JAMES W. BILLINGS
One of the old landmarks of Cloud county and a
trapper of the "60's" J. W. Billings who came to Kansas in April, 1868, is a native of Michigan, born
and reared on a farm situated near the lake. He is a son of Walter and Sarah (Wilson) Billings, both natives of
New York, born near the city of Rochester. They settled in Michigan in 1835, an early period in its settlement
and before there was a railroad in the state, traveling by the way of the lakes and Erie Canal. The father died
three years ago and his mother in 1881.
Walter Billings was a soldier of the Civil war,
serving in the Eighth Michigan Cavalry. He was captured and placed in prison, and from there was taken to Florence
where he was detained six months, and during that period contracted disease from which he never entirely recovered.
He drove one horse from Michigan to Kansas a half a dozen times or more and "Old Bill" was as well known
as any of the Billings family.
During the primitive days of Kansas J. W. Billings
followed trapping. He associated himself with Sam Doran, Uriah Smith and Frank Rupe and arranged a bachelor home
with all its comforts and discomforts. He followed trapping and hunting as a livelihood for several years. At first
he sold to local buyers his numerous beaver, otter and coyote skins, later to New York, and more recently to Oshkosh,
Wisconsin, which latter place he found to be the best market. He did not take up a homestead until 1875 and later
sold eighty acres of his claim to procure a team, harness and wagon. The next year a prairie fire destroyed his
team, harness and cow, leaving him nothing of his deal but the wagon.
He is still fond of hunting and fishing, but now
it is for pleasure and luxury, while in the early days it was a matter of necessity to appease hunger. His first
buffalo hunt was in May, 1868. He was one of a party of eight who killed nine buffalo and one antelope the next
day after staring out In September of the same year, during one expedition, they killed and dried a load of buffalo
meat which in those days was a royal banquet. They did not suppose the herds that numbered thousands could so soon
be exterminated. He has also killed many elk. Mr. Billings has farmed, trapped, taught school and done almost everything
but preach, and possessed the ability for that calling had he ever been in a position where his services were needed.
He is of a family of trappers, and has three brothers, all of whom but one are fond of the vocation. Politically
he is a republican but does not aspire to office. Two of his friends labored the greater part of one night to induce
Mr. Billings to allow his name to be brought up before the convention as a candidate for sheriff, but he absolutely
refused.
Mr. Billings enlisted December 10, 1861, at the
age of sixteen years and served almost two years in Company B, 13th Michigan. He was then transferred to the United
States Signal Corps, served until the close of the war and was honorably discharged before he had attained his
twenty-first year. His regiment arrived just in time to witness the finale of the first battle of Shiloh. They
were at Perrysville and Stone River where they lost heavily and at Chickamaugua where they only lacked one man
of losing half their regiment, and of his immediate company of eighteen men, but four escaped. Mr. Billings enlisted
as ? private and was promoted to sergeant. The captain of his company was wounded and Mr. Billings was placed in
command, holding that position as a non-commissoned officer two months, at that time being but seventeen years
of age. His company participated in the battle of Chattanooga and in the Atlanta campaign, and he was continuously
in the service except a brief time when home on a furlough. He was a brave soldier, always at the front in the
thickest of the fight; was never sick, wounded or in prison and seemed to lead a charmed life. He was in the employ
of the government after the close of the war, his corps being sent to Texas and discharged at San Antonio in May,
1866. He served under Generals Buell, Rosecrans, Sherman, Thomas and Sheridan. Mr. Billings was also a member of
the militia raised by the government to protect the settlers on the frontier, serving three months under the command
of Captain Sanders.
Mr. Billings was married, in 1875, to Miss Kate
Prince, whose parents are residents of Concordia, and were among the early homesteaders of 1871 in Aurora township.
Mrs. Billings has taught several terms in the best schools of the county; she was engaged in the primary department
of the Jamestown school one year. She is an untiring temperance worker. At the Grand Lodge of Good Templars held
at Scranton, in October, 1900, she was appointed Grand Superintendent of the Juvenile Templars of the Independent
Order of Good Templars, and unanimously re-elected at Clyde and Delphos in 1901 and 1902 respectively.
