George Ewers

GEORGE EWERS, one of the best known men and oldest settlers of Cherokee County, is located on a fine farm in section 33, township 34, range 25, in Garden township. He was born in Belmont County, Ohio, December 22, 1834, and is a son of John and Martha (Wood) Ewers. His father, who was a farmer and boatman, plying on the Ohio River, is now deceased. One brother of our subject resides in the Indian Territory and one in Galena, Kansas.

George Ewers was reared on a farm and received his educational training in an old hewed-log school house. He did not attend school beyond the age of 14 or 15 years, but worked with his father on the farm and at boating, running on a steamboat between Cincinnati, Ohio, and Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. He came to Kansas March 28, 1857, and located in Labette County, where the town of Chetopa is now located, being one of a company of three sent to locate a town. It was supposed this was government land, but the town-site proved to be on Osage Indian land. There were but four houses in Chetopa at that time, and Mr. Ewers lived in a little log cabin, rudely built. After the excitement of the Civil War had subsided, in 1865, he located on Shoal Creek, where he has since resided. Game was very plentiful in those days and the country wild, and it was no uncommon occurrence for him to go out and shoot a deer or a bull buffalo. Wild ducks and turkeys abounded and the streams were plentifully supplied with fish. Many times he has seen the creek rise out of its banks, and in 1875 it rose to a depth of 37 feet. on his present farm he lived in a cabin, 18 by 20 feet in dimensions, until 1900, when he erected a good, substantial residence. He has always engaged in general farming and stock-raising, and has been a very successful business man. He has played his part in the development of this section of the State and has always been found in support of such measures as tended to that end. He is a man of wide acquaintance and a representative farmer.

Mr. Ewers was first married to Peggy Ann Field, a quarter-blood Cherokee Indian, by whom he had two children: George and Peggy Ann. The children being 16th-blood Cherokees received Indian rights in the treaty with the government. Mrs. Ewers died in 1866, and on June 7, 1867, he formed a second union with Ellen Dixon, a daughter of Enoch and Elizabeth (Keel) Dixon, natives of Tennessee. Mr. Dixon and his family removed from Tennessee to Missouri in 1866. Mrs. Ewers has one sister and one brother living, namely: Alexander Dixon, of Galena, Kansas, commercial traveler for a wholesale grocery, who married Alice J. Thatcher, and has had four children, two of them living,—George Alexander and Wade; and Mary (Mrs. Samuel Fisher), of Indiana.

Our subject and his wife became the parents of five children, three of whom are living, as follows: Amer, who lives at home; Maud, who married Henry Card of the Indian Territory, and has one son,—Charles Harold; and Charles, who lives at home. The two oldest children died within three hours of each other, Joseph Henry at the age of eight years, and Mary Alice at ten years. Their death was very sudden and it was a sad blow for their parents. Mr. Ewers has always interested himself in public affairs but has never sought nor accepted office.

History of Cherokee County Kansas and its representative citizens, ed. & comp. by Nathaniel Thompson Allison, 1904, transcribed by Carolyn Ward, instructor from USD 508, Baxter Springs Middle School, Baxter Springs, Kansas, 6-27-97