Chapter XXV: Biographical History (8)

General Guthrie had physical as well as moral courage. Contesting the candidacy of a former prominent citizen of Atchison who had come from another State under a cloud, General Guthrie collected the record of this candidate in his former home and announced that he would read it at a meeting to be held in old Turner Hall. This was in the early days when Atchison had her quota of “roughneck” citizens. General Guthrie was notified that they would attend and that he would read his documentary evidence at the peril of his life. He had never owned or carried a firearm except during the preparation to resist the Price raid, but on the night of the meeting he stepped out on the platform at Turner Hall, and laying upon the table a pair of old army revolvers, he looked down on the “roughnecks” in the front row and advised them that he was about to proceed with his speech, and that persons who didn’t like trouble had better leave before it began. He made the speech. The trouble did not start. The candidate he was opposing was defeated.

From the time Kansas became a State until his death, General Guthrie was a citizen of Atchison contemporary with that circle of brilliant and able men who in the early days made Atchison the mother of the political history of the State, such as Senator John J. Ingalls, Governor John A. Martin, Governor George W. Glick, United States District Judge Cassius G. Foster, Chief Justices Samuel A. Kingman and Albert H. Horton, and such early-day business men as David Auld, the Challiss brothers, Jacob Leu, and Samuel Hollister.

After his election as attorney general on December 21, 1863, General Guthrie, accompanied by his friend, Chief Justice Albert H. Horton, as best man, crossed the Missouri river to St. Joseph upon the ice, crawling upon their hands and knees, the ice being too treacherous to support a man walking upright, to be married to Julia, daughter of Capt. William Fowler, of St. Joseph, also a pioneer, the first county clerk in the territory of which St. Joseph is now the county seat. There were born of this marriage eight children, two of whom died in infancy, the others and the wife surviving General Guthrie. W. F. Guthrie, the eldest son, practiced law with his father until about the time of the death of the latter, when, with his wife and three children he removed to Kansas City and is still in practice. The second son, F. L. Guthrie, a retired banker, with wife, resides at Paola, Kan. Mary Louise Guthrie is the wife of A. E. White, head of the commissary department of the Burlington system, residing in Chicago, and the mother of four children. Warren W. Guthrie, Jr., practiced law in Atchison in association with his father and brother, and afterwards practiced alone until his death on August 17, 1914, being one of the most beloved men personally of all the people of Atchison. Theodore F. Guthrie, also the father of four children, is, as he has been since before his father’s decease, the manager of the Guthrie ranch in Chase county, Kansas. Gilbert L. Guthrie has been the wanderer of the family, a metallurgical engineer who has seen distinguished service on every continent of the globe, but has given up his work to be a companion to the widow, residing on the old Guthrie homestead adjoining Atchison.

From the first General Guthrie became and until ill health overtook him remained a notable figure at the bar, not only of Atchison, but of the State at large, and particularly northeast Kansas, where his early successes brought him in as a consultant in the territory he had formerly covered on muleback, long after that territory had developed many able lawyers of its own. His name appears frequently in the reports of the supreme court of Kansas, and in connection with the establishment of many new and novel precedents in the courts. General Guthrie was an original thinker along legal lines, and not over-tolerant of the law as he found it in the books. When it did not suit him his vigorous mind would discern logical modifications and novel applications of old doctrines to meet the new necessities of his litigation.

Every fight for the general good of the community found General Guthrie in the front of battle. No difficulty daunted him. All that was required for him was to decide as to what he thought right, and his hat was in the ring. Perhaps the greatest personal, direct service rendered by General Guthrie to the community was in connection with the failure of the Peoples Savings Bank. The Peoples Savings Bank was an auxiliary of the United States National Bank, the closing of which was brought about by the circulation of rumors affecting its solvency. It paid its liabilities in full before it closed, but the assets of the Peoples Savings Bank were invested chiefly in real estate mortgages and bonds not immediately payable, and as times were then, not readily convertible, so that its closure, following that of the United States National, left hundreds of citizens with their needed savings not immediately realizable. General Guthrie was a holder of one share of stock only in each of these banks, for the purpose of qualifying as a director as an accommodation to the operating officers, his friends. This double failure, at a time of general financial uneasiness, helped by stories circulated by enemies of the bank officials anxious to bring them into disgrace, filled Atchison with excitement. Nightly meetings, attended by hundreds of depositors, were held, and in their ignorance measures were initiated which would have resulted in a sacrifice of the assets and the realization to the depositors of but a small per cent. of their claims. General Guthrie undertook to stem this tide and save the depositors from themselves. He arranged with his co-directors to advance a sum to buy up at face value the deposits of the smaller and more needy depositors, and out of his own funds advanced the moneys necessary to protect the assets from sacrifice, and lent his own uncompensated efforts to their realization at their actual value, with the result that within a year every claim of the bank was paid in full.

Like many successful men who have been born and spent their early years upon a farm. General Guthrie was interested in farming and in farm development and in showing what could be done through proper cultivation and stock development. He left ample provision for his widow and younger children, chiefly in farm lands. He gave personal attention to the operation and improvement of his farms, and took particular delight in the management of his 6,000 acre ranch in Chase county, Kansas, and in the development of a grade of cattle originated by himself, the Polled Herefords, a strain of Herefords, from which he succeeded in breeding off the horns. Nothing gave him greater pleasure in the later years of his life than to explain his farming and cattle operations to his friends and intimates. He was ready to put aside the most intricate litigation at any time for a chat on this subject.

