NEMAHA COUNTY, Part 8

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES (FELT - LARIMER).

ANDREW J. FELT, editor Seneca Tribune, was born December 27, 1833, at Victor, Ontario County, N. Y.; educated at the Hamilton Academy, Madison County. At the age of sixteen commenced teaching, following that profession three years. Then began the study of law, with Thomas Frothingham, of Rochester; completed his legal studies with Judge Nichols, of Sherburne, Chenango County, but becoming enthusiastic as to the West, emigrated to Iowa, before being admitted to the bar. This was in the autumn of 1855; and during the following winter he taught school in a blacksmith shop upon the present site of Luana, Clayton County. In 1856 Mr. Felt assumed editorial control of the North Iowa Times, of McGregor, published by A. P. Richardson. Remained in that position until March, 1857, and was shortly after admitted to the bar of Chickasaw. Instead of actively commencing the practice of law at the time, he commenced the publication of the Cedar Valley News, at Bradford, opening a law-office in connection with his newspaper business, as soon as the latter became established. One year later he sold out his interest in the paper, and entering into partnership with M. V. Burdick, devoted all of his energies to the practice of his chosen profession. In 1860 renewed his editorial connection with the North Iowa Times, but the war breaking out, enlisted very soon after as a private in Company B, Seventh Iowa Infantry. Was taken prisoner at Belmont, Mo., on November 7, 1861, remaining in the hands of the enemy for nearly a year. Was then in hospital at Annapolis from October, 1862, to February 1868. Joined his regiment at Corinth, Miss.; was promoted to Sargent, and returned to Iowa in the spring of 1864. Mr. Felt proceeded immediately to West Union, Fayette County, and established the Public Record; conducted it until 1866, when he sold out, and in May 1867, started the Nashua Post. This he disposed of in 1874, when he purchased an interest in the Waterloo Courier. In October, 1875, he abandoned journalism for a time, and established a private bank at Nashua. Mr. Felt was postmaster at Nashua from 1869 to 1874; was delegate to both Grant Conventions, being one of the Secretaries of that of 1868, and was Chairmen of the Congressional Convention which nominated W. C. Deering, in August, 1867. In January 1880, disposed of his bank, and removed to Seneca, where he established the Tribune, building a magnificent brick office for its accommodation, at a cost of $8,000. The first issue of the Tribune appeared June 7, 1881. It is a handsome seven-column quarto, Republican in politics. Mr. Felt was married at Bradford, Iowa, on February 21, 1858, to Emily Rutherford, of Fairfield, Ohio. They have three children - Edward, Harry and Bertha.

JOHN FULLER, of Fuller & Son, hardware firm, Seneca. John Fuller is a native of Horsham, in the county of Sussex, England. His parents took him when a child, to Dorking, in the county of Surrey, where, under the tutelage of his father, he learned the trades of tinman, brazier and coppersmith. After serving seven years, he left home at the early age of seventeen, and by perseverance and close application, he mastered the various branches of those trades so as to be entitled to the name of a general sheet-metal worker; he also learned, in his spare time, the trade of shoemaker, and made shoes for his family in what would have been, otherwise, leisure time for ten years. In April, 1870, be left England for Nemaha County, Kan., bringing with him six children, with barely enough means to get through to Atchison; on arriving at Atchison, was compelled to beg a passage for the rest of his journey to his destination, of Mayor Downs, superintendent of the C. B. U. P. R. R, who kindly gave him a pass, and accompanied them to their destination, wishing them a hearty success. The eldest of his six children was thirteen years old, and as no opening offered for his trade, he tramped on foot to Centralia, Waterville, Marysville, and finally to Atchison, Leavenworth and Kansas City, without money, with no better success; and in order to sustain life, was compelled to 'grub' trees for men clearing land, near Leavenworth - working with a gang of negroes, working at any and everything that offered any kind of pay. Finally, he was introduced to John Roots, another sterling Englishman, living near Centralia, whose son, Aaron Roots, offered to put $650 into the hardware business, against Mr. Fuller's knowledge of the business and the trade, which proposition Mr. Fuller gladly accepted. Thus was founded a business that to-day occupies a front rank in the rank of Seneca's enterprises in the early days of Kansas. Mr. Fuller prides himself on the record of his wife and children equally with his own; his good wife, though frail, was yet endowed with the same earnest spirit of independent ambition, and desire to lift themselves to a better position in the world - labored hard, like himself, at any and everything she could find to do, early and late, for nearly three years, earning from $250 to $300 a year, besides giving a mother's care to her six thrifty children; the eldest son, Henry W., by working, while yet a boy, on the track for the St. Joe & Western Railroad, earned a goodly sum, which assisted his sire to buy out the interest of Mr. Roots in the business in January, 1875. Since then, father and sons have steadily prospered as they have deserved to do, having all done their utmost to insure success, and as evidence of it have for inspection a $5,000 stock of hardware, stoves and tinware, etc., owning the building they now occupy, and real estate to the value of at least $10,000. Mrs. Fuller was the eldest daughter or Henry Fagg, (many years engineer on the Southwestern Railroad) of Ashford, county of Kent, at which place her six children who came with her were born. They now have seven living - Henry W., John, William E., Walter, Martha I., Herbert and Beatus F. The two youngest were born in Seneca.