To Mr. and Mrs. Billings three children have been
born. Eugene, the eldest son is a resident of Clyde and employed as clerk in the L'Ecuyer grocery establishment;
he is married and has one child, a little daughter, Eunice, aged four years. 'Kate, is a prepossessing and intelligent
young lady living at home, and Emory, the youngest son, assists his father on the farm. The family are members
and regular attendants of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Clyde. Mr. Billings has served two years as commander
of the Clyde Grand Army of the Republic Post.
"Jack" Billings, as he is known to all
his friends, is one of the most highly esteemed citizens of the community in which he Jives, and when he is spinning
the hunting tales of pioneer days he seems to virtually live them over again, and as he rehearses these expeditions
and adventures the suns of fifty-seven summers that have come and vanished for him, are forgotten and he is "just
as young as he used to be.
Since the above sketch was compiled, Mr. Billings,
who numbered his friends by the score, has been called to his "eternal home." He was one of the most
companionable of men and a central figure in the group of pioneers, trappers and hunters of the early days. He
was deceased early in May, 1903.-Editor. (Biographical History of Cloud County, Kansas, Mrs. E. F. Hollibaugh,
1903, Pages 429-433)
D. F. LAUGHLIN,
M. D.
Doctor Laughlin is one of the pioneer physicians
of Kansas. His advent in Cloud county in 1869 brought with it a blessing to suffering humanity. He is a conscientious
practitioner, and in the quiet hours of the night dips deeply into the researches of science that he may devise
a better or more speedy plan of restoring to health the life of some patient he has been implored to save. In the
year 1859, Doctor Laughlin came to Leaven worth, Kansas, from Washington, Ohio, where he had taken a collegiate
course. The parents of Doctor Laughlin had planned a ministerial career for their son, but the young student had
views of his own, coupled with a strong will to bear him out in the choice of his chosen profession, that of a
physician. To carry out his intentions he studied medicine clandestinely under Doctor Patterson, of Washington.
Doctor Laughlin is a Latin and Greek scholar, a classmate for three sessions, of J. Allen, D. D., of St. Louis,
and James Maxwell, D. D., of Boston; also William Kirkwood, D. D., formerly president of Emporia College, was a
fellow student. During his residence in I.eavenworth; Dr. Laughlin taught those classics in the basement of the
Christain Church in that city, as a branch of Professor Reesers school- Mrs. Fred Herman and the late Mrs. Ed Kennedy
of Clyde were among his pupils there. Doctor Laughlin did not graduate from a medical college but gained his knowledge
in connection with his collegiate course, and when convinced he was proficient, began the practice of medicine
in Uniontown, Iowa. For a year prior to locating in Iowa, he was principal of the Parochial School in Sumner, Illinois.
Upon the discovery by his parents that their son would not comply with their wishes in regard to the ministry,
Doctor Laughlin left home, thereby avoiding dissension and bitterness of feeling, as his father positively refused
any assistance, although a man of wealth. The parents' ambition for his son to become a member of the clergy was
too deeply rooted to be given over to the desires of his offspring, and thus, unless implicit obedience was adhered
to, he resolved to retard the furtherance of his medical studies by withholding financial assistance, thus curtailing
his dearest hope and ambition. But "like father, like son," he never swerved his chosen path and unaided
financially, reached the goal of his ambition. In the year 1869, Doctor Laughlin removed to Cloud county, homesteaded
a claim where he lived one year, and then went to Clyde and established himself in his profession; built up a practice
on a foundation of stone and during this time thirty-seven physicians have come and gone like the tide of the sea,
but his anchor is dropped in deep water.
The Wilson family, Doctor Laughlin's paternal ancestors,
were of rugged mould. Judge Wilson, late of Concordia, is a branch of the same family. There were nine children
in his paternal grandmother's family. When not only very aged, but blind, Thomas Wilson edited a newspaper in the
State of Pennsylvania; and at a time when the sum total of his family's ages-nine in number-aggregated nine hundred
years. The Wilsons are a family of remarkable longevity. Judge Wilson, well known to Cloud county people, is also
of that rugged physique. Doctor Laughlin's father lived to see four score years and six. In religious persuasion
they were staunch old school Presbyterian. Our subject's grandfather and his sister Ann, were attending school
together, and fancying their master imposed - too strict a discipline upon his sister, declared to his mother,
if it occurred again he would "thrash" the teacher. Directly afterward he had occasion to make his obligation
good, which he did by inflicting upon the offender the promised flogging. Fearing severe rebuke and punishment
at home he boarded a vessel, leaving his native land, the "Emerald Isle," his home and his associates,
and sailed for America. The Reverend Laughlin, for several years pastor of the Presbyterian church of Belleville,
was of this same lineage.
