BUTLER COUNTY,
KANSAS
Frederick E. Dillenbeck, M. D., of El Dorado, has attained as much prominence in the field of medicine and surgery as others of his family have gained in the breeding and raising of some of the finest trotting horses known in Kansas or anywhere in the country.
Doctor Dillenbeck, who has practiced medicine at El Dorado for twenty years, is local and dispensing surgeon for the Missouri Pacific and the Santa. Fe Railway companies, is consulting surgeon for the Rock Island Railroad Company, is medical examiner for a number of old line life insurance companies, is a member of the County and State Medical societies, the American Medical Association, the Military Surgeons of the United States, the Clinical Congress of Surgeons of North America and the American Association of Railway Surgeons. He served two terms as coroner of Butler County, and has been county and city physician for several terms. He is not only a capable and painstaking physician with years of successful practice to his credit, but is a genial and courteous gentleman whose kindly manners have won for him a host of friends in this section of Kansas.
Doctor Dillenbeck was born near Gouverneur in St. Lawrence County, New York, April 4, 1867. He is a son of Charles B. and Helen (Visscher) Dillenbeck, Charles B. Dillenbeck is known far and wide as proprietor of the “City Dairy Farm” at El Dorado, and is one of Kansas men who have gained a national reputation as breeders of standard trotting horses.
Charles B. Dillenbeck was born in Jefferson County, New York, in 1842, a son of Jacob and Catherine (Ostrander) Dillenbeck, who were also natives of New York. He was one of eight children. The others who grew up were: John S., who died in New York; Mrs. Amanda Nellis, who died in New York; Menzo, who spent his life in New York State; Sophia, who married a Mr. Zimmerman, who was killed in the Civil war, and she afterward became the wife of Luther Dillenbeck; and Jerome, now living retired at El Dorado.
Educated in the public schools of his native state, Charles B. Dillenbeck at the age of nineteen enlisted at Watertown, New York, in Company M, Tenth New York Heavy Artillary. He served three years. He was with the Army of the Potomac, was in some of the campaigns made familiar to every American school boy, was with Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley, and also participated at the siege of Petersburg. He was mustered out at Sacketts Harbor, New York, in July 1865.
After the war he engaged in farming in New York State until 1882, when he came out to Kansas, locating in Butler County September 19th of that year. Here he began farming, stock raising and dairying on a ranch of 640 acres west of El Dorado. This ranch had been previously acquired by his brother. Subsequently Charles Dillenbeck sold his interest in that farm to his brother and bought the Van Slyke place of 320 acres. This became the scene of his extensive farming and dairying business, though part of the time he lived in El Dorado. For this half section he paid $12.50 an acre in 1888, and ten years later sold it for $27.50 an acre. In the meantime he had bought another quarter section a half mile south, paying $900 for it, and sold out at the same time he disposed of his other farm for $2,000.
For the last sixteen years Charles B. Dillenbeck has had his home in El Dorado. He is engaged in buying and shipping horses and in managing his dairy business. His son W. E. is his business associate. They have bred and developed some very fine registered trotting horses, and Mr. Dillenbeck has the reputation of never yet having raised a thoroughbred which proved a failure. The better known of his horses are: Julia D., 2:14 1/4; Harbor Master, 2:17 1/4; Daisy Dorff, 2:10 1/4; and Trimble Meath, 2:07 1/2. In March 1916, Mr. Dillenbeck shipped three head of horses to Indianapolis, Trimble Meath, 2:07 1/2; Daisy Dorff, 2:10 1/4, and Fair Margaret. While the Dillenbecks have been successful in developing thoroughbred horses they have not neglected the pure bred cattle department. He breeds Holstein cattle on his farm, and in 1916 he had a herd of thirty-seven high grade Jerseys. The City Dairy herd is headed by “Katismas Sultan,” which is one of the beat registered Jersey bulls in the State of Kansas.
In 1865, Charles B. Dillenbeck married Miss Helen R. Visscher, of Gouverneur, New York. Her father, William Visscher, came to Butler County with Mr. and Mrs. Dillenbeck and died here, his wife having passed away in New York State in 1863. Mr. and Mrs. Charles Dillenbeck have the following children: Dr. Frederick E. and W. E., associated with his father in business; Mr. W. E. Dillenbeck married Marie Olin, of Eudora, Kansas, and their three children are Helen, Charles and Doris. Mrs. Charles Dillenbeck died March 19, 1915.
