El Dorado Kansas

Biography of Samuel R. Clifford

Samuel R. Clifford has long been an active factor in business affairs in Butler County and retains this connection through his present post as assistant cashier of the El Dorado National Bank, El Dorado, Kansas. Mr. Clifford was born in Will County, Illinois, April 12, 1857. His ancestry in the paternal line originated in England and was founded in America during colonial days. His grandfather was also named Samuel R. Clifford and was a native of New York State. He was one of the pioneers in the Village of Chicago, and Mr. Clifford of El Dorado had in his possession … Read more

Biography of John Ellis

John Ellis. Within the lifetime of John Ellis, El Dorado banker, stockman and farmer, had been unfolded practically the entire history of civilization in Butler County. He came here when a boy of five or six years. Kansas was still a territory, and his people located on the very fringe of settlement and in what was then and for a number of years afterward regarded as Southwestern Kansas. Few of the old timers can look back to a time in Butler County when its prairies supported herds of buffalo, but John Ellis recalls having seen as many as 150 in … Read more

Biography of Walter J. Eilerts, M. D.

Walter J. Eilerts, M. D., in active practice at El Dorado and associated with Dr. F. E. Dillenbeck, one of the oldest and best known physicians in that part of the state, is a native of Kansas and his people were pioneers in Harvey County. Doctor Eilerts was born at Annelly in Harvey County, Kansas, December 27, 1881. His father, John Eilerts, was born in Germany, in 1837. The family came to America in 1846, and Grandfather Eilerts spent the rest of his life as a farmer in Illinois. He died at Chapin in that state. John Eilerts was nine … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Curtis L. Harris

Curtis L. Harris has been a practicing attorney at El Dorado for the past thirty years and during that time had been identified with the business and political movements which have made Butler County prominent. Mr. Harris was reared near Alliance, Ohio. at which place he attended school and was graduated in 1883 from Mount Union Gollege. He began the study of law in the office of Hon. David Fording at Alliance, and was admitted to practice in Butler County, Kansas, in 1887, after completing the then usual course in the law office of Judge C. A. Leland, with whom … Read more

Biography of Judge Granville P. Aikman

Judge Granville P. Aikman was born in Laurel County, Kentucky, but had lived in Butler County, Kansas, since early youth. As a boy he attended the London Seminary in Kentucky, one of the most thorough educational institutions of that state. After his parents removed to Butler County he was in the local schools for five years, and then entered the law office of Sluss & Hatten, under whose capable direction he read law. He was admitted to the bar at Wichita and at once began practice in El Dorado. Judge Aikman had since become recognized as one of the ablest … Read more

Biography of William Clinton Bardo

William Clinton Bardo, vice president of the Security National Bank of Arkansas City, was a pioneer in the Cherokee Strip of Oklahoma, was a homesteader and farmer there for a number of years, but finally moved across the line to Arkansas City, where he had become prominent in financial and business affairs. Mr. Bardo is of an old Pennsylvania family. The lineage goes back originally to France. Four brothers of the name during the turbulent times that led to the French Revolution came from France and landed in Pennsylvania, and from there their families became widely scattered. One of the … Read more

Biography of John Gardner Shelden

John Gardner Shelden, of El Dorado, had made himself a man of success and influential leadership in spite of handicaps and obvious disadvantages. In his early life he was a farmer and school teacher, lost a leg in the railroad service, continued to fight the good fight regardless of physical conditions and in recent years had become one of the leading oil and gas operators in this section of the state. There are many sound reasons why the name Shelden rings honorable and true in Butler County. It is good sound Ameriean stock, of the pioneer type. The story of … Read more

Biography of Harvey L. Songer

Harvey L. Songer is a native of Butler County, Kansas, had had a long and varied experience in business affairs, though he is still a young man, and is now filling with complete satisfaction to his constituency the office of clerk of the District Court, with home at El Dorado. Mr. Songer was born in Butler County, October 19, 1881. His paternal ancestors came out of England, the immigrant ancestor in this country having been his great-grandfather, who located in Ohio. Mr. Songer’s grandfather, George Songer, was born in Ohio April 25, 1824. During his infancy in 1826 his parents … Read more

Biography of Chester C. Shelden

Chester C. Shelden has followed in the profession which his father, the late Alvah Shelden, did much to dignify and honor, and is now proprietor and editor of the Walnut Valley Times at El Dorado, his father’s old paper. The late Alvah Shelden was for thirty years owner and editor of the Walnut Valley Times. He was born at Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, January 13, 1849, a son of Benjamin and Louisa (Vaught) Shelden, the former of German and the latter of Dutch ancestry. When Alvah was three years old his parents removed to Little Rock, Arkansas, and a year … Read more

Biography of Abraham James Holderman, Sr.

Abraham James Holderman, Sr. Perhaps a great majority of successful Kansans came to the state poor men and carved their fortunes from the opportunities here presented and by a wise and capable direction of their private affairs. There were some, however, who brought with them considerable capital and left behind in their older communities a record of successful business experience. One of these is Abraham James Holderman, banker, farmer and business man of El Dorado. For a great many years the Holdermans have been numbered among the wealthiest and most influential farmers and stock men in Northern Illinois. In that … Read more

Biography of Anna A. Perkins, M. D.

