties of the office. It was with real regret that many patrons saw a change in the personnel of the office force at the expiration of Mr. Wickins' time. "Uncle Dave," as he is affectionately known by the citizens of Sabetha, is one of the landmarks of this beautiful city, and beloved of every one who knows him and esteemed for his sturdy and upright citizenship.

George W. Williams, farmer, Oneida, Nemaha county, Kansas, was born in 1847, at California, Moniteau county, Missouri, and is a son of Eli W. and Eliza (English) Williams, natives of Pennsylvania and Mon- iteau county, Missouri, respectively. Eli Williams was a son of James Williams, of Pennsylvania, and was born near the city of Harrisburg. The Williams family emigrated from Moniteau county, Missouri, to Kansas in 1855, and made settlement on a farm of 160 acres on Deer creek, in Nemaha county, now well known by the name of "Williams- dale." The Williams farm is one of the oldest farms in Kansas, and has been owned by members of the Williams family for the past sixty years. Here on the unbroken prairie lands, Eli Williams made a settlement and was thus one of the first pioneer settlers of Nemaha county. He took a prominent part in the early struggles in Kansas and was here during the territorial difficulties. Eli W. Williams was elected a member of the State legislature scheduled to meet at Lecompton. Richard Clency was his personal bodyguard and the trip to Lecompton had been planned, and it was arranged that the two men go on horseback to the meeting. They had good horses saddled, with saddle bags and canteens for water. A sack was thrown across the back of the saddles, which contained flour and bacon, and a frying pan, gun and hatchet completed the outfit. On the morning of their proposed departure, Jim Lane sent messengers to them, telling them not to start, as they would be killed, and to defend themselves as best they could until he (Lane) could meet them. It was a time of trial and trouble for the family, and George and his sister, Fanny, stood guard all night at the cabin door with axe and knife handy, ready to sell their lives dearly in defense of their father's life.

At another time a man named William Sawyer sought to take away their homestead, but was not successful. He became enraged at his failure and threatened to waylay them some dark night on their way to the river and kill them. George and his father went armed all the time during those fearsome days, and always slept on their guns.

Eli W. Williams died at Oneida, Kans., April 3, 1865. His wife was Eliza English, born in Moniteau county, Missouri, and a daughter of Judge James English. She died at Oneida, September 15, 1885. Eli and Eliza Williams were the parents of the following children: George W., the subject of this review ; Eli Milton, Denver, Colo .; Amon I., road supervisor of Gilman township, and who claims to have "slept the most nights of any living person in Nemaha county ;" Boyd Lincoln, Flagler, Colo .; Mrs. Mary Frances Cox, Oneida, Kans .; Elizabeth Bare, who is said to be the first white child born in Nemaha county, Kansas, now

GEORGE W. WILLIAMS.

MRS. ALICE (GRAY) WILLIAMS.

LAURIN L. WILLIAMS.

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deceased, and Mrs. Eliza Jane Johnson, wife of Perry Johnson, deceased. The parents and members of this noted pioneer family are all members of the Christian church.

George Williams was seventeen years old when his father died, and he was left to help an invalid mother rear a family of boys and girls in a new and barren country. With ox teams he helped break up the virgin sod. With four yoke of oxen he hauled all the family supplies from the Missouri river, and hauled lumber with ox teams to build the first drug store erected in Seneca, for Dr. Mckay. The overland trail to the Far West passed through Oneida and Seneca at this time,' and great wagon trains of gold seekers were constantly passing through on their way to the mountains of California. Many of the pony express riders and the old United States rangers were well known to him.

Mr. Williams has often seen large herds of deer on the land where Oneida.now stands, and he has many times seen hostile bands of Indians decked out with paint and war regalia and looking for trouble, but no depredations were committed by the savages nearer to the Williams' home than the Little Blue.

Mr. Williams has developed the Williams homestead into a fine productive farm, and has prospered during the many years in which he has been a resident of Kansas. In point of years of residence, he is prob- ably the oldest living pioneer citizen of Nemaha county at this day. He is a stockholder in the Farmers' Shipping Association of Onedia, and is a charter member of the Knights and Ladies of Security. He has traveled over a considerable portion of the United States, with his wife accom- panying him part of the time, when she was engaged in the United States Indian service. He served as industrial teacher at Tuba, Ariz., in the Navajo country, and also held that position with the Kickapoo Indian tribe at Horton, Kans. He was government farmer at Tuba for a time, and did a great amount of good in behalf of the Indians, because he was practical in his instructive work, and taught the Indians from what knowledge he had accumulated from many years of actual expe- rience in tilling the Western soil.

