Thomas Jefferson GALLENTINE

                   broommaker. The second of the Gallentines to settle in western Kansas, homesteading in 1886 three miles west and two miles south of Norcatur where he built a soddy and began farming.  In 1885 Tom Tom had come alone to Norcatur to visit relatives and at that time made the descision to move.
    Thomas was born near Normalville, PA, in 1841 and was raised on his father Abraham's farm.  At age 21 he was called in the first military draft and served in the Civil War with Company I of the 74th Pennsylvania Infantry.  In 1866 Thomas married Eliza "Lide" Murray.  Being the youngest of his family, Tom and Lide lived with his parents, worked on the farm, and bore two children in Pennsylvania:  Ida (1867) and Frank (1868).
    In 1868 Tom, Lide and children, together with his parents, moved to Hicksville, Ohio, where the rest of their children were born.  Tom's father died in 1877 and is buried in Hicksville, Ohio.
    Thomas and family and his mother, Elizabeth, were among the first passengers to arrive in Norcatur on April 1886 on the newly constructed Burlington railroad.  Thomas had been a farmer of meager means in Ohio; raising amoung other crops, broom corn from which he made and sold brooms.  He continued in this business in Kansas.  Tom was 44 and Lide 37 when they arrived.  Mae, their youngest, was less than a month old.
    The family had to work hard to make a go of their homestead farm in the early years.  Of Thomas' nine children, Ida was the first to leave home, marrying Moses Hare in 1888. Sally married Lote Montgomery in 1897. During this time Cora left Nocatur to enter the nursing profession, but later returned to marry Frank Pettit of Norcatur. In 1902 Frank married Rettie Alexander and in 1908 Eli married Jessie Gallentine, Solomon's daughter, of O'Neill, Nebraska.  In 1912 Mae married Ray Shirley of Brewster, Kansas and lived there.  Webb married Bessie McCarty of Norcator in 1916.  All except Cora, May, and Webb settled on farms near Thomas' old homestead.  Webb managed a lumber yard in Norcatur, but later moved and finally died in Missouri.
    Tom and Lide lived in the soddy on the homestead until about 1900 when they sold and moved into Norcatur where Tom dedicated himself to operating his broom factory.  Although Tommy had been reluctant to enter the Army in the Civil War, he later took pride in his service, belonged to the G.A.R., and nearly always marched in the traditional Memorial Day Parade in Norcatur.  He was a staunch Democrat.  He enjoyed reading the newspapers, discussing politics, and pitching horseshoes.
    Tom died in 1921, age 71; and Lide died in 1930, age 82.  They are buried in Norcatur.broommaker