Biographies of Wyandotte County, Kansas

WYANDOTTE COUNTY, KANSAS

BIOGRAPHIES

JAMES, A. R.

A native of Kentucky and reared among its people, also inheriting from ancestors living in that state for two or three generations before him the salient characteristics which have made the inhabitants of that state progressive among themselves and influential in the affairs of the country, A. R. James came to Kansas in his young manhood well qualified to meet in a brave and manly manner the requirements of any situation in which he might find himself and perform with ability the duties of any business to which he was adapted. In this state, where he found a new home while it was still in a somewhat backward condition of development, he has employed the traits of character and training in self-reliance and readiness for emergencies he had acquired in that of his nativity, making them promotive of his own interests and beneficial to the region around him, and has thus built up a career that is at the same time creditable to him and valuable in its results and its influence to the community in which he lives.

Mr. James was born in Scott county, Kentucky, on November 25, 1855, and is a son of Henry and Emeline (Munson) James, also natives of Kentucky. His mother died when he was but three years old, and the home training he might have had if she had lived to rear him was largely neglected, although his father did the best he could for his children and gave them every advantage within his power. When the son was six years old the family moved to Louisville, and there he grew to manhood and obtained his education, remaining until he reached the age of twenty-four years.

The conditions around him at that age were not all he desired for himself in the way of opportunity for advancement, and he determined to seek circumstances more favorable in a new locality and develop his course in life according to his own desires and the bent of his mind. He therefore came to Kansas in 1879 and located in Independence. His father, who died in Scott county, Kentucky, at the age of sixty-six years, was in early life a farmer in that county, although he passed nearly all of the last twenty years of his earthly existence in Louisville.

The son, while he had probably some inclination to farming, was not wedded to the occupation by long experience in it, and gave his attention to other pursuits when he started out for himself. In Independence he was variously employed until 1886, then moved to Kansas City, Kansas, and began operations as a contractor. He followed this line of work for about five years, and prospered at it. But while doing this he saw an opening for something more agreeable in the way of merchandising, and in 1891 became a dealer in all kinds of building materials and also in coal and wood. The need for his commodities was great and pressing in the city, and he found a ready and remunerative market for everything he had to offer. His trade grew in a short time to large proportions, and has kept on growing steadily ever since, until he is one of the leaders in his business in this part of the state in both the volume and the value of his operations. In 1895 he took his son Arthur F., into partnership with him, making the firm name A. R. James & Son. The business is located at the corner of Fourth street and State avenue, with its headquarters in a fine modern structure which the firm built in 1904, the house it previously occupied having been destroyed by fire in 1903. The new building is ninety-eight by one hundred feet in dimensions and one story high, and since its erection cement and cement blocks have been added to the articles handled by the firm.

Mr. James was married in Davis county, Kentucky, on the 28th, of September, 1880, to Miss Pomelia H. Petree, a daughter of E. M. and Pomelia (McClain) Petree. Four children have been born of the union: Arthur F., who is in business with his father; Rollo, who died at the age of four years; a child who died in infancy; and Edith, the wife of William Quinley, of Kansas City, Kansas.

The father has always been active in local public affairs. He is a Democrat in political faith and allegiance, and ardently supports the candidates of his party in national elections. But in local matters he votes independently and for what he considers the best interest of the community, choosing his candidates with a view to this and without reference to partisan considerations. He has been the nominee of his party for city councilman and membership on the school board, but is not ambitious for official station, and has never sought it of his own motion. Fraternally he belongs to the Modern Woodmen of America and the Court of Honor, holding his membership in these orders in the city of his present residence. All who know him esteem him as an upright and estimable man and an excellent citizen of broad views and a progressive spirit, with an abiding and helpful interest in the welfare of his city, county and state. (History of Wyandotte County, Kansas and It's People, by Perl W. Morgan, Vol. II, 1911, Pages 674-675)

BEDDOW, JAMES H.

After a varied and instructive experience in many different lines of employment, extending over twenty-seven years and taking him to many places in the western half of the United States, James H. Beddow has recently settled down to what he hopes to make a permanent occupation and of good service to the people of Kansas City. Kansas, as well as profitable to himself. In the spring of 1911 he bought the boarding and feed barn of M. Frazier, one of the leading establishments of the kind in this part of the country, knowing that he would thereby secure a means of providing for the comfortable accommodation of the horses of persons living in and coming to the city, and thus relieving the owners of inconvenience and annoyance in the matter, while at the same time he would provide work for himself that would be both agreeable and remunerative.

Mr. Beddow was born on December 8, 1866, at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and is a son of James H. and Mary M. (Euder) Beddow, the former born near Harrisburg, Owen county, Kentucky, and the latter in Lorain county, Ohio. They were married at Fort Leavenworth, to which the father was assigned directly after the close of the Mexican war. He enlisted for that memorable and decisive conflict at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, and served through it with credit to himself and benefit to his country. After his discharge from the field service of the army he was appointed to a position in the quartermaster's department at the Fort and filled it until 1861. He then re-enlisted in the regular army and he remained with his command to the end of the Civil war. From 1865 to 1893 he was trainmaster at Fort Leaven-worth, and since 1893 has occupied the position of forester there. He is now well advanced in years but still hale and vigorous, possessing great activity for his age and showing as much spice and sprightliness in word and action as many men who carry only half his burden in length of life, extent of labor and hardship of experience. He and his wife are the parents of four children: William A., who is now government trainmaster at Fort Leavenworth; Robert J., who lives in Kansas City, Missouri; May E., the wife of Joseph Shillo, of Fort Leavenworth; and James H., who is the oldest in the order of birth.

James resided with his parents until he reached the age of eighteen, and found, after leaving school, employment through the quartermasters ' departments of the United States army in different parts of the western states. He obtained his education in the parochial and public schools of Leavenworth, but his attendance at them was often interrupted by pressing duties in connection with the government service. When he was nineteen he located in Kansas City, Missouri, where he remained during the next fourteen years engaged in a variety of occupations, but steadily making his way to worldly comfort and good standing and influence in the community. In 1898 he accepted employment as a city salesman for the Standard Oil Company, and he did excellent work for that great corporation until the spring of 1910, when he severed his connection with it.

For a year Mr. Beddow took time to look about him for a business engagement that would be agreeable to him and open the way to greater success and prosperity. In the spring of 1911, as has been noted, he purchased the establishment of M. Frazier, at which horses were regularly boarded and transients were accommodated. He has given this undertaking his undivided attention ever since, and the results have fully justified his judgment and self-reliance in making the purchase.

Mr. Beddow was married to Miss Cora R. Crawford, who was born in the state of New York on March 17, 1869, and is a daughter of J. V. Crawford. He takes an earnest interest in the public affairs of his city and county, and does what he can as an active working Democrat to secure their proper administration according to his views. In fraternal life he is connected with. Cecilian Lodge, No. 39; Knights of Pythias, in Kansas City, Missouri; Penn Valley Camp, No. 4458, Modern Woodmen of America; White Rose Camp, Royal Neighbors; and Central Court, No. 635, Independent Order of Foresters. He is energetic and intelligent in the promotion of all public improvements in the city and county of his residence, and takes an active and helpful interest in all the agencies at work among the people to augment the mental, moral and material welfare of the community. On all sides he is accounted a very worthy and estimable man and an admirable citizen. (History of Wyandotte County, Kansas and It's People, by Perl W. Morgan, Vol. II, 1911, Pages 675-676)

KAUFMAN, JOSEPH R.

