Lyon County, Kansas
Lyon County, Kansas
BIOGRAPHIES
AMOS HINSDALE PLUMB
Amos Hinsdale Plumb is one of the children of the late Senator Preston B. Plumb and Caroline (Southwick) Plumb.
He was born at Emporia, January 31, 1869. He was educated in the public schools of Emporia and the Kansas State
University at Lawrence. Mr. Plumb’s chief business activities have been in real estate and mining. He organized
and is president of the Mutual Building and Loan Association of Emporia, and during 1915-17 was president of the
building and loan section of the Kansas Bankers’ Association.
He was married at Omaha, Nebraska, January 1, 1897 to Elva Lawrence Gibson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. E. M. Gibson
of Omaha. They have one daughter, Roxanna Plumb. (A Standard History of Kansas & Kansans, William E. Connelley,
Secretary of the Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka, Volume III, Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, New York
1918, page 1179)
EDWARD PAYSON BANCROFT
Edward Payson Bancroft, born March 1, 1829, in Union, N.Y., died December 25, 1904, at Chelsea, Mich., was a member
of the first state senate, 1861. He removed with his family from New York to Michigan, where he studied medicine
at the Michigan State University. He came to Kansas in February 1857 and settled in Emporia, engaging in the real-estate
business. He was nominated secretary of state at the Free-state convention held at Topeka, April 28-29, 1858, and
was also appointed one of the agents to select lands granted the state by the general government. He was a member
of the railroad convention of 1860, from which he, with others, withdrew on account of the apportionment and representation.
At the beginning of the civil war he enlisted in the Eighth Kansas and was mustered in as quartermaster October
22, 1861, and promoted to major of the Ninth Kansas April 1, 1862, resigning February 19, 1863. Governor Robinson
appointed him a colonel on his staff May 2, 1861. In August, 1863, he returned from the South a very sick man.
He had been at the siege of Vicksburg, and stopped at Lawrence where he was joined by his wife and brother, A.
R. Bancroft, and caught in the Quantrill raid; they were at the Eldridge House and Major Bancroft was carried out
of the burning building in an armchair. He returned to Emporia. He was a regent of the State Normal School 1871-73
and was appointed on the board of centennial managers March 2, 1876. Major Bancroft sold bonds of the Normal School
and kept the money; he was arrested and found guilty, September 14, 1878 and sentenced to five years in the Penitentiary
and costs. This sentence was commuted by Governor St. John to two years and seven months. In 1881, Mr. Bancroft
went to Chihuahua, Mex., where he engaged in the real-estate business. Later he returned to Michigan and made his
home in Detroit. He was married to Mary B. Millspaugh of Ontario County, New York in 1853. (Transactions of the
Kansas State Historical Society 1907-1908, Vol. X, edited by Geo. W. Martin, Secretary, State Printing Office,
Topeka, 1908, page 238)
FRANK M. ARNOLD
Frank M. Arnold, banker, livestock grower and rancher was born in Lee County , Virginia , May 4, 1859 and since
1879 has resided in Kansas . His father, Alexander Taylor Arnold, was born in Tennessee , May 18, 1829 and died
at Anthony , Kansas , June 17, 1886. Sirilda Thompson, his wife, was born in Lee County , Virginia , September
27, 1826 and died at Anthony, January 24, 1924.
Frank M. Arnold attended public school two years in Virginia and is practically self educated. At the present time
he is president of the Commercial National Bank and Trust Company of Emporia , president of the Kansas National
Livestock Association.
On June 17, 1888, he was married to Ifie May Espey at Ashland , Kansas . She was born at Bushnell , Illinois ,
February 17, 1870. There are four children, Lucile M., born March 15, 1889, who married Judson Cook Fisher; Francis
H., born August 13, 1895; Marion E., born October 4, 1897; who married Nita Mitchell and Iras M., born August 14,
1902 who married Albert Phelps Armour. Francis H. is engagedin banking with his father in Emporia , while Marion
E., is engaged in ranching and livestock breeding on his father’s ranch. Residence: Emporia . (Illustriana Kansas,
by Sara Mullin Baldwin & Robert Morton Baldwin, 1933, page 43)
Andrew Jackson Andrews was born October 10, 1825, in Richland County, Ohio where he received a common-school
education and where he married Julia A. Biggs, December 30, 1855. He came to Kansas in 1858 and settled at Neosho
Rapids, in Lyon County, his family joining him in 1859. He enlisted as a member of company C, Eleventh Kansas,
in August 1852, and served until the end of the civil war being mustered out August 7, 1865. He was elected to
the house of representatives of the legislature of 1868. Mr. Andrews died January 9, 1897. (Transactions of the
Kansas State Historical Society 1907-1908, Vol. X, edited by Geo. W. Martin, Secretary, State Printing Office,
Topeka, 1908, page 268)
