USA > Kansas > Reno County > History of Reno County, Kansas; its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 65
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lis, Indiana; Joe H. McVey, of Richmond, Virginia; Margaret, who died in 1800: Mrs. Kate Haines, of this county, and A. J., James and May, who continue to occupy the old homestead and who are the owners of a full section of land surrounding the same. May Hickey was graduated from the Hutchinson high school in 1889 and for six years thereafter rendered admir- able service to the public as a teacher in the Reno county schools.
CHARLES N. WOODDELL.
Charles N. Wooddell, one of the representative citizens of Reno county, Kansas, and a leading business man of Nickerson, was born on June S. 1861. in Highland county, Ohio, and is the son of M. and Catherine (Stout) Wooddell. natives of Virginia and Ohio, respectively. Catherine (Stout) Wooddell was the daughter of Capt. John Stout, a veteran of the Civil War, who was from the Missouri district but after his escape joined forces with the Union army. He was a carpenter by trade but followed farming as well, in Highland county. Ohio. The father of Charles N. Wooddell located in Highland county, Ohio, with his mother, his father having died in Vir- ginia previous to their removal from that state .. He received his education in the common schools, after which he followed the trade of carpenter. He was the father of these children: Albert, Clara, Charles, Ora, E. C., Mary, Frank and Stella. The mother of these children died and is buried at Nickerson. Kansas.
Charles N. Wooddell was educated in the public schools of Ohio and then engaged in the trade of carpenter. On September 15, 1886, he was united in marriage to Georgette R. McCoy. daughter of D. W. McCoy, of Russell, Ohio, and to them have been born the children whose names follow : D. Earl, Dorothy Elizabeth ( deceased). Helen Boyd, Joseph Stout. Georgette R. ( McCoy) Wooddell was born on August 27, 1863. Charles N. Wooddell was employed in the car shops at Urbana and Lima. Following this he was in Huntington. Indiana, for two years and then moved to Pull- man, Illinois. On July 25, 1884, Charles N. Woodell arrived in Hutchin- son, Kansas, and for nearly one year he engaged in the carpenter business at Hutchinson and Nickerson. In 1885 he went with the St. John & Marsh Lumber Company to Great Bend, Kansas, returning to Nickerson in 1889. In 1800, after some months spent in the employ of S. M. Cooper, he engaged as a locomotive fireman on the AAtchinson, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad, in
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which position he continued until the strike. In 1894 he bought the elevator of Brinkman Brothers, which he still operates. Fraternally, he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and of the Modern Woodmen of America. His religious affilia- tions are with the Methodist Episcopal church. He has been a member of the city council and has served in the capacity of mayor for four years. He is also resident trustee of the Reno county high school, which office he has held since its organization.
OMAHA T. SHAFER.
Omaha T. Shafer, former mayor of South Hutchinson, a well-known and progressive Reno county farmer and manufacturer, who lives in a pleas- ant home in South Hutchinson, is a native of Ohio. He was born in Noble county, that state, on February 23, 1868, son of James I. and Mary (Vorhees) Shafer, both natives of that same county, the former of whom, born on October 15, 1837, is now living at Long Beach, California, and the latter died in 1879, at the age of forty-two years.
James I. Shafer was reared on a farm in Ohio and when the Civil War broke out enlisted in Company I. One Hundred and Sixteenth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which he served until the close of the war, being a participant in all the stirring engagements in which that regiment took part, including the battles of Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Antietam and others. At the close of the war he bought a farm in his home county and was successively the owner of three different farms there and there he made his home until 1890, in which year he came to Reno county to live with his children, who had located here during the eighties. In 1912 he went to California and has since made his home in Long Beach, where he is very pleasantly situated. He and his wife were the parents of four children, namely : Maggie, who lives at Redlands, California, widow of Frank Robin- son: Josie, who married E. G. Crow and died at her home in this county in October, 1909: Omaha T., the immediate subject of this biographical sketch, and Carrie, who married J. L. Warnock and lives in Hutchinson, this county.
