USA > Kansas > Crawford County > A Twentieth century history and biographical record of Crawford County, Kansas > Part 16
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Mr. Lashley's first marriage was with Miss Rachel Kennard, and one daughter was born. Josephine C., who is a graduate of the Balti- more Medical College and is now a successful physician and surgeon at Kansas City, Missouri.
September 4. 1878. Mr. Lashley was united in marriage to Miss L. E. Hullinger, a daughter of Lewis and Susan (Long) Hullinger. both of whom were natives of Pennsylvania. They have three children : Garrett S., Edgar L. and Roscoe H., all of whom are residents of this county. Garrett is one of the general merchants of Pittsburg; he is married and has two little children, Floyd and Fern. Edgar is a young. practical farmer, and is married and has one little daughter. Lillian Fay. Roscoe is in the high school at Girard. The parents are members of the German Reformed church, and Mr. Lashley is a member of the blue lodge and chapter of Masons at Girard. He is also connected with General Bailey Post. G. A. R. His political allegiance has always been given to the Republican party since attaining his majority, and he has served as school treasurer for a number of years, while at the present writing he is a candidate for the office of county commissioner. His life has been a busy, active and useful one, and his capable management and enterprise have been strong factors in winning him the splendid success which has crowned his efforts.
NELSON F. GAYLORD.
Nelson F. Gaylord, who is in the real estate and insurance business at Hepler and also carries on extensive farming operations on section I
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of Walnut township, has been numbered among the stanch and pro- gressive agriculturists of Crawford county for the past thirty years, and farming has been the occupation to which he has devoted his best energies throughout the years of his active career, and in which he has gained his most eminent success.
Mr. Gaylord was born in Piatt county, Illinois, May 14. 1841. being a son of Eleazer and Clarissa (Ferguson) Gaylord. who were both born in New York state, and were among the early settlers of Illi- nois, in the year 1831, and there followed farming. His father died in Kane county, Illinois, in 1895, at the age of eighty-four years, and his mother survived and passed her remaining days in Crawford county, where she passed away on January 23. 1903. after attaining the long life of eighty-five years.
Mr. Nelson F. Gaylord was reared and educated in Kendall county, Illinois, and spent the first twenty-one years of his life at home with his parents. He then moved to Livingston county, Illinois, and was engaged in farming near Dwight for a number of years. In 1874 he moved to Crawford county, Kansas, and bought a hundred and sixty acres which forms part of his present estate. He now owns three hun- dred and twenty acres of choice Crawford county soil, and the many excellent improvements on the place are all the result of his own energy and intelligent work. In addition, he owns two houses and lots in Hepler. His years of well directed labor have brought him good re- wards and comfortable circumstances, and he has made the best use of the opportunities that have come in his way.
Mr. Gaylord holds independent views as to local and practical political affairs, and votes for the man and the principles that concur best with his judgment. He has been a member of the school board continuously since residing in Kansas, and has done much for the ad- vancement of the cause of education in his community. He and his family are attendants of the Methodist Episcopal church.
Mr. Gaylord married, November 28, 1863. Miss Sarah E. Barron,
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a daughter of Thomas Barron. Both her parents were born in England, and are now deceased. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Gaylord: Nettie E. is the wife of Sidney Scheffner, of Elgin, Illinois ; Frederick lives in South Mound, Kansas: Olive is the wife of Edward Stahl, of Girard: and Frank died in California in 1895, at the age of twenty-two.
Mrs. Gaylord's mother. Hannah Shaw, was a native of Hull. Eng- land. Her father, Captain Shaw, was drowned while on a voyage to the West Indies. At the age of eighteen she married Thomas Barron and with him went to live in Yorkshire. She was of a long line of Meth- odists, her grandmother's house having afforded to John Wesley both a temporary place of worship and a hospitable home, and among the relics cherished by her children are the veritable linen sheets slept in by the great founder of Methodism, also the hymn book that he used. In 1851 the father and mother came to America, with ten children, and settled in Plainfield, Illinois. Six of the children are still living: William in Plainfield : John E. Barron, a resident of Amsterdam, Missouri : James, in Texas: Walter. the youngest, is in Rushmore, Minnesota : Esther A. married Augustine A. Worthing and resides at Belvue, Kansas.
