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OHIO GENEALOGY EXPRESS
A Part of
Genealogy Express
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Welcome to
PUTNAM COUNTY,
OHIO
History & Genealogy
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Miscellaneous Biographies
with connections to
Putnam Co., Ohio
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BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX PAGE >
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ABRAM FUNK, carpenter
and builder, and Union veteran of Kelly, Kans.,
might aptly be called the "Father of Kelly,"
inasmuch as he started and operated the first
general store in the town in 1887. Mr. Funk
was born Jan. 6, 1847, in Putnam county, Ohio, a son
of Henry and Elizabeth (Hampshire) Funk,
natives of Virginia and Ohio, respectively.
Henry Funk was born in Rockingham county,
Virginia, Nov. 27, 1808, and became a farmer,
removing to Putnam county, Ohio, where he died in
1887.
Abram Funk was reared on the pioneer farm in
Putnam county, Ohio, attended the district school of
his neighborhood and enlisted in the Union army.
His enlistment took place in May, 1863, at Lima,
Ohio, in Company F, in the One Hundred and
Fifty-first Ohio regiment, and served until his
discharge in August, 1863. He was in service
in the environs of Washington, D. C., and at Fort
Bayard contracted measles, from which he was laid up
for a time. After his war service Mr. Funk
learned the carpenter trade, and about 1867 began to
take building contracts on his own account. In
1870 he bought a farm in Putnam county, Ohio, which
he cultivated for ten years, then sold out and came
to Kansas. His first settlement in Kansas was
in Nemaha county, six miles south of Sebetha, where
he bought 160 acres of partly improved land in 1880.
He sold this tract in 1881 and bought 240 acres near
Kelly, in Adams township. This farm was poorly
improved at the time of purchase and he erected the
necessary buildings and changed the appearance of
things, being enabled to sell out at a good profit
in 1887. He then went to western Kansas, but
returned to Kelly within a year and started the
first general store in this village. Six
months later he disposed of his business and has
since devoted himself to carpentering and contract
work. During past years Mr. Funk has
been kept fairly busy at his trade and has erected
several structures in Kelly and around the country
side.
Abraham Funk was married in 1869 in ?Allen
county, Ohio, to Elizabeth Clevenger.
This union has been blessed with the following
children: Mrs. Edna Blackwell living in
Delta county, Colorado; Lowell, a teacher in
Centralia, Kans., and graduate of the State Normal
School at Emporia, Kans.; Grace, who has taught in
the Seneca Public Schools for the past twelve years;
Russell C., a practicing dentist at Lemore,
Cal., and graduate of the Western Dental College of
Kansas City, Mo. One child died at the age of
four years. Mrs. Funk was born August
29, 1850, in Allen county, Ohio, a daughter of I.
H. and Lucinda (Ford) Clevenger, natives of New
England.
Mr. Funk is progressive in his political views
and is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted
Masons, Corning Lodge, No. 13. He is tolerant
in his religious views and while an attendant at
religious views and while an attendant at religious
worship, is not a member of any denomination.
Mr. Funk is a citizen who believes in the
"Golden Rule" as applied to a man's behavior, and is
having an honest, upright and industrious life.
It is to his everlasting credit as a citizen and
father that he has given all of his children every
advantage possible in the attainment of a good
education.
Source: History of Nemaha County, Kansas by
Ralph Tennal - Illustrated - Publ. Standard
Publishing Company, Lawrence, Kansas
- 1916 - Page 478 |
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DAVID
FUNK
Source: History of Nemaha County, Kansas by
Ralph Tennal - Illustrated - Publ. Standard
Publishing Company, Lawrence, Kansas
- 1916 - Page 580 |
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JOHN N.
FUNK, retired pioneer farmer and Union
veteran, of Gilman township, was born in Fairfield
county, Ohio, Nov. 6, 1840, and is a son of Henry
and Elizabeth (Hampshire) Funk, for whose
biography see sketch of David Funk in this
volume. When he was an infant six months old
his parents moved to Putnam county, Ohio.
