Ohio

Biography of Samuel C. Evans

Samuel C. Evans, one of the most prominent men of Riverside, and who has spent over fifteen years of an active business life in conducting some of the largest business enterprises in the colony, one of which is the Riverside Land and Irrigation Company, came to Riverside in 1874 and purchased a half interest in nearly 10,000 acres of land, known as the Hartshorn tract; the land is now known as the Arlington part of Riverside and Arlington Heights. Captain W. T. Sayward, of San Francisco, was the owner of the other half. These gentlemen in the same year commenced … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Harvey Hewitt

Harvey Hewitt, residing three miles northwest of Redlands, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1859. His father, Isaac L. Hewitt, was a native of New York, and for fifteen years was senior member of the firm of Hewitt & Schofield, petroleum commission. At one time he owned a line of steamers on Lake Erie. He is now retired from active life. He had five children, the subject of our sketch being the fourth. He was educated at the Polytechnic Institute at Brooklyn, New York. He was connected with the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, on the engineer corps, for … Read more

Biography of Perry D. Cover

Perry D. Cover is one of Riverside’s early settlers, and has been associated with her various industries for the past fifteen years. He is a native of Richland County, Ohio, dating his birth in 1843. His parents were Daniel Cover, a native of Frederick County, Maryland, and Lydia Cover, nee Stevenson. Mr. Cover was reared to agricultural pursuits on his father’s farm until 1862. He then volunteered in the service of his country and enlisted as a private soldier in Company D, Eighty-seventh Ohio Volunteers. His regiment was sent East, and after some time in camp at Baltimore, was placed … Read more

Biographical Sketch of M. E. Button

M. E. Button, a rancher near San Bernardino, was born in Onondaga County, New York, and moved to Ohio when he was twenty-three years old and engaged in farming. There, in 1834, he was married to Miss Mary Bittles, also from York State, the daughter of Thomas and Ann (Spence) Bittles, both natives of Ireland. They had six children, and moved to Geauga County, Ohio, when Mary was seventeen years of age, where he engaged in farming until his death, which occurred in 1889. Mr. Button lived two years at Salt Lake, where he stopped on his way to the … Read more

Biography of A. D. S. Alkire

A. D. S. Alkire is the well-known and popular City Clerk and Assessor of Riverside, a position he ably fills with credit to himself and honor to that enterprising city. Mr. Alkire is a native of Pickaway County, Ohio, born at Mount Sterling in 1837. His father, William A. Alkire, was a native of Kentucky and a descendant of an old colonial family of Virginia. He was a carpenter by trade, but was engaged also in farming. Mr. Alkire’s mother, Hannah (Osborne) Alkire, was a native of Ohio, and died when the subject of this sketch was but four years … Read more

Biography of John C. Hardman

John C. Hardman, proprietor of the City Pharmacy of Riverside, which is the pioneer drug store in the city, was first established in 1876 by James H. Roe. Mr. Hardman purchased the business in January, 1886, and immediately increased the stock and enlarged his business until the City Pharmacy ranks as the leading establishment of its character in the city. In addition to a complete and varied stock of drugs and medicines, he is a large dealer in toilet articles, perfumery, fancy goods, wallpaper, paints, oils, etc. He is a skillful druggist and chemist, with years of experience, and employs … Read more

Biography of Matthew Cleghorn

Matthew Cleghorn, a farmer of San Bernardino County, was born in Knox County, Kentucky, in 1829, a son of Rev. Lorenzo D. Cleghorn, who was a native of Virginia and a minister of the Christian Church. His mother, Mary (McLain) Cleghorn, was of Scotch parentage. They had five children, of whom our subject was the second. He left home at the age of twelve years and subsequently entered the Mexican War. He enlisted in the Sixteenth Kentucky Volunteers, but was afterward attached to the Eleventh. He carried the express for eight months from Vera Cruz to the city of Mexico … Read more

Biography of Prof. Charles Russell Paine

Prof. Charles Russell Paine, of Redlands, is a native of Massachusetts, born in Barnstable September 9, 1839, a son of John and Lucy (Crowell) Paine. He is one of a family of six children. He was graduated at Amherst College, and has taught in Maine, Rhode Island, Ohio, Indiana and California. He came to this latter State in 1870 and taught school in Riverside. He also taught the first school in Colton. In 1873 he established a private school in San Bernardino and in 1876 was elected County Superintendent of Schools. He subsequently served as principal of the city schools … Read more

Biography Of Oliver Barber, Hon.

Hon. Oliver Barber was one of the foremost figures in the life of Kansas during the territorial and early statehood period. The Barber family played many noteworthy parts in the making of Kansas a free state, and in those early years there was hardly a man more justly honored by his fellow citizens than Oliver Barber. He lived for many years at Lawrence and in that city his son Oliver P. Barber is one of the oldest and best known business men and merchants. A native of Pennsylvania, Oliver Barber was born in Franklin County December 10, 1816. As a … Read more

Biography Of Joseph Gardner

The ancestors of Joseph Gardner were descended from Quaker stock which landed upon the shores of Nantucket Island in 1620. Later they lived in North Carolina and emigrated from there to the Territory of Indiana in the latter part of the eighteenth century. It was in Union County, Indiana, that Joseph Gardner was born in July, 1820. His parents, William Gardner and Mary Hollingsworth, were ardently opposed to slavery, hence adhered to the anti-slavery wing of the Quaker Church. Upon attaining his majority, Joseph Gardner aligned himself with the Abolitionists and finally died fighting for the freedom of the slaves. … Read more

Biography Of Wilder S. Metcalf, Gen.

