Shawnee County KS

Lingafelter, Betty C. – Obituary

La Grande, Oregon Betty C. Lingafelter, 76, of La Grande, died April 22 at a local care center. No public services are planned at this time. Daniels-Knopp Funeral, Cremation & Life Celebration Center is in charge of arrangements. Betty was born June 11, 1931, in Topeka, Kan., to Hulda and John I. Gustafson of McPherson, Kan. She married Dean Lingafelter of Galva, Kan., on March 12, 1948. Betty was active in McPherson High School and in church activities growing up. She loved to do anything with group and social activities. Betty had a variety of jobs and she enjoyed them … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Marcus J. Parrott

Marcus J. Parrott, the second delegate to Congress from Kansas Territory, was born at Hamburg, South Carolina, October 27, 1828. He received both a classical and a legal education and served two terms in the Ohio Legislature (having located for practice at Dayton) previous to becoming a resident of Leavenworth in 1855. At the first session of the Territorial Supreme Court, which commenced in July of that year, he was appointed reporter of the decisions, and in October was elected a delegate to the Topeka Constitutional Convention. He acted as a lawyer of the defense in the trial of Governor … Read more

Biography of Frank W. Thomas

Frank W. Thomas, who had had an active connection with the Atchison, Topeka & Sapta Fe Railway Company since 1902 and is superintendent of apprentices, with headquarters at Topeka, is the only member of his family, a very brilliant and prominent Virginia household, to leave the state. Mr. Thomas was born in Martinsville, Henry County, Virginia, nine miles from the historic town of Roanoke. His father, C. Y. Thomas, was a man of more than ordinary distinction in Virginia in the last half of the nineteenth century. From an early age he was almost constantly in public life and held … Read more

Biography of William D. Butner

William D. Butner. It had been well said that “our civilization rests at bottom on the wholesomeness, the attractiveness and the completeness, as well as the prosperity of life in the country. The men and women on the farms stand for what is fundamentally best and most needed in our American life.” One of the progressive Kansans who have exemplified and put into practice this statement of theory is William D. Butner, of Dover Township, Shawnee County. Mr. Butner had never been content to make his farm pay profits as a business enterprise without regard to the environment of the … Read more

Biography of Thomas Page

For upwards of half a century, Thomas Page has been one of the prominent commercial figures in Kansas. With possibly one exception, he is the oldest miller in the state, and for years has been a factor in the milling and grain interests and as much as any other individual has contributed to make Topeka a center for the manufacture of flour. A native of Scotland, he was born in the little manufacturing hamlet of Dunshalt in Fifeshire, September 3, 1843. With a practical schooling he began an apprenticeship in the milling business. For some time he was employed in … Read more

Biography of Frank Edimer McFarland

Frank Edimer McFarland. A resident of Kansas since March, 1888, Frank Edimer McFarland was for many years connected with different departments of the Santa Fe Railroad, and for the past five or six years had been assistant secretary of the state board of agriculture. He is also one of the most prominent Masons in Kansas, and had had a long and creditablo career. He is a native of that section of Ohio known as the Hanging Rock Iron Region. He was born on the Ohio River at Portsmouth October 29, 1856, the year the republican party was born, and after … Read more

Biography of Sargent, John Richard

John. Richard Sargent, who for five years before his father’s death was junior partner in the firm of the Sargent Cut Stane Company, was born April 17, 1871, attended both private and public schools, including the Marmaduke Military Academy at Sweet Springs, Missouri, and learned the cut stone trade from his father. He worked in the shops with his father for several years before he was taken into partnership. On May 8, 1894, he married Miss Grace Churchill, and their four children are Mary Eloise, John Churchill, William Carroll and Elizaboth Alice. He is one of the active young business men … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Eugene F. Ware

Eugene F. Ware, a soldier of Iowa, a lawyer and public man of Kansas, and an author both of that state and Missouri, was born at Hartford, Connecticut, May 29, 1841. His parents moved to Burlington, Iowa, in his childhood and he was educated in the public schools of that place. During the Civil war he reached the rank of captain in the Fourth Iowa Cavalry. He took a section of land in Cherokee County, Kansas, in 1867, studied law and was admitted to the bar at Fort Scott and to the United States Supreme Court; entered the law firm … Read more

Biography of Thomas C. Biddle, M. D.

