Biography of Lewis E. Schuler

Lewis E. Shuler has been identified with Jewell County around the community of Lovewell the greater part of his active life. At one time he was a Lovewell merchant. His ehief interests and activities are as an agriculturist and he owned some of the best farms in that section of the state. Mr. Shuler was born in Ogle County, Illinois, Octobor 10, 1866. In the remote ancestry he is of German stock, the Shulers having come from Germany to Pennsylvania a number of generations ago. His grandfather, William Shuler, spent many years as a farmer in Clinton County, Pennsylvania, but … Read more

Biography of Lewis D. Raynolds

Lewis D. Raynolds. One of the prosperous and prominent farmers of Jewell County, and a man who had been identified with various of the activities of life, Lewis D. Raynolds, of Mankato, is not of that type who had had fortune and prosperity thrust upon him by inheritance and, perhaps, increased it by careful management. His large property, his satisfying competency, his prominent connection with a number of enterprises, and his high and substantial standing as a citizen have been acquired by individual force of character, by industry, perseverance and intelligent effort, founded upon the strictest honor. Starting as a … Read more

Biography of Lewis Corbin True, Col.

Col. Lewis C. True. Some interesting distinctions belong to this veteran soldier and lawyer who now lives retired at Kansas City, Kansas. He came to Kansas soon after leaving the army, and spent several years combating the hardships and plagues which afflicted the farmers in that period in Franklin County. Unable to make progress as a farmer, he took up the study of law, and in 1871 was admitted to practice in Cherokee County. He spent five years in general practice at Chetopa, and was then elected county attorney of Labette County. Kansas had just enacted its state wide prohibition … Read more

Biography of Lewis C. Nelson .

Lewis C. Nelson. The large industries in and about Coffeyville have naturally drawn to that city many of the expert technical men as well as business executives, and one of these is Lewis C. Nelson, superintendent of the Ludowici-Celadon Company, manufacturers of hollow roofing tile. Mr. Nelson as a young man became an expert wood worker, later developed a proficiency and familiarity with the pottery industry and for a number of years has been one of the trusted officials of the present company. His birth occurred in Glasgow, Scotland, July 15, 1871. His father Charles W. Nelson, who was born … Read more

Biography of Lewis A. Markham

Lewis A. Markham was a physician by profession, but the services by which he will be longest remembered in Kansas as elsewhere were those he rendered as a devoted minister of the gospel. He spent his last years at Baldwin City, where the family have been prominent for over a quarter of a century. Doctor Markham practiced medicine for six years in Ohio, part of the time in Akron and part of the time at Massillon. He was married at Akron, September 19, 1858, to Sarah Wirt. Sarah Wirt was of a family of pioneers. Her father was born at … Read more

Biography of Lew Wallace Duncan

Lew Wallace Duncan. The close of the Civil war launched a new era of settlement in the West. Young men who had lately fought the battles of freedom and restored the unity of the nation abandoned their birthplaces and “hit the trail” leading to the boundless and trackless region beyond the “border.” Distance alone separated them from the beckoning prairies of an unknown plain and the scream of the locomotive had not been heard west of St. Louis, so that the “prairie schooner” method of reaching their destination had to be resorted to. Once across the Mississippi the mecca of … Read more

Biography of Levi Livermore Tucker

Levi Livermore Tucker, late superintendent and president of the Kansas Wesleyan Business College of Salina, devoted practically his entire life to the training of young men and women for business. Fully forty years were given to that profession, and few men accomplished a more satisfying aggregate of results in this field than Professor Tucker. He was of New England birth and ancestry. The farm in Orange County, Vermont, where he was born December 10, 1853, was also the birthplace of his father, Levi Livermore Tucker, Sr., and the house that thus served as a birthplace to these two generations was … Read more

Biography of Levi Leland Chandler

Levi Leland Chandler has flgured in the life of Chase County as a farmer, merchant, and in all those activities which sum up the publice affairs of a community. Most of his life since early childhood had been spent in Chase County. He was born on a farm near North Springfield, Vermont, December 3, 1867, and is a son of Roswell Henry and Mary Elizabeth (Leland) Chandler and is a brother of Charles H. Chandler, present state architect of Kansas. The Chandler family were colonial Americans and by grant of King George II the town or township of Chester in … Read more

Biography of Levi F. Johnson

Levi F. Johnson. As it was only about sixty years ago that the first permanent settlements were made in Kansas, there are a number of the real pioneers still alive, men who can recount their experiences when the plains were covered with buffaloes, when Indians made camp along the creeks, when the prairie fires raged across the high grass, and when the woods were filled with game, the creeks with fish, and when everything was new and primitive. Now living retired at a comfortable home in Winfield Levi F. Johnson had his share in the early making of Kansas, particularly … Read more

