Douglas County KS

Biographical Sketch of Jacob Branson

Jacob Branson was one of the early settlers of Douglas County and a leader of the free-soilers. His home was at Hickory Point, about ten miles south of Lawrence on the old Santa Fe road. Many of the early settlers in that region were Hoosiers, some of whom temporarily returned to the East. Their claims were at once jumped by Missourians and other pro-slavery men, and the quarrels over these land contestants were especially fierce. Franklin Coleman, a pro-slavery man, and Charles W. Dow, who lived with Branson and was a free-state man, quarreled over their claims and on November … Read more

Biography of Lloyd Lakin

Lloyd Lakin is one of the prominent young business leaders of Kansas. He is secretary, treasurer and active manager of the Lakin-McKee Manufacturing Company of Fort Scott. This is the largest individual industry in that city, the largest of its kind in Southeastern Kansas, and perhaps the largest in the entire West. The output is overalls. The Lakin-McKee overalls are distributed all over the Middle West. The goods are pre-eminent for quality and service. It is a business built up on character, and to a large degree the constructive and creative ideas of Lloyd Lakin have been fundamental in the … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Richard Ll. D. Cordley, Rev.

Rev. Richard Cordley, Ll. D., during a period of nearly forty years minister of the Plymouth Congregational Church at Lawrence, a victim of the Quantrill raid and somewhat known in public life, was born at Nottingham, England, September 6, 1829. When he was about four years of age he came with his parents to America, the family locating on a tract of Government land in Livingston County, Michigan, where Richard attended the pioneer public schools. In 1854 he graduated from the University of Michigan and in 1857 from the Andover Theological Seminary. On December 2, 1857, he preached his first … Read more

Biography of Frank P. MacLennan

Frank P. MacLennan is a fortunate man. Kansas is fortunate in having him as a citizen. As a youth he took from this state the raw materials which by the alehemy of a resourceful and independent mind and a vigorous ambition he transmuted into a career which has been of even greater beneflt to the state than it has been to himself. First and last Mr. MacLennan is a newspaper man. He knows how to write, especially when the subject is something not directly counected with himself. In furnishing the data to the editor of this new History of Kansas … Read more

Biography of Francis M. Perkins

Francis M. Perkins, president of the Perkins Trust Company of Lawrence, had been a prominent factor in financial and business affairs of that city and of the state at large for more than forty years. He was the first of his family to come to Kansas. Mr. Perkins was born in Racine County, Wisconsin, on a farm June 21, 1846. His parents were Otis Goodspeed and Julia Ann (Bender) Perkins. His father was a descendant of John W. Perkins of Ipswich, Massachusetts, who came to Massachusetts Colony in 1631 and was originally from Ufton Court, the large family estate of … Read more

Biography Of John S. Amick

John S. Amick. It is a strong augury of success for a young man to have a variety of experiences in practical matters before he assumes professional work. Especially if he is a lawyer, his substantial future is far more assured in the West than if he possessed a greater fund of professional knowledge and less ability to judge of persons and things in a common sense way–which comes only with actual experience, and often of the hard kind. Such remarks as the foregoing hold true in the career and progress of John Amick, a young lawyer of Lawrence who … Read more

Biography of Francis Huntington Snow

Francis Huntington Snow. High in the list of names that Kansas honors, statesmen, soldiers, business and industrial executives, farmers and homesteaders, must be placed the name of a scientist and educator, Francis Huntington Snow, one of the greatest of them all. He came out of New England to Kansas. He was born at Fitchburg, Massachusetts, June 29, 1840, a son of Benjamin and Mary (Boutelle) Snow. He attended the public schools of his native city, and then entered Williams College, from which as valedictorian of his class he was graduated in 1862. He received the degrees B. A. and M. … Read more

Biographical Sketch of George W. Martin

George W. Martin, long secretary of the State Historical Society, an old newspaper man and state printer, was born in Blair County, Pennsylvania, June 30, 1841. He learned the printer’s trade in his native town and in Philadelphia, and in April, 1857, accompanied his parents to the Territory of Kansas, Young Martin worked in printing offices at Lecompton until the fall of 1859 and in 1861 became connected with the Junction City Union, which he edited for several years. Mr. Martin was postmaster at Junction City several months in 1865 and register of the land office in 1865-66; assessor of … Read more

Biography of Henry W. Klemp

Henry W. Klemp. When, in the spring of 1863, Henry W. Klemp arrived in the United States, he was a poor German youth, without knowledge of the manners, customs of language of the people among whom he had decided to make his home. Notwithstanding his limited resources, however, he had a large fund of practical common sense, an overflowing store of ambition and energy, and a determination to make the most of his opportunities in whatever field he found himself. Today he is one of the successful business men of Leavenworth, the directing head of an enterprise the product of … Read more

Biography of Edward Bell Payne, M. D.

