He was married August 18, 1881, to Miss Ella Hudson, and to this marriage have been born five children, as follows: Robert, a farmer, near Cummings, Atchison county, Kansas; George, managing the home farm; Elmer, Mabel and Stella, at home with their mother. Stella is attending the high school at Potter. Mrs. Blodgett was born May 20, 1862, in Illinois, and is a daughter of Cyrenus and Elizabeth (Shaw) Hudson, the former of whom came to Kansas in 1867 with his family. Cyrenus Hudson was a native of Illinois who made good in Kansas, and at one time was the owner of 900 acres of land in Atchison and Jefferson counties, Kansas. In 1901 he removed to a home in Potter, where he is living retired. With other live citizens of the thriving town he has taken an active part in the upbuilding of his adopted city.
During his life and ever since he attained his majority, Thomas Lincoln Blodgett was allied with the Republican party and took a prominent part in political and civic affairs in his home township and county. He was a progressive citizen as well as a successful and progressive farmer who was always in favor of matters which had for their intent the betterment of the public welfare and the advancement of the citizenship of Atchison county. He was ever ready to do his part in educational matters and was a member of the local school board. He was fraternally allied with the Modern Woodmen lodge, and was blessed with many warm friends and well wishers who esteemed him as a man and citizen. He was a kind parent who loved his wife and children and highly prized his home life and surroundings, and was ever striving to make his family happy and comfortable.
JOHN R. OLIVER.
John R. Oliver, deceased pioneer of Atchison county, was born in Cayuga county, New York, April 5, 1825, and was a son of William Oliver, a native of Scotland, who emigrated from his native land when a youth. John R. was educated in the schools of his native county and State and learned the carpenter’s trade. He was married January 3, 1850, to Helen M. Packard, who was born in New York State February 17, 1832, a daughter of Thaxton Packard, of English extraction, who married a lady of Holland descent. After John R. and Helen Oliver were married they settled at Sterling Center, Cayuga county, New York, where Mr. Oliver worked at his trade of contractor and builder until 1856, when he and his wife and two children came west and settled on a farm near the western border of Atchison county, in Grasshopper township. They became a part of the Cayuga settlement, made up of several families who had migrated from their native county in New York State. There are only four of the original Cayuga colony living, as far as known: Fred L. Oliver, Frances Josephine Anderson, of Atchison; Mrs. Frank Boyington, of Atchison county, and brother, Samuel Adams. John R. Oliver came first, and in the fall of 1857 he sent back for his wife and two children to join him. Mrs. Oliver and the children boarded a steamboat on Lake Erie and made the voyage by way of the Great Lakes to Chicago, going from Chicago to Leavenworth, Kan., and thence by steamer to Atchison, from which place they were taken across the county to the new home in the Cayuga settlement, by a man named Sandy Coburn. The family lived in the settlement for about six years and then moved to Leavenworth, Kan., where they resided until Mr. Oliver’s death, in 1906; the wife and mother died in 1911. John R. Oliver served in the Kansas State militia during the Price invasion, but was unable physically to withstand the rigors of the campaign which resulted in Price’s army of invasion being driven southward. He was an ardent Republican in politics and was a follower and supporter of Abraham Lincoln, to whom he was related by marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Oliver were the parents of the following children: Fred L., born in Sterling Center, N. Y., November 8, 1851, now residing in Atchison with his sister, Mrs. Anderson; Parthenia K., widow of Wesley Chaffee, a nephew of General Chaffee, was born August 8, 1861, and now resides in Leavenworth, Kan.
Frances Josephine Oliver Anderson was born March 1, 1855, and was six years of age when the family moved to Leavenworth. She received her education in the public schools of Leavenworth and was married there on May 8, 1873, to James A. Anderson, who was born March 16, 1849, in Loudon county, Virginia, about twenty miles south of Washington, D. C. An anecdote which tells of the stirring and troublesome times in the beginning of the Civil war is here worth recording. When a child on the farm in Atchison county, Mrs. Anderson and her teacher, Miss Missouri Batsell stayed all night at the home of the Reece family, as it was unsafe to be abroad after dark. This was in the fall of 1861. Mr. Reece, the head of the family, was very ill. Along about dark the people of the Reece home heard a furious noise of yelling and shooting outside. The noise makers rapped on the door with the butts of their guns, and when Mrs. Reece opened the door it was ascertained that the night prowlers were a band of Bushwhackers who demanded a meal. She told them that her husband was very ill, and that she had nothing cooked which would suffice for a meal. They swore at her, and after talking the matter over decided to go to the barn and steal the horses for their own use. The gang went toward the barn, and another altercation arose among them which resulted in the killing of one of the men who had counseled them not to steal the horses. A dead body was thrust through the doorway and slid part way across the floor after a shot was fired. Mrs. Anderson has never forgotten the horrors of that night.
