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CLOUD COUNTY, KANSAS BIOGRAPHIES BAKER BORTON. A conspicuous figure was the late Baker Borton, who died February 12, 1902. Mr. Borton was a native of Fairview, Ohio, where he was educated in the common schools. When twenty-seven years of age he located on a farm near Morris, Grundy county, Illinois, where he resided eight years. He was ingenious and through necessity learned the carpenter trade, working in that capacity for several years. The latter part of March, 1872, he came to Clyde for the purpose of farming, but circumstances were brought about that diverted his intentions and he followed that occupation but a short time. Mr. Borton was an active politician and for the first ten years of his residence in Cloud county he served as deputy sheriff, constable, United States deputy marshal and in 1888 he was elected commissioner of Cloud county and served two terms. In 1882 he opened a real estate and insurance business, becoming one of Clyde's most successful business men. He was a man of many sterling qualities, charitable and kind of heart he never oppressed the poor. He numbered his friends among all classes of people and the foreign element, so numerous in the vicinity of Clyde, had great confidence in him. As if foreseeing the future need of a successor from the family circle, Mr. Borton trained and educated his granddaughter, Ruby M. Cannon, for the position. After graduating from the Clyde high school in 1898 she entered the office as his secretary and during his illness of three years prior to his death she conducted the business. She is well qualified and very successful retaining the old patrons and adding many new ones. Mr. Borton was married in 1862 to Miss Sue Osier. The Osiers' ancestry came from England. Mrs. Borton's maternal grandfather was a soldier in the Revolutionary war and her father in the war of 1812. They settled in Maryland in an early day and afterward moved to Ohio, where Mrs. Borton was born. Her mother was Volinda Foreman, of Virginia, where her father was a slaveholder. Her maternal grandparents were Kentuckians, related to the old Dent family. To Mr. and Mrs. Borton one child has been born, Carrie B., wife of William S. Cannon (see sketch), an attorney of Clyde. Mrs. Borton with her family reside on the corner of Broadway and the Boulevard, which is in Clyde proper and where they located in 1873, when this part of the town was a level prairie and before the streets were surveyed. They have one of the most comfortable homes in the city. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. ( Page 495) The subject of this sketch is the late Dr. Ransopher, one of Clyde's most prominent and useful citizens, pioneer physicians and the first druggist of Cloud county. Dr. Ransopher came to Kansas in June, 1868, and settled temporarily on Parson's creek; his intentions were to locate on White Rock, in Republic county, where he secured a claim and erected a cabin, but the Indian troubles began and some of his relatives and acquaintances were among the victims of their murderous assaults. Finding it unsafe to take his family there he gave up his claim along with the improvements and settled in Clyde, March, 1869, occupying the only frame house 6n the town site of Clyde at that time. It was owned by Sylvester Way and stood on the lot where B. P. Morley's residence, built by Judge Borton, now stands. From that time he was a continuous resident, identified with the history of Clyde until the date of his demise. He contributed in every instance his energies and financial support to every advancement made in the city. Dr. Ransopher was born in Coshocton, Ohio, February 4, 1830, where he graduated from the high school and began a career of teaching at the age of nineteen years. After teaching in various states he drifted into Iowa when that country was new and subsequently began reading medicine, taking his degree at Eddyville, Iowa. During his early residence in Clyde, Dr. Ransopher experienced many trying incidents. His practice extended over an area of many miles, crossing swollen streams and bridgeless creeks, and he would often encounter the dangerous and treacherous quicksands of the Republican river. He was a familiar figure riding over the prairies on horseback or in his buck-board, administering to the fever stricken settlers. The following is an illustration of many similar instances: One night during the dark of the moon Dan Lusadder walked from Clifton over the roadless prairie to Clyde, a distance of eight miles to secure the professional services of Dr. Ransopher for his wife, who was in confinement with their firstborn, Gladys, known to many Clyde residents. They were camped in wagons. Imagine this poor woman under those circumstances waiting for the return of her husband with assistance for which he had to walk eight miles through the unsettled region of prairie. Dr. Ransopher earned the lumber that built his first drug store in the following way: Captain Sanders was up
a tree destroying a hawk's nest, whose inmates had been the happy recipients of many of his young chickens. The
mother bird flew down and scratched him in the eye, inflicting a dangerous wound. Dr. Ransopher attended him and
