Kansas

Biography of Nathan Frank Frazier

Nathan Frank Frazier. Among the names that have been long and prominently identified with the businese, agricultural, mining and financial interests of Kansas, few have attained greater prestige than that which attaches to the name of Frazier. There is hardly an industry of importance that can be mentioned that had not beneflted by the activities of the men who have borne it, and today there are found two able and worthy representatives of the family in the persons of Nathan Frank Frazier and Ray E. Frazier, vice president and president respectively of the Citizens State Bank of El Dorado and … Read more

Biography of George P. Nieman

George P. Neiman. A career of singular interest and one that had been characterized by marked achievement is that of George P. Neiman, executive head of the Bank of Whitewater, an extensive farmer and stockman, and a citizen who had contributed in many ways to the growth of Butler County, and particularly to the thriving community of Whitewater, which he promoted and which is situated upon a portion of his original homestead, on which he filed in 1869. Mr. Neiman is a native of Pennsylvania, born at New Berlin, Union County, January 24, 1842, and a son of Isaac and … Read more

Biography of Ward Salisbury

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 … Read more

Biography of Manasseh Stewart Knox

Manasseh Stewart Knox is one of the oldesb residents of Pottawatomie County. His own recollections of that district cover a period of sixty years, beginning in his early childhood. He knew Pottawatomie County when it was a virtual wilderness and when Kansas was still in the throes of the free stats struggle. Mr. Knox is one of the most substantial land holders and formerly one of the largest farmers in Northern Kansas and is president of the First National Bank of Havensville and had banking interests elsewhere. He was born in Cayuga County, New York, August 21, 1843. His ancestors … Read more

Biography of Thomas J. McInerney, Father

Father Thomas J. McInerney is a devoted and zealous young priest of the Catholic Church, and most of his work had been done in the State of Kansas. he is now pastor of St. Monica’s Catholic Church at Waterville. This church was established in 1909 by Father Redeker. Its first pastor was Father Elast. The parish extends to the west line of Marshall County, to Blue Rapids on the east, to College Hill on the south, and adjoins Marysville parish on the north, It contains about twenty-three Catholic families, with about seventy members. Father McInerney was born in County Clare, … Read more

Biography of L. A. Winsor

L. A. Winsor is superintendent of the city echools of Irving, and for a number of years had been identified with public school work in Marshall County. He is known as a very capable educator and stands high among the school men in the northern part of the state. His people have been in Kansas for over forty years. His grandfather was born in England in 1837 and on coming to this country located first in Canada and from there moved to the State of Iowa, and in 1874 went to Thomas County, Kansas. After about a year he returned … Read more

Biography of Frank Levi Root

Frank Levi Root has lived in the vicinity of Oketo for thirty years. he had prospered in a degree sufficient to meet his sanguine expectations, and not only owned and controls a large body of rich farming land in Marshall County but is also actively identified with Oketo’s business affairs and its civic and community life. Mr. Root was born in Cedar County, Iowa, May 21, 1865. His father, Levi Root, born in Ohio July 9, 1832, grew up in his native state and when a young man moved to Iowa. He was married in Cedar County and had a … Read more

Biography of Louis A. Swartz

Louis A. Swartz. Some of the finest farming land in Nemaha County is owned by members of the Swartz family, who were pioneers in this section of Kansas and by their energy and industry have acquired a conspicuous position as farmers and stockmen. The operations of Louis A. Swartz, a younger representative of the family, are in the vicinity of Bancroft, where he had made for himself considerable reputation as a farmer and cattle raiser. He was born on his father’s farm in Nemaha County October 11, 1891. He is a son of Albert Swartz, who had lived in this … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Robert S. Shope

Robert S. Shope is superintendent of the city schools of Bigelow, Kansas. While not a native of the state, his life had been spent largely within the borders of Kansas, and he is a product of its schools and his work had becn chiefly as a teacher. He belongs to the colonial branch of the Shope family, which originally came out of Germany. His grandfather, William Shope, spent his life in Kentucky, and was a carpenter by trade. His father is David W. Shope, for many years a resident of Maraball County, Kansas. He was born in Kentucky in 1867 … Read more

Biography of S. E. Leinbach

S. E. Leinbach. Fifty years have passed since Mr. Leinbach became a resident of Kansas. He arrived in Pottawatomie County as a pioneer not long after the close of the Civil war, in which he had played a gallant part as a Union soldier. The war was the first great event in his life and his settlement in Kansas the second. Mr. Leinbach developed a homestead and had since acquired a large body of the fertile and valuable soil of Pottawatomie County. He is now living at Onaga and had been a public spirited factor in the progress of that … Read more

Biography of John McKimens

John McKimens. Pottawatomie County was organized in 1857, It is one of the oldest counties in that section of the state that was fairly well settled during the border period of Kansas history. The present county seat, Westmoreland, was established in 1871 and was named for Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. The pioneer who gave the name to the county seat was the late John McKimens, Sr. He was one of the first settlers in Pottawatomie County, having located at the present site of Westmoreland in Oetober, 1856, a year before the county was organized. John McKimens, Sr., was born in Pennsylvania … Read more

Biography of William Harrison Yandell, M. D.

