McPherson County KS

Holt, Thomas Martin – Obituary

La Grande, Oregon Thomas Martin Holt, 72, of Pocatello, died at his home Feb. 21. The family intends to hold a memorial service in the La Grande area sometime this summer. Details for this will be announced. Mr. Holt was born Sept. 2, 1934, to John Charles Lucas and Eunice Louise (Johnson) Holt in Marquette, Kan., where he was raised and educated. He graduated from Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kan., with a bachelor of art’s degree in business administration. He married Judith Corinne Miller in 1956. The two then spent a few years teaching and coaching in the Midwest. They … Read more

Biography of William O. Mathes

William O. Mathes. There is no more enthusiastic Kansas than William O. Mathes of McPherson. He knows the state not merely as a great and prosperous modern commonwealth, but by intimate experience with this country when it was in its pioneer stages. He won his competence on a Kansas homestead and he and his people were among the earliest settlers in McPherson County. Mr. Mathes was born in a log house on a farm in Clark County, Indiana, September 7, 1854. His parents were Charles and Mary Ellen (Clark) Mathes. The Mathes family in an earlier generation became pioneers in … Read more

Biography of Carl Aaron Swensson, Rev. Dr.

Rev. Dr. Carl Aaron Swensson was the founder and chief upbuilder of Bethany College, the institution around which cluster the best and most noteworthy distinctions of Lindsborg as a community and from which have gone influences that now permeate and give character to many localities through the useful men and women educated there. In an important degree Bethany College is a monnment to the late Doctor Swensson, and to a nobler one few men could aspire. He was born at Sugar Grove, Pennsylvania, June 25, 1857, a son of Jonas and Maria (Blixt) Swensson. His parents came to America in … Read more

Biography of Maj. Willis L. Brown

Maj. Willis L. Brown, of Kingman, is one of the eminent Kansas whose records serve to illustrate and adorn the history of the commonwealth. Mr. Brown had been through nearly everything that is significant of Kansas life for forty years. He was at one time a poverty stricken homesteader and while the general public knows him chiefly through his broader business and civic relations, he is still in close touch with Kansas farming and through his work and initiative had probably done as much as any man in Kingman County to promote intensive and high class farming and stock raising. … Read more

Biography of Sven Birger Sandzen

Sven Birger Sandzen. A writer in the American Magazine of Art in February, 1917, paid a deserved compliment to Lindsborg as a city of art and culture better known and appreciated by the outside world than many industrial communities of greater population and wealth. This writer said: “Lindsborg had today the largest number of practicing artists in proportion to its population of any city in this country. By artists, however, is not meant merely painters, sculptors and architects, but also musicians. The musical festivals held in this city of the plains have become celebrated for their quality and musically are … Read more

Holt, Thomas Martin – Obituary

La Grande, Oregon Thomas Martin Holt Thomas Martin Holt, 72, died at his home Feb. 21. He was born Sept. 2, 1934, in Marquette, Kan., to John Charles Lucas and Eunice Louise (Johnson) Holt. The family intends to hold a memorial service for family and friends in the La Grande area sometime this summer. Details for this will be forthcoming. Memorials in Tom Holt’s name can be made to Zion Lutheran Church, 902 Fourth St., La Grande 97850. Mr Holt was raised and educated in Marquette. He graduated from Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kan., with a BA in business administration … Read more

Biography of Earl A. Nossaman

Earl A. Nossaman, secretary of the Monarch Cement Company at Humboldt, had lived in Kansas since early infancy, educated himself for the teaching profession, which he followed for a number of years, and was in the drug business before he accepted his present official position with the Monarch Cement Company. He went with this company while it was being reorganised, and as manager of the sales department had had much to do with its successful operations in recent years. His ancestry goes back to Hesse Cassel, Germany, where his great-grandfather was born. Coming to America, this ancestor settled in Pennsylvania. … Read more

Biography of Charles Hedinger, M. D.

Charles Hedinger, M. D., of Canton, McPherson County, is a character unique in the great Sunflower State of Kansas. Others have grown old under the bright skies and in the wholesome and invigorating climate of Kansas’ prairies, but so far as known none had reached the age of ninety-five still active in work and had passed through such a varied range of experience, meeting hazard and danger with equanimity, and getting all possible out of life at every hour of existence. Much had been said and written in recent years concerning the decadence of the modern man and his comparative … Read more

Biography of Harris W. Manning, M. D.

Harris W. Manning, M. D. The country along the banks of the Cottonwood River around Emporia had become a landmark in Kansas literature, largely due to the ability of William Allen White in investing those scenes with literary color and description. It was along the hanks of the farnous Cotton wood, four miles west of Emporia in Lyon County, that Dr. Harris W. Manning, a prominent physician and a specialist at Eureka, was born September 20, 1868. His father, Patrick W. Manning, belonged to the colony of earliest settlers in Lyon County, having homesteaded a claim there about the middle … Read more

Biography of Arthur Louis Cludas, M. D.

