In the fall of 1882 Matthew Pleasant DeWitt came to Barber County from the
  home of his parents, John and Nancy Hedgpeth DeWitt, near Skidmore, Missouri.
  He traveled by train to Harper, then by stage to Sharon. He settled on a 
  homestead four miles southwest of Sharon, lived in a dugout for a year, and
  herded livestock on the open range for two years.
     On June 23, 1884, he wrote to R.D. (Bob) Gaddie of Wilcox, Nodaway County,
  Missouri: "You asked what you could do with a thousand dollars. Claims of
  deeded land sell from $700 to $2000. This is Osage Trust land and was entered 
  at $1.25 per acre. When I came it was nearly all vacant. Now it is nearly all
  taken - and I would not advise you to come or stay, but as for me, I expect
  to live in Kansas."
     "Matt" or "Pleas" (he answered to either) boarded with his neighbor B.F.
  Kemp until 1886 when he built a 1 1/2 story house. Later he erected the
  present house; it is now occupied by daughter Opal DeWitt Kernohan and her 
  daughter Martha Hunter.
     He married Alice Atwood Whitehead, 19 January 1887, at Maryville, Missouri.
  When he brought his bride to Sharon, Mrs. T.H. (Tandy) Trice, Postmistriss
  said she was the prettiest girl in Barber County! The DeWitt children were
  Earl, Fannie, Opal, Mary, Ralph, Florence (died in infancy), Wallace, Alice,
  Vinson, and Ruth.
     The family attended the Methodist Church one mile north until the building
  burned in 1904. They then attended the Church of God three miles north and 
  west, across the road east of the Central View School.
     M.P. DeWitt was clerk of the Central View School Board for many years. He
  was instrumental in getting the first rural mail route and telephone line. He
  was interested in growing all kinds of fruit and berries. The farm eventually
  grew to 3,200 acres, including a 1200 acre pasture with two sizable lakes well
  stocked with fish.
     Central View was a one-room, one-teacher school which offered the standard
  8 grades of study. Cynthia Briggs was the long-time teacher. Fannie and Opal
  went to high school in Medicine Lodge for the 1907-1908 school year; then the
  family moved to Medicine Lodge in August 1908. For ten years they returned to
  the farm every summer to harvest wheat and can fruit. For several years Wallace
  (Tag) took over management of the farm. On 7 August 1918, Opal and John
  Kernohan moved from Wichita to the farm.
     Elzadie Moody Whitehead, widowed mother of Mrs. DeWitt, made her home with
  the DeWitt family from 1892 until her death in 1919 at age 91.
     M.P. DeWitt died 29 June 1926, age 69. Alice Atwood DeWitt died 1 June 1947,
  age 78.
  
               
     Source:Chosen Land - Barber County, Kansas,  pg. 154 
     Submitted by: Mrs. O. Mills (Ruth DeWitt)