Mitchell County, Kansas Biographies

MITCHELL COUNTY, KANSAS

BIOGRAPHIES

ANKNEY, GEORGE W.

source: History of Custer Co. Neb
by G.L. Gaston and A.R. Humphrey
Lincoln Neb. Western Publishing and Engraving Co. 1919

George W. Ankney, a resident of Custer county since 1882, has been variously identified with the interests of this region since the time of his arrival, and, principally as an agriculturalist, has accumulated a competence that permits him to pass the evening of life in comfortable circumstances, at his pleasant home at Sargent. He is a native of Coshocton, Ohio, and was born September 10, 1830, being a son of Joseph and Abbie (Brown) Ankney.

Joseph Ankney was born in Pennsylvania, but in young manhood pushed toward the west, locating first in Ohio, where he met and married Miss Abbie Brown, a native of that state, and where he was engaged in farming, in Coshocton county, until 1851. In that year he removed to Jones county, Iowa, which was his home for many years, and thence he went to Mitchell county, Kansas, which was his place of residence for five years. In 1888 he came to Nebraska, and from that time until his death, at the age of eighty-two years, he made his home among his children. He was an industrious man, always alive to opportunity and able to make the most of his chances. He succeeded as an agriculturalist, and as a public spirited and useful citizen of the various communities in which he resided, he was always held in high esteem by his associates. He was a staunch and unwavering Democrat in politics, and he and Mrs. Ankney were faithful members of the Methodist Episcopal church. They were the parents of ten children, of whom three survive: Joseph, who married Susan Vananberg, is a retired farmer of Scottsbluff, Nebraska; George W. is the subject of this sketch; and Edward, who married Eliza Pierce, is a retired farmer of Grand Island, Nebraska.

The common schools of Jones county, Iowa, furnished George W. Ankney with his educational training, and his boyhood was passed on his father's farm where, under the elder man's direction, he was taught all the arts and methods pertaining to the vocation of agriculture. At Taylor, Nebraska, he was united in marriage, July 5, 1886 to Mrs. Harriet (Northey) Cummings, widow of James Cummings and daughter of Robert and Ruth (Hall) Northey, natives of Vermont. Mrs. Ankney's parents were farming people who came to Nebraska in 1879 and took up a homestead at Cummings Park, at a time when there were but five families in the vicinity, the nearest postoffice being at Loup City, about forty-five miles away. There Miss Northey met and married James Cummings, a well to do yourng farmer, and he met his death by a fall into a well, this being the only well for miles around.

Mr. Ankney had come to Custer county in 1882 and settled at Cummings Park, where he took up a homestead and where he resided until 1893. At that time, because of failing health, he moved to Burwell, which continued to be his home for thirteen years, rmoval being made to Sargent in 1906. He is accounted one of the well to do and substanial men of his locality, a reliable, dependable citizen who always supports beneficial movements with his influence, means, and energies. he has not cared for public life and is not actively concerned in politics. While still a resident of Vermont, Mrs. Ankney adopted a child of three years, Idella Cummings, whom she reared to young womanhood. This foster daughter then married and moved to Maine. Mr. and Mrs. Ankney adopted a nephew, James Ankney, who was five years old, and reared him until he was sixteen, when he left their home to work for himself; at the time of this writing James Ankney is a member of the national army and is stationed in New Mexico. (Submitted by M. Beery)

BAIRD, JACOB EDWIN

Jacob Edwin Baird, public accountant, was born in Cuba, Kansas, March 16, 1871, son of Thomas Jefferson and Diana (Thomas) Baird. The father, who was born in Ohio, is a veteran of the Civil War. Diana Thomas, who was born in Illinois, is descended from the Thomas family, which came from Germany and settled in Illinois.

Jacob Edwin Baird attended public schools in district No. 34 of Jefferson Township, Republic County, Kansas, and the Cuba High School. From March 1, 1899, until October 1, 1931, he was a state employee at the Girls Industrial School. Prior to 1899 he was owner and editor of the Cuba Daylight. He served as president of the Beloit Rotary Club for the year ending June 30, 1932, and during 1930-31 was chairman of the Mitchell County Red Cross. He is a Republican.

His marriage to Clara Jane Causey was solemnized at Cuba, November 12, 1891. Mrs. Baird, who was born in Vandalia, Illinois, June 3, 1870, died at Beloit, March 22, 1930. For 30 years she was an employee of the Girls Industrial School of Beloit. Mr. and Mrs. Baird adopted three children, Kenneth C, Lloyd L. and Louise.

Mr. Baird is a member of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Beloit, the Mitchell County Welfare Association, the Red Cross, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Rotary Club. Residence: Beloit. (Illustriana Kansas, by Sara Mullin Baldwin & Robert Morton Baldwin, 1933, page 57)

DALY, JAMES H.

