Biographical Sketch of John P. & William H. Ayler, Johnson County, Missouri,
Jackson Township.

>From "History of Johnson County, Missouri," by Ewing Cockrell,
Historical Publishing Company, Topeka, Cleveland, 1918.
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John P. Ayler and William H. Ayler, proprietors of the "Lincoln Valley
Stock Farm" in Jackson township, are the sons of Ernestus and Sarah
(Mills) Ayler, well remembered and respected pioneers of Johnson
county.  Ernestus Ayler was born in Germany.  The name Ayler suggest
Teutonic origin.  In the fatherland, Ernestus Ayler grew to manhood and
was educated near the place of his birth.  The industrial coniditions
of his native land being unfavorable for a young man of ambition, such
as he, and having heard and read of the great country, abounding in 
better opportunities, which lay beyond the sea, to which so many of his
countrymen had immigrated, Mr. Ayler determined to leave Germany and
embark for the new world.  At the age of 21 years, he was engaged in 
teaching school in America. Later, he abandoned the teaching profession
and entered the packing house business, from which he was obliged to 
retire within a short time on account of deafness, an affliction that
befell him in early manhood.  He then purchased a farm in Indiana, 
which place he sold after a few years and thence moved to Johnson 
county, Missouri, in 1856.  Before coming West, Ernestus Ayler and 
Sarah Mills were married.  To them were born seven children, six of 
whom are now living: A. S., who resides in New Mexico; P. B., Kings-
ville, Missouri; Mrs. Rhoda Hennings, Holden, Missouri; John P. and
William H., the subjects of this review; and Mrs. Sarah Mills, Holden,
Missouri.  Ernestus Ayler purchased a farm of 200 acres of the choicest
land in Johnson county in 1856 for ten dollars an acre.  He farmed 
extensively and was especially fortunate in stock raising.  Mr. Ayler
had been thoroughly educated in his native land and all his life was a
constant reader, keen thinker, and intelligent observer.  He made a 
specialty of handling stock and in his day in Johnson county the stock-
man was permitted unlimited grazing territory.  Mr. Ayler spent two 
years in Kansas and at the time he was there, during the Civil War, he
saw the raid made by Quantrill and his men.  When he returned to his 
home in Missouri, he found havoc and destruction where he had left a
well improved farm.  Not a fence, or vestige of one, could be found on
the entire place.  All had been burned by the enemy at some time during
the absence of the owner.  Indefatigably, Mr. Ayler set to work to 
begin anew and his efforts were crowned with deserved success and pros-
perity.  The end of a long life of tireless activity came in January,
1905.  The life of Ernestus Ayler has furnished evidence in proof of 
the truth of the old adage, which states that, "Success is not the 
result of genius, but the outcome of clear judgement and practical
experience."  John P. Ayler was born in Johnson county in 1857 and 
William H. Ayler was born in 1859.  The Ayler boys attended the school
held at Lincoln school house, where Milo Martin was employed as teacher
when they began their educational career.  When they were lads in their
teens, there was still much open prairie land in this county and timber
was plentiful along the streams.  The two young brothers used to furn-
ish the timber and split logs to sell the rails for one dollar a hund-
red.  There are rails yet, on their farm, which were split by them in
their boyhood days.  The Ayler brothers jointly own a valuable farm
comprising 487 acres of land in Jackson township, a place widely known
as "Lincoln Valley Stock Farm," where they are engaged in raising 
jacks, stallions and mules, extensively.  They also have a number of
good Shorthorn cattle and Duroc Jersey hogs.  The past season, of 1917,
the Ayler boys harvested 160 tons of hay and 1200 bushels of oats and 
they had 10 acres of the farm in wheat and nearly 100 acres in corn. 
The place is abundantly watered and nicely improved.  Their home is a
pleasant, comfortable residence and there are numerous, commodious 
barns and other needed farm buildings on the farm.  John P. and William
H. Ayler are both unmarried.  Beginning life as railsplitters, even as
the immortal Lincoln, the Ayler boys have persistently pushed forward
and upward until they are now the proprietors of one of the most valu-
able farms in the state.  Descendants of sterling pioneer ancestry,
John P. and William H. Ayler are distinctively representative of the
best husbandmen of Johnson county.  The Ayler brothers have always been
firm, uncompromising Republicans.  Though both take a deep interest in
public and political affairs neither has ever pursued the chimera of 
political prestige.

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