BUTLER COUNTY,
KANSAS
The community around Beaumont in Butler County and also in Greenwood County has known Mr. Ledgerwood as a substantial farmer citizen and business man for over thirty years. As a farmer he attended strictly to his business, worked with all the power that was in him and in time acquired a well developed farm and sufficient property for his needs. Mr. Ledgerwood is now a resident of the Village of Beaumont, and among other interests is looking after the local post office as postmaster.
He comes of that fine stock of people that located in East Tennessee during pioneer times and subsequently showed their independence and love of the Union during the dark days of the Civil war. The Ledgerwood family came originally from England and settled in Virginia, later going to East Tennessee. Some members of family fought in the Revolutionary war. The name originated in 1127 in Berwickshire, England, derived from the lands of Ledgerwood in Berwickshire. The Coat of Arms are: Argent, a chevron engrailed between three wolves heads, erased sable, collared and ringed. The crest is: Out of a mural coronet, or, a wolf's head, sable, collared and ringed, or. Motto, “Spera in Deo.” On the maternal side the family is related to President Rutherford B. Hayes. Mr. Ledgerwood's grandfather, Samuel Ledgerwood, was born in Union County, Tennessee, in 1811. He lived there all his life and died in 1881. His career was spent as a farmer. All his sons but one gave service in the Civil war and to the Union cause. He had four sons and one daughter. The oldest of the sons was Absom, father of the Beaumont postmaster. The next two were named Elliott and James. Colonel W. L., the youngest, was an officer in the Federal army and after the war became a noted politician in Eastern Tennessee, and lived for many years in Knoxville, where he died.
Absom Ledgerwood was born in Union County, Tennessee, in 1838. He responded to the call of his country in the time of need during the Civil war, and while serving with the Union army gave up his life as a sacrifice to the cause in 1862. Until he went into the army he followed farming in Eastern Tennessee. He was married there to Eliza Ann Skaggs. She was born in Union County in 1824 and died there in 1915, when ninety-one years of age. Her father, Charles Skaggs, was born in Union County in 1795, and his father and his oldest brother fought valiantly for the American cause in the War of 1812. Charles Skaggs was a farmer in East Tennessee and died in Union County in 1889, at the venerable age of ninety-four. Mr. and Mrs. Absom Ledgerwood were the parents of four children: Taswell, who died in infancy; Orlando C., a farmer at Tishomingo, Oklahoma; Granville T.; and James L., a physician and surgeon at Tishomingo, Oklahoma. The mother of these children married for her second husband Harrison Harless, who was born in Union County, Tennessee, was a farmer there, served in the Union army during the Civil war and died in Union County. By this marriage there was only one child, a son who died in infancy.
Granville T. Ledgerwood was born in Union County, Tennessee, February 13, 1859. As a boy he had meager advantages in the way of education, since his part of the country was in a state of turbulence during and for some years after the war. He improved his advantages and finally managed to acquire a liberal education. Besides the rural schools he attended public school at Knoxville and for a time was a student in the State University at Knoxville. At the age of seventeen. Mr. Ledgerwood sought his opportunities further north. Going to McDonough County, Illinois, he worked at farming until he was twenty-four, was married then and brought his wife to Kansas to begin anew in a new country. It was in 1886 that he came to Greenwood County and located two and a half miles east of Beaumont. He developed his land and planted and harvested crops through the successive seasons until 1910. In that year he was appointed postmaster of Beaumont by President Taft, and still retains the office. Mr. Ledgerwood owns a farm of one hundred and sixty acres near Beaumont. His land is only a hundred rods from the first gas well which was brought in that part of the state. His own home is east of the school house in Beaumont, and he owns another dwelling house south of the hardware store on Main Street and is owner of the post office building.
Mr. Ledgerwood is a republican, a member of the Christian Church, and is affiliated with Beaumont Lodge No. 275, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and Beaumont Lodge No. 465, Ancient Order of United Workmen, carrying two thousand dollars life insurance in the latter order.
