USA > Kansas > Reno County > History of Reno County, Kansas; its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 40
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Mr. Martin remained at home until his marriage in 1882, after which he homesteaded the northeast quarter of section 6 in Sylvia township, this county, constructed a sod shanty on the plain and there established his bride. He was successful in his farming operations, in addition to his grain farming going in rather extensively for cattle raising, keeping his herds on the open range, and after having improved his place sold out to advantage in 1888 and for a short time made his home in Stafford county. He then returned to Sylvia township and bought section 17 in that township, later buying the east half of section 19, and is now established there, the owner of nine hundred and sixty acres of as good land as lies in Reno county. During all his farming career Mr. Martin has been heavily engaged in cattle raising and has prospered as a cattleman. He also puts out about five hundred acres of wheat each year and is regarded as one of the most sub- stantial ranchmen in his section of the county. In 1900 Mr. Martin retired from the farm for a season and removed to Sylvia, where he built a hotel, which he operated for a couple of years and then sold. He then organized the Farmers' Telephone Company at Sylvia and for five years was manager of that concern. He also is a stockholder of the Citizens' State Bank of Sylvia and is the custodian of all the valuable papers belonging to that institution. He also is one of the directors of the Farmers' Elevator Com- pany at Sylvia and in other ways has shown his interest in the general enterprises of his local community. Shortly after moving to Sylvia Mr. Martin was elected mayor of the town, in which capacity he served for one term. He also rendered public service as a member of the city council for four years, being elected on the Democrat ticket. In 1915 Mr. Martin built a fine new modern county house on his farm two and one-half miles west of Sylvia and in April of that year moved into the same, now being as comfortably situated as anyone thereabout.
On June 12. 1882, Frank A. Martin was united in marriage to Dena Kreie, who was born in Missouri, daughter of Conrad and Henrietta Kreie, natives of Germany, who was settled in Missouri, later coming to this county, and to this union six children have been born, as follow: Mabel Blanche. who married Ora E. Eichelberger and lives at Sylvia; Grover Cleveland, who is managing a part of his father's farm; Guy E., who also
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manages another part of his father's farm; Jessie Jane, who married Oscar R. White and lives in Woodward county, Oklahoma; B. Albert, a student in the county high school at Nickerson, and Daniel C., also in school. The Martins ever have taken a warm interest in the social affairs of their com- munity and the family is held in the highest esteem by all. Mr. Martin is a member of the Masonic fraternity, in the affairs of which he takes an active interest.
CHARLES H. BUSH.
Charles H. Bush, traveling salesman for the Grovier Produce Com- pany, of Hutchinson, Kansas, and a member of that firm, was born in Salem, Ohio, May 29, 1866, being a son of David W. and Margaret J. ( Halliday ) Bush. David W. Bush was born in Ohio, September 16, 1844, and was a farmer. In 1870 he left Ohio and went to Iowa, locating in Taylor county, where he homesteaded a claim of one hundred and sixty acres and lived for a number of years. His death occurred in Denver, Colorado, in October, 1906. Margaret J. (Halliday) Bush was a native of Pennsylvania, born on March 14, 1842, and is still living on the old home- stead in Taylor county, Iowa. The father was born in Pennsylvania, Sep- tember 15, 1817, and died on December 28, 1875. Her mother was born in Pennsylvania, March 14, 1818, and died on September 5, 1909.
Charles H. Bush is one of a family of six children, the others being as follow : Minnie, who was born in Ohio, April 3. 1868, died in Ohio in 1869; Franklin V., born in Ohio, January 29, 1870, married Alma Stroud, December 7, 1904, is now a farmer on the original homestead with his mother in Taylor county, Iowa: Vesta Lydia, born in Iowa, May 26, 1873. is a teacher in the public schools of the state of Washington; Lawrence A .. born in Iowa, October 10, 1877, married Elnora Huss, October 12, 1904, is also a farmer in Taylor county, Iowa; Mary B., who married Ernest M. Posten, November 20, 1902, lives in Taylor county, Iowa, where her hus- land is engaged in farming.
