Edward H. Funston, who as a resident of Allen County served in both houses of the Kansas Legislature and a member of the United States Congress, was a native of Clark County, Ohio, born September 16, 1836. He was of Irish descent. Mr. Funston received only a fair education in his earlier years, worked on the farm, taught school and pursued a partial course at Marietta College, Ohio. Later that institution conferred the M. A. degree upon him. In 1861 he entered the Sixteenth Ohio battery and took part in the principal actions along the Mississippi River, until mustered out of the service in 1865.
In 1867 Mr. Funston came to Kansas and loested on a prairie farm in Carlyle Township, Allen County. He was elected to the State Legislature in 1873, was re-elected at each of the two succeeding annual elections, and was speaker of the House the last year. In 1880, he was elected to the State Sanate and served as president pro tempore of that body. After four years in the State Senate, he was elected to Congress on March 1, 1884, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Dudley C. Haskell, and was re-elected at each succeeding term until 1892, when he was defcated by a fusion of the democratic and populist parties. He was given the certificate of election, but his seat was contested by Horace L. Moore, and he was unseated on August 2, 1894. Mr. Funston died at his home in Iola, Kansas, September 10, 1911. He was the father of the late Gen. Frederick Funston.