Wednesday, December 16, 2015
Fred B. Van Huss
Fred was born in 1894, Parents: John Finley Van Huss and Josie E. (Brewer) Van Huss and
Siblings: Bula, Luva, Elmer E., and Lois O.. In 1927 he married Beulah M. Phillips in Chase County. They had two children: James and Robert.
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Worley - What's in a name?
What's in a name, in particular, the name 'Worley'?
The question arises because of my wife's family genealogy, in general her great great great grandfather Valentine Worley Van Huss, and in particular, her great great great grandmother Elizabeth Worley and her great great great great grandmother Catherine Worley.
Catherine Worley was the mother of Matthias Van Huss. Elizabeth Worley married Matthias. Surely the two Worleys are related, but how is unknown.
Matthias and Elizabeth had one child Valentine Worley Van Huss. When he was two years of age, his mother died. Matthias remarried to Lavinia Dugger and the couple had nine children, half brothers and sisters to Valentine.
Valentine would grow up and leave for Kansas with his sons to homestead in Butler County. They settled on one of the few places in Butler County that didn't have oil underground so they had to scrape by for a living.
What about the three Worleys, Elizabeth Worley (1798-1820) and Catherine Worley (1769-1795) and Jo Anne Worley, comedian on Laugh In, famous for her swirl and infectious laugh.
Add Catherine Worley here...
Elizabeth Worley was born in Wythe, Virginia, on 1798 to Valentine Worley and Anna Barbara Spraker. Valentine was born in Rowan, North Carolina, on 1772 to Michael Worley and Anna Reigher. Michael was born in Ontario, Canada on 1750 to Jacob Worley and mother unknown. Jacob hailed from Germany.
This genealogy is uncertain, especially Jacob Worley.
Jacob has an alternate spelling of his last name as Werle and he was from Alsace, Germany. Others trace the Worley name to Lancashire, England and further back to Normandy, and eventually the Vikings who settled in Normandy, but this is speculation.
What is in a name? Don't we each make a name for ourselves? Or as the Bible says in Genesis 11:4,
But then again, we know how that turned out.
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| Jo Anne Worley, Laugh In, 1969 |
The question arises because of my wife's family genealogy, in general her great great great grandfather Valentine Worley Van Huss, and in particular, her great great great grandmother Elizabeth Worley and her great great great great grandmother Catherine Worley.
Worley - English: possibly a place name, either from a variant spelling of Wortley, in which case a town near Sheffield; or alternatively in Essex and Somerset called Warley, from Old English weir 'a low level dam for fishing' + leah ‘a clearing in the woods’; or from Warley in West Midlands, from Old English weorf ‘draft oxen’ + leah.
Werle (Verle) – German: a shorten version of Werner, or Verner (Scandanavian) derived from warin from a military word meaning 'guard' or 'vanguard'.
Werle (or Wenden) - a fiefdom, Herrschaft, roughly the same as a barony, in the Holy Roman Empire founded in 1235.
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| Vanguard comic first issue, or alternate source for the name Worley, Werner |
Catherine Worley was the mother of Matthias Van Huss. Elizabeth Worley married Matthias. Surely the two Worleys are related, but how is unknown.
Matthias and Elizabeth had one child Valentine Worley Van Huss. When he was two years of age, his mother died. Matthias remarried to Lavinia Dugger and the couple had nine children, half brothers and sisters to Valentine.
Valentine would grow up and leave for Kansas with his sons to homestead in Butler County. They settled on one of the few places in Butler County that didn't have oil underground so they had to scrape by for a living.
What about the three Worleys, Elizabeth Worley (1798-1820) and Catherine Worley (1769-1795) and Jo Anne Worley, comedian on Laugh In, famous for her swirl and infectious laugh.
Add Catherine Worley here...
Elizabeth Worley was born in Wythe, Virginia, on 1798 to Valentine Worley and Anna Barbara Spraker. Valentine was born in Rowan, North Carolina, on 1772 to Michael Worley and Anna Reigher. Michael was born in Ontario, Canada on 1750 to Jacob Worley and mother unknown. Jacob hailed from Germany.
