Vinton Clifford Sleeper, son of Levi F. Sleeper, was born on a farm near
     Loudo Ridge, New Hampshire, January 11, 1848. At fifteen he was going to
     an academy. He was a big boy for his age; he joined the Union Army. After
     the war he had a butcher shop, selling beef, pork and pickles.
       He married a neighborhood girl, Hannah Leavitt, in June 1866, at Gilmanton,
     New Hampshire. They moved to Piatt County, Illinois, near Hammond, about 30
     miles southwest of Urbana, on a farm. They lost two baby daughters, Anna, 
     1867 and Bertha, 1869. Other children were Ida (Mrs. Frank Hewitt) born
     July 2, 1871; Mary (May) Estelle (Mrs. Mack Shinliver), February 13, 1876;
     Victor Eugene, January 8, 1878; and Levi Clifford, stillborn 1879. The three
     babies are buried in Irish Grove Cemetery near Hammond, Illinois.
       Vinton and Hannah moved to Wellington, Kansas, where he had a butcher shop
     and later a carpenter shop, building homes.
       In 1884, when Victor was six, Vinton preempted S.W. 1/4 of 25-30-11, in
     Barber County. (The U.S. Land Office was at Larned). The land was treeless,
     grass so tall you could just see the head of a man standing up in a wagonbed.
     The grass was full of prairie chickens and wild flowers. Vinton built a one
     room house, 12'X18', over a basement. The loft was floored, a bedroom for
     Victor and the Moomau boys.
       Vinton planted maple trees on all four sides of the quarter section. A hail
     storm killed all trees except those on the south side; five are still standing.
     Now there are than 20 acres of trees. An oldtimer that returned said, "Someone
     did a good job of defacing the desert." Vinton and Hannah lived on the place 
     while improvements were being made.
       The children went to school in a two story house called Terrington House,
     located one square acre for a school, for the life of the school. It was
     built on the half-mile line on the west line, called Cream Valley. Vinton's
     youngest grandchild, Katheryn Sleeper, was the last child to start school
     there; Edith Haynes was her teacher; the year, 1935. When the district
     consolidated with Isabel, the schoolhouse was moved to Isabel and used for
     a shop and storage. It disappeard with the new gymnasium was added.
       Vinton and Hannah moved back to their home in Wellington, Kansas. Grant
     Rogers and his bride located at the west end of the correction line 35-30-11.
     Hanna and Victor came back from Wellington to the farm when Victor was 14
     years old; he finished grade school. His father, Vinton stayed in Wellington
     until Ida finished high school. May married Mack Shinliver in May, 1894.
       One hot day when the corn was tall, a man on horseback told Victor and his
     mother that the Indians were on the warpath and headed their way. They
     walked through corn to the Tom Edds' place, a mile west. Victor said every 
     time a blade of corn touched his neck he knew he was being scalped. About
     dark some men rode by and told them it was the cattlemen trying to run the
     homesteaders off the grass.
       Tom Edds farmed 1,000 acres of corn. He hired settlers, Victor Sleeper,
     Wayne Strong and a Venard boy to plow corn. They had to be in the fields by
     sun-up. Horses were in the barn by four 0'clock, so the women could get their
     work done by dark. The men and boys then had time to tend their own land
     before dark. At one time the railroad built a spur so Tom could load his
     corn. Bad times came to Tom and he lost everything. He took his own life
     in the Grand Hotel in Medicine Lodge. His cronies, as his friends were called,
     buried him in Highland Cemetery and put up a cement stone which just says,
     "Tom Edds." Cement was new at that time. Tom Edds' land sold for $5 and acre.
     Tears always came to Victor's eyes, whenever he talked about Tom. He couldn't
     borrow the money to buy the land. Victor loved Tom Edds, and someone else
     does to, because on Memorial Day there is always another bouquet of flowers
     on Tom's grave besides the one the Sleepers put there.
       About this time Hannah's sister, Abbie and her husband Scott Moomau and
     children, moved from Champaign, Illinois. There children were: Walter, Fred,
     Park, Charley, Cleve, Clifford, Sarah, Sadie, Shucks and Inez. They built a
     dugout on the east line of N.W. 1/4 35-30-11. Walter Moomau ploughed the
     first forty acres with a team of oxen.
