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)
AUSTIN, JAMES BARKER
James Barker Austin, publisher of the Monitor-Press, at Wellington, was born in Cottonwood Foils, Kansas, August
25, 1899. His father, William Clark Austin, was born in Cottonwood Falls in 1872, and has been a publisher all
his life. He is the owner of the Chase County Leader, is a former state printer, and is at present state printer.
His parents were of English descent.
Rosa May Palmer, wife of William Clark Austin, was born in Cottonwood Falls in 1880, and for many years has
been vice chairman of the county Republican organization. She is of English descent also.
James Barker Austin attended public school at Strong City and Topeka, and the Topeka High School and the Chase
County High School at Cottonwood Falls. In 1923 he received the Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of
Kansas. He was business manager of the Kansan, editor of the Sour Owl, editor of the Daily Kansan, a member of
the Owls, the Black Helmet, the Sphinx, Sigma Delta Chi, and Pi Kappa Alpha.
From 1923 until 1926 Mr. Austin was in the advertising department of the Kansas City Kansan, and the following
three years was engaged in the same capacity with the Wichita Beacon. At that time he became the owner, editor,
and publisher of the Monitor-Press. He is a Republican.
On August 31, 1926, Mr. Austin was married to Ray Jeannette Riley at Lawrence. She was born in Peru, Kansas,
May 3, 1899, of English and Irish ancestry. She is the daughter of Warren D. and Maria C. (Comer) Riley, and received
her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Kansas in 1920. Mr. and Mrs. Austin have one son, James Montieth,
born December 31, 1929.
Mr. Austin is a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Wellington, a director of the Wellington Chamber
of Commerce, and a member of the Rotary Club. During the World War he served with the rank of private in the United
States Army for six months. He is a member of the American Legion. His favorite sport is golf. Residence: Wellington.
(Illustriana Kansas, by Sara Mullin Baldwin & Robert Morton Baldwin, 1933, page 48)
BAIRD, CHARLES MARTIN
Charles Martin Baird, for many years a prominent farmer and livestock breeder, was born in a log house four
miles west of Arkansas City, April 22, 1880, where he still resides. His father, Thomas Baird, a carpenter and
contractor by trade, was born in Stratford, Canada, July 26, 1849. After working four years as an apprentice he
came to Kansas in 1869, and followed the erection of railroads. He homesteaded in Cowley County, and later, in
1872, began farming.
His wife, Adelia Pulchura Baird, was born in Collingwood, Canada, August 19, 1858. Coming to Kansas at the age
of twelve, she taught school until her marriage. She reared three children, William, Charles and Mabel. Her parents
were Canadian, her paternal grandparents were French, and her maternal grandparents English. Charles Martin Baird
attended public school until 1896, and the following year was a student at the Arkansas City High School. From
1898 until 1902 he attended Kansas State Agricultural College the winter terms, graduating in the farmer's short
course in 1902. He was president of his class, and a member of the Hamilton Literary Society.
On October 21, 1903, he was married to Lenora Sophia Hadicke at Geuda Springs, Kansas. Mrs. Baird was born there
on June 20, 1886. Her paternal grandparents were German, and her maternal ancestry descended from early settlers
in North Carolina. To Mr. and Mrs. Baird the following children were born: Margaret Lucile, September 23, 1904,
who died September 30, 1904; Charles Berlyn, September 17, 1905, who married Melba Lucile Lonache; Martin William,
July 1, 1908, who married Helen Maxine Schaffer; Albert Thomas, January 20, 1912; Mabel Maxine, September 17, 1917;
and Walter Hadicke, September 19, 1919. Charles Berlyn has one son, Jack Charles, born November 9, 1929. Charles
and Martin are farmers. Albert is in junior college, and Mabel is a student at the Arkansas City High School.
Since reaching maturity, Mr. Baird has engaged as a breeder of Shorthorn cattle, Percheron horses, and Shropshire
sheep. In 1927 he was chosen as one of the first class of Kansas Master Farmers. At the present time he is president
of the Kansas Master Farmers' Association, a member of the program committee of the Cowley County Taxpayers League,
a member of the executive committee of the Cowley County Democratic Committee, and a director of the Cowley County
Fair Association. A Democrat, he was elected in 1928 from the 50th district for the 1929 session and a special
session of 1930 of the legislature. He was re-elected that fall without opposition, and served also in the 1931
session. For six years (three two-year terms) Mr. Baird served on the township board as clerk and treasurer.