This genealogy is uncertain, especially Jacob Worley.
Jacob has an alternate spelling of his last name as Werle and he was from Alsace, Germany. Others trace the Worley name to Lancashire, England and further back to Normandy, and eventually the Vikings who settled in Normandy, but this is speculation.
What is in a name? Don't we each make a name for ourselves? Or as the Bible says in Genesis 11:4,
"Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth."
But then again, we know how that turned out.
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Dr. William James Phillips
Dr. William James Phillips was a rural doctor and surgeon for the Frisco Railroad in Beaumont, Kansas. In 1885 he came to Kansas, moved to Beaumont in 1895 and lived there until his death in 1929.
This article is based primarily on the two sources mentioned.
[Dr. William James Phillips' daughter Beulah married Fred Van Huss, and so is the maternal grandfather of Robert Van Huss, my father-in-law.]
The country doctor of the 1880’s and 90’s was a general
practitioner delivering babies, setting broken bones, pulling teeth, tending snake
bites, and wounds from gun shots and farm equipment. The country doctor might
live on his own farm to make ends meet, and so would travel by horse or buggy
to treat patients in outlying farms. They likely delivered every child within
miles, and sat with the dying as they left this world for a better place, and
these happenings often required a doctor to get up in the middle of the night
to attend his patient. As cash was short on the prairie, the pay for a doctor
might be a basket of eggs, a bushel of corn, or a side of beef.
WILLIAM JAMES PHILLIPS, M. D.
[source: http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/archives/1918ks/biop/philliwj.html]
The Phillips family originated in Wales. William James Phillips' paternal grandmother was Irish, coming to America at the age of nine. This paternal side of the Phillips’ family came to America in colonial years, later moving west to Ohio, then Iowa, and finally, with William James Phillips to Kansas.
William James Phillips (1856-1929) was born in Washington County, Iowa on October 2, 1856. He was the second son of George Phillips and Susanna (Deen) Phillips.
William grew up near Iowa City. He attended public schools and an academy. In 1874, at the age of 18, William spent 15 months working on a farm along the Little Blue River near Washington, Kansas, (north of Manhattan and Clay Center and west of Marysville).
Six years previous, Cheyenne and Arapahoe had made a raid in the county. Four years previous, the Kansas Pacific Railroad completed its line along the Smoky Hill River from Kansas City to Denver. Buffalo still roamed western Kansas.
http://www.kancoll.org/books/cutler/washington/washington-co-p1.html
In 1885 William graduated from the College of Medicine, State University of Iowa. [Announcement of the College of Medicine, the State University of Iowa, 1885-1886,
https://archive.org/details/announcementof8586stat.] After graduation, Dr. Phillips settled in LaCrosse, Kansas to practice medicine, marrying the same year Maggie Z. Redman (1867-1958), (daughter of A. J. and Mary (Wright) Redman).
In 1895 the couple moved to Butler County and Beaumont where Dr. Phillips worked as surgeon for the Frisco Railroad. They bought a 130 acre farm at the southwest edge of town.
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| Page 32, 1905 Butler County Atlas, Glencoe Township |
Dr. Phillips served as town clerk. He operated a drug store and acted as pharmacist. He was a Republican, and a member of Beaumont Lodge No. 465, Ancient Order United Workmen.
The Phillips family grew to eleven sons and daughters.
Clarence M. farmed 3 1/2 miles southwest of Beaumont; Hubert W. worked as a brakeman with the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway and lived at Biggar in Saskatchewan, Canada; Edith Fern was the wife of A. L. Milliken, station agent for the Frisco Railway at Altamont, Kansas; George A. drove an auto stage at Brawley, California; Pauline, the fifth child, died at three years of age; Helen M. is the wife of J. H. Nichols, an express messenger in Wichita; Beulah M. was a school teacher and would marry Fred Van Huss; as of 1918, Paul W. was attending a school of automobile instruction at Wichita and the three youngest Alwilda, Wendell and Ruth, were attending public schools in Beaumont.
