USA > Kansas > Nemaha County > History of Nemaha County, Kansas > Part 74
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Mr. Funk attends services at the Christian church, of which denom- ination Mrs. Funk has been a member since she was sixteen years old. Mr. Funk is an independent in politics, and is inclined to be progressive in his political views. For the past year, he has filled the post of road supervisor. He is affiliated fraternally with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and has filled all chairs in the Oneida Lodge of Odd Fel- lows.
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Willie C. Reynolds .- The general merchandise store of W. C. Rey- nolds, of Oneida, Kans., is one of the thriving business establishments of Nemaha county, and a stock of goods exceeding in value of $7,000 is attractively displayed in a large frame business building forty-one by sixty feet in dimensions, erected by Mr. Reynolds in 1914. The stock of goods sold over the counters in this prosperous establishment in- cludes groceries, general merchandise, dry' goods, work clothing, feed, etc. Mr. Reynolds has been engaged in business in Oneida for the past two years and during that time has built up an extensive and profitable trade.
W. C. Reynolds was born at Agency, Mo., March 21, 1879, and is a son of Levi and Eva L. (Babcock) Reynolds. 'Levi Reynolds, his father, was born on a farm in Buchanan county, near Agency, Mo., February 9, 1856, and was a son of pioneer parents from Virginia. When he was twenty-one years of age he bought a small farm south of Agency and began farming on his own account and also rented land. The small tract of twenty acres which Levi Reynolds bought necessitated its clearing of timber and the erection of a home. He built a three-room house and set out fruit trees to such an extent that in later years the entire tract was all in fruit. Six years later he moved to De Kalb county, Missouri, and rented 160 acres for a period of two years. In 1890 he sold his farm near Agency and removed to St. Joseph where his wife died in 1893, and he then returned to Agency and bought a farm of fifty-two acres, which is now well improved and is the present residence of the family. The mother of W. C. Reynolds was born in Livingston county, Missouri, in 1862, and died in St. Joseph in 1891. 'Levi and Eva Reynolds were married in 1877 and two children were born of this marriage, namely: Willie C., the subject of this review, and Mrs. Lela M. Stanton, living on a farm near Centralia, Kans., and mother of eight children. Mr. and Mrs. Levi Reynolds were members of the Baptist church.
W. C. Reynolds was reared on his father's farm and received a com- mon school education, attending the public schools of St. Joseph for three years. In 1899 he began working for himself in a stirrup fac- tory at Agency, Mo. One year later he was made manager of the fac- tory and held the position for two years. In 1902 he was employed as timber buyer for a lumbering firm and in 1903 he removed to St. Joseph and was employed as street railway conductor for one year and a half and then followed teaming until 1907, at which time he came to Nemaha county, Kansas, and rented the Alex. Moore farm of 160 acres. Two years later he rented an additional 160 acres and followed farming until September 15, 1914, when he disposed of his crops, farming imple- ments and live stock and located in Oneida and engaged in the mer- cantile business.
Mr. Reynolds was married November 15, 1899, to Miss Eva M. Ratcliff, who has borne him the following children: Crystel L., aged
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fifteen years and a student in the Oneida High School; Pearl, died at the age of three months. Mrs. Eva M. Reynolds was born at Agency, Mo., November 13, 1880, and is a daughter of William H. and Bertha L. (Hunt) Ratcliff. William Ratcliff, father of Mrs. Reynolds, was born June 6, 1854, in Missouri. His father was a sawmill operator and he was reared in the vicinity of his father's mill and became the sup- port of the family when seventeen years old on account of his father's early death. When sixteen years old he started a stirrup factory at Hainesville, Mo., and seven years later he moved his factory to Agency, where it has since grown to become an important industrial affair. Mr. Ratcliff first began making stirrups with a hand adze and saw and is now the head of a large corporation and has a plant equipped with modern working machinery and employing twenty or more men. He ships the product of his factory to all parts of the world. The Ratcliffs were married in 1878, and have reared children as follows: Eva, wife of W. C. Reynolds, and born November 13, 1880, educated in the Agency schools and married at the age of nineteen years; Charles, a farmer of Hemple, Mo., and father of two children, William and Felix; Oran Lee, a farmer of Frazier, Mo., and father of one child, Catharine. The mother of Mrs. Reynolds was born at Albany, N. Y., in 1862, and was reared by her grandmother, her father having been killed in the Civil war. William H. Ratcliff was a deacon of the Baptist church for many years, a Democrat in politics, and a member of the Woodmen of the World.
