Independence Kansas

Biography of Orvis Milton Bloom

Orvis Milton Bloom, one of the well known oil producers living at Independence, Kansas, has been closely identified with the oil districts of the southwest for over twenty years. He was born in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, February 9, 1873, a son of A. W. and Rebecca (MacCracken) Bloom. His mother is now living at Independence. Mr. Bloom was one of a large family of children, and his brother, C. L. Bloom, has been one of the most successful oil operators in the southwest. When O. M. Bloom was five years of age his parents moved to Fulton County, Indiana, and … Read more

Biography of William J. Bovaird

William J. Bovaird. Due to the important position occupied by Independence in the oil and gas fields of Kansas and Oklahoma, it had become the center of many large business corporations, and one of these is the Bovaird Supply Company of Kansas, whose president is William J. Bovaird. Mr. Bovaird had been identified with the manufacture of tools and apparatos used in the oil fields since an early age, his father having established a business of that kind in Western Pennsylvania in the early days. In 1903 Mr. Bovaird located at Independence and established the Bovaird Supply Company, at first … Read more

Biography of George Washington Wingate

George Washington Wingate. The career of George Washington Wingate, of Liberty, Kansas, is an expression of practical and diversified activity, and in its range has invaded the fields of agriculture, business, finance, education, politics and society, all of which have profited by the breadth and conscientiousness which are characteristic of the man and his work. As a business man be developed several enterprises into paying ventures, as a banker he has made an honorable place for himself, in public life his services have been of exceeding value to his community, and as a member of society he has constantly endeavored … Read more

Biography of Camden L. Bloom

C. L. Bloom. One of the most picturesque careers in the mid-continent oil and gas fields has been that of Camden L. Bloom of Independence. By an unusual capacity for hard labor and by a foresight seasoned by long and active experience he made one large fortune, which was swept away in the panic of 1907. With a few dollars realized by mortgaging his home, he made a new start, and today his operations and holdings would constitute another modest fortune at least. His life began in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, March 14, 1868. His people, the Blooms, came from Germany … Read more

Biography of Mary Pearl Smith, D. O.

Mary Pearl Smith, D. O. The theory upon which osteopathy rests is that most diseases and pains are due to some mechanical interference not permitting a free flow of forces and nourishment between the parts of the human anatomy so as to establish normal tissue and harmony of conditions. This adjustment theory had long since passed the experimental stage, and osteopathy is now a widely recognized science. It is a sane factor in lessening the suffering of mankind, and through it, in many thousands of cases, there had been re-established harmony of conditions and action known as health. A capable … Read more

Biography of Chester Stevens

Chester Stevens, representing a pioneer family in Montgomery County, had been an active factor in local affairs and in the legal profession for the past ten years. He is now serving as county auditor, and also enjoys some influential and profitable connections as a lawyer with offices in Independence. Some of his ancestors fought in the American Revolution, and the Stevens family came from England and settled in New York in colonial times. His grandfather, Chauncey Stevens, was born in New York, and went as a pioneer to the State of Indiana, where he followed farming until his death. Chester … Read more

Biography of Charles H. Overly

Charles H. Overly is associated with Owen A. Thompson at Independence as co-inventor and active partner in the Safety Pulling Machine Company, and while Mr. Thompson superintends the manufacture of that useful device he had exercised his abilities as a salesman in distributing it throughout the oil fields of the country. Mr. Overly was born near St. Mary’s, Ohio, September 8, 1865. His ancestors came from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to Ohio in the early days of the latter state. His father Joseph K. Overly was also born near St. Mary’s, Ohio, and died at Lamont, Oklahoma, April 1, 1916. As … 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 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 Frederic M. Wilhelm

Frederic M. Wilhelm. When a boy in his early teens Frederic M. Wilhelm began working for himself and has risen from the position of an office employe to secretary of the Prairie Pipe Line Company of Independence. He has been closely identified with the present company and the Prairie State Oil and Gas Company at Independence for the past twelve years. Thirty-three years of age, Mr. Wilhelm was born at Decatur, Indiana, January 6, 1883. His father, George Wilhelm, was born in Germany in 1854, and when ten years of age ran away from home and soon afterwards found his … Read more

Reeves, Marie A. Ragsdale Mrs. – Obituary

Marie A. Reeves, 84, of Nampa, Idaho, a former Baker City resident, died Nov. 18, 2000, at a Nampa care center. Her funeral was Monday at the Flahiff Funeral Chapel at Caldwell, Idaho. Interment was at Canyon Hill Cemetery in Caldwell. Mrs. Reeves was born on Feb. 3, 1916, at Roanoke, Texas, to Henry and Maude Williams Ragsdale. She was reared and educated in the Midwest and graduated from high school in Kansas. On June 10, 1937, she married Clifford Reeves at Independence, Kan. The couple moved to the Oregon/Idaho area in the early 1940s. Mrs. Reeves worked in an … Read more