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| Beaumont Cemetery, William J. Phillips and Margaret Z. Phillips |
William died in 1929 at Beaumont and is buried in the Beaumont Cemetery just north of Highway 400. His wife Maggie died in 1958 and is buried next to him.
George Phillips
William's father, George Phillips (1814-1873), was born in Ohio on February 10, 1814. He was an early pioneer of Washington County, Iowa and died in Daytonville, Iowa on February 6, 1873. His career included farming, general store and hotel owner. He was a member of the Methodist Church and served both as steward and trustee. In politics he was an active republican.
[I find nothing of the family history of the Phillips before George.]
George Phillips married three times. He first married Elizabeth Deen, a native of Ohio. She died in Illinois and was the mother of ten children.
His second wife Susanna Deen (1831-1856) was a half-sister of his first wife. She died at Daytonville, Iowa, October 9, 1856, one week after the birth of William J. Phillips. She had one other child, W. S..
George Phillips married his third wife Judith R. Downing. Her only child, Thomas A. L., died at seventeen months.
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Brownlow Cemetery, Butler County, Kansas
The name Brownlow is a mystery, but there is a clue in a short bio of Hickory Township by J.O. Evertson, in Mooney's History of Butler County, Kansas.
Among the next arrivals [in Hickory] were J. A. Armstrong, who bought out Mr. Myers, and established a general store at Old Brownlow.Id. page 160.
Brownlow cemetery lies on a bluff between Hickory and Honey Creeks. It is a bit tricky to get there and the turn off of 135th street is not marked. Take Highway 400 east of Augusta and Leon until you come to Munson Hill Road. Turn south on the gravel and make your way to 132nd street. Turn left on 132nd street and then right on Grove Road, a quick right on Hickory Road. The cemetery is off to the left.
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| Brownlow Cemetery, googleMaps |
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| Brownlow Cemetery |
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| Brownlow Cemetery, looking east |
Brewer Family
Include are the Brewer family that arrived in 1881. James Madison Brewer and Margaret Faubion Brewer came to Kansas by way of Allentown, Missouri, where they had lived 20 years; and they settled not far from Latham, Kansas.
When they came to Butler County (Kansas)-they came in covered wagons--three families together: Mary Jane & Joseph T Wright, Margaret & James BREWER, and Hephzibah "Aunt Hippy" & Mathew Hightower. The Hightower's son Otto took sick on the way, and they camped at Eureka (Greenwood County, KS) with him for 'quite a while.' The other families stayed with them for about a week before moving on. Otto died and was buried in Eureka Cemetery before the Hightower's wagon left camp to join the others in Butler County.
Brewer family history.
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| Wright family, Brownlow Cemetery |
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| Brewer family, Brownlow Cemetery |
In 1873 Paul and Sarah Sensenbaugh settled in Hickory Township, Butler County. Their son Henry was included in Mooney's History of Butler County at page 833.
He located on 160 acres of land and after getting four ponies, one of which was a spotted one, he proceeded to break his prairie land. His outfit might have seemed more appropriate in a circus parade, but he succeeded in tilling the soil and raising a crop with them. He also used oxen in the early days and frequently drove to dances with his ox team outfit. ...
Miles, Charles Dallas
Brownlow Cemetery is also the resting place of Major Charles (Charlie) Miles (1921-2001) who served during World War II in China.
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| Major Charles (Charlie) Dallas Miles |
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| Charles Dallas Miles, 1921-2001 |
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Beaumont 1905
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| Beaumont, Kansas from the Kansas Atlas of 1905 |
John Finley Van Huss (born 1859, Elizabethton, Tennessee) is the great grandfather of Robert Van Huss. He settled in Butler County in 1885, purchasing a claim near his brothers in Glencoe Township for 160 acres from the Osage Trust. This deed is found in the Register of Deeds office in the county courthouse in El Dorado, Kansas.
