ATHA, WILLIAM ALEXANDER
William Alexander Atha, farmer, coal and lumber
dealer, was born at Nevada, Missouri, June 27, 1873, son of Nancy and Elizabeth Atha. His father was born at Terre
Haute, Indiana, January 24, 1844, and died at Rexford, February 26, 1918. The mother was born at Berlin, Missouri,
February 22, 1856, and died at El Dorado Springs, Missouri, February 20, 1914.
Mr. Atha attended public and high school at Eldorado
Springs, and in 1900 came to Kansas. He is active in farming and stockraising, and at the present time is also
a lumber and coal dealer.
On December 24, 1903, he was married to Nellie
A. Bates at Oberlin. She was born in Tama County, Iowa, September 7, 1874.
Mr. Atha is a Republican, a member of the Rexford
Commercial Club (president), a member of the official board of the Rexford Community Church, a member of the Red
Cross, and is active in farm organization work. He is clerk of the Rexford Consolidated school board. Residence:
Rexford. (Illustriana Kansas, by Sara Mullin Baldwin & Robert Morton Baldwin, 1933, page 47)
McFERRAL, JONAS
In Memory of Tom Satan; by Shannon Birch
Jonas McFerral had followed the life of a seafaring
man for many years before resigning the cramped quarters of a shipboard for the wide acres of a Kansas homestead.
The same breadth of sky covered Jonas's quarters
on land and sea.
It was in the spring of 1869 that the one-time
mariner, departing from the sea had homesteaded the northeast quarter of section seventeen, township three, south;
range three, east, in Thomas County, Kansas - one hundred and sixty acres, more or less, according to government
survey. At that time he was forty years old.
Elminta Minerva was thirty-six, when, in the fall
of the same year, she had left New England for the West, and homesteaded the southwest quarter of said section
seventeen, township three, in the aforesaid county of Thomas, and State of Kansas, containing one hundred and sixty
acres, more or less, according to government survey.
It is hardly necessary to state that Jonas was
Irish, and Elminta Minerva Yankee.Both had been heart-whole until this date.
A half section of prairie inhabited by two souls
animated by the same aim should produce, in perfection, the conditions of a rural romance. Such were the conditions
in this instance, and as was to be expected, Jonas and Elminta Minerva fell in love. The utilities, however, were
not to be forgotten, and the marriage day was postponed until each should, in homesteader language, have proved
up; they would then be the owners of a half section, a rich domain for them and their successors.
Between the one-roomed, white-curtained cottonwood
dwelling of the spinster settler and the windowless dugout of her bachelor at last arrived. Thrice happy day when
they were buried in lover lay a half mile of Kansas prairie j and midway, intersecting the beaten path, ran the
Solomon a three-rod wide stream of clear water, with a bottom in patches of sand and of pebbles* On either bank
was a growth of willow and elm, cotton wood and wild plum, that made a May day on the Solomon a pleasant epoch
in life. In crossing this stream - as Was his daily custom - Jonas used a ford which lay, not as the crow flies,
between his abode and that of his beloved, but at an angle with each dwelling, -this because of the shallow fording
at that point.
The time for proving up the claims wad now fast
approaching. Nor had the years these two had waited been by arty means without fruit. With money saved from his
seafaring days, Jonas had fenced his land, and otherwise added to Its attractiveness. He had also broken the sod
of eighty acres for corn planting.
To Elminta Minerva's claim also had been added
many improvements, provided for from a frugal fund hoarded from years of school teaching, and the remainder of
this sum, together with the yearly yield from an industrious flock of hens and two well-preserved cows, combined
to make for her a degree of prosperity that needed only a receipt of a deed for her homestead, and marriage with
Jonas, fully to round out her happiness.
The family mansion was to be built on Elminta Minerva's
quarter section, and to that end she had carefully cultivated the health of Big Norwegian pines, for which she
had paid the tree agent five dollars apiece. These pine trees were set in a double row, leading from the knoll
selected as the site of their residence to the section line on which ran a road to the county seat. Besides the
trees, in summer clumps of hollyhocks, phlox, sweet-williams, and touch-me-nots still further beautified the knoll.
The one periodical that Elminta Minerva received
each spring Without previous subscription was The Floral Guides a publication to which she gave untiring consideration.
Not even questions of national finance could have received more exhaustive study than did this flower-loving spinster's
yearly problem of how far she could make a dollar and a quarter go In flower seeds.
