Woodson County KS

Biography of Calvin Arthur Davis

Calvin Arthur Davis. The superintendent of the Cudahy Refining Company at Chanute, Kansas, Calvin Arthur Davis, is one of the sons of the Sunflower state who has worked his own way to position and independence. A product of the farm, when he started upon his career his equipment consisted of ambition, determination and good common sense, and these qualities he directed so well that he soon became recognized as a man from whom large things could be expected. Promotion naturally followed, and his career has since been one of constant advancement. Mr. Davis was born on a farm south of … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Samuel E. Hoffman

Samuel E. Hoffman was born in Pennsylvania about 1835. He came to Kansas from Iowa, locating in Neosho Falls, Woodson County, in 1858, being the first lawyer in that section of the state. Mr. Hoffman was prominent in the early stages of statehood, being a member of the Wyandotte constitutional convention of 1859 and of the first State Senate in 1861. He was also one of the agents appointed to select lands granted to the state by the general government in 1861-62. The later years of his life were spent in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was engaged in banking.

Biography of Harry O. Ashley

Harry O. Ashley. The Ashley family had been identified with Woodson County since 1877, a period of forty years. The name had been closely associated with business and professional affairs here ever since, and Harry O. Ashley, son of the founder of the family, is now serving as county surveyor and is also city engineer of Yates Center. The Ashleys are English people and for many years their home was at Frodsham, near Cheshire. The grandfather of Harry O. Ashley was Henry Ashley, Sr., who spent all his life in Liverpool and was an attorney by profession. Henry Ashley, Jr., … Read more

Biography of Elmer Eugene Kelley

E. E. Kelley during his thirty years of residence in Kansas had played a varied and honorable part in affairs, as an educator, farmer, and, in more recent years, as editor and publisher. He is now head of the Toronto Republican and a former president of the Kansas State Editorial Association. Taken in connection with what he had accomplished himself in life, Mr. Kelley may take a reasonable degree of pride in his American ancestry. The Kelley family goes back to Ireland. While the population of America was still straggling along the Atlantic coast in thirteen colonies, James Kelley emigrated … Read more

Biography of Louis N. B. Anderson

Fortunate is the man who has back of him an ancestry honorable and distinguished, and happy is he whose lines of life are cast in harmony therewith. In person, in character and talents, Mr. Anderson is a worthy scion of his race. Though his life has been one rather of modest reserve than of ambitious self-seeking, he has shown himself a peer of the brightest men of his adopted state, and his mental talents led to his selection for the important position of superintendent of public instruction of Idaho for the years 1897 and 1898, in which capacity he served … Read more

Biography of Anton Diebolt, Jr.

Anton Diebolt, Jr., cashier of the Piqua State Bank in Woodson County, is one of the younger bankers of Kansas and had studied and practiced banking with a varied experience in different institutions ever since reaching manhood. He is a native of Kansas and represents a family that have had an important share in business and financial circles. He was born in Atchison County, Kansas, October 10, 1885, a son of Anton Diebolt, Sr., and a grandson of Joseph Diebolt. The Diebolt family in the earlier generations lived in the Province of Alsace, on the border between the French and … Read more

Biography of James T. Cooper

James T. Cooper, a lawyer, banker and widely known citizen of Fredonia, was born in Woodson, but then Wilson, County, Kansas, August 30, 1866, and represents a family that came to Kansas while it was a territory. The ancestry of Mr. Cooper is particularly interesting. He is descended from that Sir Ashley Cooper, the Earl of Shaftsbury, who founded a colony on the Ashley River in North Carolina, and from that settlement the family name had become widely dispersed. It may be of interest to recall the fact that the noted John Locke, the great English philosopher, prepared a model … Read more

Biography of John Pellegrino

John Pellegrino. Among the men of high merit that the State of Kansas has called to responsible position, is John Pellegrino, of Pittsburg, Kansas, state mine inspector. From the age of fifteen years to the present, Mr. Pellegrino has been identified with mines and mining, with the exception of two years, during which interval he served faithfully as a United States soldier in the Philippine Islands. He has had a wide field of experience, and by hard, practical work in the mines and by persistent study in different institutions of learning, he has thoroughly qualified himself for the important post … Read more

Biography of George Washington Smith

George Washington Smith. On first coming to Kansas thirty-three years ago Mr. Smith engaged in educational work, and was at the head of several city school systems for a number of years. He finally entered business at Lawrence, living in that city while his own children were finishing their educations, and in recent years had resumed teaching and is now superintendent of the city schools of Neosho Falls. He is one of the most widely experienced and competent school men in Kansas. He was born at Knoxville in Marion County, Iowa, May 25, 1860. His paternal ancestors came out of … Read more

Biography of William Edward Hogueland

William Edward Hogueland, who had lived in Kansas since 1869, had the unusual distinction of being admitted to the bar when he was nineteen years of age and had been in active practice at Yates Center for the past thirty-six years. He had been elected to a county office just about the time he attained his twenty-first birthday, and having established his home at the county seat while in office he had remained there in the practice of law. Mr. Hogueland’s ancestors came out of Holland in very early times. There were three brothers, one settling in New York, one … Read more

Biography of Augustus G. Dickinson

A. G. Dickinson is one of the leading business men of Humboldt, Kansas, and head of the Dickinson Hay & Grain Company, and for years had been vitally interested in the welfare and progress of this section of the state. Mr. Dickinson is a native of Allen County, Kansas. It will be appropriate in this connection to trace the movements of the family briefly from their point of origin to this middle western state. The Dickinsons were English people. In the early colonial days three brothers set out for America. One of them went to Nova Scotia, one to New … Read more

Biography of William Martin Ladd

William Martin Ladd. Prominent among the younger Government officials of Montgomey County, Kansas, is William Martin Ladd, who is capably discharging the duties of postmaster of the thriving little City of Dearing. Mr. Ladd had as training for his official services an experience in banking, and having attained his position by virtue of successful participation in a civil service examination, is handling the affairs of the mail service in an entirely acceptable manner. He is a native son of Kansas and was born at Vernon, Woodson County. October 4, 1891, his parents being Ira W. and Mine L. (Martin) Ladd. … Read more

Biography of Asa Knowles Talbot

Asa Knowles Talbot. It is no small distinction in the business world to create and build up a business which is generally recognized as the leader of its kind in a city or county. That is the place occupied by the A. K. Talbot Harness and Manufacturing Company at Coffeyville. It is the leading concern in the handling of harness and other goods in Montgomery County, and Mr. Talbot has also developed a factory for the manufacture of leather novelties and is at the head of a very successful concern. While he has spent nearly all his life in Kansas, … Read more

Biography of William Carroll

William Carroll. One of the most popular members of the county government of Woodson County is William Carroll, who had recently finished his second term as sheriff. Mr. Carroll had spent all his life since infancy in this section of Kansas, belongs to a family of pioneers of Woodson County, and his own career had been one of hard work and exceptional fidelity to every interest committed to his care. He was born in Kane County, Illinois, November 2, 1868, but was brought to Kansas when about two years of age. His father, Michael Carroll, was born in Southern Ireland … Read more