Biography of Dewitt C. Krone

Dewitt C. Krone was a prominent pioneer in Montgomery County, Kansas, arriving in 1868 after serving in the Civil War. He homesteaded near Sycamore Creek and successfully farmed for over thirty years, becoming an influential community member. His close interactions with the Osage tribe and dedication to preserving local history marked his legacy. Krone was an active participant in the community, contributing to education and local governance. He married twice, fathering several children, and remained a respected figure until his passing.

DEWITT C. KRONE—A record of the pioneers of Montgomery county would be subject to just and severe criticism without some extended mention of D. C. Krone. He is so widely known in the county and has been here so long that few can gainsay that he was here, really in the beginning. When he drove his mule team from LeRoy, Kansas, down into this county, winding his way about over the prairies over unknown roadways, across nameless creeks and through untamed valleys and headlands, nobody here now witnessed his passing, save those who might have accompanied the caravan on the same mission with himself.

He selected, as his future home, a tract of land on Sycamore creek, in section 22, township 31, range 15, where he has, for thirty-four years, carried on farming with its attendant auxiliaries successfully and effectively. His settlement was almost in the midst of a band of Osages, whose chief, Nopawalla, was a frequent visitor to the households of the scattered settlers and with whose tribe a reluctant sort of business and social intercourse was carried on. The minutia which made up the yearly incidents of a life on this frontier cannot be touched upon here and only as they are revealed in the experiences of the numerous pioneers mentioned in this volume will these incidents become known again to us and to our posterity.

The very composition and makeup of the man has maintained D. C. Krone a leading citizen of his township and county. It has been with no presumption on his part, or any disregard of the proper reserve, that his name is first mentioned among the citizenship of his township, or that he is coordinate with only a few distinguished pioneers of his county. He seemed designed to take the initiative in matters and the propriety of his acts was so apparent that, of one accord, the voice of neighborly approval came back. In the social life of his community, in its political entanglements or upheavals, in the cause of public education and in the religious atmosphere of his church he is unconsciously a power in the promotion of progress and harmony unimpeded.

He has anticipated, in a way, the needs of the future in the preservation of incidents of the past. A student of events himself, his genius has prompted him to make records and to preserve data concerning the salient, historical events of his locality that the past may not become obscured to the future and that the works of the pioneers shall not have been wrought in vain. He puts his thoughts readily and intelligibly on paper and his contributions to county papers contain much food for the searcher after historical truth.

December 4, 1868, D. C. Krone took his claim in Montgomery county. He came to Kansas the same year he left the army and stopped for three years near the Neosho river, between LeRoy and Neosho Falls. He was from Macon county, Illinois, where his birth occurred April 17, 1844. His father, Daniel Krone, was born in York county, Pennsylvania, February 2, 1806, and took for a wife Sarah A. Kiester. He left his native state at an early day and settled in Macon county, Illinois, where his large family were brought up. He was a son of Michael Krone who had children: Jacob, Philo, Elijah, David, Jesse, Daniel, Tillie, Mary, Abigail and Hannah. Daniel married a daughter of Michael Kiester and was the father of twelve children, as follows: Duquesne H., who has resided in Montgomery county since 1877 and who was a veteran of the Civil War, belonging to Company “E,” Forty-first Illinois; Mrs. Mary Star, of Independence, Kansas; Mrs. Susan Bradshaw, deceased; Dewitt C. of this review; Jesse S., deceased; Ellis K., of Wilson county, Kansas; Mrs. Jennie Stevens, of Taylorville, Illinois; Henry C., deceased; Charles L., of Oklahoma; Edward B., of Chickasha, Indian Territory; and Mrs. Myrtle Taylor, of Independence, Kansas.

D. C. Krone acquired a country school education and grew to maturity on the farm. In 1862 he enlisted in Company “E,” Forty-first Illinois Infantry, under Col. I. C. Pugh, the regiment being attached to the Army of the Tennessee. The principal engagements participated in by Mr. Krone were the Red River expedition, Siege of Vicksburg, Bentonville, Cold Water and March to the Sea, and on to the Grand Review at Washington, D. C. He was discharged at Louisville, Kentucky, and was mustered out July 28, 1865. Returning home, his trip to Kansas was soon made and his connection with Kansas’ development took place.

In 1868, Mr. Krone married Margaret J., daughter of John S. Lobaugh, of Neosho Falls. The Lobaughs came to Kansas as pioneers from the State of Pennsylvania. The union of Mr. Krone and his wife, Margaret J., produced the following children, viz: Naomi, wife of Jacob S. Corzine, of Taylorville, Illinois; Katherine M.; Mrs. Mabel M. Burke, of Whistler, Oklahoma; and Walter W., of Neodesha, Kansas. The mother of these children passed away April 9, 1880. Mr. Krone married Mary I. White, a daughter of Capt. Charles White, of Longton, Kansas. Two daughters only have resulted from this marriage, viz: Edith Lucile, and Ruth, both with the family home. The family are members of the Methodist church and Mr. Krone has served for thirty-two years as a member of the district board of the Krone school. In politics he is a Republican, and has been three times chosen as a delegate to the State convention.