Chautauqua County KS

Biography of H. L. Kinnaman

H. L. Kinnaman. The present county treasurer of Chautauqua County is one of the oldest residents of that section of the state. More than forty years ago he began farming on some of the virgin acres of this county, and the careful study and energy he gave to the business brought him an ample competence besides providing liberally for his growing family. He is now a resident of the City of Sedan and had recently been chosen for a second term to the responsibilities of the county treasuryship. Mr. Kinnaman represents old American stock. His Kinnaman ancestors were German people … Read more

Biography of John Madison Dosbaugh

John Madison Dosbaugh. Ready adaptation to opportunity, a capacity for gauging the possible value of investments and securities and the well developed speculative instinct that places the natural banker and business man in a class by himself, are factors which have directed the business and financial energy of John Madison Dosbaugh, president of the Dosbaugh National Bank of Cedar Vale, and one of his community’s leading citizens and principal landholders. Mr. Dosbaugh had been identified with the bank of which he is now the directing head for more than a quarter of a century, during which period he had aided … Read more

Ormsby, Alonzo – Obituary

Alonzo M. Ormsby, age 83, died April 17, 1986 in a Salt Lake Care Center. Born January 4, 1903 to Henry Augustus and Agnes Williams Ormsby in Sedan, Kansas. Married Kathryne Dillon December 24, 1926 in Texarkana, Texas. Member of First Unitarian Church, Member of United Nations Organization, Retired Air Force Major, Retired Probations Officer of Juvenile Court. Survived by wife, son, William, Denver, Colorado; daughter, Helen, Eagle River, Alaska; son Robert, Salt Lake City; two grandchildren. Memorial services will be held 12:00 Noon, Tuesday, April 22, at First Unitarian Church, 569 South 1300 East. Funeral Directors Eastman’s Evans & … Read more

Biography of Herman Genthe

Herman Genthe. The oldest bakery establishment of Topeka under one continuous ownership and management is that conducted by Mr. Herman Genthe, who now had associated with him his oldest son. Mr. Genthe is a master of his trade. He learned it as a boy in Germany, where his ancestors so far as known were millers and had a great deal to do with those grains that furnish the staple food stuffs, wheat and rye. Mr. Genthe’s talent as a maker of fine bread is therefore partly an inheritance from his ancestors, though it had been developed by his individual experience … Read more

Biography of William George Jack, M. D.

William George Jack, M. D. Though born and reared on a farm and spending most of his early years in the vicinity of Chautauqua, William G. Jack had an early ambition for a professional career and gratified it after a thorough course in colleges and clinics and for the past fifteen years had successfully practiced as a physician and surgeon at Chautauqua. He is regarded as one of the best informed physicians and most skillful surgeons in this section of the state. A resident of Chautauqua County since he was nine years of age, William George Jack was born in … Read more

Biography of Hugh Ellsworth West

Hugh Ellsworth West has been one of the most prominent citizens of Independence for many years, though his interests as an oil operator have extended far and wide and now include valuable holdings in perhaps half a dozen states. The family were pioneers in Indiana, in which state in Clinton County Hugh E. West was born December 11, 1864. His great-grandfather William West was a native of Kentucky, and went into Indiana when almost the entire state was a wilderness. He died in Clinton County when ninety-six years of age, while his wife lived to be ninety-one. The West family … Read more

Biography of James Otis Tulloss

James Otis Tulloss. In 1856, the year the republican party had its first presidential candidate in the field, and when the Kansas-Nebraska question was agitating the entire nation, the citizenship of this then territory acquired an important addition in certain members of the Tulloss family. It is a name therefore that had been identified with Kansas for sixty years. James O. Tulloss named above had no part in that earlier period of the family’s connection with Kansas. He represents a younger generation, and his active career had been largely confined to the past twenty years, during which time he had … Read more

Biography of W. M. Tate

For twenty-one years W. M. Tate has been engaged in farming in Nowata county, residing all of this time on his present farm of one hundred and forty acres, four and one-half miles southeast of Nowata. He was born in western Kansas on the 4th of December, 1873, a son of P. A. and Margaret (Barnes) Tate, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter of Indiana. They moved from Iowa to Kansas one year before W. M. was born and located in Lincoln county, where they lived two years. At the termination of that time they went to … Read more

Biography of Charles W. Brown

Charles W. Brown, a resident of Caney, had a close relationship with this section of Southeastern Kansas, where he had resided for more than thirty-five years and where he still owned a large ranch. Mr. Brown’s mother was an eighth Osage Indian and a member of that tribe, and her family thus had proprietory rights in the lands of Southern Kansas and Northern Oklahoma long before white settlers were permitted to settle there. In the paternal line Mr. Brown represents a pioneer family of Wyandotte County, Ohio. His ancestors came from England in colonial days. His grandfather William Brown was … Read more

Biography of D. C. Hampton

Coming to Oklahoma during the territorial period in its development, D. C. Hampton is thoroughly familiar with the early history of the state and his memory forms a connecting link between the primitive past with its hardships and privations and the present with all of the advantages and comforts of present-day civilization. He is numbered among the progressive merchants of Bartlesville and his business interests are capably and successfully conducted. He was born in Moultrie County, Illinois, April 30, 1858, of the marriage of Roland Thomas and Ruhama (Howe) Hampton, and in 1866 was taken by his parents to Neodesha, … Read more

