USA > Kansas > Nemaha County > History of Nemaha County, Kansas > Part 89
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In Indiana he married Elizabeth Waymire, also descended from old American stock, and who bore him a family of seven children, as follows : Rhoda, deceased wife of August Kennedy ; Helen M., wife of Isaac Jones, killed by bushwhackers or Southern sympathizers at Independence, Mo .; Posey W., with whose life career this review is directly involved ; Taylor, a soldier in the Forty-fourth Missouri infantry regiment. en- listed in 1864, was wounded at Franklin, and died in the Union service ; Mary E., wife of Ellis Smith, died at St. Joseph, Mo .; Mirza N. Denver, Colo. During the early thirties, John H. Cox left Ohio and after a stay in Indiana sought a home in Buchanan county, Missouri. He preempted land and proceeded to develop a farm. As settlers came into the county. his services as carpenter were constantly in demand and, of necessity, the clearing and tilling of the Cox homestead were left to the mother and growing children. As the years passed the impending struggle between the North and South over the question of slavery came on and the situ- ation became more and more acute. The Civil war broke out and the Cox family were in great danger from the marauding bands of bush- whackers who infested Missouri at this time. Although Mr. Cox was unable to enlist in the Union armies, he outfitted a neighbor's son with a horse and full equipment and in various other ways showed his loyalty to the Union. The elder Cox deemed it expedient to remove his family across the Missouri river to Doniphan county, Kansas. This he accom- plished in 1862. During that same year he built a grist mill operated by
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water power at Wathena and placed it in operation. He conducted this mill until his death in 1866. His wife, and mother of his children, was born in 1824, in Indiana, and died in Nemaha county, December 6, 1899. After the death of Mr. Cox she was twice married.
Posey W. Cox was reared to young manhood in Missouri and Doni- phan county, Kansas, and grew up to be a sturdy, self-reliant man, inured to hardships and made strong by the outdoor life of the pioneer days. In the spring of 1862 he enrolled in the Kansas State militia for service within the borders of the State, and in September, 1863, he joined Com- pany B, Twelfth Missouri regiment of cavalry, and saw much active service in the Union armies of the Southland. His first battle was in Mississippi. The cavalry detachment with which he was connected was constantly on the move, and he took part in many skirmishes and
engagements. He was wounded at the battle of Nashville, Tenn., De- cember 14, 1864, and received a bad gunshot wound in the left leg; at Campbellsburg, Tenn., a few days later, the same leg was run through with a saber in the hands of an adversary. Some time later he fought in the battle of Franklin, Tenn. During 1864. his command, under Colonel Wells, was sent out and was constantly in the saddle for sixty days and nights of continuous fighting and skirmishing, which called for forced marches. In the spring of 1865, his command was ordered north, and in June, 1865, they marched from Ft. Leavenworth with a full new out- fit. After a month's stay at Omaha, they left that city on September 15 after the rebellious Indians, and participated in the great Powder River Indian battle. This campaign was filled with hardships for the soldiers, who were compelled to go without adequate shoes or clothing while in the far West away from their base of supplies. Mr. Cox cut up saddle strips with which to make boot coverings, and he received no clothing until the army reached Ft. Reno.
At the close of his army service he returned to Wathena. Kans., April 16, 1866, and took charge of the water mill which his father had built. In July, 1867, his first marriage occurred with Miss Mary Wells, who was born in Doniphan county, Kansas. in 1845, and died in 1868. leaving a son, John H. Cox, now living at Hoyt, Kans. After his wife's death, Mr. Cox went to Utah and hewed railroad ties for railroad con- struction work for some time, and after his return to Kansas he engaged in the same occupation at a point twelve miles west of Kansas City, Mo., in the timber. In 1870 he walked the entire distance of forty miles from Hamlin to Seneca, Kans., and started working in the timber north of Seneca. He also worked as farm hand during the same summer. In the spring of 1871 he rented land on Harris creek from Mrs. Priscilla Clancy. For a time he lived at the home of his mother-in-law and worked at different jobs. He rented land for about seven years and in 1886 he bought his present farm, which was undeveloped prairie land at that time. Mr. Cox has a total of 117 acres, eighty acres of which are in section 34. Washington township, and thirty-seven acres in Gilman township. Mr.
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Cox and his son Eli are breeders of Duroc Jersey swine, but of late years Mr. Cox has turned the management of his farm over to his son and is living a retired life.
