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 26
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 26
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 26
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Mrs. Barbara (Nishey ) Estep, mother of the sub- ject of this notice, was born in Lancaster County, Pa., April 4, 1796. Her father. Christian Nishey, was likewise a native of Pennsylvania, and could trace his ancestry back through four generations. He was a farmer by occupation and became quite wealthy. He died in Lancaster County, Pa., at the advanced age of eighty-one years. To Jacob and Barbara Estep there was born a family of twelve
children, one of whom died in infancy. The others were named respectively : Ishmael, Meyers, William, James, Finley, Jeremiah, Robert John W., Elizabeth, Louisa and Mary. Of these but four are living, namely, Louisa, Jeremiah, Robert and John.
Mr. Estep was the ninth child of his parents and was reared on a farm in his native township, pursu- ing his studies in the common school. His home was in the Buckeye State for thirty-four years and then in 1861 he removed to Illinois, locating in Cass County, of which he was a resident for ten years. Next he crossed the Father of Waters and located in Shawnee County, Kan. From there in 1882 he removed to Pottawatomie County, pur- chasing the farm upon which he now resides. On Dec. 25, 1885, he was united in marriage with Miss Louisa Martin, who was born in Fayette County, Ohio, Aug. 7, 1836. Mrs. Estep is the daughter of Payton and Mary (Callendar) Martin, the former of whom was born in Virginia, and the latter in Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Estep are the parents of fifteen children, three of whom died in infancy, one unnamed. Mary B. died when eleven days old and Addie at the age of thirteen months. The survivors are : Robert W., John J., Belle, Albert, El- mer E., George, Abraham L., Charles, James, Ed- ward, Harry and Effie.
OSEPH TINGLEY, Ph. D., Professor of Science and Art, in Campbell Normal Uni- versity, Holton, Kan. The subject of this sketch, is a well-known scientist and educa- tor, whose educational labors until recently. were confined principally to the State of Indiana. Con- cerning his ancestry, the family records show that his great-grandfather Tingley was an Englishman of probable Swedish descent, who l'ved in Colonial times in Somerset County, N. J. The British army drove his family from their homes, and they fled to the mountains. On their return they found their farm devastated, and their home in ruins. The father and all of his sons, four in number, en- listed in the American army, and served during
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the Revolutionary War. One of the sons, Jere- miah Tingley, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, wedded Esther Leddel, a near relative of James Manning, once President of Brown Univer- sity. They removed Westward shortly after the war, and settled first in Western Virginia, and af- terward in Ohio, where Jeremiah Tingley died in 1803, leaving a family of eight children, six daugh- ters and two sons. One of the daughters, Sarah Simpson, was the mother of Bishop Simpson of the Methodist Episcopal Church. William, the elder of the two sons, the father of our subject, married Rachel Poulson, of Maryland, daughter of Rachel (Durbin) Poulson, a cousin of the Rev. John P. Durbin, D. D., a noted Methodist divine, and former President of Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa.
William Tingley began his married life in Cadiz, Ohio, as teacher in the district schools, but was soon called to the office of Clerk of the Court of Com- mon Pleas, and shortly afterward to that of the Supreme Court of Harrison County, Ohio. He was also chosen Master Commissioner, and continued to hold all these offices for many years, and one or more of them for a period of more than forty years. A pronounced Whig, bis efficiency and faithfulness, so outweighed all considerations of party preferences, that the opposing party fre- quently in power during that time, made no at- tempt to depose him from office. He died in 1862. Four of his children survived him: Amanda, wife of Sylvanus Wood, M. D., of St. Clairsville, Obio; Tempe R., wife of Rev. C. A. Holmes, D. D., of Pittsburg, Pa., former President of Iowa Wesleyan University; Jeremiah Tingley, Ph. D., Professor of Natural Sciences in Baldwin University, Berea, Ohio, and in Allegheny College, Meadville, Pa .; and Joseph Tingley, Ph. D., the subject of this sketch, now Professor of Science and Art in Camp- bell Normal University.
