USA > Kansas > Reno County > History of Reno County, Kansas; its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 58
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RENO COUNTY, KANSAS.
The younger Richard Justice was reared in Boston, receiving his educa- tion in the public schools of that city, and when eighteen years old, in 1880, he came to Kansas and for two years made his home with his elder sister, Mrs. Dukelow, and her husband in this county. A couple of years later he bought the unimproved southwest quarter of section 10, in Reno township, and proceeded to improve the same. The next year his father and mother joined him on his farm. substantial buildings were erected on the place and there Mr. Justice has made his home ever since. In 1886 he married and since then has enlarged and remodeled the farm house, the family now having a very comfortable and roomy country home. One of his first acts upon buying the farm was to set out a forty-acre orchard and from the trees then planted he still is gathering some very fine fruit. The farm is well kept, well improved and highly cultivated and Mr. Justice is regarded as one of the substantial farmers of his neighborhood. He is a Republican and takes a warm interest in local civic affairs, having served as treasurer of the township and as a member of the school board.
On March 9, 1886, Richard Justice was united in marriage to Louise Greenway, who was born in the city of Birmingham, England, the daughter of Henry and Elizabeth ( Horner) Greenway, and who had come to this country with her parents when she was four years old, the family settling for a time in New Jersey, after which they moved to Brooklyn, New York, where Mr. Greenway was engaged in the piano business for several years. In 1885 the Greenways came to Kansas, settling on a farm four miles west of Hutchinson, in this county, where they lived for three years. Mr. and Mrs. Greenway then moved to St. Louis, where Mr. Greenway died a few years later and his widow is now making her home at Ft. Worth, Texas.
To Richard and Louise (Greenway) Justice nine children have been born, as follow: Mabel, who married H. E. Round and lives in Hutchinson : Alfred, an expert automobile mechanic, who married Ruth Lyman and lives at Anthony, this state: Elmer, who married Ethel Giles and lives in Hutch- inson ; Emma, who married Harold A. Pennington and lives in Reno town- ship, this county, and Percy. George. Edith, Walter and Ruth, at home. The Justices take an active interest in the various social activities of their home neighborhood and are held in high regard throughout that section of the county. Mrs. Justice is a member of the Presbyterian church at Hutchinson and is earnestly interested in the general beneficences of the same. Mr. Jus- tice is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and is warmly inter- ested in the affairs of that organization.
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RENO COUNTY, KANSAS.
THOMAS JENNINGS.
Thomas Jennings, far better known by the familiar name of "Tom." sheriff of Reno county and a veritable terror to the crooks and evil-doers of this section of the state, is a native son of the Buckeye state, having been born on a farm in Noble county, Ohio, June 29, 1869, son of George N. and Mary Jennings, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Ohio.
George N. Jennings was a well-to-do farmer in Noble county, Ohio, the owner of several farms and a man of influence in his community, tak- ing an active part in Democratic politics, and a faithful member of the Presbyterian church. His first wife, Mary, died in 1872, leaving three children, those besides the subject of this sketch being William, who is now farming the old home place in Ohio, and Albert, an Oklahoma newspaper man. George N. Jennings married, secondly, Susannah Smith, who is still living in Ohio, and to this union three sons were born, Clarence, a clerk in a store at Hutchinson, this county, and Harry, a resident of Galveston, Texas. The father of these five sons died at his home in Ohio in 1901.
Tom Jennings received his boyhood schooling in Ohio and when seven- teen years of age came West. For several years he followed railroading, in the employ of the Baltimore & Ohio and the Chicago Northwestern, for five years of that time being a conductor. Tiring of railroad life, Mr. Jen- nings leased a farm near Elm Creek, Nebraska, and remained there two years, at the end of which time he returned to the old home in Ohio and for six years was engaged in farming there. In 1896 Mr. Jennings re- turned West and for five years was engaged in farming for Emerson Carey in Clay township, this county. Then he rented a farm for several years in Clay township, where he was living at the time of his election to the office of sheriff of Reno county, on the Democratic ticket. in 1914. Upon taking charge of the sheriff's office, Tom Jennings instituted several changes in the system of administering the affairs of that important office, which have greatly increased the efficiency of that department of the county govern- ment. In the matter of the care which Sheriff Jennings devotes to the col- lection of evidence the cause of justice has been greatly advanced in numer- ous important cases and the records of the court show a largely increased percentage of convictions of those charged with crime since he has had charge of the sheriff's office. None of his prisoner's ever have escaped and his stanch loyalty to the law makes him a terror to the crooks, "boot-leg-
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gers" and other offenders in these parts. Sheriff Tom Jennings for years has been a member of the Anti-Horse Thief Association and even before entering upon the duties of his office as sheriff was widely known through- out this section of the state as a law-and-order man. He also is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and takes a warm interest in the affairs of that organization.