JAMES FULTON, proprietor of Elm Park, is a native of Seneca County, N Y., was reared in Seneca County Ohio, and in 1866 removed to Seneca, Kan. In 1870 he bought twenty acres of heavy timber skirting the Nemaha to the south of Seneca. Here he planted an orchard and small vineyard, meanwhile working at his trade of carpenter - building houses, barns, fences. etc. Elm Park, so named for a noble specimen of that beautiful variety of trees that stands near its centre, was opened to the public July 1, 1882. It comprises about four acres of walnut, oak and elm timber, along the south bank of the Nemaha, and promises to become the popular resort of Nemaha County for pleasure seekers. Mr. Fulton and sons are constantly improving the grounds, naturally adapted to the use of picnic parties. A pavilion for music and dancing will soon be built, and numerous tables and seats provided. Mr. Fulton is also erecting a new residence for himself opposite the Park. He married in Ohio, Margaret J. Moore. They have five children - David A., James C., Mayflower, Ella and Maggie.

JAMES H. GLEASON, Clerk of the District Court of Nemaha County, was born October 27, 1849, in Broome County, N. Y. He grew to manhood at the home of his father, Chauncy Gleason, receiving his education in Richford and Newark Valley, N. Y. The family located in Grenada, Nemaha County, in 1870. J. H. Gleason was elected to his present office in the fall of 1880. He is a member of the Seneca Lodge, No. 39, A. F. & A. M., and is a Republican in politics. He married in Seneca, Miss Charity, daughter of W. R. Wells, Esq. they have three children; all born in Seneca.

JAMES GREGG, P. O. Seneca, is a native of Ayrshire, Scotland, born July 26, 1827. On his way to America, in 1852, his wife, formerly Mary Ellis, died while crossing the gulf of Mexico. Mr. Gregg located in Lyons, Iowa; where he worked three years on farms and railroads. July 3, 1857, was the date of his settlement on his present farm, and while living in his log house, both wife and himself suffered six months with malarial fever. His crop of 1858 was hauled to Atchison, fifty-eight miles, and sold at 21/4 cents per pound. In Iowa Mr. Gregg married Janet (Anderson) Baird, a native of Perthshire, Scotland. Her first husband, Alexander Anderson, died in Iowa they having come to America in 1850. Mrs. Gregg died, childless, in March 19, 1876. Upon her death Mr. Gregg gave to nephews of his deceased wife, 240 of their 1,000 acres acquired since 1857.

J. H. HATCH, lumberman, is a native of Maine, and in early life ventured on the sea, rounding Cape Horn as second mate of a sailing vessel. In 1850, resolving to stake his fortune in the Golden State, he engaged in mining with good success for two years. During the next nineteen years he followed the manufactury of lumber in California. Returning to the Pine Tree State In l859, he married in his and her native county - Sagadahock, Maine, Sarah D. Tallman. Since 1873, Mr. Hatch has been actively engaged in the lumber trade in Seneca, carrying a $5,000 stock of mainly Michigan lumber. He is a Republican, a Free Mason, and is a stock-holder and Vice-President of the Nemaha County Bank. Besides his interests in Seneca, Mr. Hatch owns a half interest in the Marysville Lumber Company, with S. K. Martin, of Chicago. Mr. and Mrs. Hatch have four children - Lucine, Nellie, Lizzie and Lester. The son was born in Kansas, and the daughters in California. It is worthy of remark that the father of Mr. Hatch is still living, of eighty-seven years, although his mother died at the age of only thirty five.

