Platte County MO

Biography of Thomas Jones

THOMAS JONES. – It is a noted principle, that in the degree in which one is called to endure hardship and successfully surmounts all obstacles and triumphs over every opposition, in that degree is his character strengthened and his forces of real manhood brought out. May it not be that because of the application of this principle, we have in so many of the early pioneers of this wealthy county, such fine specimens of genuine manhood and especially developed in the virtues mentioned. Well known among this worthy number is the esteemed gentleman, whose name initiates this paragraph, and who … Read more

Biography of Earl M. Robinson

Earl M. Robinson is one of the younger business men of Emporia, and his name at once suggests in that section of Kansas the Robinson greenhouses, which have become noted for the perfection of their cut flowers. This is a business which he had built up to extensive proportions, and its product now supplies not only Emporia but a wide surrounding territory. He is an alert and enterprising factor in business circles. Descended from the family of Robinsons that were in Virginia during colonial days, Earl M. Robinson is himself a southerner by birth and was born at Huntsville, Madison … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Mrs. Arethusa E. Smith

MRS. ARETHUSA E. SMITH. – Arethusa E., the daughter of Daniel Lynn, was born near Warsaw, Benton County, Missouri, June 12, 1834. As a child of six years she removed with her parents to Platte county, in the same state, remaining until 1844, the year memorable for the great flood. Mr. Lynn, being very fond of a pioneer life, determined to settle in Texas, but was unable to proceed farther than the White river country, and, being ill suited with that country, returned to Platte county. He had long heard of Oregon, and decided to cross the plains thither and … Read more

Biography of Frank J. Hauber

Frank J. Hauber. A business is only as strong as that of the character and the personal forces behind it. This had been demonstrated over and over again, and perhaps no one enterprise in Kansas is a more signal illustration of this truth than the great Hauber Cooperage Company of Kansas City, Kansas. The president of this company is Mr. Frank J. Hauber. It is a business which had endured all the arrows and slings of fortune, was twice destroyed by floods, and twice by fire, and Phoenix-like had arisen again and is now bigger and better than ever. The … Read more

Biography of William George Jack, M. D.

William George Jack, M. D. Though born and reared on a farm and spending most of his early years in the vicinity of Chautauqua, William G. Jack had an early ambition for a professional career and gratified it after a thorough course in colleges and clinics and for the past fifteen years had successfully practiced as a physician and surgeon at Chautauqua. He is regarded as one of the best informed physicians and most skillful surgeons in this section of the state. A resident of Chautauqua County since he was nine years of age, William George Jack was born in … Read more

Biography of Daniel C. Kennedy

Mr. Kennedy was born in Queens county, Ireland, February 14, 1841, and is the third child of Michael and Elizabeth (Condron) Kennedy. His parents emigrated to America in 1843, and in 1848 his father went back to Ireland to assist his countrymen in their struggle for independence. The agitation being suppressed by the government, he returned to America and settled permanently with his family in St. Louis, where be died in 1863, in the sixtieth year of his age. Daniel C. received a common school education in the city of St. Louis, and at the age of fourteen entered the … Read more

Biography of Gilbert Leroy Jordan

Gilbert Leroy Jordan. Through persistent aspiration and unceasing labor, Gilbert LeRoy Jordan has won his way to the most satisfying and stable compensation of business life. Still a young man, with his best years before him, he is at the head of one of Topeka’s prominent business establishments, the College Hill Bakery, located at 1509 Lane Street, an enterprise which he has built up solely through his own efforts. Mr. Jordan commenced his business career without the aiding influences afforded by the possession of financial resources and has been the builder of his own fortune. He has kept persistently at … Read more

Biography of William Schwartz

William Schwartz was one of the pioneers of Eastern Kansas. Many of his activities identified him with Miami County and the City of Paola, though in later years his interests were widely extended. Throughout his career the traits of industry and enterprise are strongly pronounced. He was born in Nassau, Germany, May 4, 1838, and there obtained his early education. He was one of a family of seven children, two sons and five daughters. When he was eighteen years of age, in 1856, William Schwartz set out for the land of promise, crossed the ocean and landed in Philadelphia. He … Read more

Biography of John Mahlan Moore

John Mahlan Moore has long been prominently identified with financial affairs in Kansas, was one of the leading bankers of Wichita and assisted in the organization of many banks in that section of the state and remained a resident of Wichita until a few years ago when he was translated to a higher sphere of banking in the metropolis of the Misspuri Valley at Kansas City. Mr. Moore is now vice president of the Southwest National Bank of Commerce of Kansas City, Missouri. His successful career in banking affairs in the Middle West is not due to a wealthy or … Read more

Biography of Henry Weinhard

Henry Weinhard, the leading and oldest brewer of Portland, was born in Lindenbroun, Wurtemberg, Germany, February 18, 1830. After serving a regular apprenticeship and working at the trade of a brewer in Stutgart and other places in Germany he came to the United States in 1851. He first secured employment at his trade in Philadelphia where he remained a year. He then went to Cincinnati and at the end of two years removed to St. Louis, where he remained until 1856, when he came to California and for a short time was located at Sacramento City. In March, 1857, he … Read more

