USA > Kansas > Atchison County > History of Atchison County, Kansas > Part 48
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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, Atchi- son : Miss Bridget Horan, Atchison ; Anna, at home : Michael Joseph, Atchi- son; Frank, Marshalltown, Iowa; Charles L., secretary of the Dolan Mer- cantile 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
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employ of the Dolan Mercantile Company, as office boy. He applied him- self 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 ob- tained 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 Trav- elers. Mr. Horan is recognized as one of the substantial and pro- gressive 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 excel- lent qualities of mind and heart. Mr. Horan's dignified and courteous de- meanor 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 Fhurman, farmer and stockman, of Lancaster township. Atchi- son 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 town- ship. 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
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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 dis- trict 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 conscien- tious, hard working farmer who has deservedly attained success. In March, 1916, Mr. and Mrs. Fuhrman left the farm and retired to a home in Lan- caster, 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.
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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 tronsformation 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-states- men, soldiers, and men of letters were in the making. Atchison county, Kansas, has 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 en- deavor. John E. Remsburg, editor and publisher of the Potter Kansan, edu- cator, 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 Atchi- son 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 fol- lowing biographical sketch of Mr. Remsburg :
"John E. Remsburg. Teacher, lecturer, author; born near Fremont, Ohio, U. S. A., January 7, 1848. Of German-English descent, his paternal ancestors emigrating from Germany to Maryland about 1760; his maternal ancestors emigrating from England to Boston in 1640. His father was George J. Remsburg, son of John P. Remsburg, who removed from Mary- land to Ohio in 1831 ; his mother was Sarah A. (Willey) Remsburg, daugh- 1er of Eleazer Willey, who removed from New York to Ohio about the same time. Educated in the public schools of Ohio and at Fort Edward Collegiate Institute, New York, continuing his studies after leaving school. Entered Union army at 16, serving until close of Civil war. For fifteen years engaged in educational work in Ohio and Kansas, serving as superintendent of public instruction of Atchison county, Kansas, four years (1872 to 1876). Mar- ried in 1870 Nora M. Eiler, daughter of Jacob Eiler, a Free State pioneer
John & Rensburg.
Geofensburg
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of Kansas. In 1880 became a lecturer and writer in support of free thought and State secularization. Delivered over 3,000 lectures, speaking in fifty-two States, Territories and provinces, and in 1,250 different cities and towns, in- cluding every large city of United States and Canada. In the performance of this work traveled over 360,000 miles. Author: 'Life of Thomas Paine,' 1880; 'The Image Breaker,' 1882; 'False Claims,' 1883 : 'Bible Morals,' 1884; 'Sabbath Breaking,' 1885; 'The Fathers of Our Republic,' 1887; 'Abraham Lincoln,' 1893; 'The Bible,' "1903; 'Six Historic Americans,' 1906. Portions of his writings have been translated into French, Italian, German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Bohemian, Bengali, Singalese and Japanese."
It may interest Mr. Remsburg's Atchison county friends to know in what esteem he is held as a speaker and writer by the world at large. From the hundreds of reviews and commendatory notices of his lectures and books which have appeared a volume of testimonials like the following could be compiled :
"One of the best speakers and writers to be found in the West, if not in the whole country."-Charles Robinson, first governor of Kansas.
"His lectures are models of logic and good sense."-Arnold Krekel, LL. D., Judge United States District Court, Missouri.
"Mr. Remsburg's address was given with great eloquence and power." --- E. W. Howe.
"A brilliant lecture."-San Francisco Chronicle.
"Most eloquent words."-Boston Globe.
"An interesting and eloquent address."-Rev. J. F. Wilcox, Chicago.
"It is lit up with such flashes of genius, it is so poetical and picturesque that one never wearies of hearing it."-E. M. Macdonald, New York, Presi- dent American Secular Union.
"He retired with the reward of loud and long continued applause."- Kansas City Star.
"Came in for his full meed of praise today."-New York Herald.
"J. E. Remsburg was paid at the rate of two dollars a minute for his New York address; probably the highest price yet paid for a Kansas talk." -Noble L. Prentiss, 1882.
"A noble lecture."-Ernestine L. Rose, noted reformer, London.
