USA > Kansas > Reno County > History of Reno County, Kansas; its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 14
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at Hutchinson, this county, to make a visit with his brother-in-law, W. R. Marshall, who had located in that city some time previously, and during that visit became much impressed with the possibilities of this section of the state. He continued his trip to Dakota, however, but after having received so favorable an impression of conditions hereabout was not much impressed with conditions in Dakota. Upon his return to Hutchinson, Mr. Grahan told his wife, who meanwhile had remained there, that they would remain in Hutchinson that winter and if conditions still seemed favorable in the following spring they would make their home here. During that winter Mr. Graham's liking for Kansas increased and in the spring he bought three hundred and twenty acres of land in Lincoln township, continuing, how- ever, to make his home in Hutchinson, managing the farm from his home in town. Later he increased his investment in Reno county realty by buying the quarter section just north of Hutchinson, which his widow sold in 1909 to the Kansas State Fair Association and which has been converted into the state fair grounds.
In the early nineties Robert J. Graham became a partner with Mr. Ardery in the A. & A. drug-store enterprise at Hutchinson and for ten years was an active partner in the same. He also was interested in various other enterprises in and about the city and was long regarded as one of Hutchinson's leading citizens, so that at the time of his death, on October 18, 1905, he was widely mourned, the community recognizing that he had been true and faithful in all the obligations of life. In 1888, four years after taking up his residence in Hutchinson, Mr. Graham built a pleasant home at 310 Fourth avenue, east, where his widow still lives, very comfortably sit- uated and enjoying the constant evidences of the high esteem in which she is held by the entire community, her devotion to all good works hereabout having endeared her to all. Mrs. Graham is alone in her home, so far as family is concerned. Three of her babies died in infancy and the only child who grew to maturity, her dearly loved daughter, Myrtle, who married Harry Squire, died in February, 1909. Mrs. Graham's parents, Robert and Rebecca ( Riddle) Marshall, died in Richland county, Ohio, before her mar- riage to Mr. Graham, but she has a sister, Mrs. Dora Silver, wife of George Silver, of Ellsworth, this state, and a brother, Edgar Marshall, a prominent clothing merchant of Mansfield, Ohio. Another brother, the late William R. Marshall, was for years a well-known resident of Hutchinson, this county.
Robert J. Graham was an earnest member of the Presbyterian church at Hutchinson, in the various beneficences of which he ever took a warm interest, his widow still being devoted to the same. Mr. Graham was a Re-
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publican and ever took a good citizen's interest in local political affairs, being greatly concerned in good government, though never having been included in the office-seeking class. He was a member of the order of Mod- ern Woodmen, in the affairs of which he took a warm interest and during the two decades and more in which he made his home in Hutchinson was regarded as one of that city's most popular citizens, a friend to all, all friendly to him, a good neighbor and an enterprising and public-spirited citizen.
WILLIAM PEARSON.
William Pearson. a veteran of the Civil War and one of the pioneer farmers of Reno county, who lived retired at his pleasant home at 221 Eleventh avenue, west, in Hutchinson, until his death, on September 12, 1915. was a native of the Emerald Isle, having been born in Londonderry, County Derry, in the north of Ireland, on March 29, 1841, son of Gibbons and Jane ( Wilson) Pearson, both natives of that county, of Scottish descent, the former of whom was a member of the established church of England and the latter a Presbyterian.
Gibbons Pearson was a contracting teamster, the owner of more than a dozen teams, who had the contract to do all the hauling between London- derry and a neighborhood village. In 1841 he emigrated with his family to America, stopping for a short time in New York City, where he was employed as a teamster, presently moving to a town in Pennsylvania, where he died within the year. His widow never remarried and presently moved. back to New York City, where she spent the remainder of her life. She was left with seven children, five sons and two daughters, upon the death of her husband, and she bravely kept her family together, bringing them up to lives of usefulness. Of these children. the subject of this biographical sketch, who was next to the youngest, was the only one who ever came West, the others making their homes in New York City and Brooklyn, and they are all now deceased.
