Chapter XXV. Biographical History (part 3)

Edward Perdue, president of the First National Bank of Atchison, and extensive farmer, of Huron, Kan., has been a resident of Atchison county for the past forty-five years. Like other successful men who were pioneers in Kansas, he arrived here from Canada when a young man of twenty years of age without money, but possessed of strength, a willingness to work at honest labor and an ambition to succeed. How well he has succeeded is seen in the substantial fortune which he has accumulated and the honors which have been conferred upon him by his fellow citizens.

Mr. Perdue was born on a farm in Peterboro county, Ontario, Canada, June 27, 1850, a son of Thomas and Catharine Perdue, natives of Ireland, who left the Emerald Isle in their youth and settled in Canada. Edward Perdue was reared to sturdy young manhood on the parental farm and attended the country school in the vicinity of his home as opportunity afforded. In March of 1870 he arrived in Atchison, and during his first year worked at any odd jobs which were presented, including labor on the streets and harvesting on the nearby farms. During the following five years he was employed as a construction foreman on the grading and building of the Santa Fe railroad from Atchison to the Colorado-Kansas State line. He saved his money and by the exercise of strict economy, which meant the denial to himself of all but the actual necessities of life, he was enabled to accumulate sufficient funds to invest in a farm near the town of Huron, on which he resided for the next five years. He then sold this farm and bought another one about one and one-half miles east from Huron, which remains his home to the present time. Mr. Perdue has given his attention mostly to the raising and feeding of live stock in his farming operations and has succeeded in amassing a comfortable fortune during the forty years he has been an agriculturist. He has increased his land holdings until at the present time he is the owner of 1,040 acres of splendid farm lands in Lancaster township. His home farm is one of the best improved tracts of farm land in the county and all of his farms show the results obtained from soil conservation and advanced methods of farming.

While Mr. Perdue has been primarily a farmer, he has given his attention to other matters as betokens a man of influence and substance. In the year 1891 he assisted in the organization of the Huron State Bank and is president of this thriving concern. In 1906 he took part in the organization of the Commercial State Bank of Atchison, which was succeeded later by the First National Bank, of which banking institution he has served as president since 1900. He is also a stockholder of the State Savings Bank of Leavenworth, Kansas.

Mr. Perdue was married in 1878 to Mary Viola Davey, of Brown county, Kansas, a daughter of Charles Davey, which marriage has resulted in the birth of seven children, as follows: Mrs. Maria Walters, living on a farm near Huron; Edna, wife of J. M. Delaney, merchant, of Huron, Kan.; Mrs. Mabel Schmidt, wife of the assistant cashier of the Huron State Bank; Charles, who is cultivating the home farm; Thomas Hendricks, at home; George, a farmer in North Dakota; and Edward, Jr.

Mr. Perdue has been a life-long Democrat, who has always taken a more or less active part in the political affairs of the county. He was elected county commissioner in 1897 and served one term. In 1904 he served one term as a member of the State legislature, representing this district, declining reëlection when his term of office expired. While he was reared in the Catholic belief, Mr. Perdue is tolerant of all creeds and takes a broad-minded view of religious matters. He belongs to the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Modern Woodmen.

Dr. Charles L. Hixon.

Dr. Charles L. Hixon, a leading dental practitioner of Atchison is a native son of Kansas and comes of a pioneer family of the State. He was born on a farm in Jackson county, Kansas, January 14, 1872, and is a son of John S. and Alice (Clark) Hixon. His father, John S. Hixon, was born in Ohio in 1850, a son of Jacob and Cassandra (Stonebraker) Hixon, who resided in Ashland county, Ohio, until their removal to Putnam county, Indiana, in the early pioneer days when that part of the Hoosier State was being settled by large numbers of Ohio people. Alice Clark Hixon, mother of Dr. Hixon, was likewise born in 1850 in Putnam county, Indiana, a daughter of Andrew Jackson and Harriet (Mann) Clark, natives of New York State, and also pioneer settlers of Putnam county, Indiana. While John S. Hixon and Alice Clark were attending the district school in the neighborhood of their respective homes, they became great friends, and the warm friendship ripening into love which culminated in their marriage several years later in Jackson county, Kansas.

The Hixons and Clarks were essentially pioneers, and the history of the family for generations shows that some member of the family, or several of them, have been continually pushing westward and settling in the newer countries. Jacob Hixon was one of the first men in his neighborhood to hearken to the call of the West, and, after disposing of his land holdings in Putnam county, Indiana, he with all of his family migrated to Kansas, settling in Jackson county. They arrived in Atchison during the stormy days of the Civil war, and at a time when the local vigilance committee was in control of community affairs and were naturally very suspicious of all strangers. There had been considerable lawlessness in Atchison and neighboring towns and many outrages had been perpetrated by border ruffians and outlaws. The vigilance committee had taken charge of the affairs and had summarily lynched three men on the banks of White Clay creek just previous to the arrival of the Hixon family. Mr. Hixon was interrogated as to his loyalty to the Union and asked his intentions. His replies being satisfactory to the members of the committee, he was allowed to proceed on his way to Jackson county and arrived at Holton, Kansas, without further delay. Jacob Hixon settled on a fine farm near Holton, developed it and prospered as the years rolled on and the country became more and more settled. He died in 1905, at the advanced age of eighty-four years, his wife, Cassandra, departing this life in 1885.

The Clark family came to Kansas from Indiana in 1868, and Andrew Jackson Clark naturally settled in that part of Jackson county where his old friend and neighbor had chosen his place of residence. The intimacy which had existed between the two families in Putnam county, Indiana, was renewed, and as time went on, John S. Hixon and Alice Clark grew to maturity and were united in marriage. Their married life has been a happy and prosperous one, and five children have blessed this union: Dr. Charles L. Hixon, with whom this review is directly concerned; Mrs. J. C. Neeley, of Weiser, Idaho; Ernest H. Hixon, of Kansas City, Mo.; one child died in infancy. John S. Hixon became prominently identified with the civic life of Jackson county and is serving his county well and faithfully as treasurer for two terms, having been elected on the Republican ticket in 1912 and again in 1914. Mr. and Mrs. John S. Hixon reside in Holton, in Jackson county, and are prosperous and well respected in the neighborhood.

Dr. C. L. Hixon spent his boyhood days on the farm and early learned to assist in the farm work. He received his elementary education in the district schools, and was ambitious to secure a higher education. He has practically educated himself, and after learning all that was possible for him to learn in the country school, he attended Campbell College, at Holton, Kan., for two years. His ambition was to become a dentist, and with this end in view he matriculated in the University of Iowa in 1895. After spending two profitable years in this institution in the study of dentistry he returned home, and a short time later opened an office in Atchison, where he has practiced continuously for the past eighteen years. After seven years of practice in his first location, he opened well equipped offices at 519 Commercial street, and remained there until his removal to his present location at 613 Commercial street, where he has offices equipped with all the latest appliances for facilitating his work. Dr. Hixon is kept very busy attending to the calls made upon him in the practice of his profession, and during the many years he has been located in Atchison, he has built up an extensive and lucrative practice. He finds time, however, to keep abreast of the latest developments made in his profession, and is ever seeking to better his skill and knowledge of dentistry. He has been distinctly honored by the members of his profession, having served as president of the Northeast Kansas Dental Association, and is at present an active member of this association. He is a leading member of the Atchison Dental Association, and ranks high in his profession, not only as a successful practitioner, but as a citizen who has the best interests of his home city at heart. He is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Washington Lodge, No. 5, and is fraternally affiliated with the Odd Fellows, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Rebekah and Eastern Star lodges.

Dr. Hixon was united in marriage with Miss Inez B. Horn in 1902, and one child has been born to this union, Charles Horn Hixon, born May 25, 1907. Mrs. Inez B. Hixon was born in Atchison county, a daughter of J. H. and Catharine (Wallick) Horn, who reside at 1126 North Third street, Atchison. Mrs. Horn is a daughter of Benjamin Wallick, who served as sheriff of the county during the time of the Civil war.

Louis Kloepper.

Louis Kloepper, farmer and stockman of Lancaster township, Atchison county, was born January 18, 1888, on the farm where he now lives. He is a son of William and Fredericka (Von Derahe) Kloepper, who were the parents of four children as follows: Louis, subject of this sketch; Emma, deceased; William, deceased; Pauline, living at home. The father was born in Germany, December 14, 1853. He left there in 1883 and came directly to Atchison county, Kansas, where he bought eighty acres of land in section 27, Lancaster township. He farmed this one year, and in 1885 returned to Germany to be married. In 1886 he returned to his farm and began to improve it, building a large eight-room house in 1899 in place of the little three-room affair which stood on the place. In 1903 he built a fine 32×40 feet granary, and in 1904 he erected a large barn, 40×48 feet. The following year he bought more land and put up additional buildings, building in 1908 another barn, 32×40 feet. At the time of his death, February 7, 1913, he owned 240 acres of well improved land under cultivation, and thirteen acres of fine timber land. This achievement is the more remarkable in view of the fact that he landed with only $1,200. But he was industrious, and worked faithfully to improve his farm. He was a member, trustee and steward of the German Lutheran church. His wife was born in Germany, February 15, 1858, and is a daughter of Henry and Fredericka (Von Behren) Von Derahe, natives of Germany. The mother is now living with her son, Louis.

Louis Kloepper attended the old Huron school of Lancaster township, and grew to manhood on the farm which he now operates. Since the death of his father he has had charge of the farm and has worked to the extent of his ability in installing modern improvements on his place. He owns 160 acres in section 27, Lancaster township, in addition to the home place, and has three acres of orchard and grove. He also has a vineyard which was the feature of the place which Louis, and his father before him, always loved most. Special attention has been given to the vineyard when other things had to be neglected, perhaps. It is the pride of Mr. Kloepper’s place. He keeps graded stock and is a practical farmer. He now is operating 400 acres of land, 114 acres of which are in corn, and ninety-three acres are in cloves, the latter having been unusually successful. He owns a threshing outfit and two clover hullers, a corn shredder, and three gas engines. He utilizes these engines in numerous ways, including pumping and threshing and plowing. Mr. Kloepper has a modern farm in every way and has all up-to-date improvements of a labor and time saving kind, as well as an automobile. He is a stockholder in the Farmers’ Mercantile Association of Effingham, Kan. He is a practical farmer, of the progressive type.

In 1911 he married Marie Meier, a native of Germany, born July 3, 1888. She is a daughter of Henry and Fredericka (Finke) Meier, and was educated in Germany and left her native land at the age of seventeen. Mr. and Mrs. Kloepper have two children, Fredia, born November 13, 1911, and Emma, born April 21, 1913. Mr. Kloepper is an independent voter. He belongs to the German Lutheran church.

Charles W. Ferguson.

Charles W. Ferguson, vice-president of the Atchison Savings Bank, is one of the best known men in financial circles of northeastern Kansas, and he is equally as well known over a large section of western Missouri. Mr. Ferguson was born at Plattsburg, Mo., December 29, 1862, and is a son of William L. and Fannie A. (Carpenter) Ferguson, both natives of Kentucky, whose parents were Virginians and very early settlers of the Blue Grass State. The Ferguson family removed from Kentucky to Missouri about 1851. They came up the Missouri river by boat as far as Liberty Landing, and later located in Clinton county, Missouri. The father was a merchant and also engaged in the grain business, and was an all around progressive business man. He was a Republican, and in 1862 was elected sheriff of Clinton county, being the first Republican elected to office in that county within a period of twenty-five years. During the Civil war he was captain of the Home Guards. He died in 1893, age 64 years. Charles W. Ferguson is one of a family of six children, as follows: John L., assistant general passenger agent of the Chicago & Northwestern railroad, Chicago, Ill.; Mary F., widow of M. B. Riley, and resides in St. Joseph, Mo.; Adelia M., Plattsburg, Mo.; Katherine, Plattsburg, Mo.; Charles W., the subject of this sketch, and Louis, a conductor on the Chicago & Northwestern railroad, resides at Highland Park, Ill. Charles W. Ferguson attended the public schools in Plattsburg until he was thirteen years old, and at that early age went to work in the express office at Plattsburg, where he remained about five years. He then entered the employ of Stonum Brothers, remaining with that company two years. He then accepted a position in the Plattsburg Bank, as bookkeeper and assistant cashier, remaining with that institution for seven years. He then went with the Schuster-Hax National Bank, St. Joseph, Mo., as receiving teller, and served in that capacity for four years. He resigned that position in June, 1894, to become bookkeeper of the Exchange National Bank of Atchison. He served with that institution in the capacity of paying teller, assistant cashier and cashier, resigning the latter position February 1, 1914. In November, 1914, he accepted a position with the Federal Reserve Bank, of Kansas City, Mo., and was with that institution for eight months, and in July, 1915, became vice-president of the Atchison Savings Bank. Mr. Ferguson has had a vast experience in the field of banking, and is well posted on the intricate problems of finance, and possesses the keen discriminating qualities of the successful banker. Mr. Ferguson was married April 28, 1892, to Miss Sallie Clay, of Plattsburg, Mo. She is a daughter of James M. Clay, a member of the Kentucky branch of the Clay family. Mr. Ferguson is a member of the Masonic lodge, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Modern Woodmen of America.

Earl V. Jones.

Signal success in any one field of endeavor is worthy of recognition by the public, whether it be professional, inventive, mercantile or of an industrial nature. Some men are naturally gifted with the ability to become successful in the industrial and manufacturing field, and are mentally equipped with a certain amount of mechanical genius, along with decided business ability to take hold of a proposition, and makes it succeed, despite difficulties. E. V. Jones, treasurer and manager of the Bailor Plow Company, of Atchison, is one of the latter type who is fast climbing to a place of eminence in his chosen field of endeavor, and holds a high place among the manufacturing and mercantile interests of Atchison and the Middle West.

Mr. Jones was born in Livingston county, Missouri, January 21, 1878, a son of Charles Jones, a building contractor, who was a native of Kentucky and a son of William Jones, owner of a large plantation in Kentucky, which was lost as one of the misfortunes which befell the family as a result of the Civil war’s ravages in Kentucky. Desirous of making a new start in a land further removed from internecine strife, and where opportunities for success seemed greater, William Jones removed to Missouri, and here Charles, the father of E. V., was reared and became successful in agricultural pursuits, the son, Earl V., being reared on the family estate in Livingston county, Missouri. The Jones family is originally of Scotch-Irish stock, the founder of the family emigrating from the north of Ireland to this country several generations ago. Charles Jones married Miss Jennie Wills, a daughter of John Wills, native of the east coast of England, and who immigrated to this country with his brother, George, and followed his trade of wagon maker successfully. John Wills owned and operated an extensive blacksmith and wagon maker’s shop at Chillicothe, Mo., which did a large business and made moderate wealth for its proprietor.

Earl V. Jones, with whom this review is directly concerned, was educated in the common and high schools of his native county, and attended the military school at Palmyra, Mo., supplementing his academic education with one year’s study in business college at Atchison, Kan. For some years before the outbreak of the Spanish-American war, he had been a member of the Missouri State militia, Company H, Fourth infantry regiment. When the war broke out and troops were called for to fight the Spaniards in Cuba and the Philippines, he responded with his company and regiment, and went to the front immediately, serving at Camp Alger, near Washington, D. C., on the Potomac river, and Camp Meade, at Harrisburg, Pa., and at Greenville, S. C. After the close of the war, and receiving his honorable discharge at Greenville, S. C., and being mustered out of the service, he returned to his home city, Chillicothe, and entered the employ of the Jackson Woodenware Company as a workman in 1899. His capacity for work and an inherent genius for detail and management here asserted itself and his rise in this concern was rapid and substantial. It was not long until his faithfulness and decided ability was recognized by his employers and he was promoted to the post of superintendent of the factory. When the Jackson Woodenware Company was removed to Atchison in 1902, Mr. Jones came along in the capacity of shipping clerk, and later served as superintendent of the company until its dissolution in 1910. During this time Mr. Jones had made a reputation as a manufacturer and organizer, which had become generally recognized throughout this section of the country, and, although many flattering offers came to him to accept executive positions of importance, he decided to cast his lot with the Bailor Plow Company as treasurer and manager in 1910, when a company was organized for the purpose of locating the factory in Atchison. His judgment in this respect was essentially sound, inasmuch as the Bailor Plow Company, under his management, is one of the flourishing manufacturing concerns of the city. The company and Mr. Jones, the manager, have made good, the large payroll, and the constantly increasing output of the plant having fully justified the decision of the Atchison men who were instrumental in locating the plant in this city. A great future is decidedly in store for the Bailor Plow Company and its manager.

Mr. Jones was united in marriage with Katherine Barton, of Livingston county, in 1901. To this union have been born two sons: Raymond and Earl. Mrs. Jones is a daughter of Prof. John W. Barton, widely known educator of Missouri, who formerly served as city superintendent of various schools, and was formerly a member of the faculty of the University of Missouri.

Mr. Jones finds time, aside from his duties as manager of the factory, to take an active part in the social and civic life of Atchison, and has identified himself with the city’s institutions in a substantial manner, as befitting a man of his position and attainments. He is a member of the Masonic lodge, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of the Maccabees, and is affiliated with the United Commercial Travelers.

Mrs. Julia E. Adams Boyington.

Mrs. Julia E. Adams Boyington comes of parents who were important factors in the early history of Atchison county. Her father, William Adams, came to Kansas in the fifties for the purpose of helping make Kansas a free State. He was a leader of the Cayuga settlement and he was intimately connected with the making of Kansas history for many years. Mrs. Boyington was born May 15, 1849, in Skaneateles, Onondaga county, New York. Her parents, William and Mary Ann (Ellsbury) Adams, were both born in England. The father was born October 6, 1820, in Summersetshire, England, and was a son of George Adams, who married Miss Thayer, also a native of England.

At the age of seventeen, William Adams left his native country and came to New York. He farmed there until 1856, when he came to Kansas and settled in Atchison county for the express purpose of helping John Brown in his fight along the border, and assisting the Free State party. He passed through many thrilling experiences during these troubled years and though he was often subjected to great bodily danger, he never wavered in his convictions and was always ready to fight for his convictions. He preëmpted eighty acres of land which he increased to 800 acres during his life time. When he took his first land the country was wild and undeveloped, and he built a log cabin on his place and used a yoke of oxen in breaking the land. He was a great stockman and kept a large number of animals and farmed until his death in 1889, remaining in active life until within a short time of his death. Mr. Adams was a Republican and was loyally devoted to the welfare of his party. He always took a great deal of interest in the activities of his party and helped it at every opportunity, though he never desired an office as a reward for his work, and never held a political job.

On July 4, 1848, Mr. Adams was married to Mary A. Ellsbury, also a native of Summersetshire, England. She was born October 19, 1825, and died December 15, 1895. Mrs. Boyington, though a small girl when she came to Kansas, remembers many incidents of that early life with remarkable vividness. She still keeps a rifle and an old shot gun which her father brought from New York, and prizes them very highly. They were the means of protecting her and her mother many times from the depredations of the Indians, who were numerous in that section then, and lived on a reservation only four miles from the Adams home. They passed the little Adams cabin when they went after whiskey. As they would return completely intoxicated, they would quarrel and disturb the neighborhood, often frightening the women whose husbands were working out in the fields. The Cayuga settlement numbered about forty people during the early days. The township elections in Grasshopper township were always held in the Adams house, and Mr. Adams was always generous in helping public affairs along.

Mr. and Mrs. Adams were parents of five children: Julia, the subject of this sketch; Georgia Anna, deceased; Samuel, of Grasshopper township; Millicent, who died in infancy; Julia, born a twin, but the other child died in infancy. Samuel, married Mrs. Ida Hitchcock, a native of Scranton, Penn., in California, May 31, 1887. By her marriage to Mr. Adams she was the mother of two children: William J., who was born March 19, 1890, and Earl, who was born October 10, 1891. These two children were partly reared by their aunt, Mrs. Boyington, and she is very fond of them. Though she has no children of her own, she has made these two nephews her favorites and has treated them as though they were her own children. Frank W. Boyington, the husband of Julia E. Adams Boyington, was born February 15, 1845, in Pennsylvania, and was a son of Edwin C. and Susan (Smith) Boyington, the former a native of Litchfield, Conn., and the latter a native of Pennsylvania. In their old age they came to Kansas and lived with their son, Frank W., and died here. The father died 1872, and the mother died in 1875. He left there in 1867 and settled in Grasshopper township, Atchison county, where Samuel Adams was reared to manhood in Grasshopper township; lived for ten years in California and returned to his farm in Grasshopper township in 1913. He was married to Mrs. Julia Bartlet before his marriage to Miss Adams. His first wife was a school teacher in Grasshopper township before her marriage. Three children were born to them. Edward, of Atchison, United States mail clerk, Alice Spangler, Marion county, Kansas, and one deceased. After her death in 1899, he was married to Miss Julia E. Adams, the subject of this sketch.

Mr. Boyington was an early settler in Kansas and has been a successful farmer. His wife owns 480 acres of land which once was a part of the old home place. Mr. Boyington owns 160 acres in Marion county, Kansas. He has lived in Kansas since 1867 and has seen much history made during that time. Mr. Boyington is a Republican and is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. Although he is not a church member, he attends services. Mr. Boyington is one of the most successful farmers of Atchison county, and with his wife, who is also a good manager, has made a financial success of farming.

John L. Blair.

The historian must ever take cognizance of the facts concerning the lives of those who have contributed most to the upbuilding and the welfare of their community. In looking backward over the half century, and more, which has elapsed since the Kansas Territory was thrown open to settlement, it is found that there are quite a number of men and women who are deserving of more than mere casual mention in the history of Atchison county. Among these are John L. and Amanda (Meeker) Blair, whose names will go down in history as having taken a very prominent part in the social, political and intellectual development of Doniphan and Atchison counties. Mrs. Blair has the honored distinction of having been the first public school teacher in Atchison and she and her husband were prominently identified with the historical course of events in northeast Kansas for a long period of years.

John L. Blair, deceased, was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, April 25, 1833, a son of Alexander and Rachel (Lynch) Blair. The family is of Irish origin. Alexander Blair was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church in Pennsylvania. He died in Pennsylvania, and in 1860 the widow joined John L., who had come to Kansas in 1858. They settled in Doniphan county, near the Atchison-Doniphan line. Mr. Blair developed a fine farm and made quite a reputation as a breeder of fine live stock, being one of the pioneer stock breeders of Kansas. In 1863 he was united in marriage with Amanda Meeker. This was after he had served some time in the Civil war as a member of Company D, Seventh regiment, Kansas cavalry, as a sergeant, enlisting at the beginning of the war and serving for two years. After being mustered out, he returned home and was married in June of 1863. Mr. and Mrs. Blair immediately moved to a farm in Doniphan county, Kansas, and were successful from the start. Both being endowed with more than ordinary intelligence and thrift, they foresaw the inevitable rise in land values and invested all of their earnings in land, accumulating over 600 acres of land which was located in Doniphan county and since Mr. Blair’s demise Mrs. Blair has purchased 320 acres in Lyon county, Kansas. Mr. Blair was an active and influential figure in the civic and political life of Doniphan county, and frequently stumped the county in the interest of the Republican party candidates. He was a public speaker of power and ability, and was a warm adherent of the cause of women suffrage, stumping Atchison and Doniphan counties in 1884 in the interest of the suffrage movement in Kansas. He filled the office of county commissioner of Doniphan county for two terms, and was at one time a candidate for State senator. During the years 1873 and 1874, when the Grange movement was spreading over Kansas, Mr. Blair was the official organizer for Atchison and Doniphan counties. He had a good knowledge of parliamentary law and this came in very useful in his work among the different granges. It was in the Grange meetings that the movement for woman suffrage first gained headway in Kansas, and the women learned how to vote. Mr. Blair died in 1891, February 4. To Mr. and Mrs. Blair were born the following children: Mamie, widow of James Hunter, of Doniphan county, and mother of two children; Alexander, a farmer in Doniphan county and father of seven children; Kate, wife of Thomas Evans, a breeder of fine Hereford cattle, hackney horses and pure bred hogs, in Lyon county, and who is the owner of the famous hackney mare formerly owned by Jay Gould. Mrs. Evans was educated in the schools of Doniphan county, and the old Monroe Institute of Atchison, and is a graduate of Holton University, at Holton, Kan., and graduated from the Kansas State University at Lawrence in 1893. Mr. and Mrs. Evans have one daughter, Mary Frances. Mrs. Blair has ten grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. Mr. and Mrs. Blair belonged to the Methodist Episcopal Church and he was an Odd Fellow.

Mrs. Amanda (Meeker) Blair was born in Franklin county, Ohio, near the city of Columbus, June 24, 1837. She was a daughter of Caleb and Mary (Grant) Meeker, her mother being a relative of Gen. U. S. Grant, and her father being a member of the famous Meeker family of America. Ezra Meeker, who crossed the continent en route to Oregon with an ox team, was a second cousin of Caleb Meeker. Caleb Meeker was born in New Jersey, a son of Aaron, who was born in New Jersey, of German origin. Caleb Meeker was born in Essex county, New Jersey, August 9, 1807, a son of Aaron Meeker, also of New Jersey, who had eight sons and four sons-in-law in the Meeker, also of New Jersey. Aaron was a brother of Timothy Meeker, who had eight sons and four sons-in-law in the American army during the Revolutionary war. Mary Grant Meeker was born in Pennsylvania. In 1808 the Meeker family migrated from New Jersey to Ohio and resided there until 1857, when they went to Fulton county, Illinois, stopping for one year. In November of 1858 Amanda Meeker came to Atchison to take a position as teacher in the first public school in Atchison. Caleb came in January of 1859 to visit his daughter and invested in a tract of land near Huron, Kan., moving his family in March, 1859. He lived on his farm all the rest of his life, dying in September, 1886. Amanda was educated in the district schools of her native county in Ohio and received a certificate to teach school when but fifteen years of age. She taught three months in 1852 for $9.00 per month and then attended school for the remainder of the season. The following year she taught six months for $20 per month, after which she studied for two years in the Ohio Wesleyan University, at Delaware, Ohio. Her teaching experience embraced six years in Ohio, five months in Illinois and three years in Atchison and six months in Hiawatha, Kan. Mrs. Blair was a very successful teacher, and had the faculty of exercising great control over her pupils.

A brother, Jeptha Meeker, served in the Union army during the Civil war. Mrs. Blair kept the postoffice at Huron, Atchison county, when the village was one of the stations on the old Military road, from Ft. Leavenworth to Denver and Pike’s Peak, Colo.

Mrs. Blair is distinguished among the pioneer women of Atchison county as having been the first public school teacher in the county appointed by a board of education, duly organized and elected. During the summer of 1858, this board was organized in the office of F. G. Adams in Atchison, and the members of the board were Dr. William Grimes, treasurer; F. G. Adams, clerk; James A. Coulter, director; Philip D. Plattenburg, principal of the schools at Lewistown, Ill., had been engaged as superintendent of the Atchison schools and this board elected Amanda Meeker as his assistant. This was the first public school in the city of Atchison, and was located over a grocery store in a frame building, where the Y. M. C. A. edifice now stands at the corner of Fourth and Commercial streets. The school term began on November 1, 1858, and lasted for seven month, ending July 1, 1859. The following year the school term was extended to nine months. Miss Meeker taught for three years without a certificate. The first teacher’s certificate in Atchison county was issued to W. D. Rippey, a young man who came from Valparaiso, Ind. Mrs. Blair recalls that Mr. Rippey had no intention of teaching when he came to Atchison, and remained here for about five months and then went to Doniphan county, where he became quite wealthy in the course of years. Applicants for teacher’s certificates had little or no trouble in passing, the whole procedure of examining being conducted verbally and the chief requisite apparently being the one dollar fee which was required from the applicant.

Few Kansas pioneer women at this day occupy the honored position in history which is held by Mrs. Blair. To have taught the first public school in Atchison is a great honor, and to have been one of the pioneers of a great State in such a capacity is a great honor which is claimed by very few people. Mrs. Blair, despite her age, is possessed of a keen mentality and is remarkably well preserved, her long life being best attributed to her mental vigor and student powers which she has kept nourished these many years.

Alfred Shortridge.

Alfred Shortridge, deceased pioneer of Atchison, was born in Milton, Ind., February 27, 1834. When twenty-three years of age he listened to the admonition of his elders to come to the great West, where opportunities for amassing a competence were much better for a young man than in his home community. He came by train to St. Louis and after stopping a few days at the Planter’s Hotel, he boarded a Missouri river steamer which brought him to Atchison. His intention was to get a farm from the Government, and he accordingly took up a claim one-half mile south of Monrovia. He developed his homestead, sold it and later bought a farm, ten miles south of Atchison, in Walnut township, near Potter. He added to this first farm of 120 acres until he became the owner of a finely developed farm of 200 acres, which he still owned at the time of his demise.

Mr. Shortridge was one of the early day freighters and during the years of 1862 and 1863 he freighted from Atchison to Denver, and in 1863 made two trips overland to Denver and return with Pardee Butler, with whom he was on intimate terms. He enlisted in the company of soldiers which was formed in his neighborhood for the purpose of repelling Price’s invasion of Kansas in 1864 and was present at Westport when Price’s army of invasion was driven southward. After he had made his last trip to Denver in 1863, he sold his wagon and four mules for $1,500, and then engaged in farming. He resided on his farm near Potter until the year 1912, and then removed to a home in Atchison.

He was married February 23, 1867, to Miss Catherine Elizabeth Clasby, of DeKalb, Buchanan county, Missouri, and to this union five children were born as follows: Mrs. J. A. Edwards, Fairmount. Kan.; J. T. Shortridge, W. O. Shortridge, and Mrs. C. N. Faulkner, of Potter, Kan., and Miss Florence Shortridge, at home. The mother of these children was born March 20, 1843, a daughter of John D. and Sarah Ann (Ellison) Clasby. John D. Clasby was a native of Virginia, whose mother was a member of the Dunlap family of Virginia, one of the old colonial families of America. One of the Dunlaps, a direct ancestor of Mrs. Shortridge, served in the Continental army in the Revolutionary war. He was a pioneer settler of Buchanan county, Missouri, and is buried on a hill within sight of Atchison.

