Emporia Kansas

Biographical Sketch of Llewellyn Kiene

Llewellyn Kiene had served four years in the office of sheriff of Shawnee County, and his administration had been all that his friends predicted and had been such as to give him rank among the ablest sheriffs this important county in the state had ever had. Sheriff Kiene is a Kansan by many years of residence and is thoroughly in the spirit of the Sunflower commonwealth. He was born March 2, 1868, in Putnam County, Illinois, one of the twelve children of Francis A. and Rose (Doriot) Kiene. When he was fifteen years of age his parents came to Kansas, … Read more

Biography of Hiram W. Lewis, Col.

Col. Hiram W. Lewis. In many important ways the city of Wichita expresses the life, ideals, and activities of the late Col. Hiram W. Lewis. In his time he was undoubtedly one of the most forceful figures and one of the ablest business men and citizens in the State of Kansas. When he came to Wichita about 1875 he had already acquitted himself with credit both as a soldier in the Civil war and as a business man. Born near Warren, Ohio, he lived in Ohio during his youth and on May 25, 1863, enlisted in Company E of the … Read more

Biography of P. J. Concannon

P. J. Concannon. A well known business man of Emporia, Mr. Concannon had done much in recent years to keep that city up to date in the matter of theatrical and entertainment enterprises, but in earlier years he was variously identified with lumber manufacture, farming and had been a resident of the state almost continuously since early boyhood. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, May 7, 1863, a son of Martin and Anna (Walsh) Concannon. Both his parents were natives of County Mayo, Ireland, where the paternal grandfather spent his life. Anna Walsh’s mother, Julia Walsh, came to America … Read more

Biography of Anna Mallows, Anna

Miss Anna Mallows. To paraphrase an old proverb, To woman’s work there is neither end or limit of capacity for human service and usefulness. Women have succssded as home makers, as teachers, in all the learned professions, in executive business, and one of the bright Kansas women, Miss Anna Mallows, is a very successful newspaper woman, proprietor, and publisher of the White Cloud Globe. The White Cloud Globe is now the only paper published in that city. It was founded in 1892 by John J. Faulkner, and throughout its twenty-five years it had never exhibited more enterprise as a real … Read more

Biography of John Elmore Martin

John Elmore Martin, son of the late Senator John Martin, of Topeka, had for many years been an active business man and citizen in Emporia and is former mayor of that city. He was born in Topeka, Kansas, October 2, 1862, was educated in the Topeka schools, spent one year in Washburn College, and on leaving college in 1882 became a clerk in the offices of the Santa Fe Railway Company under C. C. Wheeler, who was then general manager. For six years Mr. Martin served as Santa Fe agent at Emporia and for two years at Strong City, Kansas, … Read more

Biography of John C. Kirby, M. D.

John C. Kirby, M. D. For the past fifteen years the name of Dr. John C. Kirby had been increasingly identified with the best tenets of medical and surgical science in the city and vicinity of Cedar Vale. By many of the longest established and most conservative families his skill, resource and obliging temperament have come to be regarded as indispensable, and there exist many who are indebted to him for their restoration to health, happiness and usefulness. Doctor Kirby had the zeal which recognizes no limitations in his profession, and the great unrest which projects him into ever-widening channels … Read more

Biography of James R. Gristy

James R. Gristy, of Emporia, is one of the real old timers of Kansas. Half a century ago he was engaged in farming and stock raising on a large scale in Johnson County. For many years he had been a successful real estate operator, and had enjoyed prominence in a business and civic way not only in Kansas but in Oklahoma and in other western states. Born in Brown County, Illinois, August 31, 1841, he grew up in that section, gained a public school education, graduating from the high school at Rushville, Illinois, in 1863. His first experiences led him … Read more

Biography of John S. Gilmore

John S. Gilmore. In journalistic circles of Kansas few men are better known than is John S. Gilmore, one of the energetic and progressive of the younger generation of newspaper men, who, as publisher and editor of the Wilson County Citizen, is directing the policies of one of the county’s leading organs and one of the oldest in the state of Kansas. Mr. Gilmore had been a resident of Fredonia all his life, for it was here that he was born April 26, 1891, a son of John S. and Florence (Barton) Gilmore. Robert G. Gilmore, the grandfather of John … Read more

Biography of Samuel N. Wood, Col.

