Biographies of Wyandotte County, Kansas

WYANDOTTE COUNTY, KANSAS

BIOGRAPHIES

WELLS, CHARLES K.

Though not now engaged in the active practice of his profession, Mr. Wells has long held prestige as one of the representative members of the Kansas bar and he may well be designated as a pioneer of the state, as he has resided within its gracious borders for a period of forty years, within which he has gained large and worthy success through his own efforts, as he started out in life without financial resources or other fortuitous influences. He is president of the Exchange State Bank of Kansas City, one of the strong and ably managed financial institutions of the state, and in his home city he has other large business and capitalistic interests. While he has made of success not an accident but the logical result of well directed effort, he has also stood exemplar of the highest civic ideals and is a liberal and progressive citizen, always ready to give his influence and aid in support of those measures and enterprises that tend to advance the social and material well being of the community. Gauged by the metewand of popular approbation, Mr. Wells is fully entitled to the confidence and esteem so uniformly reposed in him and is distinctively eligible for representation in this publication.

Charles K. Wells was born at Painesville, the judicial center and metropolis of Lake county, Ohio, on the 7th of April, 1845, and is a son of Leonidas K. and Olive (Bachelor) Wells, both of whom were natives of the state of New York. The Wells lineage is traced back to stanch Welsh origin and that of the Bachelor family to English sources, the original progenitors of this family having settled in New England in the Colonial era of our national history. The parents of Mr. Wells moved from Ohio to Monmouth, Illinois, in 1859, and in the latter state the father devoted his attention principally to merchandising until 1876, when he came to Kansas, where he lived virtually retired during the latter years of his long and useful life. Both he and his wife passed the closing years of their lives at Kansas City, this state. Charles K. Wells gained his rudimentary education in the public schools of his native state and was a lad of fourteen years at the time of the family removal to Illinois, where he was educated at Monmouth College. He was admitted to the bar of Illinois in 1867 and his initial work in his profession was done at Monmouth, that state. In 1871 he came to Kansas and established himself in practice at Concordia, the capital of Cloud county, where he remained until 1876 and where he met with success in his professional work. In 1875 he represented that county in the state legislature. In the Centennial year, 1876, Mr. Wells removed to the city of Atchison, where he found a broader field for professional endeavor and where he long continued in the successful practice of law, with a clientage of distinctively representative order. He served four years as county attorney of Atchison county and was otherwise prominent and influential in local affairs of a public nature.
In 1890 Mr. Wells came to Kansas City, retiring from his law practice in order to have more time for the supervision of his various business and capitalistic interests, which had reached extensive proportions. He has been president of the Exchange State Bank of Kansas City since 1905 and has guided its policies with a firm and -able hand, with the result that it has become one of the solid and popular institutions of this part of the state. His other capitalistic investments have been made judiciously and a number have been in connection with enterprises that have materially aided in expanding the industrial and commercial prestige of his home city. In politics, with well fortified convictions, he accords an unwavering allegiance to the Republican party and he has been a prominent factor in its councils in Kansas. He is a member of the Kansas City Mercantile Club and other civic organizations.

In 1876 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Wells to Miss Elizabeth V. Peiffer, who was born and reared at Meadville in the state of Pennsylvania, and is a gracious chatelaine of the beautiful home, which is a center of cordial hospitality. Mr. and Mrs. Wells have two children, Leonidas K. and Helen E. Leonidas K. Wells is employed in the Exchange State Bank. Helen E. Wells married Charles H. Haren and resides in Kansas City, Kansas. (History of Wyandotte County, Kansas and It's People, by Perl W. Morgan, Vol. II, 1911, Pages 514-516)

PORTER, JAMES E.

The many positions of public trust that have been held by Mr. Porter within a residence of more than a quarter of a century in Kansas City, Kansas, well indicate his sterling character and the popular estimate placed upon him in the community. The last preferment of official order that has been his is that of mayor of Kansas City, to which office he was elected in April, 1910, for a term of one year, and his business like and progressive administration gained to him unequivocal commendation upon the part of the citizens of the thriving metropolis of Wyandotte county. He was re-elected to the position of chief executive of the municipal government in April, 1911, and his record in this and all other positions in which he has served the public will stand to his lasting credit.