Omaha T. Shafer was reared on the home farin in Noble county, Ohio, and received his schooling in the local schools of his home neighborhood. When nineteen years of age he came to Kansas, locating in this county,
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where for two or three years he worked as a farm hand, his first employ- mient having been on the J. W. Ayr farm near Burrton, for which service he received one hundred dollars for the first six months. He then rented a farm in Salt Creek township and began farming on his own account, later, in 1899, buying a quarter of a section in Lincoln township. He later sold that farm and in 1901 bought the Thomas Hutchinson farm in Lincoln town- ship, which he still owns. In 1903 he moved on to that farm and remained there until 1907, in which year he retired from the active duties of the farm and moved to South Hutchinson, where, in 1909, he built an attractive bun- galow on a tract covering a block and a half, where he and his wife have since made their home. While actively concerned in the operation of his valuable farm, Mr. Shafer handled stock to the capacity of his place and did considerable business in cattle, horses and mules.
Mr. Shafer is a Republican and for years has taken a warm and active interest in local politics. It was not long after he moved to South Hutchin- son that he was elected to the position of mayor of that thriving municipality and he served in that capacity very acceptably to the people of the town for six years. 1909-1915. Former Mayor Shafer is an energetic and public- spirited citizen and is interested in several important enterprises. He is one of the directors of the Strawboard Manufacturing Company, of Hutchin- son; vice-president of the Hutchinson Egg-Case Filler Company and a director of the Central State Bank, of Hutchinson, to all of which con- cerns he gives his earnest personal attention.
On November 30, 1892, Omaha T. Shafer was united in marriage to Harriet Ferguson, who was born in Macoupin county, Illinois, the daughter of Thomas and Doxie Ann ( Mitchell) Ferguson, farmers of that county, the former of whom came to Reno county in 1885, his wife having died in 1876, and bought a farm in Lincoln township, the farm which Mr. Shafer now owns. Mr. Ferguson spent the last nine years of his life with his sons, his death occurring in May. 1915, at the age of eighty-nine. He left three daughter- and two sons, Mrs. Shafer having two sisters, Mary, who mar- ried H. J. Rexroad and lives on the Shafer farm in Lincoln township, and Mrs. James Kinder, who lives in South Hutchinson; and two brothers, Robert Ferguson, who lives in Odes, Missouri, and William Ferguson, who lives near St. Joseph. Mr. and Mrs. Shafer are members of the Methodist church at South Hutchinson and take an active part in all the good works of that congregation. Mr. Shafer was the treasurer of the building com- mittee which directed the construction of the first Methodist church erected in that town and collected the money required for that important work.
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ROYAL MCCONNELL HARVEY.
Royal McConnell Harvey, a well-known and well-to-do farmer of Wal- nut township, this county, proprietor of a fine farm of three hundred and twenty acres in that township, is a native of Ohio, born on a farm in Preble county, that state, July 1853, son of Samuel and Sophronia ( Hazelton) Harvey, the former of whom, a native of Tennessee, moved to Ohio in the days of his young manhood, and bought a farm of one hundred acres in Preble county, where he spent the remainder of his life. Though too old for service in the army when the Civil War broke out he did valiant sery- ice as a member of the home guards and when General Morgan made his famous raid into Ohio he shouldered his gun and went out with the guards to meet the invader. He and his wife were earnest members of the Chris- tian church and their children were reared in that faith. There were nine of these children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the last born and the only one living in Reno county, the others having been William Nathaniel, Isabel, Mehitabel, Levi P., Mary, Anna, Martha Jane and Sarah Elizabeth, of whom Isabel Mary and Anna are now the only survivors. Levi P. Harvey was a soldier in the Union army during the Civil War, a member of the Seventy-fifth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry.
Royal M. Harvey was reared on the home farm in Preble county, Ohio, and obtained his schooling in the schools in the neighborhood of his home. He became a farmer on his own account and a landowner. In 1879 he married and six years later sold his farm and came to Kansas, settling in Rice county in 1885, but two years later moved over to Reno county and in 1890 bought the farm on which he is now living. His original tract of a quarter section in Walnut township he has added to by the purchase of an adjoining quarter section and now has a valuable farm of three hundred and twenty acres, which he has improved in excellent shape and brought to a high state of cultivation. He has a fine, large house, built in 1901, which is lighted by a gas-lighting system and is otherwise up to date, and he and his family are very pleasantly and comfortably situated.
