Biography of William Hunter McKenzie

William Hunter McKenzie has found his work in the business administration of gas companies, and since 1905 had held the responsibilities of general manager of the Wyandotte County Company of Kansas City, Kansas. It was a boyhood experience while in a state institution in Ohio that gave him the permanent bent of a vocational experience. Mr. McKenzie was born in Harrisonville, Ohio, November 15, 1862, one of the four children of James T. and Mary C. (Hoover) McKenzie, both also natives of Ohio and of Scotch and Dutch extraction. James T. McKenzie was a cabinet maker by trade. At the … Read more

Biography of Thomas E. Trigg

Thomas E. Trigg. “A map of busy life” mused the poet Cowper more than a hundred years ago, over his newspaper. The description yet holds good, a century of existence only having widened its field and strengthened its power. With its modern perfected machinery for the garnering of news, and with its vivid portrayal of the world’s happenings, it is, indeed, a map of swiftly passing events, one that had become a necessary vitalizing element and an indispensable factor of every day living. How surely the development of a newspaper in a community marks the latter’s progress. A name well … 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 Albert F. Armstrong

Another member of the Armstrong family who is engaged in farming in Nowata County is Albert F. Armstrong, a brother of Charles F., whose sketch appears on another page of this work. A native of Kansas, he was born in Wyandotte County, on the 3d of April, 1865, a grandson of Chief Journeycake and a son of Henry Armstrong, who is now living retired in Coffeyville, Kansas. He is a nephew of J. E. Campbell of Nowata, while H. L. Campbell of the first National Bank of Nowata is a cousin. Albert F. Armstrong received his early education in the … Read more

Biography of Byron Judd, Hon.

Hon. Byron Judd was a pioneer of Wyandotte County. He established his home in the village of Wyandotte in November, 1857, when Kansas was still a territory. He lived in the village, his capacities expanding with the growth of the community, and his personal position and influence rising as Wyandotte County grew and prospered, and at his death on July 27, 1909, it was generally recognized and appreciated that he was one of the men who had left a permanent impress for good upon Kansas City, Kansas, a great city of which his old home village of Wyandotte had in … Read more

Biography of Roy Pitts

Roy Pitts is chief of the fire department at Independence. During his two years in that office he has developed the service to a high point of efficiency, partly by organization and partly by the introduction of modern apparatus, so that Independence today can boast of as perfect an equipment for fighting fire as any city of its size in Kansas. When Mr. Pitts took charge of the department the apparatus consisted of a chief’s car and a horse-drawn hose wagon. Since then he has taken the lead in giving the city a better apparatus. The city now has three … Read more

Biography of Charles H. Prescott

CHARLES H. PRESCOTT. – The subject of this sketch is second vice-president of the Northern Pacific Railroad. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on the 22d of June, 1839, and is the son of Harrison and Sarah Harris Prescott. His father was a native of Massachusetts, and can date back for three generations as members of New England families. Harrison Prescott died when his son was yet in infancy; and at the age of six he suffered the loss of his mother. So under the care of guardians he was educated in the common and high schools of Boston. At … Read more

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

Biographical Sketch of A. P. Tone Wilson, Jr.

A. P. Tone Wilson, Jr., has for a number of years been one of Topeka’s suceessful lawyers and is also proprietor of the X-Rays Printing Company, publishers of the X-Rays Democrat, of which he is editor. The printing company of which he is the head does a large business in commercial printing, catalogue work and the printing of legal blanks. No doubt he gets his profession from his father, Anthony P. Wilson, who for many years was a successful attorney, but is now retired. Mr. Wilson, Jr., is a native of the State of Nebraska, where he was born June … 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 Louis H. Chapman

Louis H. Chapman, commissioner of water and light of Kansas City, Kansas, is the man chiefly responsible for bringing these municipally owned plants to a perfection of service where they completely justify the management and control by the city. Mr. Chapman is an expert electrician and general engineer, and has achieved a significant success through his own energies and ambitions. He has been a resident of Kansas the greater part of the time since 1886. He was born at Hartford, Connecticut, June 17, 1873, the youngest of the nine children of John Oliver and Louisa E. (Smart) Chapman. His parents … Read more

