Wichita Kansas

Biography of William Henry Von der Heiden

William Henry Von der Heiden has been a resident of Newton, Kansas, forty years, and had been enrolled among the leading attorneys of Harvey County since 1889. He was born at Shullsburg, Lafayette County, Wisconsin, January 11, 1869, a son of H. D. Von der Heiden, who was born at Burbach, Germany, in 1834, who was reared in his native village, came to the United States in 1854, was engaged in the mining industry in Lafayette County, Wisconsin, was married there, and in 1861 volunteered his services for the defense of the union of his adopted land, enlisting in Company … 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 Kate L. Cowick

Miss Kate L. Cowick, now serving her second term as county treasurer of Wyandotte County, probably had the most responsible office of any woman in Kansas. She had the business efficiency needed in the administration of such an office. She is thoroughly trained in the public service, having for many years been a teacher and administrative official of schools, and her work as county treasurer had given her not a little of justly earned fame among the women of Kansas. Miss Cowick is a native of Missouri, born at Tarkio in Atchison County on February 8, 1885. She was the … 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 Emil Kuder, M. D.

Dr. Emil Kuder (b. 1851, Stuttgart, Germany) was a distinguished physician and surgeon who practiced in Kansas for over thirty years. Educated at Tübingen University, he graduated in 1876 with a top medical degree after a rigorous seven-year program. He served in the Franco-Prussian War before moving to the United States in 1879, where he practiced in Pennsylvania before settling in Kansas in 1883. Dr. Kuder was highly respected in Coffeyville, where he established a successful practice. He was married to Elizabeth Wagner in 1881 and had six children. His contributions to medicine and community life were widely recognized.

Biography of Clayton A. Swiggett

Clayton A. Swiggett is a mechanical engineer both by college diploma and by long and practical experience gained in many localities and in many positions. He is now superintendent of the Western States Portland Cement Company at Independence, and is contributing his ability towards the making of that one of the great industries of Kansas. The Western States Portland Cement plant began operations at Independence in 1905, and from time to time it has been enlarged and improved until its annual capacity is now a million barrels. About 250 men are employed and the pay roll is one of the … Read more

Biography of Frank Geoffroy

Frank Geoffroy, who is a successful commission and grain merchant at Abilene, is a native of Kansas, and he and his people have been identified with this state since early pioneer days. Kansas was a territory and was known throughout the country as”bleeding Kansas” when his father and grandparents came and located as pioneers in Franklin County in 1855. His father, Ernest Geoffroy, was born near Metz, France, September 7, 1841, and was brought to America in 1849. The grandparents lived on a farm in Iowa for a few years, but in 1855 came out to Kansas and began their … 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 Walter S. Ezell

Walter S. Ezell. Contributing to the prestige of the City of Wichita as an educational center are a number of well ordered business and technical institutions, and prominent among the number is the Wichita Telegraph College, which was founded in the spring of 1912 by its present owner and manager, Walter S. Ezell, who as a mere boy had manifested a distinct predilection for the art of telegraphy and who contrived to pass much of his time in the telegraph office of the railway station of which his father was agent in the City of Memphis, Tennessee. As an expert … Read more

Biography of Clyde Magill, Dr.

One of the younger members of the medical profession in Sedgwick County, Dr. Clyde Magill had found his work at Clearwater, not far from his birthplace, and in the past four years had enjoyed a rapidly accumulating practice and is accounted one of the ablest doctors in that vicinity. He was born on a farm twelve miles east of Wichita December 6, 1887. His father, Silas Magill, is an old settler of Sedgwick County, having come to Kansas from Illinois, in 1871, and taking up a homestead in Sedgwick County. In the years that followed he proved one of the … Read more

Biography of Raymond C. Clapp, M. D.

Raymond C. Clapp, M. D. A young man who availed himself of the best of modern facilities and scientific advantages in preparing himself for his exacting profession, Doctor Clapp has won assured status as one of the representative physicians and surgeons engaged in practice in the City of Wichita, where his success has been on a parity with his unqualified personal popularity. Doctor Clapp was born at Lebanon, Virginia, on the 26th of September, 1880, and in the schools of his native place he continued his studies until his graduation in the high school. He then had the privilege of … 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 Frank S. Porter

This representative business man of the City of Wichita was about twenty years of age when he accompanied his parents on their removal to Kansas, and he had since continued his residence within the borders of the Sunflower State, where he had been long and prominently identified with the retail drug business, of which he is now a leading representative in the City of Wichita, his attractive drug store, metropolitan in equipment and appointments, being eligibly situated on East Douglas Avenue, in the College Hill District of the city. Frank S. Porter was born in the Village of Rushsylvania, Logan … 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 Edward Staton Hymer M. D.

Edward Staton Hymer, M. D. A physician and surgeon of most thorough qualifications, whose work had brought a large practice and a rising reputation, Doctor Hymer had spent his professional career chiefly at Sedgwick. A resident of Kansas most of his life, Doctor Hymer was born at Albany, Missouri, November 6, 1883. His remote ancestors came from Germany. His father is E. R. Hymer, who was born in Illinois in 1852, grew up in that state, and at an early day came to Kansas and located at Centralia. After several years he removed to Missouri, but in 1884 was back … 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 William Q. Elliott

William Q. Elliott, who joined the pioneers of Rice County in the early ’70s, had been one of the conspicuous men in that section of the state for many years. His sturdy energy as a farmer brought him liberal rewards, and he had used his means and influence to do good in many directions. He sent a large family of children into the honorable walks of life, had stanchly upheld the forces of religion and morality in his home community and state, and at the age of fourscore his usefulness still continues, especially manifesting itself in his official work with … 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 Chester Adelbert Latham

A member of the bar of Wichita, Chester A. Latham is now established in a good practice as patent attorney in that city, and represents one of the early Kansas families. The Lathams have lived in the Sunflower State nearly half a century. Though brought to Kansas in early childhood, Chester Adelbert Latham was born in Adrian, Michigan, December 19, 1861. He obtained his early education while living on the farm near Wichita, and also attended the Wichita High School and for three years was a student in the Kansas State Agricultural College. Mr. Latham had had a varied business … Read more