Calvin L. Long. When Calvin L. Long came to Montgomery County thirty-seven years ago he found himself associated with the very early pioneers, and is one of the residents of that county who have witnessed practically every phase of development and progress. Mr. Long is one of the oldest men in the real estate business at Coffeyville, and his reputation as a reliable dealer and man of unusual judgment and experience in that line has been in full proportion to his years of activity.
Born in Delaware County, Indiana, July 12, 1852, he grew up on a farm, attended country schools, apent two years in Ridgeville College, a Baptist institution at Ridgeville, Indiana, and in 1871 entered the Northern Indiana Normal School at Valparaiso, where he took both the teachers’ training course and a business course, graduating in 1873. Meanwhile he had begun his work as a teacher, which he followed for a number of years. As teacher he faced the scholars of a country school in Delaware County for the first time on December 4, 1869. Altogether he taught eight years in Delaware County. He was then in the stock business and farming from 1879 until 1882.
Coming to Montgomery County he found Coffeyville little more than a frontier village and market town for cattle man, with perhaps 1,000 inhabitants. For the first two years he was in the livery business. Mr. Long opened the first skating rink at Coffeyville in 1884. That was when the roller skating craze first struck the country. He conducted that about two years, and was also in the grain and feed business for a similar time. He early became associated with politics in Montgomery County, and in the early days was candidate for district clerk with three rivals for the same office.
It was on January 1, 1888, that Mr. Long opened his office to handle real estate. His first office was at the corner of Union and Eighth streets, but he now has his headquarters in the Odd Fellows Building. In the meantime he has acquired some very extensive properties of his own, and has handled some of the largest real estate transactions in the city and in Montgomery and surrounding counties. He handles city property, farm lands in Kansas and neighboring states, and has sold a number of business buildings. He owns his present residence at 509 West Ninth Street, also his old home at 511 on the same street, has another residence property at 504 West Twelfth Street, and interests in other houses, and also in a fruit farm in California.
Politically he has always acted with the republican party. He served on the city council several years, was city treasurer four years, justice of the peace five years, and was once nominated for mayor. At that time the people’s party was in the ascendency in Kansas, and he was therefore defeated. He was a member of the old board of trade organization, and has served as secretary of the present Commercial Club. On December 25, 1877, in Wheeling, Indiana, Mr. Long joined the Methodist Church, and has always been closely identified with that society. In 1876 he became a member of New Cumberland Lodge of Odd Fellows in Indiana, and is now a member of Star Lodge No. 117, Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Coffeyville, which he has served as noble grand, and is past chief patriarch and member of the board of trustees of Gate City Encampment No. 80. For many years he has been affiliated with Coffeyville Lodge No. 279, Ancient Order of United Workmen of which he is past master workman.
On February 16, 1887, at Coffeyville Mr. Long married Miss Alice C. Irvin, who was born in Hancock County, Illinois, in 1858 and died at Coffeyville May 19, 1915. Her parents were Samuel and Margaret Irvin, both now deceased. Her father was an early settler at Coffeyville and a wagon maker by trade. Mr. Long has one child, Glenna M., who was born at Coffeyville December 7, 1892, is a graduate of the eighth grade of the Coffeyville public schools, now lives with her father, and has been connected with “The Earth” printing office.
Mr. Long has an interesting ancestry. In the paternal line his people were of Scotch origin, and located in Pennsylvania during colonial times. His grandfather, Robert Long, was born in York County, Pennsylvania, July 1, 1779, and died in Delaware County, Indiana, March 6, 1852, at the age of seventy-two years, eight months, five days. He was reared in York County, then moved to Bourbon County, Kentucky, later to Ohio, and was married in Butler County of the latter state January 10, 1805, to Jane Cartmil. She was born in Augusta County, Virginia, April 19, 1780, and died in Delaware County, Indiana, June 13, 1852, aged seventy-two years one month twelve days. She was killed in a runaway accident. Soon after their marriage Robert Long and wife moved to Delaware County, Indiana. That was before the county was organized, and while Indiana was still a territory. In fact the Indiana were the chief inhabitants of that district, and the original Long home was one of the few outposts along the frontier and a number of years passed before settlers had become so numerous as to constitute a complete defense and protection against the red men. Robert Long was a sterling pioneer character, and in the early days of Eastern Indiana he made his home a station on the underground railroad and aided many a slave who escaped from the South to Canada. He was a whig, and was a member of the Christian Church. He and his wife were the parents of the following children: Joel, who was a farmer and died in Delaware County, Indiana; Simcon and Austin, both of whom were Delaware County farmers; John C., mentioned below; Lucinda, who died in Delaware County, the wife of Amos Wilson, a minister of the Christian Church, now deceased; Charlotte, who died in Delaware County, the wife of Mr. McLaughlin, a farmer also deceased; Mrs. Brandt, who died in Delaware County, where her husband was a merchant.
John C. Long, father of the Coffeyville citizen, was born in Clinton County, Ohio, May 9, 1820, and was a child when his parents moved to Delaware County, Indiana. He lived in Delaware County the greater part of his life, and died there August 16, 1892. He was a practical farmer, and in the early days went into the green woods along the Mississinewa River and cleared up a homestead of 160 acres. There he spent the rest of his days, and enjoyed a gratifying prosperity. When he began voting it was to favor the whig party, and he later became a republican. He was also a deacon in the Christian Church.
Ruth Caroline Cox who became the wife of John C. Long, represented a colonial family early established in Tennessee. Her father, Isaac Cox, was born in Tennessee in 1796, and died in Delaware County, Indiana, in 1876. He was reared and married in Tennessee, moved from that state to Ohio, and later to Delaware County, Indiana, during the early ’50s. He entered a tract of land in Delaware County through the Fort Wayne land office. He was a whig and member of the Presbyterian Church, and had served as a soldier in the War of 1812. Isaac Cox married Mary Helm, a native of Tennessee, who died in Delaware County, Indiana. Their children were: Sarah Ann, who married Mr. Lansing, and both are now deceased, their home having been on a farm in Delaware County and later in Porter County, Indiana; Jane married William Adsit, both now deceased, and they were farmers in Delaware County and later in Iroquois County, Illinois; Eliza married Doctor Helm, a prominent early physician and surgeon at Muncie, Indiana; Joanna married Isaac Sleeth, a Delaware County farmer, and both are now deceased; the fifth in age was Mrs. John C. Long; William was a farmer and stockman and died in Delaware County, Indiana.
Mrs. John C. Long was born in Washington County, Tennessee, January 13, 1827, and died in Delaware County, Indiana, in 1895. She was the mother of the following children: William A., a farmer and stockman at Dewey, Oklahoma; Calvin L.; Robert S., a farmer and stockman in Delaware County, Indiana; Jennie, deceased wife of Leonard Roderick, a farmer in Delaware County.