George W. Williams was married November 23, 1881, to Miss Alice Mabel Gray, a pioneer teacher of Brown county, Kansas. This marriage has been blessed with a son and a daughter, as follows: Maude, died in infancy ; Laurin L., born in Oneida in 1883, and resides on the historic Williams farm. He served for five years as rural free delivery carrier out of Seneca, but liking the farm life as more suited to his tastes, he returned to the home place.

He (Laurin 'L.) was educated in the common schools of Kansas, and finished a course in painting at Campbell University, Holton, Kans. He has some talent as an artist and loves the out door life, and is a lover of all animal life. He keeps a kennel of thoroughbred dogs, and his pack of wolf.hounds are his pride.

Mrs. Alice Mabel (Gray) Williams was born at Hiawatha, Kans., (27)

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a daughter of John and Annie Maria (McCune) Gray, natives of New York. John Gray, the father, settled at Hiawatha, Brown county, Kansas, in May of 1857. There was just one house in Hiawatha at the time Mr. Gray came there to make his future home. He located a home- stead one mile north of Hiawatha, and lived there for many years. At the outbreak of the Civil war, he joined a company of guards organized in Brown county for service in the Union army under Capt. I. J. La- cock. This company journeyed to Atchison and tried to be mustered in as a part of the First Kansas infantry, but were disappointed. The company was gone from their homes for three months and eventually disbanded. Mr. Gray then enrolled in the militia, but was rejected at Leavenworth, Kans. James Pope was captain of the company in which he enrolled. Still desirous and anxious to serve his country, he joined the home guards, under Lieutenant Perkins, and assisted in repelling of the Price invasion of Kansas. In later years he was always proud to relate the fact that he took part in the expedition which resulted in General Price and his rebel army being driven from Kansas. While Mr. Gray was away in the Union service, the wife and mother cribbed 1,000 bushels of corn and cut and hauled the winter's fuel from the woods, a distance of seven miles. The little family lived all alone and were per- fectly unprotected. John Gray was possessed of a roving diposition. He was one of the original "Forty-Niners" and crossed the plains to the gold fields of California during the great rush of 1849. He returned home via Cape Horn. He went on many freighting expeditions to Pike's Peak and was an old Indian fighter.

John Gray was married in Illinois in 1857 to Annie Maria McCune, who was born in New York, left an orphan at the age of twelve years, and then made her home with a cousin. This cousin was an editor, who came to Kansas in 1854 to help edit the "Herald of Freedom." Mrs. Gray was at Lawrence, Kans., when the town was sacked and burned by the pro-slavery ruffians, and she lost all earthly belongings. She then went to Illinois with a pro-slavery family named McVeigh, and was there married. Six sons and a daughter were born to this marriage, namely: Anson, Los Angeles, Cal .; Arthur, Medford, Okla .; Walter, Grant, Okla .; Dell, Muscotah, Kans .; Fred, Florence. Kans .; Mrs. George W. Williams, with whom this review is concerned. All of the Gray children are prosperous and are upright and worthy citizens of their respective communities. John Gray died in Oklahoma in 1906. Mrs. Annie Maria Gray died in 1885. Both lie buried in Fairview ceme- tery. Goff, Kans.

Mrs. Alice Williams was reared and educated at Hiawatha, Kans., and has taught school during the greater part of her mature life, of late years having been engaged in the Indian service. Her first appoint- ment in the Indian service was at Tuba, Ariz., as a teacher among the Western Navajos. She was lovingly called the "Soniskee" by that mighty tribe of 24,000 members. At her own request she was trans-

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ferred to the Great Nemaha School of Iowa Indians and worked for several years on the reservation in Brown county, Kansas, not far from her early home. When the Oneida postoffice was placed under the civil service, Mrs. Williams took the examination held to select some one to fill the place, and she was appointed postmistress of Oneida.

Mr. Williams is her able assistant in taking care of the duties of the postoffice. She is a stockholder of the Best Slate Company of Mena, Ark., a growing concern with a bright future, and owns land near White Cloud, Neb., and has western property and a nice residence property in Seneca.

Mrs. Williams is a member of the Knights and Ladies of Security of Seneca, Kans. She has long been a working member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and was president of the Seneca union for three years. She was a member of the Women's Relief Corps of Seneca for some time, and was patriotic instructor of the corps. At the present time she is camp guardian of the Camp Fire Girls of the Minnehaha Camp at Oneida. The collection of Indian relics possessed by Mrs. Williams is the finest in this section of the State, and she has taken great pride and infinite pains in making her noted collection during many years.

