The Shemwell Family

Mary Eliza Cox Obituary and Family Listing BELLE PLAINE NEWS 9 Feb 1928 Mary Eliza Cox was born Nov. 28,1858, on a farm near Decatur, Ills., and departed this life Jan. 30,1928 at the age of 69 yrs., 2 mo. and two days. In 1877 she moved with her parents, to a farm southeast of Belle Plaine, now occupied by Ray Barner, where they lived one year. During this time they purchased the farm now owned by Mrs. Myrtle Fisher, where her parents lived until their death. She was united in marriage to Orin Roundy Smith Oct 3 1878. They resided in Belle Plaine, where they run a general mercantile store for a few years. They sold this business and bought a farm southeast of Belle Plaine where she lived until her death. To this union one child was born, Mrs. Frank Lanier, with whom she resided until her death. Her husband preceded her in death nine years ago. She leaves to mourn her loss, one daughter, Mrs. Frank Lanier, one grandaughter, Mary Margaret Lanier; two sisters, Mrs. A.L. Barner and Mrs. Myrtle Fisher, of Belle Plaine, Kans., one brother Joseph Cox, of Wichita. In 1883 she united with the Methodist church and lived a faithful christian life. She was a kind loving mother and was loved by all her friends and neighbors for her kindness and generosity. Her passing leaves a vacancy in the home and community that can never be filled. The funeral services were held from the M. E. Church at Belle Plaine, conducted by Rev. Clifford Moody, pastor of the Palestine M.E. Church. here was a large number present to pay their last respects to a friend and neighbor. A mixed quartette composed of Miss Ruth Koger and Mrs. John Tennery, Messrs Russell Reitz and Walter Plagge furnished the songs. Pall bearers were John Koger, Elmer Poovy, Max Reitz, Thos. Barner, Bert Shade and Levi Elenburg. Burial took place at the Belle Plaine cemetery. https://www.ksgenweb.org/sumner/obits/Mary_Eliza_(Cox)_Smith.html

Elizabeth Jane Cox (nee Troutman) Obituary and Family Listing BELLE PLAINE NEWS, JULY 23, 1925. MRS. ELIZABETH COX Elizabeth Jane Troutman was born near Logansport, Indiana, Sept. 8, 1839 and died at her home near Belle Plaine July, 15 th, 1925, aged 85 years 10 months and 8 days. She was united in marriage to James Henry Cox Jan. 21, 1858. To this union seven children were born, four of whom survive. They are Mrs. Mary E. Smith, Mrs. A.L. Barner, Mr. Joseph Cox and Mrs. Mertie H. Fisher. She leaves 12 grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren, two sisters: Mrs. Phoebe Miller, and Mrs. Julia Gulick of Decatur, Ill;, one brother, Mr. Jacob Troutman of Atlanta, Kansas. Mrs. Cox came to Kansas from Decatur, Ill., in 1871, settling in the neighborhood of her last dwelling place at that time. The Cox family has been one of the real early day families of the Ninnescah valley and the characteristics of kindness and thoughtfulness that was so nobly exemplified in the life of this grand old community mother is bound to leave a feeling of deepest regret at her passing by neighbors far and near. Her later years were saddened by the fight she had to make against the inroads of a cancer. Mrs. Cox had been a member of the Methodist church for years. the funeral services were held at the Palestine church at 4 o'clock Friday afternoon. burial was made in the Belle Plaine cemetery. https://www.ksgenweb.org/sumner/obits/Elizabeth_Troutman_Cox.htm

