Biography of Anthony Windell

Anthony Windell, born November 27, 1842, in Harrison County, Indiana, demonstrated remarkable industriousness and sound judgment throughout his life. After serving in the Civil War, he moved to Kansas, where he transformed a modest beginning into a prosperous farming enterprise in Morris Township. His well-maintained farm featured modern buildings and an extensive orchard. Windell was respected in his community and was actively involved in local affairs, including the Farmer’s Alliance. He married Emily C. Sieg in 1865, and together they raised twelve children, ten of whom survived him.

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ANTHONY WINDELL. Considering the limited amount of capital with which the subject of this notice commenced life in Kansas a few years since, his success has been almost phenomenal. This has only been brought about by the most unflagging industry and the exercise of good judgment, in addition to the practice of a close economy. He has now a well-improved farm in Morris Township, free from encumbrance, with convenient modern buildings and a very fine apple orchard, besides trees of the smaller fruits. The homestead is beautifully located, and is invariably an object of admiration to all who pass by it. The proprietor is a man held in high respect in his community — a respect which he has earned by his straightforward dealings with his fellow-men.

The early tramping ground of Mr. Windell was in Harrison County, Ind., where he first opened his eyes to the light November 27, 1842. He was the tenth in a family of eleven children born to Anthony and Elizabeth (Cunningham) Windell, the father a native of the Shenandoah Valley, Va., and the mother born in Hardin County, Ky. Both went to Indiana with their respective parents early in life, and were there married. The father carried on farming in Harrison County, eliminating a good homestead from the wilderness, and departed this life in 1855. The mother survived her husband for a period of twenty-one years, remaining a widow and passing away in September, 1876. Anthony Windell, Sr., served in the Black Hawk War as Captain of the celebrated Yellow Jacket camp of Indians. Eleven of the children of the parental family are living.

Young Windell attended the common school during the winter seasons in his boyhood, and assisted his father on the farm until a lad of fourteen years. Then, starting out on his own account, he was employed on a farm until after the outbreak of the Civil War. In January, 1862, when a little over nineteen years of age, he enlisted as a Union soldier in Company B, Fifty-third Indiana Infantry, under the command of Col. W. Q. Gresham. They remained on duty at Indianapolis for a time, guarding prisoners, then repaired to Savannah and Corinth, and subsequently took part with Gen. Hurlbut’s Division — the Seventeenth Army Corps — in the engagements which followed. Mr. Windell met the enemy at Hatchie’s Run and the siege of Vicksburg, about which time his term of enlistment expired. He then veteranized, while on the Black River, near Vicksburg. Subsequently, while on a foraging expedition, he fell over a cliff and was seriously injured, so that he was obliged to accept his honorable discharge, in December, 1864, for disability.

Upon leaving the army, Mr. Windell returned to Indiana and resumed farming, sojourning there until 1875. He then removed to Texas and settled in Dallas County, but soon became dissatisfied with his surroundings, and we next find him in Cowley County, this State. He sojourned there also only a brief season, then coming to this county, located upon the land which he now owns and occupies. The outlook at that time was anything but encouraging, the land being as the Indians had left it. Mr. Windell first secured one hundred and sixty acres, to which he has since added, and has now three hundred and twenty acres, one hundred and ninety of which are under the plow. He has expended no small amount of time and hard cash in erecting his buildings, gathering together the necessary machinery and putting the farm in good running order. His orchard comprises fifty apple trees in good bearing condition, this alone being the source of a handsome income. Otherwise, he raises the usual crops of this region and also considerable live stock.

Mr. Windell was married in Harrison County, Ind., April 29, 1865, to Miss Emily C., daughter of Henry and Annie (Pennington) Sieg. Mrs. Windell was the third in a family of thirteen children, and was born in Indiana November 19, 1841. Her parents were natives respectively of Virginia and Indiana, to which latter State the father removed when a young man, and was there married. They were residents thereafter of Harrison County, where the father died in 1865. The mother is still living at the old homestead, and is now sixty-five years old.

Mrs. Windell acquired her education in the common school, and remained under the parental roof until her marriage. Twelve children have been born to this couple, ten of whom are living. Mary Madeline is the wife of John T. Johnson, a resident of Morris Township, this county, and they have one child; Anna Florence married Charles Holland, and they live on a farm in Morris Township; Elizabeth remains with her parents; Sarah is the wife of Samuel H. Brooks, of Harper County; Charles, Alice, Minnie, Ida, Amanda and Atta are at home with their parents. Mr. and Mrs. Windell are members in good standing of the Christian Advent Church. Mr. Windell belongs to the Farmer’s Alliance, in which he officiates as Assistant Lecturer. He takes an interest in political affairs and gives his support to the Republican party.

The maternal grandfather of Mrs. Windell was Dennis Pennington, a native of Tennessee, who emigrated to Indiana in time to assist in organizing the Territorial Government. He was a man of fine talents and executive ability, and was a member of the Indiana Legislature many years after it was admitted into the Union as a State. He married Miss Elizabeth English, a native of Kentucky, whose father was one of the earliest settlers of the Blue Grass State. Mr. English was murdered by Indians, who captured his wife and three children. The wife soon escaped with her youngest child, but Elizabeth and her brother were kept in captivity for a period of twelve years. Peace was then declared, and a treaty was made with the Indians by which they released all their white prisoners, and the two were thus returned to their friends. Mr. Windell, our subject, was one of six sons, three of whom entered the Union service during the Civil War, and John died, in 1862, at home; Washington was the Captain of Company F, Thirty-eighth Indiana Infantry.

When Mr. Windell came to Kansas he reached Wichita with a wife and six children and $5.50 in money. He hired an ox-team to break his prairie farm land, then returned to Cowley County and broke an equal number of acres for the owner of the oxen.