Mr. Ledgerwood was married in McDonough County, Illinois, to Miss Elizabeth Stapp, daughter of James and Mabala (Guy) Stapp. Her parents are both deceased. The father was not only a farmer but also a minister of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Ledgerwood. James, the oldest, became a farmer, and while living in East Tennessee was murdered in 1915 by a foreign degenerate. Vivian is a successful teacher, still living with her parents, and is a graduate of the University of Kansas with the class of 1906, holding the degree A. B. Arthur is a car builder at Columbus, Ohio, Howard graduated from the Norton High School, was a student in Washburn College at Topeka, and is now connected with the Walkover Boot and Shoe Store at Topeka.
Frank P. Bowen is a veteran business man of Centralia, Kansas, where he located over forty years ago when it was a hamlet just beginning to show signs of business prosperity. While Mr. Bowen relieved himself of the more important business activities some years ago, he is still president of the First National Bank of Centralia.
He is of old New England stock. The Bowens came out of England and settled in New Hampshire in Colonial times. His grandfather, Grove Bowen, was born in Lancaster, New Hampshire, and died at Piermont in that state in 1859, having spent his life as a New Hampshire farmer. He also served as an American soldier during the War of 1812. His wife, Hannah Perkins, also was a lifelong resident of New Hampshire and died at Piermont. Of their children the only one now living is Hiram M., a retired lumberman at Wentworth, New Hampshire.
Ezra B. Bowen, father of the Centralia banker, was born at Piermont, New Hampshire, in 1823. He grew up and married in his native state and as a youth did farming and also taught school. Out of his own earnings he took the law course at Albany, New York, and in the early days moved west and began practice at Mayville in Dodge County, Wisconsin. He was a successful attorney, and served one term as a member of the State Senate of Wisconsin. He was a republican and belonged to the Masonic fraternity. He died at Mayville. Wisconsin, in 1857, when his son and only child, Frank P., was five years of age.
Frank P. Bowen was born at Mayville, Wisconsin, August 27, 1852. His mother's maiden name was Hannah Page, who was born in Haverhill, New Hampshire, in 1827, and died at Mayville, Wisconsin, in 1856. Thus orphaned at the age of five, Frank P. Bowen was reared in the home of his grandparents, Samuel and Eliza Page, at Haverhill, New Hampshire. He attended the district schools in the old New England town, and in 1870 finished the preparatory course for college in the Meriden Academy in New Hampshire. Mr. Bowen on leaving the academy began clerking in a store at Haverhill, and subsequently was similarly employed in Boston, Massachusetts, until 1873.
With this commercial experience he came West in 1873 to Centralia, and identified himself with the town when it had about a hundred population. For the first three years he was connected with a cheese factory and after that for thirty years was successfully engaged in handling and shipping live stock. He dealt with the farmers and stock raisers over a wide territory, and contributed to the prestige of Centralia as a market town. In the meantime, before retiring from business, Mr. Bowen had become a director in the First National Bank, subsequently was elected vice president, and has been president of this old and stable institution since 1909. He is also a stockholder in the State Bank of Lillis, Kansas. In 1878 Mr. Bowen erected one of the best homes in Centralia, located on Commercial Street, and he and his family still live in that residential landmark. He also owns a store building on Fourth Street. Mr. Bowen is a member of the Kansas and American Bankers' associations.
After he had become well established in business in Kansas he went back to New England for his bride. He was married January 12, 1876, at Chelsea, Massachusetts, to Miss Mary Merrill, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Merrill. Her father was a farmer and both parents are now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Bowen have four children, the second of whom, Walter E., died at the age of two years and the third, a son, died in infancy. Bertha, the oldest child and only daughter, is a graduate with the degree A. B. from the University of Kansas, and is now the wife of H. G. Kyle, an attorney practicing law at Kansas City, Missouri. Leslie N., the only son, is a graduate of the Centralia High School and of the Gem City Business College of Quincy, Illinois. He is now in the lumber business at Malta, Montana. By his marriage to Mildred McIntyre he has two children, Mary Martha and Frank Leslie, the only grandchildren of Mr. Bowen.
