USA > Kansas > Nemaha County > History of Nemaha County, Kansas > Part 44
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Edgar M. Newman, successful grocery merchant, Sabetha, Kans., was born on a farm in Rock Creek township, Nemaha county, March 30, 1870. The Newman homestead is now located in what is known as Ber- wick township, formerly a part of Rock Creek township. Mr. Newman is a son of Alexander and Augusta (Bestwick) Newman, and is the sixth born of a family of eight children. His twin brother, Edward, is em- ployed in the Newman grocery.
Alexander Newman was born on a farm in Buchanan county, Mis- souri, November II, 1840, and was a son of John and Susanna Newman, the former of whom was also a native of Missouri, and a direct descend- ant of Cardinal Newman, famed in English history. John Newman was a son of Alexander (born February 26, 1796) and Delilah (born March 27, 1797, and died May 29, 1868). John Newman, grandfather of Edgar Newman, migrated to Nemaha county in 1868, and set- tled in Rock Creek township. He drove from Buchanan county, by means of oxen which he used to break up the virgin prairie soil of his land. He erected a log cabin built of native timber and farmed his land until his death. His son, Alex, was practically reared to young man- hood on the pioneer farm in Nemaha county, and upon the outbreak of the great rebellion, he endeavored to enlist in the Union service, but was rejected, because of defective eyesight. He cultivated the family estate until his retirement to a home in Sabetha in the late seventies or early eighties. He died in Sabetha, March 20, 1909. Alexander Newman and Augusta Bestwick were married June 22, 1861, in the Moorehead stone
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house in Rock Creek township. Mrs. Augusta Newman was born in Clinton county, Pennsylvania, October 10, 1846, and was a daughter of William and Mary Bestwick, early pioneer settlers of Nemaha county, Kansas. The Bestwicks were of English descent. Alexander and Au- gusta Newman were the parents of the following children: ThomasJ., of Albuquerque, N. M .; William S., deceased; Edgar and Edward, twins ; Vina, librarian of the Sabetha city library ; Mary, deceased ; Linda, bookkeeper for T. J. Pace, proprietor of the city ice plant ; Charles W., a switchman at Omaha, Neb., in the employ of the Union Pacific railroad.
Edgar M. Newman attended the district schools and the Sabetha city schools in his boyhood days. He began his business career by clerk- ing in a local grocery store until 1904. He then embarked in business for himself, and has gradually built up an extensive business, maintaining at the present time one of the most complete grocery establishments in this section of the State, and carrying a stock of goods exceeding in value $8,000. Besides his grocery business, he owns property in Sabetha, and a business lot on the Main street of Sabetha.
Mr. Newman was married, in 1909, to Vera Brumbaugh, born in Illinois, August 31, 1885. Mr. Newman is an independent in his political views, and votes according to the dictates of his conscience and own judgment. He is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, and stands high in business circles in his home city.
Richard Bottiger .- When Richard Bottiger left his old home in Pennsylvania thirty-two years ago, he was imbued with the idea that Kansas offered better opportunities for gaining a livelihood and amass- ing a competence than that afforded in his old home State. As the years passed, this idea became a reality. Mr. Bottiger made a good liv- ing from the start, and rose from the status of a comparatively poor man to become a well-to-do citizen. At this day, when he and his faithful helpmeet who has shared his early struggles to get ahead in the world, have every comfort and luxury that money can buy, they look back over the years of hard and unremitting labor on the Kansas plains, take a just pride in their belongings and their beautiful modern home, and feel grateful that they were permitted to take a part in he upbuilding of a great county and State, in the capacity of humble tillers of the soil.
Richard Bottiger was born in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, in the town of Sunberry, August 15, 1852, and is a son of Isaac and Car- oline (Kepler) Bottiger, who were the parents of fourteen children, of whom Richard is the second in age and birth, and twelve are living. Isaac Bottiger was born in Pennsylvania in 1827, and died in 1881. He was a son of Daniel and Katharine Bottiger, the former of whom was a stone mason, and son of a German emigrant who made a settlement in Pennsylvania. It will thus be seen that Mr. Bottiger comes of the sturdy Pennsylvania German stock, whose industry and proverbial honesty have become noted, the country over. The mother of Richard Bottiger was born in Dalton county, Pennsylvania, a daughter of Abraham Kepler,
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a farmer who was a native of Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania. She died in 1914 at the age of eighty-one years.
