(Click on photo to enlarge)Photo is Elizabeth Jane McGuire Gilbert in front of her log cabin, which was later covered with siding. Date of photo unknown.
In 1859 Ezekiel and Elizabeth "Jane" (McGuire) Gilbert purchased land in Brown County Kansas and with their young family set roots. Now 150 years later, with family still in the area, as well as all over the country, their descendants will be gathering to celebrate those 150 years with a special family reunion on Sunday, June 21, 2009 at the Fairview Community Building, Fairview, Kansas.
Jane's father James Adgar McGuire (1805-1900) and her brother Hiram had first come to Brown County and were on the special 1857 Kansas Territorial census, and it is assumed that they were here to check out the lay of the land and sent for the Gilbert family. James McGuire returned to Kentucky but Hiram McGuire stayed, married and started a family here, he later moved his family to Missouri then back to Kentucky.
The Gilbert's were living in Owsley County Kentucky before settling 3 miles south of what would become Fidelity and made it their home. Ezekiel died sometime between 1862-1865. When he died Jane said she buried him at the corner of the house so she could keep an eye on him. The house, which was a log cabin, has long disappeared. When Jane died on 30 March 1907, she was buried in the churchyard cemetery in Comet, Kansas, which is located next to the underground telephone facility south of Fairview. Jane, born 01 January 1827, would be considered a pioneer woman, living and providing for her young family without Ezekiel the traditional bread winner. In the 1865 Kansas agricultural census Jane was 38 years old, her 6 children ranged in age from 3 to 14 yrs, and the records show she had 1 horse, 2 milk cows and 4 swine all valued at $150; she had grown and had on hand 120 bushels of Indian corn, 2 bushel Irish potatoes, 100 lbs of butter, 20 gal. of sorgham molasses and a $20 value of slaughtered animals.
When the Gilbert family moved to Kansas the children were, James, William A. Margaret, and Nancy. After settling in their new home Elizabeth and Hiram were born. James (1849-1915)married Agnes Kugler and lived in the Granada area; William (1850-1929) married Mary Jane Anderson and lived south of Fairview; Nancy (1855-1903) married William Brownlee who moved to Lincoln Co, Kansas before ending up in Weld Co. Colorado; Margaret (1857-1911) first married Henry Fortney of Capioma, and after his death Ezra Cleveland living in Lawrence, Kansas at the time of their deaths; Elizabeth (1861-1914) married Chauncy Robb and lived in Comet before moving to Centralia, Kansas; and Hiram (1862-1928) never married and lived his life out on the 36 acres he purchased in 1874 for $1.00 and was buried next to his mother at Comet.
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