Sumner County, Kansas Biographies

SUMNER COUNTY, KANSAS

BIOGRAPHIES

ARMSTRONG, HENRY CLAY

Henry Clay Armstrong, president of the Southern Kansas Mutual Insurance Company was born in Troy, Ohio, September 17, 1848, and for 54 years has resided in Kansas. His father, John Snider Armstrong who was born in Gallipolis, Ohio, June 30, 1806, died in Greenville, Illinois, June 20, 1880. His wife, Priscilla Dye was born in Troy, Ohio, July 12, 1818 and died in Greenville, Illinois, March 31, 1879.

Henry Clay Armstrong was a student two years at the State Normal School at Normal, Illinois. After leaving school, for a period of about 25 years. Mr. Armstrong engaged in farming. Since that time he has been in the fire and wind insurance business and for the past three years has held his present position.

On January 14, 1875, he was married to Catherine Seaman at Greenville. She was born there on November 16, 1854, and died at Wellington, March 14, 1914. To Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong the following children were born, Nellie, March 23, 1876, who died the same day; H. Edgar, December 30, 1877, who married Ette Jordan, who died at Crescent, Oklahoma, march 11, 1918; he later married Annie Williams; and Charles W., born August 7, 1887 who married Annie G. Rutherford. Edgar is a mechanic at Wellington and Charles W. a truck line operator in Wellington. There are five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Mr. Armstrong is a Republican. At the present time he is a member of the official board of the First Methodist Episcopal Church at Wellington. His club is the Wellington Horseshoe Club. Residence: Wellington. (Illustriana Kansas, by Sara Mullin Baldwin & Robert Morton Baldwin, 1933, page 42)

ORR, GATES

Gates ORR, son of Russell and Eleanor (WINANS) ORR, was born 10 February 1827 in Hanover, Licking Co., OH. Gates was first married on February 21, 1849 in Mahoning Co., OH to Lorinda B. PEARCE. They moved with his widowed mother and siblings to Wayne Co., IL about 1853 where Lorinda died in 1863. He married Mary Jane BEST in 1864 in Wayne Co., IL. In the fall of 1878, after a few years in Wisconsin, Gates and Mary Jane moved to Sumner Co., KS and bought the farm on which the ORR family lived for the next 120 years, bringing three of the children from his first marriage - Lorinda Estella “Stella”, Joseph Hyram and Olive Ruth, and the first three born to him by Mary Jane - Mary Best, Fred Calvin and Frank Gates. Also with the family was May D. ORR, believed to be the illegitimate daughter of Estella, who was raised as a daughter of Gates and Mary Jane. George Russell ORR was born to Gates and Mary Jane in 1880. Gates died on 10 December 1905 and was buried in the Spring Hill Cemetery near the ORR farm. (Submitted by Della M. Shafer)

SHAFER, ALONZO WALLACE

Alonzo Wallace SHAFER was born November 1, 1851 in Iowa, son of John Putman and Maria (SMITH) SHAFER. On April 10, 1878 he left Eddyville, Iowa with his wife, Lozina Elizabeth (WATKINS) and four month old daughter, destination Milan, Kansas. He crossed the Missouri River on May 1st. With him he brought 1 bull, 4 heifers, 1 stallion, and 2 mares. He also brought white lilacs, rose shoots, tulip bulbs, apple, pear, and cherry seedlings. Half of these were stolen enroute on the wagon train.

A. W. or Wallace, the names he was best known by, obtained land ½ mile east of Milan on old U.S. 160 highway where he settled, established himself in the community and raised his family. The Milan Baptist Church was organized and originally met in Mr. and Mrs. Shafer's home and they were charter members. In the early days Mr. Shafer carried mail by horseback from Caldwell to Milan. He passed away May 15, 1928 and his wife died September 17, 1929. They are buried in the Milan Cemetery.

Their children were: Eva Maria, 1877, Cora Ethel, 1879 (died 1894), John William, 1881 (died 1883), Joseph Elmer, 1884, Emma Fern, 1886, an infant, born and died 1895, and Clifton Edgar, 1898. Clifton was the only child who remained in the county throughout his life. He and his wife, Maude Margaret (SPACE) also became part of the Milan community and raised their two sons, Lloyd Clifton and Melvin Dean on a farm near Milan. (Submitted by Della M. Shafer)

THORP, GEORGE WASHINGTON, BLACKSMITH

Early Sumner County Kansas Settler

George Washington THORP was born on 2 December 1848 in Lebanon, Marion Co., KY to Austin DePriest and Lydia (GORDON) THORP. George's mother died when he was about ten years old and his father remarried. There were problems between him and his stepmother resulting in conflicts with his father and in beatings until George finally ran away from home.

