USA > Kansas > Reno County > History of Reno County, Kansas; its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 9
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On October 23, 1900, William Hirst was united in marriage to Mar- garet Hardcastle, who was born at Hutchinson, this county, daughter of Joseph and Minnie Hardcastle, early residents of that city, the latter of whom is still living, and to this union one child has been born, a daughter, Margaret Elizabeth, born on September 28, 1903. Joseph Hardcastle for years was one of Hutchinson's best-known citizens. He was regarded as quite well-to-do until the "boom" collapsed after the middle eighties, at which time it was found that he had lost practically all his fortune in the sudden depreciation of property values which followed that collapse. Mr. and Mrs. Hirst are highly respected residents of their neighborhood, taking an active part in the common life of that community, and are held in high esteem by all thereabout.
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JOHN S. SIMMONS.
John S. Simmons, a well-known lawyer of Hutchinson, former speaker of the Kansas House of Representatives and prominently identified with banking interests hereabout, is a native son of Kansas, born in Douglas county in 1860. Upon concluding his studies at Baker University he began to read law and was admitted to practice. at the bar of the Crawford circuit court, in 1886. He opened an office for the practice of his profession at Dighton and quickly took a prominent place in the general affairs of that part of the state. For two terms he served as county attorney for Lane county ; represented that county in the lower house of the Kansas General Assembly for two terms and in 1907 was elected speaker of the House. From 1899 to 1904 Mr. Simmons served as superintendent of the Kansas state reformatory and was a member of the board of management of that institution for four years, being appointed by Governor Hoch. In 1895 he was elected president of the State Bank of Dighton, which position he ever since has held, and is also a director of several other banks. Follow- ing his service as speaker of the House Mr. Simmons became attracted to Hutchinson as a desirable place of residence and in June, 1907, moved to that city, where he ever since has made his home. He formed a partner- ship with Whiteside & Tyler in the practice of the law and upon the disso- lution of that firm began to practice alone and so continued until 1910, in which year he formed a partnership with Ray H. Tinder, which arrange- ment continued for three years. In 1913 Mr. Simmons admitted into part- nership his nephew, K. K. Simmons, who was graduated from the law school of Kansas University in that year, and this mutually agreeable arrangement continues. In addition to his extensive general practice Mr. Simmons has for many years served as attorney for the Santa Fe Railroad Company. Since taking up his residence in Hutchinson Mr. Simmons has continued his active interest in political affairs and is regarded as one of the leaders of the Republican party in this section of the state. In 1914 he was his party's nominee for Congress from the seventh Kansas district, but his candidacy was no more successful than that of the general ticket that year.
In 1886 John S. Simmons was united in marriage to Emma Brown. daughter of Capt. G. W. Brown, of Osage county, this state, and to this union four children have been born. Mrs. Simmons is a prominent figure in Kansas club circles and is past president of the Kansas Day Club. Mr. Simmons is one of the directors of the Hutchinson Young Men's Christian
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Association, a member of the Hutchinson Commercial Club and a member of the Hutchinson Country Club, in the affairs of all of which organizations he takes a warm interest.
WILLIAM D. SHULER.
William D. Shuler, one of the oldest and best-known pioneers of this county, for years lovingly known throughout the Grant township neighbor- hood as "Squire" Shuler, is a native of Virginia, having been born in Page county, that state, on June 23, 1833, son of George and Tabitha ( Dovel) Shuler, both natives of that same county, the former of whom, born on December 25, 1794, died on April 28, 1873, and the latter, born in 1796, died on June 8, 1857. The former was a member of the Methodist church and the latter of the Christian church. They were the parents of eight children, five sons and three daughters, of whom the subject of this sketch is the youngest, and only three survive, the others having been John, Diana D., Noah W., Elizabeth Ann Aylshire, who died at the age of twenty-four ; George W., Andrew Jackson and Sarah Jane, who married John Aylshire, her brother-in-law, who was killed in battle during the Civil War, and who later married James E. Morris and died in this county in 1895, and he died later.
