Kansas

Biography of Mary Pierce Van Zile

Mary Pierce Van Zile. A very important member of the faculty of the Kansas State Agricultural College is Mrs. Mary Pierce Van Zile, dean of women and dean of the division of home economics. Her name is a household word in many widely separated homes, for each year Mrs. Van Zile has under her immediate care and instruction from 800 to 900 girls. They come from many environments and are mostly in the most receptive period of their lives, and the influence exerted by Dean Van Zile largely moulds their future. Mary Pierce Van Zile was born on her father’s … Read more

Biography of Gilbert Leroy Jordan

Gilbert Leroy Jordan. Through persistent aspiration and unceasing labor, Gilbert LeRoy Jordan has won his way to the most satisfying and stable compensation of business life. Still a young man, with his best years before him, he is at the head of one of Topeka’s prominent business establishments, the College Hill Bakery, located at 1509 Lane Street, an enterprise which he has built up solely through his own efforts. Mr. Jordan commenced his business career without the aiding influences afforded by the possession of financial resources and has been the builder of his own fortune. He has kept persistently at … Read more

Biography of James Claude Wilhoit, M. D.

James Claude Wilhoit, M. D. This is the name of a prominent young physician and surgeon at Manhattan, but a man who in spite of his years has attained an enviable prominence in the professional and business life of his home state. Doctor Wilhoit has those natural gifts which together with thorough training make the proficient surgeon. His work is now largely surgery and diagnosis. He was born at Westmoreland in Pottawatomie County, Kansas, July 14, 1885, a son of Dr. John W. and Jennie (Armstrong) Wilhoit. His parents were natives of Kentucky, where they married, and they came to … Read more

Biography of Robert Lawrence Mitchell

Robert Lawrence Mitchell. Menoken Township, Shawnee County, in 1870 was mainly raw prairie land and the hardy pioneers who came here as home-seekers had weary tasks before them. Agricultural riches lay beneath the sod but it was toilsome labor to break up this sod, to plough and seed the land and then await the harvest. In the above year many of the eastern states contributed to the citizenship of Kansas and among those who came from Ohio was George J. Mitchell. He was a prosperous and intelligent farmer in Ohio. After sending his three sons to Oberlin College he thought … Read more

Biography of W. T. Yoe

The Independence Tribune is one of the oldest papers in Kansas, with a record of continuous issue in one locality for forty-six years, and it is even older than that since the same plant had been used for publishing a paper in Missouri for several years before its removal to Independence, when that town was located on the frontier and at the very beginning of its growth and development. The Tribune ever since its establishment has been under the control of two veteran newspaper men, both brothers, W. T. Yoe, who is editor, and Charles Yoe, who is president of … Read more

Biography of Charles Yoe

The record of the Yoe brothers in connection with The Tribune is one of special interest to Kansans. W. T. Yoe was born at Port Republic, Calvert County, Maryland, March 26, 1845. The Yoes were an old Maryland family, having come from England with Lord Baltimore and most of the descendants of the first emigrants still live in Maryland. Walter Yoe, father of the Yoe brothers, was born in Maryland in 1800 and died at Rushville, Illinois, in 1867. He was reared and married in Maryland, and in 1848 moved to Rushville, Illinois. He followed his trade as carpenter and … Read more

Biography of Charles Albert Connelly

Charles Albert Connelly, whose long and able connection with the Independence Tribune has already been noted, has been one of the live and progressive citizens of Independence and has accepted many opportunities to serve the community in addition to his work as a newspaper man. He was born in Parke County, Indiana, August 12, 1869. His father, Charles T. Connelly, who was born in Parke County, Indiana, in 1845, is especially deserving of note in a history of Kansas. He was reared and married in Indiana and in 1885 moved to Garden City, Kansas, and proved up a claim there. … Read more

Biography of Nelson Antrim Crawford

Nelson Antrim Crawford is professor of industrial journalism and superintendent of printing with the Kansas State Agricultural College. For several years he was instructor in English in the Agricultural College but has been head of the journalism work since April, 1914. In his special department he has done important work for the Agricultural College. For several years of his early life he was a newspaper reporter and was thus no stranger to the practical phases of journalism when he came to his present position. He has in the past two years increased the work of the department threefold. By virtue … Read more

Biography of William Gibson Dickie

William Gibson Dickie. Though he began his career on a Kansas farm with very few advantages in the way of schooling and has had to work for his own support and for that of others since boyhood, William G. Dickie has acquired a very honorable position in business affairs at Topeka, and has a record embodying many useful years spent in public office, in manufacturing lines, and in connection with several Kansas corporations. A native of Kansas, he was born six miles west of Olathe, Johnson County, January 21, 1870. His parents, William Holmes and Charity (Gibson) Dickie, had moved … Read more

Biography of James C. Holland

James C. Holland. The public architecture of Kansas, especially in the capital city, is largely a record of the skill and experience of one man, James C. Holland. Mr. Holland by all the standards that can be applied is a great architect. He has gained a well deserved prominence in this profession. His experience in Kansas covers more than thirty years. At one time he held the office of state architect, but throughout his business has largely been in connection with the designing and the superintending of construction of buildings which serve a public or quasi-public purpose. A few years … Read more

