Liberty Kansas

Biography of John Wallace Howe

John Wallace Howe. Few men are able to comprehend within a period of less than seventy years such a variety of experience and achievement as John Wallace Howe of Independence. He is one of the youngest vsterans of the Union army in the war between the states. Besides the part played by him as a faithful soldier in that struggle, he had been a farmer, a carpenter, had lived in a number of different localities, and was one of the pioneer settlers in Montgomery County, Kansas, having established his home there on the frontier more than forty-five years ago. Public … Read more

Biography of George H. Wark

George H. Wark, who has been in the practice of law at Caney for the past thirteen years, and in the fall of 1916 was elected a member of the State Senate, is a native of Montgomery County, where his father established a home about the time the Indians moved out of the country into Indian Territory. The substantial ancestry of which he is a representative was from Scotland and was transplanted to the American colonies, living in New York State and afterwards in Pennsylvania. Grandfather William Wark was born in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, in 1808. In his early years … Read more

Biography of Joseph E. Roberts

Joseph E. Roberts, conducting a furniture and undertaking business at Nowata, is one of the wide-awake and alert young men of the city, whose success is the result of thoroughness and enterprise. He was born October 23, 1892, about twelve miles east of the city in which he still makes his home. His father, Edward Taylor Roberts, was a native of Indiana, his birth having occurred on a farm near Lebanon in Montgomery County, his parents being James Thomas and Lydia A. (James) Roberts. His parents were Kentuckians but were married in Indiana, to which state they had removed in … Read more

Biography of John Henry Tole

John H. Tole. While it is certainly true that a live and growing community such as Liberty offers many and widely diversified opportunities for advancement along every line of personal endeavor, yet it is just as true that only a certain percentage achieve distinction, and a large number fail of even attaining a competency. It takes something more than mere opportunity to elevate a man from the common level of every-day accomplishments. Unless he has within him that divine spark of genius for his life work, be will continue to belong to the great majority of mediocre humanity, instead of … Read more

Biography of Galusha W. Ashby

Galusha W. Ashby. Many of the men of Montgomery County who have attained prominence in business life, have had their training in agricultural work and prior to entering commercial, industrial and financial affairs have achieved success as tillers of the soil. In this category is found Galusha W. Ashby, who until 1914 centered his activities in farming in Montgomery County and since that time has given his fine talents to the advancement of the lumber interests of Liberty, as proprietor of the Liberty Lumber Company. Mr. Ashby was born on a farm in Appanoose County, Iowa, December 23, 1861, and … Read more

Biography of George Washington Wingate

George Washington Wingate. The career of George Washington Wingate, of Liberty, Kansas, is an expression of practical and diversified activity, and in its range has invaded the fields of agriculture, business, finance, education, politics and society, all of which have profited by the breadth and conscientiousness which are characteristic of the man and his work. As a business man be developed several enterprises into paying ventures, as a banker he has made an honorable place for himself, in public life his services have been of exceeding value to his community, and as a member of society he has constantly endeavored … Read more

Biography of Floyd B. McBride, M. D.

Floyd B. McBride, M. D. Among the young and enthusiastic professional element of Montgomery County is found Ford B. McBride, who, within the short space of seven years, has built up at Liberty a medical and surgical practice as gratifying personally as it is successful financially. The fearless, questioning attitude of the twentieth century nowhere is more strikingly apparent than among the exponents of medical science. The tendency of the latter-day physician is to avoid, above all things, hasty jumping at conclusions or too ready dependence upon formulae, a tendency that is rapidly destroying ancient delusions and thereby placing the … Read more

Biography of Owen A. Thompson

Owen A. Thompson of Independence represents one of the pioneer families of Kansas and had had an eventful career in nearly all parts of the world. Beturning to his native state a few years ago, he exercised his original mind in inventing a machins now extensively used in all the oil districts of the country, and had since applied himself to the management of the manufacturing plant known as the Safety Pulling Machine Company at Independence, of which he is secretary and treasurer. His grandfather, James A. Thompson, was descended from Scotch ancestors who came from Ayr, Scotland, to New … Read more

Biography of David Heckman

David Heckman. Of the men whose ability, industry and forethought have added to the character, wealth and good government of Liberty, none are better known than David Heckman. Mr. Heckman is a business man, not only by training and long experience, but by preference and natural talent, and all these qualities have been combined to form a force through which he has worked his way to success. He first came to this community in 1870, but it was not until 1877 that he located permanently in Liberty, and since that time his fortunes have been linked indissolubly with those of … Read more

Biography of Charles T. Bickett

Charles T. Bickett. Well established in business affairs at Coffeyville, with an office for the handling of insurance, collections and also for the discharge of his duties as justice of the peace, Charles T. Bickett has had an unusually wide range of experience and association with Montgomery County, where he has lived since pioneer times. His ancestry goes back to an old English family, and in fact may be traced to that noted scholar and thinker, Thomas a’ Becket, of the fourteenth century. The Bicketts came from England to Virginia in colonial times. From Virginia they spread across the mountains … Read more

Biography of A. Frank Johnson

A. Frank Johnson. During his residence at Independence for thirty-five years A. Frank Johnson has made a most commendable and successful business record, and in many ways has found opportunity to serve the public welfare as a private citizen. For more than twenty years he has been in business as a stock buyer and meat dealer, and is also a bank director and the owner of considerable property. A Pennsylvanian, he belongs to the branch of the Johnson family which settled in Pennsylvania in colonial days. His grandfather, Roan Johnson, spent his life in that state as a farmer. A. … Read more

Biography of George Howe Bechtel

George Howe Bechtel. Of the men who are maintaining Montgomery County’s reputation and prestige in financial circles, few are more highly esteemed as banking officials and citizens than George Howe Bechtel, eashier of the Liberty State Bank, of Liberty. Like many other Kansas bankers, Mr. Bechtel is a product of the farm and of the schoolroom. It would seem that the practicality developed in agricultural life and the mental sharpening acquired in the educator’s vocation form a combination happily adaptative to the great and important business of banking. At least, Mr. Bechtel’s career and his success support such a view. … Read more