USA > Kansas > Reno County > History of Reno County, Kansas; its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 19
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Hutchinson ; Frankie, who married M. C. Obee, a merchant of South Hutch- inson, and Rose, who married Harry Dice and lives in Hutchinson.
Randall P. Hershberger received his education in the public schools of the neighborhood of his boyhood in Ohio and in the old Sherman street school at Hutchinson, this county. He remained on the farm in this county, with his father, until he was grown and then he learned the plumbing trade under Stewart & Hellowell, in Hutchinson, and worked at that trade in that city until he was married, in 1891, after which he rented a farm in Lincoln township, this county, on which he made his home until 1898, in which year he bought the southeast quarter of section 32, township 24, range 6 west, which he still owns. He made his home on that farm for twelve years and prospered. His wife also owns a fine farm in that same neighborhood, the northeast quarter of section 29, township 24, range 6 west, and in 1910 Mr. and Mrs. Hershberger retired from the farm and moved into Hutch- inson, where they bought the old McCandless home, at 218 Sherman street, east, where they have since made their home, Mr. Hershberger directing the operations of the two farms from his home in the city.
On February 18. 1891, Randall P. Hershberger was united in marriage to Alice Obee, who was born in the town of Napoleon, Lucas county, Ohio, daughter of Henry and Louisa Obee, further mention of whom is made in the biographical sketch relating to L. H. Obee, presented elsewhere in this volume, and to this union two children have been born, Paul, born on Sep- tember 22, 1892, who is a graduate of the Hutchinson high school, and Locke. September 28, 1895, a mechanic for the Hudson Motor Car Com- pany, of Detroit. Mr. Hershberger is a member of the Elks of Hutchinson and of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and takes a warm interest in the affairs of those popular organizations.
ELI BOWMAN.
The late Eli Bowman, who died at his home in Hutchinson, this county. on June 21, 1896, was one of the Kansas pioneers who did well his part during the formative period of that section of the state in which he settled, and his memory, particularly in Barton county, long will be cherished by the people thereabout. He was a man of strong character, and his helpful services in behalf of many of his pioneer neighbors who were less well endowed than he have not been forgotten to this day.
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Eli Bowman was born in Licking county, Ohio, on December 13, 1841, son of David and Mary ( Mouser ) Bowman, both natives of Pennsylvania, iu which latter state they were married, after which they settled in Licking county, Ohio, where David Bowman operated a broom factory. In 1842 they emigrated to Illinois, settling in Crawford county, on the eastern edge of that state, it having been discovered that the soil of that section was peculiarly adapted to the culture of broom corn, and there David Bowman bought a tract of government land, for which he paid one dollar and twenty- five cents the acre and paid for the same out of the money he made from the manufacture of brooms. He prospered and gradually added to his hold- . ings in that county until he became the owner of twelve hundred acres of land. He was among the earliest settlers of that part of the county in which he located and upon the organization of the township in which he lived was able to secure for it the name of Licking township, in honor of his old home county, in Ohio. He spent the rest of his life there, dying in 1894, at the age of eighty-one. He had been thrice married and was the father of a large family. His first wife, who was Mary Mouser, mother of the subject of this sketch, died in 1858 and he then married Angeline Bow- man, who, however, was not of the same family of Bowmans as he. and upon her death married a Bishop.
Eli Bowman was but one year old when his parents settled in Illinois, and he consequently was reared in that state. He was the eldest son who lived to maturity and was, therefore, the mainstay of his father in the labor of developing his growing farm interests. When he was twenty-five years of age, in 1866, Eli Bowman married and his father then gave him a quarter of a section of land and he started farming on his own account, remaining on that farm until the spring of 1873, when he, like so many others about that period, caught the "Kansas fever," and came to this state, locating in Barton county, where he homesteaded eighty acres of land in Pawnee Rock township, took a timber claim of one hundred and sixty acres and pre- empted an additional eighty acres. The night he and his family arrived on their homestead a buffalo was seen on this place. The year following their arrival there. 1874, the grasshoppers ate up everything they had raised, but the next year they had good crops and presently were in prosperous circum- stances. The town of Pawnee Rock after awhile was located on the section adjoining their claim, which caused the value of the Bowman claim to advance so rapidly in price that much of it was sold to advantage. In 1883 Mr. Bowman left the farm, built a home at Pawnee Rock, into which he and his family moved, and he and his brother, W. Henry Bowman, built a
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fine flour-mill in the new settlement, and for years did a flourishing business under the name of Bowman Brothers. Mr. Bowman also operated a general store in Pawnee Rock for several years and increased his land holdings by the purchase of a good farm in Barber county. In 1894 he traded his store for sixty-two lots in the eastern part of Hutchinson, this county, and in the fall of that year moved to that city. He bought a house at 621 North Main street and there he spent his last days, his death occurring about two years later, on June 21, 1896. His widow is still making her home in the same house.