Thomas C. Biddle, M. D. Superintendent of the State Hospital for the Insane at Topeka, Doctor Biddle had long been prominent in his profession in Kansas, where he had practiced as a private physiclan or in connecton with the public service for thirty-five years. His name is well known among the profession not only over Kansas, but his work as superintendent of hospitals for the insane had attracted favorable attention over the country at large. He belongs to a prominent family, of the same branch that produced Nicholas Biddle, one of the first secretaries of the treasury, and many other … Read more

Biography of Charles A. Hill

Charles A. Hill for thirty-seven years had been closely identified with the progress and development of Eudora and its vicinity. His had been a life worth remembering, and in the community in which his labors have been most productive and his influence most widespread that memory will not cease for a long time to come. His record and that of his family indicates some of the finer elements which have entered into the social makeup of Kansas. Mr. Hill was born in Randolph County, North Carolina, on June 9, 1838. His parents were John and Lydia B. (Starbuck) Hill Bock. … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Allen William Sells

Up to a few years ago every American boy had one very definite association with the name Sells. This name represented to him, as at least a passing mood, all the glory and wonder of the world through the great circus and menagerie operated under the name Sells Brothers. The Sells Brothers organization was one of the greatest achievements of its kind the world had known. This name had had a long and intimate association with the City of Topeka because one of the original Sells Brothers, out of the world wide acquaintance with towns and localities, chose this city … 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 Charles S. Gleed

Charles S. Gleed was born in Morrisville, Vermont, March 23, 1856. His father, Thomas Gleed, was a leading lawyer of Vermont who held various public offices and who, while still a young man, died as he was about to enter the army in 1861. His grandfather, the Rev. John Gleed, was an English missionary preacher of great force of character who came to the United States for the purpose of participating in the movement against slavery. Mr. Gleed’s mother was Cornelia Fisk, a woman of rare intelligence and refinement. His grandfather was Moses Fisk, a Massachusetts pioneer in Northern Vermont. … Read more

Biography of Simon P. Kramer

Simon P. Kramer. During the greater part of the years since 1880, Simon P. Kramer had been a resident of Kansas and had been identified with the milling industry. He is one of the oldest flour millers in the state and had operated in many different towns. In 1915 he removed to Topeka, where he bought and reorganized the Topeka Flour Mills Company, of which he is now president. He had now one of the finest mills in equipment and service in this section of the state. It is equipped throughout with Allis-Chalmers machinery and only recently he gave an … Read more

Biography of Harry O. Ashley

Harry O. Ashley. The Ashley family had been identified with Woodson County since 1877, a period of forty years. The name had been closely associated with business and professional affairs here ever since, and Harry O. Ashley, son of the founder of the family, is now serving as county surveyor and is also city engineer of Yates Center. The Ashleys are English people and for many years their home was at Frodsham, near Cheshire. The grandfather of Harry O. Ashley was Henry Ashley, Sr., who spent all his life in Liverpool and was an attorney by profession. Henry Ashley, Jr., … Read more

Biography of Herbert O. Caster

Herbert O. Caster, who, on February 2, 1914, qualified as attorney for the State Public Utilities Commission, and is now a resident of Topeka, had lived in Kansas for thirty-eight years, and is well known over the state, but particularly in his home County of Decatur, where before his admission to the bar he made a fine record for himself as an educator and an energetic factor in other affairs of public importance. When the Caster family came to Kansas in 1878 they took up a homestead in Decatur County. At that time the county was a sparsely settled regiMeigon, … Read more

Biography of Thomas George Howell

Thomas George Howell. The agricultural interests of Silver Lake Township, Shawnee County, have an able representative in the person of Thomas George Howell, whose well-cultivated farm of 235 acres is situated in section 21, township 10, range 14. He had been a resident of the county for many years, and while energetically engaged in advancing his own prosperity had not been unmindful of the duties of citizenship, so that he is rated among his locality’s helpful citizens. Mr. Howell was born on a farm near Brockville, Quebec, Canada, April 80, 1861, the fifth in order of birth of the six … Read more

Biography of Walter J. Arnold

Walter J. Arnold. The county engineer of Shawnee County, Walter J. Arnold has led an active and diversified career, and although not yet forty-one years of age has crowded into his life more experiences than the ordinary man sees in an entire lifetime. From gold mining in Colorado to chasing the insurgents in the Philippines is a long call, but unlike many men whose activities have led them to out-of-the-way-places, Mr. Arnold has been constantly advancing, and each new experience, each new employment, has brought him a little bit further ahead toward the goal of success. In his present capacity, … Read more

Biography of Napoleon B. Burge

N. B. Burge, of Topeka, whose knowledge of real estate and commercial interests, and whose business ability, have brought him a particularly high standing in the state had lived in Kansas since boyhood and by hard work and ability he had earned the right to associate on terms of easy equality with the leading men of affairs in the state. The Elmhurst Investment Company, the only concern of its kind in Kansas, was organized in the fall of 1910 by Mr. Burge. It was incorporated with a capital of $500,000, and its purposes were to buy and sell state, county … Read more

Biography of Dandridge E. Kelsey

For thirty-six years Shawnee County was the home of Dandridge E. Kelsey, not only one of her pioneer settlers but unmistakably one of her most respected and valued men. He came to Kansas three years after the close of the great Civil war, in which struggle he had borne an honorable part, and in Shawnee County sought the opportunity of providing, through toil, patience and prudence, a comfortable home for his family and a competency for old age. All this he did but those early years were hard as the tragic days of Kansas had not all been lived through. … Read more