Harper County KS

Biography of Rev. Daniel Kenneally

Rev. Daniel Kenneally came to Kansas fresh from his studies and his ordination as a Catholic priest in Ireland and after a few months at Wichita was assigned to the position as rector of the Immaculate Conception Church at Danville in Harper County. Danville had one of the oldest Catholic parishes in Harper County, established fully thirty years ago, and it had been growing in membership rapidly during Father Kenneally’s administration. He represents an old family of County Cork, Ireland, and was born at Ballylanders, Cloyne, in that county, May 3, 1883. He was the one of a large family … Read more

Biography of Hon. F. M. Benefiel

Hon. F. M. Benefiel. The State of Kansas can justly lay claim to many advantages, among these being a general citizenship that is enlightened and discriminating. It knows well how to choose its representative men, those to whom it entrusts its public responsibilities. Occasionally a mistake may be made but when public favor is shown to the same individual year after year and under many changing political conditions, it is made plain that merit and not mere popularity is at the root of such action. Among the favorite sons of Montgomery County is F. M. Benefiel, at present city collector … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Carl H. Skinner

Carl H. Skinner is superintendent of the city schools of Nortonville. He had been engaged in school work since before he attained his majority, and is one of the school men who are thoroughly in love with their calling and profession. Mr. Skinner possesses that fundamental requisite of a good teacher–a love for and understanding of young people. That is worth more than a bundle of academic degrees. But he also possesses in addition the technical skill and the experience which enable him to guide and administer a school system. A native of Kansas, Mr. Skinner was born at Burden … Read more

Lee, Arda Maria Fisher – Obituary

Mrs. M. D. Lee, a resident of this city since 1890, died last Thursday night [April 6, 1922] at the home of her daughter, Mrs. H. W. Brownfield, 315 North Jennings. Funeral services were held at the home Sunday afternoon, the sermon, being preached by Rev. H. W. Cummings, pastor of the Methodist Church, of which Mrs. Lee was a member. Mrs. Lee was a quiet, unassuming woman, a great lover of home and family, and was greatly respected and loved by all who knew her. Although she had been practically an invalid for five years, she was always hopeful … Read more

Biography of John Wilson Bogue, Hon.

Hon. John Wilson Bogue. It is not possible for every man to succeed in both business and public life. Each line of endeavor demands certain specific characteristics, and few there are who have so many differentiating ones, or are capable of adapting those which they possess so as to make them eminently fitting for divergent avenues of progress. Conditions in any live community are exacting; they demand much from the citizens of a prosperous and growing city before they are crowned with success. But there are some men who seem possessed in equal degree of the qualities which make for … Read more

Lee, Marshall F. – Obituary

Thursday at 10:3:00 PM funeral services will be held in the Miles Memorial Chapel for Marshall F. Lee. The Rev. Edwin W. Parker, Methodist minister, will conduct the rites. He will be taken to the Forest Park Cemetery at Anthony, KS for burial in the family plot. Graveside services are scheduled for 3 PM. Lee, 70, died Tuesday morning at his home [March 2, 1948], 1019 N Union Street. He had been in failing health for the past eight years and had been confined to a wheel chair for 16 months. Formerly in the dry cleaning business here, Lee had … Read more

Biography of Thomas Azro Noftzger

Thomas Azro Noftzger had long been successfully identified with the legal profession in Kansas, and is now senior member of the firm of Noftzger & Gardner, with offices in the Beacon Building at Wichita. His partner is Mr. George Gardner. Mr. Noftzger was born November 15, 1861, in Jackson Township of Kosciusko County, Indiana. His father, Levi J. Noftzger, was born September 3, 1836, and is still living at the age of four score. The mother, Mary C. Noftzger, also living, was born September 2, 1840. Party through the liberality of his parents and partly through his own ambitious determination … Read more

Biography of Albert A. Hilliard

Albert A. Hilliard is a native of Harper County, son of the oldest living pioneer around Attica, and had made his mature years count chiefly in the field of banking, in which he had a broad experience. He is now cashier of the First National Bank of Attica. Mr. Hilliard was born in Harper County at the old homestead three miles cast of Attica April 10, 1884. His first American ancestor was his grandfather, John Hilliard, who was born in Ireland and when a young man came to New York State and about sixty years ago settled at Wilmington, Illinois, … Read more

Biography of Lester Martin Combs

Lester Martin Combs has been an active newspaper man since he graduated from Baker University five years ago and is now editor, manager and treasurer of the Anthony Republican, the official paper of Harper County. The Republican is the oldest paper in Harper County and was established a few years after the county was organized in 1879. The first editors and publishers were George W. Maffet and Charles Metcalf. For several years in the late ’80s the Republican had a daily edition. At the present time the Republican is printed at a modern plant on South Bluff Street. The Anthony … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Volney B. Ballard

Volney B. Ballard has been a leading factor in business affairs at Attica since 1910, is proprietor of the only drug store of the town, and is also the leading banker. Mr. Ballard was born at Huntsville in Reno County, Kansas, August 22, 1883. His ancestors settled in New York from England in Colonial times, and some of them fought as soldiers in the Revolutionary war. His father is Volney B. Ballard, Sr., a resident of Attica. He was born in Jefferson County, New York, in 1844, grew up and married there and learned the blacksmith’s trade in early life. … Read more

