USA > Kansas > Reno County > History of Reno County, Kansas; its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 52
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To H. B. and Harriet (Sumner) Smith three children were born, all sons, namely: Greenville A., who following the completion of the course in Eureka College came to Kansas, at the age of twenty-two and home- steaded a tract of land, shortly after which he and another man started on a trip to Baton Rouge, by flatboat, and died there of swamp fever: Charles S., who died at the age of sixteen, and John F .. the subject of this biograph- ical sketch. Upon the death of his wife in 1862, H. B. Smith married again and his second wife, Murilla, bore him one son, Fred C., who is now a carpenter and building contractor at Pekin, Illinois.
The elementary education of John F. Smith, received in the district school, was supplemented by a course in the excellent old sectarian college at Eureka and at the age of eighteen he began teaching school and for five years, or until he was married, was thus engaged. He then, in 1872, went to Nebraska, settling near Greenwood, where he farmed for a couple of years, after which he returned to Illinois and opened a general store at Eureka which he conducted until 1879, in which year he came to Kansas, locating at Axtell, in Marshall county, where for five or six years he was quite successfully engaged in the real-estate and insurance business. In 1885 he came to this county, locating at Hutchinson, soon thereafter buying an interest in the real-estate business of Puterbaugh & Company, continuing
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that connection until 1887, in which year, following the death of Mr. Puter- bangh, he was appointed administrator of the Puterbaugh & Company estate and was occupied until 1890 closing up the estate. He then became a mem- ber of the firm of J. J. Woodward & Company, which connection continued until Mr. Woodward's death in 1900, since which time Mr. Smith has con- ducted his real-estate and insurance business alone. During his long con- nection with the realty business in Hutchinson, Mr. Smith laid out many additions to that city, under the name of the Sunflower Town Company, helped lay out and sell all the lots in Smith's, Puterbaugh's, Woodward's, Harris' additions to South Hutchinson and laid out and conducted the sale of lots in the town of Plevna, this county. He was one of the organizers of the Hutchinson Commercial Club and was the first permanent secretary of that useful organization. Upon the adoption of the commission form of government for Hutchinson, Mr. Smith was made commissioner of public utilities for the city and is still occupying that important position. He is a Republican and for years has taken a prominent part in local politics.
On November 30, 1873. John F. Smith was united in marriage to Mary J. Lucas, who was born in Peoria county, Illinois, daughter of William M. and Mary Lucas, the former of whom, a veteran of the Civil War, is a merchant at Axtell, this state, and to this union four children have been born, as follow: Stella, who married C. A. Leonard and lives in Hutchinson ; William McCoy, who is an electrician at Chicago; Mary Grace, who mar- ried Allen H. Hester and lives in Jefferson, Iowa, and Clara, who attended art school at Chicago and is now at home. The Smiths have a very pleasant home at 14 Sixth street in the city of Hutchinson.
In addition to his extensive real-estate and insurance business, Mr. Smith is interested in various other enterprises in and about Hutchinson, among which connections is that of a director of the Reno State Bank of Hutchinson.
GEORGE W. SIEGRIST.
George W. Siegrist, a well-known grain merchant at Whiteside, this county, is a native of Illinois, having been born on a farm in Tazewell . county, this state, son of John and Elizabeth (Yontz) Siegrist. both natives of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, the former of whom died at his home in this county in the fall of 1909, at the age of eighty-four years, and the latter, born on February 12, 1831, is still living.
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John Siegrist, whose parents were natives of Switzerland, who settled in Lancaster county, Pennsylvaina, where they spent their last days, grew up in that county and was married there. In the late forties he and his wife emigrated by wagon to Tazewell county, Illinois, where they bought a tract of land, later increasing their holdings there to a full half section of land and there they made their home until 1876, in which year they and their family came to Kansas, locating in this county, where they bought a section of school land in Salt Creek township and the south half of section 27, township 23, range 6 west, in Reno township, on which latter tract they made their permanent home and where John Siegrist spent his last days, becoming one of the most active and influential of the pioneers thereabout. He had also bought a half section of land two and one-half miles west of Burrton, but later sold that tract to advantage. He was a successful farmer and was also widely known as a successful raiser of hogs, his specialty being Berkshires. His widow, who still survives him, is a member of the Meth- odist church and her children were reared in that faith. There were seven of these children, namely: Jacob, who lives on the home place in Reno township: Abraham, a former well-known merchant of Hutchinson, who died in 1912; George W., the immediate subject of this biographical sketch ; Mary, who married George Spangenberger and lives on a farm in Reno township; Hettie, who married William Hodgson and lives at Harrington, this state; Anna, who married Claud Epperson and lives on a farm in Lin- coln township, this county, and John, who died at the age of six months.