While General Guthrie’s open-handed warfare upon the things he thought wrong made him many enemies, his untiring energy, integrity and readiness to help anyone or anything he believed to be right, brought him a host of friends, not only among the young lawyers he raised and trained, but among the public at large, and he died an honored and respected member of this community on April 22, 1903, at the old home place adjoining the city of Atchison.

JOHN PETER ADAMS.

Faithfulness to duty is generally recognized and rewarded by the people of an average American community. Atchison county is singularly fortunate in having as its officials men of whom it can be said are above the average type of county officials. The office of probate judge of the county is no exception, and is ably filled by the present incumbent of whom this biography treats. John Peter Adams is an able member of the Atchison county bar and a painstaking and conscientious public official. In the performance of the duties of his high office he has won the esteem of the people of the county and showed such marked ability in his judicial capacity that he was elected to the office for the third time without opposition from any source.

Judge John Peter Adams was born in the town of Lock Berlin, Wayne county, New York, June 7, 1855. His parents were Peter and Martha (Eldridge) Adams, and Judge Adams was one of six children.

WILLIAM A. JACKSON,
Judge District Court.
]

CHARLES J. CONLON,
County Attorney.
]

JOHN PETER ADAMS,
Judge of Probate Court.
]

ROY C. TRIMBLE,
Sheriff.
]

Judge Adams received his early education in the schools of his native State and the Macedon Academy, following which he completed a business course at the Eastman Business College, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. He practically worked his way through school by teaching, becoming a teacher at the early age of eighteen. He came to Atchison in 1879 and entered the law office of Judge H. M. Jackson, as a law student, and was admitted to the practice of law in 1880. A short time following his admission to the bar he opened an office for himself, and later became a partner with Roy C. Crawford. A partnership with Charles J. Conlon was formed some time afterward, which continued until the election of Mr. Adams to the office of probate judge in 1910. Judge Adams was reëlected in 1912, and again in 1914, without opposition for the nomination or election. He is a Republican and a firm believer in a high protective tariff. Previous to his election to the probate judgeship, he served as judge of the Atchison city court, having been appointed by Governor Bailey in 1902, and reëlected three times following his appointment without opposition. Judge Adams has always earnestly advocated Republican principles and has been a faithful party worker.

Judge Adams was married in Albion, Mich., June 24, 1885, to Mary Stevens, a native of Lock Berlin, N. Y., and a daughter of Wells J. L. and Nancy Stevens. To Judge and Mrs. Adams have been born three children, who are the pride of their parents, as follows: Eldridge, born November 30, 1892. He received his classical education in Kansas University and graduated in medicine from Rush Medical College at Chicago in 1914, after a thorough course of study in the University of Chicago, now a practicing physician and surgeon in the Illinois State Hospital for eye, nose and throat, at Chicago. Dr. Adams is a rising young physician of marked ability and was an apt student, and is ambitious to succeed in his chosen profession. He graduated from the Atchison High School at the age of fifteen, from the Kansas University at the age of nineteen, and received his Doctor of Medicine degree from Rush College of Medicine when but twenty-three years of age. It is safe to predict a brilliant future for this Atchison boy. A daughter of Judge Adams, Eleanor, aged twenty, is a student of Knox College, Galesburg, Ill., class of 1916, where she is specializing in music—violin and voice. Genevra, the youngest child of Judge and Mrs. Adams, is eighteen years old, a graduate of the Atchison High School, and a student in Baker University. The Adams family has resided in the same house at Fourth and Laramie streets for thirty years, or since the marriage of Judge and Mrs. Adams. They believe in giving their children the advantages of a good education, as the best preparation possible for their future success.

Judge Adams was reared in the Episcopalian faith, which was the church of his fathers, but is an attendant with the members of his family at the Methodist Episcopal church. He became a member of the Masonic lodge in 1876.

WILLIAM ANTHONY JACKSON.

While we reverence the courts and look upon them as the final refuge of the citizenry in time of oppression or trouble, we realize that the tribunals of the people for safeguarding our inalienable rights as citizens are measured in their usefulness by the character of the men chosen to sit at the head of the judiciary. Society is protected from those criminally inclined, and we accept without criticism the decisions of the judges with whom we come into personal contact, because of the fact that the masses of the people have an abiding faith in the integrity of the courts. This confidence is more in evidence in a community where all have an opportunity of judging at close range the qualifications and personal integrity of those chosen by the people to administer the judicial affairs of the people. It is meet and necessary that the judges in whom we place implicit confidence be men of the highest calibre, broad-minded and sympathetic in dealing firmly with the many diverse cases which are brought before them for adjudication. The district court of Atchison county is presided over by a learned jurist who has the confidence and esteem of the people, and who enjoys the universal respect of the citizens of the county. Hon. William A. Jackson, judge of the district court of Atchison county, is such a man wisely chosen to fill the highest office within the gift of the people in his district. His career as presiding officer of the court has been marked by a display of ability, legal acumen, broad-minded and sympathetic discernment of right and wrong in handing down his decisions that have satisfied the most exacting. He was born in Versailles, Morgan county, Missouri, October 6, 1866. He is a son of Judge Horace M. and Lavanchia Isabelle (Valentine) Jackson, a review of whose life is given in this volume.

