His first marriage was with Miss Nora Rice in 1881. Two children (twins) were born of this union, namely: Ella, wife of Will Warren, of Muscotah, who served for seventeen years as assistant cashier of the Muscotah State Bank; Alma, a highly educated lady who studied in the Camden Point Young Ladies’ Seminary, the Emporia Normal College, and received her degree of Bachelor of Arts from Washburn College, at Topeka, now a teacher of mathematics in the Atchison city high school. The mother of these children was a daughter of D. Rice, a native of Illinois, and a pioneer settler of Atchison county. She died in 1883, at the age of twenty-six years. In 1889 Mr. Calvert was united in marriage with Miss Hattie Burt, of Platte county, Missouri, a daughter of John Burt, who came from Indiana to Platte county. Three children have been born to this marriage: George, conducting a garage at Effingham, Kan.; Marguerite, aged twenty-one years, a teacher, at present studying in Washburn College; Charles Cecil, aged fifteen years, a student in the Atchison County High School.
Mr. Calvert is an old-line Democrat and takes considerable interest in local and county political matters. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen and the Knights and Ladies of Security. A man of good education and attainments, he has succeeded in making his own way in the world and has risen from comparative poverty to become one of the substantial and best known citizens of the county.
JOHN STODDARD.
John Stoddard, a late resident of Muscotah, was born in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, in 1833, and departed this life February 18, 1901. He was the son of Robert and Margaret (Jordan) Stoddard. On the Stoddard side of the family the lineage is Scotch-Irish. John Stoddard grew to young manhood on the Pennsylvania farm, and received a good common school education in his youth. When twenty years of age, fired by the stories of the riches being obtained in the gold fields of California, he boarded a vessel in New York harbor. It carried him to Aspenwall, on the east coast of the Isthmus, which he crossed on mule back. He then boarded the vessel, “Golden Rule,” which carried him to San Francisco, Cal., from which city he journeyed to Sacramento, where he equipped himself with a prospecting outfit, and for ten years followed the trail of the elusive metal. He spent this time in various mining campaigns and prospecting for gold. He returned home by re-tracing the same route which he had traveled on his way to California, and arrived in Pennsylvania, not rich, but with considerable gold in his possession, and the remembrances of a wonderful experience.
Soon after his return to his Pennsylvania home he removed to Iowa and purchased a farm, and was married there in 1869, after which he lived five years on his first farm in Iowa, and then moved to another farm, on which he resided for seven years. In 1881 he came to Muscotah, Kan., and invested in 320 acres of land near that city. Mr. Stoddard looked after his farming interests and lived a retired life while in Muscotah, and died there in 1901. Mr. Stoddard was married October 20, 1869, to Miss Martha Piggott, a native of Harrison county, Ohio, and a daughter of Israel and Liddie (Goodwin) Piggott, the former a native of Belmont county, Ohio, and the latter a native of Westchester, Pa. The Piggott family originally came from Virginia, where the founder of the family in America settled in early colonial days. Israel P. was an early settler in Iowa. To Mr. and Mrs. Stoddard were born four children: Grace, the wife of Dr. J. O. Ward, Horton, Kan,; Guy, a railway mail clerk, Los Angeles, Cal.; Alice V., the wife of J. C. Thurman, Los Angeles, Cal.; Eva, wife of Carl Young, of Kansas City. Guy Stoddard, the son, who is located at Los Angeles, Cal., is a bright young man of more than ordinary ability. After completing the course of study in the public schools of Muscotah, he graduated from the Atchison County High School at Effingham. Later, he attended college for a while. After completing his education he became the owner and editor of the Muscotah Record. The newspaper gained a wide prestige and was prosperous. After his marriage to Miss Pearl Knox, of Muscotah, he and his wife removed to Los Angeles, where he became a member of the reportorial staff of the Los Angeles Times. He later entered the United States railway mail service at Los Angeles. John Stoddard, the subject of this review, was a Democrat during the latter years of his life, and served two terms as mayor of Muscotah. Mrs. Stoddard is a member of the Congregational church of Muscotah, and spends a portion of her time each year in California.
