Manhattan Kansas

Biography of William Renwick Curry

William R. Curry. That American agriculture had not kept pace with other grent American industries is due mainly, in the opinion of experts and students of the subject, to lack of intelligent organization. While the problems of Amcrican farming are now being attacked with an energy never before displayed, there is no question that one of the influences that have done most and will continuo to do more to vitalize farming methods is the county agent’s movement, which furnishes at least one of the principal instruments by which better co-operation can he supplied and the available sources of information more … Read more

Biography of John Warner

Nearly sixty years have passed since John Warner, then a young man in the full prime of enthusiasm and ambition, came to Kansas to seek his fortune in the young state. At that time his available eash assets consisted of $13, not a great sum with which to start in an unknown country. This was sufficient, however, and not many years had passed before he was on the high road to success. Now, in his eighty-fourth year, this Kansas pioneer and Civil war veteran is living in retirement at Manhattan, at which city he took his residence in 1908, after … Read more

Biography of George S. Hine

George S. Hine is state dairy commissioner of Kansas with office in the State Agricultural College at Manhattan. His early life was spent on a Wisconsin dairy farm. Thus he is in a measure a dairyman to the manner born, as well as a man of thorough technical training and wide experience in that field. He had gained considerable distinction as a technical expert in his chosen profession in Wisconsin before he was called to Kansas, and has been identified with the dairy department of the state for the past six years. He was born on his father’s farm near … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Col. E. Barker

Col. E. Barker, farmer, P. O. Jewell City, was born in Maine, August 12, 1816; removed to Manhattan in Riley County, Kan.; thence to Jewell County in 1870, and is now the owner of 100 acres of land, well improved, with a fine house, the same being situated adjoining the town of Jewell City. The colonel was in the special service of the United States army for over four years; was Colonel of the Third Regiment, Second Brigade of Sixth Division of the Maine State Militia for over seventeen years. Has held office of Deputy Sheriff in Oxford County, Minn., … Read more

Biography of Grant Elwood Kelsey

Grant Elwood Kelsey. General farming and the raising of live stock are engaging the attention of many foresighted men in Kansas. Many of these have additional interests as had Grant Elwood Kelsey, a well known citizen and prosperons agriculturist of Menoken Township, Shawnee County, but their land and its rich yielding occupies the first place in their affections. Grant Elwood Kelsey was born on a farm in Dearborn County, Indiana, March 14, 1867. His parents were Scott and Mahala (Allen) Kelsey, who are mentioned elsewhere in this work. He attended the country schools in Indiana and later near Topeka, Kansas, … Read more

Biography of John V. Cortelyou

John V. Cortelyou, who took the chair of German at the Kansas State Agricultural College in 1904, was at that time only recently returned from Germany. Professor Cortelyou holds his Doctor of Philosophy degree from Heidelberg University, though he is an American by birth and training, and represents a long and interesting lineage of some of the old Dutch families of New Jersey. He was born on a farm near Harlingen in Somerset County, New Jersey, September 19, 1874. He is a son of John G. and Mary (Van Zandt) Cortelyou, both natives of New Jersey and in both lines … Read more

Biography of Jesse M. Foster

Jesse M. Foster, a native Kansan, had been a practical newspaper man since leaving college. He is now proprietor and publisher of the Clifton News, one of the oldest papers in continuous publication in Washington County. This paper was established in December, 1885, by J. M. and J. C. Padgett. It was first known as the Local News. It was changed to the Clifton News in 1891 by L. A. Palmer, then the publisher. The successive owners and publishers were I. C. Ware, one year, A. Q. Miller, two years, N. F. Hewitt, Stoy E. Ware, Burt Fraser, P. M. … Read more

Biography of John Henry Prescott

John Henry Prescott. At the close of the Civil war, in which he had played a gallant role as a Union soldier and had attained the rank of captain, Mr. Prescott came out to Kansas and from that time until his death on July 5, 1891, was a notable figure in the life and affairs of Salina and that part of the state. He attained high rank as a lawyer and as a jurist, and was also remarkably successful in business affairs. His name and memory may well be cherished by his descendants and by the people of the entire … Read more

Biography of Lloyd S. Fry

Lloyd S. Fry. When he came to the City of Manhattan in 1883, Mr. Fry engaged at once in the work which had occupied him for a number of years in Pennsylvania and Kansas and which brought him an enviable place among the state’s leading educators. He was employed as a teacher in the College Hill School, and in 1886 was elected superintendent of the city schools of Manhattan, a position he held two years. His record as an educator included two years in charge of the schools of Randolph, one year at Atwood, three years at Hays City. In … Read more

Biography of Henry Knight Brooks

Henry Knight Brooks of Topeka is a Kansas man by adoption, and is as loyal to the state as any native citizen. The state may properly congratulate itself that Mr. Brooks has found a congenial home here. As an inventor, manufacturer and practical all around mechanic he has a genius which has made his name familiar in industrial circles, not alone in Kansas but in many parts of the United States. For one thing he deserves credit for building up and developing the Capital Iron Works at Topeka, one of the cornerstones of that city’s industrial prosperity. However, that has … Read more

Biography of Isaac T. Goodnow

Isaac T. Goodnow. There are certain names that should be preserved in the annals of Kansas with testimonials of pride and admiration, and one of these is Isaac T. Goodnow, who was a member of a notable group of liberty-loving men whose efforts had much to do with making Kansas a free state and opening the way for her to become the great and prosperous commonwealth she is now. He assisted in the founding of educational and religious institutions, he co-operated with others for business expansion and in every way during a long and singularly useful life displayed those qualities … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Robert Bruce Spilman, Jr.

