Kansas

Biography of George B. McKinney

George B. McKinney is the vice president of the investment securities firm operating under the name of b’. J. Matre & Company in St. Louis. Before establishing his present business he had gained an enviable record as a salesman who was relied upon from year to year by a large clientele of bond purchasers who found him thoroughly posted and reliable in every way. Before coming to St. Louis he was employed on Wall street in New York city and had become thoroughly familiar with the methods and opportunities of the financial world. He is an eastern man by birth, … Read more

Biography of Charles Estabrook Cory

Charles Estabrook Cory, of Fort Scott, divides with Hon. J. G. Slonecker, of Topeka, the honor of being the two oldest referees in bankruptey in continuous service in the State of Kansas, Both were appointed to this office in 1898, before the Bankruptey Law actually went into effect. Mr. Cory received his first appointment from Hon. Cassius G. Foster, and was continued in office by reappointment from Judge William O. Hook, and his last several appointments came from Hon. John C. Pollock. As a lawyer Mr. Cory had been identified with Fort Scott for over thirty years. He began his … Read more

Biography of John M. Danielson

The splendid development of the southern part of Saline County had been largely due to the presence of a colony of thrifty Swedish people who located there about 1869-70. This colony as a whole acquired many thousands of acres in what are now the Townships of Smoky View and Smolan, and the Swedish people have predominated in that section ever since the original colonization. While for many years he had been one of the most conspicuous among. the Swedish people of Saline County, John M. Danielson had a special distinction as a settler there, since he was in advance by … Read more

Biography of Walt Mason

Walt Mason. In the annual output of wheat, corn, livestock, coal, oil and gas, Kansas must share her splendid results with other states. But at least one product is unique–Walt Mason and his rhymes. Statisticians are fond of figuring the value of Kansas crops. No one had estimated nor can estimate how much Walt Mason had contributed to the sum total of human happiness. And practically all that output had come from his home in Kansas, in his congenial surroundings at Emporia. It is said that Mr. Mason is unable to write in strange surroundings, and consequently never leaves Emporia. … Read more

Biography of John R. Mulvane

John R. Mulvane had been a resident of Kansas since 1868 and for nearly forty years president of the Bank of Topeka. That position, together with the many other interests he had actively prosecuted, have made him a power in the financial and industrial life of Kansas. His family lineage some generations back was identified with that of the McIlvaines of Scotland. His first American ancestor came to North Carolina before the Revolutionary war. His grandfather, John Mulvane, located in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, in 1803 and was one of the five original taxpayers of that county. He marricd Mary McCune, whose … Read more

Biography of George W. Veale

George W. Veale was one of the makers of history in Kansas, in which territory and state ho had his home continuously for sixty years. He was born on a farm about five miles south of the Town of Washington in Daviess County, Indiana, May 20, 1833. Until seventeen he attended school about three months each year. From 1852 until 1857 he was employed as a clerk in the dry goods store of Filching Johnson at Evansville, Indiana. January 20, 1857, he married Miss Nannie Johnson, and on the 29th of March the bride and groom left Evansville on the Steamer White … Read more

Biography of John Monroe Farnsworth

John Monroe Farnsworth, of Humboldt, is one of the prominent oil well contractors and oil producers in this section of Kansas and had operated on a very extensive scale both for others and for himself. He grew up in the atmosphere of the oil industry in the East, and had been a resident of Kansas for the past fifteen years. He is of English ancestry and the family came out of England and were Colonial settlers in New York. His grandfather, John Farnsworth, was born in New York State, was a carpenter by trade, and early settled in what is … Read more

Biography of Charles F. Debrunner

Charles F. Debrunner is local manager of the United Iron Works Company’s plant at Independence. He is a young man, but his business career covers all the years since he was about fifteen or sixteen, and had been identified almost entirely with one line of manufacturing. He is one of the live and enterprising young men who have been attracted to this important industrial center in Southern Kansas, and had made his influence felt in its business and civic circles. He was born at Billings, Christian County, Missouri, May 16, 1882. His father, Frederick DeBrunner, was born in 1839 in … Read more

Biography of Leonard R. Manley

The value of a useful trade, of making one’s energy count toward one thing, of forging steadily ahead, regardless of obstaeles and discouragements, finds emphatic expression in the life of Leonard R. Manley, president and manager of the Topeka Pure Milk Company, the largest concern dealing exclusively in milk in the State of Kansas. When Mr. Manley first came to Topeka, it was in a humble capacity, but he was a thorough master of his trade, and possessed the ambition, energy and ability to better and elevate himself, so that he had shapod his abilities to his needs, had made … Read more

Biography of Matthew Weightman, Jr.

