Clarence Martin

CLARENCE MARTIN, a leading business man of Lake City, has had a varied experience in Kansas and Oklahoma as a teacher, homesteader and cattleman, and during recent years has supplied many of the business resources to his present home community.

Mr. Martin was born in Morgan County, Ohio, August 9, 1871. His ancestors came originally from Germany and were early settlers in Ohio. His father, James Martin, was born in Morgan County, Ohio, in 1835 and lived there the early part of his life. He learned the trade of shoemaker, but left that occupation when the Civil war broke out and served throughout the period of hostilities with an Ohio regiment of infantry. In 1878 he brought his family from Ohio to Kansas, and homesteaded a quarter section in Ottawa County. After two years there he sold out and moved to another farm in Ottawa County, and after four years came to Barber County in 1884. Here he bought a pre-emption of 160 acres near Gerlane, and lived there and was steadily prosperous as a farmer until his death in 1908. He was originally a republican, and became a populist when that party was storming Kansas. He was honored with several township offices. James Martin married Charlotte Sillery, who was born in Morgan County, Ohio, in 1836, and died at the old home at Gerlane in 1909. A brief record of the children is as follows: George, a farmer, who died at Gerlane in 1908; Flora C., wife of the C. B. Boyle, who is in the automobile accessory business at Wichita; W. S., a farmer at Meeker, Oklahoma; Clarence; Harry, in the automobile business at Meeker, Oklahoma; Jesse T., who is now proving up a quarter section claim in Colorado; Walter, in the lumber business in California; Melvin, proprietor of a garage at Lake City, Kansas, and Carrie B., now deceased, whose husband, Claude Arthur, owns a ranch in Oklahoma.

Clarence Martin was seven years old when his parents came to Kansas and his early education was acquired in the rural schools of Ottawa and Barber counties. In 1893 he graduated from a business college at Harper, Kansas. As a teacher Mr. Martin has an efficient record of six years in the schools of Barber County, and he also taught for two years in Wood County, Oklahoma. Mr. Martin went to Oklahoma after the opening of the Cherokee Strip and proved up a claim in Wood County, devoting his time to its improvement and operation for six years. For another two years he was a ranchman and cattleman in Woodward County, Oklahoma. On returning to Barber County in 1902 he located near Gerlane and farmed there until 1912. Since that year his home and activities have been at Lake City. During the past six or seven years he has handled a large volume of grain produce around Lake City and owns both an elevator and feed mill on the Santa Fe tracks. He also owns the local ice plant, and has considerable other property, including his modern home, built in 1913, which is one of the three best residences in the town. Mr. Martin is a democrat in politics, and for several years was trustee of Nippawalla Township and also served on the school board. He is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Woodmen of the World and the Modern Woodmen of America at Lake City.

In 1895, at Gerlane, he married Miss Maude Talbott. Her father, B. F. Talbott, who was a pioneer in Barber County, was born in Ohio in 1842, located in Gerlane, Kansas, in 1886, and died there in 1898. Her mother was Celinda Angstadt, who was born in Ohio in 1844 and died at Medicine Lodge, Kansas, in 1913. Mr. and Mrs. Martin are the proud parents of nine children: Harry, in the automobile business at Pratt, Kansas; Maude, wife of Clarence Fager, a farmer near Lake City; Benjamin, also in the automobile business at Pratt; James, who works for his father; Mary; Helen; Billy Taft, and Dixie Blanche, all attending the local schools, while the youngest of the family is Maxine.

Page 2509.