Emporia Kansas

Biography of George A. Gemmell, Prof.

Prof. George A. Gemmell. It is doubtful if there is any other profession which demands so much judgment, tact, specialized knowledge, patient and natural executive ability as that of the educator, and the individual selecting it as his calling must be prepared to make many personal sacrifices, to endure many disappointments, to often spend himself for others without apparent gratitude in return, and to give the best years of his life without the material emoluments that equal effort would surely bring in any other profession. It is a profession for which there is no established table of weights and measures, … Read more

Biography of William M. Sleeth, Maj.

Maj. William M. Sleeth was one of the founders of the modern civic and industrial community of Arkansas City. He was secretary and treasurer of the original townsite company. He was a keen and resourceful business man, but his practical energies were equalled by his splendid public spirit and his readiness to sacrifice his own interests in behalf of some enterprise that would bring benefit to many. Major Sleeth justly earned the honor and esteem of his community during his life, and his death at Arkansas City, September 26, 1906, was felt as a distinct loss to the community, though … Read more

Biography of Walt Mason

Walt Mason. In the annual output of wheat, corn, livestock, coal, oil and gas, Kansas must share her splendid results with other states. But at least one product is unique–Walt Mason and his rhymes. Statisticians are fond of figuring the value of Kansas crops. No one had estimated nor can estimate how much Walt Mason had contributed to the sum total of human happiness. And practically all that output had come from his home in Kansas, in his congenial surroundings at Emporia. It is said that Mr. Mason is unable to write in strange surroundings, and consequently never leaves Emporia. … Read more

Biography of Earl M. Robinson

Earl M. Robinson is one of the younger business men of Emporia, and his name at once suggests in that section of Kansas the Robinson greenhouses, which have become noted for the perfection of their cut flowers. This is a business which he had built up to extensive proportions, and its product now supplies not only Emporia but a wide surrounding territory. He is an alert and enterprising factor in business circles. Descended from the family of Robinsons that were in Virginia during colonial days, Earl M. Robinson is himself a southerner by birth and was born at Huntsville, Madison … Read more

Biography of Oliver Quincy Claflin

Oliver Quincy Claflin is a prominent young lawyer at Kansas City, Kansas, and is now serving as United States commissioner of the First Kansas District. Mr. Claflin is devoted to the law, is not an office seeker, and his appointment to his present position was based entirely upon merit and exceptional qualifications. Mr. Claflin was born at Chanute, Kansas, July 4, 1882, the only child of Otis Quincy and Mary J. (Blair) Claflin. His father was born in Massachusetts and his mother in Canada, the latter going to Massachusetts and living there at the time of her marriage. Oliver Q. … Read more

Biography of Clark Nicholas Starry, M. D.

Clark Nicholas Starry, M. D. Representing the first class ability and skill of his profession and enjoying a large general practice, Clark Starry has devoted all his active lifetime to medicine as a profession, and began his career with an excellent equipment, the test of real practice finding him well qualified for important service. For the past fifteen years he has practiced at Coffeyville. He represents a family that came originally from England and settled in Virginia during colonial days. Clark Nicholas Starry, M. D., was born in Marshfield, Indiana, February 28, 1871, and his parents soon afterward came to … 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

Biographical Sketch of George Marshall Crawford

George Marshall Crawford, the only son of Governor Crawford, was born at Emporia, Kansas, July 10, 1872, and for a number of years has been a prominent newspaper man and publisher at Topeka. His education came from the public schools of Topeka and the preparatory department at Washburn College, and in 1894 he graduated A. B. from Yale University. For three years he was a reporter on the Topeka Capital, but since September, 1897, has been manager of the Mail Printing Honse, in which he is a partner. Mr. Crawford is an active republican, an eighteen degree Scottish Rite Mason, … Read more

Biography of Owen C. Wasson

Owen C. Wasson. Because of the success which had attended his efforts, his commercial soundness and acumen, his spirit of public helpfulness and his good citizenship, the career of Owen C. Wasson, of Peru, offers an encouraging example of prosperity and position gained through a proper utilization of ordinary opportunities. Since entering upon his independent life, numerous vocations have attracted the activities of Mr. Wasson, but he had made steady advancement in each, and is now the proprietor of a well-established hardware and implement business at Peru and one of the city’s substantial business citizens. Mr. Wasson was born on … Read more

Biography of Volney P. Mooney

Volney P. Mooney, now probate judge of Butler County, had resided in this section of Kansas more than forty-eight years and had been successively teacher, merchant, lawyer and public official. The people of Butler County know him and trust him as completely as any other citizen. His father, the late Rev. Isaac Mooney, was one of the notable men in this section of Kansas. He was the founder of a town and community, and throughout his life held that community up to his own high ideals. It is not easy to lose sight of the tremendous influence either for good … Read more

Biography of Leslie V. Johnson

With all the progressiveness and enterprise of the native Kansan, Leslie V. Johnson had made his years in this state count chiefly as a banker, and for many years had found a large opportunity to serve the public through his post as cashier of the State Bank of Randolph in Riley County. As in the case with many successful business men and financiers, he had the atmosphere of a farm during his youth. He was born on his father’s farm in Pottawatomie County, October 8, 1872, and his earliest recollections are associated with that rural district. As a boy he … Read more

Biography of Frank L. Abbey M. D.