In the way of public service Mr. Weightman is best known for his work as treasurer of Shawnee County, an office he filled two terms and from which be retired quite recently. He had been a resident of Topeka for over forty years, is a native of Kansas, and represents an old and substantial family of the state. His father, after whom he was named, came to Kansas in 1855 during territorial days. Matthew Weightman, Sr., was born at Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, came to America a young man, and for a time was in newspaper work associated with G. W. Wilder at Leavenworth. … Read more

Biography of Sargent, John Richard

John. Richard Sargent, who for five years before his father’s death was junior partner in the firm of the Sargent Cut Stane Company, was born April 17, 1871, attended both private and public schools, including the Marmaduke Military Academy at Sweet Springs, Missouri, and learned the cut stone trade from his father. He worked in the shops with his father for several years before he was taken into partnership. On May 8, 1894, he married Miss Grace Churchill, and their four children are Mary Eloise, John Churchill, William Carroll and Elizaboth Alice. He is one of the active young business men … Read more

Biography of Peter W. Goebel

When the American Bankers’ Association in their annual meeting at Kansas City, in September, 1916, gave unanimous choice to Peter W. Goebel for president of the association, they not only honored one of the ablest bankers of the country but also the State of Kansas, where Mr. Goebel’s career as a banker began and where for over thirty years his name and influence have been growing to that point where they were recognized in such distinctive manner by the bankers of the nation. The story of one of the greatest of Kansas banks and of Mr. Goebel is almost identical. … Read more

Biography of Charles F. Scott, Hon.

Hon. Charles F. Scott. Few of the native sons of Kansas have served so conspicuously and have enjoyed more substantial honors both at home and abroad than Charles Frederick Scott of Iola. Mr. Scott had long furnished both the spirit and the action to that notable example of Kansas journalism, the Iola Register. For ten years he sat in Congress as representative of the state at large and of the Second District. For a number of years he had been recognized as one of the ablest and most influential republican leaders in Kansas. Mr. Scott is president of the Kansas State Historical Society. He … Read more

Biography of George W. Dailey

Few men can recite the story of Kansas since statehood from their own recollection. One of these men is George W. Dailey, now a resident of Topeka. Mr. Dailey is a true pioneer of Kansas. He arrived when this and all the country west of the Missouri River was a wilderness. He bore the hardships and difficult circumstances of the frontier settler. He helped defend the country when there was danger, and a public spirit and willingness to sacrifice himself for the benefit of others had been one of the distinguishing traits of his character. In March, 1860, he arrived … Read more

Biography of Joseph Ralph Burton, Hon.

Among the men who have come out of the Hoosier State to aid Kansas in its. real growth and development, there had been no finer man nor better citizen than Hom. Joseph Ralph Burton. Youthful in years as he was in experience when he came to Kansas in 1878, he plunged at once into the heart of affairs and gained ready recognition from the people. Senator Burton had at that time the ability to impress others with his reliability; he gained public confidence; he possessed the power of making people know that his talents were not merely skin deep but … Read more

Biography of F. H. Penley

Fortunate is the community which had citizens with the substantial conservatism of practical business men and yet are forward looking in matters of new development and improvement. In the matter of towns and communities there is perhaps more truth in Ingalls’ statement that opportunity knocks but once at the door, than in its application to individuals. Recently the oil district of Southern Kansas was extended into Butler County. By the good sense and public spirit of several local citizens, prominent among whom is F. H. Penley, president of the First National Bank of Augusta, this sudden development of great natural … Read more

Biography of Ralph Ray Price

Ralph Ray Price, professor of History and Civics in the Kansas State Agricultural College at manhattan, had a more than professional interest in the history of Kansas, since he is a native of the state and his people were factors in the pioneer life of the territory. Professor Price is of Scotch-Irish descent and one of his ancestors fought for American independenes in the Battle of Bunker Hill. He was born on a farm in Willow Springs Township of Douglas County, Kansas, ten miles south of Lawrence on March 6, 1872. For several years he had been out of the … Read more

Biography of Frank M. Stahl

If all the events, circumstances and movements with which Frank M. Stahl had been identified since he came to Kansas should be written out in detail the result would be a Kansas history perhaps as complete and certainly as interesting and instructive as could be written with one life as the central feature. To do full justice to such a career is manifestly impossible within brief limits, and the following must be in the nature of a suggestive outline of the career of one of the noted pioneer Kansans still alive, and an honored resident of Topeka. Born in Darke … Read more

Biography of William J. Rickenbacher

The real estate business conducted under the name of William J. Rickenhacher had gone hand in band with the development of Topeka for a number of years, and undoubtedly had contributed as largely toward the advantageous disposal of property and the honorable and satisfactory placing of loans as any concern of the kind in the city. Mr. Rickenbacher is one of the city’s foremost realty men, and while his name necessarily is associated with one of the early families of Topeka, his sucess is self made, and in its scope and usefulness directs attention to qualities of perseverance, business integrity … Read more

Biography of Charles H. Overly

Charles H. Overly is associated with Owen A. Thompson at Independence as co-inventor and active partner in the Safety Pulling Machine Company, and while Mr. Thompson superintends the manufacture of that useful device he had exercised his abilities as a salesman in distributing it throughout the oil fields of the country. Mr. Overly was born near St. Mary’s, Ohio, September 8, 1865. His ancestors came from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to Ohio in the early days of the latter state. His father Joseph K. Overly was also born near St. Mary’s, Ohio, and died at Lamont, Oklahoma, April 1, 1916. As … Read more