Osage County KS

Biography of Matthew B. Van Petten

Matthew B. Van Petten. The success which has attended the enterprise operating at Topeka under the name of the Pioneer Mortgage Company attests the foresight, sagacity and financial skill of its members, whose watchful care and fidelity have combined to build up and perpetuate their fortunes. The life of the financier is less conspicuous before the world than that of a member of a learned calling, or of one who mingles in public affairs, but is none the less one of arduous labor and thorough engrossment, requiring a high order of organizing talent, watchfulness of the trend of affairs and … Read more

Biography of Edward E. Dix

Edward E. Dix. The vocation of railroading continues to attract many ambitious young men when they enter upon life’s activities, and this field of activity has often proven rich in opportunity to those who have possessed the inclination to work industriously and faithfully, to scorn hardships, to face heavy responsibilities, and to give absolute devotion to the interests of the great systems which employ them. There is no place for those who do not thus prove themselves. Among the officials of almost every other line of business there are found men of sterling worth who would have succeeded well in … Read more

Biography of Joseph Cook Bunten, M. D.

Joseph Cook Bunten, M. D. Since 1915 the medical profession at Douglass had been capably represented by Doctor Bunten, a young physician and surgeon of thorough training and capabilities and already well established in practice. He is a native son of Kansas, and had shown those traits and talents which have been distinctive of the Scotch people and also the enterprise of the typical Kansan. Doctor Bunten was born at Scranton, Kansas, January 27, 1891. His grandfather, John Bunten, was born in Scotland at Irvine, April 7, 1830. He came to this country in May, 1885, locating at Scranton, Kansas, … Read more

Biography of Junius H. Foltz

Junius H. Foltz. On other pages of this publication is given an account of the career of one of the oldest citizens of Shawnee County, Martin L. Foltz, of a family that had been identified with Kansas since territorial epoch. The two living sons of Mr. Martin Foltz are Junius H. and Nevin M. Foltz, both of whom reside in Williamsport Township of Shawnee County, and some reference to their individual careers is also appropriate. Junius H. Foltz was born in Ridgeway, Osage County, Kansas, February 1, 1875. He grew up in his father’s home, attended the common schools, and … Read more

Biography of Hiram B. Miller

Hiram B. Miller. Kansas wheat and corn and other farm products have been so much emphasized as partly to obscure the fact that the great basic industry of the state up to twenty-five or thirty years ago was live stock. Older residents of the state, now a little past their prime, will recall that the leading industry of their youth, except perhaps in the few counties along the eastern border, was the raising of live stock on the great ranges. Of the men who stood pre-eminent in that industry special mention should be made of the late Hiram B. Miller, … Read more

Biography of William A. Richards

William A. Richards has found his work in life in the field of education, and is one of the youngest city superintendents of schools in the state. He is now serving in that capacity at Toronto. Mr. Richards is of English ancestry. His grandfather Richard Richards was born in England in 1831, and came to the United States when twenty-one years of age. He passed through New York City and Chicago and soon settled on a farm in Illinois, and from there moved to Adams County, Iowa, in 1864. He spent the rest of his career there as a farmer … Read more

George Harvey Todd of Butler MO

George Harvey Todd8, (Gabriel H.7, John6, John5, John4, John3, John2, Christopher1) born in Rome, Michigan, Sept. 23, 1839, died in 1896, married in Adrian, Michigan, June 19, 1861, by Rev. Edwin H. Brockway, of the M. E. Church, Susan Maria, daughter of Ransom and Sally Ann (Wade) Todd, who was born in Adrian, Michigan, April 18, 1840. After their marriage they lived in Rome, Michigan, until Oct., 1862, when they moved back to their old home town, Adrian, Michigan, where they lived until Aug. 20, 1864, when he enlisted in the Union Army and she returned to Rome, Michigan, to … Read more

Biography of Thomas M. Lillard

Thomas M. Lillard had been practicing law at Topeka for the past nine years. He was born July 29, 1881, at Bloomington, Illinois, where his father John T. Lillard, also a lawyer, is still living. His mother Sallie (Williams) Lillard is now deceased. Reared in Bloomington, Mr. Lillard attended the public schools, and in 1902 graduated bachelor of science from the Illinois Wesleyan University. Following that came two years of study in the law department of the Denver University at Denver, Colorado, and he then returned to Bloomington, where in 1905 he was gradinated LL. B. from Illinois Wesleyan University … Read more

Biography of Robert Scott Mahan, M. D.

