Lawrence Kansas

Biography of James Walter Gowans

James Walter Gowans, superintendent of the city schools of Winfield, is one of a trio of brothers all of whom are graduates of the University of Kansas and all capable school men in this state. Mr. Gowans is not only an educator but a thoroughly constructive administrator in educational affairs, and the public schools of Winfield have benefited much from his superintendence. Though a resident of Kansas nearly all his life, James Walter Gowans was born at Centerview, Missouri, September 21, 1877. He is of Scotch ancestry in the paternal line. His paternal grandparents, Walter and Elizabeth (Donnan) Gowans, were … Read more

Biography of Lucius H. Perkins

Lucius H. Perkins, who resided at Lawrence from 1877 until his accidental death on June 1, 1907, contributed much more to the life of Kansas than the achievements of an able lawyer, great as those were and much as they distinguished him in professional circles. By his varied attainments and accomplishments, by his interest in literature and the broader humanities, he singularly enriched the thought and public opinions of his times. In a generation when the thoughts and energies of the people of Kansas were necessarily concentrated upon the fundamental problems of existence and constructive business, he exemplified that better … Read more

Biography of John Gottlieb Seewir

John Gottlieb Seewir was one of Kansas’ pioneer physicians. He was prominent in the profession at Lawrence from the beginning of the Civil war until his death twenty years later, and his life was one of unceasing devotion to his profession and to the service to humanity which he rendered through it. Doctor Seewir was born in Switzerland, March 4, 1828, a son of John G. and Elizabeth Seewir. In 1838 the family immigrated to America. They came on a sailing vessel and the vessel took fire and burned for two days before it was extinguished. The family located at … Read more

Biography of Fred Schuyle Jackson

Fred Schuyle Jackson, of Topeka, prominent lawyer, former congressman, ex-attorney-general of Kansas, is one of the many able men who have made Kansas notable as a commonwealth. His father was Martin Van Buren Jackson, who bore a conspicuous part in the border warfare of Kansas. Fred S. Jackson was born April 19, 1868, and his birth occurred in the block house at Stanton near Osawatomie. His early education came chiefly from the public schools of Miami and Greenwood counties, and of earlier experiences and service readered should be mentioned five years spent in the schoolroom as a teacher, In the … Read more

Biography of James Willis Gleed

James Willis Gleed, general attorney for the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company of St. Louis, was born at Morrisville, Vermont, March 8, 1859. His father, Thomas Gleed, now deceased, was a native of England, who came to America during the ’30s, settling at first in Canada, but later he removed to northern Vermont, where he resided to the time of his death in 1861, when he was but thirty-five years of age. In early manhood he had wedded Cornelia Fisk, a native of the Green Mountain state and a representative of an old New England family that was established in Massachusetts … Read more

Biography of Wallace H. Anderson

Wallace H. Anderson, county attorney of Allen County, had won many of the honors of his profession during his active practice at Iola, is a native of Kansas, and is a worthy product of Kansas country life and schools. His family came to Brown County in 1869 and Wallace Harmon Anderson was born on the farm there December 26, 1877. His ancestors were Englishmen who came to Pennsylvania in colonial days. His grandfather Amos Anderson was born in Pennsylvania in 1802, and had a brother who served in the War of 1812. Amos Anderson lived in Ohio, in Iowa, came … Read more

Biography of Lew Wallace Duncan

Lew Wallace Duncan. The close of the Civil war launched a new era of settlement in the West. Young men who had lately fought the battles of freedom and restored the unity of the nation abandoned their birthplaces and “hit the trail” leading to the boundless and trackless region beyond the “border.” Distance alone separated them from the beckoning prairies of an unknown plain and the scream of the locomotive had not been heard west of St. Louis, so that the “prairie schooner” method of reaching their destination had to be resorted to. Once across the Mississippi the mecca of … Read more

Biography of William E. Borah

In the “learned professions” merit alone can win advancement. When success must depend upon the various mental attributes of the individual, neither wealth nor influential friends can aid one in the progress toward fame. The man who has attained prominence at the bar is there-fore entitled to great credit, for as he lengthens the distance between himself and mediocrity it is the indication of great zeal, marked ability, close application and thorough knowledge. It has been through the exercise of these qualities that William E. Borah has attained a position at the bar that might well be envied by many … Read more

Biography of Edwin B. Morgan

Edwin B. Morgan. When Edwin B. Morgan came to Kansas in 1892, at the age of nineteen, he found his first opportunity for service and work as a school teacher. He taught in Linn County one year, and two years in Franklin County. Already his ambition was set upon the law as a career. Entering the State University at Lawrence, he pursued the studies of the law department until graduating LL. B, in 1898. In July of that year he began practice at Oswego, and was one of the rising young attorneys of that city for seven years. Since removing … Read more

Biography of Lloyd Lakin

Lloyd Lakin is one of the prominent young business leaders of Kansas. He is secretary, treasurer and active manager of the Lakin-McKee Manufacturing Company of Fort Scott. This is the largest individual industry in that city, the largest of its kind in Southeastern Kansas, and perhaps the largest in the entire West. The output is overalls. The Lakin-McKee overalls are distributed all over the Middle West. The goods are pre-eminent for quality and service. It is a business built up on character, and to a large degree the constructive and creative ideas of Lloyd Lakin have been fundamental in the … Read more