Anxious day when the letter enclosing an order
was deposited in the post-office. Happy day when the precious package of seeds boxes filled with rich soil and
placed in the square patch of March sunshine shimmering through the south window.
Jonas, also, had his touches with nature, but these
took a less domestic turn. Sometimes, on a June evening, he would linger along the path to Eiminta Minerva's, dreaming
of love, his ear intent on the song of the yellow-crested meadow lark, whose ebon necklace rose and fell with the
mighty trills of its familiar repertory, or to the staccato evolutions of the wood jay, bravely parading in his
regimentals of faded blue. The passion of love within was flattering the face of nature, as was every humble artifice
of bird or beast. At such times the air was undoubtedly translucent.
But upon this state of primeval contentment and reasonable hopes one blot existed. In spite of his love of the
sky and sense of relationship with nature, Jonas felt an ineradicable distrust for one of the humblest of all created
things,-namely, Eiminta Minerva's black cat, Tom Satan. This, too, in spite of the fact that the animal was the
pet and companion of his spinster neighbor, who had brought him, a small black kitten, from New England to Kansas,
and had watched him grow up with the homestead until both had a permanent abiding place in her affections. And
just as she had named her Kansas home Deepdene - out of all proportion with geographical consistency-simply to
perpetuate the generations old name of the farm in the East, so the sentiment-loving spinster had christened her
cat Tom because this had been the name of a long lineage of cats of the New England Deepdene.
The " Satan " was the addition of Jonas,
who thus signified his belief in the animal's malign influence upon two lives that were meant to be joined, - if
not upon two farms as well. To be sure, his predictions of disaster had not yet been verified; but what of this
marriage in the spring, whereby all these years of toil and waiting should be crowned ? Who could tell but that
Tom Satan waited and hungered for this opportunity?
It was in vain that Tom Satan would arch his back and rub against Jonas's boot-leg, inviting a friendship that
he thought ought to exist after so many years of acquaintanceship. The other ostentatiously repelled all such advances
One day, in imparting to Tom's owner his fears that the animal would cross their marriage, Jonas even went so far
as sepulchrally to quote from nautical hymnology :
" A black cat's back is the lightning's track,
And the hurricane's blast hath she, And she'll let it go with tooth and toe," - etc., etc.
But Elminta Minerva, yielding on every other essential
point, remained obdurate on this, declaring that Jonas's was only a sailor's superstition, and that under the circumstances
neither he nor Tom Satan was to blame.
On this special day Jonas, after the heat of debates,
remained longer than usual in the glow of reconciliation, and when he started home the sun was below mid afternoon.
For this reason he did uot take his usual path, but instead made a bee line through the pasture, striking the river
down stream for the ford. Upon reaching the bank he tucked his trousers legs into his boot tops and stepped into
the water, there running not more than four inches deep. The soft sand yielded slightly, but Jonas, unheeding,
took a step forward, another, then another, when-but what was he walking in? Something was wrong! Something was
dragging him down! Then with the force of a lightning bolt the truth struck him - he was in a quicksand!
Like a lion in toils Jonas roused himself and wrenched
his foremost foot back, in his struggle partly turning to the bank from which he had entered. But though straining
so that at times he fell prone, he was unable to drag either foot up again. Inch by inch the awful sand gained
upon him. It reached his boot tops; he felt the cold inlet of sand and water like the grip of death. He writhed
and tugged, but to no avail. He shouted, but no answer came. In vain he peered this way and that; there was no
one to succor. He would die there - smothered like a beast.
Suddenly his despairing gaze detected that which
roused him to fresh effort, over his head, but far out of reach, hung suspended from the branch of an elm tree
the sinewy arms of a giant grapevine. With trembling haste he pulled off his coat, and clutching at the end of
one sleeve, cast the garment with all his strength toward the vine.
It fell short by at least a foot. Again the coat
described a frantic revolution, and again without success, A third attempt brought it no nearer the friendly vine,
while it plunged Jonas even deeper into the awful sand.
Desisting, finally, from this vain maneuver, Jonas
put ail his force into a mighty cry for help. One, two, three times his voice died away unanswered, but to the
fourth appeal there came to him, as if in mocking response, a shrill meow; and straightway there appeared upon
the bank, picking his way daintily, with flaunting tail and mewing in responsive gasps, a well-known ink-black
figure. It was Tom Satan I The cold drops stood out on Jonas's forehead. Were his predictions of the animal's malign
influence thus horribly verified ? and had the creature followed him unnoticed, that he might be a spectator of
his sufferings?
