Jackson County MO

Biography of Fred Burris

Fred Burris of Wichita is county poor commissioner of Sedgwick County. He has been a resident of that city ten years, and previously had acquired an extensive acquaintance in Kansas as a traveling salesman. Something more than passing mention should be made of his administration as county poor commissioner. He has introduced new methods and system and has given distinction to his method of handling the routine cases which come under his jurisdiction. For many years he has taken a deep interest in charity work and in his trips to other cities and other states has observed how the problems … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Calvin Logan Thomas

Calvin Logan Thomas, a rancher, two and a half miles southeast of San Bernardino, was born in Bledsoe County, Tennessee, January 5, 1837. His father, E. H. Thomas, was a native of Kentucky, and his mother, Edna (Zinn) Thomas, was born in South Carolina. His parents moved to Jackson County, Missouri, when the subject of this sketch was but four years old. From there the removed to McDonald County, where they remained until 1852, when they crossed the plains by ox team to Oregon. When they got to Utah, however, they found it was too late in the season, so … Read more

Biography of George W. Vaughn

George W. Vaughn. Constructive enterprise in America had had its most notable triumphs in railroad building. In that field American ingenuity, indomitable energy and resourcefulness, have been displayed at their best. The history of railway building on this continent had many splendid names, and some of the greatest of them belong to Kansas. Not least among them was the late George W. Vaughn, or Major Vaughn, as he was more generally known, who died at Leavenworth February 3, 1916. He had a national reputation in engineering circles, and was a man, who, from the common walks of life, attained wide … Read more

Biography of John Child Maxson, M. D.

John Child Maxson, M. D. For over twenty-four years Doctor Maxson had practiced his profession in Kansas and is now located at Corning, where as a physician and surgeon of thorough attainments he had an extensive practice. His family were early settlers in Sonthern and Southeastern Kansas. Doctor Maxson is in the tenth generation from the immigrant of the family from England to the American colonies. The founder of the Maxson family in this country was Richard Maxson. Doctor Maxson’s grandfather, James Maxson, spent his life as a farmer in Alleghany County, New York. James S. Maxson, father of Doctor … Read more

Biography of Frank Geoffroy

Frank Geoffroy, who is a successful commission and grain merchant at Abilene, is a native of Kansas, and he and his people have been identified with this state since early pioneer days. Kansas was a territory and was known throughout the country as”bleeding Kansas” when his father and grandparents came and located as pioneers in Franklin County in 1855. His father, Ernest Geoffroy, was born near Metz, France, September 7, 1841, and was brought to America in 1849. The grandparents lived on a farm in Iowa for a few years, but in 1855 came out to Kansas and began their … Read more

Biography of Herman Genthe

Herman Genthe. The oldest bakery establishment of Topeka under one continuous ownership and management is that conducted by Mr. Herman Genthe, who now had associated with him his oldest son. Mr. Genthe is a master of his trade. He learned it as a boy in Germany, where his ancestors so far as known were millers and had a great deal to do with those grains that furnish the staple food stuffs, wheat and rye. Mr. Genthe’s talent as a maker of fine bread is therefore partly an inheritance from his ancestors, though it had been developed by his individual experience … Read more

Biography of Walter C. Palmer, M. D.

Walter C. Palmer, M. D., after practicing several years in Kansas City, Missouri, where his father was for a number of years a member of the medical profession, removed to Hiawatha, Kansas, and is now giving all his time and attention to surgery. In addition to his broad experience as a practitioner and his equipment in American schools, Doctor Palmer, went abroad in 1916 and from April to July worked in the war hospitals in France. Nowhere had surgical methods undergone greater changes and been brought to a higher degree of perfection than in the hospitals in the war zone … Read more

Biography of Earl M. Robinson

Earl M. Robinson is one of the younger business men of Emporia, and his name at once suggests in that section of Kansas the Robinson greenhouses, which have become noted for the perfection of their cut flowers. This is a business which he had built up to extensive proportions, and its product now supplies not only Emporia but a wide surrounding territory. He is an alert and enterprising factor in business circles. Descended from the family of Robinsons that were in Virginia during colonial days, Earl M. Robinson is himself a southerner by birth and was born at Huntsville, Madison … Read more

Biography of John L. Curtis

JOHN L. CURTIS. – As one of the early and sturdy pioneers who assisted in opening these regions for the occupancy of his fellows that were to follow from the eastern states, and who has wrought with energy and assiduity in their development since, manifesting an ability and wealth of resources that have enabled him to grapple with the different problems that confront the frontiersman, and to overcome in these undertakings the subject of this sketch is deserving of a representation in any work that essays to chronicle the leading and prominent citizens of the county of Union. Mr. Curtis … Read more

Biography of Joseph Henry Hoopingarner

Joseph Henry Hoopingarner has for twenty-five years been identified with the Methodist Conference in Kansas, though he has not spent all of that time in the active ministry. He is a large property owner and is now pastor of the leading church at Baxter Springs. He comes of a very interesting family of pioneers in Southeastern Kansas. Rev. Mr. Hoopingarner himself was born in Crawford County, Kansas, April 3, 1871, only a few years after the real settlement of that region began. His ancestry goes back to Wuertemberg, Germany, where his great-grandfather Coonrad Hoopingarner was born. Coonrad and a brother … Read more