Eli Bowman was a Republican and during the years of his residence in Barton county took an active part in political affairs. He was the first jus- tice of the peace of his home township there and for years also served as a member of the town council of Pawnee Rock. His wife also served for one year as a member of the city council, she also having been elected as a Repub- lican. The Bowmans were a very influential and helpful influence among their pioneer neighbors in Barton county. They had brought to that county the first domesticated cow and the first churn ever brought to the county and presently. as other neighbors acquired cows, their churn was in great demand. being borrowed for miles around. Mr. Bowman was a man of very generous sympathies and it is said of him that he helped fully two-thirds of the settlers in that part of the county to get a start, either by lending them money or by extending liberal credit to them at his mill and store. He was a member of the Knights of Pythias and both he and his wife were active in the work of the Pythian Sisters. They were members of the United Brethren church, but since living in Hutchinson Mrs. Bowman has been a member of the First Methodist church.
On October 28, 1866. Eli Bowman was united in marriage to Hen- rietta Barrett, who was born in Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, daughter of Thomas and Catherine ( Flick) Barrett, the former of whom was born in England and the latter in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania. Thomas Barrett was four years of age when he was brought to America by his par- ents. His father, Thomas Barrett, Sr., was a member of the aristocracy in England, a graduate of Oxford College and by profession a civil engineer. which profession he followed after coming to this country. He was acci- dentally drowned in the Susquchanna river when his son, Thomas, was seventeen years old, the lad thus early being completely orphaned. for his mother had died when he was seven years of age. The younger Thomas Barrett grew up in Pennsylvania and became a timber man, owner of a large
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saw-mill, and became quite well-to-do. In 1865 he and his family and his brother, Joseph, and the latter's family, emigrated to Illinois and settled in Crawford county, where they became extensive landowners. There Thomas Barrett died on February 10, 1869, at the age of fifty-three. His widow later made her home on the farm of her daughter, Mrs. Bowman, at Paw- nce Rock, where her death occurred on March 29, 1883, the day she was fifty-nine years of age.
To Eli and Henrietta (Barrett) Bowman four children were born, as follow : Dora, born on February 17, 1870, widow of A. Bert Cook, and lives at Geneseo, Illinois, where she has one child, a son, A. B. Jr. ; Will M., November 14, 1880, a printer in the office of the Hutchinson Wholesaler, who married Dove Gear and has five children, Henrietta, Wilma, Keith, Wayne and Hugh; Myron, February 11, 1883, who married Jessie Cutshaw and lives in Los Angeles, California, where he is engaged in the wholesale cigar business, and Minola, September 28, 1886, who married Sherman Mil- ler, a farmer of Valley township, this county, and has two children, Sher- man and Ira.
FRED SCHARDEIN.
Fred Schardein, a farmer of Reno county, was born on December 10, 1883, on his father's homestead farm in Salt Creek township. His parents, John and Eliza J. (Grady) Schardein, settled in Kansas in 1878. He was educated in the district schools of his home township, and took up farming as a vocation after leaving school.
Mr. Schardein has leased his father's farm, which he has been operating for several years, and is making arrangements for the purchase of this farm in the near future. His father placed all the early improvements on the place, but during the last three years Mr. Schardein has erected a dwelling house, a barn and silo, and otherwise improved the farm.
On May 6, 1908, at Hutchinson, Fred Schardein was married to Anna F. Long, who was born. on March 10, 1885, the daughter of Daniel and Alice A. (Welty ) Long, who were among the early pioneer settlers of Reno county. Mr. and Mrs. Schardein are the parents of three children: Fern, born on March 25, 1909; Teddy, November 20, 1912, and Frederick, March I, 1915. Mr. Schardein is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Sons of Veterans.