In 1887 Thomas Jennings was united in marriage to Hattie Moore, who was born in Ohio, and to this union six children have been born, Don, Mack, Carl, Mabel, who married Lloyd Hammond; Beulah and Mary.
WILLIAM HENRY HINSHAW.
William Henry Hinshaw, a retired farmer of Sylvia, this county, is a native of Missouri, having been born on a pioneer farm near Pleasant Hill in Cass county, that state, November 6, 1853, son of Nathan and Mary ( Sloan) Hinshaw, the former a native of North Carolina and the latter of Missouri.
Nathan Hinshaw was ten years old when his parents, Benjamin and Sarah Hinshaw, moved from North Carolina to Missouri. Benjamin Hin- shaw entered a tract of land in Cass county, in the latter state, from the government, paying for the same one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre, and there established his home, he and his wife spending the remainder of their lives there. Nathan Hinshaw grew to manhood on that homestead farm and married Mary Sloan, daughter of Jeremiah Sloan and wife, pioneers of that same county. He bought a tract of land there from the government and became an extensive cattle raiser. During the Civil War he was a mem- ber of the home guards and saw service fighting guerillas. Nathan Hinshaw (lied about 1857, at the age of forty-nine and his widow later moved to Kansas, with her younger children, and died in March, 1910, at the age of seventy-two. To Nathan Hinshaw and wife nine children were born, of whom the subject of this biographical sketch was the second in order of birth, the others being as follows: Thomas N., who died in Missouri; Martha Ann, who married Thomas Holcomb and lives at Plevna, this state, a widow: Theophilus, a physician, of Winifield, this state; J. Nathan, a retired farmer, merchant, lumberman and banker, of Plevna; Sarah L., who married Harry Henderson and lives at Stafford, this state, a widow; Mrs. Mollie G. Roach, of Hutchinson, this county; Lillie, who married John
the Benstar
byabeth Hinshaw
RENO COUNTY, KANSAS. 585
Prater and lives at Stafford, and Emmet W., who conducts a general store at Plevna.
William H. Hinshaw was reared on the home farm in Cass county, Missouri, and the days of his youth and young manhood were devoted to helping his father on the farin. He has distinct recollections of the Civil War period, he then having been about ten years old, and recalls particularly the battle of Lone Jack, which was fought but nine miles away from the Hinshaw place, the roar of the cannonading being distinctly heard at that distance. As a boy he hauled stone for the culverts for the first railroad entering into Kansas City, the Missouri Pacific, late in 1865, and about that same time hauled many loads of soldiers returning north by way of Kansas City to the latter point. In the fall of 1872 he married and bought a farm, working the same, in addition to a small tract which his father had given him, until in February, 1879, at which time he and his family came to Kansas, settling in Reno county. Mr. Hinshaw homesteaded a tract in the southern part of Hayes township, also entering a timber claim in the same neighborhood, and there he made his home for twenty years, in the mean- time becoming a very successful farmer and stockman, gradually adding to the home place until he was the owner of two thousand three hundred acres of choice land in Hayes township. The year following his settlement in this county Mr. Hinshaw went back to Missouri and traded his farm there for cattle with which to stock his Reno county place and thus started his career as a stockman, thereafterward for years being one of the most extensive cattlemen in the county, annually raising and feeding large numbers of cattle for the market; also doing an extensive business in horses and mules. In 1899 Mr. Hinshaw retired from the active labors of the farm and moved to the town of Sylvia, where he and his son, Odona G., reor- ganized the State Bank of Sylvia, which had failed and had been closed for two years and Mr. Hinshaw was elected president of the bank, a posi- tion which he held until the fall of 1913, at which time he and his son sold three-fourths of their holdings in the institution to Homer Myers and Mr. Hinshaw retired from the presidency, since which time he has been doing quite an extensive business in the way of private loans and is known as one of the most substantial capitalists in the county. About 1900 Mr. Hinshaw organized the first telephone line in Sylvia and brought the same up to a good working standard and then sold out. Mr. Hinshaw is a Republican, but is rather independent in his political views and ever since locating in this county has taken an earnest interest in public affairs, ever having been an
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active exponent of all measures looking to the perpetuation of the principles of good government.
