USA > Kansas > Reno County > History of Reno County, Kansas; its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 45
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When George R. Winsor emigrated from New York to Kansas, in
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October. 1874, he rented a farm in Butler county, for one year. At the end of his lease he homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres. A little later he purchased the same amount of land, both quarter sections being located in Grove township, Reno county. The first was the northwest quarter of sec- tion 34, township 25, range 10, and the latter was the southwest quarter of section 27. township 25, range 10.
It was on October 21, 1868, that Mr. Winsor was married to Flora A. Perkins, at Turon, New York. She was the daughter of John and Caroline (Smith) Perkins, both natives of the Empire state, and was born in Lewis county, New York, in 1853. To Mr. and Mrs. Winsor were born six chil- dren: John, a well driver, of Laken, Kansas; Arthur, a hardware clerk, of Bucklin, Kansas; Myrtle, the wife of Warren H. Thorp, a carpenter and builder of Millersville, Kansas; Fred, a farmer still living at home; Fay, of Omaha, Nebraska, who has been in the United States navy for five years, and who was on board the battleship "Nebraska," when the Atlantic fleet sailed around the world; Maud, wife of Benton Myers, farmer, of Grove township. Reno county.
Mr. Winsor is a Republican in politics, and has well served the edu- cational interests of his district, No. 70, as trustee for the past seventeen years.
REV. WILLIAM B. STEVENS.
Perhaps no minister of the Gospel message in Reno county has had a larger part in advancing the interests of the church than the subject of this sketch, Rev. William B. Stevens, who came to this county in 1904, applied himself with energy to the task of organizing churches in various parts of the county, and is now continuing his labor of love in behalf of distressed bodies and souls as general superintendent of the Hutchinson Methodist hospital and as field secretary of the Hutchinson Methodist district.
William B. Stevens was born on December 25, 1866, near Corydon, in Harrison county, Indiana, the son of E. P. and Nancy ( Hancock) Stevens, both of whom were natives of Indiana. Nancy Hancock was the daughter of John and Lucy Hancock, natives of North Carolina, who emigrated to Harrison county, Indiana, in pioneer days. E. P. Stevens was the son of John and Mary Stevens, natives of New York state, who were also early settlers of Harrison county.
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E. P. Stevens was born in 1833, and was reared on his father's farm. At the age of thirty-six he entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal church and for forty years was a local preacher of that church, acting as a circuit rider among the country churches of southern Indiana. His first wife was Nancy Hancock, and to this union were born five children. Mrs. Nancy Stevens died in 1867, at the age of thirty-four years, and Rev. E. P. Stevens was married, secondly, to Mrs. Sarah (Goldsbury) Hancock, to which union were born two daughters and one son. Mrs. Hancock had six children by her first marriage and thus Rev. E. P. Stevens had the care of fourteen children. He died in 1909, at the age of seventy-six years.
William B. Stevens attended the public schools in Harrison county, Indiana, after which he went to the Central Normal College, at Danville, Indiana. He then taught school in Harrison county for five years, at the close of that service returning to his father's farm, which place he managed until October, 1903. In 1901 Mr. Stevens had obtained a local preacher's license in the Methodist Episcopal church, and in 1903 he became a circuit rider and had charge of seven preaching points on the Branchville circuit in southern Indiana, which paid him one hundred and fifty dollars for eight months' service, with his parsonage next door to a saloon. In 1904 Rev- erend Stevens was transferred to Abbeyville, Reno county, Kansas, where he was pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church for three years. He was moved to Hutchinson, in 1907, and placed in charge of two country churches -one at Mitchell, in Grant township, and the other at Poplar, in Reno township. Reverend Stevens established a mission at South Hutchinson which in time grew to a regular church organization with a building of its own. In I911 he erected a parsonage there and two years later spent the greater part of his time with that church. He also established the Little Valley church in McPherson county.
When Reverend Stevens came to Hutchinson in 1907 the minister was paid seven hundred dollars a year and there were only two churches. In 1914 the field had been so developed that there were three ministers paid three thousand two hundred dollars a year, having charge of six churches. For this remarkable growth Reverend Stevens deserves the principal credit. as it was on account of his zeal that the churches were built and the mem- bership increased. Outside of his regular church work he held a great many evangelistic meetings over the county with very satisfactory results. Rev. William B. Stevens was the first pastor in southwestern Kansas to adopt the automobile and his machine has traveled many miles each week facilita- ting his work throughout the county.
