Greenwood County KS

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 R. P. Kelley

R. P. Kelley. While the law had been his profession and he had been a member of the Eureka Bar continuously since 1884, R. P. Kelley had found his time increasingly absorbed by his various business affairs and interests. Financial success had come to him in large measure, and he had property and business interests in diverse parts of the country. He had traveled considerably for recreation, had covered most of the states of the Union and Canada, and had well defined opinions on events and affairs outside of his immediate province. Mr. Kelley is a native of New England … Read more

Biography of Alonzo F. Dove

Alonzo F. Dove, postmaster at Hamilton, is a native of Greenwood County and son of a pioneer family there. For many years he followed the work of educator in his native county and since retiring from the school room had been engaged in telephone work and had handled loans and insurance at Hamilton, where his last teaching work was done, and during the present administration was appointed to the office of postmaster. Mr. Dove’s English ancestors emigrated to Virginia in the colonial period of our history. In Rockingham County of that state was born Henry Dove on February 7, 1765. … 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

Biography of Harris W. Manning, M. D.

Harris W. Manning, M. D. The country along the banks of the Cottonwood River around Emporia had become a landmark in Kansas literature, largely due to the ability of William Allen White in investing those scenes with literary color and description. It was along the hanks of the farnous Cotton wood, four miles west of Emporia in Lyon County, that Dr. Harris W. Manning, a prominent physician and a specialist at Eureka, was born September 20, 1868. His father, Patrick W. Manning, belonged to the colony of earliest settlers in Lyon County, having homesteaded a claim there about the middle … Read more

Biography of Joseph Allen Fuller

Joseph A. Fuller is clerk of the district court of Greenwood County, with home and offices at Eureka. For a man not yet thirty years of age he had had a great variety of experience, had been a successful teacher, and had also been a participant in the farming and stock raising activities of his home county. His Fuller ancestors came to the colonies in the Mayflower. His grandfather was Joseph Allen Fuller, for whom he was named. The grandfather was born in Illinois, and in 1860 came out to Kansas and was one of the early settlers at Emporia. … Read more

Biography of George Washington Smith

George Washington Smith. On first coming to Kansas thirty-three years ago Mr. Smith engaged in educational work, and was at the head of several city school systems for a number of years. He finally entered business at Lawrence, living in that city while his own children were finishing their educations, and in recent years had resumed teaching and is now superintendent of the city schools of Neosho Falls. He is one of the most widely experienced and competent school men in Kansas. He was born at Knoxville in Marion County, Iowa, May 25, 1860. His paternal ancestors came out of … 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 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 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 Orval Duane Allis

Orval Duane Allis is a Kansas educator, superintendent of schools at Virgil. He is a graduate of Baker University, is a native of Kansas, and his people settled in the state while the Civil war was in progress. Mr. Allis had in his veins the blood of a substantial ancestry, the English and Holland Dutch predominating. His paternal ancestors came from England to Vermont in colonial times. His great-grandfather, William Allis, was born in Vermont, but early moved to Steuben County, New York, where he married, where he spent his career as a farmer, and where he died. F. G. … 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 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

Biography of James L. Fitzmorris

James L. Fitzmorris is a native of Kansas, was a soldier in the famous Twentieth Kansas Infantry during the Philippine war, had gained more than a local reputation as a blooded cattle raiser and extensive rancher, and had also played a worthy part as a citizen of Fall River, where he is now serving as mayor. Mr. Fitzmorris was born in Elk County, Kansas, July 25, 1875. His father, Morris Fitzmorris, who was a very early settler in Kansas, was born in Ireland in 1843, a son of Thomas and Margaret (Carney) Fitzmorris. Thomas Fitzmorris in old age came to … 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 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 Walter A. Woods

Walter A. Woods was elected sheriff of Greenwood County in 1914. That his record during the first term was thoroughly appreciated by his fellow citizens is amply vouched for in the fact that on November 7, 1916, he was re-elected for another term by the significant majority of 1,826. Mr. Woods is as capable in public office as he had been in his private business affairs, and is one of the most thoroughly trusted and popular citizens of the county. Though most of his life had been spent in Kansas Mr. Woods was born in Barton County, Missouri, July 3, … 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 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 Harry Pray Study, A. B., A. M.

Harry Pray Study, A. B., A. M. Among the learned callings there is none, perhaps, that demands a greater degree of patience, tact, specialized knowledge, judgment and natural executive ability than that of the educator, and the individual who enters into this important field, selecting it as a calling, is called upon to make many personal sacrifices and to give many of the best years of his life unreservedly to its demands, often without the emoluments that would be attached to an equal amount of labor expended in another direction. However, there are many satisfying rewards which come to the … Read more