BOURBON COUNTY, Part 18

BRONSON.

This thriving town is located on the St. Louis, Fort Scott & Wichita Railroad, twenty miles west of Fort Scott. It is on gently rolling prairie and surrounded by a rich agricultural and stock-raising region. It was named in honor of Ira D. Bronson, of Fort Scott. The first settler in the town was G. H. Requa, who was followed almost immediately by J. W. Timmons. Messrs. Requa & Martin opened a store in September, 1881, making a specialty of boots and shoes. The post office was established during the same month, Mr. Requa being appointed Postmaster. The first school was taught by Miss Rose Daughters, about one-half mile east of the village. Bronson has made very rapid growth during the first year of its existence. It now contains a number of fine residences, and an ample supply of business houses, among these four general stores, three grain dealers, one grocery, one furniture, and one drug store, one hotel, one blacksmith and one physician. The population is now about four hundred.

This town was the last established on the railroad between Fort Scott and Iola. It is about midway between the two cities, and the natural advantages of the location seem to insure a permanent growth.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - MARION TOWNSHIP.

JACOB ANDERSON, farmer, Section 23, is a native of Owen County, Ind., born in 1838. He visited the State of Kansas in 1857, having an uncle, George W. Anderson, living on Turkey Creek, Bourbon County, but in 1858 he returned to Indiana. In September, 1859, he with his father and father's family came to Kansas and located on Section 23. His cousin, Mitchell Anderson, and an old friend, William Jones (now both deceased), emigrated to Kansas with him. When the war of the rebellion broke out he at once joined the army. He served in the State Militia, and later in the Union army, in the Tenth Kansas Veteran Volunteer Regiment, Company C, Sixteenth Army Corps, commanded by Gen. A. J. Smith, and served until the war closed. In 1863 he married Mrs. Lydia Fly, whom he had known since childhood, being a native of the same State and county, in fact they had attended the same school together; she had come to Kansas as early as 1855, having married Mr. Fly in 1856, and his wife passed through all the troubles of those times. In 1856, they were leaving the State when a man named Russell attacked their party, but the men fired and drove them off. They returned to 1857 to their claim in this county and were visited by Montgomery and his men, whom she told she would poison, so they insisted on her tasting all the dishes first. In 1862 Mr. Fly died. Mr. Anderson now has a farm of 200 acres, raising stock and grain, his corn in 1882, averaging forty bushels and flax seven bushels to the acre. Mr. Anderson was married before, but had no children; by this marriage they have seven. Their eldest daughter Laura is a teacher.

M. R. BOLINGER, farmer, Section 22, is a native of Huntingdon County, Penn., born in 1843. The family moved to Carroll County, Ill., where his father still lives. His mother died at their home there in 1860. In 1866, Mr. Bolinger married and moved to Kansas, locating on his present farm, December 20, 1866, paying $650 for his farm 160, then unimproved. He has cultivated it and fenced it, since planted a fine orchard of apple and peach trees. He has also a good residence and outbuildings and excellent fencing, having improved the farm to the cost of $3,000. System of farming is grain and dairy farming; his corn crop is excellent and the result of his work since coming to Kansas satisfactory. He has been married twice; by the first marriage he had three boys; he then married Mrs. Flower, who had two girls; they now have eight children. Mr. Bolinger has officiated as clerk of his school almost ever since its organization in 1874, and was elected Justice of the Peace in 1882.

J. B. BOLINGER, farmer, Section 2, is a native of Huntingdon County, Penn.; from there moved to Carroll County, Ill., and he came to Kansas in 1864, two years before his brother M. R. At one time all of the children of the old family were in the State of Kansas some eleven in number; he has four brothers here now. He located on Section 2, taking 160 acres, now having 248, highly improved, reporting forty bushels of corn to an acre; he is engaged in raising grain and stock. Mr. Bolinger married in 1853, and has a family of ten, two deceased, four girls and four boys living. He is a Republican in politics.

