Dickinson County KS

Dickinson County, Kansas, established in 1857, lies in the central part of the state, playing a significant role in the westward expansion and development of the American frontier. The county’s early economy was driven by agriculture, cattle trade, and the influence of the railroads, notably the Kansas Pacific Railway, which facilitated the movement of goods and people, contributing to the growth of towns like Abilene, its county seat. Abilene’s prominence as a cattle town in the late 1860s and early 1870s, serving as the terminus for the Chisholm Trail, marks a significant chapter in the county’s history, reflecting the dynamic economic activities that shaped the region. For genealogists, Dickinson County offers a wealth of historical records that provide insights into the lives of early settlers, including land deeds, agricultural records, census data, and vital records from the mid-19th century onwards. These documents are invaluable for tracing lineage, understanding family histories, and reconstructing the social fabric of the time. The county was also influenced by its Native American heritage, with the region historically inhabited by various tribes, which adds another layer of depth to genealogical research. The county’s archives, historical societies, and libraries are key resources for accessing these records, offering a comprehensive view of the people who lived, worked, and shaped the history of Dickinson County, Kansas.

Biography of John B. Favor

John B. Favor, present sheriff of Sumner County, has been a resident of Western Kansas for over forty-five years, and though he was a small boy when the family moved here he knows both by recollection and personal experience all the vicissitudes and trials that beset the early pioneers. This story of a pioneer Kansas family begins with the removal of Gaines and Susan (Lavender) Favor from their native state of Tennessee to a farm near Cairo, Illinois, in 1855. On that farm in the southern part of Illinois was born on January 22, 1860, John B. Favor, first mentioned … Read more

Biography of George W. Hurd

George W. Hurd. In 1869, a few years after the close of the war in which he had fought for the Union with an Illinois regiment, George W. Hurd pioneered into Dickinson County, Kansas, and established himself on a homestead. However, during his long residence in the county and at the City of Abilene, he had been best known and distinguished as a lawyer. He was one of the pioneer members of the bar, and had long held a place of leadership in the profession and in public affairs. Born at Lafayette, Illinois, June 20, 1846, he had recently passed … Read more

Throe, Cala L. – Obituary

Mrs. H. P. Throe (Cala L. Fovargue) Joseph, Oregon Mrs. H.P. Throe, a pioneer of Union and Wallowa counties, died after an operation performed at the Enterprise Hospital. Cala L. Fovargue was born May 2nd, 1854, in Elkriver Township, Clinton County Iowa. She was married to Hans P. Throe January 14th 1872. In November of 1877 they moved to Abilene, Kansas. After residing there for three years they moved to Oregon, making the journey by wagon. Three months after starting, they reached the Grande Ronde valley. In 1887, they moved to Joseph where they have resided ever since. Mrs. Throe … Read more

Biography of Oscar Ramsey Searl, M. D.

Oscar Ramsey Searl, M. D. The name Searl had been associated with the medical profession in Northern Kansas for fully half a century. Dr. O. R. Searl is a son of a pioneer doctor of Solomon, Kansas, Dr. O. F. Searl. The son had practiced for nearly twenty years at Belvue, and besides his success in the profession he had made himself an influential factor in local affairs. He was born at Solomon, Kansas, July 5, 1872. Dr. O. F. Searl was of English family and represented Colonial settlers in Massachusetts. He was born in Massachasetts November 15, 1841, grew … Read more

Biography of John Calene

John Calene. The mercantile interests of Sylvan Grove, Kansas, are well represented by stable and intelligent business men, and one of these is John Calene, who is president of the Calene mercantile Company and is identified with other enterprises of importance. Mr. Calene was born in Sweden, near the great City of Stockholm, July 17, 1856. His parents were L. E. and Christine Calene, both of whom were born in Sweden, the father in 1822 and the mother in 1825, and both died in Dickinson County, Kansas, the former in 1880 and the latter in 1907. L. E. Calene grew … Read more

Biography of Frank L. Abbey M. D.

