Leavenworth Kansas

Biography of Francis H. Taton, Rev.

Rev. Francis H. Taton, pastor of the Catholic Church of St. Michael’s at Axtell. Marshall County, is a native of the old Hoosier State, but had been a resident of Kansas ever since the early days of his ordination to the priesthood, a period of nearly thirty years, during which period he had performed a wonderful work in the mission fields of this state, a labor that had endeared him to the hearts of many in various portions of the state. Father Taton had been in charge of St. Michael’s parish at Axtell since the summer of 1903 and had a record … Read more

Biography of Daniel Read Anthony

Daniel R. Anthony was one of the ablest men of his generation in Kansas. He possessed that ability so generally admired of fighting without quarter in behalf of any movement in which his convictions were enlisted. His long career touches Kansas history at many points as a pioneer and one of the founders of Leavenworth, as a soldier, and as a public official and a newspaper man. He came to Kansas in 1854 with the first colony sent out by the New England Emigrant Aid Society of Massachusetts. For nearly half a century he was identified with the City of … Read more

Biography of William Small

William Small. In the death of William Small Leavenworth lost one of its greatest merchants and one of its most upright, energetic and lovable citizens. He had been a resident of Leavenworth nearly thirty years. He developed the largest real estate establishment of the city, a permanent monument to his name, and still conducted as William Small & Company. He was a man of even and gentle disposition, thoroughly alert in business matters, and public spirited in his attitude toward citizenship and towards the larger social life of his community. He was an invaluable factor in the growth and enterprise … Read more

Biography of Elmore W. Snyder

Elmore W. Snyder. A resident of Kansas since 1878, and with possibly one exception the oldest living bank president in the state, Elmore W. Snyder, president of the Manufacturers National Bank of Leavenworth, had been actively identified with the commercial and financial history of Kansas for nearly forty years. He was born in the Village of Red Creek, Wayne County, New York, November 23, 1850. Jacob Snyder, his great-grandfather, settled in that section of York State in pioneer times and operated a grist mill for many years. His grandfather, Amos Snyder, was there reared, engaged in farming, practiced law and … Read more

Biography of Colonel Jacob H. Bartles

Time is the perspective which places the individual in his true position in relation to the history of the community with which he has been identified and time serves but to heighten the fame and brighten the good name of Colonel Jacob H. Bartles, in whose honor the town of Bartlesville was named and who was also the founder of Dewey. He was ever a man of most progressive spirit, of which many tangible evidences may be cited, including the fact that he was the first man to establish electric light and waterworks plants in the state. He was also … Read more

Biography of Paul Rohr

Paul Rohr. The Rohr family is one of the oldest names of Leavenworth. The family came to Kansas in the early territorial period, soon after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill and at the beginning of the struggle between the free state and pro-slavery elements. The name had many active associations with business, public and civic affairs in Leavenworth and the surrounding district. The late Paul Rohr, founder of the family in Kansas, was born in the Province of Lorain, then part of France, now Germany, in the district of Rohrbach on October 1, 1818. His father was Paul Rohr … Read more

Biography of Sheldon Griswold Catlin

Sheldon Griswold Catlin. A notable figure in the commercial life of the City of Leavenworth was the late Sheldon Griswold Catlin. He was a Yankee, of Connecticut birth and ancestry, and possessed the genius of a typical New Englander for trade. Bulwarking his genius in this direction was a remarkable integrity of character and a wholesomeness and breadth of mind which made his presence in any community a source of strength and uplift. It was in 1863 that he came to Leavenworth and became a member of the old wholesale shoe firm of George O. Catlin & Company, a business … Read more

Biography of Horace Saunders

Horace Saunders, one of the representative orange-growers of Riverside, owns a ten-acre tract on Colton avenue, on the corner of Russell street, about one mile north of the business center of Riverside. This grove was planted with seedling oranges as early as 1872 by its then owner, W. P Russell, and later many of the seedlings were replaced by budded trees. The grove now contains 800 seedlings and 400 budded orange trees, besides a small variety of deciduous fruits for family use. Mr. Saunders purchased the place in 1880, and has since conducted its cultivation. He has made many improvements … 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 John Thomas Bartley

John Thomas Bartley has spent many years in Kansas and the Southwestern country and his business had been chiefly ranching on a large scale, either as manager for others or for himself. He now looks after a large farm at Fostoria in Pottawatomie County and had been a fine factor in the founding and upbuilding of that comparatively new village of Kansas. The home of the Bartleys for several generations had been Monroe County, Kentucky, where John Thomas was born March 7, 1865. His great-grandfather, Thomas Bartley, was born in Ireland in 1760. He came to this country a young, … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Abel C. Wilder