J. N. CROUCH, farmer, Section 29, is a native of Lincoln County, Mo., where his wife was also born, Miss McDowell, whom he married in 1854. In early life Mr. Crouch commenced teaching as well as farming, following these vocations while in Missouri; he was helped also by his wife, who was also a teacher. In the fall of 1857, they moved to Kansas, locating near Xenia, in Franklin Township. He, Mr. Crouch, owned two farms which he worked, retiring for awhile to the village, and at one time teaching a subscription school, but of late years he has giving sic up teaching, although he has not lost his interest, the educational problem, his wife now taking an active part in the school of their neighborhood being elected the last meeting to position of Secretary of the School Board. Mr. Crouch, being an early settler, was in the State Militia during the war of the rebellion, and in 1875 moved to his present farm on Section 29, containing 200 acres, for stock and grain. They have a family of seven children; their daughter is now Mrs. Wells; Henry is in Texas; William Edgar is in business in Missouri; James A. is a horticulturist in California, while Charles, Claude and Jesse are at home. They are members of the Christian Church, and Mr. Crouch is a Greenbacker.

J. M. EASTWOOD, farmer and stock-raiser, Section 1, is a native of Monroe County, Ill., born 1828, learned the blacksmith's trade in his youth, spent his life until the age of thirty-two in manufacturing and repair of machinery and agricultural implements. After spending one year roaming over Texas and other States, emigrated to Kansas and started and improved the farm known as the Walnut Hill farm, and there took his first lesson in farming, being his own instructor. The farm took its name from the accidental dropping of a walnut in the soil, when he was making garden, which grew and is now a fine tree bearing an abundance of fruit, and was the first tree on the farm; but now there are hundreds of the same kind on the place of his own planting. His first year was the starving year of 1860, but by the efforts of himself and family, they raised buckwheat enough to make bread for the family and some to spare. His first crop of wheat was raised from one half bushel of seed, obtained from Springfield, Mo., sowed in the year 1860 and harvested in 1861, with cradle and thrashed with a flail, from which he obtained sixteen bushels of good wheat. During the war he spent his time in farming, gardening, and attending to stock raising, and a part in the militia service, being frequently called to shoulder his musket to help defend his home, and so his time was spent during the war. In 1865, he lost most of his cattle with Spanish fever, which gave him a little set back, and in 1874 he was bondsman for a defaulting county Treasurer, which caused the loss of a great deal of time and money and gave him financial trouble. The year 1875 he spent in traveling to California, Oregon, Washington Territory and the Western Slope, but finding nothing to suit his desires in the way of a better country, he contented himself to remain in Kansas. The year 1880 he spent in the Rocky Mountains, in Montana, for the benefit of his health; having regained his health, with renewed vigor, he returned to his old home and business, and in company with his sons is now in the stock business. They now have on the farm and in pasture between four and five hundred head of stock, which are making good returns. In 1848, he was married to Miss Pegg, of Illinois, and to them have been born eight sons and two daughters; six sons and one daughter are now living. Mr. Eastwood has been a Republican since the organization of that party, and voted and labored with that party for some years after the war, but is now a staunch Greenbacker.

M. D. ELDER, physician and surgeon, is a native of Williamson County, Ill., born in 1848. In 1862, he came to Bourbon County and moved to Uniontown in 1881. Having taken a thorough course of reading, he attended the Keokuk Medical College, and graduated in 1877. The Doctor gets his share of the practice, which is divided up among three of them. He is a man of great ability and promising future; "not married." He joined the Masonic lodge in 1875.

G. P. EVES, merchant and fine stock breeder, is a native of Toronto, Canada, born in 1834. His father was a physician, and it was not till G. P. was twenty years old that he tried farming. While in Illinois, he carried on a grain farm, and in 1860 came to Kansas, locating on Sections 3, 26 and 22, having a farm of 620 acres, and went to raising blooded Durhams and high bred cattle, of which he now has fifty head. In 1861, he enlisted in the Seventh Kansas Volunteer Infantry, Company H. After eighteen months, he came home and organized a battalion for border service, and went in as a Lieutenant Colonel, serving till 1865, when he returned to his farm. He established his mercantile business in 1881, having Mr. Willey for a partner. In 1870, he was elected to the Legislature. Mr. Eves has been married twice, marrying the last time in 1864. They have no children.

C. J. FIELDER, farmer, Section 32, native of Claiborne County, Tenn., born in July, 1833. His father and family moved to Lawrence County, Ind., in 1850. He married Miss Painter in 1856, where he remained until 1859, when he came to Kansas and located on his present farm. Taking 160 acres, his claim was entered through mistake, by a man named Deitrick Foreman, so he entered Foreman's and then changed; and Mr. Fielder prepared to open his farm, but had to sell his oxen and wagon, and bought a milk cow and an old blind mare and lumber for a house, manufactured his own plow and made lines from grape vines. This was his experience of pioneer life in Kansas. The year they came there was a Missionary Baptist Church organized, and in 1868 he was ordained a Deacon. In 1864, he served in the State Militia, and was at the battle of Westport, and then returned to agricultural pursuits. He now has a farm of 320 acres, well improved, on which, by husbandry, he has been able to establish a beautiful home. They have a family of five girls and one deceased.