Gen. Wilder S. Metcalf has been a resident of Kansas since 1887, and developed and is now sole owner of the business known as the Wilder S. Metcalf Farm Mortgage Agency at Lawrence. It is one of the oldest and best known agencies of the kind in the state and its business operations cover twenty-five or thirty counties in Kansas and Oklahoma. He is the only man who held the office of United States pension agent at Topeka for two successive terms. The Topeka agency was the largest in the United States, covering five states, and through it were distributed … Read more

Biography Of Thomas Benton Murdock

In 1841 Thomas Benton Murdock was born in the mountains of Virginia. He was one of the five children who lived to maturity of Thomas Murdock and Katherine Pierrepont. On the mother’s side came the pride of the Pierrepont; from the father’s the insurgent instincts of the Irish Murdocks who left Ireland after the Irish rebellion failed in 1798. Though reared in the mountains among the most simple people and most primitive surroundings, the Murdocks who have been known in Kansas for half a century have proved soldiers of the militant democracy. They have been fighters who led naturally, by … Read more

Biography of Hon. William A. Conn

Hon. William A. Conn, of San Bernardino, is one of those strong individualities in the pioneer history of California, who by his force of character and intellect stamped his impress upon the early civilization of the Golden State. Though a number of the first years of his residence on the Pacific coast were passed in the northern part of the State, at San Francisco, yet for a third of a century Southern California has had the benefits of his public-spirited patriotism, his business attainments and his generous philanthropy. Mr. Conn was born in 1814, on the West India Islands, where … Read more

Biography of Prof. C. N. Andrews

Prof. C. N. Andrews, of Redlands, was born in Guernsey County, Ohio, in 1852. His father, Robert Andrews, crossed the plains to California with an ox team in 1857. They were on the plains at the time of the Mountain Meadow massacre, and were five months and ten days from Boonville to Sacramento. He purchased a farm in Sonoma County, in 1859, and is still living on it. He had a family of four sons and one daughter. The subject of this sketch received his early training in the common schools of Sonoma County, is a graduate of several prominent … Read more

Biography of Milton Canterbury, M. D.

Milton Canterbury, M. D., of Redlands, was born in Greenup County, Kentucky. His father, Reuben Canterbury, a farmer, was born in North Carolina. The name originated in Kent County, England, from the estate of a man by that name, and for whom the city of Canterbury was named. Reuben Canterbury married Miss Elizabeth Lycaas, a native of Kentucky. The union was blessed with thirteen children, of whom the subject of this sketch is the eighth. He first attended the common schools of his native county and afterward attended a short time the college at Marietta, Ohio. From there he went … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Jacob Harry

Jacob Harry, farmer and stock; P. O. Humbolt; the subject of this sketch was born in Preble Co., Ohio, Jan. 14, 1816; he married Miss Susannah Tobey, Aug. 1, 1839; she was born in Washington Co., Md., Dec. 15, 1819. They had eleven children, nine living, viz., Jefferson, Madison and Amanda, Hiram, Nathaniel, Franklin, Clinton, Stephen A. D. and Nelson. He lived in Ohio until 1855; he was raised on the farm and also learned the brickmason’s trade; he then went west, visited Kansas and finally settled in Callaway Co., Mo., near Jefferson City, where he engaged in farming, remaining … Read more

Biographical Sketch of J. M. Mock

J. M. Mock, farming; P. O. Charleston the subject of this sketch was born in Hocking Co., Ohio, April 1, 1839. He married Miss Catharine J. Zimmerman Nov. 22, 1866; she was born in Coles Co., Ill., near Ashmore, June 17, 1843; they had six children – four living, viz., Sarah C., Edward W., Oscar B. and Florence I. ;he lived in Ohio until he was 15 years old, when, with his parents he moved to Coles Co., Ill., and settled near Oakland; this was in 1854; they engaged in farming, where he lived until 1860; they then moved to … Read more

Biography of Benjamin Lynn Wilson

Benjamin Lynn Wilson. A forceful factor in Salina’s commercial, civic, educational and religious life was the late Benjamin Lynn Wilson, one of that city’s pioneer merchants. He had gone to Salina when it was on the edge of civilized things in Kansas, and he did his big life work there and the generous prosperity that rewarded his efforts came from that community, to which he was stanchly loyal to the end of his life and which remembers him with fidelity and gratitude for the much good he did. The late Mr. Wilson was born at Bealsville, Ohio, January 13, 1845, … Read more

Biography of Charles T. Atkinson

Charles T. Atkinson is one of the oldest members of the bar in Southern Kansas, having been an attorney at Arkansas City since 1884. He is a lawyer first and last, and had seldom allowed outside interests to interfere with his complete devotion to his profession, in which he had made a most noteworthy success. Mr. Atkinson had an interesting ancestry. His people for generations back were Quakers and were identified with the early history of the City of Brotherly Love. It was during the time of William Penn that the first of the name came from England to Philadelphia. … Read more

Biography of Hollis Herbert Allen

Hollis Herbert Allen found his life work in the grocery business. He came to Arkansas City twenty-eight years ago, then a young man, and learned the grocery trade by work in every capacity, at first for others and afterwards for himself. Any one who had had experience in the grocery trade knows that hardly any other business is subject to the operation of more circumstances and influences affecting its prosperity, and anyone who had been successful in that line fully deserves all he had won. Mr. Allen now had one of the finest retail grocery houses in the State of … Read more