Douglas County KS Genealogy – Access Genealogy

Biography of Andrew H. Reeder, Governor

Pennsylvania had long been noted for her distingnished men in all walks of life. This is particalarly true of the Pennsylvania bar, and the current and popular phrase “a Philadelphia lawyer,” denoting unusual ability and intellectual acumen, illustrates the fact that it was thoroughly recognized both in and out of Pennsylvania that the lawyers of this commonwealth were worthy of the pre-eminence claimed for them. The bar of Northampton County shared this preeminence, and for more than a century it had maintained its prestige in the front rank of the profession in the commonwealth. Its roll contains the names of … Read more

Biography of Charles L. Edwards

Charles L. Edwards was one of the notable figures in the first half century of Kansas. He never became widely known in financial circles, did not make a political reputation, but nevertheless he was one of the most useful men the state ever had. He was intimately identified with the movement by which Kansas was organized with free institutions. He was also the pioneer schoolmaster of Lawrence. He gave many years to the upbuilding of its scholastic institutions, went from Lawrence to serve gallantly through the War of the Rebellion and remained a resident of that city for over sixty … Read more

Biography of Paul Phillip MacCaskill

Paul Phillip MacCaskill. One of the younger members of the Kansas bar, in active practice at Parsons, Paul MacCaskill has already had a wide range of experience in his profession and in public affairs. While studying law and since he spent a good deal of time in the service of public men, at Topeks and elsewhere, and in 1915 was secretary to Hon. Baille P. Waggener, the Atchison County representative in the State Senate. He is of a fine strain of Scotch ancestry. The name MacCaskill, or MacAskill, is of Norse origin, meaning Anses Kettle, or sacrificial vessel to the … 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

Kansas Registrations of Enemy Aliens, 1917 – 1921

The series contains original affidavits of registration that record personal information about each registrant, their photograph affixed to the majority of documents, and the registrants fingerprints. All of these are specific to Kansas, and most have the actual documents attached.

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 David Winfield Mulvane, Hon.

Hon. David Winfield Mulvane. For years one of the prominent characters of Kansas who have helped to influence and direct national life has been David W. Mulvane of Topeka. In his home state Mr. Mulvane is best known as a lawyer and his power in republican politics has not been exercised through office but through his chieftainship in the party itself. For many years he has been identified with the state organization, and also with the national party organization, and was one of the national party committee for a dozen years. He was born in Princeton, Illinois, January 4, 1863, … Read more

Biographical Sketch of James B. Abbott, Maj.

Maj. James B. Abbott, one of the pioneer colonists of Lawrence and legislators of the territory and state, was born at Hampton, Connecticut, December 3, 1818, and grew to manhood in his native state. He was a member of the third party of emigrants from New England, which reached Lawrence on October 10, 1854, and soon became recognized as a free state leader. Major Abbott took up a claim about half a mile south of Blanton’s bridge, on the road to Hickory Point, and his house was a favorite meeting place of the free state men in that neighborhood. He … Read more

Biography of John Gottlieb Seewir

John Gottlieb Seewir was one of Kansas’ pioneer physicians. He was prominent in the profession at Lawrence from the beginning of the Civil war until his death twenty years later, and his life was one of unceasing devotion to his profession and to the service to humanity which he rendered through it. Doctor Seewir was born in Switzerland, March 4, 1828, a son of John G. and Elizabeth Seewir. In 1838 the family immigrated to America. They came on a sailing vessel and the vessel took fire and burned for two days before it was extinguished. The family located at … Read more

Biography of Walter L. Payne

Walter L. Payne, a native son of Kansas, had been closely identified with a number of its business and public activities for a number of years, and is vice-president of the Pioneer State Bank of Burlingame. The Payne family have had a part in the making of Kansas for fully sixty years. It was Mr. Payne’s grandparents, Lorenzo Dow and Mary Ann (Wildman) Payne, who were the pioneers of the family in Kansas. They located at Trading Post in Miami County, where Lorenzo D., who was a physician by profession, practiced for two years until the border ruffians drove him … 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 John Knox Rankin, Col.

