Johnson County KS Archives Biographies.....Dare, T. W. 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 March 19, 2009, 5:25 pm

Author: Ed Blair (1915)

  T. W. Dare, a Kansas pioneer, and a successful farmer and stockman who has
been a resident of Johnson county for over forty-five years, is now living
retired at his home in Gardner township. Mr. Dare was born at Lymeregis,
Dorsetshire, England, and is a son of Robert and Mary (Prigon) Dare, natives of
England. The father was a butcher and also an inn keeper; he was proprietor of a
roadside inn in Dorsetshire county known as Penn Inn. The most vivid
recollection that T. W. Dare has of his boyhood days is during the Crimean war
when the British soldiers on their way to the front used to stop at his father's
road side inn for refreshments. The glittering uniforms and fine regalia of the
soldiers made a lasting impression on the boy's mind. His father died in 1860,
and the mother survived him several years, and passed away in 1894. T. W. was
the youngest of three children; he received a very good common school education,
and when a youth served an apprenticeship at harness making. In 1870, when he
was twenty-five years old, after having worked in London for five years, he came
to America and located in Chicago. He spent the summer of that year there and in
the fall came to Gardner, Kan., in answer to an advertisement in a Chicago
newspaper for harnessmakers. When he reached Kansas his entire capital consisted
of ten dollars, and Gardner was only a little settlement of a few houses and
they really didn't need any harness maker at all, and he was compelled to go to
work at such skilled labor as digging wells and tamping ties on the section, and
such other odd jobs as he could get. After remaining there about six months,
with the assistance of J. W. Sponable, he opened a little harness shop with, a
small stock, perhaps worth about $100. There was not much to do in the harness
line, and business was poor; he discovered after coming to Kansas that most
everybody used oxen instead of horses, and oxen didn't require any harness,
therefore no harness maker was necessary. After a little time he bought three
lots in Gardner, and he began to prosper a little. In 1872 he went to Texas and
returned two years later, little better off than when he went, but two years
older. In 1878 he bought a farm of forty acres and lived on it a few months when
he sold it at a profit of $50.00; then he bought eighty acres for $1,500, and
built a house on this place and in 1882 sold that at a profit of $2,400. He then
bought 160 acres from J. W. Sponable and paid $200 down. He remained on this
place until 1889 and when Harrison was elected President, he was appointed
postmaster at Gardner, and at the end of the administration engaged in the
harness business at Gardner until 1904, when he was again appointed postmaster
and served until March, 1915. He nowV owns 280 acres of fine Johnson county
land. Mr. Dare was married January 30, 1872, to Miss Emma Sherer, daughter of
William and Mary (Glover) Sherer, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the
latter of Glover's Station, Va. Mrs. Dare was born in Pennsylvania, September
19, 1851. Her father died when she was six years old and after his death the
mother removed to Knightstown, Ind., to live with her parents and there met and
married V. R. Ellis in August, 1857, and about that time V. R. Ellis and his
wife came to Kansas, locating in Johnson county, and homesteaded a quarter
section, one mile north of Gardner. This farm is still in the hands of the
family and is now owned by Mr. and Mrs. Dare. Mrs. Ellis died in February, 1915,
on the place which they settled on when they came to Kansas. V. R. Ellis died
October 12, 1913. He was prominent in the affairs of Johnson county throughout
his life, and a man who made many friends. He served one term in the Kansas
State legislature and also served as county commissioner of Johnson county. He
was a stanch Republican and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
Mr. Dare, whose name introduces this sketch, is also active in local politics
and has been a life-long Republican, and has attended many State, Congressional
and county conventions as a delegate and was always active in political
campaigns. He is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and is a
stockholder and director in the Farmers State Bank of Gardner, and is one of the
substantial men of Johnson county.

Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

HISTORY OF Johnson County Kansas
BY
ED BLAIR

AUTHOR OF
Kansas Zephyrs, Sunflower Sittings and Other Poems and Sketches

IN ONE VOLUME

ILLUSTRATED
STANDARD PUBLISHING COMPANY
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
1915


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