Atchison, attended a private school, and also studied in St. Benedict’s
College. At the age of sixteen years he entered the employ of the
Missouri Pacific Railway Company as a fireman and brakeman and remained
with the railroad at Atchison until January 1, 1881, when he entered the
service of the Missouri Pacific at Sedalia, Mo., as engineer of a
freight run for a period of five years. He was then (1886) promoted to
the passenger service, in which department he has since been employed as
one of the most trusted and reliable engineers of the system. Mr.
Reynolds’ first experience as an engineer, however, was in the passenger
service of the road, and it came about in this wise: The engineer for
whom he was firing (George W. Slade) had been promised a vacation and a
trip to New York State. This promise had been made to Mr. Slade time and
time again, and at his suggestion the master mechanic of the yards
placed young Reynolds, then twenty-two years old, in charge of the
engine on the run between Kansas City and Atchison, Kan. Mr. Slade took
the responsibility of any errors or mistakes that Reynolds would make,
but the young engineer ran his train successfully without mishap for a
period of six weeks and was then promoted to the post of locomotive
engineer on the freight run as stated above. Mr. Reynolds at this time
is in charge of the through passenger run between Atchison and Downs,
Kan.
Mr. Reynolds was married in 1898 to Kathrine Horan, and the following
children have blessed this happy marriage: Mary Anna, John, Kathrine,
Ruth, Ellen, Marselene, all of whom are at home with their parents. The
mother of these children is a daughter of Michael and Anna (Dean) Horan,
both of whom were born in Tipperary, Ireland. (See biography of M. J.
Horan.)
Mr. Reynolds is a member of the Locomotive Engineers’ Union, the Ancient
Order of United Workmen, the Elks lodge, the Fraternal Order of Eagles,
and is affiliated with the Democratic party in politics. For the past
six years Mr. Reynolds has been connected with the Atchison Savings Bank
and is a director of this financial concern, as well as being a
stockholder of the First National Bank of Atchison. One of the finest
things which can be said of Mr. Reynolds concerning his career as a
railway engineer is that during all his long experience and constant
work he has never had a serious accident, and no passengers have been
killed or injured who were intrusted to his charge, and he has had but
two trifling rear-end collisions to account for, which did very little
damage and resulted in no injuries to persons. This record is a
remarkable one and is in keeping with the character of the man himself,
who from his earliest boyhood has known what it is to shift for himself
and learned the art of being self-reliant and cool-headed in any
emergency. A brother of Mr. Reynolds, Andrew by name, was a Union
soldier who served in the cavalry and was wounded, later dying at home
from the effects of his wound. Another brother, James, was also a
soldier in the Union army.
WILLIAM SUTTER.
William Sutter resides on the old home place of the Sutter family in
Benton township, about two miles west of Effingham. This farm is one of
the finest and best cultivated farms in Atchison county, and the
residence grounds and farm buildings are among the most attractive and
best kept in the State of Kansas. The farm is widely known as the “Maple
Lawn Stock Farm,” and is noted for its production of fine live stock.
Mr. Sutter is an able farmer, having been well schooled in the art of
agriculture by his capable father. The Sutter family erected the
handsome farm residence of seven rooms in 1892, all modernized with hot
and cold running water and electric lights. The barn is an immense
affair and well built, in dimensions, 60×70 feet and erected with an eye
to appearance as well as convenience. Mr. Sutter has long been a breeder
of Percheron horses and keeps pure bred stock of this variety. He
generally has about thirty head of horses and mules on the farm and aims
to feed all of the grain which he produces to live stock on the place.
He keeps only full bred Poland China hogs and good grades of cattle.
When the Sutter estate was apportioned among the children of the late
Frederick Sutter, William received 160 acres, the home place, as his
share, and afterwards bought an additional quarter section, making 320
acres in all. Which he owns. He formerly owned 160 acres south of the
home place, but sold it.
[Illustration:
THE SUTTER HOMESTEAD
William A. Sutter, Owner.
]
William Sutter was born October 18, 1856, on a farm in Walnut township,
a son of Frederick and Fredericka Sutter, natives of Germany, and
pioneer settlers in the town of old Sumner. (See biography of Fred
Sutter for further details.) William Sutter accompanied his parents to
Benton township in 1880, and assisted his father in the accumulation of
his large estate and cared for his parents until their deaths. After his
father’s death he continued to reside on the old home place and tilled
the farm of which he is now the sole owner.
He was married October 18, 1915, to Miss Dorothy Nickle, of Muscotah,
Atchison county, a daughter of William Nickle, an old resident of
Atchison county. After a honeymoon trip to the Panama-Pacific Exposition
and Pacific coast points extending into old Mexico, covering a period of
nearly two months, Mr. and Mrs. Sutter returned to the home farm, near
Effingham.
Mr. Sutter is a Republican in politics, is a member of the Presbyterian
church and is affiliated with the Central Protective Association and the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is truly a product of the pioneer
days in Atchison county, and in his youth knew what real hardships were
and assisted in the struggle to achieve a comfortable competence for the
Sutter family in common, and has had the satisfaction of seeing the
family fortunes increase as the years have passed, and seeing his home
county improve with age and gain in prestige and wealth. He is a genial,
popular gentleman, who has a deep and abiding love for the county which
he has helped to develop and is proud of the fact that he was one of
those who assisted in its upbuilding.
JAMES ISHAM HOLMES.
James Isham Holmes, of Shannon township, Atchison county, is a pioneer
of eastern Kansas and western Missouri, and for seventy-three years has
lived within a radius of twelve miles from Atchison. He is a native of
Indiana and was born in Putnam county March 22, 1841. He is a son of
William and Nancy (Hartsock) Holmes, the former a native of England,
born in 1812, and the latter a native of Germany. William Holmes, the
father, immigrated from England with his parents when he was a small
boy. The family located in Kentucky, where they remained but a short
time when they removed to Indiana, and in 1842 they removed to Buchanan
county, Missouri, and located near St. Joseph. The father was a cooper
and worked at his trade for a short time at Rushville, Mo., and in the
spring of 1843 he settled one mile south of Dekalb, where he conducted a
cooper shop for eight years. He then bought a farm three miles north of
Dekalb, where he followed farming for twelve years, or until 1863, when
he traded his place for a farm in Doniphan county, Kansas. Three years
later he sold his Doniphan county farm and removed to Atchison, where he
spent the remainder of his life in retirement.
William and Nancy (Hartsock) Holmes were the parents of the following
children: John William, Eliza Ann, Peter, Alfred; James Isham, the
subject of this sketch; John, Francis, Marion, Loma, Ann, Perry, Praeter
B., Isaac, Susan Ann, Lethia Maria, Joseph, and Henry.
James Isham Holmes was reared amid the pioneer surroundings of the times
and received such education as was available under the conditions, and
when twenty-two years old went to Doniphan county, Kansas, where he
worked in a flouring mill one year. He was then engaged in various
vocations, including farming, cutting cordwood, railroading and
lumbering, when he engaged in breaking prairie in the vicinity of
Atchison. He followed that vocation for some time when he engaged in
farming in Atchison county. He sold his farm in 1868 and shortly
afterwards bought another place of eighty acres, and bought more land as
the opportunity offered, and now owns a fine farm of 240 acres, where he
has resided for the past forty years. He is one of the successful
farmers of Atchison county and has prospered.
Mr. Holmes has been twice married. His first wife was Rose Ann Wood, to
whom he was married in 1861. She died February 9, 1862, leaving one
child, William H., who resides in Atchison. His second marriage took
place September 17, 1863, to Jemima E. Pruitt, a Missouri girl, born in
1844. Three children were born to this union: Perry, a railroad man,
residing in Salt Lake City, Utah; Nancy Emily, now deceased; Minnie
married Mr. Bisel, and is now deceased. She was the mother of three
children, Lawrence, Milburn, and Othello.
Mr. Holmes has been a student of men and affairs all his life. He has
read extensively during his entire life and is one of the best posted
men on general topics in Atchison county. He is a typical representative
of the American pioneer who courageously conquered the wild and unbroken
West and made of it the great agricultural and commercial empire that it
is. He and his accomplished wife, who has been his helpmate and
companion for more than a half century, are now spending the sunset of
their lives in peace and comfort in their beautiful home which their
industry has provided.
EDWIN TAYLOR SHELLY, M. D.
For thirty-five years Dr. Edwin Taylor Shelly has been a successful
medical practitioner in the city of Atchison. Dr. Shelly was born in
Quakertown, Pa., February 6, 1859, and is a son of William N. and Anna
(Taylor) Shelly, both of whom were natives of Bucks county,
Pennsylvania. Rev. William N. Shelly, the father, was a United Brethren
minister, whose ancestors came originally from Saxony, Germany, in 1765
and settled in Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. He departed this life in
1893, at the age of seventy-nine years. Mrs. Anna (Taylor) Shelly died
in 1881, at the age of sixty-four years.
Edwin Taylor Shelly was the only child by the second marriage of Rev.
William N. Shelly. He received his early education in the Quakertown
high school and then taught school for two years. He began the study of
medicine in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in
1878, graduating therefrom in 1881. After practicing his profession for
a few months in his home county Dr. Shelly removed to Eden, Kan., where
he practiced for three years. He then moved to Huron, Kan., where he
remained for two years, previous to locating in Atchison in May, 1886,
where he has since maintained offices.
Dr. Shelly is a member of the Missouri Valley Medical Society, the
Atchison County Medical Society, the Kansas State, and the American
Medical associations, and is a member of the Kansas Academy of Science
and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has
twice served as president of the Northeastern Kansas Medical
Association. He has endeavored to keep pace with the progress made in
his life profession and has pursued post-graduate courses in the
University of Pennsylvania, the Post-Graduate School of Chicago, and the
Sloan Maternity Hospital of New York City. Dr. Shelly has been an
occasional contributor to the various medical journals, and articles
from his pen have appeared in the _Journal of the American Medical
Association_, the _New York Medical Record_, and other medical
publications. He has always devoted himself exclusively to the practice
of his profession. In politics, the Doctor is an independent Democrat,
and has always taken a great deal of interest in civic and economic
questions.
Dr. Shelly has been twice married, his first marriage occurring in 1885
with Miss Mary A. Schletzbaum, of Eden, who died in 1897, leaving two
sons, namely: William L., a farmer, residing on rural route No. 1, south
of Atchison, and who is a graduate of the Manhattan Agricultural
College; Ralph A., a graduate of the engineering department of Manhattan
College, and now employed in the Buick automobile factory at Flint,
Mich. His second marriage was with Miss Lillie E. Allen, of Atchison, in
1899. To this union have been born two children, Esther, aged thirteen
years, and Allen Parker, seven years old.
EDGAR WATSON HOWE.
Edgar Watson Howe, journalist and author, was born at Treaty, Wabash
county, Indiana, May 3, 1854, a son of Henry and Elizabeth (Irwin) Howe.
In 1857 the Howe family moved to Harrison county, Missouri, where Edgar
was educated in the common schools until twelve years of age, when he
began working in his father’s printing office. Henry Howe, a Methodist
minister, was described as a “fierce abolitionist,” and published a
paper at Bethany, Mo. At the age of fourteen the strict discipline of
his erratic father became too much for the spirit of the boy and he left
home. E. W. Howe is next heard of in Golden, Colo., as editor and
publisher of the _Weekly Globe_, at the age of eighteen. A year or so
afterward he was connected with a paper at Falls City, Neb., where in
1875 he married Miss Clara L. Frank. Five children were born to this
union, and three are living. In 1877 Mr. Howe came to Atchison, Kan.,
where he established the _Atchison Globe_. This paper was not long in
finding its way to recognition among the newspapers of Kansas on account
of the personality injected into it by its editor, and for more than
thirty years it has been one of the most widely quoted publications in
the whole country. The recent edition of the Encyclopedia Brittanica
refers to it. Mr. Howe has the happy faculty of being personal in his
comments without giving offense. The informal way of dealing with
matters in his paper has always been relished by Kansans and has
attracted favorable comment in the more conventional parts of the
country. The magazines, in reproducing some of his refreshing
paragraphs, have referred to “Ed” Howe as the best country-town
newspaper reporter in America. He has the faculty of seeking the points
overlooked by the majority and of working them up into paragraphs having
a combination of sarcasm and good humor that is irresistible.
Mr. Howe’s first work of fiction was “The Story of a Country Town,”
published in 1882, which has been for more than a quarter of a century
among the standard books of America. It has been classed by such eminent
critics as William Dean Howells as one of the ten best American novels.
This book did not run its course as the average popular novel does; its
human interest has taken lasting hold on the public. Other works of
fiction which Mr. Howe has since written are: “The Moonlight Boy,” “The
Mystery of the Locks,” “An Ante-mortem Statement,” “The Confession of
John Whitlock.” His “Lay Sermons” contain a great deal of good, sound
philosophy of life, and from the pages of this book may he deducted a
very practical code of ethics. In 1900, at the time Dr. Sheldon edited
the _Daily Capital_ in Topeka for a week in the way he thought Christ
would do, Mr. Howe added to the gayety of Nations by accepting an
invitation from the _Topeka State Journal_ and running it for a week the
way he thought the devil would run a newspaper.
In 1906 Mr. Howe made a long trip abroad, which resulted in “Daily Notes
of a Trip Around the World,” in two volumes, which has been praised as
highly as any book of travels in recent years. Two years later he wrote
“The Trip to the West Indies,” as a result of a winter cruise. His
latest book is “Country Town Sayings,” a collection of his paragraphs in
the _Atchison Globe_.