Anna A. Perkins, M. D. The success and efficiency of women in the field of medicine are too well established to require any comment. While women physicians are not numerous in any one community they are usually regarded as among the ablest and most successful in the field of local practice, and those in Kansas are no exception to the rule. For a number of years Dr. Anna A. Perkins had enjoyed a splendid practice at El Dorado and over Butler County and is known among hundreds of families throughout the community as both a kindly and able doctor and … Read more

Biography of Glen E. Kiser

Glen E. Kiser is a member of an old and substantial family of Butler County, and on assuming the responsibilities of manhood he himself took up newspaper work, and experience had developed many exceptional qualifications in that profession. He is now editor and proprietor of the Augusta Gazette. Mr. Kiser was born in Leon, Kansas, April 11, 1891, was educated in the public schools at El Dorado and graduated from high school in 1909. After one year in the University of Kansas he joined the staff of the El Dorado Times and had a great variety of newspaper experience for … Read more

Biography of Charles W. Childers

One of the representative citizens of Nowata county is Charles W. Childers, who is residing on the old family homestead eight miles southeast of Lenapah. He was born in Henry county, Missouri, on the 18th of May, 1867, a son of Benjamin F. and Mary Susan (Webster) Childers, the former a native of Henry county and the latter of North Carolina. In the acquirement of his education Charles W. Childers attended the schools of El Dorado, Kansas, and came to Indian Territory with his parents in 1884. They located at Coodys Bluff in Nowata county, where they lived for one … Read more

Biography of Lee Scott

Lee Scott. The career of Lee Scott, one of the well known figures in the business life of El Dorado, had been an illustration of practical and diversified activity, and had invaded various fields of endeavor. Mr. Scott had been identified with a number of lines of business, but more recently had given the greater part of his attention to oil and gas brokerage and the real estate and insurance business, and is accounted one of the leaders in these lines of commercial and industrial promotion. He is now quite heavily interested in some of the best oil and gas … Read more

Biography of Charles L. King

Charles L. King, president of the Butler County State Bank at El Dorado, had been actively identified with business affairs in this county for fully thirty years. His people were among the early settlers in that section of the county where Leon is now located. Mr. King is a native of Missouri, having been born in Mercer County February 28, 1862. His King ancestors came out of Germany originally and were early settlers in the State of Ohio. His father, Jacob King, was born in Mercer County, Ohio, in 1840. He was reared and married there, and soon after his … Read more

Biography of Joseph L. Eyman, Dr.

Joseph L. Eyman, M. D. In the profession of medicine and surgery few Kansas physicians have dispensed their services more widely and more successfully than Dr. Joseph L. Eyman of El Dorado, He is a most loyal Kansan. Coming to the state when a child with his parents, he began the practice of his profession twenty-one years later and had witnessed the gradual change and transformation which have made Kansas a highly developed agrienltural and industrial section from what was within his personal recollection an open prairie. Doctor Eyman had traveled over many of the states of the Union, and … Read more

Biography of Nannie C. Ellis Mrs.

Mrs. Nannie C. Ellis. A member of a prominent old family of Butler County, Mrs. Ellis, who now lives in El Dorado, was left a widow more than thirty years ago and since then had not only reared and carefully trained her children but had successfully managed her business affairs. Mrs. Ellis owned a fine farm in the vicinity of Chelsea, Butler County, and is a type of the courageous and independent spirited Kansas woman. Nannie Catherine McDaniel was born five miles south of Decatur, Illinois, on a farm, June 1, 1864. Her McDaniel ancestors came across the Atlantic Ocean … Read more

Biography of Frenn L. Preston, M. D.

Frenn L. Preston, M. D. Distinguished alike as a physician and surgeon, Dr. Frenn L. Preston, of El Dorado, occupies a pre-eminent place among the professional men of Southeastern Kansas, where for six years he had devoted his high attainments toward accomplishing what had brought him wide reputation, universal recognition and honors of an enviable nature. Doctor Preston’s professional achievements are based upon an intimate knowledge of the intricate subjects of human anatomy and scientific therapeutics. Like many other capable, successful and prominent men, he did not start out in life with the ambition to accomplish something phenomenal, but at … Read more

Biography of Charles W. Harvey

Charles W. Harvey is one of the veteran business men and residents of El Dorado, and in recent years had been a leader in the oil development work of Butler County and that vicinity, and had shared in the prosperity that had attended the development of these resources. Mr. Harvey was born in Appanoose County, Iowa, May 10, 1868. His father, Elijah E. Harvey, was a pioneer Kansan and a man of great usefulness both as a minister of the Gospel and citizen. He was of English descent, and some of his forefathers fought in the Revolutionary war. A distant … Read more

Biography of James A. Wilson

James A. Wilson.One of the richest oil land districts of Kansas is the territory lying in the vicinity of El Dorado, the county seat of Butler County. Among its citizens who have become prominent factors in oil production is James A. Wilson. All through this locality rich strikes have been made, and one of the best was on the land owned by Mr. Wilson, just 1 1/2 miles north of El Dorado. This copious pool was the third one developed and had become famous as the Derby-Wilson lease of 480 acres. Mr. Wilson had twenty-one producing oil wells on the … Read more