Glen E. Kiser is a member of an old and substantial family of Butler County, and on assuming the responsibilities of manhood he himself took up newspaper work, and experience has developed many exceptional qualifications in that profession. He is now editor and proprietor of the Augusta Gazette.
Mr. Kiser was born in Leon, Kansas, April 11, 1891, was educated in the public schools at El Dorado and graduated from high school in 1909. After one year in the University of Kansas he joined the staff of the El Dorado Times and had a great variety of newspaper experience for the next three years. In 1914 he went out to Colorado, continued there in newspaper work for a year, and on returning to Kansas he was connected with the Wichita Beacon one year. Mr. Kiser in January, 1907, bought the Augusta Gazette and is now both its editor and proprietor. The Augusta Gazette was established as a daily paper in 1902, but for a number of years before that had been published as a weekly issue. It is a republican paper and has a large circulation and influence throughout Butler and surrounding counties. The office and plant are well equipped and the paper is growing rapidly in proportion as Augusta is becoming more and more an important center in the oil and gas region of Southern Kansas.
Mr. Glen Kiser is a republican, is a member of the Christian Church, and is affiliated with Patmos Lodge No, 97, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at El Dorado. On January 1, 1916, at Douglass, Kansas, he married Miss Jennie Satterthwaite. Mrs. Kiser is a daughter of Senator J. M. and Mattie (Duttom) Satterthwaite, of Douglass.
Mr. Kiser's paternal ancestors have been Americans since Colonial days. He is a son of L. L. Kiser, long and favorably known in Butler County. L. L. Kiser was born in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, November 2, 1855, a son of Levi and Elizabeth (Chester) Kiser. Levi Kiser was born in Ohio and his wife in New Jersey. When a child Levi went to Indiana with his parents, grew up there and in 1856, after his marriage, he moved out to Iowa, locating near Iowa City in Johnston County. He was one of the very early pioneers in that region and lived there until 1878. He then brought his family to Kansas, locating in Little Walnut Township of Butler County. Butler County was still only a short distance removed from the period of pioneer settlement, and Levi Kiser became one of the incorporators of the Town of Leon. He was a member of the Town Site Company, and for several terms was mayor of the village. For a number of years he was among the merchants of Leon, but finally retired, and his death occurred at Leon in 1908, at the age of eighty-four. His wife died in Iowa in 1872.
L. L. Kiser was a young man of twenty-three years when he came to Kansas. His father had seven children who reached maturity, and he grew up in this large household and gained his education in the schools of Iowa. In 1878 he came to Butler County, Kansas, and he and his two brothers were associated in the contracting and building business for fifteen years. This was followed by an extensive experience in the real estate, loan and insurance business at El Dorado, but in 1915 Mr. L. L. Kiser moved out to his farm three miles south of El Dorado, where he has developed a splendid general farm and stock ranch consisting of 280 acres.
While his business career is but briefly noted, mention should also be made of his active and public spirited part in local affairs in Butler County during the past forty years. He has done much to develop and increase the power and prestige of his home city of El Dorado. He served as chairman of the Commercial Club for a time and was especially active in the exploitation and development of the oil and gas resources of Butler County. He stood always for a sane and common sense administration of local affairs, divorced as far as possible from the interference of partisan politics. For twenty years he took a firm stand against the mingling of partisanship with city and local government and finally had the satisfaction of seeing his principles given a practical application as far as El Dorado was concerned. Mr. L. L. Kiser has long been one of the prominent members of the Christian Church at El Dorado, served a number of years as elder, was a member of the building committee when the handsome new church edifice was erected at El Dorado, and has allied himself with much of the practical philanthropy of which the church is an expression. Fraternally he is a member of the Fraternal Aid and the Modern Woodmen of America.
