USA > Kansas > Reno County > History of Reno County, Kansas; its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 42
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date printing plant. a model of its kind and a credit to the community. For five years Mr. Yust was secretary of the Southwest Kansas Editorial Asso- ciation and the sixth year was president of the association. Mr. Yust still owns his farm in Hayes township, which he rents to advantage, and is quite comfortably situated.
On April 25. 1900, George H. Yust was united in marriage to Edna Ruth Hall, who was born in Chicago, Illinois, daughter of W. Edward and Sarah Hall, who are now living at Downers Grove, a suburb of Chicago. For years Mr. Hall has been employed as a traveling salesman for an Iowa glove house. Mr. and Mrs. Yust take an active interest in the social and cultural life of this community and are held in the highest esteem by their many friends. They are earnest members of the Methodist church at Sylvia, Mr. Yust being a trustee and a steward of that church. Since 1907 he also has acted as superintendent of the Sunday school and is one of the active factors in all good works in his community.
PERES ELLIS.
Peres Ellis, a well-known and prosperous retired farmer of Yoder township, this county, a veteran of the Civil War and a pioneer settler of the section in which he has made his home since the days of the very begin- ning of a social order thereabout, to whom has come, in the gradual course of the years, the distinction of being the oldest resident of Reno county now living on a farm originally homesteaded by himself, is a native of Maine, . having been born on a farm in Oxford county, that state, January 5, 1838, son of Benjamin and Jane (Houston) Ellis, the former a native of that same county and the latter a native of the state of New Hampshire, both families having been residents of that section for generations, the state line separating them.
Benjamin Ellis was reared as a farmer and was a man of herculean build and of exceptional physical vigor. In 1856 he and his family left the ancestral neighborhood in Maine and came West, settling in Boone county, Illinois, where he bought a farm and established a new home, he and his wife living there until their retirement from the farm in their latter days, their last days being spent in the home of a daughter at Stephens point, Wisconsin, where Mrs. Ellis died in 1888, at the age of eighty-four. Benjamin Ellis surviving until 1896, he being ninety years of age at the
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time of his death. They were the parents of nine children, five sons and four daughters, of whom but four are now living, as follow: Charles, a prosperous attorney of Medicine Lodge, this state, he having been a pioneer of that city; Peres, the immediate subject of this biographical sketch; Susan, widow of William Gilchrist, living at East Aurora, New York, and Adaline, who married Jason Wadsworth and lives at Medicine Lodge.
Peres Ellis was a good student and had acquired an excellent education in the district school in the neighborhood of his native home in Maine by the time he came West with his parents and the others of the family in 1856, he then being eighteen years of age. Upon settling in Illinois he took his part in the work of developing the new farm and was thus engaged until September 17, 1861, at which date he enlisted in the Fourth Wisconsin Battery for service during the Civil War, enlisting in a Wisconsin organ- ization for convenience, his home then being near the state line. Mr. Ellis served for three years in the Union army, his battery being attached to the department of Fortress Monroe and for the most part was engaged in service up and down the James river in Virginia. On the day he enlisted in the army Mr. Ellis and his sweetheart, a winsome neighbor girl, were married and at the close of his military service he returned home to his wife and resumed his labors on his father's farm, where he made his home until he came to Kansas.
In 1872 Peres Ellis came to Reno county, his brother, Charles, having previously located here, and on the 20th of September of that same year homesteaded the northwest quarter of section 30, in Lincoln township. That winter he stayed in Hutchinson and the next spring his family joined him and he erected a small frame house on his homestead tract and there established his home, he and his wife having lived there since, as noted above, being thus the oldest continuous resident homesteaders in this county. Mr. Ellis was a good farmer and he lost little time in developing his homestead, which, at the time he settled there was an apparently arid tract bearing a scant growth of buffalo grass. He planted a liberal grove and set out a double row of Lombardy poplars flanking the driveway to his house and it was not long until he had one of the most attractive places in that section of the county. He timber-claimed an "eighty" adjoining his homestead, went in somewhat extensive for cattle raising and presently was regarded as one of Reno county's most substantial farmers. In 1893 he erected the present comfortable farmhouse in which he still he makes his home, he and his son, Edward P., doing most of the work in the construction thereof.
