Biographies for Reno County, Kansas

JOHN S. SIMMONS

John S. Simmons, a well known lawyer of Hutchinson, former speaker of the Kansas House of Representatives and prominently identified with banking interests hereabout, is a native son of Kansas, born in Douglas county in i860. Upon concluding his studies at Baker University he began to read law and was admitted to practice, at the bar of the Crawford circuit court, in 1886. He opened an office for the practice of his profession at Dighton and quickly took a prominent place in the general affairs of that part of the state. For two terms he served as county attorney for Lane county; represented that county in the lower house of the Kansas General Assembly for two terms and in 1907 was elected speaker of the House. From 1899 to 1904 Mr. Simmons served as superintendent of the Kansas state reformatory and was a member of the board of management of that institution for four years, being appointed by Governor Hoch. In 1895 he was elected president of the State Bank of Dighton, which position he ever since has held, and is also a director of several other banks. Following his service as speaker of the House Mr. Simmons became attracted to Hutchinson as a desirable place of residence and in June, 1907, moved to that city, where he ever since has made his home. He formed a partnership with Whiteside & Tyler in the practice of the law and upon the dissolution of that firm began to practice alone and so continued until 1910 in which year he formed a partnership with Ray H. Tinder, which arrangement continued for three years. In 1913 Mr. Simmons admitted into partnership his nephew, K. K. Simmons, who was graduated from the law school of Kansas University in that year, and this mutually agreeable arrangement continues. In addition to his extensive general practice Mr. Simmons has for many years served as attorney for the Santa Fe Railroad Company. Since taking up his residence in Hutchinson Mr. Simmons has continued his active interest in political affairs and is regarded as one of the leaders of the Republican party in this section of the state. In 1914 he was his party's nominee for Congress from the seventh Kansas district, but his candidacy was no more successful than that of the general ticket that year.

In 1886 John S. Simmons was united in marriage to Emma Brown, daughter of Capt. G. W. Brown, of Osage county, this state, and to this union four children have been born. Mrs. Simmons is a prominent figure in Kansas club circles and is past president of the Kansas Day Club. Mr. Simmons is one of the directors of the Hutchinson Young Men's Christian Association, a member of the Hutchinson Commercial Club and a member of the Hutchinson Country Club, in the affairs of all of which organization, he takes a warm interest. (Pages 98-99)

WILLIAM D. SHULER

William D. Shuler, one of the oldest and best-known pioneers of this county, for years lovingly known throughout the Grant township neighbor-hood as "Squire" Shuler, is a native of Virginia, having been born in Page county, that state, on June 23, 1833, son of George and Tabitha (Dovel) Shuler, both natives of that same county, the former of whom, born on December 25, 1794, died on April 28, 1873, an^ ^e latter, born in 1796, died on June 8, 1857. The former was a member of the Meth(&dist church and the latter of the Christian church. They were the parents of eight children, five sons and three daughters, of whom the subject of this sketch is the youngest, and only three survive, the others having been John, Diana D., Noah W., Elizabeth Ann Aylshire, who died at the age of twenty-four; George W., Andrew Jackson and Sarah Jane, who married John Aylshire, her brother-in-law, who was killed in battle during the Civil War, and who later married James E. Morris and died in this county in 1895, and he died later.

George Shuler was the son of John Shuler, who was born in Pennsyl-vania, son of John Shuler, a German, who came to America and settled in Pennsylvania. The younger John Shuler married a Keyser in Pennsylvania and later moved to Virginia, where he became a large landowner, and where he spent the rest of his life. Grandmother Shuler died in Illinois at the age of ninety-five years. She married Mike Step. George Shuler was reared on the plantation in Virginia and in turn became a large landowner and one of the leading men in his neighborhood. His first wife died in. 1857 and he married, secondly, a widow, Mrs. Kite, and both spent their last days in Virginia.

William D. Shuler lived on the home place in .Virginia until he was grown, acquiring a liberal education meanwhile, and his father gave him half the home farm of nearly four hundred acres, on which he lived until 1875, the time of his coming to this county. When Virginia ordered a vote on secession in 1861 he was one of twelve voters in his precinct who voted for a continuance of the Union. He was drafted into the Second Virginia Infantry, under "Stonewall" Jackson, despite his opposition to secession and served for a year before employing a substitute to take his place, during which time he participated in the battles at Blue's Gap and near Harper's Ferry. Upon leaving the army he returned home and there was seized by Union forces. Upon explaining his position toward secession, however, he was released and the federal soldiers gave orders that his place should not be molested. They had destroyed all other property in the valley. In 1875, attracted by the promising word from this section of the country, Mr. Shuler came to Kansas, locating in Reno county. He bought Lon Mead's relinquishment to eighty acres and the relinquishment of an adjoining, eighty in section 28 of John Gaus, in Grant township, and there he established his new home. At first he built a small frame house, twelve by sixteen feet, and in 1878 built a better house. On his place at that time there were the only three trees. One of these trees, a giant cottonwood, five feet in diameter at the base, stood until 1915, when it went down during a heavy wind storm. Mr. Shuler prospered from the very beginning of his farming operations and has assisted in buying farms for all of his sons, more than a section of land in all. Mr. Shuler quickly took his place as one of the leading men in that community. He had served as justice of the peace in his Virginia home and presently his pioneer neighbors elected him justice of the peace-in Grant township, a position he held for years, and is still known as "Squire" by his many friends thereabout and throughout the county. He was also trustee for a number of years. He is a Democrat, though quite liberal in his political views, and has also voted the Prohibition ticket, He is an ardent Methodist and the year after his arrival in this county went around the neighborhood stirring up sentiment in behalf of the establishment of a Sunday school in Grant township and succeeded in having such an institution started in the school house near his home. He later headed a subscription paper with a liberal subscription and took it around among his neighbors and thus secured the establishment of the ^Mitchell Methodist church in his home township, of which he has been one of the leading members for many years.

On August 9. 1855, in Page county, Virginia, William D. Shuler was united in marriage to Sarah Ann Koontz, who was born in that county, August 28, 1839, daughter of David and Elizabeth Koontz, natives of Virginia, and to this union five children were born, namely: Preston P., a cement manufacturer and farmer, of Wakeeney, this state; Jacob O., of whom further mention is made later on in this review; Lee, a fruit raiser at Hotchkiss, Colorado; Martin B., who is now living retired at Santa Rosa, California, and Walter, who is engaged in the dairy business in Reno town ship, this county. The mother of these children died on October 19, 1896, and for the past few years Mr. Shuler has been making his home with his sons.
Jacob O. Shuler, who was born in Page county, Virginia, on February 4, 1859, was sixteen years of age when his father, William D. Shuler, came to this county with his father, and he grew to manhood on the old Shuler farm in Grant township. Following his marriage, in the fall of 1884, he bought the northeast quarter of section 27, in Grant township, and there established his home and has lived there ever since. He later bought a half section in Reno township and also a quarter section. He is a Democrat and has taken an active interest in local political affairs and is now treasurer of his home township. He and his family are members of the Methodist church and he gave the land on which the Mitchell Methodist church was built, on one corner of his farm. He is a member of the Court of Honor and takes a warm interest in the affairs of this society. Mr. Shuler is an extensive farmer and has given much attention also to raising cattle and hogs.

