Johnson-Cloud County KS Archives Biographies.....Weeks, Fred 1857 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 March 19, 2009, 6:08 pm

Author: Ed Blair (1915)

  Fred Weeks, a leading Johnson county farmer, residing in Olathe township, is a
notable example of what can be accomplished by industry, guided by a clear head.
He began with nothing and today is recognized as one of the substantial men of
Johnson county. Mr. Weeks is a native of Indiana, born in Noble county, June 7,
1857. He is a son of William and Rachel (Walburn) Weeks, both natives of Noble
county, Indiana. The Weeks family came west in 1865, when Fred was eight years
old, and located in Cloud county, seven miles southeast of Concordia where the
father bought a claim of 160 acres for $100. Cloud county at that time was in a
wild and unbroken part of the frontier. There were lots of Indians still roaming
over the plains, and deer, elk, antelope and buffalo were plentiful. The life of
young Weeks was spent in the midst of primative pioneer surroundings and he has
seen Kansas develop from an unbroken prairie to its present greatness, and he is
still a young man. Waterville, sixty miles east of Concordia, was the terminus
of their nearest railroad and Fred and his brother were engaged in freighting in
the early days between those points. It required five days to make the trip, and
later when the railroad was built to Clay Center, they continued to haul freight
from that point. The father followed farming all his life; he cleared up two
farms in the wilderness of Indiana before coming to Kansas. He died in 1879,
aged fifty-nine years, and the mother passed away in 1888, aged sixty-five
years. They were the parents of eight children. Fred Weeks spent his life in
Cloud county to the age of twenty, after coming to Kansas. He then went to
Colorado and located at Gunnison City where he was engaged in freighting for a
time. May 12, 1881, he came to Johnson county and entered the employ of John
Shrader and received for his services twelve dollars for the first month. He
remained in that position for four years and seven months, and then rented a
half section of land in Mission township and engaged in raising cattle, hogs and
horses and at the same time engaged in buying and selling stock. He raised large
quantities. of hay and from year to year rented more land until at one time he
was operating nearly 500 acres and raised as high as 500 tons of hay annually
which he sold in the Kansas City market. In 1898 he bought 135 acres of land
which was unimproved. This he improved, equipped with fine farm buildings and
fenced and has added to his holdings until he now has 257 acres which is one of
the finest farms in Johnson county, located one mile southeast of Olathe. He
carries on general farming and conducts his farming on a business basis, being
one of the most successful farmers in the county. Mr. Weeks was married March 9,
1886, to Miss Jeanette Park, a native of Pittsburgh, Pa. She is a daughter of
David and Mary (Laird) Park, and was brought to Kansas by her parents when she
was three weeks old. They came from Pittsburgh by river boat to Kansas City and
settled in Mission township. The father died in the year of 1874, and the mother
now resides on the old Homestead in Mission township. To Mr. and Mrs. Weeks have
been born two children, as follows: Fred, Jr., who received his preliminary
education in the public schools of Johnson county, Olathe High School and
Central High School, Kansas City, Mo. He then entered Yale College and was
graduated in the civil engineering course in 1911. He then entered the employ of
the Great Northern Railroad Company and was engaged in railroad construction in
North Dakota for two years, and in 1914 he worked in the civil engineering
department of the Kansas City Terminal Railway Company. Later he received a
Government appointment to the valuation department of the Interstate Commerce
Commission, and is engaged at that work now. He married Dorcas Magdeleine
Thoreson, daughter of Rev. and Mrs. P. A. Thoreson, Hannaford, N. D., in 1913.
Mrs. Weeks, Jr., was engaged in teaching school preliminary to her marriage.
Jeanette, the youngest child of Mr. and Mrs. Weeks, is a graduate of the Olathe
High School and attended Kansas University in the year of 1909, married Willis
Barr, a graduate of Manhattan Agricultural College, now engaged in agricultural
extension work for the University of Oregon. Mr. Weeks is a member of the A. H.
T. A. and the Grangers. Politically he is a Democrat and the family are members
of the Methodist Episcopal church.

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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