Person:Napolean Chisham (1)

The subject of this personal sketch, now a resident of Fall River township, is one of the genuine Kansas pioneers. He was born so near the real frontier that it can almost be said that he is a son of nature. By experience he has never known a well-settled community, save as the filling-up process of settlement went on in Atchison and Leavenworth counties just after the war. He has been a child of the frontier always and the progress of civilization westward was accompanied by him till it reached out into central Kansas and passed him in Butler county. Now that he has spent ten years in his present location the congested population common to the east is still unknown to him and the crowding and pushing for room is still a long way off.

Mr. Chisham was born in Jackson county, Missouri, July 17, 1849. Thomas Chisham, a native of Kentucky, was his father, and Julia Stripling, also a Kentuckian, was his mother. In 1833 the parents moved to Missouri and settled in Jackson county where the father remained till 1853, when he left for the gold fields of the Pacific coast and, after one year, was not heard from again. In 1855 the mother and children crossed over the border and settled in Leavenworth county, Kansas. They resided there and in Atchison county many years and the mother watched the growth and training of her children as long as they needed a mother's care. Her four children still survive and with them alternately makes her home. They are James, Mrs. Margaret Hodges, Mrs. Annetta Childres and Napolean B.

The subject of this review was an active and useful son of a good mother and remained in her household till he attained his majority. Whatever his hands could do to provide against the pinch of poverty they did and his efforts contributed much toward the maintenance and support of the parental home. In 1871 he went out into the wilds of Butler county, then on the edge of civilization, where he took a homestead, the first land he ever owned. This he improved, deeded and owned till 1892 when he disposed of it and, for the first time, turned him back toward the west. He came east to Wilson county and purchased three hundred and five acres of land in Fall River township which has since remained his home. The improvement and cultivation of this have employed him, and among the former is a rare structure--a cave--the conception and accomplishment of his own brain and hand. He is a mechanic without an apprenticeship, or a master's training, and the trowel as well as the square and compass and plane come handy to him. His blacksmith shop is one of the features of his farm and his own and his neighbors' work is done with the expertness of a trained hand.

Mr. Chisham was married in 1873 to Miss mary Johnson, a daughter of Daniel and Mary Johnson who came to Kansas from Indiana in 1855 and settled in Douglas county. Eight children were born of this union, namely: Carrie, wife of Frank Hancock; Etta, wife of E.J. Lewis; Della, wife of William Finley; Fred, Kansas, Joseph, Milton and Harry.

The years Mr. Chisham has passed in Kansas are witness to her whole history as territory and state. They cover the exciting and dangerous time of the civil war when Union men in Leavenworth and Atchison counties saved their lives by the pistol and the "brush". The impression of these incidents remain with him vividly for he saw some of them with his own eyes. In the early settlement of Butler county he was again brought face to face with the rough-and-tumble of life. The settlers of the frontier are the victims of robbing and thieving bands and syndicates and they were plainly prevalent in Kansas in 1871. The "border war" and the civil war and the reign of thieving terrorism accompanying and following both furnish subjects upon which Mr. Chisham speaks with authority.

              from the "History of Wilson County, Kansas.

OBITUARY:

    Napoleon Bonaparte Chisham was born in Jackson county, Mo., July 17, 1849, and departed this life at the home of his daughter, Mrs. W.F. Hancock, in Wichita, Kansas, Sunday, December 8, 1935, aged 86 years, 4 months and 21 days.
    When a boy of four years, he came with his mother and older brother and two sisters to Kansas.  They located near Leavenworth, where he grew to manhood.  N.B. Chisham knew the hardships of the early pioneer of Kansas as perhaps few today can recall.  Those days preceeding the war were perhaps the hardest in the history of Kansas.
    When Mr. Chisham was about 20 years of age he removed to Butler county, Kansas, where in March, 1872, he was married to Mary H. Johnson and to this union were born 8 children.  Those living are Mrs. W. R. Hancock, and Harry D. Chisham of wichita, Mrs. T. J. Lewis of Brownsville, Tex., J. T. Chisham of Neodesha, Mrs. Dell Findley, J. M. Chisham and F. P. Chisham of Fredonia.  One daughter, Mrs. Frank Crum departed this life May 25, 1910.  Mrs. Chisham passed away March 14, 1898.
    On June 25, 1901, Mr. Chisham was united in marriage to Izella R. Rothgeb and to this union was born one daughter, Mrs. Majory Wolfe, of Baker, Oregon, who was unable to be present at the funeral services for Mr. Chisham.
    Early in life N. B. Chisham was baptized unto Christ, becoming a member of his church.  He has always been a staunch Christian, living a life undivided for Christ.
    Besides his children, he is survived by one sister, Mrs. M.A. Hodges of Lawrence, 94 years old; 38 granchildren.
    Funeral services were held in the Christian church Wednesday afternoon at 1:30, conducted by his pastor Rev. C. O. Wilson.  Burial was in the Toronto cemetery, Thursday morning at 10:30.
         From:  Wilson County Citizen  December 13, 1935

DEATH OF N. B. CHISHAM

    Residents of Fredonia and Wilson county were shocked and grieved Monday when news reached Fredonia of the death the preceding day of N. B. Chisham, 86, at the home of his daughter, Mrs. W. F. Hancock of Wichita.
    Mr. Chisham came to Kansas with hhis parents when he was but four years of age and at his death was perhaps the oldest resident in point of years spent in Kansas.  He came to Wilson county in 1891, settling on a farm about 6 miles south of Toronto, where he lived for 7 years.  Although engaged in farming, he spent much time in his blacksmith shop.  The family then moved to the farm three and one half miles north of New Albany, which was his home until 1918, when he went to reside in Oregon.  He lived there 10 years and returned to Fredonia.
    He built a small house near that of his son just south of Fredonia four years ago but spent much of the time among his children.  On Thursday of last week he went to visit his daughter, Mrs. Hancock, and his son, Harry Chisham, in Wichita.
    Mr. Chisham enjoyed making new acquaintances and friendships and was a delightful conversationalist.  The younger generation, especially, enjoyed his companionship.