It was in February 13, 1879, in Preble county, Ohio, that Royal M. Harvey was united in marriage to Filena Frances Flora, who was born in that county, November 8, 1859, daughter of John and Mary ( Potterf) Flora, who moved from Virginia to Ohio and located in Preble county, where he is still living at the age of eighty-five years. John Flora was but a child when his parents moved to Ohio and there he received his education and
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grew to manhood, a farmer. He married Mary Potterf, daughter of David Potterf. a native of Pennsylvania, who had settled in Preble county, Ohio, where his last days were spent, and to this union nine children were born, of whom Mrs. Harvey was the second in order of birth, the others being Jacob, Ida. Anna, Minnie, Lavina, Everett, Edith and Quincy. John Flora and his wife are still living at Eaton, Preble county, Ohio. They are active members of the Methodist church and their children were reared in that faith.
To Royal McConnell and Filena Frances (Flora) Harvey five chil- dren have been born, as follow: Orville, of Sylvia, this county, who mar- ried Carrie Baker and has two children, Myra and Royal; Walter, a farmer of this county, who married Elsie Denbo and has two children, Ursel and Vera: Elsie, who married Mark Elliott, Jr., of this county, and has two children, Emma and Bernice, and Roy and John, who are still at home with their parents on the farm. Mr. and Mrs. Harvey are active members of the United Brethren church and take a warm interest in all neighborhood good works.
RICHARD G. DADE.
On another page in this volume, in the biographical sketch relating to Ernest Dade, brother of the subject of this sketch, who is now occupying the old Alexander Dade home in Reno township, there is set out in detail something of the history of the well-known Dade family in this country, and it will not be necessary in this connection, therefore, to repeat those details further than to state that Richard G. Dade was born in Montgomery county, Maryland, on January 9, 1854, son of Alexander and Susan Ann ( White) Dade, who later became pioneers of this county and spent their last days here.
Richard D. Dade was reared on his father's extensive plantation in Maryland, a flourishing tract of more than four hundred acres within thirty miles of Washington, D. C., and made his home there until 1876, in which year, he then being twenty-two years of age, he came to Reno county, in company with his elder brother. the late Joseph T. Dade, and homesteaded land in Langdon township, Richard's original entry, which he still owns, being the southwest quarter of section 20, township 25, range 91 west, and there he proceeded to establish a home. He quickly brought his homestead under cultivation and in the second summer of his residence in this county,
0
Richard S. Dade
Clara & Dade
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in July, 1878, he married and settled down in earnest, in good time becoming known as one of the most successful and substantial farmers in his neigh- borhood. Soon after homesteading he bought a quarter section on the north side of his homestead and on the latter tract engaged for years quite exten- sively in cattle raising, most of his money having been made by his attention to that phase of his agricultural operations. Following the death of his father in 1908 he inherited eighty acres and bought a one hundred and sixty acre farm in Salt Creek township and on April 17, 1909, moved to the latter place, where he ever since has made his home, his elder son, Charles, being in charge of the Langdon township place.
On July 17, 1878, Richard G. Dade was united in marriage to Clara Ditmore, who was born in the state of Michigan, daughter of Nicholas and Fannie Ditmore, who came to this county from Michigan in 1876 and home- steaded a farm here. Mrs. Ditmore died in Michigan when Mrs. Dade was nine years of age, and Mr. Ditmore, now eighty -two years of age, makes his home with his daughter, Mrs. Dade. To Mr. and Mrs. Dade seven children have been born, as follow: Ivy, who married Charles Popejoy, a Langdon township farmer; Mrs. Nellie Brooks, who died in 1912; Charles, who lives on and manages his father's farm in Langdon township; Esther, a teacher in the Reno county public schools; Alta, who is at home with her parents; Frank, also at home, assistant to his father on the farm. and Clara. who is still in school.
ELMER E. MARSHALL.
A career guided and governed by the highest principles of citizenship has been that of Elmer E. Marshall, who though a native of Wayne county. Indiana, has been a resident of Reno county for over forty years. He was born on January 9, 1868, and is the son of Isaac and Carlotta (Paxton) Marshall. His mother, who was born near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, January 12, 1832, followed the customs of living adopted by the Quakers, and came to Indiana in 1843 with her parents, who were also Quakers. The family drove into the Middle West in a covered wagon and encount- ered many strange and interesting adventures on the trip. They settled in Wayne county, Indiana, where Mr. Paxton bought a farm and where he lived with his family until his death.
