Obituary of a Pony Express Blacksmith

Posted on March 29, 2019 by Dawn Bingaman

Samuel Gideon Mozingo was a wanderer who traveled far and wide in the course of his life. He was a blacksmith, described as a man who was once affiliated with the short-lived Pony Express mail service. He was an early resident of San Francisco, California, and a prospector who sought his fortune in western mining towns in Nevada and Washington state. More importantly, he is the only known sibling of my 3rd great-grandmother Jane (Mozingo) Rice to have survived to adulthood. In an effort to learn the identity of their parents I have attempted to research his life in as much depth as her life. His 1913 obituary tells part of his life story. I imagine his nephews thought him the consummate frontiersman and undoubtedly enjoyed tales of his many adventures.

A Pony Express Man Dead

Samuel G. Mozzingo Shoed Horses—Early Plainsman.

Death Occurred Tuesday at Home of a Nephew, George L. Rice, in Brownell—Funeral at Baldwin.

The funeral of Samuel G. Mozzingo, a pioneer of Kansas, and once connected with the pony express department of Uncle Sam’s business, occurred yesterday in Baldwin City. The death of the former Douglas County man occurred at the home of one of his six nephews, G. L. Rice of Brownell, Kans., near Ness City. He was 72 years old and had been ill for several weeks before his death on last Tuesday.

Mr. Mozzingo was a blacksmith when a young man, and when he first came to this part of the state his headquarters were at Black Jack near where now is Baldwin City. He was a horseshoer for the pony express stations along the way and was well acquainted with the famous John G. Slade of whom Mark Twain has written in “Roughing It,” and who was one of the prominent pony express men.

He came here in 1857 and after a time he followed the gold call and went to the mountains. At one time he was wealthy but mine speculations lost most of his money before he moved back here. He lived twenty years in the West, then returned and after a few years he went again and remained almost twenty years longer.

The six nephews of Mr. Mozzingo are: George L. Rice, of Brownell, C. L. Rice of Garfield, W. H. Rice of Olpe, C. E. Rice of Le Loup, and S. V. Rice and G. N. Rice of Pomona.

The two nephews from Western Kansas were in Ottawa today visiting with many of their friends in town.

Source: “A Pony Express Man Dead,” The Evening Herald (Ottawa, Kansas), Sat., 11 Jan 1913, p. 1, col. 3; Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com : accessed 6 Mar 2019).

Josephus Bingaman, Kansas Farmer & Inventor

Posted on January 30, 2019 by Dawn Bingaman

According to his hometown newspaper, my 2nd great-grandfather, Josephus Bingaman of Kansas, had achieved “signal success as an inventor”

We all know that physical traits run through a family, but what about aptitudes or things like creativity or mechanical ability?

My father often talks about his father (my grandfather Bingaman) as being a life-long tinkerer with mechanical things. He claims that when in the service in WWII, his father was one of the inventors of the early turbo engine but got no credit because he worked on this when employed by the United States government. I do not know whether there is any truth to this assertion, but it is a story that my father has relayed to me on numerous occasions and certainly believes to be true.

It is not surprising, then, to learn that my grandfather’s grandfather was also a tinkerer. Josephus Bingaman (also called Joseph or Joe) created mechanical things as well. He successfully patented several of his inventions, so that is how we know of them today.

The following article appeared in the Garnett Journal newspaper on 17 Jan 1908 and tells of his improvement for a plow attachment.

[transcription begins]

A New Invention

Joseph Bingaman, of Garnett, was up today to interest the Ottawa parties in his latest patented invention, an attachment to the rear of a lister, which puts the ground in better condition[.] The attachment consists of a wheel suspended from a long axle, which packs the ground and breaks up clods. A patent was received by Mr. Bingaman for his article December 31st of last year. “With the patent came a huge pack of letters from eastern parties, wanting terms of sale for the patent right of the invention,” said Mr. Bingaman, “but I have not disposed of it yet.” In the past few years, Mr. Bingaman, who formerly lived in Franklin county, has had signal success as an inventor. In 1892 he invented a pruning hook or tree trimmer, for which he received a neat sum. In February 1907 he received a patent on a much better and handier tree trimmer. Off the sale of one-half of the patent right to this Mr. Bingaman received $4,100. “My latest idea is a modern manure spreader. The machine for which I have a model,” says Mr. Bingaman, “will lift 500 pounds of manure seven feet high and dump.” A model will be sent of this machine to the patent office at Washington soon. —Ottawa Herald.¹

[transcription ends]

Another news item in another newspaper in an adjacent county tells a bit more of the story:

[transcription begins]

Has a New Patent

Joseph Bingaman Hopes to Interest Kansas City Implement Men.

