Nemaha County KS

Biography of Joseph L. Eyman, Dr.

Joseph L. Eyman, M. D. In the profession of medicine and surgery few Kansas physicians have dispensed their services more widely and more successfully than Dr. Joseph L. Eyman of El Dorado, He is a most loyal Kansan. Coming to the state when a child with his parents, he began the practice of his profession twenty-one years later and had witnessed the gradual change and transformation which have made Kansas a highly developed agrienltural and industrial section from what was within his personal recollection an open prairie. Doctor Eyman had traveled over many of the states of the Union, and … Read more

Biography of Almon A. Gist

Almon A. Gist. Arkansas City is one of the most important points on the system of the Santa Fe Railway, the Oklahoma & Gulf Line there connecting with the eastern and western divisions of the system. Many of the important offices connected with the traffic and operating departments are located in Arkansas City, and some of the men who have risen highest in the service have their business headquarters there. One of them is A. A. Gist, now train master, who had been a railroad man during the most of his active career and had been located at Arkansas City … Read more

Biography of John M. Everts

John M. Everts. When he came to Kansas Mr. Everts took up farming and with every reason might still be classifled as a farmer since he had two well improved places in Nemaha County near Baileyville. For over twenty years, however, he had given much of his time to the Baileyville State Bank, of which he is the general cashier. Mr. Everts was born near Mansfield in Richland County, Ohio, August 10, 1857. His grandfather, Gilbert Everts, was born in Canada in 1802, but reared his family and spent many years as a farmer in Richland County, Ohio. In 1880 … Read more

Biography of Allen Thomas Stewart

Allen Thomas Stewart is one of the younger business men of Doniphan County and had established himself firmly in business and civic esteem at Denton, where he is proprietor of the only drug store and is now serving his second suecessive term as mayor. Most of his life had been spent in Kansas. He was born at Salem, Kentucky, in Livingston County, March 11, 1881, and came to this state with his parents when he was five years old. He attended public schools, graduated from the high school at Seneca. Kansas, in 1901, and following that had two years in … Read more

Biography of Joseph G. Schofield

One of the prominent attorneys of Checotah is Joseph G. Schofield, who was born in Lowell, Ohio, on the 22d of September, 1847, a son of Joseph C. and Anna (Miller) Schofield. He is of English and colonial ancestry on his father’s side and Scotch-Irish ancestry on the maternal side. The Schofield family in America is descended from Holland Dutch ancestors, the head of the English line having come to England with William of Orange, he being one of the officers who came from the native land to assist in the support of the claims of William and Anne to … Read more

Biography of James M. Meek

James M. Meek is one of the veteran stock farmers and dealers of Nemaha County, and is now living retired at Centralia. Mr. Meek is widely known over this section of Kansas, especially through his terms of service in the Legislature and the Senate, in which he proved a capable representative of his constituency and did much to promote the wholesome business and civic interests of his state. Mr. Meek was born in Union County, Ohio, September 28, 1852, grew up in Northwest Missouri, and had been a resident of Kansas over thirty-five years. His ancestors were English people who … Read more

Biography of Benjamin E. Lewis

Benjamin E. Lewis. It is invariably found in tracing the influences which make for good citizenship, integrity and morality that the fundamental of these qualities lies in education. Therein is found the basis of intelligence, of judgment according to the value, of comprehension, and, equipped with these, youth may enter upon the struggle of life well prepared to fight its battles. Southeastern Kansas had no reason to feel ashamed of its educational system, or of the men who direct it. The individuals chosen to manage and to discipline have been carefully selected, and in their ranks are found men of … Read more

Biography of Charles Edwin Westlake

Charles E. Westlake. There is a type of business man who had apparently a peculiar genius for doing a number of things well and efficiently. Such a man had the commercial instinct highly developed. Charles E. Westlake of Sedan illustrates the type. He had been a farmer and rancher, had merchandised in several different lines, had been an oil producer, and is now engaged in the undertaking business at Sedan, and one of the livest and most energetic citizens of that town. Both he and his family have been identified with Kansas a great many years. The Westlakes originated in … Read more

Biography of Louis A. Swartz

Louis A. Swartz. Some of the finest farming land in Nemaha County is owned by members of the Swartz family, who were pioneers in this section of Kansas and by their energy and industry have acquired a conspicuous position as farmers and stockmen. The operations of Louis A. Swartz, a younger representative of the family, are in the vicinity of Bancroft, where he had made for himself considerable reputation as a farmer and cattle raiser. He was born on his father’s farm in Nemaha County October 11, 1891. He is a son of Albert Swartz, who had lived in this … Read more

Biography of William Edwin Nelson

William Edwin Nelson, who became superintendent of the public schools of Sabetha in the fall of 1917, is a thoroughly experienced educator, a native of Kansas, and for five years before removing to Sabetha was superintendent of schools at Robinson. Mr. Nelson had the qualification and training of a practical lawyer, which was the profession of his father. For many years one of the ablest attorneys of the Trego County bar was the late John A. Nelson. Born in Sweden, near Stockholm, in 1851, he was brought when an infant to the United States by his parents, who located in … Read more