Dr. Tingley was born March 5, 1822. in Cadiz, Ohio, where his early education was superintended by Hon. Mathew Simpson, uncle and instructor of Bishop Simpson, who was also one of the early in- structors of his cousin, Joseph Tingley. He er- tered the Sophomore class of Allegheny College in 1839-40, and completed the Junior year in that
institution. Four subsequent years were spent in special study of science and art. In 1843, he was induced by Bishop Simpson, then President of the Indiana Asbury University, to enter that institu- tion, from which he was graduated in 1846. The same institution honored him with the degree of A. M. in 1849, and that of Ph. D. in 1871. While yet a student in the university, he was chosen tutor in mathematics in 1844; in 1849 he was promoted to the chair of natural sciences, and in 1860 was elected to the Vice-presidency of the university, which office he held until 1879, when he severed his connection with that institution which he had served uninterruptedly for thirty-five years, and was immediately afterward elected to the pro- fessorship of applied science and art in the Cen- tral Normal College of Indiana, at Danville, which position he resigned five years afterward, to accept the Presidency of the Marion Normal College. Feeling the need of a change and rest from seden- tary pursuits, the Professor engaged temporarily in the profession of civil engineering in Kansas City, Mo., where he assisted in the construction of the famous cable lines of that city, superintending the construction of the celebrated Ninth Street Termi- nal Depot. He was called thence in 1888, to the professorship of Science and Art in Campbell Nor- mal University.
Dr. Tingley's mechanical skill and proficiency in art, render him peculiarly fitted for teaching the sciences. He is fertile in contrivances for illustra- ting, and exceedingly apt in conducting experi- ments illustrative of every science. As a public lecturer he has been very popular, and successful in entertaining and instructing his audiences upon matters connected with his favorite pursuits, science and art. Chautauqua and the Sabbath School As- semblies frequently avail themselves of his splen- did exhibitions of the wonders of science, with which he is accustomed to illustrate his popular lectures. As a teacher of art, he has few equals, and he excels in portraiture, to which he has given much attention and study.
Joseph Tingley wedded Miss Ellen R. Webb, May 16, 1853, in Greencastle. Ind. Miss Webb was the eldest daughter of the Rev. Thomas S. Webb, of the N. W. Indiana Conference of the
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Methodist Episcopal Church. The family name. variously spelled-Web, Webb, Webbe, is traced back 300 years. Capt. Thomas Webb, of the Brit- ish Army, the first Methodist preacher in America, was a branch of the family tree. (See Simpson's Encyclopedia of Methodism and Methodist Episeo- pal Discipline). William Web, Lord Mayor of Lon- don, and Agnes Webbe, grandmother of William Shakespear, were also of the same lineage. Mrs. Tingley is directly descended from the Rev. Ben- jamin Abbott, a noted Evangelist, and traces her ancestry through that line backward several gener- ations to Somersetshire, England. (See life of Benjamin Abbott, and Simpson's Encyclopedia of Methodism). She is an earnest Chautauquan, and a graduate of the C. L. S. C. Class of 1883. At the time of her marriage, she was a member of the junior class of the Female College of Indiana.
The children of Joseph and Ellen Tingley, are Horace Webb, Flora Ellenwood, Verner Simpson, William Poulson, and Josephine Bowman, all of whom except "Willie," (who died at the age of two years), were students in Asbury (now De Panw) University. Horace was graduated in the class of '77, taught in the public schools of Indiana for sev- cral years, and has been for six years Superinten- dent of the works. and Master Mechanic of the Kansas City Bridge and Iron Company. In 1888 he married Miss Hettie Steele, cousin of Senator Wade Hampton, of South Carolina; Verner S. Tingley, the second son, after spending three years in Vienna, as Secretary to the American Consul General of Austria, came West, married Miss Ab- bie Reddington, of Armourdale, Kan., and removed to Idaho. He is now County Superintendent of the Lemhi County schools, and is a practical teacher. Flora Ellenwood died in her twentieth year, being at the time a classical junior in De Pauw Univer- sity ; her biographer, Ridpath, the historian, says of her: "Though young, she had already drawn for herself the ontlines of a noble, useful life, for she was gifted with gracious gifts. and possessed of rare genius in the histrionic art." Josephine Bow- man was a student of music in the music school of De Pauw University, and afterward in that of C. N. U., graduating in 1890. Being an elocutionist of some note, she has given public readings from
Shakespear and other bards in several cities, and is especially apt in rendering the productions of the "Hoosier Poet" of her native State, James Whit- comb Riley.
From this sketch it will be seen that Dr. Ting- ley belongs to a race of educators who have parti- cipated as instructors in eight different colleges, and in many publie schools of the country. They have manifested a deeided bent towards the fine arts, the sciences and industrial arts, and have all been held in high estimation as active and influen- tial members of the commonwealth wherever they have lived.
