Sedgwick County KS

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 G. G. Wiechen

G. G. Wiechen, who came to Kansas over forty years ago, had found his best and most congenial activities in the line of grain merchandising. He is the leading grain merchant and elevator proprietor of Robinson, Kansas, where he had built up a large and successful business. Mr. Wiechen is a son of a veteran resident of Rush County, Kansas, J. H. Wiechen, who is still living, though past ninety years of age. J. H. Wiechen was born at Schweringen, Germany, in 1826. At the age of eighteen he came to America, living for a time in New York City … Read more

Biography of Vernon H. Branch

Vernon H. Branch of Wichita has had a successful career as a banker in Kansas covering a period of more than thirty-five years. In that time he has been officially identified with a number of important banks in different parts of the state, but is now concentrating all his efforts along the line of investment banking, and is one of the reliable investment bankers of Kansas. He came to Kansas when a youth. His birth occurred at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, February 3, 1863, but when he was two years of age his parents removed to Orwell, Vermont, his father’s childhood home. … 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 I. F. Sarver

I. F. Sarver. It was due to his personal popularity and his high business standing that I. F. Sarver was elected sheriff of Sedgwick County in 1914. It was the first and only office for which he was ever a candidate, and he was elected by a large majority by his wide circle of friends in both parties, and reelected in 1916 by a large majority. Sheriff Sarver is almost a native son of Kansas, having been brought to the state when two years of age, and is thoroughly typical of the splendid spirit of this commonwealth. He was born … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Alexander B. Wall

Alexander B. Wall, the elder of the two sons, was born at Wichita on the 12th of December, 1882, and who was afforded the advantages of the public schools and the Lewis Academy of Wichita, as well as those of Wentworth Military Academy, at Lexington, Missouri. He also attended the Kansas State Agricultural College, at Manhattan, and he is now known as one of the representative agriculturists and stock-growers of his native county. He has the active supervision of the fine farm developed by his father, as previously noted, and there conducts a certified-milk dairy in connection with his general … Read more

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 Charles Joseph Boeger

Charles Joseph Boeger is without doubt one of the foremost men in the profession of photography in the State of Kansas. Some years ago he located in Topeka, and with his studio at 707 Kansas Avenue has done work that entitles him to his place in the profession, and his career is also dignified by the fact that he represents a pioneer family in this state. His father is the honored Joseph Boeger of Decatur County. Joseph Boeger was born in Prussia, Germany, in 1850, and before he left the fatherland became well known and highly respected in Westphalia. When … Read more

Biography of Oscar Krauss

Oscar Krauss is one of the veteran merchants of Topeka. After a residence of four years in America he came to that city in 1869. Nearly half a century had gone by, and at the present time the largest wholesale house of its character in the State of Kansas is O. Krauss & Sons, harness, leather and shoe findings. It had a splendid record of progress and one that had been built up on the basis of square dealing and strict integrity. The Krauss family from which the Topeka merchant is descended had an authentic record of antecedents as far … Read more