On November 6, 1884, Jacob O. Shuler was united in marriage to Annie Cook, who was born in Gloucestershire, England, daughter of Joseph and Martha (Barnes) Cook. Mrs. Shuler came to this county in June, 1883, in company with her sister, Mrs. Laura Baddeley, and her two brothers Fred Cook, the present mayor of Hutchinson. and Walter Cook, also of Hutchinson. To Mr. and Mrs. Shuler four children have been born, as follow: William Archie, born on October 13, 1885, at home; Harold, August 17, 1887, who married Myrtle Oldsworth and lives on a farm in Reno township; Gilbert A., December 17, 1893, and Annie Gertrude, October 6, 1895, married Arthur W. Lancaster and lives in Reno township. (Pages 99-101)

THOMAS G. ARMOUR

Thomas G. Armour, one of the publishers of The Wholesaler, published at Hutchinson, this county, was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on December4 6, 1872, son of Thomas D. and Eliza (Sloan) Armour, the former of whom was born in Randolph county, Illinois, in 1830, and the latter in Belfast, Ireland, in September, 1837. Thomas D. Armour was a son of James C. Armour, a native of Scotland and an early settler in Randolph county, Illinois. Eliza Sloan was a daughter of Robert and Belle Sloan, both of whom were born in County Antrim, Ireland, where their last days were spent. In 1848 the three Sloan children, Robert, Jr., aged sixteen; Belle, aged fourteen, and Eliza, aged eleven, came to America and made their way to St. Louis, where they were received by friends of the family, and where Robert, now deceased, went to work for the Whittier Packing Company, he having learned something of the packing business in Belfast, where his father was engaged as a meat packer. Aunt Belle Sloan, who never married, also is now deceased, the only one of that family now surviving being Eliza, who is living at Wichita.

Thomas D. Armour was reared on a farm in Illinois. As a young man he went to St. Louis, where he erfgaged in the transfer business and where he lived until 1890, in which year he moved to Wichita, this state, becoming a considerable landowner, and there he died in August, 1906. For some time before moving to Wichita, Thomas D. Armour had been engaged in the development of coal lands in southern Illinois. He and his wife were the parents of three children, Robert, a farmer, living in South Dakota; Thomas G., the subject of this biographical sketch, and Belle, who lives with her mother at Wichita, this state.

Thomas G. Armour was reared in St. Louis, in the public schools of which city he received his education. As a boy he learned the printer's trade in St. Louis and in 1890 went to Sterling, this state, where for three years he was engaged in the printing business with J. E. Junkin. In 1893 he moved to Hutchinson, where he became employed in the job department of the Hutchinson News, and has ever since made that city his home. Air. Armour continued on the staff of the News until 1905, and in 1906 he and A. L. Sponsler began the publication of the Times. The next year, in 1907, they also began the publication of The Wholesaler, and in 1910 they merged the Times with The Wholesaler and discontinued the publication of the former paper, The Wholesaler still being continued and is quite successful, Mr. Armour being the active manager of the same. Shortly after the Times was started, Messrs. Armour and Sponsler erected a two-story office building at 100-102 South Main street. Mr. Armour takes considerable interest in other enterprises of one kind and another in Hutchinson and is one of the incorporators of the Central State Bank, incorporated in 1915.

On April 8, 1901, Thomas G. Armour was united in marriage to Fannie M. Graves, who was born in Troy township, this county, daughter of William and Hannah (Yardy) Graves, who was accounted among the earliest settlers of Reno county and both of whom are still living, comfort ably and pleasantly retired at their home in South Reno.

William Graves was born in Cambridgeshire, England, on February 2, 1836, son of James and Mary (Coxell) Graves, farming people, the former of whom was a Baptist and the latter of whom held to the views of the established church. They were the parents of six children, two sons and four daughters. Both of the sons, John and William, and two of the daughters, Sarah and Betsey, came to America, William being but seventeen years of age at the time he arrived on the shores of the New World. John Graves is still living, a prosperous retired farmer in Benton county, Indiana; Sarah, who married William Burton, lives in Nebraska, and Mrs. Betsey Clinton died in Michigan. The father of these children came to America when seventy-five years of age to spend his last days with his children and died in Benton county, Indiana, at the age of ninety-seven.

Upon reaching the United States, William Graves located in Niagara county, New York, where he worked on a farm and on the Erie canal for three years. In 1856, the year following his marriage in Niagara county, he bought a farm of eighty acres in Benton county, Indiana, to which he later added until, in February, 1876, at which time he moved with his family to Troy township, this county, he having two years before bought three hundred and twenty acres of railroad land in that township, and there he lived until January, 1908, when he and his wife retired from the farm and moved to South Hutchinson, where they now live, being very comfortably situated there. William Graves, during the active days of his farming operations, was one of the most extensive cattlemen in Reno county, his farm, which he had enlarged by the purchase of additional tracts until it comprised four hundred and eighty acfes, having mainly been given over to the raising of purebred Durham cattle. He is an ardent Republican and during his residence in Troy township served on the school board.

On June 26, 1855, in Niagara county, New York, William Graves was united in marriage to Hannah Yardy, who was born June 21, 1836, in the town of March, Cambridgeshire, England, daughter of William and Anne Yardy, both natives of the same section of England, the former of whom was foreman of a large estate. Hannah Yardy was bereft of her father by death when she was little more than a year old and her mother died when she was fifteen years of age. In 1854 she came, with her sister, Anne, and the latter's husband, William Clark, to America, settling, with them, in Niagara county, New York, where she was married in the following year. To William and Hannah Graves eleven children were born, namely: James, who lives on a farm in Reno township, this county; William, who lives in Benton county, Indiana; Mary, who died in infancy; John R., a bridge carpenter, who lives at Fruita, Colorado; Sarah, who married John Tharp and lives in Hutchinson, this county; Henry A., who lives on one of the old home farms in Troy township; Lily, who married James Dawson and lives on a farm in Troy township; Fannie M., who married Mr. Armour; Rose, who lives in Hutchinson, widow of William Lewis, and Frankie, who died in infancy.

