Fort Scott Kansas

Slave Narrative of Phoebe Banks

Person Interviewed: Phoebe Banks Location: Muskogee, Oklahoma Date of Birth: October 17, 1860 Age: 78 In 1860, there was a little Creek Indian town of Sodom on the north bank of the Arkansas River, in a section the Indians called Chocka Bottoms, where Hose Perryman had a big farm or ranch for a long time before the Civil War. That same year, on October 17, I was born on the Perryman place, which was northwest of where I lived now in Muskogee; only in them days Fort Gibson and Okmulgee was the biggest towns around and Muskogee hadn’t shaped up … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Oscar Rice, Jr.

Oscar Rice was born in Terrell County, Georgia, August 23, 1865, and was about two years of age when his parents removed to Kansas. He attended the public schools in Fort Scott and after leaving high school he started out as a traveling salesman for the Fort Scott Wholesale Drug Company. He was successfully engaged as traveling representative of that concern until 1910, when he planned and organized The Western Automobile Indemnity Association. Mr. Rice for many years had been active in the Masonic Fraternity, is an active member of the Scottish Rite and is also a Knight Templar and … Read more

Biography of Rufus Joel Hill

Rufus Joel Hill. There are many points of historical interest pertinent to the personal career and ancestral record of this venerable pioneer citizen who is now living practically retired in his pleasant home at Independence, Montgomery County. On both the paternal and maternal sides he is a scion of fine old American colonial stock and individually he had precedence as being one of the pioneer members of the Kansas bar, as well as a broad-minded and public-spirited citizen who had played well his part in connection with the civic and material development and progress of the Sunflower State, within whose … Read more

Biography of Elisha H. Rollins

Elisha H. Rollins, partner of Mr. Ireland in the proprietorship of the Ireland & Rollins Planing Mills Company, and one of the progressive and energetic business men of Fort Scott, was born March 15, 1859, on Prince Edward Island, a son of John and Mary (Harker) Rollins, natives of that place, who passed their entire lives there in agricultural pursuits. The father died in 1909, at the age of seventy-five years, while the mother passed away many years before, being forty-seven years old at the time of her demise. The fourth in a family of nine children, Elisha H. Rollins … 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

Biography of Lloyd Lakin

Lloyd Lakin is one of the prominent young business leaders of Kansas. He is secretary, treasurer and active manager of the Lakin-McKee Manufacturing Company of Fort Scott. This is the largest individual industry in that city, the largest of its kind in Southeastern Kansas, and perhaps the largest in the entire West. The output is overalls. The Lakin-McKee overalls are distributed all over the Middle West. The goods are pre-eminent for quality and service. It is a business built up on character, and to a large degree the constructive and creative ideas of Lloyd Lakin have been fundamental in the … Read more

Biography of Edward Bell Payne, M. D.

Edward Bell Payne, M. D. With an understanding of what is awaiting the man of science, the many doors yet unopened which will lead to the further amelioration of the ills of mankind, and the constant yearning to add to his store of knowledge, it is practically impossible for the conscientious physician and surgeon to arrive at a state of mind where he is satisfied with what he has accomplished and, of necessity, he keeps on striving for perfection as long as life lasts. A long list of accomplishments in his profession have marked the career of Dr. Edward Bell … Read more

Biography of William R. Smith

One of the fine buildings bordering the State Capitol grounds at Topeka is the Kansas State Printing plant. That is the official headquarters of William R. Smith, state printer, and also secretary of the State Printing Commission and chairman of the School Book Commission of the state. Doubtless any citizen, and particularly a printer, would deem it an honor to be at the head of an establishment which experts pronounce to be the equal in mechanical equipment and operating effieiency of any commercial printing establishment in the country. When Mr. Smith went into office on July 1, 1915, he brought … Read more

Biography of C. F. Lutes

C. F. Lutes. The largest hand glass plant west of the Mississippi River is that of the Fredonia Window Glass Company, located at Fredonia, Kansas. The president and general manager of this enterprise, C. F. Lutes, had been connected with the glass industry ever since entering upon his career, and is a man of experience, resource and energy, who, since coming to Kansas in 1904, had occupied a position of importance among the business men of Fredonia. The success of the company with which he is identified, and its allied interests at Caney, Kansas and Okmulgee, Oklahoma, must be accredited … Read more