Mrs. Shortridge’s mother, Sarah Ann (Ellison) Clasby, was born in Missouri, a daughter of James and Elizabeth (Dunlap) Ellison, who were residents of Kentucky, and who were among the pioneer settlers in Buchanan county, Missouri. There were nine children in the Clasby family, as follows: James T., Robert, Orlando, Joseph, Franklin, Julian, deceased; Mrs. Ann Eliza (Stewart), and Mrs. Alfred Shortridge.

Alfred Shortridge departed this life on July 17, 1915, and was sincerely mourned by a host of friends and acquaintances who had known him for many years in Atchison county. During his life, after attaining his majority he was affiliated with the Republican party, and was always active in the affairs of his party, although he was never a seeker after political preferment. He was a member of the Christian church, and lived according to the precepts of his religious belief, as nearly as mortal man could. He carried his religion into his daily life and believed implicitly in the golden rule, which admonishes mankind to treat his neighbor as he would have his neighbor do unto him.

On February 23, 1911, Mr. and Mrs. Shortridge celebrated their forty-fourth wedding anniversary at the old Shortridge homestead, and it was a fitting culmination of one of the happiest life unions on record. Mr. Shortridge was deeply devoted to his noble wife and family and was always kind and considerate, not only with the members of his immediate family, but with his many friends and acquaintances. He was never known to complain or find fault but took things as he found them and made the best of every occasion. One of the last of the old guard of Atchison pioneers, he was a fitting example of the type which did so much to develop the Sunflower State and make Atchison county one of the garden spots of the country. One by one the old pioneers are passing to the great beyond from which no man returneth; it is fitting that we record in imperishable print the record of their lives and their deeds and accomplishments while on earth in order that it all may live after them forever and their memories be kept continually green and fresh in the minds of succeeding generations which will know them not except through the pages of these Atchison county historical annals.

O. M. Babcock.

O. M. Babcock, of the Babcock-Avensberg Shoe Company, is one of the most progressive merchants of Atchison. He is a native of the Empire State, and was born at Adams Center, Jefferson county, New York, in November, 1872, and is a son of M. S. and Amy (Green) Babcock, both natives of New York and of English descent.

The Babcock family was founded in America by Capt. James Babcock, who settled in Rhode Island during the seventeenth century. M. S. Babcock came to Kansas with his family in 1883 and settled on a farm in Benton township, one mile north of Nortonville in Atchison county. Here he bought 160 acres of unimproved land, which he developed to a high state of cultivation and followed farming there successfully until he and his wife removed to Battle Creek, Mich., where they now reside. O. M. Babcock, the subject of this sketch, was eleven years old when he came to Atchison county with his parents. He was educated in the district schools and the Atchison County High School at Effingham. After completing school he taught in Atchison county about two years when he accepted a position in a general merchandise store at Nortonville and later at Effingham. He remained at Effingham one year and then came to Atchison and entered the shoe department of D. C. Newcomb’s general store, where he remained about three years. He then accepted a position as traveling salesman for a wholesale shoe house, and for three years was a successful knight of the grip with St. Joseph, Mo., as his headquarters. He then came to Atchison as general sales manager for a retail shoe establishment, and four years later, in 1902, organized the Babcock Shoe Company, which he still conducts. This is Atchison’s leading shoe store.

Mr. Babcock was united in marriage in 1903 to Miss Edith L. Hooper, a daughter of George R. Hooper, of Atchison, a personal sketch of whom appears in this volume. Mr. Babcock takes a keen interest and an active part in the welfare and development of Atchison and is one of its booster citizens. He is a member of the Masonic lodge and active in the work of that organization. He is also a member of the Elks and belongs to the Commercial Club. He is president of the Kansas Retail Shoe Dealers’ Association, and politically, is a supporter of the policies and principles of the Republican party.

Julius Kuhn.

Julius Kuhn, deceased pioneer merchant of Atchison, was a man of sterling worth, industry and purpose who achieved a success in the commercial life of his adopted city which ranked with the greatest accomplishments of those who figured most prominently in the early civic life of Atchison. He was born in Bavaria, Germany, May 10, 1831, and received an excellent education in the famous university at Munich, where he fitted himself to become an architect. He was gifted with more than ordinary talent as a draughtsman and architect and to this day many of his best drawings and designs are hanging on the walls of the art room in St. Benedict’s College. When twenty years of age he took passage on a sailing vessel for America, then as now, the land of promise for the poor and ambitious youth of the old world. After a stay of a few years in New York City and points in Connecticut, he journeyed to St. Louis where he was married, his wife, Lucetta, dying in Atchison in the spring of 1881. To this union one son was born, Gustave, who died July 15, 1883. While in St. Louis Mr. Kuhn heard tales of the opportunities waiting for industrious young men in the new State of Kansas and came hither to seek his fortune in the year 1859. He had some means which he had saved and at once invested in a lot on the corner of Eighth and Commercial streets, upon which he built a story and a half frame building, which for many years was a well known landmark in Atchison. He installed a stock of groceries in his new building, and from the start met with success. His store soon became the outfitting point for the freighters who were crossing the plains to the far western points and he prospered in excess even of his expectations. Mr. Kuhn’s store was rarely closed in those early days and it was his wont to retire at 1 o’clock a. m. and was often called out of bed at 3 o’clock in the morning to assist some freighter just arriving from the trail half frozen, or, perchance, to trade with some farmer who had traveled a long distance to transact business with him and exchange his produce for groceries and necessities.

During the Civil war he served in the commissary department of the Union army, called out to repel the invasion of Kansas, threatened by General Price. He established himself in the wholesale business in 1870 as he foresaw that Atchison was to become an important distributing point for the northeastern part of the State as the country grew more and more settled with the influx of immigrants from all parts of the compass. In time the little frame store, which he had erected when he first came to Atchison, was replaced by the pretentious brick structure which bears his name. He invested his surplus profits in real estate in Atchison and Kansas points and left a substantial fortune on his demise. In the early sixties he purchased for his family residence the old Judge Gilham house, at that time the only house on the hill, from his store northwestward. For a number of years the Kuhn store was the only business house west of Third street, but in time the business center gradually moved westward from the river, and encompassed his business place. Speaking reminiscently of those early days a few incidents showing conditions at that time are worth recording. When Mr. Bartholow first came to Atchison, at the outbreak of the Civil war when business was in a state of paralysis, he had on hand over $2,000 worth of tobacco, for which he could not find storage. He approached Mr. Kuhn and asked him to either buy the stock or store it until such a time as it would be marketable. Mr. Kuhn took a chance and when tobacco soared to an extremely high price toward the last days of the war, he disposed of it at a profit of $1.00 per pound. Flour rose to the high price of $7.00 per sack during those troublous days, while beef was very cheap, a “half of beef” often selling for ten cents.

Mr. Kuhn was married the second time, September 30, 1883, to Anna Glattfelter, and to this union were born two sons, Julius Otto, at home with his mother, and Gustave Adolphus, living in Kansas City, married Irene King, and is the father of one child, Ruth Kuhn. Mrs. Anna Glattfelter Kuhn was born in Glattfelter, Switzerland, a daughter of Henry and Margaret Glattfelter, who immigrated to America in 1864, and located on a farm in Atchison county. Henry Glattfelter died in 1867, and his wife died in Atchison in 1903. They were the parents of Mrs. W. A. Dilgert, living on a farm in Walnut township; Mrs. Martin Dilgert, residing on Ninth street; Margaret, wife of Mr. John Meyer, living on Seventh street; Fannie, wife of Dr. Sievers, of Manning, Iowa; Henry, on the old home farm, near Cummings. Mrs. Kuhn resides in the family residence at 1029 Atchison street, and looks after the interest of the Kuhn estate. She is a keen, intelligent lady, who has shown marked business ability in caring for the property interests left in her charge. Mr. Kuhn retired from active mercantile pursuits in 1889, and died October 30, 1902, universally respected and loved by all who knew him. He was a Republican in politics and took an active part in the civic and political affairs of Atchison, serving as a member of the city council, and filling several important city offices of trust during his long residence here. He was always a consistent and unremitting booster for Atchison, and had a deep love for the city and his home life. He was a member of the Elks and a social member of the Turner Society. Mr. Kuhn was not a member of any religious denomination but was a friend and liberal supporter of all denominations which sought his aid. While not a professed Christian he lived a blameless and upright life, and was ever ready to assist a needy acquaintance when his aid would do the most good.

Peter Weber.

Peter Weber, retired farmer, residing at 921 North Sixth street, Atchison, Kan., is one of the real pioneer residents of the county. He has lived in the county for over fifty-six years, and recalls many of the incidents of the old days when the settlement of the county was in the embryo stage. Like most of the prosperous and successful men in the county he has worked his way upward from a small beginning to a state of affluence, which reflects credit upon his industry and his capabilities. Times, fifty years ago, and the present, give opportunity for making contrasts which are striking and very interesting. When Mr. Weber was a boy it was the family custom to go to church on Sundays via the ox wagon route, father, mother and all of the children seating themselves in a big farm wagon, and going to church at the rate of two miles per hour, the trip requiring almost the entire day to go and return. Now, Mr. Weber cranks the engine of his fine automobile, and in an incredibly short space of time he travels from his city home to his country estate, can spend hours in looking over the farming operations, and return to his own home in time for the next meal.

Peter Weber was born in Kenosha, Wis., March 8, 1859, and came to Atchison county with his parents a few weeks later. His father, John Weber, was a native of Luxemburg, Germany, and his mother was Mary (Penning) Weber, also a native of Luxemburg, and a daughter of Nicholas Penning, who emigrated from his native country to Wisconsin. John Weber was married in Wisconsin, after coming to this country. He migrated to Atchison county, Kansas, from Wisconsin in 1859, and was equipped with a cash capital of nearly $300. He attended a lot sale in the boom days of Old Sumner, and invested nearly all of his savings in lots, purchasing 275 lots in all, at prices varying from $5 for the first one bought, to a price as low as twenty-five cents. This was more or less a speculation on his part, and the price of lots in Sumner fell rapidly after the county seat election which selected Atchison as the seat of government for the county. Real estate values naturally deteriorated in Sumner, and John Weber later sold seventy-five of his lots for $15 and allowed the greater part of his initial Kansas investment to be sold for taxes, inasmuch as the property had no real value. His next investment was a much better one, however, and he purchased 160 acres of land in Walnut township for $360, on which he erected a home and proceeded to develop it into a fine farm. He became well to do, and was highly respected throughout the neighborhood in which he resided. Originally John Weber had been a wheelwright by trade, and his skill as a wood worker and wagon maker stood him in good stead when he took up agricultural pursuits in Atchison county. During the Civil war John Weber was enrolled in the State militia and was called away to serve his country at Independence, Mo., leaving his wife and young children at home in mortal fear of their lives while the father and his comrades were in battle array to repel the Price invasion of Kansas. The movable property of the family was kept hidden in the drawers. Mr. Weber had over $800 in gold buried in the cellar in an empty peach can. He reared a fine family of sons and daughters as follows: Peter, the eldest of the family and with whom this review is directly concerned; Mathias, who is cultivating the old home place in Mt. Pleasant township, and Mrs. Katherine Keefer, a widow residing near Nortonville, Kan., are the surviving children of a family of six born, three of whom died in infancy. John Weber died in 1905, his wife preceding him to the great beyond in 1901.

Peter Weber, when a boy, attended the district school of his neighborhood in Mt. Pleasant township, and was reared to become an agriculturist. He was married in 1881 and then began doing for himself, renting land in Mt. Pleasant township for a time and carefully husbanding his resources and saving his money with a view to eventually owning a farm of his own. He was enabled to purchase his first farm of 160 acres in 1895 in Walnut township. He still owns this fine farm, which is one of the best in Atchison county, and is now being cultivated by his son. Mr. Weber retired from active agricultural pursuits in May, 1912, and removed to Atchison, where he owns real estate and lives comfortably, as befitting a man who has earned the right to enjoy home comforts. He was married in 1881 to Mary Weinmann, and to this union have been born the following children: Mary, wife of Theo Vanderweide, of Atchison county; Katherine, wife of John Wagner, residing in Walnut township, Atchison county; Jacob, living on the home farm; Ida, wife of Charles Harrison, a foreman in the A. J. Harwi Hardware Store, in Atchison; Annie, wife of Gustave Boehme, Rulo, Neb., where Mr. Boehme conducts a bakery. The mother of these children was born August 9, 1860, in Salt Creek Valley, Leavenworth county, Kansas, a daughter of Jacob and Katherine Weinmann, natives of Germany, who came to Leavenworth county, Kansas, as early as 1858. She was one of sixteen children born to these parents, thirteen of whom were reared, and five came to America and died here.

Mr. Weber has always been a Democrat, but is more or less independent in his political views and believes in voting for the candidate who seems best fitted to perform the duties of the office, regardless of his political affiliations. While a resident of Mt. Pleasant township he took an active part in the civic affairs of the township and served nine years as treasurer and then served as trustee in 1895. Later when he took up a permanent residence in Walnut township, in 1896, he was selected as township treasurer by the people in 1906 and filled the office to the satisfaction of everybody for six years. He and the members of his family are members of the St. Benedict’s Catholic Church, and have always been liberal contributors to the support of this institution. He is also affiliated with the Knights of Columbus, and takes a keen interest in city and county affairs as befitting a man of broad general attainments, who has lived in Atchison county for over half a century and watched its evolution from a wilderness to become one of the fairest divisions of the great State of Kansas.

Robert F. Bishop.

Robert F. Bishop, farmer, residing in Mt. Pleasant township, Atchison county, Kansas, and whose farm is located two and one-half miles west of Potter, is one of the most substantial and progressive agriculturists of his neighborhood. He was born August 16, 1861, in the town of Watkins, in Schuyler county, New York, at the foot of Watkins Glen, which is now a noted summer resort, and one of the most beautiful spots in all New York. He is a son of Freeman and Annie (Sims) Bishop, both of whom were born and reared in New York State and descendants of old eastern families. The Bishop family is of English origin and is descended from old colonial stock, members of which figured in the early wars in which America has been engaged. The Sims family is of Scotch and Irish extraction. The Bishops were early settlers in the section of New York where Robert F. Bishop was born. Freeman was a ship carpenter by trade who followed his trade in New York, and in 1872 came to Kansas, settling in Jefferson county on a farm, where he prospered and reared his family of four children, Robert F. being the eldest.

He of whom this review is written was a boy ten years of age when the family came to Kansas to make a permanent home. He lived on the home place and assisted his father in the cultivation of his farm until he was twenty-four years of age, then married, and two years later, in 1885, came to Mt. Pleasant township, Atchison county, and purchased the old Miller farm consisting of 180 acres of good, tillable land. Mr. Bishop has added to his original farm as he was able and now owns 261 1–2 acres all in one body and well improved. Besides his home farm he is also the owner of another tract of 208 acres, which makes his total acreage 469 1–2 acres in all. The accumulation of this amount of land in about thirty years is a considerable undertaking, in Kansas especially, when the possessor had very little of this world’s goods at the start of his career. Mr. Bishop began with very little capital but imbued with a determination to succeed and the willingness to work hard and deny himself the luxuries of life until he was well able to afford them. When he purchased his first farm his cash capital was so limited that he was forced to go in debt for two-thirds of the purchase price of the land. Since then he has risen to become one of the wealthy farmers of Atchison county, and has one of the finest and best improved places in Kansas, equipped with excellent buildings and a modern silo. His farm is considered a model one in the county and was one of the first to be visited by the county farm visitors for the purpose of ascertaining the progress made and using it as a model for others in the county. Mr. Bishop is a natural born agriculturist who has kept pace with the advancement made in the science of agriculture, and is blessed with an intuitive knowledge of the best methods of tilling the soil.

Mr. Bishop was married in 1883 to Elizabeth Shaw, a daughter of Henry Shaw, well-to-do farmer of Leavenworth county. To this union have been born seven children, namely: Caude, a farmer, in Atchison county; Curtis, a farmer; Robert, living at home and assisting his father in the farm operations; Myrtle S., Mable, Maude, and Irene, at home with their parents. The father of Mrs. Bishop is the owner of the old Penseneau farm, which is the first piece of land ever tilled in Atchison county.

The Republican party has generally had the allegiance of Mr. Bishop, and while he has not taken an active part in political matters, he was one of the stanch supporters of the movement which resulted in the establishment of the high school at Potter. It is only natural to learn that he, like others who have succeeded in Kansas, has always been a live stock man and believes in feeding the grains and grasses raised on his land to the live stock on his place, in order to preserve the fertility of the land and make marketing the output much more convenient. He maintains a dairy herd of thirty well bred Holstein milch cows and is a well known breeder of Duroc Jersey hogs, having 200 head or more on his farm.

Harrison W. Rudolph.

Harrison W. Rudolph is not only a leading photographer of Atchison, but ranks among the best in his profession of the entire country. Mr. Rudolph is a native of the Keystone State, born at Allentown, Pa., May 30, 1866. He is a son of John and Levina (Messer) Rudolph. The Rudolphs are of old American stock of German descent. Sometime during the seventeenth century, two Rudolph brothers immigrated to America. One settled in Pennsylvania, and the other went farther West, locating in Ohio, and Harrison W. Rudolph, whose name introduces this review, is a descendant of the one who settled in Pennsylvania. Mrs. James A. Garfield bore the maiden name of Rudolph, and was a member of the Ohio branch of the Rudolph family, and James Rudolph Garfield, son of the former President, retains his mother’s maiden name as his middle name. John Rudolph, the father of H. W., is now living and has reached the ripe old age of eighty. He resides in Allentown, Pa.

Harrison W. Rudolph was reared in Allentown, and after receiving a good common school education served an apprenticeship at photography in his native city, and later completed a course in the Atchison Business College. About the time he was twenty years old he obtained a position from an Atchison photographer through correspondence. He came here and worked at his profession for M. A. Kleckner about nine years, when he opened a studio of his own at 509 1–2 Commercial street, where he has been located for twenty years. Mr. Rudolph is recognized as an artist and has a large patronage from all over northeastern Kansas, and he even gets work from Kansas City. The excellency of his work is readily recognized by particular people who know and appreciate art. Mr. Rudolph has been awarded five prizes and medals for his work by the Kansas State Photographers’ Association, and his work is always in great demand. He is a member of the Kansas Photographers’ Association, the National Photographers’ Association of America, the Missouri Valley Photographers’ Association, the Modern Woodmen of America, and the Methodist Episcopal church.

Mr. Rudolph was married in Denver April 9, 1889, to Miss Martha Hausser, of New York City, and two children have been born to this union, as follows: Rodney, born January 21, 1892, is a traveling representative for the Standard Oil Company, and Fred, born June 2, 1894, a clerk in the Atchison office of the Standard Oil Company. Mr. Rudolph is not only a successful artist, but has made good in a financial way and is one of the substantial business men of Atchison county. He is a member of the Atchison Commercial Club and the Young Men’s Christian Association.

Edward B. McCULLOUGH.

Edward B. McCullough, deputy sheriff of Atchison county, was born on a farm in Atchison county in 1880, and is a son of Hugh Elden and Sarah J. (Rankin) McCullough, both of whom were born and reared to maturity in Pennsylvania, married there and shortly afterward set out for the West, settling in Atchison county. Mr. McCullough bought a farm in Lancaster township, and improved it, but did not live long after settling here. He died at the age of twenty-eight years, leaving one son, Edward B. At the time of his father’s death, Edward B. was but fifteen months old, and soon afterward his mother moved to the village of Lancaster where she has since made her home, with the exception of some years spent on her cousin’s farm near Lancaster. Edward B. was reared to young manhood in Lancaster and attended the public school. When still a youth he learned to hustle for himself and became self-reliant and self-supporting at a time when most boys are still in the coddling stage. When but sixteen years of age he bought a team and outfit and engaged in business for himself. He continued as a teamster and in draying until 1914 when he removed to Atchison to enter upon his duties as deputy sheriff under Sheriff Roy Trimble. During the course of his teaming experience he became the proprietor of a livery barn in Lancaster.

On October 28, 1903, he married Mildred May Lowe, a daughter of Austin and Anna Lowe, of Atchison county. They have one child, Gayle Mateel, born September 23, 1904. Mr. McCullough is a member of the Modern Woodmen, and is a Republican. Since early young manhood he has taken an active part in political affairs, and loves the game for its own sake, as well as he loves baseball and kindred sports, for he is and has been quite an athlete, being a proficient baseball player.

For the past eight years he has been one of the wheel horses of the Republican party in Atchison county and has naturally attained a wide acquaintance among the voters of both parties. He assiduously campaigned for his favorite candidates during the campaigns of 1912 and 1914, but has never been a candidate for office. He was appointed to the post of deputy sheriff in November, 1914, and took up the duties of his office January 11, of the following year. It is needless to state that he is faithfully performing the duties of his position and is gaining more friends as his general worth is becoming more widely known.

Thomas E. Ballinger.

Thomas E. Ballinger is one of the substantial and well respected residents of Atchison who has accomplished much in a material and civic way since first coming to the county in 1869. He has acquired and improved one of the finest farms of the county, served the people well and faithfully in an official capacity, and, best of all, has reared a fine family, every member of whom is a useful addition to society, and a credit to their parents and the communities in which they reside. What more could any man expect to accomplish during a long and busy life? A man who accomplishes so much with the assistance of an intelligent and faithful wife can well be content to retire to a pleasant home, imbued with the satisfaction of knowing that the future of himself and his is well provided for during the declining years which can be likened to a beautiful sunset at the end of a long and glorious day spent in gleaning from mother earth her treasures.

Mr. Ballinger is a native of New Jersey and comes of good, old English stock. He was born in Salem county, that State, November 21, 1845. His parents were John G. and Sarah Ann (Reeves) Ballinger, also natives of New Jersey. His paternal grandfather was John G. Ballinger, who married a Quaker woman and died when Thomas E. was but a boy. His mother was a daughter of Stephen Reeves, a scion of an old eastern family and a leading shipbuilder of New Jersey. The Reeves family settled in Alloway township, Salem county, New Jersey. John G. Ballinger, the father, was born in 1827, and died in 1906. He was a miller, and operated a mill during the active years of his long life. His wife, Sarah Ann, died in 1850, leaving three children: Stephen R., a miller, who resided in New Jersey, and died October 15, 1915; Samuel E., a retired farmer, living in the suburbs of Atchison, and Thomas E., with whose career this review is directly concerned. John G. Ballinger married a second time, to Sarah Austin, who bore him the following children: John, Charles, Walter, Ellen, Sadie, Emma and Minnie.

The elder Ballinger had both the means and the incentive to give his children an education. Accordingly, Thomas E. had the advantages of thorough schooling and, after attending the district school of his home neighborhood, he studied in the Cumberland County Academy at Bridgetown. N. J., the Crittendon School in Philadelphia and the Eastman Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York, completing his course in the latter institution in 1865. He then became a clerk in a grocery store at Glouster, N. J., and was later employed in a drug store. All the while, however, he was hearkening to the call of the West, which had reached the ears of thousands of young men in the East. The call proved so strong that in 1869 he made the long journey to Kansas to become one of the pioneers of the new State. For the first two years he worked out as a farm hand in Shannon township, Atchison county, saving his funds in order that he might begin farming for himself. In 1871 he made his first purchase of eighty acres of unimproved land in Lancaster township, Atchison county, at a cost of $15 per acre. On this tract he built a two room house in which he lived for two years, and was there joined by his brother, Samuel E. He then married, and the first five years of a happy wedded life were spent on this farm. He traded this farm for eighty acres of land in Shannon township, which served as the family home until 1888. He then exchanged the Shannon township farm for 240 acres, near Huron, Atchison county, which he retained for two years, and then made his last trade for 160 acres in the east central part of Lancaster township. For seventeen years, until his retirement to Atchison in 1907, this fine farm was the family home. Mr. Ballinger greatly improved this farm, added to it another forty acres, and with its two sets of buildings and well kept fields, is one of the finest and most productive agricultural plants in the county.

He was married on Saturday, March 21, 1874, to Julia H. Holland, and to this union have been born the following children: Ralph, a talented physician of Chicago, married Flora Groom, of Indiana; Mrs. Marie Shuffleberger, Doniphan county, Kansas, mother of three children, Dorothy, Reeves and Wayne; Adel, at home; Grace, wife of J. W. Coleman, of Atchison, having two children, John Ballinger, born June 14, 1911, and James Henry, born November 3, 1915; Thomas Edward, Jr., on the home farm, married Nellie Colgan and is the father of one child, John Edward; Julia Gladys resides at home with her parents. Father, mother and daughters reside in a handsome brick residence, erected by Mr. Ballinger at 210 North Eleventh street. Mrs. Ballinger was born December 29, 1853, in England, and is a daughter of Joshua and Maria (Relph) Holland, who immigrated to America in 1856, and first settled on an Illinois farm. The family came to Kansas in 1860, settling in Nemaha county, going from there to Ft. Leavenworth, where Joshua Holland followed his trade of stone mason. During the Civil war Mr. Holland served in the commissary department at Ft. Leavenworth. In 1870 he came to Atchison county and cultivated a farm of 120 acres near Lane until his death. Mr. Holland was born in April, 1822, and died in September, 1884. Mrs. Holland was born in November, 1824, and died in April, 1894. They were the parents of the following children: Emma, deceased; Misses Mary and Harriet Holland on a farm near Lancaster; Mrs. Julia Ballinger, and William, a retired farmer in Lancaster.

Thomas E. Ballinger has always been a Republican in politics and took an active part in political and civic affairs in his home township, serving as township clerk for a number of years. He was elected to the office of county commissioner in 1910, and served from January, 1911, to January, 1915. While a member of the board of county commissioners the best interests of the county were paramount with him, and he was an honest and capable public official. He and his family are members of the Presbyterian church.

Roger Patrick Sullivan.

The accounts of many of the prosperous and substantial families who are the backbone and substance of the rural population in Atchison county are very similar, beginning far away, across the ocean, in one of the older countries from whence the parents came to seek fortune in America. The Sullivan family had its origin in Ireland and it was from the Emerald Isle that the father of the family came when twelve years of age, struggled from poverty to comparative wealth and left his sons well provided for, as a reward for their filial devotion to the parents when old age came upon them. Roger Sullivan, a progressive farmer of Benton township, is one of the best known men in his section of the county. The Sullivan home is an attractive one, and the home farm of Mr. Sullivan is one of the most fertile and best kept in Atchison county.

Roger Patrick Sullivan was born December 4, 1862, in Atchison, a son of Michael and Bridget (Tobin) Sullivan, natives of Ireland. Michael Sullivan was born in 1826 and lived in his native land until he was twelve years of age when he made his way to America. His travels while seeking fortune in the new country took him ever westward and he was married in Keokuk, Iowa, to Bridget Tobin, who was his faithful helpmate during the years when he was rising from poverty to affluence. In 1860 they came to Atchison, Kan., where Mr. Sullivan engaged in railroad contract work and assisted in the grading of the Central Branch railroad. He made money in his railroad contract work and was enabled to purchase a farm in Grasshopper township, or rather traded for it. While living in Atchison, with true Irish thrift, he and his wife managed to become owners of a home which they exchanged for eighty acres of land in Grasshopper township, upon which they moved and developed it into a fine farm. Mr. Sullivan in the course of time bought an additional quarter section and with the help of his sturdy sons he increased his acreage to 320 acres of well improved farm land. When old age crept upon Michael and his wife they turned over the farms to their two sons, who cared for them in their declining years, which were spent in peace and comfort. Mr. Sullivan died at the home of his son. John Edward, December 24, 1906, and his wife followed him to the great beyond two years later, February, 1908. Three children were born to this worthy couple, namely: John Edward, a farmer residing in Grasshopper township; Roger Patrick, the subject of this review, and Mary, deceased.

Roger P. learned when a youth the art of cultivating the soil, and diligently applied himself to the task of helping to build up the family estate, and received as his share of the farm lands owned by his father a fine quarter section of land upon which he resided until his removal to his present location in the spring of 1908. Prosperity has smiled upon his efforts, and he is now the owner of 360 acres of land, 160 acres of which are comprised in his home farm, eighty acres is located five miles west of his home in Kapioma township, and he still retains 120 acres of the original Sullivan farm, which is entirely devoted to pasture. If one should ask Mr. Sullivan how he had managed to attain the considerable acreage which he now possesses, his answer would probably be, “By hard work,” which would be true, but the reviewer is also of the opinion that the “hard work” was also supplemented by intelligent effort, self-denial at times, sobriety, and good financial judgment.

Mr. Sullivan was married January 11, 1892, to Miss Mary Linehan, who was born in Atchison county, Kansas, in 1865, a daughter of James and Kathryn Linehan, natives of Ireland, and who were pioneer settlers in Atchison county. To this union four children have been born, namely: Catharine, aged seventeen years, and a student in the Atchison County High School, class of ’17; Daniel, fifteen years old, a freshman in the county high school; Mary, aged twelve years, and Helen, aged nine, pupils in the parochial school at Effingham.

The Democratic party has always claimed the allegiance of Mr. Sullivan and his father before him was a Democrat. He and his family are members of the Catholic church which was the faith of their fathers. He finds time to give attention to the social side of life, and is fraternally affiliated with the Knights of Columbus and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, of Atchison. Mr. Sullivan is a thorough Kansan, and is proud to be numbered among the real pioneers of Atchison county, and in his opinion there is no better spot than the county which has always been his home.

John Fleming.

