FRED G. BERGEN
Fred G. Bergen, one of the well-known and successful
business men of Summerfield, Marshall county, and the efficient cashier of the State Bank of that place, was born
in Galesburg, Illinois, on June 13, 1865, the son of George I. and Maria S. (Field) Bergen.
The bank, of which Mr. Bergen is the cashier, was
organized in 1889 with a capital stock of twenty-five thousand dollars. The organizers were John Gilchrist, R.
M. Schriver, C. J. Schriver and Andrew J. Felt, since which time the personnel of the stockholders has been changed.
The bank has been well managed and has met with much success and is today the third largest bank in Marshall County.
With a capital stock of twenty-five thousand dollars and a surplus of fifteen thousand dollars, the institution
is recognized as one of the strong banks of this section of the state and one in which the people have great confidence,
which is demonstrated by the fact that there is now over three hundred thousand dollars on deposit. The present
officers are President, William F. Orr; vice-president, George Craven; second vice-president, Andrew Nestor; cashier,
Fred G. Bergen, and assistant cashier, James A. Hamler. The bank owns its own banking house, which was erected
in 1889 and is one of the substantial structures of the city.
George I. Bergen was born in 1827 and died in 1869;
his wife, Maria S. (Field) Bergen, was born in 1824 and died in 1866. Mr. Bergen was a successful manufacturer
of army boots and the inventor of the famous Brown's corn planter. He was a friend of Abraham Lincoln and it was
Lincoln who joined in marriage his sister and A. L. Scoville. Maria S. (Field) Bergen was a member of the Field
family, of which Marshall Field and Cyrus W. Field were representatives.
His parents having died when he was but a child,
Fred G. Bergen was reared by James Compton, of Augusta, Illinois. He remained with the Compton family until he
was nineteen years of age and received the advantages of a good common- and high-school education. In 1884, at
the age of nineteen years, he came to Seneca, Kansas, and engaged in the study of law with C. C. K. Scoville. He
continued his law studies for two years. He and Mr. Scoville later engaged in the banking business. For fifteen
years, Mr. Bergen was connected with the Scoville State Bank, when in 1900 he came to Summerfield as cashier of
the State Bank of Summerfield. In addition to his interest in the bank, he is the owner of two hundred acres of
land in Marshall County. He is identified with Republican Party, has taken much interest in local affairs, and
is a man of much influence in that party's council. On November 7, 1916, he was elected to represent his district
in the state Senate, by a majority of over one thousand six hundred. While he was yet a resident of the state of
Illinois, he was captain of Company I, Seventh Regiment, Illinois National Guards, at Galesburg. Owing to an accident,
he was unable to continue service. During the Spanish-American War, he raised and drilled a company for Governor
Leedy in 1898. Since locating at Summerfield, he has served as a member of Governor Bailey's staff. For five years,
he served as treasurer of the Kansas State Banker's Association and was one of the organizers, and is now vice-president
of his congressional district of the Banker's Association.
Fraternally, Mr. Bergen is a member of the Ancient
Free and Accepted Masons and is a member of the Summerfield Chapter No. 354. He is also a member of the Knights
of Pythias, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America. He is active in the Sons of
the American Revolution, his paternal and maternal grandparents having served in the Revolutionary War. Both Mr.
and Mrs. Bergen are active member of the United Presbyterian Church, and Mr. Bergen has been a teacher in the Sunday
school for over ten years; has served as superintendent for three years and for two years has been president of
the County Sunday School Association. He gives his best efforts to the work that he undertakes, and with his commanding
personality, he meets with much success, both in organization and the accomplishment of results. Few men of the
county have assumed greater responsibilities for the development of the moral, social and financial conditions
of the district, than has Mr. Bergen.
On August 5, 1889, Fred G. Bergen was united in
marriage to May Matthews, the daughter of Mortimer M. Matthews, one of the early pioneers of Seneca and for forty-five
years surveyor of Nemaha County, Kansas. Mrs. Bergen is a graduate of the Seneca high school and is a woman of
considerable culture. Like her husband, she takes much interest in the religious, social and educational development
of the city and district; she has always been devoted to the interests of her family, and with Mr. Bergen is held
in the highest regard and esteem. They are prominent in the social life of Summerfield and consider it a pleasure
to entertain their neighbors and friends. They are the parents of three children, Fredrica G., Mary M. and George
I. Fredrica G. is a graduate of the Seneca high school and the State Normal at Emporia and has had a year in Northwestern
University. She is now a teacher in the primary department of the Topeka, Kansas schools. Mary J. is a member of
the junior class of the Summerfield high school and George is also an attendant in the schools of their home city.