Judge Jackson has a reputation for fairness and impartiality in his judicial decisions which has gone far beyond the borders of his county. The Atchison _Daily Champion_ in its issue of September 25, 1913, has this to say of his high honor and integrity:

“In these days of alleged lawless lawyers and corrupted courts it is a good thing to know that Atchison county has an honest and efficient judge to administer justice from the district bench. Many big men,—men of splendid qualifications and sterling integrity—have occupied the important position now held by Judge Jackson, but never before has this county had a judge whose service on the bench commanded more universal satisfaction than that rendered by Judge Jackson. It is the unanimous opinion of the Atchison bar that he is the best district judge in the State. Absolutely fair, impartial, capable, he performs the functions of his office with a high sense of duty and responsibility to the law and to his fellow men, a duty and responsibility which precludes all other results, save only unqualified justice for each case that comes under his supervision.”

The supreme test which could be applied to a man in his position came on an occasion when the father and brother of Judge Jackson appeared for the defendant in a case which was tried in the Atchison court with Judge Jackson on the bench, and he was not found wanting. Quoting from the Atchison _Daily Champion_ in its issue of April 19, 1909, concerning this unique situation and the conduct of Judge Jackson during the course of the trial of the case:

“Many people have attended court the past week as witnesses, jurors and spectators in the Norris-Mapes trial, and the fact was freely commented upon that the appearance in the trial of father and son as attorneys for the defendant and another son was on the bench, presented a situation that was quite unusual. Some at first indulged in unfriendly criticism of the circumstances and it is therefore a pleasure for the _Champion_ to say that it has heard nothing but the most universal praise for the fairness, the impartiality and the splendid integrity of purpose Judge Jackson displayed in his rulings on every disputed question of law and evidence in the case. It is a fact worthy of comment that the _Champion_ takes pleasure at this time in giving public recognition to so important a matter. There is nobody in Atchison who has a stronger following of loyal friends than Will Jackson, and it is because of his manhood, his honesty and fine sense of honor that he has earned them and retains them.”

William Anthony Jackson was trundled in a home-made baby-cart and dressed in clothing spun and made by his devoted mother. Few were the luxuries in which he was indulged; the plainest of fare was his sustenance during his childhood days. In 1870 he was placed in school at Marysville, Mo., and after coming to Atchison with his parents he attended the city schools. He attended the Monroe Institute and later entered Kansas University at Lawrence, graduating therefrom in 1888. He was admitted to the bar and in 1889 was made a member of the law firm of Jackson & Jackson. His success in the practice of his profession has been marked and he is widely known as a capable lawyer and jurist. His first public office was that of city attorney, to which he was elected in April, 1905, and served until 1909. During the four years of his incumbency of the office of city attorney he lost but one case which came up for trial under his care for the city. He was elected judge of the district court, second judicial district, in November of 1908, and resigned the office of city attorney to take up his duties on the bench in order to qualify in January, 1909. His career on the bench speaks for itself and the fairness of his decisions is proverbial. Judge Jackson is remarked frequently for his kindness of heart, and soon after he was admitted to the bar the opportunity came to him to “return good for evil” in one particular case. A lad with whom he had come into contact on the school ground at Marysville, and who had tried to impose on him, with the result that strained feeling existed for many years between them was the beneficiary of his goodness. This lad, then grown to man’s estate, came to the judge in Atchison and asked him to assist him in getting employment. The judge did so and earned the thanks of his boyhood enemy.

Judge Jackson’s wedded life began April 26, 1894, when he was united in marriage with Edith Fox, of Atchison. To this union have been born two children: Jared Fox Jackson, born November 19, 1895, and now a student in the law department of Kansas University; Edward Valentine Jackson, born June 6, 1900, a student in the Atchison High School. The mother of these children is a daughter of Jared Copeland. (See sketch of Jared Copeland Fox elsewhere in this volume.)

Judge Jackson is fraternally affiliated with the Masonic Lodge, Washington, No. 5, of Atchison, the Knights of Pythias, the Elks, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, and the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity of the Kansas State University. He is a liberal contributor to charitable and religious denominations, and is usually found in the van of all projects which have for their purpose the betterment of his home city and county.

ROY C. TRIMBLE.

In Roy C. Trimble, sheriff of Atchison county, the people have an efficient and capable public official, who believes that his duties are paramount over all other considerations, and he has shown by his steadfast and unswerving loyalty to the ethics of his office that he is a man eminently fitted for high public office. Mr. Trimble is a young man to hold such an important office, but is old in ability and experience. He is a native of Atchison county, and a son of James M. and Margaret E. (McCreary) Trimble.

