USA > Kansas > Reno County > History of Reno County, Kansas; its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 12
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It was on November 27, 1882, in Martin county, Indiana, that Pierce C. Roberts was united in marriage to Martha Imogene Smith, who was born in that county on December 7. 1857, daughter of Dr. Nicholas S. and Mary J. (Charles) Smith, both natives of Orange county, Indiana, and prominent and influential residents of that section of the Hoosier state, the latter of whom is still living, making her home at Hutchinson, this county, in a ripe old age. Mary Jane Charles was born on September 22, 1836, and on February 12, 1857, at Natchez, in Martin county, Indiana, was married to Dr. Nicholas S. Smith, who was born on August 31, 1828, son of a prominent pioneer Baptist preacher, who had emigrated to that section of Indiana from Kentucky. Doctor Smith's eldest brother, Daniel, also was a physi- cian, but when his brother entered practice he turned his attention to the gospel ministry, was ordained a minister of the Methodist church and thus continued until he was placed on the honorably retired list. Doctor Smith's second brother, Harrison. also was a minister, but followed his father in the Baptist faith and was for many years a minister of that church. The ven- erable Mrs. Smith still recalls the days when she would sit for an hour and a half listening to the sermons of the Rev. Harrison Smith without growing weary. There were three other brothers, Ford, John and Benjamin Smith, who, though not ministers, were very pious men and active in all good works. Mrs. Smith's father, William Charles, was the son of William Charles, one of the earliest settlers of Orange county, Indiana, who was killed by Indians while plowing in his field near the pioneer blockhouse at French Lick Springs in that county. The son, William, then was but two years old and a year later was orphaned. indeed, when his mother died, unable to re- cover from the shock and grief due to the murder of her husband, and he was reared to manhood by a cousin, Azor Charles. Dr. Nicholas S. Smith enlisted for service in the Union army upon the breaking out of the Civil War and went to the front as first lieutenant of Company A, Seventeenth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, with which he served for three years, at the end of which time he received his honorable discharge on a physician's certificate of disability, illness incapacitating him for further service. To Doctor Smith and wife three children were born, Mrs. Roberts having had two brothers, Daniel L. Smith, former clerk of Pueblo county, Colorado, who died on March 13, 1900, and Delos V. Smith, who is engaged in the saddlery business at Hutchinson. Daniel L. Smith married Eugenia Day, of Pueblo, Colorado, and had four children, Darwin Bidwell, Martha Irene, Wolcot and Elizabeth. Delos V. Smith married Bessie Bloom and
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has one child. a son, Delos. Dr. Nicholas S. Smith died at his home in Martin county, Indiana, June 12, 1867, his health having been permanently impaired by his service in the army.
To Pierce C. and Martha Imogene (Smith) Roberts three children have been born, sons all, Harry W., born in Martin county, Indiana, Novem- ber 17, 1883, now operating a general store at Elkhart. Kansas, who mar- ried Ethel Burnett, December 25, 1908, and has three children, Eugene Pierce, born on October 17, 1909: Harry Daniel. December 26, 1912, and died in May, 1913, and Robert Burnett, August 20, 1915: Daniel Leroy, born in Martin county, Indiana, February 8, 1886, a progressive young man in partnership with his brothers at Elkhart, who married Margaret Newey. March 23, 1907, and has two children, Margaret Estella, born on June 17, 19II, and Daniel Leroy, Jr., June 15. 1915, and Chester I., born in Byron township, Stafford county, this state, November 16, 1893, who is connected with his brother in the general mercantile business at Elkhart. Mr. and Mrs. Roberts are members of the Christian church and take a proper inter- est in the various beneficences of the same as well as in all worthy move- ments for the advancement of the common interest hereabout.
CHARLES E. WAGONER.
The late Charles E. Wagoner, for years a well-known and popular dairyman in the Hutchinson neighborhood and later prosperous rancher and stockman, who died at his home in Reno township, this county, on June 5, 1911, was a native of Ohio, having been born on a farm near Bellevue, in Huron county, that state, on June 5, 1863, and his death occurred on the forty-eighth anniversary of his birth. He was the son of Levi and Sarah Wagoner, farming people of Ohio, who came to Kansas about the year 1880 and settled on a farm near the town of Sterling. in Rice county, where they spent the remainder of their lives, devout members of the Christian church. Besides the subject, another of their sons came to Reno county, David Wagoner, who is a well-known farmer in Valley township.
