Topeka Kansas

Biography of Gilbert Leroy Jordan

Gilbert Leroy Jordan. Through persistent aspiration and unceasing labor, Gilbert LeRoy Jordan has won his way to the most satisfying and stable compensation of business life. Still a young man, with his best years before him, he is at the head of one of Topeka’s prominent business establishments, the College Hill Bakery, located at 1509 Lane Street, an enterprise which he has built up solely through his own efforts. Mr. Jordan commenced his business career without the aiding influences afforded by the possession of financial resources and has been the builder of his own fortune. He has kept persistently at … Read more

Biography of Josiah C. Trask

Josiah C. Trask was one of the 180 victims of the terrible Quantrill raid and massacre at Lawrence, on August 21, 1863. He was a young and brilliant editor at the time of his death and few men of Kansas were more beloved. His father was a minister, who preached in Massachnsetts for many years, and he himself was born at Warren, that state, May 9, 1837. He pursued an academic course at Fitchburg, and when sixteen years of age went to Boston, where he was employed as a printer in various newspaper offices. Through his father-in-law, Joel B. Hibbard, … Read more

Biography of Charles L. Mitchell

Charles L. Mitchell is secretary and sales manager of Crane & Company of Topeka. As every one knows in that city and the state this is one of the largest publishing and stationery houses in Kansas. It may be said with propriety that Mr. Mitchell has deserved success because he has earned it. He was born at Kenosha, Wisconsin, February 12, 1873, a son of John C. and Sallie Ann (Connell) Mitchell. His father saw four years of active service in the Civil war and died in 1898, while the mother is still residing in Wisconsin. John C. Mitchell was … Read more

Biography of John MacDonald

John MacDonald of Topeka has probably done more for the cause of education in Kansas than any other one man, and in saying this no disparagement is intended for the scores of men and women who have devoted much of their lives to educational work. He may well be distinguished as a pioneer in the method of reason as applied to learning. His kindly personality has left a deep impress for good, and many who have achieved distinction in the different walks of life are indebted to him for their early training. Throughout his career he has evidently been impressed … Read more

Biography of George Bell

George Bell and members of his family have been prominently identified with various localities in Kansas for thirty-five years or more. The family now reside in Topeka. The birthplace of George Bell was Darlington, Yorkshire, England, where he was born in 1845. He grew up at Darlington, and while there he lived on an estate where Queen Victoria’s three noted grandsons came to hunt. George Bell came to know these distinguished European characters very well. They are now the Czar Nicholas of Russia, Emperor William of Germany and King George of England. George Bell in 1877 came to America, was … Read more

Biography of Leonard R. Manley

The value of a useful trade, of making one’s energy count toward one thing, of forging steadily ahead, regardless of obstaeles and discouragements, finds emphatic expression in the life of Leonard R. Manley, president and manager of the Topeka Pure Milk Company, the largest concern dealing exclusively in milk in the State of Kansas. When Mr. Manley first came to Topeka, it was in a humble capacity, but he was a thorough master of his trade, and possessed the ambition, energy and ability to better and elevate himself, so that he had shapod his abilities to his needs, had made … Read more

Biography of George Brinton Ross

George Brinton Ross is chief grain inspector of Kansas. His residence is still at Sterling and in Rice County his activities as a farmer, business man and banker have been centered for over thirty years. Mr. Ross was instrumental in securing the passage of a bill by which the office of the state grain department was removed from Topeka to Kansas City, Kansas. This had proved a wise measure, since it had enabled the grain department to perform the business which this inspection service deserves. It had increased the volume of business performed by the department, since it places all … Read more

Biography of Lewis T. Hussey

Within the limits of Kansas there is probably no better informed insurance man than Lewis T. Hussey, who is now filling the responsible position of state fire marshal at Topeka. Mr. Hussey is the only son of Jerry Hussey of Williamsburg, reference to whom is made on other pages. Born in Clermont County, Ohio, November 19, 1866, Lewis T. Hussey came with his parents to Kansas when two years old, and in his early life imbibed the spirit of Kansas prairie. His youth was spent on a farm, where he learned all the duties of a Kansas country place during … Read more