James Henry Cox Obituary and Family Listing J. H. Cox, a prominent farmer of Palestine township died Wednesday evening, aged 77 years. He was a brother to William Cox, who died in Wichita, Tuesday and was buried here yesterday, and an uncle of Chas. W. Cox of this city. A sister, Mrs. Minerva Bear of Bearsdale, Ill., who was called here to attend the funeral of her brother William Cox is now the last surviving member of her family of brothers and sisters. She will remain to attend the funeral of the second brother who died this week. The funeral of J. H. Cox will be held at the home in Palestine township Sunday afternoon. J. H. Cox was ten years the senior of his brother William. He was one of the wealthiest of Sumner county's farmer's ownng 400 acres of rich Ninnescah bottom land. The surviving children are Mrs. Link Barner, Mrs. O. R. Smith, Mrs. Myrtle Fisher and J. S. Cox, all living in the vicinity of Belle Plaine. Both William and J. H. Cox were will known in Wellington and had many friends here. William Cox was for many years a prominent business man of this city, engaged in the manufacture of pop with his son Chas. W. Cox. He later moved his business to Wichita. J. H. Cox was a frequent visitor in Wellington during his many years' residence in the county. Belle Plaine News (Belle Plaine, Kansas), March 18, 1915 https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/27217289/james-henry-cox

Joseph Samuel Cox Obituary and Family Listing BELLE PLAINE NEWS Thurs. Apr. 1, 1948 Joseph Samuel Cox was born February 2, 1863, at Decatur, Illinois. He lost his hearing at the age of three, due to scarlet fever. He passed away at his home at 1007 Lulu in Wichita, Friday March 26,1948, at the age of 85 years. When a child he moved with his parents to Kansas. They located on a farm near Belle Plaine. He attended the School for the Deaf at Olathe, Kansas, and on February 15, 1885, he was united in marriage with Sara Bertha Banks. they settled on a farm in Sumner County, where they lived until 1917, when they moved to Wichita. His wife passed away two years ago. To this union seven children were born; two preceded him in death. He is survived by four daughters, Mrs. Earl Drummond, 705 East Fifty-seventh South; Mrs. George Hatfield, 2118 Mesita; Mrs Elizabeth (Babe) Kelley, 1007 Lulu, all of Wichita, and two sisters, Mrs. Laura Barner and Mrs. Mert Fisher, both of Belle Plaine; and six grand-children, and eight great-grand-children, and a host of relatives and friends. He was a member of the Methodist church. Funeral service was held at the Hatfield Funeral Home Sunday, March 28 at 2 o'clock, with the Rev. C.J. Kirk officiating. Mrs. Alva Moffitt sang "Beautiful Isle of Somewhere", "The Old Rugged Cross" and "Going Home." Mrs. Neal Smith was at the piano. Casket bearers were grandsons of the deceased. Interment took place at the Belle Plaine cemetery with the Hatfield Mortuary in charge. https://www.ksgenweb.org/sumner/obits/Joseph_Samuel_Cox.html

Bert Barner Obituary and Family Listing Bert Barner was the son of Abraham Lincoln Barner (1860-1944) and Laura Alice Barner. Bert was born September 17, 1894 in Belle Plaine, Sumner, Kansas and died November 26, 1970 in Belle Plaine, Sumner, Kansas. He married Frankie Nelson. Frankie was born on 14 July 1893 and died on June 12, 1952 in Belle Plaine, Kansas. Bert and Frankie lived in Palestine, Kansas in 1930. They had two children: Alberta Barner born in 1919 and Doris Marita Barner born on 15 January 1924 in Belle Plaine, Sumner, Kansas and died on March 6, 1989. Marita Barner married Floyd Griffith Carter. ***** Bert Barner Dies; Sunday Rites Held Bert Barner,76, a lifetime resident of Belle Plaine, died last Thursday. He farmed in this area until stricken with a long illness. Funeral services were conducted Sunday afternoon at 2 o'clock at Hatfield Funeral Home, with interment in Belle Plaine Cemetery. The Rev. Keith Dudeck officiated. Vocal music was furnished by Mrs. Kenneth Utt and Mrs. Kenneth Howe, with Mrs. Roy Cheek as organist. Pallbearers included Richard Sullivan, Dean Nugen, Bob Pace, Jim Hatfield, Barton Evers and R. B. Moore. A. J. Lane, Weaver Poovey, George McAllister and Joe Wright served as honorary pallbearers. Bertie and his twin sister, Mertie, were born on Sept 19, 1894 to Abraham Lincoln and Laura Alice Barner at their rural Belle Plaine home. He joined the Methodist Church at an early age. In 1916 (differs from date on stone), he was married to Frankie Nelson, who died in 1952. He was also preceded in death by his parents, a brother, Ray, and three sisters, Florence Scott, Ethel Carrothers, and Mertie, who died in infancy. His survivors include two daughters, three granddaughters, and two great-grandsons. (Belle Plaine News, Dec. 3, 1970, submitted by Nancy Willis) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/26627932/bert-barner