W ILLIAM T. McMAHON, M.D. The med- ical fraternity of Wamego and vicinity acknowledges in Dr. McMahon, one of its most efficient members-a physician well-read and well-informed, and who has been very successful in his particular school, the Homeopathic, which is steadily gaining in favor and influence among the people. He established himself at Wamego in 1887, and has built up a fine practice, being the regular physician of a large number of prominent families. He may be properly termed a self- made man, one who by his determination and en - ergy has risen from an humble position in life, and has exercised no small influence among his fellow-men.
The eldest in a family of seven children, Dr. McMahon was born near Gambier, Knox Co., Ohio, Sept. 18, 1823. His father, Thomas Me- Mahon, a farmer by occupation, was a native of the city of Hagerstown, Md., and his mother, who in her girlhood was Miss Lydia Shafer, was born in Pennsylvania. Both emigrated to Ohio early in life, and were married there in 1821. There also they spent the remainder of their days. Thomas McMahon departed this life in his prime, in 1838, at the age of forty-two years; the mother lived to be sixty-nine years old, dying in 1869 at her home in Knox County, Ohio. After the death of her first husband she was married, in 1843, to R. S. Clements, a Virginian by birth and at that time a resident of Knox County, Ohio. Mr. Clements
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died in 1865, leaving three children, all of whom are deceased. Dr. McMahon and his brother, Andrew M., are the only children living of the first marriage. The latter is a resident of Mar- shall County, Iowa.
The early education of Dr. McMahon was con- dneted in the subscription schools of Ohio. He was a hard student, and in his youth pored over his books at night by the firelight of hickory bark.
Those habits of reading and study have been kept up until the present time. He was a lad of fifteen years at the time of his father's death, and being the eldest child, was obliged to assist his mother in the care of his younger brothers and sisters. He was thus occupied for five years, and then, at the age of twenty, began for himself, still attending the district school during the winter season. When twenty-one years old he began the study of medicine, teaching to defray his expenses for three years. He took a course of lectures in the Cincinnati Medical College, from which he was gradnated in 1847, and that year began the prac- tice of his profession in his native county. A year later he settled at Millwood, that county, and sojourned there for a period of twenty-eight years. We next find him in Bellville, Richland Co., Ohio, where he practiced twelve years. Thence he came in September, 1887, to Wamego, Kan., driving through from Marshall County, Iowa, in his buggy, a distance of 414 miles. In January, 1887, the Doctor took a post-graduate course from the Ohio Special and Liberal Association, receiving a di- ploma from this institution.
On the 22d of October, 1847, occurred the mar- riage of Dr. McMahon with Miss Mary Welker. This lady is the youngest child of David and Elizabeth (McMillen) Welker, and was born May 15, 1829, in Knox County, Ohio. Her parents were natives of Pennsylvania, and the father a farmer by occupation. Their family consisted of four children, three of whom are living. To the Doctor and his wife there were born two children, but the eldest, a boy, born in 1848, lived only four weeks. The younger, Fanny E., was born Jan. 25, 1850, and died at her home in Millwood, Ohio, April 28, 1878. She was married Sept. 28, 1870, to Daniel E. Coleman, of Monroe Township, Knox
Co., Ohio. Mrs. Mary McMahon departed this life at her home in Millwood, Ohio, July 1, 1865.
Dr. McMahon, the 12 of May, 1876, was mar- ried a second time to Mrs. Mary (Rightmier) Tracy, danghter of James and Lydia (Critchfield) Rightmier, who were natives respectively of Vir- ginia and Ohio. Mr. Rightmier prosecuted farm- ing for many years in Ohio, where he became a useful and prominent citizen. He died in January, 1882, at the age of seventy-four years. The wid- owed mother resides on the home farm in Knox County, Ohio. Their family consisted of seven children, six of whom are living and residents of Ohio and Kansas. Mrs. McMahon was the eldest and was born March 25, 1832, in Knox County, Ohio. She was well-educated at Mt. Vernon and at Sloan's academy for young ladies. The Doctor and his wife are members of the Universalist Church. He has always been a very busy man in his profession, and keeps himself well-posted in all matters connected therewith. Politically, he is conservative, and usually votes the Democratic ticket. In Ohio, he was identified with the I. O. O. F., and at present is prelate in Wamego Lodge, K. of P.