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COL. HENRY HARTFORD.
Col. Henry Hartford, a distinguished veteran of the Civil War and proprietor of the noted "Hillsview Stock Farm," in Medora township, this county, who for some years has been living comfortably retired at his pleas- ant home at 410 Fourth avenue, east, in the city of Hutchinson, is a native of the Emerald Isle, having been born in County Londonderry, Ireland, February 8, 1837, son of William and Martha (Leslie) Hartford, both natives of that same county, the former of whom died in Ireland at the age of forty-four and the latter of whom, born in 1812, died at the home of her son, the subject of this sketch, in Medora township, this county, in 1905.
William and Martha Hartford, well-to-do people in Ireland, were the parents of five children, of whom Col. Henry Hartford is the eldest, the others being William, who resides at Lahunta, Colorado; John died in young manhood in Ireland: and Elizabeth and Susan, twins, the former of whom married George Cooter, now a retired farmer, living in Hutchinson, this county, and the latter of whom married John Clark and died at their home at Long Branch, New Jersey.
Henry Hartford received an excellent education in private schools at his boyhood home in Ireland and when he was eighteen years old determined to try his fortune in the great and promising New World across the water. With this end in view, in 1855, he took passage on one of the first steam- ships that crossed the Atlantic and in due time landed at the port of New York. In that city he had little difficulty in finding employment and as his brother William had preceded him, they both were engaged as clerks in a grocery store. In the early sixties their widowed mother and one sister joined them in their new home in New York and the reunited family estab- lished a very comfortable home there. The other sister had come about 1859. Years afterward when the Hartford brothers became successful homesteaders in this county, the widow Hartford joined them here and her last days were spent in this county, at the home of her eldest son.
Upon President Lincoln's first call for volunteers to help in the sup- pression of the rebellion of the Southern states, Henry Hartford left his place behind the counter of the grocery store and enlisted in Company K. First New Jersey Militia, for the three-months service prescribed in the first call for troops. Upon the expiration of this service the militia was reorgan- ized as a volunteer regiment and became the Eighth Regiment. New Jersey Volunteer Infantry, Henry Hartford becoming first sergeant of Company F of the same, and in this regiment he served until it was mustered out follow-
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ing the Grand Review at the close of the war, performing his soldierly duties so faithfully that he was mustered out as lieutenant-colonel, in command of the regiment. Sergeant Hartford rose steadily in the ranks during the early part of his service and was ranking officer of the regiment when Col. John Ramsey, commander of the regiment, was raised to the rank of brigadier general, in charge of his brigade of the Second Army Corps, which left a vacancy and it was then Mr. Hartford was made colonel of his regiment and was in command until the close of the war. The Eighth New Jersey was in the very thick of every important battle fought by the Army of the Potomac and Colonel Hartford was wounded five times seriously and once slightly, his most serious wounds having been received at the battle of Peters- burg, Virginia, June 16, 1864; the battle of Gettysburg, July 3, 1863, and at the battle of Williamsburg, May 5, 1862. He was in the thick of things during the battle of Fredericksburg and in all the other battles under Gen. Joe Hooker and some of the battles under General Sickles. Colonel Hart- ford was in charge of his regiment in the Grand Review in Washington at the close of the war and after the regiment was mustered out he remained in the service, assisting in checking up regimental stores, until in October, 1865, when he, too, was mustered out. Colonel Hartford had a most inter- esting military career. He was in the following engagements: Yorktown, Williamsburg, part of General McClelland's retreat to Malvern Hill, Bristle Station, Second Bull Run, Mine Run, Gettysburg, Kelley's Ford, McLean Ford, and many other minor engagements.