James A. Anderson was a son of Charles W. and Mary Francis (Hough) Anderson, both of whom were members of very old and prominent families in Virginia, the Hough family being large plantation and slave holders. Charles W. Anderson was profoundly opposed to the institution of slavery, and was high in the councils of the Democratic party. He was a thirty-second degree Mason and was a personal friend of men high in the Government affairs at Washington, D. C. A son, Fleming Anderson, was killed by Mosby’s guerrillas while at home from the war on a furlough, and was shot as he ran out of the door of his home. Charles W. Anderson was a paymaster in the Union army and was killed by robbers while on official duty. After the death of the father of the family, James A., with his widowed mother and sister. Mrs. Captain Spence, Charles W., and C. C. Anderson of the transfer company, of Atchison, came to Kansas, first residing at Topeka, then at Lawrence shortly after Quantrell’s raid. James was but seventeen years old at this time, and being the eldest son was the actual head of the family. When still a young man he engaged in the transfer business and took a contract from the Government to supply Ft. Leavenworth with fuel, and while fulfilling his contract with the Government, and transporting goods to and from the fort, he met and fell in love with his future wife, Frances Josephine Oliver, and the marriage took place as stated in the preceding paragraph. After the marriage Mr. and Mrs. Anderson lived in Lawrence, Kan., until their removal to Atchison, in July of 1873. Mr. Anderson continued in the transfer business and established the Anderson Transfer Company. He had associates at various times, but was always at the head of the company. He died July 12, 1906. His widow, Mrs. Frances Josephine Anderson, is one of the best known ladies of Atchison and is prominent in social and religious circles. When thirteen years of age she became a Christian and became a member of the Atchison Methodist Episcopal Church in 1883. She has been actively and prominently identified with the church work for many years, and has been especially successful as a teacher of boys. She is a class leader of the church and a member of the official board, and was captain of one of the teams which raised a $43,000 fund to provide for the erection of the new Methodist Episcopal church building. She is a charter member of the Epworth League and is a singer of ability, having sung in the Methodist Episcopal church choir for thirty years. In 1911 she began her evangelical career, in which chosen field she is achieving marked success. Mrs. Anderson is a member of the Knights and Ladies of Security and is affiliated with the home and foreign missionary societies of the Methodist Episcopal church.
LEO NUSBAUM.
Faithfulness to duty and perseverance invariably bring their reward. Give a truly ambitious young man an opportunity to advance himself, and he will succeed. The opportunity was given to Leo Nusbaum, vice-president of the Dolan Mercantile Company of Atchison, and he has made a success of the business in which he began at the lowest rung of the ladder. Entering the employ of the firm of which he is now one of the important heads, he worked his way steadily upward until he is now one of the recognized business factors in the city of Atchison.
Leo Nusbaum was born in Poweshiek county, Iowa, December 6, 1877, and is the son of Frederick and Eva (Link) Nusbaum, both natives of Germany. Frederick Nusbaum was born in the Fatherland in 1855, and came to America in 1869, when a boy fourteen years of age. He worked as a farm hand in Iowa, and eventually owned a farm of his own. From Iowa he moved to Nebraska where he purchased and operated a farm. From Nebraska he removed to St. Joseph, Mo., where he was employed in a grain elevator. He died in St. Joseph in 1903.
He, with whom this review is directly concerned, was educated in the schools of Council Bluffs, and St. Peter’s parochial school, and came to Atchison in 1898. On coming here he entered the employ of the Dolan Mercantile Company as office boy and packer. His first work consisted of preparing orders for shipment. After attaining proficiency in this department, he was promoted to the position of billing clerk and made a success in this department. being next advanced to the position of city salesman for the concern. All the while he was studying the wholesale business, and gaining such a knowledge as would best fit him to take a more responsible position in the affairs of the company. His next important service was as the secretary of the company. From this place it was but a step to the sales managership. Upon the demise of William F. Dolan, the founder of the wholesale business, in the year 1913, Mr. Nusbaum became vice-president and one of the managers. He and his associates, in charge of the Dolan Mercantile Company’s affairs, are capable and energetic men who are building up a more extensive business upon the broad and stable foundation erected by its late founder, whose example has been an inspiration and guide to the young men whom he took into his employ and educated in the details of his extensive business. Mr. Nusbaum has justified the confidence and faith held in his ability by his employer, and is an able and dignified executive.