THOMAS A. CHURCHILL.
Thomas A. Churchill is an extensive stock-raiser and dealer and owns and
operates a splendid farm of five hundred and eighty-three acres on sections 28 and 29, Garden Grove township. His
birth occurred near Springfield, in Sangamon county, Illinois, in 1856, and he is a son of Joel and Lucretia (Bondurant)
Churchill, both natives of Kentucky, although descended from New England stock. The ancestry in the Churchill line
is traced back to England. The Bondurants were originally French Hugenots but about 1687, following the revocation
of the Edict of Nantes, emigrated to Virginia. When a boy, Joel Churchill accompanied his parents to Sangamon county,
Illinois, and there his marriage occurred. He was a farmer and was well known and highly respected in his community.
In 1865 he removed with his family to Douglas county, Kansas, settling between Lawrence and Ottawa. In the spring
of 1874 they returned
to Illinois and became residents of Piatt county. Mr. Churchill's political allegiance was given to the republican
party and he and his wife were devoted members of the Christian church. Both passed away in Piatt county, his demise
occurring in the spring of 1902 when he was seventy-six years of age, and that of his wife in January, 1896, when
she was seventy years old. To their union were born six sons and five daughters, of whom our subject is the sixth
in order of birth, and all of whom are living, residing in Illinois, Iowa and Missouri.
Thomas A. Churchill was reared in Illinois and Kansas and received his education in the public schools. He began
his independent career in Illinois and although he had no capital, he was energetic and determined and soon began
to prosper financially. Later he removed to Wayne county, Iowa, where he farmed for five years, and on the 18th
of November, 1908, he removed to Garden Grove, Decatur county. He remained there until October 18, 1909, when he
settled upon his present farm of five hundred and eighty-three acres on sections 28 and 29, Garden Grove township.
His property is not only extensive, but is well improved, and he is meeting with marked success as a raiser of
high grade hogs and cattle.
Mr. Churchill was married in Kansas to Miss Mary Browning, a native of
Indiana, who accompanied her parents to the Sunflower state in 1868. Her father was a farmer and blacksmith and
took considerable interest in public affairs, serving at one time as assessor of Franklin county, Kansas. His wife
passed away in the faith of the Methodist Episcopal church and he is also deceased, both dying in Kansas. They
were the parents of four daughters and three sons, of whom two have passed away. To Mr. and Mrs. Churchill have
been born six children, the eldest of whom died in infancy. Olive L.
graduated from a high school in Illinois and later attended Drake University. She is now teaching in the Des Moines
public schools. Vera Pearl is also a high-school graduate and has taught school, although she is now at home. Martha
Elizabeth is at home. Clifton Bondurant, who operates part of the home farm, married Miss Louise Gehlhaar, and
they have a daughter, Lorene. Thomas Arthur is also at home. Mr. Churchill is a republican and is now serving as
a member of the Garden Grove township board of trustees. Fraternally he belongs to the Modern Woodmen of America
and to the Royal Neighbors, and his wife is likewise a member of the latter order. Their daughter Pearl is a member
of the P. E. O. Sisterhood. Mr. Churchill has made many improvements upon his farm since it came into his possession
and has but recently erected a large barn, which replaces one destroyed by fire a year ago, the building with its
contents, including five horses, being an entire loss. Although he began his career empty handed, he has accumulated
more than a competence, and his success is a source of justifiable pride to him. He has also gained the sincere
respect and esteem of all who know him, for his business methods have at all times been open and honorable, and
he has manifested a praiseworthy consideration for the rights of others. [Source:
"History of Decatur County, Iowa, and Its People" By J. M. Howell, Heman Conoman Smith; Published by
S.J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1915 - Submitted by K. Torp]
WALTER E. CONNELLY of Salina has had some unusual experience as an educator
in the western part of the state. As a boy he attended one of the old dugout schoolhouses of Kansas, and he spent
seventeen years teaching, concluding that service with a term as superintendent of instruction in Saline County.
Since retiring from that office he has founded and is manager of the Salina Collection Agency, the first and only
exclusive collection agency in the city. He represents a family that during the past century have by successive
stages progressed half way across the American continent from New England to Western Kansas. His grandfather, Alexander
W. Connelly, was born in Massachusetts, and in 1811 went out to the extreme western frontier, along the Wabash
River in Southern Indiana, and secured a tract of government land, now occupied by the City of Terre Haute. Robert
W. Connelly, father of Walter E., was born on that land and within the present limits of Terre Haute, August 16,
1831. In 1860 he removed to Illinois, where he was a farmer until 1883. In that year he went to Nebraska, spent
three years as a farmer in Thayer County, and in 1886 brought his family to Thomas County, Kansas. He homesteaded
land there and for ten years was postmaster of DeMunn, and also a justice of the peace. In 1898 he removed to Sherman
County, where he died September 20, 1905. He was an active member of the Christian Church and assisted in organizing
the first church of that denomination in Thomas County. In 1854 Robert W. Connelly married Miss Catherine Young,
who was born in Kentucky September 21, 1833. She died in Thomas County, Kansas, March 20, 1886. They became the
parents of ten children, five sons and five daughters: Rhoda, born in 1855 and died in 1883; Henry B., born in
1856; Charles E., born in 1858 and died in 1907; Julia, born in 1861 and died in 1881; James H., born in 1863;
Mary, born in 1865 and died in 1881; Emma, born in 1868 and died in 1915; William A., born in 1872 and died in
1914; Walter E.; and Sadie R., born in 1879. Walter E. Connelly was born January 22, 1876, in a log house on a
farm in Piatt County, Illinois. He was still a child when his father moved to the West and was ten years of age
when the family located in Kansas in 1886. He continued his education in the public schools of this state, and
for a time was a student in a dugout in Thomas County. In 1897, at the age of twenty-one, he began his career as
a teacher. His first school was taught in a sod house in Sherman County. Altogether he taught seventeen years,
seven years in rural schools and nine years in the towns of Waldo, Bunker Hill, Luray, Salina and Sylvan Grove.