Joseph R. Kaufman who is most successfully engaged in the grocery, meat and feed business at 1629 Dodd avenue, Rosedale, Kansas, is a citizen whose contribution to the material and civic welfare of Wyandotte county has ever been of prominent order. Mr. Kaufman has resided in Kansas since 1886 and has been engaged in his present line of enterprise since 1897 and the years have told the tale of an eminently successful career due to persistency of purpose and a stanch determination to forge ahead. Born in the city of Indianapolis, Indiana, on the 19th of September, 1861, he is a son of Aaron and Beulah (Knight) Kaufman, the former of whom was born and reared in Germany and the latter of whom claimed Iowa as the place of her nativity, the father immigrating to the United States as a young man. Aaron Kaufman was summoned to the life eternal about 1902 and his cherished and devoted wife is also deceased. They were survived by six children, of whom the subject of this review was the youngest in order of birth, but there are only two living at this time.

Reared to maturity in the capital city of the fine old Hoosier state, J. R. Kaufman early availed himself of the advantages afforded in the public schools of that place. In 1886 he came to Kansas, locating at Kansas City, where he entered the employ of Lee Bower as clerk in his grocery store, remaining with him for a period of nine years. In 1897 he decided to launch out into the business world on his own account and accordingly opened up an establishment at 1629, Dodd avenue, where he has remained during the long intervening years to the present time. He has gradually increased the scope of his operations until he now handles everything in the line of groceries, meat and feed and he caters to the most fastidious trade in town. His place of business is a large, modern structure, convenient in all its appointments. In his political convictions Mr. Kaufman is a stanch advocate of the principles and policies propounded by the Democratic party. He has never held any public office other than that of president of the school board, to which he was elected for a term of four years, in 1909. In a fraternal way he is affiliated with the local lodges of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and of the time honored Masonic Order, in which latter connection he is a valued and appreciative member of Lodge No. 333, Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons.

At Kansas City, in the year 1887, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Kaufman to Miss Catherine Alice Smith, whose birth occurred at Kansas City, Missouri, and who is a daughter of W. J. and Sarah Smith, both of whom are now deceased. This union has been prolific of six children, whose names are here entered: Hester, Josephine, Catherine and Joseph R. Jr., all of whom are students in the Rosedale school, where they are making splendid progress. Two daughters are deceased, Ruth having passed away March 11, 1900, at the age of thirteen years, and Elsie, who died when only three years old, January 28, 1909. Mr. and Mrs. Kaufman are prominent in connection with the best social affairs of their home city and they have a most magnificent residence, their home being the center of refinement and hospitality. (History of Wyandotte County, Kansas and It's People, by Perl W. Morgan, Vol. II, 1911, Pages 676-677)

LAWS, JOHN ANDERSON

It is a beautiful thing to visit John Anderson Laws on his farm in Piper and to see him and his wife, like Darby and Joan, so contented with each other and with their lives that have been so full of joys and sorrows. They have lived many years in the county and have seen many changes. They have seen cities spring up like mushrooms in the night There is no man in Wyandotte county who is better known or more respected than Mr. Laws.

He was born in Tennessee December 9, 1827, a son of Elisha Laws and his wife, Eleanor Frey. Elisha Laws was born in North Carolina in 1804, but when he was a young man he moved to Tennessee, where he farmed and also carried on the trade of wheel wright. He witnessed all the horrors of the Revolutionary war, and also of the Civil war. He died in 1874 and his wife died ten years later, in 1884.

John Anderson Laws, the only one now living out of a family of ten children, was brought up on his father's farm in Tennessee. He attended the district school. After he had left school he worked on his father's farm. During the Civil war he enlisted in the Confederate army and served in Company B, of the Tennessee Light Artillery, under General Burnside. He fought in all the engagements in which his company participated. After the close of the war he found that it was very difficult to make a living on the farms of the south. In 1871 he came to Kansas and located in Wyandotte county, where he farmed. He now owns eighty acres of land at Piper, Kansas, and he grows wheat and corn.

In 1855 he married Adeline Bettis, who was also one of a family of ten and, like her husband, she is the only one living. Mr. and Mrs. Laws have had three children, but they are all dead.

When Mr. Laws first came to Kansas it was not at all an uncommon thing to see the Indians walking about in the cities, then not much more than villages. During those forty years he has lost father, mother, brothers and sisters. Children have been born to him and they too have left him. Now he and his wife are alone, contented in spite of their many bereavements. They have the knowledge that they have done the best they could and that is a record that no one can better.
He is a Republican in politics, and both he and his dear old wife are members of the Baptist church at Piper, Kansas. (History of Wyandotte County, Kansas and It's People, by Perl W. Morgan, Vol. II, 1911, Pages 677-678)

BISCOMB, WILLIAM H.

A man of undoubted ability and enterprise, intelligent and progressive in his views, William H. Biscomb holds a place of prominence among the leading citizens of Kansas City, Kansas, and as a man of varied resources takes pleasure in doing whatever he can to advance the material interests of the community in which he resides. A son of William Biscomb, he was born July 27, 1862, in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, coining from English ancestry.

Born and educated in Leeds, England, William Biscomb immigrated to the United States in 1851, locating in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where he was employed as a contractor until 1869. Selling out his business in that year, he bought land in Sedalia, Missouri, and carried on general farming for a year and a half. Going back to Pittsburg in 1871, he resumed contracting, and for several seasons carried on a prosperous business. In 1878 he returned to Sedalia, Missouri, where, having rented his land, he settled as a contractor, remaining there until 1886, when he sold all of his possessions in that locality and bought property in Kansas City, Kansas, where he continued a resident until his death, March -28, 1906. His wife, whose maiden name was Ann Snowden, is now living at her pleasant home on the corner of Third and Steward streets. Seven children were born of their union, as follows: Sarah, wife of John Wright, of De Witt, Arkansas; Katherine, wife of Charles Miller, of Kansas City, Kansas; Samuel, of Marion, Indiana; William H., the subject of this sketch; James, of Independence, Kansas; Emma, wife of Arthur Van Doran and a twin sister of James, resides with her widowed mother; and George, of Brownwood, Texas.

Brought up in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, William H. Biscomb was educated in the graded and high schools of that city. In 1886 he came with the family to Kansas City, Kansas, and subsequently had charge of a crew of men engaged in construction work and bridge building on the Edgerton Elevated Railroad of Kansas City, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri. In 1894 he was appointed by the Board of Education as superintendent of buildings and grounds and through his influence there was completed, in 1909, a store room and work shop, the building, which is two stories in height, with a basement, being fifty-two feet by one hundred and twenty feet and furnished with motor power. The shop is finely equipped with all the machinery and appliances in the construction and repairing of anything used in the schools or school buildings, even in concrete work, and saves the city annually thousands of dollars.

