BUTLER COUNTY,
KANSAS
John Bunyan Adams was born in Butler County, Kansas. That county has been his home all his life, and beginning there as a country school teacher and subsequently entering banking, he has achieved a reputation built up on constructive service that has made him widely known over the state as a legislator, banker and financier. He is a former president of the State Bankers' Association, and for years has been a recognized leader in his part of the state in the Republican party.
His birth occurred on March 25, 1873, on his father's farm near Potwin in Butler County. He is a son of Amos and Nancy M. (Cain) Adams. He traces his ancestry back in the paternal line to Joshua Adams, who came from England in 1660 and settled at Braintree, Massachusetts. In the successive generations there have been soldiers in every war, beginning with the French and Indian, and through the Revolutionary and Civil wars, and the family has also been represented worthily in the industries, professions and business affairs and as pioneers in the making of new commonwealths in Massachusetts, Maryland, Vermont, Illinois and Kansas.
Mr. Adams' grandfather, William Adams, was born at Hagerstown, Maryland, 1801, and about 1840 he settled among the pioneers in Fulton County, Illinois. He was a substantial farmer, and a man of wide influence in his community. His brother Joseph Adams came to Kansas in 1859, locating on the Whitewater River three miles north of Potwin in Butler County, and was a pioneer among pioneers in that section.
Amos Adams, father of John B., was born at Vermont in Fulton County, Illinois, February 25, 1843. He grew up there, acquired a substantial education, and as a young man did his part toward the preservation of the Union. He was mustered in February 23, 1865, as a member of Company D, One Hundred Fifty-First Illinois Infantry. This regiment was organized at Quincy and after a year of service was mustered out at Springfield, Illinois, February 8, 1866.
Having heard much of Kansas, particularly through his uncle, who is pioneer settlement in Butler County has been noted, Amos Adams at the close of the war came out to the Sunflower state and took up a homestead on the Whitewater near Potwin. There he engaged in farming and went through all the vicissitudes and changing circumstances that made up the Kansas farmer's lot during the early times. He remained a resident of Butler County forty years. He showed a quiet courage and determination in the performance of his varied duties and responsibilities, and his influence and activities were commendable-factors in the growth and development of the community. He acquired some of the finest farm land in the county, was also interested in banks and had real estate both in Potwin and El Dorado. Though he did what he could to up build and maintain the fortunes of the Republican party in Kansas, he could never be prevailed upon to accept public office. He was one of the most generous supporters of the Christian Church in the county. Associated with the late N. F. Frazier, he became one of the organizers of the State Bank of El Dorado and for several years filled the office of vice president.
On April 18, 1866, a few weeks after he came home from the army, Amos Adams married Nancy M. Cain. Her father, Dr. Jesse Cain, was for many years a capable and useful physician in Fulton County, Illinois. Amos Adams and wife had seven children. Two daughters died in early childhood. Those who grew up were: John Bunyan; Myrtle, wife of Milo E. Ball, of Potwin, Kansas; Fern, who died February 11, 1915; Olive, who died November 30, 1911; and Roetina L. Johnson, of Potwin. The father of these children died April 26, 1904, and the mother on September 9, 1914.
While his individual interests and activities have lain in the field of business affairs, John B. Adams has always felt a deep sense of gratitude that his early environment was the wholesome atmosphere of a Kansas farm. He attended district schools in Butler County, and in 1890 became a teacher, teaching in his native county until 1894. In the meantime he was a student in the Salina Normal University at Salina, where he was graduated in 1893.
Aside from teaching his first important experience in business was as a newspaper man. In May, 1894, he founded the Leon Press at Leon in Butler County. In January, 1895, he removed his plant to Augusta and there conducted the Augusta Press until he sold out in September, 1896. After this comparatively brief excursion in the field of journalism Mr. Adams moved to El Dorado and became teller in the Farmers and Merchants National Bank. In banking be found himself in a congenial field, a work to which he could give every ounce of his energy and all his enthusiasm, and for one whose experience covers only about twenty years he has attained conspicuous eminence in financial circles.