On June 4th, 1903, John Finley Van Huss purchased four lots in Beaumont by tax deed. The deeds are for lot 2, block 5 of Cooper's Addition; and for lots 6 and 7 of block 5 of Summit, and lot 10 of block 6 of Summit.
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| Beaumont 1905 Kansas Atlas |
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| Latham Kansas 1905 |
Van Huss
Approaching Beaumont, Kansas from the west on Highway 400, just before you get to Beaumont, look to the left and there sits 480 acres of land (or is it 640 acres?) which once belonged to four or five brothers with the last name Van Huss. I say four or five because I am uncertain of the property records found in the county courthouse in El Dorado. The claims are there, reflecting the purchase of land from the Osage Indian Trust, but the deeds were filed over several years, and there was a little give and take between brothers.
This land is pasturage, lying as it does at the top of the Flint Hills between Butler and Greenwood counties. The Google Map of the property shows the beginnings of a creek that eventually becomes the Little Walnut River.
One can walk the land and find a stone foundation for a house long gone. Near by stands an iron pump made in Rockford Illinois.
In the early days of my marriage, my wife's family would make numerous Sunday outings to Beaumont. We traveled by car from Wichita, heading east past Augusta, then Leon, and out into the treeless Flint Hills. Today, the trip takes perhaps 40 minutes, and in Beaumont, you can enjoy the serenity of the Flint Hills and good food at the historic Beaumont Hotel.
In olden days, we went on the Sunday before Memorial Day. First, there was a visit to the Beaumont Cemetery and the family graves. Then we enjoyed a softball game in Bob's front yard - Bob owned two houses on Main Street. Occasionally, we made a short fishing trip to the local pond where the fish never seemed to bite.
In Beaumont, my wife's father, Robert (Bob) Van Huss kept two homes. They were not grand homes, Beaumont has few of those, but they were sturdy, attesting to the values of the early settlers. Among those early settlers were Bob's father and grandfather who arrived by covered wagon and horse in the 1870's.
Bob proudly mentioned that his grandfather on his mother's side, Dr. James W. Phillips, was the doctor for Beaumont and the Frisco Railroad, which made Beaumont a hub. He also spoke of the farm that his father's father once had off to the south and east of Beaumont. But never did I hear him speak of land to the north of Beaumont. So, what am I to think of this Butler County Atlas of 1885, which identifies a Van Huss owning 480 acres.
The property is pasture land today. The land drains from the south and north into a creek which crosses the land to the west, eventually forming the Little Walnut River near Leon, Kansas. A dike at the west end of the property forms a lake that centers on Summit Road.
I parked the car just off Highway 400 and on Summit Road, just before one gets to the lake. I took the dogs Sammy, a German Shepherd, and Tobie, a Australian Shepherd and Mountain Cur mix, on a walk. The cattle were gone, but they had left reminders of their presence. We headed east avoiding the cow droppings early settlers prized when their was no wood to be found. One can follow the shallow creek bed or head out into the field which still contains chert here and there. It is the chert, which settler called "flint" that gives the area its name, the Flint Hills.
On the south side of the creek is an old pump and the stone outline of the foundation of a building. Perhaps, it is the house of old man Van Huss and his family.
Notes.
1. If you examine the map for Glencoe Township, you will notice the initials "J.W.P" which in all certainty stand for James William Phillips.
2. The pump is made by Ward of Rockford, Illinois. I can't seem to find out much information on the pump other than a listing for "Ward Pump Co. Manufacturers of Iron Pumps and Cylinders. Frank Ward, President. Frank Lane, Secretary" from a map of Rockford, Illinois, 1891.
Now I need to go back to the Register of Deeds Office in El Dorado, Kansas amd search the title records for this property.
This land is pasturage, lying as it does at the top of the Flint Hills between Butler and Greenwood counties. The Google Map of the property shows the beginnings of a creek that eventually becomes the Little Walnut River.
