LABETTE COUNTY, Part 31

OTHER TOWNS.

Mathewson is a station on the Memphis, Kansas and & Colorado Railroad, ten miles east of Parsons. William McDown is the present Postmaster.

Fishkill is a station on the Memphis, Kansas & Colorado Railroad, in Neosho Township.

Timber Hill is a postoffice in the southeastern part of Osage Township.

Crouse is a country postoffice, none and a quarter miles southeast of Oswego D. W. Crouse is Postmaster.

Snow Hill is a post office in the southwest corner of the county in Howard Township. The office was established in 1877. W. B. Roberts is the present Postmaster.

Arnold, Cecil, Deerton and Dennis are post offices, located in different parts of the county.

Dora is a postoffice, twenty-seven miles southwest of Oswego, on the tri-weekly stage line, between Coffeyville and Chetopa. A Congregational Church is located here, with Rev. J. Cooper, pastor. W. H. Goodwin was the first, and F. W. Noblett, the present Postmaster.

FAIRVIEW TOWNSHIP.

NEWBERRY COOPER, farmer, P. O. Oswego, came to Kansas November 6, 1866, and settled three miles north of Montana, Labette County, on a farm, where he lived until February, 1883, when he sold out and purchased eighty acres near Oswego, on which he moved, March 9. He was born in Botetourt County, Va., in 1823. At the age of nine years he went with his parents to Preble County, Ohio, where he lived until he was twenty-one, and from thence to Grundy County, Mo., and back again to Ohio, and from there to Randolph County Mo., to Hannibal, Mo., and to Sacramento, Cal., and to New York City, and back to Randolph, Mo., and from there to Kansas. Mr. C. is a cooper by trade, which business he has followed occasionally. He has been in the mercantile business, and has taught school. He was married, May 4, 1848, to Frances Roman, of Randolph County, Mo., by whom he had four children - William Oscar (now in California), Sarah S. (now in Pittsburgh, Kan.), Alexander (in Labette County, Kan.), and John S. (deceased). His first wife died January 9, 1861. He was married, January 13, 1863, to Susan Hunt, of Randolph County, Mo., by whom he has had four children - Frances M. (deceased), Fannie (a school teacher), Emma and Hattie. Mr. Cooper's father was born in Pennsylvania; grandfather was from Scotland; distantly related to Peter and Fennimore Cooper. He is descended from an old English earl. Mr. C. served in the Missouri State Militia, Company D. Forty-sixth Regiment. He has a beautiful farm.

H. M. DEBOLT, farmer, Section 15, P. O. Oswego, was born in Wayne County, Ind., January 29, 1825. His father was Andrew Debolt, born in Newtown, Ohio, December 20, 1798, died July 17, 1877, in Randolph County, Ind. His mother's maiden name was Susan Sigman; was born April 15, 1806, died in Cincinnati, Ohio, December 10, 1848. Mr. Debolt's education was imperfect and irregular even in those branches taught in the common schools of the country. At sixteen years old, he moved to Preble County, Ohio, and served as a regular apprentice to the trade of brick laying, plastering and stone mason, having been a laboring man all his life long, and has acted upon the scriptural maxim of eating his bread in the sweat of his brow. He labored, after obtaining a trade, until he acquired the means of again going to school, after which he commenced the study of law at Union City, Ind., in 1853, purchasing his own books, and reading at his leisure until 1857, when he moved to Burlington, Iowa, working at his trade, and availing himself of every opportunity of studying to improve his limited education, which he did in all the English branches. In 1859, he moved to Jefferson City, Mo., and was admitted to the bar in 1860, and practiced his profession at that place for eight years, and was also engaged as contractor in Missouri State Penitentiary during that time. In 1858, he immigrated to Kansas, stopping a while at Sedalia, Pettis Co., Mo., but finally settling four miles west of Oswego, in Labette County, where he purchased a farm of 400 acres from the United States Government, where he now lives. Mr. Debolt was married the 4th day of December, 1848, to Martha E. Milligan, of Randolph County, Ind., by whom he had eight children, six of whom are now living - Elizabeth C. his eldest, was born November 1, 1849, in Randolph County, Ind., and is now married to William Harshaw, of Oswego, Labette Co., Kan.; Charles W., his second child, was born April 14, 1857; his third child, Franklin A., was born November 13, 1852, and married to Sophia Williams, of Jefferson City, Mo.; Margaret, his fourth child, was born November 26, 1853, and died October 1, 1857, with smallpox; W. H., his fifth child, was born November 20, 1856, and died with smallpox October 13, 1857; Alice N., his sixth child, was born January 24, 1859; Mary E., seventh child, was born April 14, 1861, Edward, his eighth child, was January 14, 1864. Mr. Debolt still recognizes the dignity of labor, and looks forward to a day, not very far distant, when educated labor will be the salvation of this country.

