Burton Jones
Burton Jones WWII 2
Burton Jones, son of John Levy Jones and Jessie Brewer (daughter of David Nathaniel Brewer and Delana Fowler) was a nephew of our Bettie Brewer Noyes. He was born Sept 24 1917 in Missouri, and died Nov 5, 1975 in Yakima, Yakima, Washington. He is buried at West Hills in Yakima, Washington.
He served in the European Theater during WWII.
Burton Jones Funeral Paper
All images are courtesy of Jim and Dieanna Swearngin.
Belle Sparks McKenney obit
Belle Sparks McKenney was the daughter of James Sparks and Carrie Burch, and wife of George W. McKenney Jr.
Larry McCombs supplied Belle’s obituary:
Mrs. G. W. McKenney
Belle M. SPARKS, daughter of James and Carrie SPARKS, was born January 14, 1868, in Shelby County Illinois, and departed this life, December 28, 1935, at the home of her son, J. A. MCKENNEY in Sedan at the age of 67 years, 11 months and 14 days.
She, with her parents, came to Kansas in 1873, where they settled on a claim on Limestone Prairie, where she lived until June 3, 1883, when she was united in marriage to George W. McKENNEY at Elgin, Kansas.
To this union, four children were born: James Albert, of Sedan; Mabel Clair TRIPP of Sidler, Okla; and two daughters, Cleo May, who died in childhood; and Carrie Isabel HAMPTON who preceded her mother in death a few years ago.
She, together with her husband, united with the Methodist Episcopal church in Kay County, Oklahoma in 1897. She later transferred her membership to the Methodist Episcopal church of Sedan, where she was a member.
She was a member of both the Rebeckah and Eastern Star Lodges.
Besides her companion and children, she leaves to mourn her death, two sisters, Mrs. Mary TRIPP and Mrs. Martha THOMAS, both of Pawhuska, Oklahoma; eight grand-children and two great-grandchildren, and a host of other relatives and friends.
She was a loving wife and mother and a friend to all who knew her.
Funeral services were conducted at the United Brethren church at Chautauqua, Kansas, at 3:00 o’clock p.m., Sunday, December 29, 1935, with Rev. Howard C. BENTON officiating, assisted by Rev. WILSON.
A mixed quartet composed of Misses Dorothy TULLOSS, Inez BUTTERFIELD, B. J. FUNK and T. E. HESS, rendered the following numbers: “Asleep in Jesus,” “In the Garden” and “The City Foursquare.” They were accompanied at the piano by Mrs. J. O. TULLOSS.
A short memorial service was conducted by the Easter Star Lodge at the church.
The pall-bearers were: Arthur BRUNGER, G. K. CROCKETT, C. M. HUNT, J. M. GWALTNEY, Wm. BRUNER and A. B. COOVER.
Those from out-of-town attending the funeral were: Mr. and Mrs. F. B. TRIPP and daughter, Georgia, of Shidler; Mrs. Mary TRIPP, Mrs. Martha THOMAS, and Mrs. Nannie WHITEHORN of Pawhuska; Mrs. Adda MCWHIRT and Mr. Harry MCWHIRT of Hominy; Mrs. Hattie MOORE of Oklahoma City; Mr. and Mrs. Ralph SPRAY of Catoosa, L. C. MCKENNEY of Ponca City; Thelma MCKENNEY of Wichita; Mr. and Mrs. Paul BLAKE of Shidler; Mr. B. COOK of Kaw City; and Mr. CAMPBELL of Ponca City.
Interment was in the Chautauqua cemetery with Baird Funeral Home in charge.
It may be incorrect but Mabel Claire’s obituary gives the family as having moved to Pawhuska OK when she was young, which would have been in Osage Indian Territory. But Belle’s obituary places them in Kay County, next to the Osage Indian Territory, in 1897, the year Carrie Isabel was born.
Courtesy of Nancy Benton, we have papers listing the personal property from the estate of our David Nathaniel Brewer. Born Oct 31 1850 at Pleasant, Steuben, Indiana, David married Delana Fowler on March 1 1869 at Osage Mission, Neosho, Kansas. He died Aug 29, 1921 at Greenfield, Dade, Missouri.
Van Caldwell, b. 1799, was brother of Paris Caldwell, b. 1816, who married Margaret Ellen Hackney in 1845 in Wapello Co., Iowa. She was sister of William S. Hackney (direct line of this blog) and daughter of William Hackney and Sarah Shannon.
In 1849 in Wapello County, Iowa, W. W. Baker, son of Joshua Wells Baker (the blacksmith mentioned in the article), married Isabel Frances Hackney, another daughter of William Hackney and Sarah Shannon.
From “History of Wapello County, Iowa”, by Major John Beach, agent, published 1914
Chapter III, “Indian Agency in Wapello County”
(Skipping the opening portion, taking up just after the death of General Street, Beach’s father-in-law.)
The writer, who was then living in Dubuque, hastened to Washington as soon as the sad news reached him, the hope being to save the family their home, in which they were now comfortably established, and of which the succession of a stranger to the office would have deprived them. When he arrived there, by a then unusually quick journey of twelve days, he found his nomination already awaiting the action of the Senate, and in a day or two more, obtaining his commission, he came direct to the agency. At the time of his arrival about June 1, 1840, the agency, with its dependencies, was about as follows: In the agency house was Mrs. Street and the nine youngest of her children, of whom William B. Street, of Oskaloosa, was the senior. Just over the branch, in the rear of the agency, was Josiah Smart, the interpreter, one of God’s noblemen, who combined in his character every brave, honest and generous sentiment that can adorn a man, and within a few steps of his residence was that of the blacksmith, Charles H. Withington. There was also Harry Sturdevant, the gunsmith, but being unmarried, he boarded with Withington until a year or so later he put himself up a cabin, where the writer now lives (August, 1874), and dug that famous old well. As distance (from the rest of us) did not lend enchantment to the view of his bachelorhood he soon switched on to the matrimonial track. Then there was the household of the Pattern Farm, some half-dozen in number, except in extra times, such as harvesting. This was the actual agency settlement. On the Des Moines, •a mile or so below the county farm, where the bluff approaches nearest to the bank, was the trading post of P. Chouteau, Sr., & Company, but later more familiarly known as the “Old Garrison.” This was usually superintended by Capt. William Phelps. And just above the mouth of Sugar Creek, on the creek bank, at the old road crossing, lived the miller, Jeremiah Smith, Jr., with his family. This embraced all the whites lawfully living in the country at the time.
