BOURBON COUNTY, Part 12

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES (MCBREED - OULDS).

G. W. McBREED, contractor and builder, was born in Syracuse, Onandaga sic Co., N. Y., December 26, 1847. At the age of fifteen, he went to serve a four years' term as apprentice with E. C. Earl, carpenter and joiner, Syracuse, N. Y. At the age of twenty-one, started on his travels as carpenter, coming to Kansas in 1871; then went to Creston, Iowa, where he was employed four years by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company, as bridge inspector. From there went to Davis Co., Mo., where he was in the employ of the Wabash Railroad Company, as lumber merchant. Thence to Rich Hill, where he followed contracting and building. From there he went to Bronson, Kan., and built all the houses there but three. Came here April 20, 1882, and located where he now resides. Since he came here he has built quite a number of houses, among them was one for Dick Richards, one for J. Hart, Martin Gillfillan, Thomas Mathews, L. C. Drake, C. H. Simmons and C. Conard, two in the country, one for Mrs. Bailey, one for J. C. Rousey. Mr. McBreed married Miss S. L. Runyan, a lady belonging to a family that were early settlers of this county; they have one child, a girl.

ABSALOM H. McCLINTOCK, real estate agent, came to Bourbon County, Kan., and located in Mill Creek Township in the spring of 1870, and was engaged in farming in that township for three years. He then came to Fort Scott, and since 1877 has been engaged in the real estate loan and insurance business, still, however, retaining his farm in Mill Creek Township. He was born in Harrison County, Ohio, November 25, 1836, and was raised in Carrol and Hancock counties, going to the later sic county when nine years of age, and remaining until he came to Kansas. He served in the army three years, from 1862 to 1865, first in the Ninety-ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, then in the Veteran Reserve Corps and lastly as Captain of Company B, One Hundred and Sixteenth United States Colored Infantry. Mr. McClintock is a member of the Presbyterian Church. He was married in Hancock County, Ohio, July 12, 1866, to Harriet Fisher, a native of that county. They have two children living: Willard Hall and Ella Jane, and have lost four, two died in infancy, Mary May died at the age of five years, and Luther Holmes at the age of three years.

F. S. McDERMOTT, attorney at law, came to Fort Scott in 1868, and has been engaged in practice here since that time. About two years ago his eye-sight failed him, and he has not been so actively employed since. He became interested in real estate here in 1870, and has acquired considerable city and farm property. He is a native of Allegheny City, N. Y., and received his education at St. John's College at Fordham, near New York City, commencing the practice of law in New York state. He made the original survey of the Buffalo & Washington Railroad, over the divide from Canoe Place, Pottery Co., Penn., to Emporium, Cameron Co., Penn., in 1866, and did a great deal of running land lines in the timbered country throughout the Alleghany Mountains.

B. P. McDONALD, capitalist, came to Fort Scott, August 1, 1857, and engaged in furnishing lumber to the saw-mill until 1859. In July of that year, in company with his brother, A. McDonald, he engaged in mercantile business. He has since been engaged in banking and railroad building, owning and operating the Fort Scott & Memphis Railroad for some time. He commenced building the road in the fall of 1874, and in 1879 when there were twelve miles in operation sold it to the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Gulf Railroad Company. Mr. McDonald is a native of Queens Run, Clinton Co., Penn., and lived at Lock Haven and vicinity until he came to Kansas. He has been a member of the Legislature and several times Mayor of Fort Scott, besides holding minor offices, but has not been engaged in active business since July, 1880, when he resigned the presidency of the First National Bank.

MRS. E. McELROY, grocer, is a native of Ireland; was married to Mr. M. McElroy in 1861, and emigrated the same year to America. He was a tobacconist, and carried on his trade in Illinois and Missouri, before coming to Kansas, where they arrived in 1868, having come from Kansas City by wagons. In 1870, he built his store and was in the grocery business up to the time of his death, which occurred August 19, 1881. Mrs. McElroy was left with a family of eight children, and not only the management of the store, but a large estate also on her hands.