Roy C. Trimble was born August 11, 1877, on a farm, four miles southwest of Atchison. His father, James M. Trimble, was born September 10, 1843, in Buchanan county, Missouri, and died in January, 1910, in Atchison county. He was the son of Benjamin F. Trimble, a native of Kentucky, who immigrated to DeKalb, Mo., where he conducted a blacksmith and wagon repair shop, and later removed to Texas. After a residence of some years in Texas he settled in Atchison county, where the son, James M., bought a farm which he cultivated until 1905, when he disposed of his land and invested in a livery business. He was thus engaged until his death. During the Civil war, Mr. Trimble was enrolled in the State militia. Benjamin F. Trimble was one of the early pioneer settlers of Atchison county and owned a farm near Effingham. The children of James M. Trimble are J. P., a railway mail clerk on the Central Branch railroad; A. F., a rural mail carrier; K. S., a farmer, south of Atchison; E. S., a resident of Lake Ballinger, Wash.; Roy C., and T. O., a ranchman, near Seattle. Wash.

The mother of the foregoing children was Margaret E. McCreary, born in 1850 and died in 1890. She was a daughter of Solomon McCreary, a pioneer settler of Atchison county, who had a farm eight and one-half miles south of Atchison. Solomon McCreary was born in Clay county, Missouri, in 1822, and died in July, 1911. He was a son of Elijah McCreary, and was the youngest of a family of thirteen children. The family is of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and originally settled in South Carolina. S. K. came to Kansas in 1854, first settling in Leavenworth county, and four years later moving to Atchison county. He bought a land patent from a Mexican war veteran, and made his home on the pioneer farm until his death. His children were as follows: Mrs. B. Frank Trimble, Mrs. Margaret Trimble, deceased; Mrs. Nellie Adams; Cora, deceased; W. S., deceased; Mrs. Nettie Perkins, Leavenworth; S. K., and Mrs. Grace Salmon, of Los Angeles.

Roy C. Trimble was educated in the district school No. 5, located south of the city, and resided on the farm until 1905 when he was engaged in the livery business with his father, continuing until the latter’s death, after which he conducted the business for a few years and then traded it for some real estate. He was first a candidate for sheriff in 1912 on the Republican ticket, but lost out by 288 votes. He was again a candidate in 1914 and won by the considerable margin of 700 votes.

Sheriff Trimble was married November 2, 1904, to May Florence Hartman, who was born near Purcell, seven miles southwest of Atchison, and is a daughter of Ex-Sheriff F. C. Hartman, now deceased. To Mr. and Mrs. Trimble have been born the following children: Guy Roy, born August 7, 1905; Cynthia Grace, born May 2, 1907; Clara May, born May 10, 1913, and Henrietta Gale, born June 4, 1915.

Mr. Trimble and wife are members of the Presbyterian church. He is fraternally affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Fraternal Aid. Mr. Trimble is likeable, and has a winning personality which goes far toward making him a successful and popular official. Such encomiums and praise as have come to him for his conduct of the duties of the sheriff’s office are well deserved and he is constantly widening his circle of friends.

CHARLES J. CONLON.

Charles J. Conlon, a prominent attorney of Atchison, who is now serving his second term as county attorney, is a native of the Empire State. He was born at Orwell, Oswego county, New York, October 31, 1860, and is a son of James and Anna (Bowen) Conlon, the former a native of New York and the latter of Ireland. Anna Bowen, the mother, came to America with her parents, William and Nancy Bowen, when she was thirteen years of age. James Conlon was born in Oneida county, New York, and was a son of Charles Conlon, a native of Ireland, who immigrated to America in 1814 and settled in Oneida county, New York, where he spent the remainder of his life. James Conlon grew to manhood in Oneida county, and in 1859 was married and about a year later removed to Oswego county, bought a farm and followed farming there until 1867. He then returned to Oneida county, where he remained until 1870, when he came to Kansas, locating in Atchison county. He bought a farm about a mile and one-half southwest of the city of Atchison, where he was successfully engaged in farming and stock raising until about a year prior to his death, November 1, 1899, at the age of seventy-three. He was a very successful farmer and a highly respected citizen, and at the time of his death owned 200 acres of valuable land, which is still owned by the Conlon family. He was a life-long Democrat and a member of the Catholic church. His wife died September 22, 1898, aged sixty-three years. They were the parents of the following children: Anna M. married Peter Donovan, now deceased, and three children were born to this union, Peter, Fredrick and Charles, and after the death of her first husband, Anna M. married John McInteer, who is also now deceased and she resides in Atchison; Charles J., the subject of this sketch; William H. resides on the old homestead; John F., farmer, Atchison; James D., plumber, St. Louis, Mo.; Letitia M. McKenna, Denver, Colo., and Fred J. died in Atchison at the age of thirty-three years. He was a machinist and well and favorably known in Atchison county. Charles J. Conlon was educated in the public schools, St. Benedict’s College, Atchison, Kan., and Whitestown Seminary, Whitestown, N. Y., graduating from the latter institution in the class of 1882. He then entered the law department of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, Mich., and was graduated in the class of 1884 with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He then engaged in the practice of his profession at Atchison, Kan., and has continued in the practice to the present time. He was elected county attorney of Atchison county in 1912 and reëlected to succeed himself in 1914. Mr. Conlon is a capable lawyer and is a fair and fearless prosecutor. Mr. Conlon was united in marriage February 14, 1903, to Miss Mae Flanigan, a native of Oswego county, New York.

JOHN F. CONLON.