Biography of Robert G. Elliott

Robert G. Elliott was one of the founders of Kansas as a free territory and state. He was born in Union County, Indiana, July 23, 1828, of South Carolina parentage, and was graduated from the University of the Hoosier State in 1850. Among his classmates were the son and three nephews of Henry A. Wise, governor of Virginia. After teaching four years in Indiana and Tennessee, and becoming thoroughly educated and aroused in his absorption of the prevailing issues of the ante-war days, he became associated with Josiah Miller in the establishment of the Kansas Free State newspaper at Lawrence. … Read more

Biography of John Falleaf

John Falleaf, a native son of Oklahoma and a representative of one of the pioneer families of the state, is widely and favorably known in Washington county, where he has spent his life, and he is now the owner of a well improved farm near Dewey. He was born ten miles east of the place upon which he now resides, his parents being Silas and Eliza Falleaf, who were natives of Kansas and made their way to Indian Territory in 1866. They were of Delaware extraction and were numbered among the earliest settlers in the territory. Mr. Falleaf acquired his … Read more

Biography of Frank J. Hauber

Frank J. Hauber. A business is only as strong as that of the character and the personal forces behind it. This had been demonstrated over and over again, and perhaps no one enterprise in Kansas is a more signal illustration of this truth than the great Hauber Cooperage Company of Kansas City, Kansas. The president of this company is Mr. Frank J. Hauber. It is a business which had endured all the arrows and slings of fortune, was twice destroyed by floods, and twice by fire, and Phoenix-like had arisen again and is now bigger and better than ever. The … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Josiah Miller

Josiah Miller, a pioneer newspaper man of Lawrence and Kansas, an ardent free-soiler and public official in the formative periods of the territory and the state, was born in Chester District, South Carolina, November 12, 1828. He gradnated from the Indiana University in 1851, and from the law school at Poughkeepsie, New York, and in August, 1854, came to Kansas. As his father had been waylaid and mobbed because of his anti-slavery views, it was but natural that Josiah should be an ardent opponent of slavery, and on January 5, 1855, he began the publication of the Kansas Free State … Read more

Biography of Anderson Wilson

Anderson Wilson, farmer and contractor, residing two and one-half miles southwest of Delaware, Nowata County, was born on the Verdigris River, Indian Territory, on the 11th of February, 1888, a son of Adam and Amanda (Bascumb) Wilson, natives of Kansas. His father was three-quarters Muncie Indian and the mother was a Delaware. Upon the outbreak of the Civil war, Adam Wilson enlisted in the cavalry, becoming a member of Company Three, Fifteenth Regiment, Kansas Volunteers. He was likewise a scout with Custer. Both parents are deceased. In the acquirement of an education Anderson Wilson attended the schools of Nowata, Oklahoma, … Read more

Biography of Walter L. Payne

Walter L. Payne, a native son of Kansas, had been closely identified with a number of its business and public activities for a number of years, and is vice-president of the Pioneer State Bank of Burlingame. The Payne family have had a part in the making of Kansas for fully sixty years. It was Mr. Payne’s grandparents, Lorenzo Dow and Mary Ann (Wildman) Payne, who were the pioneers of the family in Kansas. They located at Trading Post in Miami County, where Lorenzo D., who was a physician by profession, practiced for two years until the border ruffians drove him … Read more

Biography of Joseph O. Ward M. D.

Joseph O. Ward, M. D., is a physician and surgeon of Horton whose work and attainments have brought him increasing repntstion for skill and ability. Doctor Ward is a native of Kansas, was a successful teacher before he took up his preparation for a medical career, and had been in practice now for almost twenty years. His father, M. Ward, who is still living at the venerable age of eighty-four, had had a most mteresting career and one that had brought him in close contast with pioneer conditions of the Middle West. Born in Ireland in 1833, he came to this … Read more

Biography of Francis Huntington Snow

Francis Huntington Snow. High in the list of names that Kansas honors, statesmen, soldiers, business and industrial executives, farmers and homesteaders, must be placed the name of a scientist and educator, Francis Huntington Snow, one of the greatest of them all. He came out of New England to Kansas. He was born at Fitchburg, Massachusetts, June 29, 1840, a son of Benjamin and Mary (Boutelle) Snow. He attended the public schools of his native city, and then entered Williams College, from which as valedictorian of his class he was graduated in 1862. He received the degrees B. A. and M. … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Colonel and Judge Oscar E. Learnard

Colonel and Judge Oscar E. Learnard, one of the founders of Burlington, for many years a resident of Lawrence, one of the organizers of the republican party in Kansas and prominent in numerous state institutions and enterprises, was born at Fairfax, Vermont, November 14, 1832. He was of English and Franch Huguenot stock. In 1855, the year after his graduation from the Albany Law School, Mr. Learnard came to Kansas and located at Lawrence, and the next year he commanded a “mounted regiment” of the free-state forces in the border war. In the spring of 1857 he helped to locate … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Frank A. Gates

Frank A. Gates general farmer and fruit-raiser near Anaheim, was born in Groton, Massachusetts, in 1836, a son of Loring Gates, a well-known merchant in Groton, Massachusetts, and Boston. Mr. Gates attended the University at Hartford, Pennsylvania, and at the age of eighteen years he went to Chicago, where he was engaged in the wholesale clothing business with his brother, James L. Gates, until 1859. He then went to Lawrence, Kansas, but, finding all vegetation dried up and the prospects of business consequently poor, he returned to Chicago and engaged with his cousin, Charles A. Eaton, in trade in guns … Read more