USA > Kansas > Reno County > History of Reno County, Kansas; its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 8
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Professor Rowland has a state-wide reputation as an educator and for some years has conducted a June normal school for teachers, the attendance on the last such short course having been about two hundred and fifty. He is a member of the executive committee of the Kansas State Teachers' Association and at the 1916 session of the Central Kansas Teachers' Asso- ciation, held at Hutchinson, wth an attendance of one thousand teachers, he was president of the same. In the chapter relating to education in the historical_section of this work, the general development of the school sys- tem of Reno county is admirably presented by the historian. Professor Rowland has been a very potent factor in that development and he very properly takes modest pride in his accomplishments in that direction. Pro- fessor Rowland owns a half section of land near Hutchinson and takes much interest in the development of his farm along the best approved lines of modern agriculture.
EDWARD ESHER YAGGY.
Edward Esher Yaggy, of Hutchinson, one of the best-known and most progressive citizens of this section of Kansas, president of the Yaggy Plan- tation Company, an incorporation of the great estate of the late L. W. Yaggy in Grant township, this county, and for years prominently identified with the work of developing the resources of this region, is a native of Chicago, born in that city, March 19, 1876, son of L. W. and Sarah E. ( Esher ) Yaggy, the former of whom was born in Plainfield, Illinois, and the latter in Cleveland, Ohio, both now deceased.
L'pon completing the course in the old Northwestern College at Naper-
-
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ville, Illinois, L. W. Yaggy went to Chicago, where he became engaged in the publishing business and for twenty-five years was one of the best-known publishers in the United States. He was president and chief stockholder of the great Western Publishing House, which had seventeen branch offices and five thousand agents throughout the United States, the principal work of which was the publication of maps and studies for colleges and high schools, that company for years having occupied a foremost position in that particular branch of the publishing business in this country. Mr. Yaggy also was quite a mechanical genius and was the patentee of numerous devices of a convenient sort, the first of which was a stubble turner, which yielded him considerable revenue. He also patented an adding machine, advertising devices of different types, a "royal scroll" for the display of pictures and a Chautauqua desk. For his notable service in preparing a relief map of the United States for the use of the Smithsonian Institute at Washington Mr. Yaggy was created a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society of England and was widely known in general geographic circles.
While on a hunting trip through this section of Kansas in 1888, L. W. Y'aggy observed a well being dug on the Thomas Parker ranch just north- west of Hutchinson and noted that the water was only a few feet below the surface of the soil. Recognizing the potentialities of such a condition, Mr. Yaggy immediately purchased the entire Parker estate of one thousand three hundred and fifty acres and planted the same to catalpa and apple trees, the revenues from which since then have amply demonstrated the accuracy of his foresight. The plantation now bears five hundred acres of catalpa trees and eight hundred and eight acres of apple trees and is one of the most profitably productive plantations of the sort in the country. There are no fewer than one million catalpas growing on the place and fifty thou- sand apple trees, six hundred acres of which latter are now bearing and the rest coming into bearing. In the season of 1915 two hundred and ten thou- sand bushels of apples were sold off the Yaggy plantation, the principal varieties being the popular Jonathan, the Grimes Golden, Wine Sap, Roman Beauty and York Imperial There also is a considerable acreage of cow- peas, potatoes, sweet potatoes and wheat grown on the plantation and in season three hundred mon are employed on the place, while a constant force of more than thirty men is required to operate the plantation. AAbout five hundred thousand gallons of spraying material is used annually on the trees and the great plantation is operated along the latest approved and most up-to-date lines. Mr. Yaggy's examples and methods have been followed by others in the neighborhood and the Arkansas river valley, as a result, is
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becoming widely renowned as a natural fruit-bearing center. The catalpa industry is growing yearly in importance and is now thoroughly established, these hardy trees coming more and more into demand, their durable fiber giving them a high value for use as fence posts and railroad ties. It has been found that it requires ten years to grow the first crop of catalpas, eight years the second and seven years the third. Some time before his death L. W. Yaggy, in order to simplify the inheritance of his estate, incorporated, for two hundred thousand dollars, the Yaggy Plantation Company, in favor of his three sons, who now compose the company, its directorate and officiary, as follow: President, Edward E. Yaggy; vice-president, A. F. Yaggy, of Chicago. and secretary-treasurer, W. E. Yaggy, of Hutchinson. The elder Yaggy died at a sanitarium at Watkins Glen, New York, in Octo- ber, 1912. His wife had long preceded him to the grave. her death having occurred in Chicago.
