USA > Kansas > Nemaha County > History of Nemaha County, Kansas > Part 78
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Mr. Sherrard was married to Eliza Johnson, March 15, 1882, and two children have been born to this union: Mrs. Ina B. Bridson, Perry, Kans., and mother of a son, Gale H., and Mrs. Grace E. Farnham, whose husband is operating the Sherrard farm.
Mrs. Eliza (Johnson) Sherrard was born December 22, 1859, and is a daughter of William and Mary (Lafferty) Johnson, the former of
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whom was born in Ireland in 1831, left an orphan at the age of seven, and was thrown upon his own resources. He immigrated to America at the age of nineteen and located in Pennsylvania, where he was em- ployed in the lime quarries. In 1858 he removed to Illinois and farmed there until 1870, and then immigrated to Nemaha county, Kansas, buying 160 acres of land in Capioma township. He developed a fine farm and resided thereon until his demise, April 14, 1908. His wife, Mary, was born in Ireland in 1835 and was married to Mr. Johnson in Pennsylvania, in 1857. There were ten children born to William and Mary Johnson, as follows. Eliza, wife of W. H. Sherrard; Ella, deceased; Mrs. Sarah Reed, a widow with five children, living on a farm near Woodlawn, in Capioma township; Margaret, deceased; Samuel H., Oneida, Kans., trustee of Gilman township; William E., trustee of Rock Creek town- ship; Anise, deceased; Mrs. Ida Foster, whose husband is treasurer of Capioma township, mother of three children ; Albert J., druggist at Falls City, Neb .; Mrs. Della Carpenter, Rock Creek township.
Mr. Sherrard is a Democrat in politics and is one of the leaders of his party in Nemaha county. He is the present trustee of Adams town- ship and held the office of trustee of Capioma township when he was twenty-two years of age. He and Mrs. Sherrard are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and Mr. Sherrard is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America, of which lodge he was the efficient clerk for eighteen years.
John A. Heinen, owner of 160 acres of farm land in Gilman town- ship, is a son of Arnold and Isabella (Colyer) Heinen, natives of Prus- sia. Mr. Heinen is one of the progressive and enterprising farmers of Nemaha county, who has worked his way upward to a competence during the thirty-three years of his residence in Kansas. He is a veteran of the Civil war and has a war record of which his descendants may well be proud. Although Mr. Heinen has passed the allotted three score years and ten, and his life has been spent in hard labor, he is still vig- orous, mentally and physically.
Arnold Heinen, his father, was born in Prussia in 1818, and immi- grated to America in 1852. He stopped in New Orleans for two months after landing from the steamship which conveyed him and his family across the seas and waited until the ice had gone out of the Mississippi river so that the steamer could carry him to his destination in Illinois. When navigation was again resumed he took a steamer for Bridge- town, Ill., and resided in that town and worked at common labor until 1862. In the meantime he had been saving his money and was enabled to buy 120 acres of land ten miles distant from Bridgetown, and there moved his family. His first farm home was a rude log hut, IOxIo feet in size, and it was necessary for Mr. Heinen to clear his land of a heavy growth of timber. By the time of his demise in October, 1882, he had eighty acres cleared and a comfortable home erected and was in fair circumstances. He was a member of the Dutch Reformed Church. His
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wife, Isabella, was born in Prussia in 1820, and she and Arnold Heinen were married in 1840. They were the parents of six children, as fol- lows: John A., subject of this review; Jacob, retired farmer of Wet- more, Kans .; Mrs. Sophia Ingle, living on the old home place in Illinois ; Mrs. Tillie Mulhart, retired at Wetmore, Kans .; Amanda, deceased ; one died in infancy. The mother of these children died in 1884.
John A. Heinen was born in a Prussian village, March II, 1843, and when he was two years old he was taken and reared by his father's brother until he attained the age of nine years. He then accompanied his parents to America and was reared on the pioneer farm in Illinois. As soon as he was strong enough he began working to assist in the sup- port of the family and did all kinds of hard labor, such as working in a brick yard at twenty-five cents per day and farm work at from $8 to $10 per month.