Charles H. Bush received his elementary education in the common schools located near his home in lowa and later attended the Western Normal College at Shenandoah, Iowa. He studied there during the years of 1884-5-6, being graduated in the latter year after having com- pleted his studies in shorthand, typewriting and book-keeping. He came to Hutchinson, Kansas, February 8, 1887, and accepted a clerkship in the law
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offices of George A. Vandever and F. L. Martin, remaining with those gentlemen for two years. He next was in the office of E. E. Barton, president of the Barton Salt Company, remaining there about two and one- half years. He next entered the office of the Hutchinson Packing Company, with whom he remained eight years and he then became associated with the Sentney Wholesale Grocery Company, remaining in that connection for twelve and one-half years. Through some of his business connections, Mr. Bush had become acquainted with the Grovier Produce Company, of Great Bend, this state, and at his suggestion that company established a branch office in Hutchinson on June 2, 1913, Mr. Bush being made manager of this branch. In latter years he resigned as manager to become a traveling salesman in their employ. The business has grown to such proportions throughout this section that the Hutchinson office is now the home office and the original office but a branch. Mr. Bush has become a member of the firm and largely through his efforts the business has grown to its present proportions. They deal in general country produce and the firm has fur- nished an outlet for much of the produce of this section, which would not be handled otherwise.
In the latter part of the year 1893, when land values were low, Charles H. Bush, with the assistance of B. W. Underwood, manager of the Hutchin- son Packing Company, purchased a house and six lots on Sixth avenue, East, in the city of Hutchinson. There he lived with his family until April, I, 1909. when, desiring to secure the pleasure of country life for his boys and girls, Mr. Bush traded his city property for a farm in Reno county, securing from Colonel Chapman, of Great Bend, the Jones farm located in Reno township, consisting of one hundred and sixty-six acres, where he has since made his home. This farm is located about four and one-half miles west of Hutchinson, being the northwest quarter of section 8, town- ship 23. range 6. Mr. Bush was married at Hutchinson on October 2, 1887, to Flora A. Cline, born in Wirt county, West Virginia. March 25, 1869. Mrs. Bush is a daughter of Edward G. and Sarah Jane (Gough) Cline. being one of their family of eight children. Her sister, Clara Theresa, born on December 12. 1871, in Wirt county, West Virginia, is the wife of Oscar W. Hartman, of Hutchinson: Nora Ethel was born on January 18, 1874: Henry Thomas, September 26, 1876, and Edward Marshall, Febru- ary 28, 1878, all these first having seen the light of day in Wirt county, West Virginia. Hattie Elizabeth and Grace were both born in Russel county, this state, the former May 26, 1880, and the latter February 13.
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1882, while Myrtle Belle, the youngest of the family, was born in Harvey county, this state, May 16, 1885, and died on September 26, 1898, at Pleas- ant Vale, Coshocton county, Ohio. Edward G. Cline, father of this family, was born in Ohio county, West Virginia, on February 2, 1831, and died in Mt. Vernon, Ohio, October 10, 1914. The mother was also a native of West Virginia, born in Gilmore county, February 27, 1846, and died in Cambridge, Ohio, September 30, 1896.
Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Bush have a family of seven children, as fol- low: Rena Gladys, born on December 8, 1888, the wife of Roy Dillen, a farmer of Carrollton, Illinois; Victor Harvey, April 30, 1891, a mechanic residing in Hutchinson ; Alta Bell, July 15. 1893; Arthur Charles, August 9, 1896; Roy Orville, June II, 1898. a farmer in Reno county; Clara Mar- garet, February 10, 1901, and Flora Alice, June 12, 1903; all the children being born in the city of Hutchinson. In politics, Mr. Bush votes inde- pendently, choosing the man rather than supporting any party ticket. He holds fraternal affiliation with the Modern Woodmen of America and takes a commendable interest in the work of the order. He is a man of ability and high standing, well worthy of the high esteem in which he is held.
JOHN RAY SANDERS.
John Ray Sanders, a prominent and prosperous farmer of Yoder town- ship, is the offspring of an ancestry that originated in Scotland, France and Virginia, merged in Kentucky, and traveling westward, sojourned for years in Indiana and Illinois, to finally bring up in Reno county, Kansas, in the person of Mr. Sanders, who was born in Clark county, Illinois, November 17, 1854, and is the son of Frank and Jane ( Berkeley) Sanders.
Frank Sanders was born at Dry Ridge, Kentucky, and died in 1881, at the age of fifty-four. His father was a Virginian, but in early pioneer days, perhaps about 1815, he crossed the mountains to Kentucky. He mar- ried there, and several of his children were born there preceding his removal to Marion county, Indiana, which occurred in the early thirties. He settled on a farm eight miles south of Indianapolis, Indiana, where his death occurred at the advanced age of one hundred and three years.
