USA > Kansas > Reno County > History of Reno County, Kansas; its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 44
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Robert T. Specht's wife was Katie R. Schneider. She was born in Liverpool, Medina county, Ohio, on April 19, 1842, and died in Ellinwood, Kansas, on July 16, 1915. She also was a devoted member of the Evangel- ical Lutheran church.
Robert T. Specht, Jr., was born at Topeka, Kansas, on February 2. 1873. His education was received in his younger days from his parents and at the age of ten began in the graded schools of Chase, Kansas, graduat- ing at the age of fourteen. After leaving school, he mastered two very use- ful trades, printing and telegraphy. He served as station agent and operator
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on the Santa Fe railroad for three years, after which he engaged in the newspaper business, conducting the Newton Journal, in Harvey county, Kan- sas, for five months, and the year following he was editor of the Nickerson Argosy, in this county. At the end of that time he went to Chicago to work for his brother in the publishing business, remaining in that city until Octo- ber I, 1915, when he came to Turon, Kansas, and purchased the Turon Weekly Press. In politics he is a Republican, and is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.
Mr. Specht's brothers and sisters are Florence, wife of Frank S. Salls, a banker of Topeka; Josie B., wife of Frank N. Masemore, a real-estate dealer of St. Joseph, Missouri; Carl H., of Chicago, publisher and junior partner in the firm of Harmegnies & Howell.
CARR W. TAYLOR.
Carr W. Taylor, the son of Thomas Thomson and Margaret Antoinette (White) Taylor, was born in Georgetown, Brown county, Ohio. Thomas Thomson Taylor was born on the "Stone House Farm" in Monmouth county, New Jersey, on the north side of the "Burlington Path" and about four miles west of Freehold, on November 27, 1836. Thomas Taylor was a representative of the eighth generation from John Taylor, of Windsor, Connecticut, who came to America from the town of Haverhill, Suffolk county, England, with the colony of Governor Winthrop in 1630. He set- tled at Lynn, Massachusetts, the same year. Thomas Taylor was the son of Hiram and Mary (Thomson) Taylor. Thomas Taylor was married to Margaret Antoinette White at Georgetown, Ohio, on January 17. 1858. To this union the following children were born : Miles, Thomas Thomson, Jr .. Carr White, Sarah Elizabeth, Hiram, Bruce Linville, George Searing and Edgar Clarence.
Margaret Antoinette White was born in Georgetown, Brown county, Ohio, and died at Hutchinson, September 29, 1913. Mrs. White was the daughter of John D. and Margaret R. (Baker) White, both of whom were natives of Virginia.
In April. 1867, Thomas Taylor moved to Edina, Knox county, Miss- ouri, and after remaining there six years, on account of poor health removed to Kansas where he made his home for twenty years. Here he built for himself and family a most substantial home and became the possessor of
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eleven hundred and twenty acres of land, where he engaged in general farm- ing and the raising of cattle and hogs.
Thomas T. Taylor received his education in the schools of Freehold and Bordentown, New Jersey. After completing his education he was an apprentice in a grocery store for some time and then studied law in the office of Major William Wall, an uncle, after which he was admitted to the bar at Columbus, Ohio, on December 8, 1857. In April, 1858, he was elected an alderman of Georgetown and the same year, he was appointed a member of the county board of school examiners. Later he was appointed prosecu- ting attorney of Brown county and later was elected to that position, in 1860. Upon his return from the army, at the close of the Civil War, he was appointed a justice of the peace and the same year he declined the nomination for district judge. Some time later he was appointed assistant collector of internal revenue for the sixth district of Ohio. He served as swamp land commissioner and assistant United States marshal for Missouri and in 1870 was supervisor of the census in Knox county. In 1873 he located in Kansas, where he served three terms as state representative from Reno county and one term as state auditor. In 1875 he was deputy prosecuting attorney for Reno county and was for three years a member of the state board of charities, by appointment of Gov. Thomas A. Osborn, and was reappointed by Gov. John P. St. John. He was for two years the president of the board. During the Indian trouble, Governor Osborn appointed him brigadier-general of the state militia. The seventh congressional district of the state selected him as the elector, in the Blaine and Logan campaign. Mr. Taylor was a director of the Kansas State Horticultural Society for several years and was elected a life member of the society. In January he became the general counsel for the Kansas City, Watkins & Gulf Rail- road with headquarters at Lake Charles, Louisiana. In February, 1902. he received the appointment of referee in bankruptcy for the western district of Louisiana. He died on February 15. 1908, at Lake Charles, and was buried with high military honors in the Arlington Cemetry, at Washington, D. C.
