Douglas County KS

McEwen, Lena – Obituary

A longtime resident of Centralia, Mrs. Lena M. McEwen, 82, died Wednesday at a Centralia hospital. She was born March 28, 1884 at Lawrence, Kan. Survivors include two daughters, Mrs. Alta Rasmussen, Battle Ground and Mrs. Laura Timberman, Vancouver; four sons, Dan, Centralia, Wilbur and Melvin, both of Kelso and Elmer, Oakland, Calif.; a sister, Mrs. Myrtle Mooney, Portland; 11 grandchildren and 20 great grandchildren. Funeral services are Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Fissell-Brown Mortuary Chapel, Chehalis, with the Rev. James F. Scott officiating. Interment will follow at the Toledo Cemetery [Fir Lawn Cemetery]. Pallbearers will be Leslie Palmer, … Read more

Biography of William Edwin Nelson

William Edwin Nelson, who became superintendent of the public schools of Sabetha in the fall of 1917, is a thoroughly experienced educator, a native of Kansas, and for five years before removing to Sabetha was superintendent of schools at Robinson. Mr. Nelson had the qualification and training of a practical lawyer, which was the profession of his father. For many years one of the ablest attorneys of the Trego County bar was the late John A. Nelson. Born in Sweden, near Stockholm, in 1851, he was brought when an infant to the United States by his parents, who located in … Read more

Biography of Carl Ackarman

Carl Ackarman of Sedan had justified all the predictions and wishes of his friends as to a successful career in the law. He had ability, training, industry and courage, and had handled with exceptional skill every interest entrusted to him since he opened his law office at Sedan. In 1916 he was re-elected for another term as county attorney of Chantauqua County. His first term had given such general satisfaction that he was unopposed by any candidate for re-election. Born at Moline, Kansas, January 16, 1881, he was reared in Sedan, educated in the public schools, graduating from high school … Read more

Biography of Samuel Francis Woolard Col.

Col. Samuel Francis Woolard is known to the people of Kansas with well earned distinction in several lines of effort and influence. He had been a Wichita business man for over a quarter of a century and is one of the prominent insurance men of the state. He is a retired officer of the National Guard and a growing circle of appreciative readers know him as an author and publisher. A native of Illinois, he was born October 17, 1865, in Fayette County, son of W. W. and Lucy (Stites) Woolard, his mother a native of St. Clair County, Illinois. … Read more

Biography Of Harvey W. Ide

Harvey W. Ide was one of the men who bore a conspicuous part in the early history of that section of Kansas around Leavenworth. He arrived when Kansas was a territory, and at the height of the epoch-making struggle over the slavery question. He was long distinguished as a lawyer, for many years was judge of the district bench, and a leader possessing not only brilliant intellectual qualities but that moral stability which is the expression of a strong character. He was born in Saratoga County, New York, April 19, 1833, and fourteen years later, in 1847, his father, Rodman … Read more

Biography of Edward Bumgardner, A. M., M. D., D. D. S.

Edward Bumgardner, A. M., M. D., D. D. S., of Lawrence, had been a resident of Kansas for over thirty-five years. Though not a native, he is a loyal Kansan and deeply interested in its progress and standing among the states. He had read and studied with sympathy and understanding Kansas history, and his pride in the state’s past and her institutions had prompted him so far as consistent with his professional work to assist in various public and semi-public undertakings. Doctor Bumgardner is a native of Indiana, born in Warren County, April 10, 1865. His parents were Andrew and … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Mrs. E. C. Billings

(See Ward and Cordery)-Jessie Lee, daughter of James Lovely and Charlotte (Ward) Bumgarner, born July 2, 1884, educated at Female Seminary and Lawrence, Kansas. Married at Spavinaw March 30, 1902, K. C. Billings, son of John C. and America Billings, born Aug. 10, 1818 in Texas. They are the parents of Beatrice T., born April 16, 1906; Love, born August 17, 1908; Charlotte America, born August 31, 1910; Edith Belle, born April 22, 1912; Myrtle Ceaphine, born November 10, 1916 and Iva Dell Billings, born October 25, 1918.

Austin, Kittie Mabel – Obituary

Enterprise, Wallowa County, Oregon Kittie Austin Laid To Rest Memorial services were held Monday afternoon from the Booth-Bollman Chapel for Kittie Mabel Austin, who passed away at the Wallowa Memorial Hospital February 1, 1957, following a two-day illness. Rev. Leslie B. Bailey officiated with Rev. James Sinclair, soloist, and Mrs. John Sinclair at the piano. Songs were “The Old Rugged Cross” and “Beautiful Isle of Somewhere”. Burial was in the Enterprise cemetery beside her husband who passed away in January of 1949. Pallbearers were: Armel Cole, Guy Murrill, Spencer Bacon, Jack Sturm, Clyde Wulff and Doke Cole. Kittie Mabel Austin … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Joel K. Goodin

Joel K. Goodin, an early lawyer and legislator and a free-state leader, was born at Somerset, Perry County, Ohio, February 24, 1824. He received an academic education, after which he took up the study of law. Early in 1854 he was admitted to the bar in his native state and the following June located upon the Wakarusa River in what is now Douglas County, Kansas. Mr. Goodin was a delegate to the Big Springs convention; was clerk of the lower house of the Topeka Legislature until it was dispersed by Colonel Sumner; was secretary of the council in the free-state … Read more