Biography of Estevan Ochoa

Estevan Ochoa was a New Mexican by birth. In his early youth he went to Kansas City, where he obtained employment and acquired a fair knowledge of the English language. He started in business on his own account at Mesilla, New Mexico. He made a success of the enterprise, and thereafter started a number of branch stores in both New Mexico and Arizona. The firm of Tully & Ochoa, of which he was a member, was one of the largest mercantile establishments in Tucson. In Bourke’s “On the Border with Crook” is an account of his visit to Tucson, in … Read more

Biography of Matthew Edgar Pearson

Matthew Edgar Pearson is serving his fifteenth consecutive year as superintendent of the public schools of Kansas City, Kansas. He began his work in the schools of this city thirty years ago, and no one individual had so intimate a knowledge of the actual growth and development of the local school system and had done more to improve its efficiency than the Pearsons. He is one of the best known and oldest educators in the State of Kansas. Mr. Pearson was born at Plainsfield in Hendricks County, Indiana, March 8, 1862, but had lived in Kansas since he was ten … Read more

Biography of Colonel Jacob H. Bartles

Time is the perspective which places the individual in his true position in relation to the history of the community with which he has been identified and time serves but to heighten the fame and brighten the good name of Colonel Jacob H. Bartles, in whose honor the town of Bartlesville was named and who was also the founder of Dewey. He was ever a man of most progressive spirit, of which many tangible evidences may be cited, including the fact that he was the first man to establish electric light and waterworks plants in the state. He was also … Read more

Biography of Martin S. Rochelle

A resident of Wichita for nearly forty years, the late Martin S. Rochelle here achieved distinctive success in connection with business affairs and was a citizen who commanded unequivocal esteem in the community. He was a native of the old Buckeye State and represented the same as a gallant soldier in the Civil war. Mr. Rochelle was born near Columbus, the capital city of Ohio, on the 25th of November, 1842, and at his home in the City of Wichita, Kansas, his death occurred February 25, 1908. He acquired his youthful education in the public schools of Columbus, and was … Read more

Biography of Clifford C. Nesselrode, M. D.

Clifford C. Nesselrode, M. D. In 1906 there came to Kansas City, a young graduate in medicine who entered St. Margaret’s Hospital as an interne. Very modest was this young man as to his acquirements but not much time elapsed before his medical knowledge and his surgical skill were noted and approved, and at the present time no practitioner enjoys more public confidence or personal esteem than does Dr. Clifford C. Nesselrode. In addition to attending to a large and constantly increasing private practice, he is on the staffs of St. Margaret and Bethany hospitals and on the surgical staff … Read more

Biography of William Timmerman

Western Terea Cotta Company of Kansas City, Kansas, is the only successful industry for the making of this building material, which has had such a remarkable growth of popularity in use during recent years, between Chicago and the extreme Pacific coast. It is an industry which reflects credit upon the growing importance of Kansas City, Kansas, and is the only concern of its kind in the state. Terra cotta, which is the Italian for “burnt clay,” is perhaps the oldest manufactured building material known in history. It has been manufactured in America only during the last forty or forty-five years … 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

Biographical Sketch of Rt. Rev John Ward

Rt. Rev. John Ward, Bishop of the See of Leavenworth, but with home at 1228 Sandusky Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas; has been one of the ablest priests and administrators of the Catholic Church in Kansas for over thirty years, and a host of friends and admirers both in and out of the church rejoiced in his elevation as a bishop on November 25, 1910. Bishop Ward was born in the Village of Westview near Cleveland, Ohio, May 23, 1857. He was the second in a family of three children. His parents were Joseph and Ellen (McGrath) Ward, both natives … Read more

Biography of Leonard V. McKee

Leonard V. McKee. The life, the personal character and the influence of Leonard V. McKee impressed themselves strongly upon the formative period of Marshall County’s history. He was founder and president of the Frankfort State Bank, was a large land owner and one of the leading business men and citizens of the community. He was born in Allen County, Ohio, August 18, 1845, and died at his home in Frankfort, Kansas, December 22, 1916, aged seventy-one years, four months and four days. His parents, Robert and Sarah (Dunlap) McKee, were both natives of Ohio. His father was a cabinet maker … Read more