Whatever his past motives, Tom Satan now seemed
bent only upon cultivating an intimacy with the man who had so long repulsed him, but who now lifted up his voice
with no apparent purpose other than that of inviting Tom Satan's companionship. He even made his way with a series
of little purring meows to the river's edge, and put out one paw as though to walk to Jonas. But at the touch of
the water he withdrew the dripping member, shook it vigorously, backed away and stood for a moment irresolute.
Then, as though seized by a sudden inspiration, he sprang into the tree from which hung the tantalizing grapevine,
and, with the cautious tread of a rope-walker, clawed his way out over the dead bough, stopping every now and then-as
the branch bent beneath his weight - to give a reassuring meow,
Apparently Tom Satan considered the feat of reaching
Jonas via the dead branch and the grapevine feasible, and the end desirable. But what might have been the outcome
of these maneuvers will remain forever uncertain, for midway in his journey the unexpected happened $ the dead
limb snapped, and Tom Satan, clutching at the nearest sound branch, was left hanging by his fore paws in mid air.
From this precarious position the feline acrobat
recovered himself by dint of frantic gymnastics, and scrambling into a sign of safety in a fork of the tree branch,
proceeded, after the inconsequent manner of his kind, to make a vigorous toilet.
But to Jonas that moment of Tom Satan's peril was
the moment of his own restoration. For with the breaking of the limb a long withey arm of the grapevine had been
loosened and fell straight into the hands of the despairing man below.
As to the nerve-taxing, muscle-straining efforts
by which Jonas at last wrenched himself free from the grip of the quicksand, and the mingled rejoicings and lamentations
of Elminta Minerva over her lover's plight, that is an outline that all lovers of the heroic and romantic can fill
in to suit themselves.
But this much is a matter of history t that the
family mansion of seven rooms was built on the knoll shaded by Norwegian pines, decorated with variegated flower
beds, and overlooking a half section of three hundred and twenty fertile acres, also that it became the peaceful
home of Jonas, Elminta' Minerva, and of Tom Satan. For to his feline preserver Jonas, veering to the other extreme
of feeling, attributed such courageous and benignant qualities that the regenerated Tom Satan lived out his days
in the odor of sanctity, and after his death was immortalized by the erection, in his memory, of a lofty granite
monument, which still stands on the knoll under the Norwegian pines, in the southwest quarter of section seventeen,
range three, township three, in the county of Thomas, State of Kansas. (The Black Cat, September 1897)
CONNELLY, JOHN ROBERT
John Robert Connelly, real estate dealer was born
in Mount Sterling, Illinois, February 27, 1870, son of Arthur and Sarah Jane (Manar) Connelly. His father, a farmer,
was born in Indiana, September 16, 1834 and died at Colby, January 2, 1912. Sarah Jane Manar was born in Bowling
Green, Kentucky, March 4, 1844 and died at Colby, November 29, 1899.
Mr. Connelly attended public school in Illinois,
Nebraska and Kansas, and later attended Salina Normal University. From November, 1897 until November 1918, he was
the owner and editor of the Colby Free Press. At the present time he is engaged in the real estate and rentals
business.
A Demoract, Mr. Connelly served two terms as superintendent
of schools of Thomas County. He served in the 63rd, 64th and 65th United States congresses, has been mayor of Colby
and for twelve years was president of the school board. He is a member of the Christian church, the Rotary Club,
and the Masons.
On June 17, 1896, he was married to Lillian Souders,
daughter of Richard and Elizabeth (Trotter) Souders, at Colby. She was born in Seward county, Nebraska, July 5,
1873. There are five children living, John V. born April 18, 1896; Arthur, September 17, 1898 who married Esther
Callahn; James L., December 29, 1900; Inez, January 25, 1904, who married Noah D. Zeigler; and Annie Laura, April
15, 1912, Dortha Mae, born February 23, 1907 died March 29, 1915. Residence: Colby. (Illustriana Kansas, by Sara
Mullin Baldwin & Robert Morton Baldwin, 1933, Page 249)
CURTISS, CLINE CHILCOTE
Cline Chilcote Curtiss, county clerk of Thomas
County, was born in Clinton, Kansas, September 6, 1893. He is the son of Alfred Charles and Mame Wade (Chilcote)
Curtiss, the former of whom was born in Clinton, Kansas, April 11, 1866. He is a farmer, whose ancestry is traced
to early settlers in Connecticut in 1632, coming from England. Mame Wade Chilcote, whose ancestors came from England
to Maryland in 1688, was born in Oskaloosa, Kansas, September 18, 1872.
