James Brewer

The Brewer Family in America has a long history including that of Corporal John Brewer who lived in Sudbury, Massachusetts as early as 1642. The name is not an uncommon one, and suggests that at sometime in the past a distant ancestor brewed ale or some other intoxicating beverage. And whether our present James Brewer is a descendant of Corporal John Brewer or of some other Brewer is not known.

James Brewer (1818-1880)

James Brewer (1818-1880) 

High on the Flint Hills where waters to Hickory Creek and the Little Walnut River form lies the township of Hickory in Butler County.

It was there that our James Brewer brought his wife and four children to in the 1870s. He settled on a claim on the south forks of Hickory Creek on the southwest corner of plat 14-28-7 of Hickory Township. Other families who arrived included the Comstocks, the Armstrongs, Bartholemews, and MacGinnises. The beginnings of a town were started with a general store at Old Brownlow, but that town has since disappeared. Further east at the edge of the long slow slope into Greenwood County is the town of Beaumont which began as a stagecoach stop and became a railroad hub with the coming of the Santa Fe Railroad in 1885. Our James Brewer would not see the coming of the railroad. He died in 1880, nor would he be around for the publication of the Walter McGinnis and I.C. Thomas Atlas of Butler County published the same year.

Hickory Township 1885

Our James Brewer lived two months shy of his allotted time of 70 years and five years before the Santa Fe laid its tracks through Beaumont. His wife Margaret lived on to the age of 79, dying in 1904 at the age of 83. The mail came weekly by horseback from El Dorado. Otherwise it was a quiet life. Homesteaders farmed for a living and took their produce to El Dorado or Augusta.

Wife
Margaret Faubion Brewer 1821–1904

Children
Mary Elizabeth Brewer Crecelius 1846–1928
Melissa Brewer Wilson 1855–1946
Henry Monroe Brewer 1861–1931
Josephine E. Brewer Van Huss 1865–1912

Was life easy?

No!

In 1871 a tornado blew through Butler County pausing to wreck havoc in Hickory Township. The Semishes who were newly arrived in their wagon were blown over but not hurt. Dr. MacGinnis' house, the only one then standing was blown away. In the fall of 1873, a prairie fire consumed all the dry grass and more in the township. Cattle and horse rustlers were afoot, but vigilantes soon put a stop to their bad ways.

The Brewers were neighbors to John Finley Van Huss who also had a farm in Hickory Township. James and Margaret's youngest daughter married John, and they had four children, one of whom was named Fred. He in turn was father to James and Robert, who is my wife's father.

The Brewer family including Josie is buried in beautiful Old Brownlow Cemetery. John Finley Van Huss is buried in the Latham Cemetery.

John Finley Van Huss

Thanks to Melynn for this photograph of John Finley Van Huss and family.

John Finley Van Huss

Latham, Kansas 1909

Big changes were afoot in Butler County Kansas in 1909.

The Ford Model T automobile was making headway in Kansas, but it still shared the dirt roads with the horse and buggy. Telephone wires were strung from town to town, but party lines were still common and a telephone operator connected the call. Test wells were drilled for oil, but the big find was not to be had for a few years. One and two teacher schools dotted the county like wildflowers. Teddy Roosevelt was in his last year as president. Walter R. Stubbs was the Republican governor and he made Kansas dry.

John Finley Van Huss had a farm near Latham, a wife name Josie, and five children, ages five to twenty.

John Finley Van Huss was my wife's great grandfather, grandfather to Robert (Bob) Van Huss. He lived to be 80 years old. He was the youngest son of Valentine Worley Van Huss and Elizabeth Campbell.

Born in 1859 in Carter County, Tennessee, John Finley came to Kansas in the 1870s with his parents in a wagon. He lost his mother in Johnson County, Kansas, before his father and older brothers took up homesteading in Butler County Kansas. Eventually, John took a farm near Latham, Kansas and married the neighbor's daughter, Josie Brewer.

They had five children. The second, Fred Brewer VanHuss (1893-1972) was Bob's father.

Family

John Finley Vanhuss 1859-1939, Marriage: 24 April 1888, Mo.?
Josie or Josephine E Brewer 1865-1912

Children (5)

Beulah Van Huss 1889-1975
Fred Brewer Van Huss 1893-1972
Luva G. Van Huss 1898-1980
Elmer (Van) E. Van Huss 1901-1970
Lois (Jerry) O. Van Huss 1904-1963