JOHN A. MAGILL GRAVESTONE PHOTO
The Chanute Daily Tribune, Thursday, June 7, 1917
Died: June 1917
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John A. Magill, who settled in Wilson county forty-seven years ago, died recently in Roper. Mr. Magill was the oldest of a family of nine children. His parents were Mr. and Mrs. Cyrus Magill. He was born in Clinton county, Indiana, June 12, 1831, and was of old revolutionary stock; his grandfather, John Magill of Virginia, being an officer in the army of independence.
He grew to manhood on his father’s farm in Indiana and married Margaret Magill on April 8, 1859. To this union four children were born, Clarence O. of Butte, Mont.; Lena, who married Peter Planey and who died in Buffalo twenty-two years ago; Annie Sale, who lives on the old home place, and Elmer S. of Roper, with whom his father made his home since the death of his wife five years ago.
During the Civil war he served in Company K, Eleventh Indiana cavalry, under Colonel Stewart.
Mr. and Mrs. Magill came to Kansas in 1866 and settled near Ottawa, where he worked as a carpenter. After three years they came to Wilson county and settled one and one-half miles northeast of Roper in Clifton township, taking a claim which he in due time preempted, and where they lived until 1906, when they moved to Roper. The death of Mr. Magill marks the passing of another one of those early pioneers who came to the unconquered West in the old days of young manhood and under untold hardships and privations built the foundation of their future home.
He was always ready to assist his more unfortunate neighbor and was a real friend to everyone. He will be missed by all who knew him.
Mr. Magill was a good Christian, being baptized in infancy, and has been a faithful member of the Methodist church and was the only surviving charter member of the class organized at the Banner schoolhouse in 1870. The church at Roper is the development of that class.
He had been a sufferer from rheumatism for the past year but always bore his sufferings patiently and met everyone with a smile.
He was a loving father and kind friend to everyone. Besides his three children he leaves five grandchildren and one great-grandchild, one brother, one sister and a host of friends to mourn his death.
The funeral services were held at the Roper church by the Rev. J. H. Noltensmyer of Benedict, assisted by J. R. Blackburn of Fredonia. Interment was in Maple Grove cemetery. A large congregation came to pay their last respects to a kind friend and neighbor.