AARON B. EVANS.
Aaron B. Evans, pioneer auctioneer and livery proprietor, of Muscotah, Atchison county, was born April 16, 1857, in Union county, Tennessee, He was a son of George W. and Orlena (Wolfenbarger) Evans. His mother was a native of Granger county, Tennessee, and was of German extraction. George W. Evans, the father, was the owner of a large farm on the south side of Clinch river, in Union county, Tennessee, just opposite the old home of the Vansell family. A. B. Evans and M. C. Vansell, of Grasshopper township, were boys and play-mates together in Tennessee, and are first cousins. Like most boys living in the South, during that period, and in the time of the Civil war, their early education was sadly neglected. In fact, during the war the school system of Tennessee was entirely destroyed. When Aaron B. Evans was twenty years of age he left home and came direct to Kansas. He had no means wherewith to pay his transportation, and borrowed sufficient money from a neighbor to pay his railroad fare to Atchison. When he arrived at Atchison he had no money with which to pay for a meal or hotel accommodation. He and M. C. Vansell, who accompanied him on the trip, walked from Atchison to Kennekuk, where they stopped at the home of their uncle, M. C. Willis, for a few days.
Mr. Evans’ first employment in Kansas was on the farm of Dave Moore, located three and one-half miles northeast of Kennekuk, in Atchison county. He worked for various farmers in the county until he saved sufficient money to buy his first farm. For two years previous to his marriage, in 1881, he was in the employ of George Storch, who at that time was engaged in the general mercantile business at Muscotah, Kan. In 1881 Mr. Evans moved to a farm three miles northeast of Kennekuk, where he resided for three years, and was very successful in his farming operations. He then bought ninety-six acres of land near Kennekuk, which he cultivated for two years, when he sold it at a good profit. After selling his first farm he moved to a rented farm west of Muscotah, which he operated for one year, and invested in partnership with M. C. Vansell, and divided the land in a quarter section of raw prairie land, three miles northwest of Muscotah. He erected improvements on this farm and resided upon it for eighteen years. He sold his farm in 1901, and in May of the same year invested in a livery barn, and also entered upon his career of auctioneer, which he has followed since that time with considerable success. Mr. Evans also maintains a breeding stable, for the equipment of which he went to Lexington, Ky., in 1906 and purchased the best jack to be had in the Lexington market, and shipped him to Muscotah. This animal is the first high class jack ever brought to this section of Kansas. During this same year Mr. Evans also bought a pure bred black Percheron stallion, which he lost during the first year of his ownership. At the present time the Evans barn stands two high class jacks and one pure bred grey Percheron stallion.
On January 27, 1881, Mr. Evans was united in marriage with Recy Tannyhill, who was born in Marion county, Ohio, a daughter of William and Nancy Tannyhill, both of whom were natives of the Buckeye State, and emigrated to Kansas when Mrs. Evans was but eight years of age, and settled on a farm in Grasshopper township, Atchison county. Mr. and Mrs. Evans are the parents of seven children: Elizabeth, the wife of J. L. Morgan, St. Joseph, Mo.; William George, a farmer, Grasshopper township; Fred, who is associated with his father in the livery business; Orlena, the wife of Bert Annis, Chicago, Ill.; Nannie, living in Des Moines, Iowa; Nora, St. Joseph, Mo., and Frank, at home.
Mr. and Mrs. Evans are members of the Christian Advent church of Muscotah. He is a stanch and true Republican of the uncompromising variety, and has been one of the political leaders of his section of Atchison county for many years, serving as delegate several times to the Republican county conventions. He has always been an advocate of educational advancement, and has offered his children every opportunity to acquire a good common school education. He was one of the pioneers in the auctioneering profession in Atchison county, and was the second man to enter the business of crying sales.