Marshall County KS Archives Biographies.....Shumate, Joseph M. 1840 - 1913
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ks/ksfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@gmail.com July 21, 2005, 3:44 pm

Author: B. F. Bowen

JOSEPH M. SHUMATE.

    The late Joseph M. Shumate, an honored veteran of the Civil War, for many
years justice of the peace at Frankfort and a well-established insurance agent
and real-estate dealer in that city, was a native of the state of Illinois, but
had lived in Kansas since pioneer days and had therefore been a witness to and a
participant in the development of this county almost from the time of the
organization of the county. He was born on a farm in the vicinity of
Carlinville, in central Illinois, January 27, 1840, a son of Hiram and Eliza
Shumate, natives, respectively, of Virginia and Kentucky, and was living there
when the Civil War broke out. He responded to the call for volunteers in 1861
and upon the completion of his original hundred-days service re-enlisted and
went to the front as a member of Company B, Thirtieth Regiment, Illinois
Volunteer Infantry, and was with that command when he was veteranized two years
later. He re-enlisted and during a skirmish about a month after the battle of
Atlanta, in which he had participated, was badly wounded in the hip. On account
of this wound he went on furlough, but upon his recovery he hastened to New York
to sail down the coast to rejoin Sherman's army, but the war terminating then he
met his old commander at Raleigh in North Carolina and with his old command
participated in the Grand Review at Washington, D. C.

    Upon the completion of his military service Joseph M. Shumate returned to
his home in Illinois and on September 12, 1865, was there united in marriage to
Alida Osborn, who was born in Knox county, that state, July 4, 1845, a daughter
of Robert and Betsy (Roundtree) Osborn, natives, respectively, of Illinois and
of Kentucky, the former of whom was a son of Stephen Osborn, an Illinois
pioneer. During that same year, in the summer of 1865, Alida Osborn had been
visiting in this section of Kansas and during her stay here had taught a
three-months term of school, the first school taught in the Brophy district in
this county, the school house having been a floorless log cabin, sixteen by
eighteen feet in dimension, with unglazed windows, a clapboard door, slabs for
benches and a goods box for a teacher's desk. In 1866, the year after their
marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Shumate and the Osborn family moved over to Kansas from
Illinois, bringing necessary household goods and some live stock with them, and
settled about a mile north of the Barrett settlement in this county; both Joseph
M. Shumate and Robert Osborn bought land in that section. Mr. and Mrs. Shumate
began housekeeping-there in a log cabin and after a few years of such residence
moved on down into Texas, but after six months of experience there returned to
Kansas and located at Frankfort, which by that time was beginning to be somewhat
of a village, and there Mr. Shumate began clerking in a store, later engaging in
the real-estate and insurance business and was thus engaged the remainder of his
life, early becoming recognized as one of the leading business men of that city.
For thirty-five years he served as justice of the peace in Frankfort and in
other ways contributed of his services and his energy to the public service. He
was one of the organizers of the Frankfort post of the Grand Army of the
Republic and ever took an active part in the affairs of that patriotic
organization. He also was a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and of the
Knights and Ladies of Security and was an active member of the Methodist
Episcopal church. Joseph M. Schumate died on March 13, 1913, and his widow is
still living at Frankfort, where she owns a very pleasant home. She is a member
of the Woman's Relief Corps, a member of the local chapter of the Order of the
Eastern Star and a member of the Knights and Ladies of Security, in the affairs
of which several organizations she takes a warm interest.

    To Joseph M. and Alida (Osborn) Shumate four children were born, namely:
Mrs. Lulu McConkey, who lives four miles southwest of Frankfort; Mrs. Carrie E.
Symonds, whose husband is a druggist at Wooster, Texas; W. R. Shumate, who is
engaged in the drug business at Kansas City, and Herbert Shumate, who is at home
with his mother. Mrs. Shumate is one of the eight children born to her parents,
the others being as follow: S. S. Osborn, who is living at Washington; Mrs. G.
N. Morris, of Frankfort, this county; John Osborn, who is engaged in the grocery
business at Cottonwood Falls, this state; Mrs. William D. Warnica, deceased;
Mrs. Calvin Warnica, of Wells township, this county; Walter Osborn, who is a
member of the Denver police force, and D. R. Osborn, a well-known resident of
Frankfort. Robert Osborn, the father of these children, died at his home in this
county in August, 1892, at the age of seventy years, and his widow is now
living, at the age of ninety-one years, with her son, D. R. Osborn, at
Frankfort. Mrs. Shumate has a picture showing six geneartions of her family,
five generations of whom are still represented, all the subjects of that
remarkable picture being alive save the eldest, Mrs. Dosia Roundtree, Mrs.
Shumate's maternal grandmother, who died at the great age of ninety-four years,
the others being as follow: Mrs. Betsy Osborn, now ninety-one years of age; Mrs.
J. M. Shumate, seventy-one; Mrs. Lulu McConkey, forty-nine; Mrs. Agnes Davis,
thirty, and William, Wilbur and Willard Davis, aged, respectively, ten, eight
and five years. Mrs. Shumate has seven grandchildren and four
great-grandchildren, Mrs. McConkey having two children, Mrs. Agnes Davis and
Joseph; Mrs. Symonds, four children, Mrs. Alida Hill (who has one child,
Annellan), Randall, Esther and Waldo, and W. R. Shumate, one son, Clarence, born
in 1902. Mrs. Shumate has been a resident of this community since pioneer days.
She is physically vigorous and able and retains vivid and distinct recollections
of conditions here when she first came to Marshall county, back in the days of
the beginning of a proper social order hereabout.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

History of Marshall County, Kansas: its people, industries, and institutions
by
Emma E. Forter

Indianapolis, Ind.: B.F. Bowen & Co. (1917)

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ks/marshall/bios/shumate28bs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/ksfiles/

File size: 6.7 Kb