Coffeyville Kansas

Biography of Marshall Marion McCaslin

Marshall Marion McCaslin is a native of Kansas and has crowded a great many activities and experiences into the thirty years since his birth. He was formerly a farmer, but is now proprietor of the Acetylene Welding Company, one of the important industries of Coffeyville. The McCaslin family came out of Ireland, were early settlers in America, and for many years lived in the State of Indiana. Mr. McCaslin was born in Crawford County, Kansas, July 23, 1886. His father, W. M. McCaslin, was born in Illinois in 1860, was reared there. In 1880 he came with his family to … Read more

Biography of Joseph F. Savage

Joseph F. Savage. There are many things of interest connected with the career of Joseph F. Savage, of Coffeyville, particularly in the line of achievements and success and position gained through individual efforts and with honor. Perhaps the most interesting, however, as well as the most important in regard to the history of Kansas, is the fact that this retired banker made what was really the first treaty here with the Osage Indians, this being in 1868, when Mr. Savage was a “sooner.” Since that time his fortunes have grown and developed and he has watched what was once the … Read more

Biography of Charles T. Bickett

Charles T. Bickett. Well established in business affairs at Coffeyville, with an office for the handling of insurance, collections and also for the discharge of his duties as justice of the peace, Charles T. Bickett has had an unusually wide range of experience and association with Montgomery County, where he has lived since pioneer times. His ancestry goes back to an old English family, and in fact may be traced to that noted scholar and thinker, Thomas a’ Becket, of the fourteenth century. The Bicketts came from England to Virginia in colonial times. From Virginia they spread across the mountains … Read more

Biography of Samuel Bowman

Samuel Bowman, now of Coffeyville, where he is engaged in the real estate, insurance and loan business with his sons, is a Kansas resident of nearly thirty-five years and was long prominent in Labette County, where he served two terms as probate judge. His Bowman ancestors were German people who came to Pennsylvania in Colonial times. His grandfather, Benjamin Bowman, a native of Pennsylvania, was a farmer and cabinet maker, also a minister of the Dunkard Church, and spent many years in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, where he died some years before Judge Bowman was born. It was in … Read more

Biography of George F. Boswell

George F. Boswell, who represents a pioneer family of Montgomery County, has spent most of his active career at Coffeyville, was a merchant there for a number of years, and now devotes his time to the management of his extensive property interests and also his holdings in the oil and gas district. He was born in Atchison County, Missouri, October 29, 1859. The record of his family in America goes back to his grandfather George Finley Boswell, who was born in England of Scotch descent in 1804. After his marriage to Hannah Colter, who was a native of Ireland and … Read more

Biography of Cassius C. Surber, M. D.

Cassius C. Surber, M. D. An exceptionally long and valuable service in the field of medicine has been rendered by the Surber family in Kansas. The late Dr. David Surber was a distinguished physician in Kansas during the territorial period and afterward. The son, Dr. Cassius C. Surber, has been in practice more than thirty years, the greater part of that time at Independence, and is undoubtedly one of the ablest surgeons in the state. Originally in Germany, the Surbers were colonial settlers in America, and the family subsequently became pioneers in the Territory of Indiana. Dr. C. C. Surber’s … Read more

Biography of Harry S. Brown

Harry S. Brown. A lawyer of twenty years’ experience, Harry S. Brown has been identified with the Coffeyville bar the greater part of his professional career and he has shown a remarkable capacity for handling litigation entrusted to him and is a leading citizen as well as a lawyer. He represents an old Indiana family of English origin. His first American ancestors came to South Carolina in colonial times. Through his grandmother Mr. Brown is of Scotch descent. One of his Brown ancestors was a captain in the English navy and lost his life at sea. His grandfather, John Brown, … Read more

Slave Narrative of Emma Barr

Interviewer: Miss Irene Robertson Person Interviewed: Emma Barr Location: Madison, Arkansas Age: 65 Occupation: Nursed, Farmed “My parents belong to two people. Mama was born in Mississippi I think and papa come from North Carolina. Papa’s master was Lark Hickerson. Mama was sold from Dr. Ware to Dr. Pope. She was grown when she was sold. She was the mother of twenty-seven children. She had twins three times. “During the Civil War she was run from the Yankees and had twins on the road. They died or was born dead and she nearly died. They was buried between twin trees … Read more

Biography of Edwin Grant Betz

Edwin Grant Betz. The Arkansas City Business College is an institution in which the people of that community take special pride. Technical training for business is now a recognized necessity, and among the schools of Kansas that supply such technical training the Arkansas City Business College had in many respects a record of unexcelled competence and thoroughness. The proprietor of this school is Edwin Grant Betz, who had had a varied business experience but had given his chief time through his active life to commercial education. He comes of an old Dickinson County family, while Mrs. Betz, his wife, is … Read more