Biography of John Adam Endres

John Adam Endres was one of the notable men of Northeastern Kansas, for nearly thirty years was engaged in business and proved an active exponent of the best civic spirit in the City of Leavenworth, and died at his home there August 11, 1893. No finer class of citizens had ever been incorporated into American nationality than the emigrants from Germany in the decade following the Revolution of 1848. They exemplified the soul of patriotism, adapted themselves with wonderful versatility to the life and conditions of the New World, many of them fought for freedom and union, and in all … Read more

Biography of Henry Carl Alwes

Henry Carl Alwes is manager of the Western Typesetting Company and president of the Gate City Directory Company of Kansas City, Missouri. He organized the latter company in 1911 and from the beginning had been its manager. Mr. Alwes had conquered obstacles in the path to success as he had met them. He is a man of versatile talents. He is a practical printer, is a pharmacist by profession, had filled offices of responsibility as editor and newspaper manager, linotype operator, and in other ways in connection with some of the best known newspapers of Kansas, Chicago and the Middle … Read more

Biography of R. W. Cates

R. W. Cates is a director and assistant cashier in the First National Bank of Independence. By profession he is a lawyer and practiced for a number of years with his father, Joseph B. F. Cates, who is one of the oldest members of the legal profession in Kansas. Joseph B. F. Cates, who is now general attorney for the Prairie Pipe Line Company, with residence at Independence, was born in Grainger County, Tennessee, April 19, 1840. His parents were Charles and Elizabeth (Lloyd) Cates. Charles Cates was a native of North Carolina, where he was reared and educated, and … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Rufus E. Cable

Rufus E. Cable was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He came to Kansas City, Missouri, in 1856, and was employed as a clerk in the establishment of W. E. Proctor, who was the proprietor of a general store. The store of Mr. Proctor and all other business houses in Kansas City, Missouri, were at that time on the levee along the south bank of the Missouri River. The residences were scattered about on the hills back of the business houses. At that time M. J. Payne was mayor of Kansas City, Missouri. Mr. Cable in 1865 moved to Wyandotte, now Kansas … Read more

Biography of Joseph G. Waters, Capt.

Joseph G. Waters, soldier, publicist, author of note, public speaker, lawyer, of Topeka, is an individuality out of the ordinary. As a soldier, his services were a credit to his country, and himself, and his five wounds received in action are witnesses of his activity. As an author his published utterances have been rarely seen outside his own family circle owing to the retiemce and innate modesty of the writer, but throughout his writings, whether prose or poetry, forcefulness, pleasing diction and pathos of high order predominated. For three decades his services have been in demand as a public speaker … Read more

Biography of Anthony Wayne Fairchild, M. D.

Anthony Wayne Fairchild, M. D. The work which he had done as a member of the medical profession in Fall River had already attracted much attention to Doctor Fairchild, whose attainments and abilities are much above the average. Not only does a large clientage esteem him for his services, but his wife, Mrs. Fairchild, is likewise a graduate physician and had a considerable practice, specializing in discases of the eye. The Fairchild family originated in England, coming to America in Colonial times. Doctor Fairchild’s grandfather was Minor Fairchild, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1818, and became a pioneer farmer … Read more

Biography of Leonard V. McKee

Leonard V. McKee. The life, the personal character and the influence of Leonard V. McKee impressed themselves strongly upon the formative period of Marshall County’s history. He was founder and president of the Frankfort State Bank, was a large land owner and one of the leading business men and citizens of the community. He was born in Allen County, Ohio, August 18, 1845, and died at his home in Frankfort, Kansas, December 22, 1916, aged seventy-one years, four months and four days. His parents, Robert and Sarah (Dunlap) McKee, were both natives of Ohio. His father was a cabinet maker … Read more

Pilcher, James A. – Obituary

Mr. Pilcher was one of the oldest ranchers in this community, having taken up a homestead on the North Powder river more than fifty years ago. He made his home there the greater part of his life, moving to this city about three years ago because of the convenience it afforded him and his wife in their old age. James Alexander Pilcher was born in Jackson county, Missouri, October 1, 1854, and died April 1 1925, being 60 years and 6 months of age. He crossed the plains in 1875 arriving here in the fall of the same year. He … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Allen, Thomas

Allen, Thomas, son of Thomas and Anne C. (Russell ) Allen, was born October 19, 1849, at St. Louis, Mo. He was educated at the high school, Pittsfield, Mass., at the Williston Seminary, Easthampton, and then entered the Washington University, St. Louis, Mo., after which he studied art at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, at Dilsseldorf, Germany, where he graduated from the master class in 1878, and afterward studied three years in France. He first exhibited his work in New York, at the National Academy of Design, in 1877, and has been represented in the National Academy at almost … Read more

Biography of John Mahlan Moore

John Mahlan Moore has long been prominently identified with financial affairs in Kansas, was one of the leading bankers of Wichita and assisted in the organization of many banks in that section of the state and remained a resident of Wichita until a few years ago when he was translated to a higher sphere of banking in the metropolis of the Misspuri Valley at Kansas City. Mr. Moore is now vice president of the Southwest National Bank of Commerce of Kansas City, Missouri. His successful career in banking affairs in the Middle West is not due to a wealthy or … Read more