Charles E. Wagoner was about sixteen years old when he came to Kansas with his parents and he grew to manhood on the home farm in Rice county. He married young, in 1883, and then bought a farm lying between Sterling and Lyons, in Rice county, on which he lived for a few years, at the end of which time he sold it and for a time thereafter rented farms in the Sterling neighborhood. He always was interested in cattle and
, CHARLES E. WAGONER AND FAMILY.
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was considered an expert in their care. It was his great desire to become an extensive stockman, but the seasons of drought and hot winds about that period so strongly militated against his success that in 1900 he still was a poor man. In 1901 he decided to make a change of base and with this end in view came to Reno county, where, on the outskirts of Hutchinson, he engaged in market gardening for a season, at the same time doing a small business in the dairy line, he having brought nine cows and a team of horses with him. The dairy business seemed promising and he presently bought out the extensive equipment of the Charles Bloom dairy and went into the business on a considerable scale. He had practically no money to pay down for the equipment he bought, but he was able to secure the same on advan- tageous terms and was successful from the very start, it not being long before he was the proprietor of the leading dairy farm in the county, his product proving so popular in and about Hutchinson that he was enabled to raise the rate to a price above five cents the quart, the first time such an increase had been attempted in Hutchinson, without creating a protest on the part of his customers. He and his wife and his children all worked diligently and with excellent results, their business prospering beyond their most hopeful expectations.
When Charles E. Wagoner arrived in Reno county in 1901 he was eight hundred dollars in debt and possessed practically nothing save the nine cows and the team of horses above mentioned. Ten years later he was the owner of four hundred and twenty acres of choice land in Reno county, all paid for and producing him a handsome revenue from his extensive opera- tions in cattle. From the profits of his dairy business he bought, in 1907. a half section of land from William Buttles, in Clay township, remodeled the house which stood on the same, put up modern farm buildings and engaged in cattle raising, the pursuit in which his heart had always been most closely concerned. In 1910 he sold the dairy business and devoted his whole attention to cattle raising and was greatly prosperous, a short time before his death he having bought an additional hundred acres adjoining his original half section in Clay township. His specialty was pure-bred Short- horn cattle and Poland China hogs and his stock farm soon gained a wide reputation for the fine quality of its stock. Since his death his widow and her three sons have continued successfully to manage the farm. Mr. Wag- oner was a member of the Christian church, as are all the members of his family. He was a Democrat, and in his lodge affiliations was connected with the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Knights of the Maccabees.
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On December 4, 1883. Charles E. Wagoner was united in marriage to Emma Gibson, who was born in Cedar county, Iowa, February 20, 1860, daughter of James and Sarah Gibson, both of whom were born in the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but who did not meet until they were grown and living in Cedar county, Iowa. James Gibson, for eighteen years, had done service as a bookkeeper in a commercial concern in Pittsburgh and then, deciding to get a touch of the West, moved to Iowa, settling in Cedar county, where he bought a farm and there he married, his wife having lived in that county since her childhood, her parents having moved from Pitts- burgh. In the spring of 1875 James Gibson sold his Iowa farm and came to Kansas, driving through with his family and such portable belongings as conveniently could be loaded in the wagon, and driving several cows along, the family arriving at Sterling, in Rice county, on June 1, 1875. On their way they had driven through Hutchinson, the little daughter, Emma, now Mrs. Wagoner, driving the cows through the main street of the town. She recalls to this day the dreary appearance presented at that time by the strag- gling village, a half waste of drifting sand dotted by houses of a very crude style of architecture. Upon arriving in Rice county, James Gibson bought a half section of land and later bought more land, presently becoming quite well-to-do. He and his wife were devout people, members of the Christian church, and earnest folk, who set about establishing the new home very energetically. They were the parents of eight daughters and one son, the latter of whom, the youngest of the family, was the only one of the family born in Kansas. Upon their arrival in Rice county, the Gibsons were poor, but all hands set to work and pretty soon they began to see their way clear. The older daughters taught school and brought home every cent of the money thus earned, all going into the common fund with which to pay off the mortgage on the original purchase of land. Emma Gibson, now Mrs. Wagoner, was the eldest of these eight helpful daughters and much of the burden of providing ways and means fell upon her willing shoulders. At the age of sixteen she began teaching school and from the first was success- ful, continuing her service as a teacher for ten years. During the earlier years of this service her father begged her not to marry, but to stay with him, a helpful daughter, until the obligation of his debt was released and she promised to do so; and kept her promise. Mrs. Wagoner is a very capable woman and is making a very successful farm manager. She is ably assisted by her three sons, Vernon, who was born on June 1. 1894; Perlon, February 22, 1807. and Harlon, April 9. 1900.
