McPherson County KS Genealogy – Page 2 of 3

Biography of Daniel Johnson

Daniel Johnson. Business achievement far above the ordinary and the influences of a character founded on the bedrock of integrity, were the fruits of the long and active years spent by the late Daniel Johnson at Lindsborg. At the time of his death Mr. Johnson had been for thirty-nine years a merchant at Lindsborg, and was the oldest business man of the city. He built up a splendid mercantile establishment known all over that section of Kansas and still a flourishing enterprise. He gave himself with the wholesouled devotion characteristic of him to church and to all the progressive affairs … Read more

Biography of Charles A. Smith

Charles A. Smith, of Halstead, is a Kansan of long and varied experience, and his people were pioneers here. Mr. Smith is now one of the active heads of a large produce business at Halstead. He is of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and his people were early day Quakers in North Carolina, their hatred of slavery causing them to migrate to the North. Mr. Smith was born in Randolph County, Indiana, October 13, 1867. His father, John W. Smith, was born in North Carolina July 30, 1836, and in 1846, when he was ten years of age, his parents moved to Randolph … Read more

Biography of A. J. Shaw

A. J. Shaw, of McPherson, is the acknowledged expert authority in the West on the subject of hail insurance. Since its organization in 1899 he had been continuously secretary of the McPherson Hail Insurance Company. The McPherson Hail Insurance Company is a business organization of which the State of Kansas may be proud. It was the first Kansas company to offer an adequate service in this department of insurance. Prior to twenty-five years ago insurance against Hail was almost unknown as a practice in Kansas. The only company that offered such insurance was the St. Paul Fire & Marine. About … Read more

Biography of Claes F. Norstrom

Claes F. Norstrom is among the pioneer claimtaking and homesteading element of the country around Lindsborg. In fact some of the early matters of historical interest are a part of his personal record and experience. McPherson County was a wild and untamed district when Mr. Norstrom arrived in 1868 and secured a tract of Government land adjoining the present town of Lindsborg. In that one community he had worked out his destiny and had resided there nearly half a century. Many acres were brought under cultivation and made to produce bountiful crops by his energy. His influence was not confined … 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 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 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 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 Warren Knaus

Warren Knaus has two distinctions among the citizens of Kansas. For over thirty years he had been an editor and newspaper publisher at McPherson and is now one of the oldest newspaper men in continuous service in the state. His other claim to distinction is one more exclusive and recognized chiefly in scientific circles, but his work had brought him some of the rewards paid to scientific scholarship granted by bodies of world membership. He is one of the chief authorities in Kansas on entomology. A resident of Kansas since 1870, Mr. Knaus was twelve years of age when the … Read more

Kansas Registrations of Enemy Aliens, 1917 – 1921

The series contains original affidavits of registration that record personal information about each registrant, their photograph affixed to the majority of documents, and the registrants fingerprints. All of these are specific to Kansas, and most have the actual documents attached.

Biography of Cornelius Enns

Cornelius Enns founded an important industry in McPherson County and at his death left behind him a highly successful enterprise and the memory of an industrious, upright and thoroughly capable citizen. To no one class of people does Kansas owe more than to the Mennonites who came out of Southern Russia and applied their experience and methodical industry to the magnificent wheat fields of the Sunflower state. Cornelius Enns was a representative of that class of people. He was born in the Village of Landskrone, Taurida, in Southern Russia in 1839. His death occurred at Inman, Kansas, June 1, 1904, … 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

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 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 Ross Homer Rhoads

Ross Homer Rhoads is agent for the Santa Fe Railroad Company at Arkansas City. He had been a railroad man for a number of years, and it was his efficiency and his ability that led to his promotion to one of the most important posts along the Santa Fe system in Kansas. Mr. Rhoads had spent most of his life in Kansas but was born at Somerset, Pennsylvania, April 9, 1883. His grandfather, Samuel A. Rhoads, was a native of Germany and came from there to Pennsylvania. He had ten children: Sarah, deceased; Adaline, single; Etta, deceased; Philip, deceased; Susan, … Read more

Biographical Sketch of J. A. Glaze, Rev.

Rev. J. A. Glaze is pastor of the Christian Church at Miltonvale. As head of that church he had one of the most spiritually efficient religious organizations in Cloud County. A brief outline of the church’s growth and development had its proper place in Kansas History. The Church of Christ at Miltonvale was organized April 17, 1884, with twenty-four charter members. The officers at the beginning were: Elders John Squires and W. J. Hays; Deacons J. B. Johnson and A. V. Step; and minister, Rev. Kenney. In 1886 preparations were begun for a building. In 1887 the ediflce was completed … 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

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 Harvey Elmer Bruce

Harvey Elmer Bruce is one of Kansas’ successful newspaper men, being owner and editor of The Marquette Tribune, which he acquired some years ago and which he had made an influential organ of public opinion in McPherson and adjoining counties of the state. Mr. Bruce was born on a farm in Logan County, Ohio, March 12, 1865, but had lived in McPherson County, Kansas, since early boyhood. He was a successful schoolman in this state before he enrolled in the ranks of newspaper men. His parents were Henry Clay and Louise Jane (Abel) Bruce. His father was born in Somerset … Read more