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