C. J. HALM, M. D., of the firm of Fulton & Halm, physicians and surgeons, is a native of Luzerne County, Penn., born in 1854. His father died in England, and he was adopted by Mr. Halm, who took him to Fort Scott, Kan., and we find him clerking for Prichard Bros., Druggists, in 1869. While here he met Dr. Fulton, of Union Town, who employed him to clerk in his drug store, where he went in 1871, at the same time reading medicine, which he continued till 1875, when he took a course of lectures in the Missouri Medical College of St. Louis, where he graduated in 1877. On coming back he entered into partnership with Dr. Fulton. They also carry on a stock farm of 220 acres on the edge of town. Dr. Halm married Miss Stelle, of Uniontown. They have one child, a boy. The Doctor is a member of the Masonic fraternity.

H. A. HILL, furniture and hardware, grain and agricultural implements, is a native of Rock Island, Ill. Was born in 1845 and raised on a farm, and in 1861 he moved to Missouri, where, in 1864, he enlisted in the Forty-seventh Missouri Volunteer Infantry, Company B. He served one year; then, peace returning, he returned to his former pursuits. In 1866, he came to Kansas and located a claim near Marmaton, on Section 22, remaining till 1873, when he moved to Uniontown and worked at the trade of wagon-maker in partnership, first, with T. L. Ledbrook, then with C. S. Steele, who bought Mr. Ledbrook's interest. In 1881, he sold to Mr. Steele and established his present business. In 1865, on Christmas, he married Miss Mahler. They have three children--two boys and a girl. Mr. Hill has always taken an interest in the schools, and has served on the local school board. He belongs to the Masonic lodge, and also the A. O. U. W.

JAMES F. HOLT, farmer, Section 2, native of East Tennessee, born April 15, 1819. He was raised in Indiana, and for ten consecutive years he held offices there, having to resign when he came away. In 1852, he went to Iowa, and from there to Missouri. Coming to Kansas in 1858, he bought a claim of his brother, William, and had a post office established and was appointed first Postmaster in 1858, continuing for four years and six months, or until the Turkey Creek Post Office was discontinued. In 1862, Mr. Holt was elected County Judge, and was Commissioner in 1865, and has always been a delegate and regular attendant at the Democratic conventions. During the early troubles the Judge occupied neutral grounds, but, notwithstanding, he was present and saw many of the lawless proceedings that took place, and was at times in a perilous position. He has a thorough knowledge of all parties and their motives, of all the early incidents of this section. From the claim he first bought he has made a farm of 360 acres, 200 now under cultivation, raising good crops of wheat and corn, having some of the finest cattle in the country, and keeping blooded horses and hogs. In 1840, he took his first wife, but losing her, he married again in 1860. By the first marriage he had eight children, and six by the second, having lost two. Mr. Holt was Township Treasurer for five years, and served on the School Board as Clerk, etc., since 1870. He has been Notary Public, and was one of only four Masons west of Fort Scott in 1858. He is a charter member of the lodge at Uniontown.

WILLIAM JACKMAN, farmer and Postmaster, Rockford, is a native of Pennsylvania. In early life he moved to Guernsey County, Ohio, coming from there to Kansas in 1858 and locating on the north side of the section where he now lives, and in 1859 he married Miss Mason. This was an early date for this section, and he was counted among the pioneers, enduring the privations which marked early life on the frontier of civilization. In 1861, he enlisted in the Twelfth Kansas Volunteer Infantry, Company K, and served until 1865, when he was mustered out and returned home. During the time he was away, his family lived with his wife's father, Benjamin Mason. In 1863, he lost all of his property by a prairie fire, and in 1877, he moved to the southeast quarter of Section 17, where he engaged in stock farming and conducting a store and post office. He started his store in 1879, and was appointed Postmaster in 1881. They have four children living and three dead. The family are members of the Protestant Methodist Church, organized there in 1877.

