Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 618 - 621

CASTLEREIGH SUMMERS, a representative pioneer of Sedgwick County, residing on section 34, Ninnescah Township, in the Ninnescah Valley, is a native of Henrietta County, Va., and was born May 15, 1819. He is the son of Samuel and Annie (Hall) Summers, the former of whom was born on the Atlantic Ocean while his parents were on their way from Germany to the United States, and the latter in Monroe County, Va.

            The paternal ancestors of our subject were of pure German stock and his mother was of Irish-English descent. The parents died in middle life, and their son Castlereigh was thus thrown upon his own resources in his early youth, being but nine years old when his remaining parent, his mother, passed away. He was then taken into the family of Jacob Hake, of Bedford County, Va., with whom he remained until reaching his sixteenth year. He then began an apprenticeship to the blacksmith trade under Willis Bradley, of Lynchburg, Va., with whom he remained until the year before reaching his majority.

            Young Summers when twenty years old began operating as a superintendent on the James River Canal, and followed this pursuit for eight years afterward, when he became a stock-dealer or drover, which he followed most of the time until making his way to the young State of Kansas. While a resident of the Old Dominion he had been married, Dec. 15, 1848, to Miss Agnes J. Tinsley, who was a native of Bedford County, and who by her union with our subject became the mother of five children, four now living. Their eldest daughter, Lucy, was born Dec. 6, 1850, and was married three times before her death, which took place when she was but thirty years of age; James F. was born Sept. 15, 1852, and is a resident of Spearfish, Dak.; Nancy E. was born April 30, 1854, and is now the wife of Bowen Smith, of Gardner City, Kan.; Sally C., born March 31, 1856, is the wife of Arthur H. Simms, of Wyandotte, and Elisha B., who was born July 12, 1859, is a resident of Mead County. Mrs. Agnes Summers departed this life at her home in Alleghany County, Va., on the 14th of February, 1861.

            Our subject, on the 2d of June, 1861, contracted a second marriage, with Miss Mary J. Bacon, who was born in Henrietta County, Va., May 25, 1837, and is the daughter of Samuel and Mary J. (Eddings) Bacon, the former deceased, and the latter a resident of Parkersburg, W. Va. Mr. and Mrs. Bacon were natives of Virginia and of English descent. Of this marriage of our subject there is one child only, a daughter, Ida M., who was born May 6, 1868, and is the wife of Joseph Smith, of Gardner City, this State.

            In 1868 Mr. Summers left his native State for Kansas and took up his residence first in Lancaster, Atchison County, where for two years he was engaged as a contractor in the construction of railroads. In 1870 he came to this county and pre-empted 160 acres of land, embracing a part of sections 27 and 34, and which comprises a portion of the best bottom land along the Ninnescah River. Upon this not a furrow had been turned, and there were consequently no improvements whatever, not even a house. Mr. Summers in addition to his other difficulties had but $20 in money upon his arrival here and with true pioneer courage set about the establishment of a home, prepared to endure the hardships and privations common to the people around him. He can hardly to this day explain how he succeeded in pulling though but the bare fact remains that he did so, and now enjoys as his reward the ownership of 120 acres of finely cultivated and valuable land, with first-class farm buildings, live stock and machinery and everything pertaining to the complete country homestead. With the prospect of a competence in his old age, he is sitting under his own vine and fig-tree, feeling that he has not lived in vain, and that he is entitled to the esteem and confidence of his fellow-citizens, which he certainly possesses in a marked degree. He is a member in good standing of the Baptist Church, in which he has been a Trustee since their edifice was erected. No man has taken a warmer interest in the growth and development of Ninnescah Township, of which he was one of the organizers, and was among the first regularly elected Trustees, the duties of which he discharged with credit to himself and satisfaction to all concerned. He is a stanch Democrat politically, and has served as Director in his school district for many years.

            A view of Mr. Summers' handsome residence and surroundings is given on another page; as will be seen it forms a most comfortable and attactive home.

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