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 37
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 37
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 37
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Ireland was the birthplace of the grandfather of
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Mr. Allen, who was by name Howard M. Allen, and by trade a blacksmith. When a young man he crossed the Atlantic and worked at his trade in New York City. Later he removed to Ontario, Canada, but afterward purchased a farm near Adrian, Mich., which he improved and operated until his death. The great-grandfather of our subjeet was John Moore, a land and mill-owner in Ireland. He came to America and located in New York City; while on his way back, to collect rents in Ireland, he was lost at sea. William A. Allen, the father of our subject. was born in Ontario, Canada, in 1838, but was reared to man's estate on a farm in Lenawee County, Mich. In the autumn of 1856 he started West, making his way overland. He spent the fol- lowing winter on the Missouri, near the present site of Leavenworth, where he was engaged in chop- ping wood. In the spring of 1857 he located on a claim of 160 acres near Elk City, paying for it by land warrants.
After improving this claim until 1860, in the fall of that year, Mr. Allen returned to Michigan, and a few months afterward, enlisted in the 6th Michi- gan Battery, serving until the close of the War. After that he returned to his farm in the spring of 1866. In 1874 he was elected Treasurer of Jack- son County, and removing to Holton, was for the ensuing four years engaged in the active prosecu- tion of the duties attendant upon his office. He now superintends the management of his fine farm of 240 acres which adjoins Holton, and is also the senior member of the Bank of Olsburg and Cash- ier of the Exchange Bank at HIolton, in which he owns a one-half interest. The latter bank was organized in the fall of 1888. He was active in establishing, in 1881, Campbell Normal University at lIolton, and is now one of its directors. Politically, his sympa- thies are with the Republican party, aud in relig- ious matters, he has membership with the Methodist Episcopal Church. Ile married Miss Mary E. Pat- ton, a native of Virginia, and born in 1838. She became the mother of fifteen children, eleven of whom lived to manhood and womanhood, namely : Emma, now Mrs. Keller, of Junction City, Kan .; E. M., our subject; Augusta J., who married J. S. Spangler of Westmoreland; W. W., Cashier of the Bank of Olsburg ; Mary C., who is at home; J. R.,
a druggist at Westmoreland; G. H., a resident of Olsburg : Ida, Otto, Nellie and Jessie, who are yet under the parental roof.
A native of the vicinity of Blissfield, Lenawee Co., Mich., our subject was born July 14, 1860, and lived in the home of his birth until he was six years old, when he accompanied his parents to Kan- sas, traveling by rail to St. Joseph, Mo., and cross- ing both the Mississippi and Missouri on the ice, being conveyed to the opposite shores by means of sleds. For many years our subject lived quietly under the parental roof in Jackson County, assist- ing his father in the improvement of the farm, and developing into sturdy and rugged manhood. In the meantime he received the advantages of the High School at Holton, and at the age of twenty- one was prepared to take active charge of the home farm, which he superintended until 1885. He had become interested in the Bank of Olsburg, having co-operated in its organization with other business men of the county. He now located in Olsburg and accepted the position of Assistant Cashier in the bank, which had been established in 1883.
The ranks of the Republican party have no stronger advocate than Mr. Allen, who is ever ac- tive in advancing its interests, and has served as delegate to county and congressional conven- tions. He is Notary Public, having been appointed to that office by ex-Governor Martin. Ile has thus far in his career been eminently successful, and is honorable, upright and honest in his dealings with all, well deserving the prosperity which attends him.
G EORGE C. WEIBLE, now a resident of Whiting Township, Jackson County, was reared on a farm near Canal Dover, Ohio, his birth having taken place in Tuscarawas County, Feb. 8, 1830. IIis father, Jacob Weible, was a Pennsylvanian by education and training, having come from Germany when a child with his father, who was also named Jacob. They were a family of coopers and our subject learned that trade when a young man, following it in his native State for a number of years. At the age of twenty-one he
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went to Van Wert County, where he taught school for about ten years. There he met Miss Mary J. Gilliland, for whom he conceived a high regard, and after a successful wooing they were united in marriage on the 1st of January, 1854. The bride is the daughter of Thomas and Catherine ( MeCann ) Gilliland, and her father was a son of John and Jane (Maxwell) Gilliland and of Scotch-Irish stock.
