ALVIN JOHNSON INSCHO               

Died:  October 4, 1934

Buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, Independence, Kansas

From History of Montgomery County, Kansas, By Its Own People, Published by L. Wallace Duncan, Iola, Kansas, 1903, Pg. 306-308:

Inscho, Alvin J. Bio

            Living on neighboring farms in Rutland township are two old friends, William H. Sloan and Alvin J. Inscho.  These two gentlemen are among the very earliest settlers of the county, having settled on their claims in June, 1868.  The years that have passed since that early day have been full of the multifarious duties of life; at first, the hard, grinding toil and discomforts of pioneer life, which gradually became softened by the comforts and luxuries of civilization.

            Authentic information concerning the early history of the Inscho family is lacking.  Mr. Inscho believes, however, that the name was brought to this country prior to the Revolutionary War.  Exact knowledge locates his grandfather, Robert Inscho, in Virginia in the early part of the 19th century, where he reared seven children, whose names were: Joseph, Robert, Henry, Nancy, Mary, Maria and John.  The youngest of this family married Clara Foot, both natives of that state.  The children of this marriage were:  Ozias, Edwin, of Sterling, Kansas; Perry and Alvin J.

            Alvin J. Inscho dates his birth in Huron county, Ohio, February 16th, 1844.  He was reared to farm life and , while busily engaged in aiding his parents in the summer and securing an education in the winter, watched the gathering of the war cloud with absorbing interest.  With his heart throbbing in unison with the drum beats of the enrolling officer he, in July 1862, enlisted in Wood county, Ohio, --where his parents had removed when he was yet a child—in Company A, 100th Ohio Vol. Inf., Col. Groom commanding.  This regiment became a part of the Third Division, First Brigade—Gen. Gillmore in command—which was mobilized with the 23rd Army Corps.  His first taste of “the realities” was at the siege of Knoxville, the initial action in a series of victories in which our subject subsequently shared.  Some of the more important were: Resaca, Atlanta, then with Thomas to Tennessee—where he participated at Columbia, Franklin and Nashville.  Crossing the mountains, his company was “in” at the Wilmington fight and then to Washington, D. C., where it swung into the grandest line of veterans ever marshalled in review.  His muster out of service occurred July 3rd, 1865, in Cleveland, Ohio.

            Short periods at Toledo and Perrysburg, Ohio, and at Ann Arbor, Michigan, in which places he worked in drug stores, preceded his coming to St. Joe, Mo., in 1867, and in the summer of the following year he became a resident of Montgomery county, Kansas.  Here he began life anew on a 160-acre tract which constitutes a part of the five hundred and forty acres which he now owns, in section 24-32-14.  Reminiscences of those early times are of exceeding interest from the lips of Mr. Inscho.  His knowledge of drugs enabled him to play the “medicine man” with the Indians to good advantage, so that he was not annoyed as much as other settlers.  Too much cannot be said in commendation of the character always sustained by Mr. Inscho.  Suffice it to say that no citizen is more widely and favorably known that he, and the interest he takes in securing the best advantages in matters of education and good government, endears him to all.  He is a member of the board of education and, in a patriotic way, holds membership in the Grand Army of the Republic.

            In 1882, Mr. Inscho was happily joined in marriage with Dora M. Turner, daughter of David and Louisa Turner, of Ohio.  Mrs. Inscho is a lady of endearing qualities, and a splendid mother to her five children, whose names are:  Bessie, Clyde, Birdie, Fay and Frank.

Contributed by Mrs. Maryann Johnson a Civil war researcher and a volunteer in the Kansas Room of the Independence Public Library, Independence, Kansas.