WILLIAM
W. POTTER
The Hon. William W. Potter, judge of probate for
Marshall County and one of the best-known residents of Marysville, the county seat, is a native of the state of
Illinois, but has been a resident of Kansas and of Marshall County since he was fourteen years of age and has consequently
been a witness to and a participant in the development of the county almost since the days of the pioneers. He
was born on a farm near the city of Olney, in Richland County, Illinois, March 4, 1871, the son of Benjamin F.
and Rebecca (Neal) Potter, natives, respectively, of Kentucky and Indiana, who came to Kansas in the early days
of the settlement of this part of the state and settled on a farm in the vicinity of Beattie, in this county, where
Benjamin F. Potter spent the rest of his life, his death occurring on February 27, 1907, and where his widow is
still living.
In 1885, Benjamin F. Potter came into Kansas with
his family. He established his home in Guittard Township and it was not long until he came to be recognized as
one of the progressive and substantial farmers of that part of the county. He and his wife were the parents of
nine children, of whom the subject of this biographical sketch was the seventh in order of birth, the others being
as follows: John F., a farmer, living near Frankfort, the county; Nancy J., wife of David H. Beaver, of Home City;
Kate, wife of J. G. Braxton, a farmer, living in the neighborhood of Frankfort; Thomas A., a farmer, of Blue Mound;
Mary M., of Beattie; Emma, wife of Oscar Halsel, of Frankfort; Lucy, now deceased, was the wife of Daniel S. Thomas,
of Grand Junction, Colorado, and Dr. Harry E. Potter, of Fairbury, Nebraska.
William W. Potter was about fourteen years of age
when he came to Marshall County with his parents in 1885 and his schooling was completed in the district school
in the neighborhood of his new home and in the high school at Marysville. Shortly after leaving school, he became
employed in the drug store of E. L. Miller at Marysville and was thus engaged during the years 1890-92, after which
he accepted a clerkship in the general store of Arand & Son. In the spring of 1893 he accepted a position as
a traveling salesman for a photographers; supply house and was thus engaged for ten years at the end of which time
he took over the management of the home farm for his father and was thus engaged during the years 1903-08. In January
1908, he became associated with the Bank of Beattie and was thus engaged at the time of his election, in the fall
of 1910, to the position of judge of probate for Marshall County. Judge Potter entered upon the duties of his important
office in January 1911, and so satisfactorily has he discharged the duties of that office that he was re-elected
in the successive elections of 1912-14-16 and is now serving his fourth term as judge of probate. Judge Potter
is a member of the Masonic fraternity and his wife is a member of the local chapter of the Order of the Eastern
Star.
On January 9, 1908, Judge W. W. Potter was united
in marriage to Blanche Burnside, who was born in this county, daughter of Thomas and Jane (Ruddy) Burnside, natives,
respectively, of Ireland and of the Dominion of Canada, who settled in this county, becoming pioneers of the Beattie
neighborhood, Mrs. Potter having received her schooling in the Beattie high school. Judge and Mrs. Potter have
a very pleasant home at Marysville and take a proper part in the general social activities of the city.
WILLIAM
JAMES HOLTHAM
In the memorial annals of Marshall County there
are few names held in better remembrance than those of the late William J. Holtham, the first railway station agent
and postmaster at Frankfort and for many years a well known merchant of that city, and his father-in-law, the late
Albert G. Barrett, one of Marshall County's very first settlers, founder of the town of Barrett and for many years
the real outstanding figure in the history of this county in pioneer days having made him a participant in pretty
much every serious movement that marked that development in the days when the plains were being claimed to civilization.
Mr. Holtham's widow, a daughter of Mr. Barrett, is still living at Frankfort, which city she has seen grow from
a mere railway station on the bleak plain, to its present substantial state. She has been a resident of Marshall
County from the days of her childhood and has thus been a witness to the wonderful development that has been made
here during the past generation; a development to which she has contributed her part, ever helpful in the promotion
of all movements having to do with the advancement of the common welfare and the extension of the social and cultural
life of the community of which she has been a member since pioneer days.
William James Holtham was a native of England,
born in the city of London on September 5, 1848, and was but two years of age when his parents, William and Caroline
Rosamond Holtham, came to America and proceeded on out to Indiana, locating at Evanston, in Spencer County, in
the southern part of that state, not far from the Ohio river, whence they presently came father west and located
at Atchison, this state, where the elder William Holtham, who was a trained brick mason, became an active building
contractor. It was thus that William J. Holtham was reared and educated at Atchison. He early became attracted
to the telegraph key and became an expert telegraph operator, at seventeen years of age drawing one hundred and
seventy-five dollars a month, and was one of the first of the operators of the Western Union Telegraph Company
to be sent across the plains to Denver. During that period of his career as an operator, Mr. Holtham had many thrilling
experiences and while accompanying the construction crew of the Western Union while the line was being constructed
west to Denver, not infrequently was compelled to tap the line to report evidences of Indian outrages discovered
along the way. He was a sort of a protégé of Charles Stebbins, the magnate of the Western Union Company
at that time, and when the railway came through this county in 1868 he was made agent of the railway company and
telegraph operator at the new station of Frankfort. At the same time, he opened a general merchandise store at
Frankfort, with the firm name of Holtham & Nelson, and was made the first postmaster of the new town. In 1870,
his store was destroyed by fire and he shortly afterward decided to go to the coast. He was married in that year
and for a time after the destruction of his store he engaged in farming in the vicinity of Frankfort, but presently
he and his bride went to California, where he was engaged in railway service until 1882, in which year he returned
to Frankfort and the next year, 1883, engaged in business there and was thus engaged until his retirement on account
of ill health, from active business in 1914, a successful merchant and one of the ablest factors in the upbuilding
of his home town. Mr. Holtham was a Republican and ever took an active interest in local politics, but was not
included in the office-seeking class. He was a member of the Episcopalian church and his widow is a member of the
Presbyterian Church. He was a member of the Masonic fraternity and was also a member of the local lodges of the
Ancient Order of United Workmen, of the Knights and Ladies of Security and of the Knights of Pythias. Mr. Holtham
died on October 28, 1915, and was buried at Frankfort, his funeral being in charge of the Masons.