John Fleming, a successful merchant of Atchison, was born October 29, 1864, in Holland. When four years old his parents left the land of their birth and came to America in 1868. He was one of twins, the other twin brother dying during the ocean voyage to America. His parents were Lambert and Rosena (Johnson) Fleming, who set out from their native land imbued with the desire to better their condition in America and finally located in Atchison. The elder Fleming had been a skilled wooden-shoe maker in his native land, and he plied his trade in Atchison, being able to market the product of his skilled workmanship through the kindly assistance of John Ratterman, who exchanged groceries and the necessities of life for the shoes which Mr. Fleming made. The family finally located on a farm south of Atchison, and resided there until the death of the father in 1882, at which time John, his mother and two sisters, Bertha, now widow of Henry Nass, deceased: Ida Van Benthen, residing at Seventeenth and Atchison streets, removed to Atchison.

John Fleming was four years old when his parents took up their residence in Atchison county, and he was reared on the farm, south of the city, attending the district schools, and was able to secure a limited education in this manner. Upon coming to the city to reside he worked in various grocery stores for several years. With true thrift, for which those of Holland birth are noted the world over, he carefully saved his money over and above actual living expenses, and in 1898, equipped with a capital of $500, he started in business with this amount and some borrowed money. For over seventeen years he has been conducting a grocery business at 321 North Seventh street and his business has been constantly on the increase. The demands of his growing trade and the expansion of his business became such that in 1907 it became necessary for him to erect the modern brick buildings which now houses his excellent stock of goods at 321 North Seventh street. It is one of the most attractive and best kept establishments of the kind in the city, and is noted for the tasteful manner in which the goods of the very best quality are displayed and the unvarying courtesy with which the patrons are treated. Prosperity has come to Mr. Fleming, and in 1908 he invested his surplus in the erection of a four-suite apartment house, each apartment of which contains six rooms. He is also the owner of other real estate in north Atchison, and is rated as one of the city’s enterprising and progressive business men.

Mr. Fleming was married in 1889 to Emma C. Hilligoss, a daughter of Alfred and Anna Eliza (McLain) Hilligoss, who located in Atchison when she was twelve years of age. Seven children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Fleming, four living: William J., associated with his father in the grocery business; Henry A., also his father’s assistant; Agnes R., John Edwin; Bertha died at the age of four years; Ruth died in infancy, and Theodore died at the age of four months.

Mr. Fleming is a member of St. Benedict’s Catholic Church, and is fraternally connected with the Modern Woodmen of America.

Mark H. Hulings.

For an Atchison county man to start out in life with a capital of fifteen dollars, which was given to him by a loving mother, with the injunction that he purchase an article for personal adornment, and then to invest said fifteen dollars in a span of mules, which became the nucleus to a fortune, and for this citizen to rise to the position of being one of the large landed proprietors of Kansas, sounds like a tale from modern fiction. But the tale is true, and the incident which marked the starting point of the career of Mark H. Hulings, of Center township, is the keystone of the man’s character, and shows wherein lies the material from which he was created. Mr. Hulings decided that a pair of mules would do him more material good than adorning his person, and therein used rare and capable judgment. Mr. Hulings is a Kansas man, who during a career in agricultural pursuits embracing but little more than thirty years, has achieved a success which is truly remarkable. Not content with just common every-day farming, as has been practiced with indifferent success by others, Mr. Hulings became a specialist and has taken his rightful place among the many skilled cattle breeders of this county, who in time to come will receive the credit and honors which are theirs by right. By industry, persistence, intelligence, and keen financial judgment he has risen to become one of the leading farmers of Atchison county and Kansas. Born in the old Buckeye State, of Virginia parents, he is a loyal and steadfast Kansan, and takes pride in the fact that he is one of the real pioneers of this section of a great State.

Mark H. Hulings, farmer and stockman, of Center township, was born February 14, 1862, at Walnut Hill, a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio. He is a son of Samuel and Louise (Brown) Hulings. They had four children, as follows: Mrs. Lillie High, widow, Atchison, Kan.; Cincinnatus, deceased; Mark, the subject of this sketch, and Ruth J., twins, the latter deceased. The father was born in what is now West Virginia in 1832. He was a baker by trade, and his early days were spent on a steamboat, where he was employed as a cook and baker. When a young man he came to Cincinnati, where he worked for some time, and then he began farming. In 1867 he came to Atchison county, Kansas, where he bought 160 acres of land, and built a seven-room house of brick, which was considered a fine residence in that day. He was a successful farmer and his crops were always good, with the exception of one year when they were destroyed by the grasshoppers. The father conducted his farm until his death in 1898. The mother was born in New York and died about 1905, aged about seventy years. An accident in an Atchison hardware store elevator which injured her leg led to her death.

Mark Hulings attended the school in District No. 28, Center township, and later the Pardee Seminary. When he started out in life for himself he had only fifteen dollars which his mother gave him to buy a ring for himself. But caring little for personal jewelry, bought a span of mules instead, for which he paid the fifteen dollars as the first payment. This was his first investment, but it was a profitable one, and he has continued to invest until he is now an extensive land owner. He and his brother, Cincinnatus, bought land of their own after their parents died, and farmed together about eight years when each bought a farm of his own. Mark bought land in Center township and now owns 810 acres, a large part of which is well improved. He was a breeder of registered Hereford cattle for a time, but now devotes his attention to Shorthorns. He has worked his way to the first rank of Atchison county farmers, and now holds land that makes him one of the largest land owners of the county. On April 27, 1890, he married Emma Sharpless, who was born September 22, 1871, in Delaware. (See sketch of U. B. Sharpless for a sketch of the Sharpless family history.) To Mr. and Mrs. Hulings have been born two children: Mark S. and Susie E., living at home. Mr. Hulings is a Republican. He and his wife and children are members of the Christian church at Farmington.

Frank Sutter.

Frank Sutter, owner of “Highlington,” a splendid farm of 245 acres, in Benton township, Atchison county, located one-half mile west of Effingham, is a native of Atchison county, and is one of its most successful and progressive farmers. A beautiful, modern farm home of eight rooms occupies a rise of land fronting the main highway, running east and west from Effingham, and is fully equipped with a water system and private gas plant installed by Mr. Sutter. A large red barn stands in the rear of the home. This farm is operated as a dairying plant, and Mr. Sutter maintains a herd of fifteen milch cows of the Jersey and Shorthorn breeds.

Frank Sutter was born January 8, 1871, on a pioneer farm in Walnut township, Atchison county, and is a son of Frederick Sutter, deceased, of whom a complete biography is written in this volume. Frank Sutter came with the family to Benton township in 1880 and lived on the home place, two miles west of Effingham, and after his father’s death he and his brothers, Fred and William, became the owners of the section of land which has since been divided, Frank taking a quarter section as his share when the division of land was made. The sons of Frederick Sutter farmed the family estate in common until 1902, and, after various changes following the division of the estate Frank became the proprietor of 245 acres in one tract, which he is now cultivating.

Mr. Sutter was married in 1909 to Mrs. Kate (Cook) Pitman, a widow, who is the mother of eight children by her first marriage, as follows: George, now in Montana; Ralph, living in Iowa; Mrs. Elsie Mann, of Nebraska; Mrs. Vera Blair, a resident of Effingham; Margaret, at home; Mrs. Geneva Perdue, of Huron, Kan.; Helen and Thomas reside at home. Mrs. Sutter was a daughter of E. F. Cook.

While Mr. Sutter is a Republican in politics, he votes independently in county and local matters, and supports the candidate who seems best fitted for the office, in his judgment. He is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. Mr. Sutter is of a high type of the successful farmer who has made good in his inherited vocation. The success of each individual member of the Sutter family is due, to a great extent, to their coöperation and ability to work together for the common good of the whole family, collectively and individually, while the family fortunes were in process of building.

Bishop K. Ham.

Bishop K. Ham, one of the younger successful farmers and stockmen of Grasshopper township, Atchison county, is the last surviving representative of one of the oldest pioneer families of the western part of the county. He resides on the old homestead of the Ham family, consisting of 170 acres of land, upon which his father homesteaded in 1861. B. K. Ham was born on this farm July 23, 1882, a son of Martin W., and Margarette (Black) Ham, natives of Fleming county, Kentucky.

Martin W. Ham was born near the town of Flemingsburg, Ky., April 13, 1834, and was a son of George and Ruth Ham, also reared in Kentucky. The grandfather of Martin W. was John or “Jackie,” a native of Greenbrier county, Virginia, and was of Scotch-Irish lineage. The Ham family is a very old one in this country, and the great-grandfather of B. K. Ham was John, better known as “Jackie” Ham, who was one among the earliest pioneer settlers of Kentucky. Martin W. was reared to young manhood in Fleming county, Kentucky, and there married Jane Humphreys. In 1861 the Ham family left Kentucky in search of a home in the West, making the long trip overland to Missouri by wagon. After a short stay in Missouri they came to Atchison county, Kansas, and settled on the farm now owned by Mrs. Margarette Ham. All of Martin W. Ham’s worldly possessions when he landed in Kansas was his team and wagon and a few household necessities. The land was wild and there were few settlers on the prairies in Grasshopper township, where he made his settlement and eventually developed a fine farm. He became an extensive cattle and hog raiser and made considerable money in this manner.

Martin W. Ham was twice married, his first wife, Jane Humphreys Ham, dying May 18, 1879. He married his second wife, Margarette Black, June 28, 1880. One son was born of this second marriage, Bishop K. Mrs. Margarette (Black) Ham was born March 29, 1854, a daughter of M. M. and Rebecca (Simms) Black, the former a native of Virginia, and of Irish lineage. He was one of the early pioneer settlers of Kansas. Martin W. Ham died in 1908. From the start of his career in Kansas M. W. Ham took an active and influential part in civic and political affairs of his county and State. During the border ruffian days he was active in affairs and was a Free State man. He was captain of Company G, Kansas Home Guards, during the Civil war. He held various township offices and was elected a member of the Kansas State legislature in 1869, serving one term. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and was affiliated with the Masonic and Odd Fellows lodges.

Bishop K. Ham, with whom this review is directly concerned, received his education in the district school of his neighborhood and also studied in the college at Hiawatha, Kan., for one year. He then took up farming, and after his marriage lived on a neighboring farm until his father’s demise. He then came to the home farm which he has since been cultivating with considerable success. Mr. Ham has made a record as a breeder of horses and mules second to none in Atchison county. He is the owner of a magnificent, imported black stallion, “Illico,” six years old, which he purchased from the well known importer, Charles Kirk, of St. Joseph, Mo. He is the owner of a high class jack and is a successful breeder of mules. The pride of his farm is his fine herd of thirty thoroughbred Jerseys, headed by the pedigreed bull “Loren’s Lad,” both the sire and dam of which were imported. By means of holding annual sales Mr. Ham will dispose of the surplus stock of his herds of cattle and horses. The Ham farm is well improved in every way with good commodious buildings, silo, etc., a fine modern home, all grouped together on a beautiful location.

Mr. Ham was married October 19, 1905, to Miss Carrie B. McCubbins, and to this union has been born: Marguerite Ham, born April 17, 1907. Mrs. Carrie B. Ham is a daughter of Robert D. and Elizabeth (Tenry) McCubbins, who were early settlers in Atchison county. The McCubbins family first settled near the city of Atchison, and later came to Grasshopper township.

Mr. Ham is a Republican in politics, and is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Muscotah, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Fraternal Aid societies. He is one of the best known and rising young agriculturists of the county and will undoubtedly make a name for himself among the breeders of the State of Kansas and middle West.

Charles H. Linley.

Charles H. Linley, a prominent physician and surgeon, of Atchison, may very appropriately be called the dean of the Atchison county medical profession. Dr. Linley is a Kentuckian. He was born in Livingston county, Kentucky, June 19, 1847, and is a son of Dr. Thomas and Maria (Barker) Linley, natives of Lewis county, Kentucky. Maria Barker, the mother, was a daughter of Admiral Barker of the United States navy. Dr. Thomas Linley, the father, was born in 1806. He was a son of Thomas Linley, a native of England, who settled in Virginia at an early date and later removed to Kentucky, and was a pioneer of this State. Thomas Linley, the father of Dr. Charles H. Linley, was a large plantation owner and owned many slaves in Kentucky prior to the Civil war, but was a strong Union man and believed that slavery was wrong, and when the Civil war came on he was pronounced in his anti-slavery views, and notwithstanding the position of many of his neighbors and friends and life-long associates, he stood firmly by the Union. He was a graduate of the old Transylvania Medical College, at Lexington, Ky. He began the practice of his profession at the early age of nineteen years, and for forty-five years practiced most of the time in the vicinity of Salem, Ky. He came to Atchison, Kan., in 1866, but remained a short time, when he returned to Kentucky, where he died March 31, 1880. Dr. Thomas and Maria (Barker) Linley were the parents of thirteen children, three of whom died in infancy, and four are now living, as follows: Dr. Charles H., the subject of this sketch; Isaac resides on the old homestead in Salem, Ky.; Mrs. Laura Hill resides at Liberty, Mo., and Joseph W., now living retired in Atchison, Kan. After receiving a good academic and classical education, Dr. Charles H. Linley entered Miami Medical College, now known as the Ohio Medical College, at Cincinnati, and was graduated from that institution in 1877 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. In 1880 he located in the city of Atchison where he has practiced his profession with uniform success for the past thirty-five years. He is one of the oldest physicians in the number of years in practice in Atchison.

Dr. Linley was married in 1879 to Miss Fannie W. Gregory, a native of Kentucky. She was born in 1854 and is a daughter of James Gregory and a member of a prominent Kentucky family. Her father died when Mrs. Linley was fourteen years of age. Dr. and Mrs. Linley are the parents of the following children: Maria, born in 1880, and died in 1909; Corinne, a teacher in the Atchison high school, and a graduate of Midland College and the State Normal school at Emporia; Ray G., traveling salesman for Blish, Mize & Silliman; Nora B., a graduate of Midland College, now a teacher in Colorado; Alice, a graduate of Midland College, now a teacher in the grades at Atchison, and Louis D., traveling salesman for Blish, Mize & Silliman.

Dr. Linley is a Democrat and has taken an active part in the welfare of his city and county. He has served as city health officer for several terms and was police commissioner for Atchison for one year. He served on the board of United States pension examiners for eight years during Cleveland’s administrations. He is a member of the Knights of the Maccabees, the Fraternal Aid, and the Foresters of America. The Linley family are members of the Christian church.

L. C. Arensberg.

L. C. Arensberg, one of the younger business men of Atchison, and member of the enterprising and successful firm of Babcock & Arensberg, shoe merchants, is a Hollander by birth, and a hustling American in every sense the word implies. It has long been a matter of note that the natives of Holland who became American citizens are more apt and take more kindly and quickly to the ways of this nation than the people of any other European country. This country seems to become their natural habitat, and they become citizens in both deed and word after a few years’ residence here. Mr. Arensberg was born in Holland, September 17, 1880, and is a son of William and Alegunde (Muskens) Arensberg, who immigrated to this country in 1885, actuated by a desire to locate in a land where their children would have more and better opportunities for success than their own little, crowded, native country afforded. They believed rightly and were successful in establishing a home in Atchison where they had relatives who had preceded them to the newer country. The Arensberg family established themselves in reasonably comfortable circumstances in Atchison in a short time. There were nine children in the family of William and Alegunde Arensberg.

L. C. Arensberg was educated in the parochial and high schools of Atchison. Then he obtained a position as all round man in Bradley & Ostertag’s shoe store. Here he was employed for ten years and thoroughly learned the ins and outs of the shoe business, becoming a very proficient salesman. In the meantime he carefully saved his money, with a view to eventually engaging in business for himself. His ambition was at last realized, and in 1906 he purchased an interest in the Babcock & Stallons shoe store, buying out the interest of Mr. Stallons. He is a full partner in the business and has won a place of merit and honor among the leading merchants of Atchison.

Politically, Mr. Arensberg is a Democrat, and is inclined to be liberal in his views and independent in his voting. He is a member of the Knights of Columbus and the Loyal Order of Moose, and is a member of St. Benedict’s Catholic Church. He is active in the affairs of the Atchison Commercial Club, and is recognized as one of the real “live wires” of the business and civic life of his home city.

W. B. Collett.

W. B. Collett, district agent for the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company of Milwaukee, Wis., is one of the progressive business men of Atchison. He was born in Liverpool, England, in 1860, and is a son of John and Mary (Henston) Collett, the former a native of Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England, and the latter of Tipperary, Ireland. John Collett was a prosperous importing provision merchant when the Civil war broke out in this country. The importing business fell off to such an extent in European ports that business was injured to such an extent that he failed, and came to the United States, and in 1862 sent for his family, consisting of his wife and three children. During his youth he served a seven-year apprenticeship in the provision trade. In 1879 he came to Atchison as head salesman for the Fowler Brothers Packing Company, and remained with that company until 1883. He then went with the Armour Packing Company, of Kansas City, in the same capacity, and was with that company for fourteen years, when he was made manager of their branch at St. Paul, Minn., and later he was the European representative for Jacob Dold Packing Company, of Buffalo, N. Y. In 1908 he retired from active business and took up his residence on a farm near Richards, Mo., where he died, in 1911, at the age of seventy-nine years. His wife survives him and resides on the farm where he died.

John Collett was a man of unusual ability, and had few equals as a salesman. He was a capable executive and thoroughly understood handling large commercial enterprises. He was a master salesman and always commanded a large salary. He was a money maker, although he died possessed of but a small amount of this world’s goods; he was a money maker rather than a hoarder of dimes.

W. B. Collett, whose name introduces this sketch, was educated in the public schools, and when a young man went to work in the Elgin watch works, at Elgin, Ill., and in 1879, when the family came to Kansas, he went to work for the Fowler Brothers Packing Company, where he remained about a year. He then entered the employ of Bowman & Kellogg, millers, as bookkeeper, and later became a buyer and salesman for that company. In 1888 he engaged in the general insurance business, and three years later entered the employ of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, and has been with that company ever since with headquarters at Atchison. Mr. Collett was married in December, 1886, to Miss Annie Heermance, who came to Atchison with her mother in 1883 from Hudson, N. Y. She was one of the old Holland families of New York and taught in the Atchison High School prior to her marriage.

Mr. and Mrs. Collett have two children as follows; Mary E., educated at Wellesley College, took her master degree at the University of Pennsylvania, then one year of post-graduate work at Brown University, at Providence, R. I., when she became instructor of biology at the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Pa., and W. B., Jr., who was educated in the Atchison public schools. Culver Military Academy, Culver, Ind., and the State Agriculture College at Manhattan, Kan.

Mr. Collett is an Episcopalian, a York Rite Mason and a member of the Young Men’s Christian Association, and has been active in the work of these organizations for years.

James Dooley.

The late James Dooley, of Shannon township, left behind him a life’s record that is well worth recounting, and deserved an honored place in the memoirs of the county, in which he was for over forty years a prominent and well known figure. As a pioneer he did his part well in building up Atchison county. The story of his life is romantic in many ways, and he was always imbued with the idea of providing well for his beloved family, and leaving his affairs in such a stable condition that his descendants could earn on the great work which the father and founder of the family had so well begun and brought to such a substantial culmination.

James Dooley, deceased, was born January 6, 1835, in Ireland, a son of Irish parents, James and Catharine Dooley, who left their native land in 1847, and located in Canada, where the father, James Dooley, the elder, became ill and died in the city of Hamilton. Although the young Irish lad was but twelve years of age and immature, it was necessary for him to go to work and gain a livelihood the best way he could. He managed to get a job which paid him one dollar and a half per month with his board. He was knocked about from pillar to post while a youth, and managed to make his way. His adventures in making a struggle for an honest livelihood were similar to those of other poor orphan boys left in a strange land without friends or relatives, other than those who were as poor as himself. One bright rift in the lonely life of this orphan boy is to be noticed when he became a boarder in the Hurley home at Harrisburg, Canada. It was here that he met with a genuine kindness and formed an attachment for the noble-hearted girl who later became his inspiration, and was his faithful wife during the years in Kansas when he was working his way upward to wealth and affluence, aided and abetted by her wise counsel and assistance. Imbued with a desire to secure capital so that he could come to this new country and realize an inherent ambition to own a farm, he set out for the gold fields of Colorado during the Civil war years, and there amassed a small fortune of $500 in gold, saved during the months of his hard and unremitting labor in the gold mines of the western State. With this capital he felt able to make the venture which he and his sweetheart had planned, and, accordingly, after his marriage at Paris, Canada, with Catharine Hurley, he and his wife set out for Atchison in March of 1866. During the first few months of their residence in Atchison county they lived with a sister of Mr. Dooley, Mrs. Slattery, in Shannon township, and James worked in the city at any honest labor he could get. Their first investment was for eighty acres of school land in Shannon township, for which they paid cash, and it then became necessary for Mr. Dooley to borrow forty dollars in order to get the deed for the land. During the whole course of Mr. Dooley’s career in Atchison county, while the modest eighty acres were growing to the large total of 600 acres of some of the best agricultural land in the county, they never undertook a debt, but each time an additional tract of farm land was purchased, the savings were drawn upon and cash paid for the land. Each of three sons now has a fine farm of 200 acres. The home place upon which Mrs. Dooley now resides, which consists of 200 acres, cost an even $10,000. This farm is one of the oldest in the county and was originally preëmpted by a Mr. Collins, who set out a large grove of forty acres or more in walnut and cottonwood trees which have become very valuable, having grown to considerable size.

Catharine (Hurley) Dooley, widow of James Dooley, was born April 28, 1847, in Ireland, a daughter of James and Bridget Hurley, who left their native land in 1847 while Katharine was but an infant, and located in Hamilton, Canada, later residing in Harrisburg, Canada. A brother of Mrs. Dooley, James Hurley, served three years and three months in the Union army. He was a member of a Pennsylvania reserve regiment of sharpshooters and was wounded during the battle of Richmond, Va. For six months, while the wound in his wrist was healing, he served as sergeant in the quartermaster’s department. Some years after the war he became an inmate of the National Soldiers’ Home at Dayton, Ohio, and lost his life while aboard an excursion boat which sank in Lake Michigan, near Chicago. Mr. and Mrs. Dooley were the parents of fourteen children: Mrs. James Baker, Huron, Kan., and mother of eight children, Celia Baker, a trained nurse in Chicago, Mary, wife of George Perdue, Joseph, William, Bertha, Ruth, Rita and James; Catharine, James and Mary, deceased; Sister Lucy, of Mt. St. Scholastica Academy; Lucy, wife of David Lawless, and mother of two sons, Harold and Clevett; Mrs. Celia Finnegan, wife of Thomas Finnegan, of Houston, Texas, who had two children, Thomas Lillis and Mary; Bertha, Sister Dorothy, of the Order of St. Benedict’s in Mt. St. Scholastica Academy; Nora, wife of Roger Finnegan; William, managing the home farm; John, deceased; James married Bertha Kistler, and has three children: Florence, Bernice, and Francis; Edward married Henrietta Kramer, and has two children, John and Gerard; Joseph, deceased; Irene, at home with her mother.

It is well to add here that James Dooley was one of the notable army of hardy freighters who crossed the plains with the long mule trains in the late sixties. This was in April of 1866, when he convoyed a train load of goods to Denver, Colo., in company with William Slattery. During his whole life, after attaining his majority, Mr. Dooley was a stanch Democrat and was ever loyal to Democratic principles. While a member of the Catholic church, he was a liberal supporter of all denominations, and took a broad and tolerant view of all religious matters as becoming a widely traveled and experienced man. His life-long wish to perpetuate his name and keep the family estate in the family was expressed while lying on his death bed. Calling his faithful helpmeet to his bedside, he said: “Mother, I am leaving you without having my dearest wish come true.” On being asked what it was, he said: “I have always longed for the time to come when I could see my sons settled on this farm of ours, with a Dooley here with his family, a Dooley there, and another son on that part of the farm.” He was at once assured by his wife that his wishes would be respected, and after his demise Mrs. Dooley at once took steps to carry out the plans of her husband with the result that within sight of her home the other two sons are comfortably located on 200 acres of land each and have attractive homes of their own.

Abraham Hooper.

Abraham Hooper, deceased, was one of the pioneer settlers of Atchison county. He was one of the well known and sturdy figures in the early days of the settlement of Kansas when strong and brave men were required, who were able to face the vicissitudes and hardships incident to the settlement of a new country and perform their tasks without succumbing, as weaker mortals were wont to do. Mr. Hooper was born in Platte county, Missouri, November 23, 1839, on a farm, near Parkville. His father was Abraham Hooper, a native of Tennessee and early settler of Missouri, who died in Mexico. Abraham Hooper, the subject of this review, was reared in Platte county and came to Atchison county in 1858, settling on a farm near Pardee. While engaged in farming he followed his trade of plasterer in the neighborhood of Pardee. For a distance of ten miles around his own residence he plastered all of the houses then building by the incoming settlers. During the Civil war he was enrolled in the State militia. In his younger days Mr. Hooper was a freighter and crossed the plains in charge of great trains on three different occasions. On one of his trips to Colorado he was placed in charge of a train load of twenty-five wagons, and one of his other trips was to Ft. Union, N. M. His affiliations were with the Christian church, the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Knights of Pythias lodges.

Mr. Hooper was married in 1863 to Louisa Campbell, born in Tennessee in 1842, a daughter of Daniel and Nancy Campbell. The Campbell family left Tennessee in 1854, and in 1855 removed to a farm which they preëmpted near Farmington in Atchison county. This was in a day when things were in a primitive state in Kansas. The Campbells lived in a cabin which was one of the first dwellings built in that section of the county. The mother of Mrs. Hooper lived and died on their farm, and her father died on the western plains while on a trip to the Black Hills. Mr. and Mrs. Hooper removed from the farm to Atchison in 1887, and here Mr. Hooper died February 18, 1914, at the advanced age of seventy-four years, having been born November 3, 1839. Three children were born to this well respected couple: Addie B. died at the age of six years; Daniel, deceased, and Nellie died at the age of one year. Mrs. Hooper lives all alone in her home, but remembers fondly the days of old and has many sweet memories of her husband and children to solace and comfort her during her declining years. Despite her age she is physically and mentally vigorous and is distinguished in being one of the oldest pioneer women now living in the county.

Her well beloved son, Daniel Hooper, was born in 1868, and died January 22, 1912. He was one of the most talented and best liked men in Atchison, and was far on the road to fame and prosperity when he was cut off in the prime of his vigorous and virile manhood. He received the rudiments of an elementary education in the district school near his country home and early developed ambitions which were partly realized during his life. After leaving school he studied shorthand and typewriting, and while holding a position in the law office of C. D. Walker he studied law and was admitted to the bar. A winning personality and his pronounced ability won him clients from the start of his legal career. His personal popularity and ambitious tendencies led him to enter politics, and he was elected to the office of probate judge of the county, serving the people well and faithfully for a period of six years, and then served two terms as city attorney. Just in the prime of his manhood and at the zenith of a career his health failed, and he died at Excelsior Springs, Mo., where he had gone in the hope of regaining his health. Judge Hooper was sincerely mourned by a large circle of friends and acquaintances and it is probable that there was not a man in his class better liked or more highly respected in Atchison county at the time of his demise. He was a Republican in politics and was fraternally connected with the Modern Woodmen, the Knights of Pythias, in whose councils he was very prominent, and an attendant at the Christian church. The most notable trait in Judge Hooper’s character was his sincere devotion to his parents. Because of the love he bore his mother he never married and cared for no woman but her. His constant thought was to make provision for her in the event of his own demise, and he carefully looked after her immediate and future wants. Such men as he are deserving of a greater tribute than that embodied in this brief review. A memorial window with his and the name of his father thereon was placed in the Christian church in his memory. Printed on this window are Judge Hooper’s words of faith often expressed: “I believe in a great and a good God.”

Mrs. Hooper is rearing and educating a girl, Ruth Jones, who serves as company for her in the home.

Albert J. Smith.

Albert J. Smith, the efficient cashier of the State Bank of Lancaster, Kan., is a native son of Kansas, and has grown up with Atchison county. He is a son of one of the prominent early pioneer settlers of the county, and while yet, comparatively, a young man, he has made good at his chosen avocation and is considered one of the really successful banking men of this section of the State, his talents and ability seeming to be especially adapted to the profession of banking.

Mr. Smith was born on a farm in Brown county, Kansas, January 13, 1879, a son of Thomas B. and Mary E. (Woodruff) Smith. The father of Albert J. Smith was born August 16, 1843, in Grant county, Indiana, a son of William J. and Lucinda (Barkley) Smith, who were born and reared in Pennsylvania. The father of Lucinda Barkley Smith was a soldier in the War of 1812. William J. Smith removed with his family to Grant county, Indiana, and in 1851 migrated further westward to Bureau county, Illinois, where he made a permanent settlement, and died in that county in 1869. Lucinda (Barkley) Smith died in Illinois in 1862, at the age of sixty-two years. They were the parents of the following children: Mrs. Margaret Pugh; Alvah, a veteran of the Civil war; Mrs. Lucinda Spangler; Isaac, Joseph, and William R. Thomas B. Smith, the father of Albert J., was eight years old when the family removed to Bureau county, Illinois, where he spent his boyhood days and received a common school education, finishing in the Dover (Illinois) Academy. On the second call for volunteers issued by President Lincoln, he enlisted in Company B, Ninety-third regiment, Illinois infantry. He took part in a number of decisive and important battles and campaigns. Among them are, Jackson, Miss., and Dalton, Ga. On May 16, 1863, while serving in General McPherson’s corps, he fought at the battle of Champion Hill and was severely wounded in the left shoulder. He was forced to remain in the hospital for some time and after his recovery he was placed on guard duty for the purpose of guarding the railroad bridges. At the close of the war he was honorably discharged and returned to his home in Bureau county, Illinois. After his marriage in 1866, he continued to farm in Illinois until 1874, when he removed to Kansas, locating first in Brown county, where he and his family lived for six years, and then came to Atchison county, where Mr. Smith purchased a farm of 160 acres in Grasshopper township, northeast of the town of Muscotah. He resided on this farm for twenty years and then moved to Effingham in 1900. He died in Effingham, November 29, 1914. Mrs. Mary E. (Woodruff) Smith, his wife, was a native of New Jersey, and a daughter of Nathan and Delia Woodruff.