Edward. E. Yaggy received his preparatory schooling in the academy and college at Lake Forest, Illinois, and then entered Yale, from which he was graduated. after a three-years course, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. in 1899. With a view to broadening his education and in order to perfect himself in French and German, Mr. Yaggy then went abroad and for eighteen months or more attended lectures in the university at Geneva. Switzerland, and in the University of Erlangen, in Bavaria, upon the com- pletion of which course he returned to the United States and entered upon the duties of manager of his father's estate in this county and has ever since then been thus engaged. The Yaggy estate included, besides the great plant of the Yaggy Plantation Company in this county, valuable lands in other parts of Kansas and in Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska and the Yaggy brothers are thus very well circumstanced, the head of the company long having been regarded as one of the most substantial citizens of this part of the state.
On December 27. 1905. at Kansas City. Missouri, Edward E. Yaggy was united in marriage to Laura Reed, who was born in that city, daughter of Homer and Laura (Coates) Reed, the former a native of Michigan and the latter of Pennsylvania. Homer Reed was born at Leslie, Michigan, and upon completing his studies in the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor went to Kansas City, where he has lived ever since and where he for many years has been prominently identified with the real-estate interests of that city. It was not long after locating in Kansas City that Mr. Reed mar- ried Laura Coates, who was born in West Chester. Pennsylvania, daughter of Kersey Coates and wife, who settled in Kansas City when that place was
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a village of seven hundred and fifty population. Kersey Coates was a man of large influence in the early, bustling days of Kansas City and it was chiefly due to his personal activity in the matter that the future of his home town as a railroad center was determined, his influence having been the decisive factor in making that city instead of Leavenworth the center of the railroad interests of this section in pioneer days. Homer Reed has a beauti- ful home in Kansas City, his place at Waldo, "Sunny Croft," being one of the most attractive residences in that city. To him and his wife six chil- dren have been born, those besides Mrs. Yaggy being as follow: Kersey, who is engaged in the dry-goods business in Chicago; Thomas H., manager of the Baker Asphalt Company's interests at Birmingham, Alabama; Sarah E., who married Alfred W. Stone, now assistant treasurer of the Vander- bilt lines west of Buffalo, with offices in the Grand Central depot at New York; Homer, Jr., engaged in the life-insurance and loan business at Kansas City, and Isabel, who is at home with her parents.
Laura Reed Yaggy is a violinist of much ability, widely known to the concert stage, whose performances Thaddeus Rich, in a personal letter to Mrs. Yaggy, declares possess "a rare combination' of temperament and finish % a facile technique and a very warm and beautiful tone." In closing his letter of felicitation, the concert master wrote: "I am sure your playing will bring you great success and my heartiest congratulations and best wishes accompany you." Mrs. Yaggy has appeared with great success with such artists as Johanna Gadski, Paulo Gruppe, Arthur Middle- ton, James Whitaker, Barbara Waite, Ida Gardner. Raphael Navas and others. She began violin lessons when seven years old and at eleven played the "Souvenir de Haydn" of Leonard in a public concert. At the age of thirteen she played the Mendelssohn Concerto entire with the Kansas City Symphony. Madame Camilla Urso, the famous violinist, was present on that occasion and was so captivated by the performance that she later sent for the young violinist to come and live with her in Minneapolis to continue her study. At the age of fourteen Miss Reed played Vieuxtemp's "Fan- tasia Appassionata" entire with the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra and after studying nearly a year with Leopold Lichtenberg, of New York. she played, at the age of seventeen, the great Max Bruch G Minor Concerto at one of her own concerts. This early career was temporarily interrupted by her marriage at the age of eighteen, but after seven years of retirement Mrs. Yaggy again felt the lure of the concert stage and made her appear- ance, in April, 1913, as soloist with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Kansas City Symphony. and recently with the New York Philharmonic
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at the Hutchinson 1916 festival, devoting a part of her time to the concert stage. She is the possessor of a rare Sanctus Serafine violin, which sold thirty years ago for three thousand dollars and is today worth much more than that figure, being considered one of the most valuable instruments in the United States. Mrs. Yaggy is the founder of the Apollo Club at Hutchinson and was the first president of the same. She is still an active member of the club and is now serving as vice-president. She is an ardent suffragist and during the memorable campaign of 1912 was president of the Reno County Equal Suffrage Association.
