USA > Kansas > Reno County > History of Reno County, Kansas; its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 70
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NELSON P. STEVENS.
Nelson P. Stevens, owner of the widely-famed Stevens nurseries at Hutchinson, who also is actively engaged in real-estate speculations in and about that city, is a native of Wisconsin, having been born in the town of Prescott, that state, on May 19, 1857, son of Nelson E. and Sarah E. (Castle) Stevens, the former a native of New York state and the latter of Michigan, both long since deceased.
Nelson E. Stevens was but a child when his father, Phineas Stevens, moved from New York to Illinois and settled in Lake county, where he became the owner of a large tract of land, now built over by northern sub- urbs of Chicago, and where he spent the remainder of his life. Nelson E. Stevens grew up on the pioneer farm in Lake county, Illinois, and for many years did contract work for the Illinois Central Railway Company, and dur- ing the later years of his life made his home near Chicago. His wife was born in Flint, Michigan, and she had four brothers in the Union service during the Civil War. all coming out of the struggle without a scratch.
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To Nelson E. Stevens and wife two children were born, the subject of this review having had a sister, Calista, who married Charles Barbee, a farmer of Fayette county. Illinois, and who died in 1914.
Nelson P. Stevens was but a small lad when his parents located at Avon, Illinois, and he obtained his schooling in the public schools of that village, after which he entered the employ of a tile and sewer-pipe factory at that place and learned the business "from the ground up," eventually be- coming superintendent of the plant. In 1882 he married and in 1887 re- signed his position at Avon and came to Kansas with the expectation of establishing brick and tile plants in Reno county. Locating at Hutchinson, he made a careful analysis of the soil in all parts of the county, but was unable to find any that was adapted to the use he intended and the big fac- tory project was thus abandoned. Mr. Stevens then became engaged in the work of installing machinery for tile and brick plants throughout the Southwest, and was thus employed until 1890, in which year he established his present thriving nursery trade. Starting in a small way, Mr. Stevens has made a great success of the business. He handles all kinds of fruit, forest and ornamental trees and it is doubtful if there is a township in Kansas that is not bearing some of the Stevens trees. Mr. Stevens also has dealt largely in Hutchinson real estate, and has been equally successful in that time, now being regarded as one of the county's most substantial citi- zens. In 1894 Mr. Stevens constructed the locally famous Stevens swim- ming pools, which, with the pleasant amusement park surrounding the same, has become one of the most enjoyable of the summer resort places about Hutchinson.
On March 30, 1882, at Avon, Illinois, Nelson P. Stevens was married to Sarah E. Rea, a school teacher, who was born in Ohio, but who had gone to Kansas with her sister, Mrs. B. S. Hoagland, and had been teach- ing school in Reno county for several years before going to Avon, where she was teaching when she met Mr. Stevens. To this union three children have been born, as follows: Otto N., superintendent of employment at the Kansas Chemical Manufacturing Company in Hutchinson, who married Elsie Martindale, and has two children, Dorothy and Marjorie; J. Franklin, who died when nine years of age, and a daughter who died at the age of cleven. Mr. Stevens is a Republican, and during his residence in Avon, Illinois, served several years as township and city clerk. He has been a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows since he was twenty-one years of age.
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ʻ ALBERT A. DEAN.
In the memorial annals of Reno county there are few names that occupy a higher place on the roll of those hardy pioneers, who made Reno county what it is today, than that of the late Albert A. Dean, of Medford town- ship, one of the earliest settlers of that part of the county, an honored veteran of the Civil War and for years one of the leaders in the agricul- tural and civic life of the northwestern part of the county. His wife also was one of the early pioneers of Reno county, she having located here with her parents at a very early day in the settlement of the county, and was ever a valuable helpmate to her energetic pioneer husband. Both are now gone from the scenes of human activity, but the memory of their works long will remain in the community in which they labored so long and so well. The work that they projected in the days of their active participation in affairs hereabout is being carried on admirably by the children who sur- vive them and who are doing well their respective parts in the various com- munities in which they reside.
