Clay Co., KS AHGP-Portrait and Biographical Album of Washington, Clay and Riley Counties-William Silver
Portrait and Biographical Album of Washington, Clay and Riley Counties Chapman Brothers, Chicago, 1890
WILLIAM SILVER, of Morganville, is one of those men of whom it may be truly said, he has not lived in vain. Nature endowed him with the best qualities of human character, those elements of honesty, integrity and contempt of a mean action, which have ever maintained him in a high position among his fellow citizens as one worthy of their utmost confidence and Esteem. He is one of the pioneer settlers of Clay County, with whose interests he has been personally identified since it became a community of men struggling for an existence on the frontier. His industry, courage and endurance in the early days proved a stimulus to many a man around him, cheering the faint hearted and enabling
them to imitate his example of patience and perseverance.
The subject of this sketch was born in Greene County, Ohio, and when about three years old was taken by his parents�Joseph C. and Margaret (Mills) Silver�to the vicinity of Ft. Wayne, Ind., where they lived a few years, the father engaged in carpentering. About 1855 they changed their residence to Bluffton, Wells County, that State, where they have since lived. Both are natives of New Jersey. The maternal grandmother of our subject died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Silver, after reaching the advanced age of ninety-six years.
Mr. Silver spent his early years under the parental roof and in the fall of 1860, in company with his brother, Philip, fitted up teams and went up the river on a buffalo hunt, until reaching the line of Northern Nebraska, being gone about six weeks. During the time they killed about sixty buffaloes, besides a large number of elk and antelopes. Buffaloes were not seen in Clay County, Kan., with the exception of an occasional strayer, after 1857, but elk, deer and antelopes were quite numerous later than that and one day. in the fall of 1865, Mr. Silver killed four wild turkeys in his door yard.
Sojourning in Indiana until the spring of 1857 young Silver then came to Kansas and in the spring of 1858, preempted 160 acres of land in Clay County. This occupied the southwest quarter of section 33, Sherman Township, and he put up a log cabin, 12 x 14 feet square in which he kept bachelor's hall until acquiring a clear title to his property. He was then obliged to have money to carry on its improvement, and in July, 1859, he went into Riley County, the nearest place where he could obtain work. When on his place his nearest neighbor was twenty miles away and the Indians frequently encamped thirty miles up the river. Many of them were civilized and friendly, although they made occasional visits to scare the settlers who had come in a little earlier.
When coming to this region Mr. Silver had a capital of $42, but when settling on his claim, had about 1100. During the summer of 1858 a few people came into that vicinity. Mr. Silver worked in Riley County during the winter of 1858 and the following spring rigged up a team of oxen and joined a wagon train going to Pike's Peak. He took tools in his wagon and worked at blacksmithing which he had learned in Indiana, remaining at the Peak until the fall of 1859. Then returning to Clay County, this State, he sojourned here but a short time, after which he spent the winter in Riley County. He returned to his new farm iu the spring of 1860, where he spent the summer, plowing and improving his land. He and a hired man occupied themselves in making fencing and planted eight acres of Indian corn, besides breaking thirty acres and planting it with prairie corn. The corn raised on the thirty acres made one dinner for four persons, the season being very dry and nothing growing. Mr. Silver had also that same season an acre and three-fourths sown in wheat which yielded him eight bushels. This was threshed with a flail and the chaff blown off by shaking the wheat and chaff on a sheet in the wind.
During the second year of the Civil War Mr. Silver concluded that it was his duty to assist in the preservation of the Union, and in August, 1862 he enlisted in Company G, 11th Kansas Cavalry, and served two years and eight months, receiving his honorable discharge May 24, 1805. He met the enemy in battle at Prairie Grove and followed up the rebel general, Price in his raid into Missouri and along the Kansas line, participating in the three day's fight which followed. Then returning to Ft. Leavenworth, his company was made an escort to Gen. Curtis. Mr. Silver for some time operated as the company's blacksmith.
In the meantime, while still a soldier. Mr. Silver was married while home on a furlough. April 1863. to Miss Lucinda. daughter of David Edelblute. one of the pioneer settlers of Riley County, Kan. Mrs. Silver was born in Pennsylvania in 1845 and came to the West with her parents when quite young. She sojourned with her parents during the absence of her husband in the army and when he returned to the ranks of civil life, they located upon their new farm and put up another cabin to supply the place of the first one which had been burned in a prairie fire. They lived there a number of years and then Mr. Silver homesteaded eighty acres one half mile east, which they occupied until about 1882.
That year he removed to Morganville, of which he has since been a resident. His farm proper includes 1,100 acres in the vicinity of Morganville, besides the comfortable town residence which he now occupies.
Mr. Silver, in 1886, invested a part of his property in a stock of general merchandise in which he has since conducted a successful trade. He was one of the men instrumental in the incorporation of the city, signing the petition, and has served as a member of the City Council. He assisted in the organization of Clay County and has taken an active part in the erection of church and school buildings and other enterprises. In religion he and his excellent wife are identified with the Methodist Episcopal Church in which Mr. Silver officiates as Steward and is recognized as a chief pillar. He belongs to George B. MeClellan Post, No. 368, also Morganville Lodge, No. 322, I. O. O. F. The four children born to Mr. and Mrs. Silver are all living and named respectively. Mary E., Fred C., Lonsdale A., and Edna. The eldest, Mary E., is now the wife of G. W. Hayes, a resident of Morganville, who is represented elsewhere in this volume.
For the erection of his hewn log house in the fall of 1865 Mr. Silver transported the flooring from Leavenworth. The shingles were manufactured from a saw log which he hauled from here to Manhattan, but the mill was not running so he was obliged to visit that place the second time before getting his shingles. It must be remembered that this was in the absence of railroads or even well-regulated wagon roads, thus involving a long and tedious journey.