Ottawa Kansas

Biography of Camden L. Bloom

C. L. Bloom. One of the most picturesque careers in the mid-continent oil and gas fields has been that of Camden L. Bloom of Independence. By an unusual capacity for hard labor and by a foresight seasoned by long and active experience he made one large fortune, which was swept away in the panic of 1907. With a few dollars realized by mortgaging his home, he made a new start, and today his operations and holdings would constitute another modest fortune at least. His life began in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, March 14, 1868. His people, the Blooms, came from Germany … Read more

Biography of Edward Cockrell Hoffman

Statistics show that more than ninety per cent of men are failures in business and investigation brings to light another fact that too many are prone to make constant changes in business instead of concentrating along a single line and developing a thorough mastery of the work undertaken. A notable example of this rule is Edward Cockrell Hoffman, who is now engaged in the line of business in which he started out as a young tradesman, being the secretary, treasurer and manager of the Hoffman-Speed Printing Company of Muskogee. He has been instrumental in building up a substantial business at … Read more

Biography of Horatio W. Gates

Horatio W. Gates is one of the oldest and best known undertakers and embalmers in the State of Kansas. He had been in business for many years at Rossdale, his present location being 29 Southwest Boulevard. He had not been alone in that profession, and it is noteworthy that Mrs. Gates was the first woman to receive an embalmer’s license in either Kansas or Missouri, and while many women have in recent years taken up the profession she was one of the real pioneers. Mr. Gates was born August 2, 1849, at Mansfield, Ohio, but had been a resident of … 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 Arthur E. Mallory

Arthur E. Mallory is superintendent of city schools at Burrton, and is one of the highly educated men of the state, being a graduate of the Kansas University. Mr. Mallory had a thorough scientific training, and is competent to co-operate with every effort to raise the technical instruction standards of his home community. Mr. Mallory was born near Le Loup in Franklin County, Kansas, April 5, 1886. His paternal ancestors came from Ireland to New York several generations ago and some of the family fought in the Revolutionary war. His father, William Mallory, is now living at Scott City, Kansas. … Read more

Biography of Peter P. Elder

Peter P. Elder, deceased, ex-lieutenant governor of Kansas, and for many years a resident of Ottawa, was one of the most notable characters of Kansas and one of the select few who gave it a unique and substantial standing among the western states of the Union. He was a native of Maine, born in Somerset County, September 30, 1823; was of North-of-Ireland ancestry and Revolutionary stock. Mr. Elder spent the first thirty-four years of his life in his native county, getting an education and teaching school. He became an ardent abolitionist early in life, and in 1857 located in Franklin … Read more

Biographical Sketch of William E. Stich

William E. Stich. The largest general insurance office in Independence is owned and managed by William E. Stich. Mr. Stich is a brother of the late A. C. Stich, whose career as a business man and eitizen of Montgomery County had been described on other pages, where many of the detalls of the family history will be found. William E. Stich was born in Hanover, Germany, February 16, 1850. His parents came to this country in 1857 and located at Kalamazoo, Michigan. His early education was received in the schools there, and in the meantime he learned to be a … Read more

Biography of Francis C. Herr M. D.

Francis C. Herr, M. D. One of the most widely known physicians in Franklin County is Dr. Francis C. Herr, who graduated from one of the oldest medical colleges in the country forty years ago, and had been in active practice at Ottawa since 1884. Born at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, December 1, 1852, he is a son of Amos F. and Anna (Frantz) Herr, both of whom are natives of Lancaster County. This is a very old and prominent family of early colonial German ancestry. Doctor Herr is a descendant of Hans Herr, who represented a Suabian family of Germany, where … Read more

Biography of Marsena St. John

Marsena St. John. A residence in Kansas of sixty years is in itself a distinction. In the case of the venerable Marsena St. John of Ottawa those years have been filled with honorable accomplishment and in all this time he had been one of the mainstays in Franklin County. He was born at Linden, New York, April 20, 1831, and had already passed his eighty-fifth birthday. His parents were Jasper and Julia Ann (Reynolds) St. John, who lived near Saratoga Springs, New York. From New York the family went to Huron County, Ohio, where the father was for ten years … Read more

Biography of Herbert Franklin Sheldon

Herbert Franklin Sheldon. The original settlers of a new state, county or city, irrespective of any intrinsic qualities which they possess, are subjects of peculiar interest to succeeding generations. Men are interested in recalling their accomplishments and delight to treasure in memory the slightest incident connected with their persons and their settlement. As the years go by the pilgrims of New England are gradually elevated from the level of ordinary humanity and placed before our contemplation on pedestals challenging the admiration and respect of posterity. Each successive step in the settlement of the country as adventurous pioneers have pushed out … Read more

