Biographies for Marion County, KS

MARION COUNTY, KANSAS

BIOGRAPHIES

WILLIAM FRED AVES

William Fred Aves was born at Monroeville, Ohio, May 13, 1845, son of Frederick W. and Fanny (Damerell) Aves. The father, a farmer, was born in London, England, came to the United States in 1830 and died at Monroeville, Ohio. The mother was a native of Exeter, England.

Mr. Aves attended public school and on January 8, 1873 was married to Mary Kurtz at Milan, Ohio, her birthplace. She was born August 3, 1849. There are six children, Charles, born October 28, 1879, who married Mable Fisher, Lottie, February 7, 1876, who married Ralph Smith, Harry, March 30, 1881, Fannie, August 25, 1883, who married E. J. Martin, Florence Edith, May 21, 1885; and Stella, August 15, 1887, who married Oscar Cummings.

Ralph has two sons, Ralph and Frederic and a daughter Frances. Fannie had a daughter, Pauline while Stella had a son, Randall.

Mr. Aves has been successively a blacksmith, lumber and coal dealer and a farmer. He is owner of the Florence Lumber and Coal Company and vice president of the Florence State Bank. He has resided in Florence 61 years, and was one of its first mayors. He is a Democrat.

During the Civil War Mr. Aves served with Company A, 169th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Modern Woodmen of America, and is a Mason (charter member of the Advanced Lodge No. 114). He is an Episcopalian. Residence: Florence (page 51)

MOORE, ATLANTIC ABRAHAM

Atlantic Abraham Moore, familiarly known as "Lank" Moore, was born in Ohio September 15, 1834. In 1842 his family moved to Waukegan, Lake County, Illinois, and after some years residence there, to Hodge County, Wisconsin. Though a chance acquaintance with Colonel Collins, superintendent of Indian affairs at Santa Fe, N.M., Lank Moore, with his elder brother, was engaged in 1858 to drive government ambulances from Kansas City to Santa Fe, they started back to the states with an ox train. At Fort Union they were held under government orders until five trains had assembled ready to make the trip east, and with these trains was sent an escort of United States soldiers, Kit Carson commanding. This was in the fall of 1858. At Cottonwood Crossing (now Durham, Kan.) on the Santa Fe Trail, a man named Smith had built a small log cabin and was running a trading-post, selling whiskey, canned goods and other provisions to passing trains. The Moore brothers, interested in the country and on the lookout for a location, bought him out and then and there took possession. Later, taking up a claim there, the place became known as Moore's Ranch, and a post-office was established in the spring of 1861; A. A. Moore, postmaster. That year the town of Marion Center was laid out and there Mr. Moore built a store and otherwise identified himself with the interests of the place. Upon the organization of Marion county, in 1865, he was elected county treasurer and representative and was returned to the legislature of 1867. he also served in the senate of 1868, and was again a member of the house of representatives in 1871. In 1882 he left Kansas, moving to Prescott, Ariz., and later to Walnut Grove, in the same territory where he now lives. He has been a member of the city council of Prescott, county supervisor, and a member of the legislature of Arizona for the years 1890 and 1899. Mr. Moore was married at Council Grove to Nancy O. Waterman in 1862 and to them was born in 1863 the first white child born in Marion county, Ira A. Moore, who lives near his father in Arizona. During his residence in Kansas Lank Moore was identified with every project in his county that had for its end the bettering of social conditions. In 1868 he was foremost in the building of a stone schoolhouse. Likewise when the Rev. Timothy Hill, a Presbyterian missionary, came to the Marion settlement, it was through Mr. Moore's efforts that a church was built, which is still used by the Presbyterians of Marion. He is a man of more than ordinary ability and although his educational advantages had been extremely limited, he was a brilliant conversationalist, and has left something of the imprint of his individuality upon the county he helped to claim from the wilderness. (Transactions of the Kansas State Historical Society 1907-1908, Vol. X, edited by Geo. W. Martin, Secretary, State Printing Office, Topeka, 1908, page 267)

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