Thomas B. Smith was married January 24, 1866, to Mary E. Woodruff, at Princeton, Ill. They were the parents of nine children, six of whom are living: Mrs. M. E. Beven, of Muscotah. Kan.; Mrs. H. T. Reece, of Muscotah; Mrs. J. C. Harman, of Auburn, Neb.; Albert J., the subject of this review; C. E., cashier of the Huron Bank, and T. B., of the Exchange National Bank of Atchison. Three daughters are deceased: Lettie, Gracie and Goldie. Mr. Smith was an enterprising and progressive citizen who did his duty in whatever community he was located, during his long and useful life. While a resident of Grasshopper township he served as township trustee for four years. He was a member of the city council of Effingham one term, and filled the office of mayor for one term, and also proved his efficiency as a member of the Atchison County High School board for two terms. He was an honored member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Grand Army of the Republic, at Effingham. He was a stockholder and director of the banks at Lancaster and Huron, Kan. Mr. Smith was a member of the Presbyterian church for over fifty years. Mrs. Smith, the widowed mother, was born in New Jersey, in November, 1845, and now resides in Atchison.

Albert J. Smith was reared on the farm of his father and attended the district school in District No. 23, Grasshopper township, and later entered the Atchison County High School, Effingham, and was graduated in 1897. After his graduation he taught school in his home district for two terms, and in 1900 he received an appointment as clerk in the census bureau at Washington, D. C., and served for two years in that capacity. He then returned to Effingham and entered the State Bank of Effingham, as assistant cashier and bookkeeper. He made a fine record for himself in this bank and in July, 1905, was one of the organizers of the Farmers and Merchants State Bank of Effingham, and held the office of cashier from the time of its opening until 1909, when he resigned his position and removed to Lancaster, where he became cashier of the Lancaster State Bank. Mr. Smith, in addition to his banking interests, is the owner of eighty acres of good land in Kapioma township, Atchison county.

Albert J. Smith was married in 1899 to Elizabeth R. Smith, and to this union have been born the following children: Dorothy, deceased; Gladys, Elizabeth and Albert, all living at home. Mrs. Elizabeth (Smith) Smith, was born on a farm in Grasshopper township, February 26, 1879, and, like her husband, is a graduate of the Atchison County High School. She also taught school for two years. She is a daughter of James K. and Elizabeth (Asquith) Smith, the former a native of Pennsylvania, and the mother a native of England, and early settlers of Atchison county. Both are now deceased.

Mr. Smith has identified himself with the civic affairs of Lancaster and is recognized as one of the town’s leading and enterprising citizens. He is a Republican and has served four years, from 1911 to 1915, inclusive, as mayor of Lancaster. His administration was successful and the affairs of the city were conducted with efficiency. He is a regular attendant of the Presbyterian church, and is affiliated with the Anti-Horse Thief Association, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Modern Woodmen of America, and the Knights and Ladies of Security.

John E. Duncan.

There is a proverbial saying that opportunity knocks once at every man’s door, and a classic has been written by a great Kansas statesman, since departed from among us, which tells in musical language that Kansas spells opportunity for the young man. Opportunity presented itself to John E. Duncan, Missouri Pacific agent, at Shannon, Kan., and Mr. Duncan seized it, and held on for all he was worth, and made a success of his venture. His ambition first was to become a railroad man and telegraph operator, and probably in the early stages of his career the post of telegraph operator seemed to him to be the great height of attainment. He realized his first dream, and when he came to Shannon, Kan., to take charge of the Missouri Pacific business at that place, he conceived the idea of engaging in the buying and shipping of grain. This idea grew and he became a grain buyer and shipper, built an elevator, established a general store, opened an implement establishment, and became a prosperous and trusted business man of his adopted county. It is a fact that more grain is shipped from the little village of Shannon through the agency of Mr. Duncan than any other point in Atchison county, outside of the city of Atchison. Mr. Duncan enjoys the respect, esteem and confidence of the prosperous farmers of the section tributary to Shannon, and they trade with him because of this confidence in his squareness. A few years ago, when real hard times struck Kansas as a result of the droughts, Mr. Duncan showed his hearty good will and confidence in the eventual betterment of conditions by placing his trust in his farmer friends, and supplying such of those who were not blessed with ready cash, with credit for supplies at his store, and carried them until they were able to pay. This kindness has been appreciated, and the most cordial relations exist between Mr. Duncan and his patrons.

John E. Duncan was born March 21, 1863, in Moro, Madison county, Illinois. He is a son of John and Mary (Hooley) Duncan, who had eight children, three of whom are now dead. The father was born in December, 1818, in Ireland. He left his native land in 1846 and sailed for New York. He engaged in farming in New York State, and was married two years later. In 1851 he came to Illinois and remained there until 1891. The mother of John Duncan was born in Ireland, also, in 1827. In 1848 she left there with a brother, William, and came to America. She died in 1907. Both parents were members of the Catholic church. The subject of this sketch was reared on the farm of his father and attended the grammar schools of Madison county, Illinois. When he grew to be a young man the long days of labor on the farm palled on him and he longed to get into different work. He had always had an ambition to become a telegrapher and when he was twenty-one years old he had a chance to learn that work. He worked as telegrapher for the Chicago & Alton Railroad Company until 1887, when he went to Everest, Brown county, Kansas, to become night operator for the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company. In the fall of 1887 he was sent by the same company to Shannon, Atchison county, Kansas, to become the agent for the Missouri Pacific there. In 1892 he went into the grain business. He bought and sold grain for eight years, and at the end of a successful business period he erected the grain elevator at Shannon. This proved a profitable investment, and in 1907 he invested in a general merchandise store which he conducted until August, 1915, when his store building and stock were destroyed by fire, which was caused by lightning. Mr. Duncan has recently completed a handsome new store building of cement blocks, 36×56 feet in size, which is attractively finished throughout and is well stocked with goods. In the fall of 1915 Mr. Duncan installed a line of agricultural implements and is the real merchant prince of his section of the county. Besides his business interests he is the owner of 200 acres of land in Macoupin county, Illinois, a nice residence in Shannon, and several town lots.

Mr. Duncan was married in 1890 to Margaret V. Clark, and to this union the following children have been born: John, associated with his father in business; Kathrine, aged sixteen years; Margaret, eleven years old; Bernadette, aged nine; and Dorothy, four years of age, all of whom are living at home with their parents. Mrs. Duncan is a daughter of Mathias and Katherine (O’Grady) Clark, both of whom were born and reared in Ireland, and emigrated from their native land to America. She was graduated from the school of telegraphy at St. Louis, Mo., in 1889, and assisted her husband in his work at Shannon. Mr. Duncan is a Democrat and he and his family are members of the Catholic church. He is a member of the Knights of Columbus, of Atchison, Kan.

William Schapp.

William Schapp, a Civil war veteran and an Atchison county pioneer, is a native of Germany. He was born in Wyler, Germany, January 26, 1840, and is a son of Peter and Margaret (Bonns) Schapp. The Schapp family immigrated to America in 1854, landing at New Orleans, La. They remained there but a short time, however, when they came up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers by boat and located at Weston, Platte county, Missouri, where a brother of Mrs. Schapp had located some time previously. Here the father entered the dairy business and prospered and the parents moved to Atchison, Kan., in 1868 and died in Atchison.

William Schapp received a common school education and grew to manhood in Platte county. He entered the employ of James Steele, an extensive land owner, as overseer of his estate, and was thus employed when the Civil war broke out and soon after the beginning of hostilities, Mr. Schapp was drafted into the Confederate service. Four days after he became a Confederate soldier, his company was encamped on the banks of the Missouri river near Iatam, Mo. Young Schapp began to lay plans to escape, as he was a Union man at heart, and he had made up his mind that if he was going to serve in the army that he would serve under the stars and stripes. On the night he escaped the lieutenant of the company was killed accidentally while showing the men how to use a gun, and during the excitement incident to the killing, Mr. Schapp made his escape. During the night he secured a boat with one oar and drifted down the river, landing at Ft. Leavenworth. Here he lost no time in enlisting in Captain Black’s company which afterwards became a part of Company B, Eighth Kansas regiment. The following night he piloted this company across the river to Iatum where they surprised and captured the Confederate company of which he had been a member the day before. This act won from him the intense hatred of the members of the Confederate company, and even after the close of the war members of that company attempted to take his life. After serving about a month in Captain Black’s company, he joined Company H, Eighteenth Missouri regiment and participated in a number of important engagements. After the battle of Shiloh he was promoted to sergeant major. He was with Sherman on his march to the sea, and during that campaign, while at Decatur, Ala., his term of enlistment expired and he received special permission to accompany General Sherman’s army through the campaign. On arriving at Savannah, Ga., he was placed in charge of fourteen soldiers whose term of enlistment had expired and was the first to arrive in New York City, where they were met by bands of music and were treated royally by the people. He then returned to his former home in Platte county, but the secession spirit was so strong and so much antipathy was shown him on account of his loyalty to the Union that he decided not to remain, and accordingly, came to Atchison. The second night after arriving home he was warned by a friendly member of the Confederate company he had deserted to leave at once, as plans had been made to hang him. He left at once on the next train. He had saved about $800 during the war and loaned it to his uncle, John Bonns, who was engaged in the brewery business, and through a failure, Mr. Schapp lost every dollar of his savings. He then entered the employ of Julius Holthaus, who conducted a saloon and a grocery store. About a year later he engaged in the manufacture of brick in partnership with Jacob Nash. About five years later he engaged in the ice business, which he conducted about six years. He then bought a farm north of where the orphans’ home is located, where he remained for twelve years, when he sold his farm and removed to Atchison, and engaged in the real estate business and has since been engaged in that business. Mr. Schapp has been very successful and has accumulated considerable property.

He was married in February, 1865, to Miss Margaret, a daughter of Gearhardt Kunders, a pioneer settler of Weston, Mo. Eight children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Schapp, as follows: Peter P. resides in California; Dora F. resides at home; Mrs. Theodore Geritz, Atchison county; Mrs. Theodora Arensberg, Atchison; Mrs. Henry Wersling, Atchison county, and Albert A.; William H., deceased; Maggie, deceased.

Mr. Schapp is one of the old timers of Atchison, and has seen that town develop from a little settlement on the bank of the Missouri river to the great prosperous commercial center that it is today. He has taken an active part in the political life of Atchison, and for seven years was a member of the city council, and served two years on the Atchison school board. Mr. Schapp cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln for President, and has been a stanch adherent to the policies and principles of the Republican party since that day. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic.

Thomas Lincoln Blodgett.

The passing of a good, industrious citizen from this mundane sphere to the realms of a higher and better life beyond the grave is always saddening, especially if his demise occurs while yet in the prime of his vigorous manhood. Such a one was Thomas Lincoln Blodgett, late of Mt. Pleasant township, who, though not permitted to dwell upon this earth the allotted time decreed for mankind, accomplished in the brief time he was actively engaged in agricultural pursuits more than the average man, and will long be remembered for his many excellent qualities by those who knew him best.

Thomas Lincoln Blodgett, late of Mt. Pleasant township, was born July 27, 1860, and lived and died in the township in which he was born in Atchison county, his demise occurring May 4, 1905. He was a son of George M. and Mary (Cline) Blodgett, his father having been born and reared in Michigan and came to Kansas when the State was created in the late fifties.

George M. Blodgett, the father of Thomas Lincoln Blodgett, was born in Livingston county, New York, October 6, 1834, a son of George W. and Lucinda (Garfield) Blodgett, and was a grandson of Thomas Blodgett. Thomas Blodgett, who was a soldier under Washington and fought for the independence of the American colonies, lived in Vermont, where he was a blacksmith and a farmer. He went to Michigan in 1856 and remained there to be near his son, George W., who had settled at Kalamazoo about 1846. Mr. Rowel, the father of Thomas Blodgett’s wife, was also a Revolutionary soldier. The children of Thomas Blodgett were named George W., Riley and Jared. Riley went to Rhode Island and became connected with shipping interests, navigating waters in the vicinity of Newport. Thomas died in Michigan in 1850, aged ninety years.

George W. Blodgett, the father of George M., was born in Vermont in 1800, and died in 1880, aged eighty years. His wife, Lucinda, was a daughter of Solomon Garfield, of Ontario county, New York. She died in 1840, leaving the following named children: Orinda, who married Thomas Sanders; George M.; Emma, who was Mrs. Nathan Allen, of Michigan, and John, deceased.

The education of George M. Blodgett was limited and he became used to hard work at an early age. He worked as hired hand and at logging in the pine woods of Michigan. When twenty-one years of age he left home and went to Winnebago county, Illinois, and took charge of a quarter section of land for which he had traded. Not liking his prairie surroundings he traded his farm for a small tract now within the limits of the city of Moline, Ill. He remained here for four years; then he traded this farm for a farm in Iowa which he sold. With his small means he came to Kansas, arriving in Atchison April 5, 1855. He took up a claim and bought land from the Delaware Indian lands and began developing his farm.

When volunteers were called for at the outbreak of the Civil war, Mr. Blodgett offered himself for the defense of his country’s honor and was accepted as a member of Company F, Thirteenth regiment, Kansas infantry, (Colonel Bowen’s regiment), of the Seventh army corps, which was mustered into service at Leavenworth, Kan., and was in the military department of the West. Mr. Blodgett was a sergeant of his company and participated in many battles fought by his regiment in Missouri and eastern Arkansas and was once wounded by a bursting shell.

George M. Blodgett was married in 1857 to Mary E. Cline, a daughter of Henry Cline, an early settler of Atchison county. The children born to this union were: Thomas Lincoln, Frank F., Frederick, Luther, Mrs. Lavina Lawler, Mrs. Jessie Ellerman, and Lulu. The father of Thomas Lincoln Blodgett became quite wealthy and accumulated 500 acres of land. He served as deputy sheriff of the county in 1856 and filled many offices of trust in Mt. Pleasant township.

George M. settled on a pioneer farm in Mt. Pleasant township which he developed, reared a family, and died in the home which he built to house his family. He was the father of seven children, of whom Lincoln was the eldest.

Thomas Lincoln Blodgett was named in honor of Abraham Lincoln, who was greatly admired by the elder Blodgett. He was reared to young manhood on his father’s farm and learned to become an excellent farmer and stockman. After his marriage in 1881 he and his young wife lived on a farm owned by his father for four years, when they purchased 120 acres of land which formed the nucleus for a large farm which was later increased to 400 acres, now owned by Mrs. Blodgett. The first tract was bought on time, but by industry, economy and self-denial on the part of the ambitious couple, the debt was soon paid off and additional acreage was gradually added as the years went on. Mr. Blodgett was a successful live stock feeder and frequently fed one or two carloads of cattle on his farm each year. He was noted as a good judge of cattle and made money in his operations. The Blodgett farm is well improved and is considered to be one of the best in Atchison county.

He was married August 18, 1881, to Miss Ella Hudson, and to this marriage have been born five children, as follows: Robert, a farmer, near Cummings, Atchison county, Kansas; George, managing the home farm; Elmer, Mabel and Stella, at home with their mother. Stella is attending the high school at Potter. Mrs. Blodgett was born May 20, 1862, in Illinois, and is a daughter of Cyrenus and Elizabeth (Shaw) Hudson, the former of whom came to Kansas in 1867 with his family. Cyrenus Hudson was a native of Illinois who made good in Kansas, and at one time was the owner of 900 acres of land in Atchison and Jefferson counties, Kansas. In 1901 he removed to a home in Potter, where he is living retired. With other live citizens of the thriving town he has taken an active part in the upbuilding of his adopted city.

During his life and ever since he attained his majority, Thomas Lincoln Blodgett was allied with the Republican party and took a prominent part in political and civic affairs in his home township and county. He was a progressive citizen as well as a successful and progressive farmer who was always in favor of matters which had for their intent the betterment of the public welfare and the advancement of the citizenship of Atchison county. He was ever ready to do his part in educational matters and was a member of the local school board. He was fraternally allied with the Modern Woodmen lodge, and was blessed with many warm friends and well wishers who esteemed him as a man and citizen. He was a kind parent who loved his wife and children and highly prized his home life and surroundings, and was ever striving to make his family happy and comfortable.

John R. Oliver.

John R. Oliver, deceased pioneer of Atchison county, was born in Cayuga county, New York, April 5, 1825, and was a son of William Oliver, a native of Scotland, who emigrated from his native land when a youth. John R. was educated in the schools of his native county and State and learned the carpenter’s trade. He was married January 3, 1850, to Helen M. Packard, who was born in New York State February 17, 1832, a daughter of Thaxton Packard, of English extraction, who married a lady of Holland descent. After John R. and Helen Oliver were married they settled at Sterling Center, Cayuga county, New York, where Mr. Oliver worked at his trade of contractor and builder until 1856, when he and his wife and two children came west and settled on a farm near the western border of Atchison county, in Grasshopper township. They became a part of the Cayuga settlement, made up of several families who had migrated from their native county in New York State. There are only four of the original Cayuga colony living, as far as known: Fred L. Oliver, Frances Josephine Anderson, of Atchison; Mrs. Frank Boyington, of Atchison county, and brother, Samuel Adams. John R. Oliver came first, and in the fall of 1857 he sent back for his wife and two children to join him. Mrs. Oliver and the children boarded a steamboat on Lake Erie and made the voyage by way of the Great Lakes to Chicago, going from Chicago to Leavenworth, Kan., and thence by steamer to Atchison, from which place they were taken across the county to the new home in the Cayuga settlement, by a man named Sandy Coburn. The family lived in the settlement for about six years and then moved to Leavenworth, Kan., where they resided until Mr. Oliver’s death, in 1906; the wife and mother died in 1911. John R. Oliver served in the Kansas State militia during the Price invasion, but was unable physically to withstand the rigors of the campaign which resulted in Price’s army of invasion being driven southward. He was an ardent Republican in politics and was a follower and supporter of Abraham Lincoln, to whom he was related by marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Oliver were the parents of the following children: Fred L., born in Sterling Center, N. Y., November 8, 1851, now residing in Atchison with his sister, Mrs. Anderson; Parthenia K., widow of Wesley Chaffee, a nephew of General Chaffee, was born August 8, 1861, and now resides in Leavenworth, Kan.

Frances Josephine Oliver Anderson was born March 1, 1855, and was six years of age when the family moved to Leavenworth. She received her education in the public schools of Leavenworth and was married there on May 8, 1873, to James A. Anderson, who was born March 16, 1849, in Loudon county, Virginia, about twenty miles south of Washington, D. C. An anecdote which tells of the stirring and troublesome times in the beginning of the Civil war is here worth recording. When a child on the farm in Atchison county, Mrs. Anderson and her teacher, Miss Missouri Batsell stayed all night at the home of the Reece family, as it was unsafe to be abroad after dark. This was in the fall of 1861. Mr. Reece, the head of the family, was very ill. Along about dark the people of the Reece home heard a furious noise of yelling and shooting outside. The noise makers rapped on the door with the butts of their guns, and when Mrs. Reece opened the door it was ascertained that the night prowlers were a band of Bushwhackers who demanded a meal. She told them that her husband was very ill, and that she had nothing cooked which would suffice for a meal. They swore at her, and after talking the matter over decided to go to the barn and steal the horses for their own use. The gang went toward the barn, and another altercation arose among them which resulted in the killing of one of the men who had counseled them not to steal the horses. A dead body was thrust through the doorway and slid part way across the floor after a shot was fired. Mrs. Anderson has never forgotten the horrors of that night.

James A. Anderson was a son of Charles W. and Mary Francis (Hough) Anderson, both of whom were members of very old and prominent families in Virginia, the Hough family being large plantation and slave holders. Charles W. Anderson was profoundly opposed to the institution of slavery, and was high in the councils of the Democratic party. He was a thirty-second degree Mason and was a personal friend of men high in the Government affairs at Washington, D. C. A son, Fleming Anderson, was killed by Mosby’s guerrillas while at home from the war on a furlough, and was shot as he ran out of the door of his home. Charles W. Anderson was a paymaster in the Union army and was killed by robbers while on official duty. After the death of the father of the family, James A., with his widowed mother and sister. Mrs. Captain Spence, Charles W., and C. C. Anderson of the transfer company, of Atchison, came to Kansas, first residing at Topeka, then at Lawrence shortly after Quantrell’s raid. James was but seventeen years old at this time, and being the eldest son was the actual head of the family. When still a young man he engaged in the transfer business and took a contract from the Government to supply Ft. Leavenworth with fuel, and while fulfilling his contract with the Government, and transporting goods to and from the fort, he met and fell in love with his future wife, Frances Josephine Oliver, and the marriage took place as stated in the preceding paragraph. After the marriage Mr. and Mrs. Anderson lived in Lawrence, Kan., until their removal to Atchison, in July of 1873. Mr. Anderson continued in the transfer business and established the Anderson Transfer Company. He had associates at various times, but was always at the head of the company. He died July 12, 1906. His widow, Mrs. Frances Josephine Anderson, is one of the best known ladies of Atchison and is prominent in social and religious circles. When thirteen years of age she became a Christian and became a member of the Atchison Methodist Episcopal Church in 1883. She has been actively and prominently identified with the church work for many years, and has been especially successful as a teacher of boys. She is a class leader of the church and a member of the official board, and was captain of one of the teams which raised a $43,000 fund to provide for the erection of the new Methodist Episcopal church building. She is a charter member of the Epworth League and is a singer of ability, having sung in the Methodist Episcopal church choir for thirty years. In 1911 she began her evangelical career, in which chosen field she is achieving marked success. Mrs. Anderson is a member of the Knights and Ladies of Security and is affiliated with the home and foreign missionary societies of the Methodist Episcopal church.

Leo Nusbaum.

Faithfulness to duty and perseverance invariably bring their reward. Give a truly ambitious young man an opportunity to advance himself, and he will succeed. The opportunity was given to Leo Nusbaum, vice-president of the Dolan Mercantile Company of Atchison, and he has made a success of the business in which he began at the lowest rung of the ladder. Entering the employ of the firm of which he is now one of the important heads, he worked his way steadily upward until he is now one of the recognized business factors in the city of Atchison.

Leo Nusbaum was born in Poweshiek county, Iowa, December 6, 1877, and is the son of Frederick and Eva (Link) Nusbaum, both natives of Germany. Frederick Nusbaum was born in the Fatherland in 1855, and came to America in 1869, when a boy fourteen years of age. He worked as a farm hand in Iowa, and eventually owned a farm of his own. From Iowa he moved to Nebraska where he purchased and operated a farm. From Nebraska he removed to St. Joseph, Mo., where he was employed in a grain elevator. He died in St. Joseph in 1903.

He, with whom this review is directly concerned, was educated in the schools of Council Bluffs, and St. Peter’s parochial school, and came to Atchison in 1898. On coming here he entered the employ of the Dolan Mercantile Company as office boy and packer. His first work consisted of preparing orders for shipment. After attaining proficiency in this department, he was promoted to the position of billing clerk and made a success in this department. being next advanced to the position of city salesman for the concern. All the while he was studying the wholesale business, and gaining such a knowledge as would best fit him to take a more responsible position in the affairs of the company. His next important service was as the secretary of the company. From this place it was but a step to the sales managership. Upon the demise of William F. Dolan, the founder of the wholesale business, in the year 1913, Mr. Nusbaum became vice-president and one of the managers. He and his associates, in charge of the Dolan Mercantile Company’s affairs, are capable and energetic men who are building up a more extensive business upon the broad and stable foundation erected by its late founder, whose example has been an inspiration and guide to the young men whom he took into his employ and educated in the details of his extensive business. Mr. Nusbaum has justified the confidence and faith held in his ability by his employer, and is an able and dignified executive.

Mr. Nusbaum was united in marriage with Gertrude Delaney, at Atchison, Kan., in 1900. She is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Martin Delaney. To this union four children have been born, who are the pride of their parents, namely: Leo, Mary Clare, Robert, and Frances. Mr. and Mrs. Nusbaum are members of the Catholic church and have a host of friends who esteem them for their many excellent qualities. Mr. Nusbaum is a director of the First National Bank of Atchison and a vice-president of the Atchison Commercial Club and the Atchison Hospital. He is politically allied with the Democratic party. His primary interests, however, are mainly concerned with the growing success of his firm, and the welfare and growth of his home city, and he is universally recognized as a citizen of worth and standing in the community. He was the most active force in the organization of the Atchison Commercial Club, called its first meeting and has been continuously one of its most aggressive members.

Charles J. Keithline.

Charles J. Keithline, a prosperous farmer and stockman of Lancaster township, Atchison county, Kansas, is a native of the Keystone State, and is a descendant of an old American family which traces its ancestry back to the Revolutionary days, when the founder of the family in America, Colonel Keithline, came from Germany, his native land, to America with Baron De Kalb, and assisted the colonial army to achieve American independence. Charles J. was born in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, July 9, 1857, a son of Samuel and Eliza (Hoover) Keithline, both of whom were born and reared in Pennsylvania and there married. Samuel Keithline was a son of John and Mary (Neyhart) Keithline, who also lived in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania. The great grandfather of Charles J. was Joseph Keithline, who served in the War of 1812, and made buckskin breeches for the United States Government, which were worn by the United States soldiers. He was a tailor by trade. Samuel Keithline learned the trade of wagon maker in his younger days and operated a wagon shop at Hanover, Penn. He lived in his native State until 1884, when he migrated to Kansas and invested his capital in land in Shannon township upon which he lived in retirement until his demise in 1900, at the advanced age of eighty-two years. Samuel and Eliza Keithline were the parents of the following children: John A. died May 17, 1915, in Atchison, Kan.; Samuel died in infancy; Joseph died at the age of three years; Charles J.; Augustus L., Lancaster township; Sarah E., in Shannon township; Emma Carlton, Franklin county, Kansas, and Mrs. Cora Riley, Atchison, Kan. The mother of Charles died in 1910, at the age of seventy-nine years.

Charles J. Keithline, with whom this narrative is directly concerned, was educated in the graded schools of Nanticoke, Penn., and worked as farm hand in Pennsylvania. In 1883, five years after his marriage in 1879, he migrated westward with his family to Kansas, and located on a farm in Shannon township on the old home place. He rented land for twenty-eight years and finally became the owner of the fine farm which he is now cultivating. This farm is fitted with excellent improvements consisting of an attractive farm residence and excellent out-buildings, much of which has been erected or remodeled by the proprietor. The 187 acres comprised in this farm are well and closely cultivated so as to yield the maximum of results. The farm is nicely located six miles west of Atchison on the Parallel road. Mr. Keithline has been a breeder of Poland China hogs for several years and takes pride in the animals bred and raised on his place.

He was married in 1879 to Frances Goss at Wilkes-Barre, Penn., and this union has been blessed with the following children: Ira, a hardware dealer in Atchison, Kan.; Samuel, a farmer, living at home with his parents; Amy, deceased; Mrs. Elsie Vollmer, Bronson, Kan.; Frances, living at home; Grant, deceased; Charles died in infancy. The mother of these children was born in Pennsylvania in 1856, and was a daughter of Floren and Maria (Keyser) Goss, the former a native of Germany and the latter a native of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Keithline is identified with the Republican party, but has never been an aspirant for political preferment. He and the members of his family are affiliated religiously with the Methodist Episcopal church and contribute of their means to its support. He is fraternally allied with the Modern Woodmen lodge, and during his residence in this county has taken an active and influential part in affairs which concern the welfare of the people in general.

Sheffield Ingalls.

Sheffield Ingalls is a resident and a native son of Atchison, having been born in that city March 28, 1875. He is a son of the late United States Senator John James Ingalls. Mr. Ingalls’ ancestors, both paternal and maternal, were representative New England pioneers. The Ingalls family in America originated with Edmond Ingalls, who with his brother, Francis, founded Lynn, Mass., in 1628. The mother of our subject was Anna Louisa Chesebrough, a direct descendant of William Chesebrough, who emigrated to America with John Winthrop in 1630. The paternal grandparents of our subject were Elias T. and Eliza (Chase) Ingalls, the former of whom was a first cousin of Mehitable Ingalls, the grandmother of President Garfield, while the latter, Eliza Chase, was descended from Aquilla Chase, who settled in New Hampshire, in 1630, and who was also the ancestor of the late Chief Justice Chase.

