USA > Kansas > Wyandotte County > History of Wyandotte County, Kansas, and its people, Vol. I > Part 30
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THE DOCTORS SPECK.
Among those frequent callers at Doctor Root's little "Pill Box" were the Specks, father and son, and their wives, whose names, when mentioned, awaken pleasant memories of those charming days to the survivors of that period. Dr. Joseph Speek, the father, was born near the Vol. I-17
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close of the eighteenth century and was well along in years when, in 1857, the family came out to Kansas from Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The son, Dr. Frederick Speck, who was born in 1818, was then nearly forty.
Both were medical practitioners in Wyandotte before the Civil war, and at the call for volunteers both shouldered their muskets and marched off to fight in a Kansas volunteer regiment. The father, who had been graduated from the medical schools at Carlisle and Balti- more, was well fitted for service as a regimental surgeon, while the son also had qualified himself for the duties of an army physician and surgeon. Dr. Joseph Speck died in Kansas City, Kansas, in 1875, after he had practiced more than forty years.
Dr. Frederick Speck continued in the practice of medicine and surgery in Wyandotte and the honor of being the pioneer physician of the place fell on him. The Doctor had spent his early life in his native town and received his literary education at Dickinson College. His first knowledge of medicine was acquired under his father, and in early manhood he completed a course at the Franklin Medical College of Phil- adelphia, graduating in 1847. He began practicing in Fremont, Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, but, after spending five years there and a similar length of time in Selin's Grove, Snyder county, Pennsylvania, he came west and took up his location in Kansas City, Kansas, where he remained in the active practice of his profession. For more than forty-five years he was a practitioner of the "healing art," and during thirty-three years of that period he was located at Kansas City, being the pioneer physician of that place, until he died, and during the long term of years spent there he became well known, both professionally and socially. He was married on June 8, 1848, to Miss Adelaide M. Dennis, who accompanied him to the west and died in Kansas City, March 8, 1882, leaving, besides her husband, four children to mourn her death. They are Annie M., who became Mrs. Dudley E. Cornell; Mary C .; Joseph B. and Richard D. On December 31, 1885, the Doctor was married to Mrs. Frances L. Battles, a daughter of Hon. Marsh Giddings, late governor of New Mexico, and the widow of Agustus S. Battles, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Doctor Speck and his wife were members of the Episcopal church, and he was a prominent Odd Fellow, being honored with the position of grand master and grand chief patriarch of the state, and grand representative to the Grand Lodge of the United States, which met at Baltimore in 1873 and at Atlanta in 1874. He was one of the oldest Odd Fellows in the state, as well as a member of the Masonic fraternity and of the Knights of Pythias. Doctor Speck was a devoted member of the Republican. party, and served two terms as mayor of the city and several terms as a member of the city council; held the position of pension examiner for a period of ten years, and was then a member of the board; was also a
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member of the board that built the Kansas School for the Blind, and served as a physician of that institution as long as he lived. Ile was a member of the Kansas State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. Professionally, as in every other respect, Doctor Speck stood very high and possessed the universal respect and esteem of his medical brethern in this section. He had an extensive acquaintance and a large circle of friends, and was a man who would command respect in whatever locality he might settle.
MRS. C. I. H. NICHOLS.
On a wall in the Carnegie library building in Kansas City, Kan- sas, is a portrait in oil of a pioneer Kansas woman, whose sweet in- fluence, exerted in the territorial days when the makers of the Kansas constitution were assembled in Wyandotte, brought high recognition to womanhood and obtained for the women of this day many of those rights they enjoy. It is a portrait of Mrs. Clarinda I. Howard Nichols, one of the ablest and most gifted women with tongue and pen that ever championed the rights of her sex. Mrs. Nichols was born in Trowshead, Windham county, Vermont, January 25, 1810. Early in life she re- ceived an education that, with her brilliancy of intellect and her woman- ly sympathies, made her one of the first women in the nation. No woman in so many varied fields of action more steadily and faithfully labored than Mrs. Nichols, as editor, speaker and teacher in Vermont, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Iowa, Ohio, Kansas and California. In 1859 she attended the Wyandotte constitutional convention and sat through- out the session-the only woman present-watching every step of the proceedings, and laboring with the members to so frame the constitu- tion as to make all men and women equal before the law. The women of Kansas owe largely to her influence the rights they enjoy today. From Vermont to California she sowed the seed of liberty and equality, and nowhere did they take deeper root than in Kansas.