NOAH HAYES, M. D., is a native of Henry County, Ind., and was educated in the common schools, and In Newcastle, Ind.; he enlisted, at seventeen, in the Thirty-sixth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and served three years during the Civil War in the armies of the Cumberland and Tennessee, participating in the battles of Pittsburg Landing, Shiloh, Corinth, Stone River, Chattanooga, and the great battles preceding the investment of Atlanta. Was granted a furlough about this time, and returned in time to take part in the battles of Pulaski, Franklin, and Nashville. At the close of the war he returned to his native county and attended and taught school until 1871, when he went to Washington, D. C., and in June of that year, sailed on the ill-fated 'Polaris' for the North Pole. A history of this disastrous government expedition need not be repeated here; suffice to say after wintering in latitude eighty-two degrees north, and spending nearly two years in the icy polar regions, he, with others, was picked up by the Scotch ship 'Arctic'; landed at Peter-head, Scotland; made his way, by way of Dundee, to Liverpool, and thence to the United States. On his return to Washington be was in the employ of the United States Patent Office for about two years; was then on the National Bank Bureau, with J. D. Knox for one year. Entering the medical department of the Georgetown College, he graduated in 1876. He came west to Fairbury, Neb., in 1878, and on the outbreak of the Leadville excitement, went thither to make or break, and succeeded in accomplishing the latter. After two years' varied experiences in railroad surveys and other business, he located at Seneca in August, 1881, forming a partnership with Dr. A. C. V. McNeil, the firm having since enjoyed a lucrative and increasing practice, which leads Dr. Hayes, as he looks back over the tumultuous and exciting episodes of the former years of his life to fully appreciate his present prosperity.

J. E. HAZZARD, merchant, is a native of Scott County, Ind., born in 1831. He was reared in Washington County, Ind., and in 1859, left his native State, for Kansas. In the spring of 1860 he went to the mountains of Colorado. During 1861- '62 he was in the employ of the Overland Stage Company. In 1862 he bought a farm near Capioma, in this county, where he lived peaceably and prosperously until 1877; then sold out and bought a farm near Seneca, where he farmed with equal success until the spring of 1881, when the mercantile firm of Hazzard & Son was formed, and the stock of L. J. McGowen purchased; Mr. Hazzard since devoting himself to the business. He married Mill Jane Gordon, in Indiana, who died in Seneca. they had two children - Gordon and Nancy. The present Mrs. Hazzard was Mary Meyers, of Seneca.

REV. C. HOLMAN was born in 1823, near Concord, H. H. He was educated there and at Philadelphia, where he went in his boyhood for a few years. He was afterward engaged as a clerk in mercantile houses; and at the age of nineteen began preaching in the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1846 he was ordained as deacon, and in 1850 ordained as elder by Bishops Heading and Morris. He has preached forty-one years. Four years he was presiding elder of Dover District, New Hampshire. During the war, he served under the Christian Commission, at Chattanooga, and also was appointed by Bishop Simpson, under an order of the War Department, to reorganize the Methodist Episcopal Church of Tennessee, and lately did the same work in Florida. He came to Kansas in 1869 and has since served two years as presiding elder of the Manhattan District, and four years as presiding elder of the Atchison District, and is still at the work, preaching at Corning and Axtell. Mr. Holman has made a fine record in temperance labors as well as co-operating with Neal Dow and other temperance workers of national reputation. As a politician, all that need be said is, that his very first vote was cast for James G. Birney. He married in Putney, Vt., Lucy T. Underwood. They have five children living.

DR. W. R. HUNTER, dentist, was born in Corning, N. Y.; raised until he was seventeen on a farm. He then attended high school for a time in Steuben County, N. Y., and began the study of medicine in the village of Jasper; afterward studying dentistry with C. R. Hamilton of Jasper, and Dr. R. Gillett, of New York City. Dr. Hunter built up a large practice in New York City, where he commenced in 1855, and another nearly as large in Addison, N. Y. Having suffered for years from asthmatic troubles, the doctor decided to test the dry air of Kansas, which resulted in his location at Seneca, August, 1878, although his family still remain in Addison. The doctor married, in his and her native county Mary Sherwood, by whom he has two children. Mrs. Hunter is a sister of the Hon. Henry Sherwood, of New York.

LEROY JOHNSON of the firm of Jenkins & Johnson, Seneca, was born July 6,1831, in Van Buren County, Iowa. His father, J. H. Johnson, a farmer from Ohio, with Thomas and Warman Johnson and George Hill, crossed the 'Father of Waters' at Fort Madison, Iowa, in 1829, being among the first white settlers of that great State. Leroy Johnson lived in Van Buren County until he was twenty-two, then spent about eight years in Shelby County. In 1859, he began as a freighter, traversing the great plains from Atchison, St. Joe and Plattsmouth, to Denver. In 1862 he began at the carpenter's trade in Denver; located at Seneca in July, 1865; worked as a carpenter until 1872, then began the furniture business, associating H. W. Jenkins, in October, 18[8]0. Mr. Johnson married in Ash Point, Nemaha County Kan., Miss Pauline Bland, who was born, 184[9], in Franklin County, Ohio, and who settled in 186[ ] in Nemaha County, Kan., where her brother and mother now live. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson belong to the First Universalist Church of Seneca, and he is a Republican politically.

