Portrait and biographical album of Jackson, Jefferson and Pottawatomie Counties, Kansas : containing full page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, Part 100

Author:
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Chicago : Chapman Bros.
Number of Pages: 788

USA > Kansas > Jackson County > Portrait and biographical album of Jackson, Jefferson and Pottawatomie Counties, Kansas : containing full page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens > Part 100
USA > Kansas > Jefferson County > Portrait and biographical album of Jackson, Jefferson and Pottawatomie Counties, Kansas : containing full page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens > Part 100
USA > Kansas > Pottawatomie County > Portrait and biographical album of Jackson, Jefferson and Pottawatomie Counties, Kansas : containing full page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens > Part 100

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

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gar, of Texas; Mrs. Lovina J. Jones, of Linn County, Mo., and William R., of Atchison, Kan. The mother is now living in Circleville, Kan., and is in her eighty-fourth year, having been born in Iluntington County, Pa., Ang. 17, 1806.

Grandfather Faulk was born in New Jersey, in November, 1770, and his wife, who was of Scotch- Irish stock, and whose maiden name was Monroe, was born in the same State, March 17, 1773. Go- ing back another generation in the family line, we find Jolin Faulk, who came from Germany to the United States about the year 1765, and whose death took place in 1833, when he had reached the age of one-hundred and one years. nine months and nine days. His widow survived him exactly one year, dy- ing on the same day of the same month, and at the same hour in 1834. Her age was ninety-nine years, nine months and nine days, both having had the same birthday, but he having been three years the elder. Our subject well remembers them both.

The subject of this biography was born in Stark County, Ohio, May 2, 1829, and was reared on a farm, his advantages for schooling being quite meager, and all the instruction which he obtained in the subscription schools having been before he was ten years old. At that age he was the best speller in his county, being able to spell correctly every word in the old United States spelling- book, and also in the Elementary Speller. In the spring of 1841 he accompanied his parents to Whitley County, Ind., where he remained until 1857, when he went to Linn County, Mo., where he worked at his trade of a carpenter for three years. He then returned to the Hoosier State and followed his trade in Noble County until 1862, when the patriotism wbich filled his heart forbade him remaining longer at bome while efforts were being made to disrupt the Union.

On August 18, of that year Mr. Faulk became a member of Company F, 100th Indiana Infantry, and served until an injury, received while helping to unload some barrels of syrup, crippled him and compelled his discharge. The accident occurred in Georgia, and he was discharged at Mound City, Ill., after having served one year and nine months. It was over two years before he could lay aside his crutch and cane, and the injury left him a perma-

nent cripple. During his army life he took part in some of the most notable conflicts, such as Arkan- sas Post, Tallahatchie, Vicksburg, Collierville and Mission Ridge. Three of his brothers were also in the Union army, the youngest son of the family being the only one who did not take up arms in the defense of the Union. His brother Wesley had his leg broken while in the service, and the others es- caped any serious injury.

When compelled to abandon all idea of render- ing further service to his country on the field of battle, Mr. Faulk returned to Whitley County, Ind., where he remained until the fall of 1869. He then came to Jefferson Township, Jefferson Co., Kan., and farmed a year, after which be removed to a place three miles southeast of Valley Falls, whence in February, 1885, he removed into town.

Although deprived of superior educational ad- vantages in his youth, the native abilities of Mr. Faulk have not been unimproved, but he has made use of every opportunity to increase his knowledge, and is a man of intelligence in various lines of thought. He belongs to the G. A. R., and the many hardships which he endured in behalf of bis country give him the hearty respect of his associ- ates. He has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church since 1849, and his wife united with the same religious body the same winter, which was a year prior to their marriage. Mr. Faulk has always been active in Sunday-school work, has taught more or less, and has been Assistant Super- intendent and Superintendent for some time. In politics be is a firm Republican.

The marriage of Mr. Faulk and Miss Mary Kitson took place Oct. 16, 1850, the bride being a daugh- ter of Stephen and Christina ( Lampman) Kitson, the former of whom is now deceased. The domes- tic virtues and Christian character of Mrs. Faulk are well known and appreciated in Valley Falls, as they have been by her neighbors elsewhere. Her happy union with our subject has been blessed by the birth of five children, four sons and one daugh- ter. The latter, Elizabeth E., became the wife of J. W. Parish, by whom she had two children, one, Anna L., now living. After the death of Mr. Parish his widow married William J. Adams, and by him also had two children, a daughter, Mary S., now

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surviving. The mother died Dec. 2, 1888. Three of the sons of Mr. and Mrs. John Faulk are married and living in homes of their own. The youngest, Stephen, is still single and with his parents. James married Catherine McCann, lives in Dennison, Kan., and has three children-Albert, Leonard and Sylvia ; Jacob married Catherine Strange and lives in Pottawatomie County. Kan. ; their family comprises four children-Oliver, Pearl, Attie and an infant daughter. William married Millie Ream and lives in Indiana; their family comprises one son -- Harry.