Sarah E. Barron married Nelson F. Gaylord in 1863, and lived in Dwight, Livingston county, Illinois, until 1875. when they came to Hepler, Kansas, and bought the farm where they are still living. There were at that time only three houses to be seen from their place : nothing but prairie and blue sky, very little timber, so they can well be counted in among the pioneers of the country.
JAMES PATMOR.
James Patmor, president of the First State Bank, of Pittsburg. Crawford county, Kansas, has had a career of unusual interest in the industrial and business world since he was a boy of thirteen years. He was gifted with an independent and enterprising nature, and at that
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early age he decided that he could "paddle his own canoe," and from that time to the present he has done so, with what success can be judged from the following narrative of the principal events of his life. He has been a resident of the thriving city of Pittsburg for over twenty-five years. He is one of those to whom principal credit is due for the open- ing up and development of the vast resources of the Pittsburg coal fields with their attendant industries. For twenty years he has been prominent in the financial affairs of the city, and is now the head and founder of a bank which promises as fine a record of prosperity as the other enter- prises with which he has been associated. Besides taking such a leading part in the business matters of his city, he has been foremost in advanc- ing the interests of good government and building up the institutions which make for the general welfare. He is known everywhere for his devotion to family and friends, for his executive ability in control of business, and for his worthy and honorable character in all of life's activi- ties.
Mr. Patmor was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, of English ancestry and a son of James and Marion (Sotcher) Patmor, who were both natives of Ohio. Mr. Patmor received most of his education in the schools of Cincinnati. When thirteen years old he went to work in the construction department of the railroad which was then building up the Ohio valley east of Cincinnati. He showed special talent in this line of work. and in a few years was in charge of a large force of men, and remained at this business for ten years. He was very much interested in construction machinery, and this turned his attention to coal mining. In 1877 he came west to investigate coal fields, and in the same year located in Pittsburg. Kansas. He was one of the pioneers in the opening up of the field in what is now the enormous coal industry of the Pitts- burg district. He began with surface mining, but soon afterward, with machinery which he had brought with him from Cincinnati, he was one of the first to sink a shaft in this district. He was at first manager and a member of the firm of B. C. Redlon and Company, afterward changed
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to the Pittsburg Coal Company, of which he was vice-president and manager. This firm also carried on a mercantile business, and Mr. Patmor had charge of the second store in Pittsburg. They also operated a store and mine at Litchfield ( then known as Carbon, ) and at other places in this district.
In 1882 the Bank of Girard, at Girard, Crawford county, had estab- lished a branch institution in Pittsburg, and in 1883 Mr. Patmor was one of the purchasers of this branch, being associated with the Lanyons in this enterprise. The name then became the Bank of Pittsburg, and Mr. Patmor was made cashier, which position he held until it was organized, in 1886, as a national bank and the name changed to the National Bank of Pittsburg, of which he was then elected vice presi- dent. He devoted all his time to the bank's affairs, and in 1892. at the death of the cashier, Frank W. Lanyon, he was elected to that place, which he filled until November. 1903, when he resigned. During his connection with and management of the National Bank of Pittsburg, it experienced constant prosperity and became the largest bank of the county.
Since resigning from the National Bank Mr. Patmor has organized a new bank in Pittsburg, known as the First State Bank, which opened its doors for business on January 25, 1904, and of which he has been elected president. He has associated with him. as vice president. Mr. E. B. Hoyt, an old-time merchant and capitalist of the county, and Mr. Patmor's son, Jay N. Patmor, is cashier. with C. G. Henderlider. assistant cashier. The directors are James Patmor. A. J. Curran. E. B. Hoyt, A. H. Schlanger, E. H. Klock, H. C. Willard. J. N. Patmor. J. H. Beasley and George W. Smith.
Mr. Patmor is also connected with another of the large enterprises of Pittsburg. He is vice president of the Standard Ice and Fuel Com- pany, which is building in Pittsburg one of the largest ice plants. in the country, at a cost of fifty thousand dollars, and this will be a hig addition to the industrial and commercial establishments of the city.
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In other ways Mr. Patmor has been an important factor in build- ing up this splendid city. He was for several years treasurer of the school board. In manner he is quiet and modest, but is always quick to act in matters of local concern, and lends his influence on the side of morality and good government.
