JOHN MOREHEAD

Ohio has furnished to the western states many of their most substantial citizens -- men who have in the various walks of life contributed their part toward the development of the localities in which they have settled. Among the citizens of Doniphan county, Kansas, who look back to the Buckeye state as the place of their birth is John Morehead, a farmer and fruit grower located near Troy. He was born in Fairfield county, Ohio, near Baltimore, January 21, 1824, a son of Calvin and Susanna (Good) Morehead. both natives of Ohio. His paternal grandparents were John and Susan (Porter) Morehead, who moved from Maryland to Ohio at an early day, settling first in Fairfield county and changing their residence to Putnam county. Calvin Morehead and family also moved to Putnam county, where they lived for some years and whence they went over into Indiana and located in Grant county. There he and his wife died.

John Morehead, the direct subject of this sketch, spent his boyhood in Putnam county. Ohio, working on the farm in summer and in winter attending the public schools. He was seventeen at the time the family moved to Grant county, Indiana, and for a short time he attended school there. He remained on the home farm until he reached his majority, started out in life for himself, and, as did his forefathers in their youth, turned his face westward. Spending four years in Champaign county, Illinois, he came. in August, 1857, to Doniphan county, Kansas, and here bought a claim of one hundred and sixty acres of land, settled on it and at once devoted his energies to its cultivation and improvement, in time building a good house, barn, etc. On this place he lived for forty years. In 1897 he turned it over to his sons, at the same time buying the Frank Page farm near the corporate limits of Troy and moving to it. This place comprises eighty-nine acres, has a fine apple orchard of one thousand trees and is one of the most desirable fruit farms in the locality.

Mr. Morehead's married life covers half a century. His ten children, married and scattered, are occupying useful positions in life and his grandchildren at this writing number thirty. In Wabash county, Indiana, in 1849, he wedded Miss Mary Ann Shover, a native of Butler county, Ohio, who had moved with her parents to Wabash county, where she resided at the time of her marriage. Their children in order of marriage are as follows: Calvin A., William S., John E., George O., Joseph C., Debby A., Sarah E., Herman L., Mary E. and Charles M.

Mr. Morehead is a stockholder in the Troy creamery and he was for a number of years a member of the school board and the treasurer of the same. Both he and his wife are members of the Presbyterian church.