LBERT G. PATRICK. Few men in the State of Kansas have a more interesting personal history than the gentleman whose name heads this sketch. The son of a man prominently identified as a pioneer settler, a jurist, an editor, and a minister of the gospel, with the early Territorial and State history of Indiana, he has, as the result of a long, varied, and honora- ble career, made a record well worthy of preserva- tion in a work of this character.

Mr. Patrick was born May 21, 1824, in Salem, Washington Co., Ind. His father, Ebenezer Pat- rick, was a native of Vermont, and a printer by trade, and his mother, whose maiden name was Sarah lattabough, was a native of Maryland. In 1816 his father turned his back on the Green Mountain State, emigrated to Indiana and settled in Salem. At that time the Hoosier State lay, so far as the course of civilization had run, on the very "outside of the world." Mr. Patrick found Salem a small place and the country about it sparsely settled, but the pioncers were men of pluck, daring and enterprise, and the rapid increase of their numbers soon gave Mr. Patrick a constituency sufficiently large to justify him in establishing a newspaper in their midst. Associating himself with Mr. Beebee Booth, father of Hon. Newton Booth, ex-United States Senator from California, Mr. Pat- rick became the senior partner in the firm of Pat- rick & Booth, editors and proprietors of the Tocsin, Salem's pioneer newspaper, the first number of which made its appearance March 17, 1818.

At that time there were but few papers published

in Indiana, and the Tocsin soon became " the news, advertising and publication medium for the conn- ties of Washington, Jackson, Monroe, Lawrence, Orange, Floyd," and an area compared with which the limits now covered by the ordinary country newspaper seem very small and greatly eireum- scribed. Mr. Patrick, who was a practical printer, is described as a man of "versatile genius." He was industrious, energetic and enterprising, a thor- ough workman, and a terse, vigorous and courage- ous writer, able at will to make a most effective use of either wit or sarcasm. Ile continued in the newspaper business with varying success and as editor of several different papers at Salem until 1833, when he went to Madison and bought an in- terest in the Madison Banner, which he conducted until 1835.

Mr. Patrick then entered the Indiana Confer- ence and actively connected himself with the min- istry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he continued until his death at Princeton in 1844, when about fifty years of age. From a centenmal sketch published in the Salem Democrat, Feb. 23, 1876, it is learned that he was an Associate Judge of Washington County after Indiana's admission into the Union, and that his decisions embodied what he believed to be the principles of justice and equity and were delivered in plain, simple lan- guage.

Such a man was the father of the subject of this sketch who, after receiving a fair English educa- tion, and learning to set type in his father's office when quite young, started out for himself in 1839, at the age of fifteen years, as a printer's apprentice in the office of T. & J. Dowling, publishers of the Wabash Courier at Terre Haute. Ilere he served a regular apprenticeship of three years and in the fall of 1842 went to Louisville, Ky., and secured work as a compositor in the office of the Gazette, a Tyler paper published by James Birney Marshall. He soon began to experience the vicissitudes of a printer's life, and to have his wits sharpened and his energies aroused by a direct contact with ad- versity and misfortune.

Besides the Gazette, there were at that time two other daily papers published in Louisville, the Ad- vertiser, a Democratie paper edited by Godfrey

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Pope, and the Journal, a Whig paper conducted by the brilliant and witty poet-editor, George D. Prentice. In January, 1843 the Gazette and Ad- vertiser united under the name of the Kentuckian, and young Patrick was retained as a compositor in the latter office. Two months later the printers were compelled to strike for their wages. Being unable to secure any money the striking printers . were forced to accept in lieu thereof sufficient ma- terial to enable them to form an association and start a small daily paper bearing the name of the Louisville Daily Dime. The first number made its appearance in March and was printed on paper loaned to the association by George D. Prentice. who doubtless little dreamed that from this small beginning would spring a paper destined in time to absorb his own journal. then as prosperous finan - cially as it was potential in political influence throughout Kentucky and the West.

