Wyandotte County KS

Biography of Desire Debacker

Desire Debacker. The greatest sources of productive wealth along the Kaw River are the market gardens and fruit orchards. This is an industry which has developed to high proportions in Kansas, and as everyone knows is a business where hard work, careful management, and thorough planning are prerequisites of success. Perhaps no family has made a better record in this field and has shown more of these essentials than that of Debacker, one of whose representatives is named above. The Debackers are Belgian people. Desire Debacker was born near Brussels in Belgium in 1874. His father was the late John … Read more

Biography of William Christopher, Hanson D.D.

William Christopher Hanson, D. D. For a quarter of a century steadily engaged in the work of the ministry in Kansas, Doctor Hanson had filled many important posts of responsibility with the Methodist Episcopal Church and is now superintendent of the Kansas City District of the Kansas Conference. He is a native of Chicago, where he was born October 18, 1866, a son of Louis Christopher and Carolina Christiana (Johnson) Hanson. His father was a Norwegian and his mother a native of Sweden. Both are now deceased and for many years they conducted a successful hotel business at Scandia, Kansas. … Read more

Biography of Walter Roscoe Stubbs

Walter Roscoe Stubbs. The distinctive features of the service rendered by Mr. Stubbs as governor of Kansas from 1908 to 1912 had been described on other pages of this history. A few other details as to his work as governor and something as to his personality and career will be of wide interest to the citizens of Kansas. Everyone knows former Governor Stubbs as a man of wonderful business ability and of absolute integrity. It is only natural that the resources of personal character should be partly explained at least by reference to ancestry. When it is explained that Governor … Read more

Biography of Holmes Dysinger, Rev.

Rev. Holmes Dysinger has for the past twelve years been connected with the Western Theological Seminary of the Lutheran Church at Atchison, and since 1910 had been dean of the seminary. He had spent more than thirty years in the work of the church as a minister and as an educator, and had been connected with prominent schools and pastorates in nearly all parts of the country. Mr. Dysinger is of an old Pennsylvania family and was born at Mifflin, that state, March 26, 1853. The Dysingers’ original home was in Southern Germany. They came across the ocean and settled … Read more

McNulty, Viola Margaret “Vi” Devine Mrs. – Obituary

Viola Margaret “Vi” Devine McNulty, 96, died Aug. 8, 2005, at the Siuslaw Care Center in Florence. A private family graveside service was held in honor of Viola on Aug. 18 at Eagle Valley Cemetery in Richland. A rosary and Mass for the repose of the soul of Viola were offered at the St. Therese Catholic Church in Halfway. Vi Devine was born on Nov. 13, 1908, in Oklahoma to Herbert and Ida Cecilia Stroud Devine. At birth Vi weighed less than three pounds. Stories passed down from family indicate that her tiny head would fit in a teacup and … Read more

Biography of Arthur W. Bronson

For the past seventeen years a resident of Topeka, Mr. Bronson has been a considerable factor in the material prosperity of the state, particularly in connection with the agricultural interests. As resident agent for a firm of foreign capitalists, he has been instrumental during his time in handling and distributing over $25,000,000 cash to the land owners and farmers of Kansas and adjoining states, and he is perhaps as well informed as any man in the state on the subject of agricultural credit, land values and farming interests from the financial standpoint. A native of Herkimer County, New York, where … Read more

Biography of Peter J. Broll

Peter J. Broll. Of the successful business men of Kansas City, Kansas, perhaps none began life with fewer opportunities and under more unpromising circumstances than Peter J. Broll. The education which most boys secure while living in comfortable homes and attending schools with nothing else to divert their minds was denied him and he obtained his education largely by direct contact with the world and those processes of intelligent thought which are quickened by a live mind and a fundamental interest in the life about him. A humble clerkship was his first opportunity of experience, and gradually, being of a … Read more

Biography of Lawrence Pembroke Browne

Lawrence Pembroke Browne, father of Evan H., was born in Pennsylvania and his wife in Ohio. He came to Kansas City, Missouri, as a clerk for the firm of Northrop & Chick, one of the few business houses of any importance at that time, and later, in partnership with W. H. Chick, who yet survives, became the owner of the business. In 1884 this business, general merchandise, was incorporated by the Browne family, the Chick interests being then eliminated. Until the time of his death, in 1893, Lawrence Pembroke Browne continued at the head of this business, which was largely … Read more

Biography of Walter J. Arnold

Walter J. Arnold. The county engineer of Shawnee County, Walter J. Arnold has led an active and diversified career, and although not yet forty-one years of age has crowded into his life more experiences than the ordinary man sees in an entire lifetime. From gold mining in Colorado to chasing the insurgents in the Philippines is a long call, but unlike many men whose activities have led them to out-of-the-way-places, Mr. Arnold has been constantly advancing, and each new experience, each new employment, has brought him a little bit further ahead toward the goal of success. In his present capacity, … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Henry McGrew

Henry McGrew, a son of the late Governor James McGrew and his wife Mary (Doggett) McGrew, has spent practically all his life in Kansas City, Kansas, was formerly prominent as a member of the bar of that city, and is still one of the leading business men. He was born at Lancaster, Keokuk County, Iowa, April 18, 1857, the same year that his father came as a pioneer to Wyandotte, Kansas. He grew up at Wyandotte, attended the public schools, and had all the advantages that a young man of ambition would crave as a preparation for a career. Determining … Read more