John F. Conlon, farmer, was born October 15, 1865, in the town of Orwell, Oswego county, New York. He was educated in the common schools of his native town and later attended the Whitestown Seminary at Whitestown, N. Y. After coming to Atchison county, Kansas, in 1885 with his parents, he studied at St. Benedict’s College. He remained with his parents on the home farm southwest of Atchison until their death, and managed the estate for several years thereafter successfully.

THOMAS O. GAULT.

Personal achievements of the individual are always worth recounting when he has accomplished something worth while. There is considerable satisfaction in the latter years of the life of an industrious couple, who, having begun at the foot of the ladder of success and having climbed upward by degrees, have attained to a state of wealth and comfort by the time middle age has been reached. Thomas O. Gault and his wife, residing in a beautiful farm home in the northeast part of the city of Effingham, are among the most respected citizens of Atchison county. Mr. Gault is one of the large land owners of the county, and while not an old resident he can lay claim to the fact that he was a homesteader in Kansas back in the “grasshopper” era, and has had as many ups and downs as the average western pioneer.

Thomas O. Gault was born November 7, 1849, in Wycomico county, Maryland, a son of Archibald and Eliza (Littleton) Gault, natives of Maryland, and descendants of old American colonial families. The ancestry of the Gault and Littleton families dates back to the earliest days of the settlement of the eastern coast of America. Archibald was the son of Obid Gault, who was a soldier in the War of 1812, and was an early pioneer settler of Indiana. Eliza Littleton was a daughter of Thomas Littleton, and died when Thomas O. was seven years of age. Archibald Gault emigrated from Maryland to Ripley county, Indiana, about 1859, and settled on a farm south of Pierce City, or near Stringtown. This was in a timbered country, and he lived there only three years, returning to Maryland during the dark days of the Civil war, where he remained until the war was over. In 1865 he returned to his farm in Ripley county, and cultivated his Indiana farm until old age overtook him, and he finally returned to the old home in Maryland, there spending his declining years, dying in 1900, at the age of eighty years.

Thomas O. Gault was educated in the district schools of Ripley county, Indiana, and began working at the hardest kind of farm labor when yet a boy. When he attained his majority he came to the great West, where opportunity seemed to beckon with a more lavish hand than among the hills and forests of his native county and State. He located in Jasper county, Iowa, and worked at farm labor until twenty-five years of age, then came to Kansas and homesteaded a Government claim in Phillips county. This was a sad experience, however, as the grasshoppers came along soon afterwards and “cleaned out” the crops of the homesteaders in his neighborhood, and he abandoned his claim and left the country. He returned to Jasper county, Iowa, in 1873, where he remained for three years, after which he remained in Iowa, locating in Pottawattamie county in 1878, where he had purchased a farm. He and his wife developed the farm and prospered for a period of fourteen years. Selling out their Iowa farm at a good round price in 1903, they located in Effingham, where they have resided since March of 1903. Mr. Gault invested his capital in Kansas and Missouri lands and has made money since he came to Kansas. Being gifted with the moneymaking instinct and capacity, he has dealt somewhat in land and been successful in his farming operations in Atchison county. He is the owner of an eighty acre tract of valuable land, purchased in 1902, adjoining Effingham, Kan., on the northeast, and has one of the most attractive modern farm homes in the county. He owns at the present time a total of 582.5 acres of land, 262.5 acres of which is located in Grundy county, Missouri, and the rest in Atchison county. He has a large farm of 240 acres near Pardee in Center township, which is one of the best improved tracts in the vicinity. This farm was purchased in 1902 and is equipped with excellent buildings, including a house of twelve rooms and three good barns.

He was married on March 4, 1888, to Miss Melissa Drury, of the town of Drury, Rock Island county, Illinois. They are the parents of two children: Essie, at home with her parents, and Pearl, wife of William Thomas, a son of Robert M. Thomas, of Effingham. Mrs. Gault was born March 4, 1861, in Drury, Rock Island county, Illinois, a daughter of Eli and Margaret (Hubbard) Drury, natives of Wayne county, Indiana, and Bedford county, Pennsylvania, respectively. Mr. Drury served as postmaster of the village named in his honor in Rock Island county for thirty-five years, and was filling the office at the time of his death, in 1892.

Mr. Gault is a stockholder in the Farmer’s Mercantile Company of Effingham. He is a Republican in politics, but is an independent voter, who believes in doing his own thinking as regards the merits of respective candidates for office and the principles which influence good government. He became an Odd Fellow in Marshall county, Iowa, in the early eighties, and has continued in good standing in the order to the present time. One of the incidents of his early career which left an impression on Mr. Gault’s memory, which time has never been able to eradicate, was his first Kansas experience. He was so thoroughly cleaned out during the great grasshopper scourge in the seventies, in Phillips county, Kansas, that he was forced to walk the entire distance from Blue River, Kan., to Atchison.

WILFULL A. STANLEY.

