Ward Salisbury. The Salisbury family have been residents of Hiawatha County for over thirty years, and Mr. Ward Salisbury, who was a child when his father located there, had succeeded the older Salisbury as proprietor of the leading grain elevator and his business as a grain buyer extends all over that section of Kansas.
Mr. Ward Salisbury was born in Norway, Herkimer County, New York, February 20, 1877. His lineage goes back for a number of generations in American history. The Salisburys came out of England and were colonists in New York. Mr. Salisbury is a member of the Sous of the American Revolution, a membership that proves one of his ancestors to have been among the fighting men of Revolutionary times. His father, N. Salisbury, was born in Herkimer County, New York, in 1846. He was reared and married in his native county, where he conducted a farm and also a cheese factory. On removing to Nebraska in 1883 he located at Springfield and was engaged in the lumber business. In 1886 he came to Hiawatha, Kansas, and was sucessfully engaged in the grain and coal business until his death in April, 1912. He was a republican, served as a member of the city council of Hiawatha, and was a member of the Masonic fraternity. N. Salisbury married Almira Collins, who was born in Herkimer County, New York, in 1850 and is still living at Hiawatha. They have four children: Floyd, who is associated with his brother in business at Hiawatha; Ada, wife of E. H. Hess, a carpenter living at Omaha, Nebraska; Ward; and the fourth child was a daughter, who died at the age of two years.
Ward Salisbury began his education in the public schools of Springfield, Nebraska, and attended the high school at Hiawatha until 1897. He then took a place in his father’s offlce and learned all the details of the grain and elevator business and was in a position to succsed his father when the latter died in 1912. His grain elevator is situated on the tracks of the Missouri Pacific and St. Joseph and Grand Island Bailway at Utah Street. Besides his prosperous business as a grain merchant Mr. Salisbury owned a farm of 160 acres in Allen County, Kansas. In 1914 he built a modern and complete residence at 201 Miami Street.
He is a republican, a member and trustee of the Presbyterian Church, and is afflliated with Hiawatha Lodge No. 43, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Hiawatha Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, Hiawatha Commandary No, 13, Knights Templars, and Abdallah Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Leavenworth.
Mr. Salisbury married, February 8, 1915, at Hiawatha. Miss Mame Adams, daughter of George H. and Emma (Dickison) Adams, who are now living at 215 Shawnee Street in Hiawatha. Her father is a merchant. Mr. and Mrs. Salisburv have one child, Rebekah Ann, who was born at Hiawatha January 15, 1916.
Mr. Salisbury’s grandfather, Nathaniel Salisbury, was born in New York State, He reared his family on a farm in Herkimer County, and late in life moved out to Springfield, Nebraska, where he died in 1884.