Kansas

Biography of Frank G. Hooper

Frank G. Hooper has lived in Pottawatomie County since 1885. He had shown exceptional ability in accumulating those things which mean a high degree of material prosperity, and for many years was identified with farming and had one of the largest single estates in Pottawatomie County. He is now living zetized at Belvue and is vice president of the Belvue State Bank. Mr. Hooper was born at Palmyra in Jefferson County, Wisconsin, February 16, 1860. His grandparents were George and Elizabeth Hooper, both natives of England. George Hooper was born in 1799 and in 1845 brought his family to the … Read more

Biography of Ed Heeney

Ed Heeney. For over thirty-five years the name Heeney had been associated with the mercantile enterprise of Severance. The firm of Ed Heeney & Son conducts the largest hardware, implement and furniture house in that part of Doniphan County. The senior member of the firm, who is now practically retired from business responsibilities, is Mr. Ed Heeney, who had lived in Northeastern Kansas since 1870 and had acquired and built up extensive interests both as a farmer and business man. The Heeney family comes from the vicinity of Oldcastle, County Meath, Ireland, where Ed Heeney was born May 21, 1852. … Read more

Biography of Walter C. Palmer, M. D.

Walter C. Palmer, M. D., after practicing several years in Kansas City, Missouri, where his father was for a number of years a member of the medical profession, removed to Hiawatha, Kansas, and is now giving all his time and attention to surgery. In addition to his broad experience as a practitioner and his equipment in American schools, Doctor Palmer, went abroad in 1916 and from April to July worked in the war hospitals in France. Nowhere had surgical methods undergone greater changes and been brought to a higher degree of perfection than in the hospitals in the war zone … Read more

Biography of Frederick M. Thompson

Frederick M. Thompson, superintendent of the city schools of Horton, and an educator of long and successful experience, is a native of Kansas, and his family have been identified with this state since the territorial period. His father, Samuel C. Thompson, who is now living at Leavenworth at the venerable age of eighty-two, came out to Kansas in 1856 and for a time was identified with the frontier Town of Leavenworth and later removed to Springdale. where he was employed by the firm of Russell Waddell and Major in their big sawmill twelve miles west of Leavenworth on “Big Stranger.” … Read more

Biography of George W. Pennell

George W. Pennell. It is given to few men to win the prizes of life, and George W. Pennell, of Atchison, belongs to that much favored class. In the building of the great West Mr. Pennell had played a major part. As a young man he had the instinct and the vision uncommon in the average man, which led him away from a comfortable home in a settled community out into the Mississippi Valley, the wonder land of the world. From an inconspicnous youth of vigorous Revolutionary stock, raised on a New York farm, he had become one of the … Read more

Biography of Ernest N. Bailey

Ernest N. Bailey, a brother of former Governor W. J. Bailey, reference to whom is made on other pages, had largely concentrated his efforts and businees enterprise at the Town of Baileyville, named for the family, in Nemaha County. Mr. Bailey had been an extensive farmer and stockman, and in later years a grain merchant, and owned the principal grain elevator at Baileyville. He was born in Carroll County, Illinois, June 15, 1857. The Bailey ancestry is English and the Baileys were Colonial settlers in New York. His grandparents, Joshua and Eleeta Bailey, were both born in or near Tieonderoga, … Read more

Biography of William R. Martin

William R. Martin is a native of Doniphan County, for many years was connected with a packing house at St. Joseph, and more recently had applied his efforts successfully to fruit growing and farming, which he still earries on in connection with his duties as postmaster at Wathena. His birth occurred near Wathena April 12, 1861. His full given name was William Redman Martin. Mr. Martin is descended originally from Scotch-Irish stock. There were two brothers of the name who immigrated to America during the early Colonial period, one of them settling in the North and the other going South … Read more

Biography of Frank H. Curtis

Frank H. Curtis is a school man, superintendent of the city schools of Bern in Nemaha County and had been a factor in Kansas educational affairs for a number of years. He was born in Massac County, Illinois, July 28, 1874, but when five years of age went with his parents to Western Kansas and grew up in Trego County when that was a frontier section. Mr. Curtis is of Scotch-Irish ancestry and members of the family were pioneers in Kentucky. His father, Dr. D. B. Curtis, was born in Kentucky in 1815. He graduated from the Louisville Medical College … Read more

Biography of Robert Stone, Hon.

Hon. Robert Stone, one of the ablest members of the Topeka bar, where he had been in active practice for the past quarter of a century, is a former speaker of the House of Representatives in the Kansas Legislature. The service which chiefly identifies his name with Kansas is the intimate influence and connection he had had in the drafting and enactment of all the progressive legislation of Kansas since and including the year 1905. In many ways no state in the Union had done more to conform its legislative program with modern views of social and economic righteousness than … Read more

Biography of Francis H. Taton, Rev.