A. T. DICKERMAN, farmer, P. O. Oswego, came to Kansas, Linn County, in June 1862, and settled at the Osage Mission in October, 1863. On July 15, 1865, he settled on Section 31, Township 33, Labette County, where he lived one and a half years, when his wife died and he went seventy-five miles into the Indian Territory and traded with the Indians, with whom he lived more or less during five years of his life, learning to talk the Osage language. In the summer of 1869 he went to the Big Caney River, now Chautauqua County, where he made the first settlement in that county. In the spring of 1870 he sold his claim and came back to Labette County, where he married his second wife, Mary E. Kingsbury, May 1, 1879. She was born in Franklin County, Ind., November 2, 1849. In the spring of 1867 he was appointed, by the Governor, County Clerk, to organize the county of Labette, and at the first election was elected County Clerk of Labette County. He has held the office of Justice of the Peace in Fairview Township for nine years consecutively and has taught several terms of school. Mr. Dicerman's first wife was Jane Martin, of Greene County, Ill., by whom he has two children, Harry E. and Oliver C., now living in Illinois. By his second wife he has had nine children, five of whom are living. Mr. D. was the first settler in Labette County. Mr. Collins and he laid the foundations for the first house on Labette Creek. Soon afterwards Mr. Zink came out and assisted to erect the building, which was done without using a nail or sawed board. They used an axe, a saw, an auger and a frow.

JAMES M. LOGAN, farmer, P. O. Oswego; was born in Belmont County, Tenn., and removed with his parents to Washington County, Ill., at the age of six years, where he was brought up on a farm. He enlisted in Company F. Forty-ninth Illinois, August 12, 1862; was with his command at Pleasant Hill, Price's raid on Red River under Banks; at Nashville Mr. Logan was mustered out at the close of the war; was married in March, 1873, to Mary E. Stover. She was born in April, 1857. They have four children - Belle, Samuel H., Jessie and Maggie. He has 160 acres of good land six and a half miles northwest of Oswego. His father, James Logan, died in 1873. Mr. L. is one of the oldest settlers in the county, having settled in it when it was a wild waste of prairie. Mr. L. came to Kansas with nothing; now he has 160 acres, worth at least $5,000; orchards of apples and peaches that produce in large quantities. He has raised his family without paying out more than $30 for physicians and medicine since coming to Kansas, April, 1866.

ALEX LONG, farmer, Sections 23 and 24, P. O. Oswego, was born in Huntingdon County, Pa., July 11, 1833. William Long, his father, emigrated from Derry, Ireland, to America, in 1801, stopping at Philadelphia. From thence he went to Westchester, and from Westchester to Huntingdon, and in 1841 to Dixon, Lee County, Ill. Mr. Long lived in Dixon until twenty-eight years of age, when he enlisted in Company E. Twelfth Illinois Infantry, May, 1861. He served in the army four years and three months, and was mustered out in Nashville, Tenn., May, 1865. Mr. L. was in the battles of Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Perryville, Stone River, Chickamauga, and in campaign of Sherman to Atlanta and back to Nashville under Thomas. He was wounded four times, once severely. At the close of the war he came to Leavenworth, where he was in the employment of the United States Government until 1868, when he came to Labette County. In 1880 he purchased a farm of 320 acres, on which he now lives. Mr. L. was married to Mrs. Martha J. Cragg, of Oswego, by whom he has three children, Aggie, John and William. Mr. Long is a member of the Masonic fraternity.

