Person:Isaac Moon (2)

SOME HISTORY by Isaac Clark Moon November, 1951 This is taken from eight pages written in the hand of Isaac Clark Moon. Isaac C. Moon was born September 16, 1860, in a log cabin near the bank of Fancy Creek about two miles west of Randolph, KS. His father and mother, Elihu and Mary (Barr) Moon had come there from Ohio in the spring of 1858, after living in Iowa about a year and the previous winter in northwestern Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Moon brought all their earthly possessions in a wagon, drawn by a yoke of oxen, including their boys, Esby and Stover Moon and daughter Rhoda, and a very small amount of money. They selected for their home a piece of land on which no man had ever lived or made any improvements. Logs were cut, prepared and dragged to the place selected and a cabin built in which to live. A little ground was broken and other improvements made. Late in 1860, Mr. and Mrs. J.M. Byarlay and children came there from Indiana and they were so well pleased with the place and the improvements Mr. Moon had made that they bought the place. Mr. Moon then selected another piece of land on Fancy Creek about 16 miles west of Randolph, the west line only a half mile from the Clay County line. In 1861 logs were cut and hewed and a good sized log house was built and for about forty years that was the home of the Moon family. There Isaac Moon as a boy assisted with all kinds of farm work, including the care of livestock. The J. M. Byarlay family sold their home place in Randolph and in 1868 moved to a place adjoining my father's homestead 16 miles west of Randolph, where the family made their home for many years. There are still some of their descendants living in Riley County and adjoining counties. In October, 1871, my father and mother and my younger sister, Mary, and I made a trip across Kansas in a farm wagon drawn by a team of horses, to Montgomery County, a few miles west of Independence, to visit my grandfather and grandmother Moon and a few of their sons and daughters and their families, who had come there from Ohio a few years before. His first newspaper work was when he was about fourteen, when he sent items from the May Day vicinity to the Nationalist, a weekly newspaper at Manhattan. When Isaac Moon was about sixteen years old he bought a small printing press and a small quantity of type and other material and began learning the printing business at his home on the farm, but continued helping with the farm work. For a few years he printed a good many name cards and other small jobs. In January, 1880, he issued the first number of the News Gleaner, printed on a sheet of paper 9x12 inches in size, 4 pages, 2 columns to the page, printed one page at a time and after one sheet was printed he had to stop the press and ink the type with a hand ink roller, so you see it was a slow process. There was one issue a month until July, when he began issuing 2 copies a month. He was planning to start publishing a larger sized weekly newspaper but decided instead to move his printing equipment to Riley Center and formed a partnership with Harold Southwick and sons in publishing the Independent a weekly newspaper printed there. So early in December 1880, he moved to Riley Center and made his home with father and mother Southwick for about a year. Aaron Southwick was editor and Isaac Moon and James Southwick, son of Aaron Southwick were printers, and they were assisted for a while by Martin Latshaw. The year 1881 was a dry year. Rains were very light and crops of all kinds were very poor. Consequently business was very poor and late in the fall I sold my interest in the printing office to the Southwicks and returned to my home on the farm near May Day, where for another year I assisted with the farm work. In the summer of 1882, my brother, Stover Moon, built a large frame house on the farm, a few feet from the log house and the frame house was still standing in good shape in 1951. A few months after the frame house was built the old log house was torn down. In the fall of 1882, I went to Seneca, Kansas, and worked for about a year in the office of the Courier, a weekly newspaper. After that for about a year as foreman of the Seneca Tribune, another weekly newspaper. Late in the fall of 1884, I was called to my old home on the farm near May Day to take care of the stock and attend to the work on the farm while my father was gone to Montgomery County to look after his father and mother. When father returned from Montgomery County in January, 1885, he brought his father and mother, James and Sarah Moon with him and they remained with him as long as they lived. Grandfather died January 17, 1888, at the age of 86. Grandmother died March 29, 1892 at the age of 89 years. They were both buried in the May Day cemetery. My mother, Mary Moon, died in 1898 and father, Elihu Moon died Nov. 3, 1903. In the spring of 1885, I was employed