In 1882 L. L. Kiser married Miss Grace A. Gard, who was born in Illinois. Her death occurred in 1887, and she left two children: Louis, of Bristol, Colorado, and Clara, wife of Jesse L. Biggs, of Potwin, Kansas. In 1889 L. L. Kiser married Miss Mary L. Applegate. She was born in Winterset, Iowa, came to Kansas in 1882, and for a number of years before her marriage was a teacher in Butler County. To this second union were born three children: Glen E., editor and proprietor of the Augusta Gazette; Ruth, a stenographer at El Dorado; and Celeste, still living at home with her parents. All the children by both marriages except Louis are graduates of the El Dorado High School.
Howard J. Hodgson, who has practiced law at Eureka since 1888, has gained a strong hold on the business, professional and civic affairs of his home county, and is one of the prominent Kansans of today. Mr. Hodgson has lived in this state since he was six years of age, his people being pioneers of Greenwood County.
He is a native of Canada, having been born near Lindsay in County Victoria, Ontario, October 6, 1863. His grandfather, John Hodgson, was born in England in 1795, and as a young man immigrated to Canada and spent his active years as a farmer in the Province of Ontario. When an old man he came to Kansas, and lived retired at Eureka until his death in April 1871.
Jonathan Hodgson, father of Howard J., was for [p.1429] many years an influential and substantial citizen of Greenwood County. He was born in Ontario, Canada, in 1827, was reared and married there, and was a sawyer by trade. On March 1, 1869, he arrived at Lawrence, Kansas, and three weeks later reached Greenwood County, where he homesteaded 160 acres of land. He and his family had all the early day experiences of the Kansas people of the '70s and '80s, and he was one of the men who came out of those critical times with the credit of having made a home and ample provision for those dependent upon him and having prospered to an unusual degree. He followed farming and stock raising, and at the time of his death was the owner of 1,000 acres. He died at Eureka June 9, 1901. After becoming an American citizen he allied himself with the republican party. He was a prominent member of the Congregational Church in Greenwood County, assisted in organizing the church at Eureka, and always supported it liberally. He served it as deacon for a number of years. Jonathan Hodgson married Elizabeth Clenney, who was born near Dublin, Ireland, in 1828, and died at Eureka, Kansas, in 1910. Her parents came to America in 1838, when she was ten years of age, and settled in County Victoria, Ontario, where as a girl she became acquainted with Jonathan Hodgson. These worthy people became the parents of a large family of children, and the record of these children is a splendid tribute to the character of their parents. Harriet, who now resides at Kansas City, Missouri, is the widow of the late E. L. Gould, who was a farmer and stockman in Greenwood County and was serving as county treasurer at the time of his death. Martha, who resides at Eureka, Kansas, is the widow of A. A. Baldwin, who was very successful as a farmer and stock raiser, and died in Greenwood County in 1914. Moses Wealey met an accidental death when a young man, being kicked by a horse. Cyrus Clark also had an accidental death, being killed in 1907 while riding on a load of lumber near Walters, Oklahoma. He fell off the lumber and under the horses feet, and died as a result of the injuries. Margaret V. is still single and resides at Sleeper, Missouri. Will F. is a farmer and grain dealer and has an elevator at Eureka. Emma E. married O. F. Gould, a retired farmer and banker at Eureka. Maud M. is the wife of Harlan W. Barrier, a farmer and stockman at Sleeper, Missouri. The ninth in the family is Howard J. Hodgson. Nellie E. died young. Alfred Ernest is a graduate of the Kansas Normal College at Fort Scott and is now a practicing attorney at Seattle, Washington.
The boyhood recollections of Howard J. Hodgson center around the old homestead farm in Greenwood County. He attended such schools as were supported in the community, and finished his literary education by graduating in 1886 from the Kansas Normal College at Fort Scott. After teaching a four months' term in Butler County he entered enthusiastically upon the study of law in the office of Capt. Ira P. Nye, of Eureka. In May 1888, he was admitted to the bar, and since that date has been steadily building up a clientage and a reputation as a civil and criminal lawyer at Eureka. His offices are in the Citizens National Bank Building.