Mr. Howe’s country home at Atchison is one of the most carefully and
artistically arranged homes in the State. It is a bungalow, overlooking
what is said to be one of the three finest views in Kansas. It was built
by its owner as a place to retire when he became old, as he believes
that too many people stand around in other people’s way. True to his
instinct of the unusual he named it “Potato Hill.” At the age of fifty-
six years he retired from active management of the _Globe_. It was
predicted by those familiar with his tireless energy as a newspaper man
that he would soon be back at his desk in the _Globe_ office, but such
was not the case. After revising the “Story of a Country Town” for the
stage he began the publication of _Howe’s Monthly_, which, within a few
months became the western rival of the _Phillistine_, published at East
Aurora, N. Y., and is considered by many to have out-classed Elbert
Hubbard’s magazine. The Edward Howe paragraphs have been syndicated, and
appear in the leading dailies of the country. In an attempt to account
for the popularity of these paragraphs and the other writings of Mr.
Howe, Walt Mason in the _American Magazine_, says: “There is always, in
everything Ed. Howe writes, the element of the unexpected. It is present
in all his books—one of which ranks with the best in American fiction—
and it is in his briefest paragraphs, and that is why he is inimitable.
Others may adopt his style and mannerisms, but they can’t borrow the
strange, original intelligence that eternally ignores the obvious and
seizes upon the bizarre, showing how much of the bizarre there is in
every-day commonplace life.”
The personality of Mr. Howe as described by those who know him best, is
that of a quiet, courteous gentleman, amiable and kind to all. His
patience in teaching the young reporter and his indulgent ignoring of
the mistakes of his office force, have been frequently remarked upon. It
is said that he never discharged anyone, but always assisted them to
make good. To those who have been associated with him he is a greater
man than he is to those who only know him through the printed page, and
the longer and closer the acquaintance, the more remarkable seems his
genius.
WILLIAM F. SPEER.
William F. Speer showed his good judgment in coming to Kansas. It was
not his fault that he was not born in the great Sunflower State, but he
immediately recognized that the next best thing to being a native born
“Jayhawker” was to spend as many years as possible in the prosperous
State, and although he was only three months old at the time he has
never had occasion to reverse his judgment. In fact, he likes it better
every year, and in all the fifty-five years he has lived in Kansas he
has always held to his first preference for Kansas territory.
William F. Speer was born January 8, 1860, but when spring came his
parents, Joseph and Mary (Fountain) Speer, whose history is written
under the name of Anna D. Speer, a sister, came to Atchison county,
Kansas, from their former home in Madison county, Iowa. The parents
settled on the farm which William Speer now owns and brought him up in
the way he should go, including some schooling at the district school
house. His meagre time in school was only a breathing spell for the
heavier duties which awaited him on his father’s farm, and William was
early drafted for service and had to help along with his eight brothers
and sisters. When the father’s estate was divided he bought the home
place of 160 acres, which he has improved a great deal since that time.
In 1889 Mr. Speer married Cora Spangler, who was born March 6, 1866, in
Malden, Ill. She was the daughter of LeRoy and Lucendia (Smith)
Spangler, both natives of Ohio, who came to Brown county, Kansas in
1870, where they remained until 1876, when they moved to Grasshopper
township, Atchison county. They moved to Edmond, Okla., in 1900. The
father died in 1913, at the age of seventy-four years, and the mother
passed away in 1906, at the age of sixty-seven years. Mr. and Mrs.
Spangler had six children, as follows: Alfred, of Marion county, Kansas;
George, of Edmond, Okla.; Cora, the wife of William Speer; Joseph,
deceased; Curtis and Irvin, of Kansas City, Mo. Mr. and Mrs. Speer have
seven children, all of whom are living at home, with the exception of
Ralph, who is manager of the Muscotah farmers’ elevator. The children
living at home are: Lela, LeRoy, Lucy, Anna Belle, Frank, and Marjorie.
EDMUND BULLOCK.
Edmund Bullock, late of Muscotah, Kan., was born in January, 1838, at
Cornwall, England, and departed this life July 27, 1892. He was a son of
Frank Bullock, who with his family immigrated to Canada in 1846, and
crossed the border to become a resident of the United States in 1853,
finally settling in Wisconsin. Edmund was reared to young manhood in
Wisconsin, and married there in 1869. Three years later, in 1872, he and
his young wife came to Kansas, settling in Muscotah, Atchison county.
Edmund Bullock was a skilled tinsmith, and his first work in Muscotah
was the opening of a small shop which served as a place to ply his
trade, and also as their home for some time. He prospered as time went
on and added a stock of stoves and tinware, and later established a
larger store and carried hardware of all kinds in stock. For several
years after coming to Muscotah he made all of the tinware sold from his
shop. For the first five years of their residence in Muscotah the tin
shop was divided and half of it served as a residence for Mr. and Mrs.
Bullock. A sister of Mrs. Bullock lived with them and conducted a
millinery store in the living room. Mr. Bullock first worked in
Greenleaf, Kan., when he came west, and Mrs. Bullock stayed with friends
in Frankfort. He heard of Muscotah and decided to locate here.
Mr. Bullock was married in 1869 to Miss Emma Graham, a native of
Wisconsin, and a daughter of Gustavus and Sarah Maria Graham, who were
both born in New York State. For fifteen years previous to her demise
Mrs. Bullock’s mother, Mrs. Sarah Maria Hale, made her home with her
daughter, dying September 29, 1915, at the great age of 100 years and
nine months.
Edmund Bullock was a Union veteran, who enlisted in 1862 in the Twenty-
fifth Wisconsin regiment of volunteers and served until the close of the
Civil war, participating in several hard-fought engagements with his
regiment. He was affiliated with the Grand Army of the Republic and the
Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. He was prominent in Masonic circles
and was well versed in Masonry. Politically, Mr. Bullock was a
Republican, who voted independently on local and county matters. He was
reared in the Episcopalian faith, but was a liberal donator to all
denominations who sought his assistance. He was an honest, straight-
forward citizen who was blessed with a jolly disposition and had a fund
of anecdotes which he was continually retailing to a crowd of interested
listeners, especially children who would gather around him at times when
he was not busy and listened enthralled to his wonder tales. Mr. and
Mrs. Bullock lived an ideal married life and were deeply devoted to each
other.
PRESLEY H. CALVERT.
Presley H. Calvert, retired farmer, of Muscotah, Kan., was born November
14, 1835, in Owington, Ky., a son of B. Warren Calvert, a native of old
Virginia, and a direct descendant of Cecil Calvert (Lord Baltimore), who
founded the Maryland colony in America. The mother of Presley H. Calvert
was Lucy J. Hawkins before her marriage with Warren Calvert, and was
born in Frankfort, Ky. In 1837 the Calvert family migrated from Kentucky
to Platte county, Missouri, and were among the earliest pioneer settlers
of that county. Being slaveholders in Kentucky they brought along the
family slaves and improved 160 acres of land in Missouri. Both parents
ended their days on the old home place in Platte county.
Presley H. was reared on the farm in Platte county and was educated in
the Pleasant Ridge College, the same school attended by B. P. Waggener,
of Atchison. He followed farming until the outbreak of the war between
the States and then served three months in the army of General Price,
being under the direct command of Captain Mitchell and in Steen’s
division. He fought at the battle of Lexington, Mo., in behalf of the
Confederacy and received his discharge on account of sick disability at
Osceola, St. Clair county, Missouri. After his marriage in 1867 he
farmed for ten years in Platte county, Missouri, and then came to
Kansas, settling on a farm three miles south of Muscotah in Kapioma
township. For the first ten years Mr. Calvert rented land and then
invested in 160 acres of good land three miles north of Muscotah in
Grasshopper township. He improved this farm and resided thereon until
1895. He then rented his farm and moved to Muscotah. Mr. Calvert paid
twenty dollars per acre for his land and sold it for $5,000 when he
retired from active farm work. He is now making his home with Mr. and
Mrs. Will Warren. Mrs. Warren is his niece.
Mr. Calvert was married in 1867 to Miss Cora A. Jackson, born and reared
in Platte county, Missouri, a daughter of Wallace Jackson, a native of
Kentucky and an early settler of Missouri. Two children were born to
this union: Edna and Charles, both of whom are deceased. Mrs. Calvert
died in 1908, at the age of sixty years. Mr. Calvert has been a life-
long Democrat of the old school. When a young man he formed one of the
hardy army of freighters who crossed the plains to the Far West in
charge of the great overland freight trains before the advent of the
railroads. He crossed the plains on four trips to Salt Lake City and
other western points in Colorado.
WILLIAM THOMAS WARREN.
William Thomas Warren is one of the younger generation of farmers in
Atchison county, and is the owner of 320 acres of land one and one-half
miles east of Muscotah on the White Way highway. He was born December
25, 1876, in Brown county, Kansas, and is a son of Rodney T. (born in
1846, died March 5, 1914), and Chariet (Speaks) Warren (born in 1846).
Both parents were born and reared in Kentucky and came to Kansas in the
spring of 1876 and settled on a farm in Brown county. Later, in 1905,
Rodney T. Warren bought a farm near Centralia in Nemaha county, and
resided thereon until his demise. Mrs. Warren lives at Hiawatha, Kan.
W. T. Warren was educated in the public schools of his native county and
followed farming until 1903, when he left the farm and was employed in
the retail meat market of Mr. Zimmerman, at Hiawatha, for a period of
five years. He was then employed in the same avocation at Atchison,
Falls City, Neb., and Fairbury, Neb., until October of 1911. He then
came to Muscotah and entered the employ of E. W. Allen, who conducted a
grocery and meat market. He remained with Mr. Allen until 1914, and then
he and Mrs. Warren invested their combined capital in 320 acres of land
near Muscotah.
He was married on May 22, 1912, to Miss Ella, a daughter of A. H.
Calvert, grain merchant of Muscotah. (The reader is referred to the
biography of A. H. Calvert, brother of Presley H. Calvert, for further
details concerning Mrs. Warren’s parents.) Mrs. Warren served as the
assistant cashier of the Muscotah State Bank for fifteen years. Mr.
Warren is a Republican in politics and attend the Congregational church,
of which Mrs. Warren is a member.
WILLIAM MANGELSDORF.
The name of Mangelsdorf is indelibly linked with the story of the
commercial development of northeast Kansas and the Middle West, and the
Mangelsdorf family is one of the most respected and substantial of
Atchison, Kan. The review of the life of William Mangelsdorf, deceased,
begins across the Atlantic in the Fatherland of Germany, where he was
born and spent part of his youth, coming to America with his parents
when twelve years of age. William not only achieved a wonderful success
in business and accumulated wealth, but he assisted in making the family
name known and respected throughout a great extent of territory wherever
the output of the great seed house founded by him and his brother,
August, carried its business. He left behind him a monument for business
integrity and upright methods which has made his name universally
respected and honored for years to come.
William Mangelsdorf was born in Armin, Prussia, February 15, 1845, a son
of Christopher and Marie Anna Dorothy Mangelsdorf. Christopher
Mangelsdorf died in Germany in 1849 and his widow married Andrew
Stehwein, who with the family emigrated from their native land in 1849
and settled on a farm in Gasconade county, Missouri. In 1868 the family
removed to Douglas county, Kansas, where they resided until the mother’s
demise, after which Mr. Stehwein came to Atchison to spend the remainder
of his days with his children. Five children were born to Christopher
and Marie Anna Mangelsdorf: Mrs. Anna Buhman, of Atchison, Kan.; Henry,
in New Mexico; Mrs. Dorothy Beurman, Lakeview, Douglas county, Kansas;
William, with whom this review is directly concerned; and August,
residing in Atchison.
In 1868 William Mangelsdorf left the family home in Gasconade county,
Missouri, and came to Atchison, Kan. His first employment in this city
was as a laborer in various capacities until 1872. During the four years
in which he was earning his living by the hardest kind of labor he was
all the time obsessed with the idea that the mercantile field of the new
country being developed afforded opportunities to become successful for
an ambitious young man. He accordingly, carefully saved his money, and
with a small capital embarked in business for himself. He was first
engaged in the retail grocery business with John Ratterman under the
firm style of Ratterman & Mangelsdorf, and remained a member of the firm
until 1875, when he disposed of his interest in the grocery business and
purchased a half interest in the retail grocery conducted by his
brother, August Mangelsdorf, forming the firm of Mangelsdorf Brothers.
It was about this time that the brothers tried the experiment of adding
a seed department to the grocery in order to meet a growing demand for
farm and garden seeds. The experiment proved successful and the business
grew even beyond the greatest expectations of the promoters. What was
intended as a side line on their part developed into an extensive
business which soon dwarfed the grocery trade; it was not long until
they engaged in the wholesale line; the enterprise grew to be one of the
most important in northeastern Kansas, and was later incorporated as the
Mangelsdorf Brothers Company. An extended mention of its development is
to be found elsewhere in this publication. Not many years after the
partnership of the Mangelsdorf Brothers was formed, William established
another general merchandise store at Ellinwood, Kan., in 1877, and later
another store at Bushton, Kan. The stores were conducted under the name
of the Mangelsdorf Brothers Company, which was incorporated about this
time, and the other partners in the various enterprises were August
Mangelsdorf, of Atchison, H. D. Back, of Atchison, Kan., and C. F.
Stehwein, manager of the Bushton store. William resided in Ellinwood in
active management of the stores until 1895; then he removed with his
family to his farm near there. In 1898 he moved to Bushton, taking the
active management of the store at that place. He also established a
banking business at Bushton which was successful from the start, and his
activity in commercial life continued until 1904, when he removed to
Atchison, where he lived in retirement from active business pursuits
until his demise, May 15, 1911.