Through some unfortunate misunderstanding in regard to the boundary line several persons had intruded upon the Indian land upon the bottom, and the ridges in the rear, as well as upon the south side of the river, and as the Indians made complaint to the Government it had no alternative but to remove them. This duty fell upon the writer to execute and was a very unwelcome one, if only for the reason that several of the intruders were persons who would not willingly have violated any law. Among them was that fine old specimen of West Virginia hospitality, Van Caldwell, but by reason of his location and his readiness by any reasonable arrangement to escape the terrors of fire and sword, the writer obtained permission from the department the he should remain, upon the condition of his maintaining a ferry for access to Soap Creek Mills during high water.
At the time of General Street’s decease the Indians were occupying their country with their permanent, or spring and summer villages, located as follows: Upon the bank of the Des Moines, opposite the mouth of Sugar Creek, where there is quite a spacious bottom extending for a mile or more below, where the bluff closes in pretty closely upon the bank, and for a much longer distance in the up‑river direction toward and past Ottumwa, was the village of Keokuk, and still above were those of Wapello, Foxes, and Appanoose, a Sac chief. According to the writer’s present memory, that of Wapello was the intermediate one. Keokuk himself had selected a pleasant, commanding and picturesque point for his own summer wigwam, some halfway up the side of the bluff, in the rear of his village, where with his own little field of corn and beans, despite the large field of Uncle Sam just beneath him, he enjoyed the otium cum dignitate of his authority and rank during the hot weather.
His wigwam was a very conspicuous object to a traveler along the road that crests the bluff and winds down the long hill to Sugar Creek on this side. From his elevated position, where, like another Robinson Crusoe in the boys’ story books, he could contemplate himself as “monarch of all he surveyed,” he had a fine view of the three villages spread burning him, as well as of the bluffs and bottoms for a considerable distance up and down the river on this side. Several of the lodges in every town had two or three small patches of cultivated ground in the neighborhood of their villages; but the hillside now covered by Ottumwa seemed to offer them more attractive spots for this purpose, probably because the soil was more easily worked and situated more favorably for the influence of the sun than upon their side of the river. A light, easily turned soil was of course an object to the poor squaws, upon whom devolved the duty of working it with their hoes, and of inserting the rickety posts that, with light poles bound to them, made the fence, not exceeding •four feet in height but in general, very respectfully treated by the ponies, the only animal liable to intrude injuriously upon their fields.
The whole hillside on its lower slope, for they seldom cultivated it more than half-way up, was occupied in this way by the Indians, from some distance below the depot fully up to or above the courthouse; often the writer, on receipt of some instructions requiring a “talk” with the leading men, in order to save time, and to the Indians the trouble of a ride to Agency, has appointed some shady spot in one of these patches.
The Indians seldom occupied their permanent villages, except during the time of planting or securing their crop, after which they would start out on a history hunt, if the annuity — which was generally paid within the six weeks from the first of September — had not yet been received. Immediately after payment it was their custom to leave the village for the winter, hunting p32through this season by families and small parties, leading the regular nomad life, changing their location from time to time as the supply of game and the need — so essential to their comfort — of seeking a place near to timbered streams best protected from the rigors of weather, would require.
Hardfish’s band of Sacs was composed mainly of those who had been the leading parties in the Black Hawk war, and who had been by degrees freeing themselves from the restraint imposed upon them by the treaty, demanding their dispersion among the friendly villages. But as all unfriendly feeling had now subsided and they were now disposed to conduct themselves with the utmost good will in all their intercourse with the Government, and as, moreover, the department with a view to an early effort to acquire possession of their remaining lands in Iowa deemed it most conducive to success in that object to pursue toward them a policy apparently oblivious of former strife, the writer was instructed so long as there was no reason to apprehend unfriendly designs, to ignore these requirements of the treaty and to avoid all cause for reawakening former strife.
………
The village of Hardfish — or Wishecomaque, as it is in the Indian tongue — which was quite as respectable in size as any of the old villages, was located in what is now the heart of Eddyville, named for J. P. Eddy, a trader, who was licensed in the summer of 1840 by the writer to establish his trading post at that place. He continued to trade there until the treaty of final cession in 1842, and was the most fortunate of any of the large traders in finding his schedule of claims against the Indians very little reduced by the commissioners, whose part it was at that treaty to adjust all outstanding claims against the Sacs and Foxes.
The writer cannot locate the place exactly, according to our state maps, although he has often visited it in Indian times; but somewhere out north from Kirkville, and probably not over •twelve miles distant, on the bank of the Skunk River, not far above the “Forks of the Skunk,” was a small village of not over fifteen or twenty lodges, presided over by a man of considerable influence, though he was not a chief, named Kishkekosh. This village was on the direct trail — in fact it was the converging point of the two trails — from the Hardfish village, and the three villages across the river below Ottumwa, to the only other permanent settlement of the tribes, which was the village of Poweshiek, a Fox chief of equal rank with Wapello, situated on the bank of the Iowa River.
About this time that Eddy moved out his stock of goods from Burlington to his licensed point at the Hardfish village, P. Chouteau, Jr., & Company also obtained an addition to their license for a post at the same place, and put up a small establishment •some fourth of a mile below Eddy, on the river bank. In the same winter, 1840‑41, Messrs. W. G. and G. W. Ewing, of Indiana, who had already acquired large wealth in the Indian trade, but never yet had dealt with the Sacs and Foxes, obtained a license and had their point assigned them just at the mouth of Sugar Creek on the Ottumwa side, where they soon got up a large establishment, filled with a full and valuable stock. This post was started and for a year or so conducted by a Mr. Hunt, a gentleman of far more education, refinement and culture than is often found among the resident Indian traders.
p36 Previous to the treaty of 1842 some few changes were made in their location, both by the Indians and among the whites. The house at the “Old Garrison” was broken up and one established in its stead up in the Red Rock region, near the mouth of White Breast; and Keokuk also moved his village into the same neighborhood. A second blacksmith was appointed, named Baker, son-in‑law of Colonel Ingraham, one of the pioneers of Des Moines county, and a person of considerable character and influence in his county. Baker died at Fort Des Moines, still in the service of the Indians; but when appointed he built his residences •some half a mile east of the agency, not far from the claim taken by the late William Newell, father of L. F. Newell, by whom the property was subsequently purchased and added to his farm.