Biography of Albert Irven Decker

Albert Irven Decker. In the demands which it makes upon its devotees, educational work is exceedingly exacting. The duty of the educator, ostensibly, is to instill a practical, working knowledge into each of his pupils, but his correlative, although less direct, function of instilling character and worthy precepts through his personal influence is equally important. The duty first named calls for an individual of knowledge and specialized training, while the second demands a conscientious and capable person whose life and mode of living provide a fit criterion and example for the minds of youth. When a man is found in … Read more

Biography of Harry J. Miller

Harry J. Miller has been one of the business factors in the Town of Olsburg for over a quarter of a century. He was formerly engaged in agricultural pursuits in that rich and fertile district of Pottawatomie County, but now gives all his time to the management of a garage and the real estate business in Olsburg. His people were pioneers in two states, Tennessee and Illinois. His grandfather was born in Tennessee about twenty years after the close of the Revolutionary war and before the opening of the nineteenth century. In 1818 he took upon himself the responsibilities of … Read more

Biography of William W. Driggs, Jr.

William W. Driggs, Jr.,is a capable young newspaper man and is now editor of the Bern Gazette in Nemaha county. The Gazette is one of the live papers of that county, and was established in 1898 by M. E. Ford. The editor of the paper was born in Hannibal, Missouri, December 25, 1891. His father is William W. Driggs, Sr., and together they make the firm Driggs & Driggs, publishers of the Bern Gazette. The senior Driggs was born March 25, 1856, in Pennsylvania. At the age of fifteen he learned telegraphy and began working soon afterward as a railroad … Read more

Biography of William A. Johnston, Mrs.

A few days after his graduation, in June, 1879, Willis Bailey started with a span of horses for Kansas. His location was in Nemaha County, seven miles west of Seneca, the county seat. There he opened up a ranch, and on that ranch a town was subsequently started, named Baileyville. Governor Bailey took an active hand in the management of the Bailey ranch until 1906. In that year he removed to Atchison, Kansas, became vice president of the Exchange National Bank, and for over ten years had been the managing official of this institution. His interest in banking dates even … Read more

Biography of Jesse B. Horn

Jesse B. Horn is now superintendent of the city schools of Oneida in Nemaha County. He is a native of Kansas, and had spent most of his years since he attained his majority in school work either as a teacher or as an administrator of schools. His ancestry, the Horns, originated in Germany and from there came to Pennsylvania, later removing to Ohio. His grandfather, George Horn, was born in Ohio in 1824, was a blacksmith by trade, and after living for a number of years in Indiana moved in 1869 to Kansas and was a pioneer in Labette County … Read more

Biography of William Howard Thompson, Hon.

Hon. William Howard Thompson was born in Crawfordsville, Indiana, October 14, 1871. He is a son of John Franklin Thompson and Emma Dora (McGriff) Thompson, and with his parents came to Kansas in the year of 1880, and settled on a farm six miles north of Sabetha, in Nemaha County, and made that county had home until he went to Topeka, where he served as clerk of the Court of Appeals. Senator Thompson is descended from patriotic stock. His paternal ancestors were early Colonial Amerieans of Scotch-Irish lineage, and fought as soldiers in the Revolution, the War of 1812, the … Read more

Biography of Ernest N. Bailey

Ernest N. Bailey, a brother of former Governor W. J. Bailey, reference to whom is made on other pages, had largely concentrated his efforts and businees enterprise at the Town of Baileyville, named for the family, in Nemaha County. Mr. Bailey had been an extensive farmer and stockman, and in later years a grain merchant, and owned the principal grain elevator at Baileyville. He was born in Carroll County, Illinois, June 15, 1857. The Bailey ancestry is English and the Baileys were Colonial settlers in New York. His grandparents, Joshua and Eleeta Bailey, were both born in or near Tieonderoga, … Read more

Ferguson, William B. – Obituary

Funeral services for William (Bill) Ferguson, age 71, well known Enterprise and Baker, Ore., business man were conducted Friday, Feb. 27, in Gray’s West and Company Pioneer Chapel. The Rev. Richard K. Toll of St. Stephens Episcopal Church officiated. Burial followed in the family plot in Mt. Hope Cemetery. Mr. Ferguson died Wednesday, Feb. 24, at his home after an extended illness. He was born Oct. 12, 1904, in Corning, Kansas, the son of George and Mattie Mae Casey Ferguson. He had his schooling in Broken Bow and was married to Isla Pearl Williams, May 2, 1925, in Grande Island, … Read more

Biography of James B. Roberts, M. D.

James B. Roberts, M. D. A physician and surgeon of broad and successful experience, Dr. James B. Roberts had practiced for many years in Kansas, and had long been the leader in professional circles at Goff in Nemaha County. Doctor Roberts was born in Newton County, Indiana, February 18, 1857. His Roberts’ ancestors came originally from Wales and were pioneers in the State of Indiana. His father, Thomas Roberts, was born in that state in 1823 and became a pioneer in the northwestern part of the state in Newton County, where he followed farming until his death in 1858, when … Read more

Biography of Edmund Needham Morrill, Hon.

Hon. Edmund Needham Morrill. Of the record of Governor Morrill during his term as head of the state government of Kansas a review is given on other pages of this history. It will be wise to supplement that record with some of the more personal details of his career and his various connections, public and business and philanthropic, with Brown County, where his name will always be revered and where he was regarded by common consent as the foremost citizen. He was born at Westbrook, Cumberland County, Maine, February 12, 1834, and died in 1909, after completing three-quarters of a … Read more