Edward Bell Payne, M. D. With an understanding of what is awaiting the man of science, the many doors yet unopened which will lead to the further amelioration of the ills of mankind, and the constant yearning to add to his store of knowledge, it is practically impossible for the conscientious physician and surgeon to arrive at a state of mind where he is satisfied with what he has accomplished and, of necessity, he keeps on striving for perfection as long as life lasts. A long list of accomplishments in his profession have marked the career of Dr. Edward Bell … Read more

Biography of Walter E. Brown

Walter E. Brown is one of the younger members of the Atchison bar, but had been favored by his ability and training and early associations and had attained just recognition as one of the resourceful lawyers of the state. He is junior member of the well known firm of Waggener, Challiss, DeLacy & Brown, senior partner of which is one of Kansas’ most distinguished and eminent lawyers and citizens, Hon. Bailie P. Waggener. Mr. Brown represents a pioneer name in Kansas history. He was born in Whiting, Kansas, November 17, 1887. His grandfather, Michael Brown, came to Kansas in 1872 … Read more

Biography of George J. Barker, Hon.

Hon. George J. Barker, who became a resident of Lawrence in 1867 and was identified with that city and the state until his death on October 12, 1912, thoroughly earned a right to rank among the finest legal minds of Kansas during the last half century. He was not less a great citizen, especially in his work and devotion to his home community at Lawrence. George J. Barker was born November 6, 1842, near Springfield, Massachusetts, son of Cyrus E. and Eliza (King) Barker. He was of English lineage and of New England stock. When he was seven years of … Read more

Biographical Sketch of B. F. Townsend

B. F. Townsend a prosperous farmer near Garden Grove, was born in Bowdoinham, Maine, in 1834, educated at the high school there, and in 1855 left home to take care of himself. For nine years he worked in a wholesale boot and shoe store in Massachusetts, and from there, January 13, 1864, he went to Chicago, Milwaukee, Sioux City and other places; then to Omaha, and to Lawrence, Douglas County, Kansas, where he worked on a farm until 1866, teaching school during the winter seasons. Then he went to Baxter Springs, Cherokee County, Kansas, engaging in the manufacture and sale … Read more

Biography of Theodore Poehler

Theodore Poehler. Of the able and large-hearted Germans who emigrated from the fatherland when Kansas was one of the frontier territories of the United States, none hold a more secure place in the admiration and affection of living pioneers and their descendants than Theodore Poehler, whose death occurred at Lawrence, December 31, 1901, a few days after he had entered his seventieth year. He stood for industry, thrift, a broad business outlook, warm affections, a Christian charity, practical usefulness, wide culture and thoroughness in education, as well as every other activity of life. Besides his many good works, a monument … Read more

Biographical Sketch of William B. Clark

Of the two sons who continue his honorable record in the State of Kansas, William B. was born in Knox County, Illinois, November 8, 1847. He received a public school education, lived on an Illinois farm until he was nine years of age, and after reaching manhood he identified himself with agrisulture. After spending some years as a farmer in Illinois he sold out and moved to Kansas in the spring of 1878. The first year he lived on a rented farm near Lawrence, but in the spring of 1879 moved to his present place of 160 acres which had … Read more

Slave Narrative of Eliza Whitmire

Person Interviewed: Eliza Whitmire Location: Vinita, Oklahoma Date of Birth: 1833 Age: 102 My name is Eliza Whitmire. I live on a farm, near Estella, where I settled shortly after the Civil War and where I have lived ever since. I was born in slavery in the state of Georgia, my parents having belonged to a Cherokee Indian of the name of George Sanders, who owned a large plantation in the old Cherokee Nation, in Georgia. He also owned a large number of slaves but I was too young to remember how many he owned. I do not know the … Read more

Reminiscences of Early Lawrence Kansas

Reminiscences of early Lawrence Kansas

“Reminiscences of early Lawrence” by Agnes Emery, self-published in 1955, offers a deeply personal and detailed account of the author’s experiences and observations in Lawrence, Kansas, during its formative years. Emery’s narrative blends historical details with a vivid recollection of community life, making it a valuable resource for understanding the local history of Lawrence and the broader societal changes of the time.

Biographical Sketch of Prof. Lewis L. Dyche

Prof. Lewis L. Dyche, who held the chair of systematic zoology and taxidermy at the University of Kansas from 1900 until his death January 20, 1915, had a wide reputation in North America in his chosen fields. He was born at Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, March 20, 1857, in early life he came to Kansas, and in 1884 received the degrees of B. S. and B. A. from the University of Kansas. During the years 1885-86 he was assistant professor of zoology, and in 1886 he received the degree of A. M. He was then made professor of comparative anatomy, … Read more

Biography of George Ross

Ross Family. Probably no one family contributed better and stronger men, and more devoted and unselfish womanhood, to Kansas from pioneer times to the present than that of Ross. The annals of Kansas give credit to more than one of that name who played a worthy and distinctive part in the early life of the territory and state. Many of the names are still found in Shawnee and Wabaunsee counties, and some of the finest farms around Dover are owned and occupied by the descendants of the first settlers. The first of the family to come to Kansas Territory were … 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