Biography of Frank P. Bowen

Frank P. Bowen is a veteran business man of Centralia, Kansas, where he located over forty years ago when it was a hamlet just beginning to show signs of business prosperity. While Mr. Bowen relieved himself of the more important business activities some years ago, he is still president of the First National Bank of Centralis. He is of old New England stock. The Bowens came out of England and settled in New Hampshire in Colonial times. His grandfather, Grove Bowen, was born in Lancaster, New Hampshire, and died at Piermont in that state in 1859, having spent his life … Read more

Biography of Frank H. Curtis

Frank H. Curtis is a school man, superintendent of the city schools of Bern in Nemaha County and had been a factor in Kansas educational affairs for a number of years. He was born in Massac County, Illinois, July 28, 1874, but when five years of age went with his parents to Western Kansas and grew up in Trego County when that was a frontier section. Mr. Curtis is of Scotch-Irish ancestry and members of the family were pioneers in Kentucky. His father, Dr. D. B. Curtis, was born in Kentucky in 1815. He graduated from the Louisville Medical College … Read more

Biography of Albert E. Mayhew

Albert E. Mayhew, who had lived in Kansas since early boyhood, had built up the leading hardware business at Effingham in Atchison County, is also a banker there, and is now serving his second term as a representative in the State Legislature. Mr. Mayhew was born at St. Mary’s, Canada, March 17, 1866, and was brought to Kansas by his parents when he was four years of age. He grew up at Centralia, was educated there in the public schools, graduating from high school in 1883, and for one year was a student in the State Normal School at Emporia. … 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 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 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

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 Eugene Hipple

Eugene Hipple is one of the enterprising young business men of Hutchinson, and is actively identified with the extensive grain and other business interests controlled by his father, Frank E. Hipple, one of Hutchinson’s business leaders for many years. The Hipple family is of Holland-Dutch ancestry and settled in Pennsylvania during Colonial times. Eugene Hipple’s great-grandfather was George Hipple. He was born in York County, Pennsylvania, November 27, 1790, and was a farmer by occupation. In 1841, with wagon and team, he moved across the country to Eden, Delaware County, Ohio, and lived on his farm there until his death … Read more

Biography of Robert D. Blaine

Robert D. Blaine, who has had his home in Topeka for a number of years and also maintains a business office there, has been one of the builders of Kansas, his part in the development of the state being particularly reflected in the magnificent prosperity which during the past quarter of a century has come to the southwestern corner of Kansas. Pratt County in the Arkansas Valley will always have particular reason to remember Mr. Blaine’s early activities and influence he directed to the proper development of the resources of that section. For what he has done and for what … 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 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 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