Kansas

Biography of Otto F., Dierker, M. D.

Otto F. Dierker, M. D. Among the well-established physicians and surgeons of Lincoln County, Kansas, no one is held more trustworthy than Dr. Otto F. Dierker, who had been suecessfully engaged in the practice of his profession at Sylvan Grove, Kansas, since 1905, coming here shortly after his graduation from college and the securing of his degree. It is creditable both to Doctor Dierker and to the people of this pleasant little city that the cordial relations established at this time have never been severed, there being warm friendship, trust and appreciation on both sides. Doctor Dierker had built up … Read more

Biography of Frederick William Herman

Frederick William Herman identified with a number of substantial business enterprises at Lincoln, Kansas, Frederick William Herman, who had been a resident of Lincoln County since 1873, conducts them with the thorough efficiency that brings profit to himself and contributes also to the commercial prosperity of the city. Mr. Herman is a grain merchant and owned a fine elevator. He is also an extensive grower of flowers and vegetables and markets the same all over this section of the state. Frederick William Herman was born in Ross County, Ohio, September 21, 1851. His parents were Alexander and Amelia (Bodenstadt) Herman. … Read more

Biography of Bert L. Gardanier

Bert L. Gardanier is a well known Kansas banker, being vice president and now acting president of the Central National Bank of Ellsworth. This is one of the best managed banks in Kansas and had long occupied a position on the honor roll of Kansas national banks. It was established as the Farmers and Merchants Bank in 1884, first opening for business in a small room in Ellsworth November 3, 1884, with a capital stock of $7,000. The first depositor was D. A. Burns and the deposits at the close of the first day’s business were less than $1,000. At … Read more

Biography of John R. Tercy

John R. Tercy, present prohate judge of Ellsworth County, possesses in a distinguishing degree that fine balance of qualities and faculties which enables a probate judge to handle the many delicate problems of administration in a manner that means the approximation of justice to them all. Judge Tercy is not so much a lawyer as a man of affairs. He had had a long and active experience and for many years was a prominent minister of the Presbyterian Church both in Kansas and other weetern states. Judge Tercy was born at Indianapolis, Indiana, September 19, 1858, and is of English … Read more

Biography of James A. Paull

James A. Paull, present county treasurer of Ellsworth County, had long been identified with business, industrial and civic affairs in this section of Kansas. Mr. Paull had a very interesting ancestry. The family originated in Alsace Lorraine, immigrated to England, and from that county Richard Paull established the name in America. Richard Paull was born in 1615 and at the age of twenty, in June, 1635, embarked on the “True Love de London” for the Bermudas. He soon settled in Massachusetts and on November 7, 1638, married Margery Turner, of Cohasset, now Taunton, Massachusetts. There are several public records concerning … Read more

Biography of Maynard L. Meek

Maynard L. Meek is the present mayor of Ellsworth, Kansas. Local citizens take a great deal of pride in referring to the efficiency and accomplishments of his administration, and express a great deal of satisfaction that Mr. Meek had consented to serve four consecutive terms. Mr. Meek is first and last a thorough business man, and that accounts for his success in public life. Mayor Meek was born in Jones County, Iowa, September 8, 1869. He comes of an old American family, pioneers in Virginia and later in Ohio. His father, Eli C. Meek, was born in Meigs County, Ohio, … Read more

Biography of Henry Chase Bradbury

Henry Chase Bradbury. It is truly a fortunate man who can come to his seventy-third year with a record of so much good accomplished, with many responsibilities discharged and burdens bravely sustained as have been part and parcel of the life and experience of Henry Chase Bradbury, now living at Lincoln. Rev. Mr. Bradbury is the oldest active missionary of the Presbyterian Church in Kansas. For all the more than forty years of work he had done in Kansas Mr. Bradbury enjoys a vigorous old age and only his more intimate friends know that he had passed the three score … Read more

Biography of A. Sidney Chase

A. Sidney Chase. Quite recently, by his own choice, Mr. Chase terminated an official career which had been continuous for twenty-four years in the office of probate judge of Ellsworth County. It was a long and honorable service and when considered in connection with Judge Chase’s well known integrity of character and other successful aceomplishments it stands as a credit to the entire State of Kansas. To a large degree Judge Chase is the architect of his own destiny, but he had that inestimable advantage of good birth and the inheritance that comes from solid and substantial old American stock. … Read more

Biography of William Bender

William Bender came with his parents to Kansas over thirty years ago, helped the family get established, and then took up agriculture as an independent career, in which he had been so liberally prospered that he had now practically given up the active superintendence of his extensive land holdings and lives retired in the City of Ellsworth. Mr. Bender is a native of Germany, where he was born August 19, 1869. His father, also William Bender, was born in that country in 1846, grew up and married there, acquired the trade of shoemaker, but also did farming. He was in … Read more

Biography of James M. Wilson

James M. Wilson has had a long and prominent official career in Ellsworth County, where for twenty years he had continuously filled the office of clerk of the District Court. Mr. Wilson is an old resident of Ellsworth, having come there as a youth thirty-five years ago. He is a lawyer by training and qualifications, though he had found his career in public office rather than in private practice. Mr. Wilson was born at Bath-on-the-Hudson, now Renssalaer, New York, September 12, 1864. His father, James Wilson, was born at Edinburgh, Seotland, in 1824, grew up and learned the trade of … Read more