D. S. McKAY, proprietor of the Boston Shoe Store, came to Fort Scott and engaged in his present business in September, 1877. He was a partner for one year of J. E. Westeroelt and P. G. Noel, then purchased the shoe department, and has continued to manage it to the present time, doing both a wholesale and retail business. His business amounted to between $60,000 and $70,000 in 1881. He employs eight men and two traveling salesmen, and deals exclusively with the manufacturers. He was born at Bath, Steuben Co., N. Y., March 7, 1843, and resided in his native county until about seventeen years of age. He was educated in the common schools of Steuben County and at Eastman's Business College at Poughkeepsie, N. Y. He then entered the retail store of A. T. Stewart in New York, and after remaining there two years went to Washington, D. C., and was in the Quartermaster's department for a few months in 1864. He then went to Addison, N. Y., and engaged in the boot and shoe business, and remained in business there until forced by sickness to go to California in 1865. After three years spent in California, he returned to the East, and was engaged as traveling salesman for J. F. Comstock & Co., of St. Louis, and Leonard, Lamb & Crosby, boot and shoe manufacturers, until he came to Fort Scott. He was married at Penn Yan, Yates Co., N. Y., December 22, 1874, to Miss Ruth A. Mallory, a native of Penn Yan, N. Y. They have one child, James Stuart. Mr. McKay is a member of the K. of P. He carries the largest stock of shoes in the State of Kansas.

J. P. McNAUGHTON, Express Agent Pacific Company, native of Nova Scotia, born in 1833. When but a babe, his parents moved to Erie County, N. Y. In 1855, he went to Milwaukee, Wis., and entered the employ of the American Express Company, for which he worked ten years, then going into the State Express Company, where he stayed until 1867, when he went to Kansas City, Mo., working for the Wells, Fargo & United States Express Companies till 1869. He arrived in Fort Scott this year, and represented the Wells, Fargo Express Company, till they ceased doing business here in 1876, when he went to farming his 161 acres, located near Hiatville, Bourbon County. In 1880, he was appointed Government Enumerator, and, in 1881, he became agent for the Pacific Express Company, located at Fort Scott. In Milwaukee, he was married to Miss Mugridge of Buffalo, N. Y. They have a family of four boys and five girls. His mother lived to the advanced age of eighty-six.

F. N. MANLOVE, land agent, is a native of Rushville, Schuyler Co., Ill.; was born in 1836; made his home there until 1861, when he came to Fort Scott, where he has made his home since. He had visited the State previous to this in 1859. He was employed in the post office department here during 1862-63, and then went into the book and stationary business, which he carried on until 1867, when he opened a land office here, and has continued in that business up to this time. He was married to Miss Everhart, of Philadelphia. They have one child--a girl. Mr. Manlove was elected a member of the City Council in 1877. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity.

C. F. MARTIN, Assistant Cashier of Bank of Fort Scott, was born in Mount Vernon, Knox Co., Ohio, October 12, 1856. While here, he attended the high school, and finished the business course, afterward going to Pittsburgh, where he graduated from the Commercial College of that place, giving some attention to banking, although on coming West he did not at once use this knowledge, for there was no fortuitous circumstance to at once place him in the calling which he most desired; but, instead, he went into Mr. Drake's hardware store on arriving in Fort Scott in 1874. Here he was called upon to take right hold of the heavy work customary in iron stores, and, beginning at the bottom of the ladder, gradually ascended; surmounting difficulty after difficulty, until he became book-keeper of the establishment; but, in 1876, the opportunity offering, he went into the First National Bank there. He succeeded, and was Assistant Cashier there when the bank of Fort Scott was organized in 1880, when he took his present position. He married Miss C. M. Messenger, of Mount Vernon, June 14, 1880. They have lost one child. In 1877, Mr. Martin was Treasurer of the schools here, and attends the Congregational Church.

W. MARGRAVE, Justice of the Peace, came to Kansas, and located at Fort Scott, November 7, 1854, engaging in the grocery trade the following spring, and continuing in the business for six years. He was appointed Justice of the Peace December 5, 1854, receiving his commission from Gov. Andrew H. Reeder, it being believed the first commission of that nature issued in the Territory. He has retained his office of Justice of the Peace since that date, and was also Clerk of the District Court, Probate Judge for seven years, and Police Judge for five years, holding all four of these offices together some of the time. He was born in Gasconade, now Osage County, Mo., February 17, 1818, and saw the first steamboat that ever went up the Missouri River. He lived in his native county until fifteen years of age, then in Jasper County, near Carthage, Mo., until he came to Kansas. He was married, in Osage County, in 1840, to Mahala Baker, a native of McMinn County, Tenn. They have two children--Jennie and Eva W. Mr. Margrave is a member of the A., F. & A. M.

