Biographical Sketch of Thomas Bassett

He came to Ida County in 1877 and was identified with the contracting and building interests in Ida Grove, Iowa. He located there when the town was just starting and put up many of the best buildings in the city. Thomas Bassett and his son, William H., were partners for a number of years. Thomas was born in the County of Cornwall, England, August 2, 1828, son of Thomas & Jane (Pierce) Bassett. He married Eliza A. Rouse in his native land; and in 1854, came to America. He remained in Zanesville, Ohio, until 1875 and went to Greene County, … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Samuel Walter Kelley

Kelley, Samuel Walter; physician, surgeon; born, Adamsville, Muskingum County, O., Sept. 15, 1855; son of Walter and Selina Catherine (Kaemmerer) Kelley; preparatory education, public schools, Zanesville, O., and St. Joseph, Mich.; M. D., Western Reserve University, Cleveland, 1884; also studied in hospitals in London; married Amelia Kemmerlein, of Wooster, O., July 2, 1884; chief dept. of diseases of children, Polyclinic, Western Reserve University, 1886-1893; prof. diseases of children, Cleveland College Physicians and surgeons (Med. Dept. Ohio Wesleyan University), since 1893; pediatrist City and St. Luke’s hospitals; pediatrist and orthopedist St. Clair Hospital; surgeon-in-chief Holy Cross Home for Crippled and Invalid … Read more

Biography of Isaac Fenton Talbott

Isaac Fenton Talbott, of McPherson, is president of the Farmers Alliance Insurance Company, with headquarters in that city. He had been identified with this organization nearly thirty years. The Farmers Alliance Insurance Company is perhaps the largest and most notable of the co-operative financial enterprises that were the outgrowth of the economic unrest of the ’80s and early ’90s. The company was organized in 1887 on the co-operative plan. It writes both fire and tornado insurance, and is now one of the largest of the state’s financial institutions. It had insurance in force in every one of the 105 counties … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Emmet J. Strong

Strong, Emmet J.; hardware; born, Huntsburg, O., Jan. 31, 1862; son of Lyman and Ludia Curtis Strong; educated, public schools and Austinburg; married, June 7, 1893, Lenora Goodwin; issue; two sons, Lester, 17, and Stuart, 9; in 1893, organized The Curtiss Steel Roofing Co., located at Niles, O.; in 1900, reorganized and enlarged the business, moving to Zanesville, O., building a sheet and steel mill, operating under the name of The Muskingum Valley Steel Co.; in 1902, sold out in the above company, and came to Cleveland, purchasing an interest in the J. M. and L. A. Osborn Co.; connected … Read more

Biography of Milton F. Ward

Milton F. Ward. Among the business men of Kansas, there are none more far-seeing and intelligent than those who make up the agricultural class. The career of a farmer is somewhat exacting, in that he may not choose his own times or seasons for labor, for Nature adjusts such matters; but it is not probable that any other vocation gives such large and certain returns for well-directed effort expended. When an agriculturist successfully produces large crops he may be called a capable husbandman, but when he is able also to profitably handle the yield of his fertile fields himself, he … Read more