Wilfull A. Stanley, a Civil war veteran, who perhaps has had more military experience than any other man in Atchison county, is a native of New Jersey. He was born at Salem, November 26, 1838, and is a son of Joseph C. and Rebecca D. (Gosline) Stanley, both natives of New Jersey and descendants of colonial ancestors, who trace their family genealogy back for several generations in this country. The first white child born in the English colony that settled in New Jersey, opposite Egg Harbor, was an ancestor of Wilfull A. Stanley. Joseph C. Stanley, the father of Wilfull A., was a son of Friend Richard Stanley, who was a soldier in the War of 1812. The Stanley’s were Quakers, but there were a great many fighting Quakers distributed along the line of descent. Friend Richard was a son of John Stanley, who was a Revolutionary soldier and served in Lighthorse Harry Lee’s cavalry. He was captured and confined in a British prison ship for some time. He lived to be a very old man and died in 1845, at the age of 102. He was very active physically and mentally to a very old age. Wilfull A. Stanley was reared in New Jersey and received a common school education. On December 22, 1860, he enlisted as a private in the United States marine; and after making a trip around the world was detailed in 1861 as orderly to Admiral Dahlgren at Washington, D. C. He also served as orderly to Commanding Officer C. R. P. Rogers. Mr. Stanley was at the taking of Hatteras Inlet and the operations on Roanoke Sound in conjunction with General Burnside’s expedition. He was at the engagement of Port Royal and served as orderly to Capt. C. R. P. Rogers there. He was also at the engagement at Ft. Walker. The “Wabash,” upon which he was serving then, joined Admiral Farragut’s fleet at New Orleans. Here Mr. Stanley was transferred to the “Hartford,” Admiral Farragut’s flag ship, and served as orderly to Farragut and participated in the engagements at Fts. Jackson and Phillip, and was at the capture of New Orleans when he was again detailed to the “Wabash.” Shortly after that he was taken sick with a fever and sent to the marine hospital at Brooklyn, N. Y. After recovering he was discharged, and with his discharge received a very complimentary letter from Admiral Rogers. After remaining home a short time he enlisted in the Second regiment, New Jersey cavalry. He participated in the battle of Nashville and was at the siege of Mobile. He went from there to Montgomery, Ala. About this time the war closed, but Mr. Stanley’s regiment was kept in the South for nearly a year during the reconstruction period, and in 1866 he was discharged and returned to his New Jersey home. Mr. Stanley had learned the plasterer’s trade when he was a young man and at the close of the war worked at it for some time, when the military spirit took possession of him again and he enlisted at Philadelphia, Pa., and was assigned to Troop L, Seventh United States cavalry, and was sent from Ft. Leavenworth to Ft. Morgan on the Platte river. Capt. Michael V. Sheridan, a brother of “Little Phil,” commanded this troop and they were mobilized at Ft. Hayes for a winter campaign against the Indians in the Wichita mountains. This campaign was against the Arapahoes, Comanches and some other tribes. After an engagement with Lone Wolf’s band the soldiers were forced to retreat, but soon after were re-inforced at Big Timber by a Kansas regiment, and after that captured Lone Wolf and Satanta, chief of the Kiawas, and returned the Indians who had been on the war path to the Ft. Sill reservation. After that Mr. Stanley returned to Ft. Leavenworth and had charge of the hospital stores for two years, when he was transferred to Wingate, N. M., where he also had charge of the hospital stores until 1872, when he was discharged and returned to New Jersey. In 1889 he came to Kansas, locating in Atchison, where he has since worked at his trade most of the time. He had lived in Philadelphia for some time and in Georgetown, S. C. before coming to Kansas, and came to this State on account of his wife’s health. Mr. Stanley was married in 1877 to Mrs. Mary E. (Ingram) Fpuntain, a widow. She is a native of Bellefont, Pa., born June 25, 1842, a daughter of Isaac D. and Deborah (Grant) Ingram, natives of Pennsylvania and descendants of old Pennsylvania stock. Joshua Bloomfield Williams, a major in the Revolutionary war, and at one time colonial governor of New Jersey, was a grand-uncle of Mrs. Stanley’s mother, and Mrs. Stanley is a Daughter of the American Revolution. She is a member of the Ladies’ Corps of the Grand Army of the Republic, and is past department president of Kansas, and National press correspondent, and has filled all the offices from the local circle to the National. Mr. and Mrs. Stanley have one child, Leon Glen, born in 1881. He served in Troop B, Sixth United States cavalry. He was in China at the rescue of the foreign legations and suppression of the Boxer uprising and later served in the Phillipine Islands, and after three years’ service he was honorably discharged. He was the first post printer at Ft. Leavenworth, and is now in the employ of the _Atchison Globe_, in the capacity of pressman and mailing clerk. He married Sadie Wiggins, and two children have been born to them, as follows: Inez Leona and Richard. Wilfull A. Stanley is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and has been adjutant of the Atchison post for ten years and is past commander.

CHRISTIAN W. STUTZ.

Christian W. Stutz, a substantial farmer of Center township, Atchison county, was born and reared in Lancaster township, this county, and is a son of pioneer settlers of the county. The Stutz family came to Kansas from Missouri in 1859. Christian W. is a son of Christian and Catharine (Schweitzer) Stutz, both of whom were born in Germany from whence they came to America in 1855, and first settled in Jackson county, Missouri, coming from there to Lancaster township in Atchison county four years later. Christian, the father, was born in Germany, March 25, 1825, and when thirty years of age decided to locate in the new country where there were better opportunities for gaining a livelihood and laying up a competence. Accordingly, we find that after a residence of four years in Jackson county, Missouri, he came to Atchison county, and with his savings invested in eighty acres of timber and prairie land in Lancaster township. He hired a man to break this land with ox teams, and proceeded to cultivate his land. He made extensive improvements on his farm from time to time as he was able, and added to his acreage to such an extent that at the time of his death, December, 1898, he was the owner of 380 acres of land. Christian Stutz was the father of seven children as follows: Mrs. Caroline Demel, of Central City, Neb.; Mrs. Katherine Wilkins, of Atchison, Kan.; Frederick, a member of the Atchison police force; Christian W.; Gustave, a prosperous farmer of Lancaster township; John, a farmer in Center township; one child died in infancy. The mother of these children was born in Germany in February of 1829, and died in Lancaster township, in December, 1888.

