Two events occurred in Garfield, Kansas in the same week in April 1890 that influenced our family history:
These two unrelated events led to E.R. Cheney meeting and then marrying Mollie Hestwood.
All three boys that grew up in the household of William and Eliza Cheney became doctors.
William and Eliza Cheney had claimed their homestead in McPherson County, Kansas in 1877. By 1880, they had a house and barn, gardens and an orchard.
The family had grown too. In 1880, William Cheney was age 42. Eliza was 40. Their children were Sarah Margaret, age 14, Enos Ralph, age 9, and James William, age 5.
William and Eliza are our 3rd great-grandparents.
Continue readingIn 1877, William Cheney traded a cow for Jack Taylor’s homestead claim for 160 acres of government land in McPherson County, Kansas. That homestead claim gave William the right to occupy the property, and an additional five years to improve it.
By 1870, the Cheney family had established themselves in Christian County, Illinois. Over the previous decade, several of the children had married and started farms of their own, many within a few miles of the original homestead. The family was closely connected—parents, siblings, and in-laws living nearby and working the land.
Family Nibbles – Volume 11 is here! This book is about the lives of our Maninger ancestors from 1700 to 1920.
Continue reading
We’ve come to the end of this series of stories. We’ve followed our Maninger family from 1700s Germany to 1920 Kansas.
In our previous story, Emily Maninger graduated and became a registered nurse in 1920.
Here’s an update on the rest of the family, and some sneak previews of what’s to come.
Continue readingEmily Maninger enrolled in Wichita Hospital Training School for Nurses in 1917. She hoped to go to the front to care for the troops in World War I.
Oil and war were interdependent. World War I was the first war to depend on submarines, tanks, airplanes and motorized transport. The American economy was also dependent on oil.
The Maningers got knee-deep in oil and war.
1916 had some significant school events. Mattie graduated in 8th grade. Other Maningers were off to college or vocational schools. Emily graduated from high school.
Family Nibbles 