Richard Bottiger was reared on the parental farm, and when he be- came able to do a man's work, at the age of twelve years, in the fields, did farm labor for the neighboring farmers at a wage of $3 per month, eventually receiving $13 per month, as he became older and more com- petent. He rented land in his home county, but the returns seemed so slow and opportunities for advancement looked so meager that he de- cided to come to the newer country of Kansas. Accordingly, June 8, 1883, he migrated to Nemaha county and bought 160 acres of land in Rock Creek township on a time contract at a cost of $22 an acre. In 1884 he brought his family to the new home and prosperity became his from the start. He tilled his acreage continually with excellent results until his retirement to a home in Sabetha in 1904. In six years' time he was en- abled to pay for his first farm, and then added another quarter section to his possessions. In addition to his land holdings, he is a stockholder and director of the Citizens State Bank of Sabetha.
Mr. Bottiger was married in 1873 to Caroline Arbgast, born in Sny- der county, Pennsylvania, January 6, 1854, a daughter of Jacob and Mary (Lahr) Arbgast, natives of Pennsylvania. Three children have blessed this happy marriage, namely: Ida, wife of Clayton Lewis, farmer of Rock Creek township; Laura, wife of Ira West, farmer of Rock Creek township; Flossie, wife of Dr. Ralph Welch, practicing dentist of Sa- betha.
Mr. Bottiger is a Republican in politics, and served as treasurer of Rock Creek township for five years. He was mayor of Sabetha for two terms, 1910-1913, inclusive, and during his term of office, the water works system was installed, and the electric light plant was enlarged and modernized. He is a member and trustee of the Sabetha Methodist Epis- copal Church.
Thomas S. Anderson has lived in Kansas for the past forty-five years, and is one of the real "old timers" of the State. His first home in Nemaha county was a one-room frame house, and the only shelter he had for his live stock was a straw barn. Mr. Anderson has witnessed a great State in the making, and has assisted materially in the development of one of the richest and best counties of the commonwealth ; he has reared a fine family of children, who have taken their places in the world and have families of their own. His four score and two years still sit lightly on his shoulders, and this grand old patriarch is yet a man among men, despite his great age.
Thomas S. Anderson, of Gilman township, was born in Guernsey county, Ohio, July 3, 1834, and is a son of George S. and Sarah (Smith) Anderson, the former of whom was born in Ohio, November 11, 1811. George S. Anderson was a farmer during his whole life. He married Sarah Smith in 1833, and reared a family of twelve children, as follows: Thomas S., subject of this review; William W., a farmer of Guthrie,
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Iowa; Humphrey, deceased; Mrs. Martha E. Jones, deceased ; Mrs. Mary J. Henderson, deceased; George W., retired farmer, Seneca, Kans .; Mrs. Hannah Bethel, deceased; Mrs. Marguerite Carpenter, Carwi, Kans .; Mrs. Maude Dewhurst, California; John, deceased; Or- lando, farming in Ohio; Mrs. Etta Bethel, deceased. Mrs. Sarah Smith Anderson, mother of the foregoing children, was born in England in 1816 and died in 1869 in Ohio. She came to America with her parents in 1818. Her father was a stone mason and was employed in the building of the White House at Washington, D. C. Twelve years after coming to this country (1830) he removed to Ohio and engaged in farming. He had a farm of 160 acres and was a pioneer in the fruit industry, maintaining a dry house for the purpose of preserving his surplus crops of peaches and apples.
Thomas S. Anderson received a district school education, pursued an academic course for one year, studied in a select school, worked on his father's farm until he attained his majority, and then began teach- , ing. He taught in one district school five years successively and taught for ten years in all. His first farm consisted of fifty-six acres in Athens county, Ohio, which he cultivated for five years, and then sold it. He went from Athens to Hocking county, Ohio, and bought 165 acres of unimproved land, upon which he built a house made of hewn logs cut from the timber on his own tract. He also built a log barn,and for eight years devoted his attention to the raising of tobacco and corn. In 1869 he disposed of his holdings in Hocking county, Ohio, and migrated to Nemaha county, Kansas, where he purchased 160 acres of unimproved land. He at once built a one room house and a straw harn, which served as his home until he could build an addition, 14x18 feet, to his home. His house was burned, with all of its contents, in 1883, for which he received insurance to the amount of $900. He then erected a ten room residence on the site of the old home, which still serves as his residence. Mr. Anderson is not a stockman and sells all of the grain grown on his place. He is a successful bee culturist.