Mr. Mangelsdorf was married August 6, 1875, to Miss Minnie Halling, and
this marriage was blessed with six children, namely: Clara, residing in
Pueblo, Colo.; William C., who also lives in Pueblo, Colo.; Edward F., a
member of the Mangelsdorf Brothers Company; Minnie, at home; Frank A.,
cashier of the German-American State Bank of Atchison; Albert H.,
cashier of the Farmers State Bank, Potter, Kan. Mrs. Mangelsdorf was
born in 1854 in Pennsylvania, and died in Atchison, Kan., in 1904. Her
father was an early settler in Kansas, and first resided in Doniphan
county, where he preëmpted land on Independence creek, later removing to
Atchison. William Mangelsdorf was a member of the Evangelical Lutheran
church, to which denomination he was a liberal contributor. During his
life he was a hard and indefatigable worker, who was ambitious to
succeed and achieve a competence for his children. He was a liberal
supporter of local enterprises, and was regarded as one of the wealthy
and substantial citizens of Kansas, and will long be regarded as one of
the leading figures of the commercial development of Atchison county and
central Kansas.
ALBERT H. MANGELSDORF.
Albert H. Mangelsdorf, cashier of the Farmers State Bank of Potter,
Kan., was born February 15, 1890, in Barton county, Kansas. He is a son
of the late William Mangelsdorf, a pioneer settler of Atchison, and one
of the successful merchants of Kansas, extended mention of whom is given
elsewhere in this volume. Mr. Mangelsdorf was educated in the common
schools of Barton county, Kansas, and received his preparatory training
at St. Benedict’s College, Atchison, Kan. He attended the University of
Kansas, class of 1912, pursuing a course in mining engineering. After
the completion of this course he was in the employ of the Newmire
Vanadium Company, located at Newmire, Colo., in the capacity of
engineer. Later, he was in the employ of a mining firm at Weinkleman,
Ariz., and later with the Arizona Copper Company at Morenci, Ariz.,
after which he served as superintendent of the main building of the
Mangelsdorf Brothers Company at Atchison until his appointment as
cashier of the Farmers State Bank of Potter, Kan., in December, 1914.
Mr. Mangelsdorf is a Republican in politics and is fraternally
affiliated with the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, the Knights of Columbus,
and is a member of the Catholic church.
FRED BINKLEY.
The late Fred Binkley, of Potter, Kan., was born April 8, 1832, in
Warrick county, Indiana, a son of George and Catharine (Chinn) Binkley,
both of whom were born and reared in the State of North Carolina, and
were among the earliest settlers of southwestern Indiana. George Binkley
was of German origin, and Catharine (Chinn) Binkley was of English
origin. In the year 1828 George Binkley with his wife and infant son,
James, set out for Indiana, equipped with one horse, their personal
belongings and a camping outfit. The horse was used to transport their
outfits and it was necessary for George and his wife to walk practically
the entire distance from North Carolina to their destination in Indiana.
They arrived in the wilderness of Indiana without mishap and at once set
about making a home in the new country. A few years later they removed
to a farm in Gibson county, Indiana, where George and Catharine Binkley
spent the remainder of their lives. They reared a family of eleven
children, of which Fred was the third child.
Fred Binkley grew to manhood on the pioneer farm in Indiana and learned
to rough it at a very early age. After his marriage in 1854 to Elizabeth
Dougan, he and his wife lived for one year on a farm in Gibson county,
and then the father of Mrs. Binkley (James Dougan) sold out his holdings
in Indiana and migrated to Atchison county, Kansas. Two years later Fred
and his wife followed and settled on 160 acres of land one and one-half
miles northwest of Potter in Mt. Pleasant township. The land was mostly
raw prairie and it was necessary for him to erect a suitable home which
was an humble one at first, but as the years passed and Mr. and Mrs.
Binkley became more and more prosperous they built a better home and
added sixty acres more land to their holdings.
Fred Binkley was married September 15, 1854, to Elizabeth Dougan, and
eight children have been born to this union: Robert, born in Indiana in
1855, a farmer living in Mt. Pleasant township; Sarah, wife of S.
Watson, of Leavenworth county, Kansas, was born in 1860; Lewis, born in
1863, and died in 1899; James, born in 1868, living on a farm near
Effingham, Kan.; George, born in 1870, died in 1910; Dora, born in 1872,
wife of Samuel Hall, of Leavenworth county, Kansas; Lou, born in 1874,
at home with her mother; Kate, born in 1877, wife of Albert Hawley, of
Atchison county, Kansas. The mother of these children was born May 10,
1835, a daughter of James and Sarah (Healt) Dougan. James Dougan, the
father, was born in Kentucky, a son of Samuel, who was a soldier of the
Revolution, and who received a large grant of Government land for his
services. His grant was located in Dyer county, Tennessee, and consisted
of 1,300 acres of wild land, which was divided among the children of the
Revolutionary soldier (James). Samuel removed with his family to a
portion of this land, which was wild and rough and covered with dense
timber. A few years of living in the wilderness of Tennessee sufficed
for them, however, and they left the State and went to Gibson county,
Indiana, to found another home. They traveled horseback to the new
location. Samuel, at that time an old man, became ill on the trip and
was forced to return to Tennessee, dying there in about 1828. The family
later made a permanent settlement in Gibson county, Indiana. Samuel and
Molly Dougan (his wife) reared a family of five children, of whom James,
the father of Mrs. Binkley, was the third child. The mother of James
died in 1845. James Dougan was married in 1831 to Sarah Healt, and
eleven children were born to them, of whom nine were reared to manhood
and womanhood. As early as 1855 James Dougan came to Atchison county and
preëmpted 160 acres of land, built a cabin, and returned to Indiana for
his family, whom he brought to Atchison county, Kansas, in the spring of
1856. He was comparatively a poor man when he located in Kansas, but
became quite prosperous and well-to-do and became the owner of a half
section of well improved land. James died in 1900, at the age of ninety-
two years. Two brothers of Mrs. Binkley served in the Union Army during
the Civil war. One of them enlisted in the Eighth Kansas cavalry
regiment, and the other in the Thirteenth regiment.
Fred Binkley departed this life August 2, 1910. He was well and
favorably known in Atchison county and his demise marked the passing of
one of the sturdy pioneer settlers of the State. He was a stanch
Republican during his whole life and was a pronounced Free State man in
the days when the struggle was on to make Kansas a Free State. He took
an active part in the stirring scenes before and during the dark days of
the Civil war, and like many others, suffered from the forays of the
border ruffians. The Methodist church, of which he was one of the
members and a builder, having been burned by border ruffians, he never
united with any other denomination.
JOHN DRIMMEL.
John Drimmel, farmer and stockman, of Shannon township, Atchison county,
was born on the farm where he resides, in 1863, a son of John and Mary
(Karn) Drimmel, natives of Austria. John Drimmel, Sr., was born in
Austria in 1829, and immigrated to America with his wife in 1853. They
were accompanied by the oldest child, Veronica. He settled on a rented
farm of eighty acres north of Atchison in Shannon township, which he
cultivated for three years and then bought eighty acres of land four
miles west of the city. John, Sr., erected a small, rough box house,
which was the family home for the first twelve years, and which was then
replaced by a large, handsome brick residence of ten rooms, which is now
the home of the son, John. This fine home is modern and fitted with a
lighting system and a cellar runs underneath the entire body of the
house. It is one of the most attractive places in Atchison county. Mr.
Drimmel added to his acreage as he was able and accumulated a total of
230 acres of fine land which is now being cultivated by his son. During
1914 John Drimmel, with whom this review is concerned, had planted
forty-five acres of corn, 100 acres of wheat, and ninety acres of oats,
all of which yielded splendid crops. Mr. Drimmel is renting eighty
acres, in addition to the home farm. The elder Drimmel was a Free State
man and served as company cook in the Union army during the Civil war.
He reared a family of seven children, as follows: Mrs. Veronica Miller,
living in Doniphan county, Kansas; Antony, of Atchison; Florence,
Everest, Kan.; John, the subject of this review; Arnold, of Kansas City;
Frank, living with his brother, John; L. J., a farmer, living in Shannon
township. All of the children of this pioneer family are well-to-do and
in good health, the oldest of the family being over sixty-one years of
age. John Drimmel, the father, died in 1891. The mother was born in
1829, and died in 1889. They were a worthy pioneer couple who achieved a
comfortable competence and reared a fine family in the land of their
adoption.
John Drimmel owns and manages the old home place of the Drimmel family
in Shannon township, and is one of the representative and well known
farmers of Atchison county. All of his fifty-three years of life have
been spent in Atchison county and he has always lived on the farm which
he now owns. Mr. Drimmel was married in 1893 to Miss Marie Blodig, who
died in the first year of her marriage, leaving one son, Frank, born
March 1, 1894, and studied in St. Benedict’s College. He was again
married in 1896 to Miss Marie Jahl, who has borne him the following
children: Anna Marie, born November 24, 1898; John Albert, born April
28, 1900; Marie Veronica, born September 6, 1901; Agnes Cecila, born
December 23, 1902; Irene Florentine, born June 11, 1904; Ernest Gabriel,
born January 15, 1906; Alfred William, born March 28, 1908; Reinhold
Leapold, born September 20, 1909; Rose Helena, born January 23, 1911;
Maximilian Louis, born August 21, 1912; Genevieve Frances, born August
14, 1914. The mother of this large family of eleven children was born in
Austria in 1877, a daughter of John and Anna Jahl. John Jahl, the father
of Mrs. Drimmel, was born in Austria in 1852, and departed this life
March 10, 1879. Mrs. Jahl was born July 22, 1855, and came to America in
the year 1894, and has since resided in Atchison county. Mrs. Jahl
resides with her daughter. She and Mr. Jahl were married in Austria in
1875 and were the parents of three children as follows: John Jahl, Jr.,
born February 21, 1876, and died in October, 1877; Mrs. Marie (Jahl)
Drimmel, born March 10, 1877; Frank Jahl, born September 17, 1878, and
died in June of 1879.
Mr. and Mrs. Drimmel and their children are all members of St.
Benedict’s Catholic Church and are liberal supporters of this
denomination. Mr. Drimmel is a Democrat in politics, but simply does his
duty as a citizen and has never been a seeker after political office.
The Drimmel home is a very happy one, and the Drimmel family is one of
the largest families in Atchison county or the state of Kansas, and Mr.
and Mrs. Drimmel have good and just right to be proud of the fact,
inasmuch as Atchison county is proud of them. The children of this fine
family are all receiving the benefits of a good school and college
education, and it is the firm intention of the parents that all of their
sons shall be educated in St. Benedict’s College, and the daughters
shall finish their training in Mt. St. Scholastica Academy. John, Jr.,
is at present a student in St. Benedict’s College, class of 1917, and
Anna and Marie will enter Mt. Scholastica in the fall of 1916 in order
to complete the course in this excellent young ladies’ school. Mr. and
Mrs. Drimmel believe thoroughly in giving their children every
educational advantage within their means in order to properly fit them
for becoming useful men and women and become a credit to their ambitious
parents.
AUGUST MANGELSDORF.
August Mangelsdorf has been a citizen of Atchison for over half a
century and has accomplished during that period two things which entitle
him to recognition and even renown. He established and built up the
Mangelsdorf Brothers Seed Company, one of the largest concerns of its
kind in the West, and now managed by his sons. The other is the rearing
of a large family of fifteen children. If Mr. Mangelsdorf had done no
more than to bring into the world and rear his family of fifteen
children he would have been entitled to more than ordinary mention as
one of the sturdy pioneer citizens of Atchison. He is now living a
retired life at his beautiful place, “Homewood,” in South Atchison, and,
while ostensibly retired, works constantly on his farm within and
adjoining the city limits. While nominally the president of the
Mangelsdorf Brothers Seed Company, he spends the greater portion of his
time out of doors working about the grounds and fields of his estate.
Mr. Mangelsdorf, while having lived a busy and even strenuous life
during his fifty years in business in Atchison, has no desire to “rust
out,” but believes that his health can be better conserved by plenty of
exercise in the open air. His rugged appearance and keen interest in
life bear testimony to the wisdom of his plan of living. He is one of
the highly respected and substantial citizens of Atchison and has done
his part in the task of making Atchison preëminent among the cities of
the West. The great concern which bears his name was originated and
built up by himself and is a monument to his enterprise and integrity,
and Atchison is proud of him and the outcome of his life work.
Mr. Mangelsdorf was born in Armin, Prussia, July 27, 1848. He was the
son of Christopher and Marie Anna Dorothy Mangelsdorf, who lived in
Armin until 1856, when they immigrated to America. The father died in
1849, and the mother married the second time to Andrew Stehwein. The
family first settled on a farm in Gasconade county, Missouri, residing
there until 1868, when they came to Douglas county, Kansas. Here they
lived until the mother died, and then Mr. Stehwein came to Atchison to
spend the remainder of his days with his children. Five children were
born to Christopher Mangelsdorf, namely: Mrs. Anna Buhrman, of Atchison;
Henry, in New Mexico; Mrs. Dorothy Beurman, Lakeview, Douglas county,
Kansas; William, deceased August, with whom this review is directly
concerned.
August Mangelsdorf came to Kansas from Missouri in 1865 and located in
Atchison. He worked as a laborer to earn money for his sustenance and
was not ashamed to do the hardest kind of labor. He willingly did
anything necessary to earn an honest dollar. His first real business
experience was as a clerk in the grocery store of John Belz. It was only
natural to see him become the owner of the business in time. Frugality,
industry and aptitude, characteristics of his race, enabled him to
become proprietor of the store in 1873. He owned the business until
1893. Two years after taking entire charge of the grocery he started a
small seed business as a side line with his grocery. This was the
foundation of his subsequent fortune, and it was only a question of
years until he branched out in the wholesale line and the business
outgrew the store. The seed business kept on growing and growing: the
sons of its founder became young men; its founder concluded to retire
and he turned over the management to his sons who are following in the
father’s footsteps. For years his brother, William, was associated with
him and they started a general store at Ellinwood, Kan., of which
William had charge. Mr. Mangelsdorf established greenhouses in
connection with the seed business. These extensive greenhouses are
located on the Homewood estate and are in charge of his son, Ernest. In
1912 Mr. Mangelsdorf concluded to retire from active business and is now
enjoying life to the full. His sixty-seven years of existence have been
well and profitably spent and he can look back over the past years with
satisfaction and pleasure over a task well and faithfully done. It is
given to but few men to have reared a large family of sons and daughters
and to have lived to see them shoulder the responsibilities left by the
father and perform the work successfully while he is yet living to
observe, guide, and instruct them.
