Women

Biographical Sketch of Mrs. Arethusa E. Smith

MRS. ARETHUSA E. SMITH. – Arethusa E., the daughter of Daniel Lynn, was born near Warsaw, Benton County, Missouri, June 12, 1834. As a child of six years she removed with her parents to Platte county, in the same state, remaining until 1844, the year memorable for the great flood. Mr. Lynn, being very fond of a pioneer life, determined to settle in Texas, but was unable to proceed farther than the White river country, and, being ill suited with that country, returned to Platte county. He had long heard of Oregon, and decided to cross the plains thither and … Read more

Biography of William A. Johnston, Mrs.

A few days after his graduation, in June, 1879, Willis Bailey started with a span of horses for Kansas. His location was in Nemaha County, seven miles west of Seneca, the county seat. There he opened up a ranch, and on that ranch a town was subsequently started, named Baileyville. Governor Bailey took an active hand in the management of the Bailey ranch until 1906. In that year he removed to Atchison, Kansas, became vice president of the Exchange National Bank, and for over ten years had been the managing official of this institution. His interest in banking dates even … Read more

Biography of Mrs. Phoebe (Read) Pinkerton

Mrs. Phoebe (Read) Pinkerton. With a dignified recognition of official responsibility and the poise and charm of an intellectual woman, Mrs. Phoebe (Read) Pinkerton, register of deeds for Clay County, impresses a visitor very favorably and in a section of country where interesting personalities are by no means lacking. Mrs. Pinkerton is widely known and is universally esteemed, and was brought to Clay Center by her parents in 1878. Mrs. Pinkerton was born in the City of Manchester, England, and is a daughter of Rev. William and Margaret (Martin) Read. Both parents were born at Manchester, the father on February … Read more

Biography of Mrs. Alice M. (Beachly) Berkeley

Mrs. Alice M. (Beachly) Berkeley. Talented in music and a leading spirit in the activities that make the modern woman who had social advantages very different from her sisters of some years ago, Mrs. Alice M. (Beachly) Berkeley, of Burr Oak, needs no introduction to many residents of Jewell County. For a number of years she had occupied, her beautiful and hospitable home, which is situated on the corner of Lewis and Water streets, Burr Oak, and is one of this city’s most esteemed and admired ladles. Mrs. Berkeley was born at Meyeradale, Pennsylvania, and is a daughter of G. … Read more

Biography of Mary Morrall Darling

Mrs. Mary Morrall Darling is the daughter of Wamego’s pioneer physician, Dr. Albert Morrall, and she is now living in the same house where she was born May 14, 1872. The Morralls were English people and were colonial settlers in the Carolinas. Her great-great-grandfather was Daniel Morrall who married Lydia Savanen. Her great-grandfather was John Morrall. Her grandfather, George Washington Morrall, was born at Georgetown, South Carolina, August 17, 1786, became an attorney by profession, and practiced at Grahamville and at Beaufort, South Carolina, dying in the latter city February 22, 1836. He married Phoebe Jenkins Tripp, who was born … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Cora Gilbert Lewis

Cora Gilbert Lewis, member of the Board of Educational Administration of Kansas, had long been interested in educational affairs in this state and had become one of the prominent Kansas women. Mrs. Lewis served as president of the Kansas Woman’s Press Association in 1901. In 1902 she was elected president of the Seventh District Federation of Women’s Clubs of Kansas. From 1903 to 1905, two years, she was president of the Kansas State Federation of Women’s Clubs and in 1905-07 was visiting member of the Kansas Board of Control. Her work as member of the Kansas Board of Educational Administration … Read more

Biography of Kate L. Cowick

Miss Kate L. Cowick, now serving her second term as county treasurer of Wyandotte County, probably had the most responsible office of any woman in Kansas. She had the business efficiency needed in the administration of such an office. She is thoroughly trained in the public service, having for many years been a teacher and administrative official of schools, and her work as county treasurer had given her not a little of justly earned fame among the women of Kansas. Miss Cowick is a native of Missouri, born at Tarkio in Atchison County on February 8, 1885. She was the … Read more

Biography of Anna Mallows, Anna

Miss Anna Mallows. To paraphrase an old proverb, To woman’s work there is neither end or limit of capacity for human service and usefulness. Women have succssded as home makers, as teachers, in all the learned professions, in executive business, and one of the bright Kansas women, Miss Anna Mallows, is a very successful newspaper woman, proprietor, and publisher of the White Cloud Globe. The White Cloud Globe is now the only paper published in that city. It was founded in 1892 by John J. Faulkner, and throughout its twenty-five years it had never exhibited more enterprise as a real … Read more

Biography of Harrison E. King, Mrs.

Mrs. H. E. King is one of the capable business women of Leon, Kansas, where since her husband’s death she had managed the estate, is a director in the State Bank of Leon, and had many other extensive interests in Butler County. Her husband, the late Harrison E. King, was a man of great business ability, and his untimely death at the age of forty-seven, on February 7, 1914, was a matter of general regret throughout the large community in which he was so well known. Mr. King was a man of striking appearance, possessed business judgment in a marked … Read more

Slave Narrative of Miss Adeline Blakeley

Interviewer: Mary D. Hudgins Person Interviewed: Miss Adeline Blakely Age: 87 Home: 101 Rock Street, Fayetteville, Arkansas “Honey, look in the bible to get the date when I was born. We want to have it just right. Yes, here’s the place, read it to me. July 10, 1850? Yes, I remember now, that’s what they’ve always told me. I wanted to be sure, though. I was born in Hickman County, Tenn. and was about a year when they brought me to Arkansas. My mother and her people had been bought by Mr. John P. Parks when they were just children—John … Read more