For the past three years Mr. Baird has been president of the United States Highway No., 166 Association. He
is a member of the Farmers Union and the Kansas State Grange, as well as the Anti-Thief Association, the Eagles,
the Red Cross and the Lions Club (charter member). In 1909 he was elected clerk of the school board of district
No. 36 in Cowley County, and since that time has been elected eight times. He is still serving.
During the World War he was chairman of the township committee on all loan drives, was a member of the registration
board, and served on the fair price commission. Residence: Arkansas City. (Illustriana Kansas, by Sara Mullin Baldwin
& Robert Morton Baldwin, 1933, pages 56 and 57)
BAKER, THOMAS
Thomas Baker, hardware and implement dealer, was born at Macon, Missouri, May 4, 1876, son of Alvin West and
Ann Mary (Trammel) Baker. His father, a farmer and stockman, was born in Shelbyville, Missouri, January 1, 1841,
and died in Caldwell, January 16, 1885.
Ann Mary Trammel was born in Macon, Missouri, July 22, 1848, and died at Caldwell, August 23, 1925. She was
a devoted mother and active church worker. Her parents were born in Kentucky, later moving to Missouri, where her
father held the office of county treasurer of Macon County in the 60's.
Thomas Baker has been engaged in the hardware business for the past 35 years, for 12 years in the employ of
A. H. Detrick, and since that time has been in business for himself. He is now retired.
A Democrat, he is now serving as mayor of Caldwell. He has served twice as a member of the city council, and
as city clerk and superintendent of water works. He has belonged to the volunteer fire department for the past
33 years, and for six years has been a member of the library and school boards.
On September 25, 1901, Mr. Baker was married to Ada Czaplinski at Caldwell. Mrs. Baker was born there on May
7, 1880, and is of German and Polish parentage. There are three children, Gertrude R., born September 23, 1903,
who married Earl M. Parsons; Cyrus F., May 18, 1906, who married Merle Coulson; and Leah M., born October 19, 1908.
Mr. Baker is eligible to the Sons of the American Revolution. He is a Mason, and a member of the Caldwell Welfare
Board. Residence: Caldwell. (Illustriana Kansas, by Sara Mullin Baldwin & Robert Morton Baldwin, 1933, page
62)
BURNS, MICHAEL AND BRIDGET FAMILY
from The History of Sumner County, Kansas The Caldwell Messenger 1987
Michael Burns was born in County Cok, Ireland in 1834. He grew up near the town of Thurle, County Tipperary Ireland.
There he met and courted a pretty lass named Bridget Carran, but before they could marry Michael's father moved
his family to America in 1850. The family settled in Springfield, Ohio. Michael became a teamster and later owned
a boating company in Richmond, Ind. Eventually, he saved enough money for Bridget's passage to America. In January
1859 together with his parents met her boat New York City. They were married January 18 in what is now known as
St. Patrick's Cathedral. They returned to Springfield and Michael began working on the National Pike. Later the
family moved to Charleston Ohio. Here three children were born Sarah (2/18/61), Richard (10/08/62) and Mike Jr.
in 1864. The family then moved to Arlington, Illinois where James (7/26/66) joined the family. Early in 1868 the
Burns family, along with some twenty other Irishmen, moved westward to Cherokee County, Kansas. Here Michael filed
a claim and began framing. Daughter Nora was born on Oct. 29, 1872. One day while digging a grave on his farm Michael
struck coal and the little town of Scammon soon became a mining community. Michael sold his farm and along with
Mike and Pat Hannon, who were relatives of Bridget, came to Sumner County and filed a claim in Downs township about
18 miles southwest of Wellington on Prairie Creek. He stayed long enough to validate his claim and then went to
Scammon to get his family. Moving westward in a covered wagon was slow and dangerous journey. Nora, the baby, was
badly burned in a campfire but survived. Upon arriving at his claim a sod house was erected and this and the covered
wagon sheltered the family. The Burns and other settlers endured many hardships but almost singlehanded they tamed
the wild and soon had crops and food to sustain them. Here on the banks of Prairie Creek two sets of twins joined
the family. Lawrence and Catherine in 1874 and Margaret and still born Baby Burns in 1877. Only Lawrence and Margaret
survived. The Burns family along with the Hannons, Paul and Joe Kerns family and a few other families formed the
nucleus of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church community which developed on Prairie Creek. The church became the center
of the little community, although the Mass was celebrated only occasionally when a traveling priest arrived on
horseback. Soon a little school was set up as all Irish, who had been denied the right to attend school in Ireland,
determined that their children would be educated. The school term was often only three months long but from the
humble beginning many of the pioneers' descendents have gone on to be doctors, lawyers, teachers and members of
other professions. Yes, there was even an Admiral that came from Sumner County.
