Biography of David Ranken, Jr.

David Ranken, Jr., was born at Boystown, County Londonderry, Ireland, October 9, 1835. He was the son of David and Ann Ranken of old Scotch-Irish Presbyterian ancestry which had emigrated from Scotland to the north of Ireland several centuries ago and engaged in the linen industry, in which they were highly prosperous. He was educated in Belfast Academy, Belfast, Ireland. His mother’s last surviving brother, David Ranken, who had come to this country in 1816, died a bachelor in St. Louis in 1859, leaving a large estate which was inherited by the families of his two deceased brothers, Thomas and … Read more

Biography of Joseph Larrick

Joseph Larrick. No county in Kansas is richer in pioneer and early territorial history than Johnson County. Some of this history is reflected in the career of such a pioneer settler as Joseph Larrick, who arrived in Kansas in 1858, and spent more than half a century in Johnson County. A native of Virginia, and a son of Jacob and Catherine (Spillman) Larrick of Frederick County, Virginia, Joseph Larrick was born February 15, 1817, and attained the remarkable age of ninety-two years, passing away at Paola March 8, 1909. He was one of a farnily of nine children. When he … Read more