Frank L. Abbey, M. D., long a resident of Newton and formerly a druggist but for twenty years a successful physician, had during the greater part of his professional career been identified with the Axtell Hospital as a member of its staff of physicians. Doctor Abbey was born at Kingsbury, Illinois, February 1, 1861. He is of English ancestry, his grandfather, Luke Abbey, having been born in Yorkshire, England, in 1787. When about twenty-four years of age he came to America with his second wife and two children, and settled first in New Jersey, then in Ohio and finally, as … Read more

Throe, H. P. Mrs. – Obituary

Mrs. H.P. Throe (Cala L. Fovargue) Mrs. H.P. Throe, a pioneer of Union and Wallowa counties, died after an operation performed at the Enterprise Hospital. Cala L. Fovargue was born May 2nd, 1854, in Elkriver township, Clinton county Iowa. She was married to Hans P. Throe January 14th 1872. In November of 1877 they moved to Abilene, Kansas. After residing there for three years they moved to Oregon, making the journey by wagon. Three months after starting, they reached the Grande Ronde valley. In 1887, they moved to Joseph where they have resided ever since. Mrs. Throe was the mother … Read more

Biography of John Loy

John Loy, father of Mrs. Edwin Grant Betz, was born in Perry County, Pennsylvania, in 1840. He grew up and married there, took up farming as his vocation, afterwards moved out to Illinois and was a farmer near Freeport four years, then returning to his native state and county, where he remained five years. On his next journey westward he came to the vicinity of Chapman, Kansas, arriving in the spring of 1880 and buying a section of land in Dickinson County. He was more than ordinarily successful as a farmer and business man, and was one of the esteemed … 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 Edward Everett Hazlett, M.D.

Edward Everett Hazlett, M. D. From 1880 until his death on June 17, 1915, Doctor Hazlett practiced medicine and surgery at Abilene, Kansas. That was a period of thirty-five years. He was one of the pioneers in his profession at Abilene, and began practice there when the city to some extent still retained the prestige and the somewhat unenviable prominence it derived as a center of the great cattle industry. Without disparaging the merits and attainments of his contemporaries, it can be stated that Doctor Hazlett was always the leader of his profession in that city, not only in point … Read more

Biography of Henry Van Deman Faris

Henry Van Deman Faris, of Kanopolis, is a Kansas around whom center many associations of territorial and pioneer times. He is by five years the oldest living pioneer in Kansas west of Salina. He had been continuously identfied with Ellsworth County more than half a century. Mr. Faris comes of that adventuresome pioneer stock that in successive waves had peopled and developed American soil. His grandfather, John Faris, was born in Ireland of Scotch descent. On coming to this country he partieipated as a soldier in the struggle for independence, and afterwards became a farmer in Virginia. He located on … Read more

Warnock, Robert N.

Enterprise, Oregon Robert N. Warnock Pioneer Passes on Robert N. Warnock, member of a pioneer family in Wallowa county died at his home at Oswego, Feb. 26, and funeral services were held in Portland. Only two members of his family survive, his brother, W.P. Warnock of Enterprise, and his sister, Mrs. John Velt of Sacramento, Cal. Mr. and Mrs. W.P. Warnock visited him in the middle of the winter. Robert Warnock was born in Dickson county, Kansas, Oct. 6, 1864, and came with his family in a wagon train to the far west in 1879. He ran cattle in the … Read more

Biographical Sketch of T. B. Johns

T. B. Johns, farmer, P. O. Athens, was born in Galena, Ill., April 8, 1841. In 186l he went to California, and back to Nevada in 1862; thence to Utah; thence to Idaho; thence to British Columbia; thence to Oregon; thence to Montana; thence to Wyoming; thence back to Utah; thence to Prescott, Arizona, back to Nevada, and again back to Illinois; thence to Queenstown, Ireland, and back to the United States, settling at Abilene, Kan., in 1871. Came to Jewell County in October 1871, and is now the owner of 240 acres of land. Mr. Johns has been an … Read more

