Greenwood County KS Genealogy

Biography of John Pedroja

John Pedroja. One of the most reliable and progressive of the younger members of the Crawford County bar, who stands high in professional ability as a man of broad business and financial judgment, is John Pedroja, who since 1911 has been engaged in practice at Mulberry. He has also served the public well and conscientiously in the offices of city clerk and city attorney during the past four years, and is a citizen who has done much to advance the interests of his community. Mr. Pedroja was born at Gnosca, Switzerland, November 27, 1880, and is a son of Charles … Read more

Biography of C. G. Pierce

C. G. Pierce. A quarter of a century is a long time to be identified with any line of business in one location, and twenty-five or more years of continuous management of a country paper almost constitutes a record in itself. C. G. Pierce was the founder of the Severyite at Severy, Kansas, more than twenty-five years ago, and is still its editor and proprietor. He was born at Cobleskill, New York, January 1, 1869. His Pierce ancestors came out of Ireland and settled in New York in colonial days. His great-grandfather is buried at Fergusonville in Delaware County, New … Read more

Biography of James Cyrus Preston, M. D.

James Cyrus Preston, M. D. One of the foremost men of Buffalo, Kansas, is Dr. James Cyrus Preston, the pioneer physician, and for many years the leader in medical thought in Wilson County, and the wise adviser and stable supporter of public enterprises which have assisted greatly in the town’s development. Doctor Preston came first to Buffalo after some years of medical experience in Arizona, and thus was well prepared for the hardships and handicaps that attended his early days here, in 1889, and with the exception of an interim of five years, had been a continuous resident and a … Read more

Biography of Irvin F. Benest

Irvin F. Benest. The Benest family came to Kansas in 1871. Two years later came the great financial panic following the failure of Jay Cooke on the famous Black Friday. It was an era of wide spread distress, but Kansas people during those years had even more grievous burdens than hard times. The grasshoppers came as a plague, there were successive seasons of drouth, crops were a rarity, and there was little market for what the farmers did produce. It was during the height of the hard times of that decade that Irvin F. Benest, a lawyer and president of … Read more

Biography of Jesse S. Wilson

Jesse S. Wilson was a prominent and successful stockman in Illinois for many years, but in the spring of 1912 transferred his interests to Kansas. He spent a few months at Emporia but in the fall of that year located at Hamilton in Greenwood County. Mr. Wilson is proprietor of twelve hundred acres of land, constituting a splendid ranch, and some of the finest cattle and horses in the state are kept on that ranch or are shipped from there to market. Mr. Wilson is both a stock farmer and stock dealer. His ranch is situated five miles northwest of … Read more

Skaggs, Henry T. – Obituary

Enterprise, Oregon Henry T. Skaggs was born in Indiana, Sept. 13, 1848, and died at his home in Enterprise on Dec. 25, 1920, aged 72 years, 3 months and 7 days. When a young man he moved to Missouri, and soon afterward to Madison, Kansas, where on Sept. 18, 1881, he was married to Miss Effie Martin. About 31 years ago Mr. and Mrs. Skaggs moved to Dayton, Washington, and 28 years ago they moved to Wallowa county, locating near Flora. A year ago last October they moved to Enterprise. He leaves a wife, Mrs. Effie Skaggs, one daughter, Mrs. … Read more

Biography of Fred Schuyle Jackson

Fred Schuyle Jackson, of Topeka, prominent lawyer, former congressman, ex-attorney-general of Kansas, is one of the many able men who have made Kansas notable as a commonwealth. His father was Martin Van Buren Jackson, who bore a conspicuous part in the border warfare of Kansas. Fred S. Jackson was born April 19, 1868, and his birth occurred in the block house at Stanton near Osawatomie. His early education came chiefly from the public schools of Miami and Greenwood counties, and of earlier experiences and service readered should be mentioned five years spent in the schoolroom as a teacher, In the … Read more

Biography of William Thomas Grove, M. D.

William Thomas Grove, M. D. Doctor Grove had been one of the foremost physicians and surgeons of Eureka for twenty-two years. He is a man of high attainments in the profession. While most of his work had been in general lines he is a recognized expert in diseases of the eye, car, nose and throat and had largely specialized in that department of practice. His standing as a citizen is not less than that he enjoys in his profession. Doctor Grove found the road to a professional career somewhat uneven and punctuated with difficulties. He began working for his own … Read more

Biography of Howard F. Martindale

Howard F. Martindale was born at Madison, Kansas, June 5, 1872. He grew up on the Martindale homestead adjoining that town, attended the district school and later the Emporia High School, from which he was graduated in 1893. He spent the following autumn and the spring of 1894 in the University of Kansas, but the call of the farm and the prairies was too strong, and he did not return to school the next fall. Since that time Mr. Martindale had given his primary attention to farming and stock-raising, and had made a distinct success of both. He managed his … Read more

