Winfield Kansas

Biography of Owen C. Wasson

Owen C. Wasson. Because of the success which had attended his efforts, his commercial soundness and acumen, his spirit of public helpfulness and his good citizenship, the career of Owen C. Wasson, of Peru, offers an encouraging example of prosperity and position gained through a proper utilization of ordinary opportunities. Since entering upon his independent life, numerous vocations have attracted the activities of Mr. Wasson, but he had made steady advancement in each, and is now the proprietor of a well-established hardware and implement business at Peru and one of the city’s substantial business citizens. Mr. Wasson was born on … Read more

Biography of Edna L. Johnson, Miss

Miss Edna L. Johnson. In no other field have woman’s work and influence proved such ennobling factors as in the sphere of education. The instruction and the character training of the children of Kansas are largely in the hands of devoted women, and many of the most responsible posts in the school system of the state are filled by woman teachers. The entire school system of Cowley County is under the supervision of Miss Edna L. Johnson, county superintendent of schools, and the people of the county recognize her unqualified fitness for the duties of the office. Miss Johnson was … Read more

Biography of Solomon A. Smith

Solomon A. Smith is one of the old time residents of Cowley County and he taught school to an earlier generation of children in the country districts, but for upwards of thirty years had been a successful lawyer of high standing at Winfield, and is one of the oldest members of the bar of that city. His home had been in Kansas since 1869. He was born near Salem in Marion County, Illinois, May 1, 1853. His people were among the very first settlers in Marion County, having located there very early in the nineteenth century. This branch of the … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Edwin C. Manning

Edwin C. Manning, the founder of Winfield, the organizer of the County of Cowley, one of the early editors of the state and thirty or forty years ago a republican leader of Kansas, was born in Redford, Clinton County, New York, November 7, 1838. He was educated both in Vermont and Iowa, taught school at an early age, at the age of nineteen commenced to learn the printer’s trade and in 1859, then about of age, was among the first to start for the Pike’s Peak region in search of gold. He returned a disillusioned young man, but became interested … Read more

Biography of Carroll L. Swarts

Carroll L. Swarts. During his dignified and successful career as a lawyer in Kansas, covering a period of over thirty years, Judge Swarts gained distinction by his long and capable service on the district bench and had made his profession a medium of important service to several communities in the state. His name is of German origin, but the family had been identified with America since colonial times. His ancestors were prominent people in Maryland. Judge Swarts’ grandfather, Abraham D. Swarts, was born near Abingdon, Maryland, in 1782. He married Ann Bond Carroll, of the prominent Maryland family of that … Read more

Biography of Allen Dale Hileman

Allen Dale Hileman. Belonging to that class of business men whose practical education, quick perceptions and great capacity for painstaking industry have advanced them to positions of business prominence formerly occupied only by men many years their seniors, Allen Dale Hileman, while representing the vigorous and resourceful present of Kansas, gives promise of participating in its more enlightened future, more especially at Cherryvale and in Montgomery County, where he is engaged in a well-established real estate, loan and insurance business and also connected with the Montgomery County National Bank. Allen Dale Hileman, or Dale Hileman, as he is universally known, … Read more

Biography of Edgar Ernest Brooks, M. D.

Edgar Ernest Brooks, M. D.The town and community in which he had gained note as a successful physician and surgeon is also Dr. Brooks’ birthplace. He is one of the leading members of the medical fraternity of Cowley County and had now been in practice at Burden for nine years. Dr. Brooks was born in that community August 1, 1884. He was one of a family of eleven children. This branch of the Brooks family came to America from England and were pioneers in the province of Pennsylvania. Dr. Brooks’ grandfather, John Brooks, was born about 1806. He spent the … Read more

Biography of George W. Robinson

George W. Robinson of Wichita has been a Kansan forty years. His first work in this state was as an educator at Winfield, continuing from June, 1876, to June, 1879. He soon turned to the more congenial work of a business career. The field in which his energies have found their most successful issues has been in banking, and there are a number of flourishing institutions in the state which were organized or at some time in their career have received the benefit of his excellent judgment and financial ability. Born February 20, 1855, in Piqua, Ohio, he went to … Read more

Biography of Hon. Jeremiah D. Botkin

Hon. Jeremiah D. Botkin. This distinguished citizen of Kansas was born April 24, 1849, in a log house on a farm in Logan County, Illinois. His parents were Richard and Nancy (Barr) Botkin, and his ancestry traces straight back to a Revolutionary hero. Richard Botkin was born April 24, 1822, in Clark County, Ohio, and he died at Wellington, Kansas, March 24, 1898. He was a son of George and Sarah (Hester) Botkin, the father being a native of Virginia and the son of Charles Botkin, a Revolutionary soldier from that state, and the mother a native of Ohio. Richard … 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 Levi F. Johnson

Levi F. Johnson. As it was only about sixty years ago that the first permanent settlements were made in Kansas, there are a number of the real pioneers still alive, men who can recount their experiences when the plains were covered with buffaloes, when Indians made camp along the creeks, when the prairie fires raged across the high grass, and when the woods were filled with game, the creeks with fish, and when everything was new and primitive. Now living retired at a comfortable home in Winfield Levi F. Johnson had his share in the early making of Kansas, particularly … Read more

Biography of Edward C. Gates

Edward C, Gates. It was in 1887 that Edward C. Gates was admitted to the Kansas bar and undertook to build up a reputation and practice at Fulton, where be resided until he came to Fort Scott. In Fort Scott for the past twenty years he had enjoyed a reputation among the ablest members of the Kansas bar. Until 1913 he was actively associated with A. M. Keene in the firm of Keene & Gates, and since then had pratticed alone. The law had always represented to Mr. Gates a profession rather than an occnpation, and in all his work … Read more

Biography of Frank E. Mossman, A. M., D. D.