He was married in June, 1862, to Anna Eliza Martin, daughter of Jacob and Jane (Lefevre) Martin, who bore him nine children, as fol- lows: John W. and Elsie, deceased; William T., a traveling salesman in Oklahoma; Sherman M., farmer, Nemaha county; Mrs. Sylvia Shrimp, Nemaha county ; Mrs. Dora B. Marshall, Norton, Kans .; Bene- dict and Jacob S., farmers in Nemaha county. The mother of these . children died in 1879. Mr. Anderson was married the second time to Harriet Maxwell on June 22, 1882, at Huntington, Ohio, and she has borne him a son, namely: Frank M. Anderson, a farmer living in Ne- maha county. Mrs. Harriet (Maxwell) Anderson was born July 4, 1843. in northern Ohio, and is a daughter of Jacob and Permelia (Snively) Maxwell. Her father. Jacob, was born in Carroll county, Ohio, in 1819. and was a farmer all of his life in his native state. Permelia Maxwell was born in Carroll county, Ohio, in 1823, was married to Mr. Maxwell
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in 1841, and was the mother of nine children, as follows: Mrs. Mary H. Anderson; Mrs. Rebecca Norris, deceased; Mrs. Samantha Bethel, Vinton county, Ohio; Robert J., deceased; Levy M., Gloucester, Ohio; William H., Gloucester, Ohio; Malan M. and John E., living in Ohio; Francis M., deceased. .
Mr. Anderson is a Democrat, who votes independently in local and county affairs. He has been a member of the Ancient Free and Ac- cepted Masons for many years. Mrs. Anderson is a member of the Methodist Church.
Dr. Samuel Murdock, Sabetha, Kans., was born in Dearborn county, Indiana, August 6, 1841, and is a son of Ezekiel P. (born March 10, 1809, died February II, 1907), and Rachel (Taylor) Murdock, (born January 29, 1814, died August 22, 1885). Ezekiel Murdock was born in Washing- ton county, Pennsylvania, and was a son of Ephraim Murdock, a native of Scotland. Ezekiel P. Murdock and Rachel Taylor were married in Dearborn county, Indiana, January 29, 1835, and this union was blessed with children, as follows: David L., born in Butler county, Ohio, and died at Kansas City, Mo., August 27, 1903; Mary Ann, born in Dearborn county, Indiana, in 1838, died March II, 1903; Samuel and Elizabeth, (twins), of whom Elizabeth died February 16, 1883; Jacob T., born Jan- uary II, 1844, became a lawyer, and died at Streator, Ill., December 23, 1912; Ezekiel P., born December 15, 1845, and became a physician ; Nancy Jane, born November 24, 1847; George L., born June 20, 1851, died September 15, 1886. There were three lawyers in this family, of whom Ezekiel P. Murdock, of Chicago, Ill., was first a lawyer, and then became a physician, and is widely known as a scientist, writer and skilled physician, located in Chicago for the past forty years. The mother of these children was born in Knoxville, Tenn. David L. and J. T. were also lawyers. D. L. was judge on the bench of San Diego, Cal., but died in Kansas City, Mo.
Ezekiel P. Murdock, father of Dr. Murdock, was admitted to the practice of law in Cincinnati, Ohio, and first practiced his profession in Dearborn county, Indiana, where he lived until 1854, and then located at Hennepin, Putnam county, Illinois. In 1859, he located in Lewis county, Missouri, and there followed farming. After his wife's death, he removed to Streator, Ill., where his demise occurred.
Dr. Samuel Murdock was educated in the public schools, and holds a diploma as Master of Arts from Chaddock College, Quincy, Ill., in 1870. In 1876, he graduated from the Physicians and Surgeons College at Keo- kuk, Iowa. In the meantime, he had completed a commercial course at Bryant and Stratton's Business College in Quincy, Ill., and practically made his own way through college from the time he was seventeen years old . Dr. Murdock is proud of the fact that his professional education was secured mainly through his own efforts, without any outside aid.
He enlisted in Company I, Forty-seventh Illinois infantry, in 1861, . and served for two years in the Union army, was wounded in the left
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shoulder at Corinth, Miss., and received his honorable discharge from the service. He fought in the following great battles : Farmington, Miss .; the skirmish lines at Shiloh and Corinth. During the period in which he was attaining his professional education, he taught school when not attend- ing school, and practiced at Kahoka, Mo., for a number of years, and served eight years as pension surgeon and medical examiner at Kahoka. Dr. Murdock located at Oneida, Kans., in 1883, and practiced in that city continuously until November of 1905, when he came to Sabetha, Kans.