Jane ( Berkeley) Sanders was born in Martin county, Indiana, and died in May, 1911, at the age of ninety years, in Marion county, Indiana. Her father, George Berkeley, a native of Scotland, after his arrival in the United
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States, married a French girl, and settled on a farm in Martin county, Indiana.
Frank Saunders grew up on his father's farm in Marion county, Indi- ana, but in 1853 he moved to Clark county, Illinois, where he owned and lived on a farm for five years. In 1858 he sold his farm in Illinois, and returned to Marion county, Indiana, where he purchased his father's farm of two hundred and forty acres, and there he lived and cared for his parents the remainder of their lives, and there he and his wife resided the rest of their days. Both were faithful and earnest members of the Methodist Epis- copal church.
John Ray Sanders was the only son of his parents, but he had six sisters. He was only four years old when his parents moved back to Indiana from Illinois. He attended the public schools, but being the only son, spent most of his youth helping his father on the farm. Through his own efforts, however, he has a good general education. When he attained his majority. he went to Jasper county, Illinois, where he worked at farm labor for six months. He then returned to Indiana and remained until 1880. He (lid construction work on the Monon railroad, between Indianapolis and Chi- cago all the time that road was being built. He spent another season in Illinois, and joined his sister, Mrs. John Wittorff, of Reno county, Kansas, in 1883. John Wittorff came to Kansas in 1872, and was the first Granger to deposit money in the First National Bank at Hutchinson. Mr. Sanders worked for John Wittorff and other farmers until 1888, when, on June 13, he was married to Ella Mae House, a native of West Virginia, and the (laughter of Abraham House and wife, of Lincoln township, now both deceased. For twelve years after his marriage Mr. Sanders rented a farm south of Hutchinson, and during seven years of that time operated a thresh- ing machine each season in Reno county. In 1900 he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land in Clay township, where had been located the first postoffice in Reno county. The postmaster was Mr. Carwell, an early set- tler.
In 1914, when Yoder township was formed, the farm was included in it. Mr. Sanders has since purchased eighty additional acres. He paid twenty-six hundred dollars for his farm, and now, fifteen years later, has refused sixteen thousand dollars for it. After releasing the mortgage on his farm, he erected a comfortable and commodious house and resides there, carrying on general farming. He and his family belong to the Clay Valley Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Sanders is a Democrat in politics, while fraternally, he is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America.
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Mr. and Mrs. Sanders are the parents of two children, Alice and How- ard. Alice is the wife of C. B. Eales. They live in Montana, and have one son, John. Howard Sanders married Opal Woodruff, and lives on the home farm with his father, assisting in the management of the place.
ED. G. HOWELL.
Ed. G. Howell, the son of William E. and Rebecca J. (Culley ) Howell, was born in Kinmundy, Illinois. on May 13, 1874. William H. Howell, a native of Kinmundy, came to Kansas in August, 1882, and settled in Reno county, seven miles from Nickerson. He farmed on rented land until 1899, at which time he purchased two hundred acres, which he later sold to his son, Thomas. Rebecca J. (Culley) Howell was born in Mt. Vernon, Indiana, where she grew to womanhood. She and Mrs. Howell are Dunkards and take much interest in all the work of the church.
To William H. Howell and wife have been born the following chil- dren: Fred, a retired farmer at Nickerson; Thomas, a farmer in Reno county ; Mattie, at home in Reno: Albert, in the transfer business at Kansas City, Missouri; Bessie, who died at the age of one year, and Mary, the wife of R. L. Dilley, a farmer at Partridge.
Ed. G. Howell received his education in the schools of Nickerson and McPherson, Kansas. Since leaving school he has always been engaged in farming. He first purchased two hundred acres of land in Sylvia town- ship, which he still owns. For the past few years he has devoted much of his time to the real-estate business, with his office in the Sun building at Sylvia. He is progressive and takes much interest in the social, business and religious life of the town, being a member of the Commercial Club, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Methodist Episcopal church.
