The History of the Early Settlement of Norton County, Kansas

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Clarence Wilber, born December 19, 1883. His wife was born in Wisconsin, July 15, 1856.

The Dunlap family came here in 1873 from Iowa; they had moved to Iowa from Canada in 1867. They all took land on the Solomon west of Lenora. Gabriel Dunlap, Sr., and wife are both dead. Mr. Dunlap died in 1889 and the old lady in 1892. Jim, their eldest son, married a Miss Thompson at Lenora in 1880 and in 1882 they moved to Colorado where they still reside. Gabriel Dunlap, Jr., was born November 12, 1851; on February 14, 1882, he married Catharine McEnroe: they have had seven children, three of them still living. John Dunlap lives at Almelo; his wife died April 5, 1894. William Dunlap lives west of Lenora on the Solomon. Mr. Dunlap's second daughter, Anna, married John Lunney May 27, 1874. He was born in Ireland, January 30, 1836; came to America in 1862 and settled in Norton county, March 18, 1874. Mr. Lunney is one of the most prosperous farmers of the county, he ownes (sic) 800 acres of land and is an extensive raiser of alfafa (sic). They have seven children, three boys and four girls

James Galees [Gilleece ?] was born in Ireland in March, 1836, came to America in 1844, lived for a time in New Jersey; went to Canada in 1851. He became acquainted with the Dunlap family and on November 22, 1862, he married their eldest daughter, Mary; came to Iowa in 1867 and to Norton county in 1873 and settled on the Solomon in Almelo township. They had six children, five of them still living. Mrs. Galees and her eldest daughter were burned to death in a prairie fire in 1878. Mr. Galees and the other children, two girls and three boys, still live on the homestead on the Solomon.

Joseph Wilson was born in Ohio in 1840 and went to the war in 1864 and remained in service until the close of the war; came to Kansas in 1866 and settled in Clay county; was for a time in Davis county: took a homestead in Osborne county in 1870; he arrived in this county June 17, 1873 and took a claim on Marsh creek and has lived here continuously ever since. He has never married. He owns 400 acres of land and has a nice heard (sic) of cattle.

Christian Miller came here in 1874 and bought the Jack Matlock claim where he still lives. He was born in Germany, December 16, 1818; came to America in 1840 and settled in Ohio where he remained for ten years; he then moved to Michigan where he remained until he came to Kansas. Mr. Miller has the finest orchard in the county and raises all kinds of fruit successfully.

The town of Spring City was started in the fall of 1874, where Lenora now stands: the postoffice, named Lenora, had been established in the spring of 1874, two miles west of the present townsite. When the town was established Sedoris moved the office there, but only held it a short time when A. Hendricks was appointed. Mr. Hendricks at once attempted to have the name of the office changed to Spring City, but the department declined to make the change for the reason that there were so many offices by that and similar names, so in 1876 the town company changed the name of the town from Spring City to Lenora to correspond with the postoffice.

The old Spring City town company consisted of A. S. Burroughs, George W. Hood, O. J. Burwell, G. N. Cheesman and Charles Lansing. They built a log store building 20x40 and expected a man from Cawker City to put in a stock there that fall, but after the grasshoppers made their appearance, which occurred in August, 1873, the merchant failed to come. The next year A. Hendricks put in a stock of general merchandise in the log house and became a

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