Biography of Willis Franklin Sams

Willis Franklin Sams. Neosho County figures as one of the most attractive, progressive and prosperous divisions of the State of Kansas, justly claiming a high order of citizenship and a spirit of enterprise which is certain to conserve consecutive development and marked advancement in the material upbuilding of the section. The county had been and is signally favored in the class of men who have controlled the affairs of its different communities in official capacities, and in this connection Willis Franklin Sams, commissioner of finance of Chanute, is worthy of representation as one who had served the locality faithfully and … Read more

Biography of James Wilson

James Wilson. During his long residence within the borders of Chautauqua County, James Wilson had worked out an admirable destiny, and from small beginnings had drawn about him for the comfort and happiness of his later years such substantial compensations as wealth, the credit for having contributed largely to the development of the community, and the confidence and good will of his business and social associates. The major part of his attention is now devoted to his lumber business and feed mill, although he also had other business connections. James Wilson was born near the City of Glasgow, Scotland, October … Read more

Biography of Charles P. Beebe

Charles P. Beebe. Among the well known newspaper men of Wilson County, one who had had broad experience in his vocation is Charles P. Beebe, who during the past three years had been managing editor of the Neodesha Daily Sun. Mr. Beebe learned the newspaper business at the case, and had worked his way up through the various departments of the business so that he had a thorough knowledge of all its details. Under his editorial management this publication had become one of the best daily papers of Wilson County and wields a wide influence all over this section. Mr. … Read more

Biography of Benjamin Franklin Strong, M. D.

Benjamin Franklin Strong, M. D. Now engaged in practice as a physician and surgeon at Chautauqua, Doctor Strong had a wide acquaintance in the two states of Kansas and Missouri, had practiced medicine in both states and had also a successful business record to his credit prior to his entrance into the medical profession. He was born in Sabula, Iowa, June 4, 1861. He represents an old American family. His first American ancestor was Elder John Strong, who was the founder of Northampton, Massachusetts. The Strong family originated in Scotland but this branch of it came from England. Many generations … Read more

Biography of Harry Jiencke

For about a quarter of a century Harry Jiencke traveled about over the State of Kansas as a salesman, building up a large acquaintance and business relationship, but for the past twelve years had been prominently identified with the oil and gas and various other industrial affairs of Independence, where he is one of the well known citizens. Of an old German family of Mecklenburg, he came to America when only a youth. He was born May 27, 1858. His father, Joachim Jiencke, was born in Mecklenburg in 1806 and died there in 1869. He was a man of more … Read more

Biography of Robert Scott Mahan, M. D.

Robert Scott Mahan, M. D. While a high medical authority had declared that man’s organs, under natural strain only, ought to last 300 years, the fact is patent that only in rare cases do they function one-third of that time, and that threescore and ten, according to the Psalmist, covers the life history of the majority in any community who reach what is termed “old age.” To combat by medical knowledge and surgical skill the diseases that attack and the accidents that lay low mankind that shorten his life and ruin his happiness, the physician and surgeon is called. There … Read more

Biography of Charles W. Shinn, Hon.

Hon. Charles W. Shinn. In an able and vigorous service of eight years on the bench, Hon. Charles W. Shinn, now city attorney of Neodesha, Kansas, gained an enviable reputation for legal ability, thorough understanding of the law, wise judgments and unimpeachable integrity. As a private practitioner of law this reputation is still justified, while as a citizen Judge Shinn is numbered with the foremost men of Neodesha. Judge Shinn is a native of Illinois, born May 30, 1854, in Hancock County, and is a son of John K. and Tabitha (Ogden) Shinn. The Shinn family is of English ancestry … Read more

Biography of Thomas A. Stevens, M. D.

Thomas A. Stevens, M. D. In the great majority of cases, heredity has no rights which the biographers of successful Americans, especially those of the West, feel called upon to respect. However, in shaping the course of some men it wields a distinct influence, and must be noted when the tendency born in a man is nurtured by an ever-present force in the same lines, crowding other avenues of thought and compelling devotion to a certain vocation or profession. Heredity, supplementing environment and training, has had much to do in shaping the career of Dr. Thomas A. Stevens, a leading … Read more

Biography of Chester C. Houston

Chester C. Houston. When he came to Elgin nearly twenty-five years ago Chester C. Houston still had his fortune to make, and he was first known among his fellow townsmen as a hard worker at any employment he took up, until he finally graduated into independent merchandising. He had made a success by studying the needs and demands of his customers and had built up the largest and only distinctive clothing store in the town. Mr. Houston was born at Orangeville, Cass County, Illinois, June 23, 1866, a son of W. T. and Sue C. (Gaines) Houston. In the maternal … Read more

Biography of Prof. Nathaniel A. Baker

Prof. Nathaniel A. Baker. In each line of endeavor, in each of the learned professions, the personality of the man of force of character is revealed. With increasing experience and added years the forceful individual attains a broader grasp upon his subject, and with recurrence of problems and perplexities he is able to handle them in a manner which affords greater satisfaction. Such perfection is not attained in a single day nor in a single year, but the man of parts soon finds his place and forces his way to his cherished goal. In the field of education, Prof. Nathaniel … Read more