Doctor Laughlin was married in 1858, to Esther
Morrow, a sister of Senator Morrow, of Kansas. She was deceased in 1878. By this union three children were born.
The eldest is Mrs. Frank Fessenden, whose home is Colorado; she is the mother of three children. The second daughter
is Mrs. Lillie Cavenaugh, of Lane county, Kansas. The youngest daughter is a professional nurse in Honolulu, and
has had an interesting career. She received a business education and went to Portland, Oregon, to fill the position
of stenographer; but deciding upon the occupation of nurse, entered a hospital where she underwent a thorough training
and became very proficient. There was a demand for nurses in Honolulu and Miss Laughlin was sent a passport by
Queen uLill" during her reign to take charge of the Queen's Hospital. Doctor Laughlin was married in 1879,
to Agnes Sexsmith, a New York woman of culture and refinement. They are the parents of one child, a daughter, who
bears her mother's name, Agnes; she graduated from the Clyde High School in 1900, and is now a student of the Emporia
College.
Doctor Laughlin is a man of considerable literary
talent and an individual wrho has delved deeply into the mysteries of science and possesses a mind well trained
along those lines. He is an original, independent thinker, fearless in his oppositions to many conceded theories
and is capable of demonstrating them with scientific principles. He is a lover of science and his o ability is
far above the average; many of his hours have been profitably spent in deep studies, both ancient and modern. Doctor
Laughlin in professional and natural endowments is the peer of any man in the county. Mrs. Laughlin is a very estimable
and cultured woman, a congenial companion who contributes to a perfect home life. (Biographical History of Cloud
County, Kansas, Mrs. E. F. Hollibaugh, 1903, Pages 433-435)
BENJAMIN
P. MORLEY
The Morleys were a New England family. The paternal
grand-parents settled in Ohio in an early day where B. P. Morley was born in 1835, and where he lived until coming
to Kansas in July, 1863. Mrs. Morley was born m the state of New York but moved with her parents when an infant
six months old to the state of Ohio, and settled in Ashtabula county, on the shores of Lake Erie, where her father
operated a saw mill and woolen factory near Kingsville. Mr. Morley obtained employment at her father's mill and
this was the beginning of an acquaintance which brought about their marriage August I, 1859. They emigrated to
Kansas in 1863, with their little family of two children and stopped en route at Junction City, where Mrs. Morley
had a sister living. They visited her family while Mr. Morley located a homestead in Washington county. Returning
to Junction City, he filed on his land and removed his family to their new western home. Mr. Morley's parents were
filled with a desire to join them on the frontier and followed their son soon afterward. Father Morley while driving
up the cows one evening saw his first buffalo. He became very excited and though a pious man not given to profanity
or rough language, shouted out, "Benjamin! come and bring your gun if you want to see the devil." There
were two of them and the next day they killed them both, and feasted for days on buffalo meat, that would have
brought forth praise from the most epicurean taste.
The Morleys lived in a log house with the Brooks
family while their house was in course of construction. While unpacking dishes they moved the barrel containing
them from its corner and there lay coiled beneath it a huge rattler. Mrs. Morley made a hasty retreat, but upon
being told the grass was full of them she chose the least of the two evils and returned. During their first autumn
in Kansas the winds blew so furiously they were compelled to put up their hay at night and served midnight suppers
for the hay makers. The following April, they attended divine services for the first time in the new settlement
in an old log hut where Clifton now stands. R. P. West ministered to the congregation; and he was described as
dressed in blue denim overalls and a blue checked shirt. The women of the congregation wore shawls over their heads;
blankets and every conceivable sort % of thing were donned as wraps. Mrs. Morley wore her usual "go to meeting
clothes/' and the settlers gazed at her with astonishment as if she might just have escaped from a menagerie, but
withal they were an excellent people. This day is remembered by the pioneers as the ''Black Sunday." On their
return from church just as the team was being cared for an inky darkness overspread the sky, the rain came down
in torrents and necessitated the lighting of candles, which were made of buffalo tallow. Almost every old settler
has some particular kindness or incident to relate of R. P. West, whose name was a household word in every pioneer's
home. The Morleys' little daughter was ill and they had resorted to everything their wits could supply, and had
given up all hope of her recovery, when that good man visited their home and through his skillful efforts the child
was saved.
