DEWITT CLINTON KRONE
Independence Daily Reporter, Wednesday, April 27, 1921, Pg. 1:
A Pioneer of This County Answers Death’s Summons
HAD PARALYTIC STROKE
Mr. Krone Resided on Farm in Sycamore Township Fifty Years
A Useful Life
Death last night called Dewitt C. Krone, one of the best known men in Montgomery county, after he had suffered for a week from a stroke of paralysis. After being stricken on Wednesday of last week, he was conscious only a part of the time.
Funeral services for Mr. Krone will be held tomorrow afternoon at 2 o’clock from the First Methodist church with the pastor, Dr. H. A. Gordon, in charge. Burial will be in Mount Hope cemetery.
Was a Pioneer
December 4, 1868, D. C. Krone took his claim in Montgomery county. He came to Kansas the same year he left the army and stopped for three years near the Neosho river between LeRoy and Neosho Falls. He was from Macon county, Illinois, where his birth occurred April 17, 1844.
Mr. Krone acquired a country school education and grew to maturity on the farm. In 1862 he enlisted in Company E, Forty-first Illinois Infantry, under Col. I. C. Pugh, the regiment being attached to the Army of the Tennessee. The principle engagements participated in by Mr. Krone were the Red River expedition, Siege of Vicksburg, Bentonville, Cold Water and March to the Sea, and on to the Grand Review in Washington, D. C. He was discharged at Louisville, Kentucky, and was mustered out July 28, 1865. Returning home, his trip to Kansas was soon made and his connection with Kansas development took place.
Family Raised Here
In 1868 Mr. Krone married Margaret J. daughter of John S. Lobaugh of Neosho Falls. The Lobaughs came to Kansas as pioneers from the state of Pennsylvania. The union of Mr. Krone and his wife, Margaret J., produced the following children, viz: Naomi, wife of Jacob S. Corzine of Taylorville, Ill., Katherine M., Mrs. Mabel Burke of Whistler, Oklahoma, and Walter W. of Sycamore. The mother of these children passed away April 9, 1880. Mr. Krone married Mary I. White, a daughter of Capt. Charles White of Longton, Kas. Two daughters only, have resulted from this marriage, viz: Edith Lucile and Ruth. The family are all members of the Methodist church. Mr. Krone served nearly forty years as a member of the district board of the Krone school. In politics he was a staunch Republican and was three times chosen as a delegate to the state convention.
On One Farm 50 Years
When Mr. Krone came to this county he selected, as his future home, a tract of land on Sycamore creek in section 22, township 31, range 15, where for fifty years he carried on farming with its attendant auxiliaries successfully and effectively. A few months ago he sold his farm and moved to this city to retire. He was a fine Christian gentleman in the fullest sense of the word. He was a landmark in his community and the Sunday school picnic at Krone’s grove was for many years an event which drew people from every part of the county.
South Kansas Tribune, Wednesday, May 4, 1921, Pg. 1:
The death of DeWitt Clinton Krone, a widely known pioneer in Sycamore township, living on the farm which he took a claim among the Osage Indians in 1869, occurred in his new home in Independence, April 26, 1921.
He was an Illinoisan, reared in Macon county on a farm, and when the effort was made to destroy the Union he early volunteered under the call of Abraham Lincoln and served with credit until he was discharged.
Returning home, he wearied of its monotony and when Comrade Carmean suggested a trip to Kansas, “D.C.” was ready for the trip. During 1868 he with his brother-in-law Sam Walker pioneered to Sycamore valley, and each took a claim and by Jan. 1869 Mr. Krone pitched his tent on a claim in the fertile valley of Sycamore which he improved, entered and owned until his death.
Mr. Krone was enterprising, industrious, and public spirited, and with him and others a Sunday School was organized and in time a “circuit rider” came and held preaching services. When the county organized school district No. 43 it was named “Krone” because of “D.C.’s” activities, and for nearly forty years he was a member of the school board and his home was often the home of the teacher, as well as of the preacher.
In politics, he was outspoken, positive and had wide influence in public affairs.
During the winter of 1869 Mr. Krone and his brother-in-law found their way to their claims among the Osage Indians, and it became their home until the infirmities of age compelled a rest, but Mr. Krone’s was of but a few weeks. The fertility of the valley and the timber were attractive and a settlement was made early, and it became one of the choice and prosperous ones of the county and Independence and Neodesha their towns.
In political affairs Mr. Krone was a Republican, a prohibitionist and a stalwart man often serving in the councils of the party conventions. And he stood for the best school obtainable, not only for No. 43, but in the big contest for the County High School, as he had been for the court house, jail and railroads, and his home for school activities.
Last July when Mr. and Mrs. Krone decided to move to our city, the neighbors, fully a hundred of them from near and far, gathered and old and young made it a memorable occasion, as through his activities they were widely known, and their moving was considered a serious loss.
In pioneer days he cleared a fine grove in his pasture and for a generation it has been the annual Sunday School picnic pleasure grounds in Sycamore valley every August and that township has maintained generally larger Sunday Schools than any other in the county.
Mr. Krone is survived by his wife Mrs. Isabel White Krone, and daughter Mrs. Naomi Corzine of Taylorville, Ill., Miss Katherine Krone, Mrs. J. H. Burke, a son Walter Krone, Mrs. Lucille Evans and Mrs. Ruth Newmaster; also a sister Mrs. J. D. Stevens of Taylorville, Ill., Mrs. E. R. Taylor and brother E. K. Krone of this city, and Charles L. Krone of Chandler, Okla.