On January 1, 1870, William J. Holtham was united
in marriage to Winifred Barrett, who was born in Harrison County, Ohio, July 24, 1850, daughter of Albert G. and
Mary (McKeever) Barrett, the former of whom was born on July 17, 1816, and the latter, June 14, 1821, and whose
last days were spent in this county, for many years among the most prominent and influential pioneers of this section
of Kansas. Albert G. Barrett was of Quaker stock and was reared in Ohio in accordance with the rigid tenets of
that faith, the uprightness of his life during the years of his residence in this county ever reflecting the lessons
of rectitude and faithfulness in man's relation to man he had learned in his youth. He was married at Cadiz, Ohio,
in 1843, and continued to make his home in that community until 1856, when he came with his family and a number
of other colonists from Ohio to Kansas and settled in what afterward became organized as Marshall County. Two years
before, in 1854, Mr. Barrett had come out here in company with some others and had started a grist and saw-mill
on the banks of the Vermillion in the southwestern part of township 4, range 9, east, the first mill erected in
this county and the only one within forty miles of that point; beginning business there as a company, under the
name of the Barrett Milling Company. The other members of the company presently became discouraged at what appeared
to be the barrenness of the outlook and Mr. Barrett bought their interests in the mill, determined to permeate
the mill alone, having become convinced that it could not be long until this section of Kansas would be filling
up with settlers. He then returned to Ohio and in 1856 brought out his family and quite a number of others whom
he had been able to interest in the subject of homes out here on the plains, and it was thus that he founded the
town of Barrett, where he spent the rest of his life.
There were ten families in the Barrett colony,
all Abolitionists and anti-slavery folk, and during the troublous days preceding and during the Civil War, Mr.
Barrett, who was the acknowledged leader of the anti-slavery movement in the part of the state often was in serious
danger. He was elected a member of the territorial Legislature and for many years was an influential factor in
Republican politics in this part of the state, one of the earnest factors in the movement which started Kansas
out as a free state in 1861. When the Civil War broke out he was determined to enlist his services and go to the
front, but his friends persuaded him that his duty lay at home, where his personal influence ever could be exerted
n behalf of the things for which he so notably stood, and he contented himself to remain, a member of the Home
Guards. He later took an active part in the work of organizing Marshall County and served for two terms as treasurer
of the county. In 1859, Mr. Barrett built the first hotel at Marysville, the old American House, and later erected
there the Barrett House, long one of the leading hostelries in northern Kansas. He organized the first school in
Marshall County, the school in old district I at Barrett, and built the first schoolhouse, ever afterward giving
much attention to the development of the public school system in the county. Upon coming out here, Mr. Barrett
entered a section of land at the point where the town, which bears his name, grew up, and ever afterward made his
home there. The house which he erected there was the first really substantial house erected in Marshall County,
It was built of oak, finished with walnut, and was for years a social center for all that section of the county.
That old house is still standing, a beautiful place, and is now occupied by one of Mr. Barrett's daughters, Mrs.
Van Vliet. Mr. Barrett was a member of the Masonic fraternity and the first lodge of that ancient order in Marshall
County was organized in that house. During the early days, the town of Barrett was the center of pioneer activities
throughout this part of the country and Mr. Barrett's part in those activities was a most wholesome influence in
the formative period of the now well-established and populous community. In connection with his general millwork,
he also was a skilled cabinet-maker and for some years after coming here made all the coffins that was necessary
in this part of the country. He invested largely in lands and was the owner of several valuable farms, giving to
each of his children large farms. Mr. Barrett made considerable money and was a generous contributor to all proper
causes hereabout for many years, ever willing to share his bounty in a good cause. He had a sister, Mrs. Winifred
Walker, and five brothers, Thomas, William, Uriah, John and Joseph, who joined him after he had become will established
in business out here and the Barrett family thus became early one of the most numerous in Marshall County. Albert
G. Barrett died at his home in Barrett in April 1900, a little more than a year after the death of his wife, the
death of the latter having occurred on January 20, 1899. They were the parents of five children, of whom Mrs. Holtham
was the third in order of birth, the others being as follows; Mrs. Jane Love, who is now living at Taft, California;
William, of Hubbell, Nebraska; Cyrus M., who died at his home in Barrett, where his widow and family are still
living, and Mrs. George Van Vliet, of Barrett.
