Biography of John T. Feighny

John T. Feighny has spent all his life in Northern Kansas and from a farm in Jackson County he went to Emmett some years ago and engaged in the grain and elevator business, which he successfully continues to the present time. Mr. Feighny was born in Jackson County, Kansas, September 2, 1873. His parents, John and Mary (Lyons) Feighny, were both natives of County Limerick, Ireland, but were married in Boston, Massachusetts. Her father was born in 1830 and the mother in 1842. John Feighny was sixteen years of age when he came to the United States, landing in New … Read more

Biography of Isaac E., Lambert, Sr.

Isaac E. Lambert, Sr., whose tragic death in the burning of the Copeland Hotel at Topeka in 1908 is generally recalled, was in his time one of the most prominent attorneys of Kansas and stood in the forefront of his profession and also as a public leader. His son, Isaac E. Lambert, Jr., is also a lawyer, a resident of Emporia, and is now serving as chief clerk of the Kansas House of Representatives. At the time of his death Isaac E. Lambert, Sr., was fifty-five years of age and in the prime of his powers. He was born in … Read more

Biography of George Eli Whitcraft

George Eli Whitcraft, superintendent of the city schools of Oskaloosa, had been active in educational work in Kansas for over twenty years, being well known as a teacher, superintendent and school executive throughout Northeastern Kansas. He was born in Jackson County, Kansas, June 28, 1872. His people have been in the state almost as long as Kansas had been a state. His grandfather, George Whiteraft, was born in Ireland in 1798, and came to America when a boy. After a brief residence in Pennsylvania he went to Ohio and was a farmer in that state for many years. He served … Read more

Biography of Walter E. Brown

Walter E. Brown is one of the younger members of the Atchison bar, but had been favored by his ability and training and early associations and had attained just recognition as one of the resourceful lawyers of the state. He is junior member of the well known firm of Waggener, Challiss, DeLacy & Brown, senior partner of which is one of Kansas’ most distinguished and eminent lawyers and citizens, Hon. Bailie P. Waggener. Mr. Brown represents a pioneer name in Kansas history. He was born in Whiting, Kansas, November 17, 1887. His grandfather, Michael Brown, came to Kansas in 1872 … Read more

Biography of Bartholomew John Bux

Bartholomew John Bux. By many years of industry, directed by sound judgment and thorough common sense, B. J. Bux had become one of the most prosperous citizens of Kansas, owner of many valuable farms, and is now living retired at Meriden, where he is one of the directors of the State Bank. A resident of Kansas since he was six years of age, Mr. Bux was born in St. Clair County, Illinois, January 6, 1864. His people were all Germans, His father, John Bux, was born in Baden, Germany, in 1828, grew up there, and had six years of experience in the … Read more

Biography of John William Waldron, Rev.

Rev. John William Waldron is well known in a number of towns and cities of Kansas through his active ministerial labors in behalf of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and is now living at Galena, where he is pastor of the local church of his denomination. He had spent most of his life in Kansas, and by unusual talents as a preacher and unselfish devotion to his church had become a recognized leader in Methodism in this city. Both he and his people for many generations back are English. His grandfather, John Waldron, spent his life in England and was a … Read more

Biography of Oscar Eugene Learnard, Col.

Col. Oscar Eugene Learnard was born in Fairfax, Vermont, November 14, 1832, the son of Stephen Tracy Learnard, and he died in Lawrence, Kansas, November 5, 1911. He grew to manhood in his native state, attended the common schools and Bakersfield Academy, taught school, and attended Norwich, Vermont, University. He did not finish his course at the University but that institution afterward conferred a Master’s degree upon him. Ill health compelled him to give up his studies, and he went to Tennessee, where he was for a time collector for a commercial house. After regaining his health he returned to … Read more

Biography of William Henry Bond

William Henry Bond came up the Missouri River in 1865 to the City of Leavenworth and founded the wholesale grocery establishment of Bond & Funk. Though now living retired with home in Kansas City, Missouri, Mr. Bond had been more or less vitally and closely identified with Leavenworth’s welfare and progress for half a century. He was born in the State of Missouri at Weston on July 19, 1840. His parents, William H. and Mary (Hitchcock) Bond, arrived in Missouri when it was on the western frontier. His father was a miner by occupation. Mr. Bond is a direct descendant … Read more

Biography of Elizabeth Tantum Spencer

Elizabeth Tantum Spencer was born near Jerseyville, Illinois, September 28, 1871. She attended the rural schools in Jersey County, Illinois, and Woodson County, Kansas, was graduated from the Yates Center High School (a member of the first class) in 1890, and from the Kansas State Normal at Emporia in 1894. She taught three years in the rural schools of Woodson County, during the first year riding fourteen miles each day. Since that time she had taught in the schools of Yates Center, Kansas City, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri. In 1912 she became deputy county treasurer of Woodson County under … 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 Charles R. Hewins