Col. John Knox Rankin, who died at his home in Lawrence, October 29, 1915, was a distinguished citizen of Kansas. He was a territorial pioneer, had served with credit in the many scenes of the Civil war enacted in this state, and was well described as “an ardent advocate of the activities that promoted the welfare of state and city, and a splendid embodiment of the best of Kansas citizenship.” The many qualities and characteristics that found expression during his long life were undoubtedly inherited in part from a notable ancestry. He was descended from John Rankin, who was of … Read more

Biography of Seth J. Bailey

Seth J. Bailey. The gratifying success which had crowned the efforts of Seth J. Bailey, of Chanute, clearly and emphatically evidence the business skill, perseverance and enterprise of this individual, who had been engaged in business here since the fall of 1900. This is a utilitarian age, one in which advancement and progress come through activity in the industrial and commercial interests of life. There is nothing to which America owes her pre-eminence among the nations of the earth so much as to her inventions, and each year sees additions to the list which bear marked impress upon the world … Read more

Biography of Cavaness, James M.

James M. Cavaness. The name Cavaness belongs to both the pioneer and modern era of Kansas. Anywhere in the southeastern part of the state the name is most closely associated with the newspaper business, and two generations are still active in that work, James M. Cavaness and two of his sons, Herbert and Wilfrid, all of whom are connected in some official capacity with the Chanute Tribune. The origin of the Cavaness family was undoubtedly in Ireland, but the first of the name came to America in the colonial period and settled in North Carolina. Urban C. Cavaness, father of … Read more

Biography of William J. Stewart, M. D.

William J. Stewart, M. D. His first years in. Kansas Doctor Stewart spent in the role of a practical farmer, but since finishing his medical course had been in successful practice as a physician and surgeon at Summerfield, Marshall County. Doctor Stewart is of Scotch-Irish ancestry. His grandfather, William Stewart, was born at Strabane, Ireland, in 1808, and married Nancy Wilson, a native of the same place, born in 1806. Both of them were of Scotch-Irish families. They married in the old country and all their children were born in Ireland as follows: Charles, who became a farmer and died … Read more

Biography of William R. Smith

One of the fine buildings bordering the State Capitol grounds at Topeka is the Kansas State Printing plant. That is the official headquarters of William R. Smith, state printer, and also secretary of the State Printing Commission and chairman of the School Book Commission of the state. Doubtless any citizen, and particularly a printer, would deem it an honor to be at the head of an establishment which experts pronounce to be the equal in mechanical equipment and operating effieiency of any commercial printing establishment in the country. When Mr. Smith went into office on July 1, 1915, he brought … Read more

Biography of Justin Dewitt Bowersock

Justin Dewitt Bowersock. The secret of human leadership is a matter both of determination and temperament. Some men achieve it by a rugged aggressiveness which bears all before them, leaving in their wake many painful bruises and some wounds which never heal; other progress, perhaps even more rapidly, endowed with a decisive elasticity, a considerate and friendly spirit, a broad and attractive outlook, and obtain the enthusiastic cooperation of those who are best qualified to advance laudable enterprises and movements, either private or public in their character. It is to the latter class of elastic, able and pleasing leaders that … Read more

Biography of Joseph Little Bristow, Hon.

No Kansan in recent years has rendered such distinguished public service to the nation at large as former Senator Bristow, now chairman of the State Public Utilities Commission. Mr. Bristow had been a resident of Kansas since he was twelve years old. From his father, who was a Methodist minister of the old type, he inherited a courage of eonvictions, a determined animosity to all public and private dishonesty, and his own life on the Kansas prairies had developed in him a zeal for popular rights and liberties and a fearless statesmanship equally removed from radicalism and reaction. For six … Read more

Biography of Charles S. Eagle

Charles S. Eagle, a business man and mannfacturer at Topeka, is a native Kansan, and his family history is closely identified with the early border days of this state. His father, James Eagle, who came to Kansas in 1856 and located in Douglas County, kept a hotel for several years on the old California trail at Big Springs. That was before the day of railroads, and his hotel supplied a service to the great traffic that went by his doors in stage coaches and prairie schooners. Like most other early settlers in Kansas he was drawn into the border and … Read more

Biography of James T. Cooper

James T. Cooper, a lawyer, banker and widely known citizen of Fredonia, was born in Woodson, but then Wilson, County, Kansas, August 30, 1866, and represents a family that came to Kansas while it was a territory. The ancestry of Mr. Cooper is particularly interesting. He is descended from that Sir Ashley Cooper, the Earl of Shaftsbury, who founded a colony on the Ashley River in North Carolina, and from that settlement the family name had become widely dispersed. It may be of interest to recall the fact that the noted John Locke, the great English philosopher, prepared a model … Read more