Robert Scott Mahan, M. D. While a high medical authority had declared that man’s organs, under natural strain only, ought to last 300 years, the fact is patent that only in rare cases do they function one-third of that time, and that threescore and ten, according to the Psalmist, covers the life history of the majority in any community who reach what is termed “old age.” To combat by medical knowledge and surgical skill the diseases that attack and the accidents that lay low mankind that shorten his life and ruin his happiness, the physician and surgeon is called. There … Read more

Biography of Nick Johnson

Nick Johnson has for nearly forty years been actively identified with business and public affairs in the County of Franklin, and is now serving as sheriff. A splendid demonstration of his efficiency and merit was given at the end of his first term as sheriff. So eminently satisfactory had been his services that when the democratic party proposed his name as a candidate for re-election, the republicans decided that he was deserving of their support also, and consequently he went into office the second time without opposition. He was also elected to the Legislature, and served as a member of … Read more

Biography of Cassius T. Neihart

Cassius T. Neihart. Banker, mayor, lawyer, land owner at Lyndon, Cassius T. Neihart enjoys a position of unusual prominence and influence in Osage County, and had been a resident of Kansas since 1878, being brought to the state in early childhood. It was an emigrant wagon that brought him and his parents to Kansas when he was in his fourth year. He was born near Coal City, Indiana, on a farm February 13, 1875. William Neihart, his father, of German descent, was married in Indiana to Melissa Reynolds. During part of his life in Indiana William Neihart taught school. He … Read more

Biography of R. P. Kelley

R. P. Kelley. While the law had been his profession and he had been a member of the Eureka Bar continuously since 1884, R. P. Kelley had found his time increasingly absorbed by his various business affairs and interests. Financial success had come to him in large measure, and he had property and business interests in diverse parts of the country. He had traveled considerably for recreation, had covered most of the states of the Union and Canada, and had well defined opinions on events and affairs outside of his immediate province. Mr. Kelley is a native of New England … Read more

Biography of Frank E. Bodley

Frank E. Bodley. The men upon whose shoulders rest the responsibility for prosperity and advancement along every line of commercial and industrial activity are the captains of industry and finance who are in command of the armies which are fighting to preserve the nation’s standing among the countries of the earth, as well as against those foes to established currency and methods of transacting business. Without them and their sound, conservative policies, the country would be at the mercy of every irresponsible, unscrupulous speculator or visionary idealist. As is but natural, the financiers of the country’s great cities are the … Read more

Biography of Ansel B. Hackett

Ansel B. Hackett. The nation was celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence when Ansel B. Hackett was born July 4, 1836. His birth occurred at Minot, Cumberland County, Maine. It was in that picturesque district of the Pine Tree State that he spent his early years. Mr. Hackett, who with his venerable wife, now resided at Carbondale, is one of the true pioneers of Kansas, as is also Mrs. Hackett. Both came here when Kansas was a territory, and they experienced the dangers and hardships of frontier life. It is a matter of special … Read more

Biography of William S. Tyner

William S. Tyner was one of the early settlers of Kansas, though he lived in the state only a few years, but founded a family which had become especially well known and prominent in Osage County. The Tyners were an old and prominent family of Indiana. William S. Tyner was one of seven sons and was born on a farm in Rush County, Indiana, September 20, 1820. His parents were John and Nancy (Sailors) Tyner, both Indiana people. William S. Tyner was a consin of James N. Tyner, who served as postmaster-general under President Hayes. The early education of William … Read more

Biography of John E. Kibler

John E. Kibler. Though he did not have the opportunity to attend school regularly after he was thirteen years of age, John E. Kibler found ways and means to acquire a liberal education, and that education had not only sufficed for his own needs but had always made him one of the leading educators in Southeastern Kansas. Mr. Kibler is now county superintendent of schools of Chautauqua County and had been engaged in school work for a long period of years. He came to Kansas when a small boy, but was born in Fulton County, Illinois, June 11, 1863. His … Read more

Biography of Parker W. Perry

Parker W. Perry. With the death of Parker W. Perry, which occurred on his farm in Williamsport Township of Shawnee County, March 14, 1914, there passed from the ranks of local citizenship one of the most highly respected men of that community. For upwards of forty years he had been a resident of Kansas. Of a genial and generous disposition, he had made friends wherever he was, and along with a talent for making friandships he also possessed keen business judgment and accumulated a competence for himself and family. He was of New England birth and ancestry and was born … Read more

Biography of Walter L. Payne

Walter L. Payne, a native son of Kansas, had been closely identified with a number of its business and public activities for a number of years, and is vice-president of the Pioneer State Bank of Burlingame. The Payne family have had a part in the making of Kansas for fully sixty years. It was Mr. Payne’s grandparents, Lorenzo Dow and Mary Ann (Wildman) Payne, who were the pioneers of the family in Kansas. They located at Trading Post in Miami County, where Lorenzo D., who was a physician by profession, practiced for two years until the border ruffians drove him … Read more

Biography of Archibald B. Kirkwood

Archibald B. Kirkwood. In the death of Archibald B. Kirkwood on May 16, 1916, the City of Pittsburg and southeastern Kansas lost a very prominent business man and citizen. He was one of the pioneers in the development of the coal resources of this section of the state. At one time be was general manager of the Wear Coal Company and president of the Standard Mercantile Company of Pittsburg. Of later years his interests were rather widely diffused and long before his death he had acquired a generous competence which would have enabled him to take life easily and leisurely. … Read more

Biography of Robert C. Heizer, Judge

Judge Robert C. Heizer. For fourteen years Judge Robert C. Heizer had been on the district bench at Osage City, and the dignities and honors of his later years are a merited tribute to a man who had always relied upon the principle of self help and endured many of the vicissitudes and hardships of early life in Kansas. He was brought to Kansas in 1858, when two years of age. He had been born at Vermont in Fulton County, Illinois, in 1856. On coming to Kansas his parents located on a quarter section of land along the Santa Fe … Read more