Doctor Dillenbeck was fifteen years of age when he came to Kansas with his parents. In the meantime he had attended public school in his native state, and after coming to Kansas the family lived on the Dillenbeck ranch five miles went of El Dorado during the summer seasons and in El Dorado during the winter months. In those years Doctor Dillenbeck had plenty of good wholesome work on the farm and continued his education in El Dorado. At the age of seventeen he began working in Doctor Bussett's drug store at El Dorado. He spent eleven years in that store, though its ownership changed four times. At the beginning he was paid $6 a month. At the end of eleven years, when he resigned, his services were valued at $150 a month. He made a study of pharmacy, passed the state board, and was a competent pharmacist before he took up the study of medicine.
Doctor Dillenback had a notable experience as a homesteader when the Cherokee strip was opened in Oklahoma in 1893. Buying a pony, which he shipped to the territory, he took part in the race at the opening in the fall of that year. He lined up with the thousands of others and at the signal he started out over the prairies to select a location. He was among the more fortunate ones, securing a lot just half a block distant from the court house square at Perry. It was a valuable piece of property even at the time, and while at Perry he traded and bought and sold considerable real estate. This experience netted him a profit of $1,800. He had a use for the money as soon as it was earned. It was the capital invested in his medical education.
Entering the University Medical College at Kansas City, Kansas, Doctor Dillenbeck was graduated M. D. with the class of 1896. He at once returned to El Dorado and entered the practice which has brought so many of the more substantial rewards and honors of professional life. From the start he had a large clientage, and for twenty years has been successful. He is now the oldest physician in point of active service in the city. Doctor Dillenbeck besides general practice is a recognized specialist in ex-ray work, electro-therapeuties and diseases of women. He is a student and hard worker, and has accepted every opportunity to improve and broaden his ability. He has taken post-graduate courses in Chicago and Kansas City, and is a graduate of the College of Electro-Therapeutics of Indianapolis, Indians. For twenty years Doctor Dillenbeck has had his offices in one place, the second floor of 107 1/2, 109 1/2 South Main Street. It is the largest and best equipped office used by any physician in the state. His suite consists of five rooms. His ex-ray outfit has one of the largest. coils made, and it is a machine of the highest possible efficiency. He has thousands of dollars represented in other equipment, and is owner of one of the best private libraries in Butler County.
Doctor Dillenbeck while working in the drug store at El Dorado received the appointment of hospital steward in the Second Regiment of the Kansas National Guard, under Major-Surgeon Frank C. Armstrong. He held that position in the National Guard until he graduated from medical college in 1896. He was then promoted to Leutenant-surgeon of the Kansas National Guard by Governor Morrill, and in September 1899, Governor W. E. Stanley made him captain-surgeon and in 1900 the same governor advanced him to major-surgeon. He continued in the latter office until 1910, when he resigned. His resignation was due to the fact that he could not do justice both to his large private practice and his duties with the National Guard, and had to give up one or the other.
Doctor Dillenbeck in addition to his medical practice has been among the fortunate and farsighted people who have profited largely by the development of the oil industry in this section. He is president of the Oil & Gas Company of El Dorado, which bought the lease on the southeast 1/4 of section 35, town-ship 25 south, range 4 east, sixth P. M., Butler County, containing 160 acres. This company sold a half interest to the Sinclair Oil & Gas Company for $200,000, and after that declared a $1 per share dividend, doubling the money of those who went in for 50 cents and paying back all of the original investment to the remainder of the stockholders who paid $1 per share. The company is regarded as one of the strongest and best in Kansas. This company has developed the west eighty acres of the tract and has at this writing three producing oil wells, two gas wells and is engaged in drilling the fourth oil well. Doctor Dillenbeck is the owner of one-sixth of all the stock.
Doctor Dillenbeck is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, a member of Wichita Consistory, belongs to El Dorado Lodge No. 79, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and Midian Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Wichita. He is also affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and a number of fraternal insurance companies. Among other interests he is a director in the Kansas Central Indemnity Company of Hutchinson and is president of the El Dorado Oil & Gas Company. Politically he has always been a strong supporter of the policies and principles of the Democratic party. He has served as a member of the El Dorado School Board and has always made the best interests of his home town his own.
