A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans Collections – Page 16 of 109

Biography of Thomas J. McInerney, Father

Father Thomas J. McInerney is a devoted and zealous young priest of the Catholic Church, and most of his work had been done in the State of Kansas. he is now pastor of St. Monica’s Catholic Church at Waterville. This church was established in 1909 by Father Redeker. Its first pastor was Father Elast. The parish extends to the west line of Marshall County, to Blue Rapids on the east, to College Hill on the south, and adjoins Marysville parish on the north, It contains about twenty-three Catholic families, with about seventy members. Father McInerney was born in County Clare, … Read more

Biography of Thomas J. Byrnes

Thomas J. Byrnes has been a leading grain merchant at St. Marys for many years and his participation in civic enterprises had made him an important factor in that city and the surrounding community. St. Marys is his birthplace. He was born March 26, 1870, a son of one of St. Marys pioneers, Edward Byrnes. Edward was born near Dublin, Ireland, in 1834, and came to America when twelve years of age with his parents, who located in New York City and spent the rest of their lives there. In New York City he finished his education and on coming … Read more

Biography of Thomas H. Brown

Thomas H. Brown. It was a most unusual career of self achievement and broad and successful service in business and personal service that came to a close with the death of Thomas H. Brown at Sterling on February 4, 1916. Though his death came suddenly and was a heavy loss to his wide community of friends and business associates, he had reached the full maturity of three score and ten. But the forces of his personality and character were not those which vanish quickly with the mortal presence. He would probably have been the last among men to anticipate a … Read more

Biography of Thomas H. Bowlus

Thomas H. Bowlus is president of the Allen County State Bank at Iola. He practically grew up in the atmosphere of that bank, which was founded by his father, and the name Bowlus had been prominently identified with the history of Allen County and Iola since pioneer times. He was born at Iola January 3, 1874. His father was the late George A. Bowlus, and his grandfather was George Bowlus. The family were originally settled in Maryland. George A. Bowlus was born at Middletown, Maryland, in 1841, and grew up there. In 1869 he came out to Kansas, locating in … Read more

Biography of Thomas Gray

Thomas Gray is one of the largest stock raisers in Osage County. His fortunes have been identified with this state since early manhood, and though he had to start out with only an ordinary equipment of training and capital, he had made prosperity by sheer force of ability and constant exercise of good judgment and hard work. He was born on a farm at Crows Hill, New York, March 9, 1854. Of the eight children born to Joshua and Elizabeth (Foxley) Gray he is the only one now living. His parents were English people and on account of the crowded … Read more

Biography of Thomas George Howell

Thomas George Howell. The agricultural interests of Silver Lake Township, Shawnee County, have an able representative in the person of Thomas George Howell, whose well-cultivated farm of 235 acres is situated in section 21, township 10, range 14. He had been a resident of the county for many years, and while energetically engaged in advancing his own prosperity had not been unmindful of the duties of citizenship, so that he is rated among his locality’s helpful citizens. Mr. Howell was born on a farm near Brockville, Quebec, Canada, April 80, 1861, the fifth in order of birth of the six … Read more

Biography of Thomas F. Morrison

Thomas F. Morrison. One of the prominent members of the Neosho County bar is Thomas F. Morrison, who as a practitioner at Chanute since 1903 had been connected with much of the important litigation tried in the courts of this district. He is also a leading member of the democratic party of this portion of the state, where his influence had been widely felt in political as well as professional circles, and had represented his community in the Kansas Legislature, as a member of which body he was the author of some exceedingly beneficial legislation. Mr. Morrison was born June … Read more

Biography of Thomas E. Wagstaff

An attorney of long and successful experience in Montgomery County, both in Coffeyville and Independence, Thomas E. Wagstaff had been and is a leader in republican politics in the state, and a few years ago his name beeame known all over Kansas as a candidate for nomination to the office of governor. He lost the nomination by only a few votes. This was in 1910, when W. R. Stubbs was nominated and afterwards elected. His family have been identified with Kansas for forty years. Thomas E. Wagstaff was born at Galesburg, Illinois, July 23, 1875, and was still an infant … Read more

Biography of Thomas E. Trigg

Thomas E. Trigg. “A map of busy life” mused the poet Cowper more than a hundred years ago, over his newspaper. The description yet holds good, a century of existence only having widened its field and strengthened its power. With its modern perfected machinery for the garnering of news, and with its vivid portrayal of the world’s happenings, it is, indeed, a map of swiftly passing events, one that had become a necessary vitalizing element and an indispensable factor of every day living. How surely the development of a newspaper in a community marks the latter’s progress. A name well … Read more

Biography of Thomas E. Thompson

Thomas E. Thompson, a native of Iowa, had lived in Kansas for forty-six years, and is one of the veteran newspaper men of the state, being editor and proprietor of the Howard Courant. As to his American ancestry, there is record of his Thompson forefathers coming from England and settling in Maine in colonial days. Mr. Thompson’s grandfather, Samuel Thompson, was born in Maine in 1781. He took an active part in the pioneer development of the Middle West, lived in Ohio for a number of years, and about 1846 moved to the new State of Iowa, where he was … Read more

