Topeka Kansas

Biography of Matthew B. Van Petten

Matthew B. Van Petten. The success which has attended the enterprise operating at Topeka under the name of the Pioneer Mortgage Company attests the foresight, sagacity and financial skill of its members, whose watchful care and fidelity have combined to build up and perpetuate their fortunes. The life of the financier is less conspicuous before the world than that of a member of a learned calling, or of one who mingles in public affairs, but is none the less one of arduous labor and thorough engrossment, requiring a high order of organizing talent, watchfulness of the trend of affairs and … Read more

Biography of George F. Zerzan, M. D.

George F. Zerzan, M. D. With his home and practice at Holyrood since 1905, Doctor Zerzan is a man of conspicuous success not only in his profession but by the rapidity with which he had accumalated important business interests. Doctor Zerzan is not yet forty and it would seem that his substantial achiovements to date predieate a splendid success as the form of his life’s activities. Doctor Zerzan was born at Schuyler, Nebraska, August 23, 1878. He is of Bohemian parentage and ancestry. His grandfather, Joseph Zerzan, was born in Bohemia in 1818, served his time in the Bohemian army, … Read more

Biography of Arthur Capper

Arthur Capper. It took Kansas half a century to decide that there might be a native worthy of being trusted with administering the highest office in the gift of the people of the state. Every two years the people would elect a governor, but not until 1914 did it elect a native son. A history of the states shows this to be a rather remarkable record. Arthur Capper was the first son of Kansas to be its governor, and he was also the first son to be even a candidate. He has been a candidate three times, the first in … Read more

Biography of John Milligan Johnson

John Milligan Johnson. Recently there died at Manhattan a Kansan whose character was even more important than his material achievements. He came within four years of living a century and he was a figure in the activities of the frontier until the frontier had passed away. But more important than all his experiences were the moral forces that emanated from his life, and the things he stood for, believed in, and worked to bring about. It is therefore as a character sketch that the following paragraphs are offered, and they find an appropriate place in the history of Kansas. John … Read more

Biography of Patrick H. Coney

In many ways the State of Kansas during the last half century had had no more interesting, patriotic, versatile figure than Patrick H. Coney of Topeka. He came to Kansas after making a brilliant record as a soldier in the Civil war. He had been extremely successful as a business man, and his interests as a business man have extended over a wide and diversified field. No man in the country had exhibited a more intense loyalty and devotion to the welfare of the veterans of the great struggle between the North and the South. Mr. Coney is a lawyer, … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Samuel N. Hawkes

Assistant attorney-general of Kansas with a residence at Topeka, Samuel N. Hawkes is one of the older members of the Kansas bar, and had been in active practice in various parts of the state for more than thirty years. He came to Kansas with a training and education received at one of the oldest eastern universities, and his career had been one of uninterrupted success and influential participation in the life of his own community and the state. He was born at Portland, Maine, May 8, 1861, a son of Charles M. and Susan A. (Whitney) Hawkes. His father, who … 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 William O. Worswick

William O. Worswick, though he began his career as a teacher and commercial man, had been in active practice as a member of the Oskaloosa bar for the past thirty years, and is an ex-county attorney of Jefferson County. Mr. Worswick is of English ancestry. The name was originally Warwick, and as such it is famous in English history. Mr. Worswick’s paternal grandfather was Henry Ward Worswick, who served as captain of a Man of War in the English Navy. He was born in Lancastershire, England, and in 1826 he brought his family to America and settled at Brooklyn, New … Read more

Biography of Homer Ward Bomgardner

Homer Ward Bomgardner is one of Topeka’s leading business men, and is also active in civic affairs and a prominent Sunday school worker. Much of his life has been spent in Kansas. He was born at Canal Dover, Ohio, February 1, 1865, a son of Benjamin F. and Mary (Ward) Bomgardner, his father being of Swiss ancestry. Reared in Ohio where he obtained an education in the high schools and academies, in January, 1884, Mr. Bomgardner came to Kansas, locating in Smith County, and for seven years was a teacher in the public schools of this state. During that time … 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 William Henry Redeneraugh

Now conducting one of the best equipped and most orderly dairy farms in Shawnee County, W. H. Redenbeaugh was for many years an active railroad man, chiefly with the Santa Fe Company, and deserves mention as one of the early settlers of Shawnee County, where he had resided for forty-five years. His birth occurred in Boone County, Indiana, March 2, 1865. His father, James F. Redenbaugh, was born in Montgomery County, Indiana, in 1847. The grandfather, Fred Redenbeaugh, was also a native of Indiana, where the family settled when Indiana was a territory. George Redenbeaugh served as a soldier in … Read more

Biography of Seward Allen Jones

Seward Allen Jones. One of the finest printing establishments of the State of Kansas is that conducted at Topeka by Seward A. Jones and A. D. Birch, who have been its proprietors since 1915. Mr. Jones is a practical printer of experience, having gained his training in this direction in the difficult school of newspaper life, and from the time he reached the age of sixteen years has been identified with type and presses. In his present business he is demonstrating the fact that he is a thorough master of every department of printing. Seward Allen Jones was born March … Read more

Biography of Dennis Clark, Hon.