On June 4, 1890, Doctor Dillenbeck married Miss Grace Scott, a native of Keokuk, Iowa. Her parents were James and Jennie M. (Best) Scott. Mrs. Dillenbeck was a young girl when her parents came to El Dorado and she was reared and educated in this city. Her mother is now deceased, and her father resides with Doctor and Mrs. Dillenbeck. There are two children: Robert and Floyd, both of whom reside at home with their parents. Robert is an automobile salesman in El Dorado, while Floyd is connected with and is city salesman for the Conway Springs Water Company. (A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans. Vol. 3, Chicago, Ill, USA, Lewis Publishing Company, 1918)
As treasurer and manager of the Cheney Mill and Flour Company, Peter G. Kroeker is one of the important men in business circles in Sedgwick County.
He represents a class of people which have been a very valuable contribution to Kansan citizenship. Mr. Kroeker was born at Cherson City in Southern Russia March 15, 1866. He was twelve years of age when in 1878 his parents came to America and located in McPherson County, Kansas, buying a half section of school land there. His father is Gerhard Kroeker who married Justina Kruger. They are still living on the farm which they bought in 1878 in McPherson County, Gerhard being eighty-three and his wife eighty-two years of age. Of their six children, four are still living. (A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans. Vol. 3, Chicago, Ill, USA, Lewis Publishing Company, 1918)
Charles H. Overly is associated with Owen A. Thompson at Independence as co-inventor and active partner in the Safety Pulling Machine Company, and while Mr. Thompson superintends the manufacture of that useful device he has exercised his abilities as a salesman in distributing it throughout the oil fields of the country.
Mr. Overly was born near St. Mary's, Ohio, September 8, 1865. His ancestors came from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to Ohio in the early days of the latter state. His father Joseph K. Overly was also born near St. Mary's, Ohio, and died at Lamont, Oklahoma, April 1, 1916. As a young man he enlisted in the Union army in Company C of the Thirty-first Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry. In 1885 he moved out to Kansas, and was a farmer in both the southern and northern sections of the state until he removed to Oklahoma in 1908. Joseph K. Overly married Eliza Meyers, who was a native of Ohio and died in Colorado in 1903.
Their only child Charles H. Overly gained his education in the public schools of Ohio. At the age of fourteen he began the struggle for his own livelihood and encountered and overcame many obstacles in his path. He was ambitious for a better education, and at the age of twenty-two he took a course in the Ohio Normal University at Ada. He first became acquainted with Kansas in the fall of 1885, when he located at Leon in Butler County. A year later he returned to Ohio, but in 1894 established himself on a farm at Sabetha, Kansas, and followed farming there until 1900. After that he made several excursions to the Pacific coast engaged in the lumber and milling business, but in 1913 located at Independence and was associated with Mr. Thompson in inventing the safety pulling machine and since the incorporation of the company has directed the sales.
Mr. Overly has been twice married. By his first wife he has two daughters, Edith and Alta, both married and living in Ohio. The maiden name of his second wife was Lola E. McNary, a daughter of William and Mary McNary. Her father is deceased, having died in California after a career as a farmer, while her mother now resides at Chehalis, Washington. Mr. and Mrs. Overly have the following children: Randolph, who is employed in the Larimer Grocery at Independence; Esta, Hazel, Fred, Cecil, all attending the public schools at Independence; and Harry. (A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans. Vol. 3, Chicago, Ill, USA, Lewis Publishing Company, 1918)
Fortunate is the community which has citizens with the substantial conservatism of practical business men and yet are forward looking in matters of new development and improvement. In the matter of towns and communities there is perhaps more truth in Ingalls' statement that opportunity knocks but once at the door, than in its application to individuals. Recently the oil district of Southern Kansas was extended into Butler County. By the good sense and public spirit of several local citizens, prominent among whom is F. H. Penley, president of the First National Bank of Augusta, this sudden development of great natural wealth and resources was utilized to the distinct advantage of what had been merely a country village, and Augusta is now on a fair way to become one of the thriving centers of population and industry in the state.
Mr. Penley represents a pioneer family in Butler County and he has been personally identified with the business and civic life of this section of Kansas for forty years. He came to Kansas when a boy. He was born in the State of Maine at Bethel in Oxford County in 1856. His parents, Charles Freeland and Abbie (Locke) Penley, were also natives of Maine. They came to Kansas in 1870, locating about two miles north of Augusta. Charles F. Penley took up a homestead claim and was engaged in farming and stock raising there the rest of his active career. The Penleys were early comers and what they did and the influence they exercised had its marked impress upon the subsequent development of the county. Mr. F. H. Penley was the oldest of three children. His sister, Alice Manley, distinguished herself as a Baptist missionary in India. She began her missionary work in 1879 and represented the Augusta First Baptist Church in the foreign missionary field. Mr. Penley's brother, A. E. Penley, is a grain and feed dealer at Delta, Colorado.
