Fort Scott Kansas

Biography of Edward E. Dix

Edward E. Dix. The vocation of railroading continues to attract many ambitious young men when they enter upon life’s activities, and this field of activity has often proven rich in opportunity to those who have possessed the inclination to work industriously and faithfully, to scorn hardships, to face heavy responsibilities, and to give absolute devotion to the interests of the great systems which employ them. There is no place for those who do not thus prove themselves. Among the officials of almost every other line of business there are found men of sterling worth who would have succeeded well in … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Dr. R. F. Burgess

Dr. R. F. Burgess of Santa Ana, was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1834, and when he was quite young the family removed to New York State, and three years afterward to Michigan, locating in Washtenaw County, where they remained about twelve years. The father died in Montcalm County, that State, when the subject of this sketch was seventeen years of age, and the latter therefore had to look after the welfare of the family. He served three years in Company A, Twenty-first Michigan Infantry, during the last war, going out as a wagoner and having charge of an ordnance … Read more

Biography of Rev. William E. Means

Rev. William E. Means, proprietor of the Atwood Herald, was born at Paris, Edgar county, Illinois, June 28, 1850. He attended the district school during the winter, working on prepared to enter Paris high school. In 1874 he matriculated at the Northwestern University, and was graduated from the theological department of this well-known institution in the farm (luring the summer months, until the class of 1879. After graduation he was admitted to the Minnesota conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was appointed pastor of the Rushmore charge, where a hand-some four-thousand-dollar church was built, free from debt. In the … Read more

Biography of John C. Lardner, M. D.

Dr. John C. Lardner, born April 1, 1869, in Muscatine, Iowa, was a prominent physician and surgeon in Fort Scott, Kansas. His parents, John and Mary (Butler) Lardner, were Irish immigrants from County Galway who settled in Bourbon County, Kansas, in 1879. After working as a schoolteacher, Dr. Lardner earned his medical degree from Kansas Medical College in 1902 and established his practice in Fort Scott. He married Marie W. Germain in 1899, and they had one son, John Germain Lardner. Dr. Lardner was a Democrat and a member of the Catholic Church.

Biography of Austin McCreary Keene

Austin McCreary Keene. The subject of this sketch is one of the prominent and successful attorneys of Southeastern Kansas. He was born at Middletown, Ohio, September 4, 1865, the son of Marshall B. Keene and Jennette McCreary Keene. Marshall Keene was born in 1823 at Keensburg, Illinois, a village in Wabash County named for his forbears. The Keenes of Keensburg have been men of prominence in that locality, having served as members of the Illinois Asscmbly, and been notable physieians and manufacturers. Jennette MeCreary was born in Monroe, Ohio, in 1836, and was married to Marshall B. Keene in 1861. Mr. Keene … Read more

Biography of Joseph Henry Hoopingarner

Joseph Henry Hoopingarner has for twenty-five years been identified with the Methodist Conference in Kansas, though he has not spent all of that time in the active ministry. He is a large property owner and is now pastor of the leading church at Baxter Springs. He comes of a very interesting family of pioneers in Southeastern Kansas. Rev. Mr. Hoopingarner himself was born in Crawford County, Kansas, April 3, 1871, only a few years after the real settlement of that region began. His ancestry goes back to Wuertemberg, Germany, where his great-grandfather Coonrad Hoopingarner was born. Coonrad and a brother … Read more

The Seminole War of 1816 and 1817 – Indian Wars

colonel clinch

After the close of the war with Great Britain, in 1815, when the British forces were withdrawn from the Florida’s, Edward Nicholls, formerly a colonel, and James Woodbine, a captain in the British service, who had both been engaged in exciting the Indians and Blacks to hostility, remained in the territory for the purpose of forming combinations against the southwestern frontier of the United States. Nicholls even went so far as to assume the character of a British agent, promising the Creeks the assistance of the British forces if they would rise and assert their claim to the land which … Read more

Biography of Charles Estabrook Cory

Charles Estabrook Cory, of Fort Scott, divides with Hon. J. G. Slonecker, of Topeka, the honor of being the two oldest referees in bankruptey in continuous service in the State of Kansas, Both were appointed to this office in 1898, before the Bankruptey Law actually went into effect. Mr. Cory received his first appointment from Hon. Cassius G. Foster, and was continued in office by reappointment from Judge William O. Hook, and his last several appointments came from Hon. John C. Pollock. As a lawyer Mr. Cory had been identified with Fort Scott for over thirty years. He began his … Read more

Biography of Perry D. Cover

Perry D. Cover is one of Riverside’s early settlers, and has been associated with her various industries for the past fifteen years. He is a native of Richland County, Ohio, dating his birth in 1843. His parents were Daniel Cover, a native of Frederick County, Maryland, and Lydia Cover, nee Stevenson. Mr. Cover was reared to agricultural pursuits on his father’s farm until 1862. He then volunteered in the service of his country and enlisted as a private soldier in Company D, Eighty-seventh Ohio Volunteers. His regiment was sent East, and after some time in camp at Baltimore, was placed … Read more

