Shawnee County KS

Biography of John Martin, Hon.

Hon. John Martin, who died at his home in Topeka September 3, 1913, was one of the distinguished Kansans of both the territorial and statehood eras. He was born in Wilson County, Tennessee, November 12, 1833, and was nearly eighty years of age when he died. He was the oldest son of Matt and Mary Martin, who were descended from some of the first settlers of Virginia. It was possible to gain only a meager education in the schools of the frontier district in which he lived, but John Martin made the best of his opportunities and aided by a … Read more

Biography of Adoniram Judson Whitford

Adoniram Judson Whitford. A special place in ranks of the pioneer business men of Kansas should be accorded the late Adoniram Judson Whitford of Manhattan. For over forty years he sold hardware in that city. When he opened his first stock of goods the Civil war was raging over the country. He began on a modest scale, in proportion to his individual resources, and also to the needs and demands of the town and surrounding country. He prospered and expanded his enterprise even as Manhattan expanded as a city and the surrounding country took upon itself advanced features of progress. … 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 George Hughes

George Hughes. Since coming to the United States, in 1882, George Hughes had been connected with the management of vast farming and ranching enterprises. For years he took care of the interests of others, in both Texas and Kansas, but during the past five years had been carrying on operations on his own account, and is now the owner of a handsome property on Rochester Road, north of North Topeka, which is known as the Stanley farm. George Hughes was born at Brighton, England, in 1865, and is a son of Thomas H. and Frances (Ford) Hughes. His father was … Read more

Biography of William Howard Thompson, Hon.

Hon. William Howard Thompson was born in Crawfordsville, Indiana, October 14, 1871. He is a son of John Franklin Thompson and Emma Dora (McGriff) Thompson, and with his parents came to Kansas in the year of 1880, and settled on a farm six miles north of Sabetha, in Nemaha County, and made that county had home until he went to Topeka, where he served as clerk of the Court of Appeals. Senator Thompson is descended from patriotic stock. His paternal ancestors were early Colonial Amerieans of Scotch-Irish lineage, and fought as soldiers in the Revolution, the War of 1812, the … Read more

Biography of William R. Lott

William R. Lott. A resident of Kansas since 1893, William R. Lott came to this state to secure feeding grounds close to the central market. He had for a number of years been extensively engaged in ranching in New Mexico, and is one of the men most familiar with the life of that former territory, especially of conditions there twenty-five or thirty years ago. The fact that he went to New Mexico and sought his fortunes in a country and period where only the strong and the courageous survive is suffleient to indicate the independence and enterprise of Mr. Lott. … Read more

Biography of James Willis Gleed

James Willis Gleed, general attorney for the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company of St. Louis, was born at Morrisville, Vermont, March 8, 1859. His father, Thomas Gleed, now deceased, was a native of England, who came to America during the ’30s, settling at first in Canada, but later he removed to northern Vermont, where he resided to the time of his death in 1861, when he was but thirty-five years of age. In early manhood he had wedded Cornelia Fisk, a native of the Green Mountain state and a representative of an old New England family that was established in Massachusetts … Read more