Douglas County KS

Biography of Frank J. Hauber

Frank J. Hauber. A business is only as strong as that of the character and the personal forces behind it. This had been demonstrated over and over again, and perhaps no one enterprise in Kansas is a more signal illustration of this truth than the great Hauber Cooperage Company of Kansas City, Kansas. The president of this company is Mr. Frank J. Hauber. It is a business which had endured all the arrows and slings of fortune, was twice destroyed by floods, and twice by fire, and Phoenix-like had arisen again and is now bigger and better than ever. The … Read more

Biography of Charles Long

Charles Long, one of the well known farmers in Nowata County, was born on the Grand River, Indian Territory, on the 3d of October, 1869. His father, William Long, was of Wyandotte Indian extraction and his demise occurred when Charles was but a baby. The mother, Katie Ketchum, died when her son was but four years of age. In the acquirement of an education Charles Long attended the Haskell Institute at Lawrence, Kansas, and after putting his text-books aside engaged in farming near his boyhood home. His sons own one hundred acres, one mile east and one-half north of Coodys … Read more

Biography of Preston B. Plumb

In the words of his biographer, Preston B. Plumb was a pioneer in Kansas. He was one of the founders of Emporia. He was in the Union army, and both major and lieutenant-colonel of the Eleventh Kansas. He was long United States senator from Kansas. In the Senate he was one of the men who accomplished things. He was the father of the ides of the conservation of the natural resources of America. It was his law that created the National Forest Reserve and extended aid to irrigation and the reclamation of arid lands. Many of the laws on the … Read more

Biography of John J. Jenness

John J. Jenness, of the Solomon City community, was one of the early pioneers of Ottawa County. Mr. Jenness knows Kansas from the standpoint of over half a century’s residence therein. He was born at Hermon, Penobscot County, Maine, January 2, 1839, a son of David L. and Martha (York) Jenness. His father was born in New Hampshire and his mother in Maine, and both were descendants of early New England families. David L. Jenness’ father, in company with two of his brothers, came from France to the United States, locating in New Hampshire, and there he became prominently identified … Read more

Biography of William A. Harris, Gen.

Gen. William A. Harris was a brave officer of the Confederacy, a pioneer railroad engineer, a successful and leading stock raiser of improved breeds and, both in state and national bodies (including the Congress of the United States), an untiring and effective promoter of agricultural interests. Born in Loudoun County, Virginia, October 29, 1841, as a boy he was educated in his native state and at Buenos Aires, Argentina, whither his father had been sent as United States minister. In June, 1859, he graduated from Columbia College, Washington, District of Columbia. Immediately afterward he went to Central America and spent … Read more

Biography of Sheridan M. Dick

Sheridan M. Dick. By choosing a line of activity and sticking to it closely for many years Sheridan M. Dick has attained an enviable position in business affairs. He is now foreman of the Baldwin Shirt Factory at Parsons. This industry is probably the largest of its kind in the State of Kansas. Mr. Dick was born in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, May 10, 1866. He is of Irish descent, his Grandfather William Dick having been born in Ireland and having come to the United States when a young man. He spent his life as a farmer in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, … 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

Biographical Sketch of Lawrence D. Bailey, Judge

Judge Lawrence D. Bailey, long a resident of Emporia and the pioneer lawyer of Southwestern Kansas, also accomplished much in forwarding the agricultural interests of the state. He was a New Hampshire man, born at Sutton, Merrimack County, August 26, 1819. He was of an old Euglish manufacturing family, and his American ancestors are said to have built the first woolen factory in America at what is now Georgetown, Massachusetts. The judge was educated in Pennsylvania, read law and was admitted to the bar in July, 1846, and after practicing three years in New Hampshire started for California, by way … Read more

Biography of Leslie Arthur Fitz

Leslie Arthur Fitz. When the Kansas State Agricultural College at Manhattan called in March 1910, an expert from the agricultural department of the United States Government to take the chair of professor of milling industry, it was a happy choice that fell upon Leslie Arthur Fitz, who is not only an expert in his line but is also a native of Kansas and represents some of the old and prominent families of the state. His grandfather, George W. Fitz, came to Kansas Territory in 1855, being one of the pioneers in Douglas County. Two years later another settler of that … Read more

Biography of Charles R. Lewis

In his native county it had been given Charles Royal Lewis to achieve a position of prominence and influence as a representative of a line of business enterprise that had most important bearing upon both civic and material progress. At Independence, the judicial center of Montgomery County, he is actively and successfully engaged in the real estate business, and his operations include the handling of both city and farm property and the effecting of real-estate exchanges, besides which he had developed a substantial realty insurance business and is serving as notary public, his offices being at 108 1/2 East Main … Read more

Biography of Lorenzo V. Knox

Lorenzo V. Knox was a great merchant, assisted in building up a wholesale enterprise at Leavenworth which still exists, flourishes, and bears his name. In a broad public sense more important even than his achievements as a merchant were the efforts and influences which he directed to the general well being of his home city. He became actively identified with all that pertained to the material and moral welfare of the community. This was particularly manifested in his connection with educational affairs. For years Mr. Knox was a member of the Leavenworth school board, serving twelve years in all and … Read more

Biography of William S. Tyner

William S. Tyner was one of the early settlers of Kansas, though he lived in the state only a few years, but founded a family which had become especially well known and prominent in Osage County. The Tyners were an old and prominent family of Indiana. William S. Tyner was one of seven sons and was born on a farm in Rush County, Indiana, September 20, 1820. His parents were John and Nancy (Sailors) Tyner, both Indiana people. William S. Tyner was a consin of James N. Tyner, who served as postmaster-general under President Hayes. The early education of William … 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 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 Cassius T. Neihart

Cassius T. Neihart. Banker, mayor, lawyer, land owner at Lyndon, Cassius T. Neihart enjoys a position of unusual prominence and influence in Osage County, and had been a resident of Kansas since 1878, being brought to the state in early childhood. It was an emigrant wagon that brought him and his parents to Kansas when he was in his fourth year. He was born near Coal City, Indiana, on a farm February 13, 1875. William Neihart, his father, of German descent, was married in Indiana to Melissa Reynolds. During part of his life in Indiana William Neihart taught school. He … 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

Biographical Sketch of Shaler W. Eldridge

Shaler W. Eldridge, one of the leading free-state men of Lawrence and therefore of the Territory of Kansas, was a native of Massachusetts, born at West Springfield, August 29, 1816. The twelve years previous to coming to Kansas, he spent as a leading railroad contractor of New England. Arriving in Kansas City, Missouri, January 3, 1855, he purchased the American House from Samuel C. Pomeroy, who had previously obtained it from the Emigrant Aid Society. It is needless to say that it was headquarters for the free-state men, and that it harbored Governor Reeder in his escape from Kansas. In … 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 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 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