Cowley County KS

Biography of Frank McClellan

Frank McClellan. After many years employed as an educator in Kansas, Frank McClellan turned his attention to business affairs at Coffeyville, and now has one of the leading offices there for insurance and loans. His birthplace was Bedford, Pennsylvania, where he was born January 21, 1860. His grandfather, Abraham McClellan, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1798, came to the United States when a young man, becoming a farmer and stock raiser in Pennsylvania. He died at Rainsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1883. On account of his service in the state militia he was familiarly known as Captain McClellan. Captain McClellan married … Read more

Biographical Sketch of William Dexter Halfhill

William Dexter Halfhill, who has been a representative of the legal fraternity for a period covering forty-three years, took up his abode in Muskogee in 1904 and has here since engaged in general civil practice, in which connection he has built up a clientage of enviable proportions. He is a native of Morrow county, Ohio, and a son of Moses and Lydia (Kingman) Halfhill, the former a farmer by occupation. The public schools afforded him his early educational advantages and on attaining his majority he began teaching school. This he considered but an initial step to other professional labor; however, … Read more

Biography of William C. Suttle

William C. Suttle. Under modern conditions the water works of any thriving and prosperous community is one of the most important branches of the civic service, and its management requires abilities far beyond the ordinary. Fredonia boasts of one of the best water systems in Southeastern Kansas, and much of the credit for the present excellent conditions existing in this enterprising city is due to the capable and experienced work of the superintendent of the water works, William C. Suttle, who had been connected with this department for about eleven years and had been in his present position since 1913. … Read more

Biography of Clarence E. Beck

When he was sixteen years old Clarence E. Beck left the high school at Arkansas City and by practical work began to discover the extent of his capabilities and his possibilities in the business field. For a couple of years he worked in retail grocery stores. In July, 1894, he went with the Ranney-Davis Mercantile Company. He was put to work as a fruit sorter. Six months later he was advanced to the packing room. Another six months and he was assigned to a place at the bill desk, and after a year was promoted to the shipping desk. In … Read more

Biography of George Gorden Derby

George Gorden Derby is a comparatively young man but is old in the service of railroads. He began his career in Western Pennsylvania, where he was an employee and rose to large responsibilities with the Erie Railroad. About ten years ago he came West and had since been with the Santa Fe at different points and is now superintendent of the Oklahoma division, with headquarters at Arkansas City. Mr. Derby was born in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, January 14, 1876. His paternal ancestors were colonial settlers in Connecticut. His father, Lafayette Derby, was born in New York State in 1844, and … Read more

Biography of Peter Calvin Croco

Peter Calvin Croco. With the exception of several years spent in Missouri, Peter Calvin Croco had been a resident of Kansas since 1876, and as he had carried on operations in most every part of the state few men are better informed as to agricultural conditions here. At the present time he is the owner of a good property in Tecumseh Township, Shawnee County, which he is cultivating along modern lines, and on which he had up-to-date improvements that make the farm of 155 acres a model which many agriculturists might copy. Mr. Croco was born in Holmes County, Ohio, … Read more

Biography of Edna L. Johnson, Miss

Miss Edna L. Johnson. In no other field have woman’s work and influence proved such ennobling factors as in the sphere of education. The instruction and the character training of the children of Kansas are largely in the hands of devoted women, and many of the most responsible posts in the school system of the state are filled by woman teachers. The entire school system of Cowley County is under the supervision of Miss Edna L. Johnson, county superintendent of schools, and the people of the county recognize her unqualified fitness for the duties of the office. Miss Johnson was … Read more

Biography of Arthur E. Le Stourgeon

Arthur E. Le Stourgeon. One of the most progressive younger business men of Arkansas City, Arthur Edward Le Stourgeon, is secretary and manager of the Arkansas City Ice Company, a business with which he had been actively connected since coming here nearly twenty years ago, is secretary of the American Paint & Button Company, and vice president of Henneberry & Co., all being prominent local industries, and is president of the city board of education. Mr. Le Stourgeon is of French ancestry. His ancestors came out of France and settled in Virginia in colonial times. His grandfather was an artist … Read more

Biography of William H. Manser, M. D.

William H. Manser, M. D.,had that splendid satisfaction which comes to the man who found himself in a congenial vocation early in life and had steadily broadened and improved his service and capacity for doing good. Dr. Manser is now the oldest physician in point of continnous service at Burden, where he had practiced thirty-three years. Though of New England ancestry, the Mansers having located in Massachusetts in Colonial times, Dr. Manser is a native of old Virginia, born at Beckley in what was then simply Western Virginia and as a result of the Civil war became the State of West Virginia. … Read more

Biography of Ralph Chester Dixon

Ralph Chester Dixon. While many of the successful men represented in this publication have found their work as farmers, eattle men, merchants, bankers and in the professions, Ralph Chester Dixon had directed his energies practically along one line since leaving college and had made a notable success as a fruit grower and horticulturist in the vicinity of Arkansas City. He had a splendid fruit farm three miles northwest of the city, and is one of the leading commercial apple growers of the state. Mr. Dixon is a native of Kansas, born at Caldwell August 5, 1875. His people have lived … Read more

