Biographical Sketch of Thomas Henry Chalkley

Thomas Henry Chalkley, though identified with business affairs of Kansas only a few years, became widely known and was especially esteemed as a citizen of Lawrence. He was born at Tottenham, now part of London, England, October 23, 1858, a son of Henry George and Hannah (Baron) Chalkley, being the oldest of their six children. His family was one of substantial means, and to complete his education the son was sent to Germany. Later he began his business career as a helper in the office of his father, who was the English agent in London of the J. B. Watkins … Read more

Biography of Dennis Joseph Sheedy

Dennis Joseph Sheedy. One of the sons of the Nutmeg State who had achieved prominence at the Kansas bar is Dennis Joseph Sheedy. A practitioner at Fredonia since 1906, he had won a reputation in his profession through his conservative, self-assured, well-prepared, clean-cut and successful handling of the cases placed in his charge. He was born at Portland, Connecticut, October 14, 1874, and is a son of Thomas and Mary (Marooney) Sheedy. Mr. Sheedy comes of good Irish stock, his grandfather having been Dennis Sheedy, a native of County Cork, who passed his entire life in his native Erin as … Read more

Biography of Charles S. Eagle

Charles S. Eagle, a business man and mannfacturer at Topeka, is a native Kansan, and his family history is closely identified with the early border days of this state. His father, James Eagle, who came to Kansas in 1856 and located in Douglas County, kept a hotel for several years on the old California trail at Big Springs. That was before the day of railroads, and his hotel supplied a service to the great traffic that went by his doors in stage coaches and prairie schooners. Like most other early settlers in Kansas he was drawn into the border and … Read more

Biography of G. S. Holt

G. S. Holt. A Kansas territorial pioneer whose name and services will always be specially remembered in the City of Ottawa was G. S. Holt, a native of Connecticut who came to Kansas Territory in the early ’50s. For a time he lived at Lawrence, but from there went to Ottawa and became proprietor of the first dry goods store, opened in a building at the corner of Second and Main streets. This building had been constructed from the timbers of the old capitol building at Mineola. Besides his work as a business man Mr. Holt was identified and was … Read more

Biography Of Wilder S. Metcalf, Gen.

Gen. Wilder S. Metcalf has been a resident of Kansas since 1887, and developed and is now sole owner of the business known as the Wilder S. Metcalf Farm Mortgage Agency at Lawrence. It is one of the oldest and best known agencies of the kind in the state and its business operations cover twenty-five or thirty counties in Kansas and Oklahoma. He is the only man who held the office of United States pension agent at Topeka for two successive terms. The Topeka agency was the largest in the United States, covering five states, and through it were distributed … 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

Biographical Sketch of Hibbard, H. C.

Hibbard, H. C. attorney-at-law, and insurance agent, first came to Russell County, Kan. in May, 1871, farmed until 1874, and came to Russell village, where he engaged in the practice of law, was born in Fulton County, Ill. Enlisted in January, 1864, in Company I, Eighth Illinois Cavalry, participated in all the battles of his command, mustered out at Benton Barracks, Mo., June 17, 1865. He came to Kansas in September of the same year, located in Johnson County. He attended the State University at Lawrence in 1870. Previous to the latter dates he also taught school, was married in … Read more

Biography of Louis E. Horville

Louis E. Horville. During the decade of years that Louis E. Horville had figured prominently in financial circles of Iola, he had proven his ability as a banker and his worth as a business man. Primarily an agriculturist, with large land interests, in 1905 he became president of the Iola State Bank, and to its management brought executive ability, foresight and acumen that have enabled the institution to maintain a high place and an enviable reputation. Louis E. Horville is a native son of Kansas and of Allen County, having been born on a farm located 1½ miles northwest of … 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 David Winfield Mulvane, Hon.