William Harrison Yandell, M. D. Greenwood County had known the Yandell family as substantial farming people and trustworths and valuable citizens since 1879. Dr. W. H. Yandell was at that time nine years of age, and he is now snecessfully practlcing medicine and surgery in a locality where he grew up as a boy. He had a large practice at Piedmont and extending out over the surrounding country, and he began his profeesional work there soon after graduating in medicine. He was born in Graves County, Kentucky, August 27, 1870. His ancestors were two brothers of Welsh and Seotch parentage … Read more

Biography of D. R. Blankinship

D. R. Blankinship. The residence of D. R. Blankinship in Butler County covers a period of more than forty-seven years, during which time he had prospered greatly in the accumulatlon of property and in the gaining of respect and esteem at the hands of his fellow-townsmen. At the time of his arrival this well-known pioneer had little capital to aid him save that represented by his ambition and energy, yet he is now one of the most substantial men of his county, being the owner of 4,300 acres of land, and his home property, located abont two and one-half miles … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Ray E. Frazier

Ray E. Frazier, the elder son of Nathan F. and Emma (Crook) Frazier, was born at El Dorado September 15, 1876. He received his education in the public schools of El Dorado and at Wentworth Military Academy, Lexington, Missouri, from which he was graduated in 1895, and began his financial training in a minor position in the Merchants National Bank, or which his father was president. There he evinced a marked aptitude for banking and applied himself so earnestly to his duties that upon the organization of the Citizens State Bank he was made assistant cashier and later vice president. … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Nathan Frank Frazier, Jr.

Nathan Frank Frazier, Jr., the younger son of Nathan F. and Elmma (Crook) Frazier, and vice president of the Citizens State Bank of El Dorado, was born at El Dorado March 13, 1882. He was reared in his native town, where he received his preparatory education in the public schools, following which he entered Lake Forest Academy at Lake Forest, Illinois, from which institution he was graduated in 1903. After graduation he was employed at Kansas City, Missouri, for a short time, and then returned to El Dorado, where he became associated with his father and assisted the elder man … Read more

Biography of John Kiene

John Kiene is one of the younger men in the educational affairs of the state and is principal of the high school at Madison. Mr. Kiene is broadly and liberally educated, and had a practical knowledge that comes not from books alone. He was born on a farm at Valencia, Kansas, December 30, 1893. His father is Mr. F. A. Kiene, a well known citizen of Shawnee County now living on his farm near Topeka. He was born in 1834 in Alsace Lorraine, France, but in 1846, as a boy of twelve, was brought to America by his parents, who … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Felix Broeker

Felix Broeker. The astonishing growth of the Globe Life Insurance Company within the brief period of its existence is excellent evidence of the progresaive spirit of the Kansas people when they have been assured of the benefits derivable from an enterprise. This Salina organization, founded in December, 1915, had grown by leaps and bounds, and if its past success may be taken as a criterion for the future the company is due within a comparatively short space of time to take its position among the leading insurance institutions of the Middle West. Much of the success of this concern must … Read more

Biography of August Soller

August Soller. With all the wealth of opportunity America presents to young men of ambition it required exceptional ability, long perseverance and character to attain such an enviable position as August Soller now enjoys as a banker and business man at Washington. Even a brief outline of his career is an object lesson in American achievement. He was born in Switzerland, August 27, 1857. Left an orphan at an early age, having only the bare fundamentals of an education, he determined to come to America. As a boy he worked in factories and in other lines of employment and finally … Read more

Biography of Carl Aaron Swensson, Rev. Dr.

Rev. Dr. Carl Aaron Swensson was the founder and chief upbuilder of Bethany College, the institution around which cluster the best and most noteworthy distinctions of Lindsborg as a community and from which have gone influences that now permeate and give character to many localities through the useful men and women educated there. In an important degree Bethany College is a monnment to the late Doctor Swensson, and to a nobler one few men could aspire. He was born at Sugar Grove, Pennsylvania, June 25, 1857, a son of Jonas and Maria (Blixt) Swensson. His parents came to America in … Read more

Biography of John P. Brady

John P. Brady. Since he was fifteen years of age John P. Brady had had a varied and extensive experience as an oil worker. He began in his native state of Pennsylvania, and had been in most of the important oil fields of the country. For the past few years he had had his home at Havans, and is one of the leading individual producers in that section. His birth occurred at Parkers Landing in Pennsylvania on June 3, 1876. His people, however, were early settlers of Ohio. His grandfather Barney Brady was born in County Cavan, Ireland, came to … Read more