CAPT. CAVE MONTAGUE, farmer, P. O. Oswego, was born in Scott County, Ky., in 1823. His gradfather, John Montague, emigrated to America from England prior to the Revolution and settled near Richmond, Va., and afterwards moved to Kentucky. His father, James M., was born in Virginia, but came to Kentucky with his father. Captain M. moved with his parents to Perry County, Ill., in 1832, where he became a farmer. In 1848 he removed to Keokuk, Iowa, where he worked at his trade of plastering. In March, 1851, he moved to Chester, Randolph Co., Ill., and in 1867 he came to Labette County, Kan., where he entered 240 acres of land, on which he has built his home and planted fruit and shade trees. Capt. Montague was married to Amanda Grisham, whose mother was from Pennsylvania and father from Kentucky, by whom he has had five children, Milton A., born May 31, 1851, and married to Nettie Higgins, of Carthage, Mo., 1878; Ellery C., born June 10, 1853, married to Louisa Barnard, 1877; Alfred A., born May 5, 1859, married to Susie Higgins, 1880, deceased; Frances E., born December 19, 1848, died July 30, 1849; Sarah E. born September 17, 1855, died May 12, 1856. On June 11, 1846, he enlisted in the Second Illinois Volunteer Infantry and served in the Mexican War under Gens. Taylor and Wool; was mustered out at Comargo, Mexico, June 18, 1847. On June 11, 1861, he enlisted in Company H, Twenty-second Illinois Infantry, and was with his command at Belmont, Shiloh, Stone River, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, etc.; was mustered out at Springfield, Ill., July 7, 1864. He was first commissioned First Lieutenant and afterwards Captain of Company H. Capt. M. is one of the oldest settlers of Labette County and has had an extensive experience in the hardships of frontier life.

CLARK M. MONROE, farmer, P. O. Oswego, was born in Lodi, Athens Co., Ohio, April 14, 1831. At an early age his parents moved to Trumbull County, Ohio, where he received a good common school education. In 1853 his parents moved to Noble County, Ind., where they now reside. His father was a native of New York, his mother of Canada. Mr. Monroe learned the carpenter trade while young and works at it occasionally, but farming is his main business. Married in 1854, to Catherine A. Kagy, in Bristol, Trumbull Co., Ohio, by whom he had four children, Rufus T., John L., Charles M. and Florence I. Monroe, all born in Noble Co., Ind. In 1868, Mr. M. emigrated to Kansas and settled on a farm of 160 acres of land, five miles west of Oswego, where he now lives. he is an active member of the community in which he lives, being the first elected Township Clerk; was charter member of the Labette County Agricultural Society, its president in 1873; represented said society at a meeting of the State Board of Agriculture, in March, 1873, at Topeka; represented Labette County at the great farmers' movement at Topeka, in 1874, and again in 1875. Mr. Monroe is also a member of the Labette County Historical Society, and was its first treasurer. Mrs. Monroe died in 1873. Married Alice G. Hughes in November, 1873; she was born in Calhoun County, Mich., September 12, 1841, receiving a thorough knowledge of the common branches taught in the district schools of Michigan, commenced teaching at thirteen years of age, and taught continuously for twenty years, five consecutive terms in District 57, Oswego Township. The winter of 1860-61 she attended school at Lewistown Seminary, Ill. Mrs. Monroe's parents are now living in Bellevue, Eaton Co., Mich. Her father was born in Syracuse, N. Y., 1812. Alice Monroe is mother of four children, Ross M. and Lottie B., who are living now Clark R. and Gertie V. died in 1882.

