William Moses Baker

                        Pleasant Valley Township, Harper County, Arkansas City.
The 1990 Cowley County Heritage book had some more information about Henry Harbaugh that was written up in the “Dusenbury” family, page 162.
William Moses Barber, grandfather of Maurice Benjiman “Bill” Dusenbury, according to his own personal narrative, was born May 18, 1858, in Orange County, Ohio, of English ancestors. His parents with five children sailed from England in 1854 on the ship, “Daniel Webster,” which was six weeks on the water; only 40 of the 480 passengers surviving, the balance dying from the cholera on board. William Moses Barber arrived in Winfield on March 1, 1878, where he found “wheat waving and peach trees in full bloom. He recalled the following in 1918: “We cut soft wheat that harvest on the 14th day of May [1878]. Never has the spring been so early since that date.
William Moses Barber learned from Henry Harbaugh of a “smuggled” 160-acre parcel (part of the Osage Trust Lands) south of Winfield. Barber stated: “I being only 20 years old dared not file on it. I took it by squatters rights . . . I broke part of it out and built a stone fence and other improvements, dug a 12 x 12 cellar for a house, and lived in a tent on the Walnut river as it ran through one corner of the claim.” (When the Dusenburys located the claim a few summers ago they were surprised to find the fence still used by the current owner, Cecil Eastman.)
The article on Barber’s connection with Harbaugh continues.
“That fall he (Barber) became ill with typhoid malaria. Sick all winter, it took all his money to pay the doctor. ‘Almost barefoot,’ he was ready to return home to Illinois, offering to sell his team, wagon, and claim for $250.
“Mr. Harbaugh said: “Bill, you are made of the stuff we need in this country . . . if you will quit trying to act a fool by giving away your stuff, I will give you all the work you want.”
Barber stayed. He freighted wheat to Wichita and flour and produce into Indian Territory. He filed his claim August 4, 1879, paying $1.25 per acre. On November 29, 1881, he married Hattie Camp. He built a two-room house over his cellar and set up housekeeping for $35. They raised hogs and cattle four years before moving to Harper County, where he was a successful farmer-rancher and founded the Anthony Wholesale Grocery Company. They had six children. A daughter, Florence Mae, married Fred Weaver Dusenbury. Their son, Bill Dusenbury, was born on May 28, 1912.
Bill Dusenbury married Doris Beatrice Gates, born on April 21, 1913, on January 11, 1933, in the manse of the Hopewell Presbyterian Church near Anthony, Kansas. They farmed in Harper and Sumner counties, raising and exhibiting registered Ayrshire dairy cattle. In 1979 they had retired and were living in a residence in Arkansas City. The 1990 account mentions the two daughters of Bill and Doris Dusenbury: (Karen Linn Peterson and Susanna Gates Scott). By this time they had six grandchildren and four great-grandsons.
The article is quite interesting. It was written by Karen Linn Dusenbury Peterson.
Pleasant Valley Township 1879: Wm. Barber, 21; no spouse listed.
Pleasant Valley Township 1882: Wm. Barber, 23; spouse, Hattie, 19.
                                               FROM THE NEWSPAPERS.


Winfield Courier, July 18, 1878.
List of letters remaining unclaimed in the Winfield Post Office July 16, 1878.
William Barber was on this list..
Winfield Courier, August 15, 1878.
LIST of letters remaining unclaimed in the Winfield Post Office August 13, 1875.
William Barber was on this list.
Arkansas City Traveler, July 9, 1879.
LAND OFFICE AT WICHITA, KANSAS, June 20th, 1879.
NOTICE is hereby given that the following-named settler has filed notice of his intention to make final proof in support of claim, and secure final entry thereof at the expiration of thirty days from the date of this notice, viz:
William Barber, for the Lots 3 and 4 and south ½ northwest ¼ 2 34 4 east and names the following as his witnesses, viz: B. B. Wells of Arkansas City, Kansas, and Johnathan McFadden of Winfield, Kansas. R. L. WALKER, Register.
Arkansas City Traveler, May 4, 1881.
List of letters remaining uncalled for in the post office at Arkansas City, Kansas, May 1st, 1881.
William Barber was on this list.
Arkansas City Traveler, July 6, 1881.
The following is a list of letters remaining uncalled for in the Post Office, at Arkansas City, July 1st, 1881.
William Barber was on this list.
Winfield Courier, December 8, 1881.
MARRIED. On Posey Creek, in Pleasant Valley, Nov. 29th, at the house of the bride’s father, by Rev. Thos. N. Borchers, Mr. Wm. Barber and Miss Hattie Camp.
[Note: Above item was the last one that I could find on William C. Barber. MAW]