Cowley County KS

Biography of John T. Denton, Hon.

Hon. John T. Denton. While John T. Denton had been a staid and substantial banker, business man and public spirited citizen of Grenola and Elk County for over thirty years, he had covered a great deal of territory in the course of his earlier experiences, and he came through difficulties and hardships on the road to success. He was left an orphan boy in Kentucky, was reared in the home of relatives, started out to make his own way in the world when sixteen, and had always considered it fortunate that he came to Kansas in the early days of … Read more

Dickson, Mary Ellen – Obituary

Mary Ellen Dickson, 73, of La Grande, died March 7 following an extended illness. Mary was born May 13,1934, in Atlanta, Kan., to Charles and Alma Cunningham. The family moved to Weiser, Idaho, where she attended school. She married Frank Dickson of Homedale, Idaho, on Aug. 3, 1952. Mary and Frank moved to Umatilla, where Frank was employed at the Army Ordnance Depot. Following this, the family moved to Kinzua in Wheeler County, then to La Grande, where Frank worked for Boise Cascade and Mary for Sprouse-Reitz for many years. Mary was devoted to her family and enjoyed activities that … Read more

Biography of Albert Hamilton Denton

Albert Hamilton Denton is the leading banker of Arkansas City. While he was born and reared on a farm in this section of Kansas, banking had been his life work. He is president of the Home National Bank of Arkansas City, but his range of interests includes official connections with a number of other banking houses and as owner of valuable properties both sides of the state line, in Kansas and Oklahoma. Mr. Denton was born on a farm three miles south of Arkansas City, June 18, 1872. Back of him he had several generations of sturdy and thrifty ancestors. … Read more

Biography of L. L. Warner

L. L. Warner, who is successfully engaged in business as a dairyman of Bartlesville, was born in Pennsylvania on the 17th of March, 1867, a son of Joseph and Catherine (Warner) Warner, who though of the same name were not related. They removed to Illinois six weeks after the birth of their son, L. L. Warner, settling in Fulton County, that state, where Joseph Warner carried on farming until 1879. In that year the family home was established in Fremont County, Iowa, where Mr. Warner of this review remained until he was twenty-three years of age, when he was married … Read more

Biography of Howard L. Snyder M. D.

Howard L. Snyder, M. D. Doctor Snyder is of old American family. His paternal ancestors came out of Holland in colonial times and located in Southern Pennsylvania. From that state the family by successive stages had come fully half way across the continent. Doctor Snyder was born in Woodford County, Illinois, October 10, 1878. His father, David Snyder, was born in Ross County, Ohio, in 1820. He moved west to Woodford County, Illinois, in 1848, and became one of the leading farmers and stock raisers there. He died in Woodford County in April, 1895. David Snyder was a republican in … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Charles A. Baker

Charles A. Baker of Wichita lacked only three or four months of being a native son of Kansas. He has spent practically his entire career in this state, and by close attention to his business as a plumber has built up one of the leading establishments at Wichita, and his business is registered under the state laws. He was born at Rio, Wisconsin, June 30, 1870, and it was in September of the same year that his parents moved to Arkansas City, Kansas. After a public school education, gained in Wichita, he began an apprenticeship at the plumbing trade, and … 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 Solomon A. Smith

Solomon A. Smith is one of the old time residents of Cowley County and he taught school to an earlier generation of children in the country districts, but for upwards of thirty years had been a successful lawyer of high standing at Winfield, and is one of the oldest members of the bar of that city. His home had been in Kansas since 1869. He was born near Salem in Marion County, Illinois, May 1, 1853. His people were among the very first settlers in Marion County, having located there very early in the nineteenth century. This branch of the … 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 Allen Dale Hileman

