Mitchell County KS

Biography of Benjamin Rees

Benjanin Rees. For a half century the Rees family had been known in Mitchell County, Kansas. While largely agricultural, it had been otherwise connected but had always been numbered with the stable, reliable, progressive and law-abiding class. The leading representative at present, Benjamin Rees, a substantial farmer residing at Asherville, was born on the site of this village in 1869. He is a son of John and Nancy Bees, the former of whom is an honored retired resident of Barnard, Lincoln County, Kansas, and the latter of whom died there in 1906. John Rees was born in Wales and from … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Ben Daniels

Ben Daniels. There is no doubt but that the luxury of yesterday becomes the necessity of today. As culture advances, more is demanded to satiafy it. Hence have arisen, wherever culture and refinement have followed education, special lines of business, organized and directed by individuals whose artistic gifts have been worthily employed. One of these lines, under the name of arts and crafts, had been the originating and fashioning beantiful furniture that satisfies the cultivated taste that is weary of the commonplace. A high order of talent, however, is required to design such artistic furniture and decorations as are manufactured … Read more

Fix, Cora Johnson – Obituary

Mrs. Cora Fix, 72, of Orting, passed on at her home Aug. 2 [1946] after an illness of several months. She had resided in Orting since 1889, moving there from her birthplace in Cawker City, Kas. Survivors include one daughter, Mrs. Gladys L. Berry of Orting, and two granddaughters, Mrs. Orpha Stone of Tacoma and Mrs. Shirley Rudnick of Orting. Also surviving are six great grandchildren. Funeral services will be held Wednesday at 2 p.m. at the Orting M. E. Church. Burial will be in the Orting Cemetery under direction of the Orting Funeral Home. Contributed by: Shelli Steedman

Biographical Sketch of Thomas H. McCall

Thomas H. McCall. Because of his fine business qualifications and his upright character, Thomas H. McCall, of Beloit, Kansas, had been frequently chosen by his fellow citizens for offices of public trust and responsibility. For the past four years he had served with the greatest efficiency as county clerk of Mitchell County and previously in other important positions. It reflects credit on a community when men of Mr. McCall’s character and experience are selected for offices which in their operation closely concern the general public. Thomas H. McCall was born in 1855, in Clinton County, Ohio, and is a son … Read more

Biography of Seward Allen Jones

Seward Allen Jones. One of the finest printing establishments of the State of Kansas is that conducted at Topeka by Seward A. Jones and A. D. Birch, who have been its proprietors since 1915. Mr. Jones is a practical printer of experience, having gained his training in this direction in the difficult school of newspaper life, and from the time he reached the age of sixteen years has been identified with type and presses. In his present business he is demonstrating the fact that he is a thorough master of every department of printing. Seward Allen Jones was born March … Read more

Biographical Sketch of William H. F. Gabe

William H. F. Gabe. The local history of the city of Beloit will always find it necessary to make reference to Mr. William H. F. Gabe, who was one of the pioneers in that section of Mitchell County and his early experiences and the work with which he had been connected have been a part of the development and upbuilding of the state. It was in 1870 that he brought his bride to Mitchell County. Both he and his wife were born in Germany, he in 1837 and she in 1844. They came to the United States in 1868 and … Read more

Biographical Sketch of George E. Hartshorn

Hartshorn, George E.; attorney-at-law; born, Newark, O., May 6, 1879; son of Martin D. and Flora Laird Hartshorn; educated, Dennison University, B. L., Western Reserve Law School; married, Beloit, Kansas, April 19, 1906, Pearl Mead; partner Kerruish, Kerruish, Hartshorn & Spooner; member Chamber of Commerce, Baeta Theta Pi Fraternity.

Biography of Anson S. Cooke, Hon.

Hon. Anson S. Cooke. A resident of Kansas during a period of forty-five years, a pioneer of the prairies of Mitchell County, and for twelve years a member of the State Senate, Hon. Anson S. Cooke is well and favorably known in various parts of the commonwealth, and particularly so at Topeka where he now is living in retirement. During his long and useful career he has risen from poverty to affluence and from obscurity to prominence, and while engaged steadfastly and successfully in the promotion of his personal interests has also contributed to the welfare of the state which … Read more

Biographical Sketch of F. J. Ruffner D. V. M.

F. J. Ruffner, D. V. M. The senior veterinarian at Beloit, Doctor Ruffner had been in active practice there since 1912. He had a hospital located on Second Street, furnished with all the facilities for the modern practice of veterinary surgery and his business had grown so rapidly that he had completed the erection of a larger and still more modern veterinary hospital. He practices all over that section of Kansas and is known not only for his skill but for his personal popularity. A native of Kansas, born in 1889, Doctor Ruffner is a son of Andrew and Louise … Read more

Biography of Abram A. Raub, M. D.

