Ellis Cummins Davis and Effie Jane Kirkpatrick, my paternal grandparents, were
  married near Mulkeytown, Illinois, in 1866. 
     Ellis was born in 1842, near Nashville, Tennessee. When seven years old, the 
  family moved to Hamilton County, Illinois, and later, to a farm near Mulkeytown,
  in Franklin County. He lfet here to serve his country as a Union soldier in Company
  F, 63rd Illinois Infantry.
     Effie was born in 1848, near Mulkeytown. She was raised by devoutly Christian
  parents. It was in her Grandfather Kirkpatrick's home that the First Christian
  Church in Illinois was organized in 1818. Effie united with the church at an early
  age. Ellis became a member in 1867.
     After their marriage, they resided on a farm near Mulkeytown, a gift of Effie's
  parents. Ellis farmed and taught school. Because of poor health caused by the Civil
  War, they decided to move to drier Kansas.
     They chose the site of Sharon becuase The Christian Standard (Christian Church
  publication) stated that Mr. Mulkey, a former Mulkeytown minister, now Medicine Lodge
  minister, was sponsoring a Christian Colony there. They sold their farm and left
  two litter daughter, Emma (1869-1873) and Minnie (1871-1876) buried in Reed Cemetery.
     Ellis spent three months driving a covered wagon to his new farm two miles south-
  west of Sharon. Effie and their children, Olive (1867-185), Willie (1873-1949), and
  Roscoe (1877-1915), came to Wellington by train where Ellis met them. They were one
  of the first seven families to establish residence in Sharon Valley.
     Effie was disappointed when she reached her new home. There was not a tree in
  sight - only the top of one south in Cedar Hills. Two children were born here - Lloyd,
  my father, Novenber 1, 1881; and Wava, August 9, 1884. Wava died October 9, 1920.
     Grandpa was County Surveyor from 1901 to 1903. His office was oopen only on 
  Saturdays. Extremely conscientious, in order to open his office one Saturday, since
  the roads were impassable, he walked down the railroad track from Sharon to Medicine
  Lodge on the coldest day ever recorded at that time.
     Grandma, a devoted Christian and staunch Prohibitionist, was proud to call Carrie
  Nation her friend. She lived for others. Recently, an elderly gentleman, with tear-
  filled eyes, told me of the love and home-made bread she provided for their motherless
  family when he was a little boy.
     My grandparents moved into Sharon in 1910. They each lived into their eightieth
  year. Grandpa died August 17, 1922. Grandma died February 8, 1929.
     My parents, Lloyd and Cora Stewart, daughter of Samuel and Cecelia Stewart, were
  married July 16, 1905. Papa had attended Emporia State College, and Mamma, Tarkio
  College in Tarkio, Missouri. They each taught school in Barber County. Mama taught
  three terms and Papa ten. His first salary (1898) was $30 a month. One year, he
  taught 50 students for $50 a month. His last year (1910), he was the highest paid
  teacher in the County - $70 a month.
     My sister Margaret and I were born in the same house as Papa and Aunt Wava Schnelle.
  Papa farmed, was County Surveyor (1916-1918), and helped organize and worked in Sharon
  Valley State Bank. He moved into Sharon in 1920, when he and Uncle Roy Stewart 
  purchased the implement store there. Mamma died April 11, 1924, at age 42.
     Papa and Edith Furnas were married in 1926. Their son, Wayne, was born in 1929, in
  Medicine Lodge where we had moved in 1928. Papa was the International Harvester dealer
  there many years. He died July 23, 1957, at age 76.
     Margaret and Lynn Randels were married in 1933. Their son, Robert, was born in
  1937, and their daughter, Jane, in 1942. Margaret died September 21, 1977, after a
  lingering illness, at the age of 67.
                
     Source:Chosen Land - Barber County, Kansas,  pg. 148 
     Submitted by: Dorothy Davis Miller