The Sacs and Foxes were quite friendly and manageable; in fact, were very pleasant and agreeable people to live among, and all public and personal intercourse with them rolled smoothly along the well-worn track, without much of incident or marvel, until the final sale of their remaining Iowa domain. Sometimes incidents would occur, possessing excitement or amusement enough to encroach for a little upon the monotony that otherwise might have become tedious, of which the writer will endeavor to recover the memory of one or two that may amuse the reader.
Though Elmer Wheeler is not immediate family line, I find it often useful with family history to get a better picture when we know not only what was going on with family but with their extended relations and neighbors.
Elmer C. Wheeler married Eva Rogers in 1903, a cousin of Antwine Rodman who married May McCormick in 1898, a niece of our Belle Sparks who was married to George W. McKenney Jr. Elmer was a son of Eliza Loise, whose mother was Mary Jane Barada of the Great Nemaha Reserve, buried in Cedar Vale, Chautauqua, Kansas.
Elmer C. Wheeler. The business enterprise of Elmer C. Wheeler has been an important factor in conserving the property and civic rights of the people of his blood and race in Oklahoma. Mr. Wheeler is descended from two stocks of American Indians, with an important admixture of the French pioneers who first explored and traversed the country west of the Mississippi. He is now the head of a prominent family at Pawhuska in Osage County and is carefully looking after the large interests which are under his supervision as a result of the allotment in severalty of the Indian lands of the Osage Nation.
Mr. Wheeler was born in Thurston County, Nebraska, March 17, 1878, a son of M. P. and Eliza (Loise) Wheeler. His father was born in Wisconsin in 1846, and his mother was born in Nebraska in 1847. These parents were married in Richardson County, Nebraska, and moved from there to the Omaha Indian Reservation, on which they lived until June, 1891, when they came with other members of the tribe to Pawhuska, in Indian Territory. Mr. Wheeler’s mother was a daughter of Edward Paul and Mary Jane (Barada) Loise. They belonged to some of the earliest French families in the vicinity of St. Louis. Mr. Wheeler’s mother first married Antoine Cabaney, and had one son by that union. Mr. Wheeler’s grandfather was half Osage and half French origin, and his grandmother was half French and half Omaha Indian. His grandfather established a trading post at what is now the City of Omaha, where a Frenchman by the name of Edward Sarpy, in the employ of the American Fur Company, had established a post in the early ’40s, this enterprise giving the first distinction to the site now occupied by that flourishing city. Mr. Wheeler’s grandfather lived at Omaha until a short time before his death, when he went to St. Louis and there fell a victim to the cholera. Mr. Wheeler’s great-grandfather on his mother’s side was Mitchell Barada, who was one of the first white men to locate west of the Missouri River. He was with the historic expedition of Lewis and Clarke that explored the Missouri River to its source early in the nineteenth century, and a number of years later he made three trips to California after the discovery of gold, and died in Nebraska. Mr. Wheeler’s parents both reside in Osage County, his father being a retired farmer. They had ten children, five of whom died in infancy, and the five now living are: Paul E., of Cleveland, Oklahoma; Elmer C.; Lovania, wife of L. E. Brock, a rancher in Osage County; Anna, wife of Jack Weinrich, a merchant at Pawhuska; and Alma, living with her parents.
Elmer C. Wheeler lived with his parents until his marriage in 1903, though much of his time was spent awav from home attending different Indian schools. From 1888 to 1890 he was in the Indian School at Genoa, Nebraska, and then spent three years in the Osage Indian Boarding School. From 1896 to 1897 he was in the Chilloco Indian School and graduated in 1897. During 1899-1900 he was in the Indian Training School at Santa Fe, New Mexico, and took his diploma from that institution in the latter year. After leaving school he spent some time in the employ of the United States Government as an engineer at the ice plant in Pawhuska.
On September 23, 1903, Mr. Wheeler was married to Eva E. Rogers. She comes of the noted Rogers family of Oklahoma, and was born in Osage County August 3, 1877, a daughter of Antoine and Elizabeth (Carpenter) Rogers, who are still living and have their home at Wyana. Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler have one child, Virginia Rogers. They are also rearing five children by Mrs. Wheeler’s sister. Their father was Arthur, a son of Judge Thomas L. Rogers, one of the distinguished citizens of Northeastern Oklahoma whose career will be found sketched on other pages of this work. These five orphan children now in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler are: Joseph L., Ellen Elizabeth, John R., Wil- • liam C. and Isabel Rogers.
In recent years Mr. Wheeler has been busied in supervising the allotment of his family and children, comprising altogether about 6,000 acres. Of this handsome estate about 1,000 acres are already under cultivation as farming land, and the rest is pasture and grazing land. Mr. Wheeler owns two good buildings’in Pawhuska, and occupies a substantial home which is the property of his children.
In polities he is a republican, and is prominent in the Masonic order. He is a Knight Templar Mason and is also a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason. His local affiliations are with Wahsahshe Lodge No. 110, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Horeb Chapter No. 63, Royal Arch Masons; Omega Council, Royal and Select Masons; Palestine Commandery No. 31, Knights Templar; Oklahoma Consistory of the Scottish Rite; The Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Tulsa. He Is a past master of his lodge and past commander of Palestine Commandery. He is also affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Knights of Pythias.
Though J. R. Pearson is not family, I find it often useful with immediate family history to get a better picture when we know not only what was going on with immediate and extended relations, but also with neighbors, and the Pearson family resided beside Addie McKenney McWhirt for many years in Osage Indian Territory then Osage County, Oklahoma.
Joseph Pearson was married to the Osage-French Rosa Lee DeNoya, born 1863, died 1914, daughter of Francis DeNoya and Martha Lessert, Martha Lessert a daughter of Julia Roy, sister of Mary Louise Roy and John Baptiste Roy.
