Wabaunsee County KS Genealogy

Biography of Sherman Mertz

Sherman Mertz. A little more than a quarter of a century ago Sherman Mertz was working as a farm hand in Kansas. He had that quality in him which would not permit him to remain long dependent on an employer’s service, and with a very modest capital and perhaps on borrowed money he began farming for himself. Today Mr. Mertz is rated as one of the most successful and substantial citizens of Wabaunsee, where he is both a farmer and a large property owner. Mr. Mertz was born in Des Moines County, Iowa, near the City of Burlington, October 9, … Read more

Biography of R. T. Updegraff

R. T. Updegraff has been perhaps the leading individual factor in the commercial and business development of the Town of Maple Hill in Wabaunsee County for the past thirty years. Mr. Updegraff came to Kansas after completing his education, and the vigor and enterprise which characterized his early life in this state have borne abundant fruit in several different lines. Mr. Updegraff was born at Mount Pleasant, Ohio, November 28, 1862. He is of old Quaker family, the religion of the Friends having received the allegiance of the Updegraffs for many generations. The Updegraffs first came out of Holland in … Read more

Biography of Charles Jeffreys Buckingham

The experiences of Charles J. Buckingham in Kansas cover almost half century. He came to the state in 1868, was for many years successfully identified with the farming, stockraising and public life of Leavenworth and Wabaunsee County, but in 1912 retired and moved to Topeka, where he enjoys the comforts of a city home at 1029 Lane Street. He was born in 1837, in Clermont County, near Miamiville, Ohio. His people were among the earliest and most prominent pioneers of this section of Southern Ohio. His gradfather, Enoch, a native of Pennsylvania, was one of the first white men to … Read more

Biography of Josiah Thomas Genn

Josiah Thomas Genn. Sixty years ago, when Kansas was a territory and the bone of contention between the slavery and anti-slavery forces, Josiah Thomas Geun arrived and homesteaded a tract of land just south of the Kansas River, not far from the Town of Wamego. In the same year that he took his homestead Pottawatomie County was organized. Mr. Genn still had that homestead, a highly developed farm, had much other land in addition, and gives more or less active superintendence to the growing of his crops. With the growing weight of years he retired to a home in Wamego … Read more

Biography of Harry W. Bouck

Harry W. Bouck. The proprietor and editor of the Crawford County Enterprise, at Girard, Kansas, is a worthy representative of the younger journalistic element of Crawford County. To a very considerable extent, it is this element in any community, especially outside of the larger cities, which infuses spirit and zest into the activities of the place. It is this element whose entrance upon the arena of active life dates not farther back than a decade and a half of years which monopolizes most of the vigor, zeal and pushing energy which keeps the nerves of the newspaper world ramifying through … Read more

Reminiscences of the Early Settlement of Dragoon Creek, Wabaunsee County

When the Kansas-Nebraska Act opened up the Kansas Territory to settlement, a tide of immigration began as citizens from across the United States, and foreigners, recently arrived in the US, rushed to receive some of the prime property. Stephen J. Spear was one such settler, and this manuscript depicts his life along Dragoon Creek in Wabaunsee County, Kansas.

Biography of Willis G. Weaver

Willis G. Weaver, former clerk of the District Court of Wabaunsee County, had for many years been engaged in the abstract, real estate, loan and insurance business at Alma. He is one of the most widely known men in the county. Mr. Weaver was born at New London, Connecticut, January 7, 1864, but had lived in this part of Kansas since he was a small child. The Weaver family were identified with New England from the earliest period of settlement. It is said that they came out of England and settled in Massachusetts in 1636. Mr. Weaver’s father was the … Read more

Biography of Charles Wilbur McCampbell

Associate professor of animal husbandry in the State Agricultural College at Manhattan and secretary of the State Livestock Registry Board whose offices are in the same city, Charles W. McCampbell is a native Kansan and for ten years had broadened and amplified his experience and authoritative knowledge of all phases of the livestock industry, not only with reference to Kansas but to the world at large. While he had perhaps rendered his greatest service as an instructor of the younger generation of Kansas farmers, some of his practical demonstration work and experiments have attracted national attention from livestock men. He … Read more

Biography of George H. Weeks

George H. Weeks. While Mr. Weeks had speat practically all his life in and around Belvue in Pottawatomie County, his reputation as a stock breeder is nothing less than state wide. His farm is famous for his splendid Percheron horses, and hardly less well known for his herd of Hereford cattle and his Poland China hogs. Mr. Weeks was born Jannary 18, 1877, and in the same year his parents removed to Pottawatomie County. His birth occurred in a rich and prosperons section of Northern Illinois, at LaMoille in Burean County. He is of English ancestry. His father, David Weeks, … Read more

Biography of Lewis J. Lamar

Lewis J. Lamar, present mayor of the Town of McFarland, is a veteran railroad man, though by no means old in point of years of life. He became self supporting at the age of sixteen, and therefore had had an active career much longer than his age would indicate. Mr. Lamar was born at Nashville, Illinois, July 31, 1879. His grandfather was a Frenchman and on coming to America settled in Pennsylvania, where he married into a family of Pennsylvania Dutch. Lewis J. Lamar’s maternal grandmother was a member of the Hanks family and was a sister of the mother … Read more