James Edgar Porter was born on a farm in Cass county, Missouri, on the 23rd of August, 1857, and is a son of James W. and Susan (Phelps) Porter, whose marriage was solemnized in that state, to which the father moved from his native state of Tennessee when a young man, there forming the acquaintance of his future wife, who was born in Kentucky, both being representatives of stanch old southern families. James W. Porter continued to be engaged in agricultural pursuits in Cass county, Missouri, until the time of the Civil war, when conditions became such as to lead to his removal to Independence, Jackson county, that state, where he followed various lines of business enterprise and where he continued to reside until 1885. when he came to Kansas City, Kansas, where he lived retired until his death, in 1888, at the age of seventy-eight years; his loved and devoted wife survived him and passed the closing years of her life in the home of her son James E., of this sketch, where she died in 1905, at the venerable age of eighty-two years. This worthy couple became the parents of five sons and four daughters, and the future mayor of Kansas City was the youngest of the number.

James E. Porter attended the public schools at Independence, Missouri, until he had attained to the age of fifteen years, and thus it may be noted that the major part of his education has been received under the guidance of the wise headmaster, experience. Upon leaving school he found a due quota of adventure and hard work in the occupation of herding or "running" cattle, to which he devoted his attention for four years, in Kansas and Iowa. He then returned to Independence, Missouri, where he was in the employ of a lumberman for a time and his experience in this connection led him to make his first independent business venture-that of buying and shipping walnut logs. Thereafter he showed the versatility of his makeup by acting for a time as foreman of a gang of men engaged in railroad construction, and in 1885 he came to Kansas City, where he engaged in the selling of cigars and tobacco for a local concern. In November of the same year he became a patrolman in the city police department, and eighteen months later he was promoted to the position of police sergeant, an incumbency which he retained until March, 1889, when he was advanced to the office of captain. He served in this capacity, with marked acceptability, until 1891, save for a brief interim when the office was then declared vacant, but he was soon called upon to resume the office. On the 1st of May, 1901, Mr. Porter was elected street commissioner of Kansas City, and he showed marked zeal and judgment in handling the work of his department, including the cleaning and repairing of the streets after the flood of 1903. He retired from this position in the year last mentioned and thereafter was in the employ of the Wyandotte Coal & Lime Company until 1906, when he was again called to public service, by his election to the office of sheriff of Wyandotte county. He assumed the duties of the shrievalty in January, 1907, and retired from office in January, 1909, after a vigorous and effective administration. In April, 1910, he was accorded a special mark of popular esteem, in that he was then elected mayor of his home city and re-elected, and his policies in the directing of municipal affairs fully justified the popular choice.

In politics Mr. Porter has ever been found aligned as a stalwart supporter of the cause of the Democratic party, and he has been an influential factor in its local affairs in Kansas City and Wyandotte county. In the Masonic fraternity he has not only attained to the chivalric degrees of the York Rite, in which he is affiliated with the Kansas City Commandery of Knights Templars, but he has also received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, besides which he is identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. Both he and his wife are members of the Baptist church and both are popular figures in connection with the social activities of the city in which they have so long maintained their home.

In the year 1887 Mr. Porter was united in marriage to Miss Fannie L. Booth, daughter of the late Charles L. Booth, of Jackson county, Missouri, and of the children of this union only one is living, Martha Evelyn. (History of Wyandotte County, Kansas and It's People, by Perl W. Morgan, Vol. II, 1911, Pages 516-517)

POLLOCK, JOHN C.

The fine old Buckeye commonwealth has not only given its full quota of presidents to the United States but its contribution to the bench and bar of other commonwealths of the Union has also been specially noteworthy. That Judge Pollock, who claims Ohio as the place of his nativity, has attained to marked distinction as one of the representative legists and jurists of Kansas needs no further voucher than that offered in the fact that he has served as a member of the supreme court of this state and that he is now presiding on the bench of the United States district court. He has maintained his home in Kansas City, this state, since 1908, and has been a resident of Kansas for nearly a quarter of a century.

