Manhattan Kansas

Biography of John H. Nelson

John H. Nelson. A man of strength, force and character is John H, Nelson, president of the Bennington State Bank and mayor of Bennington, having been thrlce elected to this highest municipal office. He comes of sturdy pioneer ancestry and belongs to a family that had become prominent and honorably influential in Kansas in less than a half century. John H. Nelson was born at Placerville, California, January 9, 1856. His parents were Christian and Nancy Jane (Hereford) Nelson. The father was born on a farm near Bergen, Norway, in 1823, and died at Bennington, Kansas, September 17, 1897. The … 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

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 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 Arthur Leonard Guy

Arthur Leonard Guy. That Kansas within the last half century had made rapid strides forward and had won a foremost place among the states of the Union is gratifying to those who love her and have grown up within her borders. It is not so remarkable, however, that this is true, because she had elemental strength to draw from and a stable eitizenship to guard and guide her enterprises. One of her pioneers who came to Clay County shortly after the curtain had been rung down upon the great fractricidal period of war was William Guy, a man of great … Read more

Biography of Alfred Clark Pierce

At the age of eighty-one, bearing the impress of a life of remarkable experience, a pioneer builder of Kansas, for many years identified with its public and business life, this venerable citizen is now living in comfortable retirement at Junction City. A small party of free state men arrived in Kansas in 1856. It comprised eight or ten men. One of them was Preston B. Plumb, whose name is a household word in Kansas. Alfred Clark Pierce was also in that little party. At Iowa City, Iowa, he had first met Mr. Plumb, and they were ever afterwards intimate friends. … Read more

Biography of William H. Rhodes

William H. Rhodes. As proprietor of the Sunrise Stock farm, comprising 230 acres, situated near Manhattan, in Riley County, Kansas, William H. Rhodes occupies a prominent place among agriculturists in this part of the state, the products of his farm because of their standard merits having a wide distribution. Mr. Rhodes was born in Atchison County, Kansas, March 31, 1869, but was reared in Marion County, Kansas. His parents were John M. and Martha (Kuhn) Rhodes. John M. Rbodes was born in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, and died in Marion County, Kansas, in 1914, when aged seventy-nine years. His father, Christian … 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 George S. Murphey

For over forty years George S. Murphey had been a banker. Nearly thirty of those years have been spent in Kansas, and as president of the First National Bank of Manhattan he is at the head of one of the strong and stable financial institutions of the state. Most of his life had been spent in the West and he was in the Middle West at a time when it was really the Far West. His birth occurred in Delaware, Ohio, September 24, 1846. His father James Murphey was born in Penusylvania and his mother Rhoda Carpenter was born in … 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

Biography of Thomas E. Wagstaff

An attorney of long and successful experience in Montgomery County, both in Coffeyville and Independence, Thomas E. Wagstaff had been and is a leader in republican politics in the state, and a few years ago his name beeame known all over Kansas as a candidate for nomination to the office of governor. He lost the nomination by only a few votes. This was in 1910, when W. R. Stubbs was nominated and afterwards elected. His family have been identified with Kansas for forty years. Thomas E. Wagstaff was born at Galesburg, Illinois, July 23, 1875, and was still an infant … 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 Walter E. Wilson

Walter E. Wilson, banker and business man at Washington, is the present bank commissioner of Kansas. His appointment had brought additional credit upon Governor Capper’s administration as one of those that reflect thorough business administration of state affairs. A native of Kansas and of a pioneer family, Mr. Wilson was born at Manhattan August 21, 1871. He is of an old Virginia family, the Wilsons having come from England and first settled at Jamestown in Colonial times and afterwards moving to the western portion of the state in what is now West Virginia. Their affiliations were all with the North … Read more

Biography of Ralph Ray Price

Ralph Ray Price, professor of History and Civics in the Kansas State Agricultural College at manhattan, had a more than professional interest in the history of Kansas, since he is a native of the state and his people were factors in the pioneer life of the territory. Professor Price is of Scotch-Irish descent and one of his ancestors fought for American independenes in the Battle of Bunker Hill. He was born on a farm in Willow Springs Township of Douglas County, Kansas, ten miles south of Lawrence on March 6, 1872. For several years he had been out of the … 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 Nelson Antrim Crawford

Nelson Antrim Crawford is professor of industrial journalism and superintendent of printing with the Kansas State Agricultural College. For several years he was instructor in English in the Agricultural College but has been head of the journalism work since April, 1914. In his special department he has done important work for the Agricultural College. For several years of his early life he was a newspaper reporter and was thus no stranger to the practical phases of journalism when he came to his present position. He has in the past two years increased the work of the department threefold. By virtue … Read more

Biography of Henry Jackson Waters

Henry Jackson Waters, president of the Kansas State Agricultural College at Manhattan since 1909, is a leader in that group of men who have served to elevate and dignify the science of agriculture. His work and influence are of growing value every passing year. His reputation is by no means confined to Kansas and Missouri, the states in which most of his work had been done. The agricultural journals and writers all over the country are coming to pay special attention and respect to any movement or experiment with which the name Henry Jackson Waters is in any way associated. … Read more

Biography of Edward Shellenbaum

Edward Shellenbaum is co-editor and owner with D. E. Deputy of the Manhattan Nationalist. He entered the newspaper field a few years ago after long and competent service as postmaster at Randolph in Riley County. A native Kansan, he was born in Riley County on his father’s farm near Randolph, November 25, 1875, a son of Henry and Elizabeth (Siebecker) Shellenbaum. Mention of the name of the late Henry Shellenbaum serves to recall not only one of the most prominent pioneers of Riley County, but also some incidents of pioneer life that fittingly find a place in the history of … Read more

Biography of Archie W. Long

Archie W. Long. Of the men who have contributed to the business importance and civic development of the various thriving communities of Kansas, one the value of whose services may not be gainsaid is Archie W. Long, of Manhattan. A resident of this city for nearly a quarter of a century, he was for a long period identified with the milling interests here, and now has large oil holdings and directs his energies toward the development of his interprises connected with that industry. If he has been a contributor to the business development of the community, he has done even … 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