Independence Kansas

Biography of Edgar L. Farris

Edgar L. Farris, though one of the younger business men of Independence has utilized his opportunities to the best advantage and is now a partner in one of the leading insurance firms of that city. He was born in Clarksville, Arkansas, May 16, 1891. His family is of old southern stock, and settled in Alabama about revolutionary times. Grandfather Jasper Farris was born in Alabama in 1824, was a farmer and stockman, and in 1875 moved to Clarksville, Arkansas, where he died in 1900. F. M. Farris, father of Edgar L., was born in Alabama in 1856 and was nineteen … Read more

Biography of Joshua A. Stone

Joshua A. Stone. One of the old time citizens of Montgomery County was the late Joshua A. Stone, who identified himself with Independence and that locality soon after the country was open to settlement, and who impressed his ability and energy upon many local business activities. He was especially prominent in the coal mining industry. Mr. Stone died at his home in Independence April 30, 1914. Mrs. Stone, who is executrix of his estate, has proved herself a very competent business manager, and is one of the highly esteemed women of Montgomery County. Born in Centerville, Michigan, in March, 1846, … Read more

Biography of Frank Winfred Shelton, M. D.

Frank Winfred Shelton, M. D. One of the institutions which serve to give metropolitan character to the City of Independence is the Independence Hospital, the founder and builder of which was Dr. Frank Winfred Shelton, one of the most prominent surgeons of Southern Kansas. Doctor Shelton built this institution in 1906. It is situated on a commanding site at 706 South Fifth Street and in equipment and service, considering its accommodations, it is one of the best hospitals in the state. Besides the hospital building proper, Doctor Shelton erected a special building to serve as nurses’ dormitory, storerooms, laundry and … Read more

Biography of Millard Fillmore Wood

Millard Fillmore Wood. A little more than forty years age Millard F. Wood came to Montgomery County, a young school teacher. While he taught school for a time, he also interested himself in improving a homestead claim, and afterwards advanced rapidly in business and also in politics. He is now secretary and treasurer of the Ideal Supply Company. An Illinois man by birth, he was born at Aviston, Clinton County, November 12, 1850. His grandfather, Wiley Wood, was born in Virginia in 1791, and was a farmer and one of the early circuit riders of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In … Read more

Biography of Lyman L. Humphrey

Lyman L. Humphrey. As president and active manager of The Humphrey Investment Company, Independence, Kansas, Mr. Humphrey occupies a high position in financial affairs not only in his immediate locality but all over Southeastern Kansas and Eastern Oklahoma, in which field his company places around $1,500,000 annually on first farm loans for its Eastern clients and its business is constantly growing. Its principal client is The Union Central Life Insurance Company of Cincinnati, Ohio, but it also includes in its clientele a number of the largest savings banks and trust companies as well as private investors who have learned that … Read more

Biography of C. B. McVay

C. B. McVay is secretary and treasurer of the Western States Portland Cement Company of Independence. He has been identified with the manufacture and sale of cement for over fifteen years, that having been the chief work of his life. He was born in Yankton, South Dakota, in 1878. His ancestors, the McVays, were Scotch people who settled in Pennsylvania more than a century ago. The father, William H. McVay, was born at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1839, was reared and married near Warren County, Ohio, his wife, Rebecca Rutan, being a native of Trumbull County, Ohio. In 1876 he moved … Read more

Biography of Charles Sumner Risdon

Charles Sumner Risdon. Among the men who have lent dignity to the educator’s profession in Kansas, Charles Sumner Risdon is deserving of more than passing mention. Throughout his career he has been a resident of the Sunflower State, and from the time of his earliest ambitions for a career as an educator until he realized the attainment of his goal, he attended the educational institutions of the state. His standing in his profession was recognized in 1901, when he was appointed superintendent of schools of Independence, and this office he has filled so capably, that there has been no thought … Read more

Biography of Edwin F. Paul

Edwin F. Paul. Engaged in the retail grocery business at Independence, Montgomery County, Mr. Paul is one of the representative merchants of the younger generation in his native city, his birth having here occurred on the 5th of June, 1886. He is a son of Morgan J. and Della (Kilgore) Paul, the former of whom was born in 1845, in Ohio, where he was reared and educated, and the latter of whom was born in 1862, she being still a resident of Independence, where the death of her honored husband occurred in 1909, the subject of this review being the … Read more

Biography of Lyman U. Humphrey

Lyman U. Humphrey, the eleventh governor of Kansas, was a resident of this state forty-four years. The City of Independence, which was his home all these years except the time he spent in the state capital, will always honor his name, and his upright life and splendid record of public service serve to brighten the annals of the entire state. He was born at New Baltimore, Stark County, Ohio, July 25, 1844, and died at his home in Independence September 12, 1915. Few men can accomplish so much in a lifetime of seventy-one years. He had a worthy ancestry. His … Read more

Biography of Ivy E. Hancock, D. O.

