Joseph C. Greenawalt, retired lawyer, Muscotah, Kan., was born April 17, 1840, on a farm in Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. He comes of old Holland Dutch stock and the progenitors of the Greenawalt family emigrated from Holland to America in 1665. He is a son of George and Sarah (Conner) Greenawalt, natives of Pennsylvania. George Greenawalt was a son of John, and his wife’s father was John Conner, a native of England. Joseph C. was eighteen months old when his father died, leaving a widow with six children to rear, namely: Mary Amanda, Sarah Ann and Margaret, now deceased; Samuel C., deceased, who served as captain in a company in the Seventy-third regiment, New York infantry, in the Union army, and was a wanderer from choice, having gone to sea for several years, his first service in the Union army being as a scout; Elmina C., deceased, and Joseph C., with whom this review is directly concerned, and who was reared in eastern Ohio at the home of his aunt. He lived at his aunt’s home until he attained the age of sixteen years, attended school and learned the trade of carpenter and cabinet maker in a shop operated by his uncle.
As a boy Joseph C. Greenawalt had been ambitious to acquire an education and was not content with the idea of spending his days at the carpenter’s bench. Accordingly, at the age of sixteen, we find that he started out to make his own way in the world and to educate himself by partly working his way through college. He entered Mt. Union College, at Alliance, Ohio, and was one of the first students enrolled in this college when it was advanced from a seminary to a regular college. He worked during the summer seasons and was thus enabled to pay his way through the college course. When he was eighteen years of age, he also taught one term of school. He studied languages for one year in the Hayesville Institute at Ashland, Ohio. After studying for three years at Mt. Union, he matriculated at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich., entering the junior class of this university in 1860. In 1862 he received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan, but did not acquire his master’s degree until five years later, in 1867. In May of 1862 Mr. Greenawalt enlisted in Company I, Eighty-sixth regiment, Ohio infantry, and served for four months, when he was commissioned a lieutenant of the Ohio Sharpshooters, but resigned his commission and took charge of the Canton, Ohio, Union School for the ensuing six months. He then served as deputy clerk of the circuit court, studied law in the meantime and was admitted to the bar at Ravenna, Ohio. In the spring of 1864 Mr. Greenawalt went to Colorado and engaged in mining engineering in the mountains, forty miles west of Denver. After a stay in the West he settled in Platte City, Mo., and practiced law there until 1871, and after a trip to the Pacific coast, he located permanently in the city of Atchison in August of 1871. He practiced law successfully for twenty-five years in Atchison, and held the office of city attorney in 1875.
Mr. Greenawalt has always been a great lover of horses, and more to gratify his love of horse flesh than anything else he established in 1882, the famous Greenview Stock Farm, near Atchison, now owned by B. P. Waggener. He erected the residence and several of the buildings now on the farm and engaged in the breeding of fast trotting horses. For some years he made his home on the farm and practiced his profession in the city, going to and fro from his law office and giving the farm work his personal supervision. The Greenview Stock Farm became famous for the many fast horses bred there, one of the most noted of which was Samuel G., record 2:29, and who made a trial record of 2:18¼ when a four-year-old. He made a practice of breeding two-year-olds for speed and succeeded, shipping horses to buyers in eastern and southern points where racers were desired for the tracks. In 1900 Mr. Greenawalt removed to Muscotah and continued his horse breeding until 1912, when he practically retired from the pursuit of his favorite hobby. He is the owner of a fine farm of 160 acres adjoining Muscotah on the east.
Mr. Greenawalt has been twice married, his first wife being Sophia E. Bowers, of Cleveland, Ohio, and who died May 26, 1870, at the age of twenty-seven years, leaving an infant daughter, Maude Mary, born February 11, 1870, and died August 2, 1870. He married Mary C. Bowers, of Stark county, Ohio, in September of 1882. This marriage was blessed with one son, Samuel O., born November 6, 1885, and died March 1, 1902. Mrs. Greenawalt was born December 15, 1845, in Stark county, Ohio, a daughter of Elijah and Mary Bowers, natives of Pennsylvania. In politics, Mr. Greenawalt is an independent. Mrs. Greenawalt is a member of the Congregational church of Muscotah. For many years Mr. Greenawalt has been a Mason and served as eminent commander of Washington Commandery, No. 1, at Atchison for two years, and also served as worshipful master of Active lodge of Masons, and is a member of the Knights of Pythias.
HENRY NIEMANN.
Wherever members of the German race have settled in the agricultural sections of the Middle West, we find that they have been uniformly successful, and it is only natural to find that certain individuals achieve greater success than others. Henry Niemann, of Center township, Atchison county, is an American citizen of German birth, who came to this country a poor emigrant lad, and has made a wonderful success since he purchased his first eighty acre tract in this county, nearly forty years ago. He is now one of the largest landed proprietors of the county, and one of the best known stockmen of northeast Kansas.
Henry Niemann was born February 14, 1853, in Minden, Germany, a son of Christian and Mary (Krouse) Niemann, who lived and died in the Fatherland. They were the parents of seven children as follows: Crist, deceased; Henry, whom this review directly concerns; Fred, a farmer of Center township; Mrs. Christena Krouse, deceased; Charles, a farmer of Atchison county; William, living in Germany, and Augustav, deceased. Henry was educated in the schools of his native land and at the age of eighteen years left the Fatherland and immigrated to America in search of his fortune, which he was eventually to find in Kansas. He first settled in Madison county, Illinois, and worked there as a farm hand for five years. He saved his money carefully while working on the farms of Illinois, and in 1876 came to Kansas and invested in a tract of eighty acres of land in Center township. He erected a small two-room cabin on his land and a barn to house his team of horses. He broke his land gradually and at first was able to farm only a small portion of it. The neighbors tried to discourage him by telling him that the strong winds might wreck his home at any time and advised him to find a better and safer location. He failed to find a place which suited him as well as his first choice, and although he has lived for forty years on the farm his buildings have never yet been blown away by the Kansas zephyrs. Mr. Niemann has prospered as he deserved and by the exercise of economy, hard work and good financial judgment, has become the owner of 615 acres of land in several farms, all of which are well improved and highly productive. Mr. Niemann is an extensive feeder of hogs and raises large numbers annually for the market. He believes in feeding the grain products of his farm to live stock on the place and thus reaps greater benefits than the ordinary methods of farming would yield. He is a stockholder in a prosperous mercantile concern at Nortonville, Kan.
Mr. Niemann was married in 1897 to Louise Frommer, and to this marriage have been born ten children, namely: Mrs. Mary Dietrich, a widow, who lives with her parents; Rosa, widow of George Moeck, also living with her parents; Christena, deceased; Dena, deceased; William, a farmer living in Center township; Mrs. Dora Dietrich, deceased; Harry, Henry and Julius, living at home, and Mrs. Lillie Poos, Nortonville, Kan. The mother of these children was born in Wurtemberg, Germany, in 1858, a daughter of John and Kathrine (Markley) Frommer, natives of Germany, who were early settlers of Atchison county.
Mr. Niemann is an independent Republican voter, who refuses to wear the collar of any one set of political bosses, and votes as his judgment indicates. He and his family are members of the German Lutheran church. Henry Niemann is a fine type of successful German-American farmer and is a tiller of the soil first and last; he lays claim to no ambition beyond tilling his broad acres and making his land yield the maximum of sustenance for man and beast; his great success lays in the fact that he has confined his energies to the soil and its cultivation and he has managed to get a good slice of the best land obtainable.