In 1910 Mr. Connelly was elected on the democratic ticket as superintendent of public instruction of Saline County,
and filled that position two years. It was in 1914 that he established the Salina Collection Agency, and he has
since developed that to a profitable business and an important service in the community. On July 6, 1902, at Monument,
Kansas, occurred his marriage with Miss, Lizzie Belle O'Brien. Her parents were Thomas and Susan O'Brien, her father
a native of Maryland and her mother of Ireland. Mrs. Connelly was born near Lincoln, Nebraska, April 1, 1878. Mr.
and Mrs. Connelly have one child, Mildred Lillian. She was born May 22, 1903, at Hays, Kansas. At that time Mr.
Connelly was a student during the first year after the opening of the Kansas State Normal at Hays, and his daughter
Mildred has the distinction of being the first child born to a student in that institution.
[Source: "A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans",
By William Elsey Connelley, Published by Lewis, 1918. Submitted by K. Torp]
WILLIAM NELSON Du VALL. M. D. Reared and educated in the lllinios corn
belt. Doctor Du Vall graduated from medical college twenty years ago, and his active career as a physician and
surgeon has been spent in Kentucky. He is one of the leading men of his profession in Webster County, and for many
years has carried on an extensive practice at Sebree. Doctor Du Vall was born at Monticello in Piatt County, Illinois.
August 3, 1873, a son of Jeremiah E. and Rosaltha Hepzibah (Johnson) Du Vall, the latter of Irish ancestry, while
his father was of French stock.
The great-grandfather of Doctor Du Vall came to this country from France. Both parents were natives of Ohio, Jeremiah
Du Vall of Piqua County, but they were married in Illinois, and were substantial farming people of Piatt County.
Jeremiah Du Vall died February 18, 1920, at the age of eighty years, eight months and nine days, and the widowed
mother is now living with her son Dr. Du Vall at the age of seventy-five. William N. Du Vall is the youngest of
four sons, and there were also four daughters in the family. He spent his life to the age of twenty-three on his
father's Illinois farm, was educated in the local schools, and prepared for his profession with a three years'
course in the Georgia Medical College at Atlanta, graduating April 4, 1900. Six days later he located at Beech
Grove, Kentucky, but after gaining some recognition as a promising young physician he left in the fall of that
year and going to Chicago took a polyclinic course in the Bennett Medical College and pursued post-graduate studies
in Rush Medical College. With this additional technical equipment Doctor Du Vall returned to Kentucky and resumed
his practice at Beech Grove until June 22, 1907. Then, on October 26, 1907, he located at Sebree, and in that community
has found many opportunities for professional service, and is a man of the highest standing not only as a physician
but as a citizen. He is a member of the Webster County and Kentucky State Medical Associations, and is active in
both organizations. Doctor Du Vall is a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner, an Odd Fellow, a republican voter and
a member of the Christian Church. On June 15, 1905, he married Daley Tilford. Her father was Dr. F. P. Tilford
of Nebo, Kentucky. Doctor Du Vall lost his wife on May 27, 1919. She was the mother of two children, a daughter,
Ora, and a son, William Maurice Du Vall. [Source:
"History of Kentucky", By Charles Kerr, William Elsey Connelley, Ellis Merton Coulter; Published by The
American Historical Society, 1922 - Submitted by K. Torp]
Joshua B. Sprague, M.D., Springfield, Illinois, was born in Washington
county, Ohio, January 14, 1820, fourteen miles above Marietta, on the right bank of the Muskingum river. Hie first
occupation was working on a farm, and was afterwards flat-boating, steam-boating, peddling books, and merchandising,
until he was twenty years of age. Desiring more education, he attended College, at Beverly, Ohio. He was married
at twenty-three years of age, to Miss V. F. Martin, of Coal Run, Washington county, Ohio. In 1848, went to Elizabethtown,
Indiana, where he was engaged in the drug business, and remained about four years; on account of the failing health
of his wife, he returned to Beverly, where he read medicine with Dr. Ross. In 1866, he went to Marietta, Ohio,
where he continued the reading of medicine; in the years of 1862-3, attended lectures at the Cincinnati Medical
College. The Doctor practiced in various parts of Pike and Christian counties previous to coming to Springfield,
and during the years of 1868-9, he attended the Rush Medical College, at Chicago, Illinois, where he graduated;
and in 1872, he went to Monticello, Piatt county, where he practiced previous to coming to Sangamon county, Illinois,
where he is now engaged in the practice of medicine. The Doctor makes a specialty of chronic diseases, and warrants
a cure in all cases of epilepsy. [Source: "History of Sangamon
County, Illinois: Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Townships ... Portraits of Prominent Persons,
and Biographies of Representative Citizens." 1881 - Submitted by K. Torp]
Henley C. Wells
Upon a farm on section 13, Blue Ridge township, resides Henley C. Wells who is one of the progressive agriculturists
of the community. He was born August 16, 1857, in Knoxville, Tennessee, a son of John B. and Mary Elizabeth Wells.