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

Biography of William Allen Sells

William Allen Sells, son of Allen Sells, was probably the most noted bare-back rider of his time. He began practicing the art when a child, and subsequently performed in every city and remote hamlet of the United States and also before the royalty of Europe. After his return from his European tour he organized and conducted a show of his own for some years. He died in New York City in 1907. In 1890 William Allen Sells married Miss Effigene Marris of Columbus, Ohio. Their only son and child is Allen William Sells, who as a boy and young man … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Frederick W. Freeman

Frederick W. Freeman, president of the Merchants National Bank of Topeka, is one of the many successful business men who served their earlier apprenticeship with the Santa Fe Railroad. However, in the case of Mr. Freeman, he left railroading before he was twenty years of age and from a clerical position in a Topeka bank rose by successive promotion until he is now head of one of the large and important banks of the state. A resident of Topeka since early boyhood, Frederick W. Freeman was born in the Town of Danville, Alabama, May 26, 1864. His father, Zenas F. … Read more

Biography of Mamir Maud (Tart) Partridge, Mrs.

Mrs. Mamir Maud (Tart) Partridge. One of the leaders in club, social and religious work in Ottawa County and in the movements which make for better education, finer citizenship and higher morals, is Mrs. Mamie Maud (Tart) Partridge, of Delphos, who had been a resident of Kansas since 1884. She is a woman whose activities have touched life on many sides, for in addition to the things above noted she had been a school teacher and a public official, and in each of the many capacities in which she had acted had been a powerful influence for good among the … Read more

Biography of Peter Heil

Peter Heil, now living retired at Topeka, was born in Jefferson County, New York, December 9, 1840. When sixteen years of age he moved with his father, John Peter Heil, to Buchanan County, Iowa. His mother’s maiden name was Louisa Bueling, and she died when her son Peter was six years old. His parents were natives of Germany, and came to the United States separately as young people, being married in New York State. When in his native state, Peter Heil attended district school for a few months, but after the removal of his people to the West his help … Read more

Biography of William A. Myers

One of the well known and highly regarded citizens of Topeka, Kansas, with which state he had been practically continuously identified since 1888, is William A. Myers, who is a leading factor in and a probable candidate of the republican forces in Shawnee County. For twenty-eight years he had been a competent and faithful employe of the State of Kansas, in the state printing department, is a man of property and of personal high standing. William A. Myers was born in 1856, in Saint Joseph County, Indiana, and is a son of Andrew and Ellen (Oliver) Myers, and a grandson … Read more

Biography of Archibald Steel Johnson

Archibald Steel Johnson, a resident of Kansas nearly forty years, has one of the very interesting places historically considered. It is located a few miles from North Topeka on rural route No. 6 in Shawnee County, and is a farm of eighty acres which he bought in 1907. The history of this farm is especially interesting. The site comprises the old historic Town of Indianola. This town was established when the Territory of Kansas was new. It was the home of a large number of abolitionists, though there were two or three pro-slavery families in the same community. When this … Read more

Biography of Howard Ross

Howard Ross, has built up a large business as a retail meat dealer in Champaign, learned his trade in that city, and by good management and by making it a point to offer the best of service and goods he is now one of the leaders in his line in the county. Mr. Ross was born near Savoy, Illinois, August 29, 1874, a son of David I. and Mary Elizabeth (Bowers) Ross. His father was born in Newburgh, New York, and his mother in Indiana. David Ross came to Champaign County about 1869. He was an active farmer here until … Read more

Biography of Chester I. Long

Definite distinction and assured prestige have been gained by Chester I. Long as one of the representative member of the Kansas bar, and his influence in public affairs had been wide and potent, as indicated by the fact that he was elected to the United States Senate from Kansas and had been a recognized leader in the councils of the republican party in the Sunflower State. He is engaged in the practice of his profession in the City of Wichita, had honored Kansas by his character and achievement, and is eminently entitled to recognition in this history. Mr. Long was … Read more

Biography of Lewis Hanback

Lewis Hanback. In the summer of 1865, soon after the close of the Civil war, in which he had played a gallant part as a Union officer, Lewis Hanback came to Topeka to practice law. For many years he was one of the eminent members of the Kansas bar, and he was not less well known and esteemed in public affairs. He was one of the makers of Kansas history during the last half century. He was born at Winchester, Scott County, Illinois, March 27, 1839. He was the oldest of the six children of William and Ann Hanback. His … 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

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