Dr. Murdock was married at Monticello, Mo., January 1, 1871, to Martha H. Green, while he was teaching at the Monticello Seminary, Monticello. Mrs. Murdock was born in Switzerland county, Indiana,, January 29, 1839, and died November 4, 1905. She was a daughter of Moses Green, who was a settler in Lewis county, Missouri, and became a prominent citizen of that county. Mrs. Murdock, mother of Dr. Mur- dock, was also a niece of Gen. Zachary Taylor. Three children blessed this union of Samuel and Martha Murdock, namely: Amy, died at Chad- dock, December 4, 1879; Oscar, died in infancy ; Dr. Samuel Murdock, Jr., Sabetha, Kans., a review of whose life career is given in this volume. Dr. Murdock is a member of the County, State and American Med- ical Associations, and was one of the organizers of the Nemaha County Medical Society. He is a Republican in politics, and is a member of the Congregational church. Dr. Murdock is affiliated with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and is a thirty-second degree Mason. He is a member of the Grand Army Post at Sabetha, Kans., and in 1915, he deliv- ered the memorial day address at Sabetha. He makes addresses occa- sionally, and is a forceful and interesting speaker. For some years, he was a contributor to the "Medical Courier," of St. Louis, Mo. Unlike many professional medical practitioners, he has made provisions for his declining years, and is one of the well-to-do citizens of the county. He still practices medicine and attends to surgical cases at the Sabetha Hos- pital, when his son is away on business, and can thread a surgical needle as accurately and quickly as a younger man. During his long years of practice, Dr. Murdock treated the sick and ailing whether poor or rich, the financial condition of his patients making no difference in his atten- . tions and care. He made a practice of treating the families of poor wid- ows free of charge. For all of his years, he is active as ever, shrewd, strong and mentally active, and during his life he has always been a total abstainer from alcoholic drinks, and attributes his excellent health and undiminished powers of body and mind to this fact in a great measure.
Levi S. Stevens, farmer and liveryman, Sabetha, Kans., was born in Lee county, Illinois, October 24, 1869. He is a son of Henry and Mary J. (Sivy) Stevens, who were the parents of five children, of whom Levi S. is the youngest. Henry Stevens was born in Pennsylvania in 1835, immigrated to Lee county, Illinois, in the late forties, and died there in 1895. His wife, Mary J. (Sivy) Stevens, was born in Richford, Ohio, in 1836, and is now living at Eskridge, Kans.
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Mr. Stevens was reared on the farm in Lee county, and was edu- cated in the district school and the public schools of Dixon, Ill. He fol- lowed farming in his native State until 1902, and then came West to Brown county, Kansas, and located on a farm two miles east of Sabetha. He cultivated his land until 1910, and then came to Sabetha, and pur- chased the Conrad livery barn. He is well-to-do, and owns a fine farm of 280 acres in Brown county. While living on his farm, he was a suc- cessful breeder of Percheron horses, and is known as an excellent judge of horse flesh. He makes a business of buying and selling live stock, and his knowledge of horses comes in good stead in this business.
He was married in 1894 to Miss Clara Piper, and this marriage has been blessed with the following children: Verna, born in Illinois, March 16, 1898; Lulu, born in Illinois, May 1900; Mildred, born in Brown county, Kansas, June, 1903. The mother of these children was born in Lee county, Illinois, 1872, a daughter of J. J. and Elizabeth (Shelley) Piper, natives of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Stevens is a Republican in politics, and is widely known as a horseman and successful citizen of Sabetha. Although he has been in Kansas but a few years as compared to the residence of an old settler, he has become thoroughly imbued with the Kansas spirit, and has made good in the State of his adoption.
Will R. Anthony, superintendent of public instruction of Nemaha county, is one of the ablest educators and school executives of northern Kansas, who was born to his profession, and is essentially self made and self educated. His experiences as an educator have been broad and varied enough to especially fit him for the exacting duties of his position at the head of the Nemaha county school system, and his diplomatic methods of handling the affairs of his office have been so successful that the schools of Nemaha county were never in better position than during his term as superintendent.
Prof. Anthony is a product of the Southland, and is descended from old American families on both paternal and maternal side. His fore- bears were Germans, who settled originally in the Carolinas, and whose descendants were among the pioneers of Tennessee and Kentucky. W. R. Anthony was born on a farm in Sumner county, Tennessee, August 12, 1862, and is a son of Robert D. and Bettie (Harrell) Anthony, natives of Kentucky and Tennessee, respectively. The old home of the Anthony family is situated on the border line of the two States, and Robert D., born in 1837, was a son of Henry S. Anthony, a native of Allen county, Kentucky, and a son of Joseph Anthony, born in North Carolina, and who came to Kentucky in 1792, when seventeen years of age. Joseph Anthony was one of the hardy pioneers who cleared away the wilder- ness and made a home under the most exacting conditions for his family. He reared a large family of children, namely: George, William, Joseph, Lee and Henry S., and five daughters, all of whom were reared to man- hood and womanhood in Kentucky.