Frank E. Mossman, A. M., D. D. One of the institutions which in thirty years of existence had sent hundreds of well-trained and efficient Christians and citizens into the life of Kansas is the Southwestern College at Winfield, of which Frank E. Mossman had been president for the past twelve years. Mr. Mossman is an educator of wide experience and thorough training and had been very valuable to Southwestern College on the administrative side. He was born at Urbana, Iowa, August 26, 1873. The Mossman family were originally Scotch, went from that country to Ireland, and Mr. Mossman’s great-grandfather immigrated … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Charles L. McMasters

Charles L. McMasters, dealer in grain, coal and seeds, and a popular young man of Tuscola, was born on a farm three miles northwest of Tuscola, in Tuscola township, March 26, 1867, and is a son of S. L. and Hannah ( Maris) Maris)McMasters, who were natives of Parke County, Indiana. In 1869 his father sold, his farm and removed to Sand Springs, Kansas, where he followed farming and stock raising until his death in Mary, 1870, after which his mother, with three children, two sons and one daughter-Charles being the younger-removed to Winfield, Cowley County, Kansas, where she resided … Read more

Biography of E. O. Smith, M. D.

E. O. Smith, M. D. A physician and surgeon in Kansas for twenty years, Dr. E. O. Smith had attained high rank as a surgeon and is now the active associate of his brother, F. R. Smith, in the practice of surgery at the Winfield Hospital, which the brothers own. A resident of Kansas since 1874, Dr. E. O. Smith was born on a farm three miles from Peru, Madison County, Iowa, January 19, 1869, a son of William and Ellen (Hollingshead) Smith. His father was a native of Kentucky, but in early life went to Illinois with his parents, … Read more

Biography of Edward P. Ray

Edward P. Ray. Fortunate is the man who finds his work in the world early in life and concentrates all his energies upon discharging his duties and responsibilities with credit and efficiency. One of this fortunate class was Edward P. Ray of Arkansas City. His father and grandfather before him were in the produce business, established one of the early concerns of that kind in Southern Michigan, and the old house is still flourishing and doing a large business at Coldwater, Michigan, today. Edward P. Ray grew up in that business atmosphere and after breaking home ties and family associations … Read more

Biographical Sketch of William Dexter Halfhill

William Dexter Halfhill, who has been a representative of the legal fraternity for a period covering forty-three years, took up his abode in Muskogee in 1904 and has here since engaged in general civil practice, in which connection he has built up a clientage of enviable proportions. He is a native of Morrow county, Ohio, and a son of Moses and Lydia (Kingman) Halfhill, the former a farmer by occupation. The public schools afforded him his early educational advantages and on attaining his majority he began teaching school. This he considered but an initial step to other professional labor; however, … Read more

Biography of Frank McClellan

Frank McClellan. After many years employed as an educator in Kansas, Frank McClellan turned his attention to business affairs at Coffeyville, and now has one of the leading offices there for insurance and loans. His birthplace was Bedford, Pennsylvania, where he was born January 21, 1860. His grandfather, Abraham McClellan, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1798, came to the United States when a young man, becoming a farmer and stock raiser in Pennsylvania. He died at Rainsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1883. On account of his service in the state militia he was familiarly known as Captain McClellan. Captain McClellan married … Read more

Biography of Charles Sumner Newlon, M.D.

Dr. Charles Sumner Newlon, who for the past fifteen years has engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery in Kansas City, Missouri, and who for many years prior to this period was a physician and surgeon of the state of Kansas, was born at Newton’s Grove, Cass county, Iowa, in 1858, a son of Dr. William Smithson and Maria (Wimp) Newlon. The ancestral line is traced back to his great-grandfather, John Newlon. The grandfather, Hiram Newlon, was born in Virginia and was a cousin of Dolly Madison, wife of the fourth president of the United States and also a … Read more

Biography of Flavius Ralls Smith, M. D.

Flavius Ralls Smith, M. D. Identified with one of the most important and exacting, as well as one of the most useful of professions, Doctor Smith had become widely known for his remarkable skill as a surgeon; and easily holds a place in the front rank of the surgeons of Kansas. Doctor Smith is one of the proprietors of the Winfield Hospital, an institution of more than local scope, since its patients come from several states and its reputation is largely due to the personal ability of Doctor Smith. He had spent most of his life in Kansas, and his … Read more