Mr. Weible continued to reside in Van Wert County, Ohio, until the fall of 1865, when he re- moved to Bureau County, Ill., and purchased a farm north of Dover, which he operated for nearly four years. Ile then sold and in March, 1869, came to Kansas, being one among the early settlers on the Reservation. He purchased land in Atchison County, just aeross the road from his present home, the farm being the southwest quarter of sec- tion 18, in Grasshopper Township. He made some good improvements on the estate. having broken 100 acres and set out a good orchard, when on account of the high taxes in that county, and the lower rate across the line, he determined to make a change. He therefore sold and purchased the farm which he now occupies, which for some time he had had in charge for Mr. J. H. Segar, and upon which he had made some improvements. This land consists of eighty acres, located in the southeast- ern part of section 18, Whiting Township, and upon it he has prospered. All the fencing on the place is done with hedge there being about 800 rods in use.
Mr. Weible is a very successful horticulturist and raises a variety of choice fruits. He has a thrifty apple orchard containing 100 trees now bearing, some of them are among the largest in the township. He also has a good peach orchard and an excellent collection of pear trees. The first of the latter fruit which he planted did not succeed, but his later attempt has met with a favor- able result and the trees are now doing well. The ten crab-apple trees, comprise five or six choice varieties. Besides all these he has all kinds of small fruits, grapes, berries, etc. In the fall of 1881, Mr. Weible built a dwelling two stories high, consist- ing of a main part, 14x24, and a wing 14x16, and adding to it a one story L 12x12. It stands on a plateau which affords a grand view for fifteen or
twenty miles each way, in which scope there are a number of towns and a pleasantly diversified land- scape of fields, groves and water courses. Under the entire dwelling is a nine foot cellar with a rock floor and a stone wall, the whole being well lighted and ventilated. The well built house is surrounded by adequate farm buildings and the whole presents an air of comfort and prosperity. The location is four miles from Whiting and five from Horton. Mr. Wcible generally raises enough stock to con- sume his grain and keeps an especially fine lot of hogs, having done something for the improvement of that stock in the county.
In 1885, Mr. Weible purchased the Whiting News, from W. E. Brown and carried on that sheet for two years, making great improvements in it and increasing the subscription list to more than double its former numbers. He made the publication neutral in politics, as he is. When he determined to abandon editorial work he found a ready pur- chaser in J. S. Clark, who sold the sheet to William Priest.
Mr. and Mrs. Weible have reared seven children, all of whom are married except Ed. Ernest, who is still at home and operating the farm. Lucy F. was the wife of Morris Michael of Whiting, and died leaving two children, one of whom survives and lives with our subject; his name is Willis Everett Michael. Catherine N. married C. R. Boy- ington, and their home is five miles cast of that of our subject on a farm owned and operated by Mr. Boyington; they have five children. Mary E. married William Reynolds, an early settler of Whiting, who is now living in Everest, and carry- ing on his trade of a carpenter; they liave four children. Willis R. is a carpenter and works at his trade in Holton, where he and his wife reside. Henrietta Frances married S. L. Dickinson of Ohio, and their home is on a farm northwest of Whiting; they have two children. Laura Alice is the wife of Wilmer Snyder, and lives on a farm on the Parallel.
Mr. and Mrs. Weible are members of the Pres- byterian Church and now attend at Horton. They are possessed of more than ordinary intelligence and education, are kindly and social in their inter- course with their neighbors, and take an intelligent
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interest in movements of public importance, and are in consequence regarded highly by those who know them.
ERMAN WILBERS. Few persons sojourn long in St. Mary's Township without becom- ing familiar with the name of this old and highly respected resident, who is recognized as one of its most solid men, and one of the leading land owners of Pottawatomie County. He was born in the Kingdon of Hanover, Germany, near the Prussian line and adjacent to the town of Burren, Nov. 11, 1815, and has consequently passed the seventy-fourth milestone on life's highway. Ilis early years were spent in his native country, where he received a thorough education in the German tongue, and he was mostly engaged in farming pur- suits until a man of twenty-six years. In the meantime he usually spent two months of the sum- mer season in Holland, making turf, as that busi- ness was more profitable than farming, although it was of brief duration.