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In August, 1915, the Methodist church took over the leading hospital in Hutchinson, and it is now called the Hutchinson Methodist Hospital. Reverend Stevens is a member of the board of managers of the hospital, of which board Doctor Able, pastor of the First Methodist Episcopal church of Hutchinson, is chairman. Reverend Stevens has general supervision of the hospital from the standpoint of church ownership, and is field secretary for the church in the Hutchinson Methodist district.
On February 19, 1890, William B. Stevens was united in marriage with Hannah B. McPheters, who was born in Washington County, Indiana, the daughter of Dr. J. D. McPheters, a prominent citizen of that county. To this union was born one child, Lucile, who was born on March 1, 1892, Lucile Stevens was graduated from the Hutchinson high school, where her rank as a student secured for her a scholarship at Southwestern College, from which institution she was graduated with honor. Reverend and Mrs. Stevens have endeared themselves to this community and are held in high esteem.
PATRICK SHEA.
Patrick Shea, son of John and Catherine Shea, was born on December 3, 1861, in County Kerry, Ireland. His parents were both natives of the same country. John Shea was a horse dealer and live-stock buyer in his native land and died there in middle age, while his widow died on March 30, 1916.
Patrick Shea, reared in an Irish Catholic home, had few educational advantages. When fourteen years of age he enlisted in the English navy, remaining one year and four months. While in the navy, he circled the globe, visited many foreign ports while on the British man-of-war. In 1878 he emigrated to Boston, Massachusetts, the first of the family to come to America, and for a few months worked in a brick-yard in Boston. Later he went west to Iowa, where he was engaged as a section hand on the rail- road at Washington. For seven years he worked in the gas business in Iowa, but later engaged in the retail grain, coal and wood business. He next took up railroad building, becoming in time, as great a contractor as any in the United States. He followed railroad construction work for twenty-five years, working for the Rock Island and other lines. He made
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PATRICK SHEA.
MRS. ANNA SHEA.
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large contracts and sublet the work, managing the whole, and sometimes con- trolling several hundred workmen, with great executive ability. He led in bringing Mexicans into Kansas for railroad construction work. He is justly proud of the fact that he has never been required to give a bond for any of his work.
In April, 1908, Mr. Shea, who was living in Kansas City, bought a section of land in Medora township, on the old townsite of Medora, on which to pasture the horses and mules used in construction work. In 1908, on account of rheumatism, he settled on his farm and is still living there. He has become a fine judge of live stock, and has bought and shipped much of it. He feeds many cattle and fine Hampshire hogs. He has made many and various improvements on his farm, such as grain elevator, barns, cement walks and floors, and cow barns.
Mr. Shea is a Democrat in politics, but has never sought office. He is a liberal contributor and member of the Roman Catholic church at Hutchinson, and is a member of the Catholic order, Knights of Columbus. He is generous to a fault and exceedingly popular.
On September 10, 1890, Patrick Shea was married to Annie Elizabeth Farrell, have been born the following children: John, deceased; George, who married Vina Thurman, lives on his farm near Medora; Edward. who married Ethel Bear, and has one son, Lawrence, lives on his farm near Medora: Sarah, Nellie, Francis, Maurice. Thomas, Robert and William (twins), still living at home with their parents. Mr. Shea is interested in the commission business in Kansas City.
JOE F. BAILEY.
Joe F. Bailey is a native of Rock Island, Illinois, having been born there on June 6, 1874, the youngest child in a family of five children reared by Thomas and Rebecca (Posey) Bailey. Thomas Bailey, was born in the state of Kentucky, in 1824, and came to Ohio with his parents when he was a child, and there grew up on his father's farm. Thomas Bailey was well known in railroad circles throughout Ohio as one of the first conductors on the Chicago, Hamilton & Dayton railroad. During the Civil War he was obliged to change his residence and as a consequence, settled in Cincinnati, Ohio. Later, after moving to Rock Island, Illinois, he became a conductor
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on the Rock Island & Peoria railroad and was finally promoted to the position of station agent at Galva, Illinois. In 1882 Thomas Bailey decided to take up farming as an occupation, and bought a farm near Independence, Kansas, where he became a prominent stock raiser. He was well thought of among the citizens of that section of the state and was elected county commissioner of Montgomery county, Kansas, where he served the public for a number of years. His political interests were with the Republican party and in religious affairs he supported the Congregational church. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Bailey were the parents of the following children : Harry, the eldest son, died at the age of forty years; Fred, resides in Colo- rado; Thomas is a successful druggist in Joplin, Missouri; Jesse, who mar- ried Mrs. F. W. Crans, resides in Independence, Kansas, and Joe F., the subject of this sketch. Mrs. Bailey was born in Ohio in 1841 and died in 1904.