John Calvin Pollock was born in Belmont county, Ohio, on the 5th of November, 1857, and the place of his nativity was the old home-Digitized by stead farm of his father, in Union township, where his boyhood and youth were passed under the gracious influence pertaining to the great basic industry of agriculture. He is a son of Samuel and Jane B. (Scott) Pollock, the former of whom was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, in 1818, and the latter of whom was born in Belmont county, Ohio. Jane (Scott) Pollock, while of but limited scholastic education, was in every true and just sense a most superior woman, strong of intellect, courageous of purpose, indefatigable of energy, and she presided over the affairs of her country home with that ease of manner, that dignity of carriage, that power and poise of mind which ever characterize the refined and modest wife, the estimable and loving mother, the good friend and neighbor. In the sacred family circle gathered at the old homestead, consecrated by such joys and sorrows, hopes and fears as this life brings to the average American family, alone was her true worth known and the loveliness of her character fully appreciated. Samuel Pollock was a boy at the time of his parents' removal from the old Keystone state to Ohio, where he was reared to maturity and where he continued to maintain his home until his death, in the fullness of years and well earned honors. He was constant in his allegiance to farming and stock growing and through this medium gained definite independence and prosperity. He was a man of sterling character and strong mentality, and his life was guided and governed by the highest principles of integrity and honor, so that he held as his own the unqualified esteem of those with whom he came in contact in the various relations of life. Both he and his wife continued to reside in Belmont county until their death and both were earnest and devout members of the United Presbyterian church. He was well fortified in his opinions and was a stalwart supporter of the principles of the Republican party. The lineage of the Pollock family is traced back to sterling Scotch origin, and the founder of the American branch was Samuel Pollock, who immigrated from Scotland prior to the war of the Revolution and who established his home in what is now Washington county, Pennsylvania. James Scott, the maternal grandfather of Judge Pollock, came from county Down, Ireland, to America, and eventually settled in Belmont county, Ohio, where he and his wife passed the residue of their lives and where he was a prosperous farmer for many years prior to his demise.

Judge John C. Pollock gained his preliminary education in the public schools of his native state and his ambition for broader education met with the hearty approval of his parents, who assisted him in every possible way. He turned aside from the plowshare and the smiling meadows to enter Franklin College, at New Athens, Ohio, in which he completed the classical course and was graduated as a member of the class of 1882, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In the meanwhile the future jurist had formulated definite plans for his future career, and after deciding to prepare himself for the legal profession he began the study of law in the office of one of the leading members of the bar of his native county, at St. Clairsville, the judicial center of the county. He made rapid and substantial progress in his assimilation of the science of jurisprudence and continued his technical studies under such effective preceptorship until April, 1884. when he removed to Newton, Iowa, where he was admitted to the bar and where he continued in the practice of his profession until February, 1885, when he established himself in practice at Hartsville, the county seat of Wright county, Missouri. There he continued in the successful work of his profession until January, 1888, when he cast in his lot with Kansas, in which state he has since resided and in which his ability and well directed endeavors have gained to him distinguished precedence as one of the leading members of its bench and bar. In the year last mentioned Judge Pollock located at Winfield, the metropolis and judicial center of Cowley county, and this place continued to be his home until 1900, when, upon his appointment to the office of justice of the Kansas supreme court, he transferred his residence to Topeka, the capital of the state. His appointment to the supreme bench was made by the governor, to fill a vacancy, and at the expiration of the term, in 1902, he was duly elected as his own successor. On the 1st of December of the following year, however, he resigned this high office to assume one of still greater judicial responsibility and honor, as he had received appointment to the bench of the United States district court, a position of which he has since remained incumbent and in which he has added materially to his high reputation as a jurist of distinctive acumen and of broad and exact knowledge of law and precedent. He continued to reside in Topeka until March, 1908, since which time he has maintained his home in Kansas City, an honored and valued citizen of the thriving metropolis of Wyandotte county.

Though never a seeker of official preferment outside the direct line of his profession. Judge Pollock has given yeoman service in behalf of the cause of the Republican party, of whose principles and policies he has ever been an uncompromising and effective advocate. He maintains the highest of civic ideals and is ever ready to lend his aid and influence in the furtherance of measures and enterprises advanced for the general good of the community, the state and the nation.
In the year 1887 was solemnized the marriage of Judge Pollock to Miss Louise Lafferty, who, like himself, was born and reared in Belmont county, Ohio. One child, Lucile Pollock, now twenty years of age, resulted from this union. (History of Wyandotte County, Kansas and It's People, by Perl W. Morgan, Vol. II, 1911, Pages 517-519)

PRATHER, VAN B.