Mr. Mangelsdorf was first married to Anna Charlotte Brune in 1874. She
died in 1890. To this union were born nine children: Anna died in 1890;
August, manager and vice-president of the seed company; Fred, the
efficient secretary of the concern; Charlotte, cashier of the company;
Ernest, in charge of the greenhouses; Bertha, teacher of domestic
science in the high school at Seneca, Kan.; Caroline, who is studying in
Chicago in preparation for kindergarten work; Marie, deceased; Frank,
treasurer of the seed company; Mrs. Marie Schmeling, of Atchison. In
1892 Mr. Mangelsdorf took to wife, Mrs. Louise Brune, who has borne him
eight children: Albert, a graduate of the Agricultural College at
Manhattan, class of 1916; Carl died in infancy; Paul and Louise, in high
school; Theodore, Dorothy, Harold and Helen.
Mr. Mangelsdorf is a director of the First National Bank of Atchison.
Politically, he is allied with the Democratic party and has served one
term as city councilman and city treasurer for four years. He is a
member of the Evangelical church and is fraternally allied with the
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
FRANK A. MANGELSDORF.
Frank A. Mangelsdorf, cashier of the German-American State Bank of
Atchison, Kan., while the youngest of the bankers of the city, has given
evidence that he possesses the inherent ability and the necessary
ambition to successfully conduct the important financial institution
under his management. The German-American State Bank is the newest of
the banking concerns of Atchison, but it is fast coming to the front as
one of the important banks of this section of Kansas under Mr.
Mangelsdorf’s aggressive and capable control. He is a native son of
Kansas and was born and reared in this State, being a son of William
Mangelsdorf, merchant and financier, deceased, who came from Germany to
America when a boy and achieved a notable success in the land of his
adoption. A review of the life of William Mangelsdorf appears in this
volume.
Mr. Mangelsdorf was born August 14, 1888, in Ellinwood, Kan. The first
ten years of his life were spent there and on his father’s farm, whither
his parents had removed from Ellinwood. He received his early education
in a country school, later attending the public schools of Bushton, and
completed the eighth grade at the age of twelve. From 1900 to 1904 he
was employed in his father’s store at Bushton, the family removing to
the city of Atchison in the latter year. He pursued a course in the
Atchison Business College, and then became cashier of the Mangelsdorf
Brothers Company, a position which he filled until 1910. He then became
assistant cashier of the First National Bank of Atchison, remaining in
that position until the organization of the German-American State Bank
in 1912, when he became cashier of the newly organized banking concern.
The success of this bank is a matter of gratification to its
stockholders and patrons.
Mr. Mangelsdorf was married June 22, 1914, to Miss Veva Sawin, a
daughter of William H. Sawin, an undertaker of Atchison. He is
independent in political matters, preferring to cast his vote for the
individual whom he deems best fitted to perform the duties of the office
sought rather than to support a party candidate. He is a member of the
Catholic church. Although young in years, Mr. Mangelsdorf is recognized
as one of the rising young bankers of Atchison and is considered among
the city’s best and most enterprising citizens. The unvarying courtesy
and dignity characteristic in his conduct of the banking business is
carried into his daily life, and he enjoys the respect and esteem of a
large number of friends in the city.
PAUL ATKIN.
Paul Atkin, traveling salesman, of Atchison, Kan., was born September 6,
1866, in Lincolnshire, England. He was the son of William and Rebecca
(Prestwood) Atkin. William Atkin, the father, was born in England about
1841. He was a farmer in his native country, but emigrated from England
to America in 1872. His first place of residence in this country was in
Chicago, where he resided a few years. He then moved to Kansas, settling
on his farm in Doniphan county. After one year’s residence in Kansas he
returned to Chicago and engaged in the transfer business. Again, in
about 1880, he returned to Doniphan county, Kansas, and engaged in
farming, and cultivated his land until 1899, at which time he engaged in
the hotel and livery business in Denton, Kansas. He died in a hospital
at Leavenworth, Kan., in 1900. Nine children were born to William and
Rebecca Atkin: Mrs. L. H. Priester, living in California; Paul, with
whom this review is directly concerned; Mrs. Thomas Wrighter, of Denton,
Kan.; Mrs. Fred Hickok, of Haverlock, Neb.; Mrs. Ben Hinchscliff, near
Topeka, Kan.; Mrs. Art Hall, Severance, Kan.; William, farmer, of
Doniphan county; Arnold, near Severance, Kan.; Ethel died at the age of
eight years. The mother of these children was born in England in 1842,
and died in Severance, Kan., in 1902.
Paul Atkin did not leave England until thirteen years of age, when he
crossed the ocean and continent and came to Atchison, Kan., arriving in
the city ten days before his parents, then living in Doniphan county,
Kansas, learned of his arrival. He was nine days on the water and came
across the ocean aboard the “City of Richmond,” one of the fastest
ocean-going passenger ships afloat at that time. Being a boy and alone,
he was given all privileges and made many friends. He never had a day’s
illness during the voyage or crossing the continent to Kansas, but
became ill on arriving in Atchison and was cared for by Mr. Dorethy, at
that time depot master of Atchison. This kind man looked after him until
his father was notified of his arrival. From Atchison he went to
Doniphan county and assisted his father for many years in operating the
farm, later operating the farm by himself for one year. At the age of
twenty he began working for himself for twenty dollars per month for a
period of one year. He then went to Ellensburg, Wash., and learned the
plasterer’s trade, remaining in that city two years, after which he went
to Tacoma, Wash., and remained there six months, then going to Portland,
Ore., where he worked at the harness maker’s trade, not long after
returning to Doniphan county, Kansas, where he followed the trade of
plastering for three years. After his marriage he made his home in
Atchison, Kan., and after making a trip to Port Arthur and working at
his trade, he then opened a meat market in Denton, Kan., which he
operated for a time and then sold out. In 1888 he returned to Atchison
and entered the employ of Curtain & Clark Cutlery Company, of St.
Joseph, Mo., as traveling salesman. He traveled for three years, his
territory being through Nebraska. He resigned and accepted a position
for another three and a half years with the Rochester Stamp Company, of
Rochester, N. Y. Giving up this work he engaged in the hardware business
with Krings in Atchison. The firm was known as Krings & Atkin. Later he
sold out his interest in the hardware business and became interested in
the United States Street Lighting Company, manufacturing street lamps in
Kansas City until February, 1909, when he again went on the road as
traveling salesman with the Associated Silver Company of Chicago, his
territory embracing Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado.
Mr. Atkin was married in 1894 to Addie M. Herring. Mr. and Mrs. Atkin
have one daughter, Frances Mildred, a graduate of Atchison High School,
and a student in Atchison Business College.
Mrs. Atkin was born in 1871 in Doniphan county, Kansas, a daughter of
Henry H. Herring, a native of Pennsylvania and now residing in Atchison.
Mr. Atkin is independent in political affairs and votes for the
individual rather than the support of any one political party. He is
affiliated with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. His wife and
daughter are members of the Methodist Episcopal church.
PETER PARSONS.
Peter Parsons, of Atchison, Kan., is a Kentuckian by birth and has the
distinction of being the pioneer thresher man of northeast Kansas and
western Missouri. He was born in Breathitt county, Kentucky, December
10, 1868, a son of J. W. Parsons, a descendant of an old Virginia
family. Peter Parsons’ maternal grandfather, Hatfield, was a soldier in
the Revolution and fought under General Washington. The Parsons and the
Hatfield families were among the earliest pioneers of the State of
Kentucky. When Peter was four years of age the Parsons family removed to
Buchanan county. Missouri, and there settled on a farm. Peter was reared
to young manhood on the Missouri farm and attended the district schools.
When but a boy he developed an aptitude for machinery and showed a knack
of handling farming implements possessed by few boys of his age. In 1887
he entered the employ of the A. J. Harwi Hardware Company and worked in
the farm machinery department of the store. Desiring to gain a more
intimate knowledge of threshing machinery, especially, he went to Battle
Creek, Mich., where the machines were manufactured and learned the
business of building and assembling threshing machines from the ground
up. This was a good business venture on his part, as he soon engaged in
threshing on his own account and operated threshing outfits for over
nineteen years, and was actively engaged in northeast Kansas and
northwest Missouri in this business successfully. He operated several
machines and crews and had almost a virtual monopoly of the threshing
business in his territory. At the present time Mr. Parsons operates two
threshing outfits which he owns, but for some years has retired from
active labor in the fields. The wide range of his activities naturally
gave him an extensive and favorable acquaintance among the farmers of
this section of the country and he acquired a reputation for thorough
workmanship and square dealing which has never been surpassed by men
engaged in the same industry. He is probably the oldest threshing
machine operator at the present time in eastern Kansas or western
Missouri in years of experience, and understands the mechanical part of
the industry better than any other man in this neighborhood. Mr. Parsons
has a right to be proud of his record in the agricultural history of
Atchison county and Kansas. From 1903 to 1909 Mr. Parsons was a member
of the Atchison police force and made a record in the department for
efficiency and faithful performance of his duties which is remembered.
He is a member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles and is well liked by all
who know him. He is broad-minded in his views and kindly disposed toward
his fellow men.
HENRY SCHIFFBAUER.
Henry Schiffbauer, pioneer, plainsman, Government scout, and friend of
Buffalo Bill, now lives in comparative quiet on his farm in Kapioma
township, Atchison county, after having seen the wildest and wooliest
parts of the great West in its early days. Under his own eyes, Kansas
has changed from a land of Indians, daubed with bright paint, shouting a
war-whoop and brandishing tomahawks, to a quiet farming community, where
peaceable citizens drive to church every Sunday. He has seen Kansas
changed from a broad prairie, with its countless thousands of buffaloes
to a great farming country, with its productive fields, and the trudging
ox has been succeeded by the tractor and automobile. Henry Schiffbauer,
in his seventy-five years, has seen the making of a nation; he has seen
the wild frontier grow into a civilized community, which ranks among the
highest in intelligence and prosperity. Mr. Schiffbauer was born January
27, 1841, on the River Rhine, in Prussia, Germany. His parents, Michael
and Gertrude (Frentz) Schiffbauer, had thirteen children. The father
followed farming in his native land, and in 1851 immigrated to the
United States, settling on General Taylor’s farm, in Gamwell county,
Kentucky. Four years later he moved to Missouri, and in the same year
came to Kansas, where he homesteaded a claim in Jefferson county, which
he farmed until about eight years before his death, which occurred when
he was eighty-nine years old. The mother of Henry Schiffbauer died in
1854, at the age of fifty-five years. She fell before the terrible
scourge of cholera which swept the United States about that time. The
four children living are: Charles, Cripple Creek, Colo.; Trassie, a nun,
at Leavenworth, Kan.; Frank, Pittsburgh, Pa.; and Henry, the subject of
this sketch. All but Frank were born in Germany, he having been born in
Gamwell county, Kentucky.
Henry Schiffbauer’s boyhood was one of rough and hard adventure. He
received his education by driving a six-mule team, and his book learning
was scanty. When he was seventeen years old he went to work for Dr.
Davis, at Leavenworth, Kan. In 1857 he was stationed in the
quartermaster’s department at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., where he was
employed eight years. After Lee’s surrender, in 1865, Henry returned to
his home in Jefferson county, Kansas, and met Buffalo Bill, or as he is
known in private life, William Cody, for the first time. Here was begun
a friendship which continued for many years, and which probably will
live until one of the friends passes away. Two years later, however, the
two men were thrown closer together, and their acquaintance ripened into
a close friendship. Henry was guarding and herding mules when he met
Buffalo Bill the second time. The latter was an extra hand on Major &
Russell’s overland freight train. Henry Schiffbauer was the man who
taught Buffalo Bill to shoot from a saddle, it is said, and the
unequalled skill of the great hunter may be laid at the feet of the
subject of this sketch. It may be that if Buffalo Bill had not met Henry
Schiffbauer, his life history might have been different, for undoubtedly
it was the stories which Henry told of his experiences that tempted the
young man to leave his oxen and follow the wilder life of a Government
scout. Mr. Schiffbauer has seen the most sensational life of the West in
its most dangerous days. Just before the outbreak of the Civil war he
carried messages for the Government from Ft. Kearney, Neb., to Ft.
Laramie, Colo., and to Salt Lake City, and Ft. Floyd, Utah. These were
times when it was dangerous to be a Government messenger. The
dispatchers of the Government were not held in such awe in those days,
and it was not at all unusual to kill a messenger to get his papers. But
Mr. Schiffbauer was able to take care of himself, and passed through
these uncertain times without harm. He served in the secret service
department for eight months, about the time of the second election of
Abraham Lincoln. It was feared by governmental officials that attempts
on the President’s life were being planned, and General Thayer, then in
command at Ft. Smith, Ark., secured the services of Henry Schiffbauer in
this difficulty. This was a position won because of fearlessness and
coolness, even in the most dangerous situations, and to be one of the
protectors of the President was the honor which repaid him. In 1865 Lee
surrendered and conditions began to settle.