On September 25, 1872, William H. Hinshaw was united in marriage to Elizabeth Hood, who was born in Franklin county, Missouri, daughter of Wiley and Elizabeth (Jamison) Hood, the former a farmer and stock- man of that same county, who died there, his widow spending her last days at Sylvia county. To Mr. and Mrs. Hinshaw two children have been born, Fairy Green, wife of Dr. Robert Heylman, a prominent physician at Long Beach, California, and Ordona Guldenloo, president of the State Bank of Sylvia and a partner in the Sylvia Milling Company, who married Lorine Ritter and has two children, Maurine and Ordona. The Hinshaws are members of the Methodist church at Sylvia, Mr. Hinshaw having been for years a trustee and a steward of that church, and all are held in the highest esteem in the neighborhood.
A. J. DEATZ.
A. J. Deatz, well-known wholesale grocer, manager of the Central Mer- cantile Company, of Hutchinson, this county, is a native of Illinois, having been born in Henry county, that state, on November 17. 1858, son of John and Lydia Deatz, the former a native of Germany and the latter of Pennsyl- vania.
In the forties John Deatz and his wife emigrated from Pennsylvania to Illinois, becoming among the early settlers of Henry county. Upon the out- break of the Civil War. John Deatz enlisted in the Ninth Illinois Cavalry, in which he served for about a year. He was wounded in battle, after which he received his honorable discharge and returned home. In 1878 he came to Kansas and entered a soldier's homestead claim in. Edwards county, which he "proved up" and later returned to Henry county, Illinois, where he lived to be ninety years of age. His wife lived to be eighty-five. They were members of the Methodist church and their children were reared in that faith.
A. J. Deatz rceived his schooling in the common schools of his native county in Illinois and when twenty years of age, in 1879, came to Kansas, joining his father on the Edwards county homestead, where he worked for a couple of seasons, in the meantime marrying, after which he and his wife's brother bought a threshing outfit and operated the same in that section for a
RENO COUNTY, KANSAS. 587
couple of seasons. He then for a time owned a general store in that neigh- borhood and then went to Garden City, where he operated a grocery store for three years, at the end of which time he entered the service of the Syms Grocery Company, of Atchison, Kansas, as a traveling salesman, his terri- tory restricted to Kansas, and was thus engaged for ten years. In 1895, while thus engaged, he located at Hutchinson, this county, for better con- venience in covering his territory, and ever since has made his home here. In 1897 he started a small wholesale produce business at Hutchinson, his first place of business having been in a room at the rear of a butcher shop on Main street. The business rapidly grew and presently Mr. Deatz took in as a partner C. WV. Payne, at the same time moving to a building which then occupied the site where the Campbell hotel now stands, and there enlarged the capacity of the business, the firm being known as C. W. Payne & Com- pany, Mr. Deatz not desiring to have his name appear publicly in connection with a business which was, in a way, a rival of that of the company by which he was employed. At first this business was a mere local jobbing affair, but presently it branched out into a general wholesale business, in the produce way, and gradually expanded into the general wholesale grocery business. At that time there was but one other wholesale grocery store in Hutchinson and Mr. Deatz recognized the possibilities of an extension of the business in that line. He was able to interest several others in the business and on August 12, 1899, the Central Mercantile Company, whole- sale grocers, was organized, with the following board of officers: A. J. Deatz, manager; W. Meisenhouer, president; E. R. Lord, vice-president ; W. J. Chubbuck, treasurer, and C. W. Payne, secretary. This officiary has continued ever since and the business has grown until the Central Mercan- tile Company has come to be regarded as one of the leading wholesale grocery firms in Kansas, as it is the oldest in continuous existence in Hutch- inson, the firm which antedated it having since been dissolved. The offices and warehouses of the Central Mercantile Company are located at the corner of Avenue D and South Main streets and the company employs a traveling force of ten expert salesmen and an office and warehouse force of twenty persons.
In October. 1879, A. J. Deatz was united in marriage, in Edwards county, Kansas, to Matilda Summers, who was born in Henry county, Illi- nois, daughter of Francis and Catherine Summers, pioneers of that section, and to this union three children have been born. Edward, who is in charge of the cable department of the Bell Telephone Company at Atlanta, Georgia ;
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RENO COUNTY, KANSAS.