George W. Siegrist was fifteen years of age when he came with his parents to this county and he grew to manhood here, rendering valuable assistance to his father in the work of developing the pioneer farm. In 1885 he went over into Finny county and entered a claim in the Garfield neighborhood and helped in the organization of that county. The next year he returned to Hutchinson and traded his Finney county claim for lots in Park addition to the city of Hutchinson, which later he was able to turn over at considerable profit. Upon his return to this county he rented a tract of his father's land and began farming for himself. Upon his mar- riage. in 1890, his father gave him the southeast quarter of section 36, township 23, range 7 west, in Salt Creek township, and there he made his home, developing the same until 1901, in which year he built a store on the Santa Fe railroad. midway between Hutchinson and Partridge. at what is now the village of Whiteside, and has ever since conducted a general store there. At the same time he began buying grain at that point for the Hutch-
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inson Flour Mills, which established an elevator at that point, and is still engaged in that business, having been quite successful in his operations. In 1905 Mr. Siegrist built a fine home at Whiteside and he and his family are living there in substantial comfort. During recent years, Mr. Siegrist has practically retired from the more active duties connected with the manage- ment of his extensive affairs, as he is in a position to take life easy. In January, 1914. he turned his store over to his daughter, who now owns it and has full charge of the same. At the same time he made his eldest son, George H., a full partner in the grain business, and the latter is practically manager of that department. Mr. Siegrist is a Democrat and takes a good citizen's interest in political affairs, but never has been a candidate for office.
On August 24, 1890. George W. Siegrist was united in marriage to Lavina Spangenberger, who was born at Dayton, Ohio, on June 30, 1865, daughter of Valentine and Clara (Stephenhafer) Spangenberger, and to this union four children have been born, as follow: May Esther, born on Jan- uary 17, 1893, who is making a success of her general store at Whiteside ; George B., September 8, 1896, manager of the Siegrist elevator at White- sie, who married Mildred Garrison and has one child, Ollie, born on May 4, 1914: Turah L., May 16, 1898, and Edwin T., January 4, 1899. Mr. and Mrs. Siegrist and their children are members of the Poplar Methodist Epis- copal church and are active in all good works in the neighborhood in which they live.
Mrs. Siegrist's father, Valentine Spangenberger, was born along the river Rhine, in Germany, and was brought up to the trade of a blacksmith, to which he served an apprenticeship of three years. When twenty years of age he came to America, locating at Cincinnati, where for a time he worked at his trade, later going to Eaton, in Preble county, Ohio, where he married Clara Stephenhafer, who was nine years old when she was brought to this country by her parents, John and Clara Stephenhafer, natives of Germany, who located at Eaton, where John Stephenhafer worked as a cooper. Later, John Stephenhafer and his wife and his other children, Adam and Christina. moved to Logansport, Indiana, where the father and son engaged in the cooperage business, which they successfully operated there for years, and where the elder Stephenhafers spent their last days. Adam Stephenhafer also died there and his sister, Christina, who married Chris Cuppy, is still living at that place. The Stephenhafers were devout Catholics, and Clara Stephenhafer was reared in the faith of the mother church, but upon her marriage to Valentine Spangenberger, who was a member of the Lutheran church, she changed her faith to conform to his.
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From 1855 to 1861 Valentine Spangenberger conducted a blacksmith shop of his own at Eaton and then moved to the village of New Hope, in the same county, where he opened a blacksmith shop, where he died, he then being forty-five years of age. A few years later the Widow Spangenberger married Henry Biehl, who had learned the blacksmith trade in the shop of Valentine Spangenberger, and in 1867 they joined her son, George, who had located in Mason county, Illinois, where Mr. Biehl opened a blacksmith shop. Mrs. Biehl died in Peoria, Illinois, in March, 1908, at the age of seventy-five. She was the mother of six children, namely: George Span- genberger, who married Mary E. Siegrist, sister of the subject of this re- view, and lives on a farm in Reno township, this county; Adam, a trained machinist, now deceased, who came to Reno county in 1878, later going to Las Vegas, New Mexico, where he assisted in the construction of the Union Pacific railroad, and later was in the cattle business in the West, as well as a successful prospector in the Klondike gold region; Catherine, who married Henry Singery and lives in Hutchinson, this county; Clara, widow of Jacob Shappoch, of Elkpoint, South Dakota; William, who is a blacksmith at Peoria, Illinois, and Lavina, who married Mr. Siegrist.