Mr. Biscomb married first, July 31, 1883, Effie Douglas, who was born in Sedalia, Missouri, a daughter of Newton and Chrissie Douglas, of Butler, Missouri. She died January 19, 1889. Two children were born of their union, namely: May, wife of Howard Wheeler, of Kansas City, Missouri; and Arthur, who died at the age of two years and five months. Mr. Biscomb married for his second wife, August 2, 1891, Minnie A. Bryant, who was born in Griggsville, Illinois, a daughter of Moses and Jennie (Scott) Bryant and granddaughter of Eben and Martha (Brown) Bryant, natives of North Cambridge, Massachusetts, and descendants of early Puritan ancestors. Moses Bryant was born in Griggsville, Illinois, but his wife was born and bred in Kentucky. Mr. Biscomb belongs to the Kansas City, Kansas, Mercantile Club, and is a member of Kansas City, Kansas, Lodge No. 1492 Modern Woodmen of America. (History of Wyandotte County, Kansas and It's People, by Perl W. Morgan, Vol. II, 1911, Pages 678-679)

MERRIWEATHER, FREDERICK WILLIAM

Rosedale, Kansas, includes in its citizenship a full quota of men who are always equal to the occasion-men ready to fight in time of war, and ready to hustle in the business arena in time of peace. Among them is Frederick William Merriweather, an enterprising grocer, a man held in high esteem by the people of the town. He has a war record himself and his father before him had one. Briefly, a sketch of his career follows:

Frederick William Merriweather is a native of Illinois. He was born in Sangamon county, that state, in 1870, son of W. H. and Sarah (Bateman) Merriweather, the latter a native of that same place and the former of Ohio.

W. H. Merriweather was a man of local prominence. In early life he left the Buckeye state and became a resident of Illinois. During the Civil war he showed his patriotism by offering his service to the Union cause, and as sergeant in Company B, One Hundred and Fourteenth Illinois Infantry, he served his country well. A few years after the war, in 1872, he moved to Kansas, settled in Crawford county, and engaged in farming. Here his sterling qualities brought him into favor with the people among whom he lived and he was honored

with high official position. He served one term in the Kansas legislature, and, subsequently, in 1880, was elected registrar of deeds of Crawford county. He died in August, 1898. Politically, he was a Republican; fraternally, a Knight of Pythias, and, religiously, both he and his wife were identified with the Methodist church. The six children born to them are as follows: Elmer E., an electrician at Pittsburg, Kansas; Sherman H., traveling representative for a shoe firm of Denver, in which he is interested; Moria, who died at the age of nineteen years and six months; Frederick W., whose name introduces this review; Edward J., a farmer of Crawford county; and Joseph L., an electrician of Girard, Kansas.

Frederick W. Merriweather was reared on his father's farm in Crawford county, or, rather, spent his early boyhood days there, for at the age of eleven years he went to Girard, Kansas, where he attended school until he was seventeen. From that time until the outbreak of the Spanish-American war, he was employed as a shoe salesman. When the call came for volunteers, he responded by joining Company D, Twentieth Kansas, and with his command went to San Francisco, thence, in October, 1898, to the Islands, and as first sergeant of his company proved himself a brave soldier on the field of battle. During his service he was in no less than twenty-two fights and skirmishes. After the war was over he returned to the United States and took up his residence in Kansas City, Missouri, where he was employed as a furniture salesman. From Kansas City he came to Rosedale. Here he engaged in the grocery business with S. W. Young, which he has since continued and today ranks with the leading business men of the town.

In 1903, Mr. Merriweather married his partner's daughter, Miss Willie C. Young. Mrs. Young, formerly Miss Emily Beeson, is a niece of Simon P. Bell, for many years a prominent citizen of Rosedale, now ninety years of age. Personal mention of Mr. Bell will be found on another page of .this work.

Politically, like his father before him, Mr. Merriweather is a Republican, and while he has never figured conspicuously as a politician, he served efficiently as a member of the city council, to which he was elected in 1909. He is a member of the Episcopal church. (History of Wyandotte County, Kansas and It's People, by Perl W. Morgan, Vol. II, 1911, Pages 679-680)

LIND, OLANDER

Olander Lind assistant fire chief in Kansas City, is at present the best man for the office and no one who knows the man will deny that the preference is not justified. He was born in Sweden August 18, 1870, a son of John and Tillie Lind. When he was fourteen years old his parents came to America, going direct to Kansas City, Kansas. There Olander entered the public schools. After he left school he entered Fowler's Packing House, where he was employed for eight years. He gave up this position to accept an appointment as meat inspector. After four years' faithful work in this capacity he resigned in order to join the Kansas City, Kansas, fire department. His work was so efficient and his bravery so well known that in 1905 he was appointed assistant fire chief, which position he now occupies. In 1891 he joined the Nordens Venner Society as its manager. He later became its treasurer and is now president of the building committee. He is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, which society he joined here in Kansas City. He is also a member of the United Yeomen of America.

In 1893, on the 21st of January, he was married to Anna Johnson, a native of Sweden, who had come to Kansas City when she was a young girl Mr. and Mrs. Lind have one son, Clarence Howard, who is at present a student in the public schools and gives every evidence of becoming as fine a man as his father.
Although Mr. Lind was born in Sweden, Kansas City, can almost claim him as its own. He came here when he was young and when the city was young. It has seen him grow and prosper and he has seen it grow and prosper. He is as proud of its present prosperous condition as it is proud of his present high standing and influence. (History of Wyandotte County, Kansas and It's People, by Perl W. Morgan, Vol. II, 1911, Pages 680-681)

WEBB, WILLIAM H.

Among the honored pioneers of Wyandotte county assuredly must be mentioned William H. Webb, who came to Kansas in 1864, making the journey across the western plains in the covered wagon drawn by oxen, which mode of travel preceded the railroads. This good citizen is one of the prosperous agriculturists of the section, his activities being principally devoted to general farming and gardening. He made his own way through the many difficulties and hardships which beset the way of the pioneer. Practical industry, wisely and vigorously applied, never fails of success; it carries a man onward and upward, brings out his individual character, and acts as a powerful stimulus to the efforts of others. The greatest results in life are usually attained by simple means, implying the exercise of the ordinary qualities of common sense and perseverance. The every day life with its cares, necessities and duties affords ample opportunities for acquiring experiences of the best kind, and its most beaten paths provide a true worker with abundant scope for effort and self improvement.

Mr. Webb, by the circumstance of birth is a Virginian, his birth having occurred in 1845, in the Old Dominion. His father was John Webb, who was born in Virginia in 1816, and the mother, whose maiden name was Barbara Cunningham, was a native of that state, and survived her husband by one year, her demise occurring in 1900 and his in 1899. Of the seven children born to that worthy couple, two survive, Mr. Webb and Sarah E., widow of J. S. Payne of this county.

Mr. Webb was reared in his native state and under the excellent tutelage of his father became versed in the various departments of the great basic industry. In 1864, some two years previous to the attainment of his majority, he was seized with western fever and crossed the plains to Kansas, making the journey in the primitive frontier manner of that day. He came not from Virginia, but from Jackson county, Missouri, whence his father had removed with his family in 1855 and where the older man remained in the useful capacity of a farmer until his death. Young Webb became favorably impressed with the charms and advantages of Wyandotte county and made the location here which was to prove permanent.