The honored and efficient incumbent of the office of probate judge of Wyandotte county is one of the sterling citizens given to Kansas by the fine old Blue Grass commonwealth, and he has been influential in public affairs during the period of his residence in Kansas, where he has maintained at all times a strong hold upon popular confidence and regard.

Judge Prather was born in Fleming county, Kentucky, on the 4th of August, 1849, and is a son of Walter and Cynthia (Callahan) Prather, the former of whom was born in Bourbon county, Kentucky, in 1815, and the latter of whom was born in Fleming county, that state, in 1817. The paternal grandparents of Judge Prather were of stanch Scotch lineage and were numbered among the pioneers of Bourbon county, Kentucky, in which state they continued to reside until their death. The maternal ancestry is traced back to stanch Irish origin and the Callahan family likewise was founded in Kentucky in an early day. Walter Prather devoted his entire active career to agricultural pursuits in his native state, where his death occurred in 1855. His wife long survived him and was summoned to eternal rest in 1882. Of the five children all are living except one. Martha V. is the wife of Robert Dulin and they reside in Tuscola, Illinois; Edward C. is a resident of Gove county, Kansas; Walter P. maintains his home in Buchanan county, Missouri; and Van B. is the immediate subject of this review. The father was a stanch advocate of the principles of the Democratic party and was a man of strong individuality and sterling character.

The benignant influences of the homestead farm compassed the childhood and youth of Judge Prather, and his early educational advantages were those afforded in the common schools of his native county. He was further afforded excellent educational advantages, as he attended in turn the Key Wesleyan University, at Millersburg, Kentucky, and the Southwestern College at Lebanon, Warren county, Ohio. He put his scholastic attainments to practical use by adopting the pedagogic profession, in connection with which he first taught in the public schools of Bloomington, Illinois, and thereafter he was similarly engaged at other points in that state. He then removed to Missouri, and after teaching about three years in the schools of that state he engaged in farming and stock-growing in Nodaway county, Missouri. He later sold his farm and stock and removed to Cherokee county, Kansas, where he took up his abode in about the year 1884. He secured a tract of land near the boundary line between Kansas and the Indian Territory and in addition to farming he engaged in the buying and shipping of cattle on a somewhat extensive scale. He became one of the prominent and influential citizens of the county and was closely identified with shaping public activities. There also he first appeared as a candidate for public office. He was made the Democratic nominee for the office of probate judge, and he recalls that at the time his old and valued friend, Robert J. Long, now one of the interested principals in the important Long & Bell Lumber Company of Kansas City, Missouri, was chairman of the Democratic central committee of Cherokee county. In the election Judge Prather was defeated by a small majority, his opponent having been Judge Jesse Faulkner. This election occurred in 1892, and in the following year Judge Prather was made the nominee on the Populist and Democratic tickets for the office of state auditor, and was elected but was defeated for the second term. In fact the whole ticket was defeated, but they were all renominated. In 1896 he disposed of his property in Cherokee county and came to Kansas City. where he has since maintained his home and where he has been called upon to serve in various local offices of public trust. In 1906 he was elected probate judge, and he has since remained incumbent of the same, giving to its manifold details a most careful, efficient and acceptable administration. He is well known throughout Wyandotte county and is one of its most valued and popular officials.

Ever showing a loyal interest in public affairs, Judge Prather has never wavered in his allegiance to the cause of the Democratic party, and he has been an effective exponent of its principles and policies. He is affiliated with Wyandotte Lodge, No. 440, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and is also identified with the Modern Woodmen of America and other representative civic organizations.

