| WOODSON COUNTIES, KANSAS. | 117 cont'd |
ELISHA JAY.
ELISHA JAY—For more than a third of a century Elisha Jay has been a resident of Allen County and during this period has carried on farming, which Washington said is the most honorable as well as the most useful calling which man follows. He was born in Miami County, Ohio, October 23, 1837, his parents being Jonathan and Ann (Jones) Jay, also natives of the Buckeye State. In 1850 the father removed with his family to Indiana, where he made his home upon a farm until his life's labors were ended in death in 1867, when he was sixty-two years of age.
Elisha Jay was the third of six children in his father's family and was seventeen years of age at the time of the removal to Indiana. The common schools had afforded him his educational privileges and in his early life he learned the blacksmith's trade, which he followed for some time, but during the greater part of his business career he has carried on farming and has found it a profitable source of income. He was married in 1861 to Miss Hannah Palmer, a native of Montgomery County, Indiana, and a daughter of Daniel and Mahala Palmer, who were the parents of ten children. The father died in Fountain County, Indiana, on the 14th of January, 1867, at the age of sixty-five years. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Jay has been blessed with four children, of whom three are now living, namely: Albert, a resident of Galena, Kansas; Jonathan, who is living in Salem township and William B.
Five years after his marriage Mr. Jay came to Kansas. Much of the land was still unclaimed and the government offered homesteads at a nominal price to those who would cultivate and improve the wild prairie. Our subject thus secured a farm five miles east of Humboldt, where he still resides and by his industry, as time has passed, he has developed one of the best farms in Salem township, adding thereto all modern accessories and improvements. He is well known in the county and has a host of warm friends. His political support is given the Republican party and in religious work he has been quite active. He was made one of the trustees of the Maple Grove Methodist Episcopal church when that society was organized and still holds the position. In the interim this has grown to be a prosperous church, strong numerically and in its far-reaching influence. Throughout his life Mr. Jay has been found true to the principles in which he believes, and honesty and integrity are synonymous with his name.
Page 117, transcribed by Carolyn Ward from History of Allen and Woodson Counties, Kansas: embellished with portraits of well known people of these counties, with biographies of our representative citizens, cuts of public buildings and a map of each county / Edited and Compiled by L. Wallace Duncan and Chas. F. Scott. Iola Registers, Printers and Binders, Iola, Kan.: 1901; 894 p., [36] leaves of plates: ill., ports.; includes index.