The Wyandotte County Women's Columbian Club was organized for the purpose of gathering together some exhibits from this county for display in the Kansas building at the Columbian exposition. It was finally decided to have a portrait painted of a pioneer Kansas woman, and Mrs. Nichols was selected as most deserving of the honor. At the close of the exposition the portrait was returned to the Colum- bian Club. and it was afterwards presented to the public library.
Mrs. Nichols died in Pomo, Mendicino county, California, January 11. 1885, just lacking fourteen days of celebrating her seventy-fifth birthday. In grateful remembrance of her the portrait has been given by the Wyandotte County Women's Club, March, 1893.
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GOVERNOR MCGREW.
.James MeGrew, who was a citizen of Wyandotte fifty-four years, was born at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, January 28, 1832. His family emigrated to Ohio, thence respectively to Indiana, Illinois and Wapello county, Iowa, finally locating in Keokuk county in 1844. In 1857 he came to Kansas, arriving in September and settling in Wyandotte eoun- tv. He engaged in merchandising, conducting a wholesale and retail grocery business in Kansas City, Kansas, from 1860 to 1870; also built and operated the first packing house at the mouth of the Kaw. The building still stands on Fourth street near Freeman avenne. Mr. Me- Grew served as mayor of the city for two terms; was a member of the house of representatives, 1861-2; and of the senate, 1863-4; and was lieutenant governor of the state one term-January, 1865 to January, 1867-after which he retired from politics, devoting himself to his busi- ness interests. Governor MeGrew was twice married-first to Mary Doggett, at Lancaster, Iowa, in 1848, who died in 1863; and second to Lida Slaven, of Alliance, Ohio, in April, 1870. IIe had five children, and his beautiful residence, built in the early days, was on Quindaro boulevard, Kansas City, Kansas. Ilis death occurred in February, 1911.
OTIS B. GUNN.
Otis B. Gunn, a member of the first state senate from Wyandotte county, was born October 27, 1828, at Montague, Massachusetts, the son of Otis and Imey Fisk Gunn. He had a thorough New England common school education, and began work as a rodman on the con- struetion of the Hoosac Tunnel Railroad; was engineer in charge of the railroad between Rochester and Niagara Falls; taught school for two years near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and in 1853 was division engineer in the construction of the Toledo, Wabash & Western, following railroad construction westward until he located in Kansas in 1857, settling at Wyandotte. In 1859 he was elected to the first state senate, which met in 1861 ; in 1861 he was appointed major of the Fourth Kansas regiment, later the Tenth Kansas Infantry. but in May, 1862, resigned to resume railroad work, being connected at various times thereafter with the Kansas City & Cameron, the Leavenworth, Pawnee & Western, the Central Branch Union Pacific and the Missouri, Kansas & Texas. Of this last-named road he built six hundred miles. He also built the bridge across the Missouri river at Atchison, and in 1876 superintended the construction of the present, union depot in Kansas City, finally earning the name of a great engineer. In 1896 he wrote a financial article entitled "Bullion versus Coin," which the Republican national committee circulated broadeast over the country. He died in Kansas City February 18, 1901, and was buried in Oak Grove, Lawrence. His widow resides in Kansas City, Missouri.
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COLONEL A. C. DAVIS.
Alson C. Davis, a member of the Free State legislature of 1857-8, settled in Wyandotte county, then a part of Leavenworth county, com- ing there from New York about 1857. He lost his seat in the territorial council through the contest of Crozier, Root and Wright for the seats of IIalderman, Davis and Martin, but sat in the extra session of 1857 from its convening, December 7th, until December 11th. In 1858 he was appointed United States district attorney for Kansas territory, holding the office until 1861. IIe was among the active members of the railroad convention of 1860. In October, 1861, he obtained permission from Major General Fremont to raise a regiment to be known as the Twelfth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry; December 26th four companies of Nugent's regiment of Missouri Home Guards were attached to the organization and the name changed to the Ninth Kansas Volunteers. On January 9, 1862, Davis was made colonel of this regiment, but resigned in February. Ile died in 1881, in New York.
JUDGE ISAAC B. SHARP.