Mr. Patmor's wife is Mrs. Bertha A. ( Curran) Patmor, a sister of John P. and Andrew J. Curran, prominent lawyers of Pittsburg. They have three children. Jay N. Patmor. Miss Bertha E. and Miss Mary Gail Patmor.
ALVIN H. LANYON.
Alvin H. Lanyon is the elder son of the late S. H. Lanyon, the pioneer and industrial founder of the city of Pittsburg, whose career has been briefly sketched above. It has been a notable characteristic of this family that its members, wherever they have made the center of their activity, have held a dominant position in business, financial or industrial affairs, and the name Lanyon has been synonymous with con- servativeness, financial standing and broad ability. The same is true of this member of the family, who is assistant cashier of the National Bank of Pittsburg and since arriving at years of maturity has been closely identified with the material and social interests and welfare of this city.
Mr. Lanyon was born in Mineral Point, Wisconsin, May 22. 1863. being the elder of the two sons born to S. H. and Emily M. (Dabb) Lanyon, his brother Arthur K. being cashier of the above bank. The first fourteen years of his life were spent at his native heath of Mineral Point, and during nearly all the subsequent years he has been a resident of Pittsburg, with which he has grown up and has watched a bare prairie become covered with a thriving city of fourteen thousand people. in which evolution and development he himself has taken no small part. His educational training was received in the common schools, and in 1882 he graduated from the business college at Paola. Kansas.
RESIDENCE OF A. H. LANYON, PITTSBURG, KANSAS
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He spent the major part of his young manhood in his father's smelter works, but in 1900 became associated with banking interests. and has since been identified with the Lanyon bank at Pittsburg, other- wise known as the National Bank of Pittsburg. He has been one of its ' directors since its organization, and since 1903 has been assistant cashier.
Politically Mr. Lanyon has been a stanch Republican since casting his first vote for James G. Blaine. He is a member of the Elks lodge. and one of the most prominent Masons of southeastern Kansas, having penetrated all the mysteries of the noble and ancient craft up to and including the thirty-second degree. being a Knight Templar and a Shriner.
During the past year Mr. Lanyon has erected one of the most beautiful and artistic homes of Pittsburg, and he and his fine family now dispense their well known hospitality from this residence. Mr. Lanyon was married in April, 1889. to Miss Anna Merithew, of Indian- apolis, and their happy union has been blessed with five children, namely : Raymond B., in high school, Searle H., also in high school, and Rowena E., Franklin L. and Alan C. Mrs. Lanyon was born in Rockport. Indiana, and was educated in the Indianapolis high school. Her par- ents are both deceased.
ED. R. DORSEY.
Ed. R. Dorsey, breeder and importer of fine horses and manager of the well known Dorsey Livery Barn at Girard, has established and built up a business which is a credit to the entire southeastern Kansas and is doing as much as any one other influence for improvement and raising of the standard of excellence in horses for all their manifold uses to mankind. Horses are the most important adjunct of civiliza- tion, and in all countries the horse and the people have progressed to- gether. The absence of horses in America before they were brought
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by the Spanish was an absolute bar to progress on the part of the abo- riginal Indian tribes: for without successful agriculture as a basis no people can flourish, and without the horse as a helper an advanced state of agriculture is impossible,-all which is given in evidence of the great value of horse-kind to man-kind, and proving, incidentally, the importance which such an institution as the Dorsey importing and breeding stables holds in the permanent prosperity and progress of southeastern Kansas.
Mr. Dorsey came to Girard on March 18. 1900, and has since managed the Dorsey stables. He also runs the livery in connection, and has a business which, energized by himself, has a continually broad- ening success. Among the very fine horses in his stables are the fol- lowing: Lord Lytton, No. 987. was winner of the first prize at the Columbian Exposition in 1893: for five years was winner of the first prize at the Illinois state fair, and won the two hundred and fifty dollar prize at the American Horse Show. Sportsman, No. 1147, a son of Lord Lytton, was winner of the first prize for two years in succession at the Illinois state fair and the St. Louis fair. His best known horse, with a national fame, was Bonnie McGregor. No. 3778, which has a record of 2:1312 in the stallion record of 1889. He is a son of Robert McGregor. 2:171/2, who was the sire of the famous Cresceus, with a record of 2:021/2. Bonnie McGregor sold for twenty-five thousand dollars. and his son, Planet. 2:0414. sold for ten thousand dollars. There are some twenty other horses in the list, and the standard of excellence and beauty and breeding is uniformly high. The horses are all of the famous Cleveland Bay stock. and standard breed. The Cleve- land Bays are the oldest as well as the most useful and beautiful of breeds.
