Cherokee County KS

Biography of Floyd E. Doubleday

Floyd E. Doubleday. It has been the fortune of Floyd E. Doubleday to realize many of his worthy ambitions, and through the exercise of good judgment and business ability to wrest from his opportunities financial and general success. For many years he has been interested in the coal industry, and at the present time is accounted one of the leading operators of Pittsburg. Mr. Doubleday was born at Italy, New York, June 23, 1859, and is a son of Guy L. and Caroline (Hobart) Doubleday. The Doubleday family is of English origin and traces its ancestry back in America to … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Mrs. F. W. Propp

(See Ghigau)—Mary Eleanor, daughter of David and Lucinda Ann (Harlan) Archer, born in Kansas, May 2, 1867, and educated in Cherokee County, Kansas. Married at Baxter Springs in that state, January 2, 1888 Frederick William, son of Carl and Henrietta (Stabnow) Propp, born July 22, 1859 in Germany. They are the parents of: Carl Willard, born August 21, 1906 and Elva Carlene Propp, born December 30, 1910. Mr. Propp is a farmer and stock raiser near Adair. Mrs. Propp is a Presbyterian and a member of the Grange and Rebeccas. David M., son of Ezekial and Hannah (Lewis) Harlan married … Read more

Biography of Phares Root

Phares Root, one of the well known business men of Independence, has spent nearly all his life in Kansas, his parents having moved to Elk County and taken their share of hardships and responsibilities as pioneers. Mr. Root has developed a prosperous business in the handling of automobile supplies and in operating a first class garage. He was born in Indiana, September 26, 1869. His ancestors came from Germany in the early days and settled in Pennsylvania. His father, Joseph Root, was born in Ohio in 1844, but was reared and married in Starke County, Indiana. He is a tinner … Read more

Biography of Oscar Maxel Yount

Oscar Maxel Yount. The person of this sketch, Oscar Maxel Yount, is perhaps the most wonderful example, everything being taken into consideration, of what a determined will-power can accomplish that the Sunflower State had ever produced. He had been a lawyer and engaged in the active practice of his profession since June 22, 1905. He is a native son of Kansas, and the work he had done in his profession and in civic affairs had brought him a place of special esteem throughout the state and especially in his home community of Galena. He was not born with a “silver … Read more

Biography of Joseph Henry Hoopingarner

Joseph Henry Hoopingarner has for twenty-five years been identified with the Methodist Conference in Kansas, though he has not spent all of that time in the active ministry. He is a large property owner and is now pastor of the leading church at Baxter Springs. He comes of a very interesting family of pioneers in Southeastern Kansas. Rev. Mr. Hoopingarner himself was born in Crawford County, Kansas, April 3, 1871, only a few years after the real settlement of that region began. His ancestry goes back to Wuertemberg, Germany, where his great-grandfather Coonrad Hoopingarner was born. Coonrad and a brother … Read more

Biography of A. H. Skidmore

A. H. Skidmore. The general instances in the early life of men who “do things” are peculiarly similar. Differing in detail, the general outline is the short and simple story of the rise and progress to eminence from poverty to prosperity. Assiduous toil, the common school advantages, and the struggle for supremacy generates reliance on self, the natural, rather than art is their guide; individual talents are developed and each shows through the originality thereby becoming and recognized as self-made men. Judge Skidmore was born in Virginia February 14, 1856, was reared to manhood on a farm by parents possessing … Read more

Biography of Oliver W. Sparks

Oliver W. Sparks. In a greater degree than is true of most towns the City of Galena is the result of the enterprise of a comparatively small group of men. Oliver W. Sparks came along and discovered zinc and lead on the Schermerhorn farm. That marked the opening chapter in the industrial history of one of the most progressive mining towns of Southeastern Kansas. After his first strike Mr. Sparks opened up other mineral deposits on the Maston land, later on the Bunco farm, and now for many years he had been continuously operating in that vicinity. Today he is … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Eugene F. Ware

Eugene F. Ware, a soldier of Iowa, a lawyer and public man of Kansas, and an author both of that state and Missouri, was born at Hartford, Connecticut, May 29, 1841. His parents moved to Burlington, Iowa, in his childhood and he was educated in the public schools of that place. During the Civil war he reached the rank of captain in the Fourth Iowa Cavalry. He took a section of land in Cherokee County, Kansas, in 1867, studied law and was admitted to the bar at Fort Scott and to the United States Supreme Court; entered the law firm … Read more

Biography of Albert B. Willard

Albert B. Willard. Historically one of the most interesting communities in Southeastern Kansas is Baxter Springs. The history of that town might possibly be written without reference to the name Willard, but could not be adequately told without reference to the enterprise and activities established and carried on by members of that family. One of the real founders of the town and for many years one of its most prominent merchants was the late Albert Willard. The Willard family is of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and had been identified with America since Colonial days, when the first of the name established a … Read more

Biography of Edwin E. Sapp

Edwin E. Sapp. There has been a Sapp connected with the bar of Cherokee County almost since the City of Galena was founded. Coming to that town in January, 1884, after having worked and studied earnestly to prepare himself for the bar, earning his own living in the meantime, Edwin E. Sapp in a comparatively brief time had won the approbation and favor of a considerable clientage. In the years that have followed hardly a member of the Cherokee County Bar has been shown greater honors and has been accorded a larger and more profitable share in the civil practice … Read more