WILLIAM PARK, farmer, Section 2, P. O. Oswego, was born in Monroe County, Ohio, in 1845. He was educated in Stafford, in the same State. His father was Walter Park, born in Langham, Scotland, and emigrated to America, settling in Monroe County, Ohio, many years since. At the age of nineteen Mr Park removed to Douglas County, Kan., in the spring of 1865, where he worked on a farm two years; he then removed to Labette County, Kan., and purchased 160 acres of fine land five miles west of Oswego, on which he has erected a beautiful home, surrounding it with shade and fruit trees. He was married, to Louise Kelsey, on April 15, 1872. She was from Saline, Washtenaw, Co., Mich., where she was born and educated. Mrs. Park taught the first school that was taught in their district after its organization if the fall of 1870, in a box house that stands near the present schoolhouse. They have two children - Clesson M., born on June 15, 1874; Arthur, born on March 22, and died October 3, 1880. Mr. Park is one of the oldest settlers of the county and has been identified with its growth and progress. Mr. Park and family are members of the Baptist Church. He is also a member of the School Board.

JAMES PAXTON, farmer, P.O. Oswego, came to Kansas from Johnson County, Mo., in November, 1870, and in July of the following year he settled in Labette County six miles west of Oswego and purchased 240 acres of land, on which he has make a comfortable home and planted shade trees, fruit trees, etc. Mr. Paxton is a native of Mercer County, Pa., having been born in 1842. After receiving a good education at Union College, in the town of Mercer, he taught in private schools three years. He enlisted in Company E. One Hundred and Forty-second Illinois Infantry in 1863, and served until the close of the war. He then went to Warren, Stephenson Co., Ill., and was clerk in a hardware store and taught school. He was married to Mary Barrington, of Madison, Wis., who was born in Madison in 1846. They have two children - Samuel and Ellen. Mr. Paxton since coming to Kansas has taught school seven terms in his own neighborhood.

JOHN RICHARDSON, farmer, P. O. Oswego, was born in Franklin County, Ill. His parents were natives of Tennessee. He received a common school education, and at the age of twenty-one he commenced teaching which he followed for eight years. In 1864, he was married in Illinois, to Miss Sarah J. Sturman, a native of Illinois, by whom he has five children - Leona, Flora, Nora, Alma and Ethel. In May, 1866, he emigrated with his father's family, settling on a farm of 180 acres in Labette County, six miles northwest of Oswego. At that time there were not 100 inhabitants in the whole county, and help was so scarce that his father and brother Alex, having died, he was compelled to dig his father's grave. Mr. Richardson and his family are members of the Baptist Church. His home is pleasantly situated on the banks of Labette Creek, surrounded with fruit trees and shrubbery. He has been identified with the growth of his town and county.

JOSEPH SCOTT, farmer, P. O. Oswego, was born in Atlantic County, N. J., in 1827. At the age of six years he moved with his parents to Wabash County, Ill., where he went to school and worked on the farm. On August 2, 1862, he enlisted in Company R. One Hundred and Thirtieth Illinois Infantry. He was at the siege of Vicksburg, Sabine Cross Roads and in Bank's expedition on the Red River. He was mustered out in July, 1865, at Springfield. His father was born in Philadelphia, and died in 1831, in New Jersey. His mother died in 1866. His ancestry on the paternal side was Scotch, while his mother was of German extraction. He was married, in 1848, to Miss Hannah Rice, of Wabash County, Ill. She was born in Kentucky, in 1827. They have five children - Armenia A., Eliza, Lincoln C., James M. and Fred Franklin. Six are deceased - Vashti V., Nancy, Mary, George W., Rachael B. and Martha J. Mr. Scott was taken prisoner at Sabine Cross Roads, La., April 8, 1864. In the fall of 1869, Mr. Scott came to Kansas and settled on 160 acres of land four miles northwest of Oswego.

