Butler County KS Genealogy – Page 2 of 6

Biography of L. S. Hall, M. D.

One of the first physicians to locate at the Town of Augusta in Butler County was Dr. L. S. Hall. That was nearly forty years ago. For a number of years Doctor Hall lived outside of Kansas, but the greater part of his professional career had been identified with a town that had since developed into a thriving city, the center of one of the greatest oil districts in Southern Kansas. Doctor Hall had done a great deal of good through his profession, and had lived a well rounded and complete life. His is an excellent ancestry. Doctor Hall was … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Volney B. Ballard

Volney B. Ballard has been a leading factor in business affairs at Attica since 1910, is proprietor of the only drug store of the town, and is also the leading banker. Mr. Ballard was born at Huntsville in Reno County, Kansas, August 22, 1883. His ancestors settled in New York from England in Colonial times, and some of them fought as soldiers in the Revolutionary war. His father is Volney B. Ballard, Sr., a resident of Attica. He was born in Jefferson County, New York, in 1844, grew up and married there and learned the blacksmith’s trade in early life. … Read more

Biography Of Thomas Benton Murdock

In 1841 Thomas Benton Murdock was born in the mountains of Virginia. He was one of the five children who lived to maturity of Thomas Murdock and Katherine Pierrepont. On the mother’s side came the pride of the Pierrepont; from the father’s the insurgent instincts of the Irish Murdocks who left Ireland after the Irish rebellion failed in 1798. Though reared in the mountains among the most simple people and most primitive surroundings, the Murdocks who have been known in Kansas for half a century have proved soldiers of the militant democracy. They have been fighters who led naturally, by … Read more

Biography of Frederick William Parrott

F. W. Parrott. Probably no agency so molds public opinion as does the reputable newspaper, and on this account the editor of a journal of standing occupies a position of great accountability. It may matter little, perhaps, whether one can convince his next door neighbor of the value of his enlightened opinions, but when his audience numbers hundreds and thousands his effort become a force of momentous strength and solemn responsibility. That this is generally realized by the men who through special talents are called upon to accept such a position may be seen when they show not only the … Read more

Kansas Registrations of Enemy Aliens, 1917 – 1921

The series contains original affidavits of registration that record personal information about each registrant, their photograph affixed to the majority of documents, and the registrants fingerprints. All of these are specific to Kansas, and most have the actual documents attached.

Biography of Edgar M. Forde

Edgar M. Forde is now grand recorder for Kansas of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, having succeeded his honored father in that office when the late Edgar M. Forde, Sr., died in August, 1912. The official headquarters of this great fraternal order in Kansas are at 417-419 Commercial Street in Emporia. In the year 1916 the Ancient Order of United Workmen had 40,000 members in Kansas, 400 lodges, and there are two lodges in Emporia, Lodge No. 2 and Lodge No. 184. Mr. Forde was born in Emporia September 4, 1885, a son of Edgar M. Forde, who was … Read more

Biography of Harrison E. King, Mrs.

Mrs. H. E. King is one of the capable business women of Leon, Kansas, where since her husband’s death she had managed the estate, is a director in the State Bank of Leon, and had many other extensive interests in Butler County. Her husband, the late Harrison E. King, was a man of great business ability, and his untimely death at the age of forty-seven, on February 7, 1914, was a matter of general regret throughout the large community in which he was so well known. Mr. King was a man of striking appearance, possessed business judgment in a marked … Read more

Balter, Alice Viola Beith – Obituary

Mrs. Alice Balter, aged pioneer of Wallowa County, passed quietly away at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Guy Mitchell, just before midnight, Tuesday September 6,1932. Mrs. Balter had been in poor health for some time and following an illness of flu in Montana last winter has been much worse. August 29 she was stricken with paralysis and never recovered complete consciousness before the end. Alice Beith was born Sept. 7,1856 in Batavia, Illinois and died Sept 6, 1932 at the age of 76 years. When she was a small child, the Beith family moved to Waseca, Minn., and at … Read more

Biography of John D. Burton

John D. Burton. Like many of his contemporaries in the field of journalism in Southeastern Kansas, John D. Burton, proprietor and editor of the Potwin Ledger, began his career at the case. His entire life had been devoted to newspaper work, as compositor, editor and owner of publications in various parts of the country, but principally in Kansas, where he had resided and labored since the fall of 1878. While his present publication was founded only recently, it had already gained a wide circulation and promises to become an organ of influence in public matters under Mr. Burton’s wise and experienced direction. John D. … Read more

Biography of Christopher Leonidas Aikman

Christopher Leonidas Aikman, who was admitted to the Kansas bar over a quarter of a century ago, had been in practice at El Dorado and much of the time had been an associate of his brother, Judge Aikman. He was born at London, Kentucky, October 22, 1865. He was six years of age when the family came to Butler County, Kansas, and here he attended country schools and the town schools at Augusta and El Dorado. He was also a student in the Fort Scott Normal College at Fort Scott, and for a number of years before entering the legal … Read more