The funeral was held at the First Methodist church in this city of which Mr. Krone and wife had united and was in charge of the pastor Rev. H. A. Gordon, who began his ministry at Krone School house on his first circuit twenty years ago, and his home when in the valley was at the Krone home, and the minister spoke with much feeling of his departed friend, who had done so much for him when he was a young minister on his first circuit, and was much an assistance then and since in his ministry. Rev. A. A. Horner of Longton was also in the pulpit, and spoke feelingly of his friend Krone who had been so loyal to him in yester-years in his ministry on the Sycamore circuit, and his old neighbor friend, R. M. Pasley offered prayer. The attendance was very large and the largest attendance from Sycamore and Independence farmers of any ever in the church, and there was also a large attendance of the Grand Army, the W. R. C., and their associate members and the church was filled, and the service was peculiar in that Mr. Krone had been so intimately related to public affairs of the church, schools, and other public affairs.
From History of Montgomery County, Kansas, By Its Own People, Published by L. Wallace Duncan, Iola, Kansas, 1903, Pg. 286-288:
Krone, Dewitt C. Bio
A record of the pioneers of Montgomery county would be subject to just and severe criticism without some extended mention of D. C. Krone. He is so widely known in the county and has been here so long that few can gainsay that he was here, really in the beginning. When he drove his mule team from LeRoy, Kansas, down into this county, winding his way about over the prairies over unknown roadways; across nameless creeks and through untamed valleys and headlands, nobody here now witnesses his passing, save those who might have accompanied the caravan on the same mission with himself.
He selected, as his future home, a tract of land on Sycamore creek, in section 22, township 31, range 15, where he has, for thirty-four years, carried on farming with its attendant auxiliaries successfully and effectively. His settlement was almost in the midst of a band of Osages, whose chief, Nopawalla, was a frequent visitor to the households of the scattered settlers and with whose tribe a reluctant sort of business and social intercourse was carried on. The minutia which made up the yearly incidents of a life on this frontier can not be touched upon here and only as they are revealed in the experiences of the numerous pioneers mentioned in this volume will these incidents become known again to us and to our posterity.
The very composition and makeup of the man has maintained D. C. Krone a leading citizen of his township and county. It has been with no presumption on his part, or any disregard of the proper reserve, that his name is first mentioned among the citizenship of his township, or that he is coordinate with only a few distinguished pioneers of his county. He seemed designed to take the initiative in matters and the propriety of his acts was so apparent that, of one accord, the voice of neighborly approval came. Back. In the social life of his community, in its political entanglements or upheavals, in the cause of public education and in the religious atmosphere of his church he is unconsciously a power in the promotion of progress and harmony unimpeded.
He has anticipated, in a way, the needs of the future in the preservation of incidents of the past. A student of events himself, his genius has prompted him to make records and to preserve data concerning the salient, historical events of his locality that the past may not become obscured to the future and that the works of the pioneers shall not have been wrought in vain. He puts his thoughts readily and intelligibly on paper and his contributions to county papers contain much food for the searcher after historical truth.
December 4, 1868, D. C. Krone took his claim in Montgomery county. He came to Kansas the same year he left the army and stopped for three years near the Neosho river, between LeRoy and Neosho Falls. He was from Macon county, Illinois, whre his birth occurred April 17, 1814. His father, Daniel Krone, was born in York county, Pennsylvania, February 2, 1806, and took for a wife Sarah A. Kiester. He left his native state at an early day and settled in Macon county, Illinois, where his large family were brought up. He was a son of Michael Krone who had children: Jacob, Philo, Elijah, David, Jesse, Daniel, Tillie, Mary, Abigail and Hannah. Daniel married a daughter of Michael Kiester and was the father of twelve children, as follows: Dququesne H., who has resided in Montgomery county since 1877 and who was a veteran of the Civil War, belonging to Company E, Forty-first Illinois; Mrs. Mary Star, of Independence, Kansas; Mrs. Susan Bradshaw, deceased; Dewitt C., of this review; Jesse s., deceased; Ellis K., of Wilson county, Kansas; Mrs. Jennie Stevens, of Taylorville, Illinois; Henry C., deceased; Charles L., of Oklahoma; Edward B., of Chickasha, Indian Territory; and Mrs. Myrtle Taylor, of Independence, Kansas.
D. C. Krone acquired a country school education and grew to maturity on the farm. In 1862 he enlisted in Company E, Forty-first Illinois Infantry, under Col. I. C. Pugh, the regiment being attached to the Army of the Tennessee. The principal engagements participated in by Mr. Krone were the Red River expedition, Siege of Vicksburg, Bentonville, Cold Water and March to the Sea, and on to the Grand Review at Washington, D. C. He was discharged at Louisville, Kentucky, and was mustered out July 28, 1865. Returning home, his trip to Kansas was soon made and his connection with Kansas; development took place.
In 1868, Mr. Krone married Margaret J., daughter of John S. Lobaugh, of Neosho Falls. The Lobaughs came to Kansas as pioneers from the State of Pennsylvania. The union of Mr. Krone and his wife, Margaret J., produced the following children: Naomi, wife of Jacob S. Corzine, of Taylorville, Illinois; Katherine M.; Mrs. Mabel M. Burke, of Whistler, Oklahoma; and Walter W., of Neodesha, Kansas. The mother of these children passed away April 9, 1880. Mr. Krone married Mary I. White, a daughter of Capt. Charles White, of Longton, Kansas. Two daughters only have resulted from this marriage: Edith Lucile, and Ruth, both with the family home. The family are members of the Methodist church and Mr. Krone has served for thirty-two years as a member of the district board of the Krone school. In politics he is a Republican, and has been three times chosen as a delegate to the State convention.
Contributed by Mrs. Maryann Johnson a Civil war researcher and a volunteer in the Kansas Room of the Independence Public Library, Independence, Kansas.