Berkey Family

Arkansas City Traveler, August 24, 1881.
                                                      An Old Pioneer Gone.

DIED. At Salt City, at the residence of her son, William M. Berkey, on Saturday, August 20th, 1881, Margaret Brown, well known all over the county as Grandma Brown, in the 79th year of her age. Few persons in Kansas are better entitled to the name of pioneer than Grandma Brown. She was born in Ohio, in the year 1802, when that country was but a wilderness. Her parents having moved from Pennsylvania, were of the stock called the Pennsylva­nia Dutch. Her maiden name was, I think, Jesenmyer. At an early age, I think she went to Indiana. Here it was that, I think, she was wooed and won by Henry Berkey, the father of William M. Berkey and grandfather of A. W. Berkey, of Winfield; by whom she had a large family. After the death of her first husband, Henry Berkey, she was married to a Mr. Brown, whose name she still bears. In many respects Grandma Brown was a remarkable woman, with little education or refinement, as it is termed. She bore a conspicuous part in the settlement of the western states. Born in Ohio, she lived there a number of years, then in Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and, I think, in Iowa before she came to Kansas, eleven years ago. During all the period of her varied life, which had many ups and downs, she bore the character of an honest, hard-working, industrious woman, and died in the hope and faith of a blessed immortality. For many years she has been a constant member of the Christian church. Peace be to her ashes.
                                                                      C.
Winfield Courier, January 26, 1882. [MORE PERSONALS.] DIED. Mrs. A. W. Berkey died very suddenly at her residence in Arkansas City last Saturday. She had been sinking for some time with consumption, but it was not suspected that she was so near death’s door until Saturday morning. Her husband was in Kansas City and was wired in time to catch the K. C. L. & S. train and came in Saturday evening, but too late to see her alive. We deeply sympathize with him in this affliction. Mrs. Berkey was a daughter of Judge James Christian, and was born at Lawrence in 1859. She was the first child baptized in the Episcopal Church in the State. The loss of this, his eldest daughter, is a sad blow to the Judge. She has been the mainstay of his declining years, and since the failure of his eyesight, she has been almost the only light along the pathway of his life.

Arkansas City Traveler, March 13, 1878.
“Frank Waldo has closed his store at Salt City, and Wm. Berkey has the entire trade of that community.”

NOTE: Berkey appears many times in newspapers. Should be more thoroughly researched.