Topeka Kansas

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

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 Matthew A. Brennan

Matthew A. Brennan has been a resident of Kansas since 1903, was identified with farming, railroading and other lines of business for some years, but is now one of Topeka’s successful undertakers. He was born in County Limerick, Ireland, February 16, 1882. The Brennan family furnishes one of the old and respected names of Limerick County. His grandfather was John Brennan, a farmer, and the father was Bartholomew Brennan, a native of County Limerick and a cooper by trade. Bartholomew Brennan married Johanna O’Shea, who was born in County Limerick, daughter of Matthew O’Shea. The eight children of Bartholomew Brennan … Read more

Biography of D. Maynard Dibble

D. Maynard Dibble. Steady application to the development of an idea had brought about the material success and business prorninence of D. Maynard Dibble, now well known in business circles in Topeka. He had practically been a resident of this city all of his life, for he was brought here when but nine months old, and from earliest youth had been identified with business affairs. While he is vice president of the Citizens State Bank, the major part of his attention had always been devoted to the grocery and market business, and through initiative, natural resource and an intelligent use … Read more

Biography of Boyd Elias Pollom

The men who came to Shawnee County in 1871 were of necessity patient plodders, content to await the rewards of a developing civilization. There were no short cuts to fortune such as fired the zeal of the argonauts of ’49, but there existed sane and practical opportunities for the man to whom labor was a beneflcent and necessary festure of his existence. To such a class belonged William Pollom, father of Boyd Elias Pollom, the latter one of the successful agrienlturists and substantial citizens of the vicinity of North Topeka. William Pollom was born in Ohio, in 1838, a son … Read more

Biography of William R. Smith

One of the fine buildings bordering the State Capitol grounds at Topeka is the Kansas State Printing plant. That is the official headquarters of William R. Smith, state printer, and also secretary of the State Printing Commission and chairman of the School Book Commission of the state. Doubtless any citizen, and particularly a printer, would deem it an honor to be at the head of an establishment which experts pronounce to be the equal in mechanical equipment and operating effieiency of any commercial printing establishment in the country. When Mr. Smith went into office on July 1, 1915, he brought … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Judge John Guthrie

Judge John Guthrie, during the forty years of his residence at Topeka, was recognized as one of the leading men in professional, public and scholarly circles, in the State of Kansas. Previously, he had been known as a successful criminal lawyer of Indiana and an honorable officer of the Civil war. He was born in Switzerland County, that state, in July, 1829; was admitted to the bar in 1857, and served as a private and the captain of Company D, Forty-sixth Indiana Infantry, from the beginning of the war until the breaking of his health in 1862. In May, 1865, … Read more

Biography of Clement Smith, Dr.

Dr. Clement Smith. The undaunted, inquiring attitude of the Twentieth Century is nowhere more definitely perceptible than among the exponents of medical science. The labor of the scientist and specialist of today is destroying ancicnt delusions and thereby placing the health of the nation in the hands of reasoners and independent thinkers. To this class of rational thinkers belones Dr. Clement Smith. of Topeka, whose opportunities along the lines of his specialty have been exceptional and whose use of the same had made him an important factor in connection with the treatment and cure of hernia for many years. Doctor … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Henry Inman

Henry Inman was well known both as an officer in the United States army and an author dealing with subjects of the Western plains. He was born in the City of New York on July 3, 1837, of Dutch and Huguenot ancestry. In 1857 he was commissioned second lieutenant in the United States army and was sent to the Pacific coast. On October 22, 1861, he married Eunice C. Dyer of Portland, Maine, where her father, Joseph W. Dyer, was a well known ship builder. During the Civil war Lieutenant Inman served as an aide on the staff of General … Read more

Biography of Fry W. Giles

Fry W. Giles, one of the founders of Topeka and its pioneer banker, was born at Littleton, New Hampshire, in 1819. In the fall of 1854 he left New England for Kansas, and on December 4th of that year arrived at the place where Topeka now stands. He was secretary of the association that laid out the city, and it is said named the new town. In March, 1855, he was appointed its first postmaster. During the early settlement of the county he kept a private record of real estate transfers, which was later made the legal records of Shawnee … 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

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 Theodore Saxon

Theodore Saxon. The career of Theodore Saxon is an expression of well directed and intelligent industry, of devotion to the best interests of the community, and promotion of the highest tenets of agriculture. His financial standing is indicated by the possession of 1,240 acres of Kansas land, all of which had come to him through the exercise of thrift, good management and business sagacity. Like so many founders and builders of civilization in Shawnee County, Mr. Saxon, who is now a retired resident of Topeka, sprang from the soil of the Hoosier state, and carved his way to prominence and … Read more

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 Jacob C. Mohler

Just twenty years after his honored father, the late Martin Mohler, retired from the same office, Jacob C. Mohler was inducted into the office of secretary of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture. However, for more than twenty years he had been connected with the state board, and was assistant secrstary for many years before he took the chief responsibilities of that office. As a young man he had a practical training that eminently fitted him for his present duties. Old methods and ideals are especially hard to brush aside for newer and more practical ones, and Mr. Mohler is … Read more

Biography of Charles S. Elliott

Charles S. Elliott. Some of Topeka’s most valuable citizenship had been furnished by the Elliott family during the past forty years. One of them was the late George N. Elliott, who was prominent as a lawyer and at one time filled the office of probate judge in Shawnee County. Mr. Charles S. Elliott, son of Judge Elliott, was for some years connected with the work of the first State Railway Commission of Kansas as its secretary, had been active in business affairs at Topeka for many years, and only recently retired from the office of president of the Topeka Commercial … Read more

Biography of Hiram B. Miller

Hiram B. Miller. Kansas wheat and corn and other farm products have been so much emphasized as partly to obscure the fact that the great basic industry of the state up to twenty-five or thirty years ago was live stock. Older residents of the state, now a little past their prime, will recall that the leading industry of their youth, except perhaps in the few counties along the eastern border, was the raising of live stock on the great ranges. Of the men who stood pre-eminent in that industry special mention should be made of the late Hiram B. Miller, … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Arthur C. Engler

Arthur C. Engler. Undoubtedly the development of Shawnee County from a prairie wilderness to a region of fruitful farms and grazing lands was largely brought about by the sturdy industrious class that made up the body of the pioneer settlers and it is gratifying to the lover of state and county to see that the stock is not dying out. Old names that for years have represented the best of citizenship still appear as owners of property and as worthy successors of those who may still be recalled in the substantial improvements they left behind them. In this connection no … Read more

Biography of Joseph G. Waters, Capt.

Joseph G. Waters, soldier, publicist, author of note, public speaker, lawyer, of Topeka, is an individuality out of the ordinary. As a soldier, his services were a credit to his country, and himself, and his five wounds received in action are witnesses of his activity. As an author his published utterances have been rarely seen outside his own family circle owing to the retiemce and innate modesty of the writer, but throughout his writings, whether prose or poetry, forcefulness, pleasing diction and pathos of high order predominated. For three decades his services have been in demand as a public speaker … Read more

Biography of William Owen

William Owen. Much of the pioneer history of Kansas might be written around the names Owen and Packard. The late William Owen was one of the men who came from the East in the days of the ’50s for the purpose of assisting in the movement to make a free state out of Kansas. His father-in-law, Cyrus Packard, was also a prominent leader in the free state movement. Born in Rhode Island in 1827, William Owen came to Shawnee County, Kansas, in 1856, about the time the first territorial government was organized. As a young man in Rhode Island he … Read more