Biography of Gideon R. Wolfe

Gideon R. Wolfe has one of the longest records of public service of any county officer in Kansas. For practically a quarter of a century he had been county surveyor of Ellsworth County. Mr. Wolfe is a man of thorough technical training and experience and is a pioneer in Western Kansas. He was born in Center County, Pennsylvania, April 29, 1829, and undoubtedly he is also entitled to distinction as one of the oldest men still active in public service. He was eighty-eight years of age at his last birthday. He comes of English stock, the Wolfes having located in … Read more

Biography of David Franklin Shirk

David Franklin Shirk, a prominent Kansas educator and a worker in behalf of child welfare, had been a resident of this state thirty years. Born at Shannon, Carroll County, Illinois, July 10, 1859, he was reared and educated in his native state, and as a young man began teaching school in Illinois. In 1886 he came to Abilene, Dickinson County, Kansas, and followed educational work in this state actively for twenty-four years. In 1906 Mr. Shirk was graduated from Friends University at Wichita. Much distinction attaches to his work as a school man. He assisted in organizing the first county … Read more

Biography of John Franklin Haskell

John Franklin Haskell is the Topeka and Kansas representative of the greatest creamery organization in America. He is general manager and vice president of the Beatrice Creamery Company, consolidated, with headquarters in Topeka. Both he and his brother George Everett have long been prominently identified with this business. His brother George E., who is president of the Beatrice Creamery Company, lives in Chicago. George was the founder of the industry at Beatrice, Nebraska, about 1890. He pushed the enterprise with so much success that it soon outgrew the limits of its home city, but the company still bears the name … Read more

Biography of Mary Pierce Van Zile

Mary Pierce Van Zile. A very important member of the faculty of the Kansas State Agricultural College is Mrs. Mary Pierce Van Zile, dean of women and dean of the division of home economics. Her name is a household word in many widely separated homes, for each year Mrs. Van Zile has under her immediate care and instruction from 800 to 900 girls. They come from many environments and are mostly in the most receptive period of their lives, and the influence exerted by Dean Van Zile largely moulds their future. Mary Pierce Van Zile was born on her father’s … Read more

Biography of William Wesley Robb

William Wesley Robb, who is superintendent of the electric light plant at Chanute, began his career as a locomotive fireman and had filled many positions of responsibility, chiefly as a manager of machinery and plants, and much of his service had been rendered in the State of Kansas. He is of Scotch ancestry. His great-grandfather came from Scotland and was an early settler in Ohio. His grandfather, James Warren Robb, was born in the State of Illinois, in 1824, and died in Mercer County in that state in 1902. By profession he was an attorney, but many years ago he … Read more

Biography of William C. Roughton

William C. Roughton, editor and proprietor of the Manchester Motor in Dickinson County, with his wife as local editor, had been identified either with the printing trade or with newspaper work since early boyhood. His father was at one time proprietor of the Jetmore Republican. The Roughton family is one of the earliest names that occur in the history of Hodgeman County. At Jetmore in that county William C. Roughton was born September 21, 1882. He is a son of Columbus E. and Amanda (Wilson) Roughton. Columbus E. Roughton, who was born in Yadkin County, North Carolina, in 1843, a … Read more

Biography of Horace Greeley Kyle

Horace Greeley Kyle, whose name is widely known over the State of Kansas on account of his legislative experience and active participation in public and business affairs, is a successful stock farmer and owned a splendid place in Dickinson County known as “The Cedars.” That is the scene of his business activities as a farmer and raiser of blooded livestock. Mr. Kyle is a native of Kansas and belongs to the pioneer and territorial element. He was born in a log cabin four miles west of Holton in Jackson County October 21, 1861. His father, James B. Kyle, came to … Read more