Leavenworth County KS

Biography of Floyd E. Harper

Floyd E. Harper. During his residence at Leavenworth since 1905 Floyd E. Harper had come to rank as one of the leaders of the bar, and had attained many of the substantial honors of the profession. Mr. Harper is still young, and had the promise of his best years and best work before him. He was born at Ross Grove, DeKalb County, Illinois, March 9, 1879. He grew up on the farm with his parents, James and Bertha (Patrick) Harper. His father was a Scotch-Irishman and his mother of English ancestry, and both parents are still living, now residents of … Read more

Biography of Peter Taschetta

Peter Taschetta. One of the early permanent settlers of Leavenworth was Peter Taschetta, a native of Switzerland, born in Canton, January 6, 1822. He was of Italian ancestry, but long before his birth his people, living on the border between Italy and Switzerland, had property in the former country and his parents became Swiss subjects by purchase. The father was interested in stained glass manufacturing and, as a contractor, traveled extensively, particularly in France, overseeing the placing of stained glass in cathedrals and other structures, some of these being rare examples of artistic coloring. He employed a large number of … Read more

Biography of John Harrison Atwood

John Harrison Atwood. While Mr. Atwood had had his home and law business at Kansas City, Missouri, since 1909, he is still regarded as a Kansas man. His is one of the names most familiar to the people of the state in the realm of law and oratory and political leadership. For a quarter of a century Mr. Atwood was a member of the Kansas bar, residing at Leavenworth. Perhaps as much credit is due to him as to any other individual for the rehabilitation and upbuilding of the democratic party in Kansas. In 1896 came Bryan and a new … Read more

Biography of William W. Hooper

William W. Hooper has been a resident of Kansas thirty-five years and since 1888 had been a practicing lawyer at Leavenworth. He had long ranked among the leaders of the Leavenworth bar, and while studying law he had the good fortune to be associated with as preceptors such eminent jurists as Hon. Edward Stillings and with the firm of Baker & Hook. His subsequent career in the profession had fully justified the confidence reposed in him by his instructors. Mr. Hooper was born in Fremont, Nebraska, September 12, 1865, and came to Kansas on July 20, 1882. His parents were … Read more

Biography of Rev. B. L. Baldridge

Rev. B. L. Baldridge was born in Adams County, Ohio, February 9, 1821. His father, Rev. William Baldridge, was born in Pennsylvania, in 1760. He served in the Revolutionary war at the age of sixteen years, and for many years after its close was an active minister in the United Presbyterian Church. He graduated from college in 1790, was licensed to preach in 1792, was ordained in 1793, and died October 31, 1830. The subject of this biographical sketch was educated at Miami University and subsequently studied theology at Oxford. He was ordained January 10, 1851, at Centerville, Michigan, by … Read more

Biography of Charles Wolff

The careers and activities of many citizens enter into the solid structure of a city like Topeka. But the prosperity which distinguishes this city can be traced to the enterprise of a group of men who chose it as the seene of their business careers and who through their leadership, their executive ability and their splendid capacity for business organization, created and maintained the greater part of what is prominent and flourishing in industry and commerce. Among this group of business builders, one of the most prominent names is that of the late Charles Henry Wolff, Sr., whose untimely death … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Owen A. Bassett

Owen A. Bassett was one of the ablest and most energetie actors in the Border troubles, the Civil war and the civil affairs of the Roconstruction period. A Pennsylvasian by birth, his father moved to Illinois in 1837 and two years later to Iowa. The family home was first in Lee County. The son’s original intention was to be a civil engineer, but he finally decided in favor of the law, although the stirring and compelling affairs which entered his life prevented him for many years from utilizing the legal training which he acquired. In 1855 he was employed in … Read more

Biography of Charles Jeffreys Buckingham

The experiences of Charles J. Buckingham in Kansas cover almost half century. He came to the state in 1868, was for many years successfully identified with the farming, stockraising and public life of Leavenworth and Wabaunsee County, but in 1912 retired and moved to Topeka, where he enjoys the comforts of a city home at 1029 Lane Street. He was born in 1837, in Clermont County, near Miamiville, Ohio. His people were among the earliest and most prominent pioneers of this section of Southern Ohio. His gradfather, Enoch, a native of Pennsylvania, was one of the first white men to … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Patrick McInerney, Rev.

Rev. Patrick McInerney is pastor of the Assumption Catholic Church of Topeka. Reared and trained for the duties of the priesthood abroad, he has been in the ministry of the church in America for the past eighteen years, and all that time has been spent in Kansas. He is an able priest, devoted to the cause, and has an important record of constructive work in the various parishes where he has served. One of the eleven children of Patrick and Bridget (Purcell) McInerney, he was born in Ireland March 6, 1876. He attended the local schools of Ireland and the … Read more

Biography of William Stout

William Stout, president of the Bank of McLouth, is an Englishman, with a family record going back for many generations in the County of Lincoln. However, Mr. Stout had been identified with Kansas for over forty-five years, and after succeeding as a farmer he entered banking at McLouth and had been actively identified with the bank of that city for many years. Mr. Stout was born in the County of Lincoln, England, May 30, 1836, and can now contemplate life and affairs from the height of four score years. His father, Thomas Stout, was born in Lincoln County. England, in … Read more