To Thomas G. and Fannie M. (Graves) Armour two children have been born, Phylis, born in 1902, and Thomas G., Jr., August 22, 1914. Mr. and Mrs. Armour have a very pleasant home at 812 North Walnut street built in 1902, and are held in high esteem by their many friends in and about Hutchinson. Mr. Armour is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and of the Knights of Pythias and take a warm interest in the affairs of both of these orders. (Pages 101-104)

LEVI P. HADLEY

Levi P. Hadley, a well-known pioneer of Reno county and honored veteran of the Civil War, who is now living comfortably retired from the more active duties of life on his fine farm in Reno township, where he has made his home since 1874, is a Hoosier, a member of the famous Hadley family, well known throughout central Indiana, which has numbered among its members a judge of the supreme court of Indiana, a treasurer of state and others distinguished in the civic and social life of the old Hoosier state, He was born in Hendricks county, Indiana, not far southwest of the state capital, on February 25, 1840, son of Joab and Mary (Pickett) Hadley, both natives of North Carolina, of Quaker parentage, whose respective parents had settled in the Plainfield neighborhood of Hendricks county at an early day in the settlement of that sterling old Quaker community.

Joab Hadley was one of the leaders in the Quaker community and was the owner of a farm of two hundred acres in Hendricks county. He married Mary Pickett and to this union five children were born, namely: Calvin, who died in Douglas county, Kansas; Atlas, who is still living in Hendricks county, Indiana; Melissa, who married Wesley Kellum and died in Indiana in 1913; Levi P., the immediate subject of this biographical sketch, and Hannah, who married Noah Kellum and died in July, 1915, in Hendricks county, Indiana. Joab Hadley died in 1842 and his widow married, secondly, Jacob Chandler, a prominent member of the Quaker community there, a farmer of means, and to this union three sons were born, John, who lives in Hendricks county, Indiana; Hadley, who died in 1900, and William, who is living at Plainfield, Indiana. Jacob Chandler died on his home farm in Indiana at the age of eighty years and his widow died in 1900, at the age of eighty-four.

Levi P. Hadley was reared on the farm in Hendricks county, Indiana, receiving his elementary education in the district schools of Guilford township, that county, which he supplemented by a short course in Earlham College, at Richmond, that state. On July 28, 1861, he enlisted for service in behalf of the Union in Company E, Twenty-sixth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and served for three years and fifty-five days. During this service he participated for four weeks in the siege of Vicksburg and took part in the memorable Yazoo River expedition. During the battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas, he was" severely wounded in the knee. Upon the conclusion of his military service, Mr. Hadley returned to his home in Indiana and on September 12, 1865, was united in marriage to Mary Jane Jessup, who was born and reared in Hendricks county, that state, and who was generally and lovingly referred to throughout that community as "the best and brightest girl in the township." Mr. Hadley had inherited a tract of sixty-four acres, his portion of his deceased father's estate, and on that small farm he and his wife and their growing little family made their home until 1874, in the fall of which year they came to Kansas, settling on a tract of railroad land in Reno township, this county, where they established their permanent home and where Mr. Hadley is still living.

Mr. Hadley had made a trip to this county in August, 1874, and, despite the horrid scourge of grasshoppers which the pioneers had endured that summer, was so deeply impressed by the possibilities presented hereabout as a choice agricultural region that he bought the north half of section 3 township 26, range 6 west, in Reno township, and immediately made arrangements for the removal of his family to this county, and they arrived here on November 18, following. Mr. and Mrs. Hadley at once took a leading- part in the development of a higher social order in this county and from the very day of their arrival here their influence ever was exerted in behalf of better things. Mr. Hadley was a vigorous and progressive farmer and prospered in his agricultural operations, soon becoming recognized as one of the county's most substantial citizens.

In the absence of an organization of a Society of Friends hereabout, Mr. and Mrs. Hadley identified themselves with the Methodist communion and immediately became leaders in the same. Mrs. Hadley's native ability and strong and admirable force of character quickly brought her to the front in all woman's movements here and she was particularly active in the ranks of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, by both voice and pen, even from the very first days of the prohibition agitation in this*state, laboring in that behalf and will ever be remembered as one of the faithful leaders in the movement which eventually gave to Kansas its state-wide prohibitory law with relation to the liquor traffic She was superintendent of the evangelistic department of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and when the issue of "wet" and "dry" came up in Reno county she swung the tide of battle in the balloting from what had seemed an inevitable "wet" victory to a victory for the "drys." It was generally conceded by all that the colored vote, which then held practically the balance of power, would be cast in favor of the "wets." But nothing daunted by this seeming preponderance against the cause she so ardently was advocating, Mrs. Hadley went right among the colored voters and so strongly influenced them in behalf of the prohibition cause that the county turned a sufficient majority in favor of the "drys," the old politicians ungrudgingly giving her full credit for having altered the whole course of a campaign which they had regarded as closed when their "straw" votes had revealed an apparently overwhelmingly pre-ponderance of "wet" sentiment. Mrs. Hadley was working in behalf of the Evangelistic Union, which organization made her superintendent of the work among the colored people. Mr. Hadley also was a strong supporter of the prohibition cause and was one of the most vigorous and effective champions of the "drys."

In 1889 Mr. and Mrs. Hadley recognized the need of a church in the then rapidly developing manufacturing section of the city of Hutchinson, it being apparent to them that the people living in that section were not properly favored in the matter of a church or other proper social center. Mr. Hadley shouldered the responsibility for the undertaking, signing the notes for the erection of the church building on Avenue F, and for several years, until the new congregation had proved itself self-supporting, practi-cally carried the church along, guaranteeing the minister's salary and seeing to the upkeep of the church. The grateful people who came to form the congregation of the church in Avenue F displayed their appreciation of Air. Hadley's efforts and the church to this day is known as the Hadley Methodist church, a very proper memorial to the unselfish labors of Mr. and Mrs. Hadley in its behalf. Mrs. Hadley died on February 22, 1903, and there was wide mourning throughout the county at the news of her passing, for she was a woman who had done well her part in the social development of this county. To Mr. and Mrs. Hadley three children were born, Herbert, who is managing his father's extensive farm in Reno township and in whose household his venerable father is making his home, married Rosa Burch and has four children, Eldon, Mary, John and Rose Elizabeth; Wilma, who died May 8, 1912, married George B. Manning and lived in the city of Hutchinson and had six children, Marian, Winifred, Jane, Florence, Marie and Esable; Alta G. married William Newling, proprietor of a dairy farm in Reno township, and has two children, George and Nina. (Pages 104-107)

JOHN WESLEY GLASS

John Wesley Glass, a well-known and prosperous farmer of Lincoln township, this county, now practically retired from the active labors of the farm, is a native of the great Keystone state, having been born in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, April 17, 1853, son of Jacob and Sarah Ann (Guthrie) Glass, both natives of that same county and who spent their lives there,
Jacob Glass was a son of George and Hannah Glass, natives of Germany, who came with their respective parents to America in their childhood, both families settling in Franklin county. George Glass was a soldier in the patriot army during the Revolutionary War, and John W. Glass has the watch which his grandfather bought in Baltimore the day he was mustered out of the service at the close of the war in 1783. George Glass was a carpenter, and both he and his wife had been reared in the Mennonite faith, though in later life they were earnest adherents of the Methodist church. He lived to the great age of one hundred and six years, and his wife lived to be ninety-six. Jacob Glass learned the mason's trade in his youth and became a very competent craftsman, in after years becoming a very successful contractor in that line. He married Sarah Ann Guthrie, a neighbor girl who was born in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, daughter of James P. and Isabelle Catherine (Wagonseller) Guthrie, natives of England, who came to America, settling in Chester county, Pennsylvania, later moving to Franklin county, same state, and both of whom died in Chambersburg.