George Shuler was the son of John Shuler, who was born in Pennsyl- vania, son of John Shuler, a German, who came to America and settled in Pennsylvania. The younger John Shuler married a Keyser in Pennsyl- vania and later moved to Virginia, where he became a large landowner, and where he spent the rest of his life. Grandmother Shuler died in Illinois at the age of ninety-five years. She married Mike Step. George Shuler was reared on the plantation in Virginia and in turn became a large landowner and one of the leading men in his neighborhood. His first wife died in 1857 and he married, secondly, a widow, Mrs. Kite, and both spent their last days in Virginia.
William D. Shuler lived on the home place in Virginia until he was grown, acquiring a liberal education meanwhile, and his father gave him half the home farm of nearly four hundred acres, on which he lived until 1875, the time of his coming to this county. When Virginia ordered a vote on secession in 1861 he was one of twelve voters in his precinct who voted for a continuance of the Union. He was drafted into the Second Virginia Infantry, under "Stonewall" Jackson, despite his opposition to secession and
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served for a year before employing a substitute to take his place, during which time he participated in the battles at Blue's Gap and near Harper's Ferry. Upon leaving the army he returned home and there was seized by Union forces. Upon explaining his position toward secession, however, he was released and the federal soldiers gave orders that his place should not be molested. They had destroyed all other property in the valley. In 1875. attracted by the promising word from this section of the country, Mr. Shu- ler came to Kansas, locating in Reno county. He bought Lon Mead's relin- quishment to eighty acres and the relinquishment of an adjoining eighty in section 28 of John Gaus. in Grant township, and there he established his new home. At first he built a small frame house. twelve by sixteen feet. and in 1878 built a better house. On his place at that time there were the only three trees. One of these trees, a giant cottonwood, five feet in diame- ter at the base, stood until 1915, when it went down during a heavy wind storm. Mr. Shuler prospered from the very beginning of his farming operations and has assisted in buying farms for all of his sons, more than a section of land in all. Mr. Shuler quickly took his place as one of the lead- ing men in that community. He had served as justice of the peace in his Virginia home and presently his pioneer neighbors elected him justice of the peace in Grant township, a position he held for years, and is still known as "Squire" by his many friends thereabout and throughout the county. He. was also trustee for a number of years. He is a Democrat, though quite liberal in his political views, and has also voted the Prohibition ticket, He is an ardent Methodist and the year after his arrival in this county went around the neighborhood stirring up sentiment in behalf of the establish- ment of a Sunday school in Grant township and succeeded in having such an institution started in the school house near his home. He later headed a subscription paper with a liberal subscription and took it around among his neighbors and thus secured the establishment of the Mitchell Methodist church in his home township, of which he has been one of the leading men- bers for many years.
On August 9. 1855, in Page county, Virginia. William D. Shuler was united in marriage to Sarah Ann Koontz, who was born in that county, August 28. 1839, daughter of David and Elizabeth Koontz, natives of Vir- ginia. and to this union five children were born, namely: Preston P., a cement manufacturer and farmer. of Wakceney, this state; Jacob O .. of whom further mention is made later on in this review: Lee, a fruit raiser at Hotchkiss, Colorado: Martin B., who is now living retired at Santa Rosa, California, and Walter, who is engaged in the dairy business in Reno town-
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ship, this county. The mother of these children died on October 19, 1896, and for the past few years Mr. Shuler has been making his home with his sons.
Jacob O. Shuler, who was born in Page county, Virginia, on February 4. 1859. was sixteen years of age when his father, William D. Shuler, came to this county with his father, and he grew to manhood on the old Shuler farm in Grant township. Following his marriage, in the fall of 1884, he bought the northeast quarter of section 27, in Grant township, and there established his home and has lived there ever since. He later bought a half section in Reno township and also a quarter section. He is a Democrat and has taken an active interest in local political affairs and is now treasurer of his home township. He and his family are members of the Methodist church and he gave the land on which the Mitchell Methodist church was built, on one corner of his farm. He is a member of the Court of Honor and takes a warm interest in the affairs of this society. Mr. Shuler is an extensive farmer and has given much attention also to raising cattle and hogs.
