My Genealogy Hound

HARVEY W. FERREE. The qualities of character which command respect and esteem were strong within Harvey W. Ferree and therefore his death was the occasion of deep regret in the community in which he lived. He became a resident of Woodson county in 1879, locating first on a farm six miles east of Yates Center but after six months he took up his abode in the same township, southeast of the county seat, on section three, township twenty-six, range sixteen. He came to Kansas for the purpose of securing cheap land and thus more readily obtaining a good home, making his way to this state from Adams county, Illinois.

Mr. Ferree was born in Richfield township, that county, December 7, 1854, and was a son of the Rev. Samuel G. Ferree who in early life was a farmer but afterward became a minister. He went to Illinois at an early day and spent his active life in Adams and Pike counties. For three years he was in the Union army during the war of the Rebellion as captain and chaplain in a regiment of Missouri volunteers. He died in 1898, at the age of sixty-nine years. He was descended from an old Pennsylvania family of French lineage. The mother of our subject, prior to her marriage, was Almira Cleveland and was a representative of a New York family. Her children were Harvey W. and Wesley Lincoln, the latter a resident of Bureau county, Illinois.

In taking up the personal history of our subject we note that he spent his early life upon the home farm and pursued his education in the common schools with later opportunities for preparing for business life as a student in the Gem City Business College, of Quincy, Illinois. After leaving that institution he entered the service of the Wabash Railroad Company as relief man and afterward secured a position with the firm of Jansen & Company, of Quincy, Illinois, with whom he remained for a year. He was afterward in a partnership for a brief period, and in 1879 he came to Kansas, devoting his attention to agricultural pursuits until 1884, when he took up his abode in Humboldt and became bookkeeper for Harry Bragg, the well known hardware merchant, with whom he remained in that important capacity until his death.

On the 28th of February, 1876, Mr. Ferree was united in marriage, in Quincy, Illinois, to Miss Josie Hughes, a daughter of Colonel David W. Hughes, a native of Ohio, now residing in Vandalia, Missouri. He wedded Mary E. Easterday and Mrs. Ferree is their only child. She was born December 23, 1850, and by her marriage became the mother of the following children: Marvin E., born December 31, 1877; George W., who was born January 31, 1880, and wedded Mary Beckett; Margaret, born June 15, 1882; Mary A., born October 30, 1884; Leon J., born September 29, 1887; Ray and May, born May 1, 1890, and David H., born August 5, 1892. In his political affiliations Mr. Ferree was a Republican but took no part in political work, aside from voting for the candidates of his choice, his time being fully occupied with his business affairs. His reliability, and his faithfulness in every walk of public and private life won him the friendship of many, the regard of all, and his death, which occurred November 28, 1895, was deeply and widely mourned.