Mrs. Holtham has been a resident of this county
since the days of her childhood, having been but six years of age when her parents established their home here.
She grew up at Barrett and was a student of the first school taught there by Doctor Blackburn, who was the first
physician in Marshall County. For some years after her marriage to Mr. Holtham, she lived in California, but since
returning to Frankfort in 1882 has continued to make that place her home and is very comfortably situated there.
Mrs. Holtham is a member of the Presbyterian Church and has ever taken a warm interest in church work. She is a
member of the local chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star and is one of the charter members of the local organization
of the Woman's Relief Corps, in the affairs of both of which organizations she takes an active interest. To Mr.
and Mrs. Holtham one child was born, a son, Charles Albert, who died in California. They later adopted two children,
Samuel, who died at the age of twenty years, and Jennie Barrett, who married R. M. Emery, Jr., of Seneca, Kansas.
CAPTAIN
PERRY HUTCHINSON
In the memorial annals of Marshall County no name
occupies a higher place than that of the late Capt. Perry Hutchinson, who, from the days of the very beginning
of a social order hereabout to the time of his death in 1914, was one of the leading factors in the development
of this now highly favored region. An honored veteran of the Civil War, Captain Hutchinson brought to all his relations
with the community interest here a steadfastness of purpose and a sturdiness of character that made him from the
beginning a leader of men and of affairs and it is undoubted that he did much to give direction to the early development
of this part of the state. During the fifty-five years in which Captain Hutchinson lived at Marysville, he commanded
the highest respect and esteem of the entire community and he was highly honored by the community, his services
in the several civic offices to which he was called ever having been exerted in behalf of the common good. As state
senator he gained a wide acquaintance among the leading men of the state, in which he even before that time had
attained a high position, and as pioneer stockman, miller and banker he, from the beginning of things in Marshall
County, occupied a position of influence that left the definite imprint of his sturdy character upon every enterprise
he touched. One of the local newspapers very aptly commented in the following terms at the time of Captain Hutchinson's
death; "From the day of the redman to the comforts of civilization; from the boundless prairies, teeming with
herds of wild buffaloes, to the modern farm stocked with thoroughbred cattle and horses and hogs; from the dangers
of frontier life to the contentment of peaceful and prosperous homes; from the pioneer days to the present time,
the development of Marshall County passed like a panorama during the fifty-five years that Captain Hutchinson lived
in Marysville. And inch by inch, step by step, and year by year that sturdy pioneer walked along the pathway of
development, always doing his full share in the work incumbent upon those who transformed the desert into a land
of peace, prosperity and happiness, until his very existence among us was woven into the warp and woof of every
phase of the history of Marshall County for the past half century."
Captain Hutchinson was a native of the Empire state,
born at Fredonia, Chautauqua County, New York, December 2, 1831, a son of Calvin and Sophia (Perry) Hutchinson,
both representatives of old colonial families. Calvin Hutchinson was born in Chenango County, New York, a son of
Elijah Hutchinson, one of the pioneer settlers of that region and a cousin of Governor Hutchinson, of Massachusetts.
Sophia Perry was a daughter of Colonel Sullivan Perry, a first cousin of Commodore Perry, the hero of the battle
of Lake Erie during the War of 1812, and himself a naval commander of distinction, having been in command of a
war vessel that sank a British vessel off the coast of Dunkirk, New York, during that war. Captain Hutchinson was
reared at Fredonia and upon reaching his majority he turned his face toward the great Northwest, which then was
beginning to offer such boundless promises of development, and on his arrival in Wisconsin secured employment with
the logging firm of McAdoo & Schuter, one of the leaders in the timber industry of that region in that day.
That was in the spring of 1852 and he put in his time until the close of the river navigation in the following
winter, in charge of the crews that drove several large rafts of logs from the Wisconsin River down the Mississippi
to St. Louis. He then returned to New York, but in the following spring returned to the Northwest and bought a
farm near Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he engaged in farming. He married in 1855 and in 1857 built a combined flour
and saw mill at Vinton, Iowa, and was engaged in operating the same for two years, at the end of which time, through
the defalcation of a partner who he trusted, he was forced to give up his entire property to satisfy creditors.
Though thus stripped of material possessions, this sturdy pioneer retained a stout heart, an undaunted spirit and
an eager willingness to begin over again. He bought on credit a span of horses and a wagon and with his wife and
children drove through to Kansas, which then was beginning to offer inducements as a place of settlement. During
the first year of his residence in this state, Perry Hutchinson found employment as a farm hand while he was looking
around and "getting his bearings" in the new land, and in the following year he entered a claim to a
tract of land seven miles east of Marysville, erected a small cabin on the same and there established his home,
one of the real pioneers of Marshall County. His place was on the old stage route and his humble cabin was early
utilized as a tavern and stage station.