E. D. MARR, real estate, loan and insurance agent of the firm of Gunn & Marr; was born at Mound City, Linn Co., Kan., May 28, 1859. The first eleven years of his life were spent in Mound City and vicinity. In the spring of 1870, he removed with his parents to Fort Scott, where he received a common school education. At the age or sic nineteen he left school, and on August 23, 1878, associated himself with Mr. W. C. Gunn in the establishment of a real estate and loan office. Commencing their business with a capital of $50, Gunn & Marr, have within four years, by square dealing and close attention to business, placed themselves among the leading real estate firms of the State. Mr. Marr was married at Fort Scott, September 27, 1881, to Fannie M. Warfield, a native of Maryland.

LEROY M. MATHEWS, dentist, came to Linn County, Kan., and located near Mound City, in November, 1865. In June, 1866, he returned to Cordova, Ill., and in 1868, went to Ohio for one year. He then returned to Linn County, Kan., and remained there; engaged in the practice of dentistry, at Mound City, and Pleasanton, until February, 1882. He has been engaged in the practice of dentistry for eleven years, nine of which he has had an office of his own in Kansas and Iowa. He was born in Princeton, Bureau Co., Ill., September 27, 1848, and when a youth removed with his parents to Scott County, Iowa. After remaining there a year or two he removed to Rock Island County, Ill. Dr. Mathews is a member of the A., F. & A. M., and of the Kansas State Dental Association. He was married in Vernon County, Mo., March 16, 1873, to Marilla Lane, a native of Knox County, Ill. They have one child, a daughter--Lou Taylor. He is a son of Zachariah M. Mathews, now a resident of Linn County, Kan., having located there about ten years ago.

H. MAYHEW & SON, proprietors of the castor oil factory. H. Mayhew, the father, is a native of Clinton County, Ill., and was born in 1823. In 1871, he established in Illinois for making castor oil, but the production of the bean was abandoned by the farmers and he moved to Fort Scott, Kan., in 1873, bringing with him a wife, two sons and two daughters. He at once built his factory, a heavy stone building 40x80 feet, two floors, and manufactures from 400 to 500 barrels a season. He raised on his own farm this year forty acres of castor beans, and markets the oil in most of the Western States. Besides running his factory, he and his sons work the farm, which consists of 220 acres. When eighteen years of age, he joined the church and was ordained a minister in 1862. His view of religion are of the most enlightened character, he keeping pace with the greatest thinkers of the day. He ignores the present theory of eternal punishment, and says that the only resurrection is that of the church through Christ.

H. M. MAYBERRY, farmer and proprietor of the Mayberry coal mines. He is a native of Hamilton County, Ill.; born in 1830, and raised on a farm. When twenty years of age he went into the coal mines of Illinois; and in 1851, he went through California with cattle, and again in 1852, 1853 and 1855, visiting Kansas each time. In 1859, he located on northeast quarter of Section 10, and opened the Mayberry Coal Mines and built a house. The mines are of unlimited quantity, and he has employed as many as seventy-five men and taken out 1,000 bushels per day. In 1861, he enlisted in the Sixth Kansas, and in 1864, was mustered out as Sergeant. In 1862, he had taken a run up home, and borrowing a land warrant located the land he is now on, the southeast quarter of Section 10; he had built a log house in 1859 on the northeast quarter. In 1868-69, he built his present large residence, 24x24, and wing 16x16, of stone, doing the work himself. Has been married twice, the first time in Springfield, Ill., to Miss E. Fairweather, of England, and then to his present wife, M. F. Kennedy. He has fifteen children altogether, of whom there are ten living. He has been Under Sheriff and United State detective for twenty-four years, and has served in school offices, always taking an active interest in the educational problems.

J. H. MEAD, meat market, native of Elkhart County, Ind., was born in 1848. He attended school and worked on the farm in youth, and in 1867, came to Fort Scott and went to work in his brother's meat market. His brother, J. D. Mead, had bought an interest in the firm of Sam Berner & J. F. Bair. In 1866, this market was established as the Government market, and was the first one in Fort Scott. The firm dissolved in 1867, Mr. Berner going away, it became Bair & Mead, and in 1871, J. H. Mead bought in; it was then Mead Bros., but in 1878, Mr. Mead became sole proprietor, and continues so. He married Miss E. Douthett, of Fort Scott, in 1873. They have a family of two children, boys.

