Kansas

Biography of Dennis Joseph Sheedy

Dennis Joseph Sheedy. One of the sons of the Nutmeg State who had achieved prominence at the Kansas bar is Dennis Joseph Sheedy. A practitioner at Fredonia since 1906, he had won a reputation in his profession through his conservative, self-assured, well-prepared, clean-cut and successful handling of the cases placed in his charge. He was born at Portland, Connecticut, October 14, 1874, and is a son of Thomas and Mary (Marooney) Sheedy. Mr. Sheedy comes of good Irish stock, his grandfather having been Dennis Sheedy, a native of County Cork, who passed his entire life in his native Erin as … Read more

Biography of Anton Andrew Ackerman

Anton Andrew Ackerman. The business opportunities that some men never see, attract others to whom they seem open pathways to success. Not every farmer boy, however, of seventeen years had the common sense attitude combined with the industrious habits that have made Anton Andrew Ackerman, now a substantial business man of Neosho County, a reliable, satisfactory, efficient worker in other industrial lines before he had more than reached manhood. Mr. Ackerman had worked hard and to some purpose, otherwise he would not have his present high business standing as one of the leading contractors and drillers in the Mid-continent oil … Read more

Biography of Francis Marion Abbott

Francis Marion Abbott. Prominent among the men who have been helpful factors in the development of Southeastern Kansas, is found Francis Marion Abbott, president of the Neosho Valley Bank, of Chanute. Mr. Abbott came to Neosho County in 1867 as a veteran of the Civil war, and for many years was engaged in farming, and at the same time lent his aid in various ways to the building up of this part of Kansas, where the best years of his life have been spent and where his enviable success had been gained. Whether as agriculturist, banker, public official or private … Read more

Biography of John Spencer Kenyon

John Spencer Kenyon is a member of the furniture firm of Hardcastle & Kenyon at Emporia. Established nearly thirty-five years ago, this is one of the oldest furniture houses in Kansas, and so far as known only one firm had been in business for a longer time and that is the Thompson Brothers at Topeka. Mr. Kenyon’s had been a most creditable business record. His name had been familiar to the people of Emporia and that section of Kansas for more than a generation, and always suggests the best qualities of commercial enterprise. His public spirit had also been a … Read more

Biography of P. C. Young, Hon.

Hon. P. C. Young. High on the roster of Wilson County’s distinguished citizens appears the name of Hon. P. C. Young, for years one of the most brilliant and astute attorneys practicing before the Fredonia bar, an author and poet whose talents have gained for him wide reputation, and a man who as a citizen, neighbor and friend is universally esteemed and respected. A resident of this city during the most important era of its development, his personality is indelibly imprinted upon the home of his adoption, and both as attorney and legislator he had evidenced the inheritance of many … Read more

Biography of Francis M. Perkins

Francis M. Perkins, president of the Perkins Trust Company of Lawrence, had been a prominent factor in financial and business affairs of that city and of the state at large for more than forty years. He was the first of his family to come to Kansas. Mr. Perkins was born in Racine County, Wisconsin, on a farm June 21, 1846. His parents were Otis Goodspeed and Julia Ann (Bender) Perkins. His father was a descendant of John W. Perkins of Ipswich, Massachusetts, who came to Massachusetts Colony in 1631 and was originally from Ufton Court, the large family estate of … Read more

Biography of Augustus G. Dickinson

A. G. Dickinson is one of the leading business men of Humboldt, Kansas, and head of the Dickinson Hay & Grain Company, and for years had been vitally interested in the welfare and progress of this section of the state. Mr. Dickinson is a native of Allen County, Kansas. It will be appropriate in this connection to trace the movements of the family briefly from their point of origin to this middle western state. The Dickinsons were English people. In the early colonial days three brothers set out for America. One of them went to Nova Scotia, one to New … Read more

Biography of William C. Goodwin, Rev.

Rev. William C. Goodwin. In the death of Rev. William C. Goodwin, which occurred at his home in Moline, Kansas, May 12, 1913, that community lost a much loved citizen and there passed away a character which in strength and in service deserves more than passing mention. Largely in the words of a friend and admirer who wrote of him the following biography had been prepared for this publication. He was born at Massena Center in St. Lawrence County, New York, September 3, 1837. His father, Daniel Goodwin, was born and reared in New Hampshire; his mother, Elvira Clark, in … Read more

Biography of Arthur Winford Goodwin

Arthur Winford Goodwin. When the details of his career have been examined it will be seen that Arthur W. Goodwin had been the architect of a successful career in commercial fields. He started at the bottom, laboring as a boy in country stores to pay his own way in the world. He gained more than mere wages. All those early experiences he had turned to profit since he became a business man on his own account, and at the present time he is a member of the firm which conducts the largest department and general merchandise establishment at Howard, in … Read more

Biography of Fred G. Palmer

Fred G. Palmer was chiefly responsible for the establishment and upbuilding of one of the leading industries of Kansas City, Kansas. This is the Kaw Boiler Works Company. Like many other concerns that now wield a large influence in a city’s industrial life this business started on a small scale. Mr. Palmer was associated with exmayor T. B. Gilbert in organizing the business in 1905. They started making boilers and other equipment of that class in a rented building. The partnership was continued by these two men for six years. In 1911 the Kaw Boiler Works Company was organized and … Read more

