Biographical Sketch of Jacob Ernst

Jacob Ernst, farmer and stock-raiser; P. O. Humbolt; the subject of this sketch was born in Wurtemberg, Germany, March 30, 1839. He married Miss Julia Anna Joose Aug. 16, 1861 she was born in Baden, Germany, June 20, 1844; they had nine children, eight living, viz., George A., John M., Flora May, Mary A., Harry D., Willis E., Clarence and Jacob E.; Charlie died June 4, 1866. He lived in Germany about fifteen years, when he came to the United States and settled in Meadville, Penn., where he lived until 1855; he then moved to Owen Co., Ind.; thence to … Read more

Biography of O. W. Anderson

O. W. ANDERSON. Among all the industries that are carried on in any community, none succeed so well as the ones that are conducted by practical men. An instance in mind is the success attained by O. W. Anderson, who is a member of the firm of Anderson & Keightley, practical blacksmiths, of Billings, Missouri. He was born in Erie County, Penn., November 18, 1850, was reared and educated in Crawford County of that state, and there also learned his trade. His parents were Robert and Harriet (Yates) Anderson, the former of whom was born in the State of New … Read more

Biography of James Burton Turner

James Burton Turner has covered a wide field, including nearly all the states between the Allegheny and Rocky Mountains, as a worker, operator and producer in the oil fields. He was a pioneer operator in the Mid-Continental fields of Southern Kansas and Oklahoma. Mr. Turner is prominently known among the leading oil men of the country and since January, 1903, has been a resident of Chanuta. From that city he has extended his various operations as a producer and contractor, and has drilled hundreds of wells in the fields of Kansas and Oklahoma. At the present time Mr. Turner has … Read more

Biography of John H. Wilson

John H. Wilson has been a constant factor in the up building of the Cities of Rock Island and Moline for half a century. As president of the Wilson Moline Buggy Company and in other business enterprises in which he has engaged since coming to this community in 1856 he has given employment to many men and has directed their energies into channels that have brought adequate rewards to themselves, to their employers and to the cities in which they have lived and labored. Like many another of the substantial early residents of Rock Island County, Mr. Wilson is a … Read more

Biography of Charles Hiram Cook

Charles Hiram Cook. Prominent among the men who have long been identified with the oil industry in Kansas as producers and drillers is found Charles Hiram Cook, of Coffeyville. From the time he left school he has followed the oil and gas fields in various parts of the country, and with the great development of the Kansas fields became interested here and has since played a part in the growth and advancement of the industry. Mr. Cook was born at Springboro, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, January 31, 1863, and is a son of Francis Henry and Emily (Fisher) Cook. The Cook … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Frank A. Arter

Arter, Frank A.; retired; born, Hanoverton, O., March 8, 1841; son of David and Charlotte Laffer Arter; Hanover High School and Allegheny College, Meadville, Pa.; degrees, A. B. and M. A., Allegheny; married, Cleveland, Eliza Kingsley; issue, Mrs. Fred L. Taft, Mrs. Lewis E. Myers and Charles K. Arter; director First National Bank; Cleveland Steamship Co.; Cleveland Life Insurance Co.; Land Title Abstract Co.; vice pres. Children’s Industrial School; pres. Board of Trustees, Allegheny College; treas. N. E. O. Annuity Fund; director St. Luke’s Hospital; pres. Layman’s Ass’n, N. E. O. Conference; treas. First M. E.; member Union, Colonial, Wickliffe-on-the-Lake … Read more

Biographical Sketch of John William Perrin

Perrin, John William; librarian; born, Eugene, Ind.; son of William Jasper and Susan (Allen) Perrin; A. M., Wabash College. Ind., 1889; studied Johns Hopkins, 1890-1892; graduate student and honorary fellow, University of Chicago, 1892-1893, Ph. D., 1895; married Harriet Naylor Towle, of Evanston, Ill., April 16, 1890 (died, Jan. 25, 1910); prof. of history and politics, Allegheny College, Pa., 1894-1898; prof. of history, Adelbert College, (Western Reserve University), 1898-1904; Albert Shaw, lecturer, American diplomatic history, Johns Hopkins, 1904; lecturer on American history, Allegheny College, 1905; librarian, Case Library, Cleveland. since June 1, 1905; organized, 1899, and chairman until 1903, conference … Read more

Biography of William J. Bovaird

William J. Bovaird. Due to the important position occupied by Independence in the oil and gas fields of Kansas and Oklahoma, it had become the center of many large business corporations, and one of these is the Bovaird Supply Company of Kansas, whose president is William J. Bovaird. Mr. Bovaird had been identified with the manufacture of tools and apparatos used in the oil fields since an early age, his father having established a business of that kind in Western Pennsylvania in the early days. In 1903 Mr. Bovaird located at Independence and established the Bovaird Supply Company, at first … Read more

Biography of Elias Emerson Morris

Elias Emerson Morris has for eight years been probate judge of Riley County. To that office he has brought a singularly fair impartiality, and ever since he entered upon his duties the people of the county have recognized that the interests of the widows and orphans have been most capably and honestly administered. Judge Morris is one of the old time educators of Kansas, and has long been identified with some form of official service in Riley County. He was born in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, November 2, 1859, a son of James S. and Mary (Chamberlain) Morris. His parents were … Read more

