Montgomery County KS

Edward Payson Todd of Independence KS

Edward Payson Todd8, (Silas7, Elam6, Edmund5, Christopher4, Samuel3, Samuel2, Christopher1) born July 24, 1834, in Mina, Chautauqua County, N. Y., married Feb. 2, 1858, Jane M. Lemon, who was born Oct. 7, 1838, in Canada, near Niagara Falls, died July 19, 1912, in Independence, Iowa, where he now (1914) lives. He was reared on a farm and had very little opportunity to obtain an education. In Aug., 1862, he enlisted in the 96th Illinois Infantry, in which he served his time of enlistment and returned home to family and friends without being wounded; he was in fourteen heavy battles and … Read more

Biography of Thomas Coleman Truman

Thomas Coleman Truman. Among those sterling citizens who have been prominent and influential in connection with the civic and business affairs of [p.1834] Montgomery County and who are today to be designated as representative pioneers of the county a place must consistently be given to Mr. Truman, who has maintained his home at Independence, the county seat, for more than forty years and who is now living in well earned retirement–a man who has been in the most significant sense the architect of his own fortunes, as he became dependent upon his own resources when but twelve years of age. … Read more

Biography of Hugh Ellsworth West

Hugh Ellsworth West has been one of the most prominent citizens of Independence for many years, though his interests as an oil operator have extended far and wide and now include valuable holdings in perhaps half a dozen states. The family were pioneers in Indiana, in which state in Clinton County Hugh E. West was born December 11, 1864. His great-grandfather William West was a native of Kentucky, and went into Indiana when almost the entire state was a wilderness. He died in Clinton County when ninety-six years of age, while his wife lived to be ninety-one. The West family … Read more