The only son of the late Judge R. B. Spilman still living in Manhattan is Robert Bruce Spilman, Jr. He was born in Manhattan September 7, 1875, and that city has always been his home. He attended the public schools, and in 1894 entered the halls of his father’s Alma Mater, old Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana. He continued his studies at Wabash until 1896. Returning home he occnpied himself with various lines of employment until 1900, and in that year was elected clerk of the District Court for Riley County. Since beginning his duties as clerk of the District … Read more

Biography of James W. Chenoweth

Capable, progressive and conscientious, the subject of this memoir is worthy of representation in any volume that purports to detail the lives of its leading men, and it is with pleasure that we are enabled to give space here to mention the salient features in his interesting career. Mr. Chenoweth was a man of broad views and a good public spirit, while his abilities and energy were commensurate with the stanch integrity and intrinsic moral worth which he constantly manifested in his course of uprightness and worthy achievement. On April 10, 1860, James W. Chenoweth was born near Bedford, Taylor … Read more

Biography of Edward C. Kassebaum

Edward C. Kassebaum. On the highest point of bottom land between Kansas City, Missouri, and Manhattan, Kansas, is located the forty acre farm belonging to Edward C. Kassebaum, who carries on general farming, but who, perhaps, is more widely known as a grower of water melons, a field in which he has attained something more than a local reputation. This farm is situated in Menoken Township, Shawnee County, and has been brought to a high state of cultivation under the practical and intelligent efforts of Mr. Kassebaum, who has been a resident of this locality all his life and who … Read more

Biography of Charles Sumner Newlon, M.D.

Dr. Charles Sumner Newlon, who for the past fifteen years has engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery in Kansas City, Missouri, and who for many years prior to this period was a physician and surgeon of the state of Kansas, was born at Newton’s Grove, Cass county, Iowa, in 1858, a son of Dr. William Smithson and Maria (Wimp) Newlon. The ancestral line is traced back to his great-grandfather, John Newlon. The grandfather, Hiram Newlon, was born in Virginia and was a cousin of Dolly Madison, wife of the fourth president of the United States and also a … Read more

Biography of J. Carroll Montgomery, M. D.

J. Carroll Montgomery, M. D. In the office of Doctor Montgomery at Manhattan is a large map of Riley County showing in detail all the features of the county and particularly those which are the work and evidence of man’s activities. A number of different colored pegs or pins are usually found dotted about over this map. It is in this way that Doctor Montgomery as county and city health officer of Manhattan and Riley County keeps track of the district under his jurisdiction, a glance at one of these charts indicate the location of all infectious diseases prevalent in … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Edwin C. Manning

Edwin C. Manning, the founder of Winfield, the organizer of the County of Cowley, one of the early editors of the state and thirty or forty years ago a republican leader of Kansas, was born in Redford, Clinton County, New York, November 7, 1838. He was educated both in Vermont and Iowa, taught school at an early age, at the age of nineteen commenced to learn the printer’s trade and in 1859, then about of age, was among the first to start for the Pike’s Peak region in search of gold. He returned a disillusioned young man, but became interested … Read more

Biography of Delmar E. Deputy

Long a prominent citizen of Riley County and a successful business man of Manhattan, Delmar E. Deputy, in his capacity of private citizen and as a member of the firm of Deputy & Schellenbaum, publishers of the Manhattan Nationalist, had done much to advance the welfare of his city and county. He was born in Jennings County, Indiana, November 9, 1862, a son of Silvester F. and Jane (Fowler) Deputy, natives also of Jennings County, and descendants of old Virginia ancestors, and with his parents came to Kansas in 1878 and settled in Riley County, where the father became a … Read more

Biography of Christopher Columbus Michal

C. C. Michal, for the past fifteen years, had been one of the extensive contractors in Southern Kansas, though his work had been done in various parts of the state. His home and headquarters are at Independence, where he is recognized as one of the substantial citizens. Mr. Michal went to the border with the Kansas National Guards, Company K, Second Infantry, as a sergeant and served three months. His ancestors came originally from Ireland and were early settlers in the United States. They located very early in the nineteenth century in Western Indiana near Terre Hante, where Philip Michal, … Read more

Biography Of Washington Marlatt

Washington Marlatt was one of the real builders of Kansas. Both in the early territorial days and later he touched the life and affairs of the state at several points. While he might be classed fundamentally as a farmer, he was equally great as an educator and minister of the Gospel. He had the talents, character and attainments which well fitted him for a place of leadership. One of the most interesting distinctions attaching to this career is that he was one of the three founders and the first principal of Bluemont Central College at Manhattan, which was subsequently developed … Read more