He enlisted for service in the Union army, August 12, 1862, and served as a member of an Illinois company until his honorable dis- charge from the service, August 3, 1865. Mr. Heinen was engaged in many great battles during the Civil war, and was in the following en- gagements: Jackson, Tenn .; Champion Hills, Black River, siege and capture of Vicksburg, and was at the second fight at Jackson, Miss., in August, 1863. His command then went into winter quarters at Black River, and he was one of sixty men detailed for mounted scout duty. Later, his company was a part of the command which chased Price's army through Tennessee, and again went into winter quarters at Mem- phis, in 1863 and 1864. In the spring of 1864 his company was given six days' rations and sixty rounds of ammunition and sent on scout duty. On a forced march to Germantown they met the enemy and the Union forces suffered defeat and lost their supplies, and were forced to retreat to Memphis. Soon after his arrival at Memphis, Mr. Heinen suffered a sunstroke, and on June, 14, 1864, was sent to the hospital, where he remained until December 14, 1864. He then joined his regiment at Nashville, Tenn., and took part in the battles around that city. From Nashville his command returned to Memphis, thence to St. Louis, and from there to New Orleans, where they remained for two months pre- vious to going to Fort Morgan, across the Gulf of Mexico. From Fort Morgan he marched to Mobile, Ala., and took part in the heavy engage- ments at that place, April 7, 1865, and at Fort Blakely, April 9, where his last battle was fought.
In the spring of 1866, Mr. Heinen rented a farm and followed agri- cultural pursuits in Illinois until his removal to Kansas in 1883. He bought 160 acres of good land near Oneida, in Gilman township, Ne- maha county, in section 28, and has made his home on this tract con- tinuously for thirty-three years.
Mr. Heinen was married in 1870 to Rosa Heck, a daughter of Fred Heck, who was born in Germany in 1802; immigrated to the United States in 1854; located in Indiana and followed the trade of wagon
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maker; moved to Illinois and farmed, and came to Kansas with Mr. Heinen and made his home with him until his demise in 1886. There were two children in the Heck family, namely: Rosa, wife of John A. Heinen, and one child died in infancy. Mrs. Rosa Heinen was born in Prussia, October 26, 1845, and began working out as a domestic when ten years old and continued in domestic service until her marriage with Mr. Heinen in' Illinois. She is a member of the Methodist Church and the Woman's Relief Corps.
Nine children have been born to John A. and Rosa Heinen, namely : Fred, a farmer near Abilene, Kans., has two children; Mrs. Lizzie Bob- bet, on a farm in Adams township, has two sons; Jacob, farmer near Cen- tralia, Kans., has a daughter ; Mrs. Belle Pierce, first born of the family, wife of a blacksmith at Axtell, Kans .; Mrs. Emma Garber, on a farm in Adams township, mother of one child; John, farming near Oneida, Kans .; Mrs. Frances Campfield, at home, mother of one child; William, on a farm near Centralia ; one child died in infancy.
John A. Heinen is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and is a Republican in politics. He is affiliated with the Grand Army of the Republic and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
Frederick W. Funk, farmer, Gilman township, Nemaha county, Kansas, was born August 20, 1878, on a farm near Oneida, and is a son of John and Magdalene Funk, whose biographies appear elsewhere in this history of Nemaha county. Frederick W. Funk was reared on his fa- ther's farm and received a district school education. He assisted his fa- ther in operating the home farm until he attained his majority, and he then rented a tract of 160 acres from his father, which he cultivated until 1914. In the meantime he had invested his savings in a farm of seventy- five acres two miles east of the home place in 1910. He moved to this farm in 1914, and his sister and her husband who had been managing this farm, moved to the Funk homestead in order to keep house for John Funk, the father. Mr. Funk is beginning to breed Jersey cattle on his place, and has a nice herd started with four thoroughbred Jersey cows, and it is his intention to specialize in Jerseys exclusively. His poultry are also worthy of mention, and are of the Rhode Island Red variety.
Mr. Funk was married February 28, 1904, to Miss Maud E. Graham, daughter of Benjamin F. and Josephine (Tasker) Graham of Seneca, Kans., to whose biography the reader is referred for a history of the Graham family. Two children have been born of this union, as follows: Clifford, aged eight years, and Marguerite, born on the old Funk home- stead. Mrs. Maud E. Funk was born on a farm near Baileyville, Kans., November 2, 1877, and was reared in Seneca. When eighteen years old, she began clerking in the Seneca stores, and was thus employed for seven years in Seneca and Topeka, Kans. One of the heirlooms in possession of Mr. and Mrs. Funk is a large mirror, six feet, nine inches in height, by thirty inches wide, fitted in a massive plaster frame and extra large French beveled. This mirror was brought from Brooklyn, N. Y., and is
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over one hundred years old. Mr. Funk is a Republican in politics, and he and Mrs. Funk are an energetic, ambitious couple who are destined to succeed in the land of their birth as their pioneer parents succeeded before them.
