ISAAC FRANKLIN DUGAN (DUGEAN)

From Pioneers of the BlueStem Prairie

Isaac franklin Dugan (Deugean) was born in KY on 12FEB1827 and died 7MAR1811 and is buried at May Day. He married Emily Berry who was born 23MAR1831 IN, and died 8AUG1917 and is also buried at May Day.
During the 1870's, Isaac and his family decided to join a caravan of settlers headed for KS. Among this group of travellers was Charles and Martha Berry and family. Charles Berry and Emily Dugan were brother and sister. Charles Berry served as a Pvt in Co H, 147th Reg in IN.
The caravan took their covered wagons to St Louis. They worked along the way to get enough money to travel to their destination. Once they got to St. Louis they boarded a river boat which brought them and their covered wagons to Atchison. At Atchison they took the Butterfield Overland Dispatch Trail until they got to the area which is now the Alma-St George location. Many of the settlers stopped and made their homes there, including some other Dugan families. Others went on to MHK and then Riley, where Charles Berry and his family settled. Isaac moved on to find some land to be homesteaded. Most of the land was already owned in Riley Co but Isaac finally found some in Centre Twp. The land wasn't very good but it was the best to be found in the area and they were too tired to travel on. They staked out their homestead in S 1/2 NE 1/4 of Sec 2 Twp 7, R 4. To this day the hills they homesteaded are called the Dugan Hills even though the land is not owned by a Dugan.
James Ingalls, son of Isaac, also homesteaded the same land. They registered this claim at Concordia which was the Land Survey Station for the area. Isaac became legal owner of this land 9NOV1885 as he went to pay the final payment of $4.00 and fulfill the legal requirements fo the Homestead Act.
Isaac was a large, strong and friendly man and was well liked about the neighborhood. In those days men of strength were measured in how much they could carry from town to their home, not in their physical size. Isaac had been a farmer in IL and was a farmer until he died. He split rails alongside Abe Lincoln. His wife was small and always on the move. She was one of a large family and as a child was "bound out" to the Busch (beer) family and raised by them.