Somewhere along the line he learned the blacksmithing trade. On 2 July 1871 in Seneca, Newton Co., MO, he married Jane Elizabeth BALL, daughter of James E. and Virginia Caroline (WALKER) BALL. Their first child, son Alonzo was born there on 22 April 1872. A second child, daughter Frances Ann “Fannie” was born in Joplin, Jasper Co., MO on 22 November 1874.

By June of 1877 George was buying lots in Wellington. He opened a blacksmith shop on the northwest corner of Lincoln and C Streets and his residence was on East Harvey Street at approximately the present location of the Rogers Abstract & Title Co.

A third child, daughter Maggie May (grandmother of SCHGS members Della Shafer, Mary Hanson and Richard Orr) was born on 14 January 1878 in Wellington. Unfortunately, that same year in October, Alonzo died and was buried in the Wellington Cemetery. Another son, Wilber Gordon was born in Wellington on 28 July 1881.

George sold most of his Wellington property in November of 1881. According to 1959 or 1960 information written by Maggie (then Mrs. Fred ORR), the family moved to Colorado in the summer of 1881 and lived there for 18 months. They then went back to the grandparents’ home in Seneca, MO where son Robert Earl was born on 28 November 1883. In the spring of 1884 they moved to Belle Plaine and lived there until the autumn of that year at which time they moved to Conway Springs, KS where George again opened a blacksmith shop. Tragedy once more struck the family in June of 1891, when Wilber was accidentally shot and killed by his sister Maggie while they were playing with an “unloaded” gun. The resulting sorrow and guilt remained and affected Maggie the rest of her life. A heartbreaking account written by Maggie just after this tragedy is still in the possession of the family. The G. W. THORP family remained in Conway Springs until the children were all grown and on their own. George and Jane lived their declining years in Michigan where daughter Fannie and her husband Henry BENTLEY were living.

Jane E. THORP died 20 August 1927 and George W. THORP died 29 November 1932, both in Michigan, and both buried in the Conway Springs Cemetery beside their son Wilber.

CHILDREN

1) Alonzo, born 22 Apr 1872 Seneca, Newton Co., MO, died 25 Oct 1878 Wellington, KS, buried in the old Wellington Cemetery.

2) Frances Ann “Fannie”, born 22 Nov 1874 Joplin, Jasper Co., MO, died 21 Sep 1967 Phoenix, AZ, married 1 Aug 1894 Conway Springs, KS to Henry Thomas BENTLEY, born Dane Co., WI, died 28 Feb 1936 Framington, Ontario Co., MI. Henry was the manager of the Rock Island Lumber Company in Conway Springs, KS and was a one time mayor of the town. The family later lived at Haven, KS.

3) Maggie May, born 14 Jan 1878 Wellington, KS, died 27 Jan 1964 Cedar View Nursing Home in Wellington, KS, buried in Spring Hill Cemetery, Sumner Co., KS, married 18 Apr 1904 to Fred C. ORR, born 24 Jan 1867 Mt. Erie, Wayne Co., IL, died 29 Dec 1952 in his farm home. Fred’s grandfather Gates ORR had settled just southwest of Conway Springs in 1878 and the farm remained in the ORR name for the next 120 years. Before Maggie’s marriage she was a teacher in several different schools in Sumner Co., KS.

4) Wilber Gordon, born 28 Jul 1881, died 18 Jun 1891, buried in Conway Springs Cemetery.

5) Robert Earl, born 28 Nov 1883 Seneca, Newton Co., MO, died 15 Jan 1961 Green Cove Springs, Clay Co., FL, married 19 Jun 1920 in Jacksonville, FL to Augusta Victoria PFLUG, born 21 May 1889 Berlin, Germany, died Nov 1981 Green Cove Springs, FL. Robert’s original name was Rantsler Earl, but he changed it to Robert when it caused difficulties and confusion in spelling. He went by Earl. In the years between 1901 and his marriage he traveled around the world and had many adventures. He worked in the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard in Honolulu, HI from 1942 to 1945. (Submitted by Della M. Shafer)