for his services took in exchange cottonwood lumber for the framing of his store building. Dr. Ransopher fell down an open stairway, which resulted in his death forty clays later. He died January 28, 1890. The love and esteem by which he was held in the hearts of his friends, was signified by the suspension of business during the funeral services, and the long solemn procession which followed his remains to the cemetery. Dr. Ransopher was married September 1, 1859, to Louisa Dayton, who died September 30, 1861. To this union one
child was born, Mary, who died of diphtheria September 16, 1861. June 14. 1862, he was married to Sarah E. (Law)
Archer, widow of Solomon Archer, who is supposed to have died in the army. By her marriage to Mr. Archer one child
was born, Mittie, wife of Dr. C T1: Gillespie, a dentist of Jamestown. Mrs. Gillespie, with Judge Borton, carried
the chain for C. O. Huntress, the civil engineer who surveyed the town of Clyde. She was assistant postmistress
to "Uncle Heller" four years in the early part of the seventies. Dr. Gillespie has been a resident of
Kansas since 1880. Much of that time has been spent traveling in his profession. For several years he was located
in Clyde, and the latter part of June, 1902, established a dental office in Jamestown, Kansas, where he has built
up a lucrative practice. To Dr. and Mrs. Ransopher three children have been born, viz: Elmer, the eldest child,
was born in 1863; he is a druggist located at St. Anthony, Idaho. Carrie and Harry, twins, died in 1866. One of the most remarkable men of Clyde is F. N. Manna, the subject of this sketch. Mr. Manna had the sad misfortune to lose his eyesight when a young man of twenty-six years, while rafting timbers on a river in the logging camps of Wisconsin. He was struck in the eye by a file that had been inserted in a stick; caustic was applied by the oculist who treated him, which destroyed the remaining sight, rendering him totally blind, not discerning daylight from darkness. Though deprived of his sight Mr. Manna possesses a keen intuition and has engaged in almost every enterprise; mercantile, real estate and on clown to "swapping" horses, and seldom gets the worst of a deal. He seems contented and reconciled to his fate, gets on in the world, and with these great odds against him is making more of a success in life from a financial standpoint, than many of his fellow townsmen and friends who have two good eyes. His income is about ninety dollars per month. Mr. Manna located in Clyde in 1867, when there were less than a half dozen buildings in the city. His possessions were less than twenty dollars. He came with friends, among whom were the Bolanges. He worked by the day at odd jobs. Later he rented a shanty and started a confectionery and cigar stand and in that way got his start. He afterward became associated with Francis Girard and opened a saloon. They prospered in this business, accumulated rapidly and within three years they owned three farms. For several years Mr. Manna was interested in Bull Run ferry, three miles above Clyde, and another on the Republican, opposite Clyde. He homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres of land which he sold in 1887 and bought a bottom farm across the Republican river, one and one-half miles from Clyde, which he still owns and has repeatedly refused six thousand dollars for. He owns and erected the building the postoffice is now in, in 1884, at a cost of forty-one hundred dollars, and before the building was erected he refused twenty-seven hundred dollars for the lot. He also put up the building now occupied by Delude Brothers, in 1882, at a cost of about four thousand dollars. He sold this building at one time and subsequently with Mr. Rigneir bought it back again, making a margin of about eight hundred dollars in the deal. He also owns two very desirable cottages in Clyde. Mr. Manna is a native of Canada, province of Quebec, born in 1836. When quite a young man he went to Wisconsin, where he worked in the pineries until losing his eyesight, as related in the beginning of this sketch. Mr. Manna has never been married. He has two brothers living in the state of Washington, a sister in Rhode Island and a brother in Iowa. He is a member of the Catholic church. ( Pages 497-498) REVEREND HEMINGWAY J. GAYLORD. The late Reverend H. J. Gaylord was one of the most successful and one of the most beloved divines Clyde has ever known. He was born m Oticea, New York, February 17, 1813. He fitted for college at Homer Academy, New York, and graduated from Amherst College in 1837, completing his theological course at Auburn Seminary in 1840. His first supply was at the old brick church in Rochester, New York, in 1842. He accepted a call to Union, that state, where he was ordained May 26 of the same year. He afterward filled several supplies in Massachusetts and Delaware. Doctor Hill, synodical missionary, knew Reverend Gaylord in the east and through his efforts he was persuaded to come to Kansas in 1878, and located in Clyde as the stated supply of the church there. His labors had been very successful in the east, especially at Port Penn, Delaware, where he built a church with a congregation of twelve hundred people. He was also very successful at Delaware City and at Odessa, where he built a beautiful church. Reverend Gaylord served in the ministry over fifty years. He died at his home in West Clyde March 23, 1901, at the advanced age of eighty-eight years. Doctor