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I'm not related to this family but hope this info helps someone: extracted from The Past and Present of Shelby County, Iowa, page 1371, pub. 1915.
FRANK S. KAYS. A veteran of the Civil War and a retired farmer of Harlan, Iowa, Frank S. Kays is now leading a life of ease after long years of hard labor. He enlisted for the service of his country when he reached his seventeenth birthday and served for two years in many of the hardest fought battles of the Civil War. He has been a resident of this county for nearly forty years and engaged in farming pursuits with such success that he was able to retire several years ago with a comfortable competence for his declining years. FRANK S. KAYS, the son of WILLIAM and REBECCA (SIMPKINS) KAYS, was born in March 1846 in the northwestern part of Pennsylvania. His parents were both natives of the same state and moved to Grant County, Wisconsin in 1849. The following year, the terrible cholera scourge visited the state and his father, mother, two sisters and one brother succumbed to the dread disease. The children of WILLIAM KAYS and wife are as follows: William, John, Frank S., George, Laura, James R., Dorothy, and the three who died of cholera in 1850. William Jr. enlisted twice during the Civil War and is now a retired farmer in Washington County, Kansas. John, who served through the Civil War as a member of the 25th Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, is a retired farmer at Noel, Missouri. George, also a soldier during the Civil War, is a blacksmith at Independence, Iowa. Laura is the deceased wife of CALVIN RUSSELL. James R. is a blacksmith at Waterloo, Iowa. Dorothy, widow of GEORGE MAIM, a famous musician, resides at Independence, Iowa.
The parents of FRANK S. KEYS died when he was only four years of age, and he was then taken and reared to manhood by E. P. PHILBROOK of Grant County, Wisconsin. He received very little schooling, being compelled when a mere lad to begin work for himself and by the time the Civil War had opened, he was over in Iowa working on the farms in that state. As soon as he was old enough, he enlisted at Independence, Iowa, in Company B, 4th Regiment, Iowa Volunteer Cavalry, which regiment was at once sent to Memphis, Tennessee, in order to participate in the campaign against Vicksburg. At Memphis, his regiment was attached to the command of General Sturgess and made a part of the Third Army Corps. They went to Gunntown and were soon ordered back to Memphis where they were placed under the command of General A. J. Smith. The next move took them to Mississippi where they had a cavalry battle of three days' duration with General Forrest at Tupelo. They fought around Vicksburg until the surrender of the city on the Fourth of July 1863. After this stronghold of the south had fallen into the hands of the Union soldiers, the regiment to which Mr. KAYS was attached was taken by boat to Memphis and from there was sent to join General Grant in the eastern part of Tennessee. He took part in all of General Sherman's battles on the famous trip through Georgia in the summer of 1864 and was with that general until the final surrender of Johnston in North Carolina in April 1865. He was mustered out of the service at Atlanta, GA., August 8, 1865, being only nineteen years of age at the time he left the army and received his final discharge at Davenport, Iowa, about August 16.
Mr. KAYS found work for his hands to do on the farms near Independence and continued to reside there until his marriage in Marshalltown, Iowa, in 1870. Immediately after his marriage, he located in Marshall County, Iowa, and lived in that county until 1876. In that year, he came with his family to Shelby County and rented a farm in Lincoln Township. In a short time, he bought a farm of 80 acres in Cass Township and subsequently added 40 more acres to his farm. He has made all of the improvements on his farm and has so tilled it that he has obtained the maximum results from his efforts. He has carried on general farming, dividing his attention between the raising of crops and the breeding of high-class live stock. In 1908 he sold his farm and retired to Harlan where he bought a fine home at 1214 West Durant Street.
Mr. KAYS was married October 21, 1870 in Marshalltown, Iowa, to ANNA VAUGHN, the daughter of NATHAN and EDNA (KENNEDY) VAUGHN, both of whom were born in Nova Scotia. The parents of Mrs. Kays, after the birth of Anna in Renfrow County, Canada, January 5, 1853, moved to Princeton, Illinois; later they located in Davenport, Iowa, and a few years afterward settled in Marshalltown, Iowa, where they lived until their death. Mr. VAUGHN was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, while his wife adhered to the Baptist faith. Ten children were born to them: Thomas, deceased; Anna, the wife of Mr. Kays; Edward, deceased; Effie, widow of COLONEL SANFORD, who is living in the state of Washington; Lucy HUBLER, Marshalltown, Iowa; Bessie HIGGINS, Ida Grove, Iowa; Edna S., deceased; Margaret McDANIEL, who is living near Seattle, Washington; Nathan, deceased; Hannah MOORE, a resident of Buchanan County, Iowa.
Mr. Kays and his wife had one son, Frank, who died at the age of twenty-one. They have one adopted daughter, Ora Blanche DUNLAP, the wife of John W. BARE. Mr. BARE and his wife are living near Superior, Wisconsin, and have two children, Nellie and Louis Dale.
Politically, Mr. KAYS always has been a stanch Republican but has never aspired to official life. He and his wife are loyal members of the Methodist Episcopal Church and are liberal contributors to its support. Mr. KAYS is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic Post at Harlan, while his wife is a member of the Woman's Relief Corps. They are fine people and are highly respected and beloved by everyone who knows them. (end)
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