Wilhelm E. Regier, M. D. The courageous, investigating attitude of the Twentieth Century is nowhere more forcibly shown than in the ranks of the exponents of medical science. The tendency of the modern scientific physician to avoid, above all things, a hasty jumping to conclusions or too ready dependence upon formulae, is serving to destroy ancient delusions, thereby placing the health of the nation in the hands of reasoners and independent thinkers. In this class of rational thinkers belongs Wilhelm E. Regier, M. D., whose opportunities along professional lines have been numerous and whose use of the same had made him an important factor in connection with professional circles at Whitewater and in Butler County for a number of years.
Doctor Regier was born at Elbing, Butler County, Kansas, November 20, 1882, and is a son of Rev. J. W. and Agathe (Dyck) Regier. His grandfather was Abraham Regier, who was born in 1816, near Marienburg, West Prussia, Germany, and was there engaged in farming until 1880, in which year he immigrated to the United States and settled near Elbing, Kansas, where he spent the last years of his life in retirement and died in 1889. J. W. Regier was also born near Marienburg, where he was reared and educated, and when twenty-seven years of age, in 1876, came to the United States and located first at Mount Pleasant, Iowa. After a short time he came as a pioneer of 1877 to Kansas and settled at what is now the town of Elbing, and which was given the same name as a large city not far from where Mr. Regier had been born. For about thirteen years he was engaged in agricultural pursuits in that locality, but in 1890 became a minister of the Mennonite faith, and since then had been engaged in preaching. In 1909 he removed to his present home at Newton, Kansas. He is a republican but not a politician, his entire time being given to his ministerial labors. Reverend Regier married Agathe Dyck, who was born January 17, 1852, in Prussia, Germany, and died at Newton, Kansas, in 1912. They became the parents of four children, as follows: John L., who is engaged in farming near Elbing, Kansas; Dr. Wilhelm E.; Henry R., who is a farmer near Elbing; and Helen A., who is the wife of Arthur J. Richert, a merchant of Newton.
The early education of Wilhelm E. Regier was secured in the rural schools of Butler County, Kansas, and his boyhood was passed on his father’s farm, where he assisted the elder man until he was sixteen years old. He was then sent to Bethel College, Newton, Kansas, where he pursued a full course of four years and was graduated in 1903, at that time taking up his professional studies in the University Medical College at Kansas City, Missouri, from which institution he was graduated in 1907 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Doctor Regier did not give up his studies when he left college, but had continued to be a close student and investigator, and in 1913 took post-graduate work at the Illinois Post-Graduate Medical School at Chicago. His professional career was commenced at Elbing, where he continued in practice from 1907 until 1910, in which latter year he changed his field of practice to Harper, and was a resident of that city until 1913. He then returned to Butler County, and had since been engaged in a general medical and surgical practice at Whitewater, his offices being in the Smith Building on Main Street. He keeps in touch with the latest developments in medical science, and a large and lucrative patronage had rewarded his conscientious devotion to his profession, while he enjoys to a large degree the confidence and esteem of the general public. He belongs to the Harvey County Medical Society, the Kansas Medical Society and the American Medical Association. He is independent in his political views, and his religious faith is that of the Mennonite Church. Doctor Regier had all the elements of pronounced success and should reap the most splendid compensations of his fascinating and ever-widening profession.
On December 26, 1907, Doctor Regier was married at Newton, Kansas, to Miss Elizabeth Schmutz, daughter of Christian and Mary (Dahlen) Schmutz, retired residents of Newton. Doctor and Mrs. Regier have no children.
Willard Alpha Gage,now in his second term as probate judge of Anderson County, had for many years been identified with this community as a practical business man and stock farmer, and it was his exceptional qualifications, his cool and collected judgment and impartial wisdom that commended him to the favor of the people of this county in the matter of the office he now holds. Judge Gage had had a career that had not been unassociated with trial and adversity and he had worked himself up from humble beginnings. He was born on a farm in Washington County, Ohio, June 13, 1850, a son of Alpha Shaw and Nancy (Gilmore) Gage. He comes of pioneer New England ancestry and his father was a native of New Hampshire. Alpha S. Gage moved to Ohio with his parents when a child, his father, Daniel Shaw Gage, being a miller. Alpha S. learned the same trade, and continued it actively until his death in 1850. In 1842 Alpha S. Gage married Nancy Gilmore, who was born in 1822, daughter of George Gilmore, a pioneer of Washington County, Ohio. She died at Ottumwa, Iowa, in 1898. Her three children, two sons and one daughter, were: Catherine Ann, who was born in 1846, in 1900 became the wife of Ellis Huffman and now resided at Ottumwa, Iowa. Daniel Shaw, born in 1848, died in 1860; and Willard A.
Willard A. Gage grew up on his father’s farm in Washington County, Ohio, and acquired a public school training. At the age of sixteen, leaving home, he went to Macon, Illinois, and worked in a general store there for eight years, being paid $15 a month and his board. In 1873 he went to Colorado and spent a year as a gold prospector, but in the fall of 1874 came to Anderson County, Kansas. In this county he worked two years as a cattle herder, being paid $25 a month and board and lodging. It was by the rigid practice of thrift and economy that Judge Gage secured his first capital and started farming for himself. For two years he rented land and fed cattle, and in 1881 he left Kansas and spent two years as a farmer in Hancock County, Illinois. Returning to Anderson County, he bought 200 acres of raw land ten miles southwest of Garnett, and he still owned that fine place. Under his management it had undergone a great change, and now contains modern improvements in the way of buildings and equipment and for years had been the scene of Judge Gage’s efforts as a feeder and shipper of cattle and hogs.
Judge Gage had never allowed his private business to absorb all his time and interests. For several years he was justice of the peace in Westphalia Township, and in 1914 the people of Anderson County conferred upon him an honor the more prized because absolutely unsolicited on his part. That year he was elected for his first term as probate judge on the republican ticket and in 1916 was re-elected. Judge Gage had been an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church for thirty years.
He had been twice married. In 1875 Margery E. Chapin became his wife. She was born in Ohio in 1860 and died in 1893, leaving two children: Charles Alpha, born in 1879, now a merchant at Wellington, Kansas; and Ray Willard, born in 1883, now in the United States mail service at Kansas City, Kansas. On May 18, 1904, Judge Gage married at Liberty, Missouri, Miss Ida M. Robinson. She was born in Keokuk County, Iowa, and for twenty-nine years was a successful teacher in Missouri and Kansas.