Mr. Reynolds is a Democrat in his political affiliations and is a mem- ber of the Woodmen of the World and the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. He and Mrs. Reynolds deserve considerable credit for their rise in the world to a position of standing and affluence, and their stic- cess is really striking when one considers that their advent into Kansas followed a siege of sickness which left Mr. Reynolds nearly $800 in debt.
William J. Ball, retired farmer and Union veteran, Oneida, Kans., was born in Washington county, Ohio, December 29, 1841, and is a son of James and Jane (Benson) Ball, natives of Virginia and Ohio respec- tively. James Ball was born in Loudon county, near Harper's Ferry, Va., in 1813, and died in Ohio in 1870. At the age of fourteen he was ap- prenticed to a shoe maker, and finished his apprenticeship, and became proficient at his trade when twenty-one years of age. He started a shop of his own at McConnellsville, Ohio, and was married in Belmont county, Ohio, in 1841. Shortly after his marriage, he removed to Meigs county, Ohio, established himself in the shoe trade and lived at Tuppers Plains until his removal to Long Bottom. He died near Syracuse, Ohio. He was a member of the Baptist church, and was a well read man ; taught school at intervals, and served as a member of the school board of his city. Mrs. Jane Ball, mother of the subject, was born in Belmont county, Ohio, in 1814, and died in Meigs county in 1855. She was reared in the country, and was the eldest of four daughters, born to her parents. Be-
(43)
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ing the eldest of a family of daughters, she learned to do work outside of the home and assisted her parents in clearing the brush away from her father's land, going to mill with the grist to be ground, and naturally grew up to become a robust and hearty woman. However, her health failed her when her last child was born and she died in 1855. There were six children in the Ball family, as follows: William J., with whom this review is directly concerned; Charles B., born 1842, and died in 1913, leaving four children, Myrtle, Harriett, Emma, and Edward; George, born 1845. lives at Stockton, Cal., and has four children, Agnes, Mary, Norton, and Harry ; Joseph J., born 1847, resides in Columbus, Ohio, is a school teacher and clerk, has one child, May; Mrs. Maria Stobert, Meigs county, Ohio, born 1850, and mother of five children, namely : Earl, Carrie, Herbert, Lenora, and Amy, deceased; one child died in infancy.
William J. Ball worked out as farm hand at twenty-five cents per day in his younger days, and learned the tannery business, but never followed it, because of a distaste for the work, although he was to receive $25 per year while learning the trade. When seventeen years of age, he did the hardest kind of labor, sometimes making fence rails at fifty cents per hundred, said fence rail to be cut at least eleven feet long. He also made staves, and grubbed out underbrush at $3 per acre, and during har- vest time, he swung a cradle in the wheat fields for $10 a month. He worked seven months on one farm for $8 per month, and then worked on a towboat plying on the Ohio river from Pomeroy to Louisville for about three months.
When the Civil war began, he enlisted in Company B, One Hundred Sixteenth Ohio infantry, under Captain Keyes, and fought in the battles of Piedmont, Va., Fisher Hill, near Strausburg, Cedar Creek, Winchester (1864), and Snicker's Ferry. He was engaged in the three days' battle of Winchester with General Early. His command suffered a rout, and he was lost from his command for one month before he found his way back to the company mess. He was present at Winchester when Sheridan made his famous ride, turned back the flee- ing soldiers, and saved the day for the Union forces. He was stationed on the Chickahominy river until February, 1864, and his command was detailed south of Petersburg, captured Ft. Gregg near Petersburg, and followed Lee to Appomattox, and witnessed Lee's surrender. They re- mained at Richmond until June, 1865, and then went home. Mr. Ball was honorably discharged in June, 1865, and returned to steamboating on the Ohio river for one and a half years. Becoming afflicted with rheumatism he secured a place as night watchman in a coal mining town, and was thus employed for two and a half years. He then went to Pomeroy, and was a night watchman for five years. In 1870, he pur- chased a sixty acre farm in Meigs county, Ohio, for $2,500, for which he paid $1,250, and gave a mortgage at ten per cent. He lived for two years on his farm, and then sold out. In 1878, he came to Nemaha county,
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Kansas, and moved to a farm of 160 acres, which had been given to Mrs. . Ball by her father. After two years' residence in Kansas, Mr. and Mrs. Ball sold their farm and returned to Syracuse, Ohio, where Mr. Ball operated an engine until 1882. The lure of the great West again drew them on, and they returned to Nemaha county, Kansas, in 1882, for a permanent stay. , They bought eighty-two acres of land, improved it and resided thereon until 1899, at which time they rented the land and moved to southern California and Colorado with their son whose health had failed. They spent two years on the coast, and in Colorado, and upon their return, purchased a neat cottage in Oneida, which serves as the Ball home. The eighty-two acre tract owned by Mrs. Ball is well improved and cultivated by their son. Mr. Ball is also the owner of 200 acres in Smith county, Kansas, which he rents out as grain land, and also owns 160 acres in Texas, which is fenced but otherwise unimproved.