Mr. Curtiss attended elementary school in Crawford,
Douglas and Ness Counties, Kansas, the Ness City High School and the high school department of State Teachers College
of Emporia. From 1911 until 1920 he taught in the public schools and during this time was superintendent at Gem
and Scott City.
On May 1, 1920 Mr. Curtiss became associated with
the banking business, continuing until January 1, 1928. At that time he entered the insurance business, which he
followed for a period of one year. In 1928 he was elected county clerk of Thomas County on the Republican ticket,
and in1930 and 1932 was re-elected to the same office. In 1930 he was unopposed.
His marriage to Iva Loudella Flood was solemnized
at Colby, May 9, 1917. Mrs. Curtiss was born there on January 12, 1889, of Irish parentage. There are two daughters,
Iva Lou, born July 8, 1920; and Ila Lee, March 16, 1923.
Mr. Curtiss is a member of St. Thomas Lodge No.
306 of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and in 1932 was master of that Lodge. He is now district deputy. He
is an Odd Fellow, a member of the Order of Eastern Star, the Rebekahs, the Lions Club and the Colby Presbyterian
Church. Residence: Colby. (Illustriana Kansas, by Sara Mullin Baldwin & Robert Morton Baldwin, 1933, Page 287)
FRYBACK, HERBERT
LLOYD
Herbert Lloyd Fryback, newspaper man, was born
at Sedalia, Missouri, January 20, 1892, son of Robert and Dora Bennett (Robison) Fryback. His father was born in
Indiana, February 18, 1853, and his mother in Illinois, January 19, 1861. She died at Humansville, Missouri, March
30, 1920.
On June 9, 1916, Mr. Fryback was married to Caroline
Lenora Logan at Smith Center. She was born there May 1, 1895. There are three children, Robert E., born June 26,
1918; William H., July 23, 1920 and Richard E. June 1, 1924.
From 1919 until 1925, Mr. Fryback was editor of
the Colby Tribune. Later he was columnist for the Colby Free Press-Tribune and in 1924 was appointed postmaster.
He is a Republican, a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Lions Club (various offices), the Masons, Odd Fellows,
and Parent Teachers Association. He is affiliated with the First Methodist Episcopal Church. Residence: Colby.
(Illustriana Kansas, by Sara Mullin Baldwin & Robert Morton Baldwin, 1933, Page 425)
LOOMIS, ARTHUR THAMES
Arthur Thams Loomis, for many years a farmer and
livestock dealer, and at the present time a dealer in real estate, was born near Lockport, Illinois, April 19,
1868. His father, Edward Alonzo Loomis, was born in New York State, December 25, 1822 and died at Skidmore, Missouri,
May 8, 1899. He was of Scotch descent. His wife, Mary Matilda (Johnson) Loomis, was born at Joliet, Illinois, January
8, 1836, and died at Skidmore, February 24, 1892.
Mr. Loomis attended public school and on March
28, 1898 was married to Almanda A. Latimer at Rexford. She was born at bethel, Missouri, March 15, 1870, the daughter
of George and Mary (Lair) Latimer.
A Democrat, Mr. Loomis was mayor one term, city
councilman three terms and township treasurer three terms. He was president of the Rexford Commercial Club ten
years, has filled all offices in the local camp of the Modern Woodmen of America and is now in his fourth year
as president of Rexford Consolidated Schools. Residence: Rexford. (Illustriana Kansas, by Sara Mullin Baldwin &
Robert Morton Baldwin, 1933, Page 712)
The John Dean Family
Not all of the early pioneers who braved the prairies alone were men. Some of them were women. One of such women
was Mary S. Davison who came to Thomas County in March of 1885. Mary was born May 26, 1863, the daughter of Stuart
and Sarah Davison in Cass County,Ill.
When still just a young woman she traveled by stage to Oberlin, Kans., and then by wagon to the place, six miles
north of Gem, where she staked her claim. She set up housekeeping in a little two room soddy. Needless to say it
wasn't easy work for a woman alone, but with sheer determination and helpful neighbors, she managed to survive.
