Charles Rollin Inslee was born in Chase County, Kansas in 1883. He had six brothers and two sisters. When he was about one year old, he came to Barber County with his parents (Mr. and Mrs. Theophilus D. Inslee) and older brother (Redford) in a covered wagon. They homesteaded a farm near Isabel known as the C.C. Campbell farm. In 1890 they bought the farm now owned by William Inslee three miles east of Isabel. There was no house there, so "Ted" with the help of neighbors built a house. While the house was being built, the children went to a country school nearby.
Charley grew to manhood near Isabel, going to country school until 8th grade and doing things most boys do. He loved horses and did a lot of horse trading. He raised a lot of mules which were in great demand because they were stronger than horses and could do a lot more work. Charley and his brothers, Redford and Dee, were in the well drilling buisness for awhile and did their banking business with Isabel State Bank. They put up a lot of windmills in Isabel which was known as "Windmill City" because of the large number of windmills in the town.
Charley bought a small farm in Barber County one mile west and two and one-half miles south of Unity School House. He and his friend Charley Eckert bathched there in a little two room house for a few years until he met Lulu Frances Bunch at an ice cream social in Isabel. She had come to Isabel from Deepwater, Missouri on a train to help her sister Mrs. Delia Huey care for a new baby daughter, Vera. Vera was born October 21, 1902. Lulu loved to live in Isabel with the Walter Hueys. She got a job as a clerk in Gibson's Dry Goods Store which had a variety of articles and lots of dressmaking materials for sale. She also sang alto in the girls glee club.
On June 20, 1909 Charles and Lulu were married at the home of her parents Mr. and Mrs. J.A. Bunch near Deepwater, Missouri. After the wedding supper the whole family attended church at their little country church, Park Grove, where the minister introduced them as Mr. and Mrs. Charles Inslee. Their only honeymoon was a train ride back to the little house in Barber County. They were blessed with three children: Bertha Emma married Clarence Rucker of Sharon; Clifford Dale married Zelma Rucker, both deceased; and a baby died at birth.
After several years of renting farms and raising wheat, corn and feed, raising cattle, horses and mules they bought a farm five mile north of Sharon, Kansas. Their farm had a creek, so Charley built several ponds and stocked them with fish. It was a setting for lots of picnics for family and community.
Charles and Lulu celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary on June 20, 1959 at the home of their daughter. Lulu passed away October 14, 1962 and Charley passed away November 4, 1967. They are buried in Sharon Cemetery.
Source:
Isabel, Kansas - The First 100 Years, 1887 - 1987, pg. 101
Submitted by: Bertha Inslee Rucker