T. B. JULIAN, miller, native of Putnam County, Tenn., was born in 1843. His father, T. K. Julian, M. D., visited Fort Scott in 1854, but returned to Cassville, Barry Co., Mo. In 1855, June 5, he came to Fort Scott with his father, and they went West to Mapleton, Bourbon County, and settled there where his father still lives. In 1861, he commenced milling with Noel & Myrick, and the same year went into the army as a scout, and served during the war in various capacities, as messenger and wagon-master, also enlisted as private in Company B, Third Kansas Cavalry. In the milling business he has worked for Deland & Bacon, millers, Fort Scott, and for others. In 1877, he moved from Mapleton to Fort Scott, and while there was elected Alderman of the First Ward, 1880 to 1881; he had been Under Sheriff of Labette County, and Superintendent of the Poor there. In 1881, he moved to Uniontown and bought an interest in the Uniontown Steam Flouring Mills, which he is now managing; they have three run of stone and a capacity of 120 bushels of wheat and 200 bushels of corn. The property is worth about $6,000. Mr. Julian married in 1868, Miss Nelson. They have three children. He belongs to the Masonic Lodge and the A. O. U. W.

I. D. MARKS, station agent on the St. Louis, Fort Scott & Wichita Railroad, is a native of Butler County, Ohio, born in 1849, May 16. As soon as he was of suitable age he was educated in the mercantile business, but he went to Illinois in 1865, to Arcola. It was while here he married Miss Wright in 1877, and next year commenced his railroad experience on the Illinois Midland; his first station was Chesterville, Ill. In 1881, he came West, and on April 1, 1882, took the station at Uniontown, having also the Western Union Telegraph agency. His matrimonial venture was blessed with one daughter.

G. W. OLIVER, farmer and Superintendent of the Poor, Bourbon County. He is a native of Geneva, Ontario County, N. Y.; was born in 1832, February 28, at the foot of Seneca Lake. When eleven years of age, his father moved to La Grange, Ind., and from there they moved to St. Joe County, Mich. After four years' residence here, he went to live with his grandfather, James Goodwin, at Geneva, N. Y. In 1854 he returned to his father's farm, and then went into the machine shops at Sturgis' Ferry; from there he went to St. Joe, Ind., into an ax factory there; while in this place he married Miss Eller in 1858; next year going to Taweas, Iosco Co., Mich., where he farmed and worked at carpenter work. In 1864, he enlisted in the Marine Corps, at Portsmouth, N. H., serving in the barracks; was removed to the Brooklyn barracks, and soon joined the man-of-war vessel St. Mary's, and sailed in the coast service to Valparaiso, Chili; then to Panama, where he had the yellow fever; then to San Francisco. He was transferred to the Jamestown and went to Panama, then back, and on up the Pacific coast to Sitka, where he saw a curious land and a curious people. They touched at Vancouver's Island on their return trip to San Francisco where he was transferred to the barracks, and discharged September 16, 1868, and sailed for home, arriving October 24, 1868, returning to the pursuits of civil life. In 1871, he came to Kansas, locating in Uniontown, and in 1872 he took charge of the Poor Farm, giving it up in 1874, and farming A. Chaffin's farm; taking charge of the County Poor Farm again in 1877, retaining possession to present time, 1882. In 1880, he bought A. Chaffin's farm of 130 acres, in Section 27, which he also farms now, in blooded cattle, horses and grain. He has four children living; has buried two since living in Kansas. During his eventful life, he has been on a man-of-war forty-four months and was away from home four years.

JAMES PATTERSON, general merchandise, is a native of Missouri, born in February, 1817, and has since commencing business always been in the mercantile line with the exception of ten or twelve years; when he was in a foundry in Alton, Ill., to Kansas in 1870; he has the third oldest store in Uniontown. He built the building in which he does business at a cost of $4,500; 24x60, two stories high. He now carries a stock of $5,000, and does a steadily increasing business. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church, but there being none of that denomination here, he helped to build the Protestant Methodist Church, which he attends. He married in Illinois, and has five boys and three girls, all of age--George and William in the business with him; James is agent for J. T. Stalker, general store; John is a blacksmith at La Harpe, Allen County, and Elmer is in Montana, on the railroad. Both sic of his daughters are married, and his household consists of nine members now.