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and for years has been very pleasantly and comfortably situated. In 1907 he sold his farm to his son-in-law, Andrew Hendershot, who is now operating the same, though Mr. and Mrs. Ellis continue to make their home there, enjoying, in the genial "sunset time" of their lives, many evidences of the high esteem in which they are held throughout that entire neighborhood. In 1911 Mr. and Mrs. Ellis celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of their mar- riage, the "golden wedding" celebration being held on the ample lawn sur- rounding their home, and was the occasion of general rejoicing in the neighborhood.
On September 17, 1861, Peres Ellis was united in marriage, in Boone county, Illinois, to Margaret Elizabeth Reser, who was born in New York state, and who had moved to Illinois when a child with her parents, Joseph and Rachel Reser, who spent their last days in Boone county. To that happy union three children were born, Edward P., now a prosperous farmer living six miles northeast of Burrton, in Harvey county, this state, who is married and has four children: Charles F., a farmer of the Port Arthur neighborhood, who is married and has five children, and Edna C., who married Andrew J. Hendershot, who now owns the old Lincoln township Ellis homestead, now situated in the new township of Yoder, and is success- fully operating the same. Mr. and Mrs. Hendershot are the parents of three children and take an active part in the community life of their neighborhood, being held in high regard by all thereabout.
GEORGE NICHOLSON.
George Nicholson, a well-known farmer of Castleton township, this county, proprietor of a well-kept farm of one hundred and sixty acres about five miles north of Pretty Prairie, is a native of Illinois, having been born on a farm in Clinton county, that state, November 1, 1859. son of William and Anna ( Kitchen) Nicholson, both natives of England, who became pio- neers of Reno county, where their last days were spent.
William Nicholson was born on AApril 9. 1810, and was reared in Eng- land. He married there and to him and his wife five children were born in that country. Then, with a view to enlarging his prospects, he came to the United States and located in Clinton county, Illinois, where five years later his wife and their children joined hin, and there they made their home for about twelve years, during which time the subject of this sketch was born.
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The other children of this family were Thomas, William, Joseph, Margaret and Elizabeth. Of these the first named enlisted in 1861 for service in the Union army during the Civil War and six months later was killed during a skirmish at Cairo, Illinois. George Nicholson has a Bible that was given to his brother Thomas by the late Lord Wharton.
Shortly after the close of the Civil War, William Nicholson and his family came from Illinois to Kansas and settled in Miami county, where they made their home for about five years, at the end of which time, in the winter of 1872-83, they came to Reno county and homesteaded the quar- ter section in Castleton township where George Nicholson now lives. There William Nicholson established his permanent home and there he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives, becoming valuable members of the com- munity. They were members of the Episcopal church and took an active part in local good works. William Nicholson died on his homestead farm on February 9, 1894, and his widow survived until June 12, 1891.
George Nicholson was about fourteen years old when he came to Reno county with his parents in the winter of 1872-73 and therefore may prop- erly be regarded as one of the pioneers of this county. . He grew up on the homestead farm and on November 1, 1884. married Clara May Robinson, who was born in Illinois, January 8, 1867. daughter of Oscar and Caroline (Smith) Robinson, the former of whom was born in Orange county, New York, March 9, 1820, and the latter in 1829. Oscar Robinson was a car- penter. He moved to Ohio and thence to Dewitt county, Illinois; later to Champaign county, same state, from which place he came to Kansas in 1878, settling on a farm in the Pretty Prairie neighborhood, where he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives, his death occurring on February 24. 1885, and hers in 1904. Oscar Robinson was a master Mason. He and his wife were the parents of twelve children: Benjamin, who gave three years of service to the Union army during the Civil War: Elizabeth, Newton, Sarah, Eunice, Harriet, Ella, Florence, Clara May, Hill (deceased), Edgar and William.
After their marriage, in 1884. George Nicholson and wife made their home on the old Nicholson homestead and have continued to live there ever since, Mr. Nicholson having acquired the interests of the other heirs in the same, and are very pleasantly situated, Mr. Nicholson having built a new house and barn and made other improvements in keeping with the same. Mr. Nicholson is a member of the Fraternal Aid Society and he and his wife are earnest members of the Methodist Episcopal church. in the various benefi-
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1
cences of which they take an active interest. They are the parents of five children, as follow: Grace, who married David Wallace and lives at Des Moines, Iowa ; Ninon, of Hutchinson, this county, who married Clarence Dill- man and has one child, a daughter. Mildred; William, of Buffalo, Oklahoma, who married Maud Rogers; Caroline, who married Harvey Givens, of Cas- tleton township, this county, and has two children. Harvey Thomas and Helen. and George.
