Timothy Fletcher Hersey was born at Sumner, Maine on August 17th, 1827 and died at the home of his eldest daughter at Castle Rock, Washington on May 11th, 1905. He was married 18 Jan 1852 to Eliza Rachel Johnson, who was born in 1835 and died in 1912. She was a daughter of Stephen Johnson and Lucy Stone.

Timothy removed to Rock River, Illinois with his parents, and from there moved to Kansas in 1857. He was the first settler in Dickinson County and the founder of Abilene, Kansas. The name Abilene means "City of the Plains" and was selected from the Bible, Luke 3:1, by his wife Eliza. Their's was the first home built in Abilene along the banks of Mud Creek. (The Hersey's home is preserved in the basement of the Lebold Vahsholtz Mansion)

Hersey established Abilene as a small dugout and log cabin hamlet and stagecoach stop in 1857. It was a crude little frontier village with a population of about 300 when it was "discovered" by Joseph G. McCoy and the cattle traders as the railroad was pushing west. It grew almost overnight into a booming city of 3,000 with the largest stockyards west of Kansas City, more than a dozen saloons, gaudy night clubs, gambling houses, thriving mercantile businesses and hotels. Joseph G. McCoys stockyards set Abilene on its wat to becoming a booming cowtown located at the end of the Chisholm Trail.

During the Civil War, Timothy Fletcher Hersey was an Indian trader. He once claimed that he had been in 25 Indian engagements in his career, and was wounded by arrows several times. While prospecting for tin ore in 1859, he was captured by Pawnee Indians and held for three days. The same year Cheyennes chased his 15 miles in an attempt to cut him off from his encampment and kept him under constant fire.

In 1862 he was elected to the State Legislature, being re-elected in 1864. After the Civil War, Timothy held the office of County Clerk, Recorder, Treasurer and Sheriff. He removed to Wyoming in 1881, to Denver, Colorado in 1893, and finally to Castle Rock, Washington in 1901. He died there in 1905. He was buried in the Odd Fellows Cemetery.

"It has been said that at one time he was the very life of the Solomon Valley. He gave the first child born in Beloit, Kansas the deed of a fine lot, gave lumber liberally to the first church built in town, also to the first school house and printing office here."

In 1870, Timothy took the initiative to rename the town of Willow Springs after Beloit, his hometown in Wisconsin. The women who cooked for his mill hands told the story that Timothy came to the cook shack one day and said the place no longer would be called Willow Springs, but Beloit, and "with a crayon proceeded to write the name on the stove pipe."

Timothy and Eliza had eight children born in Abilene: Mary Ann; Sylvia M.; Ella Etta; Charles Fletcher; Wilber J.; Franklin T.; Walter James; and Clarence Hersey.

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May 18, 1905

Cawker City Public Record

Cawker City, Kansas

Tim Hersey Dead.

- We learn that T. F. Hersey died

May 5th at the home of his son,

Charles, at Castle Rock, Washington.

T. F. Hersey was a pioneer in

Central Kansas; he first settled in

1857 on Mud Creek, near where

Abilene now stands. His adjoining

neighbor, C. H. Thompson, laid out

the town in 1860, and gave Mrs.

Hersey the privilege of naming; she

called it Abilene. In 1869, Mr. Her-

sey purchased the mill site of A. A.

Bell, where Beloit now stands, and

the town was platted March 26, 1872.

Mr. Hersey was its first mayor.

Mr. Hersey moved to Cawker

township soon after and built the

Junction mill two miles south of

this city. He moved from here to

Wyoming in 1885, taking with him

a mill outfit loaded on wagons. Be-

ing a frontiersman he was not satis-

fied unless in the advance of civili-

zation, and left Wyoming, going

still further west.

A copy of the obituary & additional family information is available at the North Central Kansas Genealogical Society, Cawker City, KS , [email protected]