Rev. Francis H. Taton, pastor of the Catholic Church of St. Michael’s at Axtell. Marshall County, is a native of the old Hoosier State, but had been a resident of Kansas ever since the early days of his ordination to the priesthood, a period of nearly thirty years, during which period he had performed a wonderful work in the mission fields of this state, a labor that had endeared him to the hearts of many in various portions of the state. Father Taton had been in charge of St. Michael’s parish at Axtell since the summer of 1903 and had a record … Read more

Biography of James M. Teasley

James M. Teasley was born in Whitfield County, Georgia, in 1858, a son of Allen D. and Rhoda M. Teasley. The Teasley family came to Kansas in 1866, when James was about eight years of age. They came by way of Nashville, Tennessee, to St. Louis, thence by boat to Kansas City and reached the Solomon Valley by wagon and team. The Teasleys settled in a portion of Cloud County south of what is now called the Town of Glasco. The first homestead of the family is now the Charles Horn Place. Mr. James M. Teasley is of English origin, his … Read more

Biography of Thomas M. Jones

Thomas M. Jones. From 1903 to 1917 Thomas M. Jones was assistant postmaster of Abilene, and in that time really handled the important responsibilities and executive details of the city postal system. He received his appointment under the late Richard Waring, and steadily continued in the office under subsequent administrations. Mr. Jones is an expert accountant, and that ability gave his service a great value in the postoffice, and during his long residence at Abilene he had been given many important commissions in auditing and in straightening up the books of commercial concerns. He is now cashier of the United … Read more

Biography of D. H. Teasley

D. H. Teasley, one of the prosperous and progressive farmers of the Glasco community in Cloud County, is a son of an early settler of Summit Township of that county, and there is not a better known and more honored name in that part of the state than Teasley. His father, W. W. Teasley, was born in the State of Georgia in 1849, a son of James S. and Susan (Reed) Teasley, both of whom were natives of Elbert County, Georgia. The Teasleys are of English origin, while the Reeds were Scotch. The immigrant ancestor was the grandfather of W. … Read more

Biography of Granville T. Ledgerwood

Granville T. Ledgerwood. The community around Beaumont in Butler County and also in Greenwood County had known Mr. Ledgerwood as a substantial farmer citizen and business man for over thirty years. As a farmer he attended strictly to his business, worked with all the power that was in him and in time acquired a well developed farm and sufficient property for his needs. Mr. Ledgerwood is now a resident of the Village of Beaumont, and among other interests is looking after the local postoffice as postmaster. He comes of that fine stock of people that located in East Tennessee during … Read more

Biography of Riley Louthan V. S.

Riley Louthan, V. S. As more and more importance is paid every year to the handling of live stock on the farms of Kansas, so in proportion is the profession of veterinary surgery appreciated and increased in its scope of usefulness. It is through that profession that Riley Louthan is best known in the community of Glasco in Cloud County. He is a self-made man, in as much as he had succeeded in building up for himself a large practice under very discouraging circumstances. His knowledge of veterinary surgery might be called a natural product of experience and books. Such … Read more

Biography of Carl Moore

Carl Moore. Under the system of local government prevailing in most American states, the office of sheriff is easily one of the most important. As the executive court officer and responsible manager of the county prison, he had a wide range of duties. The people of Cloud County during the past four years have had every reason to congratulate themselves upon the presence in that office of Mr. Carl Moore, who had distinguished himself for efficiency and an administration in the best interests of law and order. For many years Mr. Moore had been engaged in public office either as sheriff or … Read more

Biography of Frank P. Bowen

Frank P. Bowen is a veteran business man of Centralia, Kansas, where he located over forty years ago when it was a hamlet just beginning to show signs of business prosperity. While Mr. Bowen relieved himself of the more important business activities some years ago, he is still president of the First National Bank of Centralis. He is of old New England stock. The Bowens came out of England and settled in New Hampshire in Colonial times. His grandfather, Grove Bowen, was born in Lancaster, New Hampshire, and died at Piermont in that state in 1859, having spent his life … Read more

Biography of William Renwick Curry

William R. Curry. That American agriculture had not kept pace with other grent American industries is due mainly, in the opinion of experts and students of the subject, to lack of intelligent organization. While the problems of Amcrican farming are now being attacked with an energy never before displayed, there is no question that one of the influences that have done most and will continuo to do more to vitalize farming methods is the county agent’s movement, which furnishes at least one of the principal instruments by which better co-operation can he supplied and the available sources of information more … Read more

Biography of Nathan T. Veatch

Nathan T. Veatch has been superintendent of the city schools of Atchison since 1901. He is a veteran educator, and was teacher, principal or superintendent for a number of years before he came to Kansas. A native of Illinois, he was born on a farm near Astoria in Fulton County February 25, 1852, grew up in Schuyler County, attended the public schools, and had been teaching almost continuously since 1879. He taught his first term in Schuyler County, Illinois. In 1881 he was graduated from the Illinois Normal University at Normal. Mr. Veatch taught in Brown County, Illinois, was principal of a … Read more

Biography of Charles Proctor

Charles Proctor. The men who came in the early days to Kansas and stuck to their posts in spite of discouragements and setbacks, have with few exceptions gained all the prosperity that a man of ordinary ambition could erave. Such men possessed character as well as the ability to do hard work, and it is not strange that many of the public honors have been given to such citizens. One of this class in Cloud County is Mr. Charles Prostor of Miltonvale. He had lived a long and useful life and is now past fourscore. His years have ripened his judgment, and … Read more