One can walk the land and find a stone foundation for a house long gone. Near by stands an iron pump made in Rockford Illinois.
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| Google Map Glencoe Township |
In the early days of my marriage, my wife's family would make numerous Sunday outings to Beaumont. We traveled by car from Wichita, heading east past Augusta, then Leon, and out into the treeless Flint Hills. Today, the trip takes perhaps 40 minutes, and in Beaumont, you can enjoy the serenity of the Flint Hills and good food at the historic Beaumont Hotel.
In olden days, we went on the Sunday before Memorial Day. First, there was a visit to the Beaumont Cemetery and the family graves. Then we enjoyed a softball game in Bob's front yard - Bob owned two houses on Main Street. Occasionally, we made a short fishing trip to the local pond where the fish never seemed to bite.
In Beaumont, my wife's father, Robert (Bob) Van Huss kept two homes. They were not grand homes, Beaumont has few of those, but they were sturdy, attesting to the values of the early settlers. Among those early settlers were Bob's father and grandfather who arrived by covered wagon and horse in the 1870's.
Bob proudly mentioned that his grandfather on his mother's side, Dr. James W. Phillips, was the doctor for Beaumont and the Frisco Railroad, which made Beaumont a hub. He also spoke of the farm that his father's father once had off to the south and east of Beaumont. But never did I hear him speak of land to the north of Beaumont. So, what am I to think of this Butler County Atlas of 1885, which identifies a Van Huss owning 480 acres.
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| Detail of Kansas Atlas, 1885, Butler County, southeast corner of Glencoe Township |
The property is pasture land today. The land drains from the south and north into a creek which crosses the land to the west, eventually forming the Little Walnut River near Leon, Kansas. A dike at the west end of the property forms a lake that centers on Summit Road.
I parked the car just off Highway 400 and on Summit Road, just before one gets to the lake. I took the dogs Sammy, a German Shepherd, and Tobie, a Australian Shepherd and Mountain Cur mix, on a walk. The cattle were gone, but they had left reminders of their presence. We headed east avoiding the cow droppings early settlers prized when their was no wood to be found. One can follow the shallow creek bed or head out into the field which still contains chert here and there. It is the chert, which settler called "flint" that gives the area its name, the Flint Hills.
On the south side of the creek is an old pump and the stone outline of the foundation of a building. Perhaps, it is the house of old man Van Huss and his family.
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| Looking east toward Beaumont, property of old man Van Huss |
Notes.
1. If you examine the map for Glencoe Township, you will notice the initials "J.W.P" which in all certainty stand for James William Phillips.
2. The pump is made by Ward of Rockford, Illinois. I can't seem to find out much information on the pump other than a listing for "Ward Pump Co. Manufacturers of Iron Pumps and Cylinders. Frank Ward, President. Frank Lane, Secretary" from a map of Rockford, Illinois, 1891.
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| Ward Pump, Rockford Illinois |
Beaumont Cemetery
Beaumont cemetery is one of two cemeteries in Beaumont, Kansas. It lies at the northeast corner of the city on the north side of Highway 400. The cemetery is perhaps an acre in size. It is the resting place for almost 200 souls. (Beverly Horner has recorded the names of 194 individuals in the Beaumont Cemetery. See Interment.net.)
The cemetery serves the pioneer families who settled Butler County near the headwaters of the Little Walnut River. This includes the townships of Glencoe and Hickory and the city of Beaumont. Included in those families are the ancestors of Robert and James Van Huss and their extended families. Other families include the Phillips, Edgars, Ferrells, Wassons, Northingtons, Axtells, Burrises, and Robinsons, to name but a few.