When the Civil War broke out Jacob Glass enlisted in Company A, One Hundred and Twenty-sixth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer In fan try, attached to Hancock's Brigade, with which he served for nine months, at the end of which time he enlisted with a veteran regiment, with which he served to the end of the war, his regiment having been engaged in such noted battles as those of Antietam, Gettysburg and Chancellorsyille. During the time of the rebel invasion of Pennsylvania the city of Chambersburg was burned by the invaders and after the war Jacob Glass filled large contracts for mason work in connection with the rebuilding of the city, having twenty-five or thirty men working under him for years. The battle of Gettysburg was fought within twelve miles of the Glass home and the roar of the battle shook the windows of the house. John W. Glass then was but ten years old, but he was taking an active part on the outskirts of the desperate struggle between the two mighty armies and succeeded in capturing a gun from a straggling rebel soldier who was on the way to the battle and he still has that gun, in proof of his claim that although only ten years old at the time he silenced one rebel gun at Gettysburg. After the battle the lad carried water to the wounded on the battlefield, vivid memories of that great battle still being retained by Mr. Glass.

In 1859 Jacob Glass had bought a farm at the edge of the town of Scotland, in Franklin county, and moved his family onto that place, which was the family home for years. In their declining years, Jacob Glass and wife moved to Green village, that same county, and there spent their last days, the former dying in October, 1896, at the age of seventy-eight, and the latter in 1903, at the age of eighty-six. Both were life-long members of the Methodist church, in which faith their children were reared, and Jacob Glass had been for many years both a trustee and a steward of the church. He was a Republican and had served very efficiently as sheriff of Franklin county. He and his wife were the parents of nine children, as follow: James A., who was shot and killed by a rebel spy at his home; Isabelle Catherine, who married John J. Allen, both now dead; George A., a bachelor, who died at Hagerstown, Maryland, at the age of sixty-two; Jacob W., a Maryland merchant, now deceased; John W., the immediate subject of this biographical sketch; Hannah Jane, who died in infancy; Sarah Elizabeth, who died at the age of fifteen years; Charles S., a merchant, who died at Greencastle, Pennsylvania, in October, 1915, and William E., a merchant of Scotland, Pennsylvania.

John W. Glass received his early education in the school in the neigh-borhood of his home and all his life has added to that by wide reading and close observation until he is regarded as a very well-informed man. He has traveled quite extensively and has had a varied experience. He claims the distinction of being the only man in Reno county who has met every President of the United States from Lincoln to Wilson and has shaken hands with all save Mr. Taft, the latter of whom was nursing a badly bruised hand, the result of too much handshaking during a previous reception, at the time he had the honor of meeting him. At the age of twenty years, Mr. Glass left home and started firing a locomotive on the Pennsylvania railroad between Harrisburg and Altoona. After about eighteen months thus engaged he was caught in a nasty wreck and decided that the life of a railroader was not the life for him. After reaching that conclusion, Mr. Glass pursued the less hazardous life of a farmer for thirteen months, working as a farm hand on farms in Mahoning and Stark counties, Ohio, and in March, 1875, went to Rich wood, in Union county, same state, and worked on a farm in that neighborhood until the following October, at which time he rented a farm near Prospect, Marion county. In 1877 he married the niece of the man who owned the farm and continued to make his home on that place until 1881, in which year he moved to Prospect, where he was engaged in the mercantile business until January 1, 1886. lie then sold his store and came to Kansas, settling in Meade county, where he pre-empted a quarter of a section of land, which he "proved up" and sold, and in the fall of 1887 moved to the town of Meade, where he opened a general store, which he conducted until March 1, 1890, on which date he sold out and came to this county, locating at Hutchinson, where he bought the Daniel Sickling meat market, at 10 South Main street, which he sold in the spring of 1891 and began working in the Hutchinson packing house, soon being promoted-to the position of foreman in the same, and was thus engaged until 1894, in which year he engaged in the feed business at 4 South Main street, in the same city. In October, of that same year, he sold his feed store and rented the E. L. Myers farm in Reno township, where he made his home for five years, at the end of which time, in the spring of 1905, he moved to a farm in Lincoln township that he had bought the previous fall, the same being one-quarter of section 18, in that township, and there he has made his home ever since, being very well established and quite comfortably situated. Upon taking possession he built a good farm house on his place and in 1910 built a fine, modern, concrete barn, which he declares is as thoroughly finished and as well equipped as any barn in the county. Upon engaging seriously in the agricultural business," Mr. Glass went into the registered Shorthorn cattle business, also raising and marketing same mules, and has made money out of his live-stock undertakings, besides being very successful in his general farming operations, being now regarded as one of the substantial farmers in his part of the county. In April, 1915, Mr. Glass was struck by an automobile and severely injured, the result of his injuries having left him so painfully crippled that he now is practically retired from the active labors of his farm, though still possessed of his old ability as a manager and director of affairs thereon.

On December 9, 1877, John W. Glass was united in marriage to Emma A. Freeman, who was born in Marion county, Ohio, daughter of Alvin A. and Louisa (Rush) Freeman, the former of whom was born in Marion county, Ohio, and the latter on the Atlantic ocean while her parents were coming to this country, and to this union the following children have been born, namely: Charles Orlando, born on April 27, 1881, who married Gertrude Minner, and is now a successful building contractor at Tampa, Florida; Lulu, August 23, 1883, who married C. E. V. Coleman and lives in Reno township, this county; Welcome E., April 1, 1886 who married Marjorie Graves and lives in Reno township; Hazel, July 29, 1888, who married A. G. Siegrist and lives in Reno township; Jacob Winfield, December 8, 1890, a teacher in the Reno county schools, who makes his home with his parents, and Mabel Juanita, May 13, 1893, also a school teacher, who lives at home. Mr. and Mrs. Glass are earnest members of the Methodist church and their children have been reared in that faith. Mr. Glass has been a class leader in the Methodist church continuously since 1875 and upon moving to Reno township, in 1900, assisted in a Sunday school which had been organized in the Poplar school house. Out of that well-directed movement grew the organization of the Poplar Methodist Episcopal church, and for eight years after the church was built he served very earnestly and very efficiently as president of the board of trustees of the church. Mr. and Mrs. Glass for years have been regarded as among the leaders in the community life of their neighborhood and they and their family are held in high esteem throughout that entire section of the county. Mr. Glass is a Republican and ever has given a good citizen's attention to the political affairs of the county, though never having been included in the office-seeking class. (Pages 107-110)

