T. B. Townsend
American businessman
Thomas Burgess Townsend, known as T.B. Townsend, (1837–1916) was a brick manufacturer, a building Contractor, and owned a cattle ranch in Kansas. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 8 September 1837, he made Zanesville, Ohio his home. He was president of T. B. Townsend Brick and Contracting Co. in Zanesville, Ohio, claimed to be the largest brick factory in Ohio at the time. He founded one of "the most extensive and well-improved farms" in Peabody, Marion County, Kansas, in the 1880s, called Rockland Farm, better known as the Townsend Ranch.
Background
Townsend was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1837 and moved to Beverly, Ohio in 1846. He and Sybil A. Milton wed in Washington, Ohio on 23 September 1858. They moved in 1867 to Zanesville where they had three children: Orville (b.1860), Hatty (b.1862), and Mary (b.1872.) His properties included the sprawling 2,500 acre Townsend Ranch he established in 1886 in Peabody, Marion County, Kansas.
The Townsends did not live at this ranch but stayed in Zanesville, Ohio, where Sybil died in 1913 and he died 24 November 1916.
Building career
Townsend became a mason and then a contractor and builder at the age of 21.
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