Fourteen years of age when he came to Kansas, F. H. Penley had the advantages of common schools in his native state and also attended schools to some extent in Butler County. When he reached his majority he began farming and stock raising on his own account, and for thirty years he gave much of his energy to that line of business. But for the past sixteen years his exertions have been especially exemplified in the Town of Augusta and in both its business and civic life.
The Augusta State Bank was organized in 1902 and Mr. Penley was one of those chiefly instrumental in getting the institution chartered and under way. The bank was started under a state charter with a capital stock of $10,000. One year later it was reorganized and the state charter was surrendered and a national charter acquired. The change of name made it the First National Bank of Augusta. At the same time the capital stock was increased to $25,000. The First National now has a surplus of $25,000 and is one of the most solid and prosperous banking houses of Butler County. It has a continuous record of sixteen years of successful banking. Some of the best known business men and farmers of Augusta and vicinity are among its officers and stockholders. A list of executive officers is: F. H. Penley, president; H. W. Wilson, vice president; W. A. Penley, cashier; and A. R. Peckham, assistant cashier. Besides these officers the other directors are J. W. Skaer, John Guthrie, M. F. Taylor, W. W. Peckham, W. B. Earl and E. C. Penley.
Mr. Penley was the first vice president of the bank and now for several years has been its president. Besides his part in the farming, stock raising and banking activities of this section of Butler County, Mr. Penley is also well known as a merchant. In 1908 he bought the J. Butts & Son hardware and implement house and organized the Paul & Penley Hardware Company. This has become one of the largest establishments of its kind in Butler County. Besides the store at Augusta they have a branch store at Mulvane which does a business equal in volume to that of the main store.
Mr. Penley not only showed a genial welcome to the extension of the oil and gas fields into his part of Butler County, but proved his faith in the industry by investing his own capital and originating development work on his own account. He was one of the pioneers to exploit the oil and gas resources of the great Augusta field. He is a member of the Skaer Gas & Drilling Company, and has worked to the limit of his individual strength to make the wealth that is daily pouring out of the wells of more than passing benefit to this community.
Mr. Penley married in 1877, at Augusta, Miss Ellen F. Colburn. Mrs. Penley was born in Massachusetts, but came when a child with her parents to Kansas in 1854. The Colburns were among the pioneers of pioneers in Kansas territory, and they lived at Lawrence when that town was one of the focal points of settlement and a center for much of the history of early times. The Colburns lived at Lawrence when Quantrell brought his notorious band of outlaws and guerrillas and sacked and burned the settlement and murdered a number of its inhabitants.
Mr. and Mrs. Penley take justifiable pride in their family of children. Walter, the oldest, is now cashier of the First National Bank of Augusta. He married Winnie Paul, of Augusta. Ernest C., who is a member of the Paul & Penley Hardware Company of Augusta, married Pearl Paul, of Augusta. Ruth is the wife of Roy J. Paul, a farmer near Augusta. Charles W., the youngest, is a teller in the First National Bank of Augusta. He married Mary Haines, of Hutchinson, Kansas. (A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans. Vol. 3, Chicago, Ill, USA, Lewis Publishing Company, 1918)
Richard Allen was born in Logan County, Illinois, December 7, 1864. His father, B. F. Allen, was born in White County of that state in 1833, and was one of the Kansas pioneers. Reared in Illinois, and taking up the vocation of farmer there he first came out to Kansas in 1859, when it was still a territory. He spent some time near Augusta in Butler County, being there when the population was almost completely composed of Indians and before the Homestead Act was passed. He afterwards returned to Illinois, and served as a soldier in the Civil war, but after four months was incapacitated being taken ill with cholera and his life was despaired of for some time. After the war he followed farming in Logan County, Illinois, but in 1871 emigrated across the country in a prairie schooner and established his home and family at Elk City, where he bought his farm of 240 acres. He retired from farming about 1896, and afterwards sold the old place. His death occurred in Elk City in 1912. He was a republican and active in the Methodist Episcopal Church. B. F. Allen married Elizabeth Kello, who was born in White County, Illinois, in 1836, and is now living in Elk City. Their children were: Annie, deceased; George N., a merchant at Elk City; William and John F., both deceased; James, who follows the oil fields and lives at Boynton, Oklahoma; Frank, deceased; Richard; Minnie, deceased; Thomas, who lives at Independence; Jacob, Fred and Benjamin, all deceased; and Lewis, the thirteenth child, who is in the advertising business at Chicago.