ARTHUR W. JOHNSON.
Arthur W. Johnson, well-known merchant at Sylvia, this county, mem- ber of the progressive and well-established firm of Brewer & Johnson, is a native of Illinois, having been born in McLean county, that state. son of Decatur and Lucinda (Conway) Johnson, both natives of Ohio, the former of whom was born in Scotio county, that state, and the latter in Darke county, whose respective parents were early settlers in McLean county.
Decatur Johnson was reared on the pioneer farm in McLean county and married there, after which he rented a farm and there made his home until 1883, in which year he and his family came to Kansas, locating in Reno township. Mr. Johnson bought a quarter section of land in Grant township, which his wife's parents, William Lucinda Conway, had home- steaded in 1875, and there he made his home for twenty years, at the end of which time he sold his farm and bought another in Sylvia township, where he spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring in 1913, he then being about seventy years of age. His widow, who was born in 1848. is still living. Decatur Johnson was a Democrat and he and his wife were members of the Methodist church and were active among the founders of the Mitchell Methodist church in Grant township, before that church was built having been prominent among the faithful band which maintained services in the school house there. To Decatur Johnson and wife three children were born, of whom the subject of this sketch is the eldest, the others being .A. B. Johnson, of Hutchinson, this county, and David, a miller at St. Joseph, Missouri.
Arthur W. Johnson was ten years old when he came to this county with his parents and the schooling which was interrupted by his removal from Illinois was resumed in the district school in Grant township, which course was followed by three years attendance at the high school in Hutchin- son, after which he took a course in the Salt City Business College at Hutch-
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inson. On Christmas Day, 1899, Mr. Johnson was united in marriage to Nora M. McMillan, who was born in Wilmington, Ohio, daughter of Oliver McMillan and wife, who came to this county from Ohio as pioneers of Reno county. After his marriage, Mr. Johnson rented a farm three miles north of Hutchinson and engaged in farming and dairying there for one year, at the end of which time, in 1900, he moved to Sylvia, where he worked as a clerk in a grocery store for five years. During that time Mr. Johnson thor- oughly familiarized himself with the business, and in 1907 bought his em- ployer out and continued the store alone. In IQUI he associated with him in business, as a partner, Gipp M. Brewer, under the firm name of Brewer & Johnson, which firm ever since has been conducting the business with much success. In 1911 the firm built a concrete store building, twenty-six by ninety feet, and has a very completely stocked store, carrying a full line of groceries and hardware, fresh meats and sundries, and operates a machine shop at the rear of the store.
Mr. Johnson is a Democrat and has for years taken an active part in local politics. For six years he served as a member of the Sylvia city council and has ever since locating in that pleasant little city been among those foremost in promoting all movements designed to advance the town's best interests. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and takes a hearty interest in the affairs of that popular order. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson are earnest members of the Congregational church and are interested in all good works in their home town and neighborhood, being held in high regard by their many friends thereabout. Three children have been born to them, Theodore R., born in 1899; Celesta May, 1901. and Eva, 1909.
LEWIS W. COLEM.L.N.
Lewis W. Coleman, a well-known and progressive building contractor of Sylvia, this county, who has been a resident of Kansas since the year 1888, is a native of Indiana, having been born in Pike county, that state, October 16, 1859, son of Francis Henry and Elizabeth (Parker) Coleman, both natives of that same county, members of pioneer families, whose respective parents were settlers in that section of Indiana in territorial days.
