Fort Scott Kansas

Biographical Sketch of Hiero T. Wilson

Hiero T. Wilson, one of the first white settlers in Southern Kansas, was born at Russellville, Logan County, Kentucky, September 2, 1806, of Virginian ancestry. His father was a native of the Old Dominion, a Kentucky farmer and for many years surveyor of Logan County. Hiero Wilson was reared on his father’s farm and had some schooling and considerable training in mereantile pursults before he joined his brother in Indian Territory during the year 1834. The latter was then post sutler and trader at Fort Gibson, Cherokee Nation. In 1843, when Fort Scott was established as a military post, Hiero … Read more

Biography of David G. Cobb

David G. Cobb, who is president and active head of the Fort Scott Wholesale Grocer Company, one of the largest and oldest institutions of its kind in Southeastern Kansas, represents a family that became identified with Bourbon County when the first settlements were being planted there. His father was long a distinctive figure in both business and public affairs in the county. The old home, where David G. Cobb was born, was at Marmaton, which was one of the first points of settlement and business in the county and which from 1858 until 1863 was the county seat. David Ransom … Read more

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

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 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 Elisha Wesley McComas, Hon.

While the years of his greatest activity and achievement, the period which made him a national figure, were spent in other localities, a special interest attaches to the career of Elisha W. McComas in Kansas, not only because he lived in that state for many years, but members of his family still reside there. He was born in Cabell County in Old Virginia, the second in a family of six sons. His father was a prominent man in Old Virginia, served several terms in Congress, filled a position on the local bench, and other places of honor. The early life … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Charles W. Goodlander

Charles W. Goodlander was an able and large hearted business man, and among other tributes to his benevolence is the Home for Children which he founded at Fort Scott. He was a Pennsylvanian of English-Quaker ancestry, born at Milton, April 25, 1834. He obtained a partial high school education and mastered and followed the carpenter’s trade in Ponnsylvania, Maryland, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri, before deciding to venture west of the Mississippi in his search for a location. Finally, in April, 1857, he arrived at Fort Scott, the first passenger to come from Kansas City by stage coach. Mr. Goodlander at … Read more

Biography of Oscar R. Farris

Oscar R. Farris had an active experience as an educator for a number of years in the State of Indiana, where he was born, and about eight years ago he came to Kansas and had been a factor in vitalizing some of the schools of this state. He is now superintendent of the city schools system of Eureka. That is one of the best equipped public school organizations in Kansas, and his responsibilities and eapable administration make Mr. Farris one of the leading educators of Kansas. He was born in Knox County, Indiana, January 16, 1881. His Farris aucestors came … 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

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 Ellsworth L. Burton

Ellsworth L. Burton. One of the very able members of the Kansas Legislature in the session of 1915-16 was Representative E. L. Burton from Parsons. Mr. Burton is an attorney by profession, has spent most of his life in Kansas, and has some very influential and important connections in his part of the state. He was born at Mattoon, Illinois, April 30, 1868. The Burtons came from England and settled in the Carolinas during colonial days. Mr. Burton is a direct descendant of Cavalier Burton. His grandfather Alfred Burton was born near Guilford Court House in North Carolina, and died … 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

Biography of John Ross Newman

In the large metropolitan cities are found a number of men who are able to confine themselves exclusively to some one specialty in medicine or surgery, but in the smaller cities, however much a professional man may incline to specialization, he is almost invariably engaged in general practice. An exception to this rule is the case of Dr. John Ross Newman of Fort Scott. Doctor Newman is a surgeon of rare attainments and ability. For the past six years he had handled only surgical cases. He is one of the very few men in the entire state who can be … Read more

Biography of Edward C. Gates

Edward C, Gates. It was in 1887 that Edward C. Gates was admitted to the Kansas bar and undertook to build up a reputation and practice at Fulton, where be resided until he came to Fort Scott. In Fort Scott for the past twenty years he had enjoyed a reputation among the ablest members of the Kansas bar. Until 1913 he was actively associated with A. M. Keene in the firm of Keene & Gates, and since then had pratticed alone. The law had always represented to Mr. Gates a profession rather than an occnpation, and in all his work … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Capt. John Hamilton

Capt. John Hamilton, acting under orders from Gen. Zachary Taylor, founded Fort Scott, Kansas, in 1842. He was a native of Pennsylvania, a soldier in the regular army, and first came to Kansas as a youth of nineteen and a United States dragoon, stationed at Fort Leavenworth. In 1842, as a sergeant of the First Dragoons, under Capt. Benjamin D. Moore, he left Fort Wayne, Cherokee Nation, to assist in selecting a site and to establish a military post in Kansas. There wore twenty men in the party and, after selecting the ground, the captain and surgeon of the expedition, … 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 J. Clark Hicks

J. Clark Hicks. When 600 live and progressive business men of such a city as Fort Scott, all members of the Fort Scott Chamber of Commerce, choose one of their number as president, the choice is in the nature of one of the highest compliments and honors that could be paid, and is a responsibility which any man would appreciate. Recently the Chamber elected as president Mr. J. Clark Hicks, who is by no means one of the oldest business men of the city, but who by hard work and progressive methods has built up what is appropriately considered one … 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 Charles O. Tallman

Charles O. Tallman, one of the leading business men of Fort Scott, is a son of the late Thomas W. Tallman, whose career reflects much of the history of Fort Scott and Bourbon County from pioneer times until the present century. Bourbon County never had a more forceful character nor a man of greater popularity, than the late Thomas W. Tallman. He was born in Burlington County, New Jersey, October 25, 1826, and was eighty-nine years of age when he passed away December 27, 1915. His parents were Woodmanse and Elizabeth (Read) Tallman, also natives of New Jersey. Woodmanse Tallman’s … 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