While thus engaged Captain Hutchinson one night
saved Superintendent Lewis, of the Holliday stage line, from freezing to death and thus cemented a friendship which
resulted in creating what was perhaps the turning point in the career of the pioneer, for when the American Hotel
(later known as the Tremont House) was erected Mr. Lewis advised Captain Hutchinson to rent the same, guaranteeing
him all the patronage from the Holliday stage line. A. G. Barrett, the owner of the hotel, however, rejected the
proposition, declaring that he was "not leasing his hotel to paupers." When this remark was conveyed
to Gen. Frank J. Marshall, after whom Marshall County takes its name, the General did not take the same view of
Perry Hutchinson's status as that entertained by Barrett and he promptly agreed to sign the lease, as surety for
Hutchinson, and then and there was executed what has been referred to as probably the most iron-clad contract ever
drawn up in this county, and Hutchinson entered upon the management of the hotel as well as upon a new stage of
his career. At the end of six months acting as landlord of the hotel he had cleared the sum of eighteen hundred
dollars and with that money bought a tract of eighty acres adjoining the village of Marysville upon which he presently
erected the first flour-mill built in the state of Kansas and established the business that is now carried on under
modern methods and which has from the first been know as the Excelsior mill. It was in the spring of 1864 that
Captain Hutchinson secured the water-power rights on the Big Blue River, west of Marysville, and built a sawmill
on the east banks of the stream. In that mill the lumber used by the Holliday stage line between Marysville and
Denver was sawed. On August 15, 1867, Hutchinson built on the west side of the stream the first flour-mill to be
erected west of the Missouri River, his product quickly finding a market as far east as Lawrence, wheat being brought
by farmers in the territory within a radius of one hundred and fifty miles, the mill always paying a little in
advance of the market price for grain. Step by step, the Hutchinson mills have been kept up-to-date, modern machinery
always replacing the obsolete equipment of bygone days, and the reputation of the firm has been maintained throughout
the half-century and more that it has been doing business. Not only was Captain Hutchinson the first flour-miller
in Kansas, but he milled the first roller-process flour in the state. When on February 5, 1905, the Excelsior mill
was destroyed by fire, the Captain, though then past seventy-five years of age, was undismayed and at once began
laying the plans, which resulted in the erection of a new and better mill on the site of the old.
In July 1862, Perry Hutchinson responded to the
call to arms in defense of the nation during Civil War and organized Company E of the Thirteenth Regiment, Kansas
Volunteer Infantry, and was elected captain of the same. Company E was mustered into service at Atchison in August
of that year and Captain Hutchinson served until the fall of 1863, when he received his honorable discharge on
account of illness. He ever afterward took a warm interest in the veterans of the war and was an active member
of Lyon Post, Grand Army of the Republic. Besides his milling business, Captain Hutchinson found time to engage
in other lines of industry and personally superintended his extensive farming interests, as well as being rated
one of the largest stock feeders in the state. He was also engaged in the banking business, and the same business
care that characterized the management of his personal affairs was always exercised in the administration of such
affairs as came under his jurisdiction as a banker. When the Marshall County Bank was organized back in pioneer
days, Captain Hutchinson was one of the chief factors in the organization of that institution which was succeeded
by the First National Bank in 1882. In 1894, Captain Hutchinson was elected president of the bank and held that
position the rest of his life. He ever took a leading part in local political affairs and for many years was one
of the leaders in the Republican Party in this district. In 1880, he was elected to the state Senate and served
with distinction in that body. In 1876, Captain Hutchinson was appointed one of a committee of three to represent
Kansas in the Centennial Jubilee held in New York City. He was a delegate to the national conventions that nominated
James A. Garfield and James G. Blaine for the Presidency and was for many years one of the most familiar figures
at the state and local conventions of his party. As noted above, Captain Hutchinson was an active member of the
Grand Army of the Republic. He also was a Mason, in which ancient order he had attained to the York Rite, and ever
took a warm interest in Masonic affairs.
In December, 1855, Perry Hutchinson was united
in marriage to Lydia Jeannette Barber, daughter of Champlin Barber and wife, of Chautauqua County, New York, and
to that union were born four children, F. W. and Delia (deceased), were born in Iowa; W. W. Hutchinson, of Marysville,
and Mrs. Etta Hutchinson-Kotsch, of Sturgis, South Dakota, three of whom, with their mother, survive the death
of Captain Hutchinson, which occurred on December 29, 1914, he then being past eighty-three years of age.
FRANK
W. HUTCHINSON
Frank W. Hutchinson, well-known grocer, of Marysville,
is a native of the state of Iowa, but has been a resident of Marysville practically all the time since the days
of his childhood and has thus witnessed the growth of the city and the development of this region since pioneer
days. He was born at Palo, Iowa, August 2, 1857, son of Capt. Perry and Lydia (Barber) Hutchinson, the former of
whom died at his home in Marysville on December 29, 1914, and the later of whom is still living there, one of the
most honored and respected pioneers of Marshall County. In a biographical sketch relating to the late Captain Hutchinson,
presented elsewhere in this volume, there is set out at considerable detail the history of this pioneer family
in this county and to that sketch the reader is referred for further details regarding the genealogy of the subject
of the sketch.
