Suggested edit: Alice Cary Eyerly was the ninth child born to Samuel M. Eyerly and Mary Ann “Polly” Thuma. Both of her parents were natives of Pennsylvania, but like so many westward-moving families of that period they had made their way to Ohio and then to Iowa, where Alice was born in Black Hawk Township, Jefferson County, Iowa, on July 8, 1857. Alice’s father, Samuel Eyerly learned the carpenter's trade and was a working carpenter for much of his life. At age 27, he married Mary Ann Slyder from Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Tragically, Mary Ann died 7 months later in December of 1830. Samuel then married Regina Hiskey of Cumberland, Maryland in March of 1832. Their first son, Daniel Hiskey Eyerly, was born the following February. Soon afterwards Samuel and Regina moved from Maryland to Richland County, Ohio. Regina bore three more sons while living in Richland County: Josiah (1834), William (1836), and Benjamin (1838). Regina died just nine days after giving birth to Benjamin in December of 1838. Three months later, infant Benjamin failed to thrive and died March 9, 1839. Samuel married a third time on March 28, 1839 in Richland County, Ohio, to Alice’s mother, Polly Thuma, whose family had moved to Richland County, Ohio from Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. Samuel and Polly welcomed the first three of their ten children while living near Mansfield in Richland County: Mary Ann (1841) who died as an infant, George (1843), and Erastus (1844). In 1846 Samuel and Polly moved their family to Washington County, Iowa, making the trip from Cincinnati to Keokuk by riverboat and settling on Dutch Creek Prairie in Brighton Township. During their nine-year stay in Washington County Mary gave birth to five children: Nancy (1846), Harriet (1848), Catherine (1850), an unnamed son born in 1852 who died as an infant, and Mary (1854). Samuel and Polly relocated again to Black Hawk Township in Jefferson County, Iowa in 1855, where he became the owner of valuable land. Alice Cary Eyerly was born there in 1857. As the Civil War was unfolding in 1861, four-year-old Alice moved with her family to Jefferson Township in Warren County, Iowa. Samuel and Polly's tenth child, James Harlan, was born in there in 1862. Three of Alice’s older brothers, Josiah, William, and George, enlisted and served actively in the Union Army. 

While the war raged on, Samuel and Polly moved their family of five girls and two sons to Madison County, Iowa, in 1864, settling in Crawford. Alice was seven years of age. Soon after settling in Madison County the family received the tragic news that Alice’s brother William had been killed in action during the Battle of Atlanta in July of 1864. Samuel continued to practice carpentry and farmed a small tract of land with the aid of his son Erastus. According to the 1870 U.S. Census, twelve-year-old Alice was living in Greenfield Township, some 60 miles east of her parents’ home, in the household of Charles K. Allen and his wife. Both Charles and his wife were natives of Massachusetts. They had a son named Alfred who was the same age as Alice, a three-year-old son named Charles, and an infant daughter named Bertha, all born in Iowa. Why Alice was separated from her parents and siblings in Jefferson Township is unclear. About the time Alice’s father Samuel died in 1871, fourteen-year-old Alice came to live with her older brother, Erastus, and his new wife Nellie Sirelda Norvell, who were living in Holt County, Missouri. Erastus and Nellie had been married the year before at Forest City, Holt County, Missouri. Erastus had previously completed a course of education at the Wesleyan University in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, and taken a position as a teacher in the Holt County Schools. In 1872 Erastus became Holt County Commissioner of Schools and soon afterwards Alice secured a position as a school teacher in the area. It was at this time and place that Alice met her soon-to-be husband, Arthur Ferrin. Arthur Ferrin was born and raised in Essex county, New York, on May 6, 1848. At age 18, shortly after the death of his mother in 1865, the family moved west to Holt County, Missouri. By 1870 twenty-two-year-old Arthur was well-established in Holt County and was living on his father’s farm with six younger brothers and sisters. On December 25, 1875, Alice and Arthur were united in marriage and began homemaking for themselves. For a time, they lived on a portion of Arthur’s uncle's land, then they settled on a prairie farm, where, for several years, they made their home, contending meanwhile with all the drawbacks and reverses, as well as sharing in the prosperity which at times rewarded their labors and their sacrifices. It appears that Arthur and his brother Loren looked west to improve their fortunes in the silver mines of Colorado. The 1880 U.S. Census records Arthur and Alice with their two children Eugene (age 4) and Carrie (age 2) as “visitors” in the household of Alice’s sister and brother-in-law, Mary and Bryant Corwin, in Monroe, Iowa. Perhaps Alice and the children were staying with her sister’s