Biography of Austin H. Jennings

Austin H. Jennings. For many years the name of Jennings has been honorably associated with business enterprises of importance in Kansas City, through the efforts of Austin H. Jennings, who is president of the Crystal Springs Ice, Fuel & Grain Company and is interested in other concerns that occupy a prominent place in the commercial field. Although not quite so active as in earlier years, Mr. Jennings continues one of the most stable and dependable of the city’s business men and one of the most reputable and highly esteemed citizens. Mr. Jennings was born May 25, 1850, on a farm … Read more

Biography of Levi F. Johnson

Levi F. Johnson. As it was only about sixty years ago that the first permanent settlements were made in Kansas, there are a number of the real pioneers still alive, men who can recount their experiences when the plains were covered with buffaloes, when Indians made camp along the creeks, when the prairie fires raged across the high grass, and when the woods were filled with game, the creeks with fish, and when everything was new and primitive. Now living retired at a comfortable home in Winfield Levi F. Johnson had his share in the early making of Kansas, particularly … Read more

Biography of Ernest F. Day, M. D.

Ernest F. Day, M. D. The work of Doctor Day as a physician and surgeon had met with cordial appreciation and patronage since he came to Arkansas City over fifteen years ago. He is in every way a most competent and thorough professional man, and in recent years had extended his opportunities for service by his management, in association with Doctor McKay, of the Mercy Hospital there. Doctor Day is a native of Indiana but had spent practically all his life in Kansas. He was born at Rensselaer in Jasper County, Indiana, October 20, 1876. He is of very old … Read more

Ferguson, Cynthia Ann McEwen – Obituary

Died, near Winfield, Cowley County, Kansas, December 31, 1883, at 12 p.m., Mrs. Cynthia A., wife of the Rev. Solomon Ferguson, aged 61 years, 11 months, and 5 days. Mrs. Ferguson was born in Bartholomew County, Indiana. She moved with her parent, the Rev. James McEwen when quite young to Decatur County where in October 1838 she was married to Solomon Ferguson, by whom she had ten children, two sons and eight daughters. Two daughters died in infancy; the others are left with the bereaved husband to mourn her loss, all member of the church. She was converted in 1843, … Read more

Biography of Hollis Herbert Allen

Hollis Herbert Allen found his life work in the grocery business. He came to Arkansas City twenty-eight years ago, then a young man, and learned the grocery trade by work in every capacity, at first for others and afterwards for himself. Any one who had had experience in the grocery trade knows that hardly any other business is subject to the operation of more circumstances and influences affecting its prosperity, and anyone who had been successful in that line fully deserves all he had won. Mr. Allen now had one of the finest retail grocery houses in the State of … Read more

Biography of Ross Homer Rhoads

Ross Homer Rhoads is agent for the Santa Fe Railroad Company at Arkansas City. He had been a railroad man for a number of years, and it was his efficiency and his ability that led to his promotion to one of the most important posts along the Santa Fe system in Kansas. Mr. Rhoads had spent most of his life in Kansas but was born at Somerset, Pennsylvania, April 9, 1883. His grandfather, Samuel A. Rhoads, was a native of Germany and came from there to Pennsylvania. He had ten children: Sarah, deceased; Adaline, single; Etta, deceased; Philip, deceased; Susan, … Read more

Biography of E. J. Whittle

E. J. Whittle, of Arkansas City, had had a most diversified business experience. He had lived in many states, had been a farmer, merchant, real estate man and is now enjoying the income from his property and residing in comfort and contentment among his children and grandchildren. Mr. Whittle was born in Boone County, Illinois, February 20, 1851. His father, James Whittle, was born in Canada, near Detroit, Michigan, in 1821, and was the first of the family to come to the United States. James’ father, Thomas, spent all his life in Canada as a farmer. The Whittles went from … Read more

Biography of Mills G. Voris

Mills G. Voris is now serving his third consecutive term as register of deeds of Cowley County. His is a case of exceptional fitness for public office. He had had a wide experience in public affairs, beginning when as a boy he was elected to succeed his father as county surveyor back in Illinois. He also knows the people and conditions in the Southwest, particularly in Cowley County, and had been both a farmer and business man. He is honest, capable, competent and efficient, and the work of his office was never in better hands. Mr. Voris was born in … Read more

Biography of C. B. Goodrich

C. B. Goodrich. A life of quiet effectiveness, marked by a record of many duties well done and many responsibilities faithfully fulfilled, was that of the late, C. B. Goodrich, who died in Lawrence in 1910 at the age of sixty-six. He was one of those quiet unassuming men, rarely known to the world in general, but worthily filling the niche in the affairs of life allotted to them. Of Canadian nativity, born at Sarnia, he was brought to the United States when very young and was reared in and about Kankakee, Illinois. The first service in his quiet routine … Read more

Biography of James McDermott, Hon.

Hon. James McDermott. The career of James McDermott, now a retired resident of the City of Winfield, has been one remarkable in many ways, and his life story contains many interesting chapters. From newsboy on the streets of New York to leading lawyer and member of the Kansas Legislature, his active career led him through many of the most important battles of the Civil war, as well as through the struggles of political life, and through it all he has maintained a reputation for courage, fidelity and absolute fearlessness. Mr. McDermott was born in New York City, New York, June … Read more