Simon Armstrong .- The career of the late Simon Armstrong, of Home township, in its recital is an epitome of a wonderful success achieved by a poor Scottish homesteader, who preempted land in section Io of Home township over fifty years ago. He was of that sturdy strain which knows no weariness and are universally successful as stockmen the world over. Mr. Armstrong devoted his entire attention to the raising and feeding of cattle and made large earnings where others who had the same opportunities in Kansas failed. At his death he had the satisfaction of bequeathing to his children the large estate of 1,200 acres, which, when divided, made exactly a quarter section of land for each child.
Simon Armstrong was born in Scotland, May 4, 1829, and was reared to young manhood amid the crags and peaks of his native coun- try. He grew up sturdy and strong as well as ambitions to immigrate to America and make his fortune. He came to this country when a young man and first settled in Iowa, where he worked out as a farm `hand until 1865. In that year he came to Nemaha county, Kansas, and homesteaded 160 acres in section 10 of Home township, which is still the home place of the family, and where his widow resides. His work in Nemaha county was one of the greatest successes ever known in the history of Nemaha, and he died a very wealthy man and a large land owner. Probably his greatest pleasure and satisfaction was gleaned from the fact that he could bequeath to each of his eight children a farm of 160 acres as a reward for their assistance while he was accumu- lating a fortune. He departed this life in 1902, and was sincerely mourned as a sturdy and upright citizen.
Mr. Armstrong was married in 1874 to Miss Emma Vautravers, and this marriage resulted in the birth of the following children: Fred, a farmer in Home township; Mrs. Margaret S. Mooney, Home town- ship; John, a farmer in Home township; Lewis, cultivating the home place ; Mrs. Rosa Stout, Mrs. Louise Bryan, Roy and Jessie, all living in Home township. Mr. Armstrong was a member of the Congregational church, of which denomination Mrs. Armstrong and all of her children are members. Mrs. Armstrong was born in Switzerland, December 20. 1852, and was a daughter of David Fred and Sophia (Bonjour) Van- travers, who emigrated from Switzerland in 1854 and settled in the French colony of Neuchatel township, where Mr. Vautravers home- steaded. They were the parents of seven children, the first of whom, a son, to be born in Kansas, died, and was buried in a dry goods box, which served for a coffin, on the home place. Times were hard for the settlers in those early days and Mrs. Armstrong knew what real hard- ships were in her younger days. She attended school in a log hut and
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SIMON ARMSTRONG.
MRS. EMMA ARMSTRONG.
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never received very much schooling. When she was nine years old she worked out among the neighbors in order to lighten the load which her parents were forced to bear in supporting their growing family. She received a wage of $2 per week and remained at home during the winter seasons and assisted in making the clothing worn by the members of the family. She was once employed by a Mrs. Friend in Seneca, Kans., when thirteen years old. She remained with the Friend family for eight months and so faithfully did she keep house for them that they fell in love with her and wished to adopt her as their own. She as well as her brothers and sisters were reared in a log cabin and their nearest trading point was Ft. Leavenworth, where their father journeyed to get flour and other provisions.
The early home of the Vantravers family was located in the north- ern part of Neuchatel township. Mrs. Armstrong resides on her own farm of 120 acres, and has a good nine-room residence as her place of abode, which was erected in 1892. This home sits far back from the road and is surrounded by trees and shrubbery and in the distance are seen several acres of natural timber.
William Curtis Gilmore-"The Blue Grass Stock Farm."-The in- dividual who enlarges his sphere of usefulness to his community beyond the borders of his own personal achievement field and endeavors to further the cause of better farming methods if he be an agriculturist, is conferring a distinct benefit upon his fellow men and making a name and place for himself which will outlive the mere fact of his own personal siic- cess. In William Curtis Gilmore, progressive farmer of Gilman town- ship, the community has a useful citizen who ranks as one of the leaders in his vocation in Nemaha county and who has for many years been an advocate of more advanced farming methods.