In July, 1899, Mr. Adams, in company with the late Nathan F. Frazier, founded the Citizens State Bank of El Dorado. He became cashier, and on the death of Mr. Frazier in 1907 became active manager, a position he continued until 1909. In that year he sold his interest in the Citizens State Bank and then organized the Butler County State Bank. This institution is now one of the strongest banks in Southern Kansas. It has a capital of $50,000.00, has surplus and profits of about $50,000.00 and its deposits aggregate $900,000.00. In very one of the eight years since it was established the bank has paid dividends. Mr. Adams is the controlling stockholder of the bank and is both president and managing executive.
He is also a stockholder and vice president of the State Bank of Douglass, Kansas. His talents as a banker were recognized almost as quickly outside his native county as in it. In 1903 he was elected vice president and in 1904 attained the honor of president of the Kansas Bankers' Association. Such a compliment has seldom been paid by Kansas bankers to so young a man.
The discovery of the great El Dorado oil field in October, 1915, found Mr. Adams in the possession of some valuable and productive land in the heart of the field and also the owner of some valuable leases. The rapid growth and enrichment of El Dorado produced a very large and rapid increase of deposits in the Butler County State Bank, in which Mr. Adams held a controlling interest. The deposits of this bank increased from $230,000.00 to $900,000.00 in one year's time. Enjoying such prosperity the bank built a beautiful $40,000.00 home in the year 1917, with one of the largest and strongest burglar proof vaults in the State of Kansas.
During his younger years in banking experience Mr. Adams found time to study law and in 1899 was admitted to the bar. He has never practiced, and his object in qualifying himself for the bar was only to furnish a highly desirable knowledge that would assist him in banking. Mr. Adams owns several tracts of valuable farming land in Kansas and Oklahoma, and manages for his wife a thousand acre farm situated twenty-five miles south of Kansas City, one of the most beautiful rural places in the State of Missouri. Mr. Adams has attained the Knight Templar and Scottish Rite degrees in Masonry and is a member of the Midian Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Wichita.
A paragraph should be devoted to his legislative and political experience. On the republican ticket he was elected a member of the Legislature in 1898 and re-elected in 1900 and 1902. He served six years, and during that time was one of the most capable members of the committee on banks and banking in the Lower House. He was both member and chairman of that body, was the author of several amendments and was instrumental in securing their incorporation in the statutes governing the banking institutions of Kansas, During the session of 1901 he was chairman of the committee on penal institutions, while in the session of 1903 he was chairman of the committee on banks and banking and a member of the judiciary committee. In 1904 Mr. Adams was chairman of the Republican State Convention of Kansas, and in the same year was nominated for the office of state senator. In 1912 he became a candidate for the republican nomination for Congress against Victor Murdock. He failed to get the nomination because he had arrayed himself against the Roosevelt sentiment of his district. In 1916 Mr. Adams was elected one of the two delegates from the Eighth District to the Republican National Convention at Chicago and gave loyal and enthusiastic support to the movement for nominating Charles E. Hughes as presidential candidate.
Mr. Adams and his family reside on
Walnut Hill in El Dorado. Mr. and Mrs.
Adams are both prominent socially and their home is a center of the cultured
hospitality of the city. On November 29, 1905, he married Miss Edna Frazier. Mrs. Adams is the only daughter of
the late Nathan F. Frazier of El
Dorado. Two children have been born to their union: Frank Frazier, born October 10, 1907;
and John Bunyan, Jr., born January
20, 1911. (A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans. Vol. 3, Chicago, Ill, USA,
Lewis Publishing Company, 1918)
The kind of energy, resource and large-mindedness required of the man who would succsed in any of the learned professions in these days of strenuous effort seem to be an integral part of the equipment of Dr. David C. Stahlman, a medical and surgical practitioner, who with the exception of two years has been engaged in the practice of his honored calling at Potwin, Butler County, since 1900. The recipient of a patronage that is as remunerative financially as it is satisfying intellectually, Doctor Stahlman is an enthusiastic and careful thinker, and notwithstanding his well known caution and respect for tradition is not afraid of untrod paths or of independent individual effort.
