Biographical Sketch of George W. Martin

George W. Martin, long secretary of the State Historical Society, an old newspaper man and state printer, was born in Blair County, Pennsylvania, June 30, 1841. He learned the printer’s trade in his native town and in Philadelphia, and in April, 1857, accompanied his parents to the Territory of Kansas, Young Martin worked in printing offices at Lecompton until the fall of 1859 and in 1861 became connected with the Junction City Union, which he edited for several years. Mr. Martin was postmaster at Junction City several months in 1865 and register of the land office in 1865-66; assessor of … Read more

Biography of James A. Vaughan M. D.

James A. Vaughan, M. D. During his long and active career as a physician Doctor Vaughan had spent his most useful and profitable years in the State of Kansas. For more than ten years he had practiced successfully in Mound Valley in Labette County. Though most of his early years were spent in Southwest Missouri, Doctor Vaughan was born in Benton County, Arkansas, October 21, 1868. He is of English stock, and his great-grandfather came over from England and settled in Tennessee in the early days. His father, G. W. Vaughan, was born in Illinois in 1843, was reared in … Read more

Biography of Frederick E. Dillenbeck, M. D.

Frederick E. Dillenbeck, M. D.,of El Dorado, had attained as much prominence in the fleld of medicine and surgery as others of his fantily have gained in the breeding and raising of some of the finest trotting horses known in Kansas or anywhere in the country. Doctor Dilleubeck, who had practiced medicine at El Dorado for twenty years, is local and dispensing surgeou for the Missouri Pacific and the Santa. Fe Railway companies, is consulting surgeon for the Rock Island Railroad Company, is medieal examiner for a number of old line life insurance companies, is a member of the County … Read more

Biography of William Elsey Connelley

William Elsey Connelley. The Connelly family was founded by emigrants from County Armagh, Ireland, who settled in South Carolina in 1689, being among the founders of Charleston. They were in all the patriotic movements to secure the independence of America, Henry Connelly having been a captain of cavalry in the War of the Revolution in North Carolina. He was appointed by Governor Burke to raise a special company to keep down Fanning, the Tory, and served five years. He was in the battles of Cowpens, Charlotte, Guilford Courthouse, and with General Greene in his masterly retreat beyond the Dan River. … 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 James Philip Murray

James Philip Murray. The largest institution of its kind in Kansas City, Kansas, is the Murray Baking Company. As a business it is one of the considerable assets of the community. Its product is known and appreciated by thousands of customers. The business affords employment, and on other grounds could hardly be left out of any list of leading enterprises. The business also had a human interest, since the plant is the outgrowth and product of the technical ability and the energy of one man, James P. Murray. Mr. Murray came to America some thirty-five years ago, poor in worldly … 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 Louis Henry Rose

Louis Henry Rose. That quality of citizenship which gets things done in a wise and constructive manner and at the same time is constantly looking out for the economy and welfare of the individual is wonderfully well illustrated in the career of Louis Henry Rose, one of the oldest business men of Rosedale. Mr. Rose identified himself with this village of Wyandotte County when its population did not consist of more than 500. He helped make it a city and in recent years had headed the fight to secure its consolidation with that larger metropolitan and industrial group of communities … Read more

Biography of John J. Fowles

John J. Fowles has been a Kansas educator since 1908 and is now superintendent of the city schools of Summerfield. Largely through his own earnest efforts he acquired a liberal education. He was born in Eldora, Iowa, January 3, 1884. He is of a Colonial American family. This branch of the Fowlers came out of England and settled in New York in pioneer times His grandfather. Thomas Charles Fowler, was born in Kentucky and died at Eldora, Iowa, before John J. Fowler was born. He was one of the pioneers around Eldora and became well known as a stockman and … Read more

Biography of James Scott Cummings, M. D.

James Scott Cummings, M. D. A former president of the State Board of Health, a member of the Legislature, and otherwise prominent in local and state affairs, Doctor Cummings is a pioneer physician of Bronson in Bourbon County, and both through his profession and as a citizen he had found many ways in which to make his career count for benefit to his community. Doctor Cummings represents a pioneer family in Southeastern Kansas. He was born in Parke County, Indiana, June 8, 1851. His Cummings ancestors were emigrants from the North of Ireland to Virginia in colonial times. Doctor Cummings … 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 Martin L. Foltz

Martin L. Foltz. His span of years greater than the average lifetime had been spent by Martin L. Foltz as an active citizen and resident of Kansas. He is one of the few survivors of that epoch when the nation’s destiny hung upon the outcome of the conflict in Kansas. He is also one of the survivors of the great Civil war, in which he served almost from the beginning to the end in the Union army. For many years his home had been in Williamsport Township of Shawnee County. Born in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, April 15, 1841, he is a … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Otis B. Gunn

Otis B. Gunn was a native of Massachusetts, born at Montague, October 27, 1828, and before he came west as a railroad engineer, had served as rodman on the Hoosac Tunnel Railroad and superintendent of the construction work of the line between Rochester and Niagara Falls. In 1853 he was appointed division engineer in the building of the Toledo, Wabash and Western, and followed railroad construction westward until he settled at Wyandotte, Kansas, in 1857. He was a member of the 1861 State Senate, and while thus serving was appointed major of the Fourth Kansas, later the Tenth Kansas Infantry. … Read more

Biography of Henry L. Alden

Henry L. Alden arrived in the old village of Wyandotte on Thanksgiving Day morning in November, 1867, and from that time until his death November 21, 1913, he continued a resident of Wyandotte and of Kansas City, Kansas. He was one of the most distinguished lawyers Kansas ever had. The many public honors that came to him, almost entirely within the scope of his profession, were a tribute to his power as a lawyer and his integrity of character. He was not yet twenty-one years of age when he came to Kansas. He was born on a farm near Greenwich … 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

Biography of Henry H. Daniels

Henry H. Daniels has been a resident of Kansas City, Kansas, for over twenty years, and had risen from some of the minor responsibilities of business life to the presidency of the Armourdale State Bank at 514 Kansas Avenue. He is a Kansan by birth, and had always been loyal to the state where he grew up and where his carser had had its training and its successes. He was born on a farm six miles west of Olathe in Johnson County, December 19, 1874. He was the seventh in a family of eight children born to Richard and Bridget … Read more

Biography of Austin H. Jennings

Austin H. Jennings. For many years the name of Jennings has been honorably associated with business enterprises of importance in Kansas City, through the efforts of Austin H. Jennings, who is president of the Crystal Springs Ice, Fuel & Grain Company and is interested in other concerns that occupy a prominent place in the commercial field. Although not quite so active as in earlier years, Mr. Jennings continues one of the most stable and dependable of the city’s business men and one of the most reputable and highly esteemed citizens. Mr. Jennings was born May 25, 1850, on a farm … Read more

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 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 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