Biography of Richard Watson Argue

Richard Watson Argue, who died April 24, 1916, was very well and prominently known in the oil industry of the Mid-Continent field, lived at Independence a number of years, and Mrs. Argue, his widow, is still a resident there and had proved her resourcefulness as a business woman in looking after the extensive properties left by Mr. Argue at the time of his death. He was born near Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, March 1, 1845, a son of John Wilson Argue, who was born in County Cavan, Ireland, went to America early in life, and followed farming in Canada. He died … Read more

Biography of O. F. Walke

O. F. Walke who has spent most of his life in Kansas has developed a very substantial business career, and for several years has been proprietor of the Independent Laundry, one of the best equipped establishments of its kind in the southern section of the state. He is of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and his great-grandfather came from the North of Ireland, and was an early farmer in Ohio. Mr. Walke’s grandfather, William Walke, was born in Ohio in 1840, came to Kansas about a quarter of a century ago, and was an active farmer until he retired and died at Columbus, … Read more

Biography of Walter R. Pratt

Walter R. Pratt. In 1899 Mr. Pratt established himself in business in the City of Independence, Montgomery County, and he had not only continued as one of the representative factors in the business activities of this community, but had also so shown his civic loyalty and progressiveness as to be called upon to serve as mayor of the city, of which office he was the incumbent one term and in which he gave a most effective administration. Mr. Pratt is of Scotch and English lineage and the first representatives of the family in America settled in Virginia, in the colonial … Read more

Biography of Arthur W. Evans, M. D.

Arthur W. Evans, M. D., is a native of the Sunflower State, a scion of a pioneer family of this commonwealth and has here achieved definite success in his profession, as one of the representative physicians and surgeons engaged in practice in the City of Independence. Dr. Arthur Whiting Evans was born at Lawrence, Kansas, on the 26th of October, 1870, and is a son of Arthur and Mary (Leishum) Evans, the former of whom was born in Lancastershire, England, in 1841, and the latter of whom was born in Wales, in the same year, she having been a young … Read more

Biography of George H. Wark

George H. Wark, who has been in the practice of law at Caney for the past thirteen years, and in the fall of 1916 was elected a member of the State Senate, is a native of Montgomery County, where his father established a home about the time the Indians moved out of the country into Indian Territory. The substantial ancestry of which he is a representative was from Scotland and was transplanted to the American colonies, living in New York State and afterwards in Pennsylvania. Grandfather William Wark was born in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, in 1808. In his early years … 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

Esther Elvira Todd Funk of Independence KS

FUNK, Esther Elvira Todd8, (Silas7, Elam6, Edmund5, Christopher4, Samuel3, Samuel2, Christopher1) born Dec. 17, 1828, in Mina, Chautauqua County, N. Y., married Feb. 17, 1846, Joseph Alonzo Funk, whose father was a Capt. in the Indian war, was born Nov. 6, 1826, died Jan. 23, 1910. Mrs. Funk taught school about two years when she married. The school house in which she taught, was built of logs, the same as all the dwelling houses. The floor was what they called a punchon floor, that is, logs split and when laid were smoothed off. One desk made of the same material, … Read more

Edward Payson Todd of Independence KS

Edward Payson Todd8, (Silas7, Elam6, Edmund5, Christopher4, Samuel3, Samuel2, Christopher1) born July 24, 1834, in Mina, Chautauqua County, N. Y., married Feb. 2, 1858, Jane M. Lemon, who was born Oct. 7, 1838, in Canada, near Niagara Falls, died July 19, 1912, in Independence, Iowa, where he now (1914) lives. He was reared on a farm and had very little opportunity to obtain an education. In Aug., 1862, he enlisted in the 96th Illinois Infantry, in which he served his time of enlistment and returned home to family and friends without being wounded; he was in fourteen heavy battles and … Read more

Biography of John Hebrank

John Hebrank. During a residence in and a familiarity with the West for a long period of years Mr. Hebrank has many and varied experiences, but it was through the resources of Kansas that he found the medium for the achieving of his maximum success, and he is now one of the prominent and influential figures in the development of the oil industry in this state, with residence and business headquarters at Independence, Montgomery County. Mr. Hebrank was born in the Kingdom of Wurtemburg, Germany, on the 19th of September, 1848, and in that same section of the great German … Read more