Baker, who preached his funeral sermon, said in his discourse: "Reverend Gaylord had two prominent traits which impressed him. His great spirituality and the broadness of his great Christian faith." While loyal to his own faith he loved all Christian denominations and at his funeral the ministers of the various churches were present and assisted, as Mrs. Gaylord knew it would be carrying out his feelings and sentiments. He had been instrumental in the conversion of many prominent men. When Doctor Hill met Mr. Gaylord he said at once he was the man they needed in Kansas. In Clyde, where there were church dissensions, he was instrumental in bringing about harmony. While in charge of the church here he supplied at different times the pulpits at Clifton, Rose church, Palmer and others in that vicinity. His last active work in the ministry following the cessation of his pastorate in 1885, was a supply of the church at Chanute, Kansas, in the winter of the same year. Reverend Gaylord was married in 1841 to Cordelia, a daughter of Deacon Ranson Dickerson, of Sunduland, Massachusetts, who died in 1847, leaving two sons, Edward and William. Edward laid down his life for his country at the battle of Petersburg, and William early entered the ministry. By the second marriage, to Mary H., daughter of H. M. Mack, of Plainfield, Massachusetts, November 22, 1854, six children were born, three of whom are living. Mrs. Gaylord survives her husband and resides in Clyde. She organized the first Home Missionary Society, and the ladies responded generously. The elder members have passed out but an earnest force of younger women have succeeded them. Reverend Gaylord was a man of warm personal sympathies. His best monument is in the hearts of those who loved him. ( Pages 498-499) A. W. Gerhardt, one of Clyde's leading merchants and most highly respected citizens, is a self-made man. He has had less than one year of schooling, but acquired an education in a practical way, has not been out of a position two weeks since ten years of age, and never asked for a job but once. Mr. Gerhardt was born on a farm near Evansville, Indiana, in 1857. At the age of ten years he came with his father's family to Junction City, Kansas, when that town was the freighting center to various points north, south and west. His father, William Gerhardt, died within three months after locating there, leaving Mrs. Gerhardt with four daughters and a son, and less than one dollar in money. There were many avenues at that time through which a boy could earn money, and although but ten years of age Mr. Gerhardt became the support of the family. His first employer was T. A. Reynolds, and later the Rockwells, who are still in business in Junction City, and from there he accepted a position on the road as traveling salesman for W. A. Schmertz & Company, a wholesale boot and shoe house. Mr. Gerhardt was young and youthful in appearance, often wishing for a mustache to suggest that he was old enough and capable of doing business. In 1888 he located in Mankato, Kansas, opening a store of general merchandise. He was burned out in 1893. The stock was insured for about half its value. After paying his creditors he had something like a loss of fifty-six hundred dollars. He then opened a store in Belle Plaine, Iowa, which he sold at the expiration of eighteen months and established his present business in Clyde in 1896, Mr. Gerhardt's mother died in 1893. Of his four sisters, three are in the vicinity of Junction City, the other in the southern part of the state. Mr. Gerhardt was married in 1890 to May E. Thompson, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. They have one child, a son, Leslie Robert, aged ten years. The Thompsons were of Newburg, New York, and emigrated to Iowa in a very early day, where Mrs. Gerhardt was born. Mr. Gerhardt's parents were from Germany. They came to America in their early married life, where all of their children were born except the eldest. Mr. Gerhardt is an elder in the Presbyterian church and superintendent of the Sabbath school. He is a member of the Woodmen and Workmen orders. ( Pages 499-500) Among the many old residents and well-to-do farmers of Elk township is Joseph Gillett, who came to Kansas in 1871. Mr. Gillett had just attained his majority when he resolved to begin the battles of life in a new country and therefore turned his attention to the west, and settled in Republic county. He was the right kind of a young man, full of determination to succeed and applied his energies toward making a home. In 1877 he removed to Cloud county and bought his present well improved farm, which is situated three miles north of Clyde. About this time Mr. Gillett began to realize the importance of taking unto himself a wife to share in his struggles and responsibilities as well as enjoy his successes, and the following year was married to Miss Ella Steiner. One child came to gladden their home, Sadie May, but the angel of death deprived them of their little daughter, at the interesting age of five and one-half years. Mr. Gillett was born in the state of Illinois, in 1857. His father was of New York birth but emigrated to Illinois early in life and when our subject came to Kansas his father accompanied him and established a continuous residence. Mr. Gillett's mother died in 1879. There was a large family of