Biography of Adam Loch

Adam Loch. The rewards attainable through a life of industry are forcibly illustrated in the career of Adam Loch, one of the leading and successful business men of Chanute and vice president of the Fidelity State Bank. Since early youth he had depended wholly and solely upon his own resources, working out his own success and steadily advancing to success and position along the commercial and financial path. His career should be an incentive for renewed effort by the youth of today who are starting life without friends or fortune to aid them. Mr. Loch was born at Springfield, Illinois, … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Herbert Hickman

Herbert Hickman is editor and owner of The Florence Bulletin, and had proved himself a very diligent and enterprising young newspaper man, coming up from the ranks of an apprenticeship as a printer. He was born in Las Animas, Colorado, December 6, 1893, a son of George W. and Maggie H. (Brown) Hickman, both of whom died when he was a small boy. His father was a native of Missouri and his mother of West Virginia. Herbert had a twin brother, Harvey Cecil, who died at the age of five years, and the youngest child, Warren Milton, was born in … Read more

Biography of William R. Smith

One of the fine buildings bordering the State Capitol grounds at Topeka is the Kansas State Printing plant. That is the official headquarters of William R. Smith, state printer, and also secretary of the State Printing Commission and chairman of the School Book Commission of the state. Doubtless any citizen, and particularly a printer, would deem it an honor to be at the head of an establishment which experts pronounce to be the equal in mechanical equipment and operating effieiency of any commercial printing establishment in the country. When Mr. Smith went into office on July 1, 1915, he brought … Read more

Biography Of John S. Amick

John S. Amick. It is a strong augury of success for a young man to have a variety of experiences in practical matters before he assumes professional work. Especially if he is a lawyer, his substantial future is far more assured in the West than if he possessed a greater fund of professional knowledge and less ability to judge of persons and things in a common sense way–which comes only with actual experience, and often of the hard kind. Such remarks as the foregoing hold true in the career and progress of John Amick, a young lawyer of Lawrence who … Read more

Biography of Chase W. Brown

Chase W. Brown. Growing naturally from man’s necessity, healing potions were compounded as far back as human records go. The application of roots and herbs for the alleviation of pain had never been entirely abolished although the twentieth century druggist would scarcely recommend as beneficial, some of the natural growths that once were deemed invaluable. Science had been able to separate the healing from the obnoxious, and in no branch of knowledge have more important advances been made in modern times than in that of physiological chemistry. Important indeed to the general public, is the fact that every thoroughly trained … Read more

Biography of Tiffin P. Logan

Tiffin P. Logan, land and loan agent, Mattoon; was born in Trimble Co., Ky., March 28, 1844; his father was a man of prominence, a cousin to President Harrison, and was honored by the Democratic party with a seat in the Kentucky Legislature during the sessions of 1844-45; in the spring of 1858, removed with his family to Illinois, and located in Windsor, Shelby Co.; here he occupied the office of Justice of the Peace eleven years in succession; here Tiffin P. began life for himself; he lived with his brother-in-law till he attained the age of 15 years; at … Read more

Biography of Prof. James Anderson Yates

Prof. James Anderson Yates. From England to North Carolina, in colonial times, the Yates family may be traced by generations as it extended into Tennessee and Kentucky and 1916 finds it firmly and honorably established in other states. For two decades this name in Kansas has been connected with the educational field, the scholastic attainments of Prof. James Anderson Yates, the head of the departments of chemical and physical sciences, in the State Manual Training Normal School at Pittsburg, having won recognition in this and in other large institutions of learning. Professor Yates enjoys a wide acquaintance with the leading … Read more

Biography of John P. Harris

John P. Harris. The career of an honorable, dutiful and upright man, a gallant soldier, an able financier and an incumbent of offices high in the state and municipal service is illustrated in the enviable record of the late John P. Harris, of Ottawa, whose death occurred on the 23d of February, 1917. He was a veteran of the Civil war, and served as president of the People’s National Bank, as county treasurer of Franklin County, as state senator of Kansas and as mayor of Ottawa. During the many years of his residence in Franklin County he was constantly identified … Read more

Biography of Charles N. Converse

Charles N. Converse. Identified with banks and banking all through his business life, Charles N. Converse, president of the Citizens State Bank of Altoona, Kansas, is widely known in financial circles where his judgment is deemed sound and accurate, and his reputation had long been that of a forcible, able and efficient business man. Charles N. Converse was born at Clinton, Illinois, June 22, 1863. His parents were Henry E. and Clara (Weaver) Converse, and his grandfathers were John Converse and Solomon Weaver. Solomon Weaver emigrated from Germany in boyhood and grew up at Clinton, Illinois, in which neighborhood he … Read more

Biography of Frank D. Custer

With industry and determination as dominant qualities, Frank D. Custer has made steady progress in the business world, being now the owner of a valuable fruit farm near Bartlesville and also having oil wells on his property. He was born in Montgomery County, Indiana, the boyhood home of General Lew Wallace of military and literary fame, on the 6th of August, 1855. Three of his brothers served in the Civil war and one of these, A. R. Custer, is now living retired in Bartlesville with his family. Frank D. Custer acquired his education in the public schools of Thornton, Indiana, … Read more