Albert A. Dean was a native of the state of New York and he grew to manhood in that state. Upon the breaking out of the Civil War he enlisted for service in the Union army and served for four years as a mem- ber of the Eighty-fifth Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry. During this service he was captured by the enemy and for nine months suffered the horrors and tortures of Andersonville prison. At the close of the war he received his honorable discharge and returned to his home state, where he remained until 1873, and in June of that year settled in Reno county, which ever afterward was his place of residence. Upon coming to this county Mr. Dean homesteaded the northeast quarter of section 14 in Medford town- ship and there proceeded to establish himself. In the August following one of the adjoining quarter sections, the southwest quarter of section 12 of that same township, was homesteaded by J. O. Wheeler, who for years was regarded as one of the foremost pioneers of that part of the county. Two years later, in June, 1875. Albert A. Dean was united in marriage to Emma Wheeler, daughter of J. O. Wheeler and wife, his neighbors, and established his home on his homestead quarter, where both he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives, honored and influential residents of that community. They were members of the Congregational church and were ever active in good works in their neighborhood. Mr. Dean was an active member of the Grand Army of the Republic and was a Knight Templar
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Mason, taking a warm interest in the affairs of both of these organizations. He ever took a good citizen's part in the civic affairs of his community and had performed excellent service as township trustee and as a member of the school board. He was a good farmer and a substantial citizen, not only having greatly enlarged his original land holdings, but giving his children a good start when they made homes of their own. There are seven of these children, Frank, Fred, Orra, Clara, Gilbert, Myrtle and Elsie, who, in addition to the old home farm of two hundred and forty acres in Med- ford township, own one thousand six hundred and eighty acres in Reno, Stafford and Kearny counties. Albert A. Dean died at his home in Med- ford township in November, 1905, and his widow survived until August, 1912, she being fifty-eight years of age at the time of her death.
FRANK D. WOLCOTT.
Frank D. Wolcott, a well-known retired farmer and banker of Hutch- inson, this county, is a native of Massachusetts, but has lived in Reno county since 1881 and has therefore been a witness to and a factor in the develop- ment of this region. He was born in Berkshire county, Massachusetts, son of Orlow and Mary C. (Couch) Wolcott, both natives of that same state, who later became prominent residents of Hutchinson.
Orlow Wolcott was a farmer in his native state but retired from the farm and for two years was engaged in the hotel business at Waterbury, ' Connecticut, proprietor of the Wolcott House. In 1871 he and his family came to Kansas and located at Lawrence, where he bought a home near the Kansas State University. Later he bought a farm in the vicinity of that city and engaged in the cattle business there until 1881, in which year he moved with his family to Hutchinson, where he built a house at 106 West First avenue and there he spent the remaingler of his life, his death occurring in 1891, he then being sixty-four years of age. Mrs. Wolcott later moved to North Main street. where she spent the balance of her life, dying in 1910, she then being seventy-eight years of age.
Upon locating in Hutchinson. Orlow Wolcott bought a farm in Reno township, west of Hutchinson, and there he and his son, the subject of this sketch, engaged in cattle raising and farming in partnership, becoming quite successful. The elder Wolcott was a Democrat and in his native state had served two terms in the Massachusetts state Legislature. Upon coming to
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this county he continued to take an active interest in political affairs, but was not included in the office-seeking class.
Frank D. Wolcott was but a boy when his parents came to Kansas and he grew up on the farm near Lawrence. Upon locating at Hutchinson in 1881 he entered actively upon the work of developing the Reno township farm, being practical manager of the same, and most of his time was spent there. Following his marriage in the fall of 1891 he established his home on the farm, but after a residence of three years there moved to Hutchinson and located at his present home, 824 North Main street, where he has lived ever since and where he and his family are very pleasantly situated. Mr. Wolcott has a large farm in Valley township. His specialty during the time he was actively engaged in the cattle business was white-faced Durhams and black cattle and his stock became more than locally noted. He employed an expert cattle feeder to look after his ranch and his stock, and for years made a point of supplying the Christmas market with fancy beef, his stock commanding the top of the market. Mr. Wolcott is a Democrat and has ever given a good citizen's attention to local political affairs, but has never been an aspirant for public office. He is a director of the Citizens Bank of Hutchinson and during two different terms served that institution as vice- president.
