Sumner County KS

Biography of Keith Evans Cox

Keith Evans Cox is a Kansas newspaper man with wide experience and ability, and is now editor and proprietor of the Cheney Sentinel, in Sedgwick County. Apart from his own work and the influence he has exercised in journalism, much interest attaches to his name because of his honored father and mother, both of whom were prominent in the early days of Kansas. His father was the late William Edgar Cox. A Kentuckian by birth, he first came out to Kansas from Frankfort in 1859. He remained only a short time, and on returning to Kentucky during the Civil war … Read more

Biography of Dawson W. Cooley

Dawson W. Cooley is president of the Oxford Bank in Sumner County. His home has been in Kansas for upwards of half a century, and while his years have been chiefly employed in the banking business, he has also identified himself with various other enterprises for the good and upbuilding of this state. Mr. Cooley is one of the surviving veterans of the great Union army during the Civil war. He served during the first two years of that struggle in one of the noted regiments of New York State. His enlistment was in Company C of the Ninth New … Read more

Biography of Thomas Walter Butcher

Thomas Walter Butcher. Among Kansas men who have performed services of far reaching benefit to the state there is a distinctive place for Thomas Walter Butcher, now president of the Kansas State Normal School at Emporia. Mr. Butcher began his career as an educator in Kansas, and most of his work had been done within the state. He was born at Macomb, Illinois, July 3, 1867, a son of Boman Rilea Butcher and Adaline (Vail) Butcher. His father was a Union soldier during the Civil war. Mr. Butcher was reared in Illinois and Kansas and attended the public schools of … Read more

Biography of John C. Hoyt

John C. Hoyt became identified with the real estate, loan and insurance business at El Dorado over thirty years ago. He is the dean in that line of business in Butler County, and the reputation for honesty and integrity which had become associated with his name through many long years had brought him all the business that his firm could attend to during the rapid development of Butler County’s resources in recent years. Mr. Hoyt was born near Bellevue, Ohio, September 3, 1860. His people have been identified with Northern Ohio since pioneer times. His grandfather, John Hoyt, was born … Read more

Biography of Owen Jason Wood

Owen Jason Wood is a lawyer by profession, had been a resident of Topeka since 1890, and for many years had been assistant solicitor for Kansas of The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company. He gained his first knowledge of life in the world in the northwest corner of Indiana, in Lake County. He was born at Crown Point, the county seat, August 10, 1853. His parents were Martin and Susan G. (Taylor) Wood. His father owned a farm and represented one of the early pioneer families of Northwestern Indians and he was a lawyer by profession, and was … Read more

Biography of Henry Knight Brooks

Henry Knight Brooks of Topeka is a Kansas man by adoption, and is as loyal to the state as any native citizen. The state may properly congratulate itself that Mr. Brooks has found a congenial home here. As an inventor, manufacturer and practical all around mechanic he has a genius which has made his name familiar in industrial circles, not alone in Kansas but in many parts of the United States. For one thing he deserves credit for building up and developing the Capital Iron Works at Topeka, one of the cornerstones of that city’s industrial prosperity. However, that has … Read more

Biography of Emery Trekell, M. D.

Emery Trekell, M. D. On the wall of his office at Harper hangs a diploma showing Doctor Trekell is a graduate in medicine from Northwestern University of Chicago. Immediately after leaving that school in 1910 he took up active practice in Kansas, and for the past three years had been looking after a very large and accumulating professional business at Harper. Doctor Trekell though born at West Union in Cass County, Missouri, March 13, 1877, had some interesting historical family connections of early days in Kansas. He is of a family that came to the United States before the Revolution. … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Sutton, M.W.

M. W. Sutton, attorney at law, of the firm of Sutton & Wenie. Mr. Sutton first came to Wellington, Sumner Co., Kan., in May, 1872, and practiced law until December of same year, when he went to Medicine Lodge, Barber County, and continued his profession until June 1,1876, thence located permanently in Dodge City, where he has since practiced law. He was County Attorney for Barber County two years and resigned; County Attorney for Ford County from November 1, 1876 until March 1882. He was born in Orange County, N. Y., 1848, and was raised in Tompkins County, living there … Read more

Biography of Ray Broomfield

Ray Broomfield is one of the youngest bank officials in Kansas. He went with the Neal State Bank as cashier upon its organization in October, 1915, and his thorough knowledge of banking and his genial personality were a decided factor in the success of that institution. Mr. Broomfield is now cashier of the Home State Bank, Clearwater, Kansas. The Neal State Bank was started as a state bank and had a capital of $10,000. The officers are: A. N. McQuown of Wichita, president; C. W. Boone of Neal, vice president. Mr. Broomfield was born at Milton, Kansas, April 21, 1891, … Read more

Biography of William H. Smith

William H. Smith. It is almost a half century that had crept around on the world’s clock since William H. Smith, one of Chanute’s substantial and respected citizens, came to Kansas, locating in Neosho County, where at present he is held in high esteem with the Old Settlers’ Association, of which he is president. With interest he had watched this section develop and had assisted very materially, ever lending his influence to law and order, encouraging the investment of capital, and setting an industrious example that might very profitably be emulated. William H. Smith was born January 25, 1846, in … Read more