Living beside Addie’s brother, George W. McKenney, was Laura Revelett, b. 1886, the daughter of Frederick “Frank” Revelett and Emma Frances “Fannie” Davenport, Frederick a son of Pierre Carbaneau Revelett and Mary Louise (Marie Louise) Roy, sister of John Baptiste Roy, French-Osage, who married an Ioway-Osage woman.
While Rosa was a grand-niece of John Baptiste Roy, the above Laura was also a grand-niece of John Baptiste Roy and is of interest as the McKenneys are possibly related through an Ioway connection.
Additionally, in 1875 Addie McWhirt McKenney (Rosa’s neighbor and member of our family) was in the household of a David Robb and Mary Ross after the death of her Ioway mother. Robert Moore, a brother-in-law of Mary (who also moved to Chautauqua County), had as his great aunt , Margaret Mitchell Berry, who was married to Joseph P. Dunham. Daniel Dunham, a son, was married to Martha Lessert, mother of Rosa Denoya Pearson, about 1874. That’s a far-fetched connection but it’s never-the-less, a connection.
J. R. Pearson. In the development and improvement of the old Osage country, J. R. Pearson has for thirty five years supplied the important elements of individual enthusiasm and enterprise. He has spent most of his active career in this part of Oklahoma, and has had unusual opportunities for judging the country and for participating in its affairs, and there Ib probably no citizen of Pawhuska who is considered more vitally and substantially related with local development than Mr. Pearson.
Born in Andrew County, Missouri, February 29, 1852, he has had a life of varied experience beginning with boyhood. His parents were William Madison and Delilah (Hunter) Pearson. His father was born in Kentucky, but was reared in Missouri, the grandparents having settled as pioneers in the northwestern quarter of that state. Grandfather Nathaniel Pearson died in Northern Kansas at the age of ninety and William M. Pearson passed away May 30, 1912, at the age of eighty-nine, in Maryville, Missouri, and both had spent all their active careers as blacksmiths. Mr. Pearson’s mother, who was born in Missouri of’a pioneer family, died when her son was four years of age. The latter is now the only one living out of a family of four girls and two boys, and there were also two sons by his father’s second marriage.
When he was thirteen years of age J. R. Pearson left home on account of incompatibility with his step-mother, and thenceforth largely made his own way in the world. He lived a few years with his older sisters and then rambled from place to place, paying his way by day or monthly labor, largely engaged in railroad work in different sections of Missouri.
It was in 1878, while still in search of a permanent home, that J. R. Pearson arrived in the Osage country. Here, on July 4, 1878, he married Miss Rosa Denoya, who was born in Washington Territory August 26, 1864. She died at her home in Pawhuska, January 26, 1913, at the age of forty-nine. She had come to Indian Territory with her parents in 1873, and received her education in the government schools. Her parents were Francis and Martha (Tessett) Denoya, her father a fullblooded Frenchman and her mother of part French and part Osage stock. Her mother died at Pawhuska May 23, 1913, in her eighty-fifth year, and it is said that she was the mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and great-great-grandmother to more children in the Osage tribe than any other living woman. She was twice married, the father of Mrs. Pearson having died about twenty-seven years ago.
In order to support his wife, Mr. Pearson for several years after his marriage worked at wages of fifty cents a day, but soon engaged in ranching and stock raising, and has lived continuously in what is now Osage County with the exception of a few years spent at Cedarvale, Kansas, where he was giving his children the advantages of the local schools. He and each of his children now have allotments of land amounting to 657 acres each, and he is one of the large property holders over Osage County. Besides his land he is a stockholder in the Pawhuska Oil and Gas Company, the largest corporation operating in that industry in Osage County; is also a stockholder in the oil and gas company bf which J. W. Stroud is president; is a stockholder in the Citizens National Bank of Pawhuska. For a number of years he has also carried on an individual business as a money lender.
In 1908 Mr. Pearson erected what is considered one of the most attractive homes in Pawhuska, known as Pearson Heights, adjoining the city limits at the southwest corner. The house is itself a commodious and attractive one, and stands on a site that commands an extensive and beautiful view not only of the city, but of a large scope of surrounding country. The house is surrounded by 120 acres of well improved land, and that is the center of Mr. Pearson’s continued interests in the stock business. He still keeps a large number of horses, and has some especially fine strains represented in this class of stock.
In politics he is a republican. In Masonry he has been through both the York and Scottish Rite branches as far as he could go, and was one of the first men in the Osage country to take the thirty-two degrees of the Scottish Rite Consistory. He is a member of the Consistory at Guthrie and the Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Oklahoma City, and belongs to the various other branches represented at Pawhuska. To Mr. and Mrs. Pearson were born .a large family of eleven children: Claude, who died at the age of four years; Cartona, who died at seven years; October, who lives at Pearson Spur in Osage County, and is married and has five children; Delia, who died at the age of six years; Madeline, wife of Robert E. Wynn, living in Osage County, and the mother of four children; Cordelia, wife of Frank R. Kent of St. Joseph, Missouri, and the mother of two children; Lillian, wife of J. P. Compehaver of Independence, Kansas, and the mother of one child; Bertha, wife of Grover Badey of Osage County, and the mother of two children; Catherine V., Joseph W. and Rosa V., all living at home with their father.
Though L. A. Wismeyer is not a direct line relation, I find it often useful with family history to get a better picture when we know not only what was going on with family but with their relations. Wismeyer was married to Aggie Huffaker, daughter of Thomas Sears Huffaker and Eliza Ann Baker. Eliza, a sister of a W. W. Baker (their father was a blacksmith for the Sac and Fox), was a sister-in-law of Isabel Frances Hackney, daughter of our William Hackney and Sarah Shannon. These families, who had known each other in Iowa, relocated to Chautauqua County, Kansas and the neighboring Osage Indian Territory, Oklahoma.