On September 29, 1891, Frank D. Wolcott was united in marriage to Dora Richardson, who was born in Fulton county, Ohio, daughter of Paul and Esther H. Richardson, who lived on a farm near the city of Toledo. In 1873 Paul Richardson and his family came to Kansas and homesteaded a timber claim in Grant township, this county, nine miles northwest of Hutch- inson. Paul Richardson developed his claim and remained there until his retirement from the farm, after which he moved to Hutchinson, where he spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring in 1899. He was born at Lockport, near the city of Buffalo, New York, and was twice married, by his first wife having had two children, Mark, deceased, and Jennie, who lives at Lockport, New York. Upon the death of his first wife Mr. Richardson married Esther H. Rice, who was born in Athens county, Ohio, in 1840, and to this second union two children were born, daughters both, Dora, wife of Mr. Wolcott, and Bianca, who married Frank St. John. For more than forty years Mrs. Esther H. Richardson has been one of Reno county's best- known and most influential school teachers and has been a notable factor in the development of the social and cultural life of this region. Since 1883 she has been a teacher in the Hutchinson public schools and is now instructor
(45a)
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in Latin in the high school. To Mr. and Mrs. Wolcott three children have been born. Mary, born in August, 1892, a graduate of the Hutchinson high school and a student at Lake Forest University; Ruth, born in November, 1893. also a student at Lake Forest, and Esther, born in May, 1899, a student in the Hutchinson high school.
E. B. SMITH, A. M.
E. B. Smith, of Nickerson, Reno county, Kansas, is one whose char- acter is a constant expression of a distinctive individuality and sincere pur- pose. His birth occurred on April 18, 1857, in Steuben county, Indiana, and he is the son of Birge and Marietta (Bennett) Smith, natives of Central New York and of Steuben county, Indiana, respectively. Birge Smith was born in 1834 and his wife in 1837. Marietta (Bennett) Smith was the daughter of Malcolm Bennett who, for many years, was a resident near Syracuse, New York, but removed to Indiana, where he remained until death. He served in the Civil War in Company K of the Forty-fourth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, contracting typhoid fever while in the service, but died at home in 1862. Birge Smith was a son of Eber Smith, a native of New York and a merchant in a small place near Ithaca. He removed to Indiana about 1848 and engaged in farming in Steuben county. He was the father of these children: Sarah, deceased; Frances, David, deceased ; Birge, deceased.
Birge Smith received his education in the common schools and in a New York academy and removed to Indiana with his parents. During the Civil War he enlisted in Company A, Forty-fourth Indiana Volunteer In- fantry, serving as second lieutenant. He contracted typhoid fever and was discharged. but re-enlisted when fully recovered. He was appointed by Governor Oliver P. Morton to serve as captain of the One Hundred and Twenty-ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, but did not serve in that ca- pacity, as General Hovey kept him on the general's staff as acting-adju- tant. He died in the army hospital at New York Harbor and is buried in Cypress Hill cemetery. He was the father of two children, Edward Birge and Frank E., who located in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1877 and is now an agent of the Pullman Company. The wife of Birge Smith died on No- vember 5, 1913.
Edward Birge Smith is indebted to Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Michi-
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gan, and to the University of Kansas, for his education, having received his Master of Arts degree at the last-named institution with the class of 1897. On June 17, 1879, he was united in marriage to Helen E. Merwin, daughter of Calvin and Emily Merwin, both natives of New York, and to this union one child was born, Helen, on May 26, 1887. Helen E. ( Mer- win) Smith was born in 1859, in Branch county, Michigan. Mrs. Smith has been a teacher for thirty years in the schools with which her husband has been connected.
Edward Birge Smith studied law under John H. Binford at Craw- fordsville, Kansas, and was a partner of Judge W. R. Brown, of Hutch- inson, Kansas. After two years he removed to Great Bend, Kansas, where he served as president of the Central Normal College for six years, remov- ing in 1898, to Nickerson, Kansas, where he established a private school, which was an independent normal school. This institution by an act of the Legislature in 1899 was given the standing of a college, and has received the support of the county since 1903. It is now the Reno county high school. Helen Smith. daughter of Edward Birge Smith, was a student of the University of Kansas, from which institution she received her Bachelor of Arts degree. Following her degree she was teacher of Latin for one year. She married Judge Hugh T. Fisher of the court of Topeka, Kansas, and they are the parents of two children, Edward W. and David Hugh.
CHARLES ABRAM CONKLING.
The new Reno hotel at Hutchinson, this county, is a handsome brick building, up-to-date in every respect, and has a wide popularity among the traveling men throughout this section of the state. Under the capable and experienced management of its proprietor. Charles A. Conkling, who is noted for his genial manner and cordial, gentlemanly bearing, the house is doing a good business and bears the general reputation of being the best European-plan hotel in the city. The site occupied by the Reno is historic and has never been utilized for any other than hotel purposes since the very beginning of a social order in Hutchinson, the old Reno hotel having for many years occupied the site, many great men having been sheltered there in the early days.
