Missouri

Jones, Roy Vernon

Roy Vernon Jones, 79, of Haines, died Feb. 21, 2005, at St. Elizabeth Health Services. At his request there will be no service. Disposition was by cremation. Mr. Jones was born on March 5, 1925, at Doniphan, Mo., to Eddy and Lina Eagan Jones. He was the youngest of 11 children. He started his education in Missouri and completed it at Rockbridge, Ill. At age 18 he was inducted into the U.S. Army at Peoria, Ill. He suffered injuries in a training plane crash and was given a medical discharge after three months. He had a beautiful voice and played … Read more

Medlin, Raymond C. – Obituary

Raymond C. Medlin, 87, a longtime resident of Baker City, died at St. Elizabeth Health Services Saturday, January 22, 2005. A private interment was held at Mt. Hope Cemetery. Mr. Medlin was born August 1, 1917, in Bernie, Missouri, to Lapolean and Ida (White) Medlin. He and his family moved to Baker City from Missouri in 1949, where he worked for Clyde Ward for several years. He then decided he would try his hand at roofing and made roofing and carpenter work his life long career. His favorite pastime was fishing, especially crappie fishing on the Snake River. Survivors are … Read more

Lethlean, Betty E. Bennett Mrs. – Obituary

Baker City, Oregon Betty E. Lethlean, 79, a long-time Baker City resident, died May 5, 2004, at her daughter’s home. Her funeral will be at 1 p.m. Tuesday at Baker City Christian Church, 2998 Eighth St. Pastor Roger Scovil will officiate. Vault interment will be at Mount Hope Cemetery. Visitations will be until 7 p.m. tonight at Coles Funeral Home. Betty was born on Nov. 21, 1924, at St. Louis, Mo. She was a daughter of Gordon and Esmerilda Tippett Bennett. She married William Ivan Gilliland and they moved to Baker City in 1944. He was killed in a logging … Read more

Biography of George W. Prescott

George W. Prescott, of San Bernardino, Master Mechanic of the Southern California Railroad, and one of the most expert mechanical engineers in this country, was born in New Hampshire fifty-one years ago. At the early age of seven years he was left without father or mother, and at thirteen he left his native State and started out to fight the battle of life alone and unaided. Going west as far as Ohio, he spent the next-five years in the old city of Chillicothe, where, following the natural bent of his mind, he studied the business of machinist, and when just … Read more

Biography of Joseph Heap

Joseph Heap is one of the representative mechanics of Riverside, and is the proprietor of a blacksmith shop on the south side of Eighth Street, between Main and Market streets. He is a native of England, and dates his birth in Manchester, in 1848. His parents, William and Hannah (Ward) Heap, are both natives of that country. In 1848 or early in 1849 his father immigrated with the family to the United States, and located at Council Bluffs, Missouri. The next year he moved to Salt Lake, where he remained until 1852. In that year he brought his family to … Read more

Biography of Alexander Keir, Jr.

Alexander Keir, Jr., a farmer near San Bernardino, is a Scotchman, and was born in Glasgow. His father, Alexander Keir, Sr., was a coal miner, and was born in Scotland, in 1815. His mother, Marion (King) Keir, was born in Scotland in 1814. They came to this country in 1848 and stopped at St. Louis. They had eight children, the subject of this sketch being the third. The oldest, William, was scalded to death in Scotland; one sister, Elizabeth, died of cholera in St. Louis, in 1849; the youngest sister, Espy, was bitten by a snake. In 1850 Mr. Keir … Read more

Biography of Reverday J. Pierson

Reverday J. Pierson, junior member and business manager of the well-known firm of Holmes & Pierson, the editors and proprietors of the Riverside Daily Press and Weekly Horticulturist, of Riverside, is a native of Licking County, Ohio, and was born in 1848. When a child his parents moved to Springfield, Illinois, and thence in 1857 to Poweshiek County, Iowa. He was engaged in his attendance in the public schools until fifteen years of age, and then apprenticed to the printers trade at Montezuma, Iowa. After serving his apprenticeship, he commenced his travels as a journeyman, and was engaged on the … Read more

Biography of Henry J. Helmers, Sr.

Henry J. Helmers, Sr. The high rewards attainable through a life of industry, guided by a strong sense of integrity, are strikingly exemplified in the career of Henry J. Helmers, Sr., president of the Helmers Manufacturing Company of Leavenworth, and one of that city’s leading business citizens. Starting life handicapped by a lack of education, without financial assistance or influential friends, he had made his own way, fought his own battles and established for himself a place of honor and eminence in a community in which the mere occupancy of position is an indication of the possession of more than … Read more

Biography of Lewis A. Markham

Lewis A. Markham was a physician by profession, but the services by which he will be longest remembered in Kansas as elsewhere were those he rendered as a devoted minister of the gospel. He spent his last years at Baldwin City, where the family have been prominent for over a quarter of a century. Doctor Markham practiced medicine for six years in Ohio, part of the time in Akron and part of the time at Massillon. He was married at Akron, September 19, 1858, to Sarah Wirt. Sarah Wirt was of a family of pioneers. Her father was born at … Read more

Biography of William Henry Robinson, M. D.