L. A. Wismeyer. One of the oldest and best known Indian traders of the Osage County, it is likely that the name of L. A. Wismeyer will be chiefly remembered through future generations for his enterprise in founding the Town of Fairfax in Osage County. He took the lead in starting the town there when the railroad was constructed in 1903. Not long ago the editor of a local paper who was closely familiar with all Wismeyer’s public spirited activities at the time described his part in the founding and upbuilding of the town in the following language: ” He horned the town, nursed it in its infancy and paid the doctor’s bill. He built the first schoolhouse and helped to build all the churches, and whether he belonged to any of them or all of them his name appears on the records of at least two as trustee or incorporator. In his townsite bill he secured for Fairfax ten acres of land for a cemetery, a gift from the department that no other town on the reservation received. He was the first merchant in Fairfax and established the first lumber yard. He was at the head of the Fairfax Grain Company that built the first elevator. He was one of the organizers of the First National Bank and served as president of that institution for a number of years and was one of three men that erected the bank’s splendid quarters. In short, Mr. Wismeyer has been a public benefactor and in the long run Fairfax has been the greater beneficiary of his labors.”
While Mr. Wismeyer has lived in the western states of Kansas and Oklahoma more than forty years, his boyhood recollections center about a home in the State of Ohio. He was born at Hamilton, Ohio, October 20, 1852, a son of Henry and Mary (Riehter) Wismeyer, both of whom were of German parentage. His parents spent practically all their lives in Ohio, part of the time in Cleveland and at other locations in Northern Ohio, and were for many years at Hamilton. His father died at Hamilton about 1882 at the age of sixty-eight. He had conducted a malt house at Sandusky and later at Hamilton. The mother is still living with a daughter at Hamilton at the age of eighty-five. The five children were: L. A.; Henry of Emporia, Kansas; Emma, wife of Frank Cobaught of Connersville, Indiana; Carrie, wife of John A. Keller of Hamilton, Ohio; and John, who died in 1910 in Guadalajara, Mexico.
It was in the home of his parents that L. A. Wismeyer lived until 1873. In the meantime he had made the best of his advantages in the public schools, and for two years had gained a practical business training as clerk in a dry goods store, his salary beginning at
$1.50 a week. In 1873 he went out to Kansas to join his uncle, Harry A. Riehter, at Council Grove. His uncle was long prominent in Kansas polities, and served three terms as lieutenant governor of that state. Mr. Wismeyer remained with his uncle five years, employed in his drug store, and while there performed that various service required of pioneer druggists, not only in mixing and compounding medicines and pills, but ,also in prescribing in the role of a doctor, and he gained such confidence that he could prescribe anything from calomel and quinine to snake , medicine for the customers of the store.
Leaving Kansas, Mr. Wismeyer arrived at the Osage Agency on the site of the present City of Pawhuska, June 18, 1878, becoming chief clerk in the agency. He continued the duties of that office until December, 1884. The Indian agent had many responsibilities, including the issue of rations to the Indians. The supplies furnished through the agency store included a large stock of general provisions as well as clothing of all kinds. The head of each Indian family had a ration check, and this was presented to the commissary clerk whenever rations were drawn. Every few days from forty to fifty head of beef cattle were killed for the benefit of the tribe living around the agency, and sometimes a hundred head of stock would be driven into the corral each week, and after the animals were shot down the Indians would go in and proceed to skin and cut up the carcasses. These cattle were the substitute for the buffaloes which had furnished most of the meat to the tribes before that noble animal of the plains was exterminated. The cash payments were made semi-annually, in May and December, and averaged $3.25 to each individual. A year or so after Mr. Wismeyer became connected with the agency, on account of the dissatisfaction which had arisen among the Indians over the ration distribution, that system was abolished, and thereafter the Indians were paid their entire share in cash. One of Mr. Wismeyer’s experiences while chief clerk at the agency illustrates the attitude of the older full bloods toward the system of education which the Government was striving to introduce. The department had made a ruling that all Indians must have their children in school before they could draw their quarterly allowance. One day an old Indian demanded his money, and Mr. Wismeyer questioned him as to whether he had children in school. The Indian made a personal application of the school question to Mr. Wismeyer, who replied that he had attended school in order to learn reading and writing and to make a living, and that he held his job because of his education. The Indian retorted as follows: “You’re a fool. I eat and wear clothes and don’t have to hold down a job. If you hadn’t went to school and got an education you wouldn’t have to write, write, write all day and part of the night as you do here. White man heap fool. I want my money.”
On December 1, 1884, Mr. Wismeyer secured a trader’s license, and became associated with Dr. R. E. Bird, one of the old established Indian traders. They engaged in general merchandising at Pawhuska, as licensed traders, and in 1885 established a branch store at Gray Horse in Osage County. In 1889 Mr. Wismeyer moved to Gray Horse to manage that end of the business, and after 1890 became sole proprietor of the store there. He continued in business at Gray Horse until 1903. With the coming of the railroad he and the other traders at Gray Horse, in order to avoid freighting overland, determined to move their post to the railroad. Mr. Wismeyer finally succeeded in gaining the consent of the Government officials to locate a depot where the Village of Fairfax now stands. In arranging for the townsite he had to go to Washington and came home with full instructions how to proceed in securing the use of lands for town purposes. He procured forty acres belonging to one of the Indians, and had it surveyed into lots, streets and alleys, and he took for his own purposes one of the chief corners in the new town for his store and lumber yard. The railroad company first named the depot Coda, but Mr. Wismeyer finally gained their consent to the name Fairfax, which was suggested to him by the old town of that name in Virginia. Owing to the fact that all the lots in the town could be used only by the right of occupancy the title to the land remaining with its Indian owners, Mr. Wismeyer spent almost the entire winter of 1904 at Washington, and finally secured a townsite bill which, while far from satisfactory, paved the way for a permanent town and the upbuilding of such institutions as churches, schools and business enterprises. For more than ten years Mr. Wismeyer, though a man of unobtrusive personality, has been one of the real leaders in the growth of the community, has invested freely and with faith in the ultimate outcome in the number of local business institutions, and has always given liberally to movements associated with the general welfare of the community. He has been identified with the mercantile interests of the town since it was founded, was president of the First National Bank until 1912, was in the lumber business for ten years, being the first lumber merchant there, and for about nine years was one of the interested principals in the operation of the first elevator.
Mr. Wismeyer speaks the Osage Indian language as fluently as the red men themselves, and also has a speaking knowledge of the language of the Kaws and Poncas. He has had continuous relations as an Indian trader for thirty-seven years. Politically he is a stanch republican, has been active in party affairs, but ‘has never sought nor held an office. He is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks at Pawhuska. While living at Council Grove, Kansas, Mr. Wismeyer became acquainted with one of the belles of local society, and in 1884 married Miss Aggie C. Huffaker. Mrs. Wismeyer was born in Council Grove, Kansas, November 1, 1857, a daughter of T. S. Huffaker, one of the pioneers in that section of Kansas. They have one daughter, Frances, still at home.
