A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans Collections – Page 67 of 109

Biography of George Howe Bechtel

George Howe Bechtel. Of the men who are maintaining Montgomery County’s reputation and prestige in financial circles, few are more highly esteemed as banking officials and citizens than George Howe Bechtel, eashier of the Liberty State Bank, of Liberty. Like many other Kansas bankers, Mr. Bechtel is a product of the farm and of the schoolroom. It would seem that the practicality developed in agricultural life and the mental sharpening acquired in the educator’s vocation form a combination happily adaptative to the great and important business of banking. At least, Mr. Bechtel’s career and his success support such a view. … Read more

Biography of George Harrison Hower

George Harrison Hower. That the public schools are a very important interest to the majority of the people of Kansas needs no other proof than the evident educational acquirements of her young men and women, and in the laudable ambition to progress that is cherished by many of the counties, Lincoln County takes no second place. Furthormore, in her determined search for the best educators, and even for county superintendent, she had had to look no farther than her own sons, for to this class practically belongs County Superintendent George Harrison Hower. He was brought to the county when less … Read more

Biography of George H. Weeks

George H. Weeks. While Mr. Weeks had speat practically all his life in and around Belvue in Pottawatomie County, his reputation as a stock breeder is nothing less than state wide. His farm is famous for his splendid Percheron horses, and hardly less well known for his herd of Hereford cattle and his Poland China hogs. Mr. Weeks was born Jannary 18, 1877, and in the same year his parents removed to Pottawatomie County. His birth occurred in a rich and prosperons section of Northern Illinois, at LaMoille in Burean County. He is of English ancestry. His father, David Weeks, … Read more

Biography of George H. Wark

George H. Wark, who has been in the practice of law at Caney for the past thirteen years, and in the fall of 1916 was elected a member of the State Senate, is a native of Montgomery County, where his father established a home about the time the Indians moved out of the country into Indian Territory. The substantial ancestry of which he is a representative was from Scotland and was transplanted to the American colonies, living in New York State and afterwards in Pennsylvania. Grandfather William Wark was born in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, in 1808. In his early years … Read more

Biography of George H. Long

George H. Long is a business man of Kansas City, Kansas, where he has been located for the past eight years. As an undertaker he has built up a large clientage on the basis of thorough and competent service, and has given to that profession the best of his energies and his conscientious study for a number of years. Mr. Long is a native of Ohio, born September 30, 1875, at Ripley in Brown County. He was the oldest of the five children of James A. and Jemima (Fluharty) Long. Both parents were natives of Ohio. James A. Long had … Read more

Biography of George H. Keller

The name of George H. Keller, one of the founders of Leavenworth, stands among old-time residents for all that is brave and generous and stable and whole-souled, in the most trying times of the territory and the state. As John Speer once said: “His name was a synonym for honesty, integrity and patriotism; his house in Leavenworth illustrated the proverbial hospitality of the ‘Old Kentucky Home.’” “Uncle” George Keller was born in that state in February, 1801; his wife, a Van Dyke, was also a native of Kentucky, and both were descended from Holland Dutch stock. Soon after his marriage … Read more

Biography of George H. Hunter

George H. Hunter, a resident of Wellington almost forty years, is one of the leading millers of the state, is president of the oldest bank in Wellington, and has also given much of his time and energies to public affairs, being the present mayor of Wellington. He was born on a farm near Circleville, Ohio, December 1, 1849, one of the five children of Alexander M. and Sophia (Zepp) Hunter, the former a native of Ohio and the latter of Pennsylvania. Sophia Zepp was of Pennsylvania Dutch extraction, and when a child was brought to Ohio by her uncle and … Read more

Biography of George H. Hodges, Hon.

Hon. George H. Hodges, the nineteenth governor of Kansas, was chief executive of the state from January, 1913, to January, 1915. Of his capable administration as governor, marked by progressive leadership throughout, a complete review is given elsewhere in this publication in the chapter devoted to the work of the governors. The following paragraphs serve to supplement that review with some of the more personal details and his place as a Kansas citizen and business man. A resident of Kansas nearly fifty years, George Hartshorn Hodges was born at Orion, in Richland County, Wisconsin, February 6, 1866, a son of … Read more

Biography of George H. Grimmell, M. D.

George H. Grimmell, M. D. One of the first graduates of medicine to set up in practice at Howard, Kansas, was Dr. George H. Grimmell, who rendered his first professional services in that section of Elk County thirty years ago. With the exception of about eight years spent at Onaga, Doctor Grimmell had been continuously in practice at Howard since 1898, and is accounted one of the most competent surgeons in that locality. The first authentic records of his ancestry is found in the annals of the first crusade of 1096, A. D. There was a Sir John Von Grimmell, … Read more

Biography of George Gorden Derby

George Gorden Derby is a comparatively young man but is old in the service of railroads. He began his career in Western Pennsylvania, where he was an employee and rose to large responsibilities with the Erie Railroad. About ten years ago he came West and had since been with the Santa Fe at different points and is now superintendent of the Oklahoma division, with headquarters at Arkansas City. Mr. Derby was born in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, January 14, 1876. His paternal ancestors were colonial settlers in Connecticut. His father, Lafayette Derby, was born in New York State in 1844, and … Read more