Doctor Stahlman was born January 10, 1867, in Steuben County, Indiana, and is a son of Ernest and Rachel (Handley) Stahlman. His father was born in 1819, on the Rhine River, Germany, and was twenty years of age when he immigrated to the United States, first locating in the State of Pennsylvania and later removing to Steuben County, Indiana, where he became a pioneer farmer. He passed the remaining years of his life in agricultural pursuits in the Hoosier State, and died in Steuben County June 7, 1871. He was politically a republican, and his religious faith was that of the Methodist Episcopal Church. By his first wife, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Rupp, he had three children: John Henry, who is now deceased; Charles William, who is a retired farmer of Steuben County, Indiana; and Artie A., who is a farmer of that county. By his second marriage, to Louisa Underwood, Ernest Stahlman had one daughter, Gertrude, who is the wife of George Henry, a Steuben County farmer. Mr. Stahlman's third marriage was to Rachel Handley, who was born in Crawford County, Ohio, in 1830, and died July 29, 1891, in Steuben County, Indiana. They became the parents of four children: Esther Lillian, who died at the age of two years after accidentally receiving severe burns; Elmer Edwin, who was engaged in farming in the vicinity of Gage, Oklahoma, at the time of his death, September 8, 1916; Lettie J., who died February 2, 1886, as the wife of Allen Johnson, a Steuben County, Indiana, farmer; and Dr. David C.
David C. Stahlman received his early education in the rural schools of Steuben County, Indiana, following which he attended the normal school of Angola, Indiana, for one year. From boyhood it had been his ambition to follow a professional career, but he was the youngest in the family, his father had died when he was only four years old, and the financial assistance necessary for his professional training was not forthcoming, so it was left to him to make his own way. In pursuance of his ambition, in 1887 he came to Marion, Kansas, where for two years he was engaged in teaching school, and during the vacation periods added to his income by doing carpenter work, working as a farm hand, and following whatever other line of honorable employment appeared. Thus he was able, in 1889 and 1890, to attend Baker University, following which he again took up school teaching, and followed this vocation in Johnson County until 1896. He then traveled during the summer months for three years, in order to help pay his way, and in the regular terms was a student in the Kansas City Medical College, Kansas City, Missouri, from 1896 until his graduation with the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1900. For six months Doctor Stahlman practiced at Mound Ridge, Kansas, but in the fall of 1900 changed his field of operation to Potwin, where he remained until July, 1906, At that time he went to Hollene, Curry County, New Mexico, and remained there until June, 1908, then returning to Potwin. He is now the only physician of this thriving little Butler County community, and has built up a large and lucrative practice, not alone at this place, but in the surrounding territory. He has established himself firmly in the confidence of his patients and has shown himself a thoroughly learned, careful practitioner. He owns his offices and residence on Main Street, and is secretary of the Potwin Mutual Telephone Company, in addition to which he has other business interests. Doctor Stahlman belongs to the Butler County Medical Society, and is prominent fraternally, being past noble grand of Potwin Lodge No. 525, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; a member of Diamond Camp No. 1838, Modern Woodmen of America, of which he is camp physician and has been clerk for the past ten years and belongs also to El Dorado Camp, Wood then of the World, and El Dorado Lodge, Knights and Ladies of Security. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he is a trustee. His political views make him a republican, and his public services have included two years of membership on the Plum Grove Township School Board.