In September, 1878, Judge Prather was united in marriage to Miss Mollie May Bretz, who was born in the city of St. Louis, Missouri, and who is a daughter of Judge John Bretz. She is the youngest in a family of three children and her parents continued to maintain their home in Missouri until their death. Her father was one of the pioneer farmers of Buchanan county, that state, and he served for some time as state tobacco inspector. Later he was elected a magistrate and he continued to. hold this judicial office until his death. Judge and Mrs. Prather became the parents of five children, of whom four are living, namely: Leslie, Kirk, Charles and Walter. (History of Wyandotte County, Kansas and It's People, by Perl W. Morgan, Vol. II, 1911, Pages 519-521)

BUCKARD, GEORGE

Among the enterprising and prosperous young citizens of Wyandotte county must be numbered George Burkard, who is engaged in the dairy business, and who supplies, in some departments of the same, the largest trade in Kansas City. He is one whose success has come as the logical result of industry, thrift and good management, and it is of that wholesome character which redounds to the success of the whole community. Mr. Burkard is a native of the county, his eyes having first opened to the light of day in Quindara township on March 29, 1879. He is the son of Henry J. and Christina (Winker) Burkard, natives of Germany. The parents of these worthy people became impressed with superior American opportunity and advantage and decided to cross the Atlantic to claim a share of these benefits for themselves and their children. The father and mother were both children when they came and their marriage occurred in Wyandotte county. Henry J. Burkard is a man much respected in his community and is occupied in farming and gardening and the raising of fruit, and he and his wife reside in Quindara township, where their fine homestead is situated. They became the parents of a very large family of children-thirteen- he whose name inaugurates this biographical review being the sixth in order of birth.

Almost the entire life of George Burkard has been passed in Wyandotte county and he received his education in the public schools. He resided beneath the parental roof until the age of twenty-three years, under his father's tutelage becoming exceptionally well versed in farming in its many departments. Upon going forth into the world to carve out an independent career he came to Kansas City, Kansas, and secured a position as conductor with the Kansas City & Western Electric Railroad, and he remained in this capacity for four years and four months, proving exceptionally faithful and efficient At the end of that period he made a radical change by buying out a dairy business and he has since that time branched out to a considerable extent. He handles butter in large quantities and makes a specialty of the sale of buttermilk, supplying the largest trade in this line in all Kansas City, Missouri. Since 1909 he has been advantageously located at 608 Central avenue. He is independent in politics, giving his support to whatever man and whatever measure he believes to be worthy, irrespective of party lines. Mr. Burkard has not yet become a recruit to the Benedicts. (History of Wyandotte County, Kansas and It's People, by Perl W. Morgan, Vol. II, 1911, Page 521)

STOCKHOPP, G. HERMAN

As his name indicates, G. Herman Stockhoff is of German origin and in him appear many of those national characteristics which give the German citizen such high prestige- such as honesty, thrift and progressiveness. He is also one of the prosperous agriculturists of the locality, and as is so often the case in this part of Wyandotte county, devotes a portion of his energies to the raising of fruit.

G. Herman Stockhoff was born in Hanover, Germany, February 5, 1848, his parents being George and Elizabeth (Sorenkamp) Stockhoff. He received his education in the schools of his native land and had already become an active worker when at the age of twenty years he became imbued with the idea of casting his fortunes with America. He arrived in 1868 and located first in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he resided for about twelve years. He made his livelihood at first by acting as coachman for various wealthy families and in a short time became familiar with the language and the customs of the country of which he had become a citizen.
About the year 1880, Mr. Stockhoff made a fortunate move, by coming to Kansas and locating in Wyandotte county. He was favorably impressed with Quindaro township, where he purchased some forty-two acres of land. This investment represented a capital of two thousand dollars, and, in eloquent evidence of the rapid and amazing rise in the price of land, this same property-of course now much improved -is now worth four hundred dollars an acre, or nearly seventeen thousand dollars. At the time he took up his residence here, there was a little old house upon the place, but Mr. Stockhoff removed this and built his present residence upon the site. This, which was built in 1891, has six rooms, and is spacious and commodious, and the barns and outbuildings are of the best type. The many fine fruit trees have all been set out by the subject, about four acres being devoted to fruit raising.

Mr. Stockhoff was married in Cincinnati, Ohio, on the second day of April, 1872, Miss Margaret Grimmer becoming his wife. She likewise was a German in nationality and came to America alone when a young woman about twenty-six years of age. They have no children. Mr. and Mrs. Stockhoff are consistent members of the German Lutheran church and they play an active part in the advancement of its good causes and are useful and popular citizens. Mr. Stockhoff *s energies are devoted entirely to farming. (History of Wyandotte County, Kansas and It's People, by Perl W. Morgan, Vol. II, 1911, Pages 521-522)

FROMHOLTZ, ADAM

Adam Fromholtz, clerk of Shawnee township, is proud to consider himself a farmer, and it is such men as he that elevate the agricultural and fruit growing industries. Possessed of many natural abilities, he has made such good use of each one that today he is one of the most prominent men in Wyandotte county, where he has resided for more than three decades.