Biography of Levi D. Hill

Levi D. Hill is an old timer in Saline County and is now living retired at Salina. His had been a long and creditable career, and as a young man he served as a soldier of the Union in the Civil war. He was born January 8, 1844, in a one-room log house on a farm in Johnson County, Indiana, a son of Squire S. and Mary Ann (Cunningham) Hill. His father was born in Kentucky and his mother in Indiana. Squire Hill was born February 17, 1810, and died August 5, 1886, at Tipton, Indiana. Throughout his active career … Read more

Biography of Lester Martin Combs

Lester Martin Combs has been an active newspaper man since he graduated from Baker University five years ago and is now editor, manager and treasurer of the Anthony Republican, the official paper of Harper County. The Republican is the oldest paper in Harper County and was established a few years after the county was organized in 1879. The first editors and publishers were George W. Maffet and Charles Metcalf. For several years in the late ’80s the Republican had a daily edition. At the present time the Republican is printed at a modern plant on South Bluff Street. The Anthony … Read more

Biography of Lester M. Crawford

Lester M. Crawford of Topeka is one of the men of remarkable enterprise in a state which for years had been in the habit of contributing enterprise, ideas, principles for the vitalizing and regeneration of the world. He is perhaps best known as the owner and lessee of a chain of theaters in a dozen or more cities of Kansas and other states. He had done more than any other man to bring artistic talent to Topeka and other cities of the state. A theatrical man is not often a pioneer in agriculture, but the readers of that old agricultural … Read more

Biography of Leslie V. Johnson

With all the progressiveness and enterprise of the native Kansan, Leslie V. Johnson had made his years in this state count chiefly as a banker, and for many years had found a large opportunity to serve the public through his post as cashier of the State Bank of Randolph in Riley County. As in the case with many successful business men and financiers, he had the atmosphere of a farm during his youth. He was born on his father’s farm in Pottawatomie County, October 8, 1872, and his earliest recollections are associated with that rural district. As a boy he … Read more

Biography of Leslie J. Campbell

Leslie J. Campbell. One of the oldest and most prominent families of Allen County had been the Campbells. They arrived here when Kansas was still a territory, and through the various members of the relationship they have exercised worthy and helpful influence as teachers, farmers, lawyers and in various lines of business and in civic affairs. The pioneer Campbell was James H. Campbell. He was born in Indiana, came from Switzerland County, that state, to Kansas in 1860. By profession he was an attorney, and locating in Allen County he practiced in that pioneer district for several years. He rose … Read more

Biography of Leslie Arthur Fitz

Leslie Arthur Fitz. When the Kansas State Agricultural College at Manhattan called in March 1910, an expert from the agricultural department of the United States Government to take the chair of professor of milling industry, it was a happy choice that fell upon Leslie Arthur Fitz, who is not only an expert in his line but is also a native of Kansas and represents some of the old and prominent families of the state. His grandfather, George W. Fitz, came to Kansas Territory in 1855, being one of the pioneers in Douglas County. Two years later another settler of that … Read more

Biography of Leroy E. Sawin

Leroy E. Sawin. For a young man Leroy E. Sawin had come into large prominence and responeibility in Washington County, where he is now filling the office of county clerk. To this office Mr. Sawin brought qualifications and ability far in advance of his years. He is one of the local men entrusted with the grave responsibility of raising the local quots for the National American Army. He was a member of the registration board of the county and was on the exemption board until removed on account of draft age, sharing that responsibility with Dr. Henry D. Smith and … Read more

Biography of Leroy E. Quinlan

Leroy E. Quinlan, though admitted to the bar less than two years ago, had made a most promising beginning of a successful legal career and is now justifying the confidence of his friends and supporters by his administration of the office of county attorney of Rice County. Mr. Quinlan is a native of Kansas, was born at Hoisington May 22, 1893. His grandfather, Charles Michael Quinlan, was born in County Cork, Ireland, in 1832, came to America when a young man, settled on a farm in Indiana, married there, and enlisted and went all through the Civil war as a … Read more

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 Leonard V. McKee

Leonard V. McKee. The life, the personal character and the influence of Leonard V. McKee impressed themselves strongly upon the formative period of Marshall County’s history. He was founder and president of the Frankfort State Bank, was a large land owner and one of the leading business men and citizens of the community. He was born in Allen County, Ohio, August 18, 1845, and died at his home in Frankfort, Kansas, December 22, 1916, aged seventy-one years, four months and four days. His parents, Robert and Sarah (Dunlap) McKee, were both natives of Ohio. His father was a cabinet maker … Read more

Biography of Leonard T. Smith

Leonard T. Smith, whose scroll of life was rolled up a number of years ago, but the record of which remains in the grateful memory of many Kansas people, was one of the most forceful characters in the early history of Leavenworth and in a larger sense of Kansas as a whole. He was one of the men who had the iron of resolution in his soul and will, and he used his strength and self reliance in many ways for the good of an entire state. His life record begins with his birth on December 2, 1827, at Bethany, … Read more