Speaking from an ancestral standpoint, the paternal grandfather of Mrs. Williams was Anson Gray, a native of New York, and a direct descendant from the Grays of old Revolutionary stock. Her maternal grandmother was Jane Harris, of Pennsylvania, whose father was John Harris, the famous founder of Harrisburg, Pa., and a direct descendant from an ancestor who came to America with the Mayflower contingent. Members of the Harris family fought in the American revolution in behalf of independence.

Fred Colfax Woodbury .- Personal achievement in the realms of finance always stands out prominently, and requires advancement above the mediocre and commonplace, ability of a definite order, and inherent endowments of mental and physical attributes possessed by few men. The individual who can lift himself beyond the ordinary channels of his life profession is worthy of notice and praise-and is especially marked as a rising citizen, if banking is his vocation. Fred Colfax Woodbury, president of the Citizens State Bank of Sabetha, Kans., is a rising finan- cier and banking official of northern Kansas, whose career has been a noteworthy one and his success is indicative of attainments beyond the ordinary. While having been a resident of Nemaha county but a few years, he has taken a prominent place in the civic and social life of the community, and is looked upon as an enterprising and gifted individual who has the best interests of his city and county at heart. It is a relief, in these days of rabid commercialism, to find a citizen who looks beyond the mere money grubbing instinct, and strives to make himself useful in valued ways to his fellowmen without hope of reward other than the approbation and good will of his fellowmen

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HISTORY OF NEMAHA COUNTY

Fred Colfax Woodbury was born June 8, 1868, in Livingston county, Illinois, and is descended from old American stock, and a member of the noted Woodbury family, identified with early Colonial history, the founders of which settled at Plymouth, Mass., and Hartford, Conn., in the seventeenth century, and later moved to the valleys of Vermont. The great-grandfather of Mr. Woodbury was a soldier in the American Revolution. Fred Colfax Woodbury is a son of Hilton H. and Virginia (Clark) Woodbury, natives of Vermont and Kentucky respectively. Hil- ton H. Woodbury was born December 3, 1843, and was a son of Willard L. Woodbury, a contractor and farmer, who immigrated to Livingston county, Illinois, in 1855, and broke up the virgin prairie soil on his home- stead. He was also a house builder and contractor who did an extensive business during his life time. He migrated to Cherokee, Crawford county, Kansas, in 1875, and followed farming until his demise in 1899. Hilton H. Woodbury was married in Illinois and moved westward to Cherokee, Crawford county, Kansas, in 1884. He farmed until 1886, and then located at Ford, Ford county, Kansas, where he became engaged in the buying and shipping of live stock and in banking pursuits. He has become a man of large interests, and is president and majority stock- holder of the Ford State Bank. Hilton and Virginia Woodbury are the parents of six children, as follows: Lindon C., a railroad man, Newton, Kans .; Fred Colfax, subject of this review; four children are deceased. The mother of these children was born in Kentucky, November 18, 1846, and died April 10, 1901. She was a daughter of John Clark, who re- moved from Kentucky to Bloomington, Ill., in an early day, and became a merchant tailor, and established a clothing business.

F. C. Woodbury received his primary education in the public schools of Cherokee, Kans., graduated from the high school, and completed a business course at Kansas City, Kans. For some time, he was identified with a wholesale grain and retail concern in Chicago. In 1892, he re- turned to Kansas and located in Ford county, where he served as super- intendent of public instruction for several terms, and was also interested in the live stock and banking business with his father. He later devoted his time and talents to the banking business at Ford, Kans., where he resided until 1898, and then removed to Pawnee Rock, Kans., and organ- ized the Farmers and Merchants State Bank. He remained in charge of this bank until his removal to Sabetha, Kans., in 1913, consequent to his purchase of the Hesseltine interests in the Citizens State Bank. Mr. Woodbury's ability and his attractive and likable personality have done much toward advancing the progress of the Citizens State Bank, during the past three years, and he has taken his place among the leaders of Nemaha county during this time. Besides his large banking interests, he owns a fine grain farm in Pawnee county, Kansas.

Mr. Woodbury was married, in 1894, to Miss Grace Shaffer, of Spearville, Ford county, Kansas, a daughter of J. D. Shaffer, deceased lumber merchant of that city. Mr. and Mrs. Woodbury have one child, namely : Hilton S., born in September, 1898.