William Pearson was an infant in arms when he was brought to America by his parents and was but two years of age when his father died. He attended the public schools of New York City and at the age of four- teen began learning the carpenter trade. In May, 1861. when twenty years of age, he responded to President Lincoln's first call for volunteers to help put down the rebellion of the Southern states. enlisting in New York City
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in Company F. Seventy-ninth Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry, the famous "Highlanders," with which he served for a little more than three years, being mustered out in June, 1864. During this term of service, Mr. Pearson was a participant in some of the most important and bloody en- gagements of the Civil War. His regiment was attached to the Ninth Army Corps, First Division of Burnsides' Army, and was present at both battles of Bull Run, of Port Royal Ferry, South Carolina; of South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Vicksburg, Jackson, Blue Springs, the siege of Knoxville, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Hatchers Run and Petersburg.
At the close of his army service, Mr. Pearson returned to New York and entered the employ of his brother, Alexander, who was engaged in the manufacture of sewing-machine cases for the Grove & Baker factory, and in 1867 became his brother's partner, this arrangement continuing until 1872, in which year he engaged in the retail furniture business in the city of Brooklyn and became quite successful in that line. In the meantime, in 1866, he had married and had established his family in a fine three-story house in the city. In 1874 an asthmatic trouble with which Mr. Pearson for some tinte had been afflicted became so pronounced that it was declared imperative that he should seek a different climate. With that end in view he came to Kansas, leaving his family in their home in Brooklyn, and sought relief from his disability in the far-sweeping and health-giving breezes of Reno county, living here during the summer and fall of 1874, "batching" with a homesteader in Medford township, and was so agreeably impressed with the possibilities of this region that he bought a quarter of a section of land thereabout as an investment. To his great joy, he presently found that his asthmatic affliction had entirely disappeared and he returned home. con- fident that he was permanently restored ot his former excellent state of health. He had not been home more than a fortnight, however, until his old enemy, the asthma, again attacked him and this time with such force that his life was despaired of. He hastened back to his old quarters in this county and then and there decided to make this his permanent home, his affliction again having disappeared.
Preparatory to the establishment of his new home, Mr. Pearson home- steaded one-quarter of section 12, in Medford township, adjoining the quar- ter of a section he previously had bought, and set about the erection of a home. Not content to bring his family, accustomed to the comforts of their fine home in the city, to such a form of habitation as that represented in the "shacks" such as his pioneer neighbors had built on their homestead lands. Mr. Pearson, at much trouble and no small expense, caused to be erected a
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large frame house. one and one-half stories in height, filled in between the weather-boarding and the plaster with bricks, in order to make it as near winter-proof and cyclone-proof as possible, the house being probably the largest and best house in the county at that time. Mr. Pearson's care in thus providing for the coming needs of his family was. a matter of wide comment throughout the county and one of the Hutchinson newspapers of that date was moved to remark that "a New Yorker has come to the county and has built a mansion on his farm." When all was in readiness, Mr. Pearson sent for his wife and family, having meanwhile closed out his busi- ness interests in the city, and they arrived on July 4, 1876.
In order to gain a closer acquaintance with his pioneer neighbors and as a suitable "house-warming" for the new home, Mr. Pearson had extended a general invitation throughout the countryside for all the pioneer neighbors to gather in at his new home on a certain evening and become acquainted with his wife and family. The response to this cordial invitation was gen- eral, the people of that then sparsely settled country coming distances of twenty miles or more to take part in the festivities. That had been a season of hard fortune for the people hereabout, what with the drought and the grasshoppers, and the opportunity thus to break the dread monotony of conditions on the prairie was not to be overlooked. A number of great turkeys, together with "lashin's of fixin's" had been provided for the occa- sion and the Pearson home then and there established a reputation for hos- pitality that it ever retained. The only musicians in Hutchinson, four in number, had been brought out to the new homestead to provide music for the dance which followed the feast, and dancing was kept up in the new barn, the floor of which had been converted into an admirable dancing sur- face. until six o'clock the next morning. The floor of one of the large rooms in the house was nearly covered with the sleeping babies, thus tucked away for the night while their respective mothers were enjoying the festivi- ties. And thus the Pearsons established themselves in Reno county. the "house-warming" which inaugurated their arrival here still being a matter of pleasant recollection on the part of the surviving "old-timers," who have never ceased to keep in mind the opening of the new home.