children, six sons and six daughters and all are living. Politically Mr. Gillett is and has always been a Democrat. Fraternally he is identified with the Modern Woodmen of America and the Royal Neighbors. A modern residence, a comfortable country home and broad fields of cultivated land are keynotes to the people themselves and their lives. Men of this class to which Mr. Gillett belongs are invariably good citizens. ( Page 500) The subject of this sketch is Eaton Anderson, an old resident of Elk township and one of the many prosperous farmers of that locality. Mr. Anderson was born on the Western Reserve, Portage county, Ohio, May 18, 1845. His paternal grandfather was of Scotch birth. He emigrated to America early in life and settled on the Reserve three miles south of Ravenna, and not many miles distant from Canton, the home of our late martyred President, William McKinley. The grandmother and aged wife survives, quietly waiting at the old homestead for the messenger that will summon her to join the husband of her youth. Mr. Anderson is a son of James Anderson, who was born, reared and married in Pennsylvania. His mother, Sarah
Eaton, was born in the same state. Her grandfather left England, his native land, and settled in Pennsylvania in
an early day. Mr. Anderson's parents removed to Ohio and subsequently to Kosciusko county, Indiana, near the town
of Warsaw, where they both passed away, his mother in 1856 and his father in 1873. Mr. Anderson and a sister, Mrs.
Rebecca Romine, of Newton county, Indiana are the only surviving members of a family of twelve children. Mr. Anderson's farm is the original homestead of Walter G. Reid, the present register of deeds of Cloud county. A small creek runs through his land, and the trees that grow along its banks impart a pleasing effect to the landscape. The little cottonwood house has been razed to the ground and supplanted by a comfortable seven room residence. The principal product of the farm is corn and Mr. Anderson has never had a total failure of that crop. In 1889 he had eighty acres that yielded five thousand and two hundred bushels. He raises cattle, hogs and horses. Of the latter he is pardonably proud of a span of four year old trotters of pure Hambletonian stock. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Anderson: Maud, their first born, died when two years of age in the state of Michigan, Walter F., is a resident of North Dakota. Lulu Belle, is the wife of George C. Packard, who is connected with the Lumber, Milling and Mercantile Company, of Mansfield, Arkansas, an extensive concern. Grace Ellen, a sixteen-year-old daughter, is a student of district No. 96. In politics Mr. Anderson is a stalwart Democrat. He has been a valued member of the school board of District No. 96, more commonly known as the "Boggs district," for twelve years. The family are members of the Clyde congregation of the Christain church, and among the most esteemed citizens of the community. Mr. Anderson is a broad-minded man, "with malice toward none and charity for all" a man of pleasing address and an interesting conversationalist. He has established for himself a good name which "is better than apples of gold and pictures of silver." ( Pages 500-502) It is said, "history repeats itself/' and if that be true each lover of history wiil be interested in the following sketch of C. J. Page, one of Cloud county's prosperous, energetic, well-to-do farmers and horticulturists. To attain perfection and financial success in any pursuit, years of experience and careful study must be passed through to determine the best and quickest mode of reaching the coveted "straight road" of independence. Mr. Page has not aimed at sudden leaps but once a step is taken it is forward and never backward, feeling the way with prudence and careful deliberation; to this he owes his well-tilled farm and fine bearing orchard. If "tall oaks from little acorns grow," large majestic trees owe their infancy to tiny sprouts, and what Kansas farmer's wife does not remember being admonished, "not to step on the trees in the grove" which had the appearance of brown lead pencils set out in rows. But one season passes, when lo! the tender little shoots of green spring out here and there and demonstrate to her doubting mind that those little rods are actually trees, and how their growth was carefully watched by the whole household and neighbors as well, for settlers were as one large family, so united were their interests. The orchard he carefully planted not many years age and now in its prime, yielded fruitifully in 1902. Mr. Page came to Kansas in the year 1870, and settled in Elk township. His present commodious and happy home is the original homestead where sifter years of toil he can rest from the burden of the day under his "own vine and fig tree." During the grasshopper year, Mr. Page had three hundred trees besides a number of grafts destroyed by the "hoppers," but nothing daunted, he re-planted and has been well rewarded by the present results, and like all true Kansans, stoutly declares his loyalty to the "Sunflower" state, and does not know where he could have made any better stand, than in this world renowned commonwealth, truthfully called, "Sunny Kansas." The subject of this sketch is a native of Defiance county, Ohio, he was born on a farm in the year 1841, and in company with his