22 April 2014

"The Biscuits Tasted Mighty Good" John Nelson Surpluss (1839-1901)

From pages 211-212 of History of Butler County Kansas by Vol. P. Mooney (Standard Publishing Company, 1916: Butler County, Kansas), speaking about the founding of Rosalia township --
The first settlers came in 1868 but they did not stay. Those who
did establish a local habitation are: 1869—D. R. Blankenship. Phil
Korn, Robert Huston, Sam Woodward, J. G. Cook, James B. Correll
and George Auten ; 1870—A. P. Foster, S. H. Foster, Hiram Benedict,
Gus Raymond, Mr. Tuttle, Dick Wiley, Samuel Davidson (who built
the first house on the high prairie between Eureka and El Dorado),
William Woods, J. T. McClure, L. W. Decker, Nelson Surpluss, James
and J.P. Huntley, Elias Leh, Fred Miller, G. W. Chamberlain, Charles
Butler, the Shermans and N. B. Snyder; 1871—George McDaniels,
Robert Martin and Doc Reynolds. 
Walter Clark came in seventy-two and still lives in the old township,
jolly as ever. The same year came M. M. Piper and his sons,
Charles, Allen, Will, Dan and Val. George Songer and his family came
about that time. The privations of some of these people sound like
romance. Nelson Surpluss, having no conveyance, in 1871 carried a
sack of flour home from El Dorado, at least thirteen miles and was
glad to get it that way. The biscuits tasted mighty good, so he says.

His daiighter, Miss Mary, the first white girl born in Rosalia, was
one of the county's foremost teachers. Forman Cook is the first boy
born in the township.
John Nelson Surpluss was my 2xg-grandfather on my mother's maternal (Surpluss) side.

Copyright © 2014 by Kevin W. Walker

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