On June 6,
1901, Doctor Stahlman was married at
Olathe, Kansas, to Miss Esther
Robinson, daughter of James W. and Margaret (Reeves)
Robinson,
retired farming people of Olathe. Doctor
and Mrs. Stahlman have been the parents of four children, namely: Margaret, who died at the age of four
and one-half years; Mildred, born February 19, 1904; Marian, born June 10, 1911; and
Eleanor, born June 30, 1915. (A
Standard History of Kansas and Kansans. Vol. 3, Chicago, Ill, USA, Lewis
Publishing Company, 1918)
John D. Burton received his education in the public schools of Salem, Illinois. Evidently he inherited from his father a predilection for newspaper work, for when he was but fifteen years of age he began to learn the printer's trade, and not long thereafter started work at the case as a compositor for the St. Louis Democrat, an organ with which he was connected for three years. Following this he worked through Missouri and Arkansas as a journeyman printer, and in the fall of 1878 entered Kansas, locating at Galena, which at that time was known as Short Creek. He followed the trade of compositor there for one year, following which he spent a like period at Columbus, and next went to Baxter Springs, where he had his first experience as a newspaper owner, there establishing the Baxter Springs Mirror. After one year he disposed of this publication and went to McCune, Kansas, where he started the McCune Standard, and carried on this paper for a year. His next location was at Neodesha, where he worked as a compositor until 1882, and next resided at Augusta, Butler County, where he was foreman for the Southern Kansas Gazette for four years. When he left the Gazette he went to Douglass, where, in partnership with J. M. Satterthwaite, he published the Douglass Tribune for 4 ˝ years, then returning to Augusta to start the Augusta Beacon. A little over a year later he sold this paper and went to Florence, Kansas, as a compositor in the Shaw Stationery Company's establishment, and continued there one year. In 1904 he went to El Dorado and became a compositor on the El Dorado Republican, remaining with that publication for seven years, and in 1911 established a job printing establishment in that city, which he sold in December, 1916. He then bought modern printing material and equipment and established a plant at Potwin, where, on December 30, he founded the Potwin Ledger, of which he has since been editor and owner. The offices and plant are located on White-water Avenue. The Ledger is republican in its policy, is a neat, well-edited and well-printed sheet, its pages being devoted to the national news of the day, with local news and good editorial matter, and is considered a good advertising medium by the merchants and professional men who are giving it good support. It circulates freely in its section of Butler County, and it is the aim of Mr. Burton to give his readers clean, reliable news, believing that through this means the public may be helped to support development and progress. Mr. Burton is a republican, but his only public office has been that of notary public. He belongs to the Christian Church, and is affiliated fraternally with Augusta Lodge No. 81, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of which he is past noble grand.
In March,
1881, at Neodesha, Kansas, Mr.
Burton was married to Miss Mary
Toler, of Ohio, and they have two children:
Alex K., who resides at
Caldwell, Kansas, and as a printer is showing indications of following his
father's career; and Elizabeth, who
resides with her parents. (A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans. Vol. 3,
Chicago, Ill, USA, Lewis Publishing Company, 1918)
The career of James Dodwell, pioneer harness maker of Butler County and a well known resident of the county seat, El Dorado, is one considerably apart from the ordinary and of unusual interest. In its unfolding it has invaded various fields of endeavor and the occupations of war and peace, and through it Mr. Dodwell has worked out an admirable destiny and has established his right to be numbered among the self-made men who have attained success in spite of the most discouraging circumstances.
James Dodwell was born in the City of New York, in 1845, and, having been left an orphan when an infant, was reared in the home of the Children's Aid Society. In the fall of 1856 he was sent to Kalamazoo, Michigan, and placed in the home of Mrs. Caroline Hawley, where his lot was that too often experienced by orphaned children. Few, if any, kindnesses came his way, hardly any advantages, and no education, for he was not allowed to attend school with the other children. In fact he only attended school for three months in his entire life. Mr. Dodwell almost welcomed the outbreak of the Civil war, when he was about sixteen years of age, for it renewed his aspirations and awakened new hopes and gave him a chance to break away from his sordid surroundings. Enlisting in the army was considered quite an ordeal for most men and youths at that time, but young Dodwell hailed with delight an opportunity to escape from his unpleasant home and irksome duties, and to serve under duly organized and appreciative authority. Accordingly, in 1861 he ran way from home and enlisted, being attached to the Fifty-sixth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, as a drummer boy, being too young to go into the ranks at that time as a regular soldier. He re-enlisted in 1862, in the First Illinois Light Artillery, and participated in a number of important engagements as a member of that organization, notable among which was the battle of Shiloh. He was also in many minor engagements, and shortly before the close of the war was wounded at Corinth, Mississippi, being honorably discharged because of disability. This was also before the term of his second enlistment had expired. Mr. Dodwell next volunteered for service in Company H, Twenty-fifth Regiment, Michigan Volunteer Infantry. for a third term, but was rejected because of injuries received.