When Mr. Schiffbauer saw that his opportunity to serve his country had
ceased, he located on the farm which he now owns and built a small farm
house, thus settling down to the quiet life of a farmer. He broke his
ground with oxen, and worked in the most primitive manner for a few
years, but gradually he was rewarded for his labors, and he came to have
more of the comforts and conveniences of a modern farmer, erecting a
large stone residence in 1880. His place is one-fourth mile east of
Arrington, Kan. It comprises 189 acres, and here he and his wife,
Margaret Glimm, to whom he was married in 1865, have lived since,
rearing a family of eight children. Mrs. Schiffbauer was born in
Germany, March 6, 1848. She is a daughter of John and Christian Glimm,
who came to Kansas in the early days, bringing their daughter with them.
The children of Mr. and Mrs. Schiffbauer are: Christena, who married
Allen Kinkaid, of Washington State; Charles E., Belle Plains, Sumner
county, Kansas; Sarah married L. E. Wagner, of St. Louis, Mo.; Henry F.,
Valley Falls, Kan.; Gertrude married John Nevins, Kapioma township;
Robert is farming near La Cygne, Linne county, Kansas; William,
Arrington, Kan.; George, passenger conductor, East St. Louis, Ill. Mr.
Schiffbauer is an independent in politics. He belongs to the Modern
Woodmen of America, and to the Knights and Ladies of Security. He has
had a remarkable career and remembers the incidents of his early life
with vividness. Atchison county has few characters with such an
interesting history.
In 1857 while in the quartermaster’s department at Ft. Leavenworth he
was detailed with General Sumner’s expedition against the Cheyenne
Indians in the far West. This trip required six months and was filled
with great hardships for the troops. In April of 1858 he accompanied
Gen. Sydney Johnston’s expedition to Salt Lake City for the purpose of
subduing the Mormons, and was gone for eighteen months. He assisted in
building a camp at Ft. Floyd, or Camp Floyd, as it became known at the
time, forty-five miles south of Salt Lake City. During this trip Mr.
Schiffbauer had his first experience in driving a six-mule team and
hauling “adobes.” The fort was built under the direction of Colonel
Crossmore. He returned to Kansas in the fall of 1859, and went to New
Orleans in the Government secret service, and thence to Baton Rouge,
where he remained until after Lincoln’s election, finally making his way
out of the southland with great difficulty, accompanied with personal
danger to himself. For a period of eight years this plainsman never
slept under a roof, excepting twice at Ft. Bonta, where he was under
shelter for the night. On one of his expeditions to the far West they
had fed their last grain to the mules, made camp, and the next morning
the entire camp was under two feet of snow. Mr. Schiffbauer himself
being covered over in a gully where he had lain down, wrapped in his
blankets and buffalo robes. He recalls that on this snowy morning the
wagon-master shouted: “I wonder where that damned Dutchman is?” Henry
raised himself out of the snow and called out: “Here I am.” The mules
were picketed out two and two together the night before, but that
morning they were put into corrals and were so starved that they tried
to eat each other. The pioneer corps cut down cottonwood trees for fuel,
and the mules ate the branches, which poisoned them, and they died in
their tracks, the ravens eating out their eyes while the beasts were in
their death throes. The expedition lost sixty mules each day, and the
drove of 500 animals was depleted to less than sixty head. They lay in
camp for twelve days, and then moved on the thirteenth day. Henry
recalls that the favorite team, belonging to General Johnston, was
drowned through the carelessness of a teamster in fording the swollen
stream.
While Mr. Schiffbauer was at Baton Rouge in Government service, he was
importuned by the rebels to join a company as bugler, but declined, and
with the assistance of a steamboat captain, he managed to get out of the
country, and at New Orleans boarded the steamer, “Henry Von Pool,” and
made his way to St. Louis. From here he went to Ft. Leavenworth and
handled Government dispatches, working between Ft. Leavenworth, Ft.
Scott, Ft. Gibson, Ft. Smith, Little Rock, and hunting forage and wheat
for the Government. During this service he was sent to Valley Falls,
with 100 six-mule teams from Ft. Smith for recuperation on the Hoover
farm. Henry bought all the forage for miles around in order to feed the
mules, and had under him several men for assistants.
WILLIAM ADDISON MCKELVY.
In 1880 a young man, who had graduated but a few months previously from
the Philadelphia Dental College came to Atchison, Kan., and finding the
city to his liking located for practice. The year 1915 finds the same
man, now thirty-five years older, or younger, as his friends speak of
him, still in the active practice of his profession, and it is said his
practice is a leading one in this section of the State. Thirty-five
years in Atchison have done much for this man and he has done much for
suffering humanity. He is the nestor of the dental profession in
northeastern Kansas, one of the widely known and influential citizens of
the city and has justly earned the esteem of a large circle of friends
and acquaintances; the esteem which slowly develops only through
honorable living and kind deeds. His name initiates this review.
William Addison McKelvy was born in the city of Pittsburgh, Pa., June 5,
1858. His paternal grandfather, Hugh McKelvy, emigrated from Ireland
about the year 1800. Shortly after reaching America, he located in
Pittsburgh and was one of that city’s pioneer brick manufacturers. Dr.
McKelvy’s father was Col. Samuel McKelvy, born in Pittsburgh, a member
of the firm of Blair & McKelvy, pioneers in the steel industry in that
city. He married when a young man, Anna B. Pride, a daughter of David
Pride, who was also a pioneer resident of Pittsburgh and a native of
Scotland. When President Lincoln issued his first call for volunteers,
Samuel McKelvy was among the first to enlist in his home city. He was
commissioned captain of the Duquesne Greys, Pittsburgh’s crack troop. He
served his country with distinction and was given important assignments
and received deserved promotion, being commissioned lieutenant-colonel
and served on the staff of General Heintzelman and that of Gen. Phil
Sheridan. The convalescent camp of the Union army, situated about seven
miles south of the city of Washington, was under his charge or
supervision during his entire term of service. Following his military
service, he returned to Pittsburgh and his steel business. He was one of
the first to build a country residence at Sewickley, now famous for its
beautiful suburban homes owned by the prominent families of the steel
city. The old McKelvy mansion, now owned by the Doctor’s brother,
William Henry Seward McKelvy, is known as the Park Place Hotel, and is
operated by its owner. Colonel McKelvy died in Sewickley in 1889. To
Colonel and Mrs. McKelvy were born nine children of which our subject is
the eighth.
William Addison McKelvy was reared in his native city and acquired a
thorough education in its public schools. He later entered the
Philadelphia Dental College and graduated with the degree of Doctor of
Dental Surgery, a member of the class of 1880. Following his graduation
he returned to Pittsburgh and was engaged in practice for a few months.
In November of that year he came to Kansas and located in the city of
Atchison on the twenty-fifth of the month. His choice of location was
partly due to having in the person of Dr. William F. Ferguson, a well
established surgeon of the city, a friend who assured him that Atchison
would prove a most satisfactory place in which to build up a practice.
Dr. Ferguson assisted in getting him properly started and gave every
evidence of a sincere friendship. He had little difficulty in building
up a lucrative practice and has for many years past been recognized as
one of the leading men in his profession in his section of the State. He
is a member of the Kansas City Dental Society, the Kansas State, the
Missouri State and the National Dental Associations.
Dr. McKelvy has never neglected his civic duties, has favored those
measures and projects which meant a bigger, better city, but has never
had time nor the inclination for public office. He has, from the time he
graduated given his entire time and attention to his profession. He is a
member of Washington Lodge, No. 4, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and
Atchison Lodge, No. 647, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
Dr. McKelvy has been twice married. His first wife was Miss Ella M.
Ferguson, a daughter of Dr. Eli Ferguson, a pioneer physician of
Atchison. They were married in November, 1888. Mrs. McKelvy died in
1892. Two children were born to this union: William Ferguson McKelvy, a
hardware merchant of Marliton, W. Va., and Charles S. McKelvy, employed
in the wholesale hardware house of Blish, Mize & Silliman, of Atchison.
On October 2, 1899, he married Miss Eleanor Cain, a daughter of Alfred
D. Cain, a pioneer miller of Atchison and founder of the Cain Milling
Company. They are parents of three children: Alfred D., Addison P., and
Mona.
GEORGE ROBERT HOOPER.
George Robert Hooper, an extensive merchandise broker of Atchison, Kan.,
and president of the Babcock-Arensburg Shoe Company, is a native of
Virginia. He was born at Richmond, December 7, 1851, and is a son of
John Hancock and Sarah Rebecca Hooper. The mother died when George R.,
of this sketch, was a child, and in 1867 the father removed from
Richmond to Bowling Green, Ky., and later to Paducah, where he died in
1871. He was a contractor and builder. George R. Hooper was one of a
family of six children and is the only one now living. He was reared in
Virginia and was educated in private schools. He was about twenty years
old when his father died, and had just completed an apprenticeship at
the carpenter’s trade. After the death of his father he returned to
Virginia with the remains, and the following year came to Atchison and
entered the retail grocery business as clerk from 1872 to 1876. He was
then a traveling salesman until 1884, and after that was engaged in the
grocery business in Atchison about a year and one-half, when he engaged
in the merchandise brokerage business, which he has successfully
conducted to the present time. Mr. Hooper was united in marriage in 1876
to Miss Frances Lucy Howe, a daughter of George W. Howe. Mrs. Hooper is
a daughter of George W. Howe, who was one of the very early settlers of
Atchison county. He conducted a store at the town of Sumner and was
later engaged in freighting across the plains from 1860 to 1865. The
Howe family came from Plattsburg, Clinton county, New York, and Mrs.
Hooper’s mother bore the maiden name, Frances Lucy Ellis. To Mr. and
Mrs. Hooper have been born three children, as follows: Edith married O.
M. Babcock, a sketch of whom appears in this volume; Gladys Ella is a
graduate of the Conservatory of Music, Cornell University, and is now a
teacher in the music department of the Iowa State Teachers’ College; and
George Frances Hooper, a graduate of Wentworth Military Academy of
Lexington, Mo., and is a traveling salesman. Mr. Hooper is a Democrat,
but has never aspired to hold political office, although he takes a
commendable interest in public affairs and is public spirited and is
ever ready and willing to aid any movement for the betterment of the
community. He is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks
and secretary of the lodge. He is also local secretary for the United
Commercial Travelers, of which he is a member. He also holds membership
in the Knights of the Maccabees and the Independent Order of Foresters.
RUTHERFORD B. HAWK.
The residence and buildings of a farm in any locality are generally
taken as evidence of the degree of thrift and enterprise of the owners
of the land. If the house and barns and fences of the agricultural plant
are in a “run down at the heels” condition, it is taken as evidence of
the sterility of the soil and lack of industry, pride and thrift on the
part of the proprietor. On the other hand, if the buildings, fencing,
etc., are attractive and well kept, it betokens prosperity and a desire
on the part of the farm proprietor to keep things in first class
condition. The farm home of Rutherford B. Hawk, of the younger
generation of farmers in Atchison county, is one of the most attractive
and handsome in the county, barns and fences, fields, orchard and
gardens all making a pleasing appearance. This farm is located in Benton
township, north of Effingham in sections 8 and 9, and consists of 240
acres of good land, 160 acres of which lie in section 8, and eighty
acres in section 9, range 618. This is the old home place of Andrew
Hawk, father of R. B., and the present owner has lived on the place
since 1883.
Rutherford B. Hawk was born February 28, 1877, on a farm near
Bakersville, Coshocton county, Ohio, a son of Andrew and Lavina (Landes)
Hawk, both of whom were born and reared on pioneer farms in Ohio. The
late Andrew Hawk was born February 4, 1825, and died in 1903. He was
born in Carroll county, Ohio, a son of Leonard and Margaret Hawk, and
was one of a large family of ten children. Leonard was born in
Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, and his people were pioneers in Ohio.
Andrew Hawk came to Kansas in the eighties to make a visit with his
brother, Daniel, in Atchison county, and liked the country so well that
he returned to Ohio and disposed of his property and in 1883 came again
to Atchison county and bought a section of land, one mile north and west
of Effingham, in Benton township. He developed this large farm and lived
on the place until 1903 when he sold 160 acres. Mrs. Hawk, the widow,
was the owner of 240 acres of this tract which she sold to her sons.
Andrew Hawk was twice married, his first marriage taking place in
Coshocton county, Ohio, with Mary Jane Walters, whom he married on May
5, 1848. The following children were born to this union and who are yet
living are as follows: Mrs. Margaret Alice Zinkorn, of Baltic, Ohio;
Mrs. Rachel Emily McFarlan, living on a farm near Monrovia, Atchison
county, Kansas; Mrs. Teletha Ellen Dreher, of Minerva, Ohio. The second
marriage of Andrew Hawk took place May 12, 1864, with Lavina Landes, and
the following children were born to this union: William Sherman, Howard,
Allen, a farmer near Salina, Kan.; Edgar Russell, located on a farm two
miles west of Effingham; Arvilla Florence, wife of Herbert Harris,
Horton, Kan.; Charles Arthur, living near Atchison, Kan; Rutherford B.,
with whom this review is directly concerned; John Andrew, a farmer in
Benton township; Clarissa, at home with her mother. The mother of these
children was born April 2, 1844, in Coshocton county, Ohio, a daughter
of Valentine and Elizabeth (Hufford) Landes, the former a native of
Germany, and the latter a native of Switzerland.
Rutherford B. was six years of age when his parents came to Atchison
county to make this county their permanent home. He attended the
district school and studied for one year in the county high school. He
has always resided on the farm where he now lives with the exception of
one year spent in the West. Upon his father’s demise he came into
possession of eighty acres by inheritance and purchase, bought an
additional eighty acres, and eighty acres of land which came to his
wife, make the total of 240 acres which he owns and cultivates. He was
married on March 31, 1909, to Mary Agnes Mackay, who was born near
Effingham, educated in the district school and completed the course in
the Atchison County High School, graduating therefrom in 1898. She
taught school successfully for a period of ten years, the last two years
of which was as principal of the Effingham school. During the summer of
1908 Mrs. Hawk visited Europe and spent some time amid the old home
scenes of her parents in Scotland and also visited places of interest in
Ireland and England.