Upon the conclusion of his military service, Colonel Hartford returned to New York City and for a year thereafter was employed in the office of the city assessor, at the end of which time he was engaged by the old Sprague & McKillets Mercantile Agency, a concern then corresponding to the now well-known Dunn and Bradstreet agencies, with which he was connected until 1867, in which year he and his brother, William, decided to test the opportunities apparently presented in the then new West. They came to Kansas, locating at Leavenworth, where they engaged in the commission business, under the firm style of the Hartford Brothers Commission Com- pany and thus continued in business there until 1872. In November, 1872. Colonel Hartford had made a trip over into Reno county and had filed a claim for a soldier's homestead in Medora township, filing on the northeast quarter of section 18, township 22, range 4, west, which land he still owns, and in February, 1873, moved onto his homestead and began to develop the same. His brother filed on another quarter of the same section; his mother who, meanwhile, also had come West, took up another quarter of the same
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and his brother-in-law, George W. Cooter, filed on the remaining quarter, the family thus being together the owners of all of section 18, in Medora township, and among the very earliest settlers of Reno county. The hard- ships endured by the early settlers of this county are fittingly described in the historical section of this work and need not therefore be more than touched on here, but it is proper to say that the Hartfords did not escape their share of privation. They rose equal to all emergencies and superior to all discouragements, however, and in the end prospered greatly. Follow- ing the dread grasshopper scourge of 1874, Colonel Hartford, a natural leader of men, took charge of affairs in behalf of the suffering and famine- stricken settlers and was the first man to secure aid from the East for Reno county and acted as distributing agent for supplies apportioned to Medora township and in other ways rendered invaluable assistance during the dreary days which tried the souls of all hereabout. From the very beginning. Colonel Hartford conducted his farming operations on an extensive scale and presently became known as one of the most progressive ranchers and cattle men in this section of the state. As he prospered he gradually added to "Hillsview Stock Farm," until he now owns one thousand acres of choice land in Medora township, where for years Colonel Hartford had a fine grade of pure-blood Shorthorn cattle of which he made a specialty, but before retiring sold out his cattle, the great ranch now being under the management of Colonel Hartford's son, Harry E. Hartford, whose progressive ideas are producing excellent results. Colonel Hartford has not confined his business activities wholly to his ranch, however, and is the owner of quite a bit of valuable property in the city of Hutchinson. Though practically retired from the more active pursuits of life, he continues to take a warm interest in affairs and personally gives his close attention to some of the details of his extensive interests. In 1906 Colonel and Mrs. Hartford retired from the ranch and moved into the city of Hutchinson, where they have a very pleas- ant home and where they are now living.
On February 28, 1879. Col. Henry Hartford was united in marriage, in Medora township, this county, to Alice Elizabeth Thomas, who was born in Jennings county. Indiana, daughter of Joseph V. and Emily Thomas, who came with their family to Reno county in 1873 and entered a quarter of a section of land adjoining the Hartford section in Medora township, and to this union five children have been born, namely: Ethel died at the age of fourteen years ; Ella. a teacher in the Hutchinson schools, lives with her par- ents : Harry, who is on his father's farm: Daile, who married John Cain and
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lives at Mitchell, in Rice county, this state; and Martha May, who is at home with her parents, is also a teacher in the city schools.
Colonel Hartford is an ardent Republican and during the more active years of his life attended every county and many district and state conven- tions of his party. He was the second sheriff elected in Reno county, serv- ing in that office in the years 1874-75, and also served very efficiently as township clerk and member of the school board. Ile is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in which order he takes much interest, and is one of the directors of the Eastside Cemetery Association. It was Colonel Hartford who received general credit among the members of that post for having given Joe Hooker Post. Grand Army of the Republic, at Hutchinson, its name, he and Captain F. L. Mintie, who were the only charter members of that post who had fought under General Hooker, having fought so vigorously for this honor in behalf of their old general that the other comrades of the post finally gave in and Joe Hooker post it ever has been, Colonel Hartford ever having been one of the most active members of the same.
WILLIAM R. CONE, D. D. S.
Dr. William R. Cone, a well-known dentist, of Hutchinson, this county, is a native of Missouri, having been born on a farm in the neighborhood of Albany, in Gentry county, that state, on August 28, 1860, son of E. W. and Eliza M. (Ogden) Cone, both of whom were born in Fountain county, Indiana, the former on December 25, 1834, and the latter, August 29, 1835, both of whom are still living.