In 1865 Mr. Dodwell returned to Kalamazoo. How largely the great Civil war developed the youth of the country can, in its entirety, never be known, but there are some still living, like Mr. Dodwell, who entered upon the hardships incident to a soldier's life when but boys of sixteen years and so bravely and faithfully faced every vicissitude and uncomplainingly bore suffering and hardship that their valor should be remembered when this country counts over its heroes. The great struggle between the North and the South, with the important issues which it represented, certainly brought about a class of men, trained and disciplined, whose influence has ever since been recognized in the peaceful pursuits which have engaged them. Mr. Dodwell had the benefit of this training and discipline, but he was also severely handicapped. The constant concessions of the big guns had worked havoc with his hearing and he had also sustained a severe fracture, and added to this he still lacked a proper education. He did not allow himself to be discouraged, however, but apprenticed himself to the harness maker's trade, of which he had learned something while in the army. For three and one-half years he continued to apply himself to the labor of mastering this vocation, and in the meantime, his ambitions aroused, joined the Young Men's Library Association, which gave him a chance to study and to lay the foundation upon which he subsequently built a good education for himself by hard and persistent study. Mr. Dodwell worked first as a journeyman at Kalamazoo and within a short time became foreman in the shop of the leading harness making firm of that city.
In April, 1871, Mr. Dodwell resigned his position at Kalamazoo and came to El Dorado, Butler County, Kansas. While he was a first-class harness maker, he could not secure a great deal of work, for there was not much demand for such labor in the early days on the plaints. The country was sparsely settled and most of the settlers had oxen instead of horses and the equipment of an ox-team did not call for the art of the harness maker. No one but a blacksmith or a carpenter need apply in equipping an ox team. Not being able to find employment at the trade which was his main asset, he started to cheerfully accept whatever honorable employment presented itself, and one of his first tasks in this county was cutting cord wood at fifty cents per cord. Subsequently he drove stage for four months on the line between Florence and El Dorado for the Southwestern Stage Company, and made several trips even as far as Arkansas City, down on the border, but found this to be a decidedly unpleasant job on account of the cold and the frequency of blizzards in the early days. Mr. Dodwell has to his credit the rescue of J. T. Nye, whom he found in a dazed condition from the extreme cold and the effects of a blizzard and took him to the stage station and gave him shelter. Mr. Nye afterwards became probate judge of Butler County. Later Mr. Dodwell took up a claim of 160 acres, in Fairview Township, Butler County, walking to Wichita to file on the same. His first work at his trade at El Dorado was in the employ of Bob Roberts, and he is said to have made the first handmade single harness manufactured in Butler County. Later he became a partner of Mr. Roberts and eventually bought the latter's interest in the business. Eventually he purchased two lots and his present place of business, on East Central Avenue, where he was afterward successfully engaged in business. He is accounted one of the old-time business men of the community, having for forty-five years been an important factor in the commercial life of El Dorado and Butler County.
Mr. Dodwell has a wide acquaintance. He is well known to William Allen White, and is the original from whom was drawn the character of Watts McCurty in that author's “A Certain Rich Man.” He has also been an acquaintance and personal friend of such men as the late P. B. Plumb; the late Congressman John J. Ingalls; Roscoe Stubbs; Ex-Governor John Martin, who was commander of the Eighth Kansas Infantry; Noble Prentice, Marsh Murdock, and numerous others of the pioneers and men who have made Kansas history.