C. H. MORLEY, was born at Brockport, N. Y., March 27, 1835, and removed to Painesville, Lake Co., Ohio, in 1837. He was engaged in the hardware business in Saginaw, Mich., for some time, and in the fall of 1870, he removed to Fort Scott, and there started a hardware store under the firm name of Morley Bros. & Co., two of his brothers and two nephews being his partners in the firm. He now has entire ownership and control of the business, which has fully doubled since its formation. He does a retail and to some extent a jobbing business, and gives employment in the various departments to about ten men. Mr. Morley is also owner of the Tremont House. He was married at Painesville, Ohio, in 1864, to Mary L. Perkins, a daughter of Hon. William L. Perkins, and a native of Painesville. They have two children--Julia P. and Maggie.

CHARLES NELSON, cashier of Bank of Fort Scott, is a native of Prince William County, Va., forty miles below Washington, D. C. He was born May 26, 1833, and when quite young removed to Kentucky, remaining in that State until the Spring of 1864, when he removed to Cincinnati and engaged in the hotel business. He came to Kansas and located in Fort Scott in the fall of 1869, and was engaged in the wholesale liquor business until 1880. Since January, 1881, he has been engaged in banking, and for several years past in farming and stock-raising. He deals in Short-horn cattle, Long Wool, Cotswold sheep, Berkshire hogs, etc., in which he has annual sales. He has a herd of forty Short-horns and the same number of fine wool sheep.

C. A. NELSON, grocer, was born in Virginia in 1834. He came to Kansas in 1870, and located in Fort Scott. He went into the pork packing business with Mr. A. Large, in Chetopa, Kan., in the winter of 1870-71. Then engaged with Charles Nelson in the wholesale liquor business until January 1, 1881, when he closed out and entered the general grocery known as Nold & Nelson. In 1882, the firm changed Mr. Nelson taking entire charge of the business which he now conducts. His home was between the lines of the two armies during the war near Manassas, while he was commissioned Captain of a company of sharpshooters in Gen. Lee's army, and was with Stonewall Jackson when that gentleman met his sudden death. Mr. Nelson married Miss Nelson in Virginia. They have a family of three children. His mother is now alive and well, at the advanced age of ninety-eight years, having been born in 1784.

D. C. NOONAN, hardware, native of Limerick, Ireland, born 1840, emigrated in 1857 to America; going to Briton, Conn., there he went to farming; in two years he had tired of that and went into the dairy business, finally gravitating to the machine shops of Staffordsville. In the year 1869 he started across the continent, going to Sacramento, Cal., working at machine business; not staying there he returned as far as Kansas, and pitched his tent at Hell's Bend, keeping supplies and making about $4,500. He then came to Fort Scott, and built the first business house in East Fort Scott and opened a resturant sic called the International. In 1870 he built a 24x50 and opened as a hotel; he kept this till 1874, when he went into the liquor business to 1881, and then opened a wholesale and retail tobacco store. In 1882, opened as a hardware merchant. He married Miss Margaret Desmond, of Connecticut, August 24, 1868. They have a family of four boys.

JOSEPH OAKLEY, retired farmer, is a native of Westchester County, N. Y., born in 1805. Here he spent his childhood, and when old enough served at glass cutting with a Mr. Baggot, but his father being a sea-faring man he was led into the same course, and after running on the river he converted his sloop into a schooner and went into the coast trade, this trade he remained in for ten years. It was while sailing along the coast that he got acquainted in Baltimore with his present wife, Miss Ellsworth, whom he married in 1833, and went to keeping house there. He was engaged awhile in the West India trade, but in 1843 he started up the Hudson River, went through the canal into the lakes, settling in Michigan three miles south of Dearbornville on a farm; here he remained till 1857, when he came to Bourbon County; he had visited the State in 1855 and located in Douglas County, having the hardihood to take a tree claim; while he was away in Michigan, Sheriff Jones with a posse of Pro-slavery men drove his boys off of the claim, and in 1857 he moved to Bourbon County, locating four and a half miles south of Fort Scott, owning 380 acres at one time, but having now sold it all, and last August, 1881, they moved to town onto property owned by them. Mr. Oakley has been a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows since 1830, and was in the military company known as the Kansas Stubbs. They have had eleven children--Benjamin F., died January 11, 1872; Joseph, died December 13, 1859; Edward, died October 13, 1866; Petrina, died October 2, 1852; John H., died May 16, 1862; William, now living in Montana; Joshua J. now farming in Iowa; Matilda, now Mrs. Wheeler; Margaret, now Mrs. Gardiner; Andrew J., with William; Alvira, now Mrs. Easley. Mr. Oakley has for years been a member of the School Board.