Prof. Richard Allen received his early education in the public schools of Montgomery County. The first seventeen years of his life he spent on his father's farm, and then qualified and began his work as a teacher. He taught in Montgomery County schools eight years, in Labotte County one year, again in Montgomery County for two years, was principal of schools at Cherryvale, and in 1895-96 was superintendent of schools at Harper, Kansas. He had attended the State Normal School at Emporia and in 1898 was graduated and granted a life certificate. From Harper he went to Moline, and was superintendent of schools there for three years, until he accepted his present position as professor of history in the Montgomery County High School at Independence in 1899. In 1914 he was granted the degree of Bachelor of Arts and in 1915 the Master of Arts degree by the State Teachers College of Greeley, Colorado.
Politically Mr. Allen is a republican, is a member of the Methodist Church, and is affiliated with Fortitude Lodge No. 107, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and Camp No. 649, Modern Woodmen of America. Though a school man is always supposed to be poor Mr. Allen has acquired some property, including his residence at 611 West Main Street and other houses in the city, and a farm in Colorado.
In 1891 at Cherryvale, Kansas, he married Miss Claria E. Barick, who for a number of years was a teacher in the schools of Kansas. She is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Barick. Her father is still living, a retired farmer at Cherryvale. (A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans. Vol. 3, Chicago, Ill, USA, Lewis Publishing Company, 1918)
One of the first physicians to locate at the Town of Augusta in Butler County was Dr. L. S. Hall. That was nearly forty years ago. For a number of years Doctor Hall lived outside of Kansas, but the greater part of his professional career has been identified with a town that has since developed into a thriving city, the center of one of the greatest oil districts in Southern Kansas.
Doctor Hall has done a great deal of good through his profession, and has lived a well rounded and complete life. His is an excellent ancestry. Doctor Hall was born at Spencer, New York, April 17, 1855. In the paternal line he is of Scotch-Irish descent, the Halls having come to New York State in Colonial times. His grandfather, Lewis Hall, was born on Long Island near New York City. He afterwards acquired a farm on the shores of Lake Cayuga, six miles from Ithaca, New York, and lived there until his death in 1861. His death was the result of an accident when his horse ran away. He had had a military training and served in the New York State Militia. His church was the Presbyterian. Lewis Hall married Miss Elizabeth Corey, a native of New York State. Doctor Hall's father was H. S. Hall, who was born in Orange County, New York, in 1810. He spent his early life in Orange County and when a young man went out to Rockford, Illinois, where he established the pioneer general store. At that time Northern Illinois was just being settled up and law and order, peace and security of person and property were largely left to the people themselves. H. S. Hall became an active member of a vigilance committee which did much to suppress outlawry. He lived in Illinois three years and while there took up a homestead of a 100 acres. He later traded that farm and went to New York, locating at Spencer in Tioga County. He worked as clerk in a dry goods store, finally was taken into partnership and remained active in business thirty years. He had traded his Illinois land for a farm adjoining that of his father-in-Law in Tioga County, and after giving up merchandising he became a stock farmer and lived on his place from 1861 until his death in 1806. He was a democrat in politics and served as a justice of the peace.
H. S. Hall married Cornelia L. Fisher. Doctor Hall gives great credit for what he has accomplished in life and for his character to his beloved mother. She was born in Spencer, New York, in 1819, and died there in 1896, just one day after her husband died. Though the women of her generation seldom had the advantages of schools and colleges, she possessed an unusual range of accomplishments both intellectually and in the domestic arts. Her character was especially admirable. She was amiable, possessed a beautiful personality, and these qualities were balanced by fine intelligence and judgment. She was an active member of the Presbyterian Church. Her grandfather, Leonard Fisher, was of pure German stock, and lived for many years in New York City, where he was a successful merchant and where he acquired considerable property which subsequently became very valuable. Leonard Fisher had fourteen children, and all of them but Thomas and George died in New York City. Mrs. H. S. Hall's father was named Thomas Fisher. He was born in New York City. He and his brother went out to Western New York and became pioneer hog raisers at Spencer in Tioga County. He also had had experience as a sailor on the high seas and visited Portugal, Spain, and other foreign countries. He died at Spencer, New York, in 1864. Thomas Fisher married Olive Hodges. She was of English stock and possessed a splendid balance of character, and through her Mrs. H. S. Hall acquired many of the qualities already referred to. Olive (Hodges) Fisher died at Spencer, New York, at the age of ninety-six.