In 1871, Mr. Webb chose a loyal and devoted companion and helpmeet in the person of Miss Martha Graves, a daughter of John B. Graves, of Iowa, their union being solemnized in 1871. They became the parents of six children, the four eldest, Sarah E., Minnie B., Annie B. and William H., being deceased. John W. is an employee of the Kansas City belt line; and Eugene has followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather and pursues farming operations in Wyandotte county.
In his religious views Mr. Webb is Methodist and politically he is a Socialist, exemplifying in his own life the Socialist ideas of moral and social justice and brotherly love. (History of Wyandotte County, Kansas and It's People, by Perl W. Morgan, Vol. II, 1911, Pages 681-682)

PALK, HENRY

Most men are a better success as employees than as employers. That is doubtless the reason why there are so many men who buy farms and lose them because they cannot make them pay. It is not because they do not use their muscles enough, but because they do not use their heads enough that they fail. No one can accuse Mr. Palk of Bethel of this fault. He has made an unmitigated success of farming. He found it impossible to leave the life. He tried to for a time, but he found the call of the land too strong for him. Not only has he been able to secure a competence for himself and family, but he has done much good for the township and the county. He is a public spirited man. Would that there were more farmers like him.

Born in Baden in the duchy of Baden in the southern part of Germany, in 1851, he was the son of Rheinhardt and his wife Catharine, formerly Catharine Ernst. They were both born in Germany. Rheinhardt Palk was a blacksmith in his native town and in 1887 he came to this country to pay a visit to his son, but before his visit ended, he died, in 1888. The same year his wife died in Germany; the two who had been one in life were not long divided in death.

Henry Palk went to the schools of his town of Baden and then went to work on a farm. He was drafted to serve in the army and he served three years. In 1878 he came to America by himself and worked on the farms in Lincoln, Nebraska, and he then came to Kansas, where he worked some of the time on farms and partly in packing houses. He was assistant foreman at Armour's packing plant. He was very industrious and thrifty, and also very intelligent, and he now owns two hundred and fifteen acres of land in Wyandotte county and on it he raises wheat and cattle. He has held the office of road overseer in Wyandotte township and in Prairie township, where his farm is now.

Two years after he came to America, in 1880, he married Ludgarde Schmitt. She was born in Germany and came over to this country alone, locating in Kansas City, where she met Henry Palk. The two young people were drawn towards each other and in a very short time were married. She has been her husband's helpmeet in all of his busy life. Like her husband she is an orphan; her parents both died in Germany. Mr. and Mrs. Palk have six children: Henry, his father's namesake is the eldest; next comes Anna Mary, now the wife of William Northern; the third is Prank; Katrina is the fourth and she is now the wife of Charles Seifert; the next in age is Edward Carl and he is attending school in Kansas City, Kansas; and the youngest is Joseph who is at home on the farm with his father.
Mr. and Mrs. Palk are both Catholics and they have brought up their children in the same faith. In politics he is independent and does not care to pin his faith to any party, but rather chooses to pick the best man on each and every occasion. He has a very fine home and the family are all prospering. There is room in America for more Germans such as he. (History of Wyandotte County, Kansas and It's People, by Perl W. Morgan, Vol. II, 1911, Pages 682-683)

STUDT, CHARLES F.

If there is one life more than another where there is room for the exercise of a man's intelligence it is the life of a farmer. It was formerly believed that it did not take much brains to farm, but men have come to the conclusion that if a farmer is to obtain from the soil all that it is capable of producing, he must use his head as well as his hands. This can be readily proven by comparing two farmers who own the same amount of land, with the same climatic and other conditions. The one will produce nearly twice as much as the other and they both put the same amount of labor on the land, but the difference is that the one brings his mind to bear on the subject and the other expects his hands to accomplish everything. Charles F. Studt is one of the farmers who uses both head and hands, the result being a productive farm.

Charles F. Studt was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of Fred Studt. The wife died about 1870, and eight years later he came with his children to Wyandotte county, where he bought thirty-nine and three quarter acres of land, the farm being entirely covered with timber, except a very small clearing where a log cabin was built. Mr. Studt began the long, laborious task of clearing the timber and cultivating the land. He built a more modern house in place of the log cabin and put up the farm buildings which are in use today, residing on the farm until 1904, when he died at the age of seventy-four. He is also buried in Quindaro cemetery.

Charles had the misfortune to lose his mother when he was only two weeks old, so that he never knew a mother's love and care. He started to go to school in Cincinnati, but when he was eight years old his father brought him to Quindaro township, where he had bought a farm. They lived here together, Charles following his father about the land and picking up information about the working of the farm and the reasons why things were done. He attended the district school and helped on the farm as soon as he was old enough and has practically spent the whole of his life on the farm which his father bought, he having added half an acre to the original holding, which is located at Barker station. Mr. Studt has never married, but lives on the farm with some of his brothers and sisters. He is the youngest of a family of ten children, as follows: Louisa is now Mrs. Charles Smith and lives at Welborn station; William lives in Cincinnati, Ohio; John lives in Kansas City, Kansas; Mary and Lizzie live on the old homestead with their brother; Emma is married to Henry Mclntyre and lives in Wyandotte township; Fred lives on Armstrong avenue in Kansas City, Kansas; Amelia is married to George Studt of Quindaro township; Edward also lives in Quindaro township. Charles F. the youngest, has been a member of the Horse League Association, having been its captain for a long time.

There is very little in connection with farm work that Mr. Studt does not know, but he is not one of those men who feel sure that they know it all. If anyone has anything better in the way of methods of work or modern improvements, he is always glad to look into the matter and will try and have the best that is going. He is greatly respected by the people in the community, who surely have reason to know him, for he has grown up amongst them. (History of Wyandotte County, Kansas and It's People, by Perl W. Morgan, Vol. II, 1911, Pages 683-684

OLSON, OSCAR MORTON

In every city in the United States there are Swedish people who have in some way or another come to the front. The Swedish vice consul must of necessity be a Swede himself, but in the case of Oscar Morton Olson we find a Swede who has also distinguished himself in business and who has identified himself with Kansas City for the past thirty years. Many young Swedish men and women have come to the city without friends and without money. They have found a friend in Mr. Olson and he has helped them to earn money. Not only has Mr. Olson proved himself useful to his own countrymen, but he has done much for Kansas City itself.
Oscar Morton Olson was born at Gottland in Sweden May 2, 1856. He is the son of Olaf Hanson and Louisa, his wife, both born in Sweden. Mr. Hanson was for eight years engaged in buying and selling cattle, horses and poultry on a coast vessel in the old country. For two and a half .years he operated a Scandinavian newspaper which he had organized in connection with the Gazette. He sold this to the Armourdale Post. After he came to Kansas City he was for a time timekeeper for the Kansas City Water Works and he helped to lay the first pipes in the city. He was also with Inman for some time, who was then at the head of the gas company. He helped to install gas in Kansas City.

Oscar Morton Olson was twenty-one years old when he came to America. He went direct to Kansas City, which at that time was only a village with Indians roaming about. For three years he worked at various kinds of business and then started a grocery store at 576 Minn avenue. After about two years he sold out and engaged in the transfer business. He operated the first moving cart in Wyandotte county. He had bought a piece of land and in his spare time he ploughed it and planted corn there. He continued in the transfer business for seven years, at the end of which time he sold out and became connected with Ford, Troup & Husted in the real estate business. Then for fifteen years he bought and sold real estate on his own account. He lives at 1608 North Fifth street, on the same piece of land that he used to grow corn when he first came to Kansas City.

