Fred Funston was born in Ohio, November 9, 1865. His father was a
prominent public man and one time a member of congress from Kansas.
He was graduated in 1886 from the high school at Iola, Kansas, and
later studied for two years in the state university at Lawrence, but
was not graduated. In 1890 he was a reporter in Kansas City, and his
first public work was done as botanist in the United States death
valley expedition in 1891. Returning he was made a commissioner in the
department of agriculture and was assigned to explore Alaska and report
on its flora. In 1893 he floated down the Yukon alone in a canoe. He
served eighteen months in the insurgent army in Cuba, and upon his
return to the United States, in 1896, was commissioned a colonel in
the Twentieth Kansas volunteers. In 1898 he went to the Philippines
and took part in several battles. He crossed the Rio Grande river at
Calumpit on a small bamboo raft under heavy fire and established a rope
ferry by which the United States troops were enabled to cross and win
the battle. For this deed of valor he was promoted to brigadier-general
of the United States volunteers May 2, 1899. He remained in active
service in the Philippines and organized the expedition which
succeeded in the capture of Aguinaldo. For this he was promoted to
brigadier-general United States army, March 20, 1901.