After engaging in the hotel business on his own account Mr. Taber was married to Miss Sarah Elizabeth Wolcott near Mount Carroll, Illinois, November 30th, 1876. May 1st, 1877 he moved with his wife to Lanark, Illinois, and became associated with his father in the management of the Taber house at that place. In October he was attacked with hemorrhage of the lungs and was confined to the house until February 1878. On
February 13, 1878, he started for Kansas, accompanied by his wife and arrived at Pawnee Rock on the morning of the 16th. On the 21st day of the same month he filed homestead papers on the southwest quarter of section three, and timber-claimed the northwest quarter of section ten, both pieces being in township twenty, range twenty, Pawnee county, Kansas.

On the 4th day of April he and his wife moved out on the claim. June 3rd, 1878, he was commissioned postmaster at Lanark, Kansas, which position he held until August 18th, 1883.

On the 11th of July, 1883, Mr. Taber’s crops, feed, poultry, hogs, sheds, etc., were destroyed by a hail and wind storm. Discouraged with farming, he quit his claim and went east as far as Hutchinson to look up a location, but failing to find any pace he liked better than Pawnee county, returned to Larned, went out on the claim, sold out everything and went to Dodge City, where he remained about a week, when he returned to
Larned. After making a trip to Texas in company with Mr. James Curley he bought out C. Bower’s restaurant on Fifth street, and became a permanent resident of Larned in October 1883, when he resigned.May 7th, 1884,

Mr. Taber became associated with J. K. Bartoo in the coal and feed business. A few days after he became Mr. Bartoo’s partner the firm burned out, but they soon afterwards bought Mr. John Lund’s coal and feed yard and continued the business. In August Mr. Taber sold his interest in the coal and feed business to his partner, Mr. Bartoo, and retired. March 15, 1886, he bought Joe King’s livery barn and residence on the corner of Topeka avenue and Sixth street, but was again burned out February 4th, 1889, losing everything he had, including his home, which was mortgaged. In August 1890, he superintended the construction on the embankment around the Larned mineral Lake for Senator Rush, and in April, 1890, directed the work of taking the island out of the lake. April 1891, he was appointed and confirmed city assessor, and made such a good record that he was re-appointed and confirmed in 1892. He was sick at the time of his re-appointment and never got well enough to perform the duties of the office. After a lingering illness of about six months, brought on by an attack of the grip, Mr. Taber died Wednesday morning, June 15th, 1892, and was buried in Larned cemetery, Friday afternoon, the 17th, with Masonic honors, Larned Lodge, No. 176, A.F. & A.M, and B. F. Larned Post, G. A. R., turning out in a body, and a large number of citizens following the remains to their last resting place.

The deceased was the father of but one child, a son, who was born March 7th 1881, on the claim in the county, and died July 29th, 1883, at the Central hotel at Great Bend. He leaves a wife, a sister, a brother and a widowed mother to mourn his death.

Illness of Orange Freeman Taber