The new venture met with favor from the out- sct, and soon reached a circulation of 1,000 daily. and had a fair share of advertising. The revenne, however, after the running expenses were paid, was very little. Mr. Patrick, who was the pressman, lodged in the press-room, sleeping on a pile of old papers, and his meals were taken at lunch houses. where a little money would buy more to eat than could be obtained either in the hotels or the more pretentious restaurants. Scant revenue compelled one member after another to sell out his share in the paper, the purchaser being W. N. Haldeman, a Main Street stationer and book-seller, who soon ob- tained a controlling interest and eventually the whole property. He changed the name to the Daily Courier, which became a prosperous and powerful paper, and soon after the death of George D. Prentice, absorbed the Journal and is now known as the Courier-Journal and ably and bril- liantly edited by Henry Watterson.

With but little capital except his experience as one of the proprietors of the Daily Dime, Mr. Pat- rick went to Bowling Green, Ky., where he secured employment in the office of the Green River Gazette, published by Alexander R. Maey, and where he continued until the fall of 1844. Like his father, Mr. Patrick was an ardent Whig and a great ad- mirer of Henry Clay, who was then running for

President against James K. Polk. of Tennessee. The Keutnekians would believe nothing else than that their silver-tongued statesman would be over- whelmingly elected, and in and around Bowling Green as well as elsewhere throughout the State, this feeling took the form of betting and gambling on the outcome, until business of all kinds was transacted contingent upon the result of the elec- tion. Goods and farms were sold to be paid for at a certain price if Clay was elected, and not to be paid for at all if he was defeated. Young Patrick caught the fever ;he was a constant reader of and an implicit believer in George D. Prentice's proph- ecies of a Whig vietory, and became eager to make something out of the campaign. Being nnable to place his money in Kentucky, he started to In- diana to find a Democrat rash enough to give him an even bet. He found one, put up §200, and when the election returns came in found himself "broke." He then worked as a journeyman prin- ter until 1846, when he was induced to take hold of the publication of a paper at Greencastle, Ind. A failure of promised financial aid compelled him to relinquish the enterprise after getting out five issues, and he then again returned to the "case" and worked in various offices until 1848, when he and his brother Chauncey opened a general store in Bainbridge, Ind.

About this time the news of the gold discovery in California had begun to excite the people of the States and a great tide of emigration was flowing toward the land of promise on the Pacific Coast. Mr. Patrick caught the fever and with nine others formed a company and started from Greencastle on the 1st of March, 1849, and made the journey overland with ox-teams, reaching Hangtown (Pla- cerville) on the 3d of September. Mr. Patrick remained in the Golden State until the spring of 1852, when he left San Francisco and made the journey to New York by way of the Isthmus.

Our subject was soon afterward found in Green- castle, Ind., at the head of a Whig paper, called the Republican Banner, which he was induced to start in the interest of Gen. Winfield S. Scott, the Whig candidate for the Presidency. By hard work and persistent effort he put the paper on a permanent basis, After Scott's defeat, which resulted in the

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disintegration of the old Whig party, Mr. Patrick transferred his allegiance to the native American party, and in 1856 supported Millard Fillmore. the regular candidate of the party for the Presidency. His favorite being again defeated he concluded to retire from journalism and politics, for a time at least, and accordingly sold his paper and once more turned his face toward the setting sun.

He determined to make Kansas his home and the scene of his future efforts, and soon after arriving in Leavenworth, Feb. 12, 1856, he allied himself with the Free-State party. this being a natural result of the old Whig and anti-slavery principles. Being fearless, positive, and out-spoken he soon found that his former experiences in Indiana and on the Pacific Coast, were tame and uninteresting com- pared with those he was destined to face in his new home. His first endeavor after bis arrival was to secure a claim, which he did in the course of a week or so, buying one four miles southwest of Leaven- worth from a man named Tracy, and paying him $250 in gold for it.

In March an election took place in Leavenworth to fill a vacancy in the City Council and the oppos- ing candidates were C. F. Currier, a Free-State man and Mr. Beck, Pro-slavery. Mr. Patrick took quite an interest in this election and bet $10 with one Charley Dunn that Currier would be elected. The election took place in Dick Murphy's saloon and when the Judges adjourned for dinner, Mr. Patrick saw one of them named Shockley, give Murphy the key to the room which contained the ballot- box. This led him to watch and he dis- covered Murphy robbing and stuffing the ballot- box, and he wrote an account of the proceedings for a Greencastle, Ind., paper. The article was copied into the Leavenworth Herald, the Pro- slavery organ occompanied by an editorial dennn- ciatory of the writer as an emigrant-aid emissary and an Abolitionist of the deepest dye, whom the "Law and Order" fellows were advised to spot. The result was that Mr. Patrick soon found himself not only in the midst of trouble but of personal danger. Soon after the publication of the Herald's threats, while standing in the door of his hotel one day after returning from his claim, he was assaulted with a club by one Jim Lyle. Promptly drawing

his pistol he soon had Lyle making tracks for shel- ter. The affair created considerable excitement and for a time threatened to cause a general melee between the Free-State and Pro-slavery men. That night he and his friends, by the urgent request of the landlord, left the hotel where they were stop- ping and sought shelter with a man named Thomas Shoemaker. A mob visited the hotel to wreak their vengence on the " Hoosier Abolitionist " and were both chagrincd and disappointed to find he was not there.