The subject of this sketch is well born, being the son of John and Mary A. (Esthring) Wilbers, who were likewise natives of Wurtemburg, and devout members of the Catholic Church, to which their ancestors had belonged for generations. In the faith of this religion they reared their children, leading them when young to the great church near their home, a very fine edifice, covering nearly an acre of ground and which had stood probably over half a century.
Life passed in a comparatively uneventful man- ner with Mr. Wilbers until the age above men- tioned, but in the meantime he was not satisfied with the outlook in his native country and determ- ined upon emigrating to the United States. Ac- cordingly in the summer of 1842 he set out on a sailing-vessel from the port of Bremen, and after a ten weeks' voyage first set foot upon American soil in the city of New Orleans. Thence he journeyed up the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers to Cincinnati, Ohio, where for many years he was engaged as a brickmaker. There, likewise, he was married, Ang. 8, 1846, to Miss Mary C., daughter of Jolm Felir- ing. The Fehrings also were of German birth and
ancestry, and the wife of Mr. Wilbers was reared not far from his childhood home and trained in the doctrines of the Catholic Church.
Mr. Wilbers and his wife commenced the journey of life together in the Queen City, remaining there until 1870. Then coming to Kansas, Mr. Wilbers purchased 1,500 acres of land near St. Mary's, this being mostly in its primitive condition and unimn- proved, with the exception of two little Indian cabins and about twenty-five acres under cultiva- tion. The sturdy pioneer experienced the hardships common to life upon the frontier at that date, but he persevered through every discouragement and in due time found himself on the high road to prosperity. He has about 700 acres of his land in a productive condition, and one of the finest farm dwellings in St. Mary's Township, adjacent to the city limits. Besides his own residence he has three other houses with barns, stables and other necessary buildings, conveniently situated for the general purposes of agriculture. Mr. Wilbers also owns several city lots.
There were born to Mr. Wilbers and his wife eleven children, seven of whom are living. The eldest, John, one of the prominent younger men of St. Mary's Township, served as Township Clerk two years and was elected Township Trustee for three terms; Anna is the widow of John Warburg, and lives at home with her father; Herman, Jr., remains at the homestead; Frances is the wife of William Zolper, and they live in Chicago, Ill .; Mary and Frank are with their parents; Joseph is in the Northwest. The chief products of the farm are cattle and corn, and Mr. Wilbers each year harvests a large amount of timothy hay. He has, however, now quietly taken a back seat, turning the farm over to the management of his boys, who are regular "chips of the old block," carrying it on in the same well-regulated and profitable manner.
OHN W. FARROW, M. D., is a highly re- spected resident of Laclede, Pottawatomie County, where he has made his home for the past nine years. He has a high reputa- tion and an excellent practice in his chosen profes- sion, in which he has shown marked skill for one of
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his years. He is finely educated, not only in Ther- apeutics, but in other lines of study. He is still young in years, having been born June 13, 1858, in Williamsport. Md., where his carlier education was obtained. After passing through the common schools of that city, he attended the Mechanics- town College, and the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Baltimore. In 1880 he took up his abode in Laclede.
Dr. Farrow is a son of Joseph H. and Mary S. (Nitzel) Farrow, both of whom were born in Mary - land, and who are now living in Baltimore, the father being sixty-two years of age, and the mother ten years younger. Mr. Farrow is a druggist by profession, but is now head clerk in the post-office in the city where he lived. In politics he is a Re- publican. He served four terms as County Repre- sentative, and has also been a member of the State Senate. Ile is in good financial circumstances. The Farrow family is of Scotch and Irish extrac- tion, and the Nitzel family is of German stock. The grandfather of Dr. Farrow was William Nitzel, who was born in the Fatherland, and who came to this country in an early day, and settled in Mary- land, where he lived until the time of his death. He was a cooper by trade. Our subject is the sec- ond of seven children born to his parents. Charles, the first born, died at the age of two years; and Kersner, the third in order of birth, at the age of seven. Besides our subject, Jennie, Emma, Charles K., aud Harry still survive.
The wife of Dr. Farrow was in her maidenhood Miss Mary Prunty, and the rites of wedlock were celebrated between them, Nov. 24, 1887. The bride was born in Wamego. Feb. 16, 1868, and re- ceived an excellent education, and a careful train- ing in domestic and social virtues at the hands of her parents, Leonard and Adaline. Mr. Prunty was born in West Virginia, and was among the early settlers of Kansas. He built the first dwelling house in Wamego. Ile is a man of means, and owner of a great deal of land and other property in this county. He also owns considerable property in California, where he and his wife are now liv- ing.