"He has given to the world several volumes of priceless worth."-L. K. Washburn, editor Boston Investigator.
"This volume of 600 pages is a digest of all that is known of the subject." -- Franklin Steiner, author, New York.
"Nothing equal to it has been published within my recollection either
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in America or Great Britain."-Charles Watts, President British Secular Union.
"It is indeed excellent-nothing could be better."-Sir Hiram Maxim, London.
"In many respects the most important volume on the subject that has yet appeared."-Le Pensee, Brussels.
"Excellent, bold, direct, unanswerable."-James Parton.
"Mr. Remsburg is an orator of high and wide reputation."-Washington Post.
"One of America's noted orators."-Montreal Times.
"A most able lecturer and writer."-Charles Bradlaugh, M. P., noted orator and stateman of England.
"My translations of Bradlaugh's and Remsburg's writing's have an enor- mous circulation in this country."-Kedarnath Basu, India.
"His [Remsburg's] lectures have an immense circulation in India."- Calcutta Gazette.
"One of the most promising orators in America."-Secular Review, London.
"His style is simple, earnest and attractive, and in these qualities he is eloquent."-\V. H. Herndon, law partner of Abraham Lincoln.
"I have listened to all of our great orators from Clay to Ingersoll, but I have never heard a more polished oration than Remsburg delivered last night." -- Hon. William Perkins, associate counsel of Lincoln in several im- portant cases.
"A graphic, yet concise sketch."-Rev. S. Fletcher Williams, Liverpool. England.
"Imparted in language clear and forcible and not seldom with grace and beauty."-Thomas Gray, author, Edinburgh, Scotland.
"I have never heard the case so fairly and so ably stated as he has stated it tonight."-Richard B. Westbrook, D. D., LL. D., Philadelphia.
"I have asked a bookseller to order twenty copies of Remsburg's work." -U. Dhammaloka, President Buddhist Tract Society of Burmah.
"Such an admirable book is always welcome."-Rev. J. Lloyd Jones, LL. D., Chicago.
"This effort to right the wrongs of Thomas Paine is, in my opinion, a service to mankind." -- Andrew D. White, LL. D .. first president of Cornell University, minister to Russia and ambassador to Germany.
"The most fair and honest of all the biographies which have yet ap- peared of the great iconoclast."-Boston Herald.
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"It will help restore to honor a much abused name and forward the cause of human rights the country over."-Rev. Charles Wendt, D. D., Ex-Presi- dent Taft's pastor at Cincinnati.
"May this brilliant work bring its author the praise of posterity."-Der Freidenker.
"A very strong case."- Public Opinion.
"A valuable contribution to literature."-Wm. McDonald, author, Canada.
"His lectures have as large a circulation in Europe. India and Australia as in this country."-S. P. Putnam, author, New York.
"A most interesting lecture."-New Orleans Delta.
"A large audience and frequent applause."-Baltimore Sun.
"Skillfully and vigorously written."-Unitarian Herald, Manchester, England.
"His style is pleasing and his arguments incontrovertible." -- The Uni- verse, Berhampur, India.
"A noble and eloquent work."-Charles Bright, lecturer, Australia.
"It is really a remarkable work."-Yoshira Oyama, President Japanese Rationalist Association, Japan.
"Clearly, Mr. Remsburg has done his duty as he sees it, and has had the fairness to present at the outset the opposite view of the question."-New York World.
"Given in evident fairness and remarkable completeness."-Chicago Times.
"J. E. Remsburg, of Kansas, who addressed the Congressional Commit- tee on the Sunday question at the Capitol yesterday, made a good impres- sion. Every member heartily applauded him."-Washington Star.
"My views are well expressed by him."-Hon. George W. Julian, one of the founders of the Republican party and a prominent leader in Congress.
"I will gladly contribute to his work."-Rear Admiral George WV. Mel- ville.
"I have the pleasure to inform you that at the meeting of the Committee held this day (January 5, 1910) you were elected an 'Oversea' member of the Authors' Club."-Reginald H. B. Giller, Secretary Authors' Club, London.
"Member Authors' Club, London; National Geographic Society ( Wash- ington) ; life member American Secular Union (president three years) .- Who's Who In America.