HECTOR KENNETH McLEOD

Though a comparatively newcomer in Reno county, H. K. McLeod, president of the Reno State Bank at Hutchinson, has firmly established himself in the regard of those connected with the commercial and financial circles of this county and is being generally recognized as one of the leading financiers of this section of the state. Hector Kenneth McLeod was born in Prince Edward Island, Canada, on September 25, 1868, son of Donald and Anne (McKenzie) McLeod, both natives of that same place, the former born on January 20, 1826, and the latter October 10, 1836, and both are still living. Donald McLeod is the son of Angus McLeod, and Anne (McKenzie) McLeod is the daughter of Hector Kenneth McKenzie, both born and reared near Belfast, Ireland, of Scotch Highlander descent and both of whom were elders in the Presbyterian church for more than fifty years. In 1804 Angus McLeod and Hector Kenneth McKenzie emigrated, with their respective families, to Prince Edward Island, landing from the good ship "Polly," that having been about the time the French were driven out of Arcadia, an event made famous by Longfellow's "Evangeline," and there both the McLeods and the McKenzies became farming people.

Donald McLeod was reared on the paternal farm in Prince Edward Island and upon reaching manhood engaged in the mercantile business at Eldon, in his native island, and he and his wife still live there, though he has been retired from business for the past thirty years. He has been an elder in the Presbyterian church for the past forty-five years and is regarded as one of the leaders in his community. He and his wife have a very pleasant home and one hundred acres of land. To them four children were born, namely: Rev. M. J. McLeod, pastor of St. Nicholas German Reformed church in New York City, established in 1728, the oldest church in that city, and attended by the old Dutch families of Gotham's "400;" Davina, who married Dr. Harry D. Johnson and lives at Charlottetown; Hector Kenneth, the immediate subject of this biographical sketch, and Ada Belle, who married Arthur G. Putnam, manager of the Royal Bank at Vancouver, British Columbia.

Hector Kenneth McLeod, in the days of his youth, spent his school vacations in the store of his father, acquiring an excellent commercial education. The schooling he received in the public schools of his home town was supplemented by a course at Prince of Wales College, from which he was graduated in 1890, after which he became connected with the legal department of the Phoenix Insurance Company, of Brooklyn, New York, and was stationed in the company's offices at Chicago, where he remained until 1899. In the meantime he had been sedulously pursuing his legal studies, and in 1898 he was graduated from the Chicago College of Law. In 1899 he came to Kansas, locating at Ellis, where he organized the Ellis State Bank and was at the head of the same, acting as cashier for thirteen years, at the end of which time, in 1913, he bought an interest in the Reno State Bank, of Hutchinson, this county, and was made vice-president of the same. He then moved to Hutchinson and on January i, 1915, was elected president of the bank. Upon leaving Ellis, Mr. McLeod did not sever his connection with the Ellis State Bank, and is now vice-president of that institution.

On June 26, 1901, Hector Kenneth McLeod was united in marriage to Helen E. Burbank, who was born in Montreal, Canada, daughter of Robert and Emily Burbank, who came to Kansas in 1890, settling at Ellis, where Robert Burbank, who is now deceased, was for some years engaged in mercantile business, and where his widow is still living. To Mr. and Mrs. McLeod two children have been born, Donald Angus, born on September 3, 1903, and Hector Kenneth, Jr., May 10, 1907. (Pages 110-112)

SAMUEL D. GASTON

To the late Samuel D. Gaston, for many years a prominent farmer and cattleman of this county, belonged the honor of having been the first homesteader south of the Arkansas river in Reno county. When he filed his claim there the stakes marking the site of the city of Hutchinson had not yet been driven and the county had not yet been organized. He took a leading part in the development of social and economic conditions in his neighborhood and was a substantial and useful citizen, whose memory ever will be cherished thereabout.

Samuel D. Gaston was born in the county of Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia), April 24, 1827, son of John and Mary (Farris) Gaston, it that the ancestor of the Gaston family in America was a younger brother of a king pf France, and held a stronghold in northern France. The king both natives of that state, members of old colonial families. Tradition has sent a strong force against him, but he and his followers defeated the king's forces, routing them utterly. Gaston knew, however, that his victory was only temporary; that he could not long hold out against the resources of France, and believing that discretion was the better part of valor, crossed the channel and found refuge in Ireland, becoming there the founder of a numerous family, a descendant of one branch of which emigrated to America in an early day in the settlement of the colonies and became the founder of the family in this country. John Gaston was reared a farmer in Virginia and there married Mary Farris, some years later, when his son, Samuel D. was a child, locating in Delaware county, Ohio, where he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives. They were earnest members of the Presbyterian church and their children were reared in that faith.

Samuel D. Gaston was reared on a farm in Delaware county, Ohio, and was married in that neighborhood. Shortly thereafter he moved to Illinois, his elder brother having previously established a large stock farm in McLean county, that state, and after a sometime residence in that county moved over into Logan county, same state, where he bought a farm, where he remained until he and his family came to Kansas in the spring of 1871. Upon arrived in this state the Gastons settled at Paoli, in Miami county, where they spent the season. In August, of that year, Samuel D. Gaston came over into the section now comprised in Reno county, hunting buffaloes. He was so well pleased with the appearance of the land hereabout that he filed a homestead claim on the southwest quarter of section 4, township 24, range 5 west, which, when the county was later organized, lay in Lincoln township, and in 1914, upon the organization of Yoder township, became a part of the latter township. Samuel D. Gaston's claim was the first filed on land south of the river in Reno county. At that time there was not even a shack on the site of the present flourishing city of Hutchinson and the county had , not been organized. Upon filing his claim, Mr. Gaston built a sod shanty on his tract and then returned to Paoli, where he wintered with his family. In the following February he and his eldest son, S. Clinton Gaston, started for Reno county, and on March 2, 1872, reached their homestead. Mr. Gaston found that a party of Texas cowboys who had been herding cattle in that locality had taken possession of his sod shanty, but there was no difficulty in establishing his rights and he set about preparing the place for the reception of his family, his wife and the other children joining him and his eldest son in the little sod shanty on the plain in May. There Samuel D. Gaston established his home, later erecting a more suitable residence, which, in 1893, he supplanted by the fine, large house which now marks the homestead, and there he spent the rest of his life, becoming a prosperous farmer and cattleman. He started his herd in 1874 and for years was actively engaged in cattle raising, in which he did well, at the time of his death, in June, 1904, being regarded as one of the most substantial citizens of that part of the county.

