Emery Trekell, M. D. On the wall of his office at Harper hangs a diploma showing Doctor Trekell is a graduate in medicine from Northwestern University of Chicago. Immediately after leaving that school in 1910 he took up active practice in Kansas, and for the past three years had been looking after a very large and accumulating professional business at Harper.
Doctor Trekell though born at West Union in Cass County, Missouri, March 13, 1877, had some interesting historical family connections of early days in Kansas. He is of a family that came to the United States before the Revolution. His grandfather was a native of Illinois, and during the ’50s came west to the Missouri border and settled near Fort Aubrey, Kansas. He had a farm there and was killed on his place at the time of Quantrill’s raid. He had walked to Lawrence to notify the citizens there of Quantrill’s coming, and on account of that act was ambushed and slain. Two of his brothers, one of whom was named Greenbury Trekell, were killed in the battle between the free state and slavery forces at Lawrence.
Franklin Trekell, father of Doctor Trekell, was born near Toulon in Stark County, Illinois, in 1840, but when quite young moved to West Union, Missouri. In 1862 he went into the Union army and as a first lieutenant saw active service until the close of the war. He was one of the avengers of his father’s death, raising a squad of men who went in pursuit of Quantrill, and it was Franklin Trekell who discovered Quantrill’s muster roll in the saddle of a dead horse. With his squad of soldiers he also found the body of his slain father. After the war he engaged in farming in Cass County, Missouri, and in 1884 removed to Wellington, Kansas, and continued farming there until his retirement. He died at Wellington in 1906. He was a democrat in politics, a member of the Christian Church, and was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. At West Union, Missouri, in 1861 he married Elizabeth A. Currell, who was born at Shawnee Mission in Kansas in 1844. Thus on his mother’s side Doctor Trekell represents people who were in Kansas long before it became a territory and when all this country was given over to the Indians. His mother died at Wellington in 1905. The children were: Thomas E., owner of a ranch at Shattuck, Oklahoma; Charles S., a farmer at Nardin, Oklahoma; Clara, wife of Reece Lupton, who had a farm at Deer Creek, Oklahoma; Francis T., a merchant at Enid, Oklahoma; Laura, who died at Wellington in 1896, married in 1894 T. J. Anderson, now a farmer in Oklahoma; W. A., a farmer at Hunter, Oklahoma; Franklin, Jr., also farming land at Hunter, Oklahoma; Doctor Trekell; Harry E., who owned the old home place at Wellington; Mary E., twin sister of Harry, wife of A. O. Bachman, a farmer at Eddy, Oklahoma; and Bertha May, wife of David G. Demuth, a farmer at Yelton, Oklahoma.
Doctor Trekell was educated in the rural schools of Sumner County, Kansas, graduating from the county high school there with the class of 1903. For one year he taught at Belle Plaine, Kansas, and then entered Kansas University, where he pursued his studies four years, and followed that with two years in Northwestern University Medical School at Chicago, graduating in 1910. For three years Doctor Trekell practiced at Milan, Kansas, spent one year at Argonia, and in 1914 located at Harper. His offices are in the Thompson Building on Central Avenue. He had served as president of the County Medical Society, and is a member of the State Society and the American Medical Association. Doctor Trekell is a democrat in politics, is affiliated with Harper Lodge No. 206, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Harper Lodge No. 195, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Harper Lodge of Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Chapter of the Eastern Star. Doctor Trekell is a member of the Christian Church.
In 1912, at Beaver City, Oklahoma, he married Miss Mae Maple. Mrs. Trekell had the distinction of being the first white child born in Beaver County, Oklahoma. Beaver County is in the far western part of that state, in what is called the Oklahoma Panhandle. Doctor and Mrs. Trekell have one daughter, Dorothy Lenor, born April 20, 1917.