USA > Kansas > Reno County > History of Reno County, Kansas; its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 68
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nineties the joint activities of the Collingwoods became further cemented by the organization of the firm of J. A. Collingwood & Brothers, which firm engaged in banking and a great extension of the milling, grain, live stock and real-estate interests of the family. John A. Collingwood was first president of the State Bank of Pretty Prairie and was head of the firm for years. His younger sister, Ellen, Mrs. S. G. Demoret, now president of the bank, was the first cashier of the same, and from the very beginning the bank has been a success, as have all the other interests touched by the Collingwoods.
On April 30, 1896. John A. Collingwood was united in marriage to D. Vircillah McClellan, who for years was one of Reno county's best-known school teachers, and to this union two children have been born, Alfred John, born on May 18. 1897, and Lelo Paul, December 17, 1898. Mrs. Colling- wood was born in Warren county, Illinois, daughter of Robert and Mar- garette Cassena ( Paul) McClellan, the former a native of Ohio and the latter of Tennessee. Robert McClellan was born in Perry county, Ohio, May 31. 1820, and was reared a farmer. On September 10, 1844, near Princeton. Indiana, he married Cassena Paul, who was born in Tennessee, December 11, 1820, daughter of William and Rebecca (Carithers) Paul, who had moved up into Indiana from Tennessee. William Paul was born in Knox county, Tennessee, May 30, 1788, son of John and Jane Paul, and was reared a farmer. He served as a soldier during the Black Hawk War and in his early manhood was a school teacher. He married Rebecca Carithers, daughter of Andrew and Esther (French) Carithers, farmers of Tennessee, who, as well as the Mcclellans and the Pauls, were earnest Presbyterians. Mrs. Collingwood still has in her possession a few inter- esting relies of the Black Hawk War and of life during that period, handed down by William Paul, as well as a chair made by John Paul; also a pink teacup owned by the John Paul family, from which eight generations have drunk.
Robert Mcclellan was a veteran of the Civil War, having given his service to the Union cause during that struggle as a member of Company B. Eighty-third Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, with which com- mand he served for more than three years. He and his wife were the par- unt- of five children. Nancy A., William Wiley, David F. D. Vircillah and Joseph S .. all of whom are still living save the first named. Robert Mcclellan died at his home in Warren county, Illinois, on October 8, 1871. He and his wife were Presbyterians and their children were reared in that faith. After Robert Mcclellan's death his family remained in their home
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in Monmouth. The next year, in 1872, David F. Mcclellan and his sister, Nancy, came to Kansas and settled in Reno county, and in 1874 their mother and their brothers. William and Joseph, joined them here, the family thus establishing a permanent home in Reno county very early in the settlement of this county. Meanwhile, Vircillah Mcclellan remained in Illinois, pur- suing her studies in Monmouth College, until 1878. She then rejoined her family in this county and was at once welcomed to the ranks of Reno county's pioneer corps of school teachers, in which position she rendered valuable service in the public behalf, continuing as a teacher until her mar- riage to Mr. Collingwood, the latter part of this service being performed as principal of the schools at Haven, this county, the Haven schools at that time having an enrollment of eighty-three pupils. Mrs. Cassena Mcclellan is still living in this county, now in her ninety-sixth year, living in her own home, near her daughter, Mrs. Collingwood, at Pretty Prairie. Despite her great age she retains much of her former vigor and has very clear recol- lections of pioneer days hereabout, and is in full possession of her mental faculties. She is kind and helpful to everyone.
JOHN ROWLAND.
John Rowland, by unremitting industry and perseverance, has attained the noteworthy position of one of the largest landowners and most suc- cesful farmers and cattle raisers of Clay township. In his life work, he has been ably and faithfully assisted by his wife and children, until today he has one of the best improved estates in the county.
John Rowland, the son of Perry Rowland, was born on July 16, 1865. in Noble county, Ohio. His education was limited, for his help was indis- pensable on his father's farm. The family emigrated from Ohio to Reno county, Kansas, when he was twenty years of age and here on the pioneer farm he toiled harder than ever. In 188.4 he started out for himself and began renting farms in Clay township. In 1887 he purchased the southeast quarter of section 32, in the north end of Clay township, and has since resided there. His comfortable farm-house is located forty rods from the road. Leading up to it is an avenue, lined on either side by trees over two feet in diameter, which the owner planted in years gone by. Little by little he has purchased adjoining land until he own two thousand acres in Clay and Medora townships. For thirty years previous to 1913, he kept a herd
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of about three hundred cattle, and also bought them in numbers to feed. He also fed large droves of hogs. Mr. Rowland has' a fine apple orchard of forty acres, also a large peach orchard. He often produces over ten thousand bushels of apples per year. He has strong Democratic tendencies and takes a great interest in politics, although he never has sought an office. At one time he was the only Democrat in Clay township north of the Santa Fe railroad. His word is good as gold, and he is highly respected in his county and wherever he is known.