On June 20, 1906, Ed. G. Howell was united in marriage, in Kansas, to Jessie M. Carter, the daughter of John L. and Eva (Grimes) Carter. Mrs. Howell is a native of Stafford, Kansas, where she was born on Novem- ber 15. 1884. John L. Carter is a native of Illinois and came to Kansas as a young man. He now lives at Dodge City, where he is engaged in the grain business. Mrs. Carter was born in the state of New York and died at Mackville, Kansas on January 31, 1909. To John L. Carter and wife were born the following children : Bernice, the wife of Charles M. Hillary, the superintendent of schools of Humboldt: Inez, at home in Dodge City;
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Louis, farmer and grain dealer at Dodge City: Earl and Ronald, at home in Dodge City.
Ed. G. Howell and wife, the parents of three children, all born in Sylvia township: Eldon Carter, born on January 10, 1909, Kenneth Ed., June 30, 1911. and Vera Madeline, January 9, 1915.
HARRISON AUGUSTUS HILL.
Harrison Augustus Hill. one of the best-known and most substantial farmers of Huntsville township, this county, an honored veteran of the Civil War and one of the real pioneers of Reno county, having been a resident here since 1873, is a native of of the great Empire state, having been born in Jefferson county, New York, December II. 1846, son of George Wash- ington and Mary (Boyse) Hill. the former a native of that same state and the latter of England, whose last days were spent on their farm in New York.
George Washington Hill was the son of Daniel and Peggie (Short) Hill, both natives of New York state, the former of whom was trained as a shoemaker, but later became a farmer. Daniel Hill and wife were members of the Baptist church and their children were reared in that faith. There were six of these children, Walter. George W .. Leonard, Jefferson, Harrison and Margaret. Though his boyhood schooling was of the meagerest sort. George W. Hill was a great reader and became a very well-informed man. Reared on a farm. he became a farmer on his own account, the owner of one hundred and twelve acres in Jefferson county, New York, where he spent his last days. He was twice married, his first wife having been Elizabeth Boyse, a native of England, to which union one child was born. a daughter. Jane. Upon the death of his first wife. George W. Hill married her sister, Mary Boyse, who was five years old when she came to America from Eng- land with her parents, and to this union were born ten children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the eldest. the others being George Washington. Abbie ( deceased ). Frances, John ( deceased). Elwin. Adelia. Cora. Verna and Alice, and of whom Cora was the only one besides the subject of this sketch who came to Kansas. The father of these children died in 1902. at the age of eighty-seven, and his widow survived until 1914, she being eighty- six years of age at the time of her death. They were members of the Meth- odist church and their children were reared in that faith.
Harrison A. Hill was reared on the home farm in Jefferson county.
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New York, and received his elementary education in the district school in the neighborhood of his home. When just past seventeen years old, one day in December, 1863. he left his dinner pail at the door of the school house and instead of pursuing his studies slipped off to a recruiting station and enlisted for service in the Union army during the continuance of the Civil War. He was accepted, despite his youth, by the Fourteenth New York Heavy Artil- lery and served in that command until the close of the war, being mustered out as a sergeant. In the first battle of Petersburg has was severely wounded in one of his legs and in the second battle of Petersburg his right shoulder was so severely bruised by the recoil of his gun which he kept firing almost incessantly throughout that engagement, that for years his shoulder gave him trouble and even after he had settled down in this county he was compelled to leave his wife and two small children and return to New York, where he was under treatment for his shoulder trouble for eighteen months.
Upon the completion of his military service, Harrison A. Hill took a course in the high school at Clayton, New York, and in 1866 moved to Illi- nois. In 1873 he came to Kansas and located in Reno county. In November of that year he homesteaded a quarter of a section in Huntsville township and pre-empted an adjoining quarter section, both of which he still owns and where he ever since has made his home. When Mr. Hill located his homestead there was not another settler within a radins of ten miles of his place and the buffaloes were still ranging about the plains, providing an easy and ample supply of meat and robes for the pioneer. Cornstalks and buf- falo "chips" served him for fuel and he not infrequently added to his none too liberal supply of cash by gathering a load of buffalo bones off the plains and hauling the same to Hutchinson, where those "natural products of the soil" had a well-established market value. In 1876 he married and there- after had a real home instead of the lonely bachelor quarters he had set up on the plain. As his farming and stock-raising operations prospered Mr. Hill gradually added to his land holdings until he became the owner of a fine farm of four hundred and eighty acres, which he still owns and which he has brought up to a high state of cultivation. Mr. Hill is a Republican and from the very beginning of his residence in this county has taken an active part in local civic affairs. He has held all the township offices at one time and another, helped lay out the highways in his part of the county and was one of the chief factors in the organization of the school system in his home township. He helped organize the first voting precinct in Huntsville town- ship in 1876 and for years has been regarded as one of the leaders in his party thereabout. Mr. Hill was one of the organizers of the Plevna-Hunts-
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ville Telephone Company, is a stockholder in the bank at Plevna and owns real estate in the city of Huntsville. He was one of the leaders in the move- inent which resulted in the construction of a bridge across the river south of Sterling, and in other ways has taken an active part in all worthy local enterprises.