HON. RICHARD JOHNSON, farmer. P. O. Seneca, was born In Montgomery County, Ind. made his first location in Mahaska County, Iowa, and thence went in 1854 to California, driving his ox-team; spent three years in the mines, and two in the valleys; went to Colorado in 1860, and thence the same year to Nemaha County, Kan. His location was three and a half miles north of his present one; and during l861, the hard year, saw times when corn meal, hauled sixty and eighty miles from Missouri, sold for $1 per bushel. Himself and family also experienced the hardships of that memorable January, 1881, when living in their log cabin surrounded by two feet of snow, though his devoted wife who had crossed the plains with him seven years before was well used to need to privation and danger. In 1871, he settled where he now is - Section 10, Township 2, Range 12. Has 160 acres here, and owns besides, the whole of Section 11. Has made good 'marks' in the way of building and tree planting, and is eminently one of the prosperous pioneers of Kansas. In 1871-'72 he was a member of the State Legislature, being the first Democrat to represent Nemaha County. In 1876-'77 he was County Sheriff, and has been a local school officer for seventeen years past. His wife was Eliza Mettler, of New York. They have four children - Pierce, born in Mahaska County, Iowa; Irvin, born in Sonoma County, Cal.; Lydia and Ella, both born in Nemaha County, Kan.

S. S. KAYSBIER, M. D., was born in Wayne County, Ohio, in 1829. He is the son of Samuel and Mary (Shull) Kaysbier. The doctor was left fatherless at the age of five years, and from his tenth year lived in New Philadelphia, Ohio. He began the study of medicine while in a drug store, at seventeen years of age; removed to Illinois at nineteen, graduated in the spring of 1852 from the Medical Department of the State University of Missouri at St. Louis; began practice in Toulon, Ill. In the fall of 1852 he opened the first drug store in Toulon, and in 1857, in company with the late Rev. R. C. Dunn, commenced the publication of the Stark County News, a weekly paper still in existence, and in the editorial management of which he continued until the war broke out. The doctor gained a fair reputation as a writer. He enlisted in the Band of the Forty-seventh Illinois Volunteer Infantry in 1861, served until the regimental bands were discharged by Government, and afterwards as assistant surgeon, until 1863; resigned on account of sickness; practiced in Rochester, Ill., and Toulon until 1870, when he came to Seneca, where he has since resided and practiced. The doctor married in Toulon, Ill., Miss Hannah J. Whitaker, a native of Tioga County, Penn. They have six children - five born in Illinois and the youngest in Kansas. Their names are, E. Lena, Mary, Fred L., Kate, Minnie M. and Thayne. The doctor has a pleasant home, surrounded by an unusually good showing of fruit, shade, and ornamental trees, flowers, shrubs, small fruits, etc., all of his own planting. He is the oldest practitioner in Seneca.

SAMUEL KING, blacksmith, is a native of Tioga County, Pa., born in 1836. He learned his trade in Wellsboro, Pa., and worked in Newark Valley, N. J., until 1870, when he came to Seneca: built his large stone shop and began pounding out the competence since secured. He married in Newark Valley N Y., Miss Maria L. Root, and they have one daughter - Mary L. Mr. King is a member of the Masonic Lodge and chapter, and Seneca Lodge and Hiawatha Commandery I. O. O. F. During the Civil War Mr. King lost three of the four brothers, who enlisted under the 'old flag;' he himself being rejected from the enlistment rolls by the examining surgeon, though in 1864-'65 he served in the U. S. Overland Service as a blacksmith.

JOHN P. KOELZER, farmer, P. O. Seneca, is a native of Prussia, born 1826; came to America 1851, and lived in Manitowoc County, Wis., until 1857, when he came to Kansas, pre-empting the quarter section, on which he has ever since lived. His first log cabin, 10x12, stood an the banks of the Wild Cat Creek, and while living here, he saw much of early pioneering in a new prairie State. His wheat was hauled with an ox-team to the Doniphan mill, one half the load sold at fifty cents per bushel, and the remainder exchanged for flour, the trip and return occupying nine days. His brother Joseph, also born in Prussia, came to America and Wisconsin in 1853, and to Kansas in 1858. Both were prominent movers in the first building of Wild Cat Catholic Church in 1859, and are both wall located and substantial farmers. J. P. Koelzer has 320 acres well improved. He married Margeret Wing, and they have thirteen children - two born in Wisconsin and eleven in Kansas. Joseph Koelzer married Sophia Koplitz, by whom he has seven children. He has 280 acres and good buildings.

