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 in the City of Des Moines, Iowa, October 11, 1852. His parents were Henry S. and Mary Buzick, the former born in Ohio in 1818 and the latter in 1821, and both died at Lincoln, Kansas, the mother in 1910 and the father in 1907. They had two children: A. R. and Alice, the latter of whom is the widow of William Graham, who was a farmer, and she resided at Salina, Kansas.
Henry S. Buzick came to Lincoln County, Kansas, in 1870, bringing with him the first large herd of cattle ever driven into this county. He became an extensive farmer and stockman here and prospered greatly. He accumulated land in this and other sections before retiring from active life, in 1902, and at the time of his death in 1907 still owned 480 acres in Lincoln County.
From the age of thirteen years A. R. Buzick had been a resident of Kansas. When he reached man’s estate he preempted a claim of 160 acres adjoining the present town of Sylvan Grove and still owned that property, together with many other valuable properties in Lincoln County, some 3,600 acres. He is one of the most extensive farmers in the county.
Mr. Buzick was the first settler of the town, organized the first bank and had encouraged and financed many of the prospering enterprises here and had served Sylvan Grove as mayor for four terms. Credit is given him for having done more for the development of this place than any other individual and it had all been a forward movement, far-sightedly planned and wisely directed. In 1892 he organized the Sylvan State Bank, of which he had been president ever since and of which he and his son Henry S. are the heaviest stockholders. The bank is operated with a capital of $25,000; surplus profits, $50,000; deposits, $400,000. The officers of the institution are: A. R. Buzick, president; H. S. Buzick, vice president; and W. H. Breihan, cashier. The bank building, a fine structure, stands on the corner of First and Main streets. In 1902 Mr. Buzick erected his handsome modern residence on Kentucky Avenue. In addition to his many other responsibilities Mr. Buzick is on the directing board of the Wilson State Bank.
In politics Mr. Buzick is a republican but he had never been willing to accept any but local offices although interested as a good citizen in public matters far afield as well as at home. In the Masonic fraternity he belongs to Sylvan Grove Lodge No. 359, Ancient Free and Acoepted Masons; Ellsworth Chapter No. 54, Royal Arch Masons; Ellsworth Commandery, and to Isis Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Salina, Kansas. He belongs also to Wilson Lodge, Ancient Order of United Workmen.
Mr. Buzick was married December 26, 1880, to Miss Mary McAdams, who was born in Donipan County, Kansas, and they have four children: Henry S.; Alice, who is the wife of Dr. W. E. Andreson, a dental surgeon at Plainsville, Kansas; Lillie, who is the wife of Dr. P. S. Andreson, who is a dental surgeon at Sylvan Grove; and William A., who is cashier of the Farmers State Bank at Luray, Kansas.
Henry S. Buzick, the eldest of the above family and a prominent citizen of Sylvan Grove, was educated in the public schools of this city and the Kansas Wesleyan University at Salina. He left that institution in 1899 to become bookkeeper in his father’s bank, later became cashier and since 1909 had been vice president and part owner, with his father, of the controlling interest. He occupies his handsome modern residence on Kentucky Avenue, completed in 1912, but still more valuable is his farm of 320 acres four miles east of Sylvan Grove, situated in what probably is the oil belt. In politics he is a republican and had served as mayor of the city for six years, his administration, like that of his father, bringing added prosperity to the place. He is a man of broad and intelligent views and is serving as a member of the school board. He had large financial interests at other points and is president of the Farmers State Bank at Luray, Kansas, and is on the directorate of the Central National Bank of Ellsworth, Kansas. Both he and his father are valued members of the Kansas Bankers and the American Bankers Associations.
Henry S. Buzick was married in September, 1912, at Ellsworth, Kansas, to Miss Fay Morgan, whose mother, Mrs. Mary Morgan, still resided at Ellsworth. Mr. and Mrs. Buzick have one child, A. M., who was born July 16, 1916. They are members of the Presbyterian Church, of which Mr. Buzick is the church treasurer. They take part in the pleasant social life of the city and have a wide and ever increasing circle of friends. Mr. Buzick is a thirty-second degree Mason and belongs to the Mystic Shrine. He served three terms as master of Sylvan Grove Lodge No. 359, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and belongs to Ellsworth Chapter and Commandery, and to Isis Temple at Salina, Kansas.