In 1880 he married Emma Christena Peterson in Kansas City. She was the daughter of Peter Olson and Petrenella, his wife. Her former name was Johnson. Mr. and Mrs. Olson have one son, Arthur H., born February 27, 1884. He is the foreman at Casey's Sheet Metal Works, and lives at home with his parents.
Mr. Olson has been Swedish vice consul for fifteen years. He is a member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles and of the National Volunteers, of which he is inside guard. He takes no particular interest, in politics, indeed by reason of his office he must be non-partisan. During the years that Mr. Olson has been in Kansas City he has seen great changes. The city has grown from a little village to its present proportions. He feels an unbounded pride in the city and he never loses an opportunity to do anything he can to further its advancement. He is still in the real estate business and is doing all he can in the upbuilding of Kansas City, Kansas. (History of Wyandotte County, Kansas and It's People, by Perl W. Morgan, Vol. II, 1911, Page 684)

AINSWORTH, JOHN M.

Among the worthy pioneer citizens who contributed their quota toward the agricultural development of Wyandotte county, Kansas, and who were prominent and useful in the many sided life of the community, was John M. Ainsworth, a man honored and esteemed and who is still remembered by members of the older generation as a man of fine and benevolent personality. He passed on to the Undiscovered Country in 1870 and his seventeen years residence in the state of Kansas were in that period which marked the initial stages in its settlement and development.

John M. Ainsworth was born in Ohio, in 1818. He was the son of John and Sarah (Huling) Ainsworth, both of whom were natives of Pennsylvania. He was reared on a farm in Ohio, and in the district schools of the locality received such education as was afforded to the youth of that period. As early as 1853, Mr. Ainsworth followed the tide of immigration westward and located in Wyandotte county, Kansas, but not a long time afterward he removed to Johnson county, Kansas, where he bought a tract of land and raised horses and cattle. The charms of Wyandotte county remained strong with him during his absence and in 1865 he sold his Johnson county interests and returned to it. Here on an extensive and fertile farm he engaged in the raising of fruit until his death in 1870. Since his demise his widow has operated the affairs of the homestead, and for many years has had the assistance of her son. In addition to their other activities, they make a specialty of the raising of horses and cattle, and have been distinctly successful, practical industry, wisely and vigorously applied, never having failed of success.

In 1862, Mr. Ainsworth married Elizabeth L. Swingley the young woman of his choice having been born in Illinois in 1843 and having come with her parents to Kansas in 1860. They (the parents) were S. M. and Mary (Locher) Swingley, and the father, who was a farmer, lived to the great age of ninety years. Mrs. Ainsworth was one of a family of twelve children, she being the eldest and the others as follows: Bosina, now Mrs. Barber; H. S.; M. S.; S. N.; J. J.; George L., deceased; Mollie, now Mrs. C. L. Burke; Hattie, deceased; Frank S., deceased ; C. E. and Edna, deceased. In the Swingley ancestry were mingled the Swiss and German elements and the excellent characteristics of both of these nations which constitute two most valuable sources of American immigration have been the heritage of the worthy men and women above mentioned. All of them are devout church members, although differing in denomination. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Ainsworth was blessed by the birth of four children, the two eldest, Harry V. and Hattie C., being deceased; Edith being the widow of George A. Taylor; and Fred L., making his home upon the old homestead with his mother.

Mr. Ainsworth, the father, was a Republican, and faithfully subscribed to the principles of the party, and Mrs. Ainsworth's people were Democrats. In looking over his simple, but useful life history, one is impressed by the fact that his is the honorable record of a conscientious man-one who, by his upright life, won the confidence of all with whom he came into contact.

The place upon which Mrs. Ainsworth, widow of the deceased lives, was owned by .the Indians in days long gone by, when the savage was lord of the prairies, and when the Ainsworths first settled upon this homestead, a log house built by the redmen was still standing upon it. The Ainsworth home is one of the most beautiful and picturesque in the locality. One of the interesting features of the estate is a mineral well, one hundred and eighty-five feet deep. (History of Wyandotte County, Kansas and It's People, by Perl W. Morgan, Vol. II, 1911, Pages 685-686)

McGEORGE, WILLIAM

The sterling character and pragmatic ability so typical of the sturdy race from which he is sprung indicate this representative business man and influential citizen of Argentine, one of the thriving little cities that add to the civic and material attractiveness and precedence of Wyandotte county. Here he is engaged in the retail drug business and here he has been specially active in the promotion of all measures and undertakings tending to advance the welfare of the city and county. He has served as mayor of Argentine and has been a resident of this county for thirty years, within which he has so applied his energies and ability as to gain large and worthy success, the while he has at all times commanded sure vantage in popular confidence and esteem.

A scion of the stanchest of old Scottish families Mr. McGeorge finds a due measure of satisfaction in reverting the land of hills and heather as the place of his nativity. He was born at Castle Douglas, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, on the 13th of September, 1852, and is a son of Thomas and Jane (Blacklock) McGeorge, both of whom were born and reared in the same section of Scotland, with whose annals the respective names have been identified for generations, extending back to the time when recorded history lapses into tradition. In 1871 the sturdy Scotsman, Thomas McGeorge, severed the ties that bound him to the land of his nativity and immigrated with his family to the hospitable shores of the United States. He purchased a farm near Excelsior Springs, Clay county, Missouri, where he became a substantial agriculturist and influential citizen. He and his wife passed the closing years of their lives at Excelsor Springs, Missouri, and they are survived by three sons and three daughters.

William McGeorge, the immediate, subject of this review, gained an excellent academic education in his native land, where he also served an apprenticeship of four years in the drug trade. He thus gained a thorough technical and practical knowledge of pharmacy and also of business methods, and he was nineteen years of age at the time when he came with his parents to America. For two years thereafter he was employed as clerk in a drug store at Liberty, Missouri, and he then engaged in the same line of enterprise on his own account at Camden Point, Platte county, that state. He finally disposed of this business and made a trip through the west. In the spring of 1880 he came to Wyandotte county, Kansas, and opened a drug store at Rose-dale. In 1884 he established a drug store in Argentine, and for several years thereafter he conducted both establishments. He finally disposed of his business at Rosedale and has since continued the enterprise in Argentine, where he has maintained his home since 1886 and where he has long held precedence as one of the most substantial and progressive business men of this attractive little city, in the growth and development of which he has manifested a lively interest. After Argentine was advanced from the position of a city of the third class to that of the first class he served as the first mayor under the new dispensation, retaining this incumbency two years and giving a careful and progressive administration of municipal affairs. His interest in the city of his home is of the most insistent order and in addition to having served as its chief executive he has served nearly fourteen years as a member of the board of education, of which position he is now incumbent. For the long term of twelve years he had the distinction of being president of this board, having held that position at the time of the annexation to Kansas City, and he was specially zealous in the work of providing the best possible system of public schools, which have here been raised to a notably high standard. Though a stanch supporter of the generic principles and policies of the Democratic party, Mr. McGeorge has not been insistently partisan in connection with local affairs of public order, but rather has given his support to men and measures meeting the approval of his judgment. He is affiliated with the Knights and Ladies of Security. The attractive home is a center of gracious hospitality, and Mrs. McGeorge has long been a popular factor in connection with the social activities of the community.