From the very beginning of his farming operations in this county. Mr. Pearson was successful and he gradually enlarged his original holdings until he became the owner of four hundred acres of valuable land. In 1902 he retired from the active duties of the farm and he and his wife, who had ever been a valuable and competent helpmate in the life on the farm, moved into Hutchinson, where she is now living in a very pleasant home at 221
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Eleventh street, west. On July 3, 1916, Mr. and Mrs. Pearson would have celebrated their "golden wedding." had he lived, that date marking the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage in New York City on July 3, 1866. Mrs. Pear- son, who before her marriage was Ellen Edwards, was born in Canada and located in New York City when a small girl, her parents, Matthew and Jane ( McLean) Edwards, moving to the city at that time. To the union of William and Ellen ( Edwards) Pearson eight children were born, namely: Alexander, who is engaged in the furniture business at Eugene, Oregon ; Ella, who died at the age of twenty: Thomas Burnsides, who lives on the old homestead farm in Medford township; William Gibbons, who is engaged in the piano business in Kansas City, Missouri ; James Lincoln. connected with the Zinn Jewelry Company at Hutchinson : Jennie, who mar- ried Charles Smith, a well-known farmer of Reno township, this county : Mary E., who married Willian Davis, a Medford township farmer, and Sarah M., who married Herman Hostetter and died on February 12. 1909. Mr. and Mrs. Pearson were members of the Methodist Episcopal church and their children were reared in that faith. Mr. Pearson was a Mason and a member of Joe Hooker Post, Grand Army of the Republic, and for years took a warm interest in the affairs both of the lodge and of his fellow veterans of the Civil War.
HENRY G. CURNUTT.
Henry G. Curnutt, an honored veteran of the Civil War and a pioneer farmer of this county, now living pleasantly retired in the city of Hutchin- son, is a Hoosier, having been born in Fayette county, Indiana. December 24, 1844, son of Calloway and Lydia (Hutchings) Curnutt, the former of whom was a Virginian who migrated to Indiana when a boy, with his par- ents, and the latter a native of Indiana.
Calloway Curnutt grew to manhood in Fayette county, Indiana, being reared on a pioneer farm, and upon reaching manhood's estate began farni- ing on his own account. He married a neighbor girl and established a home there, in which he and his family lived until 1849, in which year they moved to Montgomery county, Indiana, settling on a farm near the village of New Richmond, on which he and his wife spent their last days. They were Methodists and substantial and useful members of the community in which they lived. Calloway Curnutt died in 1858, in his fortieth year, and
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his widow . survived him but five years, her death occurring in February, 1863, at the age of forty-five. They were the parents of eight children, five sons and three daughters, of whom the subject of this biographical sketch was the third in order of birth, and but one other of whom, the Rev. Will- iam Curnutt, now deceased, for years a well-known minister of the Meth- odist church at Iola, Kansas, ever came to this state. One of the other sons, Frank Curnutt, next older than Henry G., was killed in battle at Stone's river, while fighting for the cause of the Union during the Civil War.
Henry G. Curnutt was five years old when his parents moved from Fayette county to Montgomery county, Indiana, and he grew to manhood on the home farm in the latter county, receiving his education in the pioneer district school of that neighborhood. On July 25, 1862, he enlisted in Com- pany E. Seventy-second Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, for service during the Civil War, and served until February 4, 1863, on which date he was honorably discharged on account of physical disability, having been confined in hospital for two months previous to his discharge. His regiment was attached to the Army of the Cumberland and among the important engagements in which he participated was the battle of Castillian Springs. At the termination of his military service, Mr. Curnutt returned home and, after recuperating from his weakened condition, took active management of the home place, he being the eldest of the sons of their widowed mother at home. His mother died in the same month in which he was discharged from military service and he kept things going at home for five years, or until 1868, in which year the family disbanded and he went to Macon county, Illinois, where he rented a farm and established a home of his own. On May 21, 1867, Mr. Curnutt had married Dortha E. Smith, who was born and reared in Montgomery county, Indiana, and who ably assisted him in creating the new home in Illinois. She died there on June 10, 1875. leaving two children, Frank, who now lives in Caddo county, Oklahoma, he having drawn a valuable farm claim in the allotment of lands when the Indian territory was opened for settlement, and May, who married Harry Camren, of Montgomery county, Indiana, and died in February, 1906.
