Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 898 - 899

JAMES B. COCHRAN. In Butler County, Ohio, on the 17th of September, 1846, was born James B. Cochran, the son of William R. and Martha A. (Beatty) Cochran. He is now one of the leading and representative citizens of Salem Township, and is carrying on agricultural pursuits on section 18. His father was a native of Pennsylvania, of Irish descent, and his mother was probably born in Ohio, as her father, James Beatty, was an early settler in Butler County, that State.

            The subject of our sketch remained beneath the parental roof during his youth, and drew his excellent education from the schools of his native State. Early in life he was made acquainted with the theory and practice of agriculture, and has all of his days been employed in farming. He was reared to manhood amid the familiar scenes upon which he had first opened his eyes, and assisted his father in the work upon the old homestead until his marriage. This happy event, the most important in his life, took place in Franklin County, Ind., which adjoins Butler County, Ohio, on the west, Nov. 3, 1867. On that day he led to the altar Miss Celesta Jones, a native of Carroll County, Ohio, who was born Jan. 19, 1845. She is the daughter of Joseph and Leah (Hallam) Jones, both of whom were natives of the Keystone State. Her ancestry were, on her father's side Welsh, and on that of her mother, Holland-Dutch. By this marriage there have been sent four children to cheer the home of Mr. and Mrs. Cochran: Lucy O., whose birth occurred Aug. 17, 1868; Ada B., who was born April 23, 1870; Anson C., who made his appearance Oct. 19, 1874; and Leah H., the date of whose birth was Feb. 16, 1877.

            Mrs. Cochran is one of a family of eight children born to her parents, whose names are as follows: Lucretia, Mrs. John Dennett, living in Franklin County, Ind.; Melissa C., the wife of J. G. Carson, of White County, in the same State; Myra, Mrs. Thomas Turner, living in Barry County, Mo.; Ambrose L., a resident of Franklin County, Ind.; Druscilla, the wife of J. C. Garber, of Sumner County, Kan.; Lizzie, a resident of the latter county; Celesta, the wife of the subject of this sketch; and Freeman. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Cochran remained residents of the Buck-eye State until the latter part of the year 1885, when they removed to this county, and located on the farm where he resides in Salem Township. He has 160 acres of well-improved land, which is under cultivation and in a good state of tillage. He is active and enterprising, and the appearance of his place, which is very pleasing, manifests the care and taste of its owner.

            The family of Mr. Cochran have always occupied a very prominent place in his native State. Jeremiah Morrow, his great-uncle on his father's side, was the second Governor of Ohio, and was one of the original pioneers who settled at Marietta, in the latter part of the last century. William R. Cochran, the father of our subject, was Probate Judge of Butler County for one term, and Secretary of the Butler County Agricultural Society for sixteen years, of which latter association he is still a life member. He has also filled the offices of County Clerk and Justice of the Peace in that locality. He is now living in that section of Ohio, in his seventy-eighth year, one of the old pioneers of the Buckeye State who are still left to show the rising generation what men there were in the early days of the settlement of that commonwealth.

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