William J. Ball was married, in 1870, to Harriet Gilmore, who has borne him the following children: Mrs. Nellie Pettit, died in Nemaha county ; Edgar, died at the age of seven months; Clinton G., lives on the Ball farm, is married and has one child, Norman, aged one year. Clinton G., attended the Oneida High School, but broken health com- pelled him to relinquish his studies, and he later studied bookkeeping at Denver, Colo., and is now a successful practical farmer.
Mrs. Harriett (Gilmore) Ball was born in Meigs county, Ohio, April 24, 1842, and is a daughter of Isaac and Polly (Stivers) Gilmore. She was reared on a Buckeye State farm, educated in the district and high schools, and taught school for twelve years previous to her mar- riage. Mrs. Ball has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church for forty-six years.
Mr. Ball is a Republican, is a member of the Grand Army of the Re- public and is affiliated with the Oneida Methodist Episcopal Church, and is a trustee of the same.
Joseph B. Ketter, merchant, Kelly, Kans., is a member of the firm of Ketter & Schumacher, conducting a general merchandise store at Kelly. This store is one of the thriving business concerns of Nemaha county, and a stock of goods valued at over $11,000 is carried constantly. The large and ever increasing trade of the store is due to the courteous and honest treatment afforded the many patrons of the establishment.
Joseph B. Ketter was born November 13, 1875, in Wisconsin, and is a son of Philip and Elizabeth (Wink) Ketter, natives of Germany. Philip Ketter was born in Germany in 1834 and was reared to young manhood in his native land. He immigrated to America in 1856 and set- tled in Wisconsin, where he bought a forty-acre tract of timber land, which he cleared and lived upon until 1880. He then sold his Wisconsin farm and came to Kansas, where he bought 220 acres of land in the Wild Cat district. He cultivated this tract with profit until 1902, when he sold it and bought 320 acres in Harrison township, Nemaha county. He lived upon this farm for eight years, then rented it and retired to a home in
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Kelly, Kans. He died June 4, 1915. Thirteen children were born to Philip and Elizabeth Ketter, namely: Philip, a farmer in Illinois town ship, Nemaha county, and father of eight children, as follows: Louis, Katie, Tena, Clara, Marguerite, Lawrence, Ollie and Ambrose; Jacob, at home; Peter, a farmer in Adams township; George, a farmer in Okarche, Okla., and the father of eight children; John, died in infancy ; Joseph B., subject of this review; Mrs. Ida Huls, living in Richmond township, and mother of seven children; Elizabeth, known as Sister Agilbertha, at Mt. St. Scholastica's, Atchison, Kans .; John A., farming the Ketter home place, has three children; Mrs. Mary Eisenbarth, also living on a family farm, has four children; Anna died at the age of seventeen years ; Henry, farming in Adams township, has three children ; Andrew, clerk in the store at Kelly, Kans. The mother of this large family of children was born in Germany in 1848, and was brought to Wisconsin with her parents when she was a six months' old infant, living in Wisconsin until her marriage with Mr. Ketter, May 4, 1863.
Joseph B. Ketter was reared on his father's farm and was educated in the district schools of Richmond township, Nemaha county. He re- mained with his parents until he attained his majority and then began farming on his own account on a rented forty-acre farm. He continued in agricultural pursuits until 1906, and then came to Kelly, where he bought a half interest in the general merchandise store of Joe Schu- macher. At the time Mr. Ketter entered into partnerhip with Mr. Schu- macher, the store carried a small stock of goods, valued at $4.700. Since that time Mr. Ketter, by diligent application and tireless industry and careful attention to business details, has built up the business to a ca- pacity of $11,000. The firm has a two-story store building 30x60 feet in extent, and has generally prospered.
Mr. Ketter is a Democrat in politics. He is a member of the Cath- olic Church, and is affiliated with the Knights of Columbus and the Catholic Mutual Benefit Association.