In 1854 Samuel D. Gaston was united in marriage in Ohio to Hester A. White, who was born in Morrow county, that state, daughter of Timothy and Sarah White, natives of Ohio, the former of whom was a well known practicing physician in that section, who later moved from Ohio to Missouri, thence to Illinois and thence to Paoli, Kansas, where Mrs. White died, Doctor White's last days being spent at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Gaston, in this county. To Samuel D. and Hester A. (White) Gaston seven children were born, as follow: Samuel Clinton, who is managing the old home farm in Yoder township; Ida, now deceased, who married David Taylor, of Hutchinson, this county; William E., who is engaged in the life insurance business at Wichita, this state; Alice, who married Harry Wainer, a well-known farmer of Lincoln township, this county; John Walter, an extensive wheat farmer, of Pawnee county, this state; Grace, who married A. H. McHarg, a Lincoln township farmer, and Lee, unmarried, who lives with his eldest brother on the old home farm. Mrs. Hester A. Gaston, widow of Samuel D. Gaston, died on October 17, 1915.

Samuel Clinton Gaston, eldest son of Samuel D. and Hester A. (White) Gaston, was born in Delaware county, Ohio, in 1855, and received his early education in the district school in the neighborhood of his home there. He was fifteen years old when he came to this county with his father, and thus may be regarded as one of the very earliest settlers of Reno county. He went through all the hardships of pioneer life hereabout and has witnessed the complete development of this region from its primitive state to its present high state of cultivation. ' He has a distinct recollection of the days when the Santa Fe construction crew was driving the grade stakes along the line of the road where the populous city of Hutchinson is now situated, but on which there was then not a sign of the coming city, and also recalls having seen C. C. Hutchinson, founder of the city of Hutchinson, at Harness shack on the north side of the river, before Hutchinson had decided where to set the stakes for the city he even then had in his mind's eye. The elder Gaston was much troubled with rheumatism and even from the days of his young manhood, S. C. Gaston took a lead in the work of developing the homestead. In 1902 he opened a general store in the new town of Yoder and was appointed first postmaster of that village, but the next year returned to the farm where he ever since has continued to reside. He is unmarried and he and his youngest brother, Lee, quite successfully "bach it" together in the old home. For several years they were engaged in the wholesale dairy business, with a fine herd of Jerseys. S. C. Gaston is an active and influential Republican and was elected first trustee of Yoder township upon the creation of that civic unit in 1914. He takes an earnest interest in general public affairs and is looked upon as a substantial and progressive citizen. (Pages 112-114)

DAVID E. RICHHART

David E. Richhart, a well-known and well-to-do farmer of this county, now living at Nickerson, is a native of Illinois, having been born on a farm near Jacksonville, that state, November 2, 1855, son of Henry and Betty (Taylor) Richhart, the former a native of Ohio and the latter of England, who became pioneer residents of this county, where their last days were spent.
Henry Richhart, an honored veteran of the Civil War, was born near Chillicothe, in Ross county, Ohio, September 2j, 1829, son of Henry and Susanna Richhart, natives of Pennsylvania, and farming people, who moved to Ohio in early days and spent the rest of their lives in the Chillicothe neighborhood. They were members of the Methodist church and substantial people in that community. The younger Henry Richhart was reared in Ohio and when a young man moved to Illinois, where he became a farmer. On February 10, 1852, he married, at Aaronsville, that state, Betty Taylor, who was born in England on May 9, 1834, and who was seven years old when her parents, Ernest and Alice Taylor, came to this country from England, landing at New Orleans in 1841 and making their way up the river to Illinois, where they entered a homestead of eighty acres and spent the rest of their lives there. In August, 1861, Henry Richhart enlisted for service in the Civil War in the Twenty-first Regiment, Missouri Volunteer Infantry, with which he served for three years and seven months. He was in the battles of Bull Run, Vicksburg, Chattanooga, Charleston and a number of other important engagements, besides marching with Sherman to the sea and from the effects of powder burns lost his sight. In 1873 he and his family came from Illinois to Kansas and he homesteaded a tract of land on the border between Reno and Rice counties, part of the land lying in each county, and there he established his home, remaining there until 1880, in which year he and his wife retired from the farm and moved to Nickerson, where their last days were spent, her death occurring on May 14, 1903, and his on May 9, 1906. Both were earnest members of the Methodist church and were among the organizers of a church of that denomination in their neighborhood in pioneer days, Henry Richhart serving as a trustees of the same to the time of his death. For years also he was a justice of the peace and did his part well in the pioneer community. To him and his wife but two children were born, the subject of this sketch having had a sister, Alice, born on September 10, 1854, who married Daniel Van Natton, a farmer living north of Nickerson, and she died at Nicker-son, May 22, 1907, without issue.

David Richhart was about eighteen years old when he came to Kansas with his parents, in 1873, and his schooling was completed in the school in district No. 24, one mile east of Nickerson, now recalled as the old Nickerson school. He married in the fall of 1885 and homesteaded a farm not far from that of his father on the Reno-Rice county border, and proceeded to develop the same. He was a successful farmer and stock raiser and from the very first prospered in his operations, gradually enlarging his land holdings until he now is the owner of a fine farm of six hundred and forty acres, one-half of which lies in this county and the remainder in Rice county. In 1898 he retired from the farm and he and his family moved to Nickerson, where they are very comfortably and very pleasantly situated. Mr. Richhart is a director of the State Bank of Nickerson and a stockholder in the Farmers Elevator Company, of the same place, long having been regarded as one of the most substantial and public-spirited men in that place.

On October 15, 1885, David Richhart was united in marriage to Mary Cochran, who Was born in Pennsylvania on April 12, 1859, daughter of Willam and Margaret (Wilson) Cochran, and to this union three daughters have been born, Ethel Lucile, born on November 26, 1889; Alma Margaret, November 2, 1891, and Letha Elizabeth, July 6, 1893; the two elder are teachers in the Reno and McPherson county public schools and all three are graduates of the Reno county high school. Ethel and Alma are graduates of the Southwestern College at Wingate, Kansas, and Letha, the youngest, is taking the domestic science and art course at the Kansas State Agricultural College. Mrs. Richhart and her daughters are members of the Methodist church at Nickerson, and the family takes an earnest part in the general' good works of the community. Mr. Richhart is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and of the Anti-Horse-Thief Association, in the affairs of which organizations he takes a warm interest.