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The Republican party has always had the allegience of Mr. Wood- bury, and he is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, in the work of which denomination he takes an active and influential part. Be- ing a speaker of ready and entertaining address, he is frequently called upon to address church gatherings, and teaches the young men's Bible class of the Methodist Episcopal Sunday school. He is a trustee and member of the official board of the Sabetha Methodist Church. Mr. Woodbury is one of the active promoters of the farm bureau movement in Nemaha county, and the farmers' institute, and is prominently identi- fied with all good movements tending to advance the well being of his home city and county. He is affiliated with the Ancient Free and Ac- cepted Masons, the Knights of Pythias, the Modern Woodmen of Amer- ica, and the Knights and Ladies of Security.

William Logan Carlyle, M. D .- Dr. William Logan Carlyle, general practitioner and anaesthetist of the Sabetha Hospital, Sabetha, Kans., was born May 22, 1866, on a farm in Adams county, Illinois, near Quincy. He is a son of William (born 1821, died 1891) and Sarah (Strong) Car- lyle, (born January 9, 1826, died December 28, 1906, in Omaha, Neb.), both of whom were born and reared in England. William Carlyle emi- grated from England in 1832; Sarah Strong emigrated from her native land to America in 1835; they met and were married at Beverly, Adams county, Illinois. Some years later, the family immigrated to Nebraska and made a settlement in Cass county in 1872. The Civil war record of William Carlyle, however, should precede any further account of this couple. Mr. Carlyle enlisted in the One Hundred Twenty-fourth Illinois infantry in 1862, for a period of three years, and fought in many noted engagements such as Big Black River, siege and capture of Vicks- burg, Miss .; Champion Hills, Raymond and Jackson, Miss ; and his com- mand occupied and policed the city of Vicksburg after the surrender of the city. He fought at the battle of Spanish Fort in April of 1865. This was one of the last engagements of the great war.

In 1872, William Carlyle made a settlement in Cass county, Ne- braska, and developed a fine farm. In old age he retired to a home at Weeping Water, and died there. Five children were born to William and Sarah Carlyle, as follows: Robert B., a boiler maker, Omaha, Neb .; S. L., a gardener at Forest Grove, Oregon; Edward, boiler maker, Omaha, Neb .; William L., subject of this review; Mrs. Margaret Thomas, living in Oregon.

William L. Carlyle was educated in the district schools and the academy at Weeping Water. Neb., and graduated from the Rush Medi- cal College at Chicago in 1893. He practiced medicine at University Place, Neb., for four years ; Kimball, Neb., for six years, and came to Sahetha, Kans .. in 1903. He has practiced successfully in this city, and been connected with the staff of the Sabetha Hospital for the past thir- teen years, with the exception of three years at Hanover, Kans., 1909 to 1912. Dr. Carlyle pursued a post graduate course at the Chicago Post Graduate School in 1903.

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Dr. Carlyle was married December 28, 1897, at University Place, Neb., to Ruth Ingram, a native of Falls City, Neb., and daughter of Fred- erick W. Ingram, a pioneer citizen of Nebraska City, Neb., who was a freighter in the early days of the settlement of the West and transported freight overland from Nebraska City to Denver, Colo., in the early fif- ties, and became quite wealthy. Mr. Ingram is now past seventy-eight years of age, but is actually homesteading a claim in Wyoming, despite the fact that he is well-to-do, and has three sons who are rich enough to care for their father. However, he loves the wild, free life of the open. and is happier on his lonely homestead than he could be elsewhere. Mr. Ingram, in the old days, was owner of a Missouri river steamer in part- nership with his brother. Mrs. Dr. Carlyle is a graduate of the school of music at Wesleyan University, and is the mother of one child, namely : Arthur Ingram Carlyle, born September 28, 1900, student in Sabetha High School.

Dr. Carlyle is a member of the County, State and American Medical Associations and has served two years as county health officer. He and Mrs. Carlyle are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. He is a Progressive in politics, and is affiliated with the Ancient Free and Ac- cepted Masons, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Knights and Ladies of Security, and the Brotherhood of American Yeomen.

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History of Nemaha County, Kansas, Part 43

Author: Tennal, Ralph 1872- Publication date: 1916 Publisher: Lawrence, Kan., Standard Publishing Company Number of Pages: 964

Author: Tennal, Ralph 1872-
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Lawrence, Kan., Standard Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 964