Kansas

Biography of Joseph Edward Exner

Joseph Edward Exner, now president of the Coffeyville Shale Products Company and especially identified with a number of other manufacturing and business concerns of Montgomery County, is a veteran railroad man, having retired from the hazardous and responsible position of locomotive engineer some thirteen years ago to take up a career as a manufacturer at Coffeyville. He is an Eastern man, though most of his experience in railroading and business has been gained in the West. His Exner ancestors had their original seat of residence in Germany. During colonial times two brothers of the name came to New York State, … Read more

Biography of John H. Crider

John H. Crider. A continuous practice as a member of the Fort Scott bar since 1882 gives John H. Crider a distinction not only as one of the oldest members of the local bar, but also as one of the most successful. From the first Mr. Orider has looked upon the law not so much as a vocation as a profession requiring all the loyalty and service of his nature and throughout has kept his work in full accord with the high standards and dignity of his vocation. It may be a matter of interest to recall that Mr. Crider … Read more

Biography of William Henry Francis

William Henry Francis. Among the men foremost in Montgomery County identified with industrial enterprises, those who have become widely known by reason of the magnitude of their operations and the extent of their trade connections, few are better known than is William Henry Francis, superintendent and manager of the Coffeyville Vitrified Brick and Tile Company’s plants at Coffeyville, Collinsville, Cherryvale and Fort Smith. Mr. Francis has spent his entire career in the business in which he is now engaged, and is maintaining the prestige in business circles attained by his honored father, the late George Francis. William H. Francis was … Read more

Biography of J. Walter Clark

J. Walter Clark. In no state in the Union, perhaps, have the public schools in recent years been given more careful consideration than in Kansas, and this is evidenced by the fact that school boards all over are insisting on higher qualifications and efficiency than ever before. They demand teachers not only of scholarship, but of high moral character, of equable temperament and conventional deportment, rightly contending that these instructors have lasting influence on the youth that is entrusted to them at the most impressionable age. Well qualified in every way is Prof. J. Walter Clark, who, for the past … Read more

Biography of David Stewart Elliott, Capt.

Capt. David Stewart Elliott. For more than half a century the name Elliott has been one of important associations with Kansas history. The quality of public service has distinguished the family in all generations. The first of the name in Kansas was a Pennsylvania soldier, also named David Stewart Elliott, who was killed by Quantrell’s band of raiders during the Civil war. The late Capt. David Stewart Elliott of Coffeyville, long known as a lawyer, editor, fraternal organizer, and soldier, also gave up his life as a sacrifice to the country during the Philippine war. Several of the children of … Read more

Biography of Charles W. Kent

Charles W. Kent of Coffeyville is a veteran newspaper man of Kansas. His has been an interesting past. He served as a boy soldier in the Union army, and several of his brothers also bore arms for the Stars and Stripes. In a half century of active experience he has largely been identified with the newspaper business, and has been in Southern Kansas about a quarter of a century. On July 7, 1893, he established and brought out the Gate City Independent, the forerunner of the present weekly Independent. For a number of years Coffeyville was familiarly known as the … Read more

Biography of David Prager

David Prager. It was the influence of his personality and character as much as his successful business activities that made David Prager so useful and valuable a citizen of Fort Scott, where he resided for over forty years. His carcer illustrates the fact that the successful man is not necessarily the selfish man. He did not keep the resources of his heart nor of his material means to himself, but dispensed them with free hand among his family, his friends and the entire community. He was one of Fort Scott’s most beloved and best known citizens. David Prager was born … Read more

Biography of Frank Marion Hare

Frank Marion Hare is city engineer of Parsons. He is a competent and thoroughly versed man in his profession, and he trained himself for that career. His Harr ancestors came from Germany and settled in New York State in colonial times. His paternal grandfather, John M. Harr, was born in Ohio in 1820, spent his life as a farmer and died in Van Wert County of the Buckeye State in 1897. He was an active republican in politics. Of his children four are now deceased, and those still living, the uncles and aunts of Frank M. Harr, are: Corwin, a … Read more

Biography of Calvin Arthur Davis

Calvin Arthur Davis. The superintendent of the Cudahy Refining Company at Chanute, Kansas, Calvin Arthur Davis, is one of the sons of the Sunflower state who has worked his own way to position and independence. A product of the farm, when he started upon his career his equipment consisted of ambition, determination and good common sense, and these qualities he directed so well that he soon became recognized as a man from whom large things could be expected. Promotion naturally followed, and his career has since been one of constant advancement. Mr. Davis was born on a farm south of … Read more

Biography of James L. McCoy

James L. McCoy has for many years been identified with the lumber industry both in Kansas and Arkansas, and manages his extensive interests from his home and headquarters at Coffeyville. Nearly all his active career has been spent in the West and in the early days of Oklahoma he went there as a pioneer and opened a farm. James L. McCoy was born in Atchison County, Missouri, May 21, 1862. Four generations of the McCoys have lived in this country, having come originally from Scotland, and the family were early settlers in the State of Ohio. Mr. McCoy’s grandfather, Andrew … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Ralph W. Squires

