Kansas

Biography of Leroy B. Sheldon

Leroy B. Sheldon. One of the oldest merchants in Lyon County, in years of continuous business, is Leroy B. Sheldon of Reading, who had had a store in that village supplying general merchandise to a large community for fully thirty years. Mr. Sheldon is also vice president of the Reading State Bank and had been quite a factor in local affairs. He comes of old American stock, the Sheldons having come from England to the New England states in colonial times. His grandfather was a native of Vermont, moved from Paulet, that state, to Chautauqua County, New York, and is … Read more

Biography of Edwin Ruthven Heath

Edwin Ruthven Heath, a prominent physician and specialist of Kansas City, Kansas, had a record among Kansas citizens that is unique. As a boy he knew the terrors, excitements and thrilling incidents of life in California following the discovery of gold in ’49. As a traveler both in North and South America he had contributed a part of the world’s knowledge of geography, peoples and science. He spent twelve years in South America, practiced medicine in remote construction camps and among wild and semi-barbarous tribes, and he helped build some of the pioneer railways of that continent. To as great … Read more

Biography of John H. Smythe

John H. Smythe. The life of John Henry Smythe, who for many years had served as city clerk of Eureka, had been one that exemplifies the true spirit and practice of service. He had always been a worker. He had performed faithfully those duties that have come to him in a long career, whether as a soldier on the battlefield, as an employe of business concerns, or as a public official. While he had attained none of the conspicuous places in business or public life, there is much that is honorable, instructive and praiseworthy in what he had done, and … Read more

Biography of Chester C. Houston

Chester C. Houston. When he came to Elgin nearly twenty-five years ago Chester C. Houston still had his fortune to make, and he was first known among his fellow townsmen as a hard worker at any employment he took up, until he finally graduated into independent merchandising. He had made a success by studying the needs and demands of his customers and had built up the largest and only distinctive clothing store in the town. Mr. Houston was born at Orangeville, Cass County, Illinois, June 23, 1866, a son of W. T. and Sue C. (Gaines) Houston. In the maternal … Read more

Biography of Harry Thomas Chatterton

Harry Thomas Chatterton is one of the keen and resourceful young business men of Lyon County, and is a banker and stock farmer at Admire. He is a prosperous citizen, already controls a good business, and wields a valuable influence in his community. He is of stanch English stock and represents a family of early settlers in this section of Kansas. His grandfather, David Chatterton, was a native of England, and, bringing his family to America, located on a farm in Clark County, Ohio, where he spent the rest of his days. John Chatterton, father of the Admire banker, was … Read more

Biography of John G. Laughlin

John G. Laughlin. The name Laughlin had been well known in Atchison County and other sections of Kansas for nearly half a century. John Gregory Laughlin of this family is a prominent young banker and is cashier of the Devon State Bank in Bourbon County. He was born at Atchison, Kansas, April 25, 1889. The previous generations of the family came out of Ireland. Grandfather Patrick Laughlin came from Ireland to the United States in 1852, first locating in Wisconsin, and from there coming to Kansas in 1867. He was a farmer and stone mason, lived retired after coming to … Read more

Biography of Sylvester Freemont Wicker

Sylvester Freemont Wicker. In point of experience and continuous practice Mr. Wicker is one of the oldest members of the bar in Greenwood County. He had been identified with a general practice as a lawyer and many business affairs in that section for the past thirty-three years. He now had his home and interests at Eureka. The stock from which he is descended is Scotch-Irish. The Wickers settled in North Carolina during colonial times. Mr. Wicker’s father and grandfather were natives of the Old North state. His grandfather James Wicker was born in North Carolina in 1807, and was an … Read more

Biography of Fred B. Caldwell

Fred B. Caldwell. The cultivation of broad acres of land, the growing of crops, the raising of cattle and hogs, proved a stronger influence with Fred B. Caldwell than the profession of law, in which he was trained and which he followed for several years in Iowa before coming to Kansas. While Mr. Caldwell had occupied his ranch near Howard in Elk County only a few years, there is no mistaking the fact that he is one of the well-known stockmen and diversified farmers of the state. His Poland China hogs in particular have gained him at least a national … Read more

Biography of Henry L. Alden

Henry L. Alden arrived in the old village of Wyandotte on Thanksgiving Day morning in November, 1867, and from that time until his death November 21, 1913, he continued a resident of Wyandotte and of Kansas City, Kansas. He was one of the most distinguished lawyers Kansas ever had. The many public honors that came to him, almost entirely within the scope of his profession, were a tribute to his power as a lawyer and his integrity of character. He was not yet twenty-one years of age when he came to Kansas. He was born on a farm near Greenwich … Read more

Biography of Maurice L. Alden

Maurice L. Alden, a son of the late Judge Henry L. Alden, had since his admission to the bar in 1898 become a prominent member of the Kansas City legal profession, and inherits many of the enviable qualities that distinguished his father. He was born in old Wyandotte, now Kansas City, Kansas, October 10, 1873, was educated in the public schools, graduating from the Kansas City Kansas High School in 1891 and from the Kansas State University in 1895. At the age of twenty-one he became secretary to Congressman O. L. Miller, who represented the Second Congressional District of Kansas … Read more