in the Tribune office as foremen in Junction City and worked there for about a year. Congressman Hohn Davis and son Charles were the publishers at that time. During the summer of 1885 I bought a lot on west Sixth Street in Junction City and had a small frame house built on the lot. On Nov. 8, 1885, I was married to Miss Rachel Ann Atkinson, who lived with her mother and brother John at Field in Morris County, Kansas. We lived happily together for almost 56 years. On August 10, 1941, Mrs Moon was hurt so badly in an auto accident that she died a week later. When this was written in November, 1951 three of my sons and four of my daughters are living. Two sons in California, one in Kansas, one daughter in Washington State, one in Colorado and two in Kansas. In the spring of 1886, I resigned my position as printer in the Tribune office in Junction City and moved to the old house on the farm near May Day. I was built a frame house on the north part of the place about a fourth mile west of the 'star school house and made other improvements and that was our home until November, 1889, when we moved to Manhattan where I worked in the newspapers offices. The first of July, 1890, we moved to Randolph where I worked in the Enterprise printing office. The first of the following January I bought the Enterprise office and continued to publish it until the first of October, 1889, when I sold the Enterprise to Eldon C. Newby and I with my family moved back to my old house on the farm at May Day. The first of January, 1901, I again bought the Enterprise at Randolph and moved my family there. Mr. Newby moved away. In the spring of 1910, Mr. Newby and family returned to Randolph and I sold him an interest in the Enterprise office and he has been there ever since. I then with most of my family moved to a homestead in Lincoln County, Colorado, 30 miles from Hugo, the county seat to try to build up a home on the unbroken prairie. We got a house built and made other improvements. During the next four years I made two trips back to Randolph to help Mr. Newby with the work in the Enterprise office and in November, 1915, I again went to Randolph to help. Percy and Chalon and Tom were big enough to carry on the work and look after the stock when I made the trips referred to above. In the spring of 1916 we sold the live stock and other property a public sale and most of the family returned to Randolph. I continued my work in the Enterprise office until the first of October, 1923, when I sold Mr. Newby my interest and bought the Monitor in Leonardville, and moved the family there. I continued as editor and publisher of the Monitor for about twenty-eight years. I sold the office and business to L. W. Makcellns and gave possession July 1, 1951. Mrs. Moon and I celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of our marriage at our home in Leonardville November 8, 1935, and a large number of the neighbors, friends and relatives were present to enjoy the occasion. August 10, 1941, Mrs Moon was so badly injured in an auto accident that she died a week later and was buried in the Leonardville cemetery. We had both been active members of the Methodist church in Leonardville. For about fifteen years I was a member of the board of trustees of the church and several of those years I was treasurer of the board of trustees. Also served as superintendent of the Sunday school for four years. In September, 1948, a birthday party was held in the basement of the Methodist church in Leonardville, honoring me for my work as editor of the Monitor. There was a large attendance of neighbors and friends, besides editors from Waterville, Blue Rapids and Manhattan. Over $100 was collected as a complimentary gift. September 19, 1951, a birthday party was held in the basement of the Methodist church in Leonardville, given by the W. S. S., honoring me for my work in the church and for editorial work. A large number of friends and relatives were present. A good supper was served and a short program, with songs and short talks. I intended writing a little about schooling I enjoyed. The first school I attended when I was a small boy was in a small log building with a sod roof, which had been built in the edge of Clay County about a mile and a quarter from home. A little later a frame building was erected and I attended there for a term or two. Then the Star School house was built in 1874 on the northeast corner of my father's homestead and I attended school there for a few months each year for 3 or 4 years, getting about as far as the eighth grade. The balance of my education was secured by reading books and newspapers and my contacts with the people I met. At the time this is written my father and mother and all of my brothers and sisters are dead. Four of my daughters and three of my sons are living and I have eighteen grandchildren and twenty-three great-grandchildren.

1.   [email protected]. Jack C Moon.