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JAMES L. PENNEY.
Associated with the business interests of Hutchinson, Reno county, Kansas, almost from the very beginning of that town, the late James L. Penney played an important part in the upbuilding of this now thriving city. While Mr. Penney was a successful business man, he was not content to work for his own interests only, but was always ready to aid every measure for the benefit of the public, and especially for his interest in the cause of education will he long be remembered in the city of Hutchinson.
James L. Penney was born in the pleasant village of Adams, in Jeffer- son county, New York, June 5, 1848, the son of George and Mary ( Gard- ner) Penney, both of whom were natives of the Empire state.
George Penney was of English descent and was a farmer in Jefferson county. Both he and his wife lived in New York state all their lives, and were devoted members of the Baptist church. They were the parents of six sons and one daughter, the subject of this sketch being the youngest of the family.
James L. Penney attended the public schools of his native town, and was graduated from the Hungerford Institute at Adams, New York. After teaching school in New York state for several terms he went to live with a brother in LaSalle county, Illinois, and taught school in that locality one winter. In 1869, Mr. Penney went to Topeka, Kansas, and became cashier of the Alfred Ennis Company, which firm carried on a law and real-estate business.
The town of Hutchinson was founded in 1871 by C. C. Hutchinson. who determined, in the year following, to establish a bank in the new town. Accordingly, he wrote to the Ennis Company in Topeka to recommend a young man for cashier of the new bank. The company recommended Mr. Penney, and so, in April. 1872, he came to Hutchinson as cashier of the Reno County Bank-the first bank in Reno county. The bank passed safely through the panic of 1873. and after an existence of four years was sold out in 1876. Mr. Penney then bought a partnership with J. S. George, with whom he was associated for two years in the grocery business. He then went to Odell, Illinois, and joined his brother, Seth H. Penney, in conduct- ing a general store, remaining there about two years.
Mr. Penney returned to Hutchinson in 1880, and built a corn and wheat feed-mill on the bank of the mill race where Avenue C is now located. Later he formed a second partnership with J. S. George in the Hutchinson
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Produce Company, which was located on the corner of Washington and First streets. Subsequently, Mr. Penney organized the Hutchinson Music Company, at 17 South Main street. of which company he was president and main owner, and in which business he continued until his retirement from active affairs in 1908.
On April 8, 1873. James L. Penney was united in marriage in Topeka, Kansas, with Mary McLaughlin, of Indianapolis, Indiana, the daughter of Col. John A. and Louisa ( Moorhouse) Mclaughlin, both of whom were descended from Revolutionary ancestors. The maternal grandfather of Col. John A. Mclaughlin, a Kimberley, emigrated from Connecticut to Ohio, where he secured a land grant given to Revolutionary soldiers. Louisa Moorhouse came from an old Virginia family, her great-grandfather, Col. Robert McFarland, having served in the American Revolution.
James L. and Mary ( McLaughlin) Penney were the parents of three children. Louis Arthur, who died when two years old. Elizabeth, Alice and Edith Louise. Elizabeth Alice Penney is the wife of John F. Fontron. who is associated with the Fontron Loan and Trust Company. of Hutchin- son. Edith Louise Penney on June 29, 1911, was married to Oscar A. Peterson. of Hutchinson.
James L. Penney served as secretary and treasurer of the Hutchinson school board for several terms in the early seventies. He promoted the movement to issue bonds to build the first large school house in the city. This bond issue was opposed by citizens in certain sections of the city who wished the school house located in their neighborhood. As the time for the election drew near it looked as though the bond issue would be defeated. and it was mainly due to the efforts of C. C. Hutchinson and Mr. Penney and his wife that the bond issue was carried. Mr. Penney sold the bonds in Kansas City and with the proceeds he and his associates built the "Sher- man Street school house." which was the school attended by all the Hutchin- son pioneer children. This building served for forty years, when it was torn down in 1915. to be replaced by a modern building.
Mr. Penney served on the school board for several terms at a later 1wriod. He was an ardent Republican, and was especially interested in good local government. lle was a charter member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He attended the Presbyterian church. James L. Penney died in Hutchinson on March 29. 1914, and was sincerely mourned by all who knew him.