When Mr. Morley had secured his homestead he did
not have a dollar left, but those goodly settlers gathered together and helped erect their cabin. They were neighbors
in the truest sense of the word, and when one killed a hog or a beef, each of the settlers for a radius of miles
came in for his share. The Morleys came to Clyde in 1877, and in 1892, bought the Judge Borton residence, a commodious
house of ten rooms.
Mr. and Mrs. Morley are the parents of eight children. They have buried three sons; one an infant, one at the age
of eleven years and one a young man of promise. Their eldest son, Charles, is a newspaper man and edited a paper
in Clyde for several years. He is at present in the office of the Clyde Voice. William M., is a resident of Omaha.
Their three daughters are married. One is living in Omaha, one in Arkansas and the. other in Clyde. Mrs. Morley's
paternal ancestors were from England and emigrated to America in the early settlement of this country. She is a
daughter of Martin M. and Esther Jeaneth (Reynolds) Manning. The Reynolds were of Scotch origin. Mrs. Morley taught
several terms of school in the early settlement of the country. The district then included a part of Washington,
Clay and Cloud counties. Mr. Morley's father was Anson Morley. He was born April 7, 1798, in Barnstable, Massachusetts,
and emigrated with his father's family to Ohio in early manhood. From Ohio he walked to the state of Vermont where
he met and married Lorenz Cutting on October 30, 1822, and from this union ten children were born. They left Vermont
in their early married life and settled in eastern Ohio where he cleared his land and tilled the soil for forty-one
years. They came to Kansas in 1863, and settled in what is now Elk township. Mrs. Morley died March 15, 1877, and
her husband January 29, 1885. (Biographical History of Cloud County, Kansas, Mrs. E. F. Hollibaugh, 1903, Pages
435-437)
GEORGE
H. WILKES, SR.
One of the many pleasant surprises that greet the
visitor of Clyde is the comfortable hostelry which has been provided by George Wilkes, Sr., the subject of this
sketch. The Commercial Hotel was established in 1870, by Dan Lussadder. It was then a small frame building 16 by
24 feet in dimensions and two stories high. Shortly afterward Mr. Lussadder was convicted of murder and sentenced
to six years' confinement in the penitentiary. The hotel then fell into the hands of Henry Huff, who served the
traveling public until George H Wilkes, Sr., assumed proprietorship in 1878. Since that date it was under his management,
with the exception of one year, until the death of his wife three years ago, when his son George H. Wilkes, Jr.,
assumed charge, keeping the house up to its usual good standard. During Mr. Huff's reign, six rooms were added,
two on the first floor and four on the second. Mr. Wilkes built an addition of four rooms and made an entire change
of the interior. A year later he increased the capacity of the hotel by the erection of a brick addition, including
an office and four guest chambers with basement under the entire structure, and the following year put in steam
heat. The hotel is situated on a block of ground 198 by 138 feet with a spacious lawn and fine shade trees, whose
overhanging boughs impart a cooling shade, and give an air of comfort on a sultry summer day.
Cattauraugus county, New York, is the birthplace
of Mr. Wilkes. His paternal grandfather was one of the thirteen men who came over with LaFayette during the Revolutionary
war; he was a musician. The Wilkes are of French origin and their advent into America dates from that time. They
settled in Connecticut. In 1853, Mr. Wilkes began his career by going to New York City and working on the Crystal
Palace which was being erected for the Word's Fair, and had the subordinate management of the arcade. In 1854,
he came to Chicago where he railroaded in various capacities; was conductor of a passenger train for four years.
During his residence in Chicago a company was formed among the railroad men for duty in the Civil war, but Mr.
