Biographical Sketch of Hon. John M. Morris

Hon. John M. Morris was born near Cincinnati in 1825. His father, Isaac Morris, was born in New Jersey. He was a farmer by occupation, and had a family of eight children, of which the subject of this sketch was the youngest. When he was a boy, instead of going to college, he helped to clear away the forests and make a farm in Ohio. In March 1855, he went to Kansas and settled on a farm in Riley County. He lived there for twenty years. While in the “Sunflower” State he had the honor of representing Riley County in … Read more

Biography of John P. Clum

John P. Clum, of San Bernardino, was born in Claverack, Columbia County, New York, in 1851, and his childhood and youth were passed on the banks of the historic Hudson. At the age of nineteen he graduated at the Hudson River Institute, and entered the freshman class of Rutger’s College, New Brunswick, New Jersey. After completing the first year and creditably passing all the examinations, adverse fortune compelled him to leave college, and in 1871 he entered the meteorological service of the United States Government. Having taken a course in meteorology and signaling, he was ordered to Santa Fe, New … Read more

Biography of Truman Reeves

Truman Reeves, late proprietor of the oldest jewelry store in San Bernardino, and probably the only one-armed watchmaker in the world, established the business in that city in 1874. In 1857, when a youth of sixteen years, he commenced learning the watchmaker’s and jeweler’s trade with Julius King, in Warren, Ohio. He worked on his father’s farm in Orwell, Ashtabula County, where he had moved with his parents from Chardon, Ohio, his birthplace, until he went to the trade. Upon the inception of the war of the Rebellion, his ardent patriotism impelled him to respond to the first call by … Read more

Biography of John Calvin Dixon

John Calvin Dixon, proprietor of the C. O. D. Grocery, San Bernardino, was born in 1840, in Reynoldsburg, Franklin County, Ohio, and there spent the first eighteen years of his life. In 1858 he moved with his father’s family to Jasper County, Iowa, and there his father, who was a brick-mason by trade, and had also been a farmer, engaged in the grocery business, with John as assistant in the store. Upon the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion he promptly responded to his country’s call for volunteers and enlisted as a member of the Fifth Iowa Infantry … Read more

Biography of John Hartley Smith

John Hartley Smith, the founder and president of the First National Bank of San Bernardino, and one of the most thorough business men and experienced bankers in Southern California, was born in Jackson County, Virginia, in 1835. He came to Ohio at the age of fifteen, and in 1853 he came to California and spent two years in the gold mines, chiefly in Mariposa County. He was quite successful, and in 1855 returned to Ohio with considerable money and a fund of experience which has proved of great value to him in his subsequent business career, as well as fraught … Read more

Biography of Charles Trader Beatty

Charles Trader Beatty. One of the oldest and most prominent names in the history of Chanute is that of the Beatty family. It was in 1870 that the late John Brooke Beatty established himself at the old Town of Tioga, which had since become a part of the City of Chanute. He erected the first flour mill at that point, was the first hardware dealer in the Town of Tioga, and also an early day mayor. For eleven years he held the office of postmaster at Chanute. John B. Beatty married Maria Whiteman Trader. Of this worthy couple two children … Read more

Biography of Robert A. Lovitt

Robert A. Lovitt. As president of the Saline County Bar Association, Robert A. Lovitt’s professional status with his brethren may be judged, but his reputation in business, politics, social life and on the lecture platform extends all over the state. He had been a valued resident of Salina since August 5, 1876. Robert A. Lovitt was born in his father’s primitive log cabin in Muskingum County, Ohio, October 10, 1851. His parents were Evan J. and Leah (Stamats) Lovitt, he of English ancestry and she of German revolutionary stock. The father of Mr. Lovitt was born in New Jersey, was … Read more

Biography of Volney P. Mooney

Volney P. Mooney, now probate judge of Butler County, had resided in this section of Kansas more than forty-eight years and had been successively teacher, merchant, lawyer and public official. The people of Butler County know him and trust him as completely as any other citizen. His father, the late Rev. Isaac Mooney, was one of the notable men in this section of Kansas. He was the founder of a town and community, and throughout his life held that community up to his own high ideals. It is not easy to lose sight of the tremendous influence either for good … Read more

Biography of Augustus Keefer Boom, M.D.

AUGUSTUS KEEFER BOOM, M. D., holding a noteworthy position in Western Massachusetts, has done much both along private lines of practice and in the public service and as a leading physician of Adams he is considered one of the foremost men in his profession in this section. Giving to the world his highest endeavors, his progress governed by lofty ideals, and his ever forward looking attitude, Dr. Boom has made his influence strongly felt in various lines of current endeavor, as well as in his professional work. He is a member of an old and honored family of America, originally … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Rev. Livingston L. Taylor

Rev. Livingston L. Taylor, who enjoys a well earned reputation as a forcible and eloquent preacher, and whose life is a consistent and unvarying example of the doctrines he preaches, is the son of William J. 1. Taylor, D. D., and Maria L. (Cowenhoven) Taylor. Rev. Livingston L. Taylor was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 16, 1860. His education has been a varied and thorough one at the following named institutions : Newark Academy, Newark, New Jersey; Rutgers College, from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1881, and which conferred the degree of Master … Read more