Sheffield Ingalls was reared principally in his native town and received his public school education at Atchison and at Washington, D. C. After attending Midland College at Atchison for four years he entered the University of Kansas and was graduated in that institution in June, 1895, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He then studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1897, but as the profession did not appeal to him he practiced but little and turned his attention to more genial pursuits. He early developed a predilection for politics and became actively identified with the Republican party in both the city and county of Atchison at an early age. In July, 1898, he was appointed police judge of Atchison by Mayor Donald and, in April, 1899, was elected to the same office for a term of two years, serving until April, 1901. In the spring of 1904 he was a prominent candidate for the Republican nomination for probate judge, but through the exigencies of politics, instead of receiving the nomination sought for, he was nominated by the same convention for the legislature from the third representative district. However, at the election his opponent, Edward Perdue, defeated him by thirty-two votes. Two years later he was nominated again for the legislature from the same district and received a tie vote with Alonzo Wilcox. The contest was decided by lot in Topeka and Mr. Ingalls won. He served as a member of several important committees and was made chairman of the committee on education. He cast his vote for Charles Curtis for United States senator, and in the work of that session became actively identified with that progressive element in the legislature which was known at that time as “the boss busters.” He is in sympathy with all efforts to purify politics and to raise the tone of public life and during that session he voted for all reform legislation. He is a man of deep convictions, a political and social reformer of exceptional ability and courage, and has always opposed machine politics. It was due to an obnoxious political machine’s influence in local Republican circles at Atchison that Mr. Ingalls entered the arena of political strife in order to assist in effectively opposing said machine and to secure needed reform in political methods. Shortly after the adjournment of the legislature Mr. Ingalls assumed the editorial management of the Atchison Champion, and for the following two years exposed through its columns the corruption in city affairs and fought against the domination of the city by a political ring. He then endeavored to purchase a controlling interest in the Champion to enable him to be more aggressive in fighting corruption though its columns, but through various influences operating against him he was unsuccessful. In the fall of 1907 he originated and organized the Commercial State Bank and served as its vice-president until its consolidation with the First National Bank, in the spring of 1910. He then organized the Commerce Investment Company, of which he was made president and continuously served as such until March 2, 1916, when he became the president of the Commerce Trust Company of Atchison, a company which is a development of the Commerce Investment Company. Besides the interests mentioned he is a director of the First National Bank and also of the Railway Specialty Company of Atchison. He was appointed a member of the board of regents of the Kansas State normal schools by Governor Stubbs in April, 1908. He is a member of the State Historical Society, and is a member of the Sons of the Revolution. Fraternally he is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

On January 9, 1901, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Ingalls and Miss Lucy Cornell Van Hoesen, of Lawrence, Kan. To their union five children have been born: Robert Chesebrough, who died in infancy; Ruth Constance, Sarah Sheffield, John James, and David Bagle.

In 1912 Mr. Ingalls received the Republican nomination for lieutenant-governor of Kansas and was elected, although the head of the State ticket was defeated. It fell to Mr. Ingalls’ lot to preside over a Democratic senate, which he did in such a fair and impartial manner as to win the commendation of both Democrats and Republicans. (Copied from Blackmar’s History of Kansas and revised by R. M. Gibson.)

E. P. Pitts, M. D.

E. P. Pitts, M. D., a prominent Atchison physician and surgeon, and well known specialist in diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat, is a native of Virginia. Dr. Pitts was born in Northampton county, Virginia, October 13, 1880, and is a son of E. D. and Emory (West) Pitts, both natives of the Old Dominion. E. D. Pitts, the father, was a prominent lawyer and was successfully engaged in the practice of his profession for a number of years at Norfolk, Va. He was a son of Edward P. Pitts, who was also a prominent Virginia lawyer of Northampton county, and for a number of years served as United States district judge in Virginia. He was a graduate of William and Mary’s College, and Dr. Pitts still has in his possession the diploma which his grandfather received from that institution. The Pitts family is of English descent and traces its ancestry back to the Hon. William Pitt, Earl of Chatham. Dr. Pitt’s mother belongs to an old Virginia family, and is also of English descent.

Dr. Pitts was reared to manhood in his native State and received a good education. When he was eighteen years of age he went to St. Joseph, Mo., where two of his uncles, brothers of his father, were practicing physicians. Here, Dr. Pitts entered the Ensworth Medical College in 1898, and was graduated in the class of 1902 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He then studied under, and practiced in conjunction, with Dr. Barton Pitts, his uncle, who is a noted specialist in diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat. Dr. Pitts then went to New York, and after spending six months in an eye and ear infirmary, he came to Atchison in the summer of 1902 and engaged in the practice of his profession, specializing in diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat. Dr. Pitts has met with a marked degree of success in his chosen field of special professional work. He is a close student of the wonderful advances made in his profession and ranks as a leader.

Dr. Pitts was united in marriage to Miss Beulah Judah, a daughter of Samuel Judah, of Buchanan county, Missouri, and Dr. and Mrs. Pitts have one child, Spencer, born in 1907. Dr. Pitts is a member of the Masonic lodge and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

John Fankhanel.

John Fankhanel, deceased, was born June 11, 1822, in Saxony, Germany. When a youth he learned the blacksmith’s trade which he plied in his native village until 1862, when he immigrated to America, first settling in Weston, Mo., and later going to Ft. Leavenworth, where he was employed as a blacksmith by the United States Government. He saved his money, and in 1879 came to Atchison county and invested in 160 acres of land in Benton township, located four miles northeast of Effingham. He improved this farm and cultivated it successfully for a number of years, and about the year 1900 he turned it over to his son, Henry, and purchased the farm now owned by Gus Stutz. He resided on this place until his retirement to a comfortable home in Lancaster in 1901, where he died December 24, 1914, leaving a reputation for honesty and industry second to none in his neighborhood. Mr. Fankhanel was a member of the German Lutheran church. He was twice married, his first wife having been born in Germany, and died in Leavenworth, Kan., leaving one son, Henry, now a farmer in Benton township.

Mr. Fankhanel was again married in 1882, to Mrs. Emma Lindel, widow of Frederick Lindel. She was born in Bavaria, Germany, August 20, 1841, and lived in her native country until she was eighteen years of age, and then came to Illinois. Shortly after her arrival she married Frederick Lindel, also a native of Germany, and a farmer in Illinois. To this union were born five children, two of whom are living, namely: Mrs. Minnie Dorety, of Garfield, Okla.; and Herman, a farmer, residing near Leavenworth, Kan. The marriage of John and Emma Fankhanel was without issue.

Mrs. Fankhanel is a capable and worthy lady, who enjoys the respect and esteem of her neighbors and friends. She is kind and neighborly, and is ever ready to assist those of her acquaintances who are in need. She is living in Lancaster in comfortable circumstances, where she owns a good home and village property, and also a farm of sixty-five acres in Leavenworth county. She is a member of the German Lutheran church.

Edward J. Kelly.

Edward J. Kelly, cashier of the Farmers and Merchants State Bank, of Effingham, was born June 14, 1868, at New Brunswick, N. J., a son of James and Alice (Tobin) Kelly, both natives of Ireland. Upon immigrating to this country in 1844 they made their first home in New Jersey, and from there came to Kansas in 1869, locating in Grasshopper township, where James met with wonderful success as an agriculturist. His first investment was for eighty acres of prairie land which he improved and gradually added to his holdings until he was the owner of 500 acres of good land. James Kelly accumulated his estate by the exercise of good judgment in his farming operations, hard labor, and the exercise of the strictest economy. At first he did not like the new country. Becoming discouraged, as many others did, after the bad years during the seventies, he sold out, but fortunately, as it later proved for him, he was compelled to take back his land from the purchaser. He later changed his opinion concerning the future of Kansas and invested heavily in land at every opportunity. James Kelly was born in 1828, and died in 1894. His wife was born in 1830, and died in 1912. He first came to America in 1844 when but sixteen years of age, and was married in New Jersey. The children of this estimable pioneer couple were: James, who died at the age of seven years; Lawrence P., a resident of Colorado Springs, Colo.; Edward J., and Mary E., residing in Effingham.

Edward J. Kelly was educated in the district schools and spent two years as a student in St. Benedict’s College in Atchison. He lived on the old home place of his parents until 1885, in the meantime improving one of his father’s farms in Benton township, upon which he moved and resided thereon until 1894, at which time he married and moved on another farm which he owned in the same township. Mr. Kelly followed farming until 1903, and then removed to Effingham and engaged in the hardware and grain business for a period of five years. In 1909 he entered the State Bank of Effingham as bookkeeper and remained one year, when he became financially interested in the Farmers and Merchants State Bank, of which he is the present efficient cashier.

Mr. Kelly was married February 16, 1898, to Mary Gerety, of Monrovia, Kan., a daughter of Richard and Sarah Rooney Gerety, natives of Ireland, who first immigrated to Indiana, and from there came to Kansas as early as 1856. Both are now deceased. The Gerety’s settled on the prairie south of Monrovia, when Indians were camping in the neighborhood. They lived there all of their days and prospered. Richard Gerety died in 1906, and his widow removed to Effingham, where she died in 1910. They were the parents of the following living children: Mrs. Elizabeth (Berney), Horton, Kan.; Thomas Gerety, near Nortonville, Kan.; James, Everest, Kan.; John, Wichita, Kan.; Margaret, Independence, Kan.; Richard, Wichita, Kan.; Sarah, Colorado Springs, Colo. During the Civil war Mr. Gerety purchased horses for the United States Government.

It is not alone as a farmer, merchant and banker that Mr. Kelly has achieved a certain amount of prominence, but he has taken an active part in political affairs during his life and stands high in the councils of the Democratic party. He was elected to represent Atchison county in the State legislature in the session of 1909, and during that session acquitted himself creditably as an honest and fearless legislator. He was a member of the committees on roads and highways, mines and mining, and judicial apportionments, etc., and has the unique record of never missing a roll call of the house while attending the session. Mr. Kelly has likewise shown his interest in his home city by serving on the city council for four years. His religious affiliations are with the Catholic church.

Farmers and Merchants State Bank, Effingham, Kansas.

This bank was organized in 1905, with a capital stock of $12,000, and officers as follows: President, U. B. Sharpless; secretary and cashier, A. J. Smith; vice-president, Fred Sutter; directors, R. M. Thomas, J. W. Davis, C. N. Snyder, U. B. Sharpless, A. J. Smith. Since this time there have been some changes in the personnel of the official body governing the bank’s affairs, and the present officers are as follows: President, Fred Sutter; vice-president, L. T. Hawk; cashier, E. J. Kelly; assistant cashier, D. R. Gerety; directors, Fred Sutter, L. T. Hawk, Alexander McKay, U. B. Sharpless; E. J. Kelly. The capital and surplus now exceed $15,000 and the bank averages in deposits over $120,000. In 1910 the bank erected a handsome brick building on the corner of Main and Howard streets, which is fitted up with handsome new fixtures and a new burglar proof vault of the latest construction at a cost of over $4,000. This bank is purely a local concern and is financed by local capital, all of the stockholders residing in Effingham and vicinity, and comprising the leading merchants and farmers of Effingham and the surrounding country.

Benton L. Brockett.

Successful business man, upright citizen and Christian worker, are characterizations which aptly describe Benton L. Brockett, who has been established in the lumber business in Atchison for over thirty years. He began as a poor man with little capital, and has built up a splendid retail concern at 1019 Main street. Mr. Brockett first established a small lumber yard at East Atchison in 1885, and six years later moved to Atchison. His buildings and warerooms occupy space 175×150 feet, and he employs six men and four teams to handle his extensive business. The concern supplies Atchison and vicinity with lumber, lime, cement, and builder’s material, including cement blocks, and practically all materials used in building. The yard work includes the only cement working plant in the city which turns out cement blocks for foundation work and porches.

Benton L. Brockett was born in Ashtabula, Ohio, September 5, 1864. His parents were Lewis B. and Lucy S. (Fisk) Brockett, natives of New York and Ohio, respectively. The Brockett family is of English origin, and the founder of the family in America first settled near New London, Conn. His descendants afterward located in the state of New York. Lewis B. was the son of Ambrose Brockett, who moved to Ashtabula county, and was one of the first settlers of the Western Reserve. Here Lewis was reared, and married Lucy S. Fisk, a daughter of an early settler of the Western Reserve. He became a merchant at Saybrook, and served as postmaster under President Cleveland’s administration. He died at the advanced age of eighty-six years. The mother of Benton L. is still living and is now over eighty-three years of age. To them were born three sons and three daughters, namely: James D., of Lincoln, Neb.; Haddie, the wife of Charles C. Parker, a resident of Portland. Ore.; Ellen F., residing in Ashtabula; and Amy, the wife of Charles Simon, of Ashtabula, Ohio; and two died in infancy.

Benton L. was educated in the Ashtabula schools, and came west in 1884, where he engaged in business, as stated in a preceding paragraph. Success has attended his efforts, and he is universally recognized as one of the substantial men of the city. The account of the growth of Mr. Brockett’s business is simply a narrative of his life work on the material side. His prosperity is well deserved, and has been acquired by close application to his affairs and square and honorable dealings with his fellow men. Mr. Brockett was married on October 10, 1888, to Daisy Denton, a daughter of Henry Denton, an attorney of Atchison; she died July 15, 1898, leaving two sons, namely: Louis D., born August 14, 1889, who is associated in the real estate and loan business with C. D. Walker, and married Isabella, a daughter of Mr. Walker. The second son is Wallace James Brockett, born February 14, 1895, and is a student at Baker University, at Baldwin, Kan. On July 23, 1903, Mr. Brockett married Margaret Schriver, a daughter of Peter P. Schriver, of Cedar Point, Kan. To this union one child has been born, Helen Louise, born November 12, 1907.

Mr. Brockett has always espoused the principles of the Republican party, although his father was a Democrat. He has served his home city as a member of the city council, and has been generally active in all undertakings tending to advance the best interests of Atchison and make the city a better and more attractive place in which to live. He is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. It is in church work, however, that Mr. Brockett is most active, aside from his business affairs. Ever since coming to the West he has been identified with church and Sunday school work, and is a prominent and active member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He supplemented his work in behalf of making better men and women of the growing boys and girls of this locality in East Atchison, where he has conducted a mission school for the past four years. He is a trustee of his church, and has taken part in the work of the Sunday school for several years. The highest tribute that can be paid to him is that he is universally known as an earnest Christian, who has reared his family to be valuable members of the community.

John Stutz.

John Stutz, one of the younger successful farmers of Center township, Atchison county, was born November 5, 1870, on his father’s farm in Lancaster township. His parents were Christian and Kathrine Stutz, concerning whom a complete review is given in the biographies of Gustave and Christian W. Stutz. The reader is referred to these sketches for the history of this worthy pioneer couple, who were among the early settlers of the county. John grew up on the home farm and attended the public schools of Lancaster, remaining at home with his parents until 1898, at which time his father died and John was employed by the Cain Milling Company of Atchison for two months. He became heir to eighty acres of land as his share of the family estate, and began farming for himself. His farm was only partly improved by a small shack and granary. He at once set about to remedy conditions on the land, and erected a substantial home, a good barn and other out-buildings which are well kept. He built a two-story five-room house, and in 1903 erected a fine barn, 48×30 feet in dimension. He has also added to his acreage, and now owns 160 acres of highly productive land.

Mr. Stutz was married October 8, 1895, to Nora Walz, and to this union have been born three children, namely: Christian W., Grover J. and Lester E. all at home with their parents. Mrs. Nora Stutz was born August 24, 1876, on a farm in Shannon township, a daughter of Charles and Margaret (Diehsback) Walz. Charles Walz, the father, was twice married, his first wife being Kathrine Reidel, who bore him four children: Mrs. Rosa Buff, of Shannon township; Charles, deceased; Mary married Fred Stutz, a member of the Atchison police force, and Kathrine, wife of Christian W. Stutz. By the second marriage of Charles Walz, that with Margaret Diehsback, there were born eight children, as follows: Margaret, wife of Gustave Stutz, of Lancaster township; Nora, wife of John Stutz, the subject of this sketch; Frederick, deceased: Mrs. Anna Hager, of Atchison; William, farmer, Shannon township; Mrs. Clara Peterson, Atchison; Albert, Atchison; and Jerry resides on the old home place, in Shannon township.

Mr. Stutz is a Democrat, and a member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles. Naturally he has a deep and abiding love for his home county, and thinks there is no place on earth better than Atchison county. His labor and interests have generally been given towards the welfare of his home county, and his standing in his community is assured, as a well respected and industrious citizen who has the respect and esteem of all who know him.

A. S. Speck.

The Speck family is one of the oldest of the pioneer families in Kansas and the date of the settlement of A. S. Speck in Atchison county goes back to sixty years ago, when in September 20, 1855, Mr. and Mrs. Speck with their two children arrived at the banks of the Missouri river, after a six weeks’ trip overland in a covered wagon from their old home in an eastern State. They crossed the river by ferry to the Kansas side and landed near old Sumner, traveled over the hills and finally stopped at a little log cabin, not far from Stranger creek, which stream is said to have received its name from an unknown man having been drowned in the stream some years previous. The Specks made a settlement in the county and experienced a great deal of trouble from the border ruffians and pro-slavery advocates because of the fact that Mr. Speck was a pronounced anti-slavery man. It was the aim of the border ruffians to intimidate or “get rid” of all Free State people in order to gain their ends and make Kansas a slave State. A story concerning these troublous times is timely here. One afternoon Mrs. Speck glanced from her cabin door and saw a cannon facing the house and planted on a little knoll with about thirty men surrounding the sinister looking weapon. They sent one of their number to the door of the cabin to ascertain if Mr. Speck was at home. In reply to their question as to Mr. Speck’s whereabouts, Mrs. Speck said, “If he were here he would never send his wife to talk for him.” After a long conference the men went away, but returned that night and demanded the privilege of searching the house. All the weapon of defense Mrs. Speck had was an axe which she held in her hand when she opened the door. As the door was opened she asked for the revolver held by one of the men who entered. This he refused to do, but the leader of the gang, a man named Adkins, called out with an oath, “Give it to her, we will protect you.” The gang searched the house thoroughly and were satisfied that the man they sought was not there. They then went away leaving the children crying in fear, and the mother so fearful of her life that she sat up the remainder of the night on the outside of the cabin with her babe in her arms, thinking they would return. Not long after this came the news of the Quantrell raid and the burning of Lawrence, Kan., and Mr. Speck with others went to the relief of the sufferers. The ruffians returned to the Speck cabin in the afternoon of the day of Mr. Speck’s departure, but this time Mrs. Speck was armed with a gun which Mr. Speck had left with her. She also had another gun which had been given her by a neighbor named Martin, who had had similar trouble with the ruffians, who searched through Martin’s cornfield for him, and when the raiders would get near him he would slip away unseen to the rows through which they had already searched and thus elude them. When the men saw the gun one of them insisted that she give it up, and wrenched it from her hands. She at once reached for the other gun which she kept hidden behind her and fired at her assailant, frightening him so that he dropped the gun he had seized and ran from the vicinity of the home. The others who remained near the cannon saw on a high ridge some distance away what they thought was a company of men coming to capture them. They at once took flight and left hastily, leaving behind them a long rope which was evidently intended to be used in hanging Mr. Speck. The small army seen in the distance later proved to be neighbors driving a herd of cattle. One little son of the family made a vow to whip Adkins when he grew up and had the later satisfaction of fulfilling his vow when still a boy. The old neighbor of “cornfield fame” still lives in practically the same locality. Pardee Butler, the famous Free State advocate, who was placed on a raft and set adrift on the Missouri by border ruffians, was an intimate friend of the Speck family. When the Civil war broke out and the call for volunteers was sent out by President Lincoln, Mr. Speck enlisted as lieutenant of Company F, Thirteenth regiment, Kansas infantry, in September, 1862, serving until his resignation, and later being appointed recruiting officer in August, 1863.

Mr. and Mrs. Speck lived on their farm until death took them, the demise of Mr. Speck occurring in February, 1901, and that of Mrs. Speck occurring January, 1904. They are survived by eight children: William A., of Kay See, Wyo.; Frank, James and Arthur, of Nortonville, Kan.; Mrs. D. P. Barber, of Cummings, Kan.; Mrs. Joseph Hotchkiss, of Willow Springs, Mo.; Mrs. S. W. Adams, of Atchison, Kan.

Robert L. Grimes.

Robert L. Grimes, farmer and stockman, of Lancaster township, Atchison county, Kansas, is one of the representative and enterprising citizens of the county who have made good. He has been a resident of Kansas for the past forty-four years, and during that time has worked his way upward by his own unaided efforts and is now the owner of 350 acres of good Kansas soil. Of late he has practically retired from active farming, and has rented out his land, that he may be able to take a well earned repose and enjoy a life of leisure.

Robert L. Grimes was born February 11, 1852, in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, a son of James and Margaret (Laughlin) Grimes, both of whom were born and reared in that county. The father was born May 1, 1824, and was the son of Henry and Sallie Grimes, who came of old pioneer stock in the Keystone State, and were of Scotch and German descent. Henry was a blacksmith and made a good living for his family. James Grimes was reared in his native county, and when he grew up became a farmer. He tilled the soil in Pennsylvania until 1871, and then disposed of his holdings, and migrated westward, to Kansas, investing his cash capital in Lancaster township, where he bought 160 acres, located in sections 15, 5 and 18, Atchison county. There were little or no improvements on his land when he bought it, but with characteristic thrift, he improved the land and made it into a desirable place of residence. Like others who came to the county in that early day he went through the “grasshopper era,” and was discouraged for a time but held on, and as a result became fairly well to do in the course of time, as better years followed the lean era. He lived on his farm until his demise in 1905, and at the time of his death was one of the well respected and best known citizens of his township. Grimes, senior, was married in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, to Margaret A. Laughlin, and this marriage was blessed by the following children: Robert Laughlin, subject of this sketch; William, a farmer of Lancaster township; Elizabeth, deceased; John A., Huron, Kan.; Mrs. Sallie Hardin, Lancaster township, and Hugh L., Lancaster township. The mother of the foregoing children was born February 12, 1828, and departed this life in 1901. She left the impress of a noble and womanly character upon the lives of her children, who have all led exemplary lives and been a credit to their parents. She was a daughter of Robert Laughlin, a farmer of Pennsylvania.

Robert L., with whom this review is directly concerned, was reared to young manhood on the family farm in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, received his early education in the nearby district school, and at the age of nineteen years accompanied his parents to the new home in this county. His first schooling was obtained in the Mt. Vernon district in his native county, and he also attended the school near his new home in Lancaster township, when not assisting his father in developing their Kansas farm. He remained on the home farm until he was twenty-seven years of age, and after his marriage, he launched into agricultural pursuits for himself by renting a tract of land for two years. His first efforts in his own behalf were successful and he then used his savings to purchase a tract of land in Lancaster township, south of Eden. His first investment was in a farm of 160 acres, which he improved as his prosperity continued to increase. By the exercise of industry, self-denial and good financial management, he has become the owner of 350 acres of fine land. This land has twenty-five acres of standing timber, which is a valuable asset when one considers that timber is almost a rarity in the greater part of Kansas. Mr. Grimes cultivated his land until 1914, when he decided to shift some of the burden which grew heavy as he felt himself taking on added years, and he accordingly rented it, but retains the supervision of the farm.

For several years Mr. Grimes has been a breeder of Shorthorn cattle, and takes considerable interest in his fine stock. His success in farming is due to the fact that he has not been content to just be an ordinary farmer, but has endeavored to keep abreast of the latest developments in agriculture and has aimed to keep the best of live stock on his place. He has an excellent barn, 32×60 feet in dimension, with a capacity of eighty tons of hay, and which cost over $1,500, despite the fact that most of the lumber used in its construction was cut and sawed from the timber on his place.

Mr. Grimes was married April 16, 1879, to Miss Viola Wilson, who has borne him two children: Mrs. Edith Shufflebarger, living on a farm in Lancaster township, and Mrs. Franketta Carson, whose husband is farming the Grimes farm land. Mrs. Grimes was born in Lancaster township, December 21, 1862, and is a daughter of Andrew and Nancy (Carpenter) Wilson, who came to Atchison county from Kentucky in the early pioneer days. Andrew Wilson was a Union veteran who saw valiant service during the Civil war.

In political matters Mr. Grimes has always been identified with the Democratic party, and has served as a member of the school board in his township. He attends religious services at the Methodist Episcopal church, and is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America.

Christ Kanning.

The proverbial success of the members of the German race, who have left the Fatherland in search of fortune in America, is well illustrated in reviewing the career of Christ Kanning, of Lancaster township, Atchison county, Kansas. In a little more than a score of years, beginning with practically no capital, Mr. Kanning has accumulated 240 acres of the best land in Atchison county. He is the owner of two well improved farms, and it was necessary for him to build practically all of the improvements on his home place since purchasing the land in 1893.

Christ Kanning was born in Westphalia, a province of Prussia in the German Empire, May 20, 1854. He is a son of Henry and Christena (Poos) Kanning, who were the parents of seven children, three of whom are deceased. The parents spent their lives in the Fatherland. Christ Kanning is the only member of the family living in Atchison county; two of the children live in Germany, and the other resides in Illinois. Christ received eight years of schooling in his native land, became a farmer in Westphalia, and in 1889 left the old home and immigrated to Madison county, Illinois, where he worked as a farm hand four years. In 1893 he migrated westward, to Atchison county, and with his savings bought eighty acres of land in section 24, Lancaster township. This tract was improved at the time of purchase, but Christ, in keeping with the policy of his neighbors and the other enterprising farmers of this noted township, was not satisfied with the buildings, and has practically replaced all the original improvements with residence and barns more in keeping with his ambition and prosperity. He has erected a large, eight-room residence, and a barn 40×46 feet, a granary, and a large windmill which pumps the water for his home and live stock. The Harry Searls place, which he also owns, is a very well improved farm, and is located just one-half mile east of the home farm of Mr. Kanning. It is a well kept modern place. Mr. Kanning keeps graded stock on his place.

Mr. Kanning was married February 29, 1888, to Caroline Stahlhut, and this marriage has been blessed with seven children, namely: Henry, deceased; Mrs. Christina Poos, Benton township; Mrs. Mary W. Poos, Benton township; Bertha, Otto, William, and Ada, all of whom are at home with their parents. Mrs. Kanning was born April 27, 1869, in Madison county, Illinois, and is a daughter of Henry and Mary (Debtner) Stahlhut, both of whom were natives of Germany, immigrating to America and settling in Madison county, Illinois, where they died. Mr. Kanning is one of those citizens who believe in doing their own thinking in political affairs, and is not allied with any political party, voting for the man, regardless of his politics, and making up his own mind as to each candidate’s personal fitness to ably perform the duties of the office sought. He and his family are members of the German Lutheran church.

Theo Intfen.

Theo Intfen has been a resident of Atchison county for over half a century. He has seen the county transformed from a wilderness and unbroken prairie to a land of fertile farms and thriving cities and towns. Practically all of his life has been spent within sight of, or within, Atchison, and he has witnessed and taken part in the wonderful growth of his home city. Nearly thirty years of his life have been spent in building up the immense furniture and house furnishing business now located in his own building at 623–625 Commercial street. This business had its initial beginning in 1887 in the old Municipal theater building, under the firm name of Miller & Intfen. In 1890 the store was moved to the west half of the Ramsey building, where it remained under Mr. Intfen’s management until November 25, 1912, when it was removed to the present quarters. Mr. Intfen purchased the building and thoroughly remodeled it, erecting a new and modern front, and building an addition on the rear, 50×150 feet. A stock worth over $40,000 is carried on three floors and the basement. An immense credit business is handled in a successful manner, and nine men are employed by Mr. Intfen in the caring for the trade. Goods from the Intfen store are sold over a wide range of territory, the store having patrons located in Tennessee, Iowa, Florida, Philippine Islands, the Dakotas, Arkansas, Nebraska, Oregon, Illinois, Michigan, Oklahoma, and other states. He does an extensive business in Kansas and Missouri, and cares for a great many orders received from a distance. During the year of 1913 he made over 757 shipments from Atchison to distant railway points. Mr. Intfen is an extensive advertiser and believes in publicity for a healthy, growing concern such as he has built up.

Theo Intfen was born December 24, 1861, in Weston, Mo., and is a son of William and Mary (Piekman) Intfen, of Prussia. The Intfen home was just across the Holland-Prussian line. William Intfen and his wife immigrated to America in 1853 and made their first home for a number of years at Weston, Mo. In October, 1862, they crossed the Missouri river by means of a ferry and located on a farm, two and one-half miles north of Atchison. The elder Intfen developed his farm and reared a family. At this time there were not many settlers in Atchison county, and the city was but a village. The first store of the town was then doing business, and Theo Intfen can recall its appearance. Large trees stood on the site of many of the present business blocks. William Intfen became the owner of 180 acres of land, and was a prosperous farmer for those days. Mrs. Intfen died on the home farm in 1885. William Intfen came to Atchison after her death and died in 1901, at a ripe old age. Five children were born to them, namely: John J., a merchant of Atchison; Theo, the subject of this sketch; Mrs. Minnie Miller, living at 714 Laramie street; Mrs. Anna Falk, of Andale, Kan.; Henry died at the age of two years.

Theo Intfen was reared on the pioneer farm and attended the district school in his neighborhood. He assisted his father on the home place until he attained his majority, and then decided to do things for himself. He went to Kanopolis, Eldridge county, Kansas, and opened the first store in the town. He sold sixty-two dollars’ worth of merchandise the first day he arrived from boxes in the street before getting into the store. He placed the first stock of goods in Kanopolis, and made the first sale of merchandise in the town. One year after establishing this store he sold out at a nice profit and returned to Atchison, where he engaged in the furniture business, as before stated. His success has been due to pronounced ability as a salesman, and his excellent judgment in financial affairs, and a knowledge of what the people will buy, and the carrying out of his plan to supply patrons on the credit plan, which is optional with the customer.

Mr. Intfen was married in 1893 to Miss Emma Zibold, and to this union has been born a daughter, Louise, born September 29, 1894, educated in Atchison and graduated from the Atchison Business College. From 1912 until her marriage she was her father’s bookkeeper. She was married on October 17, 1915, to LeRoy A. Osterbog, in charge of cost department of the Atchison Saddlery Company. Mrs. Intfen is a daughter of Merman Zibold, a native of Germany, who first settled in St. Louis, then lived in St. Joseph, and from there came to Atchison.

Mr. Intfen is an independent Democrat, politically, and does his own thinking as to what candidates he will support for office, when it is time for him to cast his ballots. While interested in good government, he does not take an active part in political affairs. He is strictly a business man, who has built up a monument to his own individual enterprise and energy through the development of the large Intfen store. He is likewise interested in his home city and takes a just pride in the fact that he has done his share to assist the development of Atchison, and is proud of the knowledge that he has witnessed the growth of a beautiful and prosperous city from its very beginning. He is a member of St. Benedict’s Catholic Church, and is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen.

Thomas Finnegan.