parents, while yet in his childhood, emigrated to Iowa and settled near Des Moines. At that early date Iowa was a wild and new country. The Indian roaming and hunting- with all the freedom of the deer that fearlessly wandered down to the rivers and creeks for their evening drink. Three years afterward and during the troublesome times prior to the breaking out of the war, the family settled in eastern Kansas, and when matters became strenuous, and uneasy feelings prevailed throughout this section, they removed to Warren county, Illinois, and from this point Mr. Page enlisted in the First Missouri Engineers of the West, (which should have been called Colonel Bissell's First Missouri Engineers of the West) Company C, and served three years; this company was finally merged into Company B; their duties consisted of rebuilding of railroads and bridges. Mr. Page stood in water almost constantly; as a result contracted illness and was sent to the hospital where he remained nine months. His regiment took part in the Missouri campaign against Price's army in 1861, also the capture of New Madrid, Missouri and Island No. 10. They were engaged in the Corinth campaign in 1862, the battle of Corinth that took place October 3-4, 1862, and the never to be forgotten siege of Vicksburg. Mr. Page, after three years service returned to his home and re-enlisted as a substitute in the year 1864. A subject that had been drafted offered him $1,000 to supply his place. As it was his intention to re-enlist, he accepted the $1,000 and joined Company B, 12th Illinois Infantry, where he was in active service ten months; participating in the battles of Kingston and Goldsboro, North Carolina. His regiment was under the command of General Schofield and later joined Sherman's army where long marches through swamps, and dangers from shot and shell assailed the brave boys in blue, and on every side the heavy tramp, tramp of weary feet. "Our bugles sang truce for the night clouds had lowered, and the sentinel stars set their watch in the sky. Thousands had sunk on the ground, overpowered- The weary to sleep and the wounded to die" After the close of the war Mr. Page was honorably discharged and returned to Illinois. January 1, 1866, he was married to Josephine Reed, a daughter of David Kingsley Reed of Warren county, Illinois. Her parents were residents later on, of Cawker City, Kansas, followed later by a removal to Clyde, Kansas, and are now sleeping the quiet slumber of the dead, resting peacefully in the pretty little cemetery of Mount Hope. One year after the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Page they moved to Iowa, but feeling that was not the place to make a home, emigrated to Kansas, which was then still new. Many changes had taken place since their first advent in the state in 1857. Mr. Page came to the "poor man's country," penniless and endured without murmuring the many privations incident to a new country, and has acquired his present competency through his untiring industry and enterprise. The first move after getting to the frontier was to take up a claim: the next move was to make a dugout, and dig a well This was called home and their very own, where no sour visaged landlord presented a bill for the collection of rent. Their little dugout while not a thing of beauty was a warm shelter and more comfortable than many of their neighbors were possessed of. They lived two years in this unpretentious dwelling place and then erected a small frame dwelling. Mr. and Mrs. Page are the proud parents of twelve children, all of whom are living and not one to spare, each holding its own individual place in the hearts of the parents. These children have all been reared on the Kansas homestead, have done credit to the training and schooling they have received and are fine representatives of the state to which they belong; they are possessed of more than average intelligence. There are six sons and six daughters, and each of these twelve children have brown eyes. Emma B., is the wife of Bert Eashbaugh, a farmer near Zella, Kansas. Alfred M., the oldest son, is a farmer living east of Clyde. Phoebe, wife of Henry Schriver, a farmer near Elmwood, Kansas. Edmond Willis, a teamster of Boise City, Idaho. Mary, wife of Henry Baker, a farmer but at present employed in a grocery store at Boise City, Idaho. Arthur, a horse buyer is a resident of Clyde. Alia, wife of Walter Harrison, a carpenter and mine owner of Boise City, Idaho. Josie, is unmarried and lives under the parental roof. John assists his father in the duties of the farm. Nellie, wife of C. N. Bunda, who operates an elevator at McLouth, Kansas. Frank and Verr, aged respectively sixteen and fourteen years, are attending school in District No. 15, where all of these dozen children received their education. The family are faithful attendants and members of the United Brethren church. When the society was organized at the Crammer school house the majority of the members consisted of the several Page families, hence it was given the name of "Page Congregation." After darkness comes dawn, and after many struggles and lowering clouds in the battle of life come rifts of sunshine as a reward for a well spent life. Mr. Page and his estimable wife are now enjoying the comforts of a pleasant home. ( Pages 502-504)
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