On April 16, 1861. Thomas Taylor volunteered in the Union army at Georgetown, Ohio, and on May 4, 1861, was elected as first lieutenant of Company I, Twelfth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry. On August 7. 1861, he became Captain of Company F. Forty-seventh Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and in December, 1862, was promoted to the rank of major. He later became a lieutenant-colonel. colonel and brigadier-general.
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His advancement was in recognition of his gallant service. He served as chief of staff with Generals M. L. Smith and W. B. Hazen. ' He was chief of outpost until he was wounded at McAlister, Georgia, on December 13, 1864, and was ordered to Grant's officers' hospital at Cincinnati. During his convalescence he was ordered to sit as a member of the military court, at Washington, D. C., where he served for several months, the youngest member of the court. After regaining his health he served on the staff of General Hazen in charge of the judiciary department. At the siege of Atlanta and on the march to the sea was in charge of a brigade, which position he filled with distinction and honor.
Thomas T. Taylor for a time conducted and owned a newspaper at Georgetown, Ohio, and later was the editor and publisher of the Edina Sentinel at Edina, Missouri. In 1883 he entered into partnership with S. B. Zimmerman for the practice of law, and continued in the practice until he removed to Lake Charles.
Thomas T. Taylor was a member of the Ancient Free an Accepted Masons and was active in the York rite. He was an influential member of the Methodist Episcopal church and took much interest in all church work. Politically, Mr. Taylor was a Republican and took much interest in all the campaigns of his party, he being a prominent and influential worker.
Carr W. Taylor received his education in the public schools of Reno county and from his father. He later attended the University of Michigan, for two years, after which he was admitted to the bar at Hutchinson, on July 8, 1887, to the Supreme Court of Kansas at Topeka, on June 1, 1897, and to the Supreme Court of the United States on February 25, 1908. Since being admitted to the bar Mr. Taylor has practiced law at Hutchinson and at Topeka. He has served as prosecuting attorney for Reno county, from 1899 to 1903, and attorney for the Kansas board of railroad commis- sioners, at Topeka, from 1905 to 1907. He has his office at 604 First National Bank building, his residence being at 801 Sherman avenue, East.
At the first sound of the tocsin of the Spanish-American War, Mr. Taylor, who at the time was first lieutenant of Company E, Kansas National Guard, organized a company and when a call for volunteers was made, went to Topeka, where he tendered to Governor Leady the first organized com- pany. The governor refused to accept the company and proceeded to issue orders for the mustering out of all the Kansas guard and then to organize regiments for the service, with his own henchmen as officers.
On June 30, 1903 Carr W. Taylor, was married at Hutchinson, to Mrs. Eva (Thompson) Heathcote, the daughter of Leander H. and Cisnae
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(Ament) Thompson. Mrs. Taylor is a native of Nokomis, Illinois, while her father was born in Kentucky and her mother in Missouri. Mrs. Taylor is the mother of one child, Waldemar Lea, by a former marriage. Waldemar is at home with Mr. and Mrs. Taylor.
Fraternally, Mr. Taylor is a York rite Mason, a member of the Knights of Pythias, an Elk and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. Politically, Mr. Taylor is a progressive Republican, and was an alternate deligate to the National Republican convention in 1904, when Theodore Roosevelt was nominated for president. In 1914 he was the candidate on the Progressive ticket for attorney-general of Kansas.
Carr W. Taylor is the author of a treatise relating to the regulation of public-service corporations, under the title "The Railroad a Public Servant." The work has been well received and much favorable comment has been given to it.
ARTHUR H. SCHLAUDT.
Arthur H. Schlaudt, vice-president and general manager of the Knorr- Schlaudt Wholesale Company, of Hutchinson, Kansas, and who is actively connected with the business interests of that city, is a native son of Kansas, having been born in Topeka, the state capital, in 1879, son of Henry and Sophia Schlaudt, who for years have been prominent residents of Hutchin- son, Mr. Schlaudt, senior, being head of the Fair Mercantile Company, of this city.