Mr. Fromholtz, born on the 26th day of March, 1856, is of German birth and parentage, as his nativity occurred in Alsace-Loraine, of which province his father and mother, George and Christine Fromholtz, were lifelong residents. Adam Fromholtz was educated in the public schools of Germany but at the age of seventeen, left his home and his native land and took passage for America, where he had neither relative nor friend. He was, however, possessed of indomitable courage, and when he landed in New York it was with the confident expectation that he would win out. He made his way to Washington county, Kansas, where he gained employment as a farm laborer, as farming was the only kind of work of which he then had any knowledge. He later went to Topeka and during the six months of his residence there he helped to erect the big rolling mill in that city. He next went to Lexington, Missouri, farmed there for a period of seven years and then came to Rosedale. In 1881 he bought a ten acre tract of wild land, which determined effort brought into a state of cultivation. His first step was to build a little house, in which he lived while engaged in his fruit growing operations. He was so eminently successful that the following year he purchased twenty additional acres, and since that time he has added to his holdings until today he is the owner of forty acres of land in Missouri in addition to his tract of seventy-three acres in Kansas. In 1887 he commenced the building of his home, so planning it that he could add to it from time to time, as the necessity and opportunity arose. He has made such additions and now is the possessor of one of the finest homes in the county, but not only is his house beautiful in design and perfect in appointment, but he has put up outbuildings that harmonize with it. His cow barns and dairy sheds are as attractive, as such, as is the more pretentious residence. Mr. Fromholtz devotes most of his land to the cultivation of grapes and fruits of all kinds, to which his farm is particularly adapted. A man who achieves the success which Mr. Fromholtz enjoys has a right to congratulate himself, but when we realize that everything he has and is, is the result of his own diligent efforts, we feel that he has every reason to be proud of his achievements. His fellow citizens showed their appreciation of his sterling character and proved abilities by electing him to the office he is filling in the most satisfactory manner.

November 7, 1882, the year after Mr. Fromholtz's advent into the county, he married Miss Amelia Engles, daughter of William and Wilhelmina Engles. Six children were born to the union, Wilhelmina Louis, Rudolf, Sophia, Otilla, Louisa. Louis, the eldest son, is assisting his father with the work of the farm. The family is Catholic in religion, prominent in church as well as social life in Rosedale. (History of Wyandotte County, Kansas and It's People, by Perl W. Morgan, Vol. II, 1911, Pages 522-523)

DRAKE, JOSEPH FRANCIS

Joseph Francis Drake, who is most successfully conducting a fruit farm on his finely improved estate of fifty acres, conveniently located three miles distant from Bethel, Kansas, is a citizen of prominence and influence in Wyandotte county, where he has resided for the past forty years. He was born in the Old Dominion commonwealth, in Russell county, the date of his nativity being the 10th of December, 1850. Mr. Drake traces his ancestry back to the great English naval hero, Sir Francis Drake, who was the first English commander to view the wide expanse of the Pacific ocean across the Isthmus of Panama, in 1572. Isaiah Drake, father of him to whom this sketch is dedicated, was born in the city of London, England, whence he accompanied his parents to the United States, at which time he was a child of but six years of age. Location was made by the Drake family in the commonwealth of Virginia, where the young Isaiah was reared to maturity. As a young man he became interested in the study of medicine and for a number of years was engaged in the practice of his profession in Virginia. Subsequently he removed with his family to Kentucky, where he practiced with a great deal of success during the period of the Civil war. In 1868 he came with his family to Kansas and settled at old Wyandotte, which is now Kansas City. He was summoned to the life eternal on the farm on Which Joseph F. Drake now resides, his demise having occurred in 1887. His cherished and devoted wife, whose maiden name was Susan Denton and who was born in Virginia, died in 1873. Mr. and Mrs. Drake became the parents of eight children- four boys and four girls, four of whom are living at the present time, in 1911.