Though neither James Bird Jones, nor his wife, Laura Mae Revelett, are family, I find it often useful with family history to get a better picture when we know not only what was going on with family and immediate and extended relations, but also with neighbors, and the Jones family was lifting next to our McKenneys in 1920 in Chautauqua Co. Kansas, having been in the Strike Axe, Osage, Oklahoma census in 1910.
1920 CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY BELLEVILLE TOWNSHIP CENSUS
NAME OF UNINCORPORATED PLACE: CHAUTAUQUA CITY
14 January 1920 by Carl H. McDonald
Pg. 9B
Kiles Street
66/75 MCKENNEY George W. Head OF mw 56 md. b. IA father b. OH mother b. PA house carpenter own business
C. Belle Wife fw 50 md b. IL father b. IN mother b. IN
SPARKS James E. Father-in-law mw 87 wd b. IN father b. KY mother b. KY
67/76 JONES James B. head white 40 b. OK father b. MS mother b. unknown
Laura M. wife 33 b. OK parents b. MO
James F. son 14 b. KS parents b. OK
Aubrey C. son 10 b. OK parents b. OK
Mary F. daughter 7 b. KS parents b. OK
Laura Revelett, b. 1886, was the daughter of Frederick “Frank” Revelett and Emma Frances “Fannie” Davenport, Frederick a son of Pierre Carbaneau Revelett and Mary Louise (Marie Louise) Roy, sister of John Baptiste Roy, French-Osage, who married an Ioway-Osage woman. Laura was thus a grand-niece of John Baptiste Roy and this woman and is of interest as the McKenneys were supposed to be part Ioway and they appear in censuses to be frequently located around descendants of John Baptiste Roy.
To our knowledge, our George W. McKenney was never a mayor of Chautauqua, yet a 1930s newspaper article gives him as having been such. I have wondered instead if the erroneous reporting should have had him as a relation of Laura Revelett through an Ioway connection.
JAMES BIRD JONES, present mayor of the City of Chautauqua, is a man of many and varied business interests. He is one of the leading oil producers in this section, has extensive farm and other properties in various counties of Northern Oklahoma, and has ordered his affairs with such intelligence and energy that though now only in his thirties he has all the prosperity that most men would desire.
Mr. Jones was born in Pontotoc County, Indian Territory, January 7, 1880, and his family history closely connects him with the old Indian country to the south of Kansas. In fact Mr. Jones has a strain of Indian blood. Through his mother he is a Choctaw in the one-sixteenth degree and has always felt it a matter of pride that he is thus related to the old and original American stocks.
His father, J. W. Jones, was born in 1860 and early came to what is now Oklahoma. He was married in the Indian Territory, and became an extensive farmer and stock raiser, and is still in that business, being a resident of Marietta. He is a democrat and a member of the Masonic order. His wife was named Mary Elizabeth Elrod. She was born in Indian Territory in 1860 and died in 1884 near Durant. James B. Jones was the older of their two children. George W. is a farmer at Marietta, Oklahoma.
Reared in old Indian Territory, educated in the Indian schools at Ardmore, James B. Jones lived on his father’s farm until seventeen, and did some of the actual farming and also looked after the stock. At the age of seventeen he entered the Hargrove College at Ardmore, and remained a student there for five years.
In March, 1903, Mr. Jones removed to Osage County, Oklahoma, and after farming for six months came to Chautauqua County, Kansas. He came to Kansas as an employe of Meeker Brothers. They made him manager of their store during the exciting days attending the opening of the oil fields in this section. Mr. Jones continued the management of the general merchandise stock of Meeker Brothers for eight months.
About that time, in 1904, he was married at Sedan, Kansas, to Miss Laura Mae Revelett, daughter of Frank and Fannie (Davenport) Revelett. Her mother is deceased and her father is living on a farm near Chautauqua. Mr. and Mrs. Jones are the parents of four children: James Frank, who was born April 10, 1905, and is in school; Lillian Mae, who died at the age of two years; Aubrey Curtis, born November 29, 1908; and Mary Frances, born March 24, 1913.
After leaving the Meeker Brother’s store Mr. Jones returned to Osage County, Oklahoma, and there became founder of the town of Okesa. He not only founded that town, but sold the townsite, was the first postmaster, and for nine years conducted the principal general mercantile store there. He did everything he could to build up the town, was on the school board several terms and was also a member of the election board when the vote was taken for the adoption of the first constitution of the State of Oklahoma.
On retiring from business at Okesa Mr. Jones returned to Chautauqua, Kansas, and since 1911 has been a prominent factor in the oil industry. He now has oil and gas productions in Chautauqua County, Kansas, in Nowata and Washington counties, Oklahoma, and is an extensive property owner in Northern Oklahoma, having farms aggregating 2,500 acres in Osage, Washington, Nowata and Jackson counties. His holdings include eleven gas wells in Chautauqua County, one gas well in Nowata County and two oil wells in Washington County.
In politics Mr. Jones is a republican. He was elected to the office of mayor of Chautauqua in April, 1915. During his administration he has completely reorganized the city and placed it on a sound financial basis. The office has meant nothing to him except an opportunity for service, and he has justified the hopes and predictions of his many friends. Chautauqua’s municipal finance was verging on bankruptcy when he took charge and since he became mayor he has not only kept the city out of debt, but has expended the funds judiciously, has kept the streets in good repair, and in every way possible has looked after the best interests of the city and its people. Mr. Jones and family reside in one of the fine modern residences at Chautauqua, situated in the northern part of the town. He also has three business buildings adjoining the bank on Main Street. Mr. Jones is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, is affiliated with Elgin Lodge of the Masonic Order and belongs to Chosen Friends Lodge No. 285, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Chautauqua.
Thomas Sears Huffaker was the husband of Eliza Ann Baker Huffaker, daughter of Joshua Wells Baker and Agnes Miller Inghram. Joshua Baker was a blacksmith for the Sac and Fox in Iowa. Eliza’s brother, W.W. Baker, on March 4 1849 in Wapello County, Iowa, married Isabel Frances “Fanny” Hackney”, daughter of William Hackney and Sarah Shannon. Though Isabel is not direct line, she is a sister of direct line,and I find it often useful with family history to get a better picture when we know not only what was going on with family but with their relations. Thus I include information on Thomas Sears Huffaker here.
