CASPER W SHREVE

The period of Mr. Shreve's connection with White Cloud covers its entire history, and during that time he has aided so largely in its growth and upbuilding that he is regarded as one of its most prominent and influential citizens. He is now devoting his energies to the drug business in White Cloud, where his enterprise, keen discrimination and determined purpose have enabled him to secure a liberal patronage.

Mr. Shreve was born in Deerfield, Portage county, Ohio, January 31, 1833, and is a son of Thomas C. and Anna G. (Coates) Shreve, both of whom are natives of Pennsylvania. The great-grandfather, Colonel Israel Shreve, of New Jersey, won his title in the war for independence. He was one of Washington's favorite officers during the New Jersey campaign and commanded a regiment under General Charles Lee when he made the retreat at Monmouth, for which Washington so strongly censured him and which led to Lee's retirement from the army. Colonel Shreve assisted in rallying the retreating troops and in retrieving the fortunes of the day. John Shreve, the grandfather of our subject, was also a native of New Jersey and loyally served in the Revolutionary war. The family is of Holland lineage. Thomas C. Shreve became a physician and practiced medicine for fifty-five years. From Portage county, Ohio, he removed to Stark county, locating in Massillon, where he remained until 1856. when he came to Doniphan county, Kansas, taking up his residence in White Cloud. Here he engaged in the active practice of his profession until a short time before his death, which occurred September 2, 1878, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. His wife, who was born in 1802, survived him for a number of years and passed away in White Cloud, in April, 1897. She was a daughter of Isaac C. and Mary (Gilbert) Coates.

Casper W. Shreve spent his boyhood days in Massillon, Ohio, where he attended the public schools, completing his literary course in the high school at that place. After putting aside his textbooks he became a civil engineer and a member of the corps employed in making a preliminary survey on the Cleveland, Zanesville & Cincinnati Railroad, remaining on the road during its construction to Millersburg, Holmes county. Later he was associated with John Waddle on the preliminary survey of what was then called the Ohio & Atlantic Railroad, of which company William Neil, of Columbus, was the president. He was also with General De Hass on the preliminary survey of the Cleveland & Mahoning Valley Railroad. In the spring of 1855 he went to Omaha, Nebraska, in the employment of the government to survey lands and assist in running the third, fourth and fifth parallels, the sixth principal meridian and guide meridian north from the third parallel, taking up the survey on that parallel and at a point where Colonel Manners and his party had been driven off by the Pawnee Indhians. The village of the tribe was then located south of the Platte river and almost south of where the town of Fremont now stands. The Pawnees were at that time quite savage, but Mr. Shreve and his party sustained no injury at their hands and held several love feasts with them. While in Omaha Mr. Shreve was one of five persons who met in General Larimer's parlor in that city for the purpose of organizing the Republican party in Nebraska.

In the spring of 1858 our subject came to White Cloud for the purpose of surveying a town site for which he and the late Henry F. Marcy had a contract. Previous to that time but a small portion of the town site had been surveyed and platted, and with the development and improvement of the place Mr. Shreve has been actively identified. Soon after his arrival here he embarked in the drug trade and now carries an excellent stock of drugs and medicines, together with everything found in a first-class establishment of this kind. He has built up a good trade and his success is a logical result of his earnest efforts. In connection with his drug business he now owns one hundred acres of land, of which fifteen acres are within the corporate limits of White Cloud.