Biography of Charles Manville Sawyer

Charles Manville Sawyer, chairman of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank at Kansas City, Missouri, began his banking career in Kansas and is perhaps as widely known over the state as any one banker. The Federal Reserve Bank at Kansas City, Missouri, serves the district comprising the states of Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming and the greater part of Oklahoma, and portions of Missouri and New Mexico. Mr. Sawyer was born on a farm near Streator, Illinois. His is an old American family and some of his ancestors fought as officers in the revolutionary war. His parents were … Read more

Biography of Charles H. Browne

Charles H. Browne is proprietor and editor of the Horton Headlight-Commercial, now the only journal published in that enterprising and flourishing city of Brown County. Mr. Browne had been largely identified with newspaper work since he left school, and is a vigorous type of citizen and easily a leader in any community. For a number of years he had been connected with the National Guard of Kansas and had been especially active in recent events in which the country had been involved in tronble, first with Mexico and later with Germany. The Horton Headlight-Commercial is a consolidation of half a … Read more

Biography of John Conover, Col.

Of the individuals whose lives have influenced, developed, stabilised and broadened the civic and commercial resources of the State of Kansas, one of the most conspicuous was that of the late Col. John Conover. Coming to Kansas in 1857 and locating in Leavenworth, he was one of the pioneer merchants of that city. Going from Kansas at the outbreak of the war into the service of the Union army, he made a brilliant record as a soldier and officer, and that record is one of the many reasons why Kansas people should have a grateful memory of his life. Following … Read more

Biography of William C. Hook

William C. Hook, United States Circuit Judge of the Eighth Judicial Circuit, had been a resident of Leavenworth since childhood, and his people have some interesting associations with Kansas in the territorial as well as the later period. Enos and Dawson Adams Hook, brothers, the former the father of Judge Hook and the latter an uncle, came to Kansas when it was a territory and had an active part in the upbuilding of the community in and around Leavenworth. They were the sons of John and Nancy (Adams) Hook. The mother was of the old Pennsylvania family of Adams. The … Read more

Biography of Walter C. Palmer, M. D.

Walter C. Palmer, M. D., after practicing several years in Kansas City, Missouri, where his father was for a number of years a member of the medical profession, removed to Hiawatha, Kansas, and is now giving all his time and attention to surgery. In addition to his broad experience as a practitioner and his equipment in American schools, Doctor Palmer, went abroad in 1916 and from April to July worked in the war hospitals in France. Nowhere had surgical methods undergone greater changes and been brought to a higher degree of perfection than in the hospitals in the war zone … Read more

Biography of James D. McCurdy, M. D.

In an analyzation of the character and life work of Dr. James Darwin McCurdy we note many of the characteristics which have marked the Scotch nation for many centuries, the perseverance, reliability, energy and unconquerable determination to pursue a course that has been marked out. It is these sterling qualities which have gained to Dr. McCurdy success in life and made him one of the substantial and valued citizens of Idaho. He now resides in Bellevue, Blaine County, and while he has retired from the practice of medicine he is still actively interested in mining, being the owner of a … Read more

Biography of Arthur W. Evans, M. D.

Arthur W. Evans, M. D., is a native of the Sunflower State, a scion of a pioneer family of this commonwealth and has here achieved definite success in his profession, as one of the representative physicians and surgeons engaged in practice in the City of Independence. Dr. Arthur Whiting Evans was born at Lawrence, Kansas, on the 26th of October, 1870, and is a son of Arthur and Mary (Leishum) Evans, the former of whom was born in Lancastershire, England, in 1841, and the latter of whom was born in Wales, in the same year, she having been a young … Read more

Biography of James Duncan Millar Crockett

James Duncan Millar Crockett. Modern business and industry have developed specialists in various lines, and one of the professions that had arisen to meet the increasing demands of business efficiency is that of public accountancy. One of the best known public accountants of the State of Kansas is J. D. M. Crockett, who had done much to organize and extend the field of public accountancy in this state. He is a member of the firm Crockett, Couchman & Company, certified public accountants, now having offices in New York, St. Louis, Kansas City and Topeka. Mr. Crockett was born near the … Read more

Biography of Andrew Calvin Sewell

Andrew Calvin Sewell, a younger brother of J. B. Sewell, was born in Overton County, Tennessee, May 30, 1856. He was fifteen when the family came across the country in a prairie schooner to Montgomery County, Kansas, and in the meantime had attended public schools in Tennessee. While living on the farm southwest of Independence he continued his education in the district schools and in the fall of 1876 became a teacher. Preparatory to beginning his work as a teacher he had attended a private school conducted by Professor Morrison of Radical City. In his home district, Harrisonville, he taught … Read more

Biographical Sketch of D. H. Calvert

D. H. Calvert, dealer in drugs and medicines, Charleston; is a native of Platte Co., Mo.; he was born on the 28th of February 1841; he was raised on a farm, and at about the age of 16 years, entered Pleasant Ridge College in his native town, where he graduated in 1861; he then read law with Hon. E. H. Norton, the present Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Missouri; in 1867, he went to Frankfort, Ky., and continued his law studies with Judge Alvin Duval, and, in 1868, entered the Law Department of the University of Louisville, Ky., … Read more