Until moving to Hutchinson, Arthur H. Schlaudt attended the schools of Topeka, and supplemented same with a course in a business college. He . later attended the Hutchinson high school, graduating with the class of 1899. At an early age he became active in business life, being associated with his father in conducting the Fair Mercantile Company, which was one of three stores in which Mr. Schlaudt, senior, was interested, the other two being at Topeka and Lawrence, Kansas. Arthur H. eventually acted in the capacity of buyer for three stores, making regular trips to the eastern markets. In 1905 the Knorr-Schlaudt Wholesale Company was organized and Arthur Schlaudt was elected secretary of the same. This company grew and en- larged until in 1908 they moved into their present building which was erected for their purpose at 223-5-7 South Main street. The stock handled by this company consists of furnishing goods and staple notions. In 1912 the Knorr-Schlaudt Company established a factory for the manufacture of
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overalls, work shirts, etc., and how employs a force of thirty workmen in their factory department alone. The company has a force of seven traveling salesmen, and covers the territory comprised in southwestern Kansas, east- ern Colorado, western Oklahoma and parts of New Mexico and Texas. Mr. Schlaudt is now vice-president of the Knorr-Schlaudt Wholesale Company, and also acts as treasurer of the Fair Mercantile Company.
On September 25, 1906, Arthur H. Schlaudt was married to Inez Lil- lian Handy, daughter of the late E. S. Handy and wife, a biographical sketch of whom is presented elsewhere in this volume, and to this union two chil- dren have been born: Gretchen, born in 1910, and Sylvia, born in 1914. The Schlaudts have a very pleasant home at 718 Sherman avenue, East.
Mr. Schlaudt is a Republican and gives a good citizen's attention to political affairs, but has never sought an office of any kind. He is a Knight Templar and thirty-second degree Mason, a member of the United Com- mercial Travelers' Association, a member of the Hutchinson Rotary Club and Gridiron Club, and a director of the Young Men's Christian Associa- tion, in which organization he takes a warm interest. For a number of years Mr. Schlaudt was active in the National Guard of the state, serving as battalion adjutant of the Second Regiment for seven years.
IRVIN W: POULTON.
Irvin W. Poulton was born in Courtland county, New York, April 19, 1865. His father, William Poulton, was born at Gloucestershire, England, and his mother, Elizabeth Ellsworth, in Yorkshire, England. They were twelve and ten years old, respectively, when their families settled in Courtland county, New York. After their marriage they owned and operated a farm in New York state.
William Poulton enlisted in the spring of 1861 in the First United States Regular Artillery, and served three years in the Civil War. At the battle of Warrenton, a cannon, rolling over him, injured his legs. He re-enlisted in the One Hundred and Sixty-fifth Regiment, New York Vol- unteer Infantry, and served in this until the close of the war, receiving a bullet wound in the hand. In November, 1872, he became a Kansas pioneer, hunting buffalo near Medicine Lodge. He first settled near Wichita, but in May, 1873, came to Reno county and homesteaded a quarter section, and timber-claimed half that acreage in Medora township. His father, Solomon
Irvin H. Poulton Anna M Poulton
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Poulton, had homesteaded eighty acres there, and after the latter's death, William finished proving up on it. He was one of the first settlers in this . section and soon became a leader in affairs. The sod house he built was replaced by a four-room, one and one-half story frame building, large for that time. He farmed and raised stock until 1887, when he engaged in the lumber and hardware business at Medora. With foresight he purchased one hundred and sixty acres, which he sold to the town company for the site of Medora when the Rock Island railway went through. His death occurred on May 28, 1910, at the age of seventy-four years. His wife, who was an Episcopalian in religious belief, died on July 26, 1905,' aged sixty-five years. Their children are as follow: Irvin W., the subject of this review; Alice, the wife of William McIlwain, of Texas; Eliza, wife of Arthur M. Bear, of Medora township; Arthur, a farmer of Medora township; Eugene, section foreman for the Rock Island railway, living at Medora; Emma, the wife of Ira Hostetler, of Grand Junction, Colorado; Teresa, who was the wife of O. A. Kinley, died on April 3, 1908; Florence, widow of Elmer Fulk, who died at Grand Junction, Colorado, is a teacher in the schools of Maxwell, New Mexico.
Irvin W. Poulton was educated in the public schools of New York, later attending the district school at Auburn, in Medora township, and still later the school in district No. 45, near his home, the latter school having been partly founded by his father. This school was first held in an old sod house, primitively furnished, located on the Zimmerman place. Irvin Poulton remained with his parents. operating the home farm until he was forty years old. In 1905 he moved to the quarter section of land which he had bought before his marriage, having sold another quarter to clear the debt. He has improved his land in many ways, and stocked his farm with registered Red Polled cattle.