In the public schools of Kentucky Joseph F. Drake received his preliminary educational training, his parents having settled in the Bluegrass state when he was a child of about ten years of age. When he had reached his eighteenth year removal was made to Wyandotte county, Kansas, and here in the following year, 1869, was solemnized his marriage. Immediately after that important event he settled on his present farm near Bethel, the same being devoted to the raising of fruit and berries. He is the owner of a tract of fifty acres of some of the finest land in the entire county, on which he makes a specialty of the following fruits: Snyder, Lawton and Merserau berries, and Gano and Jonathan apples, the market for his products being at Kansas City, Kansas. In politics he accords an unswerving allegiance to the principles and policies for which the Republican party stands sponsor and while he has never participated in political affairs he is ever ready to give of his aid and influence in support of all measures and enterprises advanced for the good of the general welfare. In a fraternal way he is affiliated with the Modern Brotherhood of America and his religious faith is in harmony with the tenets of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, in the various departments of whose work he is an active and zealous factor.

Mr. Drake has been twice married. In 1869 he wedded Miss Mary Ellis, a native of Johnson county, Kansas, and a daughter of John Ellis, of Missouri. Mrs. Drake was called to eternal rest in 1880, at which time she was survived by two children, William Isaiah and Ernest L., the latter of whom is now deceased. In 1886 Mr. Drake was united in marriage to Miss Jennie Atkinson, of Kansas City, Missouri, but a native of Ohio. This union has been prolific of one child, Herbert Le Roy, whose birth occurred on the 3rd of November, 1889. While Herbert L. Drake is a young man of but twenty-one years of age, he now has charge of the oratory department in the Manual high school, at Kansas City, Missouri. For a time he taught Greek in the University of Kansas and he has also been the efficient and popular incumbent of the position of principal of the Wilson high school at Kansas City, Kansas. He is a young man of fine mental caliber, his brilliant mind and oratorical powers making him an attractive figure as a public speaker. With so splendid a beginning a great future is predicted for him. (History of Wyandotte County, Kansas and It's People, by Perl W. Morgan, Vol. II, 1911, Pages 523-524)

DEITZ, JAMES M.

Noteworthy among the enterprising citizens of Kansas City, Missouri, who through their own efforts accumulated a competency, was James N. Deitz, who is now deceased. He had of late years retired from active pursuits at his pleasant home, which is near the state line, at the corner of Twenty-seventh and Wyoming streets. He was born, October 8, 1833, in Clark county, Indiana, where his parents, who were of Pennsylvania Dutch descent, were pioneer settlers, and died June 19, 1911, aged seventy-seven years, at Southside Hospital Kansas City, Missouri.

Leaving home at the age of twenty years, James N. Deitz began life on his own account, spending a year on the Gulf coast. Returning home, he lived a brief time in Indiana, and then went to Rock Island county, Illinois, to assume possession of forty acres of land near Port Byron, it being the tract for which his father had drawn a warrant for his services in the War of 1812, and which he presented to his son James. Mr. Deitz afterwards bought another tract of forty acres of prairie land, and sixteen acres of standing timber. This entire property he sold at an advantage, and moved to Leavenworth, Kansas, where he purchased an interest in the Clark & Reese addition of eighty acres, which was soon sub-divided, and sold off in lots in due time. After living in Leavenworth about ten years, Mr. Deitz carried on freighting between Leavenworth, Denver and Port Union for three years, later spending a year at Port Zaro. Returning to Kansas, he took up a claim of one hundred and sixty acres in Saline county, and erected the first good house in Salina. He soon sold one half interest in that property to a Mr. Nutter, of Council Bluffs, and later disposed of the remaining half.

Coming then to Kansas City, Mr. Deitz purchased three five acre lots in Armstrong float, and invested, likewise, in much adjoining land, the greater part of which he subsequently sub-divided and sold. He still retained, however, his home property of one acre, which is well located and quite valuable. Mr. Deitz possessed good mechanical ability and inventive genius, and in 1873 took out a patent on a windmill for power and grinding purposes. He built many of the windmills and shipped them to various places, even to countries as far distant as Australia. One of them is now in use on the Female Institution in Topeka, Kansas.

