Saline County, KS Biographies

Saline County Biographies

JOHN C. FAHRING
John C. Fahring, one of the enterprising and successful agriculturists residing on section 20, Gypsum Township, Saline County, was born in Woodford County, Ky., January 31, 1846, and is the fifth in order of birth in a family of eight children. Mention is made of his parents in the sketch of G.R. Fahring on another page of this work. When John was quite a young lad his parents removed to Franklin County, Ky., where the family continued to reside for about eight years, and then became residents of Scott County, Ky. Mr. Fahring of this sketch there made his home until 1870, when, in the spring of that year, he came to Saline County, Kan., and located on section 20, Gypsum Township. He has since been a resident of this locality and is one of its oldest settlers, having witnessed almost its entire growth.
For some time after coming to Kansas, Mr. Fahring followed the blacksmith's trade, which he had learned in his native State and had followed as a means of livelihood until coming to the West. He continued to work at that occupation in connection with farming for some time, but now devotes his time and attention exclusively to agricultural pursuits. As his financial resources have increased, he has made additional purchases of land, until his possessions now aggregate eight hundred acres, all located in Gypsum Township. Upon his home farm he has made excellent improvements, placing the land under a high state of cultivation. Its neat appearance indicates the supervision of a careful manager, who thoroughly understands his business and is industrious, practical and progressive.
The lady who now bears the name of Mrs. Fahring was in her maidenhood Miss Rhoda M. Ellis. She was born in Owen County, Ky., on the 28th of October, 1845. The marriage of our subject and his estimable wife was celebrated in Scott County, Ky., April 28, 1875, and by their union have been born six children, three sons and three daughters, who, in order of birth, are as follows: Rosa I., John C., Claude, Clyde R., Martha and Bettie I. The family circle yet remains unbroken and the children are still with their parents.
Socially, Mr. Fahring is a member of the Knights of Pythias. He takes an active interest in public affairs, especially in those enterprises calculated to prove of public benefit or promote the general welfare. The cause of education finds in him a warm friend, and he does much for the advancement of the schools. He has served as School Treasurer and in other school offices, and has held the office of Township Treasurer. Mr. Fahring has been the architect of his own fortune, and has built wisely and well. All he possesses has been acquired through his own efforts, and a handsome property is now his. Himself and wife rank high in social circles, and their home is the abode of hospitality.
Portrait and Biographical Record of Dickinson, Saline, McPherson and Marion counties. 1893
Pages 232 - 234

ORRIN HOWARD FORD
Orrin Howard Ford is probate judge of Saline County. His election to that office shows the confidence the people of the county have in his probity, ability and conscientious devotion to his every public or private responsibility assigned to him. Mr. Ford has a very creditable record as a farmer in Saline County, was born in that county, and his record is consequently an open book to his many friends and political associates.
He was born on a farm seven miles northeast of Salina, July 8, 1876, a son of Orrin James and Minerva (Armstrong) Ford. His father was born in Ohio October 31, 1835, and spent all his active career as a farmer except during the Civil war, when he was a teamster in the Union army. He was a Kansas pioneer, having come in 1864 and taking up a homestead on what was then the western frontier in Saline County. It was difficult to make a living by the simple pursuit of agriculture in those days. He raised some cattle, hunted buffalo, which had not yet been driven off the plains, and he endured all the hardships of pioneer life, living in a rude and simple dwelling and waiting patiently for the tide of civilization to catch up with him. On one of his excursions in a severe winter he had his feet frozen. He also proved a helpful man to others who followed him to Saline County, and his name should be honorably mentioned as one of the pioneers of that part of Kansas. He was one of the five persons who organized the First Christian Church in Salina. His death occurred on his original homestead August 20, 1876, when his son Judge Ford was only a few weeks old.
On April 21, 1870, in Saline County, Orrin J. Ford married Miss Minerva Armstrong, who was born May 6, 1847, in a log house on a farm in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, a daughter of George and Ruth (Woodward) Armstrong. Her father was a native of Virginia and her mother of Pennsylvania. George Armstrong died in Ohio in 1864 and his widow passed away in Saline County, Kansas, February 24, 1897. In the Armstrong family were seven children, four daughters and three sons, namely: Mary E., deceased; William K., who was killed while a soldier in the Union army; Davis W., now a farmer in Oklahoma; Minerva; Martha Ann, wife of Henry A. Northrop, of San Gabriel, California; Matilda, wife of R.D. Calkins, a farmer in Saline County; and Joseph W., also a Saline County farmer.
Judge Ford was one of the four children of his parents. They were all born in Saline County, and their names are as follows: Arthur Francis, who was born February 6, 1871, and married April 21, 1912, Mattie Highsmith; Jospehine, who was born September 6, 1872, now resides with her mother and is first reader in the First Church of Christ, Scientist, at Salina; and James Wilbur, who was born May 1, 1874, and was married June 4, 1908, to Mary Spohn. Judge Ford's mother married for her second husband on February 4, 1879, Thomas Conway, who died May 25, 1905, leaving his widow and three sons, Clarence C., Walter M. and William B.
The early life of Judge Ford was spent on his father's farm in Saline County. He had the advantages of the district schools and also the old Salina Normal, and with the class of 1898 graduated from the Kansas Wesleyan Business College. On account of his father's early death he had little capital to go on when a boy, and in fact earned practically all the money needed to complete his higher education. He turned his serious attention to farming and occupied and operated his father's original homestead until 1908. He then retired from active farm work and has since lived in the City of Salina.
Always a factor in public affairs in his home township, his name has become more and more widely known over the county and that section of Kansas. In 1910 he was nominated and elected on the republican ticket as clerk of the District Court of Saline County. He was re-elected to that office in 1912, and held it four years. In 1916 came his present honor in election as probate judge. He has many splendid qualifications for that office. He knows the people of Saline County, they have confidence in his judgment, and his administration of probate affairs has been marked by great tract and absolute impartiality.
Judge Ford is a member of the Independent Order Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America, and he and his family belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church. On December 24, 1914, at Salina, he married Miss Florence May Bailes, who was born August 4, 1891, in Pennsylvania, a daughter of John K. and Jessie M. (Medlicott) Bailes. Her father was born at Steubenville, Ohio, September 13, 1856, is an architect by profession and since 1910 has practiced that art in Salina. Mrs. Ford's mother was born in England November 7, 1854, and came to America with a brother when she was eighteen years of age. Mr. and Mrs. Bailes were married in 1879. Their eight children, five sons and three daughters, are named as follows: Jennie E., born May 7, 1880, and died January 10, 1882; Charles H., born April 23, 1882; George M., born August 10, 1884; the fourth in the family, a son died in infancy; Earl Alexander, born August 21, 1889; Mrs. Judge Ford, who was the sixth in order of birth; Agnes M., born November 11, 1893; and Harry Gilmore, born March 11, 1896.
Judge and Mrs. Ford have one child, Glenn Edwin, born February 4, 1916.
A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans, Page 2518 - 2519

Back to index