On June 12, 1902, Irvin W. Poulton was married at Kansas City. Missouri, to Anna Bear, who was born in Ohio, April 8, 1878, the daughter of Henry and Catherine (Vanderhoof) Bear, both of whom are now deceased. To this union have been born two children, Catherine, born on June 23. 1903, and Clyde, born on September 15, 1905, both of whom.are in school. Mr. Poulton is an Episcopalian in religious belief, while his wife is a Pres- byterian, and both are active in the Medora Union church, which they helped to build some years ago. Mr. Poulton is a trustee of this church, while his wife is superintendent of the Sunday school.
Mr. Poulton is a generous, hardworking farmer, and very popular in (29a)
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his community. He is a Republican in politics, and active in local affairs, having served five years as school director, and is now serving his third term as clerk of the township. He is a member of Inman Lodge No. 379, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, to which he has belonged for twenty- four years. He is engaged in the raising of purebred Polled cattle and general farming, he having as fine a herd as there is in the state, having about forty head.
GEORGE KIRTLEY FERNIE.
Among the successful ranch men of Reno county is George Kirtley Fernie who came to this county in the boom days of the early eighties and cast his lot with the pioneers, entering immediately into the life and activities of the cattlemen, and is now comfortably situated in his pleasant home on his extensive country place in Lincoln township.
George Kirtley Fernie was born on January 19, 1864, in Derby, Eng- land, the son of John and Arabella Fernie, the former of whom was born in Cupar, Fife, Scotland, and was educated in Edinburgh, where he was trained as a civil and mechanical engineer. When twenty-five years of age he went to England and worked as a civil engineer on the Midland rail- road. Later he was a partner in the Clarence Iron Works in Leeds, Eng- land. In 1881, John Fernie brought his family to America and located at Philadelphia, where he lived, retired, for several years. Subsequently he returned to England where he died in 1904.
George Fernie attended school in England and on the continent, and finished his education at University College, London. When the family moved to Philadelphia he spent three years as an apprentice in a machine shop. In 1883 Mr. Fernie moved to Sedgwick county, Kansas, where he lived with friends on a ranch and learned the business. Three years later, John Fernie bought a half section of land in Lincoln township, this county, for his son and he started in the cattle business. His brother, Robert, joined him and they operated the ranch together.
Robert William Fernie was born in Derby, England, December 5. 1857, and was educated in Leeds and the Isle of Wight, and finished at the Uni- versity College, London. He studied practical engineering on the Midland railroad and came to this country in 1880, locating in Philadelphia where he was with the Baldwin Locomotive Works. From there he went to the Lehigh Valley railroad in Wilkesbarre. and then came to Reno county.
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Both brothers are married, George remaining on the ranch and Robert living in Hutchinson.
Fernie ranch now comprises 2,730 acres ; they have about four hundred head of cattle, all high grade Herefords, and the wheat acreage has been increased from year to year until now they have 1, 100 acres sowed to grain and alfalfa. Fernie brothers were among the first to build silos in this sec- tion and they have three concrete ones with eight hundred tons capacity. They were also among the first to introduce alfalfa into Reno county. They have always taken great pride in the quality of their cattle and were pioneers in the production of baby beef, which with wheat are still their main inter- ests. The Santa Fe railroad runs through the ranch and they have the advantages of a station and stock yards on their own place.
During the national tractor demonstration in Hutchinson, in 1915, Mr. Fernie donated the use of portions of his land for the tractor plowing. Over one hundred different tractors competed, each pulling plows to break a cer- tain acreage, before a large crowd of spectators. George Fernie has more than a local reputation as a successful farmer and cattle raiser and has had a large part in bringing the agricultural and social conditions of this region up to their present high standard.
WILLIAM H. JOHNSON.
William H. Johnson, the well-known funeral director and undertaker at Hutchinson, this county, is a native of New York state, having been born in the city of Lockport, that state, January 17, 1873, the son of William L. and Mary A. Johnson, the former of whom, born in Massachusetts, died at his home in Hutchinson, April 26, 1908, at the age of sixty years, and the latter, born in Lockport, New York, is now living at Hutchinson, in her sixty-third year.