Isaac B. Sharp who was distinguished as a lawyer, was born in Ohio, in January, 1836. He was a graduate of Oberlin University and of the Ohio State Union Law College, at Cleveland. IIe came from Fremont. Ohio, in January. 1859, located at Wyandotte, where he began the practice of his profession with Charles W. Glick; in 1860 was ap- pointed assistant district attorney, holding the office until 1862. when he was elected probate judge and re-elected in 1864. He served as mayor of the city two years and in 1866 was elected to the senate. Upon the expiration of his term as senator he was again elected probate judge of Wyandotte county, and re-elected for the third term. In 1860 Judge Sharp married Marie A. Bennett, a native of Baltimore, Maryland. He died of a cerebral affection June 22, 1884, having been in poor health for some time.
COLONEL G. W. VEALE.
George Washington Veale was born in Daviess county, Indiana, May 20, 1833. He was educated in the country schools, supplemented by two years at Wabash College, when he began a business career. In the spring of 1857 he came to Kansas, locating first at Quindaro and in a short time coming to Topeka, where he started a dry goods business. Ile was part owner of the "Otis Webb," a Kansas river boat that plied for a short time between Leavenworth and Topeka during the year 1858. Colonel Veale was one of the signers of the call for the railroad convention of 1860, and an incorporator of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad. He raised a company for the Fourth Kansas
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Cavalry in 1861, and in 1862 was made major of the Sixth Kansas, serv- ing until 1864; during the Price invasion he was colonel of the Second Kansas Militia. In 1866 he was appointed commissioner for the sale of state lands, which position he held some years, and was a member of the state senate in 1867-8 and of the house of representatives in 1871, 1873, 1883, 1887, 1889 and 1895, serving as speaker pro tem of the house in 1873. Colonel Veale was married, January 20, 1857, to Nanny John- son, of Evansville, Indiana. He was president of the State Historical Society in 1898, and has resided in Topeka many years.
LAST TO DESERT QUINDARO.
Rassellas M. Gray was a pioneer of 1858 of the old Quindaro that aspired to be the leading city on the Missouri river and the Free State "port of entry." He was a native of Erie county, New York; came west with the tide of Free State men of the territorial days and settled in Quindaro, which had been founded a few months before by Governor Charles Robinson, George W. Veale, Vincent J. Lane and others. Mr. Gray was one of the few survivors of those days and the last of the crowd to desert Quindaro. He resided there until the death of his wife in 1899, being engaged in farming and merchandising. Then he became a resident of Kansas City, Kansas, making his home with his daughter, Mrs. R. E. Ela. He died March 11, 1911, at the age of eighty-eight, leaving two sons and one daughter-Dr. George M. Gray of Kansas City, Kansas; E. M. Gray, of Quindaro; and Mrs. Ela ; fourteen grand- children and nine great-grandchildren.
MARY TENNEY GRAY.
As a leader in the women's clubs for art, education, literary and philanthropie purposes, Mrs. Mary Tenney Gray, the wife of Barzillai Gray, wielded an influence for culture that was felt not only in her home city but throughout the entire state. In the year 1881 a potential effort was made toward a union of the clubs of the state. Up to this time the club life of the women of the state had been purely local and confined to a few cities. At a meeting of prominent western women, many of whom were members of Kansas and Missouri clubs, held at Leavenworth, Thursday, May 19, 1881, the Social Science Club of Kan- sas and Missouri was organized. This first association of women's elubs in the west, with Mrs. Gray as its first president, was organized by representative women from Atchison, Lansing, Leavenworth, Olathe. Topeka and Wyandotte in Kansas, Kansas City and St. Joseph in Missouri, and Chicago in Illinois.
The preamble to its constitution and by-laws reads thus: "The object of this society shall be to promote a better acquaintance among
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thoughtful women of this section who are most desirous and best able to raise the standard of women's education and attainments, to enlarge their opportunities, and by frequent meeting bring the highest knowl- edge of each for the benefit of all." The meetings of this association were held in various cities in Kansas, also in Kansas City, Missouri, two meetings being held each year. The programs at these conventions were comprehensive, embracing the departments of art, archeology, domestic economy, education, history and civil government, literature, natural and sanitary science, philanthropy and reform. Thus Mrs. Gray may with propriety be referred to as the "mother of the woman's culture club movement in Kansas."