It was on February 29. 1876, that Harrison A. Hill was united in mar- riage to Martha Elizabeth Freeman, who died in December, 1890. leaving five children, Mark F., Harry A., F. Roy, Ivan and Florence. On February 8. 1894. Mr. Hill married, secondly. Anna Elizabeth Tucker, who was born on a farm in the neighborhood of Springfield, Illinois, August 10. 1859, daughter of Robert and Sarah Tucker, and to this union one child has been born, a son, Lloyd Glenn. Mr. Hill is a member of the Masonic order and takes a warm interest in the affairs of that organization.
In the year 1874 Mr. Hill was the innocent cause of an Indian scare reaching from Sun City to in and around Mr. Hill's neighborhood. He had occasion to go to Wichita by wagon. Several of his bachelor neighbors wanted to go with him and as there was but one woman and child in the neighborhood they took her along and someone started the alarm that they were fleeing from the Indians, but Mr. Hill and his associates knew nothing about it until they got back and found the whole county in arms. Mr. Hill was criticised because he took so many with him that it gave the impression they were fleeing.
SAMUEL HASTON.
Samuel Haston, a well-known and well-to-do farmer and stockman of Walnut township, this county, owner of a fine farm in that township, where he makes his home, and another fine farm in Hayes township, is a native of Virginia, having been born on a farm in Botetourt county. that state. Janu- ary 25. 1866, son of John and Frances ( Lyle ) Haston, both natives of that state, and the parents of nine children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the seventh in order of birth, the others being Bettie, James, John, Mar- garet. Susan, Pearl. Jessie and Oden. John Haston died on July 28, 1871. and his widow married the Rev. James Neal. of Eaton, Ohio, which second marriage, was without issue.
Samuel Haston was reared on the home farm in Virginia, receiving his schooling in the neighborhood schools and remained at home until he was twenty-one years okl, when, in 1887. he came to Kansas and located in Reno
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county, joining his elder brothers, James and John, who had come here the previous year. In a biographical sketch relating to the elder of the Haston brothers, presented elsewhere in this volume, there is set out in detail some- thing of the genealogy and history of this family, to which the attention of the reader is respectfully invited for additional information in this connec- tion. Samuel Haston engaged in farming upon coming to this county and prospered in his operations, finally buying, in 1895, the farin of four hun- dred acres on which he now makes his home in Walnut townhsip, besides which he also is the owner of a farm of two hundred and forty acres in Hayes township, this county. Mr. Haston, in addition to his general farm- ing, has given considerable attention to stock raising and for years has dealt largely in Hereford cattle, Duroc hogs and mules. During the early stages of the European War of 1914 many of Mr. Haston's mules helped supply the market created by that war.
On February 14, 1889, Samuel Haston was united in marriage to Emma J. Conley, who died on April 20, 1879, leaving three children, A. C., Maud E. and Roy M. Mr. Haston married, secondly, on August 21, 1907, Isabel Smith, daughter of Mary A. Smith and a native of Illinois, which union has been without issue. Mr. Haston is a thirty-second degree Mason and a noble of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine since 1896. He has been a member of the Knights of Pythias for more than twenty-five years and in the affairs of these organizations takes a warm interest.
WILLIAM B. REAM.
William B. Keam, a prominent real-estate dealer at Turon, this county, who for eighteen years was engaged in the newspaper business in that thriv- ing town and who is one of the best-known men in Reno county, is a native of Iowa, having been born on a farm in Benton county, that state, June 7, 1874, son of George W. and Sarah A. (Brubaker) Ream, both of whom were born in Summit county, Ohio, the former on March 18, 1839, and the latter, October 20, 1843.
George W. Ream was reared on a farm near Greensburg, Ohio, and in 1864, not long after his marriage, moved to Iowa, settling in Benton county, where he bought a quarter of a section of land and there made his home until in November, 1886, at which time he and his family came to Kansas. Mr. Ream homesteaded a quarter of a section in Scott county and
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