       Victor, called Vic, now farmed with his father Vinton and also built
     houses. They added a room on the south side of their house, moved a T-shaped
     two-room house from Rago and added it on the west, added two porches - one
     decorated with wooden H's for Hannah, their wife, and mother. They added a
     12'X16'X6 1/2' room on the north; this made six rooms and one closet, twelve
     windows and eleven doors. It was painted mustard yellow trimmed in red. The
     barn and other buildings were red. A very pretty place, its picture was in 
     the 'Mail and Breeze' once.
       January 1899, Victor married Martha Lee Tildon, on his 21st birthday.
     Martha was the daughter of Harry Tilden and granddaughter of Tom Edds; Tom
     had sent her to Notre Dame for one year. They lived W 1/2 22-30-11. Martha
     had two sisters: Mrs. Frank (Maud) Strohl. Frank ran the grain elevetor in
     Isabel. Their children are: Mack, Richard, Joel, Agatha, Peg, Pat and Jason.
     Her sister Bess (Mrs. Fred Thrasher) lived in Isabel and Rago; their children
     are: Freda, Louell, Harriet, Harold, Wayne, Gilbert, Berniece, Kitty Lou
     and Richard. One brother, Bob Tilden, never married. Bess died in 1929, Fred
     severaly years later. Freda and her husband Rex Wray moved their family to
     Gilroy, California.
       Vic and Lee lived with his parents while they were building their home on
     N.E. 1/2 25-30-11, for which he paid $400 and later sold for $10,000. Robert
     (Bob) was born in April 1900 and Clifford (Cliff) in January 1902.
       Vic went to Nashville for a new wagonbed, near wheat threshing time; he
     found Lee dead by the wsindmill. He, Bob and Cliff then lived with his parents.
     In March 1907 he married Emily Simmons, daughter of Jonathan and Eveline
     Bridgewater Simmons. They lived on the N.E. 1/4 25-30-11 before Dorothy
     (Mrs. Carl Thom) was born, January 1908. Emily had three sisters, Addie
     (Mrs. Charley Moomau), Virgie (Mrs. Thompson) and Lulu; brothers were William
     and Floyd.
       Vic's mother, Hannah, passed away November 1913. Vic's father, Vinton
     married Lettie Miller, who passed away in 1923. They sold this place and
     moved to the Flint place east of Medicine Lodge. Vic's sister, May Shinliver
     and husband Mack moved on the homeplace where Lulu now lives. Vic's parents
     moved to 201 W. Second, Medicine Lodge. Vic's dad was big in the Populist
     Party and was overseer for the rebuilding of the insane asylum in Topeka,
     Kansas.
       Floyd Sleeper was born on the Flint place, October 1908. Vic and Emily
     moved to Medicine Lodge, where Vic did carpentry work. Dwight (Jiggs) was
     born there in December 1915. The next year Vic and Emily moved to Two Buttes,
     Colorado where they homesteaded and lived in a sod home. Elsie Lee (Mrs.
     Doug Smith) was born there in April 1922. Her mother Emily passed away after
     gall bladder surgery in May 1922. Vic was in Medicine Lodge burying his
     father when friends took his wife to the doctor.
       Vic moved back to Nashville with his third wife, Lulu Tabor, whom he
     married at Syracuse, Kansas, February 1923. Lulu brought her daughter Betty
     Lou (Mrs. Harold Myers) with them. There were four more children: Helen (Mrs.
     Warren Hamm), Lowell, Mary (Mrs. Don Poland) and Katheryn (Mrs. Don Elliott)
     making a family of 11 children.
       Lulu is 91 years and still lives alone on the farm that has been in the
     Sleeper name 101 years. Vic passed away in February 1956. Lulu was a 4-H
     leader for 13 years, helping to start both the 4-H and Home Demonstration
     Units. She belonged to the Snowflake Quilting Club when the children were 
     small and now belongs to Harmony EHU, and the Stitch and Chatter Club. She
     keeps busy piecing quilts, raising chickens, tending flowers, and garden,
     canning and jelly making, plus always having time to stop and fix a meal
     and bed for anyone coming her way. She has spent her life blending four
     batches of kids together.
       Termites destroyed the original house and Lulu decided to build herself
     a home out of the double garage and a 400-hen chicken house. With the help
     of all her children, relatives and anyone who happened by, she moved in her
     home in 1961. She now lives in a four-bedroom home, surrounded by flowers,
     trees and shrubs. Two sons and five daughters are still living and each
     tries to help make life easier for her. As of last count, there are 218
     descendants.
                
     Source:Chosen Land - Barber County, Kansas, pg. 423