Michael Burns was a pleasant man, a friend to all and very honest. His bright red hair and beard was known through
out the community. His wife, Bridget was born in Thurle, Ireland on Xmas Day in 1840. She died Xmas Day 1910 on
the farm near Perth. Michael died in 1905. The two met one day in Thurle when he was selling apples from a horse
drawn cart on a street corner. She smiled at him and he threw her a red apple. Michael's coming to America delayed
their wedding. Bridget was a tiny person with long braids and barefoot when she sailed for America. People on the
boat took her for a "stowaway" until the captain assured them that she had indeed paid her passage. Bridget
was a guileless person, very friendly and she feared no one and or any thing. She coped with frontier life and
her large family in an admirable manner. The original homestead eventually was acquired by one of the Burns children,
Nora Burns Murphy and her husband John D. It remained in their family until after John's death in 1963. It is now
owned by Lawrence Schmidt. A few of Michael and Bridget's great grandchildren still live in Sumner County. (Transcribed
by Pam McEachern Feb. 2011)
This was transcribed from a copy taken from page 79 in The History of Sumner County published by The Caldwell Messenger
in 1987.
I left the spelling County Cok at the beginning because that was the way it was printed.
I can assume that it should have been Cork but am not sure.
In a couple of places I corrected spelling for easier reading.
There are some errors (I think) in places the family was said to be.
Here is the information that I have so far:
The town of Thurle is spelled Thurles and pronounced tur-less. Info from my sister Kathy Blakely who visited Thurles
in the summer of 2010.
1859
Michael and Bridget's marriage was in Darke County, Ohio. Or at least the license was filed there. I cannot say,
from what I have seen so far, any more than that is the place the license can be found. www.familysearch. org
In 1860 Bridget and Michael were in Springfield, Ohio area. Michael is 25 and Bridget is 18. There are no children.
His occupation was listed as Peddler.
This goes along with the story about the family written by J.D. Murphy. He said that Michael and Bridget had a
general store.
1860 US Census for Ohio, Clark County, Bethel Twp, Post Office Donnelsville, p. 48, Dwelling number 359
Just below in Dwelling number 359 are Richard Bynn and wife Bridget.
Richard is 53 or 58 and Bridget is 45. Both are both born in Ireland.
Richard's work is "Turnpike Builder"
This is Michael's father who has remarried after the death of Michael's mother.
In the Probate Court of Clark County Ohio on 30 Jan 1854 there is a record of Richard Byrne, widower, and Bridget
Newman, widow, who are applying to be married.
In June 1865 Michael paid a business tax in Bureau County, Illinois. Arlington is the city. His business license
was as a 3rd class peddler. The Rate of Tax is 15 and the total is 13. I again am assuming this is in US Dollars.
I don't know why there was a discount.
Source: Ancestry. com U.S. IRS Tax Assessment Lists, 1862-1918
MUNSELL, LEVI S.
Levi S. Munsell, M. D. The exacting and all important profession of medicine has found many able, loyal and
zealous representatives in the various counties and communities of the vigorous young State of Oklahoma, and Beaver,
the judicial center of Beaver County, is signally favored in having gained as a citizen a physician and surgeon
of such distinctive technical attainments and such broad experience as are defined in the character and achievement
of Doctor Munsell, who has here built up a large and representative practice and who holds high place as one of
the leading members of his profession in Western Oklahoma.