Mr. Dorsey, who thus fills such an important place in the citizen- ship and business circles of Girard and Crawford county, was born in Perry, Pike county, Illinois, on May 9. 1859. being a son of B. F. and Matilda (Hobbs) Dorsey, both natives of Illinois. B. F. Dorsey is
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and has been for some years one of the largest importers of horses in that part of Illinois.
Mr. Dorsey was educated in Perry, and, being reared to his father's business and becoming acquainted with its details at an early age, he was, when only fifteen years old, taken in as a partner in the firm of B. F. Dorsey and Sons. Therefore for some thirty years he has been identified with this industry which has become so successful under the management of the Dorseys.
On December 31, 1877, he was married to Miss Anna Chenoweth, a daughter of Miles B. Chenoweth, of Chambersburg, Illinois. The following children have been born to them: Dottie D., who is the wife of B. H. Swan, editor of the Pike County Republican, at Pittsfield. Illinois: Bennet F., who died at the age of nine months: and Nellie Anna, Asa B. and Miles, who are all at home. The family are mem- bers of the Christian church.
ISAAC A. HOPKINS.
Isaac A. Hopkins, the postmaster of Opolis. Kansas, is one of the old and honored residents of this part of the country, and although most of his interests and citizenship have been in the state of Indiana, yet by virtue of Opolis having served as his center of business lie can claim to be a true Kansan of long years' standing. In all particulars he has had a successful and praiseworthy career, and his popularity and worth among his fellow citizens is well attested by his choice to the important office of postmaster, in which he has proved himself useful in many ways to the public and carried on an administration to the satisfaction of all concerned, which means, in the case of a post- office, every one who receives mail through its agency.
Mr. Hopkins was born in Nelson county. Kentucky, in 1834, so that he is now at the seventieth milestone of his life's career. with many eventful stretches in the course passed over. His parents. George B.
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and Eda (Anderson) Hopkins, were both natives of Kentucky, and both died in Spencer county, Indiana, whither they moved in 1837.
Mr. Hopkins was reared to manhood on an Indiana farm, and was making good progress in agricultural pursuits when the Civil war came on. He did not delay long after the first calls went out for troops, and on October 9. 1861, enlisted and was enrolled in Company F, Fifty-eighth Indiana Infantry. He served for three years and ten months in the Army of the Tennessee, and in that time took part in many of the most important battles of the rebellion. He participated at Pittsburg Landing, was then in the pursuit of Bragg's army, was in the battles of Stone River, Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, Mis- sionary Ridge, in the engagements of the Atlanta campaign, followed by the march to the sea, and thence through the Carolinas and Vir- ginia, and arrived in Washington and took part in the grand review. after which he was sent west to Louisville and mustered out of the ranks, after a long and most creditable service in fighting for his country.
Mr. Hopkins spent about forty years of his life in Spencer county. Indiana, during which time he engaged in farming. In 1876 he came to Crawford county. Kansas, and continued his farming operations on a place near the state line and not far from Opolis. This town has now been his home for several years, although he still owns and con- ducts his Missouri farm. In 1901 he received his appointment as post- master of Opolis from President Mckinley, and he has been very ener- getic and efficient in the management of this office, having introduced several improvements in the service.
Mr. Hopkins and his wife are earnest in their Christian faith, and have been prominent members of the Opolis Methodist church for many years. Mr. Hopkins as a stanch Republican, and has voted for all the presidential candidates of that great party. His first wife was Arminda E. Oskins, who died while he was in the army. Her two children are Mrs. Eda Ann Frakes and George W. Hopkins, the latter
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being a merchant of Opolis. Mr. Hopkins' present wife was Miss Julia A. Muck, whom he married in Spencer county, Indiana. They have two children. John E. and Clara L. Hopkins.
JOHN CURRAN.