S. ODGERS of the firm of Odgers & Richardson, carpenters, architects and builders. In 1878 he commenced individually and put up a house for Mr. Russell, a barn and a house for Mr. Pearsoll, sic a barn on the Nelson farm in Godfrey, a house for S. T. Shankland, also one for J. Kennedy. In November of 1880, he formed a partnership with H. Richardson; together they have put up houses for Gov. McComas, one for Strode, remodeled one for William Meyers, one for T. Huston, and an addition to Mr. Nelson's residence, house for Taylor Barr, building and remodeling one for J. Perry, one for W. W. Lord, one for Tressller, remodeling one for Mr. Greenfield and one for Ogden. Mr. Odgers was born in Cornwall, England, in 1852, and came to America in 1871, and to Kansas in 1878; while here he married Miss Sattler, daughter of Jacob Sattler, old settler of Fort Scott. They have no children.

JAMES O'HARA, house and sign painter, native of Belfast, Ireland, born January 6, 1842. He emigrated to America in 1846, landing at New York. From there he went to Cambridgeport, Mass., where he learned his trade. He then started South, and while in Georgia he was mustered into the Sixth Georgia Regiment in 1861. He could not fight against the Union, so endeavored to get through the lines to the Federal army. At Antietam he was captured again, and until he got to Charleston, S.C., he remained in the rebel army, when he was taken by some of Gen. Terry's men and sent to Governor's Island, N. Y., and after taking the oath of allegiance, enlisted in the One Hundred and Third New York Volunteer Infantry, and served till 1865, when he was mustered out and then went to his trade, working for Holbrook & Ferry Co. He left Washington for the coal regions of Pennsylvania, and in 1868, came to Fort Scott. It was not till 1878, however, that he opened the shop now employing six or seven hands, doing a business of about six thousand a year. July 4, 1877, he married Miss Reynolds, of Woodson. They have four children. His wife belongs to the Presbyterian Church.

C. J. O'KEEFFE, manager of the Telephone Exchange at Fort Scott, was born in St. Joseph, Mo., in 1861. His parents died in 1876 at which time he appointed John A. Ryan his guardian, who placed him in the St. Joseph College for a period of four years, after which he went into the employ of the St. Joseph Telephone Exchange, from where he went into various exchanges, taking charge of the Fort Scott Exchange in September, 1881, which exchange is owned by the Merchants' Telephone & Telegraph Co., of Kansas City, Mo.

C. H. OSBUN, Cashier of First National Bank, came to Kansas in the spring of 1858, and located at Fort Scott. He was engaged in agricultural pursuits for three years, and has still some interest in that direction. In 1861, he was engaged as a salesman in the mercantile establishment of A. McDonald & Bro., and about two years later he became book-keeper in the banking department of their business, and has remained in the employ of that firm and their successors to the present time. He was born in the town of Washington, Washington County, Penn., September 7, 1840, and removed to West Virginia, in 1852, making that his home until he came to Kansas.

S. A. OULDS proprietor of Oulds' Livery, native of Cornwall, England, was born in May, 1816. He emigrated to America in 1842, having learned stone cutting and slating. He worked at it in Armstrong County, Penn., for the Western Iron Works; then going to Pittsburgh, in 1850, he kept what was called the Two-Mile Run House, a hotel; then, on selling out, went to Cincinnati, Ohio, and went into hotel and bus line, having twenty-four buses, running every ten minutes from Lower Market and Broadway to Oulds' headquarters, Fulton, Ohio. In 1852, sold out and took a trip to South Australia; here he went into the gold mines, where in nine months he made $150,000. He then went home to see his parents, whom he had not seen for ten years; he then returned to his family in Cincinnati, Ohio, and went to farming on the Ohio River, but tired of that, and sold out and traveled South and West through Missouri and Texas, looking for a location, and finally settled in Fort Scott; here he started a livery in 1862, in the building meant for the Government mill. In 1865, he built a stable out of smoke-house that belonged to Wilson, Gordon & Ray, and the Government carpenter shop. This was his second stable. He also had a hotel, and ran free bus to hotel; he then built his present stable, and converted his old one into a grocery and rented it. In 1881, he built his cottage residence. He was married in 1839, and has a family of five children, four daughters and one son.