Butler County KS

Biography of John Parker Johnson

John Parker Johnson deserves to be remembered as one of the aggressive men who supplied substance and vitality to the early commercial affairs of Arkansas City. He was a banker and business man, helped promote industrial affairs, and was a citizen of the highest standing. His associates were the most prominent men of Arkansas City from the early days. Mr. Johnson died at Arkansas City, February 18, 1903. Many of his interests have since been continued by Mrs. Lola B. Johnson, who had also been a leader among the influential women of this section of the state. The late Mr. … Read more

Biography of Howard C. Tillotson

Howard C. Tillotson. Some men make a success in life apparently by disregarding the old rule of sticking to one thing and to one place. The possession of several talents, and the judgment to make use of them operate to contradict the rule which the average person finds safe for his guidance. One of these men of varied abilities and varied experiences is Howard C. Tillotson, a prominent resident of Latham. Mr. Tillotson is a native of Kansas, and both he and his wife are people of special interest and note because of what they have done for others as … Read more

Biography of Benjamin Franklin Morgan M.D.

Benjamin Franklin Morgan, M. D., is a physician and surgeon of nearly thirty years’ experience, almost all of which time had been spent in the State of Kansas, and the past seventeen years in the City of Clay Center. The name “Dr. Morgan” is a household word in almost every family throughout Clay and surrounding counties, as four of the immediate family have practiced in Clay Center and never since the year 1883 had there been a time when the familiar form and genial smile of one or more of this family of physicians did not form a part of … Read more

Biography of Alvin L. Williamson

Alvin L. Williamson. The many business interests that at present serve to make Clay Center one of the important young cities of Kansas cover almost every modern activity and profession, and include also some of the oldest industries, milling for example, that aecompanied the settlement of the first pioneers in Clay County. Long before improved machinery and modern methods of using motive power had been thought of, every deep-falling stream that could be profitably dammed had a grinding mill on its bank before civilized living was accepted as complete in that section. Pioneer history is full of atories of the … 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 John Wilson Bogue, Hon.

Hon. John Wilson Bogue. It is not possible for every man to succeed in both business and public life. Each line of endeavor demands certain specific characteristics, and few there are who have so many differentiating ones, or are capable of adapting those which they possess so as to make them eminently fitting for divergent avenues of progress. Conditions in any live community are exacting; they demand much from the citizens of a prosperous and growing city before they are crowned with success. But there are some men who seem possessed in equal degree of the qualities which make for … Read more

Biography of John C. Hoyt

John C. Hoyt became identified with the real estate, loan and insurance business at El Dorado over thirty years ago. He is the dean in that line of business in Butler County, and the reputation for honesty and integrity which had become associated with his name through many long years had brought him all the business that his firm could attend to during the rapid development of Butler County’s resources in recent years. Mr. Hoyt was born near Bellevue, Ohio, September 3, 1860. His people have been identified with Northern Ohio since pioneer times. His grandfather, John Hoyt, was born … 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 William Allison Aikman

Aikman Brothers. As farmers, merchants, lawyers and active citizens the Aikman family have been prominent in Butler County for over forty-five years. The father of the Aikman brothers, lawyers and business men at El Dorado, was the late William A. Aikman, who on coming to Kansas in 1871 took up a homestead in Butler County and contributed his share of the heavy work involved in converting the virgin prairies into fertile farms. He was the father of four sons. Granville P. had long been a lawyer of El Dorado and had been distinguished by long and capable service on the … Read more

Biography of Walter Fletcher McGinnis

Walter Fletcher McGinnis. Until recently Butler County had been known only as one of the great agricultural and livestock counties of Kansas. The development of oil and gas, with hundreds of producing wells and others being drilled every day, had added a new element to its industrial resources and had practically transformed the interests of its citizens. It now seems that Butler County will become one of the largest not only in area but in population in the state. It is not historically correct to say that the development of the Butler County oil and gas fields had been sudden … Read more

Biography of Nathan Frank Frazier

Nathan Frank Frazier. Among the names that have been long and prominently identified with the businese, agricultural, mining and financial interests of Kansas, few have attained greater prestige than that which attaches to the name of Frazier. There is hardly an industry of importance that can be mentioned that had not beneflted by the activities of the men who have borne it, and today there are found two able and worthy representatives of the family in the persons of Nathan Frank Frazier and Ray E. Frazier, vice president and president respectively of the Citizens State Bank of El Dorado and … Read more