Mr. Deitz was twice married, and has four sons and one daughter living, three by his first marriage, namely: Edward, of Washington, D. C, a department clerk; Albert; Arthur; and his daughter Prances. And by his second union one son, James, night superintendent in the Kansas City, Missouri, post office. (History of Wyandotte County, Kansas and It's People, by Perl W. Morgan, Vol. II, 1911, Pages 524-525)

SHIVELY, DELBERT M.

In Kansas City, Kansas, Dr. Shively is engaged in the successful practice of a profession that has here also been honored and dignified by the services of his honored father, who likewise is still engaged in active professional work, as one of the representative physicians and surgeons of Wyandotte county.

Dr. Delbert M. Shively was born in Schuyler county, Missouri, on the 17th of April, 1871, and is a son of Dr. Samuel S. and Josephine (Coriell) Shively, who still maintain their home in the Armourdale district of Kansas City. Dr. Samuel S. Shively was born in the state of Ohio, on the 28th of February, 1839, and in the same old commonwealth was also born and reared his wife, their marriage having there been solemnized in the year 1862. Of their three children two are living, Lloyd and Dr. Delbert M., of this sketch. Dr. Samuel S. Shively began the study of medicine in 1861 and in 1864 he attended a course of lectures in the Hahnemann Homeopathic Medical College, in the city of Chicago. He was thereafter engaged in the practice of his profession until 1881, when he further fortified himself for its work by completing a course of study in the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati, Ohio, in which institution he was graduated in 1882, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. For seven years he was engaged in active general practice near Kirksville, Adair county, Missouri, and he then came to Kansas and located at Bonner Springs, where he continued to practice until the spring of 1886, when he came to Wyandotte county and established himself in practice at Armourdale, which is now an integral part of Kansas City. Here he has since followed the exacting work of his profession and he has long controlled a large and representative practice, the while he holds the unqualified confidence and esteem of the community in which he has so long maintained his home. He is a valued member of the Wyandotte County Medical Society, the Kansas State Eclectic Medical Society, and the National Eclectic Medical Association. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party; he is affiliated with Armourdale Lodge, No. 271, Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons; and both he and his wife hold membership in the Cumberland Presbyterian church.

Dr. Delbert M. Shively gained his early educational training in the public schools of Bonner Springs, Kansas, and supplemented this by a course in Spaulding College. In 1884 he became a reporter on the Kansas City (Kansas) Star and eventually he was made a member of its editorial staff. He proved an able newspaper man and gained more than local reputation in this field of endeavor. He continued to be connected with the Star until 1902, but in the meanwhile he had shown his ambition by beginning the work of preparing himself for the profession in which his father had given such long and effective service. He entered the Kansas City University of Medicine, in Kansas City, Missouri, in which he completed the prescribed course and was graduated as a member of the class of 1901, duly receiving his well earned degree of Doctor of Medicine. He retired from newspaper work in the following year and in his chosen profession he has admirably proved the wisdom of such choice, as he is now numbered among the successful and popular representatives of the medical fraternity in Wyandotte county. He is identified with the county and state medical societies and he served four years as county coroner-from 1903 to 1907. He has an excellent practice and is a close and appreciative student of the best standard and periodical literature of his profession. He is well known in his home city, both as a newspaper man and as a physician, and his genial nature has won and retained to him a specially wide circle of friends. His interests are not circumscribed and he takes a due concern in public affairs of a local order, the while he is found arrayed as a stanch advocate of the principles and policies of the Republican party. He is affiliated with Wyandotte Lodge, No. 440, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and with Wyandotte Aerie, No. 87, Fraternal Order of Eagles. He has all of the proclivities of an enthusiast in connection with America's "National game," and he was president of the Western Base Ball Association from 1902 to 1910. Within his regime he was a potent factor in the promotion of the great game throughout the section covered by the association of which he was the chief executive.

On the 22nd of October, 1895, Dr. Shively was united in marriage to Miss Jessie M. Nixon, who was born and reared at Wamego, Pottawatomie county, Kansas. Dr. and Mrs. Shivley are popular factors in connection with the social activities of their home city, where their circle of friends is coincident with that of their acquaintances. (History of Wyandotte County, Kansas and It's People, by Perl W. Morgan, Vol. II, 1911, Pages 525-527)