Biographical Sketch of Solomon Hiskey, Doniphan County, KSGenWeb Digital Library

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Biographical Sketch
of
Solomon Hiskey
Doniphan County, Kansas

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The following transcription is from a 750 page book titled "Genealogical and Biographical Record of North-Eastern Kansas, dated 1900. These have been diligently transcribed and generously contributed by Penny R. Harrell, please give her a very big Thank You for her hard work!

Solomon Hiskey.

The fitting reward of a well spent, active and honorable life is retirement in which to enjoy the fruits of former toils and rest from the cares and burdens that have fallen upon one in early years. Mr. Hiskey is now living retired in Highland after a long connection with the agricultural interests of Doniphan and Brown counties. He was numbered among the leading agriculturists of the community for added to his untiring industry were keen discrimination in business affairs and straightforward dealing that insured him success and brought him a comfortable competence which now numbers him among the substantial residents of his adopted city.

Mr. Hiskey is a native of the Buckeye state, his birth having occurred in the town of Lexington, Richland county, on the 10th of January, 1839. His parents were Martin and Mary (Stewart) Hiskey, both of whom were natives of Pennsylvania, in which state they were reared and married. Removing to Richland Co., Ohio, they there spent their remaining days.

The paternal grandfather of our subject was John Hiskey, who removed with his family to Ohio, becoming one of the pioneer settlers of Richland county. His wife bore the maiden name of Mary Smith, and they became the parents of a large number of children. The maternal grandfather, Henry Stewart, married Catherine Lehman, and they, too, took up their abode in Ohio when it was upon a wild western frontier. The grandfather served as a soldier in the War of 1812.

Solomon Hiskey spent his boyhood days in the county of his nativity, his time being passed in the usual manner of farmer lads of that period. He worked in the fields through the summer months and enjoyed the sports common to the boys of the day. The district schools provided him his educational privileges and later he entered Otterbein University, in Westerville, Ohio, where he pursued his studies from 1857 until 1860.

For one winter he engaged in teaching school and in 1860 he removed westward, locating in Iowa, and then went to Colorado, and thence to Illinois, where he married Miss Sarah E. Stout, a daughter of Andrew J. Stout. With his bride Mr. Hiskey then returned to Iowa, where he improved a new farm. In 1864 he came to Doniphan county and two years later took up his abode in Brown county, Kansas, where he maintained his residence for twelve years. On the expiration of that period he returned to Doniphan county, where he purchased 160 acres of land in Wolf River township. There, in addition to farming, he engaged in stock raising and was very successful in the latter enterprise.

As his financial resources increased he extended the boundaries of his farm until it comprised 480 acres of choice land, all under a high state of cultivation and constituting one of the finest homesteads in Doniphan county. He placed thereon many substantial improvements and has all the accessories and conveniences of a model farm of the nineteenth century. Mr. Hiskey continued to cultivate his place until 1894, when he removed to Highland and is now resting in the enjoyment of the fruits of his former toil.

Mr. and Mrs. Hiskey became the parents of five children: Alice, the wife of Adelbert Goforth; Annie, the wife of W. C. Streeter; Laura J., the wife of J. B. Close, a farmer of Doniphan county; Lewis A., who married Nellie Rockwood and resides on the old Hiskey homestead; and Freddie C., unmarried. The family have a pleasant home in Highland, tastefully furnished, and the house is celebrated for its gracious hospitality, being presided over by one of the leading ladies of the city.

Mrs. Hiskey takes a deep interest in church work, is an advocate of progress and reform and is serving both as vice-president and president of the local Woman's Christian Temperance Union, which she has represented as a delegate in the state conventions. Both Mr. and Mrs. Hiskey are members of the Congregational Church at Highland, and in his political views he is a stanch Republican.

He served as a member of the school board of Pleasant Grove for a number of years and the cause of education found in him a warm friend, as he labored effectively and earnestly for its interests. He is at present a director in the Citizens' State Bank, of Highland; also a director in the Highland Butter & Cheese Factory, and one of the energetic pioneers, who by his untiring industry has contributed his humble share in advancing Kansas from a wilderness to the proud position she now occupies in the sisterhood of states.

His life should serve as a source of inspiration and as an example to those who are forced to enter upon a business career without capital. The most limited investigation into biography will show that the majority of our leading men and representative citizens are those who have won the title of self-made, and such a one is Mr. Hiskey, now an esteemed resident of Highland.

Last update: Friday, August 02, 2024 18:39:40

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