Hon. David Winfield Mulvane. For years one of the prominent characters of Kansas who have helped to influence and direct national life has been David W. Mulvane of Topeka. In his home state Mr. Mulvane is best known as a lawyer and his power in republican politics has not been exercised through office but through his chieftainship in the party itself. For many years he has been identified with the state organization, and also with the national party organization, and was one of the national party committee for a dozen years. He was born in Princeton, Illinois, January 4, 1863, … Read more

Biography of Preston B. Plumb

In the words of his biographer, Preston B. Plumb was a pioneer in Kansas. He was one of the founders of Emporia. He was in the Union army, and both major and lieutenant-colonel of the Eleventh Kansas. He was long United States senator from Kansas. In the Senate he was one of the men who accomplished things. He was the father of the ides of the conservation of the natural resources of America. It was his law that created the National Forest Reserve and extended aid to irrigation and the reclamation of arid lands. Many of the laws on the … Read more

Biography of William R. Smith

One of the fine buildings bordering the State Capitol grounds at Topeka is the Kansas State Printing plant. That is the official headquarters of William R. Smith, state printer, and also secretary of the State Printing Commission and chairman of the School Book Commission of the state. Doubtless any citizen, and particularly a printer, would deem it an honor to be at the head of an establishment which experts pronounce to be the equal in mechanical equipment and operating effieiency of any commercial printing establishment in the country. When Mr. Smith went into office on July 1, 1915, he brought … Read more

Slave Narrative of Eliza Whitmire

Person Interviewed: Eliza Whitmire Location: Vinita, Oklahoma Date of Birth: 1833 Age: 102 My name is Eliza Whitmire. I live on a farm, near Estella, where I settled shortly after the Civil War and where I have lived ever since. I was born in slavery in the state of Georgia, my parents having belonged to a Cherokee Indian of the name of George Sanders, who owned a large plantation in the old Cherokee Nation, in Georgia. He also owned a large number of slaves but I was too young to remember how many he owned. I do not know the … Read more

Biography of James H. Lane, Gen.

Gen. James H. Lane was probably the most romantic figure in Kansas during the entire period of his tornado-like career as a politician and a soldier. Whether on the battlefield or as a member of the diguified Senate of the United States, he was vigorous, open and somewhat dramatic, and a national subject for hero-worship. He was born June 22, 1814, at Lawrenceburg, Indiana, his father having represented that state both as speaker of its House of Representatives and in the halls of Congress. When the Mexican war broke out, James H. Lane was engaged in business in his native … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Jacob Branson

Jacob Branson was one of the early settlers of Douglas County and a leader of the free-soilers. His home was at Hickory Point, about ten miles south of Lawrence on the old Santa Fe road. Many of the early settlers in that region were Hoosiers, some of whom temporarily returned to the East. Their claims were at once jumped by Missourians and other pro-slavery men, and the quarrels over these land contestants were especially fierce. Franklin Coleman, a pro-slavery man, and Charles W. Dow, who lived with Branson and was a free-state man, quarreled over their claims and on November … Read more

Biography of Edward E. Dix

Edward E. Dix. The vocation of railroading continues to attract many ambitious young men when they enter upon life’s activities, and this field of activity has often proven rich in opportunity to those who have possessed the inclination to work industriously and faithfully, to scorn hardships, to face heavy responsibilities, and to give absolute devotion to the interests of the great systems which employ them. There is no place for those who do not thus prove themselves. Among the officials of almost every other line of business there are found men of sterling worth who would have succeeded well in … 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 S. Amick

John S. Amick. It is a strong augury of success for a young man to have a variety of experiences in practical matters before he assumes professional work. Especially if he is a lawyer, his substantial future is far more assured in the West than if he possessed a greater fund of professional knowledge and less ability to judge of persons and things in a common sense way–which comes only with actual experience, and often of the hard kind. Such remarks as the foregoing hold true in the career and progress of John Amick, a young lawyer of Lawrence who … Read more

Biography of Frank P. MacLennan

Frank P. MacLennan is a fortunate man. Kansas is fortunate in having him as a citizen. As a youth he took from this state the raw materials which by the alehemy of a resourceful and independent mind and a vigorous ambition he transmuted into a career which has been of even greater beneflt to the state than it has been to himself. First and last Mr. MacLennan is a newspaper man. He knows how to write, especially when the subject is something not directly counected with himself. In furnishing the data to the editor of this new History of Kansas … Read more

Biography of John G. Haskell

John G. Haskell, who made a reputation both as a soldier and an architect, was born in Chittenden County, Vermont, February 5, 1832, and was educated at Wesleyan Academy, Wilbraham, Massachusetts, and Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. In 1855 he entered an architect’s office in Boston, and two years later settled at Lawrence, Kansas. During the Civil war Captain Haskell served as assistant quartermaster general of Kansas, as quartermaster of the Third Kansas and the Tenth Kansas Volunteers, as captain and assistant quartermaster on the staff of Gen. James G. Blunt, and chief quartermaster of the Army of the Frontier. … Read more