Johnson County KS Archives Biographies.....Wedd, Henry 1821 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.org/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.org/ks/ksfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 March 5, 2009, 6:07 am Author: Ed Blair (1915) Henry Wedd, of Lenexa, Kan., is the oldest man in Johnson county and for fifty-eight years has been an important factor in the development of this section of Kansas. Notwithstanding his ninety-four years, he is still active in the business world, but of course he is not chasing the nimble dollar with the alacrity that he could forty years ago, yet he transacts considerable business and looks after many of the details of his private affairs. Mr. Wedd is a native of England, born in Essex county, September 15, 1821. He is a son of Benjamin Wedd, of Essex county, and Mary Chater, of Lestershire. Mr. Wedd is a direct descendant of King Henry VII, of England, and traces his lineage back through the centuries to that royal personage by duly authenticated records, as shown by the following genealogical synopsis: Henry VII, King of England, married Princess Elizabeth Plantagenet, daughter of King Edward IV. Louis XII, King of France, married Princess Mary Tudor. Henry Clifford, Second Earl of Cumberland, married Lady Eleanor Brandon. Henry Stanley, Fourth Earl of Derby, married Lady Margaret Clifford. Ferdinand Stanley, Fifth Earl of Derby, married Alice, the sixth daughter of Sir John Spencer, of Altoype. Grey Burges, Fifth Lord Chandas, married Lady Anne Stanley. Thomas Pryde, son and heir of Sir Thomas Pryde, married Lady Rebecca Binges. Rev. William Sherwin-Lerpiner, of Braddick, married Pryde, only daughter of Thomas Pryde. Rev. John Cruckanthary, rector of Fordmen, married Margaret Sherman. Nathaniel Cruckanthary married Miss Roy Marr. Benjamin Cruckenthorpe, married Catherine, daughter of Rev. J. Smith, rector of St. James, Colchester, Essex county. Charles Cruckenthorpe, married Jane, youngest daughter of Henry Churchill, of Churchill, Oxford county. Rev. Charles Churchill Cruckenthorpe, married Maria, daughter of Robert Spencer, of Bridge-water Square. Benjamin Wedd, of Fordmen, married Hester Cruckenthorpe. Benjamin Wedd, Second, of Fordmen, born October 10, 1708, married, May 17, 1757. Mary, daughter of Thomas Inkersoler, of Spaulding, County Lincoln. Elizabeth Cruckenthorpe, daughter of Samuel, married Benjamin Wedd, who was born February 27, 1754. Benjamin Wedd, of Latchington, County Essex, born September 25, 1777, died December 3, 1844; married Mary, daughter of Nathan Chater, of Market Harbor, County Lester. She was born May 14. 1784, married Benjamin Wedd Angus 18, 1808,. and died February 4, 1852, and the following children, of whom Henry Wedd, the subject of this sketch, were born to this union. Benjamin, of Rochester. N. Y., William, Mathew, John, Mary, Elizabeth, Henry, the subject of this sketch, and Anne. The above mentioned members of the family were all born in England and came to America in 1833, and the father and mother located at Rochester, N. Y., where their sons, Benjamin and John, were engaged in the hardware business. Henry Wedd remained in New York State until 1857, when on account of business reverses, he lost everything he had. He then decided to go west and start life over, and in the spring of 1858 came to Kansas and located at Bellevue, Johnson county. He worked for Calvin McCoy for a time, who fitted him out with a team and some farm implements and started him to work on a 700-acre farm. Mr. Wedd operated this on shares for Mr. McCoy for three years. He then went to Douglass county and preempted 100 acres of Government land. He also bought 120 acres of land in Johnson county from a Shawnee Indian and still owns a part of that 120 acres. He worked hard and met with a fair degree of success and when some Indian in the neighborhood needed money and wanted to sell his land, Mr. Wedd was generally ready to accommodate him and finally bought a 500-aere tract, which was all the Indian land left in that vicinity for which he paid ten dollars per acre. He also bought 160 acres from Robert Moody, the farm upon which his son now lives. Mr. Wedd now owns 560 acres of some of the most valuable land in northeastern Johnson county, and this means that it is very valuable, being located almost within the residence radius of Kansas City. He also owns two fine residence properties in Lenexa and has resided in one of them since 1910, when he left the farm. Mr. Wedd was married July 3. 1846, to Miss Lucy Jane Converse. She was born in Jefferson county, New York, June 21, 1828, and died in Johnson county, Kansas, December 1, 1908. She was a daughter of Daniel Converse and when she was seven -years old her parents removed to Erie county, New York, and four years later to Monroe county, that State. To Henry Wedd and wife were born the following children: Henry, Jr., farmer, Lenexa, married Inez Evelyn Cowdriek and they have one child, Nettie May. Charles, agent for the Strang line at Lenexa, married Ida A. Armstrong and they have four children, Mable Ethel, Ray Armstrong, Harold Charles and Eugene Wallace. Lucy Jane, deceased, was the wife of Foster Duncan, also deceased, and left three children, Mary Effie, Etta Mabel, Bertha Emma. George resides at Spring Hill, a personal sketch of whom appears in this volume. Mary Marie married Jabez F. Bradshaw, of Lenexa; Ida Maybelle, deceased; Willard James, farmer in Cass county, Missouri; Albert Edward, on his father's farm, married Frances C. Tease and they have two children: Grace and Helen, and Elizabeth married Wesley Tease, of Miami county, and they have one child, William Henry. Mr. Wedd has had a very successful business career and today is one of the wealthy men of Johnson county, besides having reared a large family and assisted them in getting a start in the world. He has four sons, each of whom is worth over $20,000. Mr. Wedd endured the many hardships and uncertainties of life on the border in the early days. He was a strong Union man and was frequently a victim of the bushwhacker devastations. At one time a team of mules was stolen from him by a band of bushwhacker brigands who took them to Lawrence and then Leavenworth, Kan., but Colonel Lyon of the Ninth Kansas regiment, who was a friend of Mr. Wedd, sent a detail of soldiers to Leavenworth and recovered the mules, after considerable difficulty. His house was raided several times. On one occasion a party of bushwhackers surrounded him and demanded his money and this time he was covered by fourteen revolvers when the captain of the band rode up and ordered his release. At another time the bushwhackers called at his house to kill him, but he was fortunate enough to be away from home. Mr. Wedd is a remarkably well preserved man for his age and he attributes his longevity to a temperate life, although living in an age when drinking was not unpopular, he never used intoxicants in any form Neither has he ever indulged in the use of tobacco and in this respect his sons are following in his footsteps. None of them use liquor nor tobacco. Mr. Weed is a Republican but has never aspired to hold political office, although in the early days he served as constable for a time. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He has lived a straight, upright life and is of that high type of citizenship that insures stability to our form of government. He might very appropriately be called the dean of Johnson county. Additional Comments: Extracted from: HISTORY OF Johnson County Kansas BY ED BLAIR AUTHOR OF Kansas Zephyrs, Sunflower Sittings and Other Poems and Sketches IN ONE VOLUME ILLUSTRATED STANDARD PUBLISHING COMPANY LAWRENCE, KANSAS 1915 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.org/ks/johnson/bios/wedd280nbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/ksfiles/ File size: 8.0 Kb