Biography of Bernhard Warkentin

Bernhard Warkentin was born June 18, 1847, in the Village of Altonan, situate in Southern Russia, just north of the Crimea. His parents belonged to the Mennonites–followers of Menno Simon, a sect originating in Holland, migrating to Prussia, thence to Russia in 1783 when the Turkish government ceded to Russia the Crimea and Empress Catherine h of Russia induced them to colonize her new possession by offering them allotments of land, religious freedom and immunity from military service for 100 years. His father, Bernhard Warkentin, Sr., was born in Southern Russia in 1816. His mother–nee Tiesen–was born the same year … Read more

Biography of Ulysses Schuyler Wolfe

Ulysses Schuyler Wolfe is sole proprietor of the Alfalfa Milling Company of Emporia. This is a business of more than local proportions and makes a specialty of converting the great alfalfa crop of Kansas into special feed and combination of feed for livestock. Mr. Wolfe had been a resident of Kansas since early boyhood and his family were among the early settlers of Emporia. His original ancestors came from England in colonial times and many of them settled in Maryland and Southern Pennsylvania. Grandfather David Wolfe was born in Maryland in 1821 and died in Hagerstown of that state in … Read more

Biography of Charles Clifton Crain

Charles Clifton Crain, who is the executive head of one of the largest and most successful enterprises doing business in the wholesale and retail hardware trade in Kansas, being president of the Crain Hardware Company, of Fort Scott, is one of the alert and enterprising men who, during the last half century, have so utilized the opportunities offered here for business preferment that the fame of Fort Scott had been extended to every part of the country. Nothing so builds up a country or section as its commerce and the directing forces are those men whose marvelous foresight see the … Read more

Biography of Elmer Eugene Kelley

E. E. Kelley during his thirty years of residence in Kansas had played a varied and honorable part in affairs, as an educator, farmer, and, in more recent years, as editor and publisher. He is now head of the Toronto Republican and a former president of the Kansas State Editorial Association. Taken in connection with what he had accomplished himself in life, Mr. Kelley may take a reasonable degree of pride in his American ancestry. The Kelley family goes back to Ireland. While the population of America was still straggling along the Atlantic coast in thirteen colonies, James Kelley emigrated … Read more

Biography of C. G. Pierce

C. G. Pierce. A quarter of a century is a long time to be identified with any line of business in one location, and twenty-five or more years of continuous management of a country paper almost constitutes a record in itself. C. G. Pierce was the founder of the Severyite at Severy, Kansas, more than twenty-five years ago, and is still its editor and proprietor. He was born at Cobleskill, New York, January 1, 1869. His Pierce ancestors came out of Ireland and settled in New York in colonial days. His great-grandfather is buried at Fergusonville in Delaware County, New … Read more

Biography of Robert Forbes

Robert Forbes is now living retired at Carbondale, where more than forty years ago he had his first experience in Kansas as a coal miner. Thus he was identified with Carbondale in the height of its prosperity as a mining center. He came out to Kansas from Ohio in 1875, making the journey by railroad. He had followed coal mining in Ohio, and was practically reared to that vocation in his native land of Scotland. He was born in Scotland in September, 1849, and was twenty-three when he came to America in 1872. Forty years ago Carbondale was a very … Read more

Biography of Fernando A. Parsons

Fernando A. Parsons. The career of Fernando A. Parsons, of Chanute, is remarkable in many ways, but principally because of the number of fields which it had invaded and the success which had attended the ventures in which its author had been engaged. From his youth, when he paid his own way through college, Mr. Parsons had pushed steadily forward, always assisting his community’s interests while advancing his own. With a handsome fortune gained through his good business ability and persistent labors, and at an age when most men are content to retire, Mr. Parsons still continues as an active … Read more

Biography of Edwin Tucker

Edwin Tucker. Of pioneer Kansans and of men who made the state what it is today Greenwood County contributed no character of wider influence and of finer personality than the late Edwin Tucker. He was one of the very first pioneer settlers in the county, one of the builders of Eureka, achieved a splendid success in business affairs as a land owner and cattleman, participated in the public life of his home county and state at large, and many of the interests which he established and maintained are now being continued through his worthy son. The late Edwin Tucker was … Read more

Biography of H. J. Huiskamp

H. J. Huiskamp. The continuation and extension of the business enterprises which bring reputation and prosperity to a community, in these days of keen competition, depend largely upon the sound business methods under which they are operated, under the management of able and efficient officials. While vast capital is invested in so great an enterprise as is the Buffalo Brick Company, at Buffalo, Kansas, much of its unexampled prosperity must be credited to the energy and good judgment of its general manager, H. J. Huiskamp, who is also secretary. Mr. Huiskamp had developed this into the largest concern of its … Read more

Biography of Calvin M. Spencer

Calvin M. Spencer, a well known Emporia business man and citizen, is head of the firm of Spencer & Baltz, proprietors of the New Process Steam Laundry, one of the two leading laundries of Emporia. Both are expert men at the business, and by extensive remodeling and equipment have made their plant in fact and in name a place of service, and consequently their patronage is not confined to the City of Emporia, but their work is distributed all over that part of the state. The Spencers are an old American family, and it is said that they originated in … Read more