Dr. and Mrs. Farrow are the happy parents of one daughter, Ruby. The Doctor is an enthusiastic
Republican, though not an office seeker. The higlı character, intelligence, and hospitable, social na- tures of Dr. and Mrs. Farrow, are thoroughly ap- preciated by their neighbors and fellow-citizens, among whom they are general favorites.
RVING P. BELDEN. Among the younger members of the farming community of Whit- ing Township, Mr. Belden occupies a promi- nent position. Ile came to Jackson County from Chicago, in 1887, settling upon land which his father had purchased some years before, and is be- ing prospered in his labors as a tiller of the soil. Enterprising and industrious, the indications are that he is bound to succeed. He was married in Chicago, Sept. 15, 1887, to Miss Minnie Hallock, and shortly afterward came with his young wife to the place which they now occupy, and where, by their mutual efforts they are building up a comfort- able home.
The subject of this sketch is the son of D. K. Belden, formerly of Prineeton, Ill., who came to Whiting in 1870, and purchased the land now oc- cupied by Irving P. The paternal grandfather of our subject was Amasa E. Belden, a native of New York, who spent his last years in Chicago. His son, Daniel K .. removed from New York to Bureau County, Ill., at a very early day, and took up a large tract of land. The maiden name of his wife was Persis, daughter of Asaph and Hermione (Clark) Pratt, who came from Vermont and settled in Wisconsin at an early day. Afterward they re- moved to Dover, Bureau Co., Ill., but finally re- turned to Wisconsin, where Mr. Pratt died in 1888. His wife is still living. To Mr. and Mrs. Belden there have been born two children, a daughter, Per- sis, and an infant named George Edward.
Mr. Belden, politically, is a stanch supporter of the Republican party, and takes quite an interest in politics, especially during Presidential years. While in Chicago, he was occupied chiefly as a clerk and book-keeper in a confectionary manufac- tory. While a resident of Malden, Ill., he belonged to the Congregational Church for a number of years. He is one of six children born to his par-
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ents, and is the eldest of the three survivors. His' sister, Hermione, died at the age of eleven years; Edson A. died when a youth of seventeen years, of typhoid fever, at Malden, III .; George A. died in Chieago, Ill., of consumption, at the age of twenty- one. His remains were laid to rest in the cemetery at Malden. Henry O. makes his home with his brother, Irving P .; Daniel is in Chicago. The father of Mrs. Belden was J. H. Hallock, who died in Michigan about 1874. Her mother is still liv- ing, and makes her home in Kansas City.
TEPHEN PERKINS came to Jackson County in 1870, before he attained his majority, and for several years he was identified with its pioneer farmers in the work of developing its agricultural interests, and during that time he improved a good farm in Whit- ing Township, of which he was an early settler. He subsequently engaged in the meat business in Netawaka, and in 1887 established himself in Hol- ton in the same line. He has a neat, well-stocked market, and conduets a paying trade.
Stephen Perkins is a native of Bureau County, Ill., Lamoille Township the place of his birth, and Dec. 26, 1850, the date thereof. His father, Ed- ward Perkins, was born in Queen's County, Ireland, and was the only member of his family to come to America, he eoming to this country when he was a young man, and first locating in Whitehall, N. Y. A few years later he removed to Chicago, where he lived a year, and then he took up his abode in Bureau County, III., and was one of the first set- tlers there. He purchased Government land in Lamoille Township, ereeted a comfortable frame house of native lumber, and in the years that in- tervened between that time and his death, which oceurred on that homestead, he improved a fine farm, and became fairly prosperous. When he first settled there deer and other kinds of wild game were plenty, and the surrounding country was in a wild, sparsely-settled condition. There were no railways, and he was obliged to draw his wheat with an ox-team to Chicago, 110 miles dis- tant. He did his share in building up the county,
and lived to see it a wealthy and well-settled dis- trict. The maiden name of the mother of our subject was Mary Wall. She was born in Queen's County, Ireland., and died on the Illinois home- stead. She and her husband reared nine children to good and useful lives, three of whom are still living-John, Joseph and our subject, Joseph oc- cupying the old homestead.