On August 26, 1882, John Rowland was married to his schoolmate, Jane M. Dillon, who was born in 1859, in Noble county, Ohio. Her parents were Martin and Susan Dillon, both deceased.
Mr. and Mrs. Rowland have four children, as follow: Edgar, born in 1883, living on his uncle's farm, was married to Marie Lackey, on April 7. 1912, and they have one child, John Curtis; Martin and Perry, twins, still at home: Frank, living on a Clay township farm, and who married Mary Burdick and they have one child, Grace.
FRANK H. COST.
Coming to this county in the fall of 1888, a boy of seventeen, Frank H. Cost. now vice-president and principal buyer of the department store of the Rorabaugh-Wiley Company at Hutchinson, began as a clerk in a paint store in Hutchinson a career of activity in the mercantile line which has brought him his present eminence in commercial circles throughout this part of the state.
Frank H. Cost was born near the village of Keedysville, in Washing- ton county, Maryland, November 24, 1871, son of Alfred Newton and Mary ( Bovey) Cost. both natives of that same county, the former of whom, born in 1824, died in 1887, and the latter, born in 1829, died in 1877. Alfred Newton Cost was of German descent, but his family for generations had lived in Washington county, in the neighborhood in which both himself and his son were born, the first of the name in this country having been an early settler in Maryland colony, later members of the family having par- ticipated in the long struggle of the colonists to throw off the British yoke during the War of the Revolution. The Costs for several generations had been large landowners in Maryland and were quite wealthy. Grandfather Cost was also the proprietor of a shoe factory at Keedysville, which employed
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about forty men, making shoes by hand. Succeeding to this business, Alfred N. Cost continued the same until the gradual use of labor-saving machinery in the manufacture of shoes displaced the old hand method and eventually closed the Cost factory. Alfred N. Cost, who was an active member of the German Reformed church, died when his son, Frank H., the subject of this sketch and the youngest of the family, was fourteen years of age. His wife had died ten years previously. They were the par- ents of seven children, namely: Harry P., a bookkeeper, who lives at Tellu- ride, Colorado; Barbara, wife of the Rev. Barton R. Carnahan, a minister of the German Reformed church at Mt. Pleasant, Maryland; Elizabeth. wife of Prof. E. L. Payne, who for twelve years was county superintendent of Reno county, but who now occupies the chair of mathematics in the Kan- sas State Normal School at Emporia; Harvey A., a railway mail clerk, liv- ing at Hagerstown, Maryland; Irene, wife of T. J. Pry, of Keedysville, Maryland; Daisy, wife of C. D. Miller, of Hagerstown, Maryland, and Frank H., the subject of this review.
Upon the completion of the course in the village schools at Keedysville, Frank H. Cost went to work as a clerk in the dry-goods store of J. C. Hoff- man & Sons at Hagerstown, Maryland, and on November 30, 1888, he then being seventeen years of age, came West and located at Hutchinson, this county, where for the first six months after his arrival he worked as a clerk in the store of Rice & Moorehouse, a firm dealing in paints. He then, in the spring of 1889, transferred his services to the P. Martin Dry Goods Company, at that time conducting in Hutchinson the largest and best dry- goods store in southwestern Kansas. His natural aptitude for mercantile business and the general enterprise he displayed from the time he became connected with the Martin store made his services so valuable to that com- pany that he presently was given an interest in the store and after a few years was made general manager of the same. When in 1904 the Martin store was bought by the Rorabaugh-Wiley Company and consolidated with the latter's establishment, Mr. Cost became a member of the new company and was made treasurer of the same. He has continued this connection since that time and is now vice-president of the Rorabaugh-Wiley Company and from the time of the consolidation has been principal buyer for the great establishment and is also superintendent of several departments of the store.
