Lewis Lambing was born in Somerset, Ohio in 1818, the son of John Troxel Lambing and Margaret Wolf Lambing. He was the third of nine children. The children were Mary, John Henry, Lewis, Elisabeth, Joseph, Isaac Phillip, Sarah, Catharine, and Jacob. Lewis married Elisabeth Dean (1823-1897) in Somerset, Ohio and was in the grocery business with his father. Five children were born to this union:
- Ambrose
born in Perry County Ohio, never married and died in 1917;
The death announcement as written in the local newspaper.
W.A. Lambing Dies, Was Ill 7 Years. (From Saturday's Daily,
1917)
William Ambrose Lambing, 70, died at his home in Murdock township Friday afternoon of paralysis, after an illness of seven years. The funeral will be held from the home at 10 o'clock Sunday, burial will be in Towanda cemetery.
Mr. Lambing was born in Perry county, Ohio, January 27, 1847. he was unmarried. Surviving him are his brother, A.J. Lambing of Murdock; three sisters, Mrs. Clara Stewardson, Shelbyville, Ill.; Mrs Mary Elliott, Pond Creek, Okla.; Mrs. J. A. Wilson of El Dorado.
Mr. Lambing suffered the first paralytic stroke seven years ago. Since that time he has been an invalid. He suffered the second stroke Friday and passed away.
Albert James born in Somerset, Ohio, March 7, 1851 and died in Towanda, Kansas December 10, 1935, (death account states that A. J. moved to Murdock Township in 1873 and that he first moved to Illinois then to Butler County.) married Adda Irene Longstreth, September 24, 1883;
Clara (Stewardson) of Shelbyville, Ill.;
Mary married Will Elliott and lived at Pond Creek, OK.;
Emma (1858-1940) married Jim
Wilson and lived in ElDorado, Ks.
In the late 1860s or early 1870s, Lewis and his family moved to Kansas.
Some accounts state that they lived two years in Missouri on their way
to Kansas. The death account of Albert James Lambing (his son)
published in a local newspaper stated that A.J. Lambing move to Murdock
Township in 1873 and had first moved to Illinois. They first arrived
in Kansas near the Post Office of Caribou, Murdock Township, in Butler
County. This Post Office is located south of the town of Potwin northeast
of ElDorado, Kansas. James W. Augustine, a grandson of Emma, a daughter
of Lewis, in a letter of April 27, 1982 gives the following account.
"There seems to be some question as to when the family actually arrived
in this part of Kansas. I remember that grandmother told me that
they arrived she thought four years after the war which would put the time
at about 1869 and she remembers the great grasshopper plague which I think
was about 1872. However: Your sister (Maxine Hinnen) seems to think
it was 1872-1874 which is also possible. We live across the corner
from where the old Caribou Post Office was and the old Caribou Cemetery
is on our property about a quarter of a mile south of our house.
I think that this is where the family first lived before moving on down
south to their homestead. Grandmother also said something about living
in Ohio for several years and then being in Missouri for a couple of years
before coming on to Kansas. In an account given to Maxine Hinnen
by Minnie, Emma's daughter, states that Emma was fifteen when they came
to Kansas. Emma also states that Lewis was a cabinet maker.
She said that he made the cherry bureau that Fred Lambing had. Also,
that they came to Kansas in 1873 with the Bachelders and the Neiblers making
rafts and floated across the Ohio river then came in covered wagons from
Shelbyville, Ill. Lewis brought lots of trees, orchard and evergreens
when he came to Kansas. Several reports have it that they came to
Kansas from Shelbyville, Ill. If this is the case the writer questions
the statement about floating across the Ohio river. To cross the
Ohio river they would have had to gone south into Kentucky, then crossed
it again going to Illinois. If the accounts that they did make at
least a stop in Shelbyville, Ill. are true they would have more likely
crossed the Mississippi river. From information on hand it would
appear that Lewis and his family first came west to Shelbyville, Ill. spent
some time, two years possibly, then moved on further west arriving in Butler
county Kansas in or near the year of 1873. It is possible that Lewis
and his family did spend some time in Missouri. Lewis' brother Joseph
left the Ohio region about the year 1866 and moved to Winthrop, MO. (just
across the river from Atchison, KS). It would be logical that after
leaving Shelbyville, Ill. that they would stop at Joseph's farm.
It is possible that they spent the winter or even a year or so in that
region looking for a place to start up farming. The region in western
Missouri was pretty well settled at that time, so not finding property
that could be homesteaded they moved on west in search of virgin land.
The farm that is now considered the Lambing Homestead is located about
three miles south of the Caribou Post Office. Lewis originally purchased
the southeast one-quarter (160 acres) all in Section twenty five (25) Township
twenty five (25) south, Range three (3) east of the sixth principal meridian
from a Mr. Waldorf in 1873. Ambrose also purchased 80 acres south
of the road and A.J. purchased 80 acres west of the original 160 acres.
The house was about 150 yards north and east of the present house.
The land was mostly tall prairie grass and the river furnished water for
the family until the first well was dug east of the present barn.
A. J. Lambing lost his front teeth in the digging of this well. A
bucket or barrel was being lowered to remove the dirt as the well was being
dug. For some reason the bucket came loose striking A. J. in the
mouth. The native land was broken out with the plow by A. J. using
a team of oxen and Ambrose using a team of horses.
Lewis E. and Elizabeth J. Lambing are buried in the Calvary cemetery northeast
of Augusta, Kansas.