Isaac C. Lockard .- Nearly sixty years have gone by since Isaac C. 'Lockard, Nemaha county pioneer and settler, came with his bride to Kansas in search of a home on the boundless prairies. The first home of this grand old patriarch in Nemaha county was a typical sod house, which soon gave place to a more pretentious frame dwelling. Mr. Lockard has seen a great State in the making; he has witnessed the disappearance of the buffalo, the wild game and the Indians, and has seen the onward advance of civilization and the redemption of a wilder- ness and is proud of the fact that he is one of the oldest pioneers of Kansas. When Mr. Lockard landed in Atchison, Kans., the present beautiful Kansas city of 20,000 inhabitants was but a collection of a dozen or so houses-what wonderful changes have taken place since that period.
Isaac C. Lockard was born in Jefferson county, Indiana, November 5: 1833, and is a son of William R. and Sarah C. (Day) Lockard, who
ISAAC C. LOCKARD.
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were the parents of ten sons and three daughters. William R. Lockard, his father, was born in Kentucky in 1795, and removed with his parents to Indiana early in the nineteenth century. He died in 1862. His wife was born in Kentucky in 1815 and died in 1901. Both parents were members of the Christian church. The Lockard family left their Indiana home when the subject of this review was a boy and settled in Iowa, where Isaac C. was reared to young manhood.
This was in the pioneer days of Iowa and Isaac C. Lockard learned early in his youth what it was to rough it in the most primitive style. He attended school for about three months each year in an old log school house, and this school was supported by the subscriptions of the settlers in the neighborhood. The cabin was meanly furnished and the seats which the boys and girls used were hewn slabs of oak or native timber. When a boy, Isaac had plenty of work in the way of cutting brush from his father's land and splitting rails for fencing. He was married in 1856 and in 1857 decided to try his fortunes in the new State of Kansas. Accordingly, he set out and made his way to Atchison, where he lived for a year, and then farmed a tract of land in Lancaster township, Atchison county. From Atchison county he made his way to Pawnee county, Nebraska, and farmed there until 1871, at which time he bought seventy-three acres of land in Clear Creek township, Nemaha county, Kansas. His land was improved with a "sod house"-left there by the first homesteader. Mr. Lockard at once built a frame house, 16x24 feet in extent, and has made various improvements since that time, and has added to his possessions until he owns 113 acres in Ne- maha county.
Mr. Lockard was married in 1856 to Sarah C. McMains, who was born in April, 1836, in Indiana, and this union has resulted in the birth of seven children, as follows: Vellite, deceased; Margaret A. Lock- ard, Clear Creek township; William, deceased; Robert, Shelby county, Missouri : James R., married Eva Kerl, farming the home place ; George H., deceased; Sadie C., wife of C. Saums, living in Texas. In addition to these children, Mr. Lockard adopted an orphan child when she was seven days old and reared her as one of his own. The child's name was Rosa Wymore, now happily married to Ben Wagner, and living in Texas. Mrs. Lockard died in 1904.
Mr. Lockard has been a life long Republican, but has never been a seeker after political preferment. He is a member of the Christian church. It is a matter of note that this pioneer had five brothers and two brothers-in-law in the Union army.
David H. Fitzgerald, M. D., Kelly, Kans., has been a medical prac- titioner in Kansas for the past thirty-five years, and has practiced his profession in Nemaha county for thirty-two years. In point of years of service in behalf of suffering humanity he is one of the oldest prac- ticing physicians in the county.
Dr. Fitzgerald was born in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, July
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23, 1853, and is a son of Thomas C. and Margaret (Witherspoon) Fitz- gerald, both of whom were natives of the Keystone State. Thomas C. Fitzgerald, his father, was born in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, in 1818 and educated himself for the teaching profession, which he followed during the winter months, and pursued the vocation of contractor and brick layer when school was not in session. He migrated to Miami county, Kansas, in 1877, and located on a farm near Paola, where he bought an eighty-acre farm. He farmed his land for a few years, then rented it and retired to a home in Paola. He died in 1884. Thomas C. Fitzgerald was married to Margaret Witherspoon in Pennsylvania, and she was his faithful helpmate. She was born July 18, 1821, and died at the home of her son, John W., in Kansas City, Mo., March 4, 1910. Thomas and Margaret Fitzgerald were the parents of five children, three of whom were living at the time of the mother's demise, namely: John W., Kansas City, Mo .; James S., Wetmore, Kans., and Dr. David H., the subject of this review.
