Abner Hixon Longley Jr. was the only child born during his father's third marriage. He was born in 1853 in Lebanon, Indiana. His mother was a recent widow with five of her own children when she married his father. Abner Sr. had lived in Lebanon in the 1830s where he was the first landowner and returned there just before his son was born.
In 1866 the family moved to Paola, Miami County, Kansas where Abner Sr. then started a farm.
In 1866 the family moved to Paola, Miami County, Kansas where Abner Sr. then started a farm.
During the Civil War a Union military post was established on the west side of Bull Creek, just west of Paola. On August 21, 1863 the Confederate guerrilla William C. Quantrill was retreating from raiding Lawrence, Kansas, where his men had killed around 150 unarmed men and boys. Retreating southeast they burned the village of Brooklyn and headed towards Paola. The forces at the military post attempted to set a trap for Quantrill but the guerrillas fought off a small Union charge and then bypassed the planned ambush. Paola's military post was deactivated in late 1865.
About 1868 Abner Jr's older half-brother Septimius's family would also move to Paola. But, Septimius was not a farmer, he was a printer. He then moved to Leavenworth about 50 miles to the north. There he went to work for Ramsey, Millett & Hudson and became the foreman of their print room. The company was on their way to becoming a large well-known printing company. The seventeen year old Abner Jr. would then join Septimius and learn how to be a printer.
Abner Jr. soon relocated to Cincinnati to ply his new skill with his half-brother Cyrenius. He soon met, and fell in love with, Miss Arestine Vanessa Van Duzer. Her father was John Clarke Van Duzer a well respected Lt. Col. in the Quartermaster Corps during the Civil War. At the time he was the managing the Howe Sewing Machine Company in Cincinnati.
In Cincinnati he met his cousin John S. Grieves who wanted to get into the newspaper business. So, in December 1873 Abner Jr. and John go to Zionsville, Indiana, and start the “Zionsville Times”. But neither stay with the project long and Abner Jr. moved to Crawfordsville, Indiana, to work for the "Weekly Journal".
In 1877 he decided to return to Kansas City but then moved on to Paola. There he started work at the "Republican" newspaper. Soon becoming successful and well liked he thought about expanding.
That same year Abner also patented an addressing machine. He assigned his idea to local well known newspaper men, Morris Munford and Martin Marshall Morrison.
In 1879 he approached his father-in-law about buying the Fort Scott, Kansas, "Gulf Monitor" newspaper. For some reason they changed their minds and decide on buying a newspaper in Escanaba, Michigan.
Escanaba was on the northwest side of Lake Michigan on Little Bay de Noc. Escanaba was the name the Ojibwa Indians called the local river. The word "Escanaba" roughly translates to "flat rock".
Escanaba was founded in 1863 as a port town by surveyor Eli P. Royce. The town had a deep harbor, which made it a lumbering center. Early industry was the processing and harvesting of lumber and that was soon followed by iron ore. Nearby Gladstone, first named Sanders Point, was the eastern terminus of the Soo Line Railroad built for transporting flour, ore, and coal.
Abner Jr. and his father-in-law bought the local paper “Iron Port”. So on June 23, 1879 Abner Jr., his now widowed mother, his wife and 2 children, his brother-in-law and his father-in-law all move in together in Escanaba.
Escanaba was founded in 1863 as a port town by surveyor Eli P. Royce. The town had a deep harbor, which made it a lumbering center. Early industry was the processing and harvesting of lumber and that was soon followed by iron ore. Nearby Gladstone, first named Sanders Point, was the eastern terminus of the Soo Line Railroad built for transporting flour, ore, and coal.
Abner Jr. and his father-in-law bought the local paper “Iron Port”. So on June 23, 1879 Abner Jr., his now widowed mother, his wife and 2 children, his brother-in-law and his father-in-law all move in together in Escanaba.
Unfortunately, this move turned bad very quickly. On December 2, 1880 Abner died of typhoid pneumonia.
Typhoid fever comes from food and water with bacteria in it. Also close contact with a person who is carrying the salmonella bacteria can cause it. There is frequently jaundice, diarrhea and swelling of the abdominal cavity. It is difficult to differentiate between toxic or asthenic pneumonia and typhoid fever, which sets in with early localization in the lung. The differentiation can be made only by blood cultures.
Later studies at Escanaba showed that streams entering the head of Little Bay de Noc caused a current so that the local sewage was seldom or never carried away. Escanaba was unfortunately situated where the currents mingled the sewage with the water taken in for the city consumption so as to greatly pollute the supply.
Typhoid fever comes from food and water with bacteria in it. Also close contact with a person who is carrying the salmonella bacteria can cause it. There is frequently jaundice, diarrhea and swelling of the abdominal cavity. It is difficult to differentiate between toxic or asthenic pneumonia and typhoid fever, which sets in with early localization in the lung. The differentiation can be made only by blood cultures.
Later studies at Escanaba showed that streams entering the head of Little Bay de Noc caused a current so that the local sewage was seldom or never carried away. Escanaba was unfortunately situated where the currents mingled the sewage with the water taken in for the city consumption so as to greatly pollute the supply.
Abner is buried in Lakeview Cemetery in Escanaba, near his father-in-law. John Clarke Van Duzer kept running the "Iron Port" newspaper alone until he took on a new partner in 1891.
Abner's widow would never remarry and lived another 49 years. She is buried in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.