Mr. and Mrs. H. S. Hall had nine children: Henry H., who died at Brooklyn, New York, in 1907, was for many years in newspaper work but the last fifteen years of his life was engaged in the nursery business. Olive H., who died at Spencer, New York, in 1871, was the wife of Dr. Alonzo Norris, deceased, a physician and surgeon. Mary F., who lives at Spencer, New York, is a graduate of the Oswego Normal School of New York, and for many years was successfully engaged in school work, chiefly as a normal teacher in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana and New York. She retired very well to do, having made her own fortune. Thomas F. is in the nursery business at El Paso, Texas. Emily C. lives at Chautauqua, New York, the widow of Rev. Jacob Woodruff, who was a Methodist preacher. The sixth in the family, Frederick A., died in infancy. The next younger is Dr. L. S. Hall. Rosemond C. married Jacob Valentine and they live on the old homestead in Tioga County, New York. Catherine L., the youngest, is the wife of Charles Fisher, a dairyman at Spencer, New York.
Doctor Hall attended the public schools of Spencer, New York, graduating from high school in 1873, and began the study of medicine under his brother-in-law, Doctor Norris. He also took the regular course in the Bellevue Hospital Medical College at New York City, from which he has the degree M. D. given him in 1878. At three different times Doctor Hall has taken post-graduate work and special courses in the eye and ear and in general surgery at Kansas City.
It was in 1878 that he located in Augusta, Kansas. None of the men in practice at that time in this part of Butler County remain, and thus Doctor Hall is dean of the medical fraternity at Augusta. During his many years of practice he has found his services in increasing demand as a surgeon. In 1896 he left Kansas and spent two years at Clinton, Missouri, and then on account of failing health lived a year in Colorado. After his health was restored he resumed practice at Coatesville, Missouri, where he remained until 1910, then returning to Augusta. His offices are on State Street.
Butler County was a new country when he began practice in 1878. The homes of the settlers were often far apart, there were trails rather than roads leading about from place to place, and for those who never lived in such conditions it is practically impossible to imagine the countless difficulties which the pioneer doctor had to encounter. A man of less rugged physique would have worn himself out in a few years performing the arduous duties of country practice. Doctor Hall was called to attend his patients over a wide stretch of country. He rode horseback the greater part of the time and it was years before the telephone came as an aid and years more before the automobile made country driving comparatively easy. It was not an uncommon thing for him during some of his eighteen or twenty mile rides to lose his way in the night time and spend several hours on a prairie by the side of a friendly hay stack. At sunrise the next morning he would take his bearings and proceed to the home where his professional services were required. One of the first professional calls Doctor Hall made after coming to Augusta was a confinement case. He presided over the birth of Carl F. Buck, who is now a prosperous manufacturer at Augusta. When Doctor Hall located at Augusta the business district of the town consisted of only one stone building. This was occupied by Locke the druggist. This pioneer store was just north of where Ettenson's business house now stands. Doctor Hall since coming to Kansas has taken an active part in behalf of the Democratic party, and has done much to further and maintain its organization. He has served as chairman of the Democratic County Central Committee, the Democratic Congressional Committee, and has also been a member of the Democratic State Committee.
Doctor Hall served as president of the local school board a number of years, for a long time was on the city council, and in 1895 was elected mayor. He owns his residence at 1022 Dearborn Street and through the diligent practice of his profession for forty years has been able to provide amply for his family and secure a sufficiency for his own needs. Fraternally he is prominent in Mystic Tie Lodge No. 74, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, which he served as master many years, and also belongs to El Dorado Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, and El Dorado Commandery No. 19, Knights Templar. He was formerly active in the County and State Medical societies and the American Medical Association.
Doctor Hall married in El Dorado, Kansas, Miss Fannie Houston. Mrs. Hall is a native of Indiana but lived at El Dorado before her marriage. Doctor and Mrs. Hall have two children. Gertrude E. is a graduate of the Trenton, Missouri, High School, and is now the wife of W. H. Watt, who is a resident of Kansas City, Missouri, and is agent for Florida lands. Robert L. Hall is a resident of Wichita, Kansas, and is in the railway service. (A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans. Vol. 3, Chicago, Ill, USA, Lewis Publishing Company, 1918)
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