Mrs. Gray was a writer of vigor and a clear reasoner. She had read papers before many state gatherings, as well as clubs of the two Kansas Citys. She had lived in Kansas City, Kansas, more than twenty years and during that time was identified with almost every woman's movement. She was born in 1833; when twenty years old she graduated from a womans' seminary and in 1859 was married to Mr. Gray. A son, Lawrence T. Gray, lives at Colorado Springs, Colorado. Mrs. Theo Harriman of Los Angeles, wife of Joseph Harriman, the candidate for vice president at the 1904 election on the Social Democratic ticket, and Mrs. Jessie M. Caswell, are daughters.
In the spring of 1901 Mrs. Gray's paper on "Women and Kansas City's Development" was awarded the first prize in the competition held by the Women's Auxiliary to the Manufacturers' Association of Kan- sas City, Missionri.
Mrs. Gray's death occurred October 11, 1904, at her home on the beautiful Missouri river bluffs north of Kansas City, Kansas, and at the funeral service the Rev. D. S. Stephens, chancellor of the Kansas City University, paid this tribute to her memory. "It is the lot of very few to reach the degree of helpfulness to their own generation that was attained by her whose departure we mourn. Perhaps no woman in the state of Kansas has exercised so important an influence on the intellec- tual life of her sex in this commonwealth as our deceased friend. Her life has been intimately associated with every good and uplifting in- fluence among the women of this state. She was one of the originators of the Social Science organization among the women of the state. She has been one of the molding influences in shaping club-life among women. She has been a leader in everything that has touched on the
improvement of the intellectual conditions of women. No worthy philanthropic purpose escaped her helpful assistance. While thus active in matters of public welfare, she was equally attentive to the domestic duties of the home."
On May 9, 1909, the Kansas Federation of Women's Clubs dedi- cated a monument in Oak Grove cemetery, Kansas City, Kansas, to the memory of Mrs. Gray, as one of the founders of that organization. The
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monument is of Vermont granite and overlooks the Missouri valley, which Mrs. Gray once declared was "the most beautiful and romantic view in America."
JUDGE JESSE COOPER.
Judge Jesse Cooper, a native of Vermont was among the early day citizens of Wyandotte. He was a lawyer and a citizen of high esteem. Ile was a stanch Free State man, and his advice and counsel was sought by the little band of Congregationalists who came out from New Eng- land. One of his daughters married the Rev. Louis Bodwell who founded the Congregational church at Topeka, and she is still living at Clifton Springs, New York. The late Mrs. Byron Judd was also a daughter of Judge Cooper.
CAPTAIN THOMAS CROOKS.
Captain Thomas Crooks, one of the first horticulturalists in Kan- sas, settled at Quindaro in 1857. He was one of the men of Quindaro who enlisted in the First Regiment Kansas Volunteer Infantry with Colonel William Wear and George W. Veale.
Lyman M. Culver, a merchant of the early days of Wyandotte, came out from Pennsylvania in 1860. During the war he was engaged in freighting for the government.
Sammel W. Day, a banker and manufacturer of old Kansas City, Kansas, for many years, was with Kit Carson in Mexico in the early sixties. He assisted in building Fort Union. Ile eame to Kansas City, Kansas, in 1867 and lived there until his death a few years ago.
FRANK H. BETTON.
Frank Holyoke Betton was born in Derry, Rockingham county, New Hampshire, August 1, 1835. His father's maternal grandfather, Matthew Thornton, was president of the colonial convention which met at Exeter in May, 1775, to organize a provisional government; served the following year as a member of the Continental congress, and was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. At the age of fourteen Mr. Benton went to Boston, and, after some years spent as a clerk in stores there and at Petersburg, Virginia, he came to Kansas in 1856. He lived for a time in Pottawatomie, Jefferson and Leaven- worth counties, and finally located in Wyandotte. He engaged in the lumber business, and for several years owned and operated saw mills. In 1885 he was appointed state labor commissioner. In 1874 he was elected grand master of the Odd Fellows of Kansas; was also grand chancellor of the Knights of Pythias. His home was on a farm near Pomeroy, in Wyandotte county, until a few years before his death, which occurred in 1906.
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TABITHA N. THOMAS.