Biography of Dr. Henry Foster

Dr. Henry Foster was born in the town of Norwich, Vermont, January 18, 1821. He was the son of Henry and Polly (Hubbard) Foster, who were the owners of a farm of six hundred acres of intervale land, and were apparently established for life in a beautiful home. As one of a family of seven children, Dr. Foster spent a happy and healthful childhood. When he was fourteen years of age financial reverses came to the family and they removed to western New York and from thence to Ohio, where the boys of the family made a home and cared … Read more

Biography of Fred L. Stephenson

Fred L. Stephenson is president of the Commercial State Bank of Yates Center. He had many other interests that connect him with that community, and for many years had been one of the live and energetic citizens, ever ready to co-operate in any plan for the advancement of local welfare. Mr. Stephenson had spent most of his life in Kansas and he owes to his individual energies and the opportunities of the state his prosperity and his position in affairs. His ancestors were English people who came to New York in Colonial days. His grandfather was Thomas Stephenson, a native … Read more

Biography of Theodore H. Terry

Theodore H. Terry. While his home for upwards of half a century had been in one of the quiet country towns of Saline County, the name of Theodore H. Terry is not unknown to the state at large. He had had the friendship and acquaintance of many prominent Kansans and his friendship and counsel have been valued and esteemed not only in his home town but elsewhere. Mr. Terry for many years was the genial village blacksmith of Bavaria, and had also become widely known as a breeder of Percheron horses and Spanish jacks. He is a native of the … Read more

Biography of G. Leroy Ramsey

G. Leroy Ramsey. Among the men who are marking their names indelibly upon the stockraising history of Southeastern Kansas, one who had been more than ordinarily active in this field of endeavor and whose operations have assumed large proportions is G. LeRoy Ramsey, who owned and operates 1,760 acres six miles north of El Dorado and 560 acres northeast of that city, all in Butler County. Mr. Ramsey not only raises and ships cattle extensively, but of recent years had been interested in oil leases. He was born at Belle Center, Ohio, December 22, 1872, and is a son of … Read more

Biography of Coe C. Horton

(X) Coe C., son of Isaiah (2) Horton, was born at Springwater, Livingston county, New York, April 12. 1864. He attended the district schools and the Victor high school. In 1882 he engaged in the lumber trade at Avon, New York; in 1889 he came to Victor and has followed farming there to the present time. He was for four years employed by the Wabash railroad in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. He was for one year in the employ of the New York Times of New York City, and three years in the furniture and hardware business in Bennington, Vermont. … Read more

Biography of Joseph Rosenblum

JOSEPH ROSENBLUM is one of the most extensive onion operators in the United States, a man who has established the onion market, who has brought order to certain commercial conditions, and who has brought success not only to himself but to the scores of producers who are most vitally concerned. He is a power to be reckoned with in American commercial and financial circles, and has achieved this high position solely through his own ability, probity and perseverance. The State of Massachusetts, looking to her men of agricultural industries for the most favorable reports that she is accustomed to pass … Read more

Biography of William C. Phenicie

William C. Phenicie, an honored veteran of the Civil war, a resident of Kansas for more than half a century, had played his varied part in life with exceeding industry, thrift, and a public spirited sense of responsibility as a citizen. He is now a resident of Tonganoxie in Leavenworth County. His birth occurred on a farm near Zanesville, Muskingum County, Ohio, December 19, 1841. His parents were George W. and Mary Ann (Howk) Phenicie. His father was an Ohio farmer. He also had the pioneer spirit which led Americans of all classes away from the settled states into the … Read more

Biography of Nelson H. George

Nelson H. George is one of the veterans in the service of the Santa Fe Railroad in Kansas. He had been connected with the railroad in different capacities for twenty-five consecutive years, and when he first came to Kansas over thirty years ago he entered the employ of the railway company, though afterwards for some seven or eight years he had a most diversified experience as a West Kansas homesteader. He now had the heavy responsibilities of general yardmaster of the Santa Fe Railway at Arkansas City. His name is familiar to railroad men throughout the southwest, and his efficiency … Read more

Biography of Robert H. Ramsey

Robert H. Ramsey. During the past thirty-five years no name had been more closely identified with the ranching and stock raising interests of Butler County than that of Ramsey. Robert H. Ramsey is a son of A. C. Ramsey, who was the pioneer of the family in the cattle industry. Robert Ramsey himself had handled cattle and ranching as a conspicuous interest of his career, but is also identified with the business community of El Dorado. He was born in Bellefontaine, Ohio, November 18, 1881. Albert C. Ramsey, his father, was born in Coshocton County, Ohio, June 7, 1837, one … Read more

Biography of Harvey Elmer Bruce

Harvey Elmer Bruce is one of Kansas’ successful newspaper men, being owner and editor of The Marquette Tribune, which he acquired some years ago and which he had made an influential organ of public opinion in McPherson and adjoining counties of the state. Mr. Bruce was born on a farm in Logan County, Ohio, March 12, 1865, but had lived in McPherson County, Kansas, since early boyhood. He was a successful schoolman in this state before he enrolled in the ranks of newspaper men. His parents were Henry Clay and Louise Jane (Abel) Bruce. His father was born in Somerset … Read more