Isaac Marshall, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in (42a)
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Wayne county, Indiana. on October 22, 1832, and received his education in the schools of the county in which he was born. He was married in 1855, but on account of the Civil War, which started a few years later he was obliged to break his home interests and give his services to save the Union. He enlisted in the Sixty-ninth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infan- try, and during three years and nine months of the war gave active serv- ice. He fought at Vicksburg and at Shiloh and in the battle of Chattanooga had a prominent part. At the siege of Mobile and at Indianola he received some of his most interesting experiences of the war and at the close returned to Wayne county. Indiana, no worse in health for his services. Upon returning to the place of his nativity he rented a farm belonging to David Little. a Quaker, and in 1872, moved with his family to a farm near Topeka, Kansas. The following year he obtained a homestead claim on a farm in Little River township. Reno county, Kansas. The land grant was located in the southwestern part of section 26, township 22, range 4 west, and remained the family homestead until the death of Mr. Marshall, which occurred in November, 1910. After the death of Mrs. Marshall, who passed away in November. 1900, Mr. Marshall married for the second time. Elmer Marshall has two brothers: Joseph, who resides on a farm in Clay town- ship. Reno county, and Isaac, who follows the occupation of a farmer in Oakwood, Oklahoma.
When he was just five years of age, Elmer E. Marshall came with his parents to Reno county, Kansas. He attended the Lakeside district school in Little River township and in his youth had fellowship with labor. He lived on his father's farm until his marriage, which took place in 1886, and after which he went to Gray county, Kansas, to take a homestead claim. After living upon the land for the time required to complete his claim he sold out and returned to Reno county, where he rented his father's farm, consisting of three hundred and twenty acres. In 1900 he moved to Clay township. where he bought a fruit farm of twenty-nine acres, and where ten years later he erected a house of modern construction and attractive design. After a year spent in traveling through the West, Mr. Marshall returned to this county and bought a home at 125 Fifteenth avenue, West, in Hutchinson, where he continues to reside. He takes an active interest in the social affairs of the community in which he lives and is a popular mem- ber of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
On October 10, 1866, Elmer E. Marshall was married to Emma Gray Holcomb, a native of Mt. Ayr. Ringgold county, Iowa, and the daughter of
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Allen and Roxana Holcomb, numbered among the pioneer settlers of lowa, who moved to Denison, Texas, and later homesteaded in Woodward county, Oklahoma, where Mrs. Holcomb died, March 18, 1907. Two of the chil- dren born to Mr. and Mrs. Marshall died in infancy, they were. Walter and Irvin. Roxana, the second child, became the wife of Sherman Gilkison, in 1913, and has one child, Marshall Gray Gilkison, who was born on August 22, 1915. The family resides on the farm owned by Elmer E. Marshall, in Clay township, this county.
Mrs. Roxana Holcomb, wife of Allen Holcomb, who died in 1870, mar- ried R. I. McMaines in 1872. Her people were from Virginia and North Carolina. She was a cousin of E. C. Marshall, once a United States senator from Mississippi, and cousin of Vice-President Marshall.
JAMES M. BUSH.
James M. Bush, the son of Moses and Elizabeth ( Bowman) Bush, was born in Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, October 26, 1862. Moses Bush was a native of Northumberland county, where he was born on September 29, 1830. He spent his life in the state of his nativity, where he was engaged in farming, conducting a hotel and operating a foundry. He died in Snyder county on March 22, 1870. Elizabeth Bush was born in Dauphin county, Pennsylvania. June 8, 1835, and died in Uniontown on August 5, 1887.
To Moses Bush and wife were born the following children : James M .. born on October 26, 1862: John, June 11, 1855, died on November 27, 1867; George, a farmer of Bellevue, Sandusky county, Ohio; Franklin, the owner of a saw-mill in Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania; Daniel, proprietor of a hotel at Williamstown, Pennsylvania ; Mary, deceased, was the wife of John Lamphere, a produce dealer at Williamsport, Pennsylvania: William Wesley, January 15. 1864, died on December 4, 1867; Esther Jane, April 12, 1868, died on June 22, 1869, and Elizabeth, who was the wife of Henry Metz, a farmer of Dauphin county. Mr. Metz died some years ago.
James M. Bush received his limited education at a pay school in Northumberland county, where he attended for less than a year, after which he left home at the age of eight years to work for William Koppenhaver for his board and clothes. He remained there for eight years when he then worked for Adam Trautman for two years' at the same remuneration.