In ascribing to Doctor Munsell special distinction of nativity the object is best attained by recalling the humorous
paraphrase of a familiar quotation that was indulged in one of the famous post-graduate speeches of Hon. Chauncey
M. Depew, when he said: '' Some men are born great, some achieve greatness, and some are born in Ohio.'' Under
the last clause Doctor Munsell is able to make classification, for he was born at Coldwater, Mercer County, Ohio,
on the 21st of September, 1841. He is a son of William A. O. and Deborah (Gray), Munsell.
William A. O. Munsell was born near Fletcher, Miami County, Ohio, in the year 1812, and, as the date indicates
was a representative of one of the very early pioneer families of the old Buckeye State, where his father, Levi
Munsell, initated the reclamation of a farm from the wilderness prior to the War of 1812, the original American
progenitors having come from England and settled in this country in the early colonial days. William A. O. Munsell
was reared to manhood in Ohio, and though school facilities were very meager in the locality, and period, he provided
advantages for himself, and his alert and receptive mentality enabled him to become a man of large intellectual
force and broad mental ken. He became a representative farmer in his section of Ohio and also labored with consecrated
devotion and zeal as a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he was what was commonly designated
as a "local preacher." During the climacteric period of the Civil war he served as a United States marshal
for the Northwestern district of Ohio. In 1888 he removed to Missouri, and he died at Cameron, that state, in 1902,
at the patriarchal age of ninety years. Early in his career he had been prominently identified with the promotion
of railroad building in Ohio, and he was a man of marked business ability as well as one of exalted personal character.
In the year 1825 was solemnized the marriage of Rev. William A. O. Munsell to Miss Deborah Gray, who was born in
1818, a daughter of David and Sarah Gray, and who was summoned to the life eternal in 1849. Of this union were
born two sons and two daughters, of whom Elmore Y. and Mary Elizabeth are deceased, Doctor Munsell, of this review,
having been the third in order of birth, and the eldest of the children being Sarah L., who is the wife of Stephen
Frank, a representative farmer near Cameron, Missouri.
The common schools of Ohio afforded to Dr. Levi S. Munsell his early educational advantages, and at the age of
twenty-three years he was matriculated in the Ohio Wesleyan University, at Delaware, in which he completed his
higher academic studies. In preparation for the profession of his choice he entered the medical department of the
University of Ohio, at Columbus, and in this institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1870, and
with the well earned degree of Doctor of Medicine. Establishing his residence at Geneva, Adams County, Indiana,
he there continued in the active practice of his profession nine years, and during the ensuing nine years he was
engaged in practice at Rockport, judicial center of Atchison County, Missouri, where he was associated in practice
with his brother, the late Dr. Elmore Y. Munsell. In 1886 he removed to Wichita, Kansas, where he built up a substantial
practice and where he remained until the latter part of the year 1889, when he came to Indian Territory, and became
one of the pioneer physicians in the Old Chickasaw Nation. When, in 1891, the present Town of Chickasha was founded,
he became one of its first settlers, and there he maintained his professional headquarters two years. In 1897 he
located at the old Town of Hardesty, Beaver County, where he remained until 1900, when he established his home
at Beaver, the county seat, where he has since continued in active practice and where, in point of years, he holds
prestige as the dean of his profession in this county. He has been an active practitioner for forty years, has
kept in touch with the advances made in medical and surgical science, has honored his profession by his character
and efficient services and is worthy of special consideration in this history as being one of the pioneer physicians
and surgeons of Oklahoma. The Doctor has served as coroner and also as health officer of Beaver County and has
in all things closely identified himself with community interests, as a broad-minded and progressive citizen. His
political allegiance is given to the republican party, he has attained to the thirty-second degree in the Ancient
Accepted Scottish Rite of the Masonic fraternity, as an affiliate of the consistory in the City of Guthrie, and
is identified also with the Knights of Pythias and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He holds membership in
the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which his wife was a lifelong and devoted adherent. He is a member of the Oklahoma
State Medical Society and the American Medical Association.