Frank W. Hutchinson was but a child when his parents
moved to Marysville and he grew to manhood there, a values assistant to his father in the mill, remaining thus
engaged for four or five years. In the early seventies, he was severely injured by being caught beneath a freight
train and while recuperating from those injuries took a trip to the mountains and on the train was robbed of what
money h e had. He stopped at Canon City, Colorado, where he remained a year or two working for a time in a hotel
and then in a wholesale grocery house. Upon his return to Marysville, he was put in charge of his father's lumberyard
and was thus engaged until 1882, when he went to Beattie and there started a grocery store. A little more than
sixty days later his store was destroyed by fire, but he rebuilt and restocked the place and continued in business
there until 1892, when he sold the store and returned to Marysville to take charge of his father's mill. In 1894
he bought a grocery stock at Marysville and presently bought the site of his present place of business and erected
his present commodious store room, into which he moved in 1895 and where he ever since has been engaged in business,
long having been recognized as one of the substantial merchants of his home town. Mr. Hutchinson also is the owner
of a farm of eighty- three acres in Wells Township. He is a Republican, but has not been a seeker after office.
In 1884, Frank W. Hutchinson was united in marriage
to Emma Brumbaugh, who was born at Valparaiso, Indiana, Marcy 17, 1864, a daughter of Alexander and Elizabeth (Hawthorn)
Brumbaugh, the parents of eight children, three sons and five daughters, who came to Marshall County about 1889,
some time after the marriage of their daughter Emma, and settled on a far, near Beattie, where Mr. Brumbaugh died
and where Mrs. Brumbaugh is living in the northeast part of Marysville, no being in the eighty-seventh year of
her age. Mrs. Hutchinson received an excellent education in her girlhood and after her graduation came to Kansas
in response to a call sent out for schoolteachers and was teaching school in Marshall County at the time of her
marriage. To that union no children have been born. Mr. and Mrs. Hutchinson are members of the Presbyterian Church
and have for years taken a warm interest n the various beneficences of the same.
NICHOLAS
S. KERSCHEN
The Hon., Nicholas S. Kerschen, former representative
in the Legislature from this district, manager of the farmers elevator at Marysville and one of the extensive landowners
of Marshall County, making his home on his fine farm in Marysville township, is a native of Europe, but has been
a resident of this county since he was five years of age. He was born in the grand duchy of Luxemburg on April
29, 1868, son of Charles and Mary (Klein) Kerschen, native Luxembourgers, who came to this country in 1873 and
settled on a homestead farm in section 18 of Marysville Township, this county, becoming substantial and influential
pioneer residents of that community.
Nicholas S. Kerschen was reared on that pioneer
farm and received his schooling in the neighboring district school. He remained on the home farm, a valuable assistant
to his father in the labor of developing and improving the same. Upon his marriage in 1890, he assumed charge of
the home farm of two hundred acres and upon the death of his father inherited the home place. As his affairs prospered,
Mr. Kerschen added to his land holdings until he now is the owner of five hundred and fifty-three acres, to the
farming of three hundred and twenty acres of which he is giving his personal attention and there makes his home,
having one of the best-developed farms and most up-to-date farm plants in the county. Mr. Kerschen has been a stockholder
in the Farmers Elevator Company at Marysville ever since the organization of the same and on June 16, 1915, was
made manager of the same, a position he ever since has filled in a manner highly satisfactory to both shareholders
and patrons of that admirable institution. Mr. Kerschen has ever given his thoughtful and intelligent attention
to local civic affairs and in 1912, as the nominee of the Republican Party was elected representative from this
district to the lower house of the Kansas Legislature, his services in the House during the session of 1913 being
regarded as of much value not only to his district, but to the state at large.
On July 2, 1890, Nicholas S. Kerschen was united
in marriage to Marguerite Koppes, who was born on a pioneer farm in section 17 of Marysville Township, this county.
Oct 15, 1871, daughter of Nicholas S. and Helen (Klass) Koppes, natives of Luxemburg and pioneer residents of Marshall
County. Nicholas Koppes was an honored veteran of the Civil War, a member of the Thirteenth Regiment, Kansas Volunteer
Infantry. To Mr. and Mrs. Kerschen two sons have been born, Carl N., born on August 8, 1894, who is farming the
home place, and Arthur P., August 7, 1897, who is now a student of the Michigan State University at Ann Arbor,
taking the law course. The Kerschens are members of the Catholic Church and take a warm interest in the various
beneficences of the same as well as in the general social activities of the community. Mr. Kerschen is a member
of the Knights of Columbus and of the Modern Woodmen of America and takes a proper interest in the affairs of both
these organizations. He has ever given his close attention to the general development of the best interests of
his home county and is looked upon as one of the active factors in all worthy movements designed to advance the
common welfare hereabout.