Mrs. Richhart's father, William Cochran, was born in Ireland on Feb-ruary 22, 1812, and when seven years of age came to America with his parents and his sisters, Elizabeth and Jane, who settled near Jamestown, in Mercer county, Pennsylvania. Elizabeth Cochran married Samuel Porter and Jane married Alexander McElhanney, the two families making their homes near the home farm, remaining there the rest of their lives. They were devout members of the Reformed Presbyterian (Covenanter) church. There William Cochran grew to manhood and in 1843, Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, married Margaret Wilson, who was born in 1820, daughter of Thomas and Margaret (Adams) Wilson, the former of whom died on August 14, 1862, and the latter September 26, 1865. Thomas Wilson was the son of Ezekiel and Jane Wilson, who came to America from Scotland and settled near Newcastle, Pennsylvania, where their last days were spent. They also were earnest members of the Reformed Presbyterian church. To William Cochran and wife nine children were born, Nancy Ann (deceased), Samuel R., Margaret S., Thomas Wilson, David H. (deceased), William R., Mary T. (wife of Mr. Richhart), Elizabeth Porter and Allen. (Pages 114-117)

FRED W. COOTER

Fred W. Cooter, president of the State Exchange Bank of Hutchinson, is a native son of Kansas and has lived in this state all his life. Though not born in Reno county, he has lived here since his early infancy and has never known another home, being therefore, very properly regarded as one of the real sons of Reno. He was born in Leavenworth, this state, September 12, 1872, son of George W. and*Elizabeth (Hartford) Cooter, the former of whom, now living retired in Hutchinson, was former treasurer of this county and for many years one of its most prominent and influential citizens. In a biographical sketch relating to the elder Cooter, presented elsewhere in this volume, there is set out a comprehensive history of the Cooter family in this county, to which the reader is respectfully referred in this connection for details regarding the genealogy of the subject of this biographical review.

Fred W. Cooter was but one year old when his parents moved to Reno county and became homesteaders in Little River township they being among the very earliest settlers and pioneers in that section of the county. He was reared on the homestead farm and received his education in the public schools and a business college course, between terms of school, taking his full part in the labor of developing the home place. When his father was elected county treasurer, in 1891, he moved with him to Hutchinson and served as deputy treasurer during the two terms in that office filled by the elder Cooter, and thereafter served two years as deputy treasurer under W. E. Bums, his father's successor. In 1898 Mr. Cooter was made assistant cashier of the State Exchange Bank of Hutchinson, and presently was elected cashier of that institution, serving in that capacity until his election to the presidency of the bank in October, 1913, since which time he has devoted his best energies to the success and development of that excellent financial institution. Mr. Cooter is an energetic, enterprising and public-spirited man of affairs and holds a high position in the commercial and financial life of the community.

In 1895 Fred W. Cooter was united in marriage to Myrtle Sympson. Both are members of the Episcopal church and both he and his wife are deeply interested in all measures designed to advance the general, moral and social interests of the community and take an interested part in local good works. Mr. Cooter is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and takes a warm interest in the affairs of that organization and is chairman of the finance committee of the Grand Lodge. He has served as a member of the board of education of Hutchinson.
(Pages 117-118)

JACOB A. YOUNG

Jacob A. Young, a well-known pioneer farmer of Roscoe township, this county, and an honored veteran of the Civil War, is a native of the great Keystone state, having been born in Miflin county, Pennsylvania, February 4, 1845, son of John and Harriet (Rudy) Young, both natives of that same county, the former of whom was the son of John Young, a native of Germany, who settled in Miflin county upon coming to this country and there established the family.

The younger John Young was reared in Miflin county, was married there and there he continued to make his home until 1864, in which year he came West and settled in Cedar county, Iowa, where he lived on a rented farm until 1877, when he came to this county and joined his son, Jacob A., the subject of this sketch, who had located here three years before, and here he died three years later, in 1880. He was a Republican and he and his wife were members of the Dunkard church, in which faith they reared their children, twelve in number, Jacob A., Lewis, Daniel, Amanda, Noah, Adam, John, Alison, James, Abigail, Ellen and Elizabeth, all of whom are still living save Lewis, Daniel, Elizabeth and Alison.

Jacob A. Young was reared on the home farm in Miflin county, Pennsylvania, receiving his education in the neighboring district school, and in 1862, he then being but seventeen years of age, enlisted for service in the Union army during the Civil War, in Company I, Twelfth Pennsylvania Reserve, and while thus connected participated in the seven-days battle before Richmond. He then was stricken with typhoid fever and upon his recovery was discharged on a physician's certificate of disability. Later he re-enlisted and, as a member of Company B, One Hundred and Forty-seventh Regi-ment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, served until the close of the war, during which service he was with Sherman to the sea. Upon the conclusion of his military service, Mr. Young rejoined his parents, who had meanwhile moved to Iowa, and in that state, in 1870, married Sarah E. Hagarty, daughter of S. K. Hagarty and wife, and jn 1874 came to Kansas with his wife and two children, entered a soldier's claim to a tract of land in Roscoe township, this county, established his home there and has ever since resided on that homestead, he and his wife long having been regarded as among the leading pioneer residents of that part of the county. To his original homestead, Mr. Young has added by purchase until he now is the owner of three hundred and twenty acres and is looked upon as a very substantial citizen. He has taken an active part in local politics and has served as trustee, clerk and treasurer of Roscoe township.

To Jacob A. and Sarah E. (Hagarty) Young nine children have been born, as follow: S. E., Albert, of Iowa; J. P., Rebecca, of Wichita; Rosemary, also of Wichita; Delia, Pearl, of Wichita, who for two years served as assistant to the probate judge; Elizabeth and Helen, all of whom are living. Mr. and Mrs. Young and their family are members of the Presbyterian church at Pretty Prairie and are active in the work of that church. Mr. Young is an Odd Fellow, and both he and his wife are active members of the Daughters of Rebekah, in the affairs of which organization they take a warm interest. (Pages 118-119)

FREDERICK HIRST

Frederick Hirst, trustee of Center township, this county, and one of the best-known farmers of the Partridge neighborhood, is a native of Wisconsin, having been born in the town of Darlington, that state, August 24, 1868, son of George and Elizabeth (Bilbrough) Hirst, both of whom were born in the city of Leeds, England, the former on June 21, 1825, and the latter May 19, 1828.

George Hirst was trained to the cabinet-maker's trade in his native city and also obtained a fine practical knowledge of the photographer's art. He married in 1855 and he and his wife at once came to the United States, settling at Janesville, Wisconsin. There Mr. Hirst engaged in the cabinet making business and made his home there for several years, at the end of which time he moved to Darlington, Wisconsin, and established a photograph gallery, which he operated until 1872, in the spring of which year he came to this county and opened a photograph gallery in the promising village of Hutchinson, then but a year or two old. The next spring he brought his family here from Wisconsin and in that same year homesteaded the southeast quarter of section 6, in Lincoln township, this county. The next year, 1874, he established his home on the homestead tract and was living there when the grasshopper plague swept over this section, the voracious insects eating the siding off his house. In 1878 George Hirst turned the photograph gallery in Hutchinson over to his eldest son, George, and thereafter devoted his whole time to his farm, spending the rest of his life there. He and his wife were Episcopalians in their religious persuasion, but during their residence in this county were not affiliated with any local church. Mr. Hirst was a Democrat and for several years served as justice of the peace in and for Lincoln township. He died on July 25, 1898, and his widow survived him for sixteen years, her death occurring on September 25, 1914. They were the parents of seven children, namely: Hannah, now deceased, who married John Eaton; George, Jr., a well-known farmer of Lincoln township, who died in the fall of 1915 and a memorial sketch of whom is presented elsewhere in this volume; Lida, who married George A. Woodward and died in 1885; Mary Ann, who died in childhood; Samuel, of Hutchinson, who for years operated Hirst's photographic studio in that city and who is now a traveling salesman for a photograph supply house; Frederick, the subject of this sketch, and William, a farmer of Lincoln town-ship, a sketch of whom is presented elsewhere in this volume.