Abel C. Wilder, prominent in the free-soil movements of Kansas Territory, in the establishment of the republican party within its limits and the founding of the commonwealth, was born at Mendon, Massachusetts, March 18, 1828. With little book learning, he early became identified with business at Rochester, New York, and did much to found its public library. While still a resident of the East, the Kansas question enlisted his deep interest and sympathy, and he came to the territory at his first opportunity in March, 1857. Engaging in the land business at Leavenworth, he at once became prominent in that … 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

Biographical Sketch of Samuel D. Lecompte

Samuel D. Lecompte, first chief justice of the Territory of Kansas and afterward prominent on the bench of Leavenworth County, and a representative in both houses of the Legislature, was born in Dorchester County, Maryland, December 13, 1814. After graduating from Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, he studied law in Maryland and, upon being admitted to the bar, began practice in Carroll County, that state. He had served one term in the Maryland Legislature and become quite prominent politically, when he moved to Baltimore in 1854. In October, 1854, President Pierce appointed Mr. Lecompte chief justice of the Territory of Kansas, which … Read more

Biography of Bernard Flesher

Bernard Flesher died at Leavenworth, April 12, 1909. He had been a resident of that city over half a century. In that time he became one of the best known men of Eastern Kansas. His reputation was based not only upon a remarkable business success as a merchant, but also upon his many acts of public spirited citizenship. Although of foreign birth he was in every sense a loyal American, a lover of American institutions, and of the greatness and power of the new world. He was a credit to his city and state. The amassing of wealth was only … Read more

Biography of Ward Burlingame

Ward Burlingame, during the twenty years of his activities in Kansas, a well known journalist of Leavenworth and a confidential secretary to several noted men of the commonwealth, while over a quarter of a century of his life was devoted to the national postal service, ten years as chief clerk of the dead letter division. He was born at Gloversville, New York, February 6, 1836, and received a public school and academic education prior to locating at Leavenworth in 1858. Mr. Burlingame’s first newspaper experience was on a daily paper called the Ledger, edited by George W. McLane. Later he … Read more

Scott, Sarah W., Mrs. – Obituary

Services Held Mrs. Sarah Scott Enterprise, Oregon Memorial services were held Tuesday at 2 p.m. at the Bollman Funeral Chapel for Mrs. Sarah W. Scott who passed away Saturday, March 28, in a La Grande hospital where she had been a patient for the past ten days. Rev. John Munsey officiated and Mrs. A.L. Kintner was organist. Soloist was Mrs. Gerald R. Brown who sang “In The Garden” and “Beautiful Isle of Somewhere.” Casket bearers were: Wilbur Reece, Maurice Weaver, William Morris, Ray Repplinger, Lowell Wortman and Pat Wortman and burial was in the Enterprise cemetery. Mrs. Scott was born … Read more

Biography of Harvey James Loomis

Harvey James Loomis. During his long residence within the borders of Wabaunsee County, the late Harvey James Loomis worked out an admirable destiny, and from small beginnings drew around him for the comfort and happiness of his later years such substantial compensations as wealth, the affectionate devotion of his well established children, the eredit for having contributed largely to the general development of the community, and the confidence and good will of his business and social assocates. Mr. Loomis was born on a farm near Wadsworth, Modina County, Ohio, February 18, 1828, the second son of the four children born … Read more

Biography of James C. Lysle

James C. Lysle. The important industries of Leavenworth still include manufacturing and some of the soundest enterprises in this line at the present date their beginning back in the city’s pioneer days. Immediately in this connection, comes the name of James C. Lysle to mind, for he was one of the earliest, one of the most persevering and one of the most straightforward manufacturers that the city had ever known. He was, entirely, a self-made made and in youth had but few educational advantages, but through quiet persistence, faith in himself and his fellow men, and a determination he never … 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 Early Whitten Poindexter

Early Whitten Poindexter. On January 8, 1854, there was born on a farm in Martin County, Indiana, near the village with the euphonious name of Loogootee, a boy whose destiny soon took him away from his father’s fields and livestock and in 1885 brought him to Kansas, where now for more than thirty years he has been general agent for Kansas of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company. He is recognized as one of the ablest life insurance men of the country. He is one of the leaders in the force of men who are regarded as the most aggressive … Read more