On November 6, 1884. Jacob O. Shuler was united in marriage to Annie Cook, who was born in Gloucestershire, England, daughter of Joseph and Martha ( Barnes) Cook. Mrs. Shuler came to this county in June, 1883, in company with her sister, Mrs. Laura Baddeley, and her two brothers, Fred Cook, the present mayor of Hutchinson, and Walter Cook. also of Hutchinson. To Mr. and Mrs. Shuler four children have been born, as follow : William Archie. born on October 13, 1885, at home; Harold. August 17, 1887, who married Myrtle Oldsworth and lives on a farm in Reno township: Gilbert A., December 17, 1893, and Annie Gertrude. Octo- ber 6, 1895, married Arthur W. Lancaster and lives in Reno township.
THOMAS G. ARMOUR.
Thomas G. Armour, one of the publishers of The Wholesaler, pub- lished at Hutchinson, this county, was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on December 6, 1872, son of Thomas D. and Eliza (Sloan) Armour, the former of whom was born in Randolph county. Illinois, in 1830, and the latter in Belfast, Ireland, in September. 1837. Thomas D. Armour was a son of James C. Armour, a native of Scotland and an early settler in Ran- dolph county, Illinois. Eliza Sloan was a daughter of Robert and Belle
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Sloan, both of whom were born in County Antrim, Ireland, where their last days were spent. In 1848 the three Sloan children. Robert, Jr., aged six- teen: Belle, aged fourteen, and Eliza, aged eleven, came to America and made their way to St. Louis, where they were received by friends of the family, and where Robert, now deceased. went to work for the Whittier Packing Company, he having learned something of the packing business in Belfast, where his father was engaged as a meat packer. Aunt Belle Sloan, who never married, also is now deceased. the only one of that family now surviving being Eliza, who is living at Wichita.
Thomas D. Armour was reared on a farm in Illinois. As a young man he went to St. Louis, where he engaged in the transfer business and where he lived until 1890, in which year he moved to Wichita, this state, becoming a considerable landowner, and there he died in August, 1906. For some time before moving to Wichita, Thomas D. Armour had been engaged in the development of coal lands in southern Illinois. He and his wife were the parents of three children, Robert. a farmer, living in South Dakota; Thomas G., the subject of this biographical sketch. and Belle, who lives with her mother at Wichita, this state.
Thomas G. Armour was reared in St. Louis, in the public schools of which city he received his education. As a boy he learned the printer's trade in St. Louis and in 1890 went to Sterling, this state, where for three years he was engaged in the printing business with J. . E. Junkin. In 1893 he moved to Hutchinson, where he became employed in the job department of the Hutchinson Newes, and has ever since made that city his home. Mr. Armour continued on the staff of the News until 1905, and in 1906 he and A. L. Sponsler began the publication of the Times. The next year, in 1907. they also began the publication of The Wholesaler, and in 1910 they merged the Times with The Wholesaler and discontinued the publication of the former paper. The Wholesaler still being continued and is quite suc- cessful, Mr. Armour being the active manager of the same. Shortly after the Times was started. Messrs. Armour and Sponsler erected a two-story office building at 100-102 South Main street. Mr. Armour takes consid- erable interest in other enterprises of one kind and another in Hutchinson and is one of the incorporators of the Central State Bank, incorporated in 1915.
On April 8, 1901, Thomas G. Armour was united in marriage to Fannie M. Graves, who was born in Troy township, this county, daughter of William and Hannah ( Yardy) Graves, who was accounted among the
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earliest settlers of Reno county and both of whom are still living, comfort- ably and pleasantly retired at their home in South Reno.
William Graves was born in Cambridgeshire, England, on February 2. 1836, son of James and Mary (Coxell) Graves, farming people, the former of whom was a Baptist and the latter of whom held to the views of the established church. They were the parents of six children, two sons and four daughters. Both of the sons, John and William, and two of the daughters, Sarah and Betsey, came to America, William being but seven- teen years of age at the time he arrived on the shores of the New World. John Graves is still living, a prosperous retired farmer in Benton county, Indiana ; Sarah, who married William Burton, lives in Nebraska, and Mrs. Betsey Clinton died in Michigan. The father of these children came to America when seventy-five years of age to spend his last days with his children and died in Benton county, Indiana, at the age of ninety-seven.