Ivy E. Hancock, D. O. The ablest representative of the school of osteopathy in practice at Independence, Doctor Hancock, who has been in practice there for the past thirteen years and around her skill and thorough ability has built up a splendid clientele. Doctor Hancock is a native of Melrose, Iowa. Her great-grandfather came from Ireland and settled in this country in the early part of the last century. Her grandfather, William Vardaman Hancock, was born in Indiana in 1828, and went out to Iowa as a pioneer, following farming and stock raising there until his death at Plano in … Read more

Biography of W. T. Yoe

The Independence Tribune is one of the oldest papers in Kansas, with a record of continuous issue in one locality for forty-six years, and it is even older than that since the same plant had been used for publishing a paper in Missouri for several years before its removal to Independence, when that town was located on the frontier and at the very beginning of its growth and development. The Tribune ever since its establishment has been under the control of two veteran newspaper men, both brothers, W. T. Yoe, who is editor, and Charles Yoe, who is president of … Read more

Biography of Robert H. Childs

Robert H. Childs, now superintendent of the Petroleum Products Company plant in Independence, is one of the veteran oil men of America. His father was a pioneer in the oil fields of Western Pennsylvania, and Mr. Childs himself grew up in that environment, and took to the work as naturally as a New England youth goes to sea. There is probably not an important oil field in the country with which he has not been identified in some capacity or another. The Petroleum Products Company established a plant in Independence in 1908. The general officers of the company at Chicago … Read more

Biography of August Bauman

August Bauman. Because of their variety and importance, the interests which have engrossed the attention and abilities of August Bauman have brought him to the very forefront among the business men of Neodesha, with which city he had been most prominently identified for about thirty years. For the most part he is now directing his energies toward the advancement of his huge grain business, but various other interests also have the benefit of his sound advice and judgment. Mr. Bauman’s extensive connections have necessarily made him a very busy man, yet he had never found himself too actively employed in … Read more

Biography of John Hunt

John Hunt is one of the oldest business men in point of continuous service at Grenola, Kansas. He established a lumber business there more than thirty-four years ago, and today he is the only merchant furnishing lumber and building supplies to the people of that community. He had had a long and active career, and aside from his material achievement he may take special pride in the fact that he had reared a large family of self-respecting, honest and worthy children. He represents old American stock. The Hunts came originally from Wales and were settlers in New Jersey in colonial … Read more

Biography of Adolph Carl Stich

Adolph Carl Stich, who died at his home in Independence October 8, 1915, was identified with Independence more than forty years, and for many years was one of the foremost citizens of Kansas. Only one estimate could be placed on his career–it was constructive, efficient, positive, and redounded not so much to his own advantage as to the community in which he lived. He was a true type of the business and city builder. No other individual contributed so much to the material and civic advancement of Independence. The record of his life is one that can he read to … Read more

Biography of Owen A. Thompson

Owen A. Thompson of Independence represents one of the pioneer families of Kansas and had had an eventful career in nearly all parts of the world. Beturning to his native state a few years ago, he exercised his original mind in inventing a machins now extensively used in all the oil districts of the country, and had since applied himself to the management of the manufacturing plant known as the Safety Pulling Machine Company at Independence, of which he is secretary and treasurer. His grandfather, James A. Thompson, was descended from Scotch ancestors who came from Ayr, Scotland, to New … Read more

Biography of John Wallace Howe

John Wallace Howe. Few men are able to comprehend within a period of less than seventy years such a variety of experience and achievement as John Wallace Howe of Independence. He is one of the youngest vsterans of the Union army in the war between the states. Besides the part played by him as a faithful soldier in that struggle, he had been a farmer, a carpenter, had lived in a number of different localities, and was one of the pioneer settlers in Montgomery County, Kansas, having established his home there on the frontier more than forty-five years ago. Public … Read more

Biography of Walter L. McVey

Walter L. McVey is one of the able young members of the Independence bar, and had enjoyed extensive relations with the profession in Montgomery County for the past eight years. Though a native of Illinois, his life had been spent largely in this part of Southern Kansas. He was born at Marshall, Illinois, September 11, 1880. His father, William H. McVey, was born in the same state in 1833, and died in Independence, Kansas, in 1891. He was reared and married in Illinois and in 1883 moved to Montgomery County, Kansas. He devoted his life to the service of the … Read more

Biography of Thurman Hill

Thurman Hill, who is serving as county attorney, has identified himself with the community of Independence and Montgomery County as a rising young lawyer and as a public spirited citizen whose influence has already been displayed effectively as a campaign manager and through association with various public and business enterprises. His family has been identified with Kansas for more than forty years. His grandparents, John and Mary Hill, came from England to New York State about 1850. His grandfather, John Hill, was born in 1825, was a ship contractor, but in 1874 moved to Kansas and took up a homestead … Read more

Biography of Harry C. Weible

Harry C. Weible. When it is stated that Harry C. Weible moved out from Pennsylvania to Independence about thirteen years ago, it will be readily surmised that he is connected in some way with the oil or gas industry, and he is in fact one of the large oil producers in the Mid-Continent field and from his headquarters at Coffeyville directs extensive operations not only in Southern Kansas but in Oklahoma and Texas. Practically reared in the oil fields of Western Pennsylvania, he is the son of a veteran of the industry. Mr. Weible was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, … Read more