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He continued with Mr. Trautman for another year and received six dollars and twenty-five cents per month for eight months and did chores for his board for the other four months. He then began work for Preston C. West, receiving seven dollars and fifty cents per month for the first year and eight dollars and fifty cents per month for the second year, receiving pay for eight months each year and doing chores for his board for the other four months. After five months in a general store he returned to Preston C. West where he remained for one year at eight dollars and fifty cents per month, after which he was with his brother George in Sandusky county, Ohio, for two years when he returned to Pennsylvania for six months. He was with William H. Smith for one year in Ohio and then came to Kansas in February, 1886, and here worked for Jacob Schmidt for one year at Halstead. He then rented a farm two miles southwest of Mt. Ridge. McPherson county, where he remained for three years and then engaged with Goering Brothers, general merchants at Mt. Ridge for six months. At this time he joined a party of eighteen on a general pros- pecting tour to Salem, Oregon, and was gone four months. On his return he again was with Goering Brothers where he remained until 1894, at which time the Goering-Krehbiel Mercantile Company was incorporated and they established a branch store at Pretty Prairie and made Mr. Bush the manager. Hle remained with the firm until February 19, 1914, when he bought the store at Pretty Prairie and has conducted the business since that time under the firm name, James M. Bush & Son. The store' is on Main street and one of the best locations in the city. '
Mr. Bush is a man of much prominence and one who has the confi- dence of the community in which he lives. He has held the following offices of trust with ability: Clerk of Albion township, treasurer of the township, township trustee, first mayor of Pretty Prairie, county commissioner, clerk of the school district, a member of the school board when the new sixteen- thousand-dollar school house was built and was chairman of and purchasing agent of the board of county commissioners of Reno county. He held the office of commissioner for eight years.
Mr. Bush is a member of the Club of Pretty Prairie, the Elks, the Eagles, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Encampment and the Rebekahs.
On October 30, 1800, James M. Bush was married at Mt. Ridge to Bertha Reusser, the daughter of David D. and Catharina (Bukholder) Reusser. David D. Reusser was born in Wayne county, Ohio, September
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15, 1841, and later came to Indiana. Catharina ( Bukholder ) Reusser was a native of Berne, Switzerland, where she was born on May 28, 1845. She came to America in 1865. Her death occurred on May 15, 1882. Mr. and Mrs. Reusser were married in Adams county, Indiana, September 15, 1865, and in the spring of 1877 they removed to Kansas. To this union the following children were born: Bertha, now Mrs. James M. Bush, was born at Berne, Indiana; Ida, the wife of Daniel Luginbill, a farmer of Goltry, Oklahoma; Daiel, a farmer of Harvey county; Emiel, a painter at Mt. Ridge; Noah, a laborer at Mt. Ridge: Edward, a farmer of Harvey county; Lena, the wife of Daniel Heintbleman, a merchant at Mt. Ridge.
James M. Bush and wife are the parents of the following children : Minnie G., who died some years ago: James R., in business with his father ; Edward R., with his father; Lillian E., the wife of Thomas J. Bennett. a baker at Kingman; David W., Earl F., Marvin R. and Wilbert R. The four last mentioned are all in school. James R. Bush was united in mar- riage on September 1, 1912, to Lillian Stephenson, the daughter of J. C. and Carrie Stephenson, of Hutchinson. To James R. Bush and wife was born one child, Helen, M., born on June 22, 1913.
James M. Bush is the third eldest resident of Pretty Prairie, the other two being, Ex-Senator Frank C. Field and Samuel G. Demoret. Mr. Bush has done much for the business, social and educational life of the town and is ever ready to assist in any worthy cause. His life has been a most active and successful one.
MILLARD FILLMORE BAIN.
Millard Fillmore Bain, one of the best-known and most substantial farmers of Walnut township, this county, and a pioneer resident of Reno county, is a native of Pennsylvania, born in the city of Philadelphia, July 19, 1856, son of John W. and Caroline (Yeager) Bain. both natives of that same state, who spent their last days there.
John W. Bain was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, September 19, 1810, son of John W. Bain, a native of Scotland, who became a very well-to-do resident of Philadelphia. In the schools of the latter city the junior John W. Bain received his education and early became connected with the coal indus- try, becoming general superintendent of the Philadelphia & Reading Coal Company, in charge of twenty-one wharves and about three thousand men.
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