WALLACE
WALTER HUTCHINSON
Wallace Walter Hutchinson, well-know retired miller,
banker and landowner of Marysville, is a native son of that city and has lived there all his life, one of the most
active factors in the development of the interests of that thriving county seat town during the past quarter of
a century, an able representative, in the second generation, of one of the most prominent and influential pioneer
families in the part of the state. He was born at Marysville on November 6, 1871, son of Capt. Perry and Lydia
(Barber) Hutchinson, the former of whom died at his home in Marysville on December 29, 1914, and the later of whom
is still living there, one of the most honored and respected pioneers of Marshall County. In a biographical sketch
relating to the late Captain Hutchinson, presented elsewhere in this volume, there is set out at considerable detail
the history of this pioneer family in this county and to that sketch the reader is referred for further details
regarding the genealogy of the subject of the sketch.
W. W. Hutchinson was reared at Marysville, receiving
his schooling in the local schools, and early took
an interest in his father's flour mill at that place, the first flour mill erected in the state of Kansas; and
upon completing school was installed June 11, 1889, as bookkeeper and office manager of the mill, continuing thus
connected with his father in the milling business until his father's death in 1914, when he became owner of the
mill, which he continued to operate until August 1, 1916, when he sold the mill; since which time he has been giving
his attention to his extensive land and banking interests. Mr. Hutchinson has an interest in seven hundred acres
of land and is a stockholder in and a member of the board of directors of the First National Bank of Marysville.
During his many years of active connection with the old Excelsior mills he gave his whole time to the direction
of the affairs of that pioneer industry and, as he recalls now, on many occasions worked practically day and night
and on Sundays, it being no unusual thing for him to be occupied at the mill for twenty hours at a stretch for
considerable periods of time during the busy season.
On April 20, 1893, W. W. Hutchinson was united
in marriage to Bessie L. Parrish, who was born in Jefferson County, New York, October 20, 1874, daughter of George
W. and Emma (Parker) Parrish, natives of that state, who are now living in Texas. George W. Parrish was born on
January 6, 1849, and became one of the early students of electricity upon the development of applied electrical
energy for power and light. From New York state he moved to Illinois and came thence to Kansas, locating in 1878
in the neighborhood of Frankfort, where he was engaged in farming until 1888, when he moved to Marysville, where
he resumed his trade as an electrician and in that capacity built Marysville's first electric light plant. About
1900 he left Marysville and he and his wife are now living in Texas, where he owns a farm. To them four children
were born, of whom Mrs. Hutchinson, the second in order of birth, is now the only survivor, her three brothers
Arthur, Franklin and Foster, being deceased.
To W. W. and Bessie L. (Parrish) Hutchinson five
children have been born, namely: Georgia V., born on March 22, 1894, who was graduated from the Marysville high
school with the class of 1913 and on September 14, 1916, married Bryan P. Weeks, a linotype operator at Forest
City, Iowa; Grace C., March 30, 1896, who was graduated from the Marysville high school with the class of 1914;
Perry P., December 4, 1898, also a graduate of the local high school, completing the course there with the class
of 1916 and now a student at Chauncey Hall, a preparatory school at Boston, Massachusetts; Glenn W., April 4, 1906,
and Carol, August 11, 1908. The Hutchinson's have one of the finest homes in the city of Marysville and take an
earnest interest in the general social activities of the community. Mr. and Mrs. Hutchinson are members of the
Episcopal Church and Mr. Hutchinson has been treasurer of the local congregation of the same for the past fifteen
years. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and takes a warm interest in the affairs of the same.
GEORGE
I. THACHER, M. D.
Among the well-known and prominent residents of
Marshall County, is Dr. George I. Thacher, who was born in Hornell, New York, on April 17, 1877, the son of Safford
M. and Sarah (Langworthy) Thacher.
Safford M. Thacher was born on December 21, 1834,
in Hornell, New York, where he received his primary education in the public schools and grew to manhood. After
he had completed his common-school work, he entered the Alfred University, from which institution he was later
graduated. As a lad, he had a taste of pioneer life in his native state, but received a splendid education. In
1856, he came to Kansas during the time of the fierce agitation on the slavery question. He and his brother, Dwight,
established themselves in the printing business, and published the Lawrence Republican, a strong anti-slavery paper,
and developed strong opposition. Their lives were even in danger on account of their opposition to the extension
of slavery. At the time of the Quantrel raid in August 1863, the brother, Dwight, was at Kansas City as editor
of the Journal, but S. M. Thacher was in Lawrence and came near losing his life when the printing plant was destroyed
by fire, started by the raiders. After the destruction of the plant, the two brothers joined forces at Kansas City
and the Republican plant was not rebuilt. After the close of the Civil War, Mr. Thacher returned to Hornell, New
York, where on October 25, 1865, he was united in marriage to Louise Langworthy, and to this union four children
were born: Frank Eugene, of Salina, Kansas; Dr. Mowry Safford Thacher, of Turon, Kansas; Dr. George Isaac Thacher
and one that died in infancy. Mr. Thacher was a man possessed of much public spirit and took a lively interest
in all that would tend to elevate and inspire a better life. During the time, Grant was President he served as
postmaster of Hornell.