"I have watched with interest his growing influence."-Hon. John J. Ingalls, president pro-tem United States Senate.
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"Ably and well have you done your work."-Parker Pillsbury. noted Anti-Slavery leader.
"When truth and freedom triumph at last your name will be known and honored by all men."-Eugene V. Debs, four times the nominee of his party for President of the United State.
GEORGE J. REMSBURG.
George J. Remsburg was born in Atchison county, Kansas, September 22, 1871. His life has been devoted mainly to horticultural, journalistic, archaelogical and historical work. He spent many years on a fruit farm, re- moving to Atchison in 1892, where he engaged in newspaper work on the Daily Champion, the oldest newspaper in Kansas; he was a reporter, city editor, and even did editorial work on that paper up to 1900, when he re- turned to the farm on account of ill health. In 1894-95 he was editor of the Missouri Valley Farmer, now the leading agricultural journal west of the Mississippi. During the winter of 1905-6 he was on the reportorial staff of the Leavenworth Daily Post, and editor of Western Life, published in that city. He has also acted as special correspondent of the Leavenworth Times, St. Joseph Gasette, Kansas City Journal, Topeka Mail and Breeze, Topeka Capital, Atchison Globe, and other well known western newspapers, besides · having been an editorial contributor to many different magazines and other publications.
He has spent many years in archaeological explorations, principally in northeastern Kansas and northwestern Missouri, has opened a number of ancient mounds and identified and explored old village sites of the Kansa Indians, visited by Bourgmont in 1724, and Lewis and Clark in 1804, on the Missouri river. He has published a pamphlet describing one of the more important of these old villages, entitled, "An Old Kansas Indian Town on the Missouri." In all, he has discovered and examined more than 100 old Indian village, camp, workshop and grave sites in the region mentioned and gathered one of the most extensive private archaeological collections ever assembled in Kansas.
In 1897 he was elected a corresponding member of the Western His- torical Society upon the unsolicited recommendation of United States Senator George G. Vest, of Missouri. In 1901 he became associated with Hon. J. V. Brower, of St. Paul, Minn., in important archaeological investigations rela-
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tive to the ancient Indian province of Quivira, visited by Coronado in 1541, and upon the organization of the Quivira Historical Society by Mr. Brower, he was made a life member. In 1905 he was elected president of this society to succeed Mr. Brower, deceased. The Quivira Historical Society erected a number of costly monuments to commemorate historical events of Coronado's time in Kansas.
At the annual meeting of the McLean Historical Society of Illinois at Bloomington in 1909 he was elected an honorary member in recognition of his researches regarding the Kickapoo Indians, of which tribe the McLean society is making a special study. He has thoroughly explored the old village of the Kickapoos near Ft. Leavenworth, occupied from 1832 to 1854, and visited these Indians on their reservation in Brown county, Kansas, on sev- eral occasions, gathering a vast amount of ethnologic and historic material pertaining to the tribe. He is also a member of the Kickapoo Club, of Bloom- ington, Ill.
Mr. Remsburg is a member of the National Geographical Society, hav- ing been elected at the annual meeting of the society in Washington in 1911. He has been a member of the International Society of Archaeologists since its organization in 1909; was appointed an associate editor of the Archaeological Bulletin, official organ of this society, in 1910, and elected vice-president of the same society in the same year. In 1901 he was elected a member of the American Society of Curio Collectors ; was elected vice-president of the same in 1902, and appointed a contributing editor of the society's official organ in 1906. He is also an active member of and contributor to the Kansas State Historical Society, and is a member of its committees on archaeology and Indian history.
Brower's "Memoirs of Explorations in the Basin of the Mississippi." Volume VII, contains a summary account of Mr. Remsburg's archaeological work, and says of him: "He has long been a capable and painstaking archaeological explorer in the Missouri Valley." Chappell's "History of the Missouri River" says he is an acknowledged authority on early western his- tory and the archaeology of the Missouri valley.
He has held a number of local offices, such as justice of the peace, mem- ber of school board, and secretary of various clubs and societies. He was at one time a member of the Kansas National Guards. He is now connected with the staff of the Potter Weekly Kansan and doing special correspondence for several newspapers. His home is at Potter, in this county. He is a son of Jolin E. Remsburg, whose sketch appears elsewhere.