Following the death of his wife. Henry G. Curnutt gave up his farm- ing operations in Illinois and, leaving his small daughter with kinsfolk in Indiana, came to Kansas, seeking a new start amid the conditions that then seemed so promising in this county. He homesteaded a claim in Huntsville township and on February 14, 1877. married, secondly, in that township. Sarah E. Wilson, who was born in Muskingum county, Ohio, on February
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3. 1849, daughter of Samuel and Catherine ( McMahon) Wilson, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Ohio, who were married in the latter state and made their home in Muskingum county, where Samuel Wil- son followed farming until the time of his death, in 1852. He and his wife were the parents of six children, Mrs. Curnutt being the sixth in order of birth. Of these six children, but one other is now living, Robert Wilson, a resident of Belvidere, Nebraska. The Widow Wilson did not remarry and upon the opening of Reno county to settlement came here with her family and homesteaded a quarter of a section of land in Huntsville township, where she created a new home, which, however, she did not live long to enjoy, for her death occurred in 1875, she then being sixty-three years, nine months and ten days of age. Not long after his marriage in this county, Mr. Curnutt sold his homestead and bought the northwest quarter of section 2, township 23, range 9 west, in Huntsville township, and as he prospered in his farming operations added to the same until he now is the owner of a fine farm of two hundred and thirteen and one-half acres there, on which for years he carried on, quite extensively, general farming and stock raising and became quite well-to-do. In 1898 he and his wife retired from the active duties of the farm and moved to Nickerson, this county, where they lived until in April, 1913, in which month they moved to Hutch- inson and bought a pleasant home at 305 Sixth avenue, east, where they are now living.
To Henry G. and Sarah E. (Wilson) Curnutt two children have been born, William, who is managing the home farm in Huntsville township, married Pearl Decker and has two children, William and Nellie, and Alma, who married Bartley Jessup, a banker of Abbeyville, this county, and has two children, Ruth and Freda Ellen. Mr. and Mrs. Curnutt are members of the Methodist church and for years have been active in the good works of that denomination. For seven years Mr. Curnutt was superintendent of the Sunday school of the Methodist church in Huntsville township, a stew- ard of the church and a consistent financial supporter of the same. Mr. Curnutt also was active and influential in the promotion of the interests of the schools of that township and for sixteen years was treasurer of the com- bined school districts of his neighborhood. inclusive of four districts, and did much to help elevate educational standards thereabout. He is a Repub- lican and has ever given a good citizen's attention to the political affairs of the county. Enterprising and energetic, he took a prominent part in the promotion of the various interests of his home neighborhood and for eight years was president of the Nickerson Telephone Company, a concern which
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he helped to establish. Mr. Curnutt is an active member of Joe Hooker Post, Grand Army of the Republic, and takes a warm interest in the affairs of that patriotic society.
HENRY NEUENSCHWANDER.
Henry Neuenschwander, a well-known farmer of Salt Creek township, this county, is a Hoosier by birth, having been born in Adams county, Indiana, on January 17, 1878, son of Jacob Neuenschwander and wife, members of the Mennonite colony in that county, who were the parents of five children, three of whom are still living, those besides the subject of this sketch being Noah, who lives in Oklahoma, and Josie, who married George Keller and also lives in Oklahoma. The mother of these children died when her son, Henry, was a baby, and the latter has no recollection of ever having heard her name. Jacob Nuenschwander married, secondly, Bar- bara Eagley, and in 1884 he and his family came to Kansas, settling in this county, where he bought a quarter of a section of land in Salt Creek town- ship and established a new home. To his second marriage two children were born, a daughter who died in youth and a son, Emil, who is now living in Oklahoma. In 1900 Jacob Neuenschwander sold his place in this county and moved, with his family, to Beaver county, Oklahoma, where he and his wife are still living, devout members of the Mennonite colony there. .