Biography of Charles W. Harvey

Charles W. Harvey is one of the veteran business men and residents of El Dorado, and in recent years had been a leader in the oil development work of Butler County and that vicinity, and had shared in the prosperity that had attended the development of these resources. Mr. Harvey was born in Appanoose County, Iowa, May 10, 1868. His father, Elijah E. Harvey, was a pioneer Kansan and a man of great usefulness both as a minister of the Gospel and citizen. He was of English descent, and some of his forefathers fought in the Revolutionary war. A distant … Read more

Biography of John Bunyan Adams

John Bunyan Adams was born in Butler County, Kansas. That county had been his home all his life, and beginning there as a country school teacher and subsequently entering banking, he had achieved a reputation built up on constructive service that had made him widely known over the state as a legislator, banker and financier. He is a former president of the State Bankers’ Association, and for years had been a recognized leader in his part of the state in the republican party. His birth occurred on March 25, 1873, on his father’s farm near Potwin in Butler County. He … Read more

Biography of Mrs. Richard Smith Miller

Mrs. R. S. Miller. The power and effectiveness of woman’s work in the community as well as in the home had been splendidly exemplified at El Dorado by Mrs. R. S. Miller. The dignity of woman becomes more than an empty phrase when considered in connection with her many varied activities and lines of useful influence. Her career is a fit subject for consideration in the history of Kansas, along with that of her honored husband, the late Dr. R. S. Miller, who gained the esteem of Butler County citizens by his many years of faithful service as a physician … Read more

Biography of Neil Wilbur Rogers

Neil Wilbur Rogers, superintendent of the city schools of Augusta, Kansas, is a native of the state, is a graduate of Washburn College, and since leaving college had become increasingly successful in the field of education. His family have lived for many years in the vicinity of Oberlin, Kansas. Neil Wilbur Rogers was born on his father’s farm there February 24, 1888. His grandfather, John Rogers, was descended from Scotch-Irish people who have lived in the United States since Colonial days. John Rogers was born in 1820, was an early settler in Iowa, and followed farming near Laurel in that … Read more

Biography of Granville T. Ledgerwood

Granville T. Ledgerwood. The community around Beaumont in Butler County and also in Greenwood County had known Mr. Ledgerwood as a substantial farmer citizen and business man for over thirty years. As a farmer he attended strictly to his business, worked with all the power that was in him and in time acquired a well developed farm and sufficient property for his needs. Mr. Ledgerwood is now a resident of the Village of Beaumont, and among other interests is looking after the local postoffice as postmaster. He comes of that fine stock of people that located in East Tennessee during … 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 Robert Harmon Hazlett

Robert Harmon Hazlett. Kansas is rapidly becoming a creditor state. It produces more than it consumes. It is flourishing, opulent and as progressive in material interests as in the field of legislation, social ideas and politics. Kansas farmers, Kansas business men, Kansas bankers are getting as securely established as factors in national affairs as Kansas politicians and social and civic leaders did in earlier years. One of these successful men whose achievements in some fields at least are well known beyond the borders of the state is Robert H. Hazlett, lawyer, banker, Hereford cattle breeder, and business man of El … Read more

Biography of T. A. Kramer

T. A. Kramer. To succeed as a member of the bar of Southeastern Kansas requires more than ordinary ability which had been carefully trained along the lines of the profession, as well as a vast fund of general information and keen judgment with regard to men and their motives. In the rapidly growing communities of this section there is so much competition, events crowd each other so closely, and circumstances play so important a part in the shaping of events, that the lawyer is compelled to be a man capable of grasping affairs with a competent hand to effect satisfactory … Read more

Biography of Thomas E. Trigg

Thomas E. Trigg. “A map of busy life” mused the poet Cowper more than a hundred years ago, over his newspaper. The description yet holds good, a century of existence only having widened its field and strengthened its power. With its modern perfected machinery for the garnering of news, and with its vivid portrayal of the world’s happenings, it is, indeed, a map of swiftly passing events, one that had become a necessary vitalizing element and an indispensable factor of every day living. How surely the development of a newspaper in a community marks the latter’s progress. A name well … Read more

Biography of Joseph L. Eyman, Dr.

Joseph L. Eyman, M. D. In the profession of medicine and surgery few Kansas physicians have dispensed their services more widely and more successfully than Dr. Joseph L. Eyman of El Dorado, He is a most loyal Kansan. Coming to the state when a child with his parents, he began the practice of his profession twenty-one years later and had witnessed the gradual change and transformation which have made Kansas a highly developed agrienltural and industrial section from what was within his personal recollection an open prairie. Doctor Eyman had traveled over many of the states of the Union, and … Read more