Charles R. Hewins is in point of continuous service one of the oldest educators in Kansas. His work had been accomplished almost entirely within the limits of Doniphan County. For thirty years he had been connected with the schools of that county and in November, 1916, he was elected county superintendent, beginning May 14, 1917. Mr. Hewins represents a pioneer family of Northeastern Kansas, and his own birth occurred near Wathena on December 1, 1866. His family were Colonial settlers in Maine from England. His grandfather, John A. Hewins, Sr., was a native of Maine, followed farming in that state … Read more

Biography of G. Leroy Ramsey

G. Leroy Ramsey. Among the men who are marking their names indelibly upon the stockraising history of Southeastern Kansas, one who had been more than ordinarily active in this field of endeavor and whose operations have assumed large proportions is G. LeRoy Ramsey, who owned and operates 1,760 acres six miles north of El Dorado and 560 acres northeast of that city, all in Butler County. Mr. Ramsey not only raises and ships cattle extensively, but of recent years had been interested in oil leases. He was born at Belle Center, Ohio, December 22, 1872, and is a son of … Read more

Biography of Henry Justin Allen

Henry Justin Allen of Wichita had achieved a position among Kansas’ leading newspaper editors and publishers. He began as a newspaper reporter, was editor and owner at different times of various papers in the state, and is now proprietor of the Wichita Beacon. Mr. Allen was born at Warren, Pennsylvania, September 12, 1869, and his parents John and Rebecca Elizabeth (Goodin) Allen were natives of the same section. John Allen served four years in the Ninth New York Cavalry, and a few years after the close of the war came west to Kansas, where he went through the pioneer hardships … Read more

Biography of William Edwin Nelson

William Edwin Nelson, who became superintendent of the public schools of Sabetha in the fall of 1917, is a thoroughly experienced educator, a native of Kansas, and for five years before removing to Sabetha was superintendent of schools at Robinson. Mr. Nelson had the qualification and training of a practical lawyer, which was the profession of his father. For many years one of the ablest attorneys of the Trego County bar was the late John A. Nelson. Born in Sweden, near Stockholm, in 1851, he was brought when an infant to the United States by his parents, who located in … Read more

Biography of James H. Campbell

James H. Campbell. Prominent among the men identified with the financial and business interests of Iola, Kansas, is found James H. Campbell, cashier of the Iola State Bank and an official in various other enterprises. Mr. Campbell had been a resident of this section all his life and here had worked his own way to an edifying and well-deserved success, unaided save by inherent business acumen and persevering labor. He was born on a farm twelve miles northeast of Iola, in Anderson County, Kansas, January 31, 1874, and is a son of James H. and Bethia A. (Simpson) Campbell. James … Read more

Biography of Ben S. Paulen, Hon.

Hon. Ben S. Paulen. Each individual, under a democratic form of government, possesses an equal chance for public advancement. There is no reason why any man, providing that he possess real ability and sound judgment, cannot aspire to the highest position in the land, but while this is true theoretically, in actuality it is the one who had always been a little in advance of his associates and had developed his faculties beyond the ordinary who forges ahead and is placed by the people in positions of honor and responsibility. In this connection the foregoing is true of Hon. Ben … Read more

Biography of Charles Daniel Ise

Charles Daniel Ise, a prominent lawyer and now county attorney of Montgomery County, had an individual record worthy of mention in this history of Kansas, and also represents a family which have many claims to distinction, some of them gained in this state, and others back in the Germen fatherland where the ancestors for generations were of the nobility. In Germany the name was spelled Eisenmenger. The family seat for generations had been in the Kingdom of Wnerternberg, and they had been members of the noble classes in that kingdom from the fourteenth century. One of the family was hero … Read more

Biography of Anna Mallows, Anna

Miss Anna Mallows. To paraphrase an old proverb, To woman’s work there is neither end or limit of capacity for human service and usefulness. Women have succssded as home makers, as teachers, in all the learned professions, in executive business, and one of the bright Kansas women, Miss Anna Mallows, is a very successful newspaper woman, proprietor, and publisher of the White Cloud Globe. The White Cloud Globe is now the only paper published in that city. It was founded in 1892 by John J. Faulkner, and throughout its twenty-five years it had never exhibited more enterprise as a real … Read more

Biography of Elba Elton Edwards, M. D.

Elba Elton Edwards, M. D. A physician and surgeon of splendid capabilities and with a large practice at Admire, Doctor Edwards is a native of Kansas and represents one of the early families to settle in Lyon County. He was born in Rock Creek, in Jefferson County, Kansas, December 23, 1883. His grandfather, William Edwards, was a native of Germany, coming to this country as a young man and spent the rest of his life on a farm in Ohio. Henry Edwards, father of Doctor Edwards, was born in Ohio in 1842, was reared and married in that state, and … Read more

Biography of Shepard Keene Linscott

Shepard Keene Linscott. The late Shepard Keene Linscott, who was born March 6, 1887, and died December 11, 1905, represented in the best sense the highest type of American manhood. A farm near Chesterville, Maine, was the place of his nativity and he was the only son of Shepard and Esther (Keene) Linscott. The house in which he was born was built by his grandfather, Samuel Linscott, who was a soldier of the Revolutionary war. When but sixteen years of age, Shepard Keene Linscott left the parental roof and became a pioneer farmer of Henry County, Indiana. Realizing the importance … Read more