Charles Abram Conkling was born in Oswego county, New York, on June 7, 1857, son of Abram B. and Sarah (Keyser) Conkling, the former
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of whom, born at Rochester, New York, in 1818, died at his home in this county in June. 1900, and the latter, born in Schuyler county, New York, in 1820, died at her home in this county in 1887. Abram B. Conkling was reared on a farm in New York state and for many years was a farmer there. In 1867 he moved with his family to Illinois, where he resided until 1872, in which year he came to this county and entered a large tract of land in the western part of the county and also took up a timber claim about where the village of Huntsville is now situated and there both he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives.
Abram B. Conkling became one of the best-known and most influential men in the western part of Reno county and was widely known thereabout, during the early part of his residence there having been one of the best- known stockmen in that section, his specialty having been horses and sheep. He later gave up the raising of sheep and devoted his place to general farm- ing and became quite well-to-do. He died in 1900, at the age of eighty years. His wife, who came of a family prominent in Schuyler county, New York, during the days of the Revolutionary War and were active partici- pants in that long struggle, had preceded him to the grave thirteen years, her death having occurred in 1887. They were earnest members of the Methodist church and he was an ardent Republican. To them nine children had been born, namely: Edward, who enlisted for service in the Union army during the Civil War, attached to a Michigan cavalry regiment, and died in a Confederate prison at Nicholsville, Kentucky: Peter K., who also served the Union during the Civil War, a member of Company D, One Hundred and Tenth Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry, in which he enlisted when eighteen years of age, serving .for three years and six months, died in Illinois in 1874: Susan, who married F. M. Glanville, of Hutchinson, this county, died in 1877; Daniel, a well-known ranchman of this county, who makes his home in Hutchinson; Anna, who died in youth and is buried at Utica, New York : Mary, who married Mortimer M. Brown and lives in Chicago: Julia unmarried, who lives at Waterloo, Iowa; Emma J., who married C. L. Bowman, of Hutchinson, both of whom now are deceased, and Charles .A., the immediate subject of this biographical sketch.
Charles A. Conkling was but five years of age when his parents moved to Utica, New York, and he received his primary education there, which was supplemented by the schooling received in the public schools of Peoria, Illinois, during the family's later residence of three years in that city. His father then bought a half section of land in Ford county, Illinois, and for
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eight years the family lived there, or until 1876, in which year they rejoined the father, who, four years before had homesteaded his place in the western part of this county and had prepared a home for them. Upon coming to Reno county, instead of making his home on the farm, Charles AA. Conkling located in Hutchinson, where he became an insurance salesman, acquiring an acquaintance which proved very valuable when presently, during the "boom" days, he and his brother-in-law, C. L. Bowman, engaged in the real-estate business, in which he continued until 1888. In 1891 he became the proprietor of the old Reno hotel and was thus engaged until 1899, in which year he engaged in the furniture business at 101-103 South Main street. This business he sold in 1902 and resumed charge of the Reno hotel, which ever since has been under his capable management. In 1913 Mr. Conkling razed the old hotel and built the present commodious and up-to-date Reno hotel on the site so long occupied by the old house.
· On January 12, 1890, Charles A. Conkling was united in marriage to Mrs. Mary Ellen Chambers, who was born in Pennsylvania and who had been a resident of Hutchinson since 1872, in which year she and her first husband became the owners of the old Reno hotel. Charles A. Conkling is a Mason and takes a warm interest in the affairs of that order.
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MILTON ELLIOTT HINMAN.
Milton F. Hinman, proprietor of the well-known "Plainview Stock Farm" in Plevna township, this county, one of the largest landowners and most extensive stockmen in Reno county and president and general manager of the Sylvia Milling Company at Sylvia, this county, for years active in the general affairs of that community, is a native of Illinois, having been born in Franklin county, that state, November 21, 1873, son of Lemuel Milton and Priscilla Rebecca (Elliott) Hinman, the former a native of Illinois and the latter of Indiana, who were among the carly and prominent pioneer settlers of Huntsville township, this county.