Christian W. Stutz, whom this review directly concerns, was reared on the old home place of the Stutz family in Lancaster township, and educated in the Lancaster school. He assisted his father in the operation of the home farm until he was twenty-three years of age, and then began farming for himself on land which he rented from his father. He continued to till the rented land for four years, all the time saving his earnings, with a view of eventually owning a farm of his own. He made his first investment in 1891 when he purchased and inherited, partly, eighty acres of improved farm land in section 8, Center township. He at once began to remodel the home and make extensive improvements, and it might be said that he has never ceased to improve his surroundings. In 1908 he erected a new barn, 50×50 feet, and now has one of the attractive places of his township and county. Mr. Stutz has continued to add to his land holdings until he is now the owner of 393 acres of land, all of which he has secured through his own efforts. During 1915 he had planted 160 acres to corn which gave him an excellent crop. He keeps good graded stock and maintains a herd of Shorthorn cattle. He has made quite a reputation as a breeder, and in 1914 exhibited a “Mahrath Jack” at the Atchison county fair which was awarded the second prize. In addition to his farming interests he is a share holder in a copper mine located in Arizona.

Mr. Stutz was married in 1891 to Kathrine Walz, and of this union have been born ten children, as follows: Charles F., William, John E., Clara, a graduate of the Atchison County High School; Arthur, Mary and Margaret (twins), the latter deceased; Francis, Nora B., Reidel, all of whom are at home with their parents. Mrs. Stutz was born September 8, 1868, in Atchison, Kan., a daughter of Charles and Kathrine (Reidel) Walz, both natives of Germany. Charles Walz emigrated from Germany to Cincinnati, Ohio, and there learned the butcher business and trade. When nineteen years of age he left Germany to seek his fortune in America, and about 1857 came to Atchison and worked in the first butcher shop ever operated in that city. He later bought the shop of Phillip Link, and after operating it for a time bought a farm in Shannon township, where he lived until his death, in 1891, at the age of sixty-one years. Kathrine, his wife, was born in 1842, and died on the old home place in Shannon township.

Mr. Stutz is a Democrat, but has never sought political preferment, having no time other than for the management of his large farming interests. He is fraternally connected with the Odd Fellows and the Fraternal Order of Eagles.

MICHAEL JOSEPH HORAN.

In observing the management of the leading commercial houses of Atchison, the fact is determined that, invariably, the executive departments are in charge of young men who have practically grown up with the business. The Dolan Mercantile Company is one of the oldest wholesale institutions of the city, and one of the most successful and substantial. Its affairs are conducted by young men who entered the employ of its founder when boys, and have advanced, step by step, in the management of the concern. M. J. Horan, the president of the Dolan Mercantile Company, began his career in a humble capacity in the business of which he is now the chief executive, and has become an honored and able member of the body of commercial men who have made Atchison preëminent among the cities of the West. The story of a self- made man is always interesting and this review is a story of a self-made man.

Michael Joseph Horan is a native of Atchison, born November 12, 1875. He is a son of Michael Frank Horan, a native of Bir, Kings county, Ireland, born in 1824. The elder Horan left his native heath when a young man, with his young wife, who died later in Atchison. He first located in Peru, Ind., and there met William Dolan in 1840. He came to Kansas in 1865 and located some land at Wetmore, proved up on his homestead, and one year afterward located in Atchison. Here he engaged in the real estate business, and became fairly well to do. For years he was a well known figure in Atchison and took an active interest in Democratic politics. He died in 1888. His second wife was Anna Dean, whom he married in her native county of Queens, Ireland. She was born in 1844 and died in February, 1910. They were the parents of the following children: Mrs. John A. Reynolds, Atchison; Miss Bridget Horan, Atchison; Anna, at home; Michael Joseph, Atchison; Frank, Marshalltown, Iowa; Charles L., secretary of the Dolan Mercantile Company, and in charge of the shipping department.

M. J. Horan was educated in the parochial schools and St. Benedict’s College, of Atchison. At the age of sixteen years, or in 1892, he entered the employ of the Dolan Mercantile Company, as office boy. He applied himself diligently to his duties and promotion step by step followed, as a matter of course. His next position was that of bill clerk. This was followed by his promotion to the post of bookkeeper and then buyer. When the company was incorporated in 1900, he was elected vice-president. He succeeded Mr. Dolan as president of the company, upon the latter’s death in 1913.