Col. Samuel N. Wood, long a resident of Lawrence and a leader of the free-state party in Kansas, was prominent as one of the founders of the republican party, as a legislator in both houses, as an editor and one of the original stockholders of the Atchison. Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad. He was born at Mount Gilead. Ohio, December 30, 1825. the son of Quaker parents, from whom he imbibed his anti-slavery sentiments at an early age. In 1844, although too young to vote, he was chairman of the liberal party central committee of this county. Four years later … 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

Biography of Charles W. Barnes

Charles W. Barnes. As reporter and newspaper editor, former state superintendent of insurance and now president of the Kansas Life Insurance Company of Topeka, Charles W. Barnes has had an exceedingly busy and successful career covering almost the entire forty-year period since he came to the state. He was born on a farm in Coshocton County, Ohio, October 28, 1869, a son of William O. and Maria Lonisa (McGruder) Barnes. His grandfather Charles Barnes was a lawyer, one of the pioneer members of the Ohio bar, and in the early days served as a judge. William O. Barnes was a … Read more

Biography of Allen Dale Hileman

Allen Dale Hileman. Belonging to that class of business men whose practical education, quick perceptions and great capacity for painstaking industry have advanced them to positions of business prominence formerly occupied only by men many years their seniors, Allen Dale Hileman, while representing the vigorous and resourceful present of Kansas, gives promise of participating in its more enlightened future, more especially at Cherryvale and in Montgomery County, where he is engaged in a well-established real estate, loan and insurance business and also connected with the Montgomery County National Bank. Allen Dale Hileman, or Dale Hileman, as he is universally known, … Read more

Biography of William N. Smelser

William N. Smelser has been a member of the Emporia bar for twenty-five years. His had been an enviable record both as a lawyer and as a citizen, and his ability, industry and his conscientious care have brought him a high position among Kansas lawyers. His family have resided in Emporia more than thirty years, and William N. Smelser was about fourteen years old when brought to that city. He was born in Sturgis, in Southern Michigan, February 2, 1870. The Smelsers came originally from Germany, but have been Americans since about the time of the Revolutionary war. The first … Read more

Biography of John Redmond

John Redmond. One of the prominent newspaper men of Kansas, and there is no doubt but that the state had its full share of talented journalists, is John Redmond, the able editor and prosperous owner and publisher of the Burlington Daily Republican of Burlington. A natural inclination for this profession probably prevented the state from registering one more able member of its bar, for he was early designed for the law, in which his brother, C. H. Redmond, now of Denver, Colorado, is so successful, and in which his father, the late James Redmond, so long held a distinguished place. … 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 Ralph Randolph Hibben

Ralph Randolph Hibben. Parsons is the home and headquarters of a number of men who have given many years of faithful service to the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Company. One of these is Ralph Randolph Hibben, Assistant Fuel Agent for this road, and for almost a quarter of a century had been continuously identified with the Coal Department of this company. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the International Railway Fuel Association of America. He is of English, Irish stock originally, his ancestors on his mother’s side coming to America with William Penn, and … Read more

Biography of Hiram C. Whitley

Hiram C. Whitley. The State of Kansas is filled with interesting men, many of them known to the world at large. The city of Emporia had several. One is a prominent business man, who for upwards of forty years had given his time and energies to the upbuilding of that locality. This is Hiram C. Whitley who was at one time chief of the secret service division of the United States Treasury. The story of his life, particularly the early years, reads like a book, and in fact his experiences have been described in a book which was published about … Read more

Biography of Joseph Allen Fuller

Joseph A. Fuller is clerk of the district court of Greenwood County, with home and offices at Eureka. For a man not yet thirty years of age he had had a great variety of experience, had been a successful teacher, and had also been a participant in the farming and stock raising activities of his home county. His Fuller ancestors came to the colonies in the Mayflower. His grandfather was Joseph Allen Fuller, for whom he was named. The grandfather was born in Illinois, and in 1860 came out to Kansas and was one of the early settlers at Emporia. … Read more

Biography Of Mary Alice Murdock

Mary Alice Murdock probably deserves to rank first among Kansas women in the field of journalism. As editor and manager of the El Dorado Republican she is continuing a publication and an influence which were dignified and ennobled by her honored father, the late Thomas Benton Murdock. She was born at Emporia, Kansas, February 28, 1870, and four days after her birth her parents removed to El Dorado, where she grew up and was educated in the public schools. She worked nearly through the senior year in high school, and finished her education in Mount Washington Seminary at Baltimore, Maryland. … Read more

Biography of Albert Irven Decker

Albert Irven Decker. In the demands which it makes upon its devotees, educational work is exceedingly exacting. The duty of the educator, ostensibly, is to instill a practical, working knowledge into each of his pupils, but his correlative, although less direct, function of instilling character and worthy precepts through his personal influence is equally important. The duty first named calls for an individual of knowledge and specialized training, while the second demands a conscientious and capable person whose life and mode of living provide a fit criterion and example for the minds of youth. When a man is found in … Read more