Biography of Grant Elwood Kelsey

Grant Elwood Kelsey. General farming and the raising of live stock are engaging the attention of many foresighted men in Kansas. Many of these have additional interests as had Grant Elwood Kelsey, a well known citizen and prosperons agriculturist of Menoken Township, Shawnee County, but their land and its rich yielding occupies the first place in their affections. Grant Elwood Kelsey was born on a farm in Dearborn County, Indiana, March 14, 1867. His parents were Scott and Mahala (Allen) Kelsey, who are mentioned elsewhere in this work. He attended the country schools in Indiana and later near Topeka, Kansas, … Read more

Biography of John B. Favor

John B. Favor, present sheriff of Sumner County, has been a resident of Western Kansas for over forty-five years, and though he was a small boy when the family moved here he knows both by recollection and personal experience all the vicissitudes and trials that beset the early pioneers. This story of a pioneer Kansas family begins with the removal of Gaines and Susan (Lavender) Favor from their native state of Tennessee to a farm near Cairo, Illinois, in 1855. On that farm in the southern part of Illinois was born on January 22, 1860, John B. Favor, first mentioned … Read more

Biography of Norman B.Fall, M. D.

Norman B. Fall, M. D. Though established in his profession at Geuda Springs only a few years, Doctor Fall had proved himself a physician and surgeon of thorough competence and equal to all the emergencies and exigencies of his work, and at the same time had taken a decided interest and wholesome part in the affairs of his community. Doctor Fall is a native of Kansas, having been born at Hutchinson February 7, 1891. His ancestors were Scotch-Irish people who settled in North Carolina in colonial times. His grandfather, Abram Fall, who was born in South Carolina in 1843, was … Read more

Biography of Henry Ford Harbaugh

Henry Ford Harbaugh. Even today the great State of Kansas is looked upon as a land of opportunities and a good place for the young man to settle and provide for the future. This is even more true thirty or forty years ago, though it required perhaps a stronger element of individual initiative, courage and ability to endure hardships with patience and fortitude. It was as a young man looking for a permanent home and a country where his energies and talents would be given the freest exercise that Henry Ford Harbaugh arrived in Kansas in 1878. An uncle was … Read more

Biography of Hon. Charles P. Hangen

Hon. Charles P. Hangen, who has recently finished his second term as member of the State Legislature, is one of the prominent bankers of Sumner County, being cashier of the National Bank of Commerce at Wellington. He was born in Darke County, Ohio, November 9, 1877, but has lived in Kansas since 1882. In that year his parents, Christian and Sarah Hangen, came to Kansas and located six miles southwest of Wellington on the farm still owned by Mrs. Hangen. Christian Hangen was a native of Germany and his wife of Ohio. He was successfully identified with general farming and … Read more

Biography of Harrison Haskin

HARRISON HASKIN, Ozark, Missouri Whatever may be said by demagogues about the tyranny of capital, the man who affords employment to his fellow men and maintains industries which turn out articles of utility does more real good for his generation than all the combined agitators of the country. Under existing civilization the only possible solution to the problem of the prevention of want and suffering is found in the great manufacturing plants, which have the capital necessary to pay wages to the many before pay is received for the goods. A glance at the thriving city of Ozark, Missouri, shows … Read more

Biography of Abraham Lincoln Barner

Some of the most substantial people of Kansas today, well able to ride about over the improved highways in their automobiles, came into the state in the early days with the slow and tedious method of the prairie schooner or the mover’s wagon. Such an emigrant party arrived in Sumner County in 1873. They had come overland from Central Illinois, being twenty-six days on route. Three wagons comprised the train, and the driver of one of those wagons, then thirteen years of age, was Abrabam Lincoln Barner, who is now living retired at Belle Plaine in Sumner County, and for … Read more

Biography of Clifford C. Nesselrode, M. D.

Clifford C. Nesselrode, M. D. In 1906 there came to Kansas City, a young graduate in medicine who entered St. Margaret’s Hospital as an interne. Very modest was this young man as to his acquirements but not much time elapsed before his medical knowledge and his surgical skill were noted and approved, and at the present time no practitioner enjoys more public confidence or personal esteem than does Dr. Clifford C. Nesselrode. In addition to attending to a large and constantly increasing private practice, he is on the staffs of St. Margaret and Bethany hospitals and on the surgical staff … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Draper, M.R.

M. R. Draper, manager of the Dodge City branch of the York, Parker & Draper Mercantile Company. The company was incorporated under the laws of Missouri in 1881, with a paid-up capital of $150,000. Now have a surplus of $150,000. They deal in general merchandise and livestock, and carry a general average stock of merchandise of $25,000 in Dodge City, Kansas, and opened trade in the latter city in 1881. They also have a branch house at Caldwell, Sumner County, Kansas. Their rooms are 25 feet wide by 110 feet deep, and a warehouse 25 x 75 feet. They have … Read more

Biography of Samuel Price, Rev.

Rev. Samuel Price was identified for many-years with Kansas, and his services and experlences make an important chapter in the life of the state. He was born in Ohio in 1827, his ancestors coming originally from Wales. He was reared and married near Barnesville, Ohio. For a number of years he was editor of the Barnesville Enterprise. In 1878 Rev. Mr. Price removed to Humboldt, Kansas, where he acted as a Methodist minister for three years. Afterwards he held various pastorates in other cities of Southern Kansas. For three years he was located at Wellington, after which he retired from … Read more