Biography of John Quincy Smith

John Quincy Smith. The career of J. Quincy Smith, of Fredonia, had been an expression of well directed and diversified industry and in its development had invaded various fields of human activity, in each of which J. Q. Smith had won a full measure of material success and satisfying reputation. He had had experience in both professional and business labors, and while he is now retired from the activities of life, having approached the Psalmist’s three-score-and-ten years, is still an influence for good in his community and a citizen whose help and support continue to be factors for the development … Read more

Biography of John Quincy Smith

John Quincy Smith. The career of J. Quincy Smith, of Fredonia, had been an expression of well directed and diversified industry and in its development had invaded various fields of human activity, in each of which J. Q. Smith had won a full measure of material success and satisfying reputation. He had had experience in both professional and business labors, and while he is now retired from the activities of life, having approached the Psalmist’s three-score-and-ten years, is still an influence for good in his community and a citizen whose help and support continue to be factors for the development … Read more

Biography of Charles Fussman

Charles Fussman was a Kansas pioneer. He was one of the first settlers at Humboldt, and that community and Allen County will always pay a respectful regard to his memory and the high-minded and conscientious citizenship that he exemplified. He was a German by birth, and had those substantial virtues and qualities for which the German people are most respected. He was born at Frankfort on the Rhine in 1829. In the old country he learned the trade of tinsmith. Coming to the United States in young manhood, he first located in Uniontown, Iowa, but in 1857 arrived in the … Read more

Biography of John Adam Endres

John Adam Endres was one of the notable men of Northeastern Kansas, for nearly thirty years was engaged in business and proved an active exponent of the best civic spirit in the City of Leavenworth, and died at his home there August 11, 1893. No finer class of citizens had ever been incorporated into American nationality than the emigrants from Germany in the decade following the Revolution of 1848. They exemplified the soul of patriotism, adapted themselves with wonderful versatility to the life and conditions of the New World, many of them fought for freedom and union, and in all … Read more

Biography of Benjamin F. Endres

Benjamin F. Endres, son of the late John Adam Endres, whose career is sketched elsewhere, had been a successful lawyer of Leavenworth, and had also figured in public affairs, being now in his second term as a member of the State Legislature. He was born at Leavenworth, January 27, 1875, was educated in the public schools, read law under Thomas P. Fenlon and John H. Atwood, and was admitted to the bar on his twenty-first birthday. Since then, for twenty years, he had been in the active practice of his profession. In 1903 he was elected police judge of Leavenworth … Read more

Biography of Albert Henley

Albert Henley has been a resident of Lawrence for thirty-nine years. In all that time he had been actively and conspicuously identified with the material growth and commercial development of the state. Mr. Henley was a pioneer manufacturer of barbed wire in Kansas. Barbed wire is now accepted as a commonplace product of American industry. Only the old timers recall with what prejudice this wire was introduced into general use and also the crude forms in which it was at first manufactured. Mr. Henley’s early attempts at the manufacture were on a very small scale. He began at Lawrence under … Read more

Biography of Charles D. Welch

Charles D. Welch. Since his admission to the bar in 1899 Charles D. Welch had built a reputation as a sound, hard working and able lawyer, and had also been a factor in public affairs and is one of the leading republicans of Coffeyville, where he had been in practice for the past twelve years. His ancestors were New York State people, having settled there probably before the Revolution. His grandfather, Daniel Welch, was born in New York, but moved from that state to a farm in Indiana and died in Illinois. It was in McLean County, Illinois, that Charles … Read more

Biography of James A. Burge

James A. Burge. The oldest citizen of Fredonia, in point of residence, James A. Burge had watched and participated in the progress and development of this thriving city for forty-seven years, during forty-three of which he was identified with enterprises that contributed materially to the city’s prestige. From 1879 until his retirement, in 1912, he was connected with the Western Union Telegraph Company, first as messenger and later as manager, and the many friendships which he made while acting in these capacities have remained with him during the passing of the years. Mr. Burge was born in Lake County, Illinois, … Read more

Biography of Fred H. Rhodes

Fred H. Rhodes is one of the prominent lumber dealers of Southeastern Kansas, and is now mayor of Humboldt. Three generations of the Rhodes family have been represented in Kansas, and the family had lived here upwards of half a century. It had furnished capable business men, farmers, and public officials to several counties in the state. The family was established in America by one of those self-denying and fearless missionaries of the Moravian faith, who came out of Germany during the eighteenth century. This ancestor, the great-great-grandfather of Fred H. Rhodes, spelled his name John Rothe. He was a … Read more

Biography of Col. James L. Abernathy

Col. James L. Abernathy. For nearly a half century one of the conspicuous figures in Kansas history was the late James L. Abernathy, whose name is inseparably interwoven with the material prosperity of Leavenworth, to which he came in 1856, when it was but a frontier town. He was born in Warren County, Ohio, March 20, 1833. In early manhood he accompanied his parents in their removal to Rush County, Indiana, and at Rushville, the county seat, embarked in mercantile pursuits. In the early ’50s the great West, then represented by the vast unsettled territory west of the Missouri River, … Read more