Franklin County KS

Biographical Sketch of William E. Stich

William E. Stich. The largest general insurance office in Independence is owned and managed by William E. Stich. Mr. Stich is a brother of the late A. C. Stich, whose career as a business man and eitizen of Montgomery County had been described on other pages, where many of the detalls of the family history will be found. William E. Stich was born in Hanover, Germany, February 16, 1850. His parents came to this country in 1857 and located at Kalamazoo, Michigan. His early education was received in the schools there, and in the meantime he learned to be a … Read more

Biography of Edwin B. Morgan

Edwin B. Morgan. When Edwin B. Morgan came to Kansas in 1892, at the age of nineteen, he found his first opportunity for service and work as a school teacher. He taught in Linn County one year, and two years in Franklin County. Already his ambition was set upon the law as a career. Entering the State University at Lawrence, he pursued the studies of the law department until graduating LL. B, in 1898. In July of that year he began practice at Oswego, and was one of the rising young attorneys of that city for seven years. Since removing … Read more

Biography of Henry Herman Kiehl

Henry Herman Kiehl, who had lived in Kansas since the spring of 1870, is one of the foremost citizens of Lyndon. While the days of border ruffianism were past when he came to Kansas, his individual experience covers most of the period of growth and development. As a farmer he had a full share of the hardships and difficulties which the early agriculturists had to encounter and he fully deserves all the prosperity that had come his way. His grandfather was a native of Germany. His father Eli Kiehl was born in Pennsylvania, became owner of a brick yard and … Read more

Treaty of June 24, 1862

Articles of agreement and convention, made and concluded at Washington City, on the twenty-fourth day of June, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, by and between William P. Dole, commissioner, on the part of the United States, and the following-named chief and councilmen of the Ottawa Indians of the united bands of Blanchard’s Fork and of Roche de Bœuf, now in Franklin County, Kansas, viz: Pem-ach-wung, chief; John T. Jones, William Hurr, and James Wind, councilmen, they being thereto duly authorized by said tribe. Article 1. The Ottawa Indians of the united bands of Blanchard’s Fork and of Roche de Bœuf, having … Read more

Biography of Prof. James Anderson Yates

Prof. James Anderson Yates. From England to North Carolina, in colonial times, the Yates family may be traced by generations as it extended into Tennessee and Kentucky and 1916 finds it firmly and honorably established in other states. For two decades this name in Kansas has been connected with the educational field, the scholastic attainments of Prof. James Anderson Yates, the head of the departments of chemical and physical sciences, in the State Manual Training Normal School at Pittsburg, having won recognition in this and in other large institutions of learning. Professor Yates enjoys a wide acquaintance with the leading … Read more

Biography of Hon. James Ralph Anspaugh

Hon. James Ralph Anspaugh, as cashier of the Gridley State Bank, had been a factor in business affairs in that section of Kansas for a number of years. His recent capable service as a member of the State Senate from the Fifteenth Senatorial District had made his name known and appreciated over the state at large. The Fifteenth District which he represents comprises Coffey and Franklin counties. Senator Anspaugh is a native Kansan. He was born in a sod house that stood on his father’s claim in Russell County, Kansas, September 19, 1883. He is a son of John W. … Read more

Biography of Francis C. Herr M. D.

Francis C. Herr, M. D. One of the most widely known physicians in Franklin County is Dr. Francis C. Herr, who graduated from one of the oldest medical colleges in the country forty years ago, and had been in active practice at Ottawa since 1884. Born at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, December 1, 1852, he is a son of Amos F. and Anna (Frantz) Herr, both of whom are natives of Lancaster County. This is a very old and prominent family of early colonial German ancestry. Doctor Herr is a descendant of Hans Herr, who represented a Suabian family of Germany, where … Read more

Moravian Tribe

Moravian Indians. Mahican, Munsee, and Delaware who followed the teachings of the Moravian brethren and were by them gathered into villages apart from their tribes. The majority were Munsee. In 1740 the Moravian missionaries began their work at the Mahican village of Shekomeko in New York. Meeting with many obstacles there, they removed with their converts in 1746 to Pennsylvania, where they built the new mission village of Friedenshuetten on the Susquehanna. Here they were more successful and were largely recruited from the Munsee and Delaware, almost all of the former tribe not absorbed by the Delaware finally joining them. … Read more

Biography of Frank Geoffroy

Frank Geoffroy, who is a successful commission and grain merchant at Abilene, is a native of Kansas, and he and his people have been identified with this state since early pioneer days. Kansas was a territory and was known throughout the country as”bleeding Kansas” when his father and grandparents came and located as pioneers in Franklin County in 1855. His father, Ernest Geoffroy, was born near Metz, France, September 7, 1841, and was brought to America in 1849. The grandparents lived on a farm in Iowa for a few years, but in 1855 came out to Kansas and began their … Read more

1859 List of Munsee from Leavenworth County Kansas

This list was adapted for the web from a photocopy of a two-page typed document possessed by the family of Clio Caleb Church. Since it has no official heading or signature, the document appears to be someone’s transcription of an original report to the Office of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior. Likely this is a census of the Munsee who were moving from Leavenworth County to the new reservation in Franklin County, coinciding with the Treaty of 1859. It is not an enrollment list — it includes non-Indian spouses and there are no enrollment or allotment numbers. The document lists the person’s name, sex, and age, grouped by family unit.