Biography of George G. Kungle

George G. Kungle was one of the sterling citizens of Shawnee County whose lives deserve special record in these pages. The family is still living at Tecumseh, and since his death his wife and oldest son, George, Jr., have competently managed a farm there. Born at Come, Illinois, in 1864, George G. Kungle was a son of Joseph Byron Kungle, who was born in 1834 in Pennsylvania, of Pennsylvania Dutch stock. Joseph B. Kungle was a carpenter and contractor, was a very successful man, and later in life followed farming. Highly respected by all who knew him, he enjoyed this … Read more

Biography of George G. Hill

George G. Hill as president is head of one of the most important business institutions of the City of Concordia. He directs the destinies of a public utility, though owned by a private corporation, which is as intimately connected with the welfare and health of the people of that community as can be claimed for any other single enterprise. This is the Concordia Iee and Cold Storage Company. Mr. Hill had been its president for the past ten years, and from the time of its organization in 1902 had been one of the executive officers of the company, having held … Read more

Biography of George G. Green

George G. Green, cashier of the Citizens State Bank of Little River, represents a pioneer family of Rice County, and had spent nearly all his life in this locality. He was born near Lexington, Missouri, November 16, 1869. His paternal ancestors came out of England and were colonists in Virginia. His grandfather, George Green, became a pioneer farmer in Western Illinois and died at Quincy in that state before George G. was born. The founder of the family in Kansas was William Green, father of the Little River banker. He was born at Quincy, Illinois, in 1831, grew up there, … Read more

Biography of George Frederich Christoph Schrader

George Frederich Christoph Schrader has been a resident of Saline County, Kansas, thirty years. Measured by the practical results that have proceeded from his intelligence and energy, he is without question one of the foremost farmers of the state. It is not merely a matter of possessing large bodies of land, but the method in which they are improved and farmed, which constitute his achievements as a resident of Kansas. Mr. Schrader came to America when about in middle age. Some of his children were born in the old country, and he is a veteran of the Franco-Prussian war. He … Read more

Biography of George F. Zerzan, M. D.

George F. Zerzan, M. D. With his home and practice at Holyrood since 1905, Doctor Zerzan is a man of conspicuous success not only in his profession but by the rapidity with which he had accumalated important business interests. Doctor Zerzan is not yet forty and it would seem that his substantial achiovements to date predieate a splendid success as the form of his life’s activities. Doctor Zerzan was born at Schuyler, Nebraska, August 23, 1878. He is of Bohemian parentage and ancestry. His grandfather, Joseph Zerzan, was born in Bohemia in 1818, served his time in the Bohemian army, … Read more

Biography of George F. Boswell

George F. Boswell, who represents a pioneer family of Montgomery County, has spent most of his active career at Coffeyville, was a merchant there for a number of years, and now devotes his time to the management of his extensive property interests and also his holdings in the oil and gas district. He was born in Atchison County, Missouri, October 29, 1859. The record of his family in America goes back to his grandfather George Finley Boswell, who was born in England of Scotch descent in 1804. After his marriage to Hannah Colter, who was a native of Ireland and … Read more

Biography of George F. Beatty

George F. Beatty, who had spent nearly all his life in Kansas, had been enrolled in the ranks of the lawyers of Salina for the past twelve years, and is now serving as referee in bankruptcy with the United States District Court. His birth occurred August 17, 1877, at 1001 Olive Street in St. Louis, Missouri. His parents were Dr. George F. and Martha Ann (Posey) Beatty. His mother, who is still living, is a daughter of William Thornton Posey, who was closely related to the family of George Washington. During her girlhood Miss Posey graduated from a seminary at … Read more

Biography of George Eli Whitcraft

George Eli Whitcraft, superintendent of the city schools of Oskaloosa, had been active in educational work in Kansas for over twenty years, being well known as a teacher, superintendent and school executive throughout Northeastern Kansas. He was born in Jackson County, Kansas, June 28, 1872. His people have been in the state almost as long as Kansas had been a state. His grandfather, George Whiteraft, was born in Ireland in 1798, and came to America when a boy. After a brief residence in Pennsylvania he went to Ohio and was a farmer in that state for many years. He served … Read more

Biography of George E. Weaver

George E. Weaver. One of the most important offices in a municipality is that of city engineer. The permanence, the efficiency, the economy of operation of practically every public improvement and public convenience depends upon the skill exercised by the engineer in planning and supervising the construction of such improvements. That had been the work of George E. Weaver at Independence, who is now serving his second term as city engineer. In the past three years the city had undertaken an exceptionally heavy amount of paving, sewer construction and other forms of improvement, and the citizens give Mr. Weaver great … Read more

Biography of George Crook Dye

George Crook Dye. One of the representative men of Chautauqua County, Kansas, is George Crook Dye, mayor of Niotaze and proprietor of a large mercantile business there, and a bank director, and also one of the leading agriculturists of the county, profitably operating 530 acres of fine land. Mr. Dye had spent his entire life in Kansas and is devoted to her every interest. George Crook Dye was born February 12, 1879, at Niotaze, Kansas. He is the only son of his father’s second marriage, and his parents were Enoch and Mrs. Delia (Sheldon) (Pendleton) Dye. His mother was born … Read more