Mrs. Mary Hawk was born on a farm near Effingham, a daughter of George
and Jeanette (Macnee) Mackay, both of whom were born and reared in
Scotland. George Mackay was born in Sterlingshire, April 18, 1840.
Jeanette Mackay was born January 21, 1843 in Perthshire, Scotland. This
worthy and industrious couple was married July 27, 1868, and three years
later emigrated from their native heath to America. They first settled
on the prairies of Wisconsin near the city of Janesville, and after a
residence of three years in that locality they removed farther west to
Kansas (1874). Mr. Mackay rented land for a short time and then
purchased a tract of prairie land in Benton township. The land which he
bought was unbroken prairie, unfenced and had never known the mark of
the plow. He at once set about the hard task of developing his prairie
farm and in the course of time developed it into one of the best and
most productive agricultural plants in Atchison county. This farm which
Mr. Mackay built up was well known as “Walnut Hill Farm.” The Mackays
prospered as they deserved, and with true Scottish thrift increased
their land holdings to 280 acres.
George Mackay died on his farm May 1, 1907. He was a sturdy and upright
citizen whose honesty was proverbial and he enjoyed the respect and high
esteem of his neighbors. He was a member of the Presbyterian faith and
was a Democrat in politics. He was also a member of the Ancient Order of
United Workmen. Two years after Mr. Mackay’s demise the widow and
children removed to a pleasant home in Effingham.
The children of this estimable couple were: Alexander, and Georgette, at
home with their mother; Mary, wife of Rutherford B. Hawk; Nellie
Jeanette, deceased wife of Frank Sutter.
The subject of this review is a Republican in politics, and while
interested in the success of his party, and a believer in Republican
principles of government, has never sought political preferment. He and
his wife are members of the Presbyterian church, and Mr. Hawk has served
as an elder of the church for the past six years.
CALVIN BUSHEY.
There is an atmosphere of refinement and well being about the town of
Muscotah, Atchison county, Kansas, that is not always found in the
western towns which the traveler passes through. The handsome
residences, with well kept lawns, shaded by great trees, and the
generally attractive appearance of things in the residence portion of
this prosperous community is sure to attract the eye and cause favorable
comment. The people inhabitating this town are mostly of eastern descent
and are nearly all pioneers who many years ago settled on the prairies
in the western part of Atchison county, and by dint of industry and hard
work transformed the wilderness into a smiling and fertile landscape.
Many of them, their work done, have retired to comfortable homes in
Muscotah. Among these is Calvin Bushey and his estimable wife, who came
to Kansas, fought the good fight for a competence and are now taking
life easy in a beautiful and comfortable home in this attractive Kansas
town.
Speaking in a biographical sense, Calvin Bushey, Union veteran and
retired pioneer farmer, was born July 17, 1844, on a Pennsylvania farm
in Adams county, near the historic city of Gettysburg. He comes of good
old Pennsylvania German stock and is a son of Nicholas (born 1797, died
1852), and Esther (Mickley) Bushey. Nicholas Bushey was born in the
Fatherland and immigrated with his parents to America when a youth.
Eight children were born to Nicholas Bushey and wife, namely: Peter died
in 1905, at the age of eighty-five years; Mrs. Sarah Hartman died in
1910 at the advanced age of eighty-seven years: George, Union veteran,
died at the age of eighty-four years; Jacob M., a Union veteran,
residing at Holmesville, Ohio: Henry died in 1858; Catharine died in
1881; Calvin, with whom this review is concerned; John, a resident of
Arendtsville, Pa., and James, deceased. The parents of these children
lived and died on the homestead in Pennsylvania. The grandfather of Mr.
Bushey, on his maternal side, was John Jacob Mickley, who figures in
American history as one of the men who helped to haul the old Liberty
Bell from Baltimore, Md., to keep it from being captured and destroyed
by the British invaders and hid the bell under a church for safe
keeping. A son of John Jacob was a soldier in the Revolution. Daniel
Mickley, an uncle of Calvin Bushey, lived to the great age of ninety-
nine years, and two other uncles lived to the age of ninety-four and
ninety-five years. Longevity is a characteristic of the members of this
remarkable family. Daniel Mickley served in the War of 1812 as a
sergeant.
Calvin Bushey was reared to young manhood on his father’s farm. When
President Lincoln called for troops, with which to quell the rebellion
of the southern states, he responded and enlisted in August of 1862, in
Company K, One Hundred and twenty-sixth regiment, Pennsylvania infantry,
for a period of eight months, but served one and one-half years in all.
He participated in the great battles of Second Bull Run, South Mountain,
Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. After Mr.
Bushey received his honorable discharge from the service he studied in
Hayesville Institute for one year and was then engaged in mercantile
business for two years, and after his marriage in 1867 came to Kansas to
make his fortune. He and his young wife came directly to Atchison county
and bought 160 acres of land six miles southeast of Muscotah. Not being
exactly satisfied with this farm they sold it three years later and
bought a quarter section of land three miles southeast of Muscotah. This
land was all raw prairie at the time of purchase and it was necessary
for Mr. Bushey to place all the improvements on it. He cultivated this
farm until 1903 when he and Mrs. Bushey retired to a home in Muscotah.
He sold the old homestead for a good price and invested in 120 acres of
land southwest of Muscotah which is being cultivated by his son.
Mr. Bushey was married in January of 1867 to Miss Eva J. Taylor, who has
borne him the following children: Mrs. Myrtle Belle, wife of J. D.
Miller, garage proprietor and farmer, of Muscotah; John C., farmer and
stock buyer, of Muscotah; Esther, wife of J. N. Roach, a farmer, living
near Muscotah; Chastine Dwight Bushey, a farmer; and two children died
in infancy. The mother of these children was born September 20, 1842, in
Defiance, Ohio (at that time Paulding county, Ohio), a daughter of John
and Lucretia (Bell) Taylor, the former a native of Huntingdon, Pa., and
the latter a native of Nova Scotia. John Taylor was a son of William
Taylor, who emigrated from Ireland to Pennsylvania, whence he came to
Ohio and made a permanent settlement. John Taylor was a prominent man in
his section of Ohio and served as a member of the Ohio legislature in
1860, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1865 and 1866, six years in all. He also served
as a justice of the peace and was probate judge of Ashland county, Ohio,
for twelve years. He died in Ashland, Ohio, in 1881. The Taylor children
were as follows: Mrs. Eva Bushey, William, Arabella, Wilson, Don
Fernando, Lavona, and Emma Luverna. Mrs. Bushey is a well educated lady
and taught school in Ohio. It was at Perrysville, Ohio, that Calvin and
Eva Bushey first met. Calvin had left his home in Pennsylvania, and
after studying at the Hayesville Academy he was employed at Perrysville,
Ohio, keeping store, attending the railroad office, the express office,
and was general all-round railway factotum, as well as managing a
general store. The future Mrs. Bushey came to the store one day to buy a
pair of shoes and Calvin fell a victim to her charms while attending to
her wants. They became friends; the friendship ripened into love, and
marriage ensued, which has been one of the happiest on record.
Mr. and Mrs. Bushey are members of the Congregational church and
contribute to the support of this religious denomination. He is a
Republican in politics and is a member of the local grand army post.
This well known and highly respected couple have a total of twenty-one
grandchildren, as follows: Mrs. Olive Laughlin, Eva, Nannie, Marguerite,
Lillie, Josephine, Julia, children of Mr. and Mrs. J. D. Miller; Helen,
a teacher, Ruth, also a teacher, Calvin Dwight, Mildred, and Dorothy,
and Louis, children of John C. Bushey; Charles Calvin, Mrs. Bertie
Yazel, and Gail, children of Mrs. Esther Roach; Paul Everett, Ralph,
Dessa, Essa, and Claude, children of Chastine Dwight Bushey. They have
one great-grandchild, Margaret, daughter of Mrs. Olive Laughlin.
MARTIN C. VANSELL.
Forty-six years ago Martin C. Vansell, pioneer settler of Grasshopper
township and one of the best known farmers and live stock breeders of
Atchison county, landed in Muscotah with a cash capital of five dollars.
During the forty-six or more years he has lived in the vicinity of
Muscotah he has risen to become one of the wealthy and substantial
landed proprietors of the county and has reared to maturity a fine
family of sons and daughters, educated them and given them a start in
life. What more honors can a man wish for than these? Could any citizen
contribute more to the upbuilding of his State and county than this
pioneer?
Mr. Vansell was born of old southern stock, on a plantation in Union
county, Tennessee, October 24, 1854. He was a son of Dr. Elias Vansell,
of German descent. His mother was before her marriage, Tabitha Willis,
born and reared in Tennessee, and a daughter of Moses Willis, whose farm
adjoined the Vansell homestead on the river bottoms. She was of English
descent. There were seven children in the family of Elias and Tabitha
Vansell, of which M. C. was the youngest. The ancestral home of the
Vansells was a large plantation which stretched for one and one half
miles along the banks of the Clinch river in Tennessee, and before the
Civil war the land was cultivated by slaves. Dr. Vansell was a physician
of fine education and exceptional talent.
When a boy M. C. Vansell’s education was cut short by the troubles which
beset the neighborhood during the Civil war when all schools in the
State were closed and Tennessee was torn by the marching and ravaging of
contending armies. The fortunes of the Willisses and Vansells suffered
an eclipse for the time being and when fifteen years of age he decided
to leave the old home and try his fortune in a newer land. He set out
for Dade county, Missouri, with a party of men who were en route to the
wild country of southwest Missouri. There was little to induce the boy
to remain at home as his father had died and his mother had re-married.
Upon his arrival in Dade county he was given work as a cow-boy on a big
cattle ranch owned by David Scott and George Igue, brothers-in-law.
Young Vansell at that time was a fair horseman and his work consisted in
driving herds of cattle to the ranch from Indian Territory and Texas.
The nearest point of supply to the ranch was at Sedalia, 100 miles away.
His next move was to the State of Kansas, and this migration came about
in this wise: In the year 1856 his uncle, Martin C. Willis, had gone
from Tennessee to Brown county, Kansas, where he had preëmpted land and
become quite wealthy. This uncle heard that his nephew was working on
the cattle ranch in Missouri and sent for him to come to his home in
Brown county. Although quite in love with the wild free life of the
cattle ranch, he heeded his uncle’s request and joined him at his home.
For eighteen months after going to his uncle’s home he attended school
and was then employed by his uncle and others as a farm hand for some
years. On July 17, 1870, he stepped off the train at Muscotah, Kan.,
with a cash capital of five dollars in his pocket. He worked at farm
labor until he was twenty-one years of age and then began operating on
his own account. Mr. Vansell has always been somewhat of a trader. The
first deal which he ever made in his life was the purchase of a horse in
Muscotah which involved an outlay of thirty-five dollars for horse,
saddle and bridle. He later sold this animal for sixty-five dollars,
took a note in payment, but, sad to relate, the note was never paid and
he lost the whole amount. When he became of age he traded a span of
mules, of which he had become the owner, for his first forty acres of
land which he had farmed on shares, and with the money earned had bought
the mules. This trade was made with a Kickapoo Indian. He fenced the
forty-acre tract and rented it to a son-in-law of the Indian who had
formerly owned it, and finally traded the land for some colts, five cows
and twenty-five head of hogs. In a short time afterwards he bought an
eighty-acre tract with borrowed money and during the first summer broke
up seventy acres of his eighty, and in the fall built a home for
himself. The following winter he sowed seventy acres of the tract in
wheat and then sold the land at a good profit in November of that year.
The following February he bought 160 acres of land, comprising the old
townsite of Cayuga in Grasshopper township. Mr. Vansell cultivated this
tract for about two years and then sold it at a profit. In 1882 he
bought the quarter section which is now the Vansell home place. He has
added to his possessions since that time until he is now the owner of
362 acres of land, 320 acres of which is all in one body. It is one of
the finest and best improved farms in Atchison county. When Mr. Vansell
settled on this land there were little or no improvements. He now has a
large modern ten-room house, two large barns, hog and carriage houses, a
big double corn-crib and granary, a horse barn, and a special cattle
barn. The Vansell farm also boasts a 250–ton concrete silo, forty-eight
feet in height and sixteen feet in diameter. From the start of his
successful agricultural career Mr. Vansell has handled pure bred live
stock, and he is widely known as a breeder of thoroughbred Shorthorn
cattle, Poland China hogs, and standard black Percheron horses. In
addition to this he has some standard trotting horses which are his
pride. Since the start of his career Mr. Vansell has never bred any but
the purest strains of live stock on his ranch and keeps from forty to
sixty head of pure bred cattle on his place at all times.
Mr. Vansell was united in marriage with Miss Alice Trimble, February 23,
1882, and this union has been blessed with the following children: Lena,
wife of Frank Campbell, of Horton, Kan.; Ralph, at home, manages the
Vansell home farm; Ray, a student for two years in the State
Agricultural College at Manhattan, Kan., and is now operating a cattle
ranch in Montana; George, a graduate of Kansas University, class of
1915, and now employed as an entomologist by the State of Kentucky,
located in Lexington; Erma, wife of T. C. Whittaker, of Nortonville,
Kan., and Willis Blaine, who died at the age of seventeen years in July,
1904. Mr. Vansell has given each of his children a good education. His
two daughters are graduates of the Atchison County High School, and his
son, Ralph, is a graduate of the Veterinary College of Kansas City, and
Ray studied for two years in the Manhattan State Agricultural College.