Biography of Dale B. Whybark

Dale B. Whybark who originated from Kansas, was born at Lane, in August, 1887, and is a son of George S. and Mary R. (Walters) Whybark, both natives of that state. The father, who has always followed railroading, is now Superintendent of the Arkansas Central Railroad at Fort Smith, which responsible position he has held for many years. Dale B. Whybark was reared and educated in Fort Smith and after graduating from the high school there, accepted a position with the Drew Hardwood Lumber Company at De Kalb, Texas, remaining in their employ until 1908, when he came to Eufaula. … Read more

Biography of Herbert O. Caster

Herbert O. Caster, who, on February 2, 1914, qualified as attorney for the State Public Utilities Commission, and is now a resident of Topeka, had lived in Kansas for thirty-eight years, and is well known over the state, but particularly in his home County of Decatur, where before his admission to the bar he made a fine record for himself as an educator and an energetic factor in other affairs of public importance. When the Caster family came to Kansas in 1878 they took up a homestead in Decatur County. At that time the county was a sparsely settled regiMeigon, … Read more

Biography of William C. Suttle

William C. Suttle. Under modern conditions the water works of any thriving and prosperous community is one of the most important branches of the civic service, and its management requires abilities far beyond the ordinary. Fredonia boasts of one of the best water systems in Southeastern Kansas, and much of the credit for the present excellent conditions existing in this enterprising city is due to the capable and experienced work of the superintendent of the water works, William C. Suttle, who had been connected with this department for about eleven years and had been in his present position since 1913. … Read more

Biography of William S. Harsha

William S. Harsha, who since 1907 has continuously engaged in the real estate business in Muskogee and who at different periods in his life has been connected with various business enterprises which have constituted factors in the commercial development and up building of the state, was born in Albia, Monroe county, Iowa, February 8, 1857, and is a son of Samuel and Martha (Harrison) Harsha, who were natives of Pennsylvania and Virginia respectively. The father was a shoemaker by trade and in 1855 went to Iowa, settilng at Keokuk, where he remained for one winter. He next removed to Albia, … Read more

Biography of Frank Sigel Dietrich

The day of the lawyer who depended upon inspiration, and whose chief preparation for forensic victory was the acquisition of alcoholic stimulants, is past. The lawyer of today depends not alone upon inspiration, but also upon hard work in preparing his cases for trial, and upon their careful presentation and handling in the courts. Usually he has to convince hard-headed business men of the merits of his case, which involves nothing of sentiment or of sensationalism and much of pecuniary interest and of commercial right and wrong, pure and simple. He goes before a judge and jury cool, collected, alert, … Read more

Biography of Adam Loch

Adam Loch. The rewards attainable through a life of industry are forcibly illustrated in the career of Adam Loch, one of the leading and successful business men of Chanute and vice president of the Fidelity State Bank. Since early youth he had depended wholly and solely upon his own resources, working out his own success and steadily advancing to success and position along the commercial and financial path. His career should be an incentive for renewed effort by the youth of today who are starting life without friends or fortune to aid them. Mr. Loch was born at Springfield, Illinois, … 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 Elmer E. Glenn

Elmer E. Glenn. When Elmer E. Glenn was a young man he learned the blacksmith trade in the railroad shops at Ottawa, Kansas. He spent his early life on a farm near that city. The trade which he learned and worked at for a number of years had been the basis upon which he had built his present successful business at Sedan, where he is proprietor of machine shops specializing in the repair and manufacture of oil well tools. Though Mr. Glenn had spent most of his life in Kansas he was born at Mattoon, Illinois, November 11, 1874. His … Read more

Biography of Henry E. Dean

Henry E. Dean came to Kansas in 1885 at the age of eighteen. Then and for a number of years afterwards he was a humble worker in the ranks of the industrial army. Success did not come to him like a lightning flash, but as a result of long, steady and painstaking effort. For the first two years he was employed on farms in Leavenworth and Franklin counties. On removing to Kansas City, Kansas, in 1887, he found a job as teamster for one of the packing plants. Making himself known as one who could be trusted, and diligent in … Read more

Biography of David Crawford Thoroman

David Crawford Thoroman. The first of his name to come to Kansas, the late David Crawford Thoroman was for many years engaged in school teaching and farming in Coffey and Osage counties, and is still remembered by the older residents as a man of upright character, possessed of a high sense of justice. His experiences during the Civil war had placed upon him the handicap of being weak physically, but his energetic spirit and industry helped him to overcome this in large part, and throughout his career he was a useful member of whatever community he made his home. David … Read more