James Marshal Ricketts

 

From Indiana Farm Boy to Kansas Pioneer

James Marshall Ricketts lived through a remarkable period of American history. Born in Indiana in 1847, he grew up on the eve of the Civil War, enlisted in the Union cavalry while still a teenager, married shortly after returning home, and eventually moved his growing family west to Kansas. There he spent much of the remainder of his life farming in Woodson County.

Over the course of his seventy-three years, James experienced the Civil War, westward migration, the development of rural Kansas, and enormous changes in transportation, agriculture, and everyday life. Yet the surviving records also tell a much more personal story—of family, land, military service, visits from relatives, and more than fifty years of marriage.

Birth and Parents

James Marshall Ricketts was born on 28 November 1847 in Clinton County, Indiana.[3–14]

The census records place him in the household of John Ricketts during his childhood. In 1850, three-year-old James was living in Sugar Creek Township, Clinton County, Indiana, in the household of thirty-seven-year-old John Rickets. Also in the household were Arilda Rickets, age twenty-two, and Presilla Ricketts.[15]

Ten years later, James was still living in his father's household in Sugar Creek Township. The 1860 census listed him as twelve years old and born in Indiana. John Ricketts, age forty-eight, headed the household. Other members included Arvilda Rickets, Jane, Mary A., Lewis, Edward, and Nathaniel Ricketts.[16]

Later records provide additional evidence concerning James's family. Following the death of John Ricketts, a January 1889 petition to partition John's land identified Orilda Ricketts as his widow and stated that she owned an undivided one-third interest in his real estate. The petition named John's children and heirs as:

Joseph H. Ricketts, John E. Ricketts, Clem Ricketts, Perscilla Louks, Mary A. Bond, Ada M. Ricketts, William S. Ricketts, James M. Ricketts, Sarah E. Kinnan, and Charles Ricketts.[55]

Thus, the probate record provides particularly valuable evidence connecting James to his father, mother, and siblings.

The narrative report does not provide complete birth and death information for James's parents or siblings, so those details have not been added here.

Growing Up in Indiana

James spent his childhood in Sugar Creek Township, Clinton County, Indiana. Both the 1850 and 1860 federal censuses place him there with his family.[15–16]

His childhood was interrupted by the Civil War. When the war began in 1861, James was only thirteen years old. Two years later, while still a teenager, he entered military service.

Civil War Service

On 18 August 1863, James enlisted at Indianapolis as a private in Company K, 7th Regiment Indiana Volunteer Cavalry.[11,14,17–23] He formally mustered into Company K on 17 September 1863.[24–26]

His military records show that his service was not without hardship. In November 1863, only a short time after entering the army, James was reported absent because he was sick and hospitalized at Memphis, Tennessee.[17,27]

James continued serving with Company K of the 7th Indiana Cavalry through the closing years of the Civil War. Records document his service between December 1864 and September 1865.[4,28–29]

He was finally discharged on 19 September 1865 at Hempstead, Texas.[11,17–20,24,30]

James's military service continued to affect his life long after the war ended. On 20 April 1870, he received a pension based upon his service with Company K of the 7th Indiana Cavalry.[11,44] His pension file generated records over many years and became an important source of information about his military service and family.

Marriage to Rachel Elmeda Christy

Less than a year after leaving the army, James married Rachel Elmeda Christy.

James Marshall Ricketts and Rachel were married on 12 July 1866 at Frankfort, Clinton County, Indiana.[4,12,14,20,31–43]

Their marriage would last for more than half a century.

The 1900 census recorded that James and Rachel had been married thirty-five years. By then they were living in Woodson County, Kansas, where James was still farming.[58]

The report's endnotes document Rachel through census, pension, newspaper, death, and cemetery sources.[20,35,38,40,42,72–79] The report itself, however, does not provide a complete narrative statement of Rachel's birth and death information, so those details have not been reconstructed or added here.