Biography of Nelson F. Carr

It is more than six decades since Nelson F. Carr became a resident of Oklahoma and he is known to the people of Bartlesville and Washington county as the “Pioneer of Big Caney.” A native of New York, he was born in Wilton, Saratoga county, September 2, 1844, a son of William Henry and Sarah M. (Clancy) Carr, the former also a native of the Empire state, while the mother’s birth occurred in Vermont. He has a very faint recollection of his father, who died in September, 1848, at the age of thirty-one years. In 1859 the widowed mother, with … Read more

Biography of John H. Crider

John H. Crider. A continuous practice as a member of the Fort Scott bar since 1882 gives John H. Crider a distinction not only as one of the oldest members of the local bar, but also as one of the most successful. From the first Mr. Orider has looked upon the law not so much as a vocation as a profession requiring all the loyalty and service of his nature and throughout has kept his work in full accord with the high standards and dignity of his vocation. It may be a matter of interest to recall that Mr. Crider … Read more

Biography of Frank William Davis

Frank William Davis. One of the best known among the real estate and insurance men of Fort Scott, is Frank William Davis, who, still a young man, has already gained an enviable position in business circles. A peculiar and particular genius is necessary to the man who would acquire success in the real estate and insurance field. The business is identical with no other, and many men who have risen to prominence in other lines have scored naught but failures when they have entered this field. Mr. Davis, however, possesses the qualities of acumen, a pleasing personality and a knowledge … Read more

Biography of George A. Crawford

George A. Crawford, the founder of Fort Scott, a well known editor and public man and several times a gubernatorial candidate, was born in Clinton County, Pennsylvania, July 27, 1827, of Scotch-Irish-German stock. After recejving an aendemie education and graduating from Jefferson College, he taught school in Kentucky and Mississippi, when he returned to Pennsylvania to study law. While still reading for the bar, he became edjtor and proprietor of the Clinton Demoernt. During the early ’50s he took an active part in politics against the Know-Nothings and in 1855 was a delegate to the Pennsylvania Demeratie State Couvention. In … Read more

Biography of David Prager

David Prager. It was the influence of his personality and character as much as his successful business activities that made David Prager so useful and valuable a citizen of Fort Scott, where he resided for over forty years. His carcer illustrates the fact that the successful man is not necessarily the selfish man. He did not keep the resources of his heart nor of his material means to himself, but dispensed them with free hand among his family, his friends and the entire community. He was one of Fort Scott’s most beloved and best known citizens. David Prager was born … Read more

Biography of Christopher Leonidas Aikman

Christopher Leonidas Aikman, who was admitted to the Kansas bar over a quarter of a century ago, had been in practice at El Dorado and much of the time had been an associate of his brother, Judge Aikman. He was born at London, Kentucky, October 22, 1865. He was six years of age when the family came to Butler County, Kansas, and here he attended country schools and the town schools at Augusta and El Dorado. He was also a student in the Fort Scott Normal College at Fort Scott, and for a number of years before entering the legal … Read more

Biography of Charles F. Miller

Charles F. Miller. In making mention of some of the business firms of Fort Scott the name of C. F. Miller stands as a representative of an established business in the implement, vehicle and automobile line. Mr. Miller had virtually grown up with the business, which through the years had gradually expanded and grown and now occupies an important place among the city’s commercial institutions. Mr. Miller was born and reared in Fort Scott, his parents being among the early settlers, having come to Kansas in 1859. Mr. Miller comes of English, German and Scotch ancestry, and is also a … Read more

Biography of James Henry Boice

James Henry Boice. In 1877 the late F. S. Boice arrived at Galena, and from that time forward was actively engaged in the mining operations that have always formed the basis of the prosperity of that city. For fully forty years the family has been prominently represented at Galena both in the mining industry and in mercantile and other affairs, and the work which was begun by the late F. S. Boice has been continued along even broader lines by his son James Henry. This is a family whose origin was in Scotland. From that county the father of F. … Read more

Biography of James Frederick O’Connor

James Frederick O’Connor. The stern competition and exacting conditions of twentieth century business progression have resulted in specialization in every line of industrial and constructive activity. Men of marked ability have proved beyond question of doubt, through consecutive action and comprehensive investigation, that the best and most productive results are secured by a consistent devotion to some particular line of effort. The reason for this is that, with so many competitors it is practically impossible for a single individual to become an expert in all lines. When he entered upon his career, James Frederick O’Connor recognized the fact that the … Read more

Biography of Franklin A. Jewell

Franklin A. Jewell. That distinctive ability of leadership in many affairs which had always been associated with the Jewell family in Crawford County had been a conspicuous possession of Franklin A. Jewell, who still lives at Arcadia, the old family seat. The eldest son of the late Lewis R. Jewell, a founder of Arcadia, and grandson of Colonel Jewell, whose distinguished career as a Kansas pioneer and soldier had been sketched elsewhere, Franklin A. Jewell was born in a little log house on the neutral lands now part of Crawford County, near Arcadia June 30, 1867. His early training in … Read more

Biography of John H. Rice

John H. Rice had the distinction of having made his mark in two states of the Union of widely different tendencies–Georgia and Kansas. He was born in Greene County, Tennessee, November 14, 1825, and his father, a native of Virginia, was surveyor of the county, named for twenty-six consecutive terms. Mr. Rice commenced his higher education at Tusculum College, in his native county, of which his maternal uncle, Dr. Samuel W. Doak, was president. He was admitted to the bar in 1845 and, a few months afterward, opened an office at Cassville, Georgia. In 1855, in addition to conducting a … Read more