Sunflower State Settlers

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – Week 2: Origins

PROMPT: Genealogists often get the question, “Where is your family from?” With this week’s theme, you could explore an immigrant ancestor, but you could also think about the origin of other aspects of your family. Who was the first person in your family to settle in a particular town? If you have a long line of people with the same occupation, talent, etc, who was the first person you know who did it?

So many of my ancestors and more immediate family have lived in Kansas. But, I wondered, which of my 2X great-grandparents were the original settlers of the Sunflower State in my family?

I was born in Winchester, Jefferson County, Kansas. Previously, I would have supposed that the families that settled there would have been the first Kansas settlers in my family. While that turned out to be the case, I was surprised to see that other ancestors who settled in Geary County, Kansas, made Kansas their home at roughly the same time.

Starting on the left, in the light green, all four of my father’s paternal great-grandparents were born in or came to Missouri.

Continuing clock-wise to my father’s four maternal great-grandparents, in the blue, David and Ann Young Williamson came directly to Crawford County, Kansas, from Lanarkshire, Scotland, in 1887.

The other of my father’s maternal great-grandparents, James and Lizzie Wilson Braithwaite, also came to Crawford County, Kansas. They came directly from Cumberland, England, in 1885.

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Now, to my mother’s great-grandparents.

Continuing around the half-circle to the light yellow color, we come to Walter Henry and Marian Harvey Harding. They emigrated from Sussex, England, coming directly to Junction City, Kansas, in 1890.

My mother’s other two great-grandparents in her paternal line were Meta Asmussen, who arrived in the United States in 1869 or 1871, having emigrated from Germany. In 1875, she and her family were living in Ashland, Riley County, Kansas.

The man who would become her husband–John McKeney “Jack” Taylor–was born in New Bedford, Bristol County, Massachusetts. He and his family moved to Junction City, Kansas, in 1870, when he was sixteen years old. He and Meta Asmussen would marry eight years later.

Continuing around the fan to the light orange color and my mother’s maternal line, we come to Robert Beaty and Janet Mathews Cathcart. The couple arrived in Winchester, Kansas, in 1868–only seven years after Kansas had become a state. This makes the Cathcarts the “original Kansans” in my family.

Robert and Janet had married when they were thirty- and nineteen-years-old, respectively, in Randolph County, Illinois. Robert and his family had previously left South Carolina to relocate to Illinois; Janet and her family had come to Illinois from Country Antrim, Ireland, in 1840.

And, finally John Faris and Matilda Russell Curry, who were each born in Bloomington, Indiana, were married there in 1867. Sometime after 1870, they relocated to Jefferson County, Kansas.

These early Kansas settlers and their descendants faced hardships unique to their new home: grasshopper plagues, blizzards, the devastating effects of tornadoes, and the Dust Bowl. Late nineteenth-/early twentieth-century life in the Heartland was not for the feint of heart!