Saline County KS

Biography of Otto Philip Byers

Otto Philip Byers. Something less than forty years ago Otto Philip Byers was a railroad section hand in Kansas. He was a boy in years, and he grew to mature manhood in the close and orderly discipline of the railroad man’s life, in close touch with working men and working conditions. That he had risen to mature manhood in the close and orderly discipline sponsibility is a tribute both to his personal aggressiveness and also to the fundamental character which he probably inherited from a long line of fighting and industrious American ancestors. His later day distinction among Kansas business … Read more

Biography of Gotthart Schippel

Gotthart Schippel spent nearly fifty years of life in Kansas. He was one of the real pioneers. His active lifetime was one of hard work, and in the early days he encountered constant hardships and overcame difficulties that would have daunted any man less sturdy and courageous. He helped to build the solid foundation on which the prosperity of the great state now rests. Kansas was still the disputed territory of the wild Indians and the wild animals, and vast stretches of prairie grass occupied only by the countless herds of buffalo and the tepees of the red men surrounded … Read more

Biography of Earl A. Nossaman

Earl A. Nossaman, secretary of the Monarch Cement Company at Humboldt, had lived in Kansas since early infancy, educated himself for the teaching profession, which he followed for a number of years, and was in the drug business before he accepted his present official position with the Monarch Cement Company. He went with this company while it was being reorganised, and as manager of the sales department had had much to do with its successful operations in recent years. His ancestry goes back to Hesse Cassel, Germany, where his great-grandfather was born. Coming to America, this ancestor settled in Pennsylvania. … Read more

Biography of Henry Van Deman Faris

Henry Van Deman Faris, of Kanopolis, is a Kansas around whom center many associations of territorial and pioneer times. He is by five years the oldest living pioneer in Kansas west of Salina. He had been continuously identfied with Ellsworth County more than half a century. Mr. Faris comes of that adventuresome pioneer stock that in successive waves had peopled and developed American soil. His grandfather, John Faris, was born in Ireland of Scotch descent. On coming to this country he partieipated as a soldier in the struggle for independence, and afterwards became a farmer in Virginia. He located on … 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 Alexander M. Campbell Jr.

Alexander M. Campbell, Jr. Those who scan the pages of American history with a view of selecting the personages most deserving of attention in their day and generation because of lives which have been useful and inspiring to others, could not fail to mark the name of Campbell in the annals of Saline County, Kansas. It had been continuously identified with the county since 1858, when Alexander M. Campbell, father of the present bearer of that name, came herE and immediately became a vital factor in the development of this section. At the present time the family includes 400 individuals … Read more

Biography of Arnold Francis Weeks

Arnold Francis Weeks. Much of the commercial history and the civic annals of the prosperous little Town of Assaria in Saline County could be told as a commentary upon the life of Mr. Arnold Francis Weeks, the leading merchant and now the mayor of that little city. In 1907 Mr. Weeks organized the Assaria Hardware Company. He became president and chief executive in the concern, while his brother Joseph was made secretary. In 1913 the two brothers bought all the other interests, and since dissolving the incorporation had conducted it as a partnership and had made it the leading business … Read more

Biography of Wallace H. Johnson

Wallace H. Johnson. The newspaper men of Kansas, as a rule, need no glowing encomiums from other professions or the public. Their guild includes names that are as household words from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The newspapers of Kansas are moulding public opinion daily through the accurate knowledge and wide vision of the men in the editorial chair, and that the state had made such remarkable progress and had, in many ways, pushed so far ahead of many of her sister states of the Union, may justly be credited to the facile pen that gives expression to truths, calling … Read more

Biography of Oscar Ramsey Searl, M. D.

Oscar Ramsey Searl, M. D. The name Searl had been associated with the medical profession in Northern Kansas for fully half a century. Dr. O. R. Searl is a son of a pioneer doctor of Solomon, Kansas, Dr. O. F. Searl. The son had practiced for nearly twenty years at Belvue, and besides his success in the profession he had made himself an influential factor in local affairs. He was born at Solomon, Kansas, July 5, 1872. Dr. O. F. Searl was of English family and represented Colonial settlers in Massachusetts. He was born in Massachasetts November 15, 1841, grew … Read more