His second marriage occurred with Mary F. Williams, December 17, 1871. Four children have blessed this marriage, namely : Mrs. Eva Bird, Bern, Kans. (see biography) ; Eli, born February 7, 1875, now farm- ing the home place; Emery W., born September 26, 1880, a mechanic at Bern, Kans .; one child died in infancy. Mrs. Cox was born March 10, 1846, near Jefferson City, Mo., and is a daughter of Eli and Eliza (Eng- lish) Williams, Kansas pioneers (see sketch of George W. Williams, of Oneida).
Mr. Cox is allied with the Republican party, and has held local of- fices, such as road supervisor and member of the school board. In his way he has been active in civic and political affairs in the years past and has always done his duty as a loyal American citizen. He and Mrs. Cox are members of the Christian church and liave led exemplary and upright lives which have endeared them to a host of friends in Nemaha county. Mr. Cox is a member of the Grand Army Post at Seneca.
Dr. Burton Conrad, veterinarian, Sabetha, Kans., is one of the highly successful practitioners of northeast Kansas and a well known leader of his difficult profession. Dr. Conrad was born on a farm in Capioma township, Nemaha county, September II, 1875, and is a son of George IV. and Lurania Conrad. George W. Conrad, Sr., was born in Rome, N. Y., in 1841, and was a son of German-born parents. His father was Wesley Conrad. George W. was reared to young manhood in New York and immigrated to Illinois in 1861. He was there married to Miss Lur- ania Rawson. Mr. Conrad enlisted for service in the Union army in the Twenty-eighth Illinois infantry regiment, and served until the close of the Civil war. He participated in the following battles : Sabine Cross Roads, Gettysburg, Appomattox Court House, and was present at the fall of Richmond and witnessed General Lee's surrender. He moved to a farm near Grinnel in 1866 and in 1868 he immigrated to Nemaha coun- ty. Kansas, purchasing 240 acres of land in Capioma township, which he tilled until his removal to Sabetha in 1879. He operated a general store and grain business at Sabetha and took an active part in city affairs. He was a member of the Sabetha Fair Association and was one of the builders of Grand Army Hall. He was engaged in business for two years and then returned to the farm and remained there until his removal to Tacoma, Wash., from which city he moved to Dover, Okla. Mr. Conrad served as a member of the State legislature in 1887, having been elected to the office in 1886. His wife, Lurania Rawson, was born at Nadick, Mass., in 1842, and was a daughter of Caleb and Lurania Rawson, whose ancestry traces back to the earliest colonial families of New England. Caleb Rawson was a gardener and horticulturist who moved to Illinois, thence to Iowa, and from there to Kansas in 1871. He owned a farm six miles southwest of Sabetha, which he tilled for some years, and later
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moved to a tract of fifty-three acres in the northwest part of the city. He turned his attention to market gardening and horticulture. Mrs. Conrad is a bright, intelligent woman, who has been a good and true mother to her children.
Dr. Burton Conrad received his primary education in district school No. 25,' and the Sabetha High School, where he studied for three years prior to entering the State Agricultural College at Manhattan, Kans. He graduated from the State Agricultural College in 1895. He began studying at the Kansas City Veterinary College in 1903 and obtained his degree as veterinarian in 1905. He at once began practice at Sabetha and has been very successful. Dr. Conrad played football for sixteen years and served as captain of the Manhattan team for two years.
He was married July 25, 1895, to Miss Nertha Anora Steele, born Oc- tober 30, 1875, at Clinton, Mo. Mrs. Conrad is a daughter of Jefferson and Sarah (Ford) Steele, natives of Missouri, who came to Kansas in 1884 and settled in Ottawa county. Mr. Steele now resides at Minne- apolis, Kans., and Mrs. Steele is deceased. Three children have been born to Dr. and Mrs. Conrad, as follows: Melba and Leila, graduates of the Sabetha High School, and Florence, member of the junior high school class. Mrs. Conrad completed a course in domestic science at the Man- hattan College. It is interesting to note that her grandfather on her mother's side was Boaz Ford, born in Illinois in 1826, and now residing at Trenton, Mo. He married Elinor Thorpe, who was born in Illinois in 1831. Boaz Ford is a fifth cousin of Henry Ford, of the Ford Motor Car Company.
Dr. Conrad has achieved a considerable measure of success of a substantial and enduring nature in the practice of his profession. He was elected president of the Kansas State Veterinary Association in 1915. Dr. Conrad is a registered veterinarian under the State laws of Kansas, and it is a fact that there are few veterinarians in active prac- tice who are registered under the State law providing for registration. He was one of the promoters in the establishment of the hog cholera pre- vention movement, which led to the placing of a preventative serum sta- tion in Nemaha county. He is a delegate to the State conventions of veterinarians and has frequently contributed articles which have been published in the "Veterinary Journal." Dr. Conrad is a member of the Knights and Ladies of Security and is serving his second year as presi- dent of the local lodge. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen and is a Republican in politics.