Henry Neuenschwander was six years old when he came with his family to this county and he was reared on the home farm in Salt Creek township, attending the district schools and living the simple and somewhat puritanical life of a Mennonite farmer boy. He was twenty-two years old when he accompanied his father and the other members of the family to Oklahoma. He remained there two years, assisting his father in getting settled in his new home, after which he returned to this county, married and rented a farm in Enterprise township, on which he made his home until 1912, in which year he bought a quarter of a section of the farm of his father-in-law, John Schott, the southwest quarter of section 3, in Salt Creek township, including the Schott homestead, and there he has since made his home, becoming a prosperous and substantial farmer, his father-in-law, whose wife died in 1887, making his home with him and his wife. All are members of the Mennonite church, substantial and excellent people, who lend much to the general stability of that section of the county. Mr. Neuen-
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schwander never votes, in common with the practice of the people of his faith, but once served as clerk of the school district. Though, in the main, following the old-fashioned ways of his fathers in the manner of conducting his farm operations, he does not wholly decry modern methods and finds his Ford automobile a great help and convenience.
On August 19, 1902, Henry Neuenschwander was united in marriage to Lucy Schott, who was born in Wayne county, Indiana, daughter of John and Katie Schott, and who came to this county with her parents when she was four years old and here grew to womanhood. John Schott is a native of France, having been born in a Mennonite settlement in the eastern part of that country. As a young man he emigrated to the United States and finally located in Allen county, Indiana, in the Ft. Wayne neighborhood. where he married, later moving to Wayne county, in the neighborhood of Richmond, where he lived until 1878, in which year he and his family came to Kansas and settled in this county, buying the southwest quarter of section 3, in Salt Creek township, railroad land, and there made their new home. As noted above, Mrs. Schott died in 1887, and in 1912 Mr. Schott sold his farm to his son-in-law, Mr. Neuenschwander, who had married his daugh- ter, Lucy, youngest of his children in a family of six. Mr. and Mrs. Neuen- schwander have one son, Paul J. They also have in their household Helen and Arthur, whom they have undertaken to rear to manhood and woman- hood.
SWAN ESKELSON.
No history of Reno county would be complete without fitting reference to the life and the works of the late Swan Eskelson, one of the very earliest settlers of this county, who braved all the privations and the distressing conditions that confronted the pioneers of this section during the early years of the settlement hereabout and who succeeded largely, in time coming to be one of the most substantial farmers and stockmen of the Hutchinson neighborhood, his fine farm in Clay township having been developed from the homestead which he entered there in 1871, three months after the first settlement made in Reno county.
Swan Eskelson was born near the town of Wexo, Sweden, December 3, 1826, and was past eighty-nine years of age at the time of his death, on January 15, 1916. He was the son of Eskel and Ingebar (Jahnsdatter) Swanson, natives of the kingdom of Sweden, who spent all their lives in that
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country, rearing their children in the faith of the Lutheran church. Eskel Swanson died in 1856 and his widow survived him many years, her death occurring in 1884, she then being past ninety years of age. Swan Eskelson was reared on a farm and when twenty-two years of age married Kersting Germanson, who was born in Sweden in October, 1825. After his marriage he tilled his father's farm, rearing his family there, until the spring of 1871, at which time he came to the United States, he and the other members of his family joining at Topeka, this state, in June, his sons, John, who had come to this country in 1869, and Peter, who had followed in 1870. Upon arriving in Kansas, Swan Eskelson lost little time in seeking a homestead tract and in the summer of 1871 homesteaded the northwest quarter of sec- tion 24, in Clay township, Reno county, in addition to which he bought eighty acres of railroad land and there he established his home. Erecting a little shack on his homestead on the plain, Swan Eskelson faced the task of developing a home in the midst of rather unpromising conditions, but he weathered the hardships of the grasshopper years and the years of drought and flame and presently began to prosper. He early made a specialty. of stock raising. the free range at that time offering large opportunities for the successful prosecution of that business, and made a fortune. He later bought another quarter section in Clay township and became one of the county's most substantial farmers. His wife died on June 29, 1897, and in 1900 MIr. Eskelson sold most of his land and moved to Hutchinson, where he built a home and prepared to spend the balance of his days in the city, but conditions in the pent-up environment were not to his liking and he returned to the farm. built a new house near that of his daughter, Mrs. Hannah Strandberg, who now owns the old home place. and there regained the freedom of spirit he could not feel in the city.
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