Besides the practice of law Mr. Hodgson has acquired extensive business interests. He is the owner of farms in Greenwood County to the aggregate of 5,500 acres, and through the development of this land has contributed a great deal to the substantial prosperity of the community. He also owns a garage on Main Street, a store building on the same street, and has one of the finest locations for a residence in the city.
Mr. Hodgson in politics is a republican of the old stamp, loyal to the principles and policies which guided that great organization through the time of trial in national affairs and thoroughly believes in the wholesomeness of the ideals of republicanism. In 1916 he was a candidate for Congress, and has taken an active part in county and state conventions. Fraternally Mr. Hodgson is affiliated with Fidelity Lodge No. 106, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Queen Bess Chapter No. 56, Order of the Eastern Star, and he is a well known member of the Kansas State Bar Association.
On November 27, 1890, at Eureka, he married Miss Della Penwell, who died September 5, 1893, survived by one daughter, Veda E., who lives at home with her father and was graduated A. B. from Washburn College in 1915. On November 7, 1905, at Topeka, Mr. Hodgson married Miss Bertha Penwell, a sister of his former wife. Her parents, J. N. and Frances (Harmon) Penwell, now reside at Eureka, her father being a retired farmer and stockman. By the second marriage there have been two children: Mary Helene, who died at the age of seven months, and Helen Lorine, who was born August 16, 1912.
With an experience as a physician and surgeon covering over twenty years, and with increasing capabilities for exact and thorough service, Doctor Gross has been located for the past ten years at Denton, Kansas, where he controls a large practice and has also identified himself with the business interests of the locality.
His paternal ancestors several generations back came out of Germany and were early settlers in the State of Tennessee. Doctor Gross' grandfather was a native of Tennessee and went as a pioneer to that picturesque district of Northwest Missouri now known as Excelsior Springs in Clay County. There he pre-empted a tract of land, and continued to farm it until his death.
Doctor Gross himself is a native of Excelsior Springs, Missouri, where he was born October 2, 1874. His father, A. W. Gross, who was born at the present site of Excelsior Springs in 1850, has long been prominent in that city both in business affairs and in public life. He has extensive interests as a farmer and- stock raiser, and is also engaged in the banking business at Lawson, Missouri. For one term he represented Clay County in the State Legislature, having been elected as a democrat, and has served as county judge and for eight years was presiding judge of the Clay County Court. He is a deacon in the Christian Church and for thirty years was superintendent of its Sunday school. A. W. Gross married Lucy Laffoon, who was born in Clay County, Missouri, in 1851 and died at Exceleior Springs in 1906. Doctor Gross was the oldest of their children. His sister Mattie is still at home with her parents. His brother Jesse was in business with his father and while on a visit to Needles, Arizona, was accidentally killed, being then only thirty years of age.
Doctor Gross attended rural schools in Clay County, Missouri, and in 1891 graduated from the Excelsior Springs High School. He had already definitely formulated his career, and spent two years in the University Medical College of Kansas City and completed his course in the Kentucky School of Medicine at Louisville, where he was graduated M. D. in 1894. Doctor Gross has spared no pains to perfect himself in every possible way for a better and more thorough work, and in 1907 he completed a course and received another degree as Doctor of Medicine from Ensworth Medical College at St. Joseph, and during 1916 spent a number of weeks in Chicago attending clinics and hospital lectures.
After graduating from the Medical School at Louisville Doctor Gross began practice at Tescott, Kansas, where he was located five years, and after that was at Towanda in Butler County until 1907. In that year he located at Denton, and has since had a growing general practice in medicine and surgery. His offices are in the Denton State Bank Building.
Doctor Gross is a director and stockholder of the Denton Mutual Telephone Company and owns the building in which its exchange is located. He is a member of the Doniphan County and the State Medical societies, the American Medical Association, and is affiliated with Towanda Lodge of Masons and Denton Camp of the Modern Woodmen of America.
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