Biography of George James Sharp

George James Sharp during the thirty odd years he had lived in Elk County had been a farmer, school teacher, county official, abstractor and lawyer, and his friends and associates say that whatever he undertakes he does with all the enthusiasm of his nature and to the limit of his ability. He is an exceedingly useful citizen, and his services have for several years been untilized by the City of Howard through the office of mayor. Mr. Sharp was born on a farm in Hendricks County, Indiana, December 26, 1862, a son of William P. and Anna T. (Higgins) Sharp. … 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 Peter P. Elder

Peter P. Elder, deceased, ex-lieutenant governor of Kansas, and for many years a resident of Ottawa, was one of the most notable characters of Kansas and one of the select few who gave it a unique and substantial standing among the western states of the Union. He was a native of Maine, born in Somerset County, September 30, 1823; was of North-of-Ireland ancestry and Revolutionary stock. Mr. Elder spent the first thirty-four years of his life in his native county, getting an education and teaching school. He became an ardent abolitionist early in life, and in 1857 located in Franklin … Read more

Biography of William Lester Kellogg

William Lester Kellogg. The superintendent of motive power of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad, William L. Kellogg, had worked his way to his present position through his own initiative. At the outset of his career he had no favorable influences to assist him, and he had depended upon no happy circumstances to aid him in his promotion. The chances he had had have been the chances that have come to every man who had been placed in a position similar to his own; the reason that he had gone further than some of his fellow workmen is due to … Read more

Biography of William R. Reid

It was to the building of the business of the Fort Scott Grocery Company that the late William R. Reid gave the best years of his life. He was presminent as a salesman. He had the commercial integrity, candor, and enthusiasm which are the bedrock policies of salesmanship, but more than that he always justified his loyalty and confidence in the goods he sold. Moreover, wherever he went, and for nearly two score years he traveled through every section of the states of Kansas and Missouri, he carried with him the gospel of good cheer, and the citizens of numberless … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Ernest Edward Reid

Ernest Edward Reid, who had inherited many of the salesmanship qualities of his honored father, and is vice president of the Fort Scott Wholesale Grocery Company, was born in Chicago, Illinois, October 8, 1865. He was educated in the public schools of Fort Scott, in the State Normal School and was still a boy when he began his business career as a utility worker in a Fort Scott book store. Three years later he found a position more to his liking in the local postoffice, and after two years there became express messenger for the Adams Express Company. For nearly … Read more

Biography of William Irvin Hammel

William Irvin Hammel is a young business man at Moran, and since establishing himself in that town had built up a very prosperous enterprise as a grain dealer and owned a half interest in the only elevator in that locality. He had also distinguished himself by a very progressive administration of the local city affairs in the office of mayor. Mr. Hammel was born in Sangamon County, Illinois, July 30, 1876, but had spent his life since early boyhood in Kansas. His people, the Hammels, came out of Germany and were Pennsylvania settlers in the colonial times. His grandfather, Samuel … Read more

Biography of Miss Isa Allene Greene

Miss Isa Allene Greene grew up in Bourbon County, Kansas, and in that section taught her first school. Through her work she had become one of Kansas’ noted educators. She had proved herself a real teacher. She possesses the ability, rare as it is in any time or generation and rare even in these modern times when so much emphasis is placed upon it, of vitalizing and inspiring the intellectual activities of those under her charge, and all her work had been characterized by a depth of sympathy and understanding which is more necessary in any rational scheme of education … Read more

Biography of Calvin Arthur Davis

Calvin Arthur Davis. The superintendent of the Cudahy Refining Company at Chanute, Kansas, Calvin Arthur Davis, is one of the sons of the Sunflower state who has worked his own way to position and independence. A product of the farm, when he started upon his career his equipment consisted of ambition, determination and good common sense, and these qualities he directed so well that he soon became recognized as a man from whom large things could be expected. Promotion naturally followed, and his career has since been one of constant advancement. Mr. Davis was born on a farm south of … 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 Edwin D. Mikesell

Edwin D. Mikesell. The long and uniformly progressive career of Edwin D. Mikesell, of Fredonia, had been characterized by several noticeable personal traits, among which may be mentioned versatility of talents combined with thoroughness of preparation and depth of legal knowledge. A man of broad education and wide experience, of high personal character, courteous and able, he is not alone one of Wilson County’s strong legists, but a man who had served his community and his state in positions of official importance, in which he had demonstrated unusual executive ability. Mr. Mikesell was born on a farm nine miles southeast … Read more