James L. Barnes, real estate dealer at Goff, Kans., was born on a farm in Granada township, September 17, 1876, and is a son of James O. and Ellen E. (Walters) Barnes, who were early pioneer settlers in Ne- maha county. James O. Barnes, his father, was born in Meigs county, Ohio, March 10, 1841, and was a son of James O. and Mary Ann Barnes, natives of Scotland. James O. Barnes, grandfather of the subject, was born March 10, 1812, and died April 9, 1873. His wife, Mary Ann, was
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born August 15, 1815, and died November 8, 1875. The Barnes family were early settlers in Meigs county, Ohio, and were among the earliest pioneers in Kansas.
James O. Barnes homesteaded land in section 20, Granada town- ship, in 1858, and it is a matter of local history that he walked from Leavenworth, Kans., to his new location in this township. He built a log cabin and broke up the virgin soil with oxen. When the Civil war began, he enlisted in the Eighth Kansas infantry regiment, and saw much active service on the Southern battlefields in the Union armies. He was wounded in the hip at the great battle of Chickamauga. He re- ' ceived his honorable discharge from the service at the close of the war in 1865 and returned to his homestead in Nemaha county. He farmed his land until his retirement in 1896. He died at Goff, Kans., June 22, 1906. James O. and Ellen E. Barnes were parents of the following chil- dren: Joseph J., Oklahoma City, Okla .; Huldah, born in 1869, and died . same year; Mrs. Sarah Anne Monkres, Shawnee, Okla .; Philip, born in 1872, died in 1916, at Drumright, Okla., where he met death in a gas explosion ; Alfred, Red Rock, Okla .; James L., subject of this review ; Nellie, born in 1882, died in 1889. The mother of the foregoing children was born in Barry county, Missouri, October 27, 1842, and died at Goff, Kans., December 20, 1894.
James L. Barnes was reared to manhood in Nemaha county and took up farming after spending his boyhood days on his father's farm in Granada township. He was educated in the district schools of his native township.
Upon his removal to Goff, Kans., he engaged in the real estate busi- ness and has been very successful. Mr. Barnes is an extensive land owner and a wide-awake, energetic citizen, who has been active in the affairs of his home city and county. He is a director of the First Na- tional Bank of Goff. While a resident of Marshall county, Kansas, he served two terms as county clerk of that county from 1906 to 1910.
Mr. Barnes was married to Miss Sarah Ann Berridge, September 17, 1900, at Goff, Kans. Mr. and Mrs. Barnes have children as follows : Raymond Kennedy, born November 14, 1903; James Leander, born Janu- ary 6, 1909. Mrs. Barnes was born at Netawaka, Kans., June 30, 1875, and is a daughter of Henry and Annie E. (Hopkins) Berridge, the for- mer of whom was born in Ohio, September 23, 1854, and the latter was born in Wales, May 9, 1854. Mr. and Mrs. Berridge are parents of the following children : William, deceased ; Sarah Ann, Samuel, Jennie, Mar- garet and Edna.
Mr. Barnes is a member of the Republican party and is affiliated with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Blue Rapids, Kans., and is a member of the Scottish Rite Masons at Topeka, Kans.
Augustus F. Gabbert, owner of a fine farm of 160 acres in Reilly township, is a son of Adolph J. and Louisa (Keeter) Gabbert, concern- ing whose biography the reader is referred to a sketch which appears
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elsewhere in this volume. Mr. Gabbert was born in Reilly township, March 3, 1868, and was reared on his father's farm, receiving a district school education. When twenty-one years old he rented his father's farm for a year, then went to Kansas City, Mo., where he was employed as engineer with the firm of Nickels & Sheppard for two years. His fa- ther then gave him eighty acres, which he farmed for three years and then bought another eighty. In addition to conducting his farming op- erations, Mr. Gabbert has the agency for the Buick automobiles. He has been selling Buick cars for the past seven years and has placed many cars in his territory during that time.