William L. Johnson was a small boy when his parents moved from Massachusetts to Lockport, New York, and he grew to manhood in the lat- ter city and there learned the undertaking business, in which he was engaged practically all the time during the remainder of his life. He was an expert cabinet-maker and excelled as a coffin maker in the days before the great coffin factories of the country did away with the making of coffins by hand. In 1858 he and his brother engaged in the undertaking business at Lockport and were thus engaged for eight years, at the end of which time William L.
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Johnson resumed his vocation of cabinet-making. His health failing him, he moved to New York City and for a couple of years operated a harbor boat there, for the purpose of getting out in the open. In 1886, attracted by reports of the fine climate of this section, he moved his family to Hutchin- son, where he entered into partnership with Davis & Krenrich in the furni- ture and undertaking business and was thus engaged for three years, at the end of which time, in 1889. he opened an undertaking establishment of his own in the room in East Sherman street now used by the Hutchinson Daily News as a press room. The next year he moved his establishment to 14 Sherman street, West, where it ever since has been located, the business hav- ing been continued by his sons since his death. William L. Johnson was a Democrat, a great admirer of William Jennings Bryan, and took a warm interest in political affairs. He was a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Court of Honor, the Knights of Pythias, the Knights and Ladies of Security and the Sons and Daughters of Justice. In 1895 he bought a home at 124 Avenue B, West, where his widow still resides. William L. Johnson and wife were the parents of three children, Ida F., who is at home with her mother; William H .. the immediate subject of this sketch, and Stephen F., who is married and lives at the number adjoining the home of his mother, 126 Avenue B, West.
.As a boy William H. Johnson attended the schools of Lockport, New York, and then for two years attended the schools in New York City, dur- ing the time his parents lived there. Upon his arrival in Hutchinson in 1886, he entered the old Sherman street school. When eleven years of age he had begun learning the undertaking business under his father's careful and competent direction and continued working right along with him during the vacation of his school. When he reached his majority his father made him a partner in the business in Hutchinson, and this mutually agreeable connection continued under the firm name of Johnson & Son, until the father's death in 1908, and since that time, in deference to the memory of the elder Johnson, the old firm name has been continued. After his father's death Mr. Johnson admitted his younger brother, Stephen F. Johnson, as a partner in the business and has made a great success of the same, the under- taking firm of Johnson & Son being regarded as the leading business of the kind in this immediate section of the state. The firm possesses a complete and up-to-date equipment, including the largest private garage in the state of Kansas for the care of the extensive automobile equipment, a mechanic being employed constantly taking care of the numerous machines which make
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up the rolling equipment of the firm. Among these cars is a fine auto- ambulance, a motor first-call wagon, equipped with pulmotor and all modern devices for life saving in cases of drowning, suffocation, fire or injury, a motor hearse, a motor casket wagon and touring cars, besides a full equip- ment of horse-drawn carriages.
Mr. Johnson is a member of twenty-one lodges and fraternal societies. He was married on February 22, 1916.
GEORGE R. WINSOR.
George R. Winsor has lived an eventful and useful life, as soldier in the Civil War, as Kansas farmer, as school trustee, and as the father of a large and interesting family. His parents were James and Charity (Feathers) Winsor, of Troy, New York, where his birth occurred on May 14, 1840.
The parents of Mr. Winsor were both natives of New York. James Winsor, who fought in the Civil War, was a lumberman in the New York home, and also in Pennsylvania, where the family lived for some years. He later moved to Kansas, where he homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres of land in Grove township, Reno county, section 16, township 25. range 10, where he developed a fine farm, and on which he lived until about 1895, when his death occurred.
George R. Winsor received his education in the district schools of Lewis county, New York. He was operating a large dairy farm, milking from twenty to thirty cows daily, when the call to arms was heard in 1861. and responding to that call, he enlisted for the service in Company B, Fourteenth Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry, at Boonville, Oneida county, New York. At the end of his first enlistment of ninety days, he re-enlisted under Col. Charles Wheelock, in the Ninety-seventh Regiment, New York Volun- teer Infantry. Belonging to the Army of the Potomac, he had the distinc- tion of fighting under such prominent generals as Mcclellan, Burnsides, Hooker and Meade. On September 14, 1862, Mr. Winsor was wounded at South Mountain, Maryland. He was given an honorable discharge at Syra- cuse, New York, in August, 1865, after participating in the Grand Review at Washington, D. C. David Winsor, a brother, was also a soldier and is now an inmate of the soldiers' home at Fort Dodge. Kansas.
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