Ralph W. Squires, present register of deeds of Shawnee County, was born at Columbus, Ohio, April 29, 1870, and was nine years of age when brought to Kansas by his parents, Jeremiah and Virginia E. (Schimp) Squires, and for a few years the family lived on the farm in Pottawatomie County. The recollection of the booming of the prairie chickens in the spring when frost covered the earth in the morning, the cries of the plover, and other incidents of pioneer life, left an indelible impress on his youthful mind. He received his education in the public schools and later … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Paul E. Walker

Paul E. Walker, a son of A. D. Walker of Holton, has been a Topeka lawyer for the past fifteen years. He was born at his father’s home in Holton, Kansas, August 27, 1876, grew up in his native city, attending the public schools, and took his college course in California, being a graduate of Leland Stanford University. He took his A. B. degree there in 1898, and then entered the Harvard Law School, where he was graduated LL.B. in 1902. In the fall of 1902 Mr. Walker began practice in Topeka as assistant attorney for the Rock Island Railway … Read more

Biography of Elias Emerson Morris

Elias Emerson Morris has for eight years been probate judge of Riley County. To that office he has brought a singularly fair impartiality, and ever since he entered upon his duties the people of the county have recognized that the interests of the widows and orphans have been most capably and honestly administered. Judge Morris is one of the old time educators of Kansas, and has long been identified with some form of official service in Riley County. He was born in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, November 2, 1859, a son of James S. and Mary (Chamberlain) Morris. His parents were … Read more

Biography of Charles H. Trott

Charles H. Trott, who died at his home in Junction City March 2, 1916, attained many of those ideals for which ambitious men will always strive. He proved a gallant and faithful soldier when the country’s integrity was in danger, was a merchant and business man of the finest integrity, was a good friend, a good Christian and a good citizen. For half a century he lived in Kansas, and at the time of his death was one of the oldest if not the oldest business man of Junction City. He arrived in Junction City in the spring of 1866 … Read more

Biography of Walter S. Ezell

Walter S. Ezell. Contributing to the prestige of the City of Wichita as an educational center are a number of well ordered business and technical institutions, and prominent among the number is the Wichita Telegraph College, which was founded in the spring of 1912 by its present owner and manager, Walter S. Ezell, who as a mere boy had manifested a distinct predilection for the art of telegraphy and who contrived to pass much of his time in the telegraph office of the railway station of which his father was agent in the City of Memphis, Tennessee. As an expert … Read more

Biography of Jeremiah Hampton Squires

Jeremiah Hampton Squires. One of the old and honored residents of Topeka, to which city he came thirty-seven years ago, is Jeremiah Hampton Squires, veteran of the Civil war, who is now living in comfortable retirement after a long and useful career as a business man and public official. Mr. Squires was born at Southampton, on Long Island, New York, September 11, 1842, and is the only survivor of the four children of Jeremiah and Phoebe (Jaegger) Squires, who were farming people. Mr. Squires resided on the home farm on Long Island until reaching the age of seventeen years, and … Read more

Biography of William H. Moffit

William H. Moffit. In the group of surviving territorial pioneers of Kansas, William H. Moffit of Highland Park, a suburb of Topeka, has an important place. Mr. Moffit carries within his individual recollection practically the entire story of Kansas from the beginning of the border warfare until the present, a period of fully fifty years. He has been a witness of great and stirring events, and in those events has not been himself an inconsiderable participant. His birth occurred in Henry County, Iowa, January 6, 1842. That date indicates that the family history has been identified with the pioneer times … Read more

Biography of George N. Holmes

George N. Holmes. For thirty-two years an employe of the legal department of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, at the general offices at Topeka, few men are better known or more highly respected than is George N. Holmes. Prior to the time he entered the employ of this line, Mr. Holmes had many interesting and remarkable experiences, and his career is one which exemplifies the value of perseverance, fidelity and integrity in gaining position and fortune. George N. Holmes was born at Stamford, Lincolnshire, England, January 11, 1853. His father, George Holmes, was a native of Norfolk, in … Read more

Biography of Edward E. Dix

Edward E. Dix. The vocation of railroading continues to attract many ambitious young men when they enter upon life’s activities, and this field of activity has often proven rich in opportunity to those who have possessed the inclination to work industriously and faithfully, to scorn hardships, to face heavy responsibilities, and to give absolute devotion to the interests of the great systems which employ them. There is no place for those who do not thus prove themselves. Among the officials of almost every other line of business there are found men of sterling worth who would have succeeded well in … Read more

Biography of J. H. Stephens, Mrs.

Mrs. J. H. Stephens. As president of the City Federation of Women’s Clubs, an active factor in the Current Club and a member of the Carnegie Library Board, at Coffeyville, Mrs. J. H. Stephens occupies a prominent position in the social, civic and intellectual life that has made this city one of the centers of cultural interests in the state. Mrs. Stephens (Esther Logan) comes of an old colonial family of English origin. The Logans were pioneers in Kentucky, in which state Mrs. Stephens’ grandfather was born and died. Her father, G. H. Logan, was born in Somerset County, Kentucky, … Read more