Mr. Gabbert was married in 1896 to Josephine Wilcox, who was born in Jackson county, Kans., March 8, 1878, and is a daughter of Wil- liam T. and Sarah (Timmons) Wilcox (see sketch). She was a member of the first class to graduate from the Goff High School, in 1895. Mr. and Mrs. Gabbert have three children, namely: Kenneth Eugene, born August 11, 1896, at present on the Mexican border on duty with Company M'of the Idaho State militia, squads 1 and 2, Idaho National Guard, infantry regiment. He is a graduate of the Bancroft and Wetmore schools and studied in Kansas University for a year, at Lawrence, and taught school one year. The second child was Floyd Burdel, born May 3. 1898, and died August 25, 1899. Bernetta Irene, the third child, was born February 19, 1900, and is a student in the Bancroft High School. She is also a teacher of piano music. Mrs. Josephine Gabbert has the distinction of having reared two families, her own and her father's fam-' ily. She was the eldest of eight children, five daughters of whom are living. When her mother died she took charge of the home and prac- tically mothered the entire family and assisted her sisters after her mar- riage.
Sarah Timmons Wilcox, mother of Mrs. Gabbert, was born Decem- ber 16, 1858, in Indiana, and came to Nemaha county, Kans., in the early sixties with her parents, Nelson B. and Christina Timmons, who home- steaded land in this county. Mrs. Wilcox died in 1886. Nelson B. Tim- mons and his wife were among the founders of Lane University, the United Brethren School at Lecompton, Kans., founded in 1878. They gave $225, the price of two scholarships in the university, and paid this money in 1863, at a time when money was not very plentiful in Kansas. Mrs. Christina Timmons is still living at Lecompton at the ripe old age of ninety-one years. She is still active and in full possession of her men- tal faculties. She is one of the leaders of the Women's Christian Tem- perance Union, and is a great letter writer. Mrs. Timmons is one of the noted historical characters of Kansas.
Mr. Gabbert is a Democrat and is a member of the local school board. Mrs. Gabbert is a member of the Christian church.
William S. McNeill .- Fifty-six years have passed since the parents of William S. McNeill, large land owner of Corning, Kans., located in Nemaha county. This was the earliest pioneer era of the settlement and
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development of Nemaha county, and Mr. McNeill is rightly one of the oldest pioneers of this county in point of years of residence. His par- ents were John and Sarah (Kepler) McNeill, natives of Ireland.
John McNeill, father of the subject of this review, was born in Monahan county, Ireland, April 15, 1818, and immigrated to America in 1842. He landed at New York City and went from there to Illinois, where he resided until 1859, when he migrated to Nemaha county, Kansas. While a resident of Illinois, John McNeill accumulated a forty- acre farm by the exercise of rigid economy and hard work. As soon as he had saved enough money after paying for his land he sent for his aged parents in Ireland and had them come to his home in Illinois. He showed his love and devotion to his parents by making them a gift of the forty acres, after which he again started west to make another home for himself. He landed in Kansas with three yoke of oxen and fifty cents in cash. He preempted the southwest quarter of section 17-4-12, Illinois township, which is located three miles southeast of Centralia in Nemaha county. His first cabin was a small affair, 16x12x61/2 feet in dimensions, with no floor but the earth itself and built with a board roof. The family bedstead was made of forked sticks driven into the ground and poles laid lengthwise in the forks and across so as to support a straw filled bed ticking. His table was made in this manner: two holes were bored in a log in a side of the cabin, pins driven into the holes, and a wide board laid on the pins to serve as a table. Benches were used in this primitive home instead of chairs. Later, Mr. McNeill hauled the lumber from Atchison for his first frame house, using oxen as the motive power in transporting his lumber. The only lumber obtainable in those days was cottonwood. Lath were split out of oak logs. The house was roofed with shingles split from walnut logs. The walnut logs were first sawed into shingle blocks two and one-half feet in length and then split with a shingle flay. During the great drouth of 1860 the McNeill family lived on Irish potatoes for over a week while the head of the family was ab- sent on a trip to Atchison for provisions. During one season, Mr. Mc- Neill racked and bound eighty acres of wheat. A neighbor had forty acres of winter wheat and he had forty acres of spring wheat. He agreed with his neighbor to rack and bind his forty acres of winter wheat provid- ing he would cradle his own forty acres of spring wheat. The bargain was struck and the feat performed to the satisfaction of both parties. During 1865 he had fifty acres of spring wheat that averaged thirty-one bushels to the acre. He sold this wheat crop from the threshing machine for $2.50 per bushel.
John McNeill accumulated a total of 2,100 acres of land and owned large herds of horses and cattle. He was an extensive cattle feeder and 11sttally had stock on hand for sale when the markets were paying a good price. At the time of his death he owned bank stock in the First National Bank of Centralia to the extent of $8,000; owned stock in the Farmers State Bank at Corning to the amount of $5,000; and held stock in a
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Kansas City bank valued at $2,000. His personal property amounted to over $40,000. P. T. Casey, late of Corning, administered the estate and gave bonds for $80,000.