When Joe F. Bailey was eight years old the members of his family moved to Montgomery county, Kansas, where he received his education in the public schools. He made his home on the farm with his parents until he was twenty-one years old when he went to work in a drug store at Galena, Kansas. During the five years of his employment in this localty he learned every detail of the drug business and at the end of that time when he went to Hutchinson. Kansas, he received on account of his ability, a position as traveling salesman for a wholesale drug company. He visited towns in the vicinity of Hutchinson and Kansas City and has continued the work until the very present time, when he is considered one of the best salesmen in that line of work in the state. He maintains his headquarters in Hutchinson, where he erected a beautiful home at 211 East Second avenue, in March, 1909.
In September, 1912, Mr. Bailey bought out the interest of Mr. Hodges in the retail drug store of Hodges & Adams, at 205 North Main street. Since that time the firm has been known as Bailey & Adams. Although Mr. Bailey still follows the occupation of a traveling salesman, he gives one day in each week to his personal interests in the store, which is one of the best equipped as well as the most up-to-date stores of its kind in Hutchinson. . Mr. Bailey, aside from his business activities is prominent in fraternal circles. He is a member of the Elks Lodge and the United . Commercial Travelers.
The marriage of Joe F. Bailey to Aura Rowland took place on October 23. 1901. Mrs. Bailey is a native of Washington County, Ohio, the daughter of Rufus and Lottie ( Rood ) Rowland, both of whom were natives of Ohio.
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Her father, who followed the occupation of a farmer, moved to Reno county, Kansas, in 1879, where he homesteaded in Center township. In 1885 he retired from the active duties of the farm life and moved to Hutchinson where he still resides. His wife passed away in December, 1905. The couple attended the Christian church and contributed liberally to its support. Mr. Rowland is known to many residents of Hutchinson as a former hotel manager of that place. Two sisters of Mrs. Rowland still reside in Kansas. They are Lova, the wife of John Wellows, who makes her home in Rice county, and Anna, the wife of William Johnson, of Hutchinson. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Bailey are Thelma, who was born in 1903; Mildred and Joe, Jr.
JAMES H. SPROUT.
James H. Sprout is not only one of the most substantial farmers of Reno county, but he has figured prominently in the school interests of his community. He was born in Grundy county, Missouri, on December 28. 1872, the son of Francis M. and Sophia (Newlin) Sprout, an account of whose lives is given in the sketch of John Sprout, presented elsewhere in this volume.
James H. Sprout was educated in the district schools of his native county. When he was about twenty years of age he moved with his father from Missouri to the Sunflower state, and settled in Grove township, Reno county, where he lived on rented land for six years. In the spring of 1899 he bought one hundred and sixty aeres of land in section 34, township 25. range 10, and ten years later he erected thereon one of the finest residences in that county, where he has since resided.
In November, 1896, james H. Sprout was married, in Hutchinson, to Minnie Ellison, the daughter of James and Nannie ( Oliver ) Ellison. Illinois was the native state of Mrs. Sprout, where her birth occurred on October 3. 1877. Her father was born in Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Sprout are the parents of two children: Eileen, born on July 22, 1899, and Gilbert, born on November 3, 1910.
Mr. Sprout has been treasurer of the school board of his district, No. 70, for the past fourteen years. He has also held the trustee office in Grove township for a period of two years. In politics, he has always affiliated with the Republican party.
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HARVEY J. RICKENBRODE.
