Edwin L. Horth, real estate dealer of Centralia, Kans., was born in New York State, October 21, 1847, and is a son of Reuben and Mary Goldthwait Horth, who were the parents of seven children, four of whom are living. Reuben Horth, his father, was born in Massachusetts, and became a lumberman. He died in 1855, at the age of forty years. Edwin L. Horth's mother was also a native of Massachusetts, born in 1818, and died in 1856. It will thus be seen that Mr. Horth was left an orphan at a very early age, and. was reared by relatives who took him with them to Iowa, when he was still a youth. He was a student at Lombard College, Galesburg, Ill., when the Civil war broke out. He returned home and enlisted at Knoxville, Marion county, Iowa, in Company K, Fifteenth regiment, Iowa infantry. He was first enrolled as a drummer boy, but became a soldier in the ranks, and fought with Sherman through the Atlanta campaign. The date of his enlistment as a drummer boy was in December, 1863, and he was honorably discharged in the fall of 1864. When his war service was ended, he went to New York to visit his grandfather and farmed his grandfather's place for five years. In 1869 he came to Centralia, Nemaha county, Kansas, and joined some relatives of the New York colony, who had settled there. This was the time of the great droughts in Kansas and the settlers of this county were in sore need of assistance to keep them alive. Previous to coming to Kansas he solicited aid from the merchants of Fairfield, Iowa, and the same was gratefully accepted by the drought sufferers. When Mr. Horth located in Kansas he raised broom corn and small grains on land owned by his uncle, D. M. Chapin. Three years after coming to Kansas he engaged in the grain and live stock business at Centralia. He erected two elevators, one of which was located at Vermillion, Kans., and was engaged in buying and shipping grain for over thirty years. He did the largest grain and live stock business in this section of the county for a long period. When he first came to Kansas he acted as land agent for the Missouri Pacific Railway Company and sold railroad lands to settlers for $6.00 an acre. Some of the land which he originally sold for this price has again passed through his hands greatly increased in value and has brought as high as $75 and $80 an acre. Since 1905 Mr. Horth has devoted his time and talents exclusively to the real estate and land business.
He was married in 1867 at Hamlet, Chautauqua county, New York, to Miss Adelia Dye, who was born in New York, in February, 1847, and is a daughter of Captain Dye, who was a drill master in the New York State militia. Five children have been born to this marriage, as follows: Mrs. Tressie Hybskmann, Vermilion, Kans.; Frank, Santa Anna, Cal.; Mrs. Effie Brown, a widow, living at Centralia, Kans.; Lincoln, a traveling playwright; Elmer J., a grocer of Centralia.
Mr. Horth is a Republican who has filled several offices during his long career. He has served as township trustee, mayor of Centralia, and has filled the post of justice of the peace. The only office he is now holding is that of notary public.
SOURCE: Ralph Tennal, History of Nemaha County, Kansas, p. 551-2