In the year 1882 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. McGeorge to Miss Morvie Jones, who was born in Wales and who was a child at the time of her parents immigration to the United States. She was reared to maturity in Wyandotte county, Kansas, where her father became associated with the old rolling mills. Mr. and Mrs. McGeorge have five children, and concerning them the following brief data is given in conclusion of this sketch: John I. is associated with his father's drug business; William, Jr., is a skilled chemist and is in the employ of the United States government at the experiment station maintained in the city of Honolulu, Hawaii; Robert is a student at Lawrence; Kenneth is night ticket agent with the Santa Fe Railroad Company; and Helen remains at the parental home. (History of Wyandotte county, Kansas and It's People, by Perl W. Morgan, Vol. II, 1911, Pages 686-687)

PERKINS, GEORGE A.

The type of man best fitted to meet the wonderfully changed life of today is not a new type. He is a man resplendent with the same old sterling qualities, clean in his individual life, great in his civic and patriotic life and great in his religious life. G. A. Perkins, whose name forms the caption for this article, is a representative citizen of Bonner Springs, where he has resided since 1897 and where he is accorded recognition as a prominent and influential business man. Mr. Perkins was born at Adrian, Lenawee county, Michigan, on the 24th of August, 1860, and he is a son of Alexander and Martha (Bean) Perkins, both of whom are now deceased. The father was identified with the mechanical line of enterprise during the major portion of his active career, and he passed the closing years of his life at Paola, Kansas.

The third in order of birth in a family of four children, George A. Perkins was reared to the age of eleven years in the old Wolverine state of the Union, whence his parents removed to Kansas in the year 1871. Location was first made at Paola, to whose public schools Mr. Perkins is indebted for a portion of his educational discipline. When nineteen years of age he established his home in Kansas City, Missouri, where he was engaged in the harness business for a period of twenty years, at the expiration of which he came to Bonner Springs, and here opened a harness shop. In 1904 he added hardware to his first enterprise, and with the passage of time added furniture and house furnishings. His establishment consists of two rooms, each twenty-five by seventy-five feet, and of a third room twenty-five by one hundred feet. It is one of the most complete in the way of equipment and one of the largest stores of its kind in a town of this size in the west, and for that reason, together with the strictly square and honorable treatment given all customers, an exceedingly large patronage is controlled.

On the 3rd of October, 1888, at Kansas City, Missouri, Mr. Perkins was united in marriage to Miss Eliza Downing, who is a native of the state of Maine, and who is a daughter of J. W. Downing, a farmer and citizen of Wyandotte county.

In politics Mr. Perkins accords allegiance to the principles and policies endorsed by the Democratic party, in the local councils of which he is an active and interested factor, ever being on the qui vive to do all in his power to advance the general welfare of the community in which he resides. He is affiliated with a number of fraternal and social organizations of representative character and in their religious faith the Perkins family are consistent and zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal church, to whose philanthropical work he is a liberal contributor. Concerning Mr. Perkins the following appreciative words have been said: "He is a man of an exalted sense of honor, of cordial and friendly nature and of fine public spirit. He believes in Bonner Springs and is a participant in every plan to boost the town." And we further quote of him and his business from an article published recently in a local paper:

"The largest store* in Bonner Springs, which has grown to its present proportions on its own merit and on the confidence that the public has in its owner, is that of G. A. Perkins, who deals in hardware, harness, furniture and house furnishings, the latter including stoves. Mr. Perkins carries a big stock of the highest standard. His store, which is composed of two rooms of twenty-five by seventy-five feet each, and a third of twenty-five by one hundred, is one of the most complete and modern in a town of this size in the country. Fourteen years ago it had its start in a small harness shop. The year following he added hardware, and then furniture and the store grew in business largely because he responded intelligently to the public demand and gave his customers square treatment. That has always been his reputation in this community. Mr. Perkins was born in Michigan in 1860. He came with his parents to Paola when he was about eleven years old and afterward moved to Kansas City, where he was in the harness business for twenty years. He is a man of an exalted sense of honor, of cordial and friendly nature and of fine public spirit. He believes in Bonner Springs and is a participant in every plan to boost the town. (History of Wyandotte County, Kansas and It's People, by Perl W. Morgan, Vol. II, 1911, Pages 687-688)

HUTCHINGS, FRANK DAY

Frank Day Hutchings.-Success in any profession, in any avenue of business, is not a matter of spontaneity; but represents the result of the application of definite subjective forces and the controlling of objective agencies in such a way as to achieve desired ends. As judge of the district court of Wyandotte county, Division No. 2, as well as a distinguished member of the bar of Kansas, Frank D. Hutchings has enjoyed for many years a reputation which well exemplifies the truth of the foregoing statement. He has important financial and realty holdings and is one of the distinctively representative citizens of Kansas City, Kan.; progressive and energetic in the conduct of his official duties and the management of his commercial affairs, loyal and public spirited as a citizen, he holds a secure position in the confidence and esteem of the community. Frank D. Hutchings is a native of New York, born on his father's farm in Tioga county, Oct. 24, 1859, the son of Samuel Dean and Betsey Rounseville (Ashley) Hutchings. His ancestors, paternal and maternal, were among those who took part in the early colonization of America, and numbered among them have been those who achieved distinction in the French and Indian wars, the war of the Revolution and in many positions of usefulness in the town, state and nation. The Hutchings family was founded in America by Thomas Hutchings, a seaman in the British navy, who at the close of the war between Holland and England, about 1680, swam ashore from his ship (then in the harbor of New York) and became a resident of that colony. His son, Isaac Hutchings, was also a sailor and was impressed into the naval service by a privateer, but escaped by jumping overboard. He was rescued when nearly exhausted by a boatman and his daughter, afterward married the daughter and settled on Long Island in 1725. From this couple descended numerous families of the name now residing in Ulster, Dutchess and other counties along the Hudson river and in central New York. The third in the line was also named Thomas. Jonathan or John Hutchings, the fourth of the line, was the great-grandfather and Revolutionary ancestor of the subject of this sketch. He served in Jacob Swartwout's regiment in the war of the Revolution. On completion of that service he settled in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, and died there Aug. 6, 1826. His wife was Letitia Langdon. His son John, the fifth in line, was born at Esopus, Ulster county, New York, Oct. 1, 1778, and died March 24, 1853. He married Abigail Dean, born in Stamford, Conn., in 1780, and died June 27, 1837; served in the American navy under both Commodore Bainbridge and Decatur in the war of 1812 and the war with Tripoli; became one of the pioneer settlers of Dryden, Tompkins county, New York, and resided there at the time of his death. He was an outspoken and aggressive Abolitionist long before the anti-slavery agitation began and his house was the place of resort of such men as Gerritt Smith, with whom he cooperated in aiding runaway slaves to gain their freedom, his grist mill and farm buildings frequently furnishing them secure places of refuge and concealment from pursuers. The sixth in line, the father of Judge Hutchings, was Samuel Dean Hutchings, born at Dryden, N. Y., Sept. 11, 1808, and died March 27, 1878. He studied for the law, but devoted most of his time to teaching and educational pursuits. He followed the profession of teacher in the public schools of New York for more than thirty years, during which time he prepared a system of text books for the common school, adopting the orthography and orthoepy of Webster instead of Walker, which was then generally employed in school books. He was only prevented from becoming the pioneer in the reform by the unexpected appearance in print of works of Charles W. Sanders, adopting the same method, after his manuscript had been completed and delivered to the printer, These books in manuscript form are still preserved in the family and are quite interesting relics of the early efforts in the reform of spelling, and pronounciation.