D. T. RALSTON, farmer, Section 8, is a native of Lincoln County, Tenn., born in 1818, June 10, and was raised in Fayette County. When eighteen years of age, he went to Greene County, Mo., where he was employed at farming and working at the carpenter's trade in the neighborhood of Springfield. In the spring of 1840, he married Miss Guttry, and moved to Kansas in 1855, whither John and James Guttry had preceded them, being the first settlers in Marion Township. On the 12th of January, 1855, he arrived, and, as was his custom, he staked out his claim from hill to hill, taking in a choice piece of 320 acres, retaining the most of it now. During this time he had some trouble to keep the squatters from his claim, and in 1856, he relates, as they were taking the body of one of his children to the grave, they were met by a company of Pro-slavery men, who demanded his horse of him, and after following them to the place of burial, possessed themselves of the horse, promising to return it, which they did afterward. In 1855, he had but a few neighbors, being McCarty, Fly, Mitchell and Coyle. In 1857, he lost his wife. He remained a widower until 1859, when he married again to Miss Rhotom, of Bourbon County. He has improved his farm and now raises stock and grain on 300 acres. His family consisted of sixteen children, nine of whom are living. In 1856, Mr. Ralston was elected Justice of the Peace, but his commission was made out in another name, so he never served. He has belonged to the Masonic fraternity since 1864, and is a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.

C. S. STEELE, blacksmith and wagon maker, is a native of Port Byron, Cayuga Co., N. Y. Was born in 1834. Removing to Logansport, Ind., in 1843, and while in La Porte County, he learned his trade. His father's family live in Indiana yet. Tracing their ancestry back to the Patriarch John Steele, who was born in Essex County, England, and came to Cambridge, Mass., in 1631, the descent is as follows: the Patriarch John Steele had married a wife in England, who died in 1653; he then married Mercy Seymour; he died at Farmington, Conn., November 25, 1655; his son John, Jr., married Mercy Warner, and died in 1653 or 1654; his son Lieut. John, born November 5, 1647, married Ruth Judd, of Farmington; he died in 1737, August 26; his son, Lieut. John, was born March 7, 1685, married Mary Newell, and died April 2, 1751; his son Solomon, born November 18, 1728, married Mary Guernsey, and died 1786; his son, Job, married Olive Stoddart, and died 1813. This was Mr. Steele's grandfather, and his son, or Elisha, lived and died in Indiana. Six of the old family are in Kansas. C. S. Steele arrived in Kansas, May 15, 1860, in Fort Scott, June 16, and went to Rockford, July 12, in company with George Diamond. He then bought out Gilford & Hamlin, the pioneer blacksmiths of Rockford, and in company with M. L. Ford, worked at his trade and farmed. On the 22d of August, 1862, he enlisted in the Second Kansas Battery, serving there till September, when he was promoted to First Lieutenant of Company G, Fourteenth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry; then was commissioned Commissary, and finally received the commission of Captain in the same company. In 1865, he was mustered out and returned to his home in Rockford. In 1873, he removed to Uniontown, and established his business here as blacksmith, and took possession of the wagon shop in 1881. He still has 280 acres for farming purposes, besides owning other property. Mr. Steele has ever taken a determined stand in politics, and as a reward, the people elected him to the Legislature in 1871 for the Fifty-second Representative District, on the Republican ticket. From 1879 to the present year, 1882, he has been Justice of the Peace and also Notary Public. He has held other minor offices, always found ready to serve the public for the public good. He has four daughters and is one of the charter members of the A. O. U. W., and Recorder of the same.

D. C. STEVENS with J. W. Brown, is a native of Albany, N. Y., born in 1851. His father was in the gents' furnishing line, so he was educated to a mercantile life. Coming West to Missouri in 1867, went to work for Pierce & Cobb, in St. Louis; coming to Kansas in 1865, he entered the store of Mr. Foster, but soon after went onto a farm, and in 1879 he commenced with J. W. Brown, and is now manager of the business, which was bought of Mr. Foster by J. W. Brown in 1869, carrying a stock of $4,500. Mr. Brown is now conducting a branch store in Toronto, Woodson County, of about the same magnitude as this one.

JOAB TEAGUE, farmer, Section 14, is a native of North Carolina, born in 1812. When about fourteen years of age, he went to Indiana, and in 1837, to Missouri, and twenty years afterward came to Kansas and bought a claim of Mr. Etheridge, comprising 500 acres for $500. The land was then not surveyed. About this time they organized a commission regulating claims, of which he was a member. He stood on neutral ground in the Free-State and Pro-slavery fight; although his feelings were those of the Free-State men, he was unmolested by the two parties; though they had his name and a list of his property. When the Governor of the State appointed Boards to settle and arrange all troubles, he was one of the members. In 1859, he was County Treasurer; Justice from 1858 to 1862, and again elected. Since, he has taken great interest in the public welfare of the State. Mr. Teague was first married in 1835, and lost his wife in 1857. Marrying again in 1863, to Miss Wood. Mr. Teague had five boys and one girl by his first wife, and three boys by his second wife. Is a successful farmer and fruit grower, taking the premium on his apples all over the world, at the Centennial in 1876, and this year, 1882, has an apple weighing twenty-one ounces and measuring fifteen and a half inches in circumference.

