Pages 152-154, transcribed by Carolyn Ward from History of Allen and Woodson Counties, Kansas: embellished with portraits of well known people of these counties, with biographies of our representative citizens, cuts of public buildings and a map of each county / Edited and Compiled by L. Wallace Duncan and Chas. F. Scott. Iola Registers, Printers and Binders, Iola, Kan.: 1901; 894 p., [36] leaves of plates: ill., ports.; includes index.



 

152 cont'd HISTORY OF ALLEN AND  

WILLIAM T. DAUGHTERS.

WILLIAM T. DAUGHTERS—One of the most important families in eastern Allen County and admittedly useful and favorably known is that headed by the subject of this mention. Its founder came into the county in 1877 and located upon section 34, town 25, range 21, and, reared trained and educated his large family from there. He is an Indiana emigrant, having come from Dearborn County, that State, where he was born August 8, 1834. He is a son of James Daughters who settled in Dearborn County in 1824, at a time when the woods were so thick and heavy that he was compelled to blaze his way from his home to the settlements sixteen miles away. James Daughters died in Dearborn County in 1843 at the age of fifty-four years. He was born in Maryland in 1789 and was a sea captain on the Chesapeake and Atlantic in his early life. He was a son of

  WOODSON COUNTIES, KANSAS. 153

Hudson Daughters, born and reared on the eastern shore of Maryland. The latter was a Revolutionary soldier and was of English stock. His sons were: Gilbert Daughters, who reared a family in Ripley County, Indiana; Samuel Daughters, who spent his life in Maryland; Hiram Daughters, who reared a family in Mopport, La., Randolph Daughters, who left a family in Ripley, County, Indiana, and James, father of our subject.

James Daughters married Sarah, daughter of an Englishman, James Philips. Their children were: Kitturah, deceased, who married Joseph Collins and reared a family in Louisville, Kentucky; James Daughters, died in California in 1879; Franklin Daughters, who died in Dearborn County, Indiana; Elizabeth, wife of N. H. Tuck, of Dearborn County, Indiana; Andrew P. Daughters, physician at Moores Hill, Indiana; William T. and Sarah R., wife of John Welch, of California.

William T. Daughters came to manhood in the log cabin country of Indiana and his schooling was limited to about two months in the year. He became one of the sustainers of the family at an early age and there was no opportunity for mental drill after that. He went to work on the Ohio and Mississippi railroad in the shops at Cochran and later at Vincennes, Indiana, and learned the machinists trade. He became an engineer and pulled a train over all parts of the system for twenty years. He left the road in 1877 to come to Kansas.

March 1, 1858, Mr. Daughters was married to Elmira Heaton, daughter of Eben Heaton, who went from Green County, New York, into Dearborn County, Indiana in 1819. The latter was born August 20, 1797, and was a son of a farmer and married to Sarah Streeter, of New Jersey. She was born in May, 1801, and died, with her husband, in Dearborn County, Indiana. Their children were: Mary, deceased, married Reason Hines, William, deceased, married Eliza Dickinson; Thos., deceased, married Jane Stage; Julia A., widow of Henry Gaston; Philip, deceased, married Elizabeth Graves of Ripley County, Indiana, Eben, deceased, whose wife was Jane Lamberson; Richard, deceased, married Mary Cole; Freeman Heaton, of Seymour, Indiana, is married to Altha Hines; and Mrs. William T. Daughters.

Mr. and Mrs. Daughters' children are: Rosalin, wife of L. A. Stafford, of Bourbon County, Kansas; Eben J., an attorney of Cripple Creek, Colorado; Nelson, of Minnesota; Trena, wife of of L. A. Biebinger, of Des Moines, Iowa; Grant, a student in the Kansas City Medical College; Turpen A., rector at Colfax, Washington; Freeman R., rector in Wallace, Idaho; Elmira, wife of Grant Lowe, of Bourbon County, Kansas; Britania R., student in Nebraska University; Pearl, deceased; and Milo, a student in the University of Nebraska.

One especially good feature in the lives of Mr. and Mrs. Daughters is the spirit with which they have left nothing unturned to educate their children. Neither of them had the advantage of modern educational times and they have moved in the matter on the theory that an education is a resource that one can not be deprived of and that it would be worth more to their children than all things else. As fast as the children were competent they

154 HISTORY OF ALLEN AND  

engaged in teaching, and their parents look with pardonable pride, upon the fact that nine of them engaged in that useful and laudable calling. What is better still, they were not ordinary teachers but were among the most successful and intelligent of their county. The sons who are ministers are graduates of the Divinity School in Philadelphia and represent the Episcopal denomination.

Politics is something that has not disturbed Mr. Daughters greatly. His interest in elections is all that a citizen's should be but he has never seen any advantage to himself in spending his substance in the interest of local politicians. He is a Republican.


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