At Coldwater, his native town in Ohio, the 1st of March, 1866, recorded the marriage of Doctor Munsell to Miss
Elizabeth J. Young, daughter of Philip and Mary (Plummer) Young, who passed their entire lives in Ohio. Mrs. Munsell
was born July 7, 1841, and the supreme loss and bereavement in the life of Doctor Munsell came when his cherished
and devoted wife was summoned to eternal rest, at Fred, Oklahoma Territory, on the 2d of July, 1891, just five
days prior to her fiftieth birthday anniversary. Of their seven children Paul and Fusia died young; Dayton is engaged
in the banking business at El Reno, this state; Pearl E. is the wife of Thomas B. Carey, of Dallas, Texas; William
O. is a resident of the City of Portland, Oregon; R. Netta is the wife of E. V. Roe, who maintains his residence
at Caldwell, Kansas, and is in the railway postal service of the United States; and Grace A. is the wife of Robert
Osborne, their home being now in the City of Detroit, Michigan.
Source: “A Standard History of Oklahoma” Volume V; by Joseph B. Thoburn; copyright 1916; Transcribed by Andaleen
Whitney]
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)
PATTON, ZACHARIAH H.
The subject of this notice came to this county with a capital of forty-five cents, but is now numbered among
its most thrifty and successful farmers. He is proprietor of one of the finest estates in Falls Township, embracing
three hundred and sixty acres of as valuable land as is to be found on the Chikaskia River. A beautiful two-story
residence embellishes the place and is represented by a lithographic view on another page; together with its surroundings
it presents one of the most attractive pictures in the landscape of this region. The passing traveler invariably
turns to take a second look at the homestead which has been built up only by the most unflagging industry and the
exercise of good judgment and fine taste.
A native of what is now West Virginia, Mr. Patton was born in Gilmer County, November 28, 1843, and is the son
of William and Mary (Smith) Patton, the former of whom was a native of Maryland and born in 1799. William Patton
left his native State with his parents when a child, the family removing to Gilmer County. W. Va., where they all
spent the remainder of their lives, William dying about 1868. He followed the vocation of a farmer and accumulated
a good property. Both he and his estimable wife were for many years prominently connected with the Baptist Church.
The paternal grandfather, likewise named William, was also a native of Maryland. The mother of our subject was
born in the State of West Virginia, and died in Gilmer County that State, in 1885, after the death of her husband.
Her father was John Smith, who traced his ancestry to Germany. To William and Mary Patton there was born a family
of eight children, viz: John S., Zachariah H., Hannah K., Mary L., Phebe J., Susan K., Nathan L. and Anna C. Four
of these are living.
The subject of this sketch was the second child of his parents and spent his boyhood and youth on the farm in his
native county acquiring his education in the common school. After the outbreak of the Civil War, he, in 1862, joined
the Confederate Army as a private in Company B, Twentieth West Virginia Cavalry and served until in November, 1863.
Then, being wounded by a ball at Droop Mountain, he was rendered unfit for further service find receiving his honorable
discharge returned home. He sojourned there until 1868, then started for the far West and locating in Kansas City,
Mo., worked at anything he could find to do in order to make an honest living. In 1870 he came to Kansas and prosecuted
farming in Neosha County until 1871. That year he came to this county and preempted sixty acres of land on section
28, Falls Township, of which he has since been a resident. He was prospered in his labors and later added two hundred
acres to his real estate, this lying on sections 21 and 28. After a few years engaged in tilling the soil he gradually
became interested in live stock, from which he has realized handsome returns. He knows all about the hardships
and difficulties of beginning in a new country without capital, and has maintained a warm interest in the material
welfare of his adopted home. He belongs to the Farmers' Alliance, and is a stanch supporter of the Democratic party.
Mr. Patton was married November 6, 1867, to Miss Phebe P. Spurgeon of Doddridge County. W. Va. This lady was born
November 17, 1848, and is the daughter of John and Phebe (Smith) Spurgeon, who were natives of West Virginia and
are now living in Kansas. The result of this union was a family of eleven children who were named respectively—William
E., Charles, Laura D., Samantha J., Jessie, John, James L., Lenna, Nettie B., Luther and Joseph.
["Portrait and Biographical Album of Sumner County, Kansas:...", 1885, By Chapman Brothers. Transcribed
by K. Torp]
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)