On the maternal side Judge Hutchings is descended from James Ashley, who came to the Massachusetts colony from England between 1639 and 1650, lived for a time in Boston and afterwards removed to Freetown, Bristol county, which became the seat of numerous descend-ants, many of whom the war records show served their country in the war of the Revolution. The first of his family of whom definite information has been obtained is Percival Ashley, the great-grandfather of Judge Hutchings. He served in Colonel Hathaway's regiment in the war of the Revolution and received a commission as lieutenant. His first wife was Anne Bishop, from whom Judge Hutchings is descended. Percival Ashley's sons, Col. Simeon Ashley, at one time colonel of the militia and sheriff of Bristol county, and Dr. James Ashley, an eminent physician of New Bedford, at an early day settled in Tompkins county, New York. The latter was the father of Betsey Rounseville Ashley, the mother of the subject of this sketch. Dr. Ashley was born at Freetown, Mass., Feb. 3, 1777, and died at Caroline, N. Y., Dec. 9, 1870. He married Betsey Rounseville, born Dec. 3, 1776, the daughter of Levi Rounseville, a captain in the Continental line in the war of the Revolution. Dr. Ashley practiced medicine continously for more than fifty years. He was an ardent anti-slavery advocate. The neighborhood in which he lived was principally settled by Virginians, who held slaves, New York then being a slave state. Against the prejudices of the people, his principal competitor in the profession, Dr. Joseph Speed, being a large slaveholder, he resolutely advocated unconditional abolition of slavery. He also supported with great determination the Washington Temperance movement, which had in view the total suppression of the sale of intoxicating liquors in tippling shops. His daughter, Betsey Rounseville Ashley, was born at Caroline, N. Y., Aug. 15, 1815. She married Samuel Dean Hutchings, Nov. 29, 1835, and died Aug. 26, 1901. Of the children born of this marriage: John, born Dec. 31, 1836, died April 2, 1892. He was admitted to the bar and practiced for three years in Waverly, N. Y. In 1863, he located in Lawrence, Kan., and formed a partnership with Hon. F. V. Banks, afterwards reporter of the supreme court of the state. At his death in 1892 he was general attorney for the receiver of the Kansas City, Wyandotte & Northwestern Railway Company. He appeared as counsel in the celebrated Medlicott murder trial and the Hillman insurance case. The latter was one of the most noted cases ever before the courts of Kansas. It was pending for over a quarter of a century, twice reversed by the supreme court of the United States and finally settled by the insurance company substantially paying the claim. James Ashley, born Sept. 29, 1838, enlisted as a private in the Tenth New York cavalry and served throughout the Civil war. After being mustered out he came to Kansas and settled in Neosho county where he became a successful miller. He retired from active business in 1899 and removed to Kansas City, Kan., and employed his time in looking after his extensive realty holdings until his death, March 30, 1912. The third child, Samuel Dean, was born Aug. 15, 1840, died July 6, 1842. Mary Ann, born Aug. 16, 1842, died June 18, 1907; Betsey Amanda, born Aug. 8, 1844, died Nov. 16, 1863; Charles Frederick, born. May 25, 1846, prepared for Harvard University, but was compelled to abandon the course through the enlistment of his brother in the army, and afterwards was employed in the educational department of the Freedman's Bureau at New Orleans. In 1866 he took up the study of law in Charlotte, Mich., and was admitted to practice in that state. He located for practice in Neosho county, Kan., in 1867; was elected to the legislature in 1872; and was chairman of the judiciary committee during the investigation of the Pomeroy and York bribery case. From 1885 to 1908 he was engaged in practice in Kansas City, Kan., and was recognized as one of the eminent men in his profession. He has resided in Kansas City, Mo., since 1908; is general counsel for the Kansas City Western Railway Company; is a director of the company and of the Pioneer Trust Company. Simeon, the seventh child, was born July 10, 1848; enlisted when fifteen years of age in the Fifth New York cavalry;; was taken prisoner in an engagement in Virginia soon after, and after the war his grave was discovered as No. 3112 in the National Cemetery at Andersonville, Ga., where are buried the victims of Andersonville prison.

Frank Day Hutchings has been a resident of Kansas since 1865, when as a child he came with his parents from New York. He acquired his early education in the schools of Osage Mission, and was then matriculated in the University of Kansas, graduating with the degree of Bachelor of Arts as a member of the class of 1883. The following year he was employed as city editor of the "Lawrence Journal" and then entered the law department of his Alma Mater, graduating in 1886, and was valedictorian of his class. The subject of his address was "The Conflict in Jurisdiction Between the State and Federal Courts." He located for practice at Osage Mission but removed to Kansas City, Kan., in 1888 and with the Hon. James F. Getty formed the firm of Getty & Hutchings. In 1898 he was appointed city attorney of Kansas City, Kan., to fill out an unexpired term, and was elected for a full term in April, 1899. In 1908 he was appointed judge of the circuit court of Wyandotte county, a court of general jurisdiction created for the purpose of receiving the district and common pleas courts which had fallen behind with their docket. He held this position until December of the same year, when the court was declared unconstitutional by the supreme court of the state and abolished. At the session of the legislature in 1909 a second division of the district court was created to take the place of the circuit court. Mr. Hutchings at a meeting of the bar of Wyandotte county received the unanimous endorsement of that body for the position of judge of this division of the court, but the governor refused to respect the wishes of the bar. In August, 1910, Mr. Hutchings was nominated without opposition as the Republican candidate for the position of judge of the second division, was elected in November following and holds that position at the present time. Judge Hutchings has been connected with some of the most important litigation in Wyandotte county during the years of his practice here, among which may be mentioned the case of the receivers of the Union Pacific railway vs. Kansas City, Kan., involving the constitutionality of the law authorizing the city to extend its boundaries so as to include certain railroad property. This case was twice argued in the supreme court of the United States by Mr. Hutchings and was finally decided in favor of the city.

