Wichita Kansas

Biography of Rev. John J. Davern

Rev. John J. Davern. The Town of Chase and a large community around that center know and appreciate Father Davern not only as a zealous priest and pastor of St. Mary’s Church but as a man indefatigable in every good cause and a leader in every movement that reflects the enlightened spirit of his community. Father Davern came to Kansas about eight years ago fresh from his studies and ordination as a priest back in Ireland. He was born in County Limerick July 24, 1883. He received his early training in the local schools and for four years took the … Read more

Biographical Sketch of J.C. O.Morse

J. C. O. Morse, who was the first superintendent of the State Reformatory at Hutchison, a former member of the State Board of Railroad Commissioners and now president of the Kansas Casualty and Surety Company of Wichita, had had a long and prominent career in Kansas. He is an able business man and the efficiency of business characterized all his public work. His name is widely known among financial and business circles, and he had attained that position after beginning life as a Kansas farmer. His home had been in Kansas since he was about thirteen years of age. He … Read more

Biography of Peter G. Kroeker

As treasurer and manager of the Cheney Mill and Flour Company, Peter G. Kroeker is one of the important men in business circles in Sedgwick County. He represents a class of people which have been a very valuable contribution to Kansan eitizenship. Mr. Kroeker was born at Cherson City in Southern Russia March 15, 1866. He was twelve years of age when in 1878 his parents came to America and located in McPherson County, Kansas, buying a half section of school land there. His father is Gerhard Kroeker who married Justina Kruger. They are still living on the farm which … Read more

Biography of William M. Jamieson

William M. Jamieson. Few of the business men of Wichita have had more varied careers than has William M. Jamieson, who, since 1910, has been engaged in the handling of large realty transactions in this city. A Scot by birth, he came to America as a lad, and during the next forty years his activities carried him to many out-of-the-way places of this continent, where he was connected with the construction of some of the largest engineering projects of the time. The broad experience and knowledge of men which he gained during this period of his life have been of … Read more

Biography of Peter Stewart Campbell

Peter Stewart Campbell came to Champaign County when he was a small boy, learned the trade in one of the shops of the county and for many years has been identified either with a newspaper establishment or with a printing shop of his own. He now has one of the principal job printing houses of Urbana. Mr. Campbell was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, April 18, 1868, a son of Archibald B. and Christina (Stewart) Campbell. He was one of seven children, named as follows: Alexander, deceased; Jennie, wife of G. L. Baker, of Champaign; Mary, widow of Robert Leslie, living … Read more

Biography of William M. Hunter, M. D.

William M. Hunter, M. D., has not only gained status as one of the representative physicians and surgeons of Kansas but has also become a widely known authority in the diagnosis and treatment of all phases of catarrh, to which department of professional work he now gives virtually his entire attention. He maintains his home and office headquarters in the City of Wichita but in his special field of practice he draws an appreciable and appreciative clientage from states far distant from Kansas. The doctor is a scion of a sterling family whose name has been identified with American annals … Read more

Biography of Thomas Azro Noftzger

Thomas Azro Noftzger had long been successfully identified with the legal profession in Kansas, and is now senior member of the firm of Noftzger & Gardner, with offices in the Beacon Building at Wichita. His partner is Mr. George Gardner. Mr. Noftzger was born November 15, 1861, in Jackson Township of Kosciusko County, Indiana. His father, Levi J. Noftzger, was born September 3, 1836, and is still living at the age of four score. The mother, Mary C. Noftzger, also living, was born September 2, 1840. Party through the liberality of his parents and partly through his own ambitious determination … Read more

Biography of J. W. Smith

The demise of J. W. Smith, which occurred at Dewey on the 27th of October, 1921, when he was sixty-seven years of age, removed from the scene of life’s activities a man who was straight-forward and reliable in business, progressive and loyal in citizenship and true to the ties of home and friendship. He was born at Franklin, Venango County, Pennsylvania, August 18, 1854, and two of his brothers, John and Will, are still living in that state, while another brother, Wesley, a veteran of the Civil war, is residing in Iowa. In 1907 Mr. Smith came to Oklahoma, establishing … Read more

Biography of Andrew C. Jobes

Andrew C. Jobes. Though vice president of the First National Bank of Kansas City, Missouri, Mr. Jobes still had his home in Kansas and had been a resident of the state for thirty-two years. Throughout that time he had been an active factor in banking, and made his reputation which preceded him to the metropolitan district of Kansas City at Wichita, where he assisted in building up one of the largest and strongest banks of Southern Kansas. Like many men who have gained prominence in the financial world Mr. Jobes was born in a home of comparative poverty, and was … Read more

Biography of J. M. Massey

J. M. Massey. One of the live and prosperous communities of Southeastern Kansas which is offering unsurpassed opportunities for the development of men and large business interests is the growing City of Chanute. In this locality may be found many of the raw materials, or they can be easily obtained through railroad shipments. Here is an immense local market, and here are the men, solid, reliable and aggressive, ready and willing to push ahead to the ultimate end whatever enterprise they connect themselves with. Once an individual establishes himself in the line for which he is best fitted, if he … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Charles A. Baker

