With the Civil War behind him, James H. Summers left Iowa and moved his family to Mitchell Co. Kansas. An account of this is written in "Marrell's History of Mitchell Co., KS" page 41. The account says that when the family first attended church in the Pleasant Valley area, the speaker was Rev. Kirkpatrick. He had been a military chaplain when James had served in Kansas during the War. They greeted each other fondly. James left Iowa with the Ben Brummage family and the two familes helped each other, they had very little money between them. James built a one story house that was partly a dugout. The Township was called Bloomfield. The 1880 Census records the family here, including James' next son, Alford Summers. Alford was born in May of 1880. It was about this time that James started to apply for his military pensions. His right arm had been broken early in the Civil War and must have been quite a disability. On March 1, 1882 a doctor examined him and wrote that James should be qualified for an invalid's pension. What he needed was the medical records of the 5th Kansas Cavalry. When he wrote to Washington D. C. for them he was told that no hospital records of his regiment were on file! The last child of James H. Summers was born on March 14, 1884. The daughter's name was Lela G. Summers. She died the next day. In 1886 James agian tried to get his unit's medical records and again they couldn't be found. Instead James applied for the Mexican War Survivor's Pension, and he got this in 1889. For this he was paid $8 a month. The same year James traveled to West Virginia for a special medical examination. It was found that besides having a crippled arm, his lower back was partly paralysed and his kidneys and urinary organs were affected. To back up his Mexican War pension he gathered testimonies from soldiers he had served with, during this same year. In 1891 James joined the G.A.R., Beloit Post No. 147, Dep't. of Kansas. In 1890 James again sought his Civil War Pension. Unable to get one for service in the 5th Kansas Cavalry, he was able to get one for his service in the 48th Iowa Infantry. This gave him a Pension of $12 a month. An Act of June 27, 1890 dropped James' short lived Mexican War Pension! In a form letter of Jan. 15, 1898 James had to send information about his three marriages to the Pension office. James stated that both of his former wives, Matilda Randall and Melissa Calvin, had died in Decatur City, Iowa. On Feb. 16, 1900, Sarah Marian Hisey, third wife of James H. Summers died of stomach cancer. She was buried in Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Bloomfield Twp. They had moved away from Bloomfield and were living in Beloit at the time. In the 1900 Census James was shown as a widower. In his house lived his daughter Emma Summers-Petro and her family, and James' father-in-law, the 88 year old Alexander Hisey. James was not one to be single for long. The 65 year old James married the 46 year old widow, Ellen J. Sorick on Aug. 14, 1901, in Cloud Co. KS. The Beloit Gazette wrote, "...which ought to be mad - Summers or Summersett?", On Oct. 10, 1901 The Beloit Daily Call wrote that James was putting on airs and fixing up his place. Suddenly on Jan. 8, 1902 the Beloit Daily Call wrote that James was suffering from a severe attack of stomach trouble. Three days later another article was written that worried about his recovery. James died on Jan. 12, 1902. In a puzzling document certified by Dr. Mary J. Lobdell of Mitchell Co., the doctor states that James H. Summers died of "Stomach Trouble"...what is that? Obituaries for James were written in many newspapers. The G.A.R. gave him a nice funeral and he was buried next to his wife Sarah and daughter Lela. The children of James H. Summers battled a bit with Ellen over the will. Apparently she had had his previous will thrown out and had a new one written on James' death bed. Ellen is the final mystery in the life of James H. Summers. She went on to marry one more time, and that husband didn't live very long either. Ellen would spend the rest of her life furiously defending James Civil War Pension that she continued to receive. She left a huge paper trail of documents and testimonies. Some of them are misleading and some have outright lies. The most stunning one is that she used James' first daughter, Emma, as a source of testimony. Some years later she wrote the Pensions Dept. that Emma was deceased....she was really alive and well! Ellen had a woman friend that acted as her bulldog and threatened to use a certain congressman whenever Ellen's Pension was threatened with cancellation. Oh, well perhaps I am being to hard on Ellen. It is all very strange though. No question about it though, James Harvey Summers is one of my most interesting ancestors. Thanks to Scott Summers, Barbara Thompson and Marla Evert-Nye of the Mitchell County Historical Society for helping me with my research! -Mark Vernon Seattle, WA