CHARLES A. JAPHET.

CHARLES A. JAPHET—One of Allen county's early settlers—not classed with the pioneer—is Charles A. Japhet, Iola's efficient and widely known veterinarian. In 1872 he sought Allen county as his future abiding place and was induced to believe that much of the wild land then abounding in the eastern part of the county was subject to settlement, as public lands, and he bought the right of a settler to the claim, in Salem township now the property of Harry Boeken. He contested the right of the purchaser to ownership and possession and, seeing that there was no chance for the settler as against the railroad, he sold his improvements and closed his fight after three years of interesting, exciting and stubborn resistance. He purchased a farm in the southern part of Iola township and, after cultivating it a few years, came to Iola and opened a breeding barn. This was succeeded, in part, by the livery business and when he closed out this business it was to go on the road introducing an invention of his own patent. He is the inventor of one of the best selling washing machines yet put on the market and it was the sale of this that occupied his time for about five years. To say that he made a success of his venture is putting it mildly, as he became the owner of lots, lands, stock and chattels in many of the counties of Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas. All of North Missouri will remember Charley Japhet who made headquarters within their border for months at a time, spent his money freely and did an immense and legitimate patent-right business to the surprise and delight of his stranger neighbors. When he had gathered together the results of his tour on the road Mr. Japhet returned to Iola and, while he has done something at farming, he has been more devoted than ever to the profession he acquired in his youth from one of the great surgeons of the country, L. M. Briggs, State Veterinary, of New York.

Charley Japhet was born in Shenango county, New York, September 24, 1848. His father, Albert Japhet, was born in the same county in 1817 and died there in 1861. The latter was a thrifty farmer and a son of one of the pioneers to Shenango county from the State of Connecticut. The family came originally from England, the remote settler and Colonial pioneer being our subject's great-grandfather.

Albert Japhet married Polly Ingraham, whose people were also from the "Wooden Nutmeg State." Their family consisted of George Japhet, of Courtland, New York; Eliza A., wife of F. C. Stork, of Shenango county, New York, and Charles A., our subject.

Charley Japhet was left an orphan by the death of his father in 1861. By this circumstance he was dependent upon his resources, in a great measure, for his education and youthful training. He remained with the farm two years and then sought employment in a hoe factory at Oxford,

New York. At the age of seventeen years he went on the road with the noted New York Veterinarian, Dr. Briggs, and, in the next two years, he secured that actual experience and practice that largely settled his career in life. In order to better equip himself for the profession he attended lectures at the Veterinary Hospital at Poughkeepsie, New York, but he did not engage in veterinary work at once. He was married rather early and he located in a small place and went to butchering. He had a contract for furnishing meat to some railroad builders and was in a fair way, as he felt, to reap a reasonably good reward for his labors, when his pay master drew his funds and departed, leaving our subject practically and suddenly "flat." Soon after this he gathered together his scant effects and came to Kansas. His object in coming west was to seek some point where homes could be gotten with more ease than in the old states. His condition upon his arrival at Ft. Scott was one requiring positive and early industrial activity and he secured a place in Latimer's nursery, Linn county, by the day. He was given the position of salesman the next year, on commission, and he began to gather moss rapidly. He remained in that county two years and while there served as Constable, which yielded a few dollars to his strong box. He came to Allen county with the funds necessary to locate himself as herein mentioned and for the past fifteen years the battle has been a comparatively easy one. He has been in Kansas thirty years and when he came to it his resources amounted to $32.00 and a few household goods. He owns now a farm of four hundred acres in Osage township, Allen county, one hundred and seventy acres in White county, Arkansas, and town property in Augusta, Burlington and Iola, all of which gives him a degree of financial independence which ought to come with thirty years of honorable toil.

Mr. Japhet was first married in Shenango county, New York, in 1866, to Edna E. Bartholomew, a daughter of John Bartholomew. She died in Iola, August 7, 1884, leaving three children: Eugene, of Tacoma, Washington; Emogene, wife of Charles Youngs of Oxford, New York, and Berton Japhet. In 1855 Mr. Japhet married Lizzie Heath, a daughter of Amos Heath. The children of this union are: Cora, Frank, Agnes and Mabel.

In New York, Kansas, and elsewhere the Japhets are Republicans. Our subject is an Odd Fellow.

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