Lemuel M. Hinman was the son of Geeter Hinman and wife, who were among the earliest settlers of Franklin county, Illinois, earnest Meth- odists, sober, earnest farming people, who were long regarded as among the leaders in their community, and was reared on the pioneer farm in that county. In the fifties Lemuel M. Hinman went over into Indiana and mar- ried Priscilla Elliott, returning then to Illinois and settling on a farm his
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father had given him. When the Civil War broke out he enlisted for ser- vice in an Illinois regiment and served during the war. His feet were frozen during the service, causing him disability from which he suffered all the rest of his life. In the early seventies he left the farm and engaged in business in the town of Hadley, in Franklin county, Illinois, and was thus engaged until 1875, in which year he sold his store and, accompanied by his eldest son, drove through to Kansas, locating in this county, where he bought the relinquishment to a homestead right to a quarter of a section of land in Huntsville township. He constructed a sod shanty on the place and then returned to Illinois and brought out the other members of his family and there established his home. Mr. Hinman prospered from the very beginning of his farming operations in this county and soon had a fine and well- developed farin and a very comfortable home there. He had paid fifty dollars for the relinquishment of the homestead right which he developed and an offer of sixteen thousand dollars for that same tract has since been rejected, the Hinman farm being looked upon as one of the best in that section.
Lemuel M. Hinman was not only a good farmer, but was a good citizen in every respect. For years he was an "exhorter" in the Methodist church and he organized the first Sunday school in Huntsville township soon after he located there and later helped found the church near his home. He started the first school in Huntsville township in a house erected just across the road from his house and organized the first school district in that town- ship, serving on the local school board for years. Mr. Hinman was an earnest Republican and took a good citizen's interest in public affairs, but never was an office seeker. As his younger children grew up he moved to Nickerson in order to gain the advantage of the better school facilities in that village and there he died on May II, 1911, within a few days of his eightieth birthday. His widow survived him and in June, 1915, celebrated the eightieth anniversary of her birth. Mr. and Mrs. Hinman were prom- inent in all good works in their neighborhood in pioneer days and ever were held in the highest regard thereabout. Nine children were born to them. as follow: Homer, one of Reno county's best-known citizens, now resid- ing in Hutchinson : Olive, who married Daniel Taylor and lives at Edwards, Illinois; Tina, who married Walter Moorman and lives in Salt Creek town- ship, this county: Milton [., the immediate subject of this sketch; Frank, who is connected with the United States government service, stationed in the state of Washington: the late Mrs. M. A. Chappell, of Nickerson, and three who died in youth.
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Milton Elliott Hinman was two years of age when his parents located in this county and he was reared on the homestead farm in Huntsville town- ship. He received his elementary education in the Hinman district school, afterward attending the Nickerson schools, and supplemented the course in the common schools by a course in Baker University at Baldwin, this state. from the normal department of which he was graduated in 1898. In the meantime he had begun teaching school when eighteen years of age and for. fifteen years was thus engaged, filling in his summers by farming. Mr. Hinman for years was one of Reno county's best-known and most useful educators. He was principal of the schools at Sylvia during the years 1892-95. inclusive ; principal of the Arlington schools, 1896-97, and prin- cipal of the Plevna schools, 1899-1902, inclusive, and during all this long period of service gave the best there was in him in the way of advancing the educational standards of the county. In the meantime Mr. Hinman's farming and stock-raising operations were prospering and he also became known as one of the county's most progressive farmers and stockmen. He first bought three hundred and twenty acres in Plevna township, which he devoted to stock raising, calling his place the "Plainview Stock Farm," and gradually enlarged the same until he now owns a tract of six hundred and forty acres there, where he raises and feeds large numbers of cattle and hogs. In addition to his fine stock farm Mr. Hinman also is the owner of eight hundred acres of well-developed land in Huntsville township, which he devotes to grain farming, in which form of agriculture he also has been very successful. In March, 1909, Mr. Hinman organized the Sylvia Mill- ing Company at Sylvia, this county, and has since made his home at that place, he being president and general manager of the company, which does a general flour-milling and elevator business, maintaining an extensive ele- vator at Zenith, as well as at Sylvia. The Sylvia Milling Company took over and enlarged the old flour-mill at Sylvia, which now has a capacity of two hundred and sixty barrels daily, while the company's concrete grain tanks have a capacity of eighty thousand bushels storage. This enterprising company makes a specialty of its "North Pole Flour," a brand widely known throughout this section of Kansas, besides which it does a considerable business in the export trade, maintaining general offices at Hutchinson.
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