Wichita Kansas

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 F. C. Amsbary

F. C. Amsbary, superintendent and manager of the Champaign Waterworks, has been superintending waterworks plants in different parts of the country for upwards of thirty years. It has in fact been his regular profession, though some of his younger years were devoted to railroading. Mr. Amsbary has numerous connections that identify him with the substantial interests of his home city. A native of Illinois, he was born at Pekin, January 24, 1863, a son of William Wallace and Harriet E. (Harlow) Amsbary, both of whom are natives of New York State. William W. Amsbary moved to Champaign in 1907, and … 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

Mankins, Jeremiah Paul Lee – Obituary

Jeremiah Paul Lee Mankins, 29, a former Baker City resident, died Nov. 8, 2008, at Joplin, Mo., after a short battle with cancer. His memorial service was Nov. 12 at Miami, Okla. There will be a celebration of his life in Baker City at 3 p.m. Dec. 13 at the Harvest Church, 3720 Birch St. Jeremiah was born on July 10, 1979, at Wichita, Kan., to John and Tami Mankins. He moved to Oregon with his parents in April 1980. Jeremiah attended Brooklyn School and then Baker Valley Christian Academy. He was very active in the Royal Rangers club while … Read more

Biography of J. F. Daniel

J. F. Daniel. He whose name initiates this paragraph is known and valued as one of the progressive business men and public-spirited citizens of Wichita, in which city he is vice president and general manager of the Daniel Shoe Company, which is destined to represent one of the most important industrial enterprises of commercial value to this thriving city. Mr. Daniel was born at Belton, Arkansas, and in the public schools of that place and Arkadelphia, Arkansas, he acquired his preliminary educational discipline. At the Baptist College in the latter place he pursued a higher academic course of study, also … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Elmer Ellsworth Enoch

Elmer Ellsworth Enoch began practicing law at Wichita when that city was still on the southwestern frontier, and within the range of his own observation he had witnessed history in its making in that part of the state. His home had been in Wichita upwards of thirty years, and his reputation as an able lawyer had become widely extended. He was born in Morristown, Belmont County, Ohio. February 10, 1864, and was liberally educated in preparation for his professional career. After the public schools he entered Franklin College in his native state, where he was graduated A. B. in 1885. … Read more

Biography of Robert E. Lawrence

Robert E. Lawrence was one of the pioneers and one of the important upbuilders of the City of Wichita. The land he pre-empted from the Government and used for farming and stock raising purposes many years is now included within the city limits, and much of it is built over with residences, business houses and institutions. By strenuous effort and much self denial in early days, he acquired a liberal prosperity, but dispensed it liberally and left his impress on much of the city’s progress. He was of New England birth and ancestry, and was born at Canaan, Connecticut, December … 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

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 Hiram W. Lewis, Col.

Col. Hiram W. Lewis. In many important ways the city of Wichita expresses the life, ideals, and activities of the late Col. Hiram W. Lewis. In his time he was undoubtedly one of the most forceful figures and one of the ablest business men and citizens in the State of Kansas. When he came to Wichita about 1875 he had already acquitted himself with credit both as a soldier in the Civil war and as a business man. Born near Warren, Ohio, he lived in Ohio during his youth and on May 25, 1863, enlisted in Company E of the … Read more

Biographical Sketch of George A. Greene

George A. Greene, M. D. One of the most widely known physicians of Kansas is Dr. George A. Greene, of Wichita, proprietor of Greene’s Pathological Laboratory for cancer research. He is a physician of wide experience and learning, and has been in practice in Kansas for the last fifteen years. Few men enter the medical profession with a better equipment than Doctor Greene. In his early career he was a teacher, later studied law, but never practiced it, and laid a very scholarly foundation to his work in the medical field. He was born in Jackson County, West Virginia. After … 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 Robert Orin Deming