John Curran. of the firm of Curran and Curran, among the most prominent lawyers of Pittsburg and this part of the state, is a man who has raised himself by his energy and perseverance to a high place in a learned profession which requires, in addition to much native talent. first-class educational attainments, which he was able to enjoy only after hard and persistent effort without any particular aid from outside sources. He was prominent as an educator before he took his place among the members of the bar, and he has also been interested to a considerable extent in the public affairs of his city and county. The law firm of Curran and Curran enjoys one of the largest and most repre- sentative practices in this section of the state, and both are men of high legal standing and ability.
John Curran was born at South Haven, Michigan, in 1864. a son of John and Elizabeth ( Judge) Curran. His father was a native of Ireland and came to America in 1829. settling first in Canada and later in Michigan. In 1871 he became one of the early settlers of Crawford county. Kansas, where he followed farming till his death, in 1884. He, with his family, experienced all the hardships incidental to life in Kansas in those days, the grasshopper plague, crop failures and hard times coming with almost as much regularity as the years themselves ; but for all that he was numbered among the successful men of those farming sections. His wife, Mrs. Elizabeth Curran, was a native of Canada, and is still living on the old Curran farm in Crawford county.
Mr. Curran was reared on the Kansas homestead, and his services were so necessary on the farm that he had a hard time in getting an education. He attended the district schools, and later the State Normal
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College at Fort Scott, where he graduated in 1889, having taken the classical course. He took up the profession of teaching, and even be- fore his graduation had taught several terms, from which he gained funds for the further prosecution of his schooling. He became some- what noted as an educator, and for four years conducted the teachers' institutes of Crawford county. At one time he was principal of the high school of Pittsburg, and for three years was city superintendent of schools at Columbus. Kansas. During all this time he was making preparations for his entrance into the legal profession, and did much of his studying in the office of Morris Cliggett, one of the most tal- ented lawyers of Pittsburg and the state. In 1893-94 he was in the law department of the State University at Lawrence. In 1896 he began his practice in Pittsburg in partnership with his brother, Andrew J. Curran, who had been admitted to the bar some years before and who had already established a large practice. The brothers have enjoyed a large and lucrative business, and a good share of the legal work of the county is transacted through their offices.
Mr. Curran's brother, Andrew J. Curran, was born in Michigan, and his career has been somewhat similar to that of his brother. and equally crowned with success. He graduated from the law department of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, in June, 1895. Previous to his legal career he was a successful educator, and was superintendent of the Cherokee, Kansas, schools for five years, and for four years conducted the teachers' institutes of Crawford county.
HENRY H. RADLEY.
There are few men who have the opportunity to shape or guide the improvement and upbuilding of a. city as does he who is engaged in real estate operations. He can largely control the market in this direction, and he has a most potent influence in advancing the develop- ment along substantial and modern lines. Mr. Radley as a member
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of the firm of Radley & Ringo, real estate agents, has contributed in no small degree to the advancement of Girard's interests, and through- out his business career has maintained a record for activity and hon- esty that is most commendable.
He is a native son of Indiana, his birth having occurred in Warren county, that state, on the 7th of November. 1859. His parents were Benjamin F. and Elizabeth Overturf Radley, who were likewise na- tives of Indiana. The father was a farmer by occupation, and after engaging in the tilling of the soil in the state of his nativity for many years he located in Illinois and later came to Kansas in 1879, locating in Cherokee county. There he resumed his labors as an agriculturist and about twelve years afterward he came to Crawford county in 1891. Here he also secured a tract of land and continued farming up to the time of his death, which occurred in October. 1898, when he was sixty- six years of age. His wife survived him for a few years and passed away in 1902 at the age of sixty-seven years.
Henry H. Radley pursued his early education in Kankakee county. Illinois, and remained at home during the period of his minority. assist- ing in the labors of field and meadow when not occupied with the duties of the schoolroom. He thus gained practical experience at farm work and continued to assist his father until twenty-two years of age, when. in October, 1881. he removed to Pittsburg. Kansas. At that time he began work in connection with zine smelting in the employ of Robert Lanyon & Company. He occupied that position for two years, and then turned his attention to the livery business, which he followed for four years. On the expiration of that period he removed to Chicopee. Kansas, and became a factor in its business circles as a merchant, con- dueting his store with fair success for ten years. He then sold out to the Mount Carmel Coal Company, but remained in the store as head clerk until he was elected to the position of probate judge in November. 1898. He took the office in January, 1899. and held the position for four years, having been re-elected in 1900 for a second term. His
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