Chester, who is connected with the offices of the Bankers Life Insurance Company at Kansas City, Missouri, and Harry, a registered pharmacist in the "A. & A." drug store at Hutchinson. The Deatzes have a very pleasant home at 18 Sixth avenue, east, in the city of Hutchinson, where they are very comfortably situated. Mr. and Mrs. Deatz are earnest and active members of the Methodist Episcopal church, Mr. Deatz being chairman of the finance committee of the same and a member of the board of stewards, as well as an active worker in the Sunday school, in connection with the men's Bible class, and is the present president of the Methodist Brotherhood in Hutchinson. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen, in which society he also takes an active interest.
SAMUEL MARTIN CROTTS.
Samuel M. Crotts, one of Reno county's best-known citizens, for years a prominent and energetic farmer and auctioneer living in Center township, now and for some years past making his home in the city of Hutchinson, where he has a very pleasant home at III Fifth avenue, east, is a native of Illinois, having been born in Hancock county, that state, February 18, 1863, son of Thomas J. and Melinda (Martin) Crotts, both of whom were born in Washington county, Indiana, the former in 1833 and the latter in 1837, and both of whom are still living, being very comfortably situated in their delightful country home in Center township, this county, still living on the place which they homesteaded from the government there in 1873.
Thomas J. Crotts grew up on a pioneer farm in southern Indiana and about the year 1856, shortly after his marriage to Melinda Martin, member of another pioneer family of that same section of the Hoosier state, moved to Hancock county, Illinois, where he bought a farm and established his home. He picked up the blacksmith trade and became a proficient artificer in iron, setting up a smithy on his farm, in which he manufactured plows and the like for his neighbors. In the early spring of 1873 he and his family came to Kansas, arriving in Hutchinson on March 25 of that year. Mr. Crotts lost little time in selecting a location after he had reached Reno county and homesteaded the southeast quarter of section 8, in Center town- ship, three-fourths of a mile west of where the town of Partridge is now situated. and there he and his wife have made their home ever since, being thus the oldest continuously resident homesteaders in that township. Upon
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making his location Mr. Crotts constructed a sod shanty on his place and in the fall of 1873 moved his family into the same. He also erected a little smithy and his labors as a blacksmith there for some years, in addition to his labors as a farmer and stockman, were much appreciated by his pioneer neighbors.
Thomas J. Crotts was a good farmer and it was not long until he began to see very tangible evidences of the soundness of the judgment which prompted him to come to Kansas. His sons were of large assistance on the farm, herding the cattle in boyhood and aiding in the sterner work of develop- ing the place as they grew older, and presently the Crotts' place was being looked upon as one of the best kept and most prosperous thereabout. There were still plenty of buffaloes in this section at that time; in fact, Mr. Crotts' uncle Samuel Martin, killed a buffalo in the streets of Hutchinson not long after his arrival there, and he early became known as one of the mightiest hunters of buffalo in the county. T. J. Crotts also kept a pack of grey- hounds for use in hunting wolves during the bleak winter seasons. The old "Sun City" trail cut through one corner of the Crotts homestead and the Crotts house, for the sod shanty on the plains soon was supplanted by a more commodious and substantial structure, was long a sort of headquarters and stopping-place for the many travelers and "prairie schooner" caravans that daily passed on the trail, there hardly being a day during those early years that the Crotts' house was without unexpected guests, to whom the hospitable host and hostess ever extended a welcome, never exacting a charge for such simple entertainment as their home afforded, all wayfarers being free to come in and cook their meals and find refreshment from their toil- some journey. Thomas J. Crotts is one of a family of eight children born to his parents, he having had three brothers and four sisters, two of these brothers having given up their lives on the altar of liberty as soldiers of the Union during the Civil War. Mr. Crotts for years was a Republican, but during the height of the Populist movement put in his lot with those of that political faith and upon the subsidence of the Populists transferred his allegiance to the Democratic party, with which he is now affiliated. He and his wife are members of the Congregational church and ever since locating in this county have been held in the highest respect and esteem, their invar- iable kindliness having won for them a high place in the regard of their neighbors. They are the parents of six children, namely: A. D., office man for the Central Mercantile Company at Hutchinson; Lyman T., a partner in the Crotts Brokerage Company at Hutchinson: Samuel M., the imme-
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diate subject of this biographical sketch : Thomas S., a partner in the Crotts Brokerage Company: Mayette, now deceased, who married Joseph Hemp- hill, and Mary, who married Joseph L. Bartlett and lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Samuel M. Crotts was ten years old when he came to this county with his parents in 1873 and he has made his home here ever since. As a boy he had started to school in Illinois, but when his family located here the nearest place of abode to their dugout was another sod shanty three miles east. occupied by the Teeters family, hence there was no thought of schools for some time, but presently, as settlers began pouring in, schools began to be established and he completed his schooling in the Franklin district school near his home. He grew up on the homestead farm and when he was twenty-one years of age he bought a quarter of a section of school land where the town of Partridge now stands. Two years later he sold the place to the company which platted and promoted the town and bought the southwest quarter of section 18, in the same township, and there made his home. "off and on," for twenty years, it not being long before he was recog- nized as a progressive and substantial farmer. He presently enlarged his holdings there by the purchase of another quarter section adjoining and in 1900 bought a quarter of a section in Westminster township. In addition to these holdings, Mr. Crotts is the owner of a thirty-five-acre tract south of Partridge, and is reputed to be quite well-to-do.