When Mr. and Mrs. Penney returned to Hutchinson they resided in the first block on Avente B. west. and lived there for twenty-two years.
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Int 1902, they built the residence at 521 Sherman avenue, east, which Mrs. Penney still owns. This home is built on a lot which is part of an acre in the C. C. Hutchinson farm on which the city was founded. Mrs. Penney had owned the acre tract since 1876.
Mrs. Mary ( MeLaughlin ) Penney. is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. During her residence in Hutchinson she has seen the straggling village grow into a beautiful and prosperous city and can take just pride in the knowledge that she and her husband helped in this development.
WALTER B. HARRIS.
Walter B. Harris, official surveyor and civil engineer of Reno county and one of the best-known civil engineers in Kansas, is a native of Arkan- sas, having been born in Stone county, that state, August 18, 1868. son of Augustus B. and Carrie V. (Stevens) Harris, the former a native of Arkansas and the latter of Tennessee, both now deceased.
Augustus B. Harris was reared on a farm in his native state and grew up to strong, robust manhood. When the Civil War broke out he enlisted in the cause of the Confederate states and served to the close of the war, being present with Lee at the surrender at Appomattox. He participated in the battle of Shiloh and numerous of the bloodiest engagements of the war, receiving several wounds, which undoubtedly shortened his life. Upon the conclusion of his military service he walked back from Virginia to his home in Arkansas and there engaged in the general mercantile business in his home village, being thus engaged until his death, at the age of thirty-six years, in 1874. His widow survived until 1912, her death occurring at San Antonio, Texas. She was the mother of three children, the subject of this sketch having two sisters. Mabel, who married R. J. Jeffrey and lives at Fayetteville. Arkansas, and Margaret, who married T. A. Black, a grocer at San Antonio, Texas.
Walter B. Harris was six years old when his father died. His ele- mentary schooling was obtained in the schools of his home village and he later entered the Missouri School of Mining at Rolla, from which he was graduated after a four-years course in 1895, with the degree of Civil Engi- neer. Thus equipped for the calling to which he had devoted his life, Mr. Harris took employment with the Frisco railroad, in Missouri, as a civil engineer, later going to the Midland Valley, in Oklahoma, in the same
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capacity. He also surveyed numerous branch railroads, and was thus engaged until he was installed as assistant city engineer at Hutchinson in 1905. After two years of service in that connection he was employed on an irrigation project in New Mexico for a year. at the end of which time he returned to Hutchinson and resumed his former place in the city engineer's office, and was thus engaged until his appointment in 1910 to the office of county engineer of Reno county, which position he ever since has held. Mr. Harris is a member of the Kansas Engineering Society and is one of the best-known civil engineers in this state.
On July 5. 1904. at St. Louis, Missouri, Walter B. Harris was united in marriage to Eliza B. Mckinley, who was born in Pennsylvania. and to this union two children have been born. Margaret M., born on May 5, 1906. and Victor B .. July 2, 1908. Mr. Harris has a very pleasant home at 122 Seventh avenue and he and his wife take an interested part in the, various social and cultural activities of their home town.
THE FONTRON FAMILY.
The founder of the Fontron family in America, prominently repre- sented in Hutchinson, Reno county, Kansas, by Joseph A. Fontron, Louis E. Fontron and John F. Fontron, was Joseph Vonthron, an Alsatian. who came to the United States in 1832. locating in Peoria county, Illinois. He erected and operated the first grist- and saw-mill in the city of Peoria. known at that time as Ft. Clark. He was also largely interested in farm lands there. After his death the name of Vonthron was AAnglicized. becon- ing Fontron.
In 1838 Joseph Vonthron married Katherine Herr, a Bavarian, who came to this country and located in Peoria county, Illinois, in 1832. In 1849. attracted by the gold fields of California. Joseph Vonthron left his interests and started for the new Eldorado. He died in California in 1851. leaving a widow and four children, the eldest, Mary. still living in Peoria. Illinois: Katherine and Elizabeth, deceased, and Joseph A. Fontron, then five years of age.
