Salina Kansas

Biography of John D. M. Conrad

John D. M. Conrad. Among the most interesting men of Salina are those who can justly be named pioneers of this fair city. They have a wealth of experience that no later comers can claim, and it is because of their courage and enterprise that such rich and rapid development had taken place. In John D. M. Conrad, who is the only survivor of a once very important body, the first city council of Salina, is found not only a pioneer of this section but also a veteran of honorable record of the great Civil war. John D. M. Conrad … Read more

Biography of W. A. Scidmore

W. A. Scidmore. The center of the financial interests of the Town of Tescott is the Bank of Tescott, an institution that had been holding up the financial credit and stability of the community for many years. It was founded by Mr. F. F. Scidmore in 1887. At the present time the bank had a capital stock of $50,000, surplus and profits of $10,000, and its deposits average $160,000. The two story brick structure on Main Street which was built and owned by the bank in 1911, is the most conspicuous business building in the town. The present officers are: … Read more

Biography of James A. Paull

James A. Paull, present county treasurer of Ellsworth County, had long been identified with business, industrial and civic affairs in this section of Kansas. Mr. Paull had a very interesting ancestry. The family originated in Alsace Lorraine, immigrated to England, and from that county Richard Paull established the name in America. Richard Paull was born in 1615 and at the age of twenty, in June, 1635, embarked on the “True Love de London” for the Bermudas. He soon settled in Massachusetts and on November 7, 1638, married Margery Turner, of Cohasset, now Taunton, Massachusetts. There are several public records concerning … Read more

Biography of August Bondi

August Bondi was a splendid figure in the annals of Kansas for fully half a century, and had been fitly described as soldier and patriot and one of the immortal followers of John Brown. From the city of culture and of old world civilization, Vienna, Austria, it is a far cry to the plains of Kansas where were performed those deeds which will ring down through history. August Bondi was born at Vienna July 21, 1833, a son of Hart Emanuel and Martha (Frankl) Bondi, who were also natives of Vienna. His father was a Jewish manufacturer of cotton goods. … Read more

Biography of Levi D. Hill

Levi D. Hill is an old timer in Saline County and is now living retired at Salina. His had been a long and creditable career, and as a young man he served as a soldier of the Union in the Civil war. He was born January 8, 1844, in a one-room log house on a farm in Johnson County, Indiana, a son of Squire S. and Mary Ann (Cunningham) Hill. His father was born in Kentucky and his mother in Indiana. Squire Hill was born February 17, 1810, and died August 5, 1886, at Tipton, Indiana. Throughout his active career … Read more

Hayes, Katherine Etta “Katie” Harris Mrs. – Obituary

Katherine Etta “Katie” Hayes, 81, died Aug. 9, 2005, at St Elizabeth Health Services after a knee replacement operation. Her graveside memorial service will be at 11 a.m. Monday at Mount Hope Cemetery. Katie was born at Salina, Kan., on Aug. 21, 1923, to Nathaniel Creager Harris, a not-so-tall Texan, and Mary Margaret Shank. The Shank family had lived in Kansas for many years as homestead-era farmers. Salina was her home through 1941. After graduating from Salina High School, she set off like many of her generation to work in support of the war effort as a Western Union operator … 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 Knut J. Knutson

Knut J. Knutson. Three quarters of a century is the measure of a long lifetime. It is a sufficient time in which to accomplish all those things which men most desire. These seventy-five years from birth to old age have been well utilized by Knut Knutson of Saline County. Mr. Knutson came to Central Kansas over forty years ago, and while he had many hardships and difficulties in establishing a home and maintaining it in earlier years, he came to the age of three score and ten with all that he might reasonably desire. He had ample material possessions in … Read more

Biography of Levi Livermore Tucker

Levi Livermore Tucker, late superintendent and president of the Kansas Wesleyan Business College of Salina, devoted practically his entire life to the training of young men and women for business. Fully forty years were given to that profession, and few men accomplished a more satisfying aggregate of results in this field than Professor Tucker. He was of New England birth and ancestry. The farm in Orange County, Vermont, where he was born December 10, 1853, was also the birthplace of his father, Levi Livermore Tucker, Sr., and the house that thus served as a birthplace to these two generations was … Read more

Biography of Daniel Wiegner

Daniel Wiegner is one of the veteran merchants and business men of Salina, went to that city more than thirty-five years ago, and while he is now retired from active merchandising he still looks after his extensive interests as a land owner in that section of the state. Mr. Wiegner is a native of Germany. He was born February 2, 1852, a son of Frederick and Catherine (Sipe) Wiegner. His early life in the old country was a combination of training in the common schools with practical vocational discipline that would fit him for a worthy place in life. He … Read more

