Johnson County KS Archives Biographies.....Edgington, Abraham N. 1839 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 10, 2008, 11:38 pm

Author: Ed Blair (1915)

  Abraham N. Edgington, a Civil war veteran and early Johnson county settler,
has, perhaps, seen more frontier life than any other man in Johnson county. He
was born on the treeless plains of Illinois, at Pontiac, Livingston county, July
5, 1839. This was an early day in that section of the West, and the Edgington
family, in taking up their home in that section, were crowding very closely on
the border of the frontier. A. N. Edgington is a son of Miric D. and Margaret W.
(Breckenridge) Edgington, both natives of Brown county, Ohio. The Edgingtons are
old American stock of Scotch and Irish descent. Miric D. Edgington was born
February 22, 1810, and was a son of Abraham Edgington, who was a native of
Maryland, born April 19, 1780. He first removed from his-native State to
Virginia, and then to Ohio where he died. He settled in Brown county sometime
between 1800 and 1810. His wife bore the maiden name of Jane Kincaid, and she
was also a Marylander. Margaret Breckenridge, the. mother of Abraham N.
Edgington, was born in Brown county, Ohio, April 6, 1812. She was a daughter of
Robert Breckenridge and Alary Wright, the former born in Maryland, born
September 27, 1774, and the latter was also a native of Maryland, born September
24,. 1773. Robert Breckenridge, his wife and family were early settlers in
Illinois, locating in that State in 1833. Miric D. Edgington, the father of A.
N., located in Livingston county, Illinois, in 1834. He drove from Ohio and when
he reached the vicinity of Pontiac his team and wagon and a fifty cent piece
constituted all his earthly possessions, and when he died he owned 400 acres of
land, which is said to be so valuable now that it is not safe to leave it out of
doors over night. He paid for his land by hauling wheat to Chicago, receiving
fifty cents a bushel for hauling. The story goes that one time while he was in
Chicago, or where Chicago now is, he was offered forty acres of land, which
would be in the heart of the city now, for a little pony worth about $40. He
refused the offer saying, that he wouldn't give that pony for all the land in
sight around there. When the Edgington family located in Livingston county,
there were lots of Indians in the vicinity, and all kinds of game were plentiful
for a number of years after they came. A. N. Edgington says when he was a boy
that the neighbors were ten miles apart there, and he remembers on one occasion
of counting 160 deer in one herd, and he says that prairie chickens were there
by the millions and lots of wild turkeys, but there were no quails nor rabbits.
He claims that he reached Illinois before the quail or rabbits got there, and it
is said to be a fact that these birds and animals never precede the settling up
of a country. Miric D. Edgington died in Livingston county, Illinois, September
6, 1859, and his wife died June 23, 1875. They were married November 23, 1832,
and five children were born to this union as follows: Robert P., Ashland. Ore.;
A. N., the subject of this sketch; Mary Ann, married J. E. Young, both now
deceased; William K., and Eliza Ellen, married Frank Dowing. A. N. Edgington
spent his boyhood days on the plains of Illinois and grew to manhood, surrounded
by pioneer conditions and he recalls many of the early-day crude methods in
farming. He has not only used the old-fashioned grain cradle, but goes back
still farther and has had experience in cutting grain with the sickle and he has
mowed acres and acres of grass with a scythe, and notes with pleasure the great
progress that has been made in the improvement of agricultural implements. Pie
says that the present day generation is absolutely ignorant of real grief on the
farm. Mr. Edgington remained on the home farm until August 8, 1862, when he
enlisted at Pontiac, Ill., in Company C, One Hundred and Twenty-ninth regiment,
Illinois infantry. His command immediately proceeded to Louisville, Ky., and
then went on a campaign from Louisville to Crab Orchard, and guarded the
railroad to Nashville until May 2, 1864. He was with Sherman on his march to the
sea, took part in the fighting all along the line, was in the engagement at
Perryville and Resaca, the fighting around Atlanta, and after Lee surrendered he
went to Washington, and was in the Grand Review at the close of the war. After
receiving his discharge, he returned to Illinois and was engaged in farming
there until 1867, when he went to Saline county, Missouri. He remained there
until December, 1869, when he came to Johnson county on the "Black Bob" one and
one-half miles south and one mile east of Morse. In 1871 he went to Butler
county, Kansas, where he took up a Government homestead. After proving up on his
claim, he traded his Butler county farm and has resided in this county ever
since. Mr. Edgington was married July 22, 1865, to Miss Catherine E. Durflinger,
of Noblesville, Hamilton county, Indiana. Eight children were born to this
union, two of whom are now living. W. T. resides at Prescott, Linn county,
Kansas, and Floy, now the wife of M. S. Gilliham, of Lenexa, Kan. Mr.
Edgington's wife and the mother of these children died September 8, 1908. Mr.
Edgington has been a lifelong Republican, but in later years, like many others,
he is inclined towards independence in politics. In 1891 he was elected county
commissioner of Johnson county. He served one term, but refused to accept a
second nomination. He was a member of the board of county commissioners, when
the present splendid court house of Johnson county was erected, and one of the
unusual circumstances about the building of this court house, which many people
in Johnson county do not know at the present time, is that it was built without
issuing any bonds, or incurring any obligation for taxpayers to pay in the
future. The county commissioners adopted the "pay as you go" plan and when the
court house was completed, it was paid for. Mr. Edgington was the father of the
plan by which this was accomplished, and that was to raise a two and one-half
mill tax, which produced sufficient funds for the purpose. Mr. Edgington is a
member of the Grand Army of the Republic and is now commander of Franklin Post
No. 68. He is a Methodist and has been a member of that church since 1876.

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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