The father was born in the year 1837 in Knox County, Tennessee, and became a farmer by occupations, owning about
one hundred and fifty acres of land in his native state. At the time of the Civil war he became a member of the
Ninth Tennessee Cavalry. Being taken ill with typhoid fever, as soon as he was able to be moved he was sent to
his home. Our subject, who was then a but a boy, got a horse and together the father and son rode the horses to
a nearby camp of soldiers. When the soldiers saw the boy they caught him in their arms and passed him from one
to the other, so glad were they again to see a boy, having long separated from their own homes and family ties
by the war. The country had been devastated by the ravages of war and John B. Wells, who was in very comfortable
circumstances prior to the outbreak of hostilities, was left almost penniless at the close of the long conflict.
His wife had received thirty thousand dollars in Confederate money from General Lee for damage done their property
by the Southern army, but the father was only able to realize about twenty-five dollars on the entire amount.
Henley C. Wells started out for himself at the age of twenty years by working at the carpenter's trade. For this
he received eight dollars per month. Later he was paid a salary of twenty-five dollars a month for working part
of the time in a store and a part of the time on a farm. He resolved to seek his fortune north of the Ohio River
in 1880 and removed to Greencastle, Indiana whence he afterward went to Mahomet, Champaign county, where he worked
for two years for a man by the name of Smith.
In the year 1883 Mr. Wells was united in marriage to Miss Lida Pittman and their marriage was blessed with four
children: Lillie May, who died at the age of four years; Nora Etta, who is the wife of R. A. Robinson, a resident
of Mansfield; Ethel Marie, who is at home: Harrison, who is at home and is assisting in the operation of the farm.
Mr and Mrs. Wells now own one hundred acres of land on section 13, Blue Ridge township, constituting one of the
valuable farms of the community. He improved the house and barn in the spring of 1903, and has planted an orchard
of eighty trees, in fact, he has added all modern equipments and accessories to his place, which is now a desirable
property and one on which he is realizing a good return from his investments. He gives the greater part of his
attention to the raising of grain, but to some extent also raises cattle and hogs.
In his fraternal relations Mr. Wells is a Mason, holding membership with the lodge in Mansfield, and in politics
he is a Republican, giving an earnest support to the principles of the party. His wife belongs to the Methodist
Church, and both are well known and highly respected people of this community, enjoying the warm regard of many
friends. They have lived here for twenty years, and throughout this period the circle of their friends has steadily
increased as the circle of their acquaintance has widened.
["Past and present of Piatt County, Illinois:together with
biographical sketches of many prominent and influential citizens." Chicago:S.J. Clarke Pub. Co., 103 - Submitted
by Muriel Wells White]
Charles E. Wetherall was born in Piatt County, Illinois, March 8, 1874,
and was ten years of age when brought to Pratt County, Kansas. He grew up on the old homestead, acquired an education
in the rural schools, and remained at home assisting his father in farming operations until he was twenty- five
years of age. He then began farming for himself but in 1901 sought a larger field for his enterprise at Cunningham.
Here he bought the general merchandise store of Elder & Simonson. It was a comparatively small business, and
was acquired for $6,000. Today it is one of the leading department stores of Kingman County. They occupy floor
space of 5,000. square feet with basement of similar size. The store is on Main Street and is conducted under the
name of Wetherall Brothers. These brothers also own the electric light plant, which supplies Cunningham with electricity
for lighting and power. Mr. Wetherall built a modern home in Cunningham in 1907 and he also owns the building in
which the store is conducted. Politically he is an independent democrat. He has served as a member of the city
council and has held other town offices, and is past noble grand of Cunningham Lodge No. 431, Independent Order
of Odd Fellows. In 1899 at Pratt, Kansas, Mr. Wetherall married Miss Addie Jenkins, daughter of J. C. and Louise
(Howald) Jenkins. Her parents reside at Cunningham, her father being a retired farmer and an old resident of this
section of Kansas. Mr. and Mrs. Wetherall have two children, Austin, born in 1901, and Roy, born in 1904.
[Source: "A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans", By
William Elsey Connelley, Published by Lewis, 1918. Submitted by K. Torp]