Children of James and Rachel

James and Rachel became the parents of a large family. Their children named in the report were:

• Frances Artlissa "Artie" Ricketts, born 7 April 1868, Clinton County, Indiana.[38,42]

• Hulda May Ricketts, born 24 April 1870, Clinton County, Indiana.[38,42]

• Annabelle Ricketts, born 9 November 1871, Clinton County, Indiana.[38,42]

• Daisy Pearl Ricketts, born 29 July 1873, Clinton County, Indiana.[38,42]

• Manford Milton Ebesnor Ricketts, born 17 March 1875, Clinton County, Indiana.[38,42]

• Charles Desmond Ricketts, born 17 June 1877, Clinton County, Indiana.[38,42]

• Minnie Ricketts, born 7 October 1880, Woodson County, Kansas.[38]

• Dora Ricketts, born 7 October 1880, Woodson County, Kansas.[38]

The report does not provide death dates or death places for these children, so they have not been added.

The census records give glimpses of the children growing up. In 1870, James and Rachel were living in Sugar Creek Township with two-year-old Artlissa and a four-month-old daughter recorded as Jennie.[45]

By 1880 the family had moved to Kansas. The household included Frances A., Hulda A., Anna B., Daisy T., Manford, and a son whose name was recorded as Esond. Ebenezer Christy was also living with the family.[48–49]

Five years later, the Kansas state census again found James and Rachel with Artlissa, Hulda May, Ana Bell, Daisy P., Manford, and Desmond. A. Christy was also in the household.[52]

Farming in Indiana

Following his marriage, James established his own household in Clinton County.

The 1870 census listed James M. Ricketts as head of household in Sugar Creek Township. He was recorded as twenty-nine years old and born in Indiana. Rachel, age twenty-five, and their young daughters Artlissa and Jennie were living with him.[45]

Land records also document James's connection to the area. An 1878 land ownership map shows him owning land in Section 14 of Sugar Creek Township, Clinton County, Indiana.[46]

But the Ricketts family would not remain in Indiana.

Like many families during the decades following the Civil War, James and Rachel looked westward.

Moving West to Kansas

By the fall of 1879, James was acquiring land in Kansas.

On 18 October 1879, he purchased the north half of the southeast quarter of Section 6, Township 24 South, Range 16 East, in Woodson County from L. W. Blumberg and his wife Martha. The purchase price was $825.[47]

The following year, the 1880 census found the family living in Everett Township, Woodson County, Kansas. James was thirty-two years old and working as a farmer. Rachel and six of their children were living with him, along with Ebenezer Christy.[48–49]

The move from Indiana to Kansas represented a major transition for the family. Their two youngest children named in the report, Minnie and Dora, were born in Woodson County on 7 October 1880.[38]

By 1881, James was firmly established in Woodson County.[11]

Building a Life in Woodson County

Land continued to play an important role in James's life.

In November 1882, he advertised eighty acres in Woodson County for sale.[50]

On 1 November 1883, he purchased another tract—the southeast quarter of Section 35, Township 23, Range 15—from J. M. Baldwin.[51]

The 1885 Kansas census found the family in Everett Township. James, age thirty-eight, headed a household that included Rachel and six of their children.[52]

A small newspaper and county-government reference from 1886 provides another glimpse of James's interaction with his community. That year, he was paid $20 for road damage in Woodson County.[53]

By 1889, records placed him at Byron in Woodson County.[54]

James continued farming. The 1895 Kansas census described him as a forty-eight-year-old farmer born in Indiana. Rachel, Desmond, and H. J. Pickerel were also living in the household.[57]

By 1898, James was associated with Crandall in Coffey County.[42], but the federal and state census records continued to place him in Woodson County during the following decades.

Later Farming Years

In 1900, James and Rachel were living in Liberty Township, Woodson County. James was head of household, and their adult son Manford was living with them.[58]

A 1904 atlas shows James owning the southeast quarter of Section 35, Township 23 South, Range 15 East, in Liberty Township.[59] This appears to be the tract he had purchased in 1883.[51]

The 1905 Kansas census again found James and Rachel in Liberty Township.[60]

By 1907, James was associated with Vernon, Woodson County.[19]

A Family Gathering in 1907

One of the most personal glimpses of James's later life comes from a newspaper account published in August 1907.