Joseph Bingaman of Garnett, was here over Sunday visiting his sons, Frank and Fred Bingaman. He was enroute to Kansas City, where he goes to consult with representatives of an implement concern with reference to a recent invention of Mr. Bingaman. He has invented a rolling packer attachment for listers that is attracting the attention of manufacturers. Mr. Bingaman has evolved a number of practical implements of value. In 1892 he patented a tree trimmer, which was put on the market by George W. Lawrence and sold readily. An improved cutter was brought out by Mr. Bingaman in February last.²

[transcription ends]

With the information from these historic news articles, it was easy to find the patent using the Google Patents search engine. My search resulted in an image submitted in support of the patent application and the text of the application itself. For his efforts, he was awarded United States patent number 875,407.³

Detail of the invention of a plow attachment by Josephus Bingaman, U.S. patent 875,407.

¹“A New Invention,” Garnett Journal (Garnett, Kans.), Fri., 17 Jan 1908, p. 4, col. 2; digital image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com), accessed 12 Jan 2019.

²“Has a New Patent,” The Ottawa Daily Republic (Ottawa, Kans.), Mon., 13 Jan 1908, p. 1, col. 3; digital image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com), accessed 12 Jan 2019.

³ U.S. Patent No. 875,407, issued 31 Dec 1907 to Josephus Bingaman; digital image, Google Patents (https://patents.google.com), accessed 30 Jan 2019.

Totality, Then and Now

Posted on August 20, 2017 by Dawn Bingaman

We are less than 24 hours away from a total solar eclipse in the United States. If sales of protective eyewear are any indication, interest in witnessing this rather unique event is very high. I have my eclipse glasses, and plan to drive in to work early just so I can be out of the car and ready to witness the event, which will only be a near total eclipse (98%) here in Seattle.

The last total solar eclipse to traverse the continental United States was on June 8th, 1918. My grandmother was a teenager then living in Kansas, so I got to thinking about whether she would have been able to have seen the eclipse and how it was reported in the newspaper in her time. When she learned the next event of this magnitude was nearly one hundred years in the future, I wonder if she mused about whether she would have children or grandchildren who would witness the event? I will never know the answer to that question, but can research how the event was covered in 1918. Using Chronicling America, my favorite historical newspaper site, I was able to locate an article in The Topeka State Journal. Amid the many columns devoted to updates from the front about the war effort overseas was this article, quoted below:

IN ECLIPSE TODAY.
Kansas in Path of Event Rarely Seen in America.
Next Total Eclipse Here Will Be in 2017.

Ninety percent of the normal sunlight in Kansas will be shut off this afternoon between hours of 5:22 and 6:22 o’clock, when the moon will pass between the sun and the earth. In some parts of the country the eclipse will be total.

The total eclipse of the sun takes place when the lunar shadow actually reaches the earth. While the moon passes eastward, approaching gradually the point where it is exactly between us and the sun, steadily the darkness deepens as more and more sunlight is withdrawn. Then quite suddenly the darkness of late twilight comes on, when the moon reaches just the point where the moon first shuts off completely the light of the sun. At that instant, the solar corona flashes out and the total eclipse begins.

Shadow Passes Rapidly.

The observer is then within the umbra and totality only lasts so long as he remains within it. As an average, the umbra will require less than three minutes to pass by any one place, but the extreme length of a total solar eclipse is nearly eight minutes.

Those who will be lucky enough to make the journey to any of the towns over which the shadow of the eclipse will appear will do well to get as near the center of the favored zone as possible. It will not be necessary to take a telescope, but a smoked or dark glass can be used to advantage to watch the progress of the moon in its preliminary phase, the glass should be discarded as soon as the totality arrives.

100 Years Until Next Eclipse in U.S.

Not until 2017 will another total solar eclipse be visible over so large an area of this country, and it is rare that an eclipse track anywhere in the world offers so great a choice of accessible sites for observing the eclipse.¹

[Article continues.]

This image of the path of the total solar eclipse of June 8, 1918 was published in the El Paso Herald (El Paso, Texas).

Sources:
Image: “Sun to be in total eclipse in this section June 8th in afternoon,” El Paso (Texas) Herald, 4 May 1918, p. 21, cols. 2-8; digital image, Library of Congress, Chronicling America Historic American Newspapers (http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov, accessed 20 Aug 2017).