Thomas Finnegan, an Atchison county pioneer, who came to this county forty-eight years ago, is a successful farmer of Shannon township, and has resided on his present place for forty years. Thomas Finnegan is a native of Ireland, born in 1842, and is a son of Patrick and Hanora Finnegan. The father died when Thomas was less than a year old, and the mother came to this country, and died in Atchison county, at the home of her son, Thomas, in 1899, at the remarkably advanced age of 102 years.

When Thomas Finnegan immigrated to America, he first settled in Connecticut, where he remained for five years. He then went to Iowa, remaining in that State for fifteen years. While living in Iowa he worked out by the month a great deal and often worked for as low as eight dollars per month. In March, 1867, he came to Kansas, and after spending a short time in Atchison county, removed to Doniphan county, and for about two years worked at breaking prairie land with ox teams. He followed farming about two years in Doniphan county, and was also interested in a threshing outfit, which he operated for a time, and in 1870 he returned to Atchison county, and in 1871 bought 160 acres of land in Shannon township, where he has since been engaged in farming and has met with uniform success. He has one of the best farms in Atchison county, under an excellent state of cultivation, with a large producing orchard. Mr. Finnegan is a great lover of trees and timber, and in the early days in Kansas planted a great many trees, and now has a fine grove on his place, with many large maple, elm and walnut trees, as well as cottonwood, which adds greatly to the appearance of his place.

During the war Mr. Finnegan was employed as a Government teamster, and in 1863 he drove transfer teams in St. Louis. He was married in 1869 to Miss Anne Morley, a native of Ireland, born in 1850. The following children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Finnegan: Nora married J. J. Slattery, Shannon township; John resides in Atchison; Mary married Joseph Schlesbaum, Atchison; Thomas, Houston, Tex.; James resides in California; Margaret married Joseph Longan, Doniphan county; Agatha resides at home, and Roger, farmer, Atchison county. Mr. Finnegan leans to independence in politics, and the family are members of the Catholic church.

Samuel E. Ballinger.

Adjoining Atchison, to the westward there are many beautiful and well kept suburban homes. Along the road which borders Forest park on the west are some especially fine homes with well kept grounds, dotted with flowers and shrubbery, in striking contrast to the unkempt condition of the park upon which these suburban estates front. These homes make ideal places for people who have spent the greater part of their lives in farming pursuits, and, while wishing to be near the city, yet wish to have a larger space for a home setting than the thickly settled parts of the town would afford. In one of the beautiful homes fronting the highway resides Samuel E. Ballinger and his faithful wife and helpmeet, who have been residents of Atchison county for many years and are both descendants of old eastern families.

Samuel E. Ballinger was born September 7, 1843, in Salem county, New Jersey, a son of John G. and Sarah Ann (Reeves) Ballinger. His paternal grandfather was also named John G., who married a Quaker lady. His maternal grandfather was Stephen Reeves, a scion of an old eastern family, and in his day a leading ship builder of New Jersey. The father of Samuel E. was born in 1827 and died in 1906. During his life he was a miller and farmer and prominent in the affairs of Salem county, New Jersey. He was twice married, his first wife, Sarah Ann, dying in 1850, leaving three children: Stephen R., a retired miller of New Jersey, now deceased; Samuel E., and Thomas E., residing in Atchison. John G. Ballinger’s second wife was Sarah Austin, who bore him the following children: John, Charles, Walter, Ella, Gertrude, Emma, and Minnie.

Samuel E. received his education in the public schools of his native county and State and early learned to perform his share of the work required in the operation of his father’s gristmill and farm. He hauled grist from the mill to town and to the patrons of his father’s mill and assisted in cultivating his father’s farm when yet a boy in years. When he attained young manhood he was associated with his father in the livery and feed business at Camden, N. J., for a period of three years. He and his brother, Stephen, then bought the gristmill which they operated in partnership until 1871, following which he farmed for one year and then disposed of all of his holdings with the intention of migrating to Kansas. He came to Atchison, Kan., with a capital of $350 which he invested in eighty acres of improved land, costing him $2,400. This land was but partly improved, with a modest home of two rooms and a lean-to at the rear. He and his good wife by dint of economy and perseverance soon managed to pay off their indebtedness and to erect a rather pretentious dwelling, at the same time increasing their land holdings. Their first purchase was an eighty acre tract near the home farm, and they later bought a tract of 160 acres near Huron in Lancaster township, which they later traded for eighty acres near Shannon. Mr. Ballinger was the possessor at one time of 240 acres of well improved land. As age crept upon this worthy couple they gradually disposed of their land holdings until they retained but forty acres of the home place, and they moved to Atchison in September of 1907, where they invested in a beautiful suburban estate of five acres. Later, when they disposed of the forty acre farm they added ten acres to the suburban tract which has since become very valuable on account of its nearness to the city.

Mr. Ballinger was married September 7, 1870, to Janie Louise Paxson, and to this union have been born children, as follows: Mrs. Evelina Lancaster, of Severance, Kan., who is the mother of six children, namely: Samuel E., Sarah Catharine, William Andrew, Fred, Harry and Leonard: Mrs. Sarah Elizabeth Yaple, of Atchison, mother of children as follows: Albert, Louise, Ruth, Esther (deceased), John, Edwin, Austin, Raymond, and Ernest, and twin boys, Harold Paxson and Herbert Ballinger. The mother of these children, Jane Louise (Paxson) Ballinger, was born December 2, 1844, in the city of Philadelphia, daughter of Samuel W. and Catharine (Speer) Paxson. Her father was the son of Irish parents and her mother was born of German parentage. Samuel W. was a carpenter by trade who was married in Camden, N. J., and plied his trade in that vicinity for many years. He served in behalf of the Union during the Civil war in a Pennsylvania regiment of volunteers. A brother, Henry, served in the Tenth regiment of New Jersey volunteer infantry.

Mr. Ballinger has always been a Republican in politics, but has never taken an active part in political matters. He is a member of the Central Protective Association. He is essentially a home man and takes a pride in keeping his attractive home in excellent condition, and can be seen most any day working about the grounds surrounding the Ballinger home. Mr. and Mrs. Ballinger are a worthy couple, kind and indulgent with their children whom they have endeavored to rear so that they might lead upright and worthy lives in the community.

Charles William Robinson.

Charles William Robinson, county physician of Atchison county, assistant surgeon for the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company, and one of the prominent and successful members of the medical profession in northeastern Kansas, is a native son of the Sunflower State and was born on his father’s farm in Noble township, Marshall county, March 1, 1890, a son of William F. and Mary (Critchfield) Robinson. His parents were born in Buchanan county, Missouri, his father in 1853, and his mother in 1857. William F. Robinson became a resident of Kansas in the seventies, locating in Marshall county, where he engaged in farming and stock raising. He is one of the extensive land owners of that county, his properties exceeding 1,200 acres. He has been actively identified with the development of his section, is one of his county’s most influential citizens, and has attained a secure position in its commercial, social and political life. Mr. Robinson has been married twice. Two children, James M. Robinson, M. D., of Hiawatha, Kan: and Lucille, now Mrs. Dr. A. E. Ricks, of Atchison, were born of the first marriage. Our subject, Dr. Charles W. Robinson, is the only child of the second marriage.

Dr. Robinson received his early educational discipline in the public schools of his native county, supplemented by a course in the Hiawatha Academy. He subsequently completed a course in Washburn College, Topeka, and then entered the medical department of Kansas University, from which he was graduated with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, a member of the class of 1913. Following his graduation, he located for practice in the city of Atchison, where he formed a partnership with Dr. C. A. Lilly. Shortly after engaging in the practice of his profession, he was appointed county physician, an unusual honor for a practitioner to receive during his first year of practice. That he has filled the office with credit is attested by his having been re-appointed in 1914, and again in 1915. Dr. Robinson has built up a very lucrative practice and is recognized as one of the most able of the younger members of the medical profession in his section of the State. The demands of his practice have not caused him to forego his habit of study. He keeps abreast of the advancement in medicine and surgery, and during the winter of 1914–15 completed a post-graduate course in diseases of children at the Nursery and Child’s Hospital, New York City. He is a member of the Atchison County Medical Society, the Kansas State, and the American Medical Associations. He is also a member of Orient Lodge, No. 57, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of Topeka; Atchison Lodge, No. 647, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; Atchison Aerie, No. 173, Fraternal Order of Eagles, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Royal Arcanum, Fraternal Aid, Kansas Fraternal Citizens, Homesteaders, Yeoman of America, and Ancient Order of United Workmen.

Since becoming a citizen of Atchison, Dr. Robinson has taken an active interest in those measures and projects which have had for their object the betterment and development of the city. He also finds time to take an active part in its social life. Dr. Robinson is unmarried.

John McINTEER.

John McInteer was a builder who had an abiding faith in the eventual development of the West. He was a pioneer citizen of Atchison, and a prominent figure in the city for over forty-five years, and had an intimate acquaintance with the sturdy characters who had much to do with the development of the Sunflower State. He came to Atchison in the days when the great wagon trains left in a continuous, and often unbroken, stream for the Far West with their valuable cargoes of freight. So great was his confidence in the ultimate growth of his adopted city that he invested his savings in real property, built of brick and stone, which are still standing in the city. The handsome McInteer block on Commercial street is a monument to his enterprise and faith in the growth of the city. Mr. McInteer was well and favorably known among the coterie of famous men who have cast luster upon Atchison and the State of Kansas. He was a consistent and unremitting booster for his home city and State, and the substantial fortune and good name which he left behind prove his judgment and business acumen to have been sound and essentially correct.

Mr. McInteer was born in Donegal, Ireland, in 1827, and immigrated to America alone when a boy. He had heard of the wonders of the new land across the ocean, and dreamed of one day sailing across the waters of the broad Atlantic to the land of the free, there to seek his fortune. How his dream came true is told in the succeeding paragraphs. His first employment was in Philadelphia as a laborer. Opportunity did not seem to beckon to him in the “City of Brotherly Love” sufficient to hold him, however, and he turned his face still farther to the westward, going to the newer State of Indiana, where he learned the trade of harness maker. He first started a business of his own in Jeffersonville, Ind. While busily engaged in this Ohio river town in plying his trade with a fair modicum of success, he heard of the opening up of the vast stretches of land west of the Missouri river. His Celtic imagination was still working and he pictured to himself the possibilities of realizing his ambitions in one of the new cities of Kansas. His decision was soon made; he heeded the famous Greeley’s advice, “Go West, young man, go West, and grow up with the country.” Accordingly, he sold out his little shop and started for Omaha. On the way up the Missouri river his wife was taken ill and he changed his plans to the extent of stopping in Doniphan county, Kansas, and taking up a homestead. One year later he traded his claim for a lot at Eighth and Commercial streets in Atchison. Upon this lot he built a small shop, where he again began the manufacture of harness and saddles. For several years he supplied the great overland trains which passed to the Far West. His trade grew and he was compelled to enlarge his quarters and engaged in the manufacture of harness and saddles on an extensive scale. As he prospered and accumulated capital he erected buildings and invested in real estate in Atchison and the nearby city of St. Joseph. He also erected a modern brick residence where his widow now lives. He died July 17, 1901.

He was twice married, his first wife being Alice Conley, who died in 1892 without issue. In 1895 he married Mrs. Anna (Conlon) Donovan, of Montreal, Canada, whose parents, James and Anna Conlon, were well known citizens of Atchison, and whose personal history will be found in the biography of Charles J. Conlon, brother of Mrs. McInteer. Mrs. McInteer was reared in Atchison, returned to New York with her parents, and was there married to Peter Donovan, who was a customs officer under the Canadian Government at Montreal. He died in Montreal in 1891. Three sons were born of this marriage: Peter Donovan, a widely known journalist, of Toronto, now a contributor to the Toronto Saturday Night; Fred, in the insurance and real estate business in Atchison; Charles, a farmer and stockman, residing with his mother.

Mr. McInteer was a member of the Catholic church, and a liberal contributor to his own and other religious denominations. He was one of those big-hearted, whole-souled gentlemen, who was a friend to all, and who was highly regarded for his many excellent qualities of heart and mind. He was independent in politics. The foregoing brief review is thus contributed to the history of Atchison county in order that it be placed on record for all time, and perchance, prove an inspiration for other young men, poor in purse, whose destiny is yet to be worked out, and who probably dream of accumulating wealth or a competence in their generation.

Henry Hanson Loudenback.

A review of the educational institutions of Atchison county would be incomplete without mention being made of the Loudenback School of Music. It is probable that no institution within the borders of the State of Kansas has had a more rapid, substantial and satisfactory growth than has the school under the direct supervision and management of Professor Loudenback. Established in 1912 as a school of piano and theory, enlarged in 1913, and incorporated in 1914, it is now authorized by the State to issue diplomas and certificates. It is rapidly building an enviable reputation for thoroughness of instruction, having graduated pupils who are conceded to be artists of recognized ability, and its importance as an educational institution of the highest grade is appreciated by the residents of its home city.

Henry Hanson Loudenback, founder and principal of the Loudenback School of Music, was born in a log cabin on his father’s farm in Hancock county, Indiana (the county seat, Greenfield, being the birthplace of James Whitcomb Riley), March 17, 1879, a son of Daniel and Margaret (McCray) Loudenback. His paternal grandparents were Henry Loudenback, a native of Pennsylvania, who came to Hancock county, Indiana, in 1836, one of the early pioneers of that section, and Elizabeth Brown, a native of Virginia, of German ancestry. Daniel Loudenback was born in Hancock county in 1846 and reared in a district which at that time was almost a wilderness. Splitting rails was an occupation which took up a good portion of his time. With his father, he settled on a farm about three miles from Charlottesville. This property they developed into a highly productive farm. Henry Loudenback died in 1905. Daniel engaged in business in Charlottesville in 1882, and in 1883 established a store at Wilkinson, which he conducted until his death, in 1888. He had married, when a young man, Margaret McCray, now a resident of Wilkinson, who survives him. They were the parents of two children: Henry Hanson, the subject of this review, and Allie Almeda Cook, of Wilkinson, Ind.

Henry Hanson Loudenback received his educational discipline in the public schools of his native State, and in 1898 came to Kansas and joined relatives who resided near Centralia. He became a teacher in the country schools, and later spent one year teaching music, going from place to place on horseback. From early childhood he had given evidence of remarkable musical ability, and had sung in public when only four years of age. After learning harmonies from his sister, he began to improvise his own melodies, and to harmonize them upon the reed organ. His first real lessons were taken when thirteen years of age. In the fall of 1901 he entered Campbell University at Holton, Kan., and was graduated from that institution, in music, in 1902. Since receiving his degree from Campbell College he has studied piano, harmony and composition with the best teachers of these subjects in America, his training being under such noted musicians as Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler, of Chicago, the world’s greatest woman pianist; Mr. and Mrs. A. K. Virgil, of New York City; Peter C. Lutkin and Arne Oldberg, of Northwestern University, at Evanston; and Allen Spencer, of the American Conservatory of Music, Chicago. From 1902 until 1906 he was director of music in the Atchison County High School; from 1906 until 1910, professor of music in South Dakota State College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts; from 1910 until 1912, director of piano, pipe organ, and musical theory at the Dakota Wesleyan University. In 1912 he founded the Loudenback School of Music at Atchison, and since its establishment has devoted his entire time to its management and the teaching of piano and musical theory. He is an accredited teacher of piano and theory by the Kansas State Music Teachers’ Association, and was a member of the executive committee of that organization which issued certificates to accredited teachers in December, 1914, and was appointed a member of the committee on piano standards for 1915, and in December, 1910, was elected vice-president of that association, and was appointed a member of the special accrediting committee. He has appeared twice as piano soloist with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, and numbers among his friends many of the great musicians of the present day.

Professor Loudenback married on June 28, 1900, Miss Flora Donald, a daughter of George and Christy (Black) Donald, of Centralia, Kan. Her father was an early settler and prominent farmer.

Professor and Mrs. Loudenback are the parents of the following children: George Daniel, born November 23, 1901; Allie Mae, born March 12, 1904; Ramona Lolita, born July 25, 1905; Henry, born August 17, 1907; and Donald, born July 19, 1909. The children have inherited their father’s love of music and show talent.

Frank P. Wertz.

Frank P. Wertz, deputy county clerk of Atchison county, is one of the progressive young men of the county. He was born at Parnell, Atchison county, September 2, 1888, and is a son of David M. and Elizabeth Caroline Wertz, natives of Pennsylvania. They were married in their native State and shortly afterwards came West, and located on a farm in Atchison county, where they have been very successful. David M. Wertz began life with nothing, and by industry and keen foresight has become one of the substantial and well-to-do men of Atchison county. He has always taken a commendable interest in the welfare of his community. To David M. Wertz and wife have been born the following children: Frank P., the subject of this sketch; Eva married H. J. Barber, a banker, of Cummings, Kan.; Abraham, a farmer and stockman, Mt. Pleasant, Atchison county; Fredrick, a farmer in Mt. Pleasant township, Atchison county; Rosetta, the wife of Fred C. Voelker, a farmer, of Shannon township, Atchison county, and Bertha E., who resides at home.

Frank P. Wertz was reared on the home farm in Atchison county and educated in the public schools, graduating from the Atchison County High School. He then took a course in the Atchison Business College, and graduated in 1909. He then became assistant cashier of the State Bank of Cummings, and remained in that position for two years, when he resigned to accept his present position. Frank P. Wertz takes a live interest in the welfare of the community. He is a member of the Masonic lodge and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He is a popular county official, and his genial manner and obliging nature, coupled with efficiency and close application to the duties of his office, have won for him many stanch friends and supporters.

Thomas L. Cline.

For sixty years Thomas L. Cline has lived in Mt. Pleasant township, Atchison county, and he is one of the oldest of Kansas pioneers in point of years of residence in the State. Coming to this county when he was ten years of age with his parents he has lived to see Kansas become prosperous and the vast prairie transformed by the hand of man into a truly good place to live. He, himself, has risen in the course of time to become one of the wealthy farmers of the county, and despite his three score and ten years of age he still oversees the work on his large farm of 320 acres.

Mr. Cline was born October 8, 1845, in Henry county, Iowa, a son of Henry and Eleanor (Leanord) Cline, both natives of Ohio. The parents of both Henry and Eleanor moved at a very early day from Ohio to Illinois, where they were married. The parents of T. L. Cline lived but a short time in Illinois and then removed to Henry county, Iowa, where four of the children were born, of whom T. L. was the youngest. The family lived in Iowa for sixteen years and came to Kansas as early as 1855. Henry settled on a quarter section of land, which is still in the family, and is owned by Thomas L., adjoining the quarter section upon which the home of the subject is located. At the time the Clines located in Atchison county the country was a vast reach of unpeopled prairie broken by belts of timber along the streams. Prairie fires were very common in those days. Henry Cline persuaded a neighbor to preëmpt the adjoining section to his and eventually bought it and increased his acreage to 480 acres in all. An interesting feature of the Cline farm is the stone fencing which is built around a portion of the farm. Stone fences are a rarity in Kansas and are found only in the occasional places where stone is plentiful, and their building required time and plenty of it on the part of men who in the early days made the building of stone fences a vocation and followed it as their method of earning a living. While a portion of the stone work on the farm has been replaced by wire fencing, 300 rods of this fence are in excellent condition despite the fact that it was erected over forty-five years ago. T. L. Cline in speaking reminiscently of the old days recalls that the “grasshopper” visitation of 1866 was every whit as bad as in the years of 1874 and 1875, and he also recalls seeing a company of “red shirts” or border ruffians encamped near his father’s farm. Henry Cline died in 1875, his widow dying in 1901 at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Mary E. Blodgett. Henry and Eleanor Cline reared the following children: Julia Ann (Jay), deceased, at Rock Creek, Kan.; Mary E. Blodgett, Walnut township; Charles W. died in Union service at Drywood, Mo., and Thomas L., the youngest.

T. L. Cline grew up on his father’s farm and has never lived anywhere else since he was ten years of age. He was married in 1874 to Miss Susan Vandiver. The following children were born of this marriage: Ora, wife of Edward Bradley, of Atchison county; Nellie, wife of Martin Decker, living in Leavenworth county, Kansas; Charles Cline, farming on the home place; T. L., Jr., better known as Lloyd, at home with his parents and assists in farm work. The mother of these children was born February 11, 1853, in Green county, Wisconsin, a daughter of Edward and Irene (Holloway) Vandiver, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter of Providence, R. I. The respective parents of Edward and Irene Vandiver removed from their native states to Illinois, and it was in that State that they were married. Shortly after their marriage they moved to Wisconsin and settled on a farm near Monroe, in Green county. They resided in Wisconsin for sixteen years and then returned to Schuyler county, Illinois. After a residence of ten years in Illinois they came to Atchison county, Kansas, to make a permanent home. Edward Vandiver was a personal friend of Abraham Lincoln and often rode with Lincoln to and from political gatherings. His political beliefs were the same as Mr. Lincoln’s. Mr. Vandiver was also acquainted with Stephen A. Douglas and attended the famous Lincoln and Douglas debates.

For one year after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Cline lived at the home of Mr. Cline’s parents, when T. L. built a home for himself on a part of the family estate. After his father’s demise he bought his mother’s interest in the estate and moved to the old home place where he still resides. Mr. Cline has always been a stockman and a large feeder of cattle and hogs. He is now raising sheep and has about 140 head of these animals on his farm. He has always been a stanch Republican, as his father was before him, and has usually taken an active part in political and civic affairs. He served for many years as a member of the school board and was succeeded by his son, Charles, as a member of the board when T. L. refused to serve any longer. He was one of the organizers of the Farmers State Bank of Potter, Kan., and is generally found in the forefront of all good movements tending to promote the welfare of the people in his neighborhood. Mr. Cline carries his years lightly and can be seen almost any day directing the farm work and is very active for his years. Thomas L. Cline is one of Atchison county’s grand old men and is a true Kansas pioneer.

Robert Forbriger.

In the present incumbent of the county assessor’s office, the people of Atchison county are extremely fortunate in having a painstaking, faithful and conscientious public servant who believes in doing his duty by the people, taxpayers, and for the people as the law provides. It is probable that no other individual in the county has a wider or more intimate knowledge of values and property ownership in Atchison county than Mr. Forbriger. Born in Atchison county in the pioneer days when the county was in process of early settlement, he has grown up with the city and county and has a speaking acquaintance with almost every person within the confines of his native heath. Kind and obliging to a high degree, he has made himself invaluable as a citizen and able county official, and is well liked and highly esteemed for his many excellent qualities.

The father of the gentleman named in the foregoing paragraph was Robert Forbriger, a native of Saxony, Germany, born in 1825, immigrated to America in 1848 and died in the city of his adoption in 1886. The senior Forbriger was a man of good education, and came of a family of scholars and educators in his native land. Therefore, he was well equipped to fight a winning battle for success in the land of his adoption. He first located in Elgin, Ill., and after a residence of ten years in that city, came to Atchison in 1858. This thriving and beautiful city was then in its infancy, and Mr. Forbriger had the distinction of being one of its foremost citizens and builders in the early days. He obtained a job in the J. E. Wagner hardware store, which was situated on the southeast corner of Fourth and Commercial streets. Not long afterward he engaged in the insurance and real estate business and from that drifted into the banking business. He, with George Storch and John Belz, established the German Savings Bank, which was later reorganized as the United States National Bank. This new organization erected the building at the corner of Sixth and Commercial streets. Mr. Forbriger was connected with the banking concern until his death, after which the institution was again reorganized. He was active in civic and business affairs in Atchison during his long residence here, and was always a booster for his adopted city, liberal in his donations and support of public enterprises, and a benefactor of churches and charitable enterprises. It is said of him that he always generously responded to calls for assistance in the name of charity, religion or civic betterment of the community. As a citizen he did his duty in an official capacity, serving as a member of the city council and as an active member of the city school board. During the early sixties when Atchison was yet a village he served as a member of the town council. In addition he served three terms as city assessor. While a Democrat in politics, he was a great admirer and warm personal friend of the late Senator Ingalls, and it was the Senator’s custom to make his headquarters in Mr. Forbriger’s office while at home, on his return from Washington. This pioneer citizen was a charter member and officer of the Turner’s Society, a famous athletic organization in the early days. He was reared in the Lutheran faith, but was broadly tolerant of all creeds and religious beliefs. It was only natural that he should have been a charter member of the Atchison Masonic lodge, and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. During the Civil war he was enrolled as a member of the State militia, and responded to the call for volunteers to repel Price’s invasion and served in Colonel Quigg’s command.

Robert Forbriger, the elder, was married in 1862 to Helen Geier, born in Limbach, Baden, Germany, and died in Atchison. She came from her native land to Philadelphia with a sister and cousin, and from there journeyed to Atchison. To them were born three children as follows: Robert, of this review; Emil, engaged in business in East Atchison; Bertha, wife of M. Noll, druggist of Atchison.

Robert Forbriger, the son, was educated in the public schools and St. Benedict’s College. He then entered his father’s bank and also engaged in the insurance business. After his father’s death he continued in the insurance business for a number of years, until he began his service as postoffice clerk, during Cleveland’s administration. After four years in the mercantile business he filled the office of deputy register of deeds for four years; served three years as deputy county assessor, and was elected to the office of county assessor in 1912, and again elected or appointed to the office by the board of county commissioners in 1914. In his younger days he served several years as a regular fireman under three successive fire chiefs, and two terms as city councilman. While originally a Democrat, he deserted the party in 1896, as many others did, to follow the teachings of William McKinley, and now takes an active part in Republican politics, and is sincere and active in his work in behalf of the candidates of his party. Having been born in Atchison, April 4, 1863, it is only natural that he should gather for his sustenance some of the needful in the way of property, and is the owner of a fine fruit farm of twenty-eight acres near the city, and in addition has five residence properties in the city, with properties in Oklahoma and Seattle, Wash.

Mr. Forbriger was married May 21, 1888, to Carrie Wagner, and to them have been born two children: Helen, wife of Leo T. Markey, a banker of Greeley, Kan.; Ralph, a student of electrical engineering in the Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College, at Starkville, Miss. The mother of these children was born at Port Washington, near Milwaukee, and is a daughter of Henry and Rosa Wagner, natives of Germany, who removed from Milwaukee to Atchison where Henry Wagner became a bridge contractor and builder. Mr. Wagner for a long period of years did practically all of the bridge construction work in Atchison county.

Mr. Forbriger is a member of St. Benedict’s Catholic Church, and is broad and tolerant in his religious views, taking the staple ground that the manner of life a man lives, regardless of his religious belief, determines his salvation. He is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Fraternal Citizens, and the Modern Brotherhood of America.

Hiram H. Hackney.

The measure of a man’s real worth to a community determines his standing and niche in the local hall of fame. While several things may be summed up in the final reckoning as to what constitutes a really useful citizen, his service to his fellow citizens in furthering institutions which are of the greatest benefit to the greatest number takes precedence over wealth, business ability, political success, or any accomplishments which have a tendency to place the individual ahead of his fellow men. No greater service to a city can be rendered than by the building up of a modern, progressive public school system. He who furthers the cause of education in a practical manner and takes a keen interest in the success of the city’s educational systems, as an unselfish task, befitting his citizenship, is entitled to an everlasting place in the hearts and minds of his fellow citizens. The public school system of Atchison is a monument to the labors of Hiram H. Hackney, and his fellow members of the board of education during the eight years while Mr. Hackney served as president of the board.

Hiram H. Hackney is a native of Fayette county, Pennsylvania, born near Uniontown, November 30, 1859. He is a son of Hiram H. and Elizabeth (Wyley) Hackney, both natives of Pennsylvania. The Hackney family in America came originally from the town of Hackney, England, now a part of the city of London, in the early part of the seventeenth century. Hiram H., the elder, was born in 1822, and died in 1899. He was the son of John Hackney, born in 1776, and lived on the original homestead of the Hackneys, who were Quaker followers of William Penn. Elizabeth Wyley was born in 1830, a daughter of Jacob and Hannah Way Wyley, members of an old colonial family of Irish descent. Hiram H., Sr., was a resident of Uniontown in his old age, and was the last surviving member of the board of directors, chartering the First National Bank of Uniontown. He was well to do and invested some of his funds in the West, becoming one of the original stockholders of the First National Bank of Atchison. He was also a “Forty Niner,” going overland to the gold fields of California in 1848, with a train of fortune hunters who outfitted at St. Louis and fought continually with the Indians on the trip across the plains and mountains. He engaged in the mercantile business at Sacramento and Marysville, Cal., for a period of two years. He returned home by way of Cape Horn, but made another trip before settling down to the pursuit of farming and business in his native State. His brother, Samuel, died of mountain fever while engaged in mining in the gold fields of California. Mr. Hackney became an extensive farmer, stockman and banker, and prospered exceedingly. He was known as a solid Quaker citizen “whose word was as good as his note.” Of his five children, four are living as follows: Mrs. Edward G. Hudson, of Newton, Kan.; Edgar S., of Uniontown: Dr. Jacob S., a practitioner in Uniontown, and Francis, who died in Pittsburgh.

Hiram H. Hackney, of Atchison, was educated in the State Normal School at California, Penn., and Duff’s Mercantile College, Pittsburgh. He did farm work while a youth, and taught school for two years. His father having purchased an interest in the First National Bank of this city he came here in 1881 and served as assistant cashier and director of the bank until 1910. He then sold his holdings and retired from banking pursuits on account of ill health, due to long years of close confinement to his duties. He then established a real estate, insurance, bond and loan business which he is now conducting with success. Mr. Hackney is interested in Atchison real estate, and coal lands in Pennsylvania, and is vice-president of the Blair Milling Company of Atchison.