J. W. WELLS, farmer, Section 27, is a native of Rutherford County, N. C., where he was born in 1828. Until he was eleven years of age they lived in his native State, and in 1839 moved to Greene County, Tenn.; here they engaged in stock farming, and in 1851 he married Miss Brown. Immediately starting West he located Cape Girardeau, Mo.; while there he was engaged in farming and here his brother Robert was married. In October 27, 1855, they came to Bourbon County and located in an almost wilderness, there being only the Guthreys and one or two other families in the section for miles. There was another family named Russel that attempted to wrest the claim from Robert Wells, coming to the unfinished cabin and entered, when the two brothers ordered them from the claim. A stone struck the eldest brother, John, when the war was opened. Neither party used arms or knives, which was fortunate, and the Wells brothers coming off victorious, the Russel party retreated. Such were the perils of pioneer life in Kansas in 1855. John Wells had at first located on Section 12, Town 25, Range 22, but in 1857 he moved to his present location, which he has improved, and now has a farm of 360 acres of fertile soil covered with heavy crops; himself and wife are the only couple of '55 now living in Marion Township; their daughter, Mary Holt, was the first child born in Marion; he belonged to the first town company.

W. F. WELLS, merchant, Uniontown, is a native of Missouri, born in 1852. His father, J. W., and his uncle Robert were pioneers in this township, coming West and settling in 1855, bringing W. F. with them. His youth was spent on a farm, and as he grew older he became quite an expert with the gun, spent his time hunting, and in the chicken season killing 120 dozen prairie chickens, and eighty dozen quail; his best season in 1877 he killed 1,500 chickens; his best day's record is thirty-seven birds without a miss, having to shoot one a second time, but his younger brother David has made the best record known, killing forty-four chickens, two jack-rabbits and one plover in forty-four shots, three shots each killing a brace of chickens; he followed shooting till 1881 when he built his store and stocked it with general merchandise, at the cost of $1,800, and is now doing a good business. He married a Miss Crouch, the daughter of J. M. Crouch, one of the pioneer families; their union has been blessed with one child.

G. C. WILLEY, merchant, Uniontown, of the firm of Eves & Willey, is a native of Sullivan County, N. H., born in 1838; he first learned the business of an engineer, and also clerked, but his health failed and he went West, locating in Iowa; he tried machine shops of Clinton. This was in 1867. Here he had an excellent offer, but his health failed again and he then cam to Kansas, locating in Erie, Neosho County, in 1868; from here he traveled for Parsons & Co., Kansas City; he was a commercial agent for some years, then commencing in Uniontown in 1871, with a stock of some sixty-odd dollars, by perseverance he established himself, and in 1875 was appointed Postmaster. He was so successful that in 1881, he built and stocked a store with general merchandise; he was appointed agent for the Adams Express in the same year, and in 1882 Mr. G. P. Eves went into partnership with him. In 1861 he enlisted; in 1865 he returned to his former occupation. He has been married twice, marrying the last time Miss Annie Rousche, daughter of James R. Rousche.

ELIAS WILLIAMS, farmer, P. O. Uniontown, is a native of New Jersey, born in April, 1815; when he was four years old he moved to Ohio with his parents, and remained there till he was twenty-four, when he went to LaSalle County, Ill., and began farming. While here he married Miss Lewis, of Ohio, one of the pioneer families of that section, and as for himself he was one of the pioneers of three States, Ohio, Illinois and Kansas. In 1859, he came to Kansas, locating in Johnson County, and in 1860, he came to Bourbon County, and settled on Section 14, going into stock and grain farming on a farm of 339 acres, cultivating about 150 acres. In 1840, he was married and now has six children--John, in the Chickasaw nation; Jerome, at home; Reese was in Gunnison County, Col., Fred is away, Charles is at home, and a daughter, now Mrs. Goff. Mr. Williams was Justice in 1861 and 1867 and also in Illinois; he has always taken an interest in school matters, and has held school office.