Missouri

Biographical Sketch of A. L. Marks

A. L. Marks, general merchant, was born in Prussia August 7, 1842. He came to America in June 1855, and located in Chicago, Ill. In 1861 he enlisted in Company K, Thirteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry. He enlisted May 22, 1861, and was discharged June 24, 1865. Was taken prisoner May 17, 1864; was in prison at Cahaba, Ala., and Meridian, Miss., and was held until April, 1865. Returned to Chicago, then went to Lee County, Iowa, the same year; thence to Missouri; thence to Nebraska; thence to Jewell City, Kan., where he went into the merchandise business, and went in … Read more

Biography of Charles G. Martin

Charles G. Martin is one of the pioneers of what is now Bingham county, Idaho, and has seen this entire section of the state develop from a wild region, whereon civilization had not set its stamp, into one of the finest and richest farming and stock-raising districts of the state. In the work of development and progress he has ever borne his part, and he takes a just pride in the county’s improvement, and deserves great credit for what he has done in its behalf. Mr. Martin was born in Clark county, Kentucky, November i6, 1847, and is a son … Read more

Biography of Ervin W. Johnson

For many years actively connected with the development and progress of different sections of this state, Mr. Johnson is now the proprietor of the Overland Hotel, in Boise, and is regarded as one of the most popular and best known citizens of Idaho. A native of Ottumwa, Iowa, he was born March 17, 1857, a son of William W. and Eliza A. (Myers) Johnson. His father, a native of Indiana, born in 1829, died in Ottumwa, Iowa, in 1867, and his wife, who was born in Botetourt County, Virginia, also departed this life in Iowa. By profession Mr. Johnson was … Read more

Biography of Joseph F. Griffin

For more than a half century Joseph F. Griffin, of Ketchum, has resided in the northwest. A native of Kentucky, he was born in Cumberland County, December 10, 1831. The family is of Scotch origin, and the first American progenitors were early settlers of South Carolina and participants in many of the events which form the colonial history of the south. Jesse Griffin, the grandfather of our subject, was one of the pioneers of Kentucky, where occurred the birth of Burrell Bell Griffin, the father of Joseph. Having arrived at years of maturity he married Miss Sally Thogmorton a native … Read more

Biography of Abner E. Callaway

The old adage that ‘”truth is stranger than fiction” finds exemplification in the annals of the northwest. The most marvelous characters of the novelist cannot exceed in courage and daring the hardy pioneers who have opened up this vast region to the advance of civilization. Traveling across the hot, arid, sandy plains, climbing the steep mountains, threading their way through dense forests of towering trees, they came to this land of the “silent, sullen people,” whose hostility made existence most uncertain, and here they have established homes, churches and schools, developed the rich agricultural and mineral resources of the country … Read more

Biography of Samuel R. Parkinson

The name of this gentleman is so inseparably connected with the history of Franklin, its up-building and its progress along commercial, educational and church lines, that no history of the southeastern section of the state would be complete without the record of his useful career. He was one of the first to locate in Franklin and is numbered among its honored pioneers. A native of England, he was born in Barrowford, Lancastershire, April 12, 1831, a son of William and Charlotte (Rose) Parkinson, who were likewise natives of that country. He was only six months old when his father died, … Read more

Biography of Red Collins

Red Collins, one of the oldest timers in the county, was born in the state of Missouri in the year 1833. He came to Texas with his father in the year 1839 and stopped in Red River district near where Clarksville is now located. The whole country was a perfect wilderness, even what few people were here were hardly civilized. In that day the most of the male inhabitants were refugees from justice, having committed some crime against the laws of the state from which they emigrated. Not being of a first-class people, and coming into the wilds of a … Read more

Biography of S. G. Coyle

S. G. Coyle was born in Osage County, Missouri, in the year 1882, and came to the state of Texas in the year 1846, and lived in the county in the forks of the Sulphur creek, and looked after stock cattle for Dr. O. S. Davis. He had charge of these cattle until he volunteered to go to the Mexican war. While he was attending these cattle for Dr. Davis a party of ruffians, calling themselves Regulators, came suddenly upon him and gave him instructions to leave the country under the penalty of death. His assistants became alarmed at this … Read more

Biography of Capt. Merrett Branom

Merrett Branom was born in the state of Missouri in the year 1820. At the tender age of nineteen he left his home and came to Texas to seek his fortune, and to make the Lone Star state his future home. Soon after he came upon Texas soil he married Miss Ellen Finley, an old Missouri acquaintance. She was a sister to Ed Finley, who is well known as an honorable, just and esteemed citizen of Hopkins County, and an aunt to our worthy ex-tax-assessor, Dave Finley. By this marriage thirteen children carne to them, six boys and seven girls. … Read more

Biographical Sketch of R. Lindley

R. Lindley was born in Polk County, Missouri in the year 1835. He migrated to Hopkins County with his father Jahu Lindley in 1849 and located on South Sulphur Creek where he was living when he died. Jahu Lindley had a large family but there are only two of this family living at this time: the subject of this biographical sketch and R. J. Lindley, who lives in Decatur, Wise County, at this time. R. Lindley was raised in Hopkins County. At the age of 23 years he married Miss Effie Sayle of Commerce, Hunt County, a lady of excellent … Read more

Biography of J. R. Lindley

J. R. Lindley was born in the state of Kentucky, in the year of 1824. His parents moved into Dade County, Missouri, in the year 1835 when J. R. was only 10 years of age, where he grew up into manhood. Filled with the spirit of adventure and fired by the stories of the wealth of California, he made an overland trip to the Pacific Coast in the year of 1840, traveling with an ox train and being four months on the road. He remained on the Pacific slope for three years, returning to Missouri he engaged in driving stock … Read more

Biography of Luth Waggoner

Luth Waggoner was born in the state of Missouri in the year 1833, and moved with his parents in the year 1839 to Red River District, Texas, and stopped where Blossom Prairie is located. The family remained there and farmed and raised stock for a period of ten years, and moved to Hopkins County where L. Waggoner has lived all his life. Luth’s father, Solomon Waggoner, had a large family when they came into Hopkins County. There are only two of this family living in Hopkins County at this time, Luth and N. B. Waggoner. Luth married Miss Nancy Millsap … Read more

Biography of William E. Graves D. V. M.