Wilkes could not pass muster. He subsequently accepted a position as traveling salesman and considered Chicago
his home until after the big "Chicago Fire." Thinking the city would never rebuild, he turned his attention
in the direction of Kansas, establishing the first hotel of any consequence in Belleville. From there he went to
Washington, Kansas, and later to Cuba, Kansas, where he engaged in the mercantile business, at the same time owning
a farm sixteen miles north of Clyde. He sold these interests in 1878 and enacted a good deed for Clyde when he
opened a hotel with such excellent accommodations, Mr. Wilkes was married in 1858, to Susan Lyman, who died January
23, T864, leaving one child, a son who died one year later. In 1866, he was married to Eliza J. Faroll, a young
woman of Irish birth who came to America in her childhood. By this marriage seven children were born, three of
whom are living; George H., Jr., the present manager of the hotel (his family consists of a wife and three sons,
Earl and Walter, two handsome and remarkably bright little fellows of ten and eight years, respectively, and Dick,
aged one and one-half years) ; Edward J., of Kansas City, and a daughter, Courtney Grace. Mr. Wilkes is a Mason
of twenty-eight years standing: a Knight Templar, Blue Lodge, and a Shriner. He is a democrat politically, and
a member of the city council. He is a member of the Baptist church.
Mr. Wilkes has in his possession one of the rarest
and most extensive collections of United States and foreign coins owned by any one individual in the state. The
author is indebted to Mr. Wilkes for the following description:
"In this country, where everything is comparatively
new, anything old or antique always attracts great attention. Large sums are paid for old furniture, such as andirons,
candlesticks, spinning wheels, crockery, clocks, glassware, old arms, books and paintings, and recently old coins
have been added. The local newspapers often publish long editorials about some curious coin. This is of what I
want to speak. There are but few people who are posted on this subject and very few who know when the first coins
were issued or what denomination it was. The first authorized coin by congress, as near as I can find out, was
the Franklin cent, coined in 1787. This is a very curious piece of work having on one side the rising sun and sun-dial
with the word "Fugio" meaning Franklin, and date; under the sun-dial these words: "Mind Your Business."
On the reverse side it has thirteen links connected together, with this inscription: "We are one United States,"
making a very neat and interesting study. About that time there were quite a number of pennies of Washington, the
most of which were struck in England, but they had nothing to do with the United States, although they were used
as money and were called Washington coins and tokens. Of these there was a great variety and it would take too
much space to attempt to describe all of them. There were a great number of miscellaneous coins in circulation
until congress authorized the coinage of silver and copper coins, which was about 1792, when the act of April 2d
authorized the coining of one-half pennies, weight one hundred and thirty-two grains. Weight changed, act of January
14. 1793, to one hundred and four grains, and act of March 3, 1795, to eighty-four grains. Coinage commenced in
1793, and discontinued in 1857 of this denomination; authorized act of July 6, 1787, caused to be coined for the
United States by James Jarvis, of New Haven, Connecticut, the so called "Fugio" or Franklin cent; the
regular large copper cents were authorized act of April 2, 1792, coinage commenced in 1793 and discontinued in
1857, there were none coined in 1815. Authorized act of February 21, 1857, to coin nickle cents, seventy-two grains,
regular coinage commenced in 1857, a few were coined in 1856, coinage discontinued in 1864. The bronze cent comes
next authorized April 22, 1864, weight forty-eight grains. Two cent bronze, act of April 22. 1864, weight ninety-six
grains, discontinued in 1873. Three cent nickle, act of March 3, 1863, weight thirty grains, discontinued 1873.
Five cent nickle, act of May 16, 1866, weight seventy-seven and sixteen hundredths grains, coinage commenced in
1866. This is a short sketch of all the coins except the silver and gold issues of the United States." (Biographical
History of Cloud County, Kansas, Mrs. E. F. Hollibaugh, 1903, Pages 437-441)
WILLIAM
EMERY REID
The public spirit entertained by the late William
E. Reid entitled him to a place in the rank of prominent citizens. As an official he was keen, discriminating and
exact; as a banker and business man, cautious and conservative; as a citizen he was accorded a place among those
whose influence was wielded for the welfare and business interests of the people and for the advancement of the
country. He was a man of scholarly attainments and his ability was recognized by all. During the 'seventies there
was no citizen of Cloud county who was more intimately associated with its business interests, or who held a higher
place in the confidence and esteem of the people.
