LEROY O. LADD.

LEROY O. LADD, of Logan township, one of the successful and prosperous farmers of Allen county, is almost a pioneer to Kansas. Ten years before he came to the State the first settlers were pulling into it from the east and nestling themselves down along the timbered streams. Mr. Ladd was early enough to get desirable land cheap for he came here in 1868 when settlements in his neighborhood were widely scattered. His means permitted him to buy only a small tract of thirty-two acres seven miles southwest of Humboldt. In that community he has remained. The little farm has grown and expanded with the elapse of years and in response to his needs until it contains eight hundred acres, one of the splendid stock and grain farms in the township. Its improvements are in keeping and proportion to its area, commodious residence, roomy barns and extensive sheds. The abundance of open land and free pasture led Mr. Ladd to engage in the cattle business at an early period and his success in this venture has warranted him in its continuance. He has been a large feeder for years and much of his accumulation of years has come from this source. He is a large consumer of grain ether than his own raising and his enterprise has thus furnished a market for the surplus grain of his neighbors. Aside from the buildings which adorn the farm, and which Mr. Ladd erected, a small forest sets off his premises and surrounds his edifice. These trees the family planted away back in the early days of Allen county.

Leroy Ladd originated in New England. He was born in Vermont March 24, 1844. He is a son of John and Caroline (Olds) Ladd, country people and children of the Green Mountain State. In 1849 they crossed over into New York State, settling in Oswego county, where the father died in 1860 at the age of fifty-eight years. His widow died in Vermont in 1885 at the age of seventy-two years. Of their nine children five are yet living, viz.: Urbane, of Bay City, Michigan; Era and Corrin, of Oswego, New York; Cordelia, wife of Richard Rawson, of New Hampshire, and Leroy O. Ladd. John Ladd owned a large grist mill which he operated in connection with his New York farm. His five tons all served in the Union army during the Rebellion and all returned but Lucius H., who died in Richmond, Virginia.

Leroy Ladd's youthful opportunities were only those of the country lad. At the age of eighteen he enlisted in the 110th New York Infantry and his regiment was assigned to the department of the Gulf. For two years he was on guard duty on the Island of Tortugas in the Gulf of Mexico where the Confederate prisoners were confined. He was discharged at the end of his enlistment, September, 1865, and returned to his State. His brothers all enlisted for three years and all served their full time, or until death. This fact, alone, indicated the feeling and opinions entertained by the young men with reference to the preservation of the Union.

Mr. Ladd engaged in farming upon his return home and continued it, with some degree of success, three years. The western fever took a firm hold upon him soon after the war and he definitely decided to

migrate in 1868. His resources were limited but that did not deter him for the frontier was the best place for a man in his circumstances. He came and saw and conquered.

In 1866 Mr. Ladd was married to Miss Kate Dimick. She died in 1870, leaving a son, Lucius Herman Ladd, of Woodson county Kansas; Mr. Ladd was married in December, 1873, to Mrs. Philinia (Gibbs) Jackson. Nine children have been born to them, viz.: Minnie (Ladd) Campbell, who died February 27, 1900, leaving two children. Effie and Cora Ladd; Orlie L. Ladd, who died May 14, 1885; Eddie, Gertie, Ennis, Urbane and Leola. Mrs. Ladd has a son by her first husband, John E. Jackson, of Cottage Grove township. Mrs. Ladd was a daughter of John Gibbs, a native of Illinois, whose wife was Ellen J. DeWitt.

Mr. Ladd is a Republican. He learned his first lessons in politics in the army helping to suppress treason and he has maintained his political relations with the party that favored a union of states.

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