William Curtis Gilmore, owner of the "Blue Grass Stock Farm," of 360 acres, in Gilman township, was born in Adams township, July 18, 1879, and is a son of Timothy Gilmore, deceased pioneer settler of Nema- ha county. (See biography of Roy R. Gilmore for complete history of the Gilmore family.) After finishing the district school, William C. Gil- more studied for three terms at Campbell Universty, Holton, Kans. When he became nineteen years of age he taught one term of school and then went to Oklahoma, where he was engaged in the lumber business for nine months. After returning home he farmed and taught school for another winter and then rented land from his father for a year. He then moved on 160 acres of his present farm, which was his wife's inheritance, and has since specialized in fine livestock. Mr. Gilmore deals in Per- cheron horses, and is a breeder of shorthorn cattle, Duroc Jersey swine and R. C. B. Leghorn poultry. While he has never made a practice of exhibiting his fine live stock, Mr. Gilmore has met with more than the average success as a livestock breeder.
Mr. Gilmore was married February 25, 1903, to Miss Marion Wet- more, and this union has been blessed with three children, as follows:
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Howard, aged eleven years; Gilbert, aged five years, and Cornelia, aged three years. Mrs. Gilmore was born on a farm near Oneida, July 10, 1881, and was educated in the district school and Oneida High School. She is a daughter of George A. and Cornelia (Wikoff) Wetmore. George A. Wetmore was born in New York, July 9, 1842, and was thrown upon his own resources by the death of his father when he was twelve years old. His mother remarried and his stepfather drove him away from home. A sister, who was earning her own living by teaching school, gave the homeless boy money with which to pay his train fare to the home of a married sister in Illinois, and he made his home with her until his mar- riage in 1865. After farming on his own account in Illinois, he immi- grated to Gilman township, Nemaha county, Kansas, and bought 160 acres of land, and two years later he bought 200 acres, which he culti- vated until his removal to a home in Seneca in 1901. He lived at Seneca until 1909 and then returned to his farm and resided with his married daughter for two years. He then married Sara Cox at Oneida, Ill., No- vember 22, 1910, and made his home at Oneida, Ill., until his death, Octo- ber 24, 1914. During his lifetime, Mr. Wetmore lived in Oneida, N. Y., Oneida, Kans., and Oneida, Ill .- making three towns named Oneida which claimed him as a citizen. His first wife, Cornelia, was born in Illinois, in 1841, and died in 1895. Four children were born to George A. and Cornelia Wetmore, as follows : Mrs. Mary Firstenberger, Kansas City, Kans .; Herbert, a dentist at Salt Lake City, Utah; Emily, died at the age of two years ; Marion, wife of W. C. Gilmore.
Mr. Gilmore is an independent voter who is not allied with any one political party and does not wear the party yoke of any political boss. He filled the post of township clerk for two years and has served for four years past as treasurer of the school board. He takes an active and influential part in farming activities in Nemaha county which have for their ultimate object the betterment of conditions for the farmers and greater yields of crops and bigger profits. He is secretary of the Farmers' Shipping Association of Oneida, Kans., and is president of the Farmers' Institute and is president of the Nemaha County Farm Bureau.
Ralph Westover is a widely known, retired farmer now living in Goff, Kans. For many years he has lived in Nemaha county as farmer or business man, and is now enjoying in retirement the fruits of his long years of faithful labor.
He is the son of Sherman and Hettie (Canfield) Westover. Sher- man Westover was born in Connecticut in 1812, and came to the West- ern Reserve, Ohio, with his parents, Luman and Sabrey (Smedley) Westover, when he was three years old. Luman Westover was a soldier of the Revolution, and a son of Luman Westover, who emigrated from Holland to America, Sherman Westover received very little education, and spent most of his time working on the farm. He lived with his par- ents until he was thirty-three years old when he bought 133 acres in Portage county, Ohio, and began farming for himself. He was a suc-
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cessful and prosperous farmer, and he continued to buy land until he owned 293 acres. He lived on his farm until his death in 1899. He was a member and deacon of the Christian church. His wife, Hettie, whom he married in Ohio, was born in Connecticut in 1820, and grew up on the farm. Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Westover: Ralph, the subject of this biographical account; Irvin, carpenter and contractor, of Alliance, Ohio, has two children, one son, Charles, is mayor of Alliance ; Mrs. Phoeba Mock, wife of a farmer at Berlin Center, Ohio, has two children, one living, Dr. Wallace K. Mock, a noted physician at Cleve- land, Ohio; John, deceased, father of three girls; Mrs. Annie Case, widow, mother of two children, Alliance, Ohio.
