History of Atchison County, Kansas

by Sheffield Ingalls

On Thanksgiving day of 1915, just the day before Mr. and Mrs. Morrow’s forty-first wedding anniversary, the captain’s last illness began which resulted in his passing away. His burial occurred on December 4 from Trinity Episcopal Church, Rev. Otis E. Gray officiating, with the Masonic lodge of Atchison conducting burial service at the grave. He was for many years a Mason and was greatly interested in the Masonic fraternity, rarely being absent from the lodge meetings, his last spoken regret having been that he would be unable to attend the ceremonies held at the laying of the cornerstone of the new Masonic Temple in Atchison. The last five years of Captain Morrow’s life were perhaps the most satisfactory and the happiest of his existence. His years of retirement, although few as compared with that of most men, were spent almost entirely at his beautiful home, with occasional visits to his farm lands. He was loath to retire, and did so only at the urgent insistence of his devoted wife, and for quite a long time after he was eighty years of age he would insist on driving across the river to his farm. He took the greatest pleasure with his grandchildren, and especially with his namesake. In his later years he became a specialist in gardening and fruit growing merely for his own satisfaction and would frequently surprise his family with some very choice and rare fruits grown in his gardens and orchards. From his orchard of peach trees he gathered over 400 bushels of peaches in one season, and also set out an apple orchard which he attended assiduously. He became a disciple of the famous Luther Burbank and was a member of the Luther Burbank corporation. Through the exercise of his skill as a fruit grower be produced several kinds of rare berries and was continually experimenting in small fruits and vegetable growing. It was fitting that the life of Captain Morrow should close in such a manner and that during his last years he was permitted to indulge himself in his favorite pursuits, surrounded with the loving and watchful career of his devoted wife, who was always his confidant and adviser, and to whom he went in time of stress or trouble for comfort and advice. His was a life well spent and his memory will live long in the hearts and minds of those who knew him best.

ORLANDO C. SCOVILLE.

In the northeast part of Benton township, in a comfortable farm home on section 11, range 18, there resides the oldest pioneer settler of that section of the county, the review of whose career takes one back to the days of the Civil war when he shouldered a musket in defense of the Union, and to the early days of Kansas history when the long freight trains hauled by oxen and mules were leaving Atchison for the far West. We are reminded of the Indian troubles which beset the hardy freighters as they convoyed their treasures across the wide reaches of prairie and mountain. In all these things Orlando C. Scoville, Union veteran, old-time freighter, and pioneer farmer, participated, and it is meet that the story of his life and adventurous career be recorded for the entertainment of succeeding generations of men and women in order that they might know how a wilderness was redeemed and what manner of men their forefathers were and whence they came.

Orlando C. Scoville was born February 4, 1846, in Cook county, Illinois, on a farm located just twenty-two miles from the city of Chicago. His father was William Scoville, born in 1820, at Watertown, N. Y., a son of Abijah Scoville, a native of Connecticut, and a scion of an old New England family. Abijah Scoville was a carpenter by trade and his art was transmitted to his descendants. William Scoville received a good education in his native State, and taught school in New York when a young man seventeen years old. As early as 1842 he came west, to Cook county, Illinois, and owned a farm in that county which he cultivated until 1865 when he came to Atchison, Kan., where he first engaged in the handling of live stock. Later he was in the lumber business with a Mr. McCoy, who later sold out to Henry T. Smith, and he and Smith conducted a wagon and lumber business on Utah avenue, just east of the old Episcopal church, between Fourth and Fifth streets. William eventually sold out his business and moved to a farm in Benton township, south of where his son, O. C., lives, and there died in December, 1891. Previous to removing to his farm he was foreman of the Hixon Lumber Company’s interests in Atchison. The mother of Orlando C. was Lucinda Lasher, whom William Scoville married in New York, and who removed to Arrington after her husband’s death, and there died in November, 1893, at the age of seventy-five years. William and Lucinda Scoville were the parents of seven children, two of whom died in infancy: Imogene, wife of A. W. Mulligan, of Blue Rapids, Kan.; Orlando C.; Eulalie, died in Atchison in 1866, and is buried in Oak Hill cemetery; Freeman, a railroad engineer for many years, and who died at Arrington, in 1911; Giles, a successful law practitioner, located in Chicago, and who studied law under the late Senator John J. Ingalls.

