Kansas City Missouri

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 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 A. P. Fonda

A. P. Fonda has made a most creditable record as a farmer, as a lawyer and particularly as a citizen whose devotion to the welfare of the great majority Is a recognized fact. A resident of Independence, he was born in Leavenworth, Kansas, March 30, 1878, his parents being Anthony Philip and Laura D. (Wier) Fonda, the former a native of the state of New York and the latter of New Jersey. His parents became acquainted and were married in Leavenworth, Kansas. The father conducted the first wholesale grocery in Kansas City, which place was then known as Port Fonda. … Read more

Biography of Charles Manville Sawyer

Charles Manville Sawyer, chairman of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank at Kansas City, Missouri, began his banking career in Kansas and is perhaps as widely known over the state as any one banker. The Federal Reserve Bank at Kansas City, Missouri, serves the district comprising the states of Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming and the greater part of Oklahoma, and portions of Missouri and New Mexico. Mr. Sawyer was born on a farm near Streator, Illinois. His is an old American family and some of his ancestors fought as officers in the revolutionary war. His parents were … Read more

Biography of Edward C. Kassebaum

Edward C. Kassebaum. On the highest point of bottom land between Kansas City, Missouri, and Manhattan, Kansas, is located the forty acre farm belonging to Edward C. Kassebaum, who carries on general farming, but who, perhaps, is more widely known as a grower of water melons, a field in which he has attained something more than a local reputation. This farm is situated in Menoken Township, Shawnee County, and has been brought to a high state of cultivation under the practical and intelligent efforts of Mr. Kassebaum, who has been a resident of this locality all his life and who … Read more

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

Biography of Floyd E. Doubleday

Floyd E. Doubleday. It has been the fortune of Floyd E. Doubleday to realize many of his worthy ambitions, and through the exercise of good judgment and business ability to wrest from his opportunities financial and general success. For many years he has been interested in the coal industry, and at the present time is accounted one of the leading operators of Pittsburg. Mr. Doubleday was born at Italy, New York, June 23, 1859, and is a son of Guy L. and Caroline (Hobart) Doubleday. The Doubleday family is of English origin and traces its ancestry back in America to … Read more

Lee, Abbie Holston Purdum – Obituary

Mrs. H. H. [Harker Hamilton] Lee, Kansas City, Mo., former city resident, died Sunday [May 2, 1948] after an illness of several weeks. Services will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday in Newcomer & Sons Funeral Home in Kansas City. Burial will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday in Fairlawn Mausoleum here. Mrs. Lee lived in Oklahoma City from 1905 until 1921. She had remained an active member of the Oklahoma City ’89ers Club and was a past member of the Sorosis Club. Survivors include a brother, Perry Purdum, Dewey; two sisters, Mrs. G. O. Dunseth, Tulsa, and Mrs. Maude Temple, Los … Read more

Biography of Clarence Graves

Since 1914 Clarence Graves has been engaged in the conduct of a mercantile business in Talala and is readily conceded to be one of the leading merchants of the community. A native of Kansas, he was born in Wyandotte County, on the 30th of September, 1864, a son of Charles and Albora (Gutherie) Graves. His parents came to Indian Territory in 1875 and located on a farm on Russell creek. The father was born in Maryland but upon the outbreak of the Civil war, his sympathies being with the south, he enlisted in the Confederate army, serving throughout that conflict … Read more

Biography of John C. Asahl

John C. Asahl, a resident of Ramona since 1903 and connected with its mercantile interests throughout, the period, has also figured prominently in connection with public affairs of the city and no man has labored more earnestly, zealously and effectively to bring about public progress, reform and improvement than he Mr. Asahl is a native of Missouri, his birth having occurred in the city of California, March 7, 1870. His father, Charles Asahl, was a native of Germany and came to the United States in 1850, settling in Chicago in the year of the yellow fever plague. He was a … 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

Biographical Sketch of Samuel Rockwell

Rockwell, Samuel; civil engineer; born, Brooklyn, N. Y., Feb. 20, 1847; son of William and Susan Lawrence Prince Rockwell; educated, Yale College and Sheffield Scientific School, 1873; Ph. B.; married, St. Joseph, Mo., June 7, 1881, Cordelia Ann Geiger; issue, four sons and one daughter; business career, 1873-1877, resident engineer D. L. & W. R. R., Hoboken, N. J.; built tunnel through Bergen Hill and other changes of line and separation of grade work; 1877-1881, contractor; 1881-1882, asst. city engineer, Kansas City, Mo.; 1882-1884, principal asst. engineer, St. Paul Water Works; 1884-1887, locating and constructing engineer, St. Paul & M. … Read more