Mr. Reid was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland, March
13, 1844. His father, John D. Reid, survives him and has been an extensive contractor, constructing several hundred
miles of the Dubuque & Sioux City, Burlington & Missouri River, Pacific & Western Union, and other
railroads. He opened quarries at Joliet, and there obtained the stone for the construction of the capitol at Nashville,
Tennessee, for which he had the contract. He has also been prominent in the political affairs of Wisconsin. He
now resides at Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, retired from the farm life he has been following in recent years.
Our subject's mother also survives him. Before
her marriage she was Janette Gourlie, and is an accomplished woman. Mr. Reid received his rudimentary education
in the schools of Nashville, Tennessee. He later altered the Union High School, of Joliet, Illinois, and subsequently
graduated from the Spencerian National Business College of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and taught in the latter institution
for one year. He was ambitious, even as a young man, taught school in winter and worked on the farm in summer,
as a stepping stone to something more in keeping with his tastes and desires, until in 1870 when he came west.
After traveling over various parts of Nebraska Mr. Reid drifted down into Kansas and located in the new western
town that did not bear a very strong resemblance to the present thriving little city of Clyde, and when the whole
Republican valley was but sparsely settled. He homesteaded near the town, improved the land, but engaged in the
mercantile business and afterward taught two terms of school at Clyde.
Mr. Reid held offices of trust and honor. In 1870
he was elected the first Clerk of the District Court of Cloud county and was re-elected in 1872. In 1871 was elected
county clerk and re-elected in 1873; holding both offices two terms. In 1875 he was elected county treasurer, re-elected
in 1877 and he held the office four years. He was also the first agent of the Central Branch Railroad at Concordia.
He was a member of the Concordia City Council for several years and was one of the foremost in every worthy project.
He was a friend and worker in educational affairs; was a director of the State Normal School of Concordia. He was
a director of the Republican Valley Railroad, director and secretary of the Atchison, Republican Valley & Pacific
Railroad from Concordia to Scandia and an officer and director of the Central Branch of the Union Pacific. Socially
he was a Mason and Knight Templar of high standing; also of the I. O. O. F., and had passed all the chairs of these
orders. Politically he was a republican. Mr. Reid was engaged in newspaper work at one time and while under his
control the policy of the Expositor was changed to republican.
A year prior to our subject's locating in Kansas
City, where he died in less than four months, he was associated with his brother, Walter G. Reid in the banking
business at Smith Center. Mr. Reid died April 8, 1887, at the age of forty-four years, leaving a wife, four sons
and one daughter who survive him and reside in their pleasant suburban home at Clyde.
Mrs. Reid before their marriage. June 9, 1872,
was Jean M. Turner, one of the estimable daughters of the late David and Jean Law Turner. (See sketch) Mrs. Turner
is a sister of Doctor James Law, president of Cornell University Veterinary College, which position he has filled
since this seat of learning Avas instituted over thirty years ago. Mrs. Reid's family consists of Albert Turner
(see sketch). George St. John, their second son, is manager of a large manufacturing company at St. Louis. He was
married October 15, 1902, to Miss Sibelle Waite a very excellent young woman of Greenville, Illinois. Frank, the
third son is now connected with one of the largest railroad construction companies in the country. He is a graduate
of the law department of the Kansas University. Llewellyn Arthur, the fourth and youngest son is physically disabled;
the effects of illness that occurred in his youth. But the unfortunate result does not prevent him from taking
a lively interest in the affairs of the day, nor make him a less genial and companionable fellow; nor is life to
him by any means a solitary existence, for he is sanguine, full of hope, and a great student, his mother's companion
and counselor. He is talented in art and music, and his literary efforts have already been extensively copied.
Jean, their only daughter, is just dawning upon womanhood. She is a student on her first year in the Clyde High
School and is a gifted musician. (Biographical History of Cloud County, Kansas, Mrs. E. F. Hollibaugh, 1903, Pages
441-443)