Dr. Fitzgerald has an interesting family genealogy on his maternal side and is descended directly from Robert I, (Robert Bruce) King of Scotland, and his ancestral tree is chronicled as follows: (I) Mar- garet. the daughter of Robert I, (Robert Bruce) King of Scotland, mar- ried Walter, the sixth high steward of Scotland, and had an only son who became Robert II, King of Scotland, born 1316, died 1390, first of the Stuart sovereigns of Scotland. The title Stewart or Stuart was adopted because of the ancestral possession of the high stewardship on the paternal side. Robert II married Lady Isabel Mure and by her had a third son, (III) Robert Stuart, Earl of Monteith and of Fife and Duke of Albany, chief executive of the government of Scotland for his brother Robert III, who married Lady Margaret as his wife and by her had (IV) Murdoch Stuart, governor of Scotland, condemned and executed for treason. His wife was Isabel, daughter of Duncan, Earl of Lennox, and by her had (V) Sir James Stuart, who was proclaimed a rebel and died in Ireland in 1451. His wife was Lady McDonald, and by her had (VI) Walter Stuart, of Morphie, who married Lady Elizabeth Arnot, and by her had a second son (VII), Andrew Stuart, who became the third Lord Evandale, and married Lady Margaret, daughter of Sir John Ken- nedy. They had a son (VIII), Andrew Stuart, who was fourth Lord Evandale and governor of Dunbarton Castle, Scotland. He (Andrew) assumed the title "Ochiltree" by consent of the crown, and died in 1548. His wife, Lady Margaret Hamilton, daughter of James Hamilton, Earl of Arrau and descendant of James II, King of Scotland-they had a son (IX), Andrew Stuart, who became Lord Ochiltree II and married Agnes Cunningham and they had as their second daughter (X) Lady Margaret Stuart, who married John Knox, the reformer. John Knox had been previously married and at the time of this second marriage in 1564 was fifty-nine years of age, while his wife of quite a young wo- man. Much comment was occasioned throughout Scotland because of
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Lady Margaret's marriage to a man of humble birth and because of the disparity of their ages. Notwithstanding all this the marriage was a happy one. John Knox was born in Haddington in 1505 and died in Edinburgh, November 24, 1572. They had a daughter (XI), Elizabeth Knox, who married Rev. John Welch, the minister at Ayr and a dis- tinguished teacher of his day. They had a daughter whose name was (XII) Daughter Welch. She married Rev. James Witherspoon, min- ister of the Parish of Yester, Haddingtonshire, near Edinburgh, all of his ininisterial life. He was born sometime previous to 1680. His father was David Witherspoon and the name is said to have been originally 'Wodderspoon.' One of his sons was (XIII) James Witherspoon, a minister who married Ann Walker. They had a son (XIV) James "Wodderspoon." One of his sons was (XIII) James Witherspoon, a burgh, in 1725. He was married in Scotland and immigrated to America about 1750, settling in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. He was acci- dentally killed about 1760. The Rev. Dr. Witherspoon, signer of the Declaration of Independentce and president of Princeton College, was his brother. James Witherspoon had a second son (XV), James W. Witherspoon, who was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, August 15, 1757, and died March, 1832, purchased and owned the old Franklin county, Pennsylvania, homestead, and was married April 25, 1780, to Mollie Elliott, whose mother was a Hamilton, cousin of Alexander Ham- ilton. She was born in the West Indies and died in the Pennsylvania home in 1833. They had seven children, of whom the eldest was (XVI) John Witherspoon, born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, Septem- ber 9, 1781, and died April 26, 1860. He married Nancy Scott, Decem- ber 8, 1808. Their daughter was (XVII) Margaret Witherspoon, born in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, July 18, 1821, married December 5, 1848. to Thomas Clark Fitzgerald.
David Hurst Fitzgerald attended the common schools of his native county until the removal of the family to Illinois in 1865, and he then studied at the McCombs schools and pursued a scientific college course in 1872 and 1873. He taught school in Illinois for six years and taught for one year after the family settled in Kansas. He studied medicine and graduated from the Keokuk College of Medicine in 1881. In the autumn following his graduation Dr. Fitzgerald located in Garrison, Pottawatomie county, Kansas, practiced for one year, then located at Blaine, Pottawatomie county, and practiced there until July 10, 1884, at which date he located at Wetmore, Nemaha county. He built up a large practice at Wetmore and remained in that city until July, 1898, when he located at Kelly. He conducts a drug store in addition to his medical practice. For twelve years Dr. Fitzgerald served as surgeon for the Missouri Pacific Railway Company.
Dr. Fitzgerald was married in 1887 to Ella Leibig, who died in 1894, leaving three children, namely : Terrance C., United States railway mail clerk traveling out of St. Joseph on the Rock Island railroad, father of
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