LEE BONNET.
Lee Bonnet, son of Peter and Mary (Turner) Bonnet, was born in Reno county, Kansas, January 17, 1884. He is of Italian ancestry, his grand- parents, John and Mary Bonnet, emigrating from Italy and settling twenty- five miles south of Springfield, in Madison county, Illinois. His father, Peter Bonnet, was three years old at that time. The family later moved to Montgomery county, Illinois, where John Bonnet died, at the age of seventy- one.years. His wife still lives there on the home farm. Both were mem- bers of the Methodist church. Their children are Mary, Rachel, Peter Paul, Esther, David, Anna and Stephen.
Peter Bonnet's wife was Mary Turner, born on May 19, 1860, the daughter of Dennis and Sarah (Goss) Turner, who were farmers and mem- bers of the Methodist church, who emigrated from Clark county, Indiana, to Reno county, Kansas, in 1883. Dennis Turner served in the Civil War one hundred days. Since his wife's death, twelve years ago, he has had no permanent home, but is now living at Lahoma, Oklahoma, at the age of eighty-six years. His parents were Joseph and Martha (Bowers) Turner,
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who lived in Indiana, and later moved to Decatur, Illinois, where Joseph Turner died. Peter Bonnet and wife were married in Illinois, on February 23, 1881, and emigrated to Reno county, Kansas, where they bought a quarter section of land and resided there until Peter's death. Their children are Lula, Lee and Oliver, the last named being now deceased. Peter Bonnet was a member of the Knights-of Pythias, and his death occurred on Septem- ber 15, 1895, at the age of thirty-nine years. His wife later married E. S. Huffman, and lives near her son, Lee.
Lee Bonnet was married in 1908 to Retta Shafer, a daughter of W. W. Shafer, a farmer of this county. They are the parents of one daughter, Alberta. Mr. Bonnet is the owner of one hundred and sixty acres of fine farming land, on which, in 1913, he erected a modern, handsome dwelling.
Mr. Bonnet is a Democrat in politics, and has always been active in all measures having for their object the welfare of his home community. He is a member of the Anti-Horse Thief Association.
C. M. BAY.
C. M. Bay, one of the best-known farmers of Reno county, a successful ranchman and business man and a large landowner in Roscoe township, where he makes his home, is a native of Ohio, having been born at Gallia, that state, April 26, 1858, son of Joseph N. and Emily (Campbell) Bay, both natives of that same state, who later moved to lowa and became prom- inent residents of Monroe county. Joseph N. Bay was an extensive farmer and stock raiser, an active member of the Methodist church and a member of the Masonic fraternity. He was the father of four children, the subject of this sketch, Samuel E. and two who died in youth. The mother of these children died in 1866 and Mr. Bay married twice thereafter, without further issue. He died on November 28, 1914, at the age of eighty-three years.
C. M. Bay was a child when his parents moved from Ohio to Iowa and he received his education in the public schools of the latter state, and was reared to the life of the farm. In the fall of 1876 he married and began farming for himself on a tract of eighty acres which he bought in Wayne county, lowa. In 1878 he sold that farm and with two teams of horses and wagons for the transportation of his family and household goods came to Kansas, locating in Reno county. He traded one of his teams and a wagon for the southwest quarter of section 19, in Roscoe township, on which he
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RESIDENCE OF MR. AND MRS. C. M. BAY.
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MR. AND MRS. C. M. BAY.