O. C. Scoville was reared to young manhood on the farm in Cook county, Illinois, and when eighteen years of age enlisted (1864) in Company B, One Hundred and Thirty-second regiment, Illinois infantry. He served for six months in the Army of the Tennessee, under General Thomas, and took part in the several hard-fought battles, among them being the battle and siege of Atlanta. His command started on the march with Sherman, to the sea, but were turned back by department orders. After his war service expired he came to Atchison and joined the family. His first occupation in Atchison was the operating of a wagon shop, just across the street from the Blair Mill, and it is a matter of history that his shop was used as the first depot of the Central Branch railroad, then building. He ran the wagon shop for two years and then made two trips across the continent in the capacity of freighter and convoying a herd of cattle. In 1867 he was one of the freighters in charge of the first train sent over the Smoky Hill route for Butterfield to Denver. The live stock was run off by the Indians during this trip, and Butterfield came out and found them after four weeks’ search; his next trip was to Salt Lake City. In 1868, he with others, drove a herd of milch cows which had been sold by McCoy to a man named Murray, and consigned to him in California. This trip required eighteen months to consummate, and they were forced to winter in the Antelope valley on Walker river. After taking the cattle to their destination he returned across the mountains to Reno, Nev., and there boarded the train for the rest of the journey home, Reno at that time being the western terminus of the railway. During 1869 he worked for one year in the engineering corps of the Santa Fe railroad, and in that winter his father bought his present farm in Benton township. In the fall of 1872 he moved to the farm where he has resided continuously for the past forty-three years. In 1893 he bought the farm formerly owned by the family and has increased his acreage until he and his son are the owners of 400 acres of land, the latter owning 180 acres, upon which formerly stood three sets of farm buildings, one of which was destroyed by fire in April, 1915. His present residence was erected in 1893.

Mr. Scoville was married in Atchison May 8, 1873, to Virginia Williams, born in Greenbrier county, Virginia, in 1854, and a daughter of Alexander Williams. Her father died when she was very young and she came with her mother and stepfather to Missouri in the early pioneer days when her mother died and she was adopted by Mrs. Miller, a music teacher, of Atchison, Kan. Three children were born to this union, namely: Katie died in infancy; William C., born August 10, 1875, married Myrtle Lollar, and has two children, Earl, born December 13, 1911, and Alice, born May 16, 1914. William C. is the only living son of Orlando C. Scoville. Mrs. Scoville died in October, 1913.

This sturdy pioneer has been a Republican ever since he cast his first vote, and is one of the true blue variety who prides himself on being a “stand-patter,” who believes thoroughly in the principles of his party and will never desert the standard of Republicanism. He has never held office and has never been a seeker after political preferment; has never been a party to a law suit, never served on a jury, and has been called only once in his lifetime to the witness stand. He has endeavored at all times to live at peace with all mankind and has succeeded to such an extent that at a ripe old age, this pioneer settler of Atchison county is living in peace and comfort in the home which he created out of a wilderness.

Mr. Scoville cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln in St. Louis, in 1864.

JOHN JAMES INGALLS.

John James Ingalls, author, lawyer, and United States Senator, was born in Middleton, Mass., December 29, 1833, a son of Elias T. and Eliza (Chase) Ingalls. He was descended from Edmond Ingalls, who, with his brother, Francis, founded the town of Lynn, Mass., in 1628. His father was a first cousin of Mehitable Ingalls, the grandmother of the late President Garfield. His mother was a descendant of Aquilla Chase, who settled in New Hampshire in 1630. Chief Justice Chase was of this family. After going through the public schools Ingalls attended Williams College, at Williamstown, Mass., graduating in 1855. He then studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1857. The next year he came to Kansas and in 1859 was a member of the Wyandotte constitutional convention. In 1860 he was secretary of the territorial council and was also secretary of the first State senate, in 1861. The next year he was elected State senator from Atchison county. In that year, and again in 1864, he was nominated for lieutenant-governor on the anti-Lane ticket. During the Civil war he served as judge advocate on the staff of Gen. George W. Deitzler with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. In 1865 Mr. Ingalls married Miss Anna Louisa Chesebrough, a descendant of William Chesebrough, who came to this country with Gov. Winthrop in 1630. Her father, Ellsworth Chesebrough, was a New York importer who came to Atchison, Kan., in 1859, and at the time of his death, in 1860, was an elector on the Lincoln ticket. Of this union eleven children were born, six of whom were living at the time of Mr. Ingalls’ death, viz: Ellsworth, Ethel, Ralph, Sheffield, Marion and Muriel.