Mrs. Alice (Trimble) Vansell, mother of the foregoing children, was born
May 23, 1854, in Fayette county, Ohio, a daughter of Nathaniel and Jane
(Lorimer) Trimble, natives of Ohio and Pennsylvania, respectively, and
who were pioneers of Johnson county, Missouri, settling there in 1868.
Mr. Vansell is an independent Republican in his political affiliations,
and refuses to wear a party yoke when his conscience and knowledge lead
him to think independently, and make up his own mind concerning the
qualifications of candidates or the merits of political principles at
issue. Aside from his extensive farming interests he is a stockholder of
the Farmers State Bank of Muscotah. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen
and is religiously connected with the Congregational church. Mr. Vansell
is a broad-minded and well read citizen who keeps abreast of the times
and stands high in his community. In a way he is a philosopher who holds
to the correct idea that some men or too many men never grow up and take
the serious view of life which they should in order to achieve the
success which is their right and in justice to those dependent upon
them.
FRANK W. BISHOP.
Frank Wilson Bishop, live stock dealer and broker, and leading citizen
of Effingham, Kan., has spent the greater part of his sixty-one years of
life in Atchison county. When a boy he knew what it was to endure the
hardships of the frontier and had little opportunity for schooling until
he had attained the age of sixteen years. He is a descendant of a fine
old colonial family which can trace their ancestry back to the early
days of the settlement of New England. His forebears were Puritans, and
he is a direct lineal descendant of Governor Bishop of Connecticut. A
grandfather, Levi Bishop, was a soldier in the regular United States
army and fought in the War of 1812. On the maternal side of his
grandfather’s family he is a descendant of the old Higgins family of New
York, which numbers among their progeny Governor Higgins. The Bishops
for many generations have been military men and in practically every
generation the annals of the country show that members of the family
fought in the various wars in which this country has been engaged.
Mr. Bishop was born December 12, 1854, in Alleghany county, New York, a
son of Lucius Hazen and Betsy Morse (Wilson) Bishop, the former a native
of Windsor, Vt., and the latter having been born in Whiteside, N. Y.
Lucius was the son of Levi Bishop, who served his country in the War of
1812 as a regularly enlisted soldier. The second wife of Lucius Bishop
was a Miss Higgins of the Higgins family of New York. It is worthy of
note that while the Bishops were soldiers and fighting men who believed
in serving the Nation on the battlefields of its wars, the Higgins
family were as a class opposed to warfare and it is not recorded that
any of the members of the family enlisted in behalf of their country.
They were men of letters, teachers, authors and Statesmen rather than
warriors. The father of Levi Bishop was a soldier in the Revolution,
according to tradition. The Bishop family left the old home in Alleghany
county, New York, in April of 1859. Lucius Bishop having previously made
a first trip in 1857 and selected a quarter section of land just north
of Monrovia, Atchison county, Kansas, for his home site. He returned
home and brought his family to Kansas with the intention of making a
permanent home in Atchison county, and thus giving his children a better
opportunity for gaining a livelihood than the older eastern country
afforded. On his previous trip he had made arrangements for the erection
of a home, and an abiding place was already for the family to occupy
when they came here. Frank W. and his mother landed from the Missouri
river steamer, which they boarded at St. Louis and he recalls that the
day they landed at the foot of Commercial street in Atchison was very
rainy and disagreeable. The family had taken the overland train at
Belmont, N. Y., and rode by rail as far as St. Louis and then boarded
the “Ben Louis,” which carried them to Atchison. They breakfasted in
town and then made the trip to the claim by wagon. The outlook and
surroundings of the vicinity of the family home were not encouraging,
and it required considerable courage to get ready to face the struggle
for a livelihood in what was then almost a barren wilderness with few
settlers in the neighborhood. Every fall the members of the family had
the ague, which did not entirely disappear for many years. There was
also some trouble with the Indians, and the border warfare added its
quota of troubles to beset this pioneer family. Lucius Bishop served in
Company F, Twelfth regiment of Kansas cavalry, under Capt. A. S. Best in
the battle of Westport, which resulted in repelling General Price and
his army of invasion. The elder Bishop prospered as the years passed,
and in old age he and his faithful helpmeet left the farm and retired to
a comfortable home in Effingham, where they both died. Lucius Bishop was
born January 6, 1824, and died August 9, 1905. Betsy Ann Bishop was born
in 1832, and died March 31, 1907. They were the parents of the following
children: Frank Wilson, with whom this review is intimately concerned:
Willis E., who resides on the home farm near Monrovia; Amelia Ann, wife
of C. H. Oliver, both deceased, who were the parents of three sons and
two daughters; Sarah H., wife of Hugh N. Gillan, of Hill City, Kan. The
two daughters were twins. A sister, Helen Bishop, accompanied Lucius C.
to Kansas. She was the oldest of the family, dying July 6, 1913, at the
advanced age of ninety-two years. Helen Bishop was born in Randolph,
Vt., March 12, 1831, and came to Kansas in 1858. She began teaching when
sixteen years of age, receiving one dollar per week and boarded around.
At the end of nine years she was receiving two dollars per week. She
taught several years in Atchison county, and conducted a private school
at Monrovia. She taught at Monrovia and Lancaster. She was one of the
pioneer advocates of teaching domestic science in the schools and was
far ahead of her time. She advocated progressive teaching methods in the
seventies, which are now in practice. She was a thinker and was an
advocate of purity in living. After the death of her parents she made
her home with Frank W. Bishop.
Frank W. Bishop was reared to young manhood on the pioneer farm, and had
little or no schooling until he attained the age of sixteen years, at
which time he realized the necessity of securing an education and
managed to attend a short term at the State College at Manhattan, Kan.
His father purchased a fine tract of farm land in 1873, consisting of
160 acres which Frank leased from him for a few years and then
purchased. He practically built up the farm from a barren tract of
prairie land to be one of the excellent producing farms in Atchison
county. He erected all buildings on the place and cultivated the land
very successfully until 1908, when he removed to Effingham to be better
care for the extensive live stock business which he had begun in 1895.
Mr. Bishop has one of the most attractive homes in this beautiful city,
which was formerly the Potter property and maintains a down-town office
where he looks after his business affairs. He is not only a buyer and
shipper of live stock but is principally a broker, buying stock in the
city yards in carload lots for his farmer patrons who feed them on their
farms for the market. In this manner in the capacity of broker he does a
very extensive business annually.
Mr. Bishop was married in 1880 to Miss Viola T. Horton, of Atchison
county, whose demise occurred in 1886, leaving three children, as
follows: Ernest L., a farmer, of Atchison county; Carl A., who is first
sergeant of Company I, engineering division, United States regular army,
and who is on duty in the Hawaiian Islands; one child died in infancy.
In 1890 Mr. Bishop was again married to Miss Mary E. Scott, of Tama
county, Iowa, a daughter of Robert A. and Anne (Cannon) Scott, natives
of Scotland, the former born in Kirkcudbrightshire, and the latter born
in Wigtonshire. The Scotts came to America in 1880. Robert was a
stonemason and was one of the builders of the United States treasury
building at Washington. In 1870 the Scotts settled on a farm in Tama
county, Iowa, and reared eight children. Robert A. and Anne were married
May 26, 1848. Robert died November 24, 1911, aged eighty-five years, and
Anne Scott died May 18, 1905, aged eighty years.
Mr. Bishop is a Democrat in his political affiliations, and has held
local city offices, doing his duty as a citizen when called upon by his
fellow citizens. Mrs. Bishop is a member of the Presbyterian church, of
which Mr. Bishop is a Supporter.
WILLIAM RYAN.
William Ryan, former chief of police of the city of Atchison and
prosperous farmer and iron moulder of Walnut township, was born in
Ottawa, Ill., in 1874. He is a son of James and Ellen (Charleston) Ryan,
the former a native of Connecticut and the latter having been born and
reared partly in Boston, Mass. James Ryan was a son of Patrick Ryan, a
native of Ireland who, after emigrating from the Emerald Isle, settled
in Connecticut and later became a pioneer of Ottawa, Ill. Patrick Ryan,
with his wife and seven children, moved to Ottawa, Ill., in an early
day. Later James and his family went to Nebraska and in 1874 moved to
Kansas. Patrick Ryan, grandfather of William, was a very prominent
citizen of his county in Illinois. He served as captain of his company
of Union soldiers during the Civil war and held the office of county
treasurer for several terms, besides filling other important county
offices. James Ryan, the father, was also a soldier, holding the
position of sergeant in a company forming part of the Fifty-sixth
regiment of Illinois volunteers. He was taken prisoner and confined for
a time in the notorious Andersonville prison. His trade was that of iron
smelter and for thirty years he was employed in the John Seaton foundry
in that capacity. His son, William, also became an expert moulder and is
now employed in the Seaton foundry.
William Ryan, with whom this review is directly concerned, was but an
infant when the family located in Atchison. He attended the old Doniphan
school in the city and also the Washington public school, where he was a
school-mate of Sheffield Ingalls. He learned the trade of iron moulder
at the Seaton foundry and saved his earnings until he was able to
purchase a farm in Walnut township in 1908. He removed to his farm and
cultivated it until 1910 and then returned to Atchison. In 1911 he was
appointed chief of the Atchison police department. Previous to his
appointment to the head position of the city police force he had served
as a member of the city council and was very active in behalf of a
number of public and street improvements which were badly needed at the
time. He was one of the official body responsible for the completion of
the South Atchison sewer and for the building of a number of paved
streets. For his activity in behalf of these public improvements he was
defeated for re-election, but some years later Mr. Ryan was again
elected to office by a handsome majority. Mr. Ryan has a fine farm of
160 acres in Walnut township which was originally covered with a heavy
growth of timber, much of which has been cleared away in past years.
Upon his retirement from the position of chief of police he returned to
his farm, where he resides while he is employed as iron moulder.
He was married in 1898 to Miss Nellie Cairns, and this union has been
blessed with five children: Blanche, born in 1899; Ruth, born in 1901;
Mary Louise, born in 1903; Hugh, born in 1905; Florence, born in 1910.
Mrs. Ryan is a daughter of Irish parents and was born in Atchison.
In his younger days William Ryan was a noted baseball player. He played
the left field position on the Atchison team in the first game of
baseball ever played in Forest park. The aggregation of players with
whom he was associated were known as the “Corn Carnival Colts.” This
team became known as the fastest amateur team ever banded together in
the city of Atchison and became famous over northeast Kansas for their
proficiency in the national game. The name was given to the team when
they succeeded in defeating the fast “Kansas Blues,” a professional
team, at the time of the corn carnival held in Atchison. Several players
from this team broke into the professional league game and became
famous.
JAMES H. GARSIDE.
James H. Garside, retired, is one of the best known and best liked
pioneer citizens of Atchison. He has resided in this city for the past
fifty-one years and has a large acquaintance throughout the city and
county. For thirty-eight years Mr. Garside was engaged in railroad work
and for twenty-seven years he served as a member of the board of
education and was vice-president of the board which had charge of the
erection of the Ingalls High School building and other school edifices
in the city. During the time in which he served as the local freight
agent of the Santa Fe railroad Mr. Garside’s position brought him into
contact with all classes of men and his fine courtesy and obliging
manner of conducting the company’s business won him high regard and an
enviable reputation.
Mr. Garside was born in Canton, Fulton county, Illinois, January 26,
1848, a son of Joshua and Anna (Cox) Garside. His father was born in
England and immigrated to America in 1836. He became engaged in banking
and was a member of the banking firm of Maple, Stipp & Garside, at
Canton, until his removal to Nebraska City, where he opened a bank for
S. F. Nukols. The family came to Atchison in 1864 and Joshua Garside was
associated with A. S. Parker & Company, forwarding agents, and also
agents for the Star line of steamers plying between St. Joseph and St.
Louis. This firm later became Garside & Son and did an extensive
freighting business to Denver, Salt Lake and Montana points. They
shipped a vast amount of grain by river steamer; a single boat used in
their freighting sometimes took on from 3,000 to 10,000 bushels of grain
and lay at the levee two or three days while loading. This was in the
days when the Missouri river was the great waterway for transporting
freight to southern and eastern points. Joshua Garside and wife reared a
family of two sons and seven daughters, of which James H. was the
eldest.
James H. Garside received his education in the public schools of
Nebraska City, Neb., and the high school of Atchison. For several years
he was engaged in the freighting business with his father, as above
stated. Prior to the completion of the Atchison bridge across the
Missouri river, Mr. Garside had charge of the business of transferring
the railroad freight cars across the river and which were carried to the
Missouri side, and vice versa, by the “William Osborne.” When the bridge
was completed he was in the employ of the Hamilton & Flint Transfer
Company, engaged in transferring freight with teams across the river. In
1881 he entered the service of the Santa Fe Railroad Company as local
freight agent and held this position continuously until his retirement
from active service. Before he was engaged by the Santa Fe Mr. Garside
was an agent for the Continental Fast Freight line, the Commercial
Express line and the Star Union line.
Mr. Garside was married in 1872 to Miss Hattie H. Preston, of Canton,
Ill. One son blessed this union, William Preston. Mr. Garside is
affiliated with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and is a member of
Washington Lodge, No. 5, of Washington Commandery, and of the Mystic
Shrine. For twenty-seven years he was a member of the board of education
and did his duty as a very useful citizen in helping forward the
advancement of the Atchison city schools to first rank in the state of
Kansas. He served as vice-president of this body for several years, and
was always found in the forefront of the movement for better school
buildings and the installation of better educational facilities for the
benefit of the youth of Atchison. He is one of the charter members of
the Flambeau Club and also of the Atchison Gun Club. He is religiously
affiliated with the Congregational church and has been one of the
trustees of this body for several years. In the days of his retirement
the same geniality and courtesy which he maintained during his years of
public service marks the demeanor of this grand old citizen of Atchison.