Frank L. Abbey, M. D., long a resident of Newton and formerly a druggist but for twenty years a successful physician, had during the greater part of his professional career been identified with the Axtell Hospital as a member of its staff of physicians. Doctor Abbey was born at Kingsbury, Illinois, February 1, 1861. He is of English ancestry, his grandfather, Luke Abbey, having been born in Yorkshire, England, in 1787. When about twenty-four years of age he came to America with his second wife and two children, and settled first in New Jersey, then in Ohio and finally, as … Read more

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 Edward Charles Ryan

Edward Charles Ryan is secretary of the Mutual Building & Loan Association of Emporia, which is his native city, and he represents one of the old family names in that section of the state. The Mutual Building & Loan Association, whose other executive officers are A. H. Plumb, president, and M. C. Little, treasurer, was established in 1907, and after eight years of business now had assets of over $800,000. It receives money in payment on stock deposits and loans on real estate and buildings in Emporia and farms in that section. It is one of the best managed and … Read more

Biography of Richard Allen

Richard Allen had been professor of history in the Montgomery County High School since the organization of that excellent institution more than fifteen years ago. He is one of the most widely known educators in Southern Kansas. His Allen ancestors came originally from England, one branch settling in Massachusetts and the other in Virginia during colonial days. His grandfather, William Allen, was born in Virginia in 1780, and some years later the family moved across the mountains into Kentucky, and subsequently became early settlers in Illinois. William Allen died in White County, Illinois, in 1845. Richard Allen was born in … Read more

Biography of Harris W. Manning, M. D.

Harris W. Manning, M. D. The country along the banks of the Cottonwood River around Emporia had become a landmark in Kansas literature, largely due to the ability of William Allen White in investing those scenes with literary color and description. It was along the hanks of the farnous Cotton wood, four miles west of Emporia in Lyon County, that Dr. Harris W. Manning, a prominent physician and a specialist at Eureka, was born September 20, 1868. His father, Patrick W. Manning, belonged to the colony of earliest settlers in Lyon County, having homesteaded a claim there about the middle … Read more

Biography of Robert Ernest Cullison

Robert Ernest Cullison. The senior member of the well-known law firm of Cullison, Forrest & Clifford, Robert Ernest Cullison had long been a prominent figure in many of the legal controversies of Allen County, in which his unerring judgment and ability to provide the solution of many complexities have proven his right to be numbered among the distinguished members of the bar of his part of the state. Since the beginning of his career he had practiced at Iola, where he had on several occasions been the incumbent of official positions of importance. Mr. Cullison as a lawyer, conducting cases … Read more

Biography of V. E. Creighton

V. E. Creighton, president of the Traders State Bank of Arkansas City, had spent most of his active career in Kansas, began life as a teacher, afterwards was a railroad clerk, and by hard work and a certain special ability in financial affairs had promoted himself to his present standing and influential connections as a banker. The Traders State Bank of Arkansas City was organized in 1905 by B. C. Straughan, J. E. Heard and W. M. Bummell. The original capital was $25,000. On May 1, 1914, Mr. Creighton and his associates bought the institution, and besides Mr. Creighton the … Read more

Biography of Oliver Morton Williams

Oliver Morton Williams, one of the younger citizens of Kansas, has played his part efficiently as a teacher and business man, and is now manager and part owner of the Coffeyville Business College. This college is an institution noted for its thorough work in training young men and women for responsible positions in commercial affairs. A native of Kansas, Mr. Williams was born at Oak Valley, October 24, 1887. Several generations back his ancestors were living in Wales, and after coming to the United States settled perhaps first in New York, and afterwards went to Maryland. The great-great-grandfather’s name was … Read more

Biography of Zolo A. Emerson

Zolo A. Emerson. Through the business ability and courtesy of its owner the general merchandise store of Zolo A. Emerson in a comparatively short time has become an important source of supply to the people of Auburn and the surrounding vicinity. In addition to rendering this service to his fellow citizens, Mr. Emerson has a further claim to their esteem in the manner in which he is discharging the duties [p.1749] of postmaster, which office he has efficiently filled since his appointment in 1908. Mr. Emerson is a native of Holmes County, Ohio, born at Millersburg, September 24, 1873, one … Read more