Biography of Harry A. Kunkle

Harry A. Kunkle. Kansas as one of the greatest agricultural sections of the world had bestowed its riches abundantly upon the disciples of farming, but it will be found an almost invariable rule that those who have benefited most from the prosperity of Kansas have relied upon those old virtues of industry and unceasing vigilance which have their rewards in other less favored communities. Hard work was no doubt the keynote in the success of the late Aaron Kunkle, who developed a splendid estate as a farmer in Kansas, and his only heir, Harry A. Kunkle, had not been bebind … Read more

Biography of Nathaniel Harris

Nathaniel Harris, a veteran business man of Ellsworth now retired, had been identified with that city for over thirty years and among other honors that have come to him was a service in a recent session of the State Legislature. Mr. Harris is of an old American family, the Harrises having been pioneers in Tennessee and Illinois. His father, Benjamin Harris, was born in Tennessee in 1817, and in 1826 removed to Illinois, where he married and took up a career as a farmer and stockman. At the outbreak of the war with Mexico he went with an Illinois regiment … Read more

Biography of Edward J. Ryan

Edward J. Ryan. It is somewhat remarkable, wheu the fact is considered, that nine-tenths of the prominent men of the country were reared on a farm and with very many a love of out-door life continues with them ever after. In Edward J. Ryan, mayor of Lincoln, Kansas, is found a livestock dealer, and a man who understands agricultural matters as thoroughly as he does the insistent needs of the municipality he governs. Mayor Ryan is of Irish ancestry and parentage but was born at West Union, Iowa, November 30, 1859. The pioneer settler of his family in America was … Read more

Biography of Henry Van Deman Faris

Henry Van Deman Faris, of Kanopolis, is a Kansas around whom center many associations of territorial and pioneer times. He is by five years the oldest living pioneer in Kansas west of Salina. He had been continuously identfied with Ellsworth County more than half a century. Mr. Faris comes of that adventuresome pioneer stock that in successive waves had peopled and developed American soil. His grandfather, John Faris, was born in Ireland of Scotch descent. On coming to this country he partieipated as a soldier in the struggle for independence, and afterwards became a farmer in Virginia. He located on … Read more

Biography of Joseph B. Blades, M. D.

Joseph B. Blades, M. D. For a period of twelve years the health and sanitation of Randall, Jewell County, had been safeguarded by the zeal and skill of Dr. Joseph Brewer Blades, whose entire professional career had been passed in this community. He is one of the men who have brought to their honored calling high scholarship, thorough training and equipment and a full realization of the importance and responsibility of their profession, and his professional associates and the public generally have been prompt to testify to his ability and to the value of his services in their midst. Joseph … Read more

Biography of George F. Zerzan, M. D.

George F. Zerzan, M. D. With his home and practice at Holyrood since 1905, Doctor Zerzan is a man of conspicuous success not only in his profession but by the rapidity with which he had accumalated important business interests. Doctor Zerzan is not yet forty and it would seem that his substantial achiovements to date predieate a splendid success as the form of his life’s activities. Doctor Zerzan was born at Schuyler, Nebraska, August 23, 1878. He is of Bohemian parentage and ancestry. His grandfather, Joseph Zerzan, was born in Bohemia in 1818, served his time in the Bohemian army, … Read more

Biography of William E. Schermerhorn

William E. Schermerhorn is a merchant at Wilson and for a man of thirty-five carrics some very heavy responsibilities. He is a native of Kansas and son of a pioneer whose career recalls some interesting events and developments in the far West. His father, E. D. Schermerhorn, is still living at Wilson, nearly seventy years of age. E. D. Schermerhorn was born near Troy, New York, in 1848. His ancestors were the Schermerhorn family of Holland established on Manhattan Island by three brothers in the time of Peter Stuyvesant. The name Schermerhorn is still found in local nomenclature in and … Read more

Biography of Henry W. Weber

Henry W. Weber, cashier of the Farmers State Bank of Wilson, had worked and had lived in close touch with business and banking affairs since he was a young boy. Part of his early experience was as a farmer, and he is individually owner of a farm and had that invaluable asset of the country banker, a close knowledge and sympathy and understanding with farming interests and farmers. Mr. Weber was born near Dubuque in Russell County, Kansas, March 31, 1883. His father, Nicholas Weber, who still lives in that community, had long been a prominent man of affairs in … Read more

Biography of William Lenley Goheen

William Lenley Goheen is publisher of the Holyrood Banner and also the Galatia Register, two papers of extensive circulation and large influence in Ellsworth and Barton counties. Mr. Goheen is a veteran of the printing trade and it is doubtful if any Kansas printer or newspaper man had had a more varied and eventful experience. Much of his life had been spent in the service of that typical American institution, the traveling circus, and as a press agent he had covered nearly every town and city of the United States. Mr. Goheen, who was born at Moweaqua, Illinois, July 25, … Read more

Biography of Carl Judge

Carl Judge. While Carl Judge, the well known journalist, the owner and editor of the Beverly Tribune, at Beverly, Kansas, could ill be spared from the newspaper profession, there are other lines in which he was trained, and in which he would have undoubtedly gained recognition had he chosen to pursue them. Mr. Judge was a man of considerable newspaper experience before he came to Kansas, and had owned and very ably edited other journals than the Tribune. Carl Judge was born in Osage County, Kansas, July 10, 1878. His parents were Martyr C. and Mary (Roberts) Judge. His father … Read more