Thus he has become the owner of a farm of 650 acres, on which he has two oil wells now producing, although he gives the greater part of his attention to diversified farming and to the raising of graded stock, having a thoroughbred individual for his Shorthorns. He experienced all the hardships incidental to life in a new country, passed through the grasshopper plague of 1871, and met with a number of other reverses, but through it all worked perseveringly and gradually added to his holdings as his finances would permit, and erected good buildings and installed improvements on his property. At that time he came to Kansas and settled in Brown County, as a pioneer, but in 1870 removed to the Cherokee Strip, taking up a preemption claim in Fawn Creek Township, Montgomery County. Fields was educated in the public schools of his native county, and was reared on the home farm, where he remained until 1869, or until he had reached his majority. Fields married Joanna Wallace, also a native of Mifflin County, who died there in 1864, at the age of fifty-eight years. He was a democrat in politics and an active member of the Presbyterian Church. He met with a fair measure of success in his farming and stockraising enterprises, but his early death, in 1848, cut short what promised to be a successful career. John Fields, father of John C., was born in 1803, in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, was there reared and educated, and passed his life as a tiller of the soil. Wallace married a Miss Wilson, daughter of James Wilson, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Fields’ grandfather was Robert Wallace, who was born at Belfast, Ireland, and as a young man came to America and settled in Pennsylvania, where during the remainder of his active career he was engaged in farming and stock raising. Robert Fields, the grandfather of John C., was born in the Keystone State, and passed his life in farming in Mifflin County, where he died prior to the birth of his grandson. Fields was born in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, October 11, 1848, and is a son of John and Joanna (Wallace) Fields, and a member of a family the American progenitor of which came to this country from Germany in colonial times and settled in Pennsylvania. He has steadily added to his holdings since that time, and is now one of the substantial men of his community, having a well-cultivated property of 650 acres, and being a director of the Tyro State Bank. Fields has been a resident of Montgomery County since 1870, in which year he took up a pre-emption claim in what was then the Cherokee Strip.

Among the worthy farmers of Fawn Creek Township, Montgomery County, whose industry, perseverance and good management have brought them into comfortable circumstances, is John C.

Founding fathers joseph ellis