One of the Daly brothers of Gillette, leading merchants and stockmen, James H. Daly, has had an interesting and varied career in this state. He has seen the flow and ebb of commercial tides, the rise and decay of business centers, the sudden expansion of trade under primitive conditions and circumstances of difficulty, and has felt the keen pangs of disappointment and adversity from sudden and complete disaster. Yet through all he has preserved the same constant spirit of fortitude and cheerfulness, has laughed at misfortune and challenged Fate herself into the lists against him with a serene and lofty courage. He was born at Walpole, Cheshire county, N. H., on March 7, 1863, the son of Michael and Mary A. (Hyde) Daly, natives of Ireland. The father came to the United States when he was fourteen years old and went to work on a farm in New Hampshire where he remained until 1873 and then removed to Kansas, settling in Mitchell county, he took up a homestead near Beloit and farmed it until 1899. In that year he made Beloit his residence and is now living in that city. James H. Daly remained with his parents on the Kansas farm until he reached his majority and was educated in the public schools. In 1883 he engaged in farming on his own account near his father's place and later worked in a lumber yard in Beloit, remaining in that town and vicinity until 1887 when he came to Wyoming and settled at Sundance. For a few months he worked on a ranch and was then appointed jailer under Sheriff James Ryan and afterwards under John W. Rogers, holding the office four years in succession. In the summer of 1891 his brother John opened a general merchandising establishment at Gillette (WY), and in December of that year James joined him in the enterprise as a partner. Their store was small and their stock was limited, but business was brisk and the increase was rapid. The railroad was then building through this section and Gillette had a population of at least 1000, all activities being on the boom. When the road passed the town James Daly followed the construction camps with a stock of goods in a tent and did a thriving trade in necessary commodities for six months or more and then returned to Gillette where his brother was conducting the main store. In November, 1895, their buildings and stock were completely destroyed by fire. They immediately put up a temporary structure and continued their business in it through the winter, beginning at once the buildings which now house their enterprise. These were finished and ready for occupancy by the next spring and spacious as they were and complete in equipment, they had not capacity sufficient to meet the demands of their expanding trade, which has grown to great proportions and is now the most extensive and carries the largest and most complete stock within a radius of many miles. In 1898 the brothers took up land eighteen miles northwest of Gillette and began a stock industry which has developed into a large and exacting business. They have improved their ranch with the necessary appurtenances, and give to its needs and its progress the same intelligent and studious attention that characterizes them in all their undertakings. They have also much real estate of value in the town. Both are members of the Catholic church.

[Progressive men of the state of Wyoming, 1901 ... By A.W. Bowen & Co - sub. by K.T.]

JOHNSON BROS. (STEPHEN J. & JOHN W.)

JOHNSON BROS.,

Barnard, Kansas

Dealers in

General Merchandise

Our Motto: Honest Goods, Honest Dealings

Messrs. Stephen J. and John W. Johnson of this firm were born in Hawkins County, Tennessee, in the foothills of the Cumberland mountains. They moved with their parents to Appanoose county, Iowa, in the year 1868, and in the spring of 1874 removed from there to Mitchell county, Kansas, and located with their parents on a homestead about twelve miles west of Barnard. They started in the mercantile business in Barnard about seven years ago, and have enjoyed a spelndid business and made many warm friends in and around town. They are well known throughout Lincoln and Mitchell counties through their long residence in both. (History of Lincoln County, page 87, submitted by Joel Criag)

MILLS, FRANK ARTHUR DOCTOR

Doctor Frank Arthur Mills (417), son of James Madison Mills and Cora May Bradley, was born August 15, 1832 three miles southwest of Osborne, Osborne County, Kansas. He was married May 5, 1909 at two p.m. at Plain7ille, Rooks County,Kansas, by the Reverend Mr. Rarick, father of the bride, to Renshaw, and she was born June 15, 1881 at Glen Elder, Mitchell County, Kansas.

Children:
Margaret May Mills was born March 17, 1919 at Powell, Park County, Wyoming.
Kenneth James Mills was born April 23, 1922 at Powell, Wyoming.
Charles Keith Mills was born April 23, 1922 at Powell, Wyoming.

Doctor Frank Arthur Mills graduated from the state university medical course at Rose Dale, Kansas (Kansas City), after it had absorbed his school of doctors and surgeons at Kansas City, Kansas, where he took the first two or three years' work. He was graduated from the university in 1907 and passed the Kansas State Board soon afterward. He passed the Oklahoma State Board in 1909 and the one in Wyoming in 1916 or 1917.

He began practice at Powell, Wyoming in 1917 and has had a good business ever since. He has always been an officer in the Northwest Wyoming Medical Association and is on the state medical board. In the years 1928 and 1929 he served as state president of the medical board. He is now also county health officer. He is a partner in a large ranch in Wyoming, and is in all, a very busy and successful man.

Source: "Forney's five family records of genealogy of Benners, Clappers, Ettlemans, Forneys and Studys : with historical sketches by Charles Willam Forney. Boone, Iowa: Printed for the author by the Standard Print. Co., 1931" submitted by Kim Thorp