Kansas Family History

Family History of Orange E. Conner

Orange E. Conner
 b 4 Aug 1847 Tiverton Twp., OH, son of Robert and Elizabeth Conner
 d 2 Nov 1916  WA

married 1st 11 Jun 1867
 Sarah Calb
   children:
 Hiram

married 2nd 30 Dec 1874, Knox Co, IL
 Rebecca Ellen Byers daughter of Charles A. and Elizabeth Byers
  b 12 Nov 1856 OH
  d 9 Feb 1932  WA

children
 Nettie b 1875 d 1950 m Tom Berry, lived in Nevada, MO
 Charles Wesley b 1877
 Ida Jane b 1878 d 1978 m Frank Stover
 Jessie Allen b 1882 d 1928
 Ella May b 1884 d 1960 m Omar Hall
 Fermer LeRoy b 1886 d 1934 m Ethel Mae Jones
 Opal Erman b 1891 d 1986 m Ida Jethrow Dyer
 Hazel Montrue b 1892 d 1986 m Jack Winters m 2nd Lloyd Magnuson
 Lonnie L. b 1898 d 1965 m Nina _
 Elmo Faris b 1900 d 1960 m Mary _

Orange and Rebecca migrated to Bates co, MO, and then to Greenwood Co, KS,
where they owned a farm.  After a grasshopper invasion in 1911/12, the
family moved to Kettle Falls, WA.  After Orange Conner died in 1916, his son
Fermer and his family moved back to Greenwood Co, KS, to take care of the
farm.  When the estate was settled, the farm was sold.  Fermer stayed in
Kansas and continued to farm in Greenwood Co.

Fermer LeRoy Conner, son of Orange E. and Rebecca Ellen Byers Conner
b 14 Aug 1886  MO
d Aug 1834 KS

m 10 Feb 1908
Ethel Mae Jones daughter of Clark and Anna Broddle Jones
b 2 Oct 1890 KS
d 28 May 1993 KS

children
Opal Irene b 10 Jan 1910 KS d 3 Apr 1995 KS m Roy W. (Pat) Beedles
  m 2nd L.V. Hunter
Leonard b 13 Jan 1912 m Fern Brickley
Clark d when 14 years old of appendicitis
Beryl b 24 Jan 1918 m James Griffith
Marlys b 8 Jul 1926 m James Morgan
Delores b 6 Dec 1933 m Bryce Roberts

Fermer and Ethel and their two older children moved to Kettle Falls, WA,
around 1911/12 with Fermer's family after a grasshopper invasion in
Greenwood Co, KS.  Fermer worked for the railroad.  Around 1918 the family
decided someone needed to look after the home place in KS, so Ethel and
Fermer sold all their belongings and moved back and farmed there until
Orange's death when the farm was sold to settle the estate.  They rented a
farm, then bought one west of Eureka in 1929, paying $2,400 for 80 acres.
Ethel's brother, Bo, was a carpenter and built an addition onto the existing
house for them.

Ethel did all the things a farm wife of that era had to do - made lye soap,
hominy, and helped with the butchering.  Her life was probably more
difficult than most, for Fermer caught the flu during an epidemic and was
never strong after that.  After he died, Ethel bought a grocery store in
Roselia, KS, with the insurance money.  The store burned and she lost
everything she had.

During World War II, Ethel went to school to learn sheet metal working, then
worked for a defense plant in Wichita, KS.  After the war, she worked for
Kansas State University as a cook.  Bad luck struck again in 1951 when
Manhattan was hit by a flood and she lost her posessions.  Water stood four
feet deep in her apartment for seven days.  She moved to a second floor
apartment.

Ethel moved back to Wichita, KS, where she cooked for Wichita University
until she retired in 1960 because of a mandatory retirement age of 70.  She
moved to Cassoday, KS, where her son, Leonard, had bought a small house for
her to live in.  Believing that "hard work never hurt anyone", she worked
part time as a cook for a resturant on the Kansas Turnpike.

After Leonard died, she lived with her daughter Marlys Conner Morgan near
ElDorado, Ks, until her death at age 102.