Mr. Dodwell was married in 1874, at Plainswell, Allegan County, Michigan, to Miss Rebecca Jane Decor, and to this union there have been born children as follows: Louis, Leona and Lee, all of Carthage, Missouri, all high school graduates of El Dorado, and all now prosperous. Mr. Dodwell is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and belongs to the Presbyterian Church. He is the author of “A Story of the Days Long Gone,” published in the History of Butler County, 1916. In this he mentions “The Old Chair,” as follows: “The old chair, formerly Jerry Conner's, referred to in a late issue of the Daily Republican, is still doing service, holding a warm place in the old harness shop (Mr. Dodwell's), the first bank building in El Dorado, and it has seen its best days. The lumber was freighted overland from Emporia to build the shop. There were very few chairs in its class forty-five years ago in El Dorado Township. The early settlers were not overburdened with furniture of any kind and most of the homes in El Dorado were furnished with the very plainest, often home-made, furniture. Much of the necessary household articles were freighted in overland by emigrants.” Mr. Dodwell further writes: “We take pleasure in giving the best part of the old room in the pioneer harness shop to the old chair that has seen its best days, because the chair is one of the writer's most cherished belongings; it is to him a reminder of his early days in El Dorado.” The above is quoted because this chair is the oldest in Butler County and because so many people of prominence have graced it during the past forty-five years that it has been a matter of newspaper comment in the state both serious and humorous. The remainder of the article of “A Story of Days Long Gone” is very interestingly told but does not apply particularly to Mr. Dodwell's history except insofar as he was acquainted with and associated with the early settlers. And their histories will appear, naturally, in other parts of this work.
Few men have
had more interesting careers and none are more highly esteemed than James Dodwell. (A Standard History of
Kansas and Kansans. Vol. 3, Chicago, Ill, USA, Lewis Publishing Company,
1918)
Mr. William F. Hill grew up in Ringgold County, Iowa, attended the country schools there, also pursued a course in the Iowa City Academy, and at irregular intervals was a student in the State University until 1883. In the meantime he taught school in his native state for five years, and coming to Kansas in 1884 he took a place in the schools of Douglass in Butler County for two years. In 1886 he removed to Havensville in Pottawatomie County, was principal of schools there two years, and in 1888-89 became superintendent of schools at Westmoreland, the county seat.
The Westmoreland Recorder was founded in 1885 by J. W. Shiner and J. K. Codding. Its first issue was on May 7, 1885. The paper had been in existence about four years when Mr. Hill bought a half interest and became associated with J. W. Shiner in the publication. A year later he bought the entire paper and has ever since been its proprietor and publisher. The Recorder is the official paper of Pottawatomie County, republican in polities, has a weekly issue and circulates throughout that county and a large surrounding district. The plant and offices are on Main Street, and it is one of the leading country papers of Kansas.
Mr. Hill himself is a republican. He has served on the school board and in the City Council of Westmoreland, and is steward and trustee of the Methodist Episcopal Church and a teacher in the Sunday school. Mr. Hill has taken a prominent part in Grant Lodge No. 237 of the Ancient Order of United Workmen at Westmoreland. He has been financier of the lodge for twenty-five years with the exception of three years while he filled the chair of master workman. He is also a member of the Kansas Editorial Association.
Besides the ownership of considerable real estate in Westmoreland, including a dwelling house, he has a good home at Second and North streets. Mr. Hill was married May 20, 1884, near Iowa City, to Miss Hattie Applegate. They came to Kansas soon after their marriage. Mrs. Hill was born in. Illinois and she taught school both in Iowa and in Kansas. They have had three children: Forest V., who died at the age of four and a half years; Garnet, who graduated from Baker University with the A. B. degree in 1917, and is now teaching in the Havensville, Kansas, High School; and Melvin O., who is a graduate of the Westmoreland High School and is now an electrical engineer at Hutchinson, Kansas. (A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans. Vol. 3, Chicago, Ill, USA, Lewis Publishing Company, 1918)
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