Biography of Thomas E. Sheard

Thomas E. Sheard. There are no business men who, outside the medical and dental professions, come into such close, personal contact with their fellows as do barbers, and often their delicate ministrations are just as comforting and beneficial. A long course of careful training is necessary to bring about deftness of hand and quickness of eye, and when these are accompanied by a genial presence and a personal interest, a barber finds himself popular and prosperous. For thirty-two years Thomas E. Sheard had conducted his barber establishment in the same block on Kansas Avenue, Topeka, and during this time his … Read more

Biography of Thomas E. Donnellan

Thomas E. Donnellan of Parsons has the active supervision of all Southeastern Kansas, Eastern Oklahoma and Southwest Missouri for the International Harvester Company. He has been general agent for that great corporation for the past fifteen years. Mr. Donnellan is a Kansas man, is a birthright farmer and knows the practical side of farming, an experience which has proved valuable to him as representing a great agricultural house. His family on both sides came to Kansas in territorial days. His father, John Donnellan, who was born in County Clare, Ireland, in 1824, came to this country at the age of … Read more

Biography of Thomas Coleman Truman

Thomas Coleman Truman. Among those sterling citizens who have been prominent and influential in connection with the civic and business affairs of [p.1834] Montgomery County and who are today to be designated as representative pioneers of the county a place must consistently be given to Mr. Truman, who has maintained his home at Independence, the county seat, for more than forty years and who is now living in well earned retirement–a man who has been in the most significant sense the architect of his own fortunes, as he became dependent upon his own resources when but twelve years of age. … Read more

Biography of Thomas C. Harbourt

Thomas C. Harbourt. A resident for thirty-eight years is not the only distinction of Thomas C. Harbourt at Coffeyville. He is a man of wide interests and activities, has been a contractor and builder, has filled many local offices with credit and efficiency, and is one of the best known men in fraternal circles in Southeastern Kansas. He is still active in business, handles real estate, and is also a justice of the peace. His earlier years were spent in Ohio. His people were of German stock, lived in old Virginia some years, and afterwards identified themselves with the abolition … Read more

Biography of Thomas C. Biddle, M. D.

Thomas C. Biddle, M. D. Superintendent of the State Hospital for the Insane at Topeka, Doctor Biddle had long been prominent in his profession in Kansas, where he had practiced as a private physiclan or in connecton with the public service for thirty-five years. His name is well known among the profession not only over Kansas, but his work as superintendent of hospitals for the insane had attracted favorable attention over the country at large. He belongs to a prominent family, of the same branch that produced Nicholas Biddle, one of the first secretaries of the treasury, and many other … Read more

Biography of Thomas Blakeslee, M. D.

Thomas Blakeslee, M. D. Perhaps no present resident of the thriving little City of Neodesha, Kansas, could better describe its early days than Dr. Thomas Blakeslee, its pioneer physician, now retired from professional life. Just graduated from one of the country’s greatest medical schools, Doctor Blakeslee came to this growing village forty-six years ago, facing hardships, as all pioneers must, but enthusiastic in his love of his beneficent profession, and hopeful as to the scope and success of his conscientious service. For over a quarter of a century he ministered to the sick with the medical skill that knowledge gave … Read more

Biography Of Thomas Benton Murdock

In 1841 Thomas Benton Murdock was born in the mountains of Virginia. He was one of the five children who lived to maturity of Thomas Murdock and Katherine Pierrepont. On the mother’s side came the pride of the Pierrepont; from the father’s the insurgent instincts of the Irish Murdocks who left Ireland after the Irish rebellion failed in 1798. Though reared in the mountains among the most simple people and most primitive surroundings, the Murdocks who have been known in Kansas for half a century have proved soldiers of the militant democracy. They have been fighters who led naturally, by … Read more

Biography of Thomas B. Wall

Thomas B. Wall. A resident of Kansas for nearly thirty years, the late Judge Thomas Berry Wall was a man whose fine intellectual and professional attainments enabled him to leave a deep and benignant impress upon the history of this commonwealth. He was numbered among the representative members of the Kansas bar, served with distinction on the bench of the District Court and by his character and ability won inviolable place in popular confidence and esteem. He was one of the leaders of the bar of the City of Wichita at the time of his death, which occurred January 14, … Read more

Biography of Thomas Azro Noftzger

Thomas Azro Noftzger had long been successfully identified with the legal profession in Kansas, and is now senior member of the firm of Noftzger & Gardner, with offices in the Beacon Building at Wichita. His partner is Mr. George Gardner. Mr. Noftzger was born November 15, 1861, in Jackson Township of Kosciusko County, Indiana. His father, Levi J. Noftzger, was born September 3, 1836, and is still living at the age of four score. The mother, Mary C. Noftzger, also living, was born September 2, 1840. Party through the liberality of his parents and partly through his own ambitious determination … Read more

Biography of Thomas Arnold

Thomas Arnold. In recalling the Kansas of sixty years ago a natural interest is aroused concerning the brave and hardy pioneers of that time, for they blazed the way and lighted the fires for the stable civilization that now makes this noble state one of the grandest lying within the great central plain of the United States. One of the earliest to establish a permanent home in Coffey County was Thomas Arnold, and his primitive log cabin stood for many years on his Government land claim, six miles northwest of Burlington. Thomas Arnold was born in Kentucky April 26, 1816. … Read more