Biography of Fred C. Hall

One of the alert and enterprising business men of Nowata is Fred C. Hall, secretary and manager of the Henderson Gasoline Company, with offices in the First National Bank building. He was born in Galt, Illinois, on the 15th of October, 1883. His father, William Boyd Hall, was a native of New York and removed to Illinois at an early day, where he followed farming. His death occurred in 1885. William B. Hall married Miss Alice Buck, a native of Illinois. Her death occurred in Nowata in 1919. In the acquirement of an education Fred C. Hall attended the schools … Read more

Curtis, Emma Irene – Obituary

Enterprise, Oregon Emma Irene Curtis, of Vale and formerly of Enterprise, died June 4, 2007, at an Ontario Care Center. She was 95. Mrs. Curtis was born Dec. 28, 1911, in Lenox, Iowa to Willis Marion and Ella Inez Wolfinger Davis. She received her schooling in Coffeyville, Kansas. On March 10, 1935 she married Paul Wayne Curtis in Coffeyville. In 1943, the couple moved from the Midwest to Richland, Wash., where her husband was employed as an electrician on the construction of the Hanford Nuclear Plant. In 1948, they moved to Enterprise where Mr. Curtis opened a Radio and TV … Read more

Biography of Charles T. Carpenter

Charles T. Carpenter is one of the pioneer bankers of Coffeyville, and for thirty years has been closely identified with what is now known as the Condon National Bank, being vice president of that institution. Mrs. Temple W. Carpenter, his wife, is one of the prominent women of Southern Kansas, has been a leader in religious, social and public affairs, and is president of the Carnegie Library of Coffeyville, and is the only woman who has ever been honored with a place on the school board of that city. The Carpenter family is a very old one in America, having … Read more

Biography of John J. Jones

John J. Jones. Actively connected with a profession that has an important bearing upon the progress and stable prosperity of any section or community, and one which has ever been considered as conserving the public welfare by furthering the ends of justice and maintaining individual rights, the reputation of John J. Jones, of Chanute, as a lawyer has been won through honest, earnest labor, and his standing at the bar is a merited tribute to his ability. For a quarter of a century he has been engaged in practice at Chanute, and during this time has been connected with much … Read more

Biography of John Henry Keith

John Henry Keith. From his native state of Kentucky, where his ancestors had lived for generations, and where he was admitted to the bar, John Henry Keith came west about twenty-five years ago, and the greater part of the time has been in active practice as a lawyer at Coffeyville. Along with a large clientage he has developed many interests that connect him with the oil and gas industry of the Mid-Continent field, and he long since reached that position where he can be properly spoken of as a successful and prosperous man. His birth occurred in Warren County, Kentucky, … Read more

Biography of Thaddeus Constantine Frazier, M. D.

Thaddeus Constantine Frazier, M. D. A useful life crowded with activity and crowned with achievement both as a physician and as a citizen, Dr. Thaddeus C. Frazier, of Coffeyville, may still further be considered because he is the pioneer medical man of this city. For forty-two years he has been a physician and surgeon here and additionally has been a leader in all forward movements, accepting public positions as a helpful means of progress for the city, encouraging educational movements and through his stability of character conferring honor upon this whole section. Doctor Frazier was born in Henry County, Tennessee, … Read more

Biography of J. H. Stephens, Mrs.

Mrs. J. H. Stephens. As president of the City Federation of Women’s Clubs, an active factor in the Current Club and a member of the Carnegie Library Board, at Coffeyville, Mrs. J. H. Stephens occupies a prominent position in the social, civic and intellectual life that has made this city one of the centers of cultural interests in the state. Mrs. Stephens (Esther Logan) comes of an old colonial family of English origin. The Logans were pioneers in Kentucky, in which state Mrs. Stephens’ grandfather was born and died. Her father, G. H. Logan, was born in Somerset County, Kentucky, … Read more

Biography of Charles D. Welch

Charles D. Welch. Since his admission to the bar in 1899 Charles D. Welch had built a reputation as a sound, hard working and able lawyer, and had also been a factor in public affairs and is one of the leading republicans of Coffeyville, where he had been in practice for the past twelve years. His ancestors were New York State people, having settled there probably before the Revolution. His grandfather, Daniel Welch, was born in New York, but moved from that state to a farm in Indiana and died in Illinois. It was in McLean County, Illinois, that Charles … Read more

Biography of Mrs. A. C. Stich

Mrs. A. C. Stich by her inheritance of some of the best of old American stock and as head of the home over which she presided for so many years, is a Kansas woman of whom some special note should be made. Her great-grandfather William Henry Stoy was the founder of the family in America, having emigrated from Germany. He was a ministor of the Episcopal Church, and spent many years in preaching in Pennsylvania, where he died. Her paternal grandfather Heury William Stoy was born in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, in 1782 and died in West Virginia in 1858. He was … Read more

Biography of George Slosson

George Slosson. Although one who usefully and nobly lived, like the late George Slosson, whose whole career was marked with accomplishment for the common good, and who left behind him substantial enterprises that he built up through his own vitalizing energy, that in the ramifications of business still go on benefiting a newer generation, may need no eulogy to perpetuate remembrance, there is a feeling that does the world credit, that such a man, honored and beloved as he was in private life, belonged more or less to his time and community. Thus his achievements should be gratefully brought to … Read more