William Henry Robinson, M. D. The value of an individual life is often expressed not so much through its positive services of a routine nature, but in its attitude toward those ideals and things which are still objects to be realized in that particular community. Such had been the distinctive role played by Dr. W. H. Robinson at Eudora, in addition to the splendid work he had performed through his profession. Doctor Robinson first came to Kansas in 1872, when a young man, and had spent most of his active career in this state. He was born at one of … Read more

Biography of Henry Jackson Waters

Henry Jackson Waters, president of the Kansas State Agricultural College at Manhattan since 1909, is a leader in that group of men who have served to elevate and dignify the science of agriculture. His work and influence are of growing value every passing year. His reputation is by no means confined to Kansas and Missouri, the states in which most of his work had been done. The agricultural journals and writers all over the country are coming to pay special attention and respect to any movement or experiment with which the name Henry Jackson Waters is in any way associated. … Read more

Biography of John William Crancer

John William Crancer. Among the justly honored names of Leavenworth County that have been identified with Leavenworth since pioneer times, that of Crancer deserves special mention because of the sterling qualities of the men who have borne it both in the past and the present. In the fall of 1856, John William Crancer came to Kansas with the expectation of making his home here in case the country presented business possibilities for the future. Leavenworth was then on the frontier and was one of the principal forwarding points. Mr. Crancer foresaw that it was destined to become a place of … Read more

Biography of Henry Carl Alwes

Henry Carl Alwes is manager of the Western Typesetting Company and president of the Gate City Directory Company of Kansas City, Missouri. He organized the latter company in 1911 and from the beginning had been its manager. Mr. Alwes had conquered obstacles in the path to success as he had met them. He is a man of versatile talents. He is a practical printer, is a pharmacist by profession, had filled offices of responsibility as editor and newspaper manager, linotype operator, and in other ways in connection with some of the best known newspapers of Kansas, Chicago and the Middle … Read more

Biography of James Walter Gowans

James Walter Gowans, superintendent of the city schools of Winfield, is one of a trio of brothers all of whom are graduates of the University of Kansas and all capable school men in this state. Mr. Gowans is not only an educator but a thoroughly constructive administrator in educational affairs, and the public schools of Winfield have benefited much from his superintendence. Though a resident of Kansas nearly all his life, James Walter Gowans was born at Centerview, Missouri, September 21, 1877. He is of Scotch ancestry in the paternal line. His paternal grandparents, Walter and Elizabeth (Donnan) Gowans, were … Read more

Biography of Albert P. McBride

Albert P. McBride. In the oil and gas districts of the Southwest no name had a greater significance as an operator, developer, and as a vitalizer of the resources and industries covering several states, than that of Albert P. McBride of Independence. Mr. McBride began his operations as an oil well contractor and producer more than thirty-five years ago. He had supplied enthusiasm, faith and much of the material means necessary to develop the oil and gas resources of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Associated throughout practically all his career with C. L. Bloom, he bore the brunt of responsibilities in … Read more

Biography of William C. Hook

William C. Hook, United States Circuit Judge of the Eighth Judicial Circuit, had been a resident of Leavenworth since childhood, and his people have some interesting associations with Kansas in the territorial as well as the later period. Enos and Dawson Adams Hook, brothers, the former the father of Judge Hook and the latter an uncle, came to Kansas when it was a territory and had an active part in the upbuilding of the community in and around Leavenworth. They were the sons of John and Nancy (Adams) Hook. The mother was of the old Pennsylvania family of Adams. The … Read more

Biography of Thomas Watson Roach

Thomas Watson Roach, for twenty-one years president of Kansas Wesleyan Business College, and a former president of Kansas Wesleyan University at Salina, had not merely found but had made for himself a distinctive place in educational history of the Sunflower State. He came to Kansas more than forty years ago. His name is closely associated with several progressive movements in Kansas educational affairs. He was the pioneer worker for the consolidation of country school districts. He also did the first practical work toward procuring uniformity of text books throughout the state. But even more important than all this he will … Read more

Biography of Captain C.C. Miller

Captain C. C. Miller is one of the early settlers of Riverside and has for fifteen years been identified with its growth and improvement. He is a native of Oneida County, New York, dating his birth in 1824. His parents were Chancy and Alice (Reney) Miller, both natives of that county. His grandfather, Grant Miller, was a pioneer of Oneida County, settling there in the days of the colonies, and built the first house erected in his section. Captain Miller was but four years of age when the death of his father occurred. His mother then married Judge Aaron Burley. … Read more

Biography of Thomas Benton Hutchings

Thomas Benton Hutchings, residing five miles east of San Bernardino, on Base Line, was born in Ray County, Missouri, in 1852. His parents, Hovey and Amanda (McQuiston) Hutchings, had a family of five children, of whom the subject of this sketch is the youngest. His mother died when he was but six weeks old, and his father married a second time and had six children by his last marriage. He was a farmer, owning several farms, also a dry-goods merchant and owner of a large sawmill, but lost nearly all of his property by the late war. He made a … Read more

Biography of Dward J. Davis

Dward J. Davis, born in Devizes, Wiltshire County, England, in 1844, son of Robert and Sarah (MacVittie) Davis, natives of that country. The subject of this sketch was reared and given the advantages of a common-school education in his native place, and when fifteen years of age was apprenticed to the trade of a carpenter and builder. He served a seven years apprenticeship and entered life as a journeyman, a thorough master of his calling in all its details, and established himself in London. He was also employed on the Government work at Woolwich, and later on the Paris Exposition … Read more