A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans Collections – Page 100 of 109

Biography of Abraham James Holderman, Sr.

Abraham James Holderman, Sr. Perhaps a great majority of successful Kansans came to the state poor men and carved their fortunes from the opportunities here presented and by a wise and capable direction of their private affairs. There were some, however, who brought with them considerable capital and left behind in their older communities a record of successful business experience. One of these is Abraham James Holderman, banker, farmer and business man of El Dorado. For a great many years the Holdermans have been numbered among the wealthiest and most influential farmers and stock men in Northern Illinois. In that … Read more

Biography of Abraham Ellis

Abraham Ellis, for many years a resident of Miami County, was popularly known as “Bullet-Hole Ellis,” from the fact that for twenty-three years he carried a deep wound, almost in the center of his forehead, in which had originally been buried a bullet fired by the noted raider, William C. Quantrill. His recovery was one of the most remarkable in surgical annals, and the ball which inflicted the wound, as well as the twenty-seven pieces of froutal bone which were picked from his skull at the time, are among the remarkable exhibits displayed in the Army and Navy Medical Museum … Read more

Biography of Abraham D. Berry

Abraham D. Berry, who now enjoys prosperity as a farmer and oil producer at Wayside, is one of the men who became acquainted with this part of Kansas when the Indians were reluctantly giving it up as a hunting ground. He has been a resident of Kansas almost continuously for forty-five years. As a pioneer he helped lay the foundation for the present magnificent prosperity of Kansas. Born in LaGrange County, Indiana, May 10, 1847, he went as a small boy with his parents to Livingston County, Illinois, received his education there, and spent the first twenty-one years of his … Read more

Biography of Abraham Buckles Jetmore

Abraham Buckles Jetmore. The late Abraham Buckles Jetmore was one of the most forceful figures of the Kansas bar from the year 1878 until his death, March 1, 1908. During that period he gave his strength, mind, heart and talents to the upbuilding of his adopted city and state, and while engaged in discharging the duties related to a large and important practice, gave his best efforts to the cause of prohibition and toward the establishment of an honest public administration. Mr. Jetmore was born at Muncie, Delaware County, Indiana, May 25, 1837, the seventh son of John Isaac and … Read more

Biography of Aaron Jacob Lesh

A. J. Lesh at different stages in his career had been a successful teacher, merchant, pharmacist, physician and oil refiner. He is now head of the Lesh Oil Refining Company of Arkansas City, and through his business energy and activities had contributed one of the most important local industries to this section of Southern Kansas. Mr. Lesh had been a resident of Kansas for over thirty years. For a man who had done so much on his own account it is natural that Mr. Lesh should take justifiable pride and interest in his line of worthy American ancestors. His lineage … Read more

Biography of Aaron B. Perine

Aaron B. Perine. One of the few remaining of the old pioneers of Kansas. Aaron B. Perine, of Topeka, came to this state sixty-three years ago, and has been a permanent resident of Kansas since 1854, except for the two years he was out of the state. In the early days he was engaged in work among the Indians for the Government, later turned his attention to the blacksmithing trade, and for many years now has been at the head of the successful Perine Plow Works. He was born at Dansville, Livingston County, New York, May 4, 1836, and is … Read more

Biography of A. W. Matthews

A. W. Matthews, former county official, had been active in business affairs at Washington for upwards of twenty years, and had a well established business in real estate and loans. He individually owned considerable farming property and had made all he had by close attention to business and honorable and straight-forward relations. Mr. Matthews was born on his father’s homestead in Cloud County, Kansas, November 23, 1874. His father, W. T. Matthews, who now lives at Miltonvale, Kansas, was born in Iowa in 1848. When he was a boy his parents moved to Kirksville, Missouri. Grand-father Matthews was in business … 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 A. R. Buzick

A. R. Buzick. Identified with many of the leading interests of Lincoln County, Kansas, and particularly with those of Sylvan Grove, A. R. Buzick, who is president of the Sylvan State Bank, which he organized in May, 1892, is one of the representative business men of this section of the state and a vital factor in its future as in its past development. Not only was Mr. Buzick the original settler of Sylvan Grove, but there are few of the town’s substantial enterprises with which he or his immediate family have not been intimately concerned. A. R. Buzick was born … Read more

Biography of A. M. Minier

A. M. Minier, assistant cashier and managing officer of the First National Rank of Highland, is a native of this community and is directly connected with a family that originally established this town in Northeastern Kansas. It was his maternal grandfather, John Bayless, who founded the Town of Highland. Mr. Bayless was a native of New York State and first came out to Kansas in 1855, when it was a frontier territory. He acquired large tracts of land in what is now Doniphan County and from that land was taken the site of the present Town of Highland, which was platted in … Read more

Biography of A. M. Dean

A. M. Dean, an attorney, had spent his life since boyhood in Southern Kansas or in Northern Oklahoma. He was born at West Point, Nebraska, December 7, 1875. His family history goes back to Pennsylvania, where his grandfather, A. M. Dean, was born about 1821 and where the Deans settled when they came from England. A. M. Dean, the grandfather, grew up in Ohio, afterwards moved to Wisconsin, was a pioneer there and also in Nebraska, and finally located in Arkansas City. He was a farmer until he retired, and his death occurred in Arkansas City in 1893. Politically he … Read more

