Biography of John Givens

John Givens, born in 1841 in Lake County, Illinois, became a significant figure in Montgomery County as a county commissioner and a successful farmer. He arrived in West Cherry Township in 1869, where he cultivated his 1,000-acre estate. A Civil War veteran, he served in Company “C,” 5th Illinois Cavalry, contributing to key campaigns. After marrying Jennie Burt, Givens raised seven children and was active in local governance. His dedication to both agriculture and community service left a lasting legacy in the area.

JOHN GIVENS—In the progress of events in Montgomery county, influenced by the stubborn hand of man, John Givens, of West Cherry township and a member of the board of county commissioners, has played no inconspicuous part. He came to the county in the early time with industry and character to recommend him, and established himself in the somewhat isolated settlement of West Cherry township. He drove into the county in company with Edgar Burt and Joseph Dayton, all locating claims, Mr. Givens selecting his in section 25, township 31, range 16.

Soon after he located his claim, Mr. Givens went to Osage Mission, now St. Paul, and bought a yoke of cattle, a wagon and a plow. With these he began breaking prairie in the spring of 1870, and it was several years before the tillable land was all turned and the buzz of the breaking sod no longer charmed the owner’s ear.

As the work of the early years progressed strangers became neighbors and friends and the Red Man and the Pale Face carried on an irregular sort of commerce with each other. In his bachelor quarters, 14×16 feet, Mr. Givens occasionally met an Osage Indian and the half-breeds, Louis Shouteau and Louis Brazill, were frequent callers on errands of barter and trade. After his marriage the work of the farm moved more satisfactorily along and our subject found himself laying surely hold of the substantial things of his career. In 1883, he erected his commodious residence, and barns and cribs and granaries came along one after another ’till his improvements resembled a miniature village and his estate grew into baronial proportions. Four hundred and eighty acres represent the size of his home farm and five hundred and twenty acres his holdings in Rutland township. One thousand acres of land accumulated as the result of one’s individual efforts represents an epoch in his life, and is an achievement for which comparatively few farmers are distinguished.

John Givens was born in Lake county, Illinois, in the year 1841, and remained at home in pursuit of the arts of peace ’till the outbreak of the Civil War. September 14th, 1861, he enlisted in Company “C,” 5th Ill., Vol. Cav., under Col. Hall Wilson. His regiment went from Bloomington, Illinois, to the front and was assigned to the Army of the West, under command of Gen. Grant. Mr. Givens took part in the Vicksburg campaign and participated in the battles of Champion Hills, Big Black, and the siege, and was in the Yazoo campaign under Gen. Sherman. His service along the Mississippi River, in Missouri and Arkansas, and, after the fall of Vicksburg, over to Meridian, Miss., includes much of the hard service he participated in, ending in his being besieged for ninety days with typhoid fever. He was discharged at Vicksburg with a military service to his credit of a little more than three years. He entered the army as a private, served much of the time as a non-commissioned officer and was assigned to an occasional extra duty. He returned to Mississippi after the war, where he had a contract for building a country road. This work concluded, he returned to his Illinois home and was engaged in farming in Logan county, that state, until his start for Kansas.

In the fall of 1869, he came west by rail to near Fort Scott, where he took the stage to Osage Mission, then an important point in the settlement of the new west. From this base of supply he accompanied his two friends to the Osage Diminished Reserve in Montgomery county, where the thread of this narrative has previously been treated.

Mr. Givens’ father was Felix Givens, a native of Ireland. The father was a carpenter and he came to America in early life and settled as a pioneer in Lake county, Illinois. He was one of three sons, Felix, Richard and Charles, and married Catherine Davlin, who bore him four children, viz: Mrs. Rose Callahan, of Independence, Kansas; Mrs. Mary A. Riley, of Chicago, Illinois; John, of this record, and Felix, of Nebraska.

Mr. Givens married, after three years of bachelor life, Miss Jennie Burt, an Iowa lady, and a daughter of Benjamin and Elizabeth Burt. Seven children have come to bless the home of these parents, namely: Mrs. Catherine Henderson, of Montgomery county, with two children, Pauline and Harold; Josephine and Cecelia, with the family homestead; Mrs. Blanche Mangan, of Montgomery county, with two children, Edith and John Mc.; Charles and Louis, in California, and Paul.

In his various relations with his fellow man Mr. Givens is most worthy and honorable. He has always manifested a warm interest in public matters and has been called to serve as treasurer and trustee of his township two terms, as member of his school board and is now serving his second term as commissioner of Montgomery county.