Francis H. Coleman was a son of Conrad and Nellie Coleman, who emigrated from Kentucky in 1866 and settled in Pike county, where they spent the remainder of their lives, becoming prominent in the pioneer life
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of that community. Conrad Coleman was one of the county's first settlers and was also known far and near as an auctioneer of most persuasive eloquence. Francis H. Coleman grew up on the paternal farm and mar- ried Elizabeth Parker, daughter of Lorenzo and Elizabeth Parker, also early residents of that section of the Hoosier state. He became a farmer and extensive landowner and a man of influence. He never was of a par- ticularly robust type and when the Civil War broke out enlisted twice for service in the Union army, but both times was rejected on account of the state of his health. He and his wife were the parents of six children, whom they reared in the faith of the Baptist church: These children were as fol- low: Lewis W., the immediate subject of this biographical sketch; Cath- erine, who married Robert Montgomery and lives near Aline, Oklahoma; Monroe, a prosperous stockman of Sylvia township, this county, a biograph- ical sketch of whom is presented elsewhere in this volume; John. who lives near Aline, Oklahoma ; Joseph G., an electrical engineer, who lives at Owens- boro, Kentucky, and Lawrence, superintendent of schools in one of the provinces of the Philippine Islands. The mother of the above children died in 1886, at the age of forty-two and Francis H. Coleman married, secondly, Mary Dawson, to which union two children were born, Mrs. Elizabeth Ferg- uson and Eva. Francis H. Coleman died in Pike county, Indiana, in 1896, at the age of fifty-four.
Lewis W. Coleman was reared on the home farm in southern Indiana. After completing the course in the high school at Lynnville, in the neighbor- hood of his home, he entered the ranks of public school teachers and taught school for three years, at the end of which time he became a marble polisher and was thus engaged for five years at Oakland City, Indiana. He then learned the carpenter's trade and in 1888 came to Kansas, locating at Sterling, in the neighboring county of Rice, in the neighborhood of which he rented a farm and for a time was engaged in farming there. He then came to Reno county and rented a farm on Peace creek, in Hayes township, where he made his home for nine years, or until 1898, in which year he moved to Sylvia and resumed work at his trade as a carpenter and has since that time been thus engaged, having become a very successful building con- tractor. In 1911 he rebuilt his home at Sylvia and he and his family are very pleasantly situated there.
In 1880. in Indiana, Lewis W. Coleman was united in marriage to Sarah Sandusky, who was born in Kentucky, and to this union two children have been born, Charles, who is connected with a wholesale house in Wichita,
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this state, in which city he makes his home, and Wayne, who is a druggist with Evans Smith, wholesale druggists, Kansas City, Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Coleman are members of the Congregational church at Sylvia, Mr. Coleman being a trustee of the church, and have hosts of friends there, all of whom hold them in high esteem. Mr. Coleman is a Republican, but has never been a seeker after office. He is a Mason and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in the affairs of both of which orders he takes a warm interest.
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JAMES C. KELLAMS.
James C. Kellams, son of Gideon Riley and Maria (Egnew ) Kellams, was born on February 12, 1854, in Spencer county, Indiana. Maria, Egnew was the daughter of James and Elizabeth ( Varner) Egnew, pioneers of Spencer county. John Kellams, the grandfather of James C., married Cath- erine Gunthurman, and they lived in Spencer county, where she died. Later, John Kellams married a second time and lived in Martin county, Indiana, where his death occurred. His children by his first marriage were: Elvira, Amanda, Elizabeth, George and Gideon Riley.
Gideon Riley Kellams was a pioneer school teacher of Indiana. He read law and was admitted to the bar of Spencer county in 1874, but had been a farmer previously. In 1861 he enlisted for service in the Civil War, in the Forty-second Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and served four years. He was first lieutenant of Company H, was promoted to the rank of captain, then to that of major, then to lieutenant-colonel, then was bre- vetted colonel by President Lincoln. He was with the army of the Cum- berland in Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama, and went with Sherman to the sea. His only injury during all his service was a flesh wound. He par- ticipated in the battles of Lookout Mountain, Stone's River and Atlanta. After the close of the war he took up farming for a time, then became a mer- chant in Gentryville, Indiana. He later practiced law as a pension attorney. His death occurred on January 19, 1902, while his wife died just two days prior to this, and the two were buried in one grave. Their children are Francis A., Henry L., James C., John S., Wesley W., Elizabeth H., Cather- ine, Sophronia Maria, Martha B., Amanda and Ida.