Ethel Carrothers (nee Barner) Obituary and Family Listing CARROTHERS, Ethet (BARNER) Ethel (Barner) Carrothers, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. L. Barner, was born July 21, 1891 near Belle Plaine, Kansas and died Thursday Nov. 8 1956 at her home. Ethel grew up in the Palestine community, joining the Palestine Methodist Church, later transferring her membership to the Belle Plaine Methodist Church. She lived near Belle Plaine until going to Winfield where she took up her profession. She moved back to Belle Plaine six years ago purchasing her own beauty shop, where she remained active until the time of her death. She was preceded in death by both of her parents, a sister Mertie Barner, a brother, Ray J. Barner; and one grandson, Dana Bruce Trent. She leaves to mourn her passing, her daughter, Dorothy Carrothers Trent; one granddaughter, Karen; one sister, Mrs. Florence Scott; one brother, Bert Barner; all of Belle Plaine, several nieces, nephews, cousins and hosts of friends. (The Belle Plaine News, Thursday, Nov. 15, 1956, submitted by Nancy Willis - Sumner County Genealogy Trails) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/27006294/ethel_carrothers

Abraham Lincoln Barner Biography and Family Listing Biography of Abraham Lincoln Barner Some of the most substantial people of Kansas today, well able to ride about over the improved highways in their automobiles, came into the state in the early days with the slow and tedious method of the prairie schooner or the mover’s wagon. Such an emigrant party arrived in Sumner County in 1873. They had come overland from Central Illinois, being twenty-six days on route. Three wagons comprised the train, and the driver of one of those wagons, then thirteen years of age, was Abrabam Lincoln Barner, who is now living retired at Belle Plaine in Sumner County, and for years had been prominently known as a farmer, stockman, land owner, banker and closely identified with many of the business and civic affairs of his home section. The head of the family at that time was his father, Michael Barner. Michael Barner had come out to Sumner County in the spring of 1873, with two other men, and they bought three-quarter seetions, two for $800 each and another for $850. One of these quarters had an unfinished house on it, but one of the familiar Kansas winds of that day soon blew it away. When Michael Barner brought his family out he bought 160 acres near one of the three quarter sections previously mentioned, paying $1,000 for it. Its chief improvement was a log cabin, and that old building is still standing there. Michael Barner during the following years became one of Sumner County’s most valued citizens. At the time of his death he owned 960 acres of land, and had devoted it to general farming and the raising of cattle and hogs. He was naturally a leader in the community, and was greatly admired for his straightforward, honest, God-fearing virtues and his devotion to his family. Michael Barner was born in Pennsylvania and married Martha Ann Mohn, a native of Ohio. Michael had been left an orphan at the age of nine years, and up to fifteen made his home with an older brother. Dospite early handicaps he was in no way deficient in energy and ambition to make the most of his opportunities, and on leaving home he went out to Illinois and after working hard for several years he bought eighty acres in the heavy woods not far from Springfield, Sangamon County. He paid $10 an acre for this land. The timber he removed by cutting into cord wood and selling it, and he also grubbed up the stumps and gradually got his land cleared for cultivation. He was an indefatigable worker, and by sheer determination won a substantial success. Though his school advantages had been very meager, he acquired a good edueation by teaching himself. When he married he had only $75 in capital, but he and his wife proved excellent team mates and by much self denial in the early days made a home and provided for their growing children. Michael Barner, realizing what he had been denied in his youth, was more than eager to give his children the best of educational equipment. In politics he was a republican, but later became allied with the populist party, and altogether was little of a politician, his only public serving being on the school board. While living in Illinois he had been able to increase his first farm by an addition of forty acros, and was prospering there, but it was his desire to expand and give his children a start which prompted him to trade his forty acres of Illinois land for 160 acres in Sumner County. The birthplace of Abraham Lincoln Barner was a log cabin on the little farm in Sangamon County, Illinois, where he first saw the light of day August 8, 1860. He was the third in a family of ten children, seven of whom are still living. He attended school in Illinois, and afterward had the advantages of a log-cabin temple of learning in Sumner County, Kansas, and for one year was in the high school at Oxford. He lived at home and did his part in the work of the farm until his marriage on December 21, 1882, to Miss Laura A. Cox. Her parents came to Sumner County in 1877. Mr. and Mrs. Barner are the parents of five children, one of whom died in infancy. Ray J. lives on his own farm; Florence is the wife of F. W. Scott, a farmer; Ethel is Mrs. Roy Carrouthers of Sumner County; and Bert lives on the home farm. When Mr. Barner was twenty-one years of age his father gave him a team of horses and allowed him his board free for one year. That was his start in life. He rented one of his father’s farms, and though he was thus fairly well capitalized he had by no means an easy time of it for the first fifteen years. He encountered successions of droughts, other plagucs incidental to Kansas farming in the early days, and it was only by the closest kind of co-operation between himself and his faithful wife and by going without the luxuries that he finally arrived at a comfortable degree of material prosperity. Eventually he bought 120 acres, but in 1893 sold it and raced into Oklahoma at the opening of the Cherokee strip in the fall of that year. He did not locate in Oklahoma, and returning to Kansas paid $5,000 for 160 acres of land. There he began his farming career in earnest, and gradually his prosperity enabled him to make other purchases until his ownership now extends over 800 acres of the fertile lands of Sumner County. This land is highly developed and improved, and he had done much as a stock raiser, keeping both horses and cattlc. His favorite brand of cattle is the Short-Horn. It was only recently, in 1916, that Mr. Barner retired from the farm and moved to his town home in Belle Plaine. He is president of the Citizens State Bank of Belle Plaine, having held that office since 1908. This is now the largest bank in the city. He was one of the organizers of the Mutual Farmers Elevator at Palestine being president of the company there, and had given his time and resourees liberally for the promotion of every landable undertaking in his community. He is a member and president of the Fraternal Aid Society, and had served as clerk of Palestine Township and four years as county commissioner. In politics he is a democrat. He also owned some real estate in the cities of Wichita and Belle Plaine. Mrs. Barner is an active member of the Methodist Church and Sunday School. https://accessgenealogy.com/illinois/biography-of-abraham-lincoln-barner.htm