On September 9, 1898, Frank H. Cost was united in marriage to Louie Adele Osborn, who was born near AAdrian, Michigan, daughter of Edwin
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Osborn and wife, both of whom now are deceased; and to this union three children have been born. Lucile Frances, born in 1899; Pauline Adele, 1907, and Carol Marguerite, 1910. Mrs. Cost is a member of the Presbyterian church and she and Mr. Cost take a warm interest in all matters pertaining to the general betterment of the community. They have a very pleasant home at 519 A avenue, east.
Mr. Cost is a Mason and is past commander of the Hutchinson com- mandery of the Knights Templar. He also is a member of the Knights of Pythias and of the Modern Woodmen, in all of which orders he takes an active interest.
CHARLES H. SMITH.
Charles H. Smith is the eldest son of George W. Smith, Jr., and was born in Adams county, Illinois, November 4, 1876. He was only eleven years old when the family left Illinois for Hutchinson, Kansas, and his edu- cation was received in the graded schools of this city. At the age of four- teen, when the family moved out to their farm in Salt Creek township, he went to work for his father and received very little schooling thereafter.
On October 24, 1900, Charles H. Smith was married to Jennie Pear- son, who is the daughter of William and Ellen Pearson, and was born in Medford township, Reno county. After his marriage, Mr. Smith rented a farm in Reno township, where he lived until his father moved to Hutchin- son, when The leased the vacated farm which is just south of South Hutch- inson. He also farms other rented land. Mr. Smith is a Republican and is also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He and his wife belong to the Presbyterian church.
George W. Smith, Jr., the father of Charles H., is a product of the unconquerable. self-sacrificing stock of which the pioneers of this country were mokled, his forebears having originated in Kentucky and braved the discomforts of the carly Illinois days. His grandfather, for whom he was named, was a Kentuckian. His grandmother was a substantial German woman, a fit mate of the man who went from Kentucky to settle on the vast prairies of virgin Illinois. Their children were Alexander, John, Celestia and James C., the father of George W. Smith, Jr.
James C. Smith was born in Jefferson county, Kentucky, as was also his wife, Mary Curry. She was the daughter of Thomas and Melinda
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Curry, who emigrated from Kentucky to Illinois in the early forties. The Smiths and Currys settled in Adams county, Illinois, and there James C. Smith owned and lived on one hundred and sixty acres of fine land in addi- tion to a quantity of good timber land, and there he spent the remainder of his life. He belonged to the Whig party, and remained with it when it was later merged into the Republican party. His wife was a member of the Christian church.
The children of James C. Smith and wife were: Thomas C., who is an undertaker at Clayton, Illinois; George W., Jr .; Sarah E., wife of John Balloa, of Camp Point, Illinois; Celestia Anne, wife of George McCarty, of Camp Point, Illinois; Elizabeth, wife of Hotha Bennett, both deceased; Isa- belle, wife of Warren Omar, of Camp Point, Illinois; Abraham Lincoln, owner of a feed yard at Camp Point, Illinois; James Henry, of Clayton, Illinois; Ida, deceased at the age of sixteen; William, with Critchfield-Tay- lor Company, an advertising firm of Chicago, Illinois. James C. Smith died on May 3. 1903. His wife died on November 3, 1896.
George W. Smith, Jr., who was born in Adams county, Illinois, March 23, 1848, received but little education, as being one of the elder sons of the family, he was needed on the farm. There he worked until he was mar- ried to Fannie E. Hoke, December 17, 1874. She was born in Morgan county, Kentucky, January 26, 1853. and was the daughter of Craven and Harriet (Tucker) Hoke, both natives of Jefferson county, Kentucky. They were farmers and settled in Adams county, Illinois, in 1859. They owned a farm there, but in 1890 they removed to Kirksville, Missouri, and on November 4, 1897, they celebrated their golden wedding there. Craven Hoke died on October 12, 1898, and nine years later his wife died, at the age of seventy-seven.
After the marriage of George W. Smith, Jr., he lived on rented land, six years in Hancock county and four years in Adams county. In 1887 he moved to Hutchinson, Kansas, where for one and one-half years he was employed by the St. John & Marsh Lumber Company. He worked at car- pentering for the next one and one-half years. At the end of that time he traded for one hundred and sixty acres of land in Salt Creek township, which he cultivated from 1890 to 1901. He then bought one hundred and twenty acres in Reno township just south of South Hutchinson. In 1907 he moved to Hutchinson, where he has an elegant home, modern in every respect, at 309 Twelfth avenue, East. Here he lives the life of a retired farmer, although occasionally he follows his old trade of carpenter. He
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has sold his first farm in Salt Creek township and purchased the same amount of land in Reno township, adjoining the county farm.