Biography of Robert Focht

Robert Focht, a sterling newspaper man of Kansas, is editor and proprietor of the Democratic Messenger, the only democratic paper published in Greenwood County. Mr. Focht had been a resident of Kansas since boyhood, and his family were pioneers of Greenwood County, and the different members have borne more than their individual share in its development and destiny. As the name indicates, the family is of German origin. The first American was George Focht. When a youth he left Germany and made the passage to America on a sailing vessel, arriving in the colonies when the Revolutionary war was still … Read more

Biography of Ray Broomfield

Ray Broomfield is one of the youngest bank officials in Kansas. He went with the Neal State Bank as cashier upon its organization in October, 1915, and his thorough knowledge of banking and his genial personality were a decided factor in the success of that institution. Mr. Broomfield is now cashier of the Home State Bank, Clearwater, Kansas. The Neal State Bank was started as a state bank and had a capital of $10,000. The officers are: A. N. McQuown of Wichita, president; C. W. Boone of Neal, vice president. Mr. Broomfield was born at Milton, Kansas, April 21, 1891, … Read more

Kansas Registrations of Enemy Aliens, 1917 – 1921

The series contains original affidavits of registration that record personal information about each registrant, their photograph affixed to the majority of documents, and the registrants fingerprints. All of these are specific to Kansas, and most have the actual documents attached.

Biography of William E. Robb

William E. Robb. The thriving and prosperous Town of Neal in Greenwood County stands on land which a number of years ago William E. Robb plowed and cultivated and ranged his stock over. From his farm he furnished the townsite, and while he had still extensive farming interests in that locality his main business is as a merchant in the Town of Neal. More than any other individual he had had a direct influence upon the growth and development of the community. Mr. Robb had an unusually interesting family history. From the data he had collected from time to time … Read more

Biography of William H. Squier

William H. Squier probably had more active connection with the commercial life of Beaumont than any other citizen. He is vice president of the Beaumont State Bank, conducts a large and successful hardware business and is also proprietor of the lumber yard there. Mr. Squier is a native of Pennsylvania, and that state was the home of the family for several generations. The Squiers are of both English and French descent. On immigrating from England more than a century ago they first located in New Jersey and afterward moved to Pennsylvania. Mr. Squier’s grandfather, Amzy Squier, spent all his life … Read more

Biography of Robert E. Kenner

Robert E. Kenner. No better lesson relative to the value of honorable effort intelligently directed can be found than that offered by the career of a man who has risen to a responsible position through his own initiative, and in this connection the life of Robert E. Kenner presents an example. Still a young man, he has worked his way to an important post, that of superintendent of the American Zinc, Lead and Smelter Company, at Dearing, Kansas, and in so doing has been dependent only upon his own resource and industry. Mr. Kenner was born at Eureka, Kansas, August … Read more

Biography of William A. Nelson

William A. Nelson, a real estate man at Fall River, knows the early pioneer, conditions of this section of Kansas from first hand. He was a homesteader in Greenwood County in the early ’70s. He passed through that trying period when grasshoppers, season after season of drouth, low prices for farm products and other conditions made the lot of the Kansas farmer one hardship after another. He came through it all, gained and still retains a large share of the landed wealth of Kansas, and is a man whose experience demonstrates that there is nothing whatever the matter with Kansas. … Read more

Biography of Asa Knowles Talbot

Asa Knowles Talbot. It is no small distinction in the business world to create and build up a business which is generally recognized as the leader of its kind in a city or county. That is the place occupied by the A. K. Talbot Harness and Manufacturing Company at Coffeyville. It is the leading concern in the handling of harness and other goods in Montgomery County, and Mr. Talbot has also developed a factory for the manufacture of leather novelties and is at the head of a very successful concern. While he has spent nearly all his life in Kansas, … Read more

Biography of Edwin Tucker

Edwin Tucker. Of pioneer Kansans and of men who made the state what it is today Greenwood County contributed no character of wider influence and of finer personality than the late Edwin Tucker. He was one of the very first pioneer settlers in the county, one of the builders of Eureka, achieved a splendid success in business affairs as a land owner and cattleman, participated in the public life of his home county and state at large, and many of the interests which he established and maintained are now being continued through his worthy son. The late Edwin Tucker was … Read more

Biography of Sylvester Freemont Wicker

Sylvester Freemont Wicker. In point of experience and continuous practice Mr. Wicker is one of the oldest members of the bar in Greenwood County. He had been identified with a general practice as a lawyer and many business affairs in that section for the past thirty-three years. He now had his home and interests at Eureka. The stock from which he is descended is Scotch-Irish. The Wickers settled in North Carolina during colonial times. Mr. Wicker’s father and grandfather were natives of the Old North state. His grandfather James Wicker was born in North Carolina in 1807, and was an … Read more

Biography of Ralph M. McKee

Ralph M. McKee is superintendent of the consolidated city schools at Neal in Greenwood County. He is one of the younger men engaged in educational work in Kansas, and had a highly creditable record for the work he had already done and stands high both among his fellow teachers and in his home community. Mr. McKee was born at Xenia, Ohio, December 1, 1893. His McKee ancestors were early settlers in America. Mr. McKee had strains of English and Irish ancestry, and inherits good qualities through both lines. His father, W. T. McKee, was born in Ohio in 1861, and … Read more