Biography of George F. Beatty

George F. Beatty, who had spent nearly all his life in Kansas, had been enrolled in the ranks of the lawyers of Salina for the past twelve years, and is now serving as referee in bankruptcy with the United States District Court. His birth occurred August 17, 1877, at 1001 Olive Street in St. Louis, Missouri. His parents were Dr. George F. and Martha Ann (Posey) Beatty. His mother, who is still living, is a daughter of William Thornton Posey, who was closely related to the family of George Washington. During her girlhood Miss Posey graduated from a seminary at … Read more

Biography of Frank Snow Crane

Frank Snow Crane, who had been a citizen of Kansas all his life, represents a family that had left its impress on Kansas affairs for fully sixty years, and is a son of one of Topeka’s most prominent business men, the late George W. Crane, whose life was a part of Topeka history, and is sketched on other pages. Since the death of his honored father Frank S. Crans had been at the head of Crane & Company, one of the largest publishing and printing concerns in the Middle West. A son of George W. and Ella (Rain) Crane, Frank … Read more

Biography of Ezra William Ober

Ezra William Ober. “Whenever a new railroad was to be secured, a new institution located, a new business brought to town, E. W. Ober was at the head of the list and generally headed the committee that landed the addition to Salina. There is probably not a permanent institution in the city today secured by general effort where Mr. Ober was not the leading spirit.” Such a tribute, voicing the general opinion of a community, can be paid only to the exceptional man. The late E. W. Ober was in every sense an exceptional man. He had good business ability, … Read more

Biography of Samuel H. Waddle

Samuel H. Waddle is now the oldest original settler in his locality of Saline County. He went there more than fifty years ago. He knew Central Kansas when it was an almost unlimited stretch of prairie. The buffalo and the Indians were still here and the frontier civilization was a straggling line of homestead shacks and habitations, putting up a bold front against the domain of the wilderness. He suffered those privations due to searcity of crops, isolation from large towns and settlements, and he experienced the prairie fires, the long continued drought, the grasshoppers and every other plague and … Read more

Biography of Claus J. Sjogren

Claus J. Sjogren is not only one of the pioneers in the agricultural district of Saline County, but as much as any other citizen had had a part in the progress and upbuilding of that flourishing little Town of Smolan, a name that reflects and preserves the native district in Sweden from which many of the early colonists here came. Mr. Sjogren had at different times been a figure in the commercial life of Smolan, and is now well to do and influential though at one time he was dependent entirely upon his manual labor and had come to America … 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 La Rue Royce

La Rue Royce, who recently began practice of his profession as a lawyer at Salina, represents one of the distinguished names of Kansas. He is a son of John Quincy Royce of Topeka, long prominent as a lawyer, editor and a dominating character in republican politics in this state. John Quiney Royce was born on a farm in Fayette County, Iowa, June 1, 1856, a son of David P. Royce, who was a native of New York State. When nine years of age John Quincy Royce was taken from the farm in his native Iowa county to Independence in that … Read more

Biography of Daniel D. McAuliffe

Daniel D. McAuliffe. While Saline County knows him as a pioneer settler and for many years one of the leading farmers and stockmen, Daniel D. McAuliffe is in fact one of the few remaining picturesque characters of the real West. He was in Western Kansas during the time of the Indians, the buffalo, and all the other features of the wild and woolly West. Few men have had more experience in that life, and his career serves in a way as a connecting link between the now fast receding past and the modern and progressive era of the present. His … Read more

Biography of Cleveland D. Miller

Cleveland D. Miller is one of the progressive and substantial younger farmers of Saline County. His home is Smolan Township and as the owner of 560 acres of land, devoted to alfalfa and other staple crops, he stands in the forefront of Saline County agriculturists. His far has all the improvements, and he had naturally allied himself with every movement for the betterment of his home community. He was born in the same locality where he now resided April 14, 1886. His parents were Valentine W. and Sarah (Barley) Miller. Valentine Miller was born in 1836 at Limestone, Tennessee, and … Read more

Biography of Charles Wood Davis

A significantly varied, distinguished and interesting career was that of the late Charles Wood Davis, and fortunate it was for the State of Kansas that he early established his residence within its borders, for his splendid initiative and executive powers came most effectively into play in the furtherance of the eivic, industrial and general material development and progress of this commonwealth. He was one of the famous argonauts of the year 1849 in California, was long and prominently identified with railway interests, was a recognized authority in all matters pertaining to the basic industry of agriculture, was a pioneer in … 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