Biographical Sketch of George Godfrey Moore

George Godfrey Moore, general agent for Kansas of the Germania Life Insurance Company, had been a resident of the state since 1900. He is one of the well known and capable men in the insurance field in this state, and had the personality and energy which make for success in that business. When he first came to Kansas it was as a newspaper man, and his career had been one of somewhat varied interests and activities. He was born in the City of Philadelphia November 20, 1872, grew up in the Quaker City, graduating from high school in 1888, and … Read more

Biography of William Frank Flack, M. D.

William Frank Flack, M. D. While the medical profession for centuries had enlisted some of the most profound minds of all times, modern discoveries and developments have opened up new fields for the brilliant physician and surgeon, and many of this profession have turned their attention to particular branches, specializing along certain lines. This development had been necessary, for the problems presented in the calling today are so serious and difficult of solution that the average physician had not the expert knowledge to handle all satisfactorily. For some years past William Frank Flack, the pioneer physician of Elk County, had … Read more

Biography of Edward J. Curtin

Edward J. Curtin, who in the practice of law has gained wide recognition of his ability to present with clearness and force any cause which engages his attention and his powers, was born in Jackson county, Missouri, August 9, 1875. He is one of a family of eight children, all of whom are yet living and of whom he is the fourth in order of birth. His parents are Cornelius and Elizabeth (McKenna) Curtin, both of whom are natives of Ireland. The father came to the United States in his boyhood days, first settling in New York and afterward removing … Read more

Biography of William B. Sawyer, M. D.

William B. Sawyer, M. D., occupies a prominent position in the medical circles of Riverside, and has for many years been well known in the business and social circles of the city. Dr. Sawyer is a native of New England, born in Hampshire County, Massachusetts in 1854. His father, Edmund H. Sawyer, was a descendant of an old colonial family whose first advent in the New world was in the days of the Puritans; he was a manufacturer and prominent citizen of Hampshire County, a member of the Assembly and Senate of his State, at the head of banking institutions, … Read more

Biography of Clyde Magill, Dr.

One of the younger members of the medical profession in Sedgwick County, Dr. Clyde Magill had found his work at Clearwater, not far from his birthplace, and in the past four years had enjoyed a rapidly accumulating practice and is accounted one of the ablest doctors in that vicinity. He was born on a farm twelve miles east of Wichita December 6, 1887. His father, Silas Magill, is an old settler of Sedgwick County, having come to Kansas from Illinois, in 1871, and taking up a homestead in Sedgwick County. In the years that followed he proved one of the … Read more

Biography of George Edward Kessler

George Edward Kessler, a landscape architect of notable ability, was born in Frankenhausen, Germany, July 16, 1862, his parents being Edward Carl and Clotilde Kessler. He came to America with his parents in 1865 and received his education in the public schools and under private tutoring. He also had special instruction in civil engineering, forestry and botany in Europe, and his excellent advantages in these directions well qualifled him for the attainment of professional success. In 1882 he entered upon the practice of his profession as a landscape architect at Kansas City and in 1900 he became a member of … Read more

Biography of Edward Bell Payne, M. D.

Edward Bell Payne, M. D. With an understanding of what is awaiting the man of science, the many doors yet unopened which will lead to the further amelioration of the ills of mankind, and the constant yearning to add to his store of knowledge, it is practically impossible for the conscientious physician and surgeon to arrive at a state of mind where he is satisfied with what he has accomplished and, of necessity, he keeps on striving for perfection as long as life lasts. A long list of accomplishments in his profession have marked the career of Dr. Edward Bell … Read more

Biography of J. Arthur Knoop M.D.

J. Arthur Knoop, M. D. In the family of Knoop the traditions of ability, honor and worth left by those who have gone beyond set a worthy precedent which the present generation and that from which it sprang, have followed, to which they have added a life chapter that must prove an inspiration and a positive incentive to those destined to come after. Among the exponents of the family’s integrity and professional ability is Dr. J. Arthur Knoop, a well known member of the Crawford County medical fraternity and a citizen who is doing his share in the movements that … Read more