WILL R. ANTHONY.
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Robert D. Anthony married Miss Harrell in her Tennessee home and then made a permanent residence across the State line in Kentucky, where he still resides. He is the father of four children, as follows: William R., the subject of this review; Henry W., Nashville, Tenn .; Robert A., a teacher in Portland, Tenn ; Callie, wife of Rev. W. E. Lyon, a Methodist minister, preaching in Texas; Bertha, wife of William Rigs- ley, and Joseph M., of Portland, Tenn. Mrs. Anthony was born in 1838. and died in September, 1913. Since her death the elder Anthony has been living with his children. A brother of Robert D. Anthony was killed in battle while fighting in behalf of the Confederacy during the Civil war, and a brother of Mrs. Anthony lost his life while in the service.
Will R. Anthony was educated in the public schools of his native State, and studied in a private academy. He began teaching at the age of sixteen years, and taught for five years in the neighborhood of his old home, which was followed by one year's teaching in Illinois. He then married and clerked for three years in a general store in his home neigh- borhood. Prof. Anthony came to Kansas in 1888 and taught for three years in the schools of Phillips county. He located in Marshall county in 1891, and taught nine years, beginning in the rural schools, and then tak- ing charge of a consolidated graded school. For four years he had charge of the grammar department of the Irving, Kans., school, and spent his summer vacation in studying, so as to equip himself for a better position. He took charge of the Oneida, Kans., schools in 1903 and held this position three years, becoming superintendent of the Corning public schools in 1906, and held this place five years, or until his taking up the duties of superintendent of public instruction, to which office he was elected in November, 1910. He was re-elected in 1912 and again in 1914. For a number of years Mr. Anthony has been engaged as institute instructor in Nemaha, Cheyenne and other counties in Kansas.
Prof. Anthony was married November 29, 1884, to Miss Eva Par- sons, of Illinois, a daughter of Nicholas Parsons, a native of New Jer- sey. The following children have been born of this marriage: Edith, . wife of E. H. Pretz, Spokane, Wash .; Grace, a teacher in Nemaha county ; Rolin, freshman in Seneca High School; Alvah Lee, aged five years.
While Mr. Anthony has been a life long Democrat in his political . leanings, he is an avowed prohibitionist and a strong supporter of pro- hibition principles, who is not afraid to voice his convictions at every opportunity which presents itself. When seventeen years of age, he united with the Baptist church, and has always taken an active part in church and Sunday school work. Since coming to Kansas he has be- come affiliated with the Holiness Movement, and is very active in the religious work carried on in behalf of a higher spiritual experience.
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Dr. S. Murdock, Jr .- Judging by the accomplishments and decided ability of Dr. S. Murdock, Jr., Sabetha, Kans., as related to his profes- sion, the reviewer would unquestionably place him in the front rank of distinguished physicians and surgeons of the present day. He is a sur- geon of considerable repute, and while yet a young man as years meas- ure a man's age, he has advanced steadily to a high place in the profes- sion of medicine and surgery-a place which has been won by diligent study, scientific research and constant endeavor to lift himself above the commonplace and mediocre. Dr. Murdock is the founder and builder of the Sabetha Hospital, a surgical institution which is widely and favora- bly known throughout northeast Kansas and the contigious territory of Nebraska.
Dr. S. Murdock, Jr., was born at Kahoka, Mo., January 27, 1872, and is a son of Dr. Samuel Murdock, whose biography appears in this vol- ume. Dr. Murdock received his first elementary schooling in the public schools of Kahoka, Mo., and he was eleven years old when the family removed from Kahoka to Oneida, Kans. He completed his primary ed- ucation in the Oneida schools, and then studied the classics at Washburn College, Topeka, and Baker University at Baldwin, Kans. In due time, he began his medical studies at Rush Medical College, Chicago, and graduated from the Kansas City Medical College, at Kansas City, Mo., in 1893. He began the practice of medicine at Oneida, Kans., and re- mained there until 1903, when he located in Sabetha, and established the Sabetha Hospital. The hospital was first established in a large residence, but the demands upon the facilities of the building and the doctor's surg- ical skill became so great that it became necessary to erect a larger build- ing, which was completed in 1911-a magnificent structure which is the last word in modernity and equipped with the latest appliances in med- icine and surgery. The hospital buildings and equipment represent a total investment of over $120,000.
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