FAMILIES ARRIVING in 1878
NEW FAMILIES ARRIVE TO BUILD A NEW TOWN
According to at least two reliable sources Isaac “Uncle Ike” McCune, with the assistance of an engineer with the K.C., Ft. Scott, & Memphis Railroad named Van Zandt, platted the town of McCune, Kansas on 60 acres of his 240 acre farm. Some of the original builders were familes who had settled in Osage Township prior to the actual establishment of the town and some were new arrivals from Jacksonville or Monmouth. Of particular note is the Sherfic family which, according to every account I’ve seen, built the first building in the town - a hotel. The second structure to be erected was a store house built by I.V. McCune who had settled in the area about 10 years prior to its founding. This page will be dedicated to families which I was able to determine arrived during, or very shortly after, the Summer of 1878 and were among the very first founding families.
mccune’s first building: the sherfic family
Jacob Zollar and Permelia Ann “Millie” Woodford Sherfic were married June 16, 1853 in Ohio. The 1880 census shows them living in the “village of McCune.” He is 56 years old and his wife Millie is 42. For occupation it says he is “keeping hotel”. This would be the hotel he built in May of 1878 which was the first structure in the town of McCune.
This space is being held for information on one of several families which I will introduce you to that emigrated to the new town of McCune.
OTHER NEW ARRIVALS: SUMMER OF ‘78
more MCCUNE AND JACKSONVILLE AREA SETTLers
McCune would not be considered a “railroading” town like its neighbors Parsons or Cherokee which had multiple lines intersecting in their municipalities. It did come into existence, however, because of the railroad. Before the town was platted and the steel was laid through Uncle Ike’s farm there were small communities, churches, schools, and even a post office in the area. The community of Monmouth already existed and just to the northeast, about six miles, there was a platted, established town named Jacksonville which, at that time, was the second largest town in Neosho County. By and large, though, the populace supporting these public services were farmers which had settled in the area - mainly along Lightning and Hickory Creeks. Let’s take a closer look at some of these early families.
William Walter and Elizabeth R. (Cowherd) Smith were married March, ll, 1841 in Orange County, Indiana. After a brief residence near Warsaw, Missouri, the couple, along with their four daughters and four sons, settled on a farm about a mile east of Jacksonville. Their son, Nathan Marion, would marry Cora Belle Wilson, the daughter of one of McCune’s earliest merchants, Sevier Wilson. The Smiths and the Wilsons are the author’s great-great Grandparents.
WILLIAM W. AND ELIZABETH R. (COWHERD) SMITH
Isaac V.B. and Elizabeth A. Hill McCune were married Jan. (or Feb.) 11, 1858 in Pike County, Illinois. The family came to Osage Township, Crawford County with their daughter Emma (10-12 yrs old) sometime prior to 1870. I.V. is credited in at least one account as having built the second business house in the town in “the fall following the year the town was platted.