Thomas Sears Huffaker was born in Clay county, Missouri, March 30, 1825, and died at Council Grove, Morris county, Kansas, July 10, 1910. At the time of his death he was the earliest living settler in the state as far as was known. His eventful career and prominence in Indian and public affairs was such that a history of Kansas would be imperfect without some mention of his life. In the year 1820 his parents came from Kentucky to Clay county, Missouri, and during the formative period of his life they surrounded him with such advantages as that period afforded; which, with his own studious habits, gave him a good education. He became a teacher in the schools when quite young and always possessed great skill in imparting information to others. In 1849, when he was but twenty-four years old, he came to Kansas, where he lived five years before Kansas was organized as a territory. His first employment was as superintendent of the Manual Labor School for Indians at the Shawnee Mission in Johnson county. He was devoted to educational work among the Indians, a close student of men and affairs, and there began a career of active interest, highly honorable and historically interesting, in the improvement of the red man. This extended through the most momentous and heroic epoch of the pre-territorial, territorial and state existence and makes “Judge” Huffaker one of the interesting characters in Kansas history. In 1850 he went to Council Grove and took charge of the Kansas or Kaw Indian Mission School, which had just been organized under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and was supported by the United States government. Council Grove, at that time, was the most important town and trading point on the Great Santa Fe Trail west of the Missouri river in Kansas, and the Kansas Indians had been moved from their homes along the Kaw river to their reservation in the Neosho valley surrounding the old town. The Kaw Indian Mission building, a substantial stone structure, still stands on the west bank of the river, in the north part of the present beautiful little city of Council Grove, and is one of the most interesting historic buildings in the state. It is owned and occupied by Judge Huffaker’s youngest daughter, Anna, widow of the late F. B. Carpenter, and makes a most historic, romantic and commodious residence. The walls are very thick; there are two large fire-place chimneys in each gable and its general appearance s quaint and ancient. It has been used for many purposes, such as school house, council house, church and meeting house, and during the Indian raids and scares of frontier days, it was the refuge and stronghold, to which early settlers fled for safety. It was in this building that Mr. Huffaker taught an Indian mission school and incidentally had some classes of white pupils, which makes it the first school for white children in the state and him the first teacher. Governor Reeder and his staff were entertained here when on their expedition to select a site for the capital of Kansas, and only the uncertainty as to land titles prevented Council Grove from being chosen. Judge Huffaker was married in this same old building, on the 6th day of May, 1852, to Miss Eliza Baker, who was an assistant teacher in the mission school. The officiating clergyman was a Rev. Nicholson, a missionary on his way over the Santa Fe Trail to Old Mexico, and it was the first marriage in that part of Kansas. Mr. Huffaker had charge of this mission school until 1854. It was extremely difficult to induce the Indians to interest themselves in education, for they considered it degrading to adopt the white man’s ways. For several years Mr. Huffaker had charge of the Kansas Indian trading house, and in 1861 was the official farmer of the tribe. At other times he filled other positions of trust in Indian affairs and was not only a fluent linguist in the Kansa or Kaw dialect, but also familiar with the language of the Osage, Ponca, Sac and Fox, Shawnee and other tribes. Few, if any, ever had his influence with the Kansa nation; and they properly gave him the name, “Tah-poo-ska,” which means, white teacher, the Indian name by which he was known till his death. The remnant of the tribe has lived in Oklahoma for many years, but often small bands have returned to their old haunts and to visit the Huffaker home. There they were always welcome and received a hospitality they never forgot. Before Judge Huffaker’s death, through the inducement of his friend, George P. Morehouse—the present official historian of the Kansas or Kaw Indians—he dictated much of their language and legendary lore as he had received it from the old sages and warriors of the tribe.
Judge Huffaker was the first postmaster at Council Grove, and chairman of the first board of county commissioners, appointed to the latter position by Governor Reeder in 1855. The district then comprised Wise (now Morris county), Breckinridge, Madison (now Lyon), and parts of Greenwood and Wabaunsee counties. He was one of the three incorporators of the Council Grove Town Company, in 1858. In the seventies he served several terms in the Kansas legislature, and was probate judge of Morris county for several years. He was a member of the Masonic fraternity, and one of the founders of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of Council Grove.
Judge and Mrs. Huffaker were the parents of the following children: Mary H. (Mrs. J. H. Simcock), Aggie C. (Mrs. Louis Wismeyer), Anna G. (Mrs. Fred B. Carpenter), George M., Homer, and Carl. Susie, their first daughter, was the first white child born in Morris county and was a great pet of the Indians. Old settlers remember her as a charming young lady of eighteen years, when she met a tragic death by drowning, in company with three other parties, May 14, 1872, while attempting to cross the Neosho river, at the Old Mission fork one dark and stormy night. When Judge Huffaker and his wife came to Kansas not a mile of railroad existed in the state, and there were only a few small outposts of civilization within its borders—Topeka, Lawrence, Kansas City and the like had not been thought of and truly “wilderness was king.” Early on the ground he had many opportunities to amass great wealth—had he had an eye to money getting; but instead, in all his public and private duties and business relations, his chief aim was the uplifting of humanity and the stable development of the great commonwealth in which he had lived so long. The old Huffaker homestead is situated across the river from the mission and a little further up the course of the Neosho, just outside the city limits. It is a large two-story dwelling, nestled back from the river highway among large native forest shade trees of elm, oak and walnut. It has wide halls and broad porches, and in the many large square rooms old-fashioned fire-places speak eloquently of the blazing fire logs of other days.