To Mr. and Mrs. Yaggy two children have been born, a son and a daughter, Laura Coates and Edward Esher, Jr. Mr. Yaggy is a member of the Hutchinson Country Club. During his Yale days he was actively affiliated with the Zeta Psi fraternity and still retains a warm interest in the doings of that association. He takes a good citizen's interest in local civic affairs, ever an ardent champion of good government, but in his political views holds himself independent of political parties.
JOHN A. REED.
John A. Reed, a well-known and well-to-do pioneer farmer of Valley township, this county, an honored veteran of the Civil War; a continuous resident of this county since March, 1871; first constable of his home town- ship and who claims the distinction of being the oldest continuous resident of a homestead farm in Reno county, as well as having been the first black- smith to locate in this county, is a Hoosier, a fact of which, even though loyal Kansan as he is, he has never ceased to be proud. He was born on a pioneer farm in Wabash county. Indiana, November 24. 1843, son of Matthew and Isabelle ( Mccutchen ) Reed, both natives of Pennsylvania, in which state they were reared and married.
Matthew Reed was born on a farm in Pennsylvania in February, 1800. There he married Isabelle Mccutchen, who was born on November 31, 1811, and in the early thirties immigrated to Indiana, settling in the heavy timber lands in Wabash county, that state, where he proceeded to clear his home- stead tract and carve out of the wilderness a home for his family, presently becoming one of the most substantial residents of that community. Matthew Reed was a Whig in his political affiliations and he and his wife were among the leaders in the Methodist church in their community. Matthew Reed
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died on September 29, 1849, and after his death his widow and the older sons continued to operate the farm until her death on June 15, 1857. There were seven children in the family, as follow: Andrew, who died in Colo- rado: Samuel and Sarah, twins, the former of whom lives at Riverside, Colorado, and the latter, Mrs. Hoffman, lives at Perry, Iowa; Nancy Jane, who married Samuel Haggy and lives in Minnesota; Margaret C., widow of Jerome Swihart, now living at Joplin, Missouri; John A., the subject of this biographical sketch, and Matthew Barnett, who lives at Muskogee, Oklahoma.
John A. Reed spent his boyhood on the home farm in the woods in Wabash county. Indiana, receiving his elementary education in a little sub- scription school conducted in a log house, after the manner made familiar in "The Hoosier Schoolmaster." He was but seven years old when his father died and was thirteen when his mother died. He then went to the town of North Liberty, near South Bend, where he was able to attend a good school for three months in the year. There he was apprenticed to a blacksmith and learned the smith's trade, working at the same for more than two years. Though but a boy when the Civil War broke out he was bent on enlisting at the time of President Lincoln's first call for volunteers, but the strong objections of his sisters interposed and his youthful patriot- ism was for the moment curbed. Undaunted, however, by the failure of his first attempt to enroll himself as a soldier of the Union he went over into Illinois, ostensibly on a visit to an uncle at Bement, and there, on July 3, 1861, enlisted in Company A, Thirty-fifth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, with which he served for three years and three months. The first engagement the . Thirty-fifth Illinois had with the enemy was at Springfield, Missouri; thence on to Pea Ridge, Corinth, Perryville and Murfreesboro, after which, under General Rosecrans. it was hemmed in at Chickamauga for thirty days, subsisting on quarter rations. Sherman and Hooker then came up with reinforcements and the Thirty-fifth went on with Sherman into Georgia, participating in all the arduous phases of the campaign on to Atlanta. Upon the fall of Atlanta, the Thirty-fifth's three-years period of enlistment having expired, the regiment was sent to Springfield. Illinois, where it was mustered out on September 27, 1864, Mr. Reed then being twenty-one years of age.
