Early births in our settlement were Samuel M., son of Isaiah and Nancy J. Harris, born August 11, 1858; Frank L., son of Jehu and Mary A. Hodgson; Mary E., daughter of Samuel and Dency E. Woods: Lincoln, son of Allen and Joanna Hodgson. Early marriages as I remember them were Edward B. Murrell and …
Rev. William Baker was a well known figure in Kansas, and had a career of remarkable experience in foreign lands before taking up his residence in the Sunflower State. He lived and developed a fine farm in Wabaunsee County, but spent his last years in Topeka, where members of his family still reside. He was …
The gift of poetry, that beautiful art which is the product of the imaginative powers and fancy and bears an appeal to these powers, perhaps dumb, in others, sets a little apart its possessor from the everyday experiences of the majority. That its highest development, however, by no means interferes with life’s duties and responsibilities, …
R. T. Updegraff has been perhaps the leading individual factor in the commercial and business development of the Town of Maple Hill in Wabaunsee County for the past thirty years. Mr. Updegraff came to Kansas after completing his education, and the vigor and enterprise which characterized his early life in this state have borne abundant …
William F. Riley, is a well known banker of Topeka but he laid the foundation of his prosperity as a farmer and stock raiser in Wabaunsee County. He had been a resident of the state since 1883, and his family is one that had performed its full share of services in the development of the …
William J. Stewart, M. D. His first years in. Kansas Doctor Stewart spent in the role of a practical farmer, but since finishing his medical course had been in successful practice as a physician and surgeon at Summerfield, Marshall County. Doctor Stewart is of Scotch-Irish ancestry. His grandfather, William Stewart, was born at Strabane, Ireland, …
Thomas K. Tomson. A life of more than ordinary fruitfulness and influence came to a close with the death of Thomas K. Tomson at his home in Dover, Shawnee County, November 2, 1910. He was one of the ante-bellum settlers of Kansas. In the fifty years of his residence in the state his name became …
Joel H. Rickel. Among the citizens of Chanute, one who had had a most interesting career is Joel H. Rickel, a resident of this city since 1896, and now the owner of a carriage and repair shop and the owner of a valuable farm. Mr. Rickel is a veteran of the Civil war, and had …
Frank A. Moss. For over thirty years the name Moss had been significant of the finest integrity and ability in connection with the banking affairs of St. Marys. The First National Bank of that city is practically a product of the financial genius of the Moss family. The founder and for many years the president …
Elmer Birdell Gift, a native Kansan, spent his active years in educational work. He is now city superintendent of the public schools of Manhattan, and has been a teacher or a student in higher educational institutions continuously for the past twenty years. He was born on a farm in Smith County, Kansas, April 28, 1874, …
William Ross Phillips. During a residence in Shawnee County of more than forty-five years, William Ross Phillips had proved himself one of the ablest and most resourceful farmers in the Kaw Valley. Hard work and a sober industrious life have had their rewards in this case. There is an interesting evidence of his prosperity in …
Frederick J. Wagner, M. D. A resident of McFarland, Kansas, for about eight years, Doctor Wagner had found many responsibilities and pleasant relationships with that community, where he is a well known and capable physician, a druggist and present incumbent of the office of postmaster. Doctor Wagner is a native of Chicago, where he was …
As a result of the admission of Kansas as a free state and the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, seven of the southern states seceded and organized an army in rebellion against the United States government. April 15, 1861, President Lincoln made the first call for soldiers to put down …
Merifield Vicory. It is now almost half a century since Merifield Vicory came to Kansas and identified himself with the pioneer activities of the farm and ranch in the Sunflower State, He came to Kansas bringing with him the record of a brave and faithful soldier during the war of the Rebellion, and through his …
Lewis J. Lamar, present mayor of the Town of McFarland, is a veteran railroad man, though by no means old in point of years of life. He became self supporting at the age of sixteen, and therefore had had an active career much longer than his age would indicate. Mr. Lamar was born at Nashville, …
Louis Bodwell Burt, county clerk of Wabaunsee County, and also president of the State County Clerks’ Association, had for many years been an active figure in this county’s educational and civic affairs. He is a hard worker, is faithful and attentive to his official duties and a man whose ability and service command universal respect. …
Josiah Thomas Genn. Sixty years ago, when Kansas was a territory and the bone of contention between the slavery and anti-slavery forces, Josiah Thomas Geun arrived and homesteaded a tract of land just south of the Kansas River, not far from the Town of Wamego. In the same year that he took his homestead Pottawatomie …
When the Kansas-Nebraska Act opened up the Kansas Territory to settlement, a tide of immigration began as citizens from across the United States, and foreigners, recently arrived in the US, rushed to receive some of the prime property. Stephen J. Spear was one such settler, and this manuscript depicts his life along Dragoon Creek in Wabaunsee County, Kansas.
Stuewe Family. For thirty-four years the name Stuewe had been prominently identified with the material prosperity of Wabaunsee County. Those of the name here are all descended from Helmuth Stuewe, whose grandchildren and great-grandchildren are numerously represented in the county. John E. Stuewe was the son of Helmuth. He was a native of the Duchy …
Harvey James Loomis. During his long residence within the borders of Wabaunsee County, the late Harvey James Loomis worked out an admirable destiny, and from small beginnings drew around him for the comfort and happiness of his later years such substantial compensations as wealth, the affectionate devotion of his well established children, the eredit for …