On May 6, 1905, the Judge and his wife celebrated the fifty-third anniversary of their marriage, which was an event of more than local interest, as over two hundred friends and relatives, some from various parts of the state, gathered to do honor to the noted couple. All the old-timers were there, and many historic incidents of early days were related. It was recalled that the finished lumber of this noted homestead, except the framing, which was of native oak, was brought from Leavenworth by ox wagons and cost, laid down, nearly $100 per thousand feet. For many years it was the finest and most complete residence that far west in Kansas, and even now is a model for comfort and utility. One of the interesting incidents of the day was the presentation of a handsome purse of gold to the Judge and his wife—the gift of old-time friends. The presentation was made by Hon. John Maloy, and many were visibly affected by his touching remarks. In substance he said:
“Judge and Mrs. Huffaker: This large throng of your old time-tried friends have congregated for the purpose of celebrating with you your fifty-third wedding anniversary. They have commissioned me to address to you words that may feebly convey the affection which one and all feel toward you both. If I fail, it shall not be due to lack of feeling or inclination to perform the task, but rather to the fact that having known you both for thirty-five years, and loved you—as these others have—that my emotions may break the leash and unman my resolutions. I am, indeed, deeply moved; for the red blood of friendship courses riotously in my veins. Fifty-three years ago today you both were young, and you took each other by the hand and went forth into a newer and more limitless world. You have had many joys; you have also had your sorrows. You have enjoyed children and friends, yet reverses and disappointments have at times come in to sup with you. Such is life’s heritage. But there is one thought that must come often to you—a thought far more sweet than language was ever made to express—and that is of duty well performed. And now, in the evening of your days, when ‘the years like birds have stooped to drink the brightness of your eyes and left their footprints on the margins,’ your friends are assembled to pay homage to two blameless lives. They bid me present you a golden coin for every year of your married life and in their name I present the same to you; and, in the name of one and all, I salute you. You have counted off fifty-three milestones of real human life together—twenty more than a generation. May your future years he crowned with happiness; may your lives glide by as gently as a night in spring, with the star of hope eternal above your heads, and when your frail and mortal barques shall leave their moorings on the shores of time, may they drift painlessly, joyously into the great twilight ocean of eternity—where you shall come into your own—is the ardent wish of all your friends.”
The Judge and his wife had celebrated five more years of married life when he passed away—one of Kansas’s interesting historic characters. “Aunt Eliza,” as she is affectionately known, is still living (1912), and is a lady of rare information on the early affairs of the Sunflower State.
Pages 1213-1216 from volume III, part 2 of Kansas: a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc. … / with a supplementary volume devoted to selected personal history and reminiscence. Standard Pub. Co. Chicago : 1912. 3 v. in 4. : front., ill., ports.; 28 cm. Vols. I-II edited by Frank W. Blackmar. Transcribed December 2002 by Carolyn Ward. This volume is identified at the Kansas State Historical Society as microfilm LM195. It is a two-part volume 3.
Eliza Ann Baker Huffaker was a daughter of Joshua Wells Baker and Agnes Miller Inghram. Joshua Baker was a blacksmith for the Sac and Fox in Iowa. Eliza’s brother, W.W. Baker, married Isabel Frances “Fanny” Hackney” on March 4 1849 in Wapello County, Iowa. Isabel was a daughter of William Hackney and Sarah Shannon. Though Isabel is not direct line, instead a sister of direct line, I find it often useful with family history to get a better picture when we know not only what was going on with family but with their relations. Thus I include Eliza’s obituary here.
Source: Terry Family Ancestors and relatives
Eliza Baker Huffaker Obituary Council Grove, Republican July 9, 1920
ELIZA ANN HUFFAKER Another Pioneer has passed into the valley of the shadow that ends in the golden morning of the life everlasting. A builder of the great blessed of God empire of the American West has gone to the reward that none other but the God of Love and mercy could justly judge and fully appreciate and apportion. Her life ended in the full harvest. Her historian must say that she fulfilled to the uttermost the obligations and accepted with grace and courage the great privileges of womanhood and motherhood in the finest, noblest sweetest sense. Facing the privations of pioneer life, she fulfilled the grandest duties a wife could do. A large family came to her and grew up under her watchful and prayerful care, to repay her love and bless her memory. Her life and influence and labor of love is interwoven in a remarkable way with a great commonwealth that was built in her time. A century has near spent itself since her birth in Carthage, Ill. , April 22, 1836. Her parents were Virginians and in the fall of 1835 started on the long tedious journey from their native state to pioneer their way in the new state of Iowa. Overtaken by a bitter winter at Carthage, Ill. They waited there for spring and during the temporary residence there, Eliza Ann was born. She came to Council Grove with a sister and brother in law in 1849, when she and the civilization were young. The following year Thomas Sears Huffaker, a young teacher sent by the Missionary Society of the M. E. Church South, to teach the Indian, came to Council Grove. The two young pioneers were united in marriage, May 5th, 1852. Thus was a new home established and thus began united labors of a good man and woman that have grown into harvest of blessing that no man can enumerate. The commonwealth of Kansas is great today for having had as its builders many of their kind. They were among the founders of the First M. E. Church South in Council Grove and active in church affairs. Their lives and influence were closely interwoven with the development and progress of the new community and reached out to the Commonwealth. For half a century this husband and wife labored together for their family and community. The husband passed from this life July 10th 1910, the widowed mother passed from this life July 5th in the room where almost three and a half score years ago she was wed. To this union ten children were born, of whom, six survive. They are Mrs. J. H. Simcock of East St. Louis, Mrs. L. A. Wismeyer of Fairfax, Okla., and Mrs. Anna Carpenter of Council Grove, Kansas, and Thomas Homer, George M., and Carl Ingram all of Fairfax, Okla. Sister Huffaker united with the M. E. Church, South, early in life and when the two branches of the Methodist church in Council Grove united, she came to membership in the M. E. Church. She was a Christian whose faith has been steadfast through all life’s journey. Her life was a blessing to those who came within her circle. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. Funeral services were held at the home of her daughter Mrs. Anna Carpenter, Wednesday afternoon at 3:30, Rev. Rucker officiating, burial in Greenwood Cemetery. A large number of old friends and neighbors were present and the floral offering was a most impressive tribute of deep affection of friendships that extend back many of them far beyond the half century mark. Info: Jeanne Turley, 10965 Bailey School Rd.,Festus, Mo. 63028 (1981) Jeanne says Agnes went to Kansas after Joshua died. Also dau., Eliza. Info: Jeanne Turley, 10965 Bailey School Rd.,Festus, Mo. 63028 (1981) Jeanne says Agnes went to Kansas after Joshua died. Also dau., Eliza.