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WIRT HETHERINGTON.
Heredity, undoubtedly has an important bearing upon the choice of a life vocation for the individual citizen, and it is evident that this maxim gov- erning the destiny of man himself holds good in the life of Wirt Hether- ington, cashier of the Exchange National Bank of Atchison. In the city of Atchison, three generations of bankers from the Hetherington family have toiled in the financial activities of the city, the first of whom was William Hetherington, grandfather of W. Wirt, the present scion of the family, en- gaged in banking. Following William, the pioneer banker of Atchison, and who established the first banking concern in the city, came Webster Wirt Hetherington, father of him whose name heads this review.
William Hetherington, the first of the line in Kansas, was born in the town of Milton, Penn., May 10, 1821, and was there reared and received his education. When he became of age he was married, at Pine Grove, Penn., to Miss Annie M. Strimphfler, who was born in Womelsdorf. Berks county, Pennsylvania, September 24, 1827. This marriage occurred May 9, 1848, and William and his bride, shortly afterwards, became residents of Potts- ville, Penn., where he engaged in the operating of a flouring mill. Three children were born to them in this city, namely : Mrs. Balie P. Waggener, of Atchison; Webster Wirt and C. S. Hetherington. In 1859 they removed to Atchison and the youngest child of the family, Mrs. William A. Otis, was born here. Mr. Hetherington first located in St. Louis, when he came west, later going to Kansas City, and from there to Leavenworth, Kan., where he purchased a bankrupt stock of goods, which he hauled by wagon to Atchison in 1859. He at once established the Exchange Bank, which absorbed the Kansas Valley Bank, at that time owned by Robert L. Pease. . When Mr. Hetherington came into possession of the bank it was located in a basement at the corner of Third and Commercial streets. A short time later he moved it to the building now occupied by the water works company, and it was here that an attempt was made by the outlaw Cleveland to rob the bank, but the attempt was unsuccessful, Cleveland being frightened away by some freight- ers who were working nearby. Some years later, Mr. Hetherington erected a bank building at the northwest corner of Fourth and Commercial streets, which was the home of the bank until the erection of the handsome Exchange National Bank Building, two blocks further west, in 1885. In 1882 the Hetherington bank was merged into a national bank, and it was known as the Exchange National Bank, one of the successful banking concerns of the State of Kansas. Mr. Hetherington was a man of considerable ability, whose
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efforts to advance the growing city of Atchison were worth a great deal, and he became a leading factor in the material advancement of the city. His influence on public thought and movement was marked and it was the more powerful, for he was largely unbiased in his judgments. He died in 1890.
Webster Wirt Hetherington, father of the subject of this review, was born in Pottsville, Penn., December 19, 1850. He was educated in Gambier College in Ohio, and came directly from his studies in that institution to enter the Exchange National Bank of Atchison, of which his father was the founder and president. He became cashier of the bank, and upon his father's demise, in 1890, he became the president of the bank, remaining in this position until his death. January 28, 1892. Mr. Hetherington, during his financial career, became widely known in banking circles, and had many valuable acquaintances among New York financial men, with whom he had many transactions in western securities. When the Rock Island road was building in Kansas and Nebraska Mr. Hetherington made arrangements to purchase all the municipal bonds the road received from the counties and townships through which it passed. The deal was successful, and won him the confidence of the New York brokers through whom he sold the bonds. In 1889 he received, as a reward from W. P. Rice, of New York City, $10,000 in cash and also traveling expenses for himself and wife on a tour in Europe, in payment for his services in going to London and assisting Mr. Rice in interesting English capitalists in investing in American enterprises. Mr. Hetherington was married November 18, 1875, to Miss Lillie Miller, the oldest daughter of Dr. John G. and Anna B. (Bennett) Miller, both natives of Pennsylvania. This marriage was blessed with five children as follows: Ruthanna, wife of Dr. L. A. Todd, of St. Joseph ; Mary Louise, wife of Lieut. J. G. Pillow, U. S. A., of Honolulu ; Webster Wirt, cashier of the Exchange National Bank of Atchison; Gail, wife of B. R. Allen, of Atchison ; Harry Hale, Seattle, Washı.
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