Biography of A. J. Whitmore

A. J. Whitmore is an old timer in Kansas, having been identified with this state most of the time since 1885. He has been well known both in business and in public affairs, and for a number of years has lived in Tepeka. He was born in Lake County, Illinois, in 1859. His father William D. Whitmore was born in Seneca County, Ohio, in 1836, a son of James Whitmore, who was born in Lockport, New York, in 1794. James Whitmore was an early settler in Ohio, and in 1837 took his family to Illinois and secured a homestead in … Read more

Biography of A. J. Shaw

A. J. Shaw, of McPherson, is the acknowledged expert authority in the West on the subject of hail insurance. Since its organization in 1899 he had been continuously secretary of the McPherson Hail Insurance Company. The McPherson Hail Insurance Company is a business organization of which the State of Kansas may be proud. It was the first Kansas company to offer an adequate service in this department of insurance. Prior to twenty-five years ago insurance against Hail was almost unknown as a practice in Kansas. The only company that offered such insurance was the St. Paul Fire & Marine. About … Read more

Biography of A. J. Lugeanbeal

A. J. Lugeanbeal has for many years been a successful merchant at Angols, and at the same time has participated actively in Labette County politics and in civic affairs. Born at Gridley, Illinois, January 12, 1872, Mr. Lugeanbeal has spent most of his life in Kansas. His grandfather, Alexander Lugeanbeal, was born in Germany, came to America and followed farming in Ohio and died at Black Run in that state. A. J. Lugeanbeal, Sr., was born at Marion, Ohio, in 1841, and died at Fredonia, Kansas, in 1902. He was reared and married in Ohio followed farming there, and then … Read more

Biography of A. Harding Buckman

A. Harding Buckman. The knowledge that he had contributed materially to the agrieultural, social and moral wealth of the community in which his entire life had been spent, is one of the satisfying compensations growing out of the industrious and well-directed career of A. Harding Buckman, farmer and Civil war veteran of Mission Township, Shawnee County. Mr. Buckman’s agricultural assets are represented by his well-cultivated farm of 300 acres, the nucleus of which was his home when he first came to Kansas in 1869, and from that year to the present he had gradually added to his holdings, at the … Read more

Biography of A. H. Skidmore

A. H. Skidmore. The general instances in the early life of men who “do things” are peculiarly similar. Differing in detail, the general outline is the short and simple story of the rise and progress to eminence from poverty to prosperity. Assiduous toil, the common school advantages, and the struggle for supremacy generates reliance on self, the natural, rather than art is their guide; individual talents are developed and each shows through the originality thereby becoming and recognized as self-made men. Judge Skidmore was born in Virginia February 14, 1856, was reared to manhood on a farm by parents possessing … Read more

Biography of A. H. McCarty

A. H. McCarty. When the Valeda State Bank was organized at Valeda, June 1, 1915, under a state charter, the institution was given a good start not only by reason of its capital of $10,000, and by the subsequent accumulation of a surplus of $2,500, but also because of the excellent men who were its stockholders and original officers and directors. The president of the bank is A. E. Townsend, the vice president W. H. Bollman, and the cashier A. H. McCarty, all well known residents of Valeda and vicinity. The bank erected its home on Main Street in 1915. … Read more

Biography of A. Frank Johnson

A. Frank Johnson. During his residence at Independence for thirty-five years A. Frank Johnson has made a most commendable and successful business record, and in many ways has found opportunity to serve the public welfare as a private citizen. For more than twenty years he has been in business as a stock buyer and meat dealer, and is also a bank director and the owner of considerable property. A Pennsylvanian, he belongs to the branch of the Johnson family which settled in Pennsylvania in colonial days. His grandfather, Roan Johnson, spent his life in that state as a farmer. A. … Read more

Biography of A. C. Shaffer

A. C. Shaffer. Necessary requisites of a good newspaper man in these modern days are trained faculties and an enlightened understanding. The world at large, in greater and greater degree is requiring educated men, not alone for the learned professions, but also for those along less trained lines, and it is an important part of the work of the newspapers throughout the country to furnish the mental stimulus without which none can hope to succeed. Particularly does this apply to the newspapers which circulate through the smaller cities and in the country districts, and one of the papers which had … Read more

Biography of A. Beauchamp

A. Beauchamp. More than thirty years ago A. Beauchamp entered the service of the Chicago, Burlington & Quiney Railway at Atchison as car clerk, and had been continnously with that road, being now one of the veteran employees, and by successive promotions now handles the responsibilities of local agent for the company at Atchison. Mr. Beauchamp is a native of Kansas, and was born in Doniphan County September 15, 1856. That date indicates the pioncer residence of the family in this state. He was born four years before Kansas became a state. It was in the border epoch of Kansas … Read more