After a few days of peril and danger in Leaven- worth, Mr. Patrick concluded to retire to his claim and as soon as he could sell it, take his departure for a more congenial clime. Not finding a buyer for it, he continued to work on it a few weeks, when he started for Leavenworth thinking he might visit that city with safety. On the way he was overtaken by a party of mounted Pro-slavery men, under Capt. Fred Emory, and was made a prisoner by them. The feeling against him as an Abolition- ist was strong, and his captors made up their minds to hang him, Jim Lyle being their chief instigator. A Masonic appeal to a member of tlic gang had the effect of postponing the ceremony until after the arrival of Capt. Miller and his band, which com- prised the very toughest of the Pro-slavery ele- ment. Mr. Patrick, had, however. done Capt. Miller the favor of loaning him $40 without inter- est, and the latter did not forget the kindness. He kept Mr. Patrick safe through the night under a double guard, and the next morning turned him over to Col. Richardson. Some of the Pro-slavery men were so confident that he would be hung, how- ever, that they reported it as an actual occurrence in Leavenworth and the report traveled Eastward, and a long account of the hanging was published in the New York Tribune. In Indiana, where Mr. Patrick was well-known as an editor, his brethren of the quill paid eloquent tributes to his memory as one of the Free-State martyrs of Kansas.

Although saved from the noose by Capt. Miller, Mr. Patrick was by no means out of danger. Col. Richardson, to whom he was delivered at Upper Stranger Creek crossing, had 500 men under bim and was on his way to Lecompton. When the line

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came to a halt for dinner, about two hours after Mr. Patrick had been given into their hands, a court-martial was organized, before which he was brought for trial, the accusation against him being that he was a regular spy, constantly on the road back and forth from Lawrence carrying news to and from "Jim" Lane. His principal accusers were Jim Lyle, Jared and Green Todd, and he was de- nied a hearing in his own behalf. He was sentenced to be shot and a squad of Kickapoo Rangers were selected for the purpose, who marched him off about twenty paces and were preparing to carry the sentence into execution, when Mr. Patrick de- cided as a last resort to try the Masonic "grand hailing sign of distress." It was recognized by a surgeon of the Kickapoo company and others, and resulted in Mr. Patrick's release from present peril although he was retained a prisoner, Col. Richardson directing that he be kept under guard and delivered to acting Governor Woodson upon their arrival at Lecompton.

That city was reached two days after, and here Mr. Patrick was guarded by some impressed Free- State men under the leadership of a man named Caldwell but known as "Tennessee," at whose house the prisoners boarded. The notorious Jim Lyle again made himself unpleasantly conspicuous by offering $25 to any man who would shoot Patrick, against whom he had a feeling of personal ani- mosity dated from the publication of the account of Murphy's ballot-box stuffing exploit. The pris- oners were on their way to dinner, and a member of a passing company of Pro-slavery militia, hear. ing Lyle's offer, leveled his rifle at Patrick and pulled the trigger. The cap snapped, and for the fourth time in a brief period our subject escaped from what seemed certain death. Highly incensed at this act "Tennessee," after seeing the prisoner safely in his house, hastened to Gov. Woodson and made a report of it and under the protection of United States Marshal Donaldson, Mr. Patrick and his fellow prisoners-Rev. Mr. Byrd and a Quaker preacher-were conducted to Lawrence.

The day after his arrival there our subject joined Capt. Wright's Stranger Creek company and a week later on Sunday, Sept. 14. 1856. par- ticipated in the battle of Hickory Point, this

county. The battle was decided a draw by the combatants, but the United States troops appeared on the scene that night and Mr. Patrick and about 100 others found themselves prisoners of the gen- eral government. They were marched to Lecomp- ton where they were held by the recently appointed Governor. John W. Geary, and indicted for murder. Twenty of those first tried were found guilty by Judge Lecompte's court and sentenced to five years imprisonment in the penitentiary. The others took a change of venue before Judge Cato, of Tecumseh, but before the time set for their trial there was a general jail delivery of all but Mr. Patrick and thirteen others, who were tried and ac- quitted, Dec. 5, 1856.