John Funk received but two or three months of
schooling each winter in his boyhood days and worked
on his father's farm until he was twenty years old.
He then rented part of the home farm and operated
the same until his enlistment in the Union army in
1864. He became a member of the One Hundred
and Fifty-first Ohio regiment, an organization of
one hundred day men, and was honorably discharged at
Camp Chase, Ohio, when his time of service expired.
Upon his return home he moved to his farm of eighty
acres in Putnam county, Ohio, improved it with good
buildings and cultivated it until 1868, when he sold
out and bought his father's farm of 140 acres in the
same county. One year later he sold his farm
and went to Moniteau county, Missouri, but after
spending three weeks in viewing the country, he
decided to go farther west to Nemaha county, Kansas,
and visit his brother, David. In
December of 1859, he bought eighty acres in Gilman
township, and in January, 1870, he built a one room
house, 14x20 feet. He also erected a typical
Kansas barn of poles and hay. In 1873 he
bought eighty acres adjoining his first tract and
erected a house thereon, building an additional four
rooms to this residence in 1884. Previous to
this, in 1881, Mr. Funk bought 200 acres in
Gilman township and rented it out for pasture for
seven years, later placing all of it in cultivation
excepting thirty acres. He owns 332 acres at
present, all of which is in cultivation excepting
ninety acres, and ten acres of this amount is in
orchard and twelve acres in timber.
In 1879, he built a frame barn, 24x40 feet, later
adding two shed wings, 16x40 feet, on each side, and
in 1886, he erected a granary, 28x36 feet. In
past years Mr. Funk dealt heavily in live
stock, but of late he has abandoned the live stock
end of farming.
Mr. Funk was married in Ohio in 1860 to
Magdeline Brannaman, daughter of Henry and
Esther (Good) Brannaman. To this union ten
children were born, as follows: Two died in
infancy; Abram L., Havre, Mont., Mrs.
Elizabeth Schmick, Hiawatha, Kans.; Mrs.
Lydia Sohn, deceased; James E. (see
sketch); Sarah, died Aug. 7, 1910; Mrs.
Eva Graves, living on the home place; Fred W.,
farmer in Nemaha county; Roy, deceased.
Mr. and Mrs. Funk have grandchildren, as
follows: Mrs. Laura Huffman, daughter of
Mrs. Elizabeth Schmick; Norman S., May L., and
Nellie M., children of Mrs. Lydia Sohn;
Omer M., son of James E. Funk; Clifford E.
and Marguerite L., children of Fred Funk.
Mrs. Funk was born in Fairfield county, Ohio,
Sept. 25, 1841, married at the age of nineteen and
was her husband's faithful helpmate and mainstay
during his rise to wealth and position and was a
good and kind mother to her children. She died
July 31, 1910, and her remains lie buried in Oneida
cemetery.
John N. Funk has grown up and aged with Kansas,
and, like his adopted State, is still hale and
hearty in the prime of manhood, although he has
passed the biblical allottment of three score and
ten years. When this grand old Kansas pioneer
came to Nemaha county, there was hardly any
settlements of houses in the vicinity of his present
home, and it is a fact that he and his wife are
Samuel Funk, wife and three children, lived in
one room, 14x20 feet in dimension, from Jan. 10, to
May, 1870. This may seem odd and unbelievable
to the present day generation, who are used to
comfortable homes and every convenience, but it is a
truthful statement of the manner in which the first
comers to Kansas were of necessity forced to live on
the plains forty and more years ago. Mr.
Funk has witnessed many changes in the
apprentice of the country since that time and
deserves considerable credit and honor for the
useful part he has played in the creation of a great
county and State.
Source: History of Nemaha County, Kansas by
Ralph Tennal - Illustrated - Publ. Standard
Publishing Company, Lawrence, Kansas
- 1916 - Page 441 |
NOTES:
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