Good morning readers. I hope your day is going well. I’d like to finish with the Melancthon W. Janes family today, and then move on to the Henry Fauerbach family, one of the oldest in Maple Hill Township.

Melancthon W. Janes was married to Ella M. Smith at Erie, Pennsylvania in about 1862. As you’ll recall, Melancthon was the son of Heman and Maria (Rouse) Janes. Heman made a vast fortune in the lumber and oil business and in the 1870 U. S. Census, was listed as a “Capitalist.” Interesting!

M. W. Janes enlisted in the Union Army as an Ohio Volunteer and was in charge of a large commissary, ordering supplies for Ohio regiments. He was honorably discharged in 1862.

He worked for his father, Heman Janes, for about 15 years as an accountant. He joined the tide of migrants moving West to seek their fortunes sometime between 1875 and 1880, settling about 3.5 miles east of Maple Hill and one mile west of Willard. His farm of 1,650 acres was located along the Kansas River, where he raised prize cattle and trotting horses. Several of his horses raced on Eastern tracks and won many premiums, especially “Dolly” who at one time was sold for $40,000.

The acerage which Janes lived on and managed was for the first ten years owned by his father, Heman Janes, indicating that it was his father who capitalized his farming and ranching efforts. He and his wife lived in one of the most beautiful houses in Wabaunsee County, where the 1880 U. S. Census lists him as having 8 household servants and 11 farm laborers.

He and his wife Ella (Smith) Janes, were the parents of at least seven children:
Martha Mary Janes – 1863
Fredrick R. Janes – 1865
Nellie Janes – 1869
Belle M. Janes – 1872
Heman Smith Janes – 1875
Emma Janes – 1877
Charles Mellington Janes – 1879

So far as I’m able to discern, none of the children married a resident of Wabaunsee County, Kansas nor did they live in Wabaunsee County after their father died in 1907. Although there was a county school within one mile of the Janes farm, Melancthon and Ella Janes also owned a home on West 10th Street in Topeka, where they lived during the school year so their children might attend Topeka schools. In the Topeka City Directories, Melancthon is listed as a “Gentleman Farmer and Cattle Dealer.” His son Fredrick lived in the Topeka home year-around where he was also listed as a “cattle dealer and broker.”

Some of the Janes children married Kansas City individuals and lived out there lives there. Charles Mellington Janes bought Mt. Washington Sanitorium in Kansas City where he was listed as owner and manager. He and his family are buried in Mt. Washington Cemetery in Kansas City. Heman S. Janes also married a Kansas City girl, Isabella Miller, and was a railroad conductor all of his life. He and his descendants are also buried in Kansas City.

Sometime between 1885 1890, Ella (Smith) Janes passed away. However, I have not been able to find where she was buried. In 1895, Melancthon W. Janes married a second time to Eliza Jane Snyder, a native of Oxford, Michigan. I have not been able to discover how it was that they met. She preceded him in death in 1905. Melancthon W. Janes continued to live on his farm near Willard until ill health forced him to reside with his son in Kansas City, Missouri. The 1905 U. S. Census shows him living on the farm with his sons Fred and daughter Nellie Janes. He died at the home of his son, Charles M. Janes, in Kansas City, Missouri and was buried with Eliza (Synder) Janes in Topeka Cemetery, Topeka, Kansas.