Frederick Hirst was five years old when his parents moved to Hutchin-son from Wisconsin in 1873. The next year the family moved to the homestead farm in Lincoln township and there he grew to manhood, receiving his education in the district school in the neighborhood of the home farm and assisting in the development of the homestead until his marriage, in 1894. Four years before his marriage he had bought the south half of the southeast quarter of section 5, in Lincoln township, and after his marriage established his home on that place. A year later, however, he sold that farm and bought the southeast quarter of section 11, in Center township, where he ever since has made his home and where he is very pleasantly situated, the excellent farm house and other improvements on the place bespeaking the progressive character of the owner's farming methods. In 1914 Mr. Hirst bought eighty acres of his father's old place in Lincoln township and is also the owner of a one-third interest in a three-hundred-and-twenty-acre tract of pasture land, the west half of section 31 in'Troy township. Mr. Hirst is a Democrat and is at present serving as trustee of Center township and as school director for eighteen years, giving his most thoughtful attention to the administration of the affairs of that important office. He is a member of the local lodge of the Modern Woodmen and takes a warm interest in the affairs of that organization.

On March 1, 1894, Frederick Hirst was united in marriage to Lucy Walter, who was born in Reno township, this county, December 16, 1873, daughter of Christopher and Eva (Lohr) Walter, both now deceased, who were pioneers of-that section of the county, having homesteaded the south-east quarter of section 30 in Reno township in 1872, thus having been among the very earliest settlers of Reno county, and to .this union four children have been born, as Follow: George Walter, born on July 15, 1896, now attending an automobile school in Kansas City, Missouri; Bert Harvey, July 25, 1898, who is attending the high school at Partridge; Eva Marie, April 16, 1907, and Frederick, Jr., November 30, 1914. (Pages 119-121)

WILLIAM F. CARSON

William F. Carson, a well-known farmer of Valley township, this county, an honored veteran of the Civil War and a pioneer settler of Reno county, is a native of Ohio, having been born on a farm in Brown county, that state, September 24, 1840, son of William G. and Elizabeth (Finley) Carson, both natives of that same state, the former of whom was born in Ross county and the latter in Brown county.

William G. Carson was reared on a farm in Ross county and upon reaching manhood's estate rented a farm there, after his marriage, and lived there until 1856, when he and his family drove through to Woodford county, Illinois, where he rented a farm and made his home. His wife died there in 1860, at the age of forty-two years, and in 1868 he went to Adams county, Iowa, where he spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring in 1892, at the age of eighty-four years. He was a Republican and he and his wife were members of the United Presbyterian church, in the rigid tenets of which faith their children were reared. There were ten of these children, namely: Mrs. Margaret Parker, now living in Nebraska; William F., the subject of this biographical sketch; Mary, unmarried, who is making her home with her brother-in-law in Iowa; Samuel, who lives in Idaho; Jane, now deceased, who married James Ramsey; Wilson, who died in California in 1915; Sarah, who died in her early girlhood; James, a Nebraska farmer; Ebenezer, who was last heard from in Alaska, and Cyrus, who died in infancy.

William F. Carson was about sixteen years old when he moved with his parents to Illinois, and he finished his schooling in the latter state. On August 13, 1862, he enlisted in Company C, Seventy-seventh Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and served with that regiment until the close of the Civil War, being mustered out at Mobile, Alabama, July 10, 1865. Mr. Carson participated in all the activities of his regiment up to the day of the great charge during the siege of Vicksburg, at which time he was captured by the enemy, May 22, 1863. The next day he was paroled and he at once returned home on parole, where he remained until August 28, on which day he reported at the parole camp at Benton Barracks. In November, 1863, he was exchanged and at once rejoined his regiment, then at Brady City. Following the Red River campaign the Seventy-seventh Illinois was sent to New Orleans for garrison duty, after which it was sent on to Mobile, in the siege and capture of which city it took a prominent part, and after participating in the reduction of Spanish Fort and Ft. Blakeley returned to Mobile, where it was mustered out.

Upon the conclusion of his military service, Mr. Carson returned to Illinois and began farming on his own account. He married in 1867, bought a farm, which he presently increased by further purchase and there made his home until he came to Kansas early in the spring of 1878. He disposed of his interests in Illinois and on March 11, 1878, chartered a car in which to transport his belongings and came to this county, his destination being Hutchinson. After looking about a bit he bought an eighty-acre tract in section 30, Valley township, and there established his home in a one-room house, which served as a dwelling until he later erected a more comfortable dwelling. There he lived for six years, at the end of which time, in 1884, he bought another "eighty" in the same section and moved onto the latter, where he still makes his home and where he and his wife are very pleasantly and comfortably situated. Mr. Carson was a Republican until the formation of the Progressive party in 1912, since which time he has favored the latter party. In 1894 he was elected justice of the peace for Valley township for two years. He is an active member of Joe Hooker Post, Grand Army of the Republic, at Hutchinson, and takes a warm interest in the affairs of that patriotic organization.

On December 25, 1867, by Rev. J., W. West, William F. Carson was united in marriage to Phoebe J. Baird, who was born on August 11, 1840, in Brown county, Ohio, Mrs. Carson's native county, but who was not acquainted with him until she moved to Illinois with her parents, Harvey and Margaret (Kirkpatrick) Baird, the former a native of North Carolina and the latter of Ohio, who moved to LaSalle county, Illinois, in 1856, and there spent the rest of their lives on a farm. To this union but one child has been born, a daughter, Rachel Jane, who married Pliny Coberly, a well-known farmer of Valley township, and has four children, Clyde, Elsie, Lucile and Harry. Mr. and Mrs. Carson are members of the Valley Presbyterian church, of which Mr. Carson was for some years a member of the board of trustees.

Mrs. Carson has a cupboard of walnut which was made over sixty years ago in Ohio from walnut lumber taken off her father's farm, her sister also having a table of the same. Mr. Carson has a piece of the flagstaff that was shot off by Farragut at Fort Hinman. He had many narrow escapes, having his canteen pierced by bullets, also his tin cup on two occasions. The Carsons burned corn stalks the first two winters to keep warm. Pages121-123)