Mr. Smith is a Republican and he and his wife are members of the Christian church. Their children are Charles H., born on November 4, 1876: Ira Clay. April 1, 1878, married to Grace Wells, and lives on his father's farm; Ralph E., March 30, 1889, married Carrie Stabler and they live with George W. Smith, Jr., at Hutchinson.
JAMES H. McILRATH.
Coming to the state of Kansas at an early day with his father, and having inherited from that sturdy pioneer many of the admirable qualities which made the latter an influence for good in his various places of residence, James H. Mellrath, now residing on a fine farm in Salt Creek township, Reno county, has done well his part in helping to develop this state into the noted agricultural region it is today.
James H. Mellrath was born on June 8, 1865, in Madison county, Illinois, the son of Hugh and Mary Ann (Foster) McIlrath, the former of whom was born near Belfast, and the latter in Donegal, Ireland. The father of Hugh Mellrath was born in Scotland and removed to Ireland. Mary Ann Foster was a descendant of Lady Elliott.
When Hugh Mellrath was a boy he was apprenticed to a storekeeper in Belfast. Ireland. to learn the business. At the age of twenty-one he came to the United States and located at Lucasville, Ohio, where he conducted a general store for some time. Soon after the Mexican War. Huch McIl- rath acquired a land warrant and took up a tract in Saline county, Illinois, on the present site of the town of Harrisburg, the court house now standing on what was a part of the original Mellrath land entry. Mr. McIlrath farmed there for eight years and was one of the first settlers in that region. At that time there were no fences and stock wandered on the open range and frequently became too wild to handle.
About 1855, Hugh Mellrath moved to near Venice, Madison county, Illinois, where he was engaged in farming for twenty-five years. In 1880, he moved to Pittsburg, Crawford county, Kansas, and lived there six years, after which he moved to Kiowa county, this state, where he died in 1905, at the age of eighty-four. Mr. Mellrath was a large man physically and a learned and broad-minded man mentally. He was a man of clean moral
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habits and was never known to utter an oath. Though the greater part of his life was spent under hardships incident to pioneer conditions he always had good health. He was reared in the Presbyterian church, but joined the Methodist Episcopal church on coming to America.
James H. Mellrath, a brother of Hugh Mellrath, and for whom the subject of this sketch was named, was a soldier in the Union army during the Civil War and was killed in action at Ft. Donelson. John Mellrath, another brother of Hugh, remained on the home farm in Ireland. He was engaged in horse breeding. Robert McIlrath, a brother, also, stayed in Ireland on the home farm. Martin McIlrath, the youngest one of the five brothers, went to Australia.
Hugh and Mary Ann ( Foster) McIlrath were the parents of eight children, as follow: William, who was a farmer in Kiowa county, died in 1898; James H., the subject of this sketch; John, who is a farmer, lives in Kansas; George, who is a carpenter, has lived in California for ten years, now lives in Arizona; Mary, the widow of James Mills, lives in Colorado; Annie, the widow of Doctor Hayes; two sons died in infancy.
James H. McIlrath attended the public schools in Venice, Illinois, and was present on the first day that colored children were allowed to attend the same school as the white children. He was fifteen years old when his father moved to Kansas, and was of considerable help to his father in devel- oping the farm in Crawford county, and also assisted his father in making a farm out of the homestead claim in Kiowa county. He helped in the management of the home place until he was twenty-six years old. His father, Hugh McIlrath, kept a large sum of money in an unlocked trunk at his farm house, but it never was molested.
In 1892, James H. Mellrath was married and started out in life for himself, showing his characteristic courage by taking this step when he had only sixty dollars. The following year he mortgaged three horses which he owned and by securing additional security on the land, purchased one hun- dred and sixty acres in Kiowa county, Kansas. This was bought for three hundred and fifty dollars and the security given was only about one hundred and twenty dollars in value. He rented other land there and also operated a threshing machine five years. In 1901. Mr. McIlrath moved to the town of Wellsford, Kiowa county, and engaged in the lumber, grain and coal business. While in Kiowa county Mr. Mclrath acquired three hundred and twenty acres of land, a part of which he sold in 1907.