Biography of John S. Horner

The esteemed gentleman, whose name initiates this paragraph, is one of the substantial and enterprising agriculturists of Wallowa County, having wrought here with commendable zeal and sagacity for its development and material progress since he has been domiciled within its borders, and his faithfulness and ability have well earned for him the high esteem in which he is held among his fellows, and the prestige which he enjoys as well as the leading position in many ways is merited. John S. was born in Illinois on February 11, 1839, being the son of John and Sarah (Seymore) Horner, natives respectively … Read more

Biography of Benjamin Richmond

Benjamin Richmond is head of the B. Richmond Department Store at 635-637 Osage Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas. One of the leading merchants of this city since 1901, his is a record of success in every way unusual and most creditable. He came to America without capital and at one time worked for very low wages. He comes of a high class and cultured Jewish family. He was born in Russia September 15, 1874, one of the four children still living whose parents were Rev. Moses and Bessie Richmond, who were also natives of Russia. Rev. Moses Richmond was a … Read more

Biography of George Rushton

George Rushton. The George Rushton Baking Company, Incorporated, at Rosedale, is the largest concern of its kind in the State of Kansas. Every day its ovens turn out 20,000 loaves of high class bread, sold and consumed principally in the two Kansas cities, while the weekly capacity of the pie plant is 75,000 pies. It is the only pie baking plant on a large scale in the two cities. Baking had been a trade in the Rushton family for so many generations back that no record had been kept of the originator of the business. The president and founder of … Read more

Biography of Harry A. Mendenhall

Harry A. Mendenhall. Though his home is in the largest city of Kansas, Harry A. Mendenhall’s business and civic activities have been such as to constitute him one of the best known men of Kansas City, Kansas. For nearly thirty years he had given his best time and energy to the building up of an organization and equipment for the efficient handling of local traffic and freight in the transfer line, he is a former sheriff of Wyandotte County, and is also prominent as a banker. He was born January 11, 1865, on a farm at the edge of the … Read more

Biograph of M. D. Jasper William Hayward

Jasper William Hayward, M. D. Since he earned his privilege of practicing medicine in 1909, Doctor Hayward has become increasingly well known as a physician and surgeon in Kansas City, Kansas. Aside from his attainments professionally much interest attaches to his career because of the valiant struggle he made as a youth to secure an education and win a position in a learned profession against heavy odds. Doctor Hayward was born in Kingman, Kansas, April 3, 1885, a son of Charles and Kate (Weir) Hayward. His father was a native of Boston, Massachusetts, of English descent, was reared in Boston, … Read more

Biography of Edwin Ruthven Heath

Edwin Ruthven Heath, a prominent physician and specialist of Kansas City, Kansas, had a record among Kansas citizens that is unique. As a boy he knew the terrors, excitements and thrilling incidents of life in California following the discovery of gold in ’49. As a traveler both in North and South America he had contributed a part of the world’s knowledge of geography, peoples and science. He spent twelve years in South America, practiced medicine in remote construction camps and among wild and semi-barbarous tribes, and he helped build some of the pioneer railways of that continent. To as great … Read more

Biography of Stephen A. Miller

Since the death of Chief Journeycake, Stephen A. Miller, a well known farmer and oil man of Nowata county, has been acting chief of the Delawares. He is now residing on his farm, three-quarters of a mile south of Delaware. A native of Kansas, he was born in Wyandotte county, on the 27th of September, 1863, a son of Andrew and Sallie (Hill) Miller. His father was born in White River, Ohio, and was one of the first settlers in Kansas. He came to Indian Territory with the first Delawares, to which tribe he belonged, and locating at Coodys Bluff, … Read more

Biography of Miss Isa Allene Greene

Miss Isa Allene Greene grew up in Bourbon County, Kansas, and in that section taught her first school. Through her work she had become one of Kansas’ noted educators. She had proved herself a real teacher. She possesses the ability, rare as it is in any time or generation and rare even in these modern times when so much emphasis is placed upon it, of vitalizing and inspiring the intellectual activities of those under her charge, and all her work had been characterized by a depth of sympathy and understanding which is more necessary in any rational scheme of education … Read more

Biography of Nathan L. Hollowell

Nathan L. Hollowell is grand keeper of records and seals for the Knights of Pythias of the State of Kansas. He had his offices in the Husted Building at Kansas City, Kansas, and had been a resident of that city for several years. The office is an elective one and for an annual term. Mr. Hollowell became grand keeper May 15, 1910, and had been re-elected every year since then. He had long been prominent in the Knights of Pythias order and became active in the fraternity while living in Indiana. In that state he was a member of the … Read more

Biography of Charles William Trickett

Charles William Trickett. That Kansas City, Kansas, can claim distinction of being the largest city in the United States without a saloon or commercialized vice district is due more to the fearless and strenuous efforts of Charles William Trickett than to any other one man. The people of an entire state committed to the cause of prohibition followed with a great deal of interest and admiration his remarkable campaign, made some years ago while assistant attorney general, for rigid law enforcement and the driving out of the saloons and other commercialized forms of vice which had hitherto enjoyed immunity in … Read more