JUDGE HIRAM H. LANHAM, is a native of Hartford, Ohio Co., Ky. Was born February 9, 1827. His father, Elias G. Lanham, was a North Carolinian, and was a soldier in the war of 1812-'15. His wife was Nancy A. White, a native of Virginia. The family settled in Spencer County, Ind., in 1836. Alter a few years H. H. Lanham returned to Kentucky, where he engaged in farming. In 1848, he located on Grand Prairie, Ill., near Slabtown, where he ran a flouring and saw-mill. Five years later he came to St. Joe, Mo., thence in March, 1855, he made his final removal to and settled in Nemaha County Ken. His father-in-law. Elder Newton, his three sons and Mr. Lanham, at this time founded 'Central City,' six miles north of Seneca. A store and a feed and saw-mill once marked this spot, now a farm. During 1856, Mr. Lanham was appointed postmaster in Central City, which office he held three years. Two years later he was appointed Assessor of Richmond and Seneca, and at the same time J. P. and N. P. In 1861 he settled in Seneca, beginning as a wheelwright and a wagon-maker. In 1863, be was appointed Probate Judge of Nemaha County, Kan., receiving the election in 1864, and the re-election four successive times. During 1872-'74, he was engaged in farming, being re-elected County Judge in 1874, and serving two terms, making in all thirteen years of service on the Probate Bench of Nemaha County. Since 1879, Judge Lanham has attended to his business as J. P., and to his furniture business. He married in 1846, Miss Mary A., daughter of Elder Thomas Newton, and a native of Breckenridge County, Ky. They have had four children - Manassa, Almira S., and Dutte G. (both deceased), and Joseph, born in Fayette County, Ill. Judge Lanham is a Republican of whig antecedents, and has been a member of the Missionary Baptist Church since he was sixteen. He is also an Odd Fellow and a Good Templar. His eldest son, Manassa L., was born in Hancock County, Ky. He served in the Union Army during 1854-'55, was wounded while on picket duty, in front of Atlanta, recovered, and served until the close of the Civil War, participating in the long march to San Antonio, Tex. He is now engaged in business in Seneca.

J. H. LAREW, was born in 1840, in Hamilton County, Ind. In 1843, his father, James Larew, removed to Mercer County Ill; the family coming thence to Seneca in 1858. James Larew drove stage twice a week during that summer between Atchison and Marysville; he still lives a freeholder in Seneca. J. H. Larew enlisted in 1862, in the Fifth Missouri Cavalry, and a year later was discharged and re-enlisted in the Seventh Kansas Cavalry (Jennison's Jayhawkers) and helped lead a lively dance for such guerrilla chiefs as Forrest, Van Dorn and Price, until his discharge in July 1865. The next spring Mr. Larew opened a barber shop in Seneca, and has since continued the business. He is a Republican, has served as a councilman nearly every year since the end of the rebellion, and was Mayor of Seneca, 1875. He was the first man married in Seneca, (January 1, 1860) and has a son and daughter living. Is also a prominent Free Mason (since 1871), and Odd Fellow (since 1879). Mr. Larew owns a pleasant and well located home and is prospering in worldly ways.

J. W. LARIMER was born October; 1836, in Miami County, Ind. At the age of fourteen he removed with his parents to Lucas County, Ind., and three years later to Adams County, Iowa. He enlisted in 1861 in the Fourth Iowa Volunteer Infantry; participating in the battles of Pea Ridge, Arkansas Post, Chickasaw Bayou, Jackson, Black River Bridge, and the siege of Vicksburg, his regiment being one of the first to enter the city; afterwards participating in the second battle of Jackson, Mission Ridge, Chattanooga, Lookout Mountain, and wintered at Bridgeport, Ala. It then joined Sherman and took up the grand march on Atlanta fighting desperate battles every week, he not missing a fight or receiving a scratch. After the capture of Atlanta. he marched with Sherman to the sea and through the Carolinas, participating in all in all the fights until Johnston's surrender. After taking final grand review at Washington the regiment was discharged. Private Larimer having been promoted Sergeant, returned to Adams County, Iowa; where in 1870, he was elected County Sheriff, serving four consecutive terms. He came to Kansas in 1878; after farming four years settled in Seneca, where he opened a livery stable in December, 1881. He married in Adams County, Iowa, Miss M. A. Lockwood, a native of Coshocton County, Ohio. They have six children, all born in Adams County, Iowa. Mr. Larimer is a Republican, and a member with his wife, of the Methodist church.