Ralph Westover was born in Portage county, Ohio, January 14. 1837, grew up on the farm, and received a district schooling. At the age of twenty-three, he rented 133 acres of land from his father. A year later he went to Hiram, Ohio, where he rented a hotel, which he conducted for two years. Then he went to Michigan, where he worked as wood chop- per, for almost a year for fifty cents a day and board. He then bought forty acres in Michigan and, after farming it for four years, he sold out and came to Kansas and rented an eighty acre farm near Holton in 1865. Two years later, he hired out as a farm hand and, after working two sea- sons, he bought eighty acres five miles from Holton, where he lived eight years. During this time he had to drive to Atchison and Leavenworth to do all of his trading. Supplies were so scarce for two years that he lived almost entirely on sorghum molasses and corn bread. Money could not be borrowed for less than fifteen per cent interest. He next went to Netawaka, where he helped build the railroad depot, and two years later, came to Goff where, in 1876, he bought 160 acres of raw land nearby. A year later, he sold this, and bought eighty acres on Spring Creek, and two years afterwards, he took a trip through Texas, Arkansas, and Mis- souri, looking for land, and finally bought Missouri land to the extent of 160 acres. He soon sold it, and bought forty acres northeast of Goff, where he lived for two years. He traded this tract for town property and a livery stable, later selling the stable and buying a restaurant, which he operated about a year. Selling this, he built a house and, within a month, sold it to buy a forty acre farm east of Goff, where he - lived two years, and then traded it for eighty acres east of Goff, where he remained five years. At the end of that time, he sold out and retired, and is now living in Goff, where he owns considerable property. He is a member of the Christian church, and is a loyal member of the Demo- cratic party. He has served as township trustee two terms, when he was living at Netawaka.
He was married in 1858 to Mary Stump, daughter of George and Eliza (Brenneman) Stump. Her father was born in 1810 in Pennsyl- vania, and died in 1894 in Ohio. He was a member of the Christian Church. The mother was born in Pennsylvania in 1814, and died in 1849 in Milton township, Mahoning county, Ohio. Eleven children were born
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to them. Mary, wife of Mr. Westover, was born in December, 1840, in Milton township, Mahoning county, Ohio. She was reared on the farm, and received a district schooling. She taught school one term after com- ing to Kansas, and had ten negroes and twenty white children in her first school. Six children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Westover, but five of them died of diphtheria, leaving only one child, Mrs. Harriett Tay- lor, wife of a farmer living a mile west of Goff. She has one child, Mary, the only grandchild of Mr. Westover, and who is married to Leonard Powell, a farmer near Goff. Mr. Westover's first wife died in February, 1909.
In 1910, he was again married to Martha E. Stump, niece of Mary Stump, his first wife. Mrs. Westover was born in Indiana in 1858. In 1910 she came to Kansas from Ohio, and was immediately married to Mr. Westover. She is the daughter of Henry and Barbara (Rummel) Stump. Her father and mother were born in Ohio, and both died in their native State.
Mr. Westover is a farmer who has seen many hard days, but ill luck never kept him down, and he is living in ease and comfort in his old age, a thing which would not have been possible had he not labored so diligently while young and strong. He is much respected and admired by his neighbors, and is well known throughout the township.
Thomas P. Johnstone, farmer in Harrison towship, is a native of Nemaha county, having been born in Granada township March 23, 1884. He is the son of James and Mary Johnstone, whose lives are recorded elsewhere in this volume and to which sketch we refer the reader. Mr. Johnstone's boyhood did not differ much from that of the other small boys of Nemaha county and his boyish pranks and adventures are remem- bered by his old friends. He went to the district school with the other small boys of his neighborhood and learned the three R's. At the age of twenty-one he began to work for himself, but remained at home until he was twenty-six, helping his father part of the time and farming for himself the remainder of the time. Later he rented eighty acres from his father and finding this a successful venture, he bought the place later in the year, and he has lived on the farm since that time. It is fenced and improved to a modern degree and at the present time Mr. Johnstone is building a frame house on it which is twenty-four by thirty-two feet in size and is two stories in height. Mr. Johnstone is a progressive farmer who believes that a stitch in ime saves nine and will invest money in improvements confident that it will make him greater returns in the end. This policy is apparent to the most casual observer around the farm. Mr. Johnstone is a farmer and stock- raiser of prominence throughout his district. Besides raising numerous horses and mules he pays special attention to his breeds of fine Duroc Jersey red hogs of which he is justly proud, as they are among the finest in the township. Mr. Johnstone also operates two threshing outfits and has built a large shed to house them during the winter season. In addi-
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