Upon the conclusion of his military service J. A. Reed returned to Liberty Mills, Indiana, where he remained working at his trade until 1866. in which year he went to Iowa, where he joined his brother. Andrew, who had settled on a homestead farm in Dallas county, that state, some time
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before, and there he worked for a year, after which he went to Des Moines, where he began working in a blacksmith shop. In 1868 he went to Rock Island, Illinois, and after working for awhile in that city came to Kansas and was for some time employed at his trade in Atchison, later going to Wilson county, in the eastern part of this state, where he opened a black- smith shop of his own, which he operated for about three years. Then, in March, 1871. he came to this part of the state and filed a pre-emption of the northeast quarter of section 26, in what is now Valley township, Reno county, but which then was in Sedgwick county. He later changed that claim to a timber claim and still lives on half the latter, having sold the west half of it years ago. Mr. Reed thus claims the distinction of being the oldest settler in Reno county who still resides on the farm on which he located.
After locating his claim John A. Reed went back to the mouth of Little river, where there was a saw-mill and where he worked at his trade for two or three weeks, at the end of which time he brought his tools with him and returned to his claim, where he threw up a sod shanty and there opened a blacksmith shop, the first blacksmith shop established in what is now within the confines of Reno county. At that time there were not more than half a dozen families living in this county. Across the river there were great herds of buffaloes, thousands of them, and the early settlers suffered no lack of fresh meat. Mr. Reed "bached" in his sod shanty and found diversion hunting buffalo between jobs in his smithy. The pioneers welcomed the coming of the smith and came to him from points many miles distant to have their plows sharpened and to secure such repairs as were necessary to their meager agricultural implements. In the fall of 1871 he drove to Newton, then the terminus of the Santa Fe road, and hauled back a load of lumber with which he constructed a somewhat more comfortable shack than his sod shanty. In the winter of 1872 he went to Hutchinson, nineteen miles distant, the only polling place in the county, to vote in the first election called in Reno county. In that election C. C. Hutchinson was elected representative from this district to the state Legis- lature and in the following session of the General Assembly secured the enactment of a law defining the boundaries of Reno county, which brought Valley township within the confines of this county. Mr. Reed has always been a Republican and from the very beginning of a civil community here has taken an active part in local politics. At the first election held in Valley township he was elected constable and he later was elected to the office of township trustee and later, township treasurer, while he nearly
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always has represented his precinct in county, district or state conventions. Mr. Reed set out forty acres of timber on his timber claim, but found that the care of this grove in its early stages required too much of his time; so in 1873 he homesteaded a tract of one hundred and sixty acres one and one-half miles east of his original entry, the same being the northeast quarter of section 22, Valley township, and thereon he built a frame house and a blacksmith shop. In 1875 he married and sold his blacksmith tools to Andy Ballard, who started the first blacksmith shop in the town of Burrton, and began to give his undivided attention to farming. In 1877 he and his wife moved back to his timber claim and there have lived ever since. It was with difficulty that Mrs. Reed could become accustomed to the frequent presence of Indians about the place and upon the first sign of the approach of a party of redskins would run over to stay with the neigh- bors until the hunting party would pass on. After selling his tools, Mr. Reed found himself "lost" without the old familiar implements of his smithy and so bought a new outfit and re-established his smithy, much to the gratification of his pioneer neighbors. He presently sold the farm he had homesteaded and bought an "eighty" adjoining his timber claim, which he still owns. In 1909 he built his present comfortable dwelling and he and his wife are very pleasantly situated. The old house built in 1875 continues to stand on the home place and is a prized relic of pioneer days.