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threw up a sod shanty and there he established his home. He also took a timber claim in the same section and planted thirty-five acres of catalpa trees. His operations prospered and two years later, in 1880, he bought four hundred acres in sections 28 and 29, same township, and moved to the latter section, where he built another sod house, but presently moved to his present location in section 18. In 1883, during the height of the real-estate "boom" in this part of the state, Mr. Bay rented his farm and moved to Kingman, where he engaged in the general real-estate and loan business and where he made, between the years of 1884 and 1887, one hundred thousand . dollars. When the "boom" collapsed in 1887 all he was able to save out of the general wreck of his fortune was his original timber claim in section 19. In 1891 Mr. Bay returned to the farm and resumed his general farming and cattle raising and it was not long before he again was on the highway to affluence, being at the time of his retirement from the active operations of his ranch the owner of four or five sections of land, a good portion of which he has since divided among his children. For four years during the rise of the automobile Mr. Bay was also engaged in the auto-sales business at Kingman, conducting his operations in that line from his farm, driving back and forth from his home. He also has been active in civic affairs and has served his township in the capacity of justice of the peace and in other public offices. For some time Mr. Bay has been an invalid and unable to give personal attention to his former extensive affairs.
On September 27, 1876, C. M. Bay was united in marriage to Margaret Sloan, who was born in Miami county, Ohio, November 6, 1858, daughter of H. R. and Charlotte (Gibson) Sloan, natives of Scotland, who came to America from Glasgow, where Mr. Sloan was a policeman, in 1855 and settled in the neighborhood of Dayton, Ohio, where they remained on a farm until 1860, in which year they moved to Iowa, buying a farm near Corydon, in Wayne county, and there established their permanent home. H. R. Sloan, who was born on July 5, 1821, died in March, 1907. His widow, who was born on October 16, 1833, is still living.
To C. M. and Margaret (Sloan) Bay five children have been born, as follow: Lottie, who married Emmet Hutton, a well-known resident of this county; James, deceased: Clyde, who married Ruby Denzel and lives on a farm adjoining the old home place in Roscoe township: Delmar, who married Pearl Smith and also lives on a farm adjoining the home place, and Lawrence deceased. Clyde and Delmar Bay are progressive young farmers and biographical sketches of them are presented elsewhere in this volume.
(34a)
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C. M. Bay is a member of many years standing of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and of the Modern Woodmen of America and during the period of his activity took much interest in the affairs of these organizations.
WILLIS J. CHUBBUCK.
Willis J. Chubbuck, who is prominently and actively connected with the Central Mercantile Company, of Hutchinson, this county, he having been treasurer of that company since the date of its organization, in 1899, is a native of Pennsylvania, having been born in Bradford county, that state, on February 6, 1857, son of C. J. and M. M. (Woodruff) Chubbuck, both natives of that same county, the former of whom was born on the same farm as was his son, the subject of this sketch.
C. J. Chubbuck was born in 1828 and his wife was born in 1829. She died in 1900 at her home in Fremont, Nebraska, to which place they had moved in 1878 and where Mr. Chubbuck engaged in the transfer business, in which he was actively engaged until after the death of his wife, when he retired from business and lived at Carroll, Iowa, where he died on October 7, 1915, at the age of eighty-seven. He and his wife were the parents of three sons.
Willis J. Chubbuck was reared on the ancestral farm in the woods of Bradford county, Pennsylvania, and in his youth became an expert woods- man, timber cutting being the chief occupation there about, the farm lands being none too rich on the mountain sides. His schooling was limited to a short term of three months during the winters, but in spite of these limita- tions he managed to pick up a pretty good general education. In 1876, he then being nineteen years of age, he determined to follow Horace Greeley's advice and "go West," the possibilities of the then rapidly developing West appealing to his imagination in terms that could not be resisted. His first stop, upon reaching the "promised land," was at Tecumseh, Nebraska, in which city he made his home for three years, doing such things as his hand found to do, railroad work, carpenter work and clerking in a store. Then he went on to Pawnee City, same state, where for three years he was em- ployed as clerk in a general store, after which he went to Fremont, his par- ents meanwhile having located there, and for a year worked in a wholesale hardware store there. Then, in 1883, he came to Kansas, locating at An- thony, where he found employment as a bookkeeper, in which position for
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some time he worked literally day and night. This arduous indoor life inspired within him notions of getting "back to the soil" and, pursuing this notion, he entered a claim in Harper county, on which he remained until he had it "proved up," at the end of which time he sold the homestead to advantage and pushed on into Arizona. There he was employed as super- intendent of the Indian school in the Casa Grande Ruin reservation, a posi- tion which he held for one year, a decidedly interesting experience, at the end of which time he returned to Anthony. this state, where he entered into a partnership with a friend in the retail hardware business, under the firm name of A. H. Davis & Company. In 1886 he sold his interest in that con- cern and went to Wichita county, where he opened a hardware store of his own and was there very successfully engaged in business for a period of twelve years, at the end of which time he sold out and for a year took a rest from business cares, spending that time in Port Arthur, Texas. In Septem- ber, 1899, attracted by a promising business proposition emanating from Hutchinson, this county, he came here and joined his forces with the men who were organizing the Central Mercantile Company, wholesale grocers. at Hutchinson, subscribed for a liberal block of stock in the concern, was elected treasurer of the same and ever since has been thus engaged, being one of the active members of the company, and is found in his office every day. being generally recognized as one of the most progressive and public- spirited business men in that city.