Abram A. Raub, M. D. One of the oldest and best known physicians and citizens of Kansas is Dr. Abram A. Raub of Topeka, who came to this state in 1879. Doctor Raub is a veteran of the Civil war. During part of his service he was assistant surgeon in the army, and has been practicing medicine for fully half a century. Doctor Raub was forty years of age when he came to Kansas, having been born in 1839 at Blairstown, New Jersey. His father was Philip Raub, also a native of Blairstown. The grandfather emigrated from the Rhine provinces … Read more

Biography of Hoit, Mary Melvina

Mary Melvina Hoit 1842 – 1916 Biography Mary Melvina Hoit was born in Meigs County, Ohio in 1842. She was one of the two daughters. Her sister’s name was Ruthanar. We do not have the names of her parents but in scrapbook #3 in one of the letters she wrote to newspapers there is come family history. Her father moved from Meigs Co. to Quincy, Ill. In Adams County in 1844. They lived in town until the following spring when they moved to the north line of Adams County and purchased a farm from his brother-in-law, Truman Hocox. This farm … Read more

Stuart, Charles Irvin – Obituary

Charles Irvin Stuart was born April 5, 1891 on a farm southwest of Glen Elder, Kansas, and at the age of 86 years, died July 29, 1977 at the Mitchell County Hospital, Beloit, Kansas. He was one of eight children born to Ivey and Phoebe Wooten Stuart. As a boy, Irvin attended the Grelett Rural School and an agriculture course at Kansas State College. During the late 1920s and early 1930s, he was a member of the Grelett School Board. He served as a trustee on the Glen Elder Township Board for 10 years. In 1933 he was one of … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Percy H. Walling

Percy H. Walling of Garden Grove, was born in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, in 1838. His parents, James and Louisa (Saxton) Walling, were natives of Vermont, and early settlers of the Buckeye State. Their fourth child, the subject of this sketch, went with his parents in 1853 to Green County, Wisconsin, where later he bought land and engaged in stock-raising and farming until 1880, when he moved to Jewell County, Kansas, and subsequently to Mitchell County, where he was in the stock business until he came to California in 1888. He has here erected a very handsome residence at Garden Grove, … Read more

Biography of David M. Porter

David M. Porter. It was an exceedingly difficult thing to wring a livelihood from the prairies and virgin soil of Western Kansas forty years or more ago. Where a few succeeded many failed. The conditions were so adverse that failure was not entirely discreditable and all the more honor should be paid to those who persisted and finally won the golden fruits of success from adversity. One of such men is Mr. David M. Porter of Beloit. Mr. Porter had no need to work in his declining years, since he could merely enjoy the fruits of his well earned competency. … Read more

Biographical Sketch of S. T. Blades, M. D.

S. T. Blades, M. D. The problems of health are really the problems of life and must pertain to all questions of human interest. Useless is wealth or station and vain are great achievements if good health is lacking. Thus comes the great value placed on the services of that body of noble men who have dedicated their lives to the healing art. The most necessary resident in any community is the physician, although he probably is never fully appreciated and seldom does he claim any foremost place, although his usefulness entitles him to it. Among the well known medical … Read more

Biography of James F. Gilliland

James F. Gilliland, principal of the high school of Arkansas City, is a graduate of the University of Kansas and had been active in educational work from school days. He worked his way through college and university partly by teaching. A native of Kansas, he was born near Beloit, in Mitchell County, March 22, 1881. His Gilliland ancestors were Scotch-Irish people who were early settlers in the State of Pennsylvania. His father, Henry Clay Gilliland, was born in Iowa, March 31, 1842, grew up near Washington, Iowa, and spent his active career as a farmer. When he was still under … Read more

Biography of Vernon H. Branch

Vernon H. Branch of Wichita has had a successful career as a banker in Kansas covering a period of more than thirty-five years. In that time he has been officially identified with a number of important banks in different parts of the state, but is now concentrating all his efforts along the line of investment banking, and is one of the reliable investment bankers of Kansas. He came to Kansas when a youth. His birth occurred at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, February 3, 1863, but when he was two years of age his parents removed to Orwell, Vermont, his father’s childhood home. … Read more

Shull, Vernon E. – Obituary

Haines, Baker County, Oregon Vernon E. Shull, 88, died April 9, 2006, at his home in Haines. His graveside memorial will be at 2 p.m. Thursday at the Haines Cemetery. Chaplain Assistant Sgt. Daggett from the La Grande Armory will officiate. Friends are invited to join the family for a reception after the service at the Haines United Methodist Church. Vernon was born on Dec. 26, 1917, and raised at Glen Elder, Kan., the sixth of eight children of James and Sarah Shull. After eight years in the U.S. Navy during World War II, he settled in Oregon with his … Read more

Biography of Henry Chase Bradbury

Henry Chase Bradbury. It is truly a fortunate man who can come to his seventy-third year with a record of so much good accomplished, with many responsibilities discharged and burdens bravely sustained as have been part and parcel of the life and experience of Henry Chase Bradbury, now living at Lincoln. Rev. Mr. Bradbury is the oldest active missionary of the Presbyterian Church in Kansas. For all the more than forty years of work he had done in Kansas Mr. Bradbury enjoys a vigorous old age and only his more intimate friends know that he had passed the three score … Read more

Biography of George Wagner

George Wagner, whose home is near Beloit in Mitchell County, is one of the men who bore the heat and burden of the day in introducing civilization to this section, and when the many hardships and vicissitudes encountered by him and his fellows are recalled it seems that no reward in comfort and circumstances could be too great for his declining years. Mr. Wagner is one of the few early settlers who still retain and reside on their first homestead. On coming to Kansas Mr. Wagner migrated from Adams County, Illinois, spent a short time at Selina, where he arrived … Read more