Civil War: Cos. G and I, 2nd Pennsylvania Infantry

Mr. Lingenfelter was born in Jefferson Co., Pa., August 17, 1840, and was there reared to manhood on a farm. His parents were John U. and Catherine (Mauk) Lingenfelter, natives of Bedford Co., Pa., and born near Claysburg, in what is now Blair County, where they were married. In 1839 they removed to Jefferson County.
Mr. Lingenfelter enlisted as a Union soldier [July 23, 1863] in Company C, 206th Pennsylvania Infantry [sic, Company I, 2nd Pennsylvania Infantry], in which he served about six months as a private [mustered out January 21, 1864]. When leaving the army he again went into a store and was thus occupied until January 1865. Then going to Tennessee he rented a large plantation and raised a crop of cotton and corn. His employers at the store had solicited him to go there, they furnishing all the money necessary and giving him one-third of the profits. Each partner each realized about $800.
Mr. Lingenfelter returned to Pennsylvania in December 1865, and in March following emigrated to Missouri and purchased a farm in Gentry County. He also engaged in general merchandising at Riding City, remaining there one and a half years. In the meantime he was elected Surveyor of DeKalb County, as his farm was on the county line and his buildings in DeKalb County. He resigned that office on account of ill health and later commenced teaching, which profession he followed until 1872. That year he came to Kansas and emptied 160 acres of land on section 3 and later purchased 80 acres adjoining. With the exception of an occasional dugout, there were no settlers in this region aside from a few who had located upon the present site of South Haven and Wellington. The buffalo had been driven back, bt three strays were killed in this vicinity in 1872.
In May 1877, Mr. Lingenfelter was married to Miss Mary C. Gregson, daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth (Montgomery) Gregson. This lady was born in Fulton County, Ind. That same spring the newly-wedded pair settled upon the farm which has since been the family homestead. In the fall of 1882 Mr. Lingenfelter was elected to represent this county in the Kansas Legislature and served one term. In 1884 he was elected to the Senate, serving also one term of four years.
(Portrait and Biographical Album of Sumner County, Kansas; Chicago: Chapman Brothers, 1890, pp. 409-411)
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William Johnson Lingenfelter married (1) Florence Ann Sherman on July 21, 1866, in Grant Twp., DeKalb Co., Missouri. When they moved to Kansas she missed her family and was unhappy. They divorced October 14, 1875, in Wellington, Sumner Co., Kansas. On May 25, 1876, William Johnson Lingenfelter married (2) Mary Clarinda Gregson in Sumner Co., Kansas.
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A dispatch to the Kansas City Journal on the 23rd, stated that W. J. Lingenfelter died at his home in Wellington, Kansas, the evening before, at the age of 70 years. Prof. Lingenfelter taught school in King City about 40 years ago. Several now here remember their teacher of many years ago.
--The King City Chronicle, King City, Mo. 7-29-1910