F. W. Cone was reared on his father's farm in Fountain county, Indiana, and was married in that county, shortly after which, in 1858. he moved to Missouri and bought a farm in Gentry county, in the neighborhood of Albany. He was a Douglas Democrat and an ardent anti-slavery man, who never hesitated to make his position on the burning issues of that day known. Following the election of President Lincoln, in 1860, his pro-slavery neighbors, who even then were organizing guerilla bands thereabout in pre- paration for eventualities, drove him out of the neighborhood. He was compelled to sacrifice his farm in Missouri and took his family and moved to Muscatine, Iowa, where he remained for a few months, at the end of which time he leased a farm in Mercer county, Illinois, on which he lived until the fall of 1872. He then came to Kansas, locating on a homestead
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on Prairie Dog ercek, in the northern part of the state. He had been there but a short time when a prairie fire devastated that whole section of the state, he and his family saving their lives only by desperate back-firing and plowing under the sod in a radius of twenty acres surrounding their home. Discouraged by the outlook there, the Cones moved to the Junction City neighborhood, where they raised a crop the succeeding year and in the spring of 1874 moved to another farm near Peabody, Kansas. That was grass- hopper year and everything they raised that summer was eaten up by the cloud of pests that overwhelmed the land. In the fall of that year the fam- ily moved over into Coffey county and there E. W. Cone bought a farm on which he made his home until 1884, in which year he and his wife retired from the farm and moved to Tulare county, California, where they are now living, he being past eighty-one years of age, and she past eighty. They are members of the Presbyterian church and their eight children, all of whom are living, were reared in that faith. These children, in the order of their birth, are as follow: Edgar P., a fruit farmer, who lives near Seattle, Washington: Dr. William R., the immediate subject of this sketch; Carlton, who lives at Fresno, California; Oscar, a building contractor, also living at Fresno: Samantha, who married S. C. Wilkinson and lives at Laton, Cali- fornia: Catherine, who married W. W. Wilkinson and lives at El Paso, Texas: Josephine, who married E. A. Atchison and lives at Butte, Montana, and Cora, who married George X. White and lives at Boise, Idaho.
William R. Cone received his elementary education in the district schools of Illinois and Kansas. He was twelve years of age when his family moved to this state and at the age of seventeen he began teaching school in Coffey county and was thus engaged for five years, at the end of which time, in 1883. he entered the University of Kansas, from which he was graduated in 1888, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In the fall of 1888 he was elected county superintendent of schools of Coffey county, in which capacity he served for two years. In the meantime, he had taken up the study of dental surgery and in 1891 began the practice of that profession at Flor- ence and continued thus engaged until 1894, in which year he entered the College of Dental Surgery at Chicago and upon completing his course there returned to Florence, where he practiced until in February, 1899. at which time he came to Reno county, locating at Hutchinson, where he ever since has been engaged in the practice of his profession.
On March 10, 1895. Dr. William R. Cone was united in marriage to Armanellie Stetler, who was born in Burlington, Iowa, October II. 1868,
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daughter of I. H. and Retta Stetler, both of whom are now living in Chicago. Mrs. Cone was graduated from the Woman's Medical College of North- western University, at Chicago, and from the time of her arrival in Hutch- inson until 1906 was actively engaged in the practice of her profession, making a specialty of diseases of women and children. Doctor and Mrs. Cone are members of the Presbyterian church and Doctor Cone is a Mason. In 1907 Doctor Cone built a pretty suburban home at 900 Seventeenth street, west, where he owns a fine tract of forty acres. Twenty acres of this tract is set to orchard fruit, mostly apples and cherries, and in this fine orchard the Doctor finds his chief diversion from the exacting duties of his profession, deriving not only considerable profit from his orchard but an infinite amount of pleasure in the cultivation of the same.
HOUSTON WHITESIDE.
Honston Whiteside, dean of the Reno County Bar Association, one of the best-known lawyers in Kansas, founder of the Hutchinson News and probably the oldest continuous resident of the city of Hutchinson, a man who has witnessed the development of that bustling city from the days it consisted of a few unsightly shanties stuck up in the dreary sands of the original townsite and who has aided very materially in the development of the city to its present exalted status, is a native of Tennessee, he having been born in Shelbyville, that state, in 1847, son of Russell Porter and Mary Ann ( Houston) Whiteside, the former of whom, born in 1824 died in 1854, and the latter, born in 1824, died in 1912.
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