Biography of William Edwin Nelson

William Edwin Nelson, who became superintendent of the public schools of Sabetha in the fall of 1917, is a thoroughly experienced educator, a native of Kansas, and for five years before removing to Sabetha was superintendent of schools at Robinson. Mr. Nelson had the qualification and training of a practical lawyer, which was the profession of his father. For many years one of the ablest attorneys of the Trego County bar was the late John A. Nelson. Born in Sweden, near Stockholm, in 1851, he was brought when an infant to the United States by his parents, who located in … Read more

Biography of Glenn Swogger

Glenn Swogger is one of the younger men in the newspaper business in Kansas and began his career as an editor and publisher soon after leaving Kansas University. Mr. Swogger is editor and owner of The Waverly Gazette and The Harris Commercial. The Waverly Gazette is one of the older papers of Coffey County. It was established as the Gridley Gazette in 1887 by Ben Swearingen, was moved to Burlington in 1888 and in 1889 to Waverly, where it had been published continuously ever since. The Harris Commercial is one of the live weekly papers of Anderson County and was … Read more

Biography of James T. Cooper

James T. Cooper, a lawyer, banker and widely known citizen of Fredonia, was born in Woodson, but then Wilson, County, Kansas, August 30, 1866, and represents a family that came to Kansas while it was a territory. The ancestry of Mr. Cooper is particularly interesting. He is descended from that Sir Ashley Cooper, the Earl of Shaftsbury, who founded a colony on the Ashley River in North Carolina, and from that settlement the family name had become widely dispersed. It may be of interest to recall the fact that the noted John Locke, the great English philosopher, prepared a model … Read more

Biography of Charles R. Lewis

In his native county it had been given Charles Royal Lewis to achieve a position of prominence and influence as a representative of a line of business enterprise that had most important bearing upon both civic and material progress. At Independence, the judicial center of Montgomery County, he is actively and successfully engaged in the real estate business, and his operations include the handling of both city and farm property and the effecting of real-estate exchanges, besides which he had developed a substantial realty insurance business and is serving as notary public, his offices being at 108 1/2 East Main … Read more

Goebel, John P. – Obituary

John Peter Goebel of Baldwin, Kansas, brother of Tony Goebel, of Enterprise, passed away in Lawrence, Kansas, March 11, 1957, and his body is being brought to Wallowa for burial. Recitation of Rosary was at 8:30 last evening, March 13, at Lawrence, and arrangements have been made by the Booth-Bollman funeral home for requiem mass to be offered by Father John Baumgartner at St. Margaret’s Catholic Church in Wallowa Monday, March 18, at 10 a.m. Burial will be in the Catholic section of the Wallowa cemetery. The deceased was born November 17, 1876, in Green Bay, Wisconsin, son of John … Read more

Biography of William Colfax Markham

William Colfax Markham, son of the late Dr. L. A. Markham and younger brother of Dean Markham of Baker University, is a Kansas man distinguished by exceptional talents and a versatile ability which have caused him to be referred to as editor, poet, playwright and enterprising citizen. He was born at Bolivar, Ohio, September 10, 1868, and he spent his youth in the various places where his father was engaged in his ministerial labors. For three years he was a student in Baldwin University at Berea, Ohio, and in 1886 he moved with his parents to Missouri and subsequently entered … Read more

Biography of Orval Duane Allis

Orval Duane Allis is a Kansas educator, superintendent of schools at Virgil. He is a graduate of Baker University, is a native of Kansas, and his people settled in the state while the Civil war was in progress. Mr. Allis had in his veins the blood of a substantial ancestry, the English and Holland Dutch predominating. His paternal ancestors came from England to Vermont in colonial times. His great-grandfather, William Allis, was born in Vermont, but early moved to Steuben County, New York, where he married, where he spent his career as a farmer, and where he died. F. G. … Read more

Biography of Cavaness, James M.

James M. Cavaness. The name Cavaness belongs to both the pioneer and modern era of Kansas. Anywhere in the southeastern part of the state the name is most closely associated with the newspaper business, and two generations are still active in that work, James M. Cavaness and two of his sons, Herbert and Wilfrid, all of whom are connected in some official capacity with the Chanute Tribune. The origin of the Cavaness family was undoubtedly in Ireland, but the first of the name came to America in the colonial period and settled in North Carolina. Urban C. Cavaness, father of … Read more

Biography of Samuel Francis Woolard Col.

Col. Samuel Francis Woolard is known to the people of Kansas with well earned distinction in several lines of effort and influence. He had been a Wichita business man for over a quarter of a century and is one of the prominent insurance men of the state. He is a retired officer of the National Guard and a growing circle of appreciative readers know him as an author and publisher. A native of Illinois, he was born October 17, 1865, in Fayette County, son of W. W. and Lucy (Stites) Woolard, his mother a native of St. Clair County, Illinois. … Read more

Biography of Aldamar P. Elder

Aldamar P. Elder. One of the names that will always have significance in Kansas history is that of Elder. Over the state at large it is most closely associated with the career of the late Peter Percival Elder, who came to Kansas when it was a territory, was prominent in many ways during the early and formative period of the state, and at one time filled with distinction the office of lieutenant governor. Governor Elder had a long and active career, and died in 1914. His only son is Aldamar P. Elder, who for over forty years had been one … Read more

Biography of Harry Pray Study, A. B., A. M.

Harry Pray Study, A. B., A. M. Among the learned callings there is none, perhaps, that demands a greater degree of patience, tact, specialized knowledge, judgment and natural executive ability than that of the educator, and the individual who enters into this important field, selecting it as a calling, is called upon to make many personal sacrifices and to give many of the best years of his life unreservedly to its demands, often without the emoluments that would be attached to an equal amount of labor expended in another direction. However, there are many satisfying rewards which come to the … Read more

Biography of Joseph Little Bristow, Hon.

No Kansan in recent years has rendered such distinguished public service to the nation at large as former Senator Bristow, now chairman of the State Public Utilities Commission. Mr. Bristow had been a resident of Kansas since he was twelve years old. From his father, who was a Methodist minister of the old type, he inherited a courage of eonvictions, a determined animosity to all public and private dishonesty, and his own life on the Kansas prairies had developed in him a zeal for popular rights and liberties and a fearless statesmanship equally removed from radicalism and reaction. For six … Read more

Biography of Maj. Emanuel N. Martin M. C. K.

Maj. E. N. Martin, M. C. K. The medical profession in Clay County compares favorably with any in the state, the practitioners being not only well qualified in the main, but men of high personal standing. During the seventeen years that Maj. E. N. Martin had practiced medicine in Kansas, he had advanced to the front rank as a careful, skillful nd conscientious practitioner, and his professional judgment is valued in such organizations as the Clay County and the Kansas State Medical societies and the American Medical Association, of all which representative bodies he is a member. The war had … Read more

Biography of Edward Bell Payne, M. D.

Edward Bell Payne, M. D. With an understanding of what is awaiting the man of science, the many doors yet unopened which will lead to the further amelioration of the ills of mankind, and the constant yearning to add to his store of knowledge, it is practically impossible for the conscientious physician and surgeon to arrive at a state of mind where he is satisfied with what he has accomplished and, of necessity, he keeps on striving for perfection as long as life lasts. A long list of accomplishments in his profession have marked the career of Dr. Edward Bell … Read more