Willian B. Clark and Buford Clark, brothers, residing on adjoining farms in Williamsport Township of Shawnee County, have occupied and developed land that their father, a distinguished citizen of Illinois, secured in Kansas soon after the close of the Civil war. These brothers are among the most progressive men in that community, have won much success in agriculture, and have always been alert and public spirited in connection with movements for the public benefit. Their father was Hon. Dennis Clark, who was born August 14, 1817, at Vincennes, Indiana. His parents were Walter and Mary (Young) Clark, the former a … Read more

Biography of Winfield A. S. Bird

For thirty-five years a Topeka lawyer, Mr. Bird’s name had become widely known over the state not only in the legal profession, but as a practical farmer and stockman, by his various distinctions in Masonry and other fraternities, and by his important services in the State Legislature. In his own character and in an carnest ambition to acquit himself well among the world’s useful workers, is to be found the secret of his snccess. He was born in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, August 31, 1855, and spent his early life there. His father, Archibald Bird, was born in the same county … Read more

Biography of George Octavius Boone

George Octavius Boone had been a resident of Kansas since 1881. In that year he embarked on a career as a commercial traveler, and had been a traveling man now for more than thirty-five years. For several years he represented a Boston shoe firm with headquarters in St. Louis, Baxter Springs, Arkansas City and Longmont, Colorado. Since 1897 his home had been in Topeka, and with the exception of three years he had been connected with the Topeka Daily Capital. The Boone family from whom he is descended had an authentic record of ancestors as far back as 1516. Originally … Read more

Biography of Julius Weiss

Julius Weiss. Recently the Topeka Daily Capital had an illustration on one of its pages showing a banquet table surrounded by a group of some of the best known and most prominent veteran business men of Topeka. Underneath was a text explaining the occasion. A part of this reads as follows: “Fifty years at the old stand, forty-seven years at the same number and still an active business man. That is something of a distinction. March 1, 1866, Julius Weiss, a young captain of calvary who had served all through the Civil war in an Illinois regiment, opened a grocery … Read more

Biography of Charles S. Eagle

Charles S. Eagle, a business man and mannfacturer at Topeka, is a native Kansan, and his family history is closely identified with the early border days of this state. His father, James Eagle, who came to Kansas in 1856 and located in Douglas County, kept a hotel for several years on the old California trail at Big Springs. That was before the day of railroads, and his hotel supplied a service to the great traffic that went by his doors in stage coaches and prairie schooners. Like most other early settlers in Kansas he was drawn into the border and … Read more

Biography of John M. Leeper

John M. Leeper. One of the very successful contractors at Topeka is John M. Leeper, who when a young man learned the trade of brick mason, and on that trade as a foundation has built up a large business in brick contracting and the services of his organization has entered into the construction of several of the most conspicuous public buildings in the state. He is a native of Kansas and was born in Lyon County, September 6, 1872, when that section of the state was still well out on the frontier. His parents were Samuel S. and Elizabeth C. … Read more

Biography of Charles A. Karlan

Charles A. Karlan. Though comparatively a newcomer in Kansas, Mr. Karlan in a few years has made a record of practical accomplishment and a reputation for himself such as few who have spent their entire lives within the state’s borders have been able to attain. He is an artist in furniture. The making of high grade furniture has been a specialty of his for many years, and it was in 1905 that he came to Topeka and set up his establishment in that line. It is no disparagement to other similar concerns to state that his is the largest and … Read more

Biography of Ray L. Bailey

Ray L. Bailey is one of the widely known men of Shawnee County, and is now successfully farming a fine place four miles north of North Topeka. He makes farming a real business, understands it in all details, and gives it the same energy and close attention which he formerly paid to his work as a traveling salesman. He was on the road for a number of years, and his firm sent him on a number of missions to Old Mexico. On account of his travel and extensive acquaintance in that southern republic he is well informed as to Mexican … Read more