M.J. and Elmina (Biggs) Baughman came to Barber County from Illinois in 1908. They
  bought an unimproved 160 acres in the Elm Mills Township from C.D. Rackley for $1200.
  They built a small house, a few farm buildings, and fenced and cross-fenced the place.
  Then Bessie's father broke out some of the land for crops. She can remember her parents
  telling of driving a wagon across the prairie to Lake City or to Sawyer to trade. The
  farm was later sold to T.E. Winkler for $2500, and her parents moved to Sawyer, Kansas.
     Bessie was born during the time her parents lived in Sawyer, and when she was five,
  the family returned to Illinois. When Bessie was 8 years old, she returned to Sawyer and
  in 1922 she came to rural Medicine Lodge.
     Bessie attended North Star School southeast of Medicine Lodge. Her teacher then was
  Goldie Mills (Mrs. Harve Axtell). Her next teacher was Inez Jester. She finished the
  remainder of her grade school and high school in Medicine Lodge, graduating with the
  class of 1931.
     Bessie became a teacher and taught the following schools in Barber County: Hillcreast,
  Elm Hill, Walstead, North Star, and Central View. Her teaching career covered a span of
  16 years in the county. She had two brothers older than she who died quite young prior
  to her parents coming to Barber County.
     Bessie and myself first met when I came to Barber County to teach the College Hill
  School in 1938. She was teaching North Star at the time. Previoius to this, I had attended 
  Emporia Teachers College and taught the Evergreen rural school in Harper County. I taught
  the College Hill school for three years and returned to Harper County to teach the upper
  grades of the Waldron, Kansas, school.
     On Christmas Eve, December 24, 1941, Bessie and I were married in the First Christian
  Church, Medicine Lodge (in the old church). In the spring of 1942 after I finished
  teaching my term at Waldron, Uncle Sam called me to serve in World War II in the European
  theater. I was discharged from the Army 3 1/2 years later, and we moved on the old Biggs
  farm 3 1/2 miles S.E. of Medicine Lodge. This has been our home for 34 years. Bessie
  taught two years after I returned to civilian life.
     We were active in work at the Christian Church. Bessie taught a Sunday Class in the
  Primary Department for several years, and I became a deacon about the same time. We
  enjoyed calling for the church. I was later made an elder and in a few years became
  Superintendent of the Sunday School, an office I have held the past 13 years.
     We enjoy living in Barber County and have many friends here. We drove the buckboard
  in the Peace Treaty Pageant several times andhave served inother civic activities.
                
     Source:Chosen Land - Barber County, Kansas,  pg. 118