¹ “In Eclipse Today,” Topeka State Journal (Topeka, Kans.), 8 June 1918, p. 1, col. 2; digital image, Library of Congress, Chronicling America Historic American Newspapers (http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov, accessed 20 Aug 2017).

Father and Son: Pioneers of Two States

Posted on November 28, 2015 by Dawn Bingaman

Josephus Bingaman and his father, Henry Bingaman, were early pioneers in Kansas and Indiana, respectively

John Tecumseh “Tauy” Jones House on Tauy Creek in Franklin County, Kansas. Stonemason Josephus Bingaman helped build this historic home which was completed by 1870.

I have been occupied the better part of two months by combing through digital copies of 19^th and early 20^th century newspapers online. Newspapers from this time period offer genealogists a wonderful lens into the lives of our ancestors, often covering major life events as well as snippets of their comings and goings.

Sometimes more than just a sentence or two was published in the local newspaper. The article below recounts how two of my Bingaman ancestors were acquainted with a locally well-known Native American man named John Tecumseh (“Tauy”) Jones in Indiana, and later, Kansas.

This article is chock-full of clues to pursue about Henry Bingaman, the father of my great-great-grandfather Josephus Bingaman. I present a transcription of the article in its entirety below.

***

When Tauy Jones Came to Wabash
The Evening Herald (Ottawa, Kansas), 19 Nov 1913

JOSEPH BINGAMAN’S FATHER KNEW HIM IN INDIANA.

Father and Son, Pioneers in Two of the States–Ottawan Worked as Stonemason on Chief’s House on Tauy Creek.

When Henry Bingaman, father of Joseph Bingaman of this city, was a pioneer in the Wabash River country of Indiana almost 100 years ago, John Tecumseh Jones (Tauy Jones) came down on the Wabash from the Great Lakes country. He was an emissary of the government to the Miami Indians in Indiana, asking them to take up lands in the West.

Almost half a century later Joseph Bingaman met Tauy Jones in Franklin county and the venerable old Indian recalled the family name of Bingaman. The two talked together many times and Mr. Bingaman still recalls many interesting events about Jones.

The Bingaman family has sent out pioneers to new countries for over 100 years. An uncle of Henry Bingaman was a pioneer in Kentucky. A party of Indians attempted an attack upon the home and Mr. Bingaman killed seven of them. Theodore Roosevelt mentions this event in one of his books.

Henry Bingaman as a boy was a soldier under General Harrison and was at Tippecanoe. It was there that he became charmed with the Indiana country. He went back to Ohio and three families emigrated to Indiana. They were the Neffs, the McCombs and the Bingamans. These three sturdy families settled on the Wabash twelve miles west of Logansport. General Tipton had a trading post there then and it was the first post above Vincennes.

Joseph Bingaman, a son of Henry, came to Kansas in 1869 after serving two enlistments in the war. He was an apprentice stonemason working under Mack and Damon Higby, known to many of the old settlers around Le Loup. The Higbys were building the Tauy Jones home which is now the big stone residence on the estate of the late Captain William H. Woodlief.

Mr. Bingaman assisted in completing the house and he became acquainted with Jones who remembered the Bingamans of the Wabash country back in the ‘20s.

Joseph Bingaman is one of the pioneers of this country. He helped build the Forest Park mill and several other stone buildings here. He was a workman on the old L. L. & G. the first railroad in Ottawa. Mr. Bingaman and an uncle also rode for eighteen miles on the first engine traveling between Cincinnati and Chicago.

“We gave the engineer fifty cents to let us ride,” said Mr. Bingaman today.¹

***

Reverend Jones, also known as “Ottawa Jones”, was an interpreter for the Ottawa Indians who were removed from Ohio to eastern Kansas in territorial days. He and his wife were instrumental in the founding of Ottawa University, a Baptist college.² His image can be seen on the Kansas Memory website, along with additional images of his home.

Sources and credits
Image credit: “John Tecumseh “Tauy” Jones House on Tauy Creek” by user: Bhall87 / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-3.0. Original image located here. Edited by Dawn Bingaman.

¹“When Tauy Jones Came to Wabash,” The Evening Herald (Ottawa, Kansas), 19 Nov 1913, p. 6, col. 3; digital image, Newspapers.com (http://www.newspapers.com : accessed 27 Nov 2015).

²“Ottawa U. Born Out of Pioneer Sacrifice,” Topeka Daily Capital (Topeka, Kansas), 11 Jun 1922, p. 6B, col. 2; digital image, Newspapers.com (http://www.newspapers.com : accessed 27 Nov 2015).

Ancestor Roundup

Reining in my American Ancestors

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