James H. Mellrath came to Reno county in 1905, and purchased one (44a)
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hundred and sixty acres of land in Salt Creek township. One year later he moved his family to the town of Partridge that his children might take advantage of the superior school opportunities at that place. In 1911, Mr. McIlrath traded one hundred and sixty acres of land in Salt Creek township, together with another quarter of a section which he had previously acquired, for three hundred and twenty acres in Salt Creek township, being the south half of section 33. This is his home place on which is a fine farm house and is otherwise well improved, and here he carries on grain farming.
On May 4, 1892, James H. McIlrath was united in marriage with Myrta M. Jones, who was born in Wisconsin, the daughter of Ira C .- and Sarah Jane (Roberts) Jones. Mr. and Mrs. Ira Jones moved to Wellsford, Kiowa county, Kansas, in 1885, and were pioneers in that region. James H. and Myrta M. (Jones) McIlrath are the parents of two children : Hugh C., who was born on September II. 1893, is at home helping his father on the farm: Donald C., who was born on September 4, 1897, is attending the high school at Nickerson, this county.
Mr. McIlrath is liberal in his political views, and is generally aligned with the Democratic party. He served as township trustee in Kowa county. Mr. and Mrs. McIlrath are members of the Christian church. Mr. McIlrath is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America.
WALL & WALL.
David L. Wall, only son of Isaac and Susan (Brouse) Wall, was born in Sharon township, Medina county, Ohio, November 26, 1847. His father was an extensive farmer, owning three model farms in Medina county, which included forty acres in the then village of Wadsworth, Ohio. His mother's people are equally prosperous, and quite musically inclined, the members of the "Waltz Brothers' Band" being relatives. His sisters are Sarah, born on January 9, 1839, who is the wife of U. H. Wearstler, a farmer; Lovina, born on October 23, 1841, the wife of William Roth, a farmer, and Ella, born on September 3, 1856, the wife of T. H. Duley, a merchant.
Mr. Wall's father started in married life with nothing; his mother had about five hundred dollars. Together his parents hewed their first farm from out a dense forest in Sharon township: his mother toiling both indoors and out, and a much greater number of hours daily than the men of the farm.
HUGH AND MARY ANN MCILRATIL.
RENO COUNTY, KANSAS.
If the mother had died first. the father would have suffered, by the laws of Ohio, not the slightest interference financially. Upon his death, however, which occurred at the age of fifty-seven years, his widow was allowed, by the laws of Ohio, merely the use of one-third of their joint earnings. Ex- cept by a voluntary change on the part of her children she would, thus, have been unjustly deprived during her entire remaining life which reached ninety-nine years, seven months and eleven days. She came of a family of long-lived people, her Grandfather Brouse having lived to be one hundred and seven years old.
David L. Wall was educated in the Sharon Academy and . Berea Col- lege, and after leaving school, was engaged in the general merchandise busi- ness at Sharon Center, in the same county, until 1871-72, when he removed to Akron, Ohio, to engage in the dry-goods and carpet business. Later he became the junior member of the firm of Brouse & Wall. their department store being then one of the oldest and largest in that line in Akron. Mr. Wall came to Hutchinson, Kansas, on July 12, 1886, and with his wife, Henrietta Briggs-Wall, established the first exclusively dry-goods house in this city, under the firm name of Wall & Wall. Carpets were later added to the stock, and still later, when there was much building, they opened an exclusive carpet house, closing out the dry goods at Nickerson, an adjoining town. One reason of the change to carpets was their failure to secure united "early closing" among the dry-goods stores in their home city. However, they alone, for two years, had closed their dry-goods store at six o'clock p. m .; Wall & Wall being the pioneer firm in Hutchinson in this reform. After the change to carpets, there suddenly occurred the "bursting of the boom," and many householders, who had come to Hutchinson during the real-estate inflation, were leaving and disposing of their carpets as gifts. or for slight remuneration. This condition of things, the inevitable reac- tion resulting from undue promotion of towns, left the firm with little busi- ness. Then it was suggested that samples of their carpets might be carried by dealers in surrounding towns, and Mrs. Briggs-Wall undertook the busi- ness of opening a market of this kind. Samples of their stock of carpets were at once carefully prepared, and she started out to find customers. Commencing at Haven, she visited twenty-five towns, including Anthony, at the extreme south, and Garden City, near the west end of the state. After she had visited seven towns, the larger number of the sales of the firm were out-of-town orders, although the accompanying thorough advertising imme- diately improved the retail business. So the threatened bankruptcy was
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