Biography of Nellie Griswold Beatty

Nellie Griswold Beatty. Every man, woman and child in the City of Lawrence knows Mrs. Nellie G. Beatty. Being a native daughter of Kansas and of Lawrence, and having been during the last fifteen years in charge of the popular public library, her name is familiar in every home in the city. Her parents were Dr. Jerome F. Griswold and Helen Mary (Hewitt) Griswold. They were among the early settlers of the free state town, and Doctor Griswold was one of the victims in the inhuman massacre of the Quantrell raid. Nellie Griswold grew to womanhood in Lawrence and attended … Read more

Biography of Lew Wallace Duncan

Lew Wallace Duncan. The close of the Civil war launched a new era of settlement in the West. Young men who had lately fought the battles of freedom and restored the unity of the nation abandoned their birthplaces and “hit the trail” leading to the boundless and trackless region beyond the “border.” Distance alone separated them from the beckoning prairies of an unknown plain and the scream of the locomotive had not been heard west of St. Louis, so that the “prairie schooner” method of reaching their destination had to be resorted to. Once across the Mississippi the mecca of … Read more

Biography of Thomas E. Wagstaff

An attorney of long and successful experience in Montgomery County, both in Coffeyville and Independence, Thomas E. Wagstaff had been and is a leader in republican politics in the state, and a few years ago his name beeame known all over Kansas as a candidate for nomination to the office of governor. He lost the nomination by only a few votes. This was in 1910, when W. R. Stubbs was nominated and afterwards elected. His family have been identified with Kansas for forty years. Thomas E. Wagstaff was born at Galesburg, Illinois, July 23, 1875, and was still an infant … Read more

Biography of Josiah C. Trask

Josiah C. Trask was one of the 180 victims of the terrible Quantrill raid and massacre at Lawrence, on August 21, 1863. He was a young and brilliant editor at the time of his death and few men of Kansas were more beloved. His father was a minister, who preached in Massachnsetts for many years, and he himself was born at Warren, that state, May 9, 1837. He pursued an academic course at Fitchburg, and when sixteen years of age went to Boston, where he was employed as a printer in various newspaper offices. Through his father-in-law, Joel B. Hibbard, … Read more

Biography of Edward E. Dix

Edward E. Dix. The vocation of railroading continues to attract many ambitious young men when they enter upon life’s activities, and this field of activity has often proven rich in opportunity to those who have possessed the inclination to work industriously and faithfully, to scorn hardships, to face heavy responsibilities, and to give absolute devotion to the interests of the great systems which employ them. There is no place for those who do not thus prove themselves. Among the officials of almost every other line of business there are found men of sterling worth who would have succeeded well in … Read more

Biography of August Ludwig Selig

There was no question as to the patriotism of German-Americans in the Civil war, which, after all, is the only real test to which they have been put on the soil of the republic. Whether as officers or in the ranks, they were sturdy and faithful, and never turned their backs as long as there were foes before them. Young and old, in the loyal states, rallied around the Union flag and upheld it in many of the bloodiest battles of the war. There is no more striking example of that spirit in the West than that presented by the … Read more

Biography of William J. Krehbiel

William J. Krehbiel is editor and owner of The McPherson Daily and Weekly Republican, the pioneer newspaper of McPherson County. It was established as a weekly issue in 1872, the year that McPherson City was founded. In 1885 it took on a daily issue, and Mr. Krehbiel had been its proprietor and manager for the past twenty years. Mr. Krehbiel had been a resident of Kansas since he was nine years of age, and was born at Denmark, Iowa, December 11, 1870. His parents were John J. and Anna (Leisy) Krehbiel. John J. Krehbiel was born in Hamilton County, Ohio, … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Timothy D. Thacher

Timothy D. Thacher, a prominent editor and public man of Lawrence and Kansas City, was born in New York, October 31, 1831, of that famous Boston family, whose American founder was Rev. Thomas Thacher, pastor of the Old South Church. He graduated from Union College at Schenectady, New York, in 1856, and campaigned that year on the platform of the new republican party. In April, 1857, he came to Lawrence and began the publication of the Lawrence Republican, a free-state paper which figured prominently in state politics. He was a member of the Leavenworth constitutional convention held in the wintor … Read more

Biography Of Joseph Gardner

The ancestors of Joseph Gardner were descended from Quaker stock which landed upon the shores of Nantucket Island in 1620. Later they lived in North Carolina and emigrated from there to the Territory of Indiana in the latter part of the eighteenth century. It was in Union County, Indiana, that Joseph Gardner was born in July, 1820. His parents, William Gardner and Mary Hollingsworth, were ardently opposed to slavery, hence adhered to the anti-slavery wing of the Quaker Church. Upon attaining his majority, Joseph Gardner aligned himself with the Abolitionists and finally died fighting for the freedom of the slaves. … Read more

Biography of Thomas Shirman Salathiel

Thomas Shirman Salathiel for twenty-two years had been in the practice of law at Independence, and is one of the ablest members of the profession in Southern Kansas. In that time he had handled a vast volume of litigation involving both private and public interests, and as a lawyer, business man and citizem had identified himself closely with the life and affairs of his home city. A native Kansan, he represents a family that had lived here since territorial days. His grandfather, Morgan Salathiel, was a native of Wales and was a mineralogist and geologist. In the service of a … Read more

Biography of Samuel Walker

Samuel Walker, for nearly forty years one of the most stirring figures in the military and civil commotions which centered in the Lawrence region, was a Pennsylvanian, born in Franklin County, October 19, 1822. In 1848 he moved to Ohio and followed his trade as a cabinet maker, and in April, 1855, settled permanently in Kansas. He came with a large party of emigrants and located near Lawrence, with other pronounced free-soil settlers. About six weeks later he was urged by the sheriff of Douglas County to leave the country, but his answer was made the next day, in the … Read more