Sedgwick County KS

Biography of William Henry Von der Heiden

William Henry Von der Heiden has been a resident of Newton, Kansas, forty years, and had been enrolled among the leading attorneys of Harvey County since 1889. He was born at Shullsburg, Lafayette County, Wisconsin, January 11, 1869, a son of H. D. Von der Heiden, who was born at Burbach, Germany, in 1834, who was reared in his native village, came to the United States in 1854, was engaged in the mining industry in Lafayette County, Wisconsin, was married there, and in 1861 volunteered his services for the defense of the union of his adopted land, enlisting in Company … Read more

Biography of Peter J. Ringler

Peter J. Ringler, who is manager and part owner of the Parsons Bottling Works, one of the largest concerns of its kind in the state, has had a very active and successful business career. He was born in Livingston County, Illinois, December 14, 1868. His grandfather Peter Ringler was born in Kurhessen, Germany, came to the United States about 1876 after his wife had died in Germany, and lived on a farm in Livingston County, Illinois, until his death. In Germany he was a contractor for the building of railroads, and he also served his regular term in the German … Read more

Biography of Elisha H. Rollins

Elisha H. Rollins, partner of Mr. Ireland in the proprietorship of the Ireland & Rollins Planing Mills Company, and one of the progressive and energetic business men of Fort Scott, was born March 15, 1859, on Prince Edward Island, a son of John and Mary (Harker) Rollins, natives of that place, who passed their entire lives there in agricultural pursuits. The father died in 1909, at the age of seventy-five years, while the mother passed away many years before, being forty-seven years old at the time of her demise. The fourth in a family of nine children, Elisha H. Rollins … Read more

Biography of Elmer Stover Emmert

Elmer Stover Emmert, senior partner of the well known firm of Emmert Brothers and thus head of one of the strong insurance agencies not only of Muskogee but of the state, was born in Humboldt, Kansas, May 18, 1868, and is a son of David B. and Margaret D. (Moffett) Emmert, the former a newspaper publisher. During the early boyhood of Elmer S. Emmert the parents removed with their family to Wichita, Kansas, and there he pursued his education in the public schools until a further removal was made to Albuquerque, New Mexico. After the death of his father, at … Read more

Biography of Irvin F. Benest

Irvin F. Benest. The Benest family came to Kansas in 1871. Two years later came the great financial panic following the failure of Jay Cooke on the famous Black Friday. It was an era of wide spread distress, but Kansas people during those years had even more grievous burdens than hard times. The grasshoppers came as a plague, there were successive seasons of drouth, crops were a rarity, and there was little market for what the farmers did produce. It was during the height of the hard times of that decade that Irvin F. Benest, a lawyer and president of … Read more

Biography of O. F. Walke

O. F. Walke who has spent most of his life in Kansas has developed a very substantial business career, and for several years has been proprietor of the Independent Laundry, one of the best equipped establishments of its kind in the southern section of the state. He is of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and his great-grandfather came from the North of Ireland, and was an early farmer in Ohio. Mr. Walke’s grandfather, William Walke, was born in Ohio in 1840, came to Kansas about a quarter of a century ago, and was an active farmer until he retired and died at Columbus, … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Benjamin Parmely

Parmely, Benjamin; lawyer; born, Ashland, O., Oct. 9, 1869; son of M. B. and Elizabeth Porter Parmley; early education in the public schools of Dayton; two years in Garfield University, Wichita, Kan., LL. B. University of Michigan, 1892; married, Columbus, O., Nov. 16, 1904, Miss Mary E. Tolford; issue, one daughter, Elizabeth; admitted to the bar in 1893, one and one-half years atty. for the Fidelity & Casualty Co., then practiced in the firm of Estep, Dickey, Carr & Goff; later with Kline, Carr, Tolles & Goff; in 1896, organized the law firm of Wilcox, Collister, Hogan & Parmely; in … Read more

Biography of Chester Adelbert Latham

A member of the bar of Wichita, Chester A. Latham is now established in a good practice as patent attorney in that city, and represents one of the early Kansas families. The Lathams have lived in the Sunflower State nearly half a century. Though brought to Kansas in early childhood, Chester Adelbert Latham was born in Adrian, Michigan, December 19, 1861. He obtained his early education while living on the farm near Wichita, and also attended the Wichita High School and for three years was a student in the Kansas State Agricultural College. Mr. Latham had had a varied business … Read more

Biography of H. F. G. Wulf

H. F. G. Wulf though a native of Germany grew up in Kansas, and had had a long and varied and successful experience as a farmer, merchant, and business man. His present home is at Humboldt, where he is president of the Monarch Cement Company. His abilities were called upon to reorganize that local industry. Judge Thomas C. Wilson, of the District Court, First Division, Sedgwick County, appointed him July 10, 1912, as receiver. The plant had become heavily involved, but Mr. Wulf soon had it reorganized, and in addition to paying every creditor a hundred cents on the dollar … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Napoleon Bonaparte Blanton