Charles A. Baker of Wichita lacked only three or four months of being a native son of Kansas. He has spent practically his entire career in this state, and by close attention to his business as a plumber has built up one of the leading establishments at Wichita, and his business is registered under the state laws. He was born at Rio, Wisconsin, June 30, 1870, and it was in September of the same year that his parents moved to Arkansas City, Kansas. After a public school education, gained in Wichita, he began an apprenticeship at the plumbing trade, 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 J. Edward Cook

J. Edward Cook. Judicious and legitimate has been the advertising policy that has been utilized in the exploitation of the King Ni-Ko system for the cure of the tobacco habit, and the basis of this advertising has been proved efficacy and definite results. The system of treatment accomplishes all that is claimed for it and this fact constitutes the best of the commercial assets on which has been developed the extensive and beneficent business enterprise of which the popular and progressive proprietor is the well known citizen of Wichita whose name initiates this paragraph. Mr. Cook was born in Keokuk … Read more

Biography of William T. Buckner, Hon.

Hon. William T. Buckner of Wichita was born at Washington Court House, Ohio, January 2, 1846, and secured his early education in the public schools. He was still a lad in his early ‘teens when the Civil war came on, but succeeded in enlisting as a private in Company I, Seventy-third Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which he was in almost constant service at the front. His enlistment had been for three years, but the hard life of the army broke down the young soldier’s health and after two years he was given his honorable discharge because of disability and … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Benjamin Parmely

Parmely, Benjamin; lawyer; born, Ashland, O., Oct. 9, 1869; son of M. B. and Elizabeth Porter Parmley; early education in the public schools of Dayton; two years in Garfield University, Wichita, Kan., LL. B. University of Michigan, 1892; married, Columbus, O., Nov. 16, 1904, Miss Mary E. Tolford; issue, one daughter, Elizabeth; admitted to the bar in 1893, one and one-half years atty. for the Fidelity & Casualty Co., then practiced in the firm of Estep, Dickey, Carr & Goff; later with Kline, Carr, Tolles & Goff; in 1896, organized the law firm of Wilcox, Collister, Hogan & Parmely; in … Read more

Biography of T. J. V. Clark

T.J.V. CLARK. – Mr. Clark, a portrait of whom will be found within these pages, is a man substantial and popular, greatly given to building up the city of his residence, and always inventing ways and means of increasing the quantity and variety of products in the surrounding country. Yakima county owes much to him for the introduction of the new grains and new machinery; and not only has he brought there improved products and methods to the notice of the farmers, but has paid them for their crops, thus giving them substantial encouragement. He is the true merchant, whose … Read more

Biography of Henry Carl Alwes

Henry Carl Alwes is manager of the Western Typesetting Company and president of the Gate City Directory Company of Kansas City, Missouri. He organized the latter company in 1911 and from the beginning had been its manager. Mr. Alwes had conquered obstacles in the path to success as he had met them. He is a man of versatile talents. He is a practical printer, is a pharmacist by profession, had filled offices of responsibility as editor and newspaper manager, linotype operator, and in other ways in connection with some of the best known newspapers of Kansas, Chicago and the Middle … Read more

Biography of Oliver Morton Williams

Oliver Morton Williams, one of the younger citizens of Kansas, has played his part efficiently as a teacher and business man, and is now manager and part owner of the Coffeyville Business College. This college is an institution noted for its thorough work in training young men and women for responsible positions in commercial affairs. A native of Kansas, Mr. Williams was born at Oak Valley, October 24, 1887. Several generations back his ancestors were living in Wales, and after coming to the United States settled perhaps first in New York, and afterwards went to Maryland. The great-great-grandfather’s name was … Read more

Biographical Sketch of F. C. Hoyt

F. C. Hoyt. As a banker in Oklahoma and Southern Kansas F. C. Hoyt is widely known and his financial ability united with his conservative judgment has placed him in the front rank of bankers in the two states. He is now a resident of Wichita and president of the Union State Bank of that city. Though born in Keokuk County, Iowa, in 1873, Mr. Hoyt was brought by his parents in 1876 to Portis, Osborne County, Kansas, and thus grew up to imbibe the spirit and atmosphere of Kansas life. His education came partly from public schools and partly … Read more

Biography of Mrs. Kate M. Dilley

Mrs. Kate M. Dilley. The able and honored proprietor of the Dilley Sanitarium, in the City of Wichita, has proved herself one of the vigorous and resourceful business women of the Sunflower State and by the establishing and maintaining of her excellent sanitarium she has made a noble contribution to the list of valuable medical institutions in the City of Wichita. Mrs. Dilley was born in Manchester, England. When she was a child of two years her parents removed to Cape Town, South Africa, and in that far distant land Mrs. Dilley passed the period of her girlhood and early … Read more