In politics he is a Republican, and the only office he has ever held has been that of member of the board of education, from the presidency of which body he has only recently retired. Of his services on behalf of the public schools during his sixteen years’ membership on the board. The Atchison Globe said: “H. H. Hackney retired last night as a member of the school board and that board has lost its most useful member for at least two reasons: Mr. Hackney had the ability to handle the school finances and the time necessary to accomplish the things the board laid out. In addition he possessed an ambition to establish a system of schools and equipment that would reflect credit on the city and on the school board. He was a member of the board for sixteen years and its president for eight years, and during the eight years he was president he never had a disagreement with a member and there was never a question came up which was not settled either by an unanimous vote or in a way that left the members friendly. There never was a ‘row’ in the school board and there never was a session where reporters were barred. In the last eight years and under the management of Mr. Hackney, the school board has spent $300,000 in school betterments and the total indebtedness is but $25,000 greater than it was eight years ago. This includes the new Ingalls Building, Washington Building, accepting the plans and letting all contracts for the new Martin building, now under course of construction, rebuilding Franklin and building the new Douglas school. In these eight years manual training, mechanical drawing, domestic art and science, a commercial department, normal training, agriculture and physical training have been added to the high school, a school nurse employed, music added to all grades and kindergartens established in two buildings. Since Mr. Hackney became a member of the board the high school enrollment has increased from 66 to 338 and the faculty from three to twenty members.”...

During the time Mr. Hackney was a member of the school board he missed but one regular meeting. He is president of the board of trustees of the First Presbyterian Church and is a member of the board of directors of the Young Men’s Christian Association.

He was married in September of 1888, to Frances Blair, a daughter of E. K. Blair, deceased, formerly of Fayette county, Pennsylvania, founder of the Blair Milling Company of Atchison. Mrs. Hackney’s mother was Barbara (Allen) Blair. She was born and reared in Atchison, in the house located on the same lot where the Hackneys now live, with the exception of their first two years of married life, during which the new home was erected at 1021 North Third street. To Mr. and Mrs. Hackney have been born two children of whom they are justly proud, Helen Elizabeth, born 1890, a graduate of the College Preparatory School of Atchison, and the Bennett School for Girls, located on the Hudson, in New York, carrying honors at both her graduations; Edward Blair Hackney, born in 1893, is a graduate of the city high school and the Kansas University at Lawrence, where he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. While a student of the university he managed the Jay Hawker, the college annual, and performed his duties so ably and so thoroughly that Chancellor Strong declared that the “Annual” issue under his management was the best ever issued, the cost of which was $4,500, and managed so well that a nice profit was earned. The young man is now a traveling salesman for the Blair Milling Company.

George Edwin White.

George Edwin White, leading physician, of Effingham, Kan., was born at Savanna, Andrew county, Missouri, April 18, 1867, a son of Willis and Rachel (Hall) White, natives of Indiana. Willis was the son of Drury White, who was born and reared in Virginia, and was a pioneer settler in Grant county, Indiana, where he hewed a farm and home from the virgin timber at a time when it required men of hardihood and the greatest endurance to withstand the rigors of a life in the unbroken wilderness of the Hoosier State. Willis White was born August 12, 1840, and when he attained young manhood, hearkened to the call of President Lincoln for troops to quell the rebellion of the Southern States, and enlisted at the first call for “thirty thousand.” He served for ninety days in the Tenth regiment, Indiana infantry. He migrated to Missouri in 1866 and plied his trade of blacksmith in the town of Savanna until 1880, when he moved to Greenleaf, Kan., and conducted a blacksmith shop, in addition to cultivating his farm, which he purchased near Greenleaf. In the fall of 1907 he moved to Effingham, Kan., and is living a retired life. Mrs. White died in 1885, at the age of forty-three years. Twelve children were born to Willis White and wife, four of whom are deceased: John, Henry, and Mary, deceased; Frank, for several years a practicing physician of note in Effingham, and who died in October, 1912, as a result of an accident; Charles, of Kansas City; Dr. George Edwin, with whom this narrative is directly concerned; Albert H., a farmer, in Dickinson county; Mrs. Dora Hill, of Kansas City; William, living in California; Mrs. Laura Shields, of California; Elmer, a farmer, of Jackson county; Leroy, a farmer, of Effingham. Willis White was twice married, his second wife being Elizabeth Heavenridge, of Indiana, who bore him six children: Julia, employed in the Soldier’s Home at Leavenworth, Kan.; Herman, a farmer in western Kansas; Earl, of Effingham; Edith, at home; Ralph, also at home, and a child who died in infancy.

George Edward White received his elementary education in the public schools, studied three years in the Kansas Medical College at Topeka, and graduated from the Medical University at Kansas City in 1905. For a period of five and one-half years he practiced medicine in Dickinson county, Kansas; practiced for two years in Brown county, Kansas, and located in Effingham in the fall of 1912.

Dr. White was married in 1895 to Sadie A. Phillippi, who died in 1911, leaving five children, namely: Willis, George, Lester, Birdie, and Harold, all of whom are at home and attending the public and high schools. One child, Ralph, died in infancy. Dr. White again married in 1912, to Ada M. Elliot, a capable and talented woman, who is a good and kind mother to the doctor’s children.

Dr. White has achieved a reputation as a well read and capable practitioner, and his practice in Effingham and the surrounding country is constantly growing. He keeps abreast of the times and the latest discoveries in the science of healing, and is associated with various important medical societies, among them being the county, State, and National societies, the Golden Belt, and the Northeast Kansas Medical association, the Aesculapian Society, and the University Medical College of Kansas City Alumni. He is a member of the Church of the Brethren, and is fraternally connected with the Knights of Pythias, the Knights and Ladies of Security, and the Mystic Workers. He is a Republican, but has very little time for political affairs. Dr. White is a genial, whole-souled gentleman, who loves his profession and his fellowmen.

George W. Thompson.

George W. Thompson is one of the oldest pioneers living in the State of Kansas, and is all probability the oldest living pioneer in Atchison county today. His career has been an interesting and even romantic one, and reads like a tale from modern fiction. Homesteader, farmer, statesman, politician and man of wide influence are terms which can well be applied to this aged gentleman who has spent sixty-one years of his four score and eight in assisting in the development of the Sunflower State.

George W. Thompson was born in Georgetown, Ky., October 18, 1827, a son of Benjamin and Nancy (Baxter) Thompson, natives of Virginia and Maryland, respectively, and descendants of old southern stock. Benjamin Thompson was born in Virginia in 1799, the same year in which George Washington died. He was a son of George Thompson, who removed from Virginia to Kentucky in 1811, walking the entire distance over the Blue Ridge mountains to the new home in the forests of Kentucky, where they lived until 1843, and then joined the influx of settlers who were going into Platte county, Missouri. The Thompsons loaded their entire effects on wagons and drove as far as Frankfort, Ky., and then boarded an Ohio river steamer which carried them to St. Louis. An interesting episode of this trip concerns the passage of the boat over the falls at Louisville, Ky., or five miles below that city. At that time the water was very high in the river, and the captain of the steamer decided to take a chance and go over the falls. During the passage the pilot’s steering gear broke and the boat drifted over the falls without guidance in safety, but not without expressions of fear on the part of the passengers. This boat was the “Meridian,” one of the fast steamers of the river, and it frequently raced with other river craft. The trip required about three days from Louisville to St. Louis, which was at that time a city of about 50,000 inhabitants. Mr. Thompson recalls that the boats were lined up along the wharfs at St. Louis for over one and one-half miles, and he has never forgotten the sight. About five days longer were required to make the trip from St. Louis to Parkville, Mo., the trip ending on June 14, having commenced June 1, 1843. Benjamin plied his trade of bricklayer in Platte county, and built the Green Hotel in Platte City, which is still standing as a monument to his skill and handicraft as a mason. He was the first brick mason in Platte City and he erected the Green Hotel in 1844. Benjamin became prominent in the affairs of Platte county and was a fine orator and public speaker.

For many years he was an active and influential figure in the political life of Platte county, and he was a poet who left many evidences of creative literary ability which are still prized among the archives of the county. He resided in Missouri until 1860 and then came to Kansas where he spent the remainder of his days, dying in Mt. Pleasant township in 1862. His wife survived him and lived to an advanced age, dying in 1892, having been born in Rosamount county, Maryland, near Curlew. They reared a fine family of nine children, of which George W. was the third child.

George W. Thompson, with whom this review is directly concerned, grew to sturdy manhood in old Kentucky, and was educated in the neighborhood schools. Since boyhood, he has been a student and is at this day one of the best read men of his generation. He learned the trade of bricklayer under his father and followed the trade while living in Missouri. As early as 1854 he came to Kansas, on the day following the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska act which threw the Territory open to settlement. He came up the Missouri river in a small boat and landed at the mouth of Nine Mile creek in Leavenworth county. After investigating the possibilities in this county, he filed upon a Government claim and went back to his home in Platte county, returning in January of 1854 to erect a log cabin. This erected, he again went home, returning in November and roofed his cabin with clapboards made by him and his brother, and built a stone chimney and daubed the chinks with mud. He located permanently on his claim January 15, 1855, and on his way nearly lost his oxen in the river. In the meantime a man named Dunham had jumped his claim, and it became necessary for him and Dunham to compromise matters and divide the land which was considered valuable because it had a very fine spring of good, pure water available. Two years later Mr. Thompson sold his claim and entered 160 acres of land in Mt. Pleasant township, Atchison county. He moved to Atchison June 14, 1856. He developed this farm and lived on it for forty-eight years, or until 1914, when he came to Atchison to reside with his daughter, Mrs. Keats.

Mr. Thompson was married in Missouri in 1850, to Rebecca Stigers, a native of Knox county, Ohio, born April 18, 1831, a daughter of Conrad Stigers, a native of Germany. The mother of Mrs. Thompson was Mary Snell Stigers, who was born in Virginia, of French parents, and whose father was shipwrecked on the coast of Virginia. She was a direct descendant of the famous French family of D’ Estang, and her father was a connection of Count D’ Estang. To Mr. and Mrs. George W. Thompson were born nine children: Benjamin T., born October 11, 1850, in Missouri, and died March 12, 1902; Mary Katharine, born October 2, 1854, wife of Asa Barnes, of Mt. Pleasant township, Atchison county; John Emmet, born February 17, 1857, in Atchison county, and now residing in California; Harriet M., born April 2, 1859, wife of T. M. Grant, Atchison county; Louis T., born May 8, 1861, died May 1, 1864; Mrs. Dora T. Keats, born March 21, 1864, wife of H. T. Keats, of Atchison; George McClelland, born May 20, 1867, a farmer, Mt. Pleasant township; Clara Thompson, born September 5, 1870, and Albert T., born October 5, 1873, died in infancy.

The Thompson family is one of the oldest in America and is of English origin. The founder of the family came to Virginia with Capt. John Smith in 1607, and through the marriage of John Rolfe with Pocahontas, the princess daughter of old King Powhatan of the Indian tribes of Virginia, the family and successive generations claim to have Indian blood in their veins. They are or were connected with the famous Pickett family, of whom General Pickett was a member. It will thus be seen that on one side the present members of the family can lay claim to being descended from the nobility and on another to being descended from an Indian princess and one of the earliest of the old Virginia gentlemen. It is not to be wondered that the founder of the family in Atchison county has made such a fine record during his long residence here.

Mr. Thompson has always taken an active and influential part in the political affairs of Kansas, and has been a life-long Democrat. He has the unique distinction of having voted for but one candidate who was elected President, and that was Franklin Pierce in 1852. This is probably due to the fact that he has always been independent in his voting, and acted upon his own convictions when it came time to cast his ballot. His last vote was cast for Theodore Roosevelt. When Populism was in vogue in Kansas he voted for the Populist candidate for President. It was only natural that he himself become a candidate for office on account of his education and the inherent gift for leadership. He served as a member of the Kansas legislature at the sessions of 1867, 1868 and 1869, and has been a candidate a few times since. At another time, early in his career, he was elected superintendent of public instruction in Atchison county, but refused to serve, and sent in his resignation. His last candidacy for the legislature was given him by the fusion of the Populists and Democrats, but he was defeated by White by a very small majority. During the campaign of 1866, he was asked to become a candidate for the legislature by many Republican friends and upon the advice of his many friends in the county, he cast his votes for both Ross and Pomeroy for the positions in the United States Senate. It is a matter of history that both Ross and Pomeroy were elected to represent Kansas in the United States Senate, Ross subsequently making himself very conspicuous by voting against the impeachment of Andrew Johnson.

This fine old pioneer was also a soldier in the Civil war, and served as first lieutenant of the company commanded by Capt. Asa Barnes in the battle of Westport. Mrs. H. T. Keats, daughter of Mr. Thompson, has in her possession a number of interesting souvenirs of this battle, among them being the belt buckle, and bayonet worn by her father in the battle, and the company’s flag, Captain Barnes’ shoulder straps, and James Binkley’s cap box, in addition to having some of the Government scrip, with which the soldiers were paid. The colonel of the Twelfth regiment was Colonel Louis L. Treat, another member of the company being T. L. Cline. Very few of the members of this company or regiment are now living.

On October 8, 1915, this noted old pioneer was eighty-eight years old and still vigorous, mentally. His power of thinking is not much diminished, and he is still a reader and student. Constant reading and thinking, we are told, is conducive to longevity and Mr. Thompson has always been a great reader and student of history and philosophy. He is a man, self-made and self-taught, and is blessed with a keenness of intellect far above the average. His life has been a well rounded and useful one, and he has had a career of which he and his children and grandchildren can well be proud. His long life has been clean and for years he has been a stern advocate of temperance and has practiced his own belief. In his younger days he was a noted and powerful orator who had the ability to thrill and sway his hearers. Few men can look back over a longer vista of years, well spent in honest pursuits, and in behalf of his fellow men than George W. Thompson. All honor to him as the oldest and most distinguished living pioneer of Atchison today.

B. F. Tomlinson.

B. F. Tomlinson, deceased, was a pioneer merchant and meat packer of Atchison, and left behind him an imperishable record for honesty and fair dealing, which has never been surpassed in the mercantile history of the city. He was born December 25, 1838, in Covington, Ky., a son of Leroy Tomlinson, who was also a native of Kentucky. The mother of B. F. Tomlinson died when he was a small boy, and as a consequence little is known regarding her antecedents. The Tomlinsons are a very old American family. Leroy Tomlinson was a commission merchant and meat packer, who later removed from Covington to Louisville, Ky., and became prominently identified with the business interests of that city. He conducted a large packing establishment and handled as high as 100 beeves at one time in his abattoirs, wholesaling the product of his packing houses to meat merchants in the cities and towns bordering the Ohio river.

B. F. Tomlinson, with whose career this review is directly concerned, was reared and educated in the city of Louisville, Ky., and when he was but fifteen years of age his father died, his stepmother dying one year later. Being an only child, he was left with the responsibility of his father’s extensive business. The excellent training which his father had given him, here came into good stead, and he carried on the packing business successfully, paying, in the course of time, a considerable indebtedness which his father had incurred. After his marriage in Louisville in 1860, he continued to conduct his business in Louisville until 1870, at which time he disposed of his possessions and came to Atchison. Here he engaged in the butcher and packing business, and soon held a prominent place in the mercantile life of the city.

B. F. Tomlinson was married September 11, 1860, to Miss Elizabeth Alexander, who was born May 11, 1840, in Bedford, Ind. She was a daughter of Robert M. and Emily (Legrant) Alexander. Her father was a coach-maker by trade, and removed from Bedford, Ind., to Louisville, Ky., where he died in 1900, at the age of eighty-nine years. Much interesting history can be narrated concerning the mother of Mrs. Tomlinson, who was born in New Orleans, and was one of three children born to her parents, who were of French origin. The elder Legrant was a drygoods merchant in the southern city, and the story goes, that on one of his regular trips to Cincinnati, Ohio, to buy a stock of goods for his store, he left two of the children at home, and on arriving in Cincinnati he placed Emily in charge of a Scotch family by the name of McDonald, and with whom he had been in the habit of stopping while on business in Cincinnati. Emily at that time was twelve years of age, and was a prime favorite with the McDonald’s who begged her parents to leave her at their home during the time which would elapse until Mr. and Mrs. Legrant made their next trip from New Orleans to Cincinnati. They did so, but sad to relate, the little girl never saw nor heard from her parents again, and what became of them she never learned, and she was consequently reared to womanhood by the kind foster parents. In an earlier year than this at New Orleans, and at a time when Emily’s father was very sick with rheumatism, a band of over one hundred Indians was encamped near the Legrant home at New Orleans. One of the other children was also afflicted with cancer of the face. The medicine men of the Indian tribe effected a cure of both the cancer and the father’s rheumatism. The Indians were very affectionate toward Emily and called her the “pretty squaw,” which was only natural, as she grew up to become a very beautiful woman, eventually becoming the wife of Robert M. Alexander, and after her husband’s demise, made her home with her daughter at Atchison, where she died in November of 1904, at the advanced age of eighty-nine years.

B. F. Tomlinson died in January, 1895. Mr. and Mrs. Tomlinson were the parents of eight children: Martha J., wife of Louis Nelson, of St. Joseph, Mo., and mother of one child, Frank B.; Emma T. Bosanko, deceased, left one son, Harry; Lydia, wife of Frank Russell, of St. Paul, Minn., and mother of one son, Clarence Russell; Alice, wife of W. L. Johnson, of Atchison; Anna A., wife of Charles Robertson, of Chicago; Robert, a resident of Columbia, Mo., and who has one daughter, Ecce Tomlinson; Franklin, deceased; Birdie died in infancy. The mother of these children is now three score and fifteen years of age, but does not appear to be over fifty years old. She is remarkably well preserved and has a keen mind, and is especially proud of her husband’s record and fine family of children.

Mr. Tomlinson was a member of several fraternal societies, among them being the Modern Woodmen, the Knights of Honor, and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He was politically allied with the Democratic party, but never sought political preferment. He was well and favorably known and highly respected in business circles in Atchison, his greatest and kindliest trait being his generosity in giving assistance to the poor and deserving of the city. He was always ready to listen to the call of the suffering and improvident, and never turned away a supplicant in dire need empty handed. It might be said of him that he was too generous for his own financial welfare, but he sincerely believed in the wholeness of his nature in giving of his sustenance to those whom he deemed in need. The indulgence of this Christian trait of giving naturally endeared his memory to a host of friends, who will long remember him. Few men were more liberal or kinder than this upright gentleman.

John D. Hawk.

In the science of agriculture, as well as the learned professions, there are always men who are naturally endowed with the powers of leadership, and are so progressive and energetic that they lead in the van of better and more productive farming where others follow. Atchison county has its quota of these progressive agriculturists who are not content to be just common, every-day farmers, but are ambitious to become specialists in agricultural work. John D. Hawk, of Benton township, Atchison county, holds a place in the front rank of successful and enterprising farmers in Atchison county, and is the owner of one of the most productive and best equipped agricultural plants in the county, or northeast Kansas. His farm comprises 170 acres, located in section 2, range 618, Benton township. A good farm home sets well back from the road, in the rear of which is a large red barn. 86×46 feet, hip roofed and flanked by a modern silo, built in 1910, and which is the first wood silo erected in Atchison county. Mr. Hawk is beginning the breeding of thoroughbred Jersey cattle, and at the present time has a fine dairy herd of twenty-five head, among which is a number of pure breds. Leading this herd is “Shawan Majesty,” a pure bred bull. He also specializes in Poland China hogs, and is meeting with success in the breeding and raising of live stock. Mrs. Hawk keeps a pure strain of Black Langshan poultry and handles this end of the farm work with profit and satisfaction.

John D. Hawk was born November 19, 1875, on a farm in Coshocton county, Ohio, a son of Lafayette T. Hawk, of Benton township, a sketch of whom appears in this volume. He was seven years of age when his parents removed to Atchison county, Kansas, from their Ohio home. Here he attended the district school, and had the advantage of one year’s study in the county high school. He worked on the home farm with his father until 1898, when he began for himself in the spring of that year on the McClennon farm which he rented for two years. After his marriage he removed to his present place which is the old Law homestead. He erected the present barn and the large poultry house on the place and made various other improvements including the building of the silo.

Mr. Hawk was married March 15, 1899, to Miss Alice M. Law, who has borne him eight children, of whom seven are living: Walter Gale, born January 12, and died February 1, 1900; Herbert, aged fifteen years; Kenneth, born November 19, 1902; Dorothy, aged ten; Mateel, nine years old; John, aged six years; and twins, Vera and Veda, born December 12, 1911. The mother of these children was born in Toronto, Canada, a daughter of Edwin and Mary Alice Law, both of whom were born in England. Edwin Law comes of a family of singers, and it is a matter of record that his mother sang before Queen Victoria on one occasion, and was noted throughout England as a singer of note. The Laws immigrated from England and first settled in Canada, going from there to Ohio, and after a short residence in the Buckeye State, migrated to Doniphan county, Kansas, from whence they came to Atchison county and purchased the farm where Mr. and Mrs. Hawk now reside. There were five children in the family: Alfred Law, Ella, Alice, Walter, and one died in infancy. Mrs. Law died on the farm, and Mr. Law died in Canon City, Colo. After his first wife’s death, Mr. Law again married, and had one daughter, Lillie, by his second marriage.

Mr. Hawk is a Republican, but his activities do not tend to political affairs. For several years he has been actively identified with agricultural affairs in Atchison county, and his influence has ever been exerted in behalf of better farming. He is president of the Atchison County Farm Bureau, of which institution he is one of the organizers. In connection with Fred Sutter, Alexander McClennon, he assisted in the promotion of the Farm Bureau and its establishment, and the consequent employment of County Agent Taylor as a skilled farm instructor. This is now considered as one of the finest and most beneficial moves ever made in the county in behalf of the farmers of the county, and even the most incredulous who were unwilling to support the movement are now coming into line and becoming enthusiastic over the possibilities for bettering farm conditions in the county as the result of the efforts put forth by its zealous supporters. This committee during the winter of 1914–1915 visited every part of the county, in the preliminary organization and missionary work, and enrolled 200 farmers as supporters of the project. Mr. Hawk is likewise president of the Atchison county Farmers’ Institute. He attends the Christian church, of which Mrs. Hawk is a member, and is fraternally affiliated with the Central Protective Association.

Herbert J. Barber.

A man’s standing in the community where he resides or transacts his business affairs is usually gauged by his usefulness to society and his activities in behalf of the general good of his fellows. If he be of the class of citizens who are seeking to benefit the community in which he is engaged in business, he is a decided benefit to that community. Such an individual is Herbert J. Barber, banker of Cummings, Kan. Mr. Barber is a native of the Sunflower State, and is a son of one of the early pioneers. The story of Moses Barber, his father, Union veteran, Kansas pioneer, and one of the first successful fruit growers of Atchison county, is interesting and borders on the romantic to a considerable degree. Over fifty years ago, directly after his honorable discharge from the Union service at Leavenworth, Moses Barber set out on horseback to find a place for a home in Atchison county. He found the homestead, and at the same time found a sweetheart who later became his wife and fought the good fight with him through the lean years and good ones until he attained to the realization of his ambitions to obtain a competence. He became widely known as the “Apple King” of Kansas as a result of his remarkable success as a grower of apples, and cultivated what was in all probability the largest apple orchard in existence in the State of Kansas in his day. His son, Herbert, has followed in his father’s footsteps and is fast making a name for himself in the field of finance. Speaking in a biographical sense, Herbert J. Barber was born on the old homestead of his father in Mt. Pleasant township, April 11, 1871, a son of Moses and Mary (Hubbard) Barber, the former a native of Rhode Island, and the latter a native of Virginia.

Moses Barber was born in South Kingston, Rhode Island, April 22, 1833, a son of James and Elizabeth Barber, natives of Rhode Island, of colonial ancestry and English descent. A brother of James was Colonel Barber, who served in the War of 1812, and the grandfather of Moses Barber was a Revolutionary soldier. Moses was reared to young manhood on his father’s farm in Rhode Island, and then migrated westward to Illinois. After a residence of a few years in Illinois he came to Kansas and was a resident of the State upon the outbreak of the rebellion of the Southern States. He enlisted in Company I, Second regiment, Kansas cavalry, in 1861, and was soon promoted to ranking sergeant of his company. He served his country well and faithfully and took part in several hard fought engagements with his regiment, and received his honorable discharge at the close of the war at Leavenworth, Kan. After receiving his discharge from the service he set out on horseback in search of a homestead, riding the faithful cavalry horse which had carried him through the strenuous days of the Civil war. His route led him in a northwesterly direction from Ft. Leavenworth through Atchison county. He stopped for sustenance and rest at the home of a family named Hubbard at Parnell, Kan. Mr. Hubbard was a pro-slavery and State rights man who had removed from the Southland in 1855 after two years in Missouri, a State rights advocate, and although Mr. Barber was his guest, they had frequent clashes over the troubles of the South and war incidents. The bitterness of the great conflict had not yet been obliterated, and it was only natural that the Union veteran and State’s rights man should have disagreements. This was not all of their troubles, as time soon developed. Mr. Hubbard had an attractive daughter, and thereby hangs a tale of romance. Mary Hubbard was the acme of beauty in the eyes of young Barber and he purposely stayed around in the neighborhood that he could be near Mary and do his courting despite the evident antipathy of Father Hubbard. In fact, Moses often said later, “That was the reason I stayed there.” The attraction between Mary and Moses grew into friendship, friendship ripened into love, and the son of the North and the daughter of the South were married. The parental opposition to this natural outcome of the meeting of two young souls who were evidently destined for each other was so great that a quiet marriage was necessary. Moses and Mary quietly departed one day and returned to the parental roof as man and wife. Mr. and Mrs. Hubbard soon afterwards decided to accept the inevitable and become fond of their son-in-law. Time and subsequent events proved that Moses and Mary were well mated and the marriage, if a hasty one, proved to be very happy in the years to come. Mr. Hubbard soon afterward went west to satisfy the gold fever which obsessed him and Moses Barber settled down on his father-in-law’s farm which he purchased, thus beginning a highly successful career as an agriculturist. The first home of him and his young wife was a little log cabin which formerly belonged to the Hubbards, but as prosperity came as the reward of years of careful husbandry, he erected a handsome farm residence of thirteen rooms which still stands on the place, built in 1882. Mr. Barber was one of the first men in Kansas to see the possibilities in fruit growing and early began to develop that part of the farming avocation. He planted four or five acres of apple trees as a start in his horticultural experiments, and his success with his first orchard was so gratifying that he increased his apple orchards to sixty acres of bearing trees. He became widely known as the “Apple King of Kansas.” While managing his immense fruit orchard he did not neglect the other side of the farm work and cultivated assiduously and successfully his large farm of 320 acres of land in Mt. Pleasant township. In the early days he was a large cattle feeder and made large shipments to the stock markets.

Moses Barber was married May 15, 1865, to Miss Mary Hubbard and this union was blessed with two children: Mrs. Abigail Brayman, of Wickford. R. I., and Herbert J., with whom this review is directly concerned. Mr. Barber departed this life July 3, 1896, after having lived a long and useful life which was profitable as well as happy. Mrs. Mary (Hubbard) Barber, his surviving widow, was born May 7, 1845, in Roanoke county, Virginia, and was a daughter of Clark and Rebecca Hubbard, both of whom were born and reared in Virginia and came to Kansas in 1855. Mrs. Barber resides with her son, Herbert J., in Atchison, Kan.

Herbert J. Barber attended the district school of his neighborhood in Mt. Pleasant township and later pursued a course in the Atchison Business College. After finishing his business course he returned to his father’s farm and took charge of the fruit growing and general farming. Later he spent three years in Colorado in the employ of a Denver wholesale book and stationery house. In 1894 he returned to the home farm and successfully managed it until 1908. He then removed to Cummings, Kan., and assisted in the organization of the Cummings State Bank. He became the cashier of this institution and has given evidence of decided financial and business ability of a high order in his vocation. Besides his banking interests Mr. Barber has land holdings in Colorado and western Kansas. He makes his residence at 1020 Santa Fe street in Atchison.

The marriage of H. J. Barber and Miss Eva Wertz was solemnized in February 19, 1902. Mrs. Barber was born the twenty-sixth of May, 1878, in Pennsylvania, a daughter of David and Eliza Wertz, both of whom were born and reared in the Keystone State. David Wertz was for many years a merchant at Parnell, Kan., and is now living in retirement at that place. The mother of Mrs. Barber is now deceased. One child, Mary Reta, born August 13, 1904, has blessed the marriage of Herbert J. and Eva Barber.

Politically, Mr. Barber is a Republican, and has held the office of trustee of Mt. Pleasant township for four years. He and his family are religiously affiliated with the Baptist church. He is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Washington lodge, No. 5, of Atchison, and the Modern Woodmen of America. Mr. Barber is a booster and public-spirited citizen by nature and is always ready and willing to support anything for the good of the community and the people. Every civic program which will have a tendency to benefit the whole of the people finds him as one of its warmest supporters.

Robert Pinder.

Robert Pinder, the efficient and capable manager of the Effingham Lumber Company, while having been a resident of Effingham but a few years, has so identified himself with the life of the community and taken such an active part in the city’s affairs, that his citizenship is an important and component part of the body politic. He is a hustler in both thought and deed, and strives to advance his city as well as managing his business at profit, and so as to gain increasing prestige for the lumber company’s business, which has been under the present management since 1912. The company conducts a general lumber business, and sells all kinds of building material, such as farm gates, Crown and Tulsa silos, of superior make, tiling, roofing and roof paints, etc. The sheds and yards cover six lots, and Mr. Pinder employs two men to care for the business. The president of the company is W. C. Alexander, of Atchison; the vice president is T. B. Pinder, of Clifton, Kan., and the general manager and secretary-treasurer is Robert Pinder, with whom this narrative is directly concerned.

