N. R. Chance, a Civil war veteran and Butler county pioneer, who has spent forty years of his life in this county, is a native of Indiana. He was born in 1844, and is a son of William Chance, a native of North Carolina. N. R. Chance was one of a family of four children, two of whom are now living: William lives near Leavenworth, Kans., and

N. R., the subject of the sketch. N. R. Chance went to Iowa with his parents when a boy. He received his education in the common schools and followed farming in Lucas county, Iowa, until 1874, with the exception of a period during the Civil war, when he served as a member of the Forty-sixth Iowa infantry, enlisting in 1864, at the age of twenty years.

At the close of the war he was mustered out of service at Davenport, Iowa, and returned to the farm in Lucas county. In 1874 he came to Kansas, locating in Butler county, seven miles southwest of Augusta, in Bruno township. It will be remembered by those familiar with the early history and discouraging days of Kansas that this was the year of the grasshopper visitation. Many settlers were discouraged and left the State following the visitation of the grasshoppers, but Mr. Chance was not the kind of a pioneer to be driven from the plains of Kansas by any ordinary type of grasshoppers. He says that even with his forty years of life in Kansas that he likes the State a little better each year than he did the preceding one. He belongs to that school of sturdy pioneers who not only made Butler county what it is, but were the builders of the great State of Kansas, and have just cause to be proud of their achievements.

When Mr. Chance settled in Bruno township he bought his claim from Daniel Golden, for which he paid $1,000. The place was slightly improved, having a small four-room house with about twenty acres of prairie broken and some hedge. Here Mr. Chance was successfully engaged in farming and stock raising until 1899, when he removed to Augusta, where he built a comfortable and commodious residence, where he now lives. He has added to his original purchase of land, and now owns 640 acres of valuable farm land, 400 acres of which is located in Pleasant township and the rest in Bruno.

Mr. Chance was married in 1865 in Iowa to Miss Mary E. McKnight, a native of Ohio. Two children were born to this union, as follows: Mack T., a traveling salesman for the Potts Drug Company, who resides at Wichita, and Charlie C., a farmer and dairyman in Sedgwick county. Mr. and Mrs. Chance celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary December 24, 1915, in Augusta. Both their children were present and also their eight grandchildren. Mr. Chance is a member of the Knights and Ladies of Security and the Methodist Episcopal church, and he is one of the substantial citizens of the county.

Previous | Main Page | Biography Index | Next

Pages 624-625,