On January 1, 1879, Willis J. Chubbuck was united in marriage at Pawnee City, Nebraska, to Mary Cummins, who was born at Leon, Iowa. daughter of Samuel H. Cummins and wife. Samuel H. Cummins was a farmer and was county treasurer in Pawnee county, Nebraska, and then moved to Anthony, Kansas, where he conducted a furniture store and then moved to Ashland. Kansas, later moving to Pond Creek, Oklahoma, where he became postmaster for two years. His last days were spent in Hutchin- son, this county. Mr. and Mrs. Chubbuck are members of the Baptist church and take an active interest in all movements designed to advance the general welfare of the community. But one child has been born to them, a daughter, Jessie, who died when four months of age. They have a pleasant home at 417 First avenue, East, which they built in 1905.
Mr. Chubbuck is an ardent Republican and during his residence in Wichita served for two terms, 1891 and 1893. as a member of the Kansas Legislature from that district. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, a men- ber of the blue lodge, the chapter, the council and the commandery of that
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order at Hutchinson and of the consistory, Scottish Rite Masons, at Wichita. He also is a member of Midian Temple, Ancient Arabic Order, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, in the latter city, and takes a warm interest in Masonic work. He also is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen.
JOHN NAFZINGER.
John Nafzinger, a well-known and substantial farmer of Reno town- ship, this county, who came to Reno county in 1884, is a native of Mary- land, having been born on a farm in Baltimore county, that state, fourteen miles north of the city of Baltimore, on November 25, 1859, son of Peter and Lydia (Yoder) Nafzinger, the former of whom was an Alasatian by birth, who was brought to the United States by his mother when he was two years of age and who grew to manhood in . Lancaster county, Pennsyl- vania.
Peter Nafzinger's parents started from their home in Alsace for America in 1817 with their six children. The father died during the voyage and was buried at sea. The widowed mother arrived at the port of Philadelphia with her six small children, forlorn and knowing no one there, a stranger in a strange land. She met a kindly German in port, who advised her to join the considerable German colony then existent in Lancaster county, Penn- sylvania, and thither she went, seeking a home in the new country. Upon arriving there she placed her children advantageously in hospitable homes, good-natured settlers agreeing to care for them until they had arrived at self-supporting stages in life, and it was thus that Peter Nafzinger came to be reared in Lancaster county. His son, John, the subject of this interest- ing review. has in his possession an old flint-lock pistol that his grandfather, the ambitions Alsatian who was seeking a new home for his family in America, but who died on the way, his ambition ungratified, brought from the old country. This ancient fire-arm became the property of Peter Naf- zinger, by descent, and was, in turn, inherited by his son, John, who prizes the century-old relic very highly.
Peter Nafzinger was reared to the life of a farm in Pennsylvania and after his marriage bought a farm fourteen miles north of the city of Balti- more and there he spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring in 1908, at the age of eighty years. His widow is still living there, at the age of eighty-two. Peter Nafzinger and wife early became associated with the
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Mennonites and their children were reared in that simple faith. There were five of these children, of whom the subject of this sketch is the third in order of birth, the others being as follow: Fannie, who married Isaac Hertzler, and lives near Newport News, Virginia; Moses, who lives on the old home place in Maryland with his aged mother ; Elizabeth, who married J. Z. Mast and lives on a farm near Denby, Virginia, where she and her husband also conduct a hotel, and Anna, who died unmarried in 1905.
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