The date of the cemetery's opening is unknown, but early tombstones include Elizabeth Wails (died January 8, 1887, age 56, 4 months, 21 days) and Thomas Wails, (died December 17, 1887, age 59, 4 days). *
Settlement of Butler County and the Walnut River Valley began as early as the 1850's, but title to land was always uncertain until the final removal of the Osage and other tribes, which did not take place until the early 1870's. ** The historic Beaumont Hotel was built in 1879, and previous to that the location served as a stagecoach stop for the route between Fredonia and Wichita, Kansas. The post office came to Beaumont in 1880. And in 1885, the Frisco railroad come to town, connecting St. Louis to the east and Wichita to the west. Beaumont served as a refueling and service center. Its location at the top of the climb though the Flint Hills and Greenwood County making it ideal.
If cemeteries could speak they would reveal countless tales of heartbreak and sadness. For instance, there is the headstone of Orville and Mary Northington. Orville lived from 1889 until 1969. His wife Mary Kellie from 1890 until 1967. Next to their beautiful granite headstone are three well-preserved concrete headstones marking the deaths of Clara Northington, born May 15, 1934, died May 19, 1934; Irene, born November 25, 1931, died July 22, 1934, and; Oliver, born September 1930, died January 1932. Their stories are lost to time, but it is well to remember that Kansas in the 1930's was a decade of drought and dust storms.
*William Thomas Wails had at least one daughter, Mary Ann Wails (1883 - 1962). She was born in Beaumont, Kansas, USA on 1883 to William Thomas Wails and Lettie Jane Mead. Mary Ann married John Oscar Strader and had 8 children. Ancestry.com.
** The Osage Indian settlements in southeast Kansas were primarily in Montgomery County, near present day Independence. However, the Osage Indians crossed Butler county in a well marked trail on their way to hunt the plains buffalo. Read more about the Indian Reserves in Kansas.
The cemetery serves the pioneer families who settled Butler County near the headwaters of the Little Walnut River. This includes the townships of Glencoe and Hickory and the city of Beaumont. Included in those families are the ancestors of Robert and James Van Huss and their extended families. Other families include the Phillips, Edgars, Ferrells, Wassons, Northingtons, Axtells, Burrises, and Robinsons, to name but a few.
The date of the cemetery's opening is unknown, but early tombstones include Elizabeth Wails (died January 8, 1887, age 56, 4 months, 21 days) and Thomas Wails, (died December 17, 1887, age 59, 4 days). *
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| Thomas Wails, Beaumont Cemetery, died 1887 |
Settlement of Butler County and the Walnut River Valley began as early as the 1850's, but title to land was always uncertain until the final removal of the Osage and other tribes, which did not take place until the early 1870's. ** The historic Beaumont Hotel was built in 1879, and previous to that the location served as a stagecoach stop for the route between Fredonia and Wichita, Kansas. The post office came to Beaumont in 1880. And in 1885, the Frisco railroad come to town, connecting St. Louis to the east and Wichita to the west. Beaumont served as a refueling and service center. Its location at the top of the climb though the Flint Hills and Greenwood County making it ideal.
If cemeteries could speak they would reveal countless tales of heartbreak and sadness. For instance, there is the headstone of Orville and Mary Northington. Orville lived from 1889 until 1969. His wife Mary Kellie from 1890 until 1967. Next to their beautiful granite headstone are three well-preserved concrete headstones marking the deaths of Clara Northington, born May 15, 1934, died May 19, 1934; Irene, born November 25, 1931, died July 22, 1934, and; Oliver, born September 1930, died January 1932. Their stories are lost to time, but it is well to remember that Kansas in the 1930's was a decade of drought and dust storms.
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| Clara, Irene, and Oliver Northington, Beaumont Cemetery |
*William Thomas Wails had at least one daughter, Mary Ann Wails (1883 - 1962). She was born in Beaumont, Kansas, USA on 1883 to William Thomas Wails and Lettie Jane Mead. Mary Ann married John Oscar Strader and had 8 children. Ancestry.com.
** The Osage Indian settlements in southeast Kansas were primarily in Montgomery County, near present day Independence. However, the Osage Indians crossed Butler county in a well marked trail on their way to hunt the plains buffalo. Read more about the Indian Reserves in Kansas.
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