Biography of Orrin Elliott Walker

Orrin Elliott Walker. A definite and conspicuous place should be given the name of Orrin Elliott Walker on the list of men of Kansas who have not alone helped their own great state to grow but who have also been factors in the movements which have assisted in the development of other commonwealths. Coming to Kansas in 1879 and to Topeka in 1887, Mr. Walker left the Sunflower state in 1893, when he went to officiate in the opening of the Cherokee Strip, in Oklahoma, and in the community he made his home until 1898, when he returned to Topeka, … Read more

Biography of Harvey James Loomis

Harvey James Loomis. During his long residence within the borders of Wabaunsee County, the late Harvey James Loomis worked out an admirable destiny, and from small beginnings drew around him for the comfort and happiness of his later years such substantial compensations as wealth, the affectionate devotion of his well established children, the eredit for having contributed largely to the general development of the community, and the confidence and good will of his business and social assocates. Mr. Loomis was born on a farm near Wadsworth, Modina County, Ohio, February 18, 1828, the second son of the four children born … Read more

Gold Digger’s, Indians, and the Santa Fe Trail

In 1858 and 1859, during the period of the Pike’s Peak gold excitement, large numbers of gold hunters passed over the trail for the new diggings. Some of these were driving good teams and wagons, some were on horseback, others had small push carts, and some even wheelbarrows, loaded with all their earthly possessions tied in a small roll. During one day in 1859 three hundred and twenty-five vehicles by actual count crossed at the ford on Elm creek, near the old mail station. At the height of the gold excitement it was not unusual thing for five hundred vehicles … Read more

Biography of Thomas K. Tomson

Thomas K. Tomson. A life of more than ordinary fruitfulness and influence came to a close with the death of Thomas K. Tomson at his home in Dover, Shawnee County, November 2, 1910. He was one of the ante-bellum settlers of Kansas. In the fifty years of his residence in the state his name became widely known and respected and as a farmer and stockman he was one of the most successful in his section of the state. He was in his eighty-fifth year when death called him. He was born in Mahoning County, Ohio, September 25, 1826. He grew … Read more

Biography of Merifield Vicory

Merifield Vicory. It is now almost half a century since Merifield Vicory came to Kansas and identified himself with the pioneer activities of the farm and ranch in the Sunflower State, He came to Kansas bringing with him the record of a brave and faithful soldier during the war of the Rebellion, and through his work as a farmer and his public spirit as a citizen had exemplified the same sterling traits that made him a good soldier when the country needed him. Mr. Vicory came to Kansas from Ohio. He was born in Springfield that state August 24, 1840, … Read more

Post Civil War Times at Dragoon Creek

The settlers along Dragoon creek received their mail at the post office of Wilmington until the fall of 1869, when a new mail route was established from Burlingame, running up Dragoon creek, to Alma, the county seat of Wabaunsee county, a distance of about thirty-eight miles. A post office was located on the northeast quarter of section 28, township 14 south, range 13 east. The Post-office Department at Washington, D. C, requested the settlers to designate a name for the post office and nominate a postmaster. At a called meeting of the settlers the name New Lexington was selected for … Read more

Settlers at Dragoon Creek after 1865

Among the families coming into the Dragoon creek settlement after the spring of 1865 may be mentioned Jeremiah Fields and wife Betsey, with their two married sons and son-in-law: Joseph Fields and family of six persons; John L. Fields and family of five persons; James M. Johnson and family of four persons; they all came from Ohio in September, 1865. Caleb J. Harvey, formerly of Ohio, but later a teacher at the Quaker Shawnee Indian mission, came in December, 1865. Squire Cantrill, unmarried, came from Ohio in 1867; he later married a Miss Burroughs. Upon her death he married her … Read more

Biography of Richard E. Thoes

Richard E. Thoes, present postmaster of Alma, represents one of the oldest and best known pioneer families of Wabaunsee County. His father is still living at Alma, now in his ninetieth year, and is one of the survivors of that historic time when Kansas was a territory and the center of conflict between the free state and the slavery forces. This Kansas pioneer is Mr. Joseph Thoes. He was born in the Rhine Provine of Germany in November, 1828. His father, John Thoes, was born in the same locality, was a farmer by occupation, and for nine years was a … Read more

Biography of Joseph Cameron Lockhart

Joseph Cameron Lockhart, a veteran Union soldier and a resident of Kansas for nearly forty-five years, had had a successful business career as a farmer and rancher and is now enjoying the fruits of his well spent lifetime at Eskridge in Wabaunsee County. Mr. Lockhart was born in Salem Township of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, February 12, 1838, and is now in his eightieth year, still active and vigorous for all his experiences. The Lockhart ancestors were Scotch and settled in Pennsylvania in colonial times. His father, George Lockhart, was born in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, in 1807, spent his life there … Read more

Kansas Registrations of Enemy Aliens, 1917 – 1921

The series contains original affidavits of registration that record personal information about each registrant, their photograph affixed to the majority of documents, and the registrants fingerprints. All of these are specific to Kansas, and most have the actual documents attached.