BENJAMIN SYLVESTER STONE, farmer, P. O. Oswego, was born in Ohio County, Ind., February 19, 1840. His ancestors - three brothers of them - came to America in the Mayflower; one of whom was a clergyman, and the immediate ancestor of the subject of this sketch. The family history is conspicuous during the old Colonial and Revolutionary days, and is easily traced from the fact that Mr. Stone's more immediate ancestors back for seven generations have all been clergymen, and have adorned the Israelitish cognomen of "Benjamin." Mr. Stone's father is in possession of an heirloom in the shape of an iron wedge, which was made an hundred years before the Revolution. It descends through the line of "Benjamins." Mr. Stone's parents moved to Illinois in 1842, and thence to Iowa in 1849. He enlisted in the Union army on the 19th of April, 1861, in Company C, First Iowa. Was in the famous engagement at Wilson's Creek, and was mustered out August 23, 1861. He was married to Miss Cornelia Lake, November 19, 1862. She was born in Ohio in 1843. In the spring of 1864, Mr. Stone re-enlisted in Company B, Forty-fourth Iowa, and served until the close of the war. He moved to Kansas in November, 1866; was one of the original thirty-two that went out and surveyed the town of Oswego. He remained in Kansas and year, when, in consequence of an injury, causing the loss of use of his right arm, he returned to Muscatine, Iowa. He came back to Kansas and settled in Labette County, three miles from Oswego, in 1875. Mr. and Mrs. Stone have four children - Mary A., Cora M., Benjamin W. and Josephine I. Mr. Stone's father, Benjamin, and two brothers, William Goldsmith and Joseph Jasper, are living in Nebraska, having settled there in an early day.

JOSEPH JASPER STONE, penman, present address, Oswego, Kas., was born in Hancock County, Ill., January 16, 1845. At the breaking out of war, being young and unable to get his father's consent to enlist, he ran away from home and joined the army. He became a member of three different regiments during the course of the war, viz., the Sixteenth, Eighteenth and Thirty-fifth Iowa Infantry. In the last he was a member of Company A. Capt. Wm. B. Keeler, from the 2d of September, 1862, until the 7th of July, 1865. He was one of the "thirteen" who came through unhurt out of eighty-seven men in his company that went into the battle of Pleasant Hill, La. Mr. Stone has been an invalid ever since the war, in consequence of severe injuries received from having had severe sunstroke, smallpox, and chronic-diarrhoea. He went to Nebraska in September, 1865. Took a homestead in June, 1866. In the spring of 1870, in consequence of ill-health, he entered the State Normal School, at Peru, Neb., and was one of the first who took the oath to teach in that State. He was during the year 1872, commander of the military department of the school. He was married to Miss E. A. Taylor, daughter of Rev. J. W. Taylor, December 19, 1872, by whom he has three children - Zoe Ingersol, born September 19, 1873; Denton Underwood, January 14, 1876, and Theron Leland, born August 21, 1878. Mr. Stone and his wife parted mutually October 19, 1879. He is known as "The Nebraska Dugout Penman." His work in the line of ornamental penmanship can not be excelled in the West. He is a correspondent for several newspapers and magazines, and is a writer of considerable experience and ability and a poet of no mean order. He is an enthusiastic member of the G. A. R., and is one of the"five" managers of the organization of "Iowa Soldiers in Nebraska."