In a cottage at No. 527 Central avenne, ,Kansas City, Kansas, resides one of the oldest living descendants of the Wyandot Indians. She is Mrs. Tabitha N. Thomas, a widow and a daughter of Silas Arm- strong, the Wyandot Indian chief. Silas Armstrong eame west from Ohio in 1843. Mrs. Thomas was then ten years old. IIer father built a log cabin on the north bank of Jersey creek, now Seventh street and Virginia avenue. At the celebration of her seventy-sixth birthday Mrs. Thomas gathered around her a circle of eleven friends who heard her tell of the early days in old Wyandotte. They were greatly interested as they listened to her remarkable narrative of the Wyandot Indians' invasion of Kansas.
"What is now Kansas City, Kansas, in those days was a solid wilderness," she said. "We crossed the Kaw river at the mouth, which was then near the Armour packing plant. It took us more than an hour to paddle across the stream. The current was swift and the river was much wider than it is now. Then we elimbed the hill on the erest of which Minnesota avenue now lies. It was a long and hard elimb, but when we reached the summit we could get a fine view of the valley beneath us. My father was so impressed with the sight that he imme- diately decided to settle there."
JAMES G. DOUGHERTY.
Almost forty years of patient self-sacrificing labor for the eanse of eivie betterment and for the moral, intellectual and spiritual uplift, has been the gift of the Rev. James G. Dougherty to Kansas and particu- larly to Kansas City, Kansas, where he now resides. Doctor Dougherty was born in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1837. He was graduated from Andover Theological Seminary in 1870, and for two years thereafter was pastor of the Congregational church at Lawrenee, Massachusetts. He came out into the west in 1872 and found here a wide field of use- fulness. ITe soon became known throughout the state and beyond its borders as an able minister who dared to stand always for that which he believed to be right. During the sixteen years he was pastor of the First Congregational church in Kansas City, Kansas, his influence was felt in the affairs of the city and its people.
One great service he rendered was in his leadership in a fight that led to the extinction of the numerous gigantie swindling lottery con- cerns that infested the city. Streams of money were coming in from all parts of the continent to pay for lottery tickets issued for "drawings" that were never held, and, even if held, few important prizes were given. Our legislatures had not thought it necessary to enaet laws for the sup- pression of an evil which they did not dream would ever infest the state.
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Doctor Dougherty went into the fight single handed. He eneountered opposition from the start but he aroused the people and, backed by fearless newspapers, brought about the enactment of a measure so stringent that it had seareely reached the governor for his signature before the lotteries were gone. Doctor Dougherty made the same kind of fight to stop gambling and raee betting and it also was largely through his efforts that anti-gambling laws were enaeted and the big gambling houses at the state line were closed. Doctor Dougherty helped to organize a Good Citizenship society, and through that medium was enabled to strike a first blow against the open violation of the prohibi- tory liquor law which for years had received official sanction by reason of the monthly fines paid by the dealers into the eity treasury in lieu of license. These and other great reform movements have been led to a successful eonelision by Doctor Dougherty, prompted only by a desire for the welfare of his fellow men and with no thought of glory or re- ward other than that which comes to the good and faithful servant who performs a duty.
Doctor Dougherty has long been associated with the educational interests of the state and has been officially connected with Washburn College and other institutions in the state. Miss Ley Dougherty, eldest of his daughters, is a teacher of English in the high school. Miss Mary Dougherty. the other daughter, also is a teacher and is the library story teller for children. Bradford Dougherty, the son, is engaged in business in Kansas City, Kansas. Doctor Dougherty and his wife have reached a ripe old age, full of experiences and faithful service and they bear the esteem of a wide circle of friends and of many thousands who have been witnesses to their good works in Kansas.
A KANSAS ARTIST.
The work of Kansas artists has made its way into other states, while some of it has found recognition and fame in the art eenters abroad. One whose place is in the front rank is John Donglass Patriek, at this time residing in Rosedale. His work was admitted to the Paris salon, and at the Universal Exposition, in Paris, in 1889, he was awarded a medal for a eanvas, about nine feet wide by eleven in height, the subjeet being "Brutality." This painting was displayed in the Ameri-
can section at the exposition. When it is considered that it was one of the thirteen among the large number there shown by American artists that earned sueh recognition by the jury of awards, its artistie worth is beyond question. The noted art critic, Mr. Theodore Child, placed Mr. Patrick among the best of American oil-painters. The press eompli- mented him highly. His picture in the salon attraeted mueh attention because of the simplicity of the subject, the dramatie grouping, and the
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