John Waugh Clendenin and Mary E. Meigs

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Husband John Waugh Clendenin ¹

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           Born: 8 Apr 1853 - Hogestown, Cumberland Co, PA 2
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         Father: Col. John Clendenin (1808-1872) 1
         Mother: Susan Swiler (      -      ) 1

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       Marriage: 24 Dec 1886 3

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Wife Mary E. Meigs ¹

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           Born: 
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Children

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General Notes: Husband - John Waugh Clendenin

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He attended the public school of his native district until 1870, when he went to the Chambersburg Academy and prepared for college. In September, 1872, he entered Lafayette College and graduated from the institution in 1876. While visiting the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, in the summer of 1876, his attention was attracted to the exhibit of Kansas and Colorado, which led him to believe that that part of the country possessed superior advantages for settlers. In the autumn of 1877 he made a trip to Kansas for the purpose of investigating. On returning from this visit to the West he registered as a student-at-law with F. E. Beltzhoover, Esq., at Carlisle, and continued to study law until in March, 1878, when he again went West, this time to locate in Harper County, Kansas. From literature that came under his observation he concluded that lands so remote from railroads as those of Harper county would not be taken up in many years. He intended to engage in cattle raising and wanted to use vacant lands for pasture. On March 15th he landed in Wichita, which was then the terminus of the Santa Fe Railway, and from that point drove overland to Harper County, a distance of sixty miles to the southwest, and there staked off claims. In the following month the town of Anthony was located, which became the county seat of Harper County, and later a place of considerable importance. It came to have four railroads and a population of 2,500. Inside the next year the entire county was settled up and Mr. Clendenin's rosy cattle dreams were not realized. When Harper County was organized, in 1878, he was chosen clerk of the district court, which office he held for three years.
In 1880 Mr. Clendenin went to Fort Worth, Texas, where he purchased cattle which he drove over the old Chisolm trail through what is now Oklahoma to a point south of Anthony. These cattle he sold that same year, and the following year brought another drove from Brenham, Texas. This cattle business experience was novel and trying to a tenderfoot. At that time the entire territory through which these droves were brought was unoccupied except by Indians, and they were mostly confined to the Reservations. In 1883 Mr. Clendenin entered upon the banking business at Anthony. In September, 1900, he removed from Anthony to Wichita, where he then resided and engaged in banking.
He was the first president of the Anthony Public Library, served as councilman, and in other local offices, and was postmaster of Anthony from 1894 to 1898. He was a Master Mason and was Master of the Masonic Lodge at Anthony. In religious belief he was a Congregationalist.

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General Notes: Wife - Mary E. Meigs

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from Arkansas City, KS

1 —, Biographical Annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905), Pg 761.

2 —, Biographical Annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905), Pg 763.

3 —, Biographical Annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905), Pg 764.