In 1899 Samuel M. Crotts, who for some time then had been recog- nized as an auctioneer of more than usual ability, serving in such a capacity often, as a mere accommodation, turned his attention seriously to that line and soon had established a flourishing business as an auctioneer, the de- mands for his services from all parts of the county keeping him busy. In 1906 he practically relinquished the active labors of the farm to responsible tenants and moved to Partridge, where he made his home until 1910, in which year he moved to Hutchinson, where he is now living, though far from being "retired." in the common acceptance of that term, his farm and other interests giving him quite plenty to occupy his time when he is not hunting or fishing, two pet indulgences in which he does not stint himself.
On February 18. 1890, Samuel M. Crotts was united in marriage to Minnie Cassidy, who was born near Cumberland, in West Virginia, daughter of Robert T. Cassidy and wife, who came to Reno county in 1875, Mr. Cassidy buying up the relinquishment of a homestead right in Center town- ship, later moving to Partridge, where he operated a hotel and livery barn
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for some time, still later moving to California, where his last days were spent. To Mr. and Mrs. Crotts two children have been born, daughters both, Bessie, who married John Bertche, and Effie, who is still at home with her parents. Upon moving to Hutchinson in 1910, Mr. Crotts built a pleas- ant home at 111 Fifth avenue, East, where he and his family are very comfortably situated. All are members of the Congregational church, Mr. Crotts being one of the trustees of that church, and are held in the highest esteem by their many friends in the city and throughout the county gen- erally.
The Crotts family is not only one of the oldest families in Reno county, but is one of the most substantial and influential. The venerable Thomas J. Crotts has witnessed the development of this county from pio- neer days and has done much to contribute to the general advancement of social and economic conditions hereabout. When he came to Reno county there were but five families living in Center township, where he settled, and he early took a prominent position in the pioneer life of that section. Thomas J. Crotts is a man of the true pioneer breed and was a natural leader in frontier days. He was born on a pioneer farm in southern Indiana. his father, David Crotts, a native of Tennessee, having located in Washington county, that state, at an early day in the settlement of that section, having been but a boy when his parents moved from Tennessee to Indiana. There David Crotts married Mary Ann Strain, who was born in that county, her parents having been among the earliest settlers thereabout, and to this union nine children were born, namely: William, a soldier in the Union army during the Civil War, who died in service; Thomas J., the Reno county pioneer, father of the subject of this sketch; Hiram and Harvey, twins, the former of whom died in California and the latter of whom died while serving as a soldier of the Union during the Civil War; Mrs. Mary Cheno- with, deceased; Mary Jane, who married Doctor May, of Hutchinson, both now deceased; Susan, widow of Isem Maxidon, of Cunningham, this state; Maria, wife of Doctor Avery, of Cloverdale, this county, and Elizabeth, deceased. The mother of these children died in 1870 and David Crotts married, secondly, Mrs. Glover, a widow. His last days were spent at the home of his son, Thomas J., in this county, his death occurring in 1888, he then being seventy-five years of age. Mrs. Thomas J. Crotts is also of old pioneer stock and has been an important factor in the development of the social life of the community in which she has lived so many years. She was born in Washington county, Indiana, January 3, 1836, daughter of
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