On July 17, 1875, John A. Reed was united in marriage to Mary I. ' Moore, who was born in Greene county, Tennessee, December 10, 1856, daughter of William T. and Rachel (Ellis) Moore, the former a native of North Carolina and the latter of Tennessee, who came to Reno county in 1873. William T. Moore was but a boy when his parents moved from North Carolina to Tennessee and in the latter state he grew to manhood and married, farming in that state until 1858, in which year he moved with his family to Sullivan county, Missouri, where he bought a farm. During the Civil War he served the Union cause as a member of the Missouri Home Guards, and in 1873 he and his family came to this county, home- steading a farm in Valley township. Mr. Moore and his wife later retired from the farm and moved to Hutchinson, where he died on November 28, 1893. at the age of fifty-eight, his widow surviving him for about fifteen years, her death occurring on February 5, 1908, she then being at the age of seventy-two years and eleven months. They were the parents of ten children, of whom Mrs. Reed is the eldest. To Mr. and Mrs. Reed no chil- dren have been born, but they adopted a five-months-old baby girl, Annie Laurie, whom they reared with as much loving care as they could have
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bestowed upon a child of their very own, and who married James Morgan, a well-known farmer of Valley township. this county, and has five children, Wallace R., Clayton S., Mayme, Mildred L. and Everett C. Mr. Reed is a member of the Masonic lodge at Burrton and takes much interest in the affairs of that order.
WILLIAM HIRST.
William Hirst, a well-known and substantial farmer of Lincoln town- ship, this county, who has lived here since he was two years old, is a native of Wisconsin, having been born at Darlington, that state, December 20, 1870, the youngest of the eight children of George and Elizabeth (Bril- brough) Hirst, natives of England, both of whom were born at Leeds, the former in 1824 and the latter in 1826, and both of whom became respected residents of this county, where their last days were spent.
George Hirst was reared in the busy city of Leeds and grew up there to the cabinet-making and pattern-making trades, becoming a very competent craftsman. A year or two after their marriage he and his wife and their first-born child came to America, in 1854, locating at Darlington, Wisconsin, some kinsfolk of Mr. Hirst having previously located there, and there they made their home for nearly twenty years, Mr. Hirst being engaged as a car- penter. In the fall of 1872 George Hirst, his attention having been attracted to the possibilities presented in this region, came to Kansas looking for land. The lay of the land in Reno county pleased him and he homesteaded a tract in section 6, of Lincoln township. He then returned to Wisconsin and the next spring brought his family to Reno county and entered upon the occu- pation of his homestead, the Hirsts thus having been among the very earliest settlers of Lincoln township. George Hirst was an industrious farmer and, with the assistance of his sons, developed a fine property, the family coming to be regarded as one of the most substantial and influential in that neigh- borhood. Mr. Ifirst not only was diligent in his own business, but was atten- tive to the general needs of the community and served his township very acceptably for some time in the capacity of township trustee. He also was on his local school board for many years and in other ways did what he could to advance the common cause hereabout in pioneer days. His wife was a member of the Episcopal church and she also was active in all good works, both being held in high esteem throughout that section of the county. George Hirst died on his farm on July 18. 1897, and his widow survived him for seventeen years, her death occurring at Hutchinson on September 25,
William First And Family
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1914. They were the parents of eight children, namely: Anna, who died at the age of sixteen; Hannah, now deceased, who married John Eaton, of Darlington, Wisconsin, who also is dead; George, a wealthy farmer, who died on the old homestead in Lincoln township on October 29, 1915; Mary Ann, who died at the age of eighteen; Lila, now deceased, who married G. W. Woodard, of Hutchinson; Samuel, who married Myrtle Rogers and lives in Hutchinson, where he is a dealer in photographic supplies; Fred. a farmer in Center township, this county, and William, the immediate subject of this biographical sketch. George Hirst was the first photographer of Hutchinson and his daughter learned the trade and succeeded her father and Samuel then succeeded his sister and conducted the business until 1915. So the Hirst family has been connected with that business for many years.
William Hirst was two years of age when his parents came to this county from Wisconsin and he grew to manhood on the homestead farm in Lincoln township, receiving his education in the school in district No. 41. He did not marry until he was thirty years of age and in the meantime remained on the home place, which he took charge of, in his mother's behalf, after the death of his father, in 1897. In 1912 he bought a quarter of a section of his own in Lincoln township and after his mother's death, in 1914, moved onto his own place, where he since has made his home and where he and his family are very pleasantly and comfortably situated. In addition to his land holdings in Lincoln township, Mr. Hirst is also the owner of a third interest in a half section of land in Arlington township and the owner of a quarter section in Hamilton county, this state, besides which he owns a house and lot in Hutchinson, at 410 B avenue, east, and is considered quite well-to-do.
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