Arthur Louis Cludas, M. D. The medical profession in Ottawa County had no better representative than Dr. Arthur Louis Cludas, who for the last eighteen years had been established at Minneapolis and through professional knowledge and skill and high personal character had became representative of the city’s best citizenship. Doctor Cludas was born at Vinton, Iowa, November 3, 1872, and is a son of William and Belle (Gatka) Cludas. William Cludas was born at Berlin, Germany, in 1833 and there his parents both died. He was educated in Berlin and at Heidelberg University, served, as did his father, in the … Read more

Biography of Alexander Sutherland Hendry

Alexander Sutherland Hendry, who for more than a quarter of a century had practiced law at McPherson, is a member of the Hendry family which was so conspicuously identified with the early history of this section of the state. His father was one of the founders of the Ashtabula Colony and for years was prominent in the public and business life of McPherson. His father was the late Hiram A. Hendry, born at Jefferson, Ohio, in 1837, son of Samuel A. Hendry, likewise a native of the same section of Ohio. Hiram Hendry had a college education, and at the … Read more

Biography of Alfred Bergin B. D., Ph. D.

Alfred Bergin, B. D., Ph. D.The Bethany Church at Lindsborg ever since it was established on the prairies of Central Kansas nearly fifty years ago had been a powerful influence not only in the religious life of Kansas but to a remarkable degree in the social and intellectual advancement of the people of the state. It is the oldest and the parent church of the Swedish Lutheran people who did so much to colonize and develop these prairles from a wilderness into a smiling landscape of farms and towna. The church had a membership of over two thousand people. It … Read more

Biography of Francis Johnson

Francis Johnson. What the Kansas pioneers went through in their efforts to establish homes and build up a commonwealth of material greatness and high ideals is a subject of knowledge known to Francis Johnson not from books or what other people have told him, but is part of his individual experience and recollection. He was one of the first settlers from Sweden who established homes in McPherson County in the years following the Civil war, and had always been one of the strong men of that community. His strength of body enabled him to conquer the forces of the wilderness … Read more

Biography of Aron Dick, Jr.

Aron Dick, Jr., is editor and owner of the Inman Review at Inman, and had been continuously identified with that publication since early boyhood. He acquired most of his education in what had been called the greatest of universities, a printing office, and is not only a practical printer but a practical and thorough newspaper man. Mr. Dick was born February 9, 1885, on a farm in McPherson County, Kansas, five miles southeast of the Town of Inman. His parents were Aron and Anna (Kroeker) Dick. His parents were of that substantial stock of people, Mennonites in religion, who came … Read more

Biography of Robert Alfred Thompson

Robert Alfred Thompson. Marquette in McPherson County is one of the thriving towns of Kansas whose population is largely composed of Swedish people, and the community in its industrial and moral aspect had been materially influenced by the substantial character of these people. One of the most prominent men of the town for the past thirty years had been Robert Alfred Thompson, who, successful in business, had studiously sought every opportunity to upbuild and promote the substantial welfare of the town. Mr. Thompson is a native of Sweden, having been born at Landskrona, near Copenhagen, January 10, 1855. His parents … Read more

Biography of Bigler B. Basore

Bigler B. Basore. When he first came to Kansas a number of years ago Mr. Basore was in the role of teacher, and he did some successful school work as teacher and principal in several communities. He had been a farmer, traveling salesman, and is now a leading banker at Lyons, being cashier of the People’s State Bank of that city. Mr. Basore was born at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, in September, 1873, a son of Peter and Rosa (Bigler) Basore. His grandfather, Peter Basore, was born at Marseilles, France, in 1807, came to America in early life, and for many years … Read more

Biography of Fred Goodholm

Fred Goodholm. Having identified himself with the business community of Lindsborg in 1879 Fred Goodholm is a veteran merchant and citizen of that community and his life had been productive of good, had resulted in a satisfying prosperity for himself, and the influence he had exerted in his home city and the worthy family that surrounds him are tokens of a worthy and active career. Mr. Goodholm was born December 24, 1848, at Filipstad, Sweden, a son of Anders and Charlotte (Lind) Goodholm. His father, who was born in 1822 and died in 1878, spent his active career in Sweden … Read more

Biography of Herman Bartels

Herman Bartels, the pioneer lumber merchant and president of the Bank of Inman, had been identified with McPherson County for over forty years. He is a veteran German soldier and fought with the armies of the empire in the Franco-Prussian war. He had a thorough technical and professional training in German schools, and was educated as an architect, but after coming to Kansas he applied his energies first to farming and later to constructive business affairs in Inman, and had been the chief business man of that town for many years. Mr. Bartels was born October 24, 1846, in the … Read more

Biography of Emerson Carey

Emerson Carey. A chapter of this publication is devoted to the salt industry in Kansas. Salt ranks along with wheat, coal, petroleum and gas in contributing to the great fundamental wealth of this state. Of the individual concerns manufacturing salt in Kansas one of the greatest is the Carey Salt Company of Hutchinson. The head and moving spirit of this business is Mr. Emerson Carey. While the Careys were not pioneer salt manufacturers, they have in the last fifteen years become probably the largest operators when considered as a single family group, and today the name Carey is practically synonymous … Read more

Biography of Bror G. Grondal

Bror G. Grondal. At the very head of the profession of photography in Kansas stands Bror G. Grondal, who for thirty consecutive years had conducted the leading studio at Lindsborg. Mr. Grondal both in his profession and in other lines of activity is a man of widely diversified experience. His career is an interesting one since he came to America in childhood years and had fought continuously a brave and unremitting struggle until he placed himself in a position where he is master of a congenial profession. Mr. Grondal is a former president of the Kansas State Photographers Association. He … Read more