William E. Graves, D. V. M. Among the men skilled in the practice of veterinary medicine and surgery in Kansas, one who has enjoyed a long and successful career, is Dr. William E. Graves. A graduate of a leading St. Louis institution, he began practice about the time that he attained manhood, came to Kansas in 1896 and carried on his vocation in Franklin County for ten years, and in 1906 changed his field of operation to Topeka, where he now has his home. Doctor Graves was born on a farm in Pike County, Illinois, in 1852, a son of … Read more

Biography of Julius Weiss

Julius Weiss. Recently the Topeka Daily Capital had an illustration on one of its pages showing a banquet table surrounded by a group of some of the best known and most prominent veteran business men of Topeka. Underneath was a text explaining the occasion. A part of this reads as follows: “Fifty years at the old stand, forty-seven years at the same number and still an active business man. That is something of a distinction. March 1, 1866, Julius Weiss, a young captain of calvary who had served all through the Civil war in an Illinois regiment, opened a grocery … Read more

Biography of Edward C. Kassebaum

Edward C. Kassebaum. On the highest point of bottom land between Kansas City, Missouri, and Manhattan, Kansas, is located the forty acre farm belonging to Edward C. Kassebaum, who carries on general farming, but who, perhaps, is more widely known as a grower of water melons, a field in which he has attained something more than a local reputation. This farm is situated in Menoken Township, Shawnee County, and has been brought to a high state of cultivation under the practical and intelligent efforts of Mr. Kassebaum, who has been a resident of this locality all his life and who … Read more

Biography of Simon P. Kramer

Simon P. Kramer. During the greater part of the years since 1880, Simon P. Kramer had been a resident of Kansas and had been identified with the milling industry. He is one of the oldest flour millers in the state and had operated in many different towns. In 1915 he removed to Topeka, where he bought and reorganized the Topeka Flour Mills Company, of which he is now president. He had now one of the finest mills in equipment and service in this section of the state. It is equipped throughout with Allis-Chalmers machinery and only recently he gave an … Read more

Biography of James Colyer Gordon

James Colyer Gordon, superintendent of the waterworks system of Independence, had, together with his father, who for thirty years was engineer of the waterworks, had more to do with making this public utility a splendid and effleient organ of public service than any other individual. Independence had had a system of waterworks for thirty years or more. For many years it had been a municipally owned plant and the city corporation had expended an immense amount of money in perfecting the plant and the source of supply. The new water plant is located a mile and a half northeast of … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Albert Alling Atwater

Atwater, Albert Alling; civil engineer and real estate; born, Cleveland, May 27, 1868; son of Jared J. and Harriet Root Atwater; educated, Cleveland public schools, Western Reserve Academy, Case School of Applied Science; married, Crete, Neb., Nov., 1901, Emily Daniels; finished special course at Case School in June, 1891; followed sanitary construction at Conneaut and Dayton, O., for two years; in charge of mining operations in Michigan, Canada and Missouri for eight years; city engineer of Webb City, Mo., two years; real estate business in Cleveland since 1903; director sec ‘y and 2nd vice pres. The Adams Realty Co.; director … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Harrison W. Ewing

Ewing, Harrison W.; attorney-at-law; born, Milton, Mahoning County, O., July 26, 1874; son of Harrison J. and M. Patterson Ewing; educated, Cleveland Central High School, 1892, Adelbert College, 1893 and 1894, special St. Louis Law School, Washington University, 1896, Law School, Western Reserve University, 1897-1899, LL. B., 1899; married, Cleveland, June 27, 1903, Elmyra C. Lucas; one daughter, Marjorie Gaile Ewing, born June, 1905; admitted to the bar, June, 1899; law firm H. J. & H. W. Ewing, 1899-1903; Ewing, Neiding & Kramer, 1905-1909; Ewing, Kramer & Counts, 1909-1912; Dawley, Ewing, Counts & Terrell, 1912 to date; director Hanna Moving … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Fred Howard Chapin

Chapin, Fred Howard; face brick mfg.; born, Iowa, April 11, 1875; son of Fred Wallace and Eliza Pauly Chapin; grammar and high school education in Clarksville, Ia., Highland Park Normal, Des Moines, Ia., University of Minnesota; married, Minneapolis, Minn., June 7, 1899, Helen N. Lakue; leaving college in 1894, was asst. city clerk of city of Minneapolis four years, resigning to accept position with Minneapolis branch, Hydraulic Press Brick Co.; gen’l sales mgr., St. Louis, 1905; appointed vice pres. and Ohio mgr., June, 1909, with headquarters in Cleveland; vice pres. and mgr. Hydraulic Press Brick Co.; director Owners Garage Co., … Read more