John Thomas Bartley has spent many years in Kansas and the Southwestern country and his business had been chiefly ranching on a large scale, either as manager for others or for himself. He now looks after a large farm at Fostoria in Pottawatomie County and had been a fine factor in the founding and upbuilding of that comparatively new village of Kansas.
The home of the Bartleys for several generations had been Monroe County, Kentucky, where John Thomas was born March 7, 1865. His great-grandfather, Thomas Bartley, was born in Ireland in 1760. He came to this country a young, unmarried man and was one of the pioneers of Monroe County, Kentucky, where he died about 1842. He married Maggie Sumner, who was born in Kentucky in 1763, a date which identifies her family with the early era in the West, her father having been a contemporary of Daniel Boone. She died in Monroe County, Kentucky, in 1849.
William Bartley, grandfather of John Thomas, was born in Monroe County, Kentucky, and spent his life there as a farmer. He married Martha Simpson, also a native of Monroe County, where she died. A record of their children is as follows: James, a farmer who died in Monroe County; Simpson, a farmer who spent his life in Monroe County; Thomas, who is still living in that county, a retired farmer; William, a boot and shoe maker who died in Monroe County; Turner, a veteran of the Civil war and a pensioner still living in Monroe County; Louisa, who was last heard of in Monroe County, wife of Lucas Hoffman, a farmer now deceased; Luvesta, who married William Emmett, a farmer deceased, and she died in Tennessee; Lucitius, who married John Hodge, a farmer, and they died in Monroe County; and Mark.
Mark Bartley, the youngest of his father’s family and the father of John T., was born in Monroe County, Kentucky, June 9, 1839, and is now living with his son in Fostoria, Kansas. He grew up in his native county and spent his active career as a farmer. In 1870 he moved to Sullivan County, Missouri, and was successfully engaged in farming there until he retired to Milan, Missourl, in 1905 and since 1916 had lived with his son. He is a democrat and at one time held the office of constable in Missouri. He is a member of the Christian Church. His wife’s maiden name was Martha Jane Payne, who was born in Monroe County, Kentucky, in 1842 and died at Milan, Missouri, in 1914. Their children were: Hulda Susan, who married Frank Mason, a carpenter now living at Milan, Missouri; Matilda T., who lives at Milan, married William Hill, a farmer; John Thomas; Mary L., wife of H. W. Page, a farmer and business man in Green City, Missouri; Samuel B., a farmer in Sullivan County, Missouri; Roy B., a sign painter living at Kansas City, Missouri.
John Thomas Bartley was five years old when his parents removed to Sullivan County, Missouri. He gained his education in the county schools there and until nineteen lived at home with his father. He then spent two years working on a farm near Hamburg, Iowa, and in 1886 became a pioneer in Haskell County, Kansas, where he pre-empted a claim of 160 acres. After two years he sold out and went to the great Panhandle of Texas, then in the high tide of its prosperity as a cattle range. For fifteen years Mr. Bartley was connected with the Quinlan Brothers’ cattle range in Northwestern Texas. He was still with the Quinlans when he moved to Fostoria, Kansas, in 1897 and for five years was foreman of their 5,000-acre ranch in Pottawatomie County. When the lease to this property ran out Mr. Bartley renewed it for himself and engaged in cattle raising on an extensive seale from 1902 to 1907. He then bought his present farm of 160 acres adjoining the town of Fostoria on the southeast. Forty acres of the land was taken for the town site of Fostoria and on the remainder he still continues his farm enterprise. Mr. Bartley also owned another place of eighty acres of land south of Fostoria. His home is in town and is a modern residence on Main Street. He owned two other dwelling houses on the main thoroughfare.
Mr. Bartley for a number of years served as chairman of Shannon Township. Fraternally he is very active in Masonry, being affiliated with Fostoria Lodge No. 392, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of which he is master, with Topeka Consistory of the thirty-second degree Scottish Rite and with Abdallah Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Leavenworth. He is a member and for three years was patron of Fostoria Chapter No. 341 of the Order of Eastern Star. He also belongs to Olsburg Camp No. 7070, Modern Woodmen of America, and the Royal Neighbors.
At the home of the bride, three miles west of Fostoria, in 1898, Mr. Bartley married Miss Addie Stauffer. She was born near Centralia in Nemaba County, Kansas, May 31, 1867, and was educated in the common schools of Marshall and Nemaha counties. Mrs. Bartley attends the United Brethren Church. She is quite active socially, and is past grand chaplain and had served as matron three years of Fostoria Chapter of the Eastern Star and past oracle of the Royal Neighbors and a member of Council No. 1 of the Toltec Rite of Topeka. Mr. and Mrs. Bartley have one son, John Thomas Jr., born February 27, 1905, and now attending the public schools at Fostoria.
Henry O. Stauffer, father of Mrs. Bartley, was a prominent man in Kansas. He was born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, October 26, 1832, and was reared and married there and followed farming until 1867, when he arrived in Nemaba County, Kansas, buying the farm on which Mrs. Bartley spent the first ten years of her life. The family then removed to Marshall County. Mr. Stauffer was for two terms chairman of the board of county commissioners in Nemaha County and during the ravages of the grasshoppers, when so many poor people were trying to hold on to their homesteads, he took the lead in fighting the railroad bond issues of Nemaha County and saved the people from paying $125,000 which would have proved an almost conflscatory burden on the people at that time. Since then Nemaha had become one of the wealthiest counties of the state. In 1885 Mr. Stauffer removed to Pottawatomie County and was a resident there the rest of his life. He went to Manhattan to socure medical treatment for one of his eyes and shortly after retiring one night was taken ill with heart trouble and died May 24, 1899. Throughont his life Mr. Stanffer exhibited traits of character and a spirit of social deportment which attracted seores of men and women and children to him as their most confiding frlend. He was firm in his belief of a divine power, ordered his life according to the great ultimate principles of existence, and showed a steadfast and unwavering spirit among all the adversities he eneountered. He was a model husband and father and enjoyed the respect of a large community of peoople.
Mr. Stauffer married Elisa J. Culler. She was born at Counellsville, Pennsylvania, June 1, 1837, and died April 2, 1910. They were married December 1, 1853, and had a large family of children, eleven in number, Mrs. Bartley being the ninth. Ella, the oldest, is living at Oldsburg in Pottawatomie County, is unmarried, and by good business judgment had acquired the ownership of 640 acres in this county. Susan is the wife of H. L. Gard, a retired capitalist living at Winterhaven, Florida. Emma married B. O. Klapp, in the creamery and poultry business at Fostoria. Ida May died at the age of three years. Christian C. is farming his sister Ella’s section of land. John is a farmer at Carsons, Louisiana. Bettie died at the age of 2 1/2 years. Harry is a farmer, owning 160 acres 1 1/2 miles west of Fostoria. George D. is in the butcher business at Kansas City, Missouri. Hallie, the youngest of the family, first married N. W. Price, a Fostoria merchant now deceased, and her present husband is Albert Richards, a farmer living at Santa Anna, California.