James and Rachel spent Sunday with Mr. and Mrs. Ed Briles in Coffey County. Others gathered there as well, including Mr. and Mrs. Albert Cokely, D. Ricketts and his wife and Hazel, and Mr. and Mrs. Louis Ricketts of Kempton, Indiana.[61]

The newspaper explained that Louis Ricketts had arrived by train as a surprise:

“Mr and Mrs. Louis Ricketts came in on the Saturday train as a surprise to his brother J. M. and his nieces, Mrs. Ed Briles and Mrs. Albert Cokely.”[61]

The visit apparently was especially memorable because Louis had not seen Kansas for thirty years. The newspaper jokingly reported his reaction to the changes he saw:

“He says Kansas has improved greatly and if it keeps up at the regular rate it will be as good as any eastern state by the time it is as old as they are.”[61]

This short newspaper item brings the family to life in a way that census and land records cannot. It documents relatives traveling by train, gathering together for a Sunday visit, and sharing a bit of humor about how much Kansas had changed.

Retirement Years

James signed a will in 1909 in Woodson County.[62]

The following year, the 1910 census found James and Rachel living in Liberty Township. James was sixty-two years old and Rachel was sixty-four.[63]

In 1915, the Kansas state census described J. M. Ricketts as a sixty-seven-year-old farmer born in Indiana. Rachel, age sixty-nine, was living with him.[64]

Even in his later years, James continued to be identified with the occupation that had defined much of his adult life: farming.

The 1920 federal census provides the last census record of James. On 20 January 1920, seventy-two-year-old James M. Ricketts was head of his Liberty Township household. His wife, Rachel E. Ricketts, age seventy-four, was living with him.[65]

Death and Burial

James Marshall Ricketts died on 28 November 1920 in Liberty Township, Woodson County, Kansas.[10,12,14,20,35,41,66–68]

It was his seventy-third birthday.

His death was reported in several area newspapers, including the Yates Center News, Woodson County Journal, Woodson County Advocate, and Burlington's Daily Republican.[4,12,14,41,68]

James was buried the following day, 29 November 1920, in Liberty Dutro Cemetery in Woodson County, Kansas.[10,14,69–70]

His estate entered probate in Woodson County on 8 January 1921.[71]

Historical Context: The World James Ricketts Knew

James Marshall Ricketts's life stretched across an era of extraordinary change.

When he was born in Indiana in 1847, the United States was still expanding westward. Kansas was not yet a state, railroads were in their infancy in much of the Midwest, and most Americans lived in rural communities.

James's generation was profoundly affected by the Civil War. He entered Union military service in 1863 as a teenager and served in the 7th Indiana Cavalry until September 1865.[11,14,17–30] His service took him far from his Indiana home, including Memphis, Tennessee, and eventually Texas.

When James returned home, the nation was entering the difficult period following the Civil War. He married Rachel in 1866 and began raising a family in Indiana.

During the 1870s, the American population continued moving west. Kansas, admitted to the Union in 1861, attracted families seeking farmland and new opportunities. James and Rachel became part of that movement when they left Indiana and settled in Woodson County, Kansas, by 1880.[47–49]

Their move meant establishing a household on the Kansas prairie while raising a growing family. Land deeds, agricultural records, county records, state censuses, and maps document James's gradual establishment as a Kansas farmer.[47–53,57–60]

By the time of the 1907 family gathering reported in the newspaper, Kansas had changed dramatically from the place James and Rachel had encountered decades earlier. Louis Ricketts's joking observation that Kansas had “improved greatly” captures something of the transformation experienced by families who had watched communities, farms, roads, railroads, and towns develop around them.[61]

James also lived long enough to see changes that would have seemed extraordinary during his Indiana childhood. By the time of his death in 1920, railroads connected communities across the country, automobiles were increasingly appearing on American roads, telephones were changing communication, and the United States had just emerged from World War I.

Through all of those changes, the records consistently identify James with family, military service, land, and farming. He began life as a young boy in his father's Indiana household, became a Union cavalryman as a teenager, returned home to marry Rachel, moved west with his family, and spent decades building a life on the land in Kansas.

His story is therefore more than a collection of dates and places. It is the story of one family moving through some of the largest changes in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century America—from an Indiana childhood before the Civil War to a Kansas farm at the beginning of the modern age.