family while her husband Arthur was in Colorado working as a teamster in the Silver Cliff Mine in Custer County, Colorado. The two different census records were enumerated within two weeks of each other. Most likely Arthur was in Colorado, but he was still listed on the Iowa census record as part of the family. By 1881 Arthur had come back from Colorado. Alice and Arthur returned to Holt County, Missouri. A third child was born in November of 1881. Alice and Arthur named him Bryant Earl Ferrin, no doubt in honor of his uncle who had hosted Alice and her two children while Arthur was out West prospecting for silver. Arthur and his brother Loren had become interested to a considerable extent, in stock raising, so they looked around for a suitable grassland location. Loren took the next step in realizing this plan by settling with his new wife in Eureka, Greenwood County, Kansas. Two years later Arthur, Alice and their children, Eugene (age 9), Carrie (age 7), Earl (age 4) and Elsie (age eighteen months), followed Loren to Greenwood County in 1885, settling near Eureka, Kansas. Arthur and Alice stayed in Greenwood County for a little over a year. Loren and Arthur continued to search for obtainable land where an unlimited amount of pasture was found to graze and raise cattle. Their searching was rewarded when the brothers staked side-by-side claims in the northwest part of Comanche County, southern Kansas. They would be among the pioneer settlers of the area. The county had been organized less than a year, and the nearest railroad was still 65 miles away. Beginning in March of 1886 the two families began their pioneer journey transporting belongings, teams, and wagons westward on the Missouri Pacific Railroad from Eureka to Kinsley, Kansas. They unloaded their teams and household goods at the railway station in Kinsley. Then they drove their teams and wagons southward for two days to reach the claims they had previously "staked". Access to adequate water was essential, so the brothers had chosen claims with Spring Creek running between the two. Arthur and Loren hauled lumber from Kinsley to build their houses and salt from the Oklahoma plains for their cattle. Providing for the family was of the first things a pioneer family had to do, so Arthur and Alice planted a garden and fruit trees. Alice and the children canned what vegetables they could, dried fruit from their trees. Wild plums and greens were part of their staple foods, and each year Alice furnished Bob Callaway, who operated the St. Nicholas Hotel in Coldwater, Kansas, with a keg of kraut, and a keg of cucumbers put down in brine. She also kept the hotel stocked with wild plum butter. Arthur’s time was devoted to farming and stock raising, providing pork and beef for their meat, and cattle to be sold at market. Their hardships were many, but being of sturdy stock, they mastered them all, building a substantial and permanent home. The Ferrins became a prominent factor in the development of Comanche County, always standing for the best interest of the people. Eugene and Carrie went their first year of school in a dugout, with Miss Jennie Doig as their teacher. In 1886 or 1887 the Ridge Summit School was built. Alice and Arthur welcomed four more children to their family Fred (1887), Cora (1889), Hazel (1893) and lastly Horace (1901). The first church organized in the community was the United Brethren and was a very important part of the Ferrin family life. In 1914 Arthur and Alice retired to a comfortable home in Wilmore, surrounded by many warm friends, whose esteem they so well merited. Their son Earl remained on the family farm. On Christmas day in 1925, Arthur and Alice celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. It was a very happy and special occasion since all of their eight children, their spouses, and eleven of their thirteen grandchildren were present. Arthur Ferrin passed away a few weeks later on February 3, 1926, at the family home in Wilmore. Alice spent the remaining seventeen years of her life at her home in Wilmore. The 1930 and 1940 census records show that her widowed sister-in-law, Alcana, wife of Loren, lived close by. She was lovingly referred to as "Auntie Ferrin" by her many friends. It was said of her that she was one of the most beloved pioneer women in the community. During the last years of her life she took on a live-in housekeeper, Eliza Belden. Alice Ferrin passed away at the Shelley Hospital in Coldwater on March 20, 1943, with pneumonia, after suffering a broken hip. She was buried in the family lot in the Wilmore Cemetery with her husband Arthur. The Western Star, December 14, 1923, included this tribute. “Mrs. Ferrin deserves well the high place she holds in the affections of the people. To her family and to her friends she has given her best energies and her constant labors and devotion. It is to such good citizens as Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Ferrin that Comanche County owes her greatest debt of gratitude, for without such our county would never have been what it is today.”
Contributor: Bob Larson (48731898) • [email protected]