RANK McBRIDE. Among the homesteads of Clear Creek Township, Pottawatomie County, none are more suggestive of comfort and plenty than that owned by the subject of this notice, who is one of its most enterprising men and one who from a modest beginning has slowly . climbed up to an enviable position among his fellow - citizens. He came to Kansas in 1878 and bought a relinquishment, on the west half of the north- west quarter of section 26 where he filed a home- stead claim which he improved and which con- stitutes his present home. On this section he has 240 acres, besides an 80-acre tract on section 24, having thus a half section of land altogether. Eighty acres are under the plow and the remainder is in meadow land and pasturage.
Mr. McBride has a neat and substantial dwelling with a good barn and the usnal outbuildings re- quired for the shelter of stock and the storage of
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grain. His fences are well kept up and everything about the premises presents a thrifty and prosperous appearance. There are fruit and shade trees and within the dwelling the family enjoy all of the comforts and many of the luxuries of life. In connection with farming Mr. MeBride is consider- ably interested in stock-raising.
In noting the early history of our subject we find that he was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, March 17, 1837, and is the son of Stephen and Bridget (McHanna) McBride, whose family con- sisted of nine children, The parents were likewise natives of County Tyrone where they spent their entire lives. Four of their children are living and located mostly in Philadelphia, Pa. Frank re- mained a member of the parental household until a youth of eighteen years. He was thoughtful and ambitious and not being contented with his condition or his prospects in the Emerald Isle, re- solved upon seeking his fortune in the New World. Setting out from Ireland he crossed the Atlantic on a sailing vessel which after a three weeks' voyage, landed him safely in New York City. Thence he made his way directly westward across the Mis- sissippi to Iowa and employed himself as a farm laborer until the outbreak of the late war. He had now been six years in his adopted country and was in full sympathy with her free institutions. Hav- ing a desire to assist in the preservation of the Union he enlisted in Company C, 20th Iowa In- fantry in August, 1862, which operated in Southern Missouri and Arkansas. Mr. McBride was present at the siege of Vicksburg and later went into Southern and Central Texas, and through Louisiana and Alabama, taking part in the battles of Prairie Grove and Pea Ridge. He assisted in the capture of Ft. Morgan, and later was at Pensacola and Ft. Blakely. He received his honorable discharge at the close of the war and from that time until 1878 resided in St. Louis, Mo., and employed himself at whatever he could find to do.
In St. Louis, Mr. McBride was married in August, 1867, to Miss Mary McHugh. Mrs. McBride was born in County Galway, Ireland. Of this union there have been born four children, viz: John, Frank, James and Mary Ellen. Mr. MeBride was reared in the doctrines of the Catholic Church to
which he still loyally adheres. Upon becoming a voting citizen he identified himself with the Demo- cratie party. He is looked upon as one of the most industrious and frugal farmers of Clear Creek Township, where he has made the record of an honest man and a good citizen.
ENRY YOUNG. There is not a more popu- lar or intelligent German citizen within the precincts of Belvue Township than Mr. Young. He is universally popular and is frequently called upon by his countrymen in that vicinity for advice in business matters and upon other occasions, and seldom fails to find them a way out of their difficulties. He is thus very useful in his community and one whose place, were it made vacant, could not be easily filled.
A native of Germany, Mr. Young was born March 19, 1851, and is the son of Peter Young, a native of the same locality and who was born Oct. 8. 1811. The latter emigrated to America with his family in April, 1884, and coming to Kansas now makes his home with his son Henry. He is a wagon-maker by trade and a member in good stand- ing of the Lutheran Church. The paternal grand- father was John Young who spent his entire life in the Fatherland, dying at the age of sixty-six years. The mother, Mrs. Lena ( Miller) Young, who was also of German parentage. died in Germany in middle life. The parental family consisted of five children, viz: Peter, Henry. Nicholas, Philip and Charles. Peter died at the age of twenty-eight years in Strasburg, Germany; Philip died in in- fancy.