Stephen Perkins was bred to the life of a farmer in the home of his birth, receiving a careful train- ing from his sterling parents, and gleaning an edu- cation in the pioneer schools of Bureau Connty. As soon as old enough he was set to work on the farm when he was not engaged in school, and he remained an inmate of the parental household until he was twenty years old. At that age, in 1870, well-equipped for the battle of life mentally and physically, he started out in the world to make liis own way, and attracted to Jackson County on aecount of the many facilities it offered to young men of enterprise and resolution, he came here and made his residence in Whiting Township, which was then merely a flag-station, the railway having been completed three years previous. As there was but one house in the village at that time, he was obliged to walk back to Muscolah to find a lodging in a hotel. The first season of his settle- ment in Kansas he engaged in breaking prairie, and then he bought a traet of wild land one mile front the village, and being umarried at that time, he kept a bachelor's establishment, and carried on the improvement of his farm by himself. He gave his attention to agricultural pursuits until 1879, when he went to Netawaka, and entered the meat busi- ness, which he conducted there very prosperously until 1887. In July of that year, desiring to in- crease his trade by establishing himself in a larger city, and perceiving a fine opening in Holton, he came hither and opened a meat market, which he has fitted up in good style, and as he has it always stocked with the best of everything in his line to be found in the market, he has secured first-class patronage.
In the month of February, 1875, Mr. Perkins took an important step in his life, that has con tributed not only to his happiness, but has added to his material comfort and prosperity, he at that
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time taking unto himself a good wife in the person of Miss Anna Nance. She is, like himself, a native of Illinois, born in Hancock County, to Casper and Emily (Stone) Nance, her father a native of Vir- ginia. Three children have been born of this mar- riage-Frank, May and Pearl.
Mr. Perkins is connected with the A. F. & A. M., as a member of Polar Star Lodge, No. 143. In his politics, he is a decided Democrat. He is a wide- awake, straightforward business man, of good standing among his fellow-citizens, and his pleasant social traits make him popular with those with whom he associates.
ON. THOMAS K. ROACH was a gallant officer of the Federal Army, and served with distinction during the late war. For twenty years he has been a resident of Kan- sas, identified a part of that time with its agricul- tural interests, and for the past four years he has made his home in Holton. In early life he en- tered the ministry of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and has enthusiastically devoted much of his attention to that holy calling, and even since coming to Jackson County, he has preached quite constantly to his old charges in Doniphan and Atchison Counties, and thongh old age is creeping on apace, it does not seem to have impaired his mental vigor or to have rendered his power less manifest. He is distinguished in life as having been a member of the Legislature of two States, that of Tennessee, which he entered in early man- hood, and that of this State, to which he gave the riper wisdom and experience of maturer years.
The Rev. Mr. Roach was born in Wilson County, Tenn., near Round Hill Post-office, Oct. 13, 1817. His father, John Roach, was, it is thought, born on Richland Creek, three miles from the State ITouse in Davidson County, Tenn., Jan. 28, 1794, being the date of his birth. His father, John Roaclı, Sr., was born on the banks of Cape Fear River, N. C., being the son of an emigrant from the North of Ireland, who settled there in Colonial times, and there passed the remainder of his life. He was a Presbyterian in his religious belief, and reared his
family to the same faith. The grandfather of our subject was both a farmer and brickmason. About 1790 he started from North Carolina with wagon and paek horses, and journeyed through the inter- vening wilderness to Tennessee, and became one of the earliest settlers of Davidson County. At that time there was but one building in Nashville, and the pioneers had made but few settlements in the primeval forests of that State. In a few years he removed to Wilson County, where he bought a tract of timber land, and then devoted his time to the arduous task of clearing away the trees, culti- vating the soil, and at the time of his death in 1848, had improved quite a large farm. In that wild country there were no markets for several years, and the people were obliged to live in the most primitive manner, spinning and weaving their own clothing, cooking by open fires, and living on what they could raise, and the game that they shot. The maiden name of the paternal grandmother of our subject, was Rachel Hopkins. She was born in North Carolina, was of English extraction, and came from the same family from which the Rev. John Hopkins was descended. Both she and her husband were Presbyterians, and were among the first to secede from the old church to join the Cum- berland Presbyterian Church. All that is mortal of them lies buried in Sngg's Creek Churchyard, in Wilson County, Tenn.
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