Sewell K. Lovett

SEWELL K. LOVETT is a native Kansan and identified with the progressive farming, wheat growing and civic community around Larned. Mr. Lovett has a fine country home, supplied with all the conveniences, and his daily mail is furnished over rural route No. 3 out of Larned.

Mr. Lovett was born in Miami County, Kansas, December 1, 1879. His father, A. B. Lovett, was a well known and prominent resident of Pawnee County, Kansas, for many years. Grandfather Lovett was a miller in West Virginia and died when his son A. B. was about thirteen years of age. In the grandfather's family were the following children: Albert; Mort, who was wounded in one of the battles of the Civil war; Jerome; A. B.; and Olive, wife of J. M. Gasaway, a retired farmer at Independence, Kansas.

A. B. Lovett grew up in Hampshire County, West Virginia, and when seventeen years of age came to Miami County, Kansas, and made his home with his brother, who had preceded him to this state. He reached this state with not more than $5 cash capital. He lived with his brother, worked as a farm hand, and in time had a well improved farm of 240 acres and another quarter a mile south. A. B. Lovett in 1901 sold his property in Miami County and invested extensively in Pawnee County. Here he paid $30 an acre for a well improved farm, the northeast quarter of section 30, township 21, range 16. A few years later he acquired all the other quarters of that section, and eventually bought a quarter section just north of the old home, the southeast quarter of section 19, township 21, range 16. He had firm faith in the value and productiveness of this section of Western Kansas, and made final proof thereof in 1910 when he paid $55 an acre for the southeast quarter of section 20, township 21, range 16. He was a man of prominence in this community and died in the county January, 14, 1916, at the age of sixty-five.

The late A. B. Lovett married Sarah J. Allen, daughter of James and Rebecca Allen, of Miami County, Kansas. The Allen family originated in Kentucky, moved from there to Illinois, and came to Kansas when Sarah was four years of age. The Allen children were Frank, Bennie, Thomas and Sarah. Bennie and Thomas were both soldiers in the Civil war, one of them in the Federal army and the other in the Confederate, and neither of them ever returned home, giving up their lives for the respective causes that took them to the front. Mrs. Sarah Lovett died in Pawnee County in 1913, at the age of sixty years. A. B. Lovett was a democrat, but never an active politician. One of his chief interests in life was his membership in the Methodist Church, and all the family were reared in that faith. He was an Odd Fellow and a great worker in the Grange.

The family of A. B. Lovett and wife consisted of the following children: Myrtle, is the wife of William K. Heaton, a Pawnee County farmer, and their children are Clarence, Nellie, Florence, Hazel, William B. and Dorothy. Edgar J. Lovett is a farmer who still lives in Miami County, Kansas, and by his marriage to Electa Pittman has one child, Maurine. The next member of the family is Sewell K. B. A. Lovett, occupying the old farm in Pawnee County, married Myrtle Pelca, and has a son, Marvin. William R., a resident of Colorado, married Nannie Cline and has children named Edmona, Willena and Cecil. Florence, who died in 1909, was the wife of Frank Henderson and left a son, Albert. Clara is unmarried and teaching school at Larned, while Bruce, also unmarried, is in the life insurance business at Larned.

Sewell K. Lovett was educated in the common schools of Miami County. Most of his practical farming experience has been in Pawnee County. There were eight heirs to his father's rather extensive estate, and as there were only six quarter sections of land he paid the other heirs some difference in order to have the complete quarter section, the southeast quarter of section 30. Under his care and management this has been developed into a splendid farm, not only in the productiveness of its fields but in the character of its improvements. In 1916 Mr. Lovett built a splendid barn 40 by 50 feet, and has a good home of nine rooms. Both the house and barn are lighted by a private electric light plant installed on the premises. His chief success as a farmer is the growing of wheat. One year he raised thirty-five bushels to the acre on about fifteen acres. His banner crop was harvested in 1914, making 9,000 bushels. In the previous year his wheat had been destroyed by hail, and in June he and his oldest boy, then about six years of age, plowed and sowed 320 acres. The result of their efforts that season was the splendid crop of 1914, and aside from the labor supplied by the family it cost only an additional $10 for help in planting.

Mr. Lovett is a democrat in politics and cast his first vote for president in 1904. He is treasurer of the township, is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Grange and is very active in church and Sunday school in the First Methodist Episcopal Church at Larned. He is secretary of the Men's Baraca Class and his wife is also in close touch and sympathy with him in church affairs and a teacher of the Philitia Class of women.

Mr. Lovett married October 4, 1905, Etta Row, who was born in Pawnee County, Kansas, July 20, 1878, daughter of the pioneers I. D. and Lovina Row. Mrs. Lovett is a graduate of the Larned High School and of the Kansas State Normal at Emporia. To share in their attractive home and add to the completeness of its life and interests are three young children, Austin D., Harry Kline and Lowell Loraine.

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