Biography of James R. Mead

James R. Mead, one of the founders of Wichita and one of the noted pioneers of Kansas, was a Vermonter, born May 3, 1836, and at an early age showed his love for out-of-doors life. During his school days he read and dreamed of the Great American Desert, and in the fall of 1859 started for the plains. For four years he traded with the various Indian tribes in the present State of Kansas, hunted buffaloes and finally established a post on the Salina River, about twenty miles from its mouth. In 1861 he contracted his first marriage, and two … Read more

Biography of Benjamin Lynn Wilson

Benjamin Lynn Wilson. A forceful factor in Salina’s commercial, civic, educational and religious life was the late Benjamin Lynn Wilson, one of that city’s pioneer merchants. He had gone to Salina when it was on the edge of civilized things in Kansas, and he did his big life work there and the generous prosperity that rewarded his efforts came from that community, to which he was stanchly loyal to the end of his life and which remembers him with fidelity and gratitude for the much good he did. The late Mr. Wilson was born at Bealsville, Ohio, January 13, 1845, … Read more

Biography of Edson Baxter

Edson Baxter. Now serving as clerk of the District Court at Marion, Captain Baxter is an old timer of Kansas and had lived in close touch with the developments of half a century and his own part therein allows him to speak with authority on the history of that period. The Baxter family came to Kansas in territorial times and did their pioneering in Morris County. Edson Baxter was fifteen years of age when he accompanied the family caravan overland, and he was able to make himself useful from the very beginning of the settlement. He was born on a … Read more

Biography of James F. Blackledge

James F. Blackledge. Protective laws are passed in every state that seemingly assure the safety of all money that may be deposited either by the laborer or the capitalist in a bank, and still permit enough latitude in the bank’s policy to make the business profitable. On the president of the concern rests the responsibility and thus, at the head of financial institutions of solidity are usually placed men of business experience and known integrity, of sterling character and conservative habit. It reflects credit on Coffeyville, Kansas, that just such a man is president of the Caney Valley National Bank, … Read more

Biography of William L. Nesmith

William L. Nesmith is one of the Kansas pioneers. He had lived in this state more than forty years, having come here in 1874 with his young wife and their wagon trip from Iowa was in the nature of a honeymoon journey. For a great many years William Nesmith was actively engaged in merchandising and in other affairs at Wilson, and is now a resident of Salina and a member of the grocery house of Nesmith & Son. His public spirit as a citizen and his generous contributions to educational institutions and moral movements have been on a par with … Read more

Biography of David Johnson, M. D.

David Johnson, M. D., a prominent medical specialist whose home and laboratories are at Salina, returned to Kansas a few years ago after many years spent in practice in the New England states, most of the time at Boston. He returned to Kansas because many years ago, on first coming to America, he had located in this then new state, and it was those early impressions and experiences with Kansas life and people that caused him to locate here for a permanent home in his decliaing years. Doctor Johnson was born in Sweden on May 4, 1848. He was liberally … Read more

Biography of Charles S. Walker

The Farmers Union of Kansas is a branch of the great national organization known as The Farmers Educational and Co-operative Union, with business headquarters at Atlanta, Georgia. C. S. Barrett is president of the national organization. This organization had a membership of 2,500,000, located in thirty-one different states. The head office of the Kansas organization is at Salina, and the president of The State Farmers Union is Maurice McAuliffe, while the manager, with headquarters at Kansas City, Kansas, is Mr. Charles S. Walker. The Kansas Union had 50,000 members, and had undoubtedly been the greatest single factor in creating a … Read more

Biography of Robert A. Lovitt

Robert A. Lovitt. As president of the Saline County Bar Association, Robert A. Lovitt’s professional status with his brethren may be judged, but his reputation in business, politics, social life and on the lecture platform extends all over the state. He had been a valued resident of Salina since August 5, 1876. Robert A. Lovitt was born in his father’s primitive log cabin in Muskingum County, Ohio, October 10, 1851. His parents were Evan J. and Leah (Stamats) Lovitt, he of English ancestry and she of German revolutionary stock. The father of Mr. Lovitt was born in New Jersey, was … Read more

Biography of Charles Wilbur McCampbell

Associate professor of animal husbandry in the State Agricultural College at Manhattan and secretary of the State Livestock Registry Board whose offices are in the same city, Charles W. McCampbell is a native Kansan and for ten years had broadened and amplified his experience and authoritative knowledge of all phases of the livestock industry, not only with reference to Kansas but to the world at large. While he had perhaps rendered his greatest service as an instructor of the younger generation of Kansas farmers, some of his practical demonstration work and experiments have attracted national attention from livestock men. He … Read more

Biography of Charles P. Beebe

Charles P. Beebe. Among the well known newspaper men of Wilson County, one who had had broad experience in his vocation is Charles P. Beebe, who during the past three years had been managing editor of the Neodesha Daily Sun. Mr. Beebe learned the newspaper business at the case, and had worked his way up through the various departments of the business so that he had a thorough knowledge of all its details. Under his editorial management this publication had become one of the best daily papers of Wilson County and wields a wide influence all over this section. Mr. … Read more