WILLIS J. BAILEY.
Willis J. Bailey, vice-president and managing officer of the Exchange
National Bank, Atchison, Kan., since 1907, and governor of the State of
Kansas from 1903 to 1905, was born in Carroll county, Illinois, October
12, 1854. He was educated in the common schools, the Mount Carroll high
school, and graduated at the University of Illinois as a member of the
class of 1879. In 1904 his Alma Mater conferred upon him the degree of
Doctor of Laws. In 1879, soon after completing his college course, he
accompanied his father to Nemaha county, Kansas, where they engaged in
farming and stock raising, and founded the town of Baileyville. Upon
reaching his majority Governor Bailey cast his lot with the Republican
party, and since that time he has been an active and consistent advocate
of the principles espoused by that organization. In 1888 he was elected
to represent his county in the State legislature; was reëlected in 1890;
was president of the Republican State League in 1893; was the Republican
candidate for Congress in the First district in 1896, and in June, 1898,
was nominated by the State convention at Hutchison as the candidate for
Congressman at large, defeating Richard W. Blue. After serving in the
Fifty-sixth Congress he retired to his farm, but in 1902 was nominated
by his party for governor. At the election in November he defeated W. H.
Craddock, the Democratic candidate, by a substantial majority, and began
his term as governor in January, 1903. At the close of his term as
governor he removed to Atchison, and since 1907 has been vice-president
and manager of the Exchange National Bank of that city. Shortly after
his retirement from the office of governor he was prominently mentioned
as a candidate for United States senator, and in 1908 a large number of
Republicans of the State urged his nomination for governor. Mr. Bailey
has always been interested in behalf of the farmers of the country, and
from 1895 to 1899 he was a member of the Kansas State Board of
Agriculture.
JOHN A. KRAMER.
John A. Kramer, a leading and prosperous farmer of Shannon township, has
the double distinction of being a pioneer in the county and having one
of the largest families in the State. In this day of small families it
is gratifying to note that in Atchison county, within a few miles of the
city, resides a man who takes a just pride in the fact that he is
rearing thirteen children to become good citizens of the community. Mr.
Kramer is the owner of one of the oldest farms in the county which has
been in the family for nearly fifty years. It is one of the valuable
fruit farms in this section of the State and is noted for its small
fruits and orchard products. A handsome brick residence built by the
father of Mr. Kramer sets well back from the highway and is surrounded
by large trees which have grown to immense size during the life of Mr.
Kramer.
John A. Kramer was born October 13, 1862, on the farm where he now
resides and was the son of Frank and Rosalie Kramer, both of whom were
born, reared and married in Austria, the former having been born in 1820
and the latter in 1827. They emigrated from their native country in
about 1852, locating first in Wisconsin, going from that State to
Missouri, and in 1857 coming to Atchison county, Kansas. In that year
Frank Kramer settled permanently on the farm now owned by his sons and
built up a fine estate which became noted throughout this section of
Kansas. He was one of the pioneers in the fruit industry in the county,
and planted an extensive vineyard, an orchard of thirty to forty acres,
including apples, pears and plums, and all kinds of small fruits, the
cultivation of which has been carried on by his sons. The Kramer farm
now consists of 240 acres of land in a high state of cultivation and
well improved. Frank Kramer died in 1889 and his wife lived to a
considerable age, dying in April of 1911. To them were born three sons
and three daughters, namely: Theresa and Anna, sisters of the Order of
St. Benedict, in Mt. St. Scholastica Academy; Mrs. Mary Zehnter,
deceased; Frank, born October 13, 1860, in partnership with John A. in
the management of the farm; John A. with whom this review is directly
concerned; Edward, deceased.
John A. Kramer was reared on the farm in Atchison county, and upon the
death of his father took up the burden of the family support with his
brother. He is considered to be one of the substantial and successful
agriculturists of the county and has taken a prominent part in the
affairs of his county since attaining his majority. He was married in
1891 to Phillipina Rambour, born in Bavaria, Germany, a daughter of
Michael Rambour. She came to Atchison when young and here met and
married Mr. Kramer. To this estimable couple have been born thirteen
children: Mrs. Hattie Dooley, of Shannon township, Martha, Rosalie,
Anna, Tillie, Phillipina, Josephine, Deloris, Mary Constance, Alfred,
John, Francis and Edward.
Mr. Kramer is a member of St. Benedict’s Catholic Church and is a
liberal supporter of this denomination. He has been a life-long Democrat
and has been an active and influential figure in his party since
attaining voting age. In 1891 he served one term as trustee of Shannon
township and was elected county treasurer in 1893 and again elected to
succeed himself in 1895. This election took place at a period when the
county was strongly Republican and party lines were more strictly drawn
than at present—evidence of the fact that Mr. Kramer had a strong
personal following among the citizens of the county.
JOHN BELZ.
The growth and development of any community depends to a considerable
extent upon the management of its financial institutions. The
manufacturing and commercial enterprises of the city of Atchison, as
well as the farmers and stockmen in its trade territory, have enjoyed
the benefits of progressive banking since the first bank was established
in the county. It is in connection with this field of activity that John
Belz became most widely and favorably known in Atchison county. He was
for many years a managing executive of the German Savings Bank of
Atchison, which he had helped to organize, serving as cashier, and later
filled the same position with the United States National Bank of
Atchison. He was known to the banking fraternity of Kansas as an able
and discriminating financier, an executive who brought the
administrative policy of the institutions with which he was connected to
the point of highest efficiency. He was of material assistance in the
development of the city of Atchison, an ambitious and tireless worker, a
man of high ideals, and his business integrity and honesty were
unquestioned.
John Belz was a native of Germany, born in Wurtemberg, near the city of
Stuttgart, on August 18, 1833. His father was engaged in the milling
business and was a man of some means. John learned the miller’s trade
and also served his apprenticeship as a journeyman carpenter, and he
enjoyed excellent educational advantages in the schools of his home town
and the city of Stuttgart. The elder Belz died when John was nineteen,
in 1852, leaving a comfortable estate which was dissipated by the
administrator through mismanagement. Thrown on his own resources, and
with two younger sisters dependent upon him, John came to the conclusion
that America spelled opportunity for him. Master of a trade, possessed
of an excellent education, thoroughly versed in the German and French
languages, he believed that wealth and position were to be won in the
United States; and his sisters believed in him. Leaving their native
country, they crossed the Atlantic, landed in New York City, and for a
time lived in Lancaster, N. Y., a little village near the city of
Buffalo, where the brother found employment. A few months later they
located in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Here John was employed as a carpenter,
farm hand, and with such other jobs as offered. He attended school and
acquired a comprehensive knowledge of the English tongue.
In 1857 John Belz came to Atchison and during the succeeding twelve or
fifteen months was employed at his trade. He was thrifty and was soon
able to open a small grocery store. His identification with the banking
life of the city began in 1872, when he, George Storch and Robert
Forbriger organized the German Savings Bank. He was elected its first
cashier and filled this position until the institution closed out its
business in 1886. Subsequently he was elected cashier of the United
States National Bank, and remained in this executive office until 1887,
when he resigned. He had early in life acquired the desire, the habit,
the love of making money and the habit of work. He possessed shrewd
business judgment, keen insight in business affairs, profound knowledge
of men, and these, coupled with will and energy, enabled him to gain
rank as one of the leaders in the financial and commercial life of the
city. He became directly or indirectly interested in several commercial
enterprises of the city and was closely associated with the late George
Storch, at that time Atchison’s leading man of affairs. Mr. Belz was a
loyal citizen, believed in the commercial future of Atchison, and could
always be depended upon to assist, both with time and money, any
enterprise or measure which meant a greater, better Atchison. During his
residence in the city his various investments in financial and
commercial enterprises were uniformly successful, from which he
accumulated a large fortune. Shortly after his retirement from the
United States National Bank he went to California, where he invested
heavily in lands. This venture proved a failure and a large part of his
fortune was lost. From this time until his death, which occurred
September 11, 1895, while not actively engaged in business, he occupied
himself as a real estate and insurance agent.
Coming to Kansas in 1857, and locating in any of the towns on her
eastern border, meant taking sides with one or the other of the
political parties. It also required courage upon the part of the
settler. John Belz possessed not only courage but convictions, and,
although a newcomer to the United States had, while living in Iowa,
given the slavery question much study which resulted in his aligning
himself with the Free State party on his arrival in Atchison. He became
actively identified with political affairs and was elected a member of
the city council, serving several terms. He was also elected to the
office of city clerk and served several years. Had it not been for his
sensitiveness over his inability to overcome a pronounced German accent
in his English which caused him to decline to speak at public meetings,
a most necessary qualification if one desired to attain State-wide
prominence politically, John Belz would have become one of the powers in
the political life of Kansas. He knew men and the motives which actuated
them and possessed keen insight as to the demands of the future upon the
legislators.
Mr. Belz became a member of Washington Lodge, No. 5, Ancient Free and
Accepted Masons, on October 17, 1857. He was one of several who demitted
from other lodges and was the oldest Mason among them, having been
initiated at an earlier date than any of the others. He was also a
member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He was reared a Lutheran
and a member of that church in his native town. He never affiliated with
any church after coming to the United States.
Mr. Belz married on November 10, 1859, Miss Sophia Binde. She was born
in Prussia, near Madgeburg. She was left an orphan at the age of six
years and was adopted by her uncle and aunt, Ludwig and Mary Binde, and
with them and their two sons came to the United States in 1857. They
located northwest of the city of Atchison where Mr. Binde engaged in
farming. He broke the raw prairie, fenced his property, underwent the
privations incident to that pioneer period and developed a successful
and highly productive farm. He and his wife were persons of culture,
comfortably situated financially and their children were highly educated
and talented musicians. Among their effects brought from the Fatherland
were a Grand piano and the complete works of the great composers, which
included those by Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Beethoven. Mrs. Belz talks
familiarly and interestingly of these composers and has never lost her
interest in things musical. The vessel which brought the Binde family to
America also carried the Mangelsdorf family, of which August
Mangelsdorf, Atchison’s pioneer seedsman, was the youngest member. As
time went on John Belz came to Atchison and entered the grocery
business. He met Sophia Binde and later she became his wife. His grocery
business required the services of a clerk and August Mangelsdorf filled
that position. The latter has often remarked that his first employer,
John Belz, instilled in him the principles which were the foundation of
his success in the commercial world; that his rugged honesty, high
ideals and close attention to detail in the handling of any matter
remained indelibly imprinted on his mind. Following his precepts has
brought him a golden harvest.
Mr. and Mrs. Belz were the parents of two children, daughters. The
eldest, Emma, born in Atchison, was married in 1892 to Augustin M.
Moore, of Denver, Colo. Mr. Moore died in 1906, leaving an infant son
and a daughter, Helen, the wife of Fred Stein, an electrician, of
Atchison. Mr. Moore was a well known insurance adjuster and was in the
employ of the Shawnee Fire Insurance Company of Topeka. Ida Belz, the
younger daughter, also born in Atchison, is the wife of Thomas N. Gray,
treasurer of the Symns Grocer Company of Atchison.
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│ 226│he was forced to take control of the│he was forced to take │
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│ │ Van- On August 19, 1915, T. A. Cur│ had employed Herman Van. │
│ │ became editor, and on November 11,│ On August 19, 1915, T. A.│
│ │ 1915. August 19, 1915, T. A. Cur │ Cur became editor, and on│
│ │ became editor, and November 11, │ November 11, 1915, Orvil │
│ │ 1915, Orvil │ │
│ │ │ │
│ 238│Col. Wm. Osborn, J. W. Parker, and │Col. Wm. Osborn, J. W. │
│ │ other men prominent in the │ Parker, and other men │
│ │ business and thereon the bank │ prominent in the business│
│ │ early acquired title to the lot at│ and social life of that │
│ │ the southwest corner of social │ period were among its │
│ │ life of that period were among its│ early stockholders and │
│ │ early stockholders and directors, │ directors, while │
│ │ while │ │
│ │ │ │
│ 239│Louis W. Voit │Louis W. Voigt │
│ │ │ │
│ 323│and ready for the occupancy of │and ready for the occupancy│
│ │ children July 1, 1910. The law │ of children July 1, 1910.│
│ │ providing for the admission of │ The law providing for │
│ │ children has never been changed │ │
│ │ and very few crippled chil- and │ │
│ │ ready for the occupancy by │ │
│ │ children July 1, 1910. The law │ │
│ │ providing for │ │
│ │ │ │
│ 324│Major W. W. Downs was the propoter │He was at │
│ │ of the association. He was at │ │
│ │ │ │
│ 458│ │CHARLES H. JOHNSON. │
│ │ │ │
│ 495│ │JOHN F. CONLON. │
│ │ │ │
│ 574│as lows: Rose M., wife of Bert │as follows: Rose M., wife │
│ │ Gilmore, │ of Bert Gilmore │
│ │ │ │
│ 674│To this union five children have │To this union five children│
│ │ been born: Myrtle Ceina, Edna │ have been born: Myrtle │
│ │ Lula, rad Voelker, a wealthy and │ Ceina, Edna Lula, good │
│ │ prominent farmer residing on one │ educations by their │
│ │ of the finest good educations by │ ambitious parents. Mrs. │
│ │ their ambitious parents. Mrs. Loyd│ Loyd is a sister of │
│ │ is a sister of Conrad Voelker, a │ Conrad Voelker, a wealthy│
│ │ wealthy and prominent farmer │ and prominent farmer │
│ │ residing on one of the finest │ residing on one of the │
│ │ │ finest │
│ │ │ │
│ 771│Her grandmother, Samuel │Her grandfather, Samuel │
└────┴────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────┘
1. Silently corrected typographical errors and also variations in
spelling.
2. Retained anachronistic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as
printed.
3. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.