Douglas County KS Genealogy – Page 5 of 9

Biography of Prof. William H. Carruth

Prof. William H. Carruth, one of the leading linguistic seholars and authors of the West, had held the chair of German Language and Literature of the University of Kansas since its creation over thirty years ago. He was born on a farm near Osawatomie, Kansas, April 5, 1859, the son of James H. and Jane (Grant) Carruth. His father, from whom he in herited his love of books, was a home missionary of the Presbyterian Church, and from his mother he inherited courage, energy and an independent disposition. He worked his way through school and college, graduating at the University … Read more

Biography of William Lloyd Garrison Soule

William Lloyd Garrison Soule, Auditor of San Bernardino County, and founder of the mining town of Calico, is a lineal descendant from Puritan stock, and was born in the State of Maine, in July, 1836. He was reared from early childhood in Massachusetts, and started to learn the printer’s trade in Boston at the age of fourteen. He came with his parents to Kansas in 1854, and set the first stickful of type ever set within the boundary of that State, on the Herald of Freedom, established at that time in Lawrence. Being like his illustrious namesake, an uncompromising enemy … 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 Allen Thomas Stewart

Allen Thomas Stewart is one of the younger business men of Doniphan County and had established himself firmly in business and civic esteem at Denton, where he is proprietor of the only drug store and is now serving his second suecessive term as mayor. Most of his life had been spent in Kansas. He was born at Salem, Kentucky, in Livingston County, March 11, 1881, and came to this state with his parents when he was five years old. He attended public schools, graduated from the high school at Seneca. Kansas, in 1901, and following that had two years in … Read more

Biography of Edwin B. Morgan

Edwin B. Morgan. When Edwin B. Morgan came to Kansas in 1892, at the age of nineteen, he found his first opportunity for service and work as a school teacher. He taught in Linn County one year, and two years in Franklin County. Already his ambition was set upon the law as a career. Entering the State University at Lawrence, he pursued the studies of the law department until graduating LL. B, in 1898. In July of that year he began practice at Oswego, and was one of the rising young attorneys of that city for seven years. Since removing … 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

Biography of Fred Schuyle Jackson

Fred Schuyle Jackson, of Topeka, prominent lawyer, former congressman, ex-attorney-general of Kansas, is one of the many able men who have made Kansas notable as a commonwealth. His father was Martin Van Buren Jackson, who bore a conspicuous part in the border warfare of Kansas. Fred S. Jackson was born April 19, 1868, and his birth occurred in the block house at Stanton near Osawatomie. His early education came chiefly from the public schools of Miami and Greenwood counties, and of earlier experiences and service readered should be mentioned five years spent in the schoolroom as a teacher, In 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

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 Solon O.Thachek

Solon O. Thachek, of Lawrence, able lawyer, judge and public man of Kansas, achieved a wider fame as one of the pioneers in the great work of promoting friendly relations with the republics of South America. He came of a distinguished English and Revolutionary ancestry and was born in Stenben County, New York, August 31, 1830. His father was a county judge. After graduating from Union College of Schenectady, New York, and from the Albany Law School, he married, and in 1858 located at Lawrence, where he became one of the proprietors of the Journal. He was a member of … Read more

Biography of George W. Deitzler, Gen.

Gen. George W. Deitzler, one of the famous “treason prisoners” to be taken from Lawrence to Lecompton, afterward prominent in the public affairs of the Territory and State of Kansas and prominent in the Civil war, was born at Pine Grove, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, November 30, 1826. He received a common school edncation and removed to Kansas, where he became one of the prominent figures of the free-state party. He was a delegate to the Topeka convention, and in May, 1856, was one of the seven men who were arrested at Lawrence and taken to Lecompton under guard of Federal … 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 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 Ely Moore, Sr.

Ely Moore, Sr. If Kansas should seek among its living citizens a man whose career is richest in associations with the events far back in territorial times there could be no better approximation to the ideal choice than that of the venerable Ely Moore, Sr., of Lawrence. Now in his eighty-fifth year, he saw when a young man in his early twenties much of that strenuous struggle which made Kansas Territory the battle ground of the nation. His own life had been regulated on strenuous lines, and he comes of fighting ancestry. He is descended from Sir Thomas More, who … 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

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.

Biography of Martin S. McCreight, M. D.

Martin S. McCreight, M. D. A resident of Kansas since early boyhood, Doctor McCreight is one of the oldest business men and professional men of the City of Oskaloosa, where he began the practice of medicine and surgery over twenty years ago, and during the greater part of the time had also conducted a drug business and is vice president of the Jefferson County Bank. Doctor McCreight was born in Indiana County, Pennsylvania. February 19, 1870, and is of Scotch ancestry. His grandfather McCreight was a native Scotchman and on coming to America located in Pennsylvania. Johnston McCreight, father of … Read more

Biography of Charles B. Lines

Charles B. Lines was born in New Haven, Connecticut, March 12, 1807, was a self-educated and self-made man, having never attended school and was thrown on his own responsibility when a boy. He started out to be a sailor but gave it up and entered the cabinet business when thirteen years of age. He had told his grandsons how his boss would come around and tell him to push his planes faster. Although he was quite successful in business he took time for public affairs. While in the cabinet and undertaking business he placed Noah Webster in his coffin, also … Read more

Biography of Marshall M. Murdock

Marshall M. Murdock, a pioneer journalist of Kansas, the founder of the Wichita Eagle and one of the marked men of the commonwealth, was born in the Pierpont settlement of what is now West Virginia, in 1837. He was of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and his father married into the Governor Pierpont family. Soon after his marriage the family moved to Ironton, Southern Ohio, and there Marshall Murdock attended the public schools and commenced to learn the printer’s trade. Thomas Murdock, the father, was unsuccessful in his business venture, and, as he had an abhorrence of slavery and Kansas was then the … Read more

Biography of Joseph O. Ward M. D.

Joseph O. Ward, M. D., is a physician and surgeon of Horton whose work and attainments have brought him increasing repntstion for skill and ability. Doctor Ward is a native of Kansas, was a successful teacher before he took up his preparation for a medical career, and had been in practice now for almost twenty years. His father, M. Ward, who is still living at the venerable age of eighty-four, had had a most mteresting career and one that had brought him in close contast with pioneer conditions of the Middle West. Born in Ireland in 1833, he came to this … Read more