James C. Kellams received his education in a select school in Spencer county, Indiana. After leaving school he engaged in farming and came to
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Reno county, Kansas, in March, 1876. He settled in Medford township, now Enterprise township, where he pre-empted a timber claim of two hun- dred and forty acres. At that time he used corn stalks and cow chips for fuel. He has put many and varied improvements on his place, and now has a well-improved farm and comfortable residence.
On February 22, 1876, James C. Kellams was married to Emily A. Allen, who was born in Sumner county, Tennessee, June 4, 1851, and died on August 25, 1910. Her parents were William and Mary ( Harder) Allen, farmers of Warrick county, Indiana. William Allen was a soldier in the War of 1812. Mr. and Mrs. Kellams were the parents of the following children : Roy A., Bessie M., Rupert C .. Walter W., James C., Gideon, Edward and Lester W. Mr. Kellams has always been active in local affairs, and has served as a member of the school board for many years.
JAMES NELSON.
James Nelson, a prosperous and progressive farmer of this community, owner of a well-tilled and profitable quarter-section farm in Clay township, is a Dane, who was born on a farm three miles west of the flourishing city of Oolhaus, in the very central part of the kingdom of Denmark, on April 25, 1858, son of Nels Anderson and Mettie (Jansen) Miller, both natives of the same district.
Nels Miller was a thrifty and well-to-do farmer, who also operated a blacksmith shop on his farm, he being a skilled smith, conducting the smithy while his sturdy sons managed the farm. He was a veteran of the war of 1848-50, in which Denmark triumphed over Prussia, and was wounded three times during that historic struggle, once through the mouth, once in the shoulder and once in the scalp. The rugged veteran was an intense patriot and in the later war between Denmark and Germany, in the early sixties, when the fair province of Schleswig-Holstein was wrested by force of arms from Denmark, he lamented because he could not take part in the conflict, he then being an old man and nearing his grave. He was confined to his bed when the news came of the defeat of the Danish arms and when the vanquished army returned home he asked to be laid in the doorway that he might watch the marching troops pass by and sorrow with them. Not many days later, in the year 1863. Nels Miller died, a heart-broken, sorrowing veteran, lamenting his nation's woe. His widow
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JAMES NELSON AND FAMILY.
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presently married Sohn Fonson, a blacksmith, and lived to be eighty-one years of age, her death occurring in 1911. Nels Miller and his wife were earnest members of the Lutheran church and their children were reared in that faith. There were six of these children, of whom James, the subject of this sketch, is the fourth in order of birth, the others being as follow : Sophia, who married and lived in Denmark; Sena, who also married and lives in Denmark; Anders, now deceased, who was a blacksmith and spent all his days in his native land; Anton, who emigrated to far-away Australia and is now a wealthy building contractor there, and Christian, who owns a large wholesale grocery establishment in Denmark and is also well-to-do.
James Nelson received his education in the government school in the neighborhood of his home, which he attended until he was fifteen years old. He carly took his part in the operation of the home farm and also became a skilled smith, under his father's capable instructions, a craft which stands hiin in good stead, even to this day, for he has for years maintained a little smithy on his farm in this county, in which he has been accustomed to make all his own repairs to his farm machinery and implements. In 1882 he married a neighbor girl and began farming on his own account. His wife's brother, August Valine, had some to America and had settled in this county, which he found very much to his liking. Valine's letters back home created a desire on the part of James Nelson to try his fortune also in this country and in 1887 he bought a ticket for himself and family straight through from Copenhagen to Hutchinson, Kansas, U. S. A. After an uneventful and safe half way across this continent he and his family arrived in Reno county and set about creating a new home here. For a time after his arrival here and while "getting the lay of the land," Mr. Nelson worked as a farm hand, but presently rented a farm and began farming on his own account and on that place he lived until 1898, in which year he bought the northeast quarter of section 15, township 23, range 5 west, in Clay township. this county, and ever since has made his home there. When he bought the farm he did not have a cent to pay on his purchase, his increased equip- ment having exhausted his ready money, but he was given easy terms and straightway began paying out, the place now all being paid for and well-improved. Mr. Nelson paid two thousand six hundred and seventy- five dollars for his place and but recently declined an offer of one hun- dred and twenty-five dollars an acre, or twenty thousand dollars, for the same. He has made all the improvements on his place, including an at- tractive and comfortable farm house, which, in common with his other (28a)
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