Myrtle H Cox Obituary and Family Listing BELLE PLAINE NEWS Mar 19, 1953 Rites Held For Mirtie Fisher Funeral services for Mrs. Mirtie Fisher, 78, a lifelong residence of this community, who died Saturday, March 14 in the Wichita Hospital, were held in the Methodist Church Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. The Rev. Major W. Parker officiated. Marjorie Utt and Mary Ruth Howe, accompanied by Pauline Pipkin, sang "In the Garden", and "Beautiful Isle". Casket bearers were Earl Bainter, Leslie Richardson, James Lowrey, Frank Birder, Clay Ratcliff, and Will Wright. Interment was in the Belle Plaine Cemetery with Hatfield Funeral Home in charge. OBITUARY Myrtie H. Cox Fisher was born June 23rd, 1874 in Decator, Ill. and departed this life March 14th, 1953 at the Wichita Hospital, after a short illness, at the age of 78 years, 8 months and 9 days. She was the daughter of James H. and Elizabeth Jane Trautman Cox. In this family was born four sisters and one brother, all preceding her in death. She came with the family to the Whitman community when she was 2 years of age and had lived in this community until the time of her death. To her was born two daughters, Ines(INEZ?) May Gray of Belle Plaine and Merta Jane Totten of Oxford, Kans. She leaves to mourn her death two daughters, Mrs. Marlin Gray and Mrs. Harold Totten, two grand sons, Bern Gray of Wichita, Kan., and Olin Totton of Oxford. One grand daughter, Phylis Totten(sp?) of Oxford. One grand daughter, Vernadine Totton, preceeded her in death. Several nieces and nephews and a host of relatives and friends. https://www.ksgenweb.org/sumner/obits/Mirtie_(Cox)_Fisher.html