However, she wasn't to be alone for long, for the same year John Dean, an old friend, came to Gem work with the
Union Pacific Railroad. He found Mar and on May 14, 1885, they were married at Hays.
They came back to Mary's homestead and there the made their home. John stopped working for the railroad and began
farming. Here their six children were born. One child, Sarah Ellen, died in infancy. The others are Frank, John,
Tom, Nelle and Fred.
Life was not easy in those days as many yet living can testify, but the Dean home, even when but a two room house,
offered a haven of refuge and help to many who came there. Even when the home became much larger in the years to
come, everyone knew they were welcome there and many young women found in Mary Dean the aid they needed in trying
times.
"Mother" Dean lived a life of service to her community through a long period of time, when her service
was constantly needed and freely given. She cared for the sick and injured and the dying, and assisted at the birth
of many babies born in the Lone Star and Gem community, continually giving of herself to others.
Her husband John was born March 30, 1858, in Cass County, Ill., the son of Mr. and Mrs. James F. Dean and was orphaned
at the age of two.
After he married Mary he made extra money to help see them through the winter by helping set out onions on the
Henry Knudson farm for fifty cents a day.
The Dean children attended Mount Olive school and the family went to church at the Prairie Star Methodist Church.
The children were allowed to go to town once a year. They entertained themselves pitching horse shoes and playing
ball.
John Dean became ill and died of cancer, January 12, 1929, and Mary lived until 1945 when she died at the age of
82.
Their oldest son,Frank, married Margaret Logan and lives in California. They have two sons. Jack who lives in Oberlin
and Jim who lives in California.
John married Mae Elliott, the daughter of Ethel Elliott who was the Southwestern Bell Telephone operator in Gem
for some time. Ethel was a widow who brought her four children to Gem to raise. John and Mae have two sons, J.
C. of Fort Worth, Texas, and Jerry D. of Kenniwick. Wash.
Tom married Helen Salisbury and lives in Colby.Their children are Mary Mead of Colby; Margaret Toner of Salina;
John of Boulder, Colo.; twins, Sharon Mosier of Hoxie and Shannon Hall of Independence, Mo.; Tommy of Colby; and
Freddy of Hoxie.
The Dean daughter, Nelle, married Harry Wisdom of CoIby. They have three children: Harry of Farmington, N. M.;
Jane McKee of Denver; and Mary Francis Fulwider of Topeka.
Fred, the youngest, married Ethel Mahorney and lives on the old home place out by Gem. Ethel had three children
by an earlier marriage; Mary of Colorado springs; J. D. of Colby; and Sandra of Wichita Falls, Tex.
The Horace G. Saddler Family
Mr. and Mrs. Horace G. Saddler were among those who tried the Gem area for a while but just could not get used
to the loneliness.
Horace was born in Montezuma; Iowa, Aug. 31, 1859 and his wife, Josephine (Goin) was born Dec. 11, 1867 in Tazwell,
Tenn. They were married in Liberty Nebr., Jan. 25, 1883.
They made their first home in Liberty and it was here that their oldest child, Leroy Webster, was born.
Soon they began to hear stories of the wonderful opportunities in Northwest Kansas and of how anything would grow
in the virgin soil. In 1885 they decided to take a chance that what they had heard was true.
They made the trip by covered wagon. The land they chose for their homestead was the N. E. 1/4 14-7-32 near Gem.
They began right away to build a sod house using their covered wagon for a home until the house was finished. They
white washed the inside walls of the sod to make the home more livable and Josephine found if she put water on
the floor and swept it often that this would keep it very hard with less dust. The floor was so hard it was almost
shiny.
Three other children were born to the Saddlers while they lived near Gem. They were James Earl, Honor and Carlos.
Both Horace and Josephine were very homesick but thought that the loneliness would soon wear off. Josephine's periods
of loneliness were worse when her husband went to Grinnell for supplies and left her alone the children, or while
he was away working,
Neighbors of the Saddlers were the Jasper Goins, Ellsworths, Polands, E. T, Smith, Elmer Bryan, and Horace's brother
Mel who homesteaded near him.
Soon Horace's father, Issac Saddler, came to visit.
Source: A history of Gem, Kansas by Bill James, Marge Brown 1970 - Submitted by Barbara Ziegenmeyer