Mr. Horan was united in marriage in Kansas City, Mo., with Martha Emma Malone in 1909. To them have been born four children: Michael Joseph, Mary Ann, Francis and William. Mrs. Horan is a daughter of Edward Malone, formerly a resident of Atchison, and who died here, after which the mother and all of the family except Martha Emma removed to Chicago. In political affairs Mr. Horan is an independent Democrat, who favors good and efficient government, and believes that it can best be obtained by good and capable officials regardless of their political adherence. He is a member of St. Benedict’s Catholic Church, and is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the United Commercial Travelers. Mr. Horan is recognized as one of the substantial and progressive business men of the city, and he and his wife have many warm friends among the best families of the city, who esteem them for their many excellent qualities of mind and heart. Mr. Horan’s dignified and courteous demeanor in the conduct of his business affairs has won him universal respect and esteem both of patrons and employes of the concern of which he is the head.

RINHOLD FUHRMAN.

Rinhold Fuhrman, farmer and stockman, of Lancaster township, Atchison county, Kansas, was born in Germany February 11, 1863. He is a son of Ernest and Johanna (Gerlach) Fuhrman, and was one of twelve children born to them. The others are as follows: Caroline Deaking, Dodge City, Kan.; Louise Repstein, Jefferson county, Kansas; William, St. Joseph, Mo.; Julius, Doniphan county, Kansas; Trauget, Center township, Atchison county; Herman, Lancaster township, Atchison county; Paul, Center township, Atchison county; Emma Schwope, Center township, Atchison county; Ernest, Atchison, Kan., and two children who died in infancy. The father by an earlier marriage to Louise (Heine) Fuhrman had one son, Charles, a farmer and stockman of Lancaster township, Atchison county.

Ernest Fuhrman was born in Germany July 8, 1826, and immigrated to America in 1872, settling in Atchison county, Kansas, where he bought 160 acres of land in section 16, Lancaster township. This was timber and prairie land and had only a small, poorly built house on it at the time, but during the twenty years that he owned it he built several substantial buildings and made numerous other improvements. He eventually sold the place to his son, Herman, and then bought 160 acres in Doniphan county, where Julius lives, and moved into Lancaster where he lived in retirement. He bought eighty acres in Center township. Five years later he went to live with his son, Paul, to whom he sold the eighty acre tract, in Center township. He died on Paul’s second farm of 160 acres in Center township September 2, 1915. The mother, Johanna (Gerlach) Fuhrman, was born in Germany and resides with her daughter, Emma, in Center township, Atchison county, at the age of eighty-five years.

In 1872 Rinhold Fuhrman left Germany with his parents who came to Atchison county, Kansas. He was reared on his father’s farm and attended school at Rock district No. 59, and when eighteen years of age began life for himself as a farm hand for $15 a month and proved himself a capable worker and later was given $20 a month, which was more than the average farm hand was paid at that time. He worked three years as a hired hand and then rented his father’s farm for five years, and later bought it. The farm consisted of 160 acres in section 20, Lancaster township. He improved it considerably after he took charge of it in 1899, erecting a house at a cost of $1,000, and he also built a barn which cost $500. He has built sheds and other improvements since and did most of this work with his own hands. He has always been a hard worker and obtained all that he now owns by hard labor. He has a fine little orchard which is in a thrifty condition. He keeps graded stock and takes great care to keep his animals up to the standard.

On October 8, 1890, he married Emma Kammer, a native of Lancaster township, who was born April 18, 1868. She attended school at Rock district and is a daughter of Karl and Johanna Kammer. She has a brother, Karl, who is a farmer in Atchison county. Mr. and Mrs. Fuhrman are the parents of three children, as follows: Mrs. Laura August Poos, Lee’s Summit, Mo.; Edna and Karl, both living at home. Mr. Fuhrman is a Republican and he and his wife are members of the Evangelical church. He is a conscientious, hard working farmer who has deservedly attained success. In March, 1916, Mr. and Mrs. Fuhrman left the farm and retired to a home in Lancaster, where Mr. Fuhrman purchased a residence. He has rented his farm after accumulating a competence which will enable him to live in comfort the remainder of his days.

JOHN E. REMSBURG.

The past half century has witnessed the transformation of the section of Kansas known to the world as Atchison county from wilderness to a smiling and peaceful land of thriving towns and cities and checkered with fertile farms, a development which has been duplicated many times over in the great State of Kansas. While this wonderful transformation was going on as the handiwork of man—particular individuals from out of the mass of men who were working wonders in giving to this Nation a new commonwealth, were likewise developing mental attributes with which they had been gifted—statesmen, soldiers, and men of letters were in the making. Atchison county, Kansas, has been made famous by several illustrious sons who have achieved more than ordinary renown in the world of letters, as well as in other lines of endeavor. John E. Remsburg, editor and publisher of the _Potter Kansan_, educator, author and lecturer, during nearly a half century of residence in the county, has become as widely known in the realm of literature as any Kansan citizen. He has achieved a reputation as a writer and lecturer of force which is world-wide and deserved by the recipient. Mr. Remsburg came to Kansas from his native State of Ohio in 1868. Two years after his arrival in Atchison county he was married to Miss Nora M. Eiler, of Walnut township, this county, who came with her parents from Missouri to Kansas in 1855. Seven children were born to this marriage: George J., John J., Reullura R., Wirt A., Charles B., and Claude A., all of whom are living, and Eugene, deceased.

“The International Who’s Who,” printed in English, German, French and Italian, and published in London, Paris and New York, contains the following biographical sketch of Mr. Remsburg: