J. P. Rutherford, a prominent Butler county farmer and stockman, is a native of Virginia. He was born in Augusta county near Staunton, Va., in 1854, and is a son of James W. and Susan (Pitman) Rutherford, the former a native of Frederick county, and the latter of Shenandoah county, and both descendants of old Virginia families. They were the parents of ten children, eight of whom are living as follows: John, Mrs. Laura Keeler, and Minnie, all of whom reside in Clark county, Virginia, and Mrs. Jennie McIntyre, Wichita, Kans.; J. P., the subject of this sketch; William, farmer, Towanda township; Ashby, farmer, Spring township, and A. H., farmer, Douglass, Kans.

J. P. Rutherford received his education in the public schools of Virginia, and about the time he reached his majority, he went to Benton county, Indiana, where he remained four years. In 1876, he came to Butler county, Kansas, and located on a quarter section of section thirty-six, Towanda township. When he settled there, the place was raw, unbroken prairie. He engaged in farming and stock business, improved the place, and after living there twenty-five years, sold it, and in 1902 bought his present place of 273 acres in Augusta township, three miles northeast of Augusta. Here he has a well improved farm with a commodious and substantial residence and other farm buildings. He is extensively engaged in the stock business, and is a successful feeder. He is also one of the successful alfalfa raisers of Butler county, and has about 150 acres devoted to that crop.

Mr. Rutherford was married, in 1880, at El Dorado, Kans., to Miss

Izora Warner of Spring township, Butler county. Her parents were John and Filena (Bail) Warner, natives of Ohio, and pioneers of Butler county, who came here in 1866. To Mr. and Mrs. Rutherford have been born seven children, as follows: Fenton, lives at home; Reese, Oklahoma; Mrs. Daisy Carr, Augusta township; Jasper, Oklahoma; Mrs. Nora Collins, St. Louis, Mo.; Florence, and Charles, reside at home.

Mr. Rutherford has spent just forty years of his life in Butler county, and has seen many changes in that time. Butler county has been transformed from a barren waste to a populous and productive section, and has won a foremost place among the political subdivisions of the great State of Kansas, and the progress and development that has been made has not been brought about without persistent and patient toil on the part of such men as J. P. Rutherford.

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