Napoleon Bonaparte Blanton was born in Missouri about 1830, and in a letter written to Charles H. Dickson, several years before his death, thus explains the origin of his impressive name: “I was first named James by my grandfather on my mother’s side. My father was of French descent and was a friend of Napoleon, but my grandfather hated him. After my father and my grandfather had quarreled about Napoleon, my father changed my name to that of the great general.” In September, 1854, Mr. Blanton moved from Jackson County, Missouri, and settled on the Wakarusa. He left that locality … 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 Frank R. Glascock

After many years of activity in real estate circles of Haskell, Frank R. Glascock is now living retired at the age of seventy, having through industry, ability and perseverance accumulated a substantial competence which enables him to rest from further labor. He is a native of Ohio, his birth having occurred in Highland County on the 22d of February, 1851, and his parents were Joseph and Alcinda (Stone) Glascock, the former of whom was born in Culpeper County, Virginia. On starting out in life for himself Frank R. Glascock engaged in farming and merchandising at Hillsboro, Ohio, for a number … Read more

Biography of Raymond C. Clapp, M. D.

Raymond C. Clapp, M. D. A young man who availed himself of the best of modern facilities and scientific advantages in preparing himself for his exacting profession, Doctor Clapp has won assured status as one of the representative physicians and surgeons engaged in practice in the City of Wichita, where his success has been on a parity with his unqualified personal popularity. Doctor Clapp was born at Lebanon, Virginia, on the 26th of September, 1880, and in the schools of his native place he continued his studies until his graduation in the high school. He then had the privilege of … Read more

Biography of J. W. Smith

The demise of J. W. Smith, which occurred at Dewey on the 27th of October, 1921, when he was sixty-seven years of age, removed from the scene of life’s activities a man who was straight-forward and reliable in business, progressive and loyal in citizenship and true to the ties of home and friendship. He was born at Franklin, Venango County, Pennsylvania, August 18, 1854, and two of his brothers, John and Will, are still living in that state, while another brother, Wesley, a veteran of the Civil war, is residing in Iowa. In 1907 Mr. Smith came to Oklahoma, establishing … Read more

Biography of Henry Justin Allen

Henry Justin Allen of Wichita had achieved a position among Kansas’ leading newspaper editors and publishers. He began as a newspaper reporter, was editor and owner at different times of various papers in the state, and is now proprietor of the Wichita Beacon. Mr. Allen was born at Warren, Pennsylvania, September 12, 1869, and his parents John and Rebecca Elizabeth (Goodin) Allen were natives of the same section. John Allen served four years in the Ninth New York Cavalry, and a few years after the close of the war came west to Kansas, where he went through the pioneer hardships … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Paul E. Walker

Paul E. Walker, a son of A. D. Walker of Holton, has been a Topeka lawyer for the past fifteen years. He was born at his father’s home in Holton, Kansas, August 27, 1876, grew up in his native city, attending the public schools, and took his college course in California, being a graduate of Leland Stanford University. He took his A. B. degree there in 1898, and then entered the Harvard Law School, where he was graduated LL.B. in 1902. In the fall of 1902 Mr. Walker began practice in Topeka as assistant attorney for the Rock Island Railway … Read more

Biography of William M. Jamieson

William M. Jamieson. Few of the business men of Wichita have had more varied careers than has William M. Jamieson, who, since 1910, has been engaged in the handling of large realty transactions in this city. A Scot by birth, he came to America as a lad, and during the next forty years his activities carried him to many out-of-the-way places of this continent, where he was connected with the construction of some of the largest engineering projects of the time. The broad experience and knowledge of men which he gained during this period of his life have been of … Read more

Biography of John William Dale

John William Dale has been one of the constructive factors in Sedgwick County. He was one of the founders of the Town of Andale, and has been identified with the little City of Clearwater from almost the beginning of its growth. In business affairs his interests extend to different lines. He was a landowner in the early days, still has interests as a landowner, and is head of the principal banking establishment of Clearwater. An Illinois man by birth, he was born in DeKalb County of that state December 21, 1847. His father, Frank Dale, was born at Hull, England, … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Mrs. Mary C. Wuester

A representative of the best type of the progressive women of the Sunflower State is she whose name initiates this paragraph, and she had proved specially successful and influential in connection with a line of educational and business enterprise in which few women have made exploitation. In 1909 Mrs. Wuester established in the City of Wichita the Wuester School of Pharmacy, and she had made this institution one of the valuable and ably directed technical schools of the state. Mrs. Wuester was born in Marshall County, Kansas, and after completing the curriculum of the public schools she pursued a higher … Read more

Biography of Joseph Newton Allen

Extensively interested in farming and also identified with the oil industry of the southwest, Joseph Newton Allen has made for himself an enviable place as a business man in Muskogee. Born on the 7th of February, 1868, in Greencastle, Indiana, he comes of Scotch-Irish ancestry, through a line of Virginia and Kentucky pioneers, being the eighth son of a seventh son and the seventeenth child in a family of eighteen children. His early education was acquired in the public schools of Greencastle, which is the seat of DePauw University, formerly known as Asbury University. When his public school course was … Read more