Biography of John Charles Palmer

John Charles Palmer is the popular superintendent of schools of Harper County. He is the only county superintendent to hold the office three consecutive terms, and also had the distinction of being the only candidate for that office who succeeded in carrying every precinct in the county. That honor was given him at the last two elections. Mr. Palmer had made education his life work and his activities in Harper County have been a source of influence and upbuilding to every school with which he had been individually connected or over which his supervision extends. Superintendent Palmer was born in … Read more

Lee, Marshall Dorr – Obituary

After a long and painful illness, interspersed with periods of convalescence, M. D. Lee died at his home [November 22, 1899] in this city last Wednesday morning. Mr. Lee was born in the State of Indiana, on January 6, 1844, and married to Miss Arda Fisher on December 31, 1874. In 1888 he came to Harper County where he resided continuously up to the time of his death. Mr. Lee was one of our prominent citizens and business men. He was a member of the M. E. Church and of the Knights and Ladies of Security. While engaged in the … Read more

Biography of Hon. William M. Duffy

Hon. William M. Duffy, attorney at law in Checotah and now serving his first term as justice of the peace, was born in Callaway County, Missouri, on the 21st of August, 1866, a son of Mathew and Caroline (Ellis) Duffy. The father was born in Ireland and came to America when a young man, locating in Missouri, where he engaged in farming. He followed agricultural pursuits the remainder of his life and died in 1874, one of the prominent and representative citizens of the community in which he resided. Mrs. Duffy was born in Missouri and her death occurred in … Read more

Fisher, James R. – Obituary

James R. Fisher died Thursday morning, March 1, 1894, at 4:30 o’clock, at the home of his son three miles west of Anthony. The deceased was one of our oldest and most highly respected citizens and his death is the result of a prolonged and painful sickness, having been confined to the house for more than a year with rheumatism. Mr. Fisher was a native of Connecticut, Fairfield County, Parish of Middlesex. He was married to Maria Ayers on the 22nd of April 1841 who still survives him. A sister Catherine, living at Carthage, Mo., is the only surviving member … Read more

Biography of Walter J. Eilerts, M. D.

Walter J. Eilerts, M. D., in active practice at El Dorado and associated with Dr. F. E. Dillenbeck, one of the oldest and best known physicians in that part of the state, is a native of Kansas and his people were pioneers in Harvey County. Doctor Eilerts was born at Annelly in Harvey County, Kansas, December 27, 1881. His father, John Eilerts, was born in Germany, in 1837. The family came to America in 1846, and Grandfather Eilerts spent the rest of his life as a farmer in Illinois. He died at Chapin in that state. John Eilerts was nine … Read more

Fisher, Frances Rebecca – Obituary

Died: Miss Frances Rebecca Fisher, Monday, May 23, 1910, at the home of her sister and only near relative, Mrs. M. D. Lee, of troubles incident to old age. Born in Allensville, Ind., Sept. 13, 1845, Miss Fisher came to Harper County twenty two years ago. She taught school in the county for thirteen years, four in the Hopewell School, one in Bluff City and the rest in Anthony. She was a deeply religious woman, who tried to impress the need of a religious life upon her pupils with the result that from scholars under her care there was always … Read more

Biography of E. Clate Fair

E. Clate Fair. As a young man of seventeen years Mr. Fair accompanied his parents on their removal from Ohio to Kansas, in 1884, and here he had been closely and successfully concerned with the retail drug business during the long intervening period of more than thirty years. In 1904 he opened his present handsomely appointed and well equipped drug store at 211 North Pennsylvania Avenue in the thriving little City of Independence, the judicial center of Montgomery County, and his establishment is one of the leading prescription pharmacies in the county, with a substantial and representative patronage. He had … Read more

Biography of Emery Trekell, M. D.

Emery Trekell, M. D. On the wall of his office at Harper hangs a diploma showing Doctor Trekell is a graduate in medicine from Northwestern University of Chicago. Immediately after leaving that school in 1910 he took up active practice in Kansas, and for the past three years had been looking after a very large and accumulating professional business at Harper. Doctor Trekell though born at West Union in Cass County, Missouri, March 13, 1877, had some interesting historical family connections of early days in Kansas. He is of a family that came to the United States before the Revolution. … Read more

Biography of William M. Burkholder

William M. Burkholder is one of the younger native Kansans filling places of responsibility and action and recently became proprietor and editor of the Anthony Bulletin. He had one of the older papers of Harper County. The Bulletin had enjoyed an independent existence since 1891, but is a continuation of several earlier papers. The old Harper County Enterprise was founded at Anthony in 1884, was consolidated in 1891 with the Alliance Bulletin of Harper, and was continued under the name Weekly Bulletin. The editor and publisher prior to Mr. Burkholder’s ownership was R. P. McColloch. The Bulletin is independent in … Read more

Fisher, Maria Ayers – Obituary

Grandma Fisher [wife of James R. Fisher] died at her home [November 5, 1898] in this city last Saturday morning at 7 o’clock,, at the advanced age of 81 years. Mrs. Fisher was born in New York in 1817; and at an early age moved to Switzerland County, Indiana. In 1877 she moved to Harper County and has been a resident ever since. The deceased leaves two sons, residents of Indiana, and two daughters, Mrs. M. D. Lee and Miss Fannie Fisher and a son, James Fisher of this city. The funeral was held at the family residence Monday afternoon … Read more