Biography of Thomas Jefferson Booth

Thomas Jefferson Booth, of Independence, is a native of Illinois, in Adams County, of which state he was born January 4, 1856. He was but eight years of age when his parents removed to Iowa and settled in Des Moines County, where they resided until 1869, in which year they settled in Montgomery County, Kansas, where the father took up a claim and resided until his death in 1878. Thomas J. Booth is a son of Milton and Agatha (Adams) Booth. His father was born in Virginia in 1808, and was a son of John Booth, an Englishman, who came … Read more

Biography of Edward Carl Johnson

Edward Carl Johnson. Identified with the Kansas State Agricultural College at Manhattan since the fall of 1912, Edward Carl Johnson is now dean of the division of college extension and is also superintendent of farmers’ institutes and state leader of county agent work. At first his work was that of superintendent of institutes and demonstration in the division of college extension. Since September, 1915, his duties have been as just described. Mr. Johnson is an expert in several departments affecting the broad science of agriculture. His authorship of a number of bulletins and monographs prove this. But his work has … Read more

Biography of Levi F. Johnson

Levi F. Johnson. As it was only about sixty years ago that the first permanent settlements were made in Kansas, there are a number of the real pioneers still alive, men who can recount their experiences when the plains were covered with buffaloes, when Indians made camp along the creeks, when the prairie fires raged across the high grass, and when the woods were filled with game, the creeks with fish, and when everything was new and primitive. Now living retired at a comfortable home in Winfield Levi F. Johnson had his share in the early making of Kansas, particularly … Read more

Biography of Henry Clinton Kibbee

Henry Clinton Kibbee. Among the representative business men of Topeka, Henry Clinton Kibbee occupies a foremost place and is well known in financial circles not only in Kansas but over a wide territory. He came to this great state in 1887 and, with the whole world as his field of choice, has never found a more desirable section in which to live. His business concerns for thirty consecutive years have caused him to travel the country over, hence this is a proof of some value that Kansas can offer many attractions in the way of comfortable living and preservation of … Read more

Biography of Hiram B. Miller

Hiram B. Miller. Kansas wheat and corn and other farm products have been so much emphasized as partly to obscure the fact that the great basic industry of the state up to twenty-five or thirty years ago was live stock. Older residents of the state, now a little past their prime, will recall that the leading industry of their youth, except perhaps in the few counties along the eastern border, was the raising of live stock on the great ranges. Of the men who stood pre-eminent in that industry special mention should be made of the late Hiram B. Miller, … Read more

Biography of Frederic M. Wilhelm

Frederic M. Wilhelm. When a boy in his early teens Frederic M. Wilhelm began working for himself and has risen from the position of an office employe to secretary of the Prairie Pipe Line Company of Independence. He has been closely identified with the present company and the Prairie State Oil and Gas Company at Independence for the past twelve years. Thirty-three years of age, Mr. Wilhelm was born at Decatur, Indiana, January 6, 1883. His father, George Wilhelm, was born in Germany in 1854, and when ten years of age ran away from home and soon afterwards found his … Read more

Biography of John V. Cortelyou

John V. Cortelyou, who took the chair of German at the Kansas State Agricultural College in 1904, was at that time only recently returned from Germany. Professor Cortelyou holds his Doctor of Philosophy degree from Heidelberg University, though he is an American by birth and training, and represents a long and interesting lineage of some of the old Dutch families of New Jersey. He was born on a farm near Harlingen in Somerset County, New Jersey, September 19, 1874. He is a son of John G. and Mary (Van Zandt) Cortelyou, both natives of New Jersey and in both lines … Read more

Biography of Arthur H. Bennett

Arthur H. Bennett. Few men have contributed more practical encouragement to grain and stock raisers in Kansas than has Arthur H. Bennett, of Topeka, president of the Bennett Commission Company, whose business has been one of the chief commercial factors in its line in the city during the past decade. He was born May 9, 1869, on what was known as the “Old Thompson Farm,” located near Marengo, McHenry County, Illinois, the only son of Fayette Henry and Mary Eliza (Merriman) Bennett. The Bennett family is of Puritan stock, the progenitors of the family having come to America on the … Read more

Biography of Zolo A. Emerson

Zolo A. Emerson. Through the business ability and courtesy of its owner the general merchandise store of Zolo A. Emerson in a comparatively short time has become an important source of supply to the people of Auburn and the surrounding vicinity. In addition to rendering this service to his fellow citizens, Mr. Emerson has a further claim to their esteem in the manner in which he is discharging the duties [p.1749] of postmaster, which office he has efficiently filled since his appointment in 1908. Mr. Emerson is a native of Holmes County, Ohio, born at Millersburg, September 24, 1873, one … Read more

Biography of Phares Root

Phares Root, one of the well known business men of Independence, has spent nearly all his life in Kansas, his parents having moved to Elk County and taken their share of hardships and responsibilities as pioneers. Mr. Root has developed a prosperous business in the handling of automobile supplies and in operating a first class garage. He was born in Indiana, September 26, 1869. His ancestors came from Germany in the early days and settled in Pennsylvania. His father, Joseph Root, was born in Ohio in 1844, but was reared and married in Starke County, Indiana. He is a tinner … Read more