Isaac Silver and Nancy Ellen Sullivan

In 1860 Isaac, 21, is working on a large farm owned by James Jenkins near Uncle George’s and his father Edward’s farms in Rocky Fork Township, Boone County Missouri. About 1862 he married a woman who is only known as M J. Odds favor Mary or Martha. The last name is probably James, Jennings, or Jenkins, all neighbors of the Silvers. They had one daughter, Martha Ella, born in 1863. After his wife died or disappeared Isaac married Nancy Ellen Sullivan in 1871, in Saline County, Kansas. Their first daughter, Emma Jane Silver, born on February 18, 1873, near Winfield, Kansas, remembers that when she was a small child they moved to Salina. (About 1878) [Her family] lived in homes that ranged from dugouts, sod houses, and rock. When Emma was about 10 years old Isaac bought a farm in the southwest part of Chase County in the Pleasant Valley school district

Dugouts, sod houses and rock houses—residences of someone trying to find the right place and a successful livelihood. Like his father and grandfather, Rev Edward Silver and George Silver III, Isaac had high standards for himself and kept trying, moving from one place to another until settling down in Chase County, Kansas.

Chase County Sketches 1863 – 2005

Pleasant Valley School

By Myrtle E. Riggs Cox

It must have seemed a pleasant valley to the earliest comers to that little community located near the southwest corner of Chase County, joining Butler County on the south and Marion County on the west. Pleasant Valley's first settlers bought their land near the source of Middle Creek, and in a few years, homes dotted both sides of that small stream of water.

Much of the land was still owned by the United States government. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe had purchased some tracts. The nearest trading center was St. Francis, now known as Burns, which is ten miles west, in Marion County, following the Chase-Butler county road. St. Francis at that time consisted of a box car as the depot for the A. T. and S. F. railroad, one dwelling house and a general merchandise store owned by Funke and Bueke, who had come there in 1879.

By 1884 the settlers in Pleasant Valley felt the need of a public school in their midst. This need was realized by the organization and formation of District No. 45 on June 18, 1884. The name given was Pleasant Valley school

In 1882 Isaac and Nancy Ellen Sullivan Silver moved on the S. E. 1/4 of section 35. There were not enough children in the vicinity to justify a school district. It was through the efforts of Isaac Silver, who had no children of school age, [Isaac and Nancy had four school age children.] that Nicholas E. Sidener was influenced to move to section 26. [Two Silver daughters married Sideners.s]

When a school census was taken, it lacked one pupil of required number. So Isaac Silver included his married daughter living on section 36, but not yet 21 years of age. Now enough pupils were in the district to organize a school district. [Isaac Silver’s married daughter is Martha Ella of his first marriage who was born in 1863. Her mother is unknown and probably died about 1870.] Isaac Silver's married daughter, Ella, did not attend school. Her husband, Andrew A. Siefert, was the first board member elected for district No. 45. Another daughter of Isaac Silver, Emma, ten years of age, was a pupil in the first year of the Pleasant Valley School. http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/chase/SubSketch/SubSketchP/SketchPleasantValleySchool.html

Figure 13 Nancy Ellen Sullivan

Isaac Silver

I just keep putting one foot in front of the other

“… after the death of his wife, Nancy Sullivan Silver, in 1916, [Isaac] got the urge to visit his children and other relatives who had managed to scatter themselves all over the western United States. At age 78 and after a lifetime of hard work as a farmer and carpenter he really looked forward to the trip. He had visited his brother George in Oklahoma and a brother-in-law, Amos Patterson, in Colorado and had been fascinated and amazed [by] the mountains. When he arrived in San Diego for a visit with his son Ira, one of the top things on his list was to go up a mountain. Mount Lowe, at the time was a popular place to go. There was a train that went most of the way up the mountain to a resort lodge and restaurant.

And there was steep trail to the summit. So Ira and Gertrude (presumably Ira’s wife?) took Isaac up the mountain for lunch. After the meal, Isaac decided to stroll on up the mountain. A young newspaperman for a Chicago paper saw him and asked if he could walk along. The path was very steep and soon the young reporter was huffing and puffing and asked Isaac if it wasn’t time for a break. Isaac kept replying, “Just a little way more.” Near the summit, Isaac did stop to have his picture taken, and then went to the rest of the way to the top. When they got back down to the restaurant, the young man, still panting, asked, “How come you can climb a mountain so easily when I’m half your age and found it so hard?” “Well, I just keep putting one foot in front of the other and I get there.“

Silver Threads News Letter Old Man And The Mountain By Karyl Silver

Figure 14 Isaac Silver, 82

Mount Lowe 1921

Isaac Silver Pioneer Dies

Isaac Silver 94 year old Butler County pioneer, died at his home in Burns this morning. He had been a resident of the county for nearly 70 years, most of which time was spent in the Burns community. Mr. Silver was a former resident of El Dorado, having lived here from 1910 to 1918. he had been in poor health for several months but did not become seriously ill until a few weeks ago. Because of his long residence in Butler County the aged man was well known and his death is mourned by scores.

Mr. Silver was born in Boone County, Mo., on February 14, 1839, but came to Kansas when a young man. He settled in Saline County and then removed to the Burns [Chase County] community in 1864. He was married to Miss Nancy Sullivan at Salina, on December 22, 1871. She died in 1916. Funeral services for Isaac Silver, Butler County Pioneer, who died at Burns Thursday were held at the Methodist Church there Saturday afternoon with Rev. R. D. Miller, officiating. A large group of friends and relatives of the aged Burns resident attended.

A quartet, composed of H. A. Bender, Ellis Manka, Ralph Gfeller, and Mr. Miller sang “The Old Rugged Cross,” “No Night There,” and “City Foursquare.” Pallbearers were sons and grandsons of Mr. Silver. Interment was made in West Cemetery here. The Byrd Funeral Home was in charge. Surviving are five daughters, Mrs. Ella Siefert, of Elk falls, Mrs. C. H. Sidener, burns, Mrs. N. A. Sidener, Parma, Idaho, Mrs. Roy Freeman, emporia and Mrs. H. B. Gallagher, Hollyrood; five sons, A. G. of El Dorado, C. E. Portland, Ore., Charles, Watsonville, Calif., I. G. San Diego, Calif., and W. H. Silver, of Culver; one brother, George Silver of Yale, Okla., 28 grandchildren; 29 greatgrandchildren and six great-great-grandchildren.

The El Dorado Times, Thursday, June 15, 1933 (and another newspaper’s obit combined)