Biography of Mrs. Lucinda J. Brearley

In a history of the settlement of a state there is usually but slight reference made to the part which the women have taken in its development. This is, of course, due to the more active connection of the pioneer men with public life, while the wives, mothers and daughters are concerned in the duties of home making. Great credit, however, is due the brave pioneer women, who stand courageously by the side of husbands and fathers, sharing with them in the hardships and dangers which accompany the development of a new section; nor is their influence a minor factor … Read more

Biography of Mrs. Nora (Van Horn) Havens

Mrs. Nora (Van Horn) Havens. Long, honorably and prominently associated with business and public affairs in different sections of Kansas, the names of Van Horn and of Havens still represent very important interests. The Van Horn name had been a familiar one in Kansas since 1857, and that of Havens for the past forty-six years. A well-known representative of both is found in Mrs. Nora (Van Horn) Havens, a highly esteemed resident of Minneapolis, Kansas. Mrs. Havens was educated at Topeka, Kansas, but her birth took place at Kent, in Jefferson County, Indiana. Her parents were Benjamin Franklin and Elizabeth … Read more

Biography of Mamir Maud (Tart) Partridge, Mrs.

Mrs. Mamir Maud (Tart) Partridge. One of the leaders in club, social and religious work in Ottawa County and in the movements which make for better education, finer citizenship and higher morals, is Mrs. Mamie Maud (Tart) Partridge, of Delphos, who had been a resident of Kansas since 1884. She is a woman whose activities have touched life on many sides, for in addition to the things above noted she had been a school teacher and a public official, and in each of the many capacities in which she had acted had been a powerful influence for good among the … Read more

Biography of Lucetta S. Carter, Mrs.

Mrs. Lucetta S. Carter. Political struggle, public life and social leadership have brought the names of many women in the last quarter of a century into the limelight in the country, but it is not so frequently that the name of one becomes a household word in her state, through the activities and results of a quiet business career. Such a name is Lucetta S. Carter, philanthropist, through whose generous benefactions Wichita had benefited through the Children’s Home, the First Unitarian Church and Fairmount College. To this womanly duty of enriching others, she brought no inherited fortune; on the other … Read more

Biography of J. H. Stephens, Mrs.

Mrs. J. H. Stephens. As president of the City Federation of Women’s Clubs, an active factor in the Current Club and a member of the Carnegie Library Board, at Coffeyville, Mrs. J. H. Stephens occupies a prominent position in the social, civic and intellectual life that has made this city one of the centers of cultural interests in the state. Mrs. Stephens (Esther Logan) comes of an old colonial family of English origin. The Logans were pioneers in Kentucky, in which state Mrs. Stephens’ grandfather was born and died. Her father, G. H. Logan, was born in Somerset County, Kentucky, … Read more

Biography of Mary Pierce Van Zile

Mary Pierce Van Zile. A very important member of the faculty of the Kansas State Agricultural College is Mrs. Mary Pierce Van Zile, dean of women and dean of the division of home economics. Her name is a household word in many widely separated homes, for each year Mrs. Van Zile has under her immediate care and instruction from 800 to 900 girls. They come from many environments and are mostly in the most receptive period of their lives, and the influence exerted by Dean Van Zile largely moulds their future. Mary Pierce Van Zile was born on her father’s … Read more

Biography of Henrietta Fulford (Wilson) Kinley, Mrs.

Mrs. Henrietta Fulford (Wilson) Kinley. In the developing of the beautiful city of Topeka, Kansas, many people who had been born in other states took part and it is surprising how large a number were natives of Illinois. As a rule they were well educated and accustomed to the refinements of life and in their new surroundings their influence was progressive and beneficial. One of these families bore the name of Fulford, a name that became well known at Topeka and which is yet identified with the city’s best interests. A well known and highly esteemed member of this sterling … Read more

Biography of Mrs. Jane Buford

Among the honored pioneer women of Oklahoma is numbered Mrs. Jane Buford, who resides in a beautiful home at No. 102 North Cherokee street in Bartlesville. She is a member of the Delaware tribe of Indians and during her infancy was brought by her parents to Indian Territory at an early period in its settlement. She acquired a thorough knowledge of the English language, in which she converses as fluently as in her native tongue, and as a young woman she was united in marriage to Jacob Wheeler, now deceased. They became the parents of three children: Lena, the eldest … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Mrs. Joel Mayer

Well known at Oilton and in Creek county is Mrs. Joel Mayer, who was born in Ramona, Oklahoma, on the 6th of February, 1900. She is a daughter of Reuben Bartlett and Roxie Ann (Pierson) Tuner. The former was one of the well to do old settlers of Oklahoma, important in the tribal affairs of his people in the early days, and the family has long been represented in this section of the state. The daughter, Mrs. Mayer, pursued her education in St. Francis Convent at Nevada, Missouri, and then returned to her home in Oklahoma, having since been a … Read more

Biography of Mrs. Mary C. Bezion

One of the pioneer citizens of Nowata county is Mrs. Mary C. Bezion, residing on her farm two miles southwest of Delaware, hale and hearty at the age of seventy-three years. A native of Kansas, she was born in Wyandotte county, on the 14th of April, 1849, a daughter of Jim and Nancy (Washington) Secondine. Her father, who was chief of the Delaware, was born in Ohio. He was with General Fremont during the Mexican war and his picture has been preserved in the archives at Washington, D. C. Mrs. Bezion was but fourteen years of age when her father … Read more