Biographical Sketch of George Steigman

George Steigman, Charleston, of the firm of Steigman, Wilson & Co., proprietor of the Charleston Pork-Packing Houses; was born in Dimboch, County of Weinsberg, Kingdom of Wurtemberg, Germany, Aug. 5, 1827; he was raised on a farm, and, in 1853, came to the United States, spent one year in Meadville, Crawford Co., Penn., and coming thence to Owen Co., Ind., where he followed farming year; in 1855, he came to Charleston and engaged in farming, which he continued eight years; he then kept a meat-market until 1871, when he revisited his native country, spending eight months; returning, he followed the … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Audley P. McCallie

McCallie, Audley P.; Superior Peanut Co.; born, Kansas City, Mo., Oct. 15, 1888; son of Jack and Jennie Purcell McCallie; educated, Buffalo, N. Y., Grammar School and West Springfield and Meadville, Pa., High schools; managing partner of The Superior Peanut Co.; member Cleveland Athletic Club.

Biographical Sketch of William Francis Lyon

Lyon, William Francis; merchant; born, Meadville, Pa., Aug. 16, 1868; son of Thomas and Johanna Corbett Lyon; Meadville High School, graduated in class of 1885; married, Cleveland, Oct. 26, 1892, Lisette Baus; issue, Marie, Josephine, William Francis, Jr., started in Cleveland, Sept. 9, 1885; elected sec’y and treas., May 24, 1897, of The Cady-Ivison Shoe Co., and pres. and gen. mgr. of same Company, Jan. 20, 1913; charter member of the Cleveland Association of Credit Men, and pres. from 1902 to 1903; member Knights of Columbus, and Catholic Mutual Benefit Assn; member Athletic Club. Fond of Horseback Riding.

Biographical Sketch of Clifford W. Fuller

Fuller, Clifford W.; lawyer; born, Garrettsville, O., Feb. 6, 1864; son of Sherman W. and Flora R. Case Fuller; educated, Garrettsville public schools, Allegheny College, Meadville, Pa., A. B., M. A. and Ph. D. pro merite; capt. 10th O. V. I., war with Spain; admitted to the Ohio bar, 1890; practiced law in Cleveland since 1891; sec’y The Cleveland & Youngstown R. R. Co.; sec’y and treas. Willowick Country Club; director The West Ninth Co., The Shaker Vineyards Land Co., and The Sedgwick Land Co.; sec’y Terminal Bldg. Co.; trustee The H. B. Hurlburt Trust for Art; member Phi Gamma … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Frederick Augustine Sterling

Sterling, Frederick Augustine; merchant; born, Chapinville, Conn., May 26, 1831; son of Frederick Augustine and Caroline Mary (Dutcher) Sterling; educated, public and private schools, Geneva, N. Y.; married, Meadville, Pa., May 13, 1856, Emma Betts; issue, one son, living in Erie, Pa.; merchant in Cleveland since 1850; connected with T. S. Beckwith & Co., Beckwith, Sterling & Co., Sterling & Co., The Sterling & Welch Co., pres. the Sterling & Welch Co., director Union National Bank; director Citizens Savings & Trust Co.; vice pres. Cleveland Burial Case Co.; pres. Board of Trustees, Second Presbyterian Church; member Union and Country Clubs. … Read more

Biography of Robert H. Childs

Robert H. Childs, now superintendent of the Petroleum Products Company plant in Independence, is one of the veteran oil men of America. His father was a pioneer in the oil fields of Western Pennsylvania, and Mr. Childs himself grew up in that environment, and took to the work as naturally as a New England youth goes to sea. There is probably not an important oil field in the country with which he has not been identified in some capacity or another. The Petroleum Products Company established a plant in Independence in 1908. The general officers of the company at Chicago … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Franklyn Breed Tabor

Tabor, Franklyn Breed; sec’y the Telling Bros. Co.; born, Titusville, Pa., Feb. 23, 1868; educated in the public schools of Painesville, O.; supt. the Painesville Water Works Co., 1893-1898; upon purchase by the city, was elected sec’y; served until 1899, when he moved to Cleveland; auditor the Telling Bros. Ice Cream Co., 1900-1903; upon the re-organization of the company in 1904, elected sec’y; still serving; sec’y and treas. Cable-Trace Co., and interested in other business enterprises; Republican.

Biographical Sketch of Jacob Streitberger

Streitberger, Jacob; born, June 23, 1871; Germany; son of Jacob and Carolyn Streitberger; educated, Germany; married, Meadville, Pa., July 4, 1895, Lena Duer; three children; member Eagles and Foresters.

Biography of Capt. John May Smith

Capt. John May Smith. An honored veteran soldier and officer of the Civil war, now living retired at Salina, Capt. John May Smith had been identified with Kansas for more than forty years and he devoted much of his rugged strength to the development of a Kansas homestead. He served his country well, had reared and provided for a family of capable children, and in the evening of life he enjoys the honor and esteem of a host of friends. Captain Smith was born July 26, 1838, in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, a son of Charles and Jane (McClelland) Smith. His … Read more

Biography of Chancy Akin

If there is one person more than another to whom the race loves to do honor that person is the pioneer, and especially is this true in double measure when we find one of the character of the worthy subject of this sketch, who has endured all the deprivations incident to pioneer life in this country since the early days of the last century and has through it all maintained a good physique, held his powers intact while accomplishing Herculean achievements, built a character which is a light to any community, kept his reputation untarnished and steadily pursued his way … Read more