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Harvey J. Rickenbrode was born in Clarion county, Pennsylvania, Aug- ust 8, 1856. His father, Adam Rickenbrode, was born in Berks county, and his mother, Susannah Masters, in Clarion county, Pennsylvania. Adam Rickenbrode died in 1863, having been a farmer near Fryberg, Pennsylvania. His wife married John Daum, a cabinet-maker, who owned five acres of land, on which was his shop. In 1865 the family moved to Lake county, Indiana, and bought a farm, on which they lived until the death of John Daum in 1883. His wife, who was a Methodist, died in 1897. aged sixty- three years. Her children, by her first marriage, were as follow: Jurilla, who was married to William King; Harvey J., the subject of this review; Agnes, wife of John King, of Turon, Kansas. To her second marriage there were born eight children.
Harvey J. Rickenbrode was seven years old when he moved to Indiana, and received his early education in the schools of Lake county, Indiana. Later he was a student in the Northern Indiana Normal School at Val- paraiso. Indiana. At the age of seventeen he began teaching and had pupils larger than himself. In 1878 he bought and operated a threshing machine outfit at Ellsworth, Kansas. He afterward worked in the Ellsworth post- office for six months, clerked for one and one-half years in a grocery for 1. W. Phelps, clerked eight months in a dry goods store, then worked as a bookkeeper for two years, and was manager and bookkeeper for the H. F. Hoseman Hardware and Implement Company for twelve years. From 1896 until 1901 he rented and operated a dairy farm in Porter county, Indiana. He then bought the general store of J. J. Harrison, at Medora, Kansas, was elected postmaster and has held this office since. He has enlarged the store and carries an entire farm supply stock. He helped organize the Farmers' Mutual Telephone Company, and has since held the office of treasurer of that company.
Mr. Rickenbrode is a Republican in politics, and is a member of the Knights of Pythias and of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, both of Hutchinson. He owns and rents a quarter section in Ness county, and owns his residence in Hutchinson.
Mr. Rickenbrode was married on November 14, 1881, in Ellsworth, Kansas, to Mattie L. Holmes, a native of New York, and the daughter of Charles and Elizabeth Holmes. Charles Holmes was a farmer near Ells- worth, Kansas, but later was engaged in the hotel business at Geneseo, Kan-
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sas. His death occurred in 1878. To Mr. and Mrs. Rickenbrode have been born the following children: James Earl, an operator of Neodesha, Kansas, married Maggie Folk; Celia P., wife of J. E. Trent, manager of the Kansas Lumber Company, of Medora; Cyril Guy, who married May Egy, is ticket agent for the Rock Island railway at McFarland; Howard Reed, steno- grapher for the Interstate Commerce Commission, at Washington, D. C., and Clifford Dwight, who is employed in his father's store.
FRED W. ASH.
Fred W. Ash, former mayor of Haven, this county, and for years one of the most earnest promoters of the interests of that up-to-date and thriving little city, his home and the pride of his heart, for he was one of the found- ers of the town, is a native of England, having been born in the great city of London, June II. 1840, son of Fred and Isabella (Hill) Ash, both natives of that same city and the parents of five children, Isabella, Fred W., Jessie. Henry and Arthur. The elder Fred Ash was the proprietor of an engraving and die-sinking establishment in London and lived in good cir- cumstances. He died in 1854, at the age of thirty-seven years.
Fred W. Ash left home when he was nineteen years of age and he has lost all trace of his family. He was fourteen years old when his father died, and after that he went to work as printer's "devil" in the office of the London Times, a position he held for two years, at the end of which time he started in to learn the wood-turning and house-painting trades, becoming quite proficient in both, working at wood-turning during the winters and at house-painting during the summers. Early in 1859, he then being nineteen years of age, Fred W. Ash left the city of his birth and emigrated to Canada, locating at Ottawa, where he established a shop for wood turning, and there he remained until 1863, in which year he came to the United States and located at Chicago, and for a time did contract painting. He married in 1864 and became the foreman of a planing-mill and sash-and- door factory. In 1871 he bought the sash-and-door department of that con- cern and operated the same until 1873, in which year he came to Kansas on a visit, and was so well pleased with the appearance of things in this part of the state that he bought the relinquishment of a homestead right to a quarter of a section one mile north of Andale, in Greeley township (now Sherman township), Sedgwick county, this state, to which place he moved
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his family and there he made his home until 1878. in which year he came to this county and bought a quarter of a section on land in Haven town- ship and there established a new home. In 1882 he added to his holdings there by the purchase of a quarter of a section of railroad land just south of his place and was definitely on the way to his present state of comfort- able affluence.