Joseph A. Fontron was married at Hennepin. Illinois, in 1870 to Anna Feltes, who was born at Kinderhook. New York, March 10, 1852, and was the daughter of Peter and Elizabeth ( McDermott) Feltes. After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph .A. Fontron lived in Henry, Illinois, until
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1873. They then removed to Castleton, Stark county, Illinois, where for three years Mr. Fontron was engaged in the mercantile business. In 1876 they came to Hutchinson, Kansas. Mr. Fontron was engaged for one year in the mercantile business, erecting a two-story building on lot No. 5. North Main street, which building is still standing. The next fifteen years were spent by Mr. Fontron and family upon a homestead in Grant township, this county. In 1891 the family returned to Hutchinson where J. A. Font- ron served as probate judge for three terms and in 1907 he engaged in the real-estate and loan business. He has always taken an active interest in general business and civic affairs of Hutchinson and Reno county, and assisted in organizing the Hutchinson Building and Loan Association and for two years acted as its president. Since 1897 he has been actively engaged in the real-estate and loan business, merging his interests with those of the Fontron Loan and Trust Company upon the organization of the latter in May, 1915.
Five children were born to Joseph A. and Anna Feltes Fontron, namely : Eva, Joseph P., Mabel, John F. and Louis E. Eva Fontron, who was born in Henry, Illinois, August 5, 1871, married W. D. Puterbaugh, eldest son of John Puterbaugh, in 1894, and died on December 21, 1915, at North Yakima, Washington. Joseph P. Fontron was born on March 22, 1873, at Castleton, Illinois, and married Fan Hardy, daughter of George W. Hardy, of Hutchinson, Kansas, in 1904. Joseph P. Fontron is now a prominent attorney of Kansas City, Missouri. Mabel Fontron, born in Castleton, Illi- nois, June 12, 1875. and married Paul Rewman on July 10, 1911, is now residing in Deadwood, South Dakota. John F. Fontron, born in Hutchin- son, Kansas, March 15, 1877, married Elizabeth Alice Penney, daughter of J. L. Penney, December 31, 1902. John F. Fontron was for fourteen years engaged in the jewelry business at McPherson, Kansas, returning to Hutchin- son in 1915 and becoming associated with the Fontron Loan and Trust Company as secretary-treasurer, upon the organization of that institution in May, 1915. To Mr. and Mrs. John F. Fontron were born three children. John, Jr., born on December 2, 1903: Dorothy, born on April 25, 1905, and Alice, born on October 9. 1910. Louis E. Fontron, who was born on the farm in Grant township Reno county, Kansas, January 28, 1879, was twelve years of age when the family moved to Hutchinson. In 1901 he entered with his father in the real-estate, loan and insurance business, in which he has since been engaged and during which time he has become one of the prominent loan men in this part of the state. In 1915 he organized the Fontron Loan and Trust Company, of which he was elected first president.
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the position which he now holds. This marked the first trust company organization in Hutchinson and central Kansas. In October, 1902. Louis E. Fontron was married to Mary Elizabeth Bigger, of Hutchinson, Kansas, daughter of L. A. Bigger, in a biographical sketch of whom presented elsewhere in this issue there is set out a history of the Bigger family in this county. To this union two children have been born, Elizabeth, born on December 25, 1903. and Anna. born on September II, 1907.
In the spring of 1913 Louis E. Fontron was elected mayor of Hutchin- son, which official position he held for one term, declining to seek a second term in order to devote himself to his business interests.
JAMES FRANKLIN McMURRY.
. James Franklin McMurry, a well-known and progressive farmer of Lincoln township, this county, is a native of Tennessee, having been born on a farm in Haywood county, that state, September 17, 1846, son of William H. and Martha J. ( Faires) McMurry, the former of whom was born near Murfreesboro. in that same state, in April. 1823, and the latter in Alabama, in August. 1823. both of whom spent their last days in this county, having come here from Tennessee a year or two after Reno county was opened for settlement in the early seventies.
William H. McMurry was reared on a farm in eastern Tennessee and when still a boy moved with his parents to Haywood county, in the same state, where he later married and bought a tract of "Congress land" at one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre. He presently sold that farm and bought a larger one, on which he made his home until 1872, in which year he and a couple of his Tennessee neighbors, James A. Moore and H. D. Freeman came to Kansas on a prospecting tour. In the fall of that year Mr. McMurry bought a full section of railroad land in Lincoln township, this county, the same being section 23. He arranged for the erection of a house on his section and returned to Tennessee, coming back to Reno county the next year with his family and establishing his home on his new place in Lincoln township, and there he and his wife remained the rest of their lives. William H. McMurry was a Union man during the time of the Civil War and was a Republican ever after. his influence with the party hereabout during pioneer days having considerable weight. He became a substantial farmer and an extensive dealer in hogs, taking a good deal of pride in the
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