Robert Orin Deming, president of The Deming Investment Company at Oswego, is at the head of one of the largest financial institutions in the Southwest. The Deming Investment Company, which has been built up on a basis of fair dealing continued through a period of more than thirty years, now has branch offices in nearly a dozen of the larger cities of the Middle West, and at the present time has over $15,000,000 of farm loans in force, out of some $35,000,000 loaned in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas and Mississippi. The company has been a bulwark of security for … Read more

Biography of Fred Burris

Fred Burris of Wichita is county poor commissioner of Sedgwick County. He has been a resident of that city ten years, and previously had acquired an extensive acquaintance in Kansas as a traveling salesman. Something more than passing mention should be made of his administration as county poor commissioner. He has introduced new methods and system and has given distinction to his method of handling the routine cases which come under his jurisdiction. For many years he has taken a deep interest in charity work and in his trips to other cities and other states has observed how the problems … Read more

Biography of Lucetta S. Carter, Mrs.

Mrs. Lucetta S. Carter. Political struggle, public life and social leadership have brought the names of many women in the last quarter of a century into the limelight in the country, but it is not so frequently that the name of one becomes a household word in her state, through the activities and results of a quiet business career. Such a name is Lucetta S. Carter, philanthropist, through whose generous benefactions Wichita had benefited through the Children’s Home, the First Unitarian Church and Fairmount College. To this womanly duty of enriching others, she brought no inherited fortune; on the other … Read more

Biography of Charles W. Harvey

Charles W. Harvey is one of the veteran business men and residents of El Dorado, and in recent years had been a leader in the oil development work of Butler County and that vicinity, and had shared in the prosperity that had attended the development of these resources. Mr. Harvey was born in Appanoose County, Iowa, May 10, 1868. His father, Elijah E. Harvey, was a pioneer Kansan and a man of great usefulness both as a minister of the Gospel and citizen. He was of English descent, and some of his forefathers fought in the Revolutionary war. A distant … Read more

Biography of Elisha H. Rollins

Elisha H. Rollins, partner of Mr. Ireland in the proprietorship of the Ireland & Rollins Planing Mills Company, and one of the progressive and energetic business men of Fort Scott, was born March 15, 1859, on Prince Edward Island, a son of John and Mary (Harker) Rollins, natives of that place, who passed their entire lives there in agricultural pursuits. The father died in 1909, at the age of seventy-five years, while the mother passed away many years before, being forty-seven years old at the time of her demise. The fourth in a family of nine children, Elisha H. Rollins … Read more

Biography of William Henry Craddock

William Henry Craddock. As the greatest calamity ever suffered by Kansas City, Kansas, was probably the flood of 1903, that year will always be memorable in the city’s history. Another event associated with that year was the death of William Henry Craddock, who had just completed a service of two years in the office of mayor. Mr. Craddock was stricken on March 2, 1903, and his death occurred on the 4th of the same month at the Savoy Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri. He was mourned by the entire city, and never any similar occasion in the city had brought … Read more

Biography of James R. Mead

James R. Mead, one of the founders of Wichita and one of the noted pioneers of Kansas, was a Vermonter, born May 3, 1836, and at an early age showed his love for out-of-doors life. During his school days he read and dreamed of the Great American Desert, and in the fall of 1859 started for the plains. For four years he traded with the various Indian tribes in the present State of Kansas, hunted buffaloes and finally established a post on the Salina River, about twenty miles from its mouth. In 1861 he contracted his first marriage, and two … Read more

Biography of Joseph Newton Allen

Extensively interested in farming and also identified with the oil industry of the southwest, Joseph Newton Allen has made for himself an enviable place as a business man in Muskogee. Born on the 7th of February, 1868, in Greencastle, Indiana, he comes of Scotch-Irish ancestry, through a line of Virginia and Kentucky pioneers, being the eighth son of a seventh son and the seventeenth child in a family of eighteen children. His early education was acquired in the public schools of Greencastle, which is the seat of DePauw University, formerly known as Asbury University. When his public school course was … Read more