Obituary

Samuel T. Danner

(BY JOHN C. NICHOLSON)

Every soul strives to express itself, so every individual is different from every other, and those characteristics that make us different are our soul marks inthe world - - the signs by which we are known of men - - the evidence of our immortality.

Before the Civil war while yet a lad, Samuel T. Danner was a teacher after he returned from three years service in the Union army he was a teacher, and after he came to Harvey county he taught school, for six years he was superintendent of schools of Harvey county and for the four years that he was a member of the state senate he was the guardian of legislation relating to schools and many years he conducted a Sunday school in his neighborhood. He was a lover of good books, and for several years he owned the Postoffice book store in Newton. Was he not first a teacher ?

In 1861 he quitted Miami University and enlisted in Company K. 37th Indiana as a private. but was promoted, and two years later was made first lieutenant of Company A. 12 th. U.S. Col. infantry, with which organization he served until discharged August 3, 1864. He was an active member of Judson Kilparick Post, G. A. R., Newton, Kansas, for many years, and until his death the old soldier boys were his closest and dearest friends. This day the post performed for him the last sad rites. The winter of 1917-1918 he spent in the Soldier Home in Hot Springs. S.D., where he found it warm and comfortable and last December, to avoid the winter's blast took himself to the National Soldier Home near Leavenworth, Kansas. Last Monday he wrote that he was in the hospital and that the doctor told him he had a dropsical condition, and Wednesday forenoon he sat up in his chair, but about noon he had a stroke of apoplexy and died a few minutes later. His son, A.E.S. Danner, and niece, Miss Helen Ball, of Lawrence were enroute, but did not reach Leavenworth until after he passed away. The son brought the body to Newton, and this afternoon the funeral was held in the First Presbyterian church, of which he had been a member since 1881. Rev. A. H. Morrison, his pastor, conducted the services and the Presbyterian quartette sang the songs he loved so much, while his many friends from far and near paid their last respects. Early in life he became a member of the Presbyterian church of Rushville, Ind., and had been a consistent and exemplary member of that faith for more than half a century.

Samuel T. Danner was born on the home farm to Samuel & Nancy E. Brann Danner, Jr. in Rush County Ind., on October 12, 1839, and died on March 20, 1919, in his eightieth year.

He followed farming nearly all his life and forty-seven years ago this spring he purchased from the Santa Fe railway company the quarter section in Pleasant township, this county which was his home ever since, and upon which he worked early and late for many years. He saw the lean years and endured the hardships that came in the early pioneer, but it was reserved to him to endure even more than that, when on May 15, 1917, the terrible tornado visited this county and in its wake destroyed his home, and mangled and killed his wife, and so injured him that he was reported dead.
He was not able to attend his wife's funeral, and he never fully recovered, but put his worldly affairs in order for this day which he knew was not far distant.
On October 6, 1864, at Rising Sun, Ind., he was united in marriage to Anna J. Harryman, to which union there were born three children; W. S. Danner, of Seattle, Wash.; A.E.S. Danner, who lives on the home farm, and one son who died when nine years of age. He leaves nine grandchildren, of whom he was very proud.

It is given to but a few farmers to take such an active part in public life as did Captain Danner, as his old friends called him, or as Senator Danner, as later acquaintances knew him. He was an ardent patriot, an active Republican and a good speaker. and served his party on the stump in many campaigns over the state. One distinct service he rendered his home county should be mentioned. It was Senator Danner who secured the passage of the oil by the legisiature legalizing the records of the county following the fire which destroyed the original records. He was well read and traveled extensively and was intensely loyal to his country and his friends. The impress of his work will many years in the history of Harvey county, and the statutes of the state of Kansas.