Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 563 - 564 

JOHN MENDENHALL, now of Wichita, was formerly a farmer and enjoyed more than ordinary success; he is now retired from active labor, and in the enjoyment of all the comforts and many of the luxuries of life. The main points of his history are as follows: A native of Greene County, Ohio, our subject was born on the 7th of September, 1839, and is the son of William and Susan (Caswell) Mendenhall; who were natives of the same county. The father, born in 1818, died in Waco Township, in this county, in 1881. He had in early manhood learned the trades of carpenter and brick-maker, which he followed until about 1878, and became one of the largest contractors of his native county. He set his face westward in 1854, and removed to Poweshiek County, Iowa, where he lived until coming to Kansas. In 1870, coming to this county, he homesteaded eighty acres of land in Payne Township, and brought it to an advanced state of cultivation. In 1877 he sold out, and purchased 315 acres of fine bottom land near Wichita, in Waco Township, where he made his home and spent the remainder of his days.

            The father of our subject was a Democrat, politically, and his religious sentiments were molded under the influence of the Society of Friends which surrounded his early years. His wife, the mother of our subject, was born Dec. 6, 1817, is still living, and makes her home with the latter in Wichita. She is the daughter of William and Nancy (Cantrell) Caswell, who were natives of Kentucky. Her father removed from the Blue Grass regions to Ohio in 1810, and died ten years later in Greene County. The mother was born in 1790, and surviving her husband nineteen years, died in Greene County, Ohio, on the 11th of September, 1839. She was a most excellent woman and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

            The parents of our subject were married in Xenia, Greene Co., Ohio, on the 25th of August, 1836. The parental household was completed by the birth of seven children, who are recorded as follows: Abigail became the wife of Addison Bone, who died while serving as a soldier in the Union army; she subsequently married Samuel H. Campbell, and is now living in Wichita. John, our subject, was the second child; Nancy died young; Andrew S. is a resident of Wichita; Rachel, the wife of George Hamer, lives in Poweshiek County, Iowa; Elizabeth A., Mrs. Robert Denbow, is a resident of Marshall County, Iowa; Silas H. is occupied as a brick-molder in Garden City, Kan.

            John Mendenhall preceded his father in the removal to Iowa by about four months, and homesteaded eighty acres adjoining the property of the latter. He labored in the cultivation of the soil there for two years, then took up 160 acres in Butler County, of which he retained ownership two years, then selling out, purchased 160 acres along the Cowskin Creek in Sedgwick County, upon which he lived four years. He then rented this farm and removed to Harper County, but two years later returned, and after another two-years residence on the Cowskin, sold out and purchased 100 acres north of the city limits of Wichita. Two years later he sold this property for the snug round sum of $16,000. He subsequently invested in more land, and is now the owner of 855 acres in this State, besides valuable city property in addition to his home. He has held the various local offices, serving as Township Trustee five terms in Payne and Waco Townships, and while in Butler County was also Township Clerk, Trustee, and Treasurer of the School Board.

            The wife of our subject, to whom he was married in Montezuma, Iowa, on the 20th of February, 1862, was in her girlhood Miss Emily Girard, also a native of Greene County, Ohio, and who was born June 18, 1843. She is the daughter of Isaac and Mary M. (Wikel) Girard, natives of Virginia, and both now deceased. They were excellent Christian people and members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Their family included fourteen children, namely: Loama R., William, Elizabeth, Joseph C., Isaac, Jane, Christiana, Phillip W., Catherine, Susan, Sarah, John, Emily and Stephen H. Of these thirteen are living.

            To Mr. and Mrs. Mendenhall there were born eight children, namely: John A., Lewis O., Alice M., Adelbert G., Stephen L., Ethel A., and two infants unnamed. Mr. Mendenhall takes little part in politics of late years, but has always been an active Republican, supporting the principles of his party with all the force of his convictions.

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