Judge Hutchings was married on Nov. 24, 1892, to Miss Mabel Wemple of Topeka, Kan., a niece of ex-Senator Edmund G. Ross of this state, who will be remembered as casting the deciding vote against impeachment in the trial of President Andrew Johnson before the United. States senate. Judge Hutchings met his wife while attending the University of Kansas, she being a student in that institution. They have two children, both born in Kansas City, Kan., a son, Wemple Frank, born Nov. 24, 1893, and a daughter, Kate, born March 21, 1897. Judge and Mrs. Hutchings hold an assured position in the best social life of the city and their delightful and cultured home is the center of gracious hospitality. Judge Hutchings has attained the Thirty-second degree in Masonry and is affiliated with Abdallah Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of Leavenworth. He is also a member of Wyandotte Lodge, No. 440, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and Wyandotte Lodge, No. 165, Loyal Order of Moose. He is vice-president of and a director in the New England Securities Company of Kansas City, Mo., and has valuable realty holdings in Wyandotte county. (KANSAS BIOGRAPHY, VOL. III PART 2 - Page: 1013-1017 - Transcribed as written by Millie Mowry)

SUTTON, WILLIAM BELL

William Bell Sutton. A publication of this nature exercises its most important function when it takes cognizance of the life and labors of those citizens who have risen to prominence and prosperity through their own well directed efforts and who have been of material value in furthering the advancement of the commonwealth. Judge Sutton is best known to the citizens of Wyandotte county and the State of Kansas at large as a distinguished member of the bar, to which he was admitted in April, 1870. He is a native of Pennsylvania, born in Indiana, the county seat of Indiana county, Feb. 12, 1849, the son of James and Sarah (Stanborough) Sutton. His ancestors, paternal and maternal, were among the early settlers of America and numbered among them are men who achieved distinction in the frontier life of those early days, in the commercial era which followed, in the French and Indian wars and later in the war of the Revolution. William Sutton, the founder of the family in America, was born in Warwickshire, England, in 1641, came to the Massachusetts colony about 1660 and settled in Eastham. He was descended from Sir John Sutton, one of the rebellious barons who forced the granting by King John of the Magna Charta in 1215; Oliver Sutton, bishop of Lincoln, who died in 1299, and who officiated at the burial of Queen Elinor, consort of Edward I.; Thomas Sutton (1532-1611), founder of the Charter House of London, the world's greatest charity; and Sir Richard Sutton, one of the founders of Brasenore College, Oxford, were of this family. Judge Sutton is descended from William Sutton as follows: Daniel Sutton, son of William (1681-1761), resided at Woodbridge, N. J.; Zebulon, son of Daniel, born 1707, resided at North Branch, N. J.; Peter, son of Zebulon (1743-1829), enlisted in October, 1775, in the First New Jersey militia, afterward serving in Captain Nixon's company of New Jersey horse and the light dragoons, mustered out Dec. 15, 1782, and in 1798 removed to Pennsylvania, becoming one of the founders of Indiana; Thomas, son of Peter, was born in New Jersey, March 5, 1784, and died in Indiana, Pa., in 1833; James Sutton, son of Thomas and father of Judge Sutton, born in Indiana, Pa., April 23, 1812, and died in that city on Sept. 10, 1870. In his early life he was a merchant, but later became a banker and was president of the First National Bank of Indiana at the time of his death. First a Democrat, he afterward became a warm supporter of Abraham Lincoln and his policies. He was a gentleman of the old school and it is said of him that during his lifetime he never addressed a man by his first name, other than members of his family.

The Stanborough family, from which Judge Sutton is descended on the maternal side, is of Welsh origin and was founded in America early in the Seventeenth Century by Josiah Stanborough, who came from England and settled at Southampton, Long Island, where he died in 1661. Judge Sutton is the eighth in descent from Josiah Stanborough, to-wit: Josiah, the son of Josiah, established the family in Elizabeth, N. J.; Recompense, son of Josiah, Jr., born in Elizabeth, Aug. 22, 1672, married Ann Higginson, a daughter of the Rev. Francis Higginson, the first minister of the Massachusetts colony, who reached Salem on the ship Talbot on June 29, 1629; Josiah, son of Recompense, born in 1716, resided in Elizabeth; Adonizah, son of Josiah, born in Elizabeth in 1746, removed to Wilkes Barre, Pa., in 1774, was associated with Robert Morris in business and in financing the war of the Revolution, and died in Milton, N. J., on May 16, 1823; Rhoads S., son of Adonizah, born in Broadkill Hundred, Del., in 1792, graduated from Lewiston Academy in Delaware, studied medicine and served as surgeon of the Fifth battalion, Pennsylvania militia, in the war of 1812, and later resided at Marietta, Ohio, where he died of yellow fever in June, 1820; Sarah Cook Stanborough, the mother of Judge Sutton, was born on May 27, 1816 and died on Feb. 28, 1899.

William Bell Sutton secured his early educational discipline in the public schools of his native town, Tuscarora Academy, Academia, Pa., and Elders' Ridge Academy in Pennsylvania, and was then matriculated in Washington and Jefferson College, Cannonsburg, Pa., where he completed the prescribed literary course and was graduated with the class of 1868. Subsequently he read law and was admitted to the bar at Utica, N. Y., in April, 1870. In that city he initiated his legal career and during the years 1870-1880 was successively a member of the firms of Gazzam & Sutton, Sutton & Gray and Sutton & Moorehouse. In 1880 he was elected county judge of Oneida county for a term of six years and completed his service Dec. 31, 1886. The following February he came to Kansas and located at Russell, the county seat of Russell county, where he resumed the practice of law as senior member of the firm of Sutton, Russell & Dollison. In October, 1897, he came to Wyandotte county and has since been a resident of Kansas City. In 1901 he formed with his son, William B. Sutton, Jr., the firm of Sutton & Sutton, recognized as one of the most prominent and influential legal firms in the state. During his practice, which has covered a span of more than forty years, Judge Sutton has appeared in connection with important litigations in both the state and Federal courts. He is especially fortified in his wide and comprehensive knowledge of the law, a man of strong character and distinct individuality, in argument logical and convincing, and of unswerving integrity. He has been successful and his methods have been clean, capable and honest. He has been a life-long Republican; was elected a member of the legislature from Russell county in 1894, and was appointed by Governor Morrill a member of the Kansas State Board of Irrigation, serving during 1895-97. He is a member of Wyandotte Lodge No. 3, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.

On June 8, 1868, Judge Sutton married Miss Agnes Munroe Black, daughter of John E. Black, a banker of Cannonsburg, Pa., and treasurer of Washington and Jefferson College. They are the parents of five sons: Charles E. Sutton of Lawrence, Kan., a member of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture, of which he has served two terms as president, and a well known breeder of pedigreed stock; James Sutton of the Anawalt-Campbell Mercantile Company of Harper, Kan., was educated at the State Agricultural College at Manhattan; William B. Sutton, Jr., of Sutton & Sutton, attorneys, Kansas City, Kan., who graduated from Kansas University with the class of 1899, is president of the Presbyterian Brotherhood and vice president of the Mercantile Club of Kansas City, Kan.; Walter Stanborough Sutton, M. D., the fourth son, is a graduate of Kansas University, class of 1900, a fellow of Columbia University, department of zoology and graduated with the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York with the class of 1907, subsequently interne and house surgeon in Roosevelt Hospital, New York City, located for practice in Kansas City, Kan., September, 1909, appointed associate professor of surgery in the medical department of Kansas University the same year and professor of surgery in 1911; Everett B. Sutton, the youngest son, was educated in the engineering department of Kansas University. Mrs. Sutton is a woman of broad culture and refinement and popular in the social circles of her home city in which she is a leader. She is president of the Slavic Mission Board, supported by the Presbyterian churches of both Kansas Cities, and is active and influential in the work of various organizations of the First Presbyterian Church, in which she holds membership.(KANSAS BIOGRAPHY, VOL. III PART 2 - Page: 1025-1028 - Transcribed as written by Millie Mowry)