Fred W. Ash was the original pioneer dairyman of Reno county, the first man to bring to butter making that degree of attention it should re- ceive, and he is properly proud of his record in the dairy line. In 1881 he established on his farm the first private creamery in Reno county. His dairy herd consisted of thirty fine cows and he gives proper direction to the enterprise. The Hutchinson dealers offered him but twelve cents the pound for his superior butter, the market price. Not content with this, he shipped the butter to St. Louis, where the superior quality of his product was at once recognized. the dealers there paying him thirty-one cents, and from that time forward he received the top price for his butter. In 1884 Mr. Ash retired from the farm and moved to Hutchinson, where he lived for eighteen months, during which time he was actively engaged in promoting the route of the old Wichita & Colorado railroad, now the Missouri Pacific. and was one of the organizers of the company that founded and promoted the town of Mt. Hope, on the line of the proposed road. When it became certain that the road would strike Mt. Hope, Mr. Ash sold out his interests there to advantage and then acted as an intermediary in securing the right- of-way for the road through this county, and piloted the railroad commis- sion that was to decide the course of the road through Haven township. In April, 1886, Mr. Ash helped organize the Haven Town Company, which paid five thousand one hundred dollars for the quarter of a section of land on which the original plat of Haven was laid out, and in July of that year the road was constructed through the new town, the efforts of Mr. Ash having been mainly responsible for the route thus selected. Mr. Ash became the active agent for the town company and was the first man to build a house and make his home on the town site, Haven ever since having been his place of residence. Soon after the town was definitely on its way. Mr. Ash erected a two-story business block, which was destroyed by fire in 1894. He then built a comfortable residence two blocks east of Main street, where he still lives, and in 1915 built a pretty, modern house adjoining the same, for his son, William F.
Since 1884 Mr. Ash has rented his farm in Haven township and
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during all the years intervening has had but four tenants on the place; two of those had done so well under his generous landlordism that they have been able to buy a farm. Mr. Ash was one of the organizers of the prede- cessor of the old Citizens' Bank, the first bank established in that place, and later was vice-president of the State Bank of Grant. In 1887, with a one-third interest in the concern, he helped organize and build the Haven mill, and later, from 1891 for several years, was active manager of the mill. Mr. Ash was also instrumental in the organization of the Haven Creamery Company, of which he was the secretary, and the affairs of which he very successfully managed for the first year or two of its existence. Mr. Ash is an ardent Republican and for years has taken an active part in the political affairs of the county. From 1893 to 1899 he served as mayor of Haven and later served as a member of the town council. In all ways he has been an unceasing "booster" for the pretty and up-to-date little city which he helped to found and the advantages of which he has ever extolled, unsel- fishly and without desire for gain. He has communicated his zealous spirit to many others there and the town is widely noted hereabout for the fine public spirit manifested by its people. Neither the town of Haven nor the township of that name has a cent of public debt hanging over it, and Mr. Ash modestly feels that he has done much toward contributing to this desir- able result.
On February 29, 1864, Fred W. Ash was united in marriage to Lottie E. Pierce, who was born near Ogdensburg, New York, in 1846, daughter of Ontario and Jane (Town) Pierce, the former a native of New Jersey and the latter of New York state. Ontario Pierce was a baker, who died in 1852, his daughter. Lottie, then being but six years of age. Mrs. Pierce died in 1888. To Mr. and Mrs. Ash five children have been born, as follow : Nellie C., born on February 7. 1865, who died on November 2. 1903, the wife of Doctor Blue; Jessie L., August 8, 1866, who married W. C. Wilhite, a carpenter, of Haven: William F., September. 1868, proprietor of a jewelry store at Haven, married Maud Talbot : Herbert E., July, 1872, a banker at Amboy, Indiana, married Lessie Pierson, of Amboy, and Min- nie, February 17, 1875, who was married in Kansas to Frank Hill, formerly a banker at Greentown, Indiana. Mrs. Ash was a member of the Methodist church, and Mr. Ash is an attendant at the services of the same. He is a member of the local lodge of the Modern Woodmen of America and takes a warm interest in the affairs of that organization. Mrs. Ash died on Jan- uary 25, 1916, after a short illness. Mrs. Ash was a lovable, kindly woman,
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