Upon reaching the United States, William Graves located in Niagara county, New York, where he worked on a farm and on the Erie canal for three years. In 1856, the year following his marriage in Niagara county, he bought a farm of eighty acres in Benton county, Indiana, to which he later added until, in February, 1876, at which time he moved with his family to Troy township, this county, he having two years before bought three hundred and twenty acres of railroad land in that township, and there he lived until January, 1908, when he and his wife retired from the farm and moved to South Hutchinson, where they now live, being very comfort- ably situated there. William Graves, during the active days of his farming operations, was one of the most extensive cattlemen in Reno county, his farm, which he had enlarged by the purchase of additional tracts until it comprised four hundred and eighty acres, having mainly been given over to the raising of purebred Durham cattle. He is an ardent Republican and during his residence in Troy township served on the school board.
On June 26, 1855, in Niagara county, New York, William Graves was united in marriage to Hannah Yardy, who was born June 21, 1836, in the town of March, Cambridgeshire, England, daughter of William and Anne Yardy, both natives of the same section of England, the former of whom was foreman of a large estate. Hannah Yardy was bereft of her father by death when she was little more than a year old and her mother died when she was fifteen years of age. In 1854 she came, with her sister, Anne, and the latter's husband, William Clark, to America, settling, with them, in Niagara county, New York, where she was married in the following year. To William and Hannah Graves eleven children were born, namely: James.
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who lives on a farm in Reno township, this county; William, who lives in Benton county, Indiana ; Mary, who died in infancy; John R., a bridge car- penter, who lives at Fruita, Colorado: Sarah, who married John Tharp and lives in Hutchinson, this county; Henry A., who lives on one of the old home farms in Troy township: Lily, who married James Dawson and lives on a farm in Troy township: Fannie M., who married Mr. Armour; Rose, who lives in Hutchinson, widow of William Lewis, and Frankie, who died in infancy.
To Thomas G. and Fannie M. (Graves) Armour two children have been born. Phylis, born in 1902, and Thomas G., Jr., August 22, 1914. Mr. and Mrs. Armour have a very pleasant home at 812 North Walnut street built in 1902, and are held in high esteem by their many friends in and about Hutchinson. Mr. Armour is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and of the Knights of Pythias and take a warm interest in the affairs of both of these orders.
LEVI P. HADLEY.
Levi P. Hadley, a well-known pioneer of Reno county and honored veteran of the Civil War, who is now living comfortably retired from the more active duties of life on his fine farm in Reno township, where he has made his home since 1874, is a Hoosier, a member of the famous Hadley family, well known throughout central Indiana, which has numbered among its members a judge of the supreme court of Indiana, a treasurer of state and others distinguished in the civic and social life of the old Hoosier state. He was born in Hendricks county, Indiana, not far southwest of the state capital, on February 25, 1840, son of Joab and Mary (Pickett) Hadley, both natives of North Carolina, of Quaker parentage, whose respective parents had settled in the Plainfield neighborhood of Hendricks county at an early day in the settlement of that sterling old Quaker community.
Joab Hadley was one of the leaders in the Quaker community and was the owner of a farm of two hundred acres in Hendricks county. He mar- ried Mary Pickett and to this union five children were born, namely : Calvin, who died in Douglas county, Kansas; Atlas, who is still living in Hendricks county. Indiana : Melissa, who married Wesley Kellum and died in Indiana in 1013: Levi P .. the immediate subject of this biographical sketch, and Hannah, who married Noah Kellum and died in July, 1915, in Hendricks
Mary J. Hadley Mary
L. S. Hadley
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county, Indiana. Joab Hadley died in 1842 and his widow married, secondly, Jacob Chandler, a prominent member of the Quaker community there, a farmer of means, and to this union three sons were born, John, who lives in Hendricks county, Indiana; Hadley, who died in 1900, and William, who is living at Plainfield, Indiana. Jacob Chandler died on his home farm in Indiana at the age of eighty years and his widow died in 1900, at the age of eighty-four.