Biography of Prof. Harry W. Shideler

Prof. Harry W. Shideler. For the reason that the journalistic and educational professions are in many ways so closely allied, it is a happy combination of talents that allows an individual to participate in the work of the schoolroom and at the same time to devote a part of his abilities to the editing of a newspaper. Prof. Harry W. Shideler, superintendent of schools of Girard, Kansas, has for many years been well known in educational circles as a thorough and learned instructor, and in more recent years has entered the field of journalism as one of the proprietors of … Read more

Biography of Alexander McCrary

Alexander McCrary was born in Ross County, Ohio, in 1825, son of Alexander and Mary (Summers) McCrary. His father was a native of South Carolina and his mother of Kentucky. Mr. McCrary spent his youth upon a farm, receiving such an education as the common schools afforded and was early inured to the hard labor of pioneer farming. His natural mechanical tastes and ideas prompted his taking up a trade, and at the age of twenty-one years he started out in life as a carpenter, and later as a bridge builder and millwright. In 1856 he moved to Iowa and … Read more

Biographical Sketch of B. F. Townsend

B. F. Townsend a prosperous farmer near Garden Grove, was born in Bowdoinham, Maine, in 1834, educated at the high school there, and in 1855 left home to take care of himself. For nine years he worked in a wholesale boot and shoe store in Massachusetts, and from there, January 13, 1864, he went to Chicago, Milwaukee, Sioux City and other places; then to Omaha, and to Lawrence, Douglas County, Kansas, where he worked on a farm until 1866, teaching school during the winter seasons. Then he went to Baxter Springs, Cherokee County, Kansas, engaging in the manufacture and sale … Read more

Biography of William Nelson Johnson, M. D.

William Nelson Johnson, M. D. A physician whose career has been one of devotion to his profession and the interests of his patients in Cherokee County for over twenty years, and whose ability ranks him among the leaders in medical circles in that section, Doctor Johnson is a man who throughout his career has made the best of his resources and in the best sense of the term is a self-made man. He was born on a farm in Franklin County, Missouri, August 29, 1853, and his early youth was spent in the troubled conditions during and subsequent to the … Read more

Biography of Joseph Rogers

Joseph Rogers, son of Sarah and John Rogers, left his beautiful farm in Milton County, formerly Forsythe County, situated on the Duluth road, twenty-seven miles from Atlanta, Georgia, and came to the west. He took up his residence at a place now called Lowell, Kansas, three miles east of Baxter Springs, where Shoal creek empties into Spring River, in that part of the country then known as the Neutral Land. He improved a fine farm of four or five hundred acres, built the first house and had the first library in the state of Kansas. The old solid walnut bookcase … Read more

Biography of James Henry Boice

James Henry Boice. In 1877 the late F. S. Boice arrived at Galena, and from that time forward was actively engaged in the mining operations that have always formed the basis of the prosperity of that city. For fully forty years the family has been prominently represented at Galena both in the mining industry and in mercantile and other affairs, and the work which was begun by the late F. S. Boice has been continued along even broader lines by his son James Henry. This is a family whose origin was in Scotland. From that county the father of F. … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Richard W. Blue

Richard W. Blue, a Union veteran of Virginia and a leading lawyer and judge of Kansas, finally advanced to the halis of Congress as a representative of his adopted state. He was born in Wood County, Virginia, September 8, 1841, and was raised on a mountain farm near the present city of Grafton. In 1859 he entered Monongalia Academy at Morgantown, Va., and remained at that institution several years, first as pupil and later as teacher, Subsequently he entered Washington College, Pennsylvania, and remained there until he enlisted in the Third West Virginia Infantry, at the opening of the Civil … Read more

Biography of Wilfrid Cavaness

Wilfrid Cavaness, who had been a Kansas newspaper man for over twenty years, was born at Chetopa November 24, 1875. He attended the public schools there, graduating from high school in 1892, and for two years was a student in Baker University. In 1895 he became connected with the Chetopa Advance under his father, and remained there until 1899. For the following two years he was with the Columbus Courier, and in 1901 came to Chanute and is now treasurer and manager of the Chanute Tribune. The Chanute Tribune was established April 8, 1892, by George M. Dewey. It had … Read more

Biography of Frank William Boss

Frank William Boss. Among the county officials of Cherokee County, one whose previous record, general qualifications for ability and character, gave, at the time of his election, in 1912, every ground for a successful career, and whose discharge of the duties of his office had since vindicated the faith placed in him, is Frank William Boss, county attorney. Mr. Boss had the reputation of being an indefatigable worker, combining scholarship with an active energy and forceful personality, and these qualities have been much esteemed in an office in which the people of the county have endeavored to place men who … Read more

Biography of George W. Long

George W. Long is postmaster at Galena. Prior to his appointment to that office during the present administration he had become known as a young and vigorous business man and merchant. He practically grew up in the grocery trade and knows its every detail not only from the point of view of a salesman but also from the business office. He first became known to the citizens of Galena in 1897 when he entered the service of one of the grocery stores and was employed as a clerk up to 1904. He gave up his work long enough during that … Read more