Mr. McNeill was first married to a Miss Martin, who bore him three daughters, namely : Mrs. Lizzie Patterson ; Eliza, wife of James Bran- den ; Jane, wife of Charles Carl. His second marriage was with Mrs. Sarah Ensminger, who bore him seven children, as follows: Lenora, wife of John Cook, farmer and stockman, deceased; William S., married Theresa J. Cline, and is a subject of this review ; Saralı Clementine, mar- ried John F. Randall, a farmer and stockman at Corning, who deals ex- tensively in mules; John Edward, Oliver Perry, Louie Lafayette and Anne Elizabeth, deceased.
· John McNeill was a Republican in politics and held the office of trustee of his township for seven years. He was several times asked to hold other important offices, but usually declined. At one time his friends tried to prevail upon him to allow his name to be presented as a candidate for Governor of Kansas, but he declined the great honor. Mr. McNeill was a well-educated man, being the eldest son of his father's family. He served as a member of the school board for many years and taught school at times in his younger days. He was a member of the Methodist church, with which denomination he became united when twelve years old. On several occasions he filled the pulpit of his old church when called upon to do so. The motto of this fine, old pioneer was "Yes," or "No," promptly and irrevocably when matters were pre- sented to him for his decision. He never quibbled, but was always ready with an answer. He was prompt in his financial dealings, and expected the same course from those with whom he had business transactions.
William S. McNeill, with whom this review is directly concerned, was born in Illinois, September 12, 1856. He was reared to young man- hood on the pioneer farm in Nemaha county, and at the age of twenty-six years, he rented land for himself for three years. He rented land near America City for another two years, and then located at Hiawatha, Kans., where he conducted an agency business for a year, followed by fif- teen years experience in the real estate business at Corning, Kans. He then engaged in farming, but retained his home in Corning. At the pres- ent time, Mr. McNeill owns 1,040 acres of land in Nemaha county, most of which is located in Red Vermillion township. His farm land is being operated by his sons. He has fifty head of Aberdeen Angus cattle, twenty head of hogs and has fifteen acres of alfalfa.
Mr. McNeill was married, in 1885, to Miss Theresa J. Cline, who has borne him children, as follows: John, born in 1886, engaged in the real estate business at Kansas City, Mo .; Clark, born 1887, engaged in rail- . road work ; Frank and Oliver, twins, born 1890; Joseph, born 1894; Ethel, born 1898; Weaver, born 1903; Teddy, born 1906; a child died in infancy. Frank, Oliver and Joseph are industrious and enterprising young farmers who are operating their father's large farm. The mother of the foregoing children is a daughter of Patrick and Bridget (Reilly) Cline.
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Mr. McNeill is a Republican, and has served as a member of the Corning town council.
John S. Butts, owner of a farm of 320 acres in Reilly township and 160 acres in New Mexico, is a native of Kentucky and a son of William and Mary M. (Hansford) Butts, who were born and reared in Casey county, Kentucky. William Butts, his father, was born in 1836, and learned the trade of carpenter in his youth. He served as a Union volun- teer in Company C, Eighth Kentucky cavalry during the Civil war. He left his native State in 1877, and came west to Holton, Kans., and worked at his trade in that city for five years. He then spent four years in Arkansas, and returned to Kansas, where he spent his remaining years with the exception of two years spent in Oregon. He was a member of the Methodist church, and was a Republican in politics. His wife, Mary M., was born in Kentucky, in 1837, and was married to William Butts in 1857. Five children were born to William and Mary M. Butts, as fol- lows: Mrs. Mary Hunt, died in Oklahoma; John S., subject of this re- view; William, deceased; Mrs. Lizzie A. Bostwick, Bancroft, Kans .; the fifth child died in infancy.
John S. Butts, with whom this review is directly concerned, was born in Kentucky, December 5, 1865, and started out in life for himself when eighteen years old. He worked as farm hand until 1888, and then rented a quarter section of land for three years. He continued renting farm lands until 1895, at which time he bought eighty acres near Ban- croft, and lived thereon for three years, after which he sold out and bought 640 acres in Sheridan county, Kansas. One year's residence was sufficient for him in Sheridan county, however, and he sold his large tract and returned to Nemaha county, purchasing 320 acres in Reilly township, which is his present home place. Mr. Butts is essentially a cattleman, and raises and feeds for the markets from 100 to 200 head of cattle annually. He was married, in 1890, to Miss Lucile McCormick.
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