Biography of Benjamin F. Endres

Benjamin F. Endres, son of the late John Adam Endres, whose career is sketched elsewhere, had been a successful lawyer of Leavenworth, and had also figured in public affairs, being now in his second term as a member of the State Legislature. He was born at Leavenworth, January 27, 1875, was educated in the public schools, read law under Thomas P. Fenlon and John H. Atwood, and was admitted to the bar on his twenty-first birthday. Since then, for twenty years, he had been in the active practice of his profession. In 1903 he was elected police judge of Leavenworth … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Judge Mark W. Delahay

Judge Mark W. Delahay, of Leavenworth, a pioneer newspaper man of that place, founder of the first paper at Wyandotte, a father of the territory and the state and an honored Federal judge during the later period of his life, was a native of Maryland. Although his father was a slaveholder, his maternal ancestors were members of the Society of Friends, and he was averse to buying and selling slaves. Soon after attaining his majority he located in Illinois, where he wrote for different journals; studied law, and was admitted to the bar. In 1853 he went to Mobile, Alabama, … Read more

Biography of Frederick M. Thompson

Frederick M. Thompson, superintendent of the city schools of Horton, and an educator of long and successful experience, is a native of Kansas, and his family have been identified with this state since the territorial period. His father, Samuel C. Thompson, who is now living at Leavenworth at the venerable age of eighty-two, came out to Kansas in 1856 and for a time was identified with the frontier Town of Leavenworth and later removed to Springdale. where he was employed by the firm of Russell Waddell and Major in their big sawmill twelve miles west of Leavenworth on “Big Stranger.” … Read more

Biography of John Adams Jones

John Adams Jones. While the main work of his life for over twenty years had been education, and he had served fourteen years as superintendent of the city schools of Highland, Mr. Jones had many other interests and ties to connect him with that thriving town of Doniphan County. Besides his position as a Kansas educator, all the older base ball fans who followed the fortunes of the teams in the Western League know the name of Mr. Jones as a former pitcher and one of the steadiest and most resourceful players of the national pastime. Mr. Jones was born … Read more

Biography of Frederick W. Wulfekuhler

Frederick W. Wulfekuhler. There is no such word as luck in the vocabulary of business men who have attained distinction in the busy and competitive marts of Kansas. Long years of experience have convinced them that position and prosperity come only through the medium of persistent application of intelligent methods that require time for their development and full fruition. The highest order of executive attainments and organizing sense must be backed up by public confidence, and a further desirable quality is an intimate and concise knowledge of the field to be occupied, this latter to be gained only by gradual … Read more

Biography of Paul E. Havens

Paul E. Havens. The late Paul E. Havens, one of the pioneers of Leavenworth, and whose name is closely interwoven with the material growth and prosperity of the city, was a man of unusual force of character. He was born at Ephratah, Fulton County, New York, May 4, 1839, and was a son of C. D. P. and Eleanor (Frey) Havens, a grandson of Paul and Anne (Kennedy) Havens, and a great-grandson of Daniel and Elizabeth (Bostwick) Havens. The progenitor of this family in America was William Havens, a native of Wales, who located at Portsmouth, Rhode Island, in 1636. … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Miohakl Joseph McManus, Rev.

Rev. Miohakl Joseph McManus is pastor of St. Michael Archangel’s Church at Wheaton. Father MeManus had lived in America ten years and most of his work as a priest had been done in Kansas. A record of good deeds and capable service preceded him to Wheaton, and in this parish his good work had continued and had brought him high favor both with his own parishioners and non-Catholic people. Father McManus was born in County Mayo, Ireland, May 4, 1881. As a boy he attended the national schools and obtained his classical education in Mount Melleray College, County Waterford, where … Read more

Biography of Michael Stanton

Michael Stanton. Honored among the oldest settlers of Northeastern Kansas are Michael Stanton and his wife Maria (Melody) Stanton, of Leavenworth. Theirs had been an ideal life. For nearly three score years they have been married, years of happiness, of hard work and of useful, frugal living, and as the evening shadows of their earthly pilgrimage lengthen their retrospective view brings to them but little to regret and much for which they are thankful. Each had lived beyond the Psalmist’s allotted three-score-and-ten, and their married life of fifty-eight years of happiness not unmixed with sorrow, as is usual in the … Read more

Biography of August Bondi

August Bondi was a splendid figure in the annals of Kansas for fully half a century, and had been fitly described as soldier and patriot and one of the immortal followers of John Brown. From the city of culture and of old world civilization, Vienna, Austria, it is a far cry to the plains of Kansas where were performed those deeds which will ring down through history. August Bondi was born at Vienna July 21, 1833, a son of Hart Emanuel and Martha (Frankl) Bondi, who were also natives of Vienna. His father was a Jewish manufacturer of cotton goods. … Read more

Biography of Leonard R. Manley

The value of a useful trade, of making one’s energy count toward one thing, of forging steadily ahead, regardless of obstaeles and discouragements, finds emphatic expression in the life of Leonard R. Manley, president and manager of the Topeka Pure Milk Company, the largest concern dealing exclusively in milk in the State of Kansas. When Mr. Manley first came to Topeka, it was in a humble capacity, but he was a thorough master of his trade, and possessed the ambition, energy and ability to better and elevate himself, so that he had shapod his abilities to his needs, had made … Read more