Robert Pinder was born September 5, 1872, in Timberland, England, a son of John and Anna (Burton) Pinder, who were farmers in their native country, and about 1894 immigrated to this country and settled on a farm near Everest, Kan., where they died. In 1886 Robert was indentured at Martindales, England, for three years and one and one-half years at Horncastle, to grocery and provision merchants, with the understanding that he was to receive his board and lodging, and his father was to provide for other necessaries, such as wearing apparel, and medicine, in case of sickness. His periods of indenture required both day and night service and to play no games, or frequent taverns or dice tables, or contract matrimony, or buy and sell. For an American boy to be required to do anything of this sort would be considered the rankest injustice, and he would rebel at being compelled seemingly to sacrifice his liberty and become a bound employe for so long a time. But such is the custom in England, and the training which Robert Pinder received during his four and one-half years of indenture proved exceedingly valuable lo him in later years. After serving his time as an apprentice he continued in the provision business for three and one-half years longer, and then came to America, journeying direct to Doniphan county in 1894. In the spring of the following year he moved out on the farm owned by his father, who had brought the entire family, with the exception of one brother, to this country. He assisted his father in the cultivation of the farm for four years, and then accepted a position in the lumber business of E. L. Alexander, at Everest, Kan., in the spring of 1899. Three months later he became manager of the Purcell Lumber Company, at Purcell, Kan., and remained in this position for three years, following which employment he was manager of the Alexander Lumber Company at Havensville, Kan., for over ten years. In the spring of 1912 Mr. Pinder came to Effingham and took charge of the Effingham Lumber Company. His success in the lumber business has been marked and rapid, and is an indication of true and tireless business ability of a high order. He is secretary and a stockholder of the Alexander Lumber Company, a large concern: secretary of the Harrison Lumber Company, of Garnett, Kan., and is interested in this concern as a stockholder. Mr. Pinder also administered the family estate after his father’s death in 1909, and his mother’s demise in the year following. There were eight children in the family: Frederick died in infancy; John W., living, in England; Edith Mary, wife of William Pinder, of Huron, Kan.; Robert; Charles, a farmer living near Huron: Henrietta died at Everest; Emma A., wife of Arthur Harris, of Everest; Thomas Benton, in the lumber business at Clifton, Kan.

Mr. Pinder was married November 1, 1900, to Harriet M. Pinder, who was born in Denton, a daughter of A. G. Pinder, a farmer, residing near Huron, Kan. Four children have blessed this union: Ruth Mary, born in November, 1901; Cecil Francis, born in 1903; Leslie Benton, born in 1906; John Sylvester, born in 1909.

Mr. Pinder is a progressive Republican, and has pronounced and decided views upon independence in politics, and believes in “a government of the people and by the people,” and not for the benefit of the favored few. He is affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal church, and is fraternally allied with the Knights and Ladies of Security, and the Lumberman’s “Hoo-Hoo” society.

Thomas J. Potter.

For twenty-four years Thomas J. Potter has served the people well and faithfully as postmaster of the town which was named in honor of his father. Joseph Potter, one of the distinguished pioneer settlers of Atchison county, Kansas. Thomas J. Potter was born January 29, 1856, on a farm which later became the townsite of Potter, Kan., and was settled upon by his father in 1854. Mr. Potter probably holds the record for long and continuous residence in Atchison county as a native son of this county. He was a son of Joseph and Minerva (Wiley) Potter, natives of Kentucky and descendants of colonial ancestry. Thomas Potter, father of Joseph, tracing his ancestry direct to a member of the colony founded at Jamestown, Va., by Capt. John Smith, in 1607. Thomas Potter, grandfather of T. J., was born in old Virginia, and was a pioneer settler in Lincoln county, Kentucky.

Joseph Potter was born in 1819 in Kentucky, married there and reared a family. When Kentucky began to take on a crowded condition, which was inimical to a great many of the early settlers of the Daniel Boone class, Thomas Potter conceived the idea of migrating westward, as Boone had done. Accordingly, he sent his son, Joseph, to the wild country of Saline county, Missouri, to find out about the fertility of the land, and to determine whether or not the country was suitable for settlement. Joseph made the trip in safety and made a favorable report on his arrival home. The family, thereupon, disposed of their land holdings in Kentucky and made the overland trip to Missouri, finally locating in Buchanan county of that State, near the town of DeKalb, in 1846. Here Joseph Potter was married in 1851 to Minerva Wiley, whose parents had migrated from the old home in Kentucky to Buchanan county, Missouri, about the same time the Potter family had settled there. Three years later, in 1854, Joseph Potter and his wife removed to Atchison county and filed upon an 160 acre claim, on part of which acreage the town of Potter is now built. This was some years before Kansas became a State, and about the time the great struggle between the pro- and anti-slavery men was beginning for the control of Kansas. Joseph Potter was a strong anti-slavery man, who was not afraid to voice his convictions in unmistakable language at any and all times. He was firm in his belief that slavery was an evil which should be abolished, and his aggressiveness led him into frequent conflicts with the pro-slavery advocates. He was one of the able and fearless leaders of the anti-slavery contingent in Atchison county, and many times he was threatened with physical violence. At the time of one of the territorial elections, only three Free State votes were cast in Joseph Potter’s precinct. Four thousand votes, a number far in excess of the actual number of voters in the territory, were cast at this election, and pro-slavery men came from Missouri, and even from Kentucky, and voted several times in favor of making Kansas a slave State.

Joseph Potter was a Mexican war veteran. He enlisted in 1846 as a private soldier in the regular army of the United States, and served throughout the Mexican conflict under Col. Sterling Price. When the Civil war broke out he was appointed recruiting officer for the Federal Government, and later served as a captain in the Kansas State militia. Joseph Potter served one term as a member of the State legislature. In the year 1886 the town of Potter was established and named in his honor.

One of the most cherished of the friendships of this hardy pioneer was that of the late Senator John J. Ingalls, a friendship which began in the troublous days preceding the Civil war, and endured until death parted them, long afterward. Mr. Potter’s first impression of John J. Ingalls was obtained at an anti-slavery meeting held in Mount Pleasant township, and he was fond of relating the occurrence after the Senator became a Nation-wide character of prominence. Joseph Potter was the political leader of the anti-slavery party in that section of the State at the time, and Mr. Ingalls, then a young man of twenty-five, had opened his law office a few weeks previously in the old town of Sumner, Kan. Ingalls spoke at this meeting, and it is recalled, that as he arose to speak, a tall young man, pale and slender, the impression that he made upon his audience was small, and there were those present who even sneered when he began to speak. It was not long, however, as the future senator swung into his theme, until he convinced his auditors that he had a thorough knowledge of Kansas conditions, and could speak with an eloquence and honesty of delivery that was convincing. The listeners who came to scoff, left the meeting as warm admirers of Mr. Ingalls, and Mr. Potter was forever afterward his warm supporter.

Joseph Potter and his wife were the parents of eight children, as follows: Celia J., wife of T. Lawler, of Cowles, Neb.; Francis, living on the old home place in Walnut township; Alice P., residing on the home farm; Josephine P., wife of J. W. Miller, of Atchison; Thomas J.; Samuel L., a banker, living at Cutbank, Mont.; John J., also living on the old homestead.

Thomas J. Potter was born and reared on the old home farm of the Potter family, and followed the occupation of a tiller of the soil until he was twenty-seven years of age. He was appointed postmaster of the town of Potter, and was re-appointed in 1898, and has held the office continuously ever since. He was married in 1882 to Fannie M. Brown, a daughter of John Brown, of Missouri. Two children bless this union: George Potter, in the United States mail service in Chicago, Ill., and Garland J., wife of Charles Pruitt, of Sioux Falls, S. D. The mother of these children died in February, 1906. In the year 1913 Mr. Potter took for his second wife, Mrs. Estella Everhardt, widow of Charles Everhardt, and a daughter of N. D. West, a native of New Jersey, who settled in Kansas in the early territorial days.

Mr. Potter is politically allied with the Republican party and is a supporter of Republican principles. He belongs to the Christian church, and is fraternally affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America.

Benjamin F. Shaw.

Benjamin F. Shaw, hardware merchant, of Potter, Kan., is a native of Atchison county, and is one of Potter’s younger successful business men. He was born October 11, 1882, on a farm in this county. He is a son of Henry and Martha (Nelson) Shaw, the former a native of Roodhouse, Ill., and the latter of Missouri. Both parents are of English ancestry. Henry Shaw came to Kansas in 1867 when a young man twenty years of age. When he came here he had a cash capital of about $100. He was of a saving disposition, however, and it was not long until he became the owner of a fine farm of 320 acres in Leavenworth county, Kansas. He is now residing in Leavenworth, living on a small farm of twenty acres within the city limits.

Benjamin F. is the fourth of six children born to Henry and Martha Shaw, and is the only son. He spent his boyhood days on his father’s farm and attended the district school in his neighborhood. When nineteen years of age he came to Potter and entered the employ of L. M. Jewell, in his general merchandise store. He began working for a salary of sixteen dollars per month. When Mr. Jewell took charge of the Potter State Bank as cashier, Mr. Shaw was placed in charge of the Jewell lumber yard and furniture store. Shortly afterward he was enabled to purchase a half interest in the furniture store. Within a year he sold his interest in the furniture business and bought a half interest in the hardware store of J. C. Helvey. Upon Mr. Helvey’s death, three years later, Mr. Shaw purchased his former partner’s interest, and has since conducted the business entirely in his own name, as the sole proprietor. Mr. Shaw has met with signal success in his business venture, and has grown with the town of Potter. He has increased the value of the hardware stock in his establishment from $2,200 to over $7,000. In addition to his business he is the owner of farm lands near the town of Potter. This is a considerable accomplishment for a young man who began his career with practically no capital, but a willingness to do the best he could, and endowed with plenty of energy and intelligence.

Mr. Shaw was married in November of 1904 to Miss Louise Bessler, of Leavenworth, Kan. His political affiliations are with the Democratic party, and he is fraternally connected with the Modern Woodmen lodge.

Lawrence Griffin.

A review of the life of the late Lawrence Griffin, of Effingham, Kan., is the story of a poor Irish lad who left his native land, served his adopted country in the Civil war, became a pioneer in Kansas, and was a railroad builder and successful farmer, and in the course of years realized in full his boyhood dream of wealth and position in the great, free land of America.

Lawrence Griffin was born in County Galway, Ireland, in 1838, a son of poor Irish parents. When a boy in his teens he immigrated to America and joined his brother, Michael, in Ohio, and there engaged in farm work for a living. He worked his way westward, and at the outbreak of the Civil war was driving a stage coach out of Springfield, Ill., where he enlisted August 3, 1862, in Company C, Twenty-seventh regiment, Illinois infantry, and served until his honorable discharge, September 20, 1864. He fought in many important battles, among them being Belmont, Mo., Union City, siege and capture of Island No. 10, Farmington Mills, siege and capture of Vicksburg, Lookout Mountain, Mission Ridge, and the battle of Chattanooga. After the war he went to St. Louis, Mo., and from that city made his way to Atchison, where he took a contract under J. P. Brown for building a portion of the grade of the Central Branch railroad, at that time under course of construction. His first job was the grading of one mile of road called section 20 in partnership with a Mr. Keean. In partnership with James Brady he then graded two miles of road near Wetmore, Kan. He saved his money which he made from his grading operations and in 1867 was married and purchased a farm of eighty acres near Arrington on the creek bottoms. He was compelled to leave this place after one year on account of ague and invested in 160 acres of land north of Arrington, which he later sold and bought 160 acres of higher land four miles west of Effingham. This was prairie land which he at once began to improve and made into a permanent home for his family. He and his wife first lived in a small house and were often discouraged and faced failure many times, but persistence and fortitude finally won out and they became the possessors of 400 acres of well improved land on which were erected two sets of farm buildings. Three hundred and twenty acres yet remain intact of the original holdings, which are rented to tenants. In 1908 Mr. and Mrs. Griffin left the farm and purchased a handsome residence in Effingham where Mrs. Griffin now resides.

Mr. Griffin was married November 25, 1865, in the old St. Benedict’s Church in Atchison, to Miss Ellen Gallagher, the marriage ceremony being performed by Father Timothy. Ten children have blessed this union, as follows: Michael died in infancy; Martin Lawrence, a farmer at Wetmore, Kan.; Ellen, wife of James Bergen, Graham county, Kansas; Elizabeth, wife of Michael Murphy, Dallas, Texas; Anna, at home with her mother; Patrick Henry, conducting a livery business at Effingham; John J., cultivating the home farm; Frank, agent for the Southern Life Insurance Company, Wichita Falls, Texas; Walter L., a traveling salesman, Dallas, Texas, and who graduated from the Atchison County High School, and studied two years at St. Benedict’s College; James Ambrose, also a graduate of the Atchison County High School, and now a stenographer in the office with his brother at Dallas, Texas. The mother of these children was born September 15, 1850, at La Salle, Ill., a daughter of Martin and Anne (Corcoran) Gallagher, both of whom were born in County Mayo, Ireland. They came to this country when young and Mr. Gallagher took up a homestead in Illinois and also engaged in freighting from La Salle to Chicago. He died in 1851, and the widow, accompanied by Ellen and two sons, came to Atchison county in 1860 and made their home here. Mrs. Gallagher married again, her second husband being Frank Cullen, who preëmpted land near Muscotah, upon which the family moved from Atchison in 1863. Mr. Cullen died in 1888. The mother of Mrs. Griffin died in 1890, at the age of sixty-six years.

Lawrence Griffin was a member of the Catholic church and was always a liberal contributor to the support of that denomination, giving substantially in aid of the building of the Catholic church in Effingham. While he was a rough and ready type of man who took the world as he found it, he was very moral and believed in living according to the golden rule. He was very charitable to the poor and worthy and was a kind husband, and a loving and indulgent father, whose sole aim in amassing a comfortable fortune was to provide well for his wife and children. In this aim he succeeded.

Charles E. Barker.

The Nation owes a debt to the veterans of the Civil war, who gave the best years of their young lives to the defense of the Union, and marched under the star-spangled banner under the leadership of such heroes as Grant, Sherman and Sheridan, which can never be fully repaid. The ranks of the grand army of brave and true men who have worn the blue are gradually thinning out, and where once they were numbered in hundreds and thousands throughout this broad land, there are now but few in each community. These veterans were of the salt of the earth, and no better type of manhood ever trod the earth or marched to the strains of martial music than the old guard, which saved the Union, at the call of Abraham Lincoln. Living on a farm, in the northwest part of Benton township, Atchison county, Kansas, is a survivor of General Sherman’s victorious “march to the sea.” Comrade Charles E. Barker gave three years of his life in the defense of the Union and flag, and has a war record which has been equalled or surpassed by but few men who shouldered a musket to save the Union from dissolution.

Charles E. Barker, well-to-do farmer, of Atchison county, Kansas, was born in Fulton county, Illinois, April 4, 1842, a son of John and Eleanor (Rutledge) Barker. The father of Charles was born in Virginia July 20, 1786, and learned the blacksmith’s trade when yet a boy. He migrated to Fulton county, Illinois, as early as 1826, and there operated a blacksmith shop. He was twice married, his second wife being Eleanor Rutledge, who bore him three children: George R., deceased; James Lee, deceased: Charles E. The four children by the first marriage were Joseph, John W., Sarah, and Elizabeth, deceased. The mother of Charles E. was born in Greenbrier county, Virginia, November 28, 1801, and died September 3, 1873. John Barker died in Fulton county, Illinois, in September of 1861.

Charles E. Barker grew up on his father’s farm, and helped in the shop and on the farm until his enlistment, at the age of twenty years. At the outbreak of the war he harkened to Lincoln’s call for volunteers to quell the rebellion of the Southern States, and went to Vermont, Ill., where he enlisted in Company F, One Hundred and third regiment, Illinois infantry, August 14, 1862, under the command of General Sherman, and Mr. Barker acted as commissary sergeant in Tennessee and the South. He participated in the following engagements: Vicksburg, Mission Ridge, Kenesaw Mountain, Resaca, Ga., Peachtree Creek, Ga., Dallas, Gristleville, November 26, 1864, and many others, his regiment being in twenty-seven battles in all. He marched under Sherman’s banner from Atlanta to the sea, and then marched in the Grand Review at Washington, D. C. He was honorably discharged at Chicago, Ill., July 7, 1865. He returned home after his discharge, and remained in Fulton county, Illinois, until 1883, when he disposed of his holdings there and went to Dade county, Missouri, where he bought a farm. He remained in Dade county for several years, living on various farms which he bought and sold. In August, 1887, he went to Furnace county, Nebraska, and purchased a half section of land, to which he added 160 acres later, which he sold in 1903 to his son, Harry. On March 1, 1891, he went to Brown county, Kansas, and lived there until his removal to Atchison county. In 1894 he came to Atchison county, Kansas, and bought 160 acres of land in the northwest corner of Benton township. He improved this farm and cultivated it with profit to himself. He maintains good graded live stock on his acreage and is considered one of the really successful agriculturists of the county. Nearly all of his land is sown to alfalfa and grasses.

On April 19, 1866, Mr. Barker was married to Mary E. Pontious, who has borne him six children, as follows: Leonard, a farmer, of Norton county, Kansas; Ira C., of Gooding, Idaho; Harry E., living in Brown county, Kansas; William L., a farmer, of Kapioma township, Atchison county, Kansas; Perry, residing in Stanford, Neb.; Nora, deceased. The mother of these children was born in Ohio, a daughter of Andrew and Ann (Bear) Pontious, natives of Germany.

Mr. Barker is a Democrat of the old school, and is a firm believer in Democratic principles. He belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic, Effingham Post, and numbers among the members of this organization many warm friends and comrades. He has taken his place in the community as a representative citizen, who enjoys the respect and esteem of all who know him. He can look back over his three score and thirteen years of life with satisfaction and realize with complacency that it has been well spent, and he has accomplished all that any good American could wish for on this earth.

John E. Sullivan.

If a man has the inherent ability and energy in his makeup to enable him to succeed, he is going to do it. The life stories of all successful, self-made men bear out this contention, and there are numberless instances of success among the younger generation in the West which are well worth recounting. John E. Sullivan, real estate dealer, loan and insurance agent, of Effingham, Kansas, is a representative example of the class referred to in the foregoing statement. Mr. Sullivan was destined to succeed in his farming and business ventures, and, while a young man, he has already made his mark in the world, and is one of the substantial and influential citizens of Atchison county.

John E. Sullivan was born on a farm, near Rulo, Richardson county, Nebraska, January 20, 1873. He is a son of Murty and Mary (Rawley) Sullivan, substantial and well respected citizens of Effingham. The former was born in Ireland in 1847, and the latter is a native of Canada, born of Irish parents in 1852. Murty Sullivan left Ireland in 1865, immigrated to America and settled near Rulo, Neb. He made his own way in this country, and accumulated a large farm in Nebraska, on which he resided until 1910, when he removed to Effingham and purchased a farm adjoining the town on the south. Murty and Mary Sullivan are the parents of the following children: James and Murty, Jr., living at Hardin, Mont.; Daniel D., a farmer, of Benton township, Atchison county, Kan.; John E., the subject of this review; Mrs. John Vogel, of Falls City, Neb.; Sister M. Teresa, a sister of the Ursuline Convent, of York, Neb., and a teacher in St. Angela’s Academy there. The family are all members of the Catholic church.

John E. received his primary education in the common schools of his native county in Nebraska, and finished his education in St. Benedict’s College, Atchison, Kan., graduating from the commercial department of that institution in 1894. He then took a special teachers’ course at the Lincoln, Neb., Normal School. He taught school for seven years in Richardson county, Nebraska, and practically all of his teaching was done in two schools of his home county. Upon his marriage in 1897 he engaged in farming in Nebraska, and it is a matter of pride with Mr. Sullivan that he earned more money in two years of farming operations than he had in all of his seven years of teaching, another reason why the farm is the best place for a young and ambitious man to make money. His success as a farmer determined his future career, and he decided to stick to the agricultural country for all time, imbued with the belief that there is money to be earned in farming, or in handling farm lands. He left Nebraska in December of 1901, and came to Atchison county, Kansas, where he purchased a farm, one and one-half miles south of Effingham, his first farm being the northwest quarter of section 34–618. He is at present the owner of 400 acres of well improved land which is kept in a high state of cultivation by improved methods of farming. Mr. Sullivan raises considerable live stock on his acreage and aims to feed all the grain raised on the land to live stock. He specializes in Hereford cattle and Poland China hogs and aims to keep only good grade of stock of all kinds. At the time of his purchase of the farm land in Atchison county, the land itself was in poor condition, and the soil had become impoverished by continual cropping of a single staple. Through the modern method of crop rotation Mr. Sullivan is reviving the fertility of the soil, and at the present time the greater portion of his farm is planted to clover and grasses, for the purpose of renewing the strength of the soil, the process being assisted by the raising and feeding of live stock on the place. The Sullivan farm has splendid improvements, which were placed on it by Mr. Sullivan, who erected a modern eight-room house and a good barn. In 1907 Mr. Sullivan was induced to take up insurance work as a side line, in the interest of a Nebraska insurance company, and met with great success in his new line of work. He later took up the real estate business and the handling of loans, and has been likewise successful in establishing a permanent business which requires his attention and necessitates an office in Effingham. The Sullivan real estate and loan office is well located in the Farmers and Merchants State Bank, of which concern Mr. Sullivan served as cashier and a director for several years.

He was married February 16, 1897, to Mary Majerus, a native born resident of Richardson county, Nebraska, and a daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth (Wilker) Majerus, the former a native of Germany, and the latter of Ohio, of German parents. Seven children have blessed this union, namely: P. Justin, aged seventeen, and a student of St. Benedict’s College, class of 1916; Leo, aged thirteen years; Nellie, ten years old; Elizabeth, aged eight; Edward, six years old; Agnes, three years of age; and Mary, born January 28, 1915.

Mr. Sullivan is a Democrat who takes an active and influential part in the affairs of his party in Atchison county, having been the candidate of the party for county treasurer in 1914. He is fraternally affiliated with the Modern Woodmen, of Effingham, the Knights of Columbus, of Atchison, and the Central Protective Association.

Samuel L. Loyd.

Samuel L. Loyd, an enterprising and successful farmer, of Shannon township, was born June 11, 1860, in Brown county, Ohio, a son of Thomas F. and Celina (McGinness) Loyd, natives of Kentucky and Ohio, respectively. His paternal ancestors were of Welsh extraction. William Loyd, grandfather of Samuel Loyd, after making a home for his family in this country, started on a return trip to his native land, in order to secure a legacy which had been willed to him by a deceased relative, and on the way was afflicted with cholera, and died. With his death, practically all knowledge of the family in the old country passed away, and his widow and two children were left to get along as best they could. Two years later the widow died. Thomas F. Loyd was reared by a Mr. Boyd, and removed from Kentucky to Brown county, Ohio, when he became of age, and there married Celina McGinness. About 1865 he set out for the western country to obtain cheaper land, and make a permanent home for his family. After living for one year in Clark county, Missouri, he loaded his effects on a covered wagon, and with his wife and children crossed the Missouri river at St. Joseph, and settled on a farm in Doniphan county, Kansas, April 14, 1866. Thomas F. Loyd was a member of the Home Guard in Brown county, Ohio, during the Civil war. He was born in 1825, and died in 1910. His wife, Celina, was born in 1829, and died in 1906. They were the parents of ten children, seven of whom are living: William, Mollie, deceased, Charles, deceased, Samuel L., Anna, George, Effie, Otis, Oscar, and Celina, deceased.

Samuel L. Loyd was six years of age when his parents located in Doniphan county, and consequently knows a great deal about the early days in Kansas, and the struggles of the early settlers to make homes on the prairie. He was brought up on the farm, and attended the district school when possible, and learned very early in life to do farm work. After his marriage he farmed in Doniphan county until 1899, when he came to Shannon township in Atchison county, and purchased 160 acres of fine land, which he has brought to a high state of cultivation. During his sixteen years of residence here he has improved his farm to a considerable extent, and has spent over $5,000 in the erection of a handsome brick residence which sets far back on a rise of ground and is reached from the highway by a private driveway. Other improvements on the place in the way of buildings and fences have cost him over $1,500. A severe storm, which swept this section May 3, 1903, did damage to the extent of over $500 to his buildings, and he found it necessary to repair all of this.

Mr. Loyd was married September 2, 1896, to Miss Lulu Voelker, born and brought up in Atchison county, a few miles north of the city of Atchison. To this union five children have been born: Myrtle Ceina, Edna Lula, good educations by their ambitious parents. Mrs. Loyd is a sister of Conrad Voelker, a wealthy and prominent farmer residing on one of the finest farms in the county, about four miles north of Atchison, and who earned the title of “Cabbage King” of Kansas, because of his wonderful success in growing that vegetable some years ago. Mrs. Loyd was born July 14, 1872, and is a daughter of Karl Voelker, who immigrated to this country from Germany in 1861, and operated a dairy and truck farm in Shannon township for several years. The mother of Mrs. Loyd was Christina Neuhaus, of German parents. Further details of the history of the Voelker family are found elsewhere in this volume. Conrad M., a nephew of Mrs. Loyd, is county clerk of Atchison county.

Mr. Loyd is a Republican, but gives little or no attention to political affairs, other than to vote as his conscience dictates. He is affiliated with the Central Protective Association, and is a member of Good Intent lodge, of Shannon township. While Mrs. Loyd was reared in the Lutheran faith, the members of the Loyd family attend the Methodist church. For a man who was forced to make his own way in the world, Mr. Loyd, with the assistance of his faithful wife, has accomplished a great deal, for which he deserves credit and honor among his neighbors.

Julius Kaaz.

The life story of Julius Kaaz, founder and proprietor of the manufacturing concern which bears his name, is an account of the achievements of a self-made man who left his native land to seek opportunity and fortune in Atchison, and found it. During the period of thirty-four years of his life which has been spent in his adopted city, Mr. Kaaz has succeeded even beyond his expectations and has made a place for himself an enviable one in the city. He arrived in Atchison in 1881 without a dollar, but endowed with a willingness to do whatever came to hand, imbued with a desire to succeed where the opportunity awaited him. The Julius Kaaz Manufacturing Company is a monument to his industry and ambition. This is one of the thriving and important establishments in the city of Atchison, and is widely known as one of the city’s leading industries. The extensive plant covers two floors of a building, 52×130 feet, and from eighteen to twenty men are employed in the mill proper, and from five to thirty-five men are given employment at outside work. The factory is conveniently located at 1200–1208 Main street and is fully equipped with all modern machinery to facilitate the manufacture of the high grade products which consist principally of bank, church and store fixtures, made to the order of the purchaser. An example of the high grade work turned out by the Kaaz plant can be seen in the interior fixings and furniture of the German-American State Bank of Atchison. Mr. Kaaz ships his output to Kansas and Nebraska cities and all parts of the United States, and it is unsurpassed in quality and finish.

Julius Kaaz was born March 26, 1854, in Prussia, German Empire, a son of Daniel and Christina (Schroeder) Kaaz, who were the parents of four children: Wilhelmina Loeproeck, a widow residing in Atchison county; Ernest, Atchison; Mrs. Christina Schmeling, deceased; Julius, the youngest of the family. Daniel Kaaz was a carpenter by trade and came to Atchison from Germany with his family in 1881. He resided with his son Julius upon his retirement from active labor until his death in 1902. His wife, Christina, was born in 1821, and died in 1895.

Julius Kaaz attended the schools of his native land and studied architecture. He learned the trade of carpenter under his father, but could not content himself to settle down in his native land and follow in the footsteps of his forebears. When still a young man the germ of ambition called him to other lands, and his goal was America. His desire to better his condition led him to set sail for this country in 1881, arriving in Atchison, where he at once sought employment. His first work was cutting cordwood in the timber land, south of the city, during the winter, and in the spring of the following year he worked on the Missouri river, making and placing riprap. Soon afterward he was given a job working at his trade for $1.50 per day. For one year he worked for wages, and at length decided to embark in business for himself and began taking contracts at a time when he had no capital worth speaking of. It was even necessary for him to borrow the saw and hammer which he used in his work. In 1885 he formed a partnership with Henry Braun in the contracting business which continued until 1909, when they dissolved partnership. In 1907 Mr. Kaaz erected his first planing mill which has grown into his present extensive establishment consisting of plant, yards and warerooms.

He was married to Ida Schmeling in 1883, and to this union have been born nine children, as follows: Emil, Lena, Robert, Lydia, Julius E., Otto, Fred, Arthur, Martha. Of these children Martha is deceased, Lydia is her father’s secretary, Fred is also employed in the office, and Otto H. is employed in the mill. Mrs. Kaaz was born September 6, 1856, in Prussia, German Empire, and is a daughter of August and Ernestine (Polzien) Schmeling. She left her native land when sixteen years of age and came to Atchison.

Mr. Kaaz, while politically allied with the Republican party, is an independent voter who believes in voting for the individual who seems to be most capable of serving the people, rather than supporting an avowed politician. He and the members of his family are affiliated with the German Lutheran church and are liberal supporters of this denomination.

George W. Redmond, M. D.

A greater service in behalf of mankind than a life devoted to healing the sick and curing the halt and the lame can not be considered, and when this service has been rendered far from the comforts of the city and during the storms of many seasons in the open country from the pioneer era in Kansas down to the present time, the value of such service to humanity is inestimable. The unsung heroes of the medical fraternity are the large class of country practitioners who go their way year after year, uncomplainingly and satisfied with the good they are doing for their fellow creatures. Great fortune is not theirs, but the inevitable reward and the satisfaction of a task well and faithfully done is theirs to have. Of this great class the biographer is pleased to record the facts concerning the life and career of George W. Redmond, the second oldest physician in Atchison county, and one of the oldest medical men in Kansas. For nearly half a century Dr. Redmond has practiced his profession among the tillers of the soil in the neighborhood of Potter, and the southeastern part of Atchison county, and in the northeast part of Leavenworth county, Kansas. During all this time he has remained true to his calling, and resisted the call of the towns and cities, where an easier life might be lived. He has likewise progressed with the profession and endeavored to keep abreast of the wonderful developments in the science of medicine, arriving at the point in his career where he is a specialist in his profession.