Thoroughly satisfied with the adventurous char- acter of his experience during his brief stay in the Territory, Mr. Patrick decided to leave it. It was winter, however, and the Missouri River was frozen over, the ice putting a stop to steamboat travel, and there were no railroads. Not caring to pass overland through Missouri, he concluded to make the best of the situation and remain. He accord- ingly returned to this county, this time on a peace- ful mission, and located at Grasshopper, (now Valley) Falls, a Free-State town laid out in the spring of 1855 and in which he arrived Dec. 12, 1856. In the summer of 1857, at the Free-State election for State officers, he was elected Clerk of the Supreme Court, and the following fall was elected a member of the first Free-State Legisla- ture for a term of two years, being sent from the counties of Jackson and Jefferson,

In the spring of 1859, Mr. Patrick started for the Pike's Peak gold fields, but returned to the Falls after a month's absence. The next spring he again started for the mountains, and spent two years in prospecting and mining at the head of the Arkan- sas River. When the war broke out he was in California Gulch, 150 miles southwest of Denver, and could not join the army, although his heart was with the Union forces. In 1862 he entered the service and was elected Captain of one of the companies of Kearney's "Grasshopper" militia. Ile went to Montana in the spring of 1863, and after remaining there two years returned to this State, and in the winter of 1866 located at Irving, Mar-

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shall County. There he opened a real-estate office, believing that as the Central Branch of the Union Pacific would eross the Blue River at that point, the result would be a large and thriving city. Shortly after locating in Irving he was chosen Justice of the Peace, and in the fall of 1867 he was sent to the Legislature from Marshall County.

Not realizing his expectations in Irving, Mr. Patrick returned to Grasshopper Falls in the autumn of 1868 and a year later was elected Clerk of Jefferson County. In the spring of 1872 he deserted the town and took up his residence upon and improved a farm six miles and a half distant. On Oct. 6, of that year he was married to Miss Mary Frazier, a daughter of one of the original settlers and proprietors of Valley Falls. She was born in Covington, Ky., Feb. 24, 1842, and died Dec. 1, 1877, leaving two children, Simon and Albert, now fifteen and twelve years of age respec- tively. Mrs. Patrick was a gentle-natured and af- tionate woman, beloved by her husband and respected and esteemed by all who knew her for her many gifts and graces of both mind and heart.

In the fall of 1877 Mr. Patrick sold his farm and purchased the Valley Falls New Era and again entered the field of journalism. After running the sheet a year, he sold out and engaged in stock-rais- ing near Valley Falls. In the meantime, however, he was appointed Postmaster of that place by President Hayes, and held the office for six years. In December, 1878, Mr. Patrick married his second wife, Miss Eliza Dickey, a daughter of J. J. Dickey. One child, a daughter, Kate, is the result of this union.

After resigning the position of Postmaster, Mr. Patrick engaged in the real-estate business. In November, 1887, he made a trip to California and spenta month visiting the scenes of his former life there. In the spring of 1888 he moved to Oska- loosa, where he has since been engaged in the lum- ber business, and where he has recently opened a grocery store on the south side of the public square, two doors from the Jefferson House. While at Valley Falls he held the office of Township Trus- tee for five years and was Mayor of that city in 1878.

Mr. Patrick is one of nine children born to his

parents, three of whom died in infancy, Of the others, Chauncey, the oldest, enlisted in Sol Meri- deth's regiment, the 19th Indiana, serving first as Lieutenant and afterward as Captain. He had spent two years in the California gold fields to which he went in 1852. He was married twice and left a family, his death taking place at Spencer, Ind., in 1884. Amanda married Dr. B. A. Allison, of Decatur, Ill., and died in that city in 1879, leaving four children. Ebenezer went to California in 1849, remaining on the coast until 1854. He also served in the 19th Indiana, being enrolled in Company I; he died shortly after the war, leaving a family. Catherine is the wife of Dr. S. S. Cooper, a promi- nent, physician of Topeka, Kan .; they have no children. Ellen is the widow of William Allison, who died about twenty years since, leaving five children ; she resides in Spencer. Ind.

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Portrait and biographical album of Jackson, Jefferson and Pottawatomie Counties, Kansas : containing full page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, Part 100

Author: Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Chicago : Chapman Bros. Number of Pages: 788

Author:
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Chicago : Chapman Bros.
Number of Pages: 788