Pages 304-305, 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.



 

304 cont'd HISTORY OF ALLEN AND  

ADDISON SLEETH.

ADDISON SLEETH—The forefathers of the subject of this review were among the pioneers to America. They settled in the colony of Virginia and did their share in the establishment of a civilization, the highest and most progressing and enduring of the age. The paternal great grandfather of our subject, like most of the other colonists, had been taught to love liberty and justice, and when British tyranny and British encroachment became unbearable, and the colonies said they were, "and of right ought to be free and independent states," he enlisted in a Virginia regiment and served seven full years as ensign in our struggle for independence.

About the first of the 19th century a son of this soldier of "The American Revolution" settled in Ohio, where John Sleeth, our subject's father,

  WOODSON COUNTIES, KANSAS. 305

was born. When he was six years old the family again moved west, locating in Shelby County, Indiana, where he grew to manhood and married Rebecca Talbert, who was born in North Carolina and came with her parents to Indiana when a child. They were tillers of the soil, and brought up their children in the paths of sobriety and industry. Their children were seven in number and Addison, their second son, was born April 29, 1842. The mother died in Shelby County, Indiana, in 1883 at the age of sixty-five years, and the father died in 1889 at the age of seventy-four years. Their three sons and four daughters survive them and are still living.

Addison Sleeth spent his youth on a farm, attending the country schools during the fall and winter months, till he was eighteen years of age. Desiring the advantages of a higher education, he entered Asbury University at Greencastle, Indiana, but had been a student only a year when the Southern Rebellion threatened to overthrow the government. He enlisted in Company G, 52nd Indiana Volunteers, on the 28th of October, 1861, for three years. He then veteranized and served till the war closed. The regiment participated in a number of battles and skirmishes, beginning with the capture of Fort Donelson, in February, 1862, and ending with the capture of Mobile, in April, 1865. As a member of the regiment he traveled ten thousand miles during its forty-three months active service in the field. September 10th, 1865, his regiment was mustered out of the service at Montgomery, Alabama. The war over, Mr. Sleeth returned home and engaged in farming and teaching. He was married August 11, 1868, to Margaret Joyce and became a citizen of Allen County, Kansas, in the year 1874. In 1877 Mrs. Sleeth died leaving two children, Grace G. and John J. Sleeth. Both are well educated, the former having pursued some of the higher branches of learning, and the latter having completed a course in the Humboldt high school.

In 1878 Mr. Sleeth married his present wife, Phebe C., a daughter of S. M. and L. A. Partlow.

As a citizen of Kansas Mr. Sleeth is thoroughly representative and honorable. He goes through life without interference with the affairs of others and for thirty years has maintained himself blameless in the estimation of his fellow countrymen. In politics he is Republican and is a frequent attendant of county conventions in a delegate capacity.


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