Mr. Young is the third child of his parents and was brought up on a farm in his native Province. In accordance with the laws and customs of Ger- many he was placed in school at an early age, at- tending until a lad of fourteen and acquiring a practical education in his native tongue. When twenty-one years of age he came to America in ad- vance of the family and locating first in the city of Chicago, worked at his trade of a carpenter about six years. In 1878 he sought the farther West,
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coming into Pottawatomie County, this State, and soon afterward purchased 160 acres of land upon which he has since been engaged in farming and stock-raising. His land is pleasantly located on section 1, Belvne Township. He keeps on an average from forty to fifty head of graded cattle, besides the required number of good farm horses to do his work. Politically, Mr. Young is a sound Republican. He was reared in the doctrines of the Lutheran Church, to which he still loyally adheres.
The marriage of Henry Young with Miss Lena Weber, was celebrated at the bride's home in Chi- cago, Ill., in 1877. Mrs. Young was born in the Province of Abiller, Germany, in 1846, and is the daughter of Lawrence and Mary (Kauf) Weber,' the former a weaver by trade and who, with his estimable wife, spent his entire life in his native land. Mr. and Mrs. Young are the parents of five interesting children, living, viz: Emma, William, Helena, Mary and Peter; one child died in infancy unnamed.
- LFRED J. BASYE is one of the most wide-awake and enterprising business men of Jackson County, and in him the city of Holton has one of its leading citizens, who enters with true public interest into all schemes to advance its interests. He is prosperonsly carrying on an extensive business as a dealer in grain and a buyer and shipper of stock, with L. Sarbach, under the firm name of Basye & Sarbach. Mis- souri is his native State, and he was born in De Kalb County, Jan. 12, 1857. His father, John J., and his grandfather. Henry Basye, were natives of Virginia. The latter was a planter and slave- owner. and on his removal to Pike County, Ohio, in pioneer times, he took his slaves with him, and there nobly set them free. He was a resident of Ohio some years, but finally went to Missouri, and passed the remainder of his life in Howard County, that State. The father of our subject was about eighteen years old when his parents removed to the wilds of Ohio, and he went from there to Missouri in 1835, traveling on the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri rivers to his destination, and was one of the very first settlers of the Platte Purchase.
He made a claim to a tract of Government land there, and during the few years that he resided on it made many improvements. He sold it, and going to DeKalb County, bought a farm five miles north of Cameron. He erected frame buildings, and lived there until 1859, when he disposed of his place and once again became a pioneer, locating in Jackson County, this State. He bought a place of 160 acres for $1,100, pleasantly situated two miles southwest of Holton, which was then a small hamlet of a few houses, and its commerce repre- sented by one store. There were no railways west of the Missouri River at that time, and over the sparsely settled region all kinds of game roamed plentifully, and bountifully set forth the table of the pioneers who were fond of hunting. In the log cabin on his place, in which the family first made their home, John Brown had his headquarters for this section of the country. Mr. Basye con - tinned his residence on that homestead until death brought to a close his long and honorable life, Jan. 17, 1888. The mother of our subject still makes her home there. ller maiden name was Mary P. Rogers, and she was born in Cole County, Mo. Her father, Hiram Rogers, was a farmer, and later a merchant at Halleck, Buchanan Co., Mo., and also served as Sheriff of that connty, where he spent his last years. Seven of the children born to the worthy parents of our subject were reared to maturity.
Our subject was two years old when they came to the Territory of Kansas, and it has been his privilege to witness almost the entire growth of this section, and since he arrived at years of dis- cretion, to aid in its advancement in various direc- tions. His educational advantages were those then afforded by the public schools, and were such that at the age of eighteen he was fitted for the pro- fession of teaching, which he then entered upon, his first experince in that line being in the district three miles east of Holton. He taught several terms of winter school after that, and when not so engaged assisted his father in farming, of which he had a good practical knowledge. In the spring of 1881 he turned his attention to buying grain, and has been in that business since, forming, in the summer of 1881, a partnership with his present
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partner, and later extending their business so as to include buying and shipping stock. They have a large and flourishing trade. and their names stand high in business circles, as those of fair and honor- ably dealing men.
Mr. Basye has established an attractive home by the aid of a devoted wife, to whom he was united in marriage in March, 1886. Her maiden name was Ella Ellis, and she was born in Page County, Iowa, to DeWitt C. and Caroline Ellis. Of this pleasant marriage two children have come-Walter and Lottie.
Mr. Basye is an ardent supporter of the Republi- can party. His fellow-citizens, appreciating his busi- ness talent, push and large discernment, have called him to aid in the administration of the municipal government by electing him to a seat in the City Government. Ile is a man of sound understand- ing and excellent habits, and is highly thought of by all who have either business or social relations with him.
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