Allen Dale Hileman. Belonging to that class of business men whose practical education, quick perceptions and great capacity for painstaking industry have advanced them to positions of business prominence formerly occupied only by men many years their seniors, Allen Dale Hileman, while representing the vigorous and resourceful present of Kansas, gives promise of participating in its more enlightened future, more especially at Cherryvale and in Montgomery County, where he is engaged in a well-established real estate, loan and insurance business and also connected with the Montgomery County National Bank. Allen Dale Hileman, or Dale Hileman, as he is universally known, … Read more

Biography of Carroll L. Swarts

Carroll L. Swarts. During his dignified and successful career as a lawyer in Kansas, covering a period of over thirty years, Judge Swarts gained distinction by his long and capable service on the district bench and had made his profession a medium of important service to several communities in the state. His name is of German origin, but the family had been identified with America since colonial times. His ancestors were prominent people in Maryland. Judge Swarts’ grandfather, Abraham D. Swarts, was born near Abingdon, Maryland, in 1782. He married Ann Bond Carroll, of the prominent Maryland family of that … 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 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 James Dodwell

James Dodwell. The career of James Dodwell, pioneer harnessmaker of Butler County and a well known resident of the county seat, El Dorado, is one considerably apart from the ordinary and of unusual interest. In its unfolding it had invaded various fields of endeavor and the occupations of war and peace, and through it Mr. Dodwell had worked out an admirable destiny and had established his right to be numbered among the self-made men who have attained success in spite of the most discouraging circumstances. James Dodwell was born in the City of New York, in 1845, and, having been … 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 Harrison Clay Taylor

Harrison Clay Taylor was one of the first settlers in Rice County, and he had had a very interesting career and one filled with business achievement that places him among the notable men of Lyons. He is a veteran merchant of that city and in the passing years had done much for its improvement and welfare. Mr. Taylor was born at Piqua in Miami County, Ohio, November 12, 1849. He is of English ancestry, his forefathers having settled in New Jersey in Colonial times. His grandfather was a native of Pennsylvania, was a member of the Quaker Church, and during … Read more

Biography of William Clinton Bardo

William Clinton Bardo, vice president of the Security National Bank of Arkansas City, was a pioneer in the Cherokee Strip of Oklahoma, was a homesteader and farmer there for a number of years, but finally moved across the line to Arkansas City, where he had become prominent in financial and business affairs. Mr. Bardo is of an old Pennsylvania family. The lineage goes back originally to France. Four brothers of the name during the turbulent times that led to the French Revolution came from France and landed in Pennsylvania, and from there their families became widely scattered. One of the … Read more

Biography of Daniel Bunnell

Daniel Bunnell. One of the citizens of constructive ability and of many influential connections with Arkansas City from early times until recently was the late Daniel Bunnell, who died at Arkansas City, June 30, 1915. He founded a real estate business and acquired large holdings of property both in Southern Kansas and in Northern Oklahoma. Much of that business is now managed by his son William and his widow, Mrs. Maude A. Bunnell, had also proved her capacity as a business woman by handling with unusual shrewdness and foresight the various interests left her by her husband. The late Daniel … Read more

Biography of Robert V. Grattan

Robert V. Grattan is one of the well known and active factors in the community at Burden, and during the past administration had made a very satisfactory record as postmaster. Mr. Grattan is a native of Burden, Kansas, where he was born May 29, 1884. His father, Robert Grattan, was an Irishman, born at Newtownards in Ireland and came to this country when about thirty years of age. In 1871 he was a pioneer homesteader in Cowley County, locating 160 acres of land one mile west and four and a half miles north of Burden. He proved his real Irish … Read more

Biography of John Wallace Howe

John Wallace Howe. Few men are able to comprehend within a period of less than seventy years such a variety of experience and achievement as John Wallace Howe of Independence. He is one of the youngest vsterans of the Union army in the war between the states. Besides the part played by him as a faithful soldier in that struggle, he had been a farmer, a carpenter, had lived in a number of different localities, and was one of the pioneer settlers in Montgomery County, Kansas, having established his home there on the frontier more than forty-five years ago. Public … Read more