JOSEPH STOVER, farmer, P. O. Oswego, was born in Botetourt County, Va., in September, 1811. His parents were natives of Pennsylvania, grandparents were from Germany prior to the Revolution. He was married June 2, 1831, to Elizabeth Refley, of Virginia, who was born in that State November 7, 1809. Mr. S. moved to Montgomery County, Ind., October 15, 1832. On February 13, 1860, he moved to Warren, Iowa, and in the fall of 1870 he moved to Kansas and settled on a farm six miles northwest of Oswego, where he now lives. Mr. Stover had five children by his first wife - Andrew J., born December 14, 1835; George P., born March 4, 1832, died 1880; Gilbert H., born November 24, 1840 and married, 1862; Caroline, born 1844; Sarah Ella, born June 5, 1853, died February, 1854. Mrs. Stover died March 4, 1872. Mr. Stover was married to Mrs. Elizabeth J. Wilson, formerly Debolt, born in Preble County, O., November 10, 1829. She has one child, Ella Maria Wilson, born November 20, 1865, adopted by stepfather, 1873. Mr. Stover's land is first-class. He has also fine improvements, buildings, fruit and shade trees.

J. L. WILLIAMS, nurseryman, Section 1, P. O. Oswego, was born in Porter County, Ind. His father was born in North Carolina, in 1803, and immigrated to Tennessee, at an early period, and from thence to Indiana, where he died in 1858. His mother died in 1857. Mr. W. received his early training at home, and in the district school. In 1868 he went to Iowa, where he remained one season, immigrating to Labette County, Kas., in 1869, where he purchased 160 acres of Government land on which he has erected a neat and tasteful home, surrounding it with a large number of shade and fruit trees and shrubbery. Immediately after his arrival in Kansas went into the nursery business, which he has extended and enlarged until it is now one of the largest and finest in the State. Mr. Williams was married, in 1869, to Miss Rachael Barnard, of Westville, Ind. her mother died in 1864; her father still lives in Indiana. They have two children - Cora, born in 1872; Alta, born in 1874.

JERRY WINDBIGLER, farmer, P. O. Oswego, was born in Lancaster County, Pa., in 1820. At the age of twelve he removed with his parents to Richland, Ohio, where he was brought up on a farm. He lived there twenty-two years, and removed to Kosciusko County, Ind., where he resided ten years, and then moved to Fulton County in the same State in 1864. In the spring of 1874 he emigrated to Kansas, and settled on a quarter section of land, seven miles northwest of Oswego. Mr. Windbiger is a careful and prosperous farmer, and has succeeded in establishing each of his five children on farms around him. He was married to Martha Dooremire, of Crawford County, Ohio, in 1841. She was born in 1824, in the same State. They have five children living - John S., married to Elizabeth Ault, enlisted in an Indiana regiment, and serving through the late war; Hannah Jane, married to W. S. Kesler; Newton Jackson, married to Mary Watson, of Chetopa, by whom he has had one child, Viola and Clara A., married to H. H. Elrod. He had three children deceased - George W., who enlisted in an Indiana regiment, and died in the army, November 2, 1863; Henry H., died September 6, 1873; Benjamin F., died August 8, 1860. Newton J. is a minister in the New Light Church, to which all the family belong. At one time since his coming to Kansas, Mr. Windbigler lost all his stock of horses.

J. ZINK, farmer, P. O. Oswego, was born in Highland County, Ohio, in 1845. At the age of thirteen he came to Pike County, Ill., where he received a common school education. In the fall of 1865, he came to Kansas, and in 1868 he entered his land, and afterwards purchased more, until he has now 1,000 acres of good land in Fairview and Oswego Township. In September, 1862, he enlisted in Company K. Ninety-first Illinois Infantry, and was with his regiment in fourteen different States; at Spanish fort and Blakely, on the Rio Grande, at Forts Morgan and Powell, and many other places. He was taken prisoner in the winter of 1863, by Gen. Morgan, and was exchanged in the following June, and was mustered out in August, 1865, at Camp Butler; was in the last battle of the war on Seven Mile, Mobile, Ala. Was married in September, 1868, to Mary Drake, of Greene County, Ill., where she was born in 1844, and educated in the same county and State. Her parents are yet living in Illinois. They have had one daughter - Inez, born in 1872, and died in 1874. Mr. Zink manages his large estate handles stock. He also has fruit of all kinds, and in great abundance. He was one of the first settlers in Labette County. Not more than a dozen settlers were in the county at the time.