In 1885, Safford M. Thacher returned to Kansas
and with his family established their home on a farm near Topeka. After three years of farm life, Mr. Thacher moved
to Lawrence, where he became associated with the Western Farm Mortgage Company and remained with the firm until
1892, at which time he accepted a position with the City Real Estate Trust Company of Topeka and moved to that
city. His wife, who was born in 1834, died in 1898, and after the death of Mrs. Thacher, he was married to Kate
Lewis, of Hudson, Wisconsin, who died at Waterville five years later. Mr. Thacher spent much of his time at Blue
Rapids and at Waterville with his sons, and died at the home of his son, George I., on November 19, 1911. During
his residence at Waterville, the people of the city entertained a high regard for him. He kept well posted on current
events, and up to the time of his death, he was interested in political affairs. Much of the time of his later
years was devoted to the collecting and recording of interesting data of the Thacher family, whose history is traceable
for many generations. The father of the first Thacher who came to America, was the Rev. Peter Thacher, who was
a minister at Salem, England, in 1620, and the son became pastor of the old South Church at Boston, and it seems
evident from family records that for more than a century and a half there was a continuous line of Thachers in
the Congregational Ministry of Massachusetts. In a sermon over the remains of Judge Otis Thacher, of Hornell, in
1868 the minister said, "Mr. Thachers ancestry for two and a half centuries, at least, were puritans and Congregationalists,
and thus they have become in America a part of that powerful influence that has helped so much in making this a
Christian nation."
Safford M. Thacher early in life became a member
of the Congregational Church. At Lawrence, he was associated with Dr. Richard Cordely in his Christian work, with
its humble beginning. At Kansas City, what is now a great consolidated Congregational Church, was in 1863 a weak
struggling organization, but it had in the Thacher Brothers a good foundation and strong support. Mr. Thacher often
said that in those days, his brother, Dwight, and family and himself made up the congregation. When he located
at Waterville, he transferred his membership from the Congregational Church at Topeka to the English Lutheran Church
of that place, and when his health permitted, he was a regular attendant at all church services.
Dr. George I. Thacher received his primary education
in the district schools of Kansas, after which he entered the public schools of Lawrence. He then attended the
high school of Monte Vista, Colorado. In 1893, he completed a course in the Strickler Business College at Topeka,
after completing his education he was employed by the City Real Estate Trust Company and the Shawnee Milling Company,
as stenographer. In 1898, he entered the Medical College at Topeka and completed his work in 1902 and since 1903
has been actively engaged in the general practice at Waterville, where he has met with much success.
In 1903, Doctor Thacher was united in marriage
to Lucy Knowles, a native of Topeka, the daughter of C. O. and Rebecca (Holmes) Knowles. Her father was born at
Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in 1843. There he received his education in the public schools and there he lived until
he was seventeen years of age, when he came to Kansas, and was for a number of years engaged in driving an ox team
from Leavenworth to Denver, Colorado, begin engaged in the freighting business. His trips took him through Marshall
County, but he had never seen Marysville until Doctor Thacher took him there some time before his death, which
occurred in 1916. For many years Mr. Knowles was engages successfully in the real-estate business at Topeka and
was one of the progressive and prominent men of the community. His widow is now living at Topeka at the age of
sixty-four years. They were parents of five children, George, who died in New Mexico in July 1916; Katherine, the
wife of J. A. Cole, superintendent of the bridge and iron works at Topeka; Charles; Lucy, the wife of Doctor Thacher
and one child that died in infancy.
Mrs. Thacher received her education in the public
schools of Topeka, and is a graduate of Washington College at Washington, D. C. She then took a course in kindergarten
at Kansas City, Missouri, after which she taught for one year before her marriage. She and Doctor Thacher are the
parents of three children, Rebecca L., Philip L. and Luin K., they being twelve, ten and seven years of age respectively.
Mr. and Mrs. Thacher are prominent in social life of the community and are held in the highest regard.
Doctor Thacher has long been identified with the
Republican Party and has ever taken the keenest interest in local affairs. In 1907, he was elected a member of
the council of Waterville and served for two terms, and was then elected mayor, which position he held for two
terms. During his term of office, the electric lights and waterworks were installed and many other substantial
improvements were made, that have added much to the beauty and importance of the city. The Doctor is progressive
and is an advocate of the highest class of public improvements. He is a firm believer in the best schools possible
and the building of good roads, for in these he feels that much of the future depends. He served as county health
officer for four years, and his term of office was regarded as successful. To him the health department, if rightly
conducted, is of the greatest importance.
Fraternally, Doctor Thacher is a member of the
Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and has held all the offices in the local organization. He is also a member of
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America. He takes much interest in the conduct of
these orders. Few men in the community have met with more success in their chosen work and few are held in higher
regard. He and his wife are active members of the Evangelical Church; they take much interest in all church work
and are liberal supporters of the local society.