Levi P. Hadley was reared on the farm in Hendricks county, Indiana, receiving his elementary education in the district schools of Guilford town- ship, that county, which he supplemented by a short course in Earlham Col- lege, at Richmond, that state. On July 28, 1861, he enlisted for service in behalf of the Union in Company E, Twenty-sixth Regiment, Indiana Vol- lunteer Infantry, and served for three years and fifty-five days. During this service he participated for four weeks in the siege of Vicksburg and took part in the memorable Yazoo River expedition. During the battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas, he was severely wounded in the knee. Upon the conclusion of his military service, Mr. Hadley returned to his home in Indiana and on September 12, 1865, was united in marriage to Mary Jane Jessup, who was born and reared in Hendricks county, that state, and who was generally and lovingly referred to throughout that community as "the best and brightest girl in the township." Mr. Hadley had inherited a tract of sixty-four acres, his portion of his deceased father's estate, and on that small farm he and his wife and their growing little family made their home until 1874, in the fall of which year they came to Kansas, settling on a tract of railroad land in Reno township, this county, where they established their permanent home and where Mr. Hadley is still living.
Mr. Hadley had made a trip to this county in August, 1874, and, despite the horrid scourge of grasshoppers which the pioneers had endured that summer, was so deeply impressed by the possibilities presented here- about as a choice agricultural region that he bought the north half of section 3. township 26, range 6 west, in Reno township, and immediately made arrangements for the removal of his family to this county, and they arrived here on November 18, following. Mr. and Mrs. Hadley at once took a lead- ing part in the development of a higher social order in this county and from the very day of their arrival here their influence ever was exerted in behalf of better things. Mr. Hadley was a vigorous and progressive farmer and prospered in his agricultural operations, soon becoming recognized as one of the county's most substantial citizens.
In the absence of an organization of a Society of Friends hereabout,
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Mr. and Mrs. Hadley identified themselves with the Methodist communion and immediately became leaders in the same. Mrs. Hadley's native ability and strong and admirable force of character quickly brought her to the front in all woman's movements here and she was particularly active in the ranks of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, by both voice and pen, even from the very first days of the prohibition agitation in this state, labor- ing in that behalf and will ever be remembered as one of the faithful leaders in the movement which eventually gave to Kansas its state-wide prohibitory law with relation to the liquor traffic. She was superintendent of the evan- gelistic department of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and when the issue of "wet" and "dry" came up in Reno county she swung the tide of battle in the balloting from what had seemed an inevitable "wet" victory to a victory for the "drys." . It was generally conceded by all that the colored vote. which then held practically the balance of power, would be cast in favor of the "wets." But nothing daunted by this seeming preponderance against the cause she so ardently was advocating, Mrs. Hadley went right among the colored voters and so strongly influenced them in behalf of the prohibition cause that the county turned a sufficient majority in favor of the "drys," the old politicians ungrudgingly giving her full credit for having altered the whole course of a campaign which they had regarded as closed when their "straw" votes had revealed an apparently overwhelmingly pre- ponderance of "wet" sentiment. Mrs. Hadley was working in behalf of the Evangelistic Union, which organization made her superintendent of the work among the colored people. Mr. Hadley also was a strong supporter of the prohibition cause and was one of the most vigorous and effective champions of the "drys."
In 1889 Mr. and Mrs. Hadley recognized the need of a church in the then rapidly developing manufacturing section of the city of Hutchinson, it being apparent to them that the people living in that section were not properly favored in the matter of a church or other proper social center. Mr. Hadley shouldered the responsibility for the undertaking, signing the notes for the erection of the church building on Avenue F. and for several years, until the new congregation had proved itself self-supporting, practi- cally carried the church along, guaranteeing the minister's salary and seeing to the upkeep of the church. The grateful people who came to form the congregation of the church in Avenue F displayed their appreciation of Mr. Hadley's efforts and the church to this day is known as the Hadley Meth- odist church. a very proper memorial to the unselfish labors of Mr. and Mrs. Hadley in its behalf. Mrs. Hadley died on February 22, 1903, and there
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was wide mourning throughout the county at the news of her passing, for she was a woman who had done well her part in the social development of this county. To Mr. and Mrs. Hadley three children were born, Herbert, who is managing his father's extensive farm in Reno township and in whose household his venerable father is making his home, married Rosa Burch and has four children, Eldon, Mary, John and Rose Elizabeth; Wilma, who died May 8, 1912, married George B. Manning and lived in the city of Hutchinson and had six children, Marian, Winifred, Jane, Florence, Marie and Esable: Alta G. married William Newling, proprietor of a dairy farm in Reno township. and has two children, George and Nina.
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