USA > Kansas > Butler County > History of Butler County Kansas > Part 49
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96
Mr. Pottle is a member of the Masonic Lodge, Sons of Veterans,
47I
HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY
Modern Woodmen of America, Knights of the Maccabees, Knights of Pythias and the Eastern Star. Since boyhood Mr. Pottle has taken an active part in politics, and has always been identified with the Repub- lican party. He has been chairman of the Butler county central com- mittee, a member of the State central committee, and on numerous oc- casions has been a delegate to county, congressional and State conven- tions, and in 1900 attended the Republican National convention. He is well known as a capable accountant, and has many friends.
J. F. Glendenning, pioneer, farmer, probate judge and for many years one of the foremost influential constituents of Butler county, a native of Missouri, was born in Gentry county, a son of John and Sliza- beth (Carter) Glendenning. His parental ancestors were early settlers in America. His great-grandfather, William Glendenning. a native of Scotland, served for eight years as a member of the Continental lines in the War of the Revolution. His son, Henry Glendenning, the grand- father of our subject, was a soldier in the War of 1812, as was also his maternal grandfather, Eliza Carter.
John Glendenning was one of the pioneer settlers of the State of Missouri, locating in that State in 1838. He underwent the vicissitudes common to that pioneer period and took an active part in the Indian wars in his day, as well as suppressing the robber bands which infested the State at that time. John Glendenning was reared on his father's farm and acquired his education in the schools of that day and vicinity. He was one of a family of eleven children, the youngest of whom reached the age of 40 years before a single death occurred. In 1866 he moved to Iowa, locating at Lineville, where he engaged in the drug business with an elder brother who was one of the prominent physicians of that State. This association was dissolved in 1871, and our subject came to Butler county where he located on a claim in Pleasant township, which he later improved, operated and which he still owns and on which he lived until 1901, when he removed to El Dorado to occupy the office of probate judge.
At the time he came to Butler county, buffalo were numerous, and within hunting distance, as were prairie chickens, wild turkeys and wild game of all kinds. During his residence in Pleasant township, he held all of the various township offices, and was also a member of the school board the greater part of the time. In 1900 he was elected on the Re- publican ticket to the office of probate judge, and his administration of this office was such that he was elected for a second term in 1902, suc- cecding which he served as police judge of the city of El Dorado for four years.
Mr. Glendenning, during his residence in Butler county. not only filled his offices with credit to himself, but to the satisfaction of his con- stituents, and was also recognized as one of the most successful of agriculturists. In 1909, ill health necessitated his removal to a more equal climate. He removed to Texas, where he has since resided.
472
HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY
However, he still expects to spend a few of his remaining years upon his old home place and to enjoy spending the fortune which will undoubtedly come to him through the oil and gas which underlies his lands.
On May 29, 1873, Mr. Glendenning married Experience Sarah Mar- tin, a daughter of George and Nancy (Liggett) Martin. She was born and reared in Livingston county, Missouri, and educated in its public schools. She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. They are the parents of two children and have also educated three nieces.
While a resident of Pleasant township, Mr. Glendenning was associ- ated with Sunday school and church work with Daniel Pickett, one of the prominent and influential workers of the Friends church.
Mr. Glendenning, during the late difference between the States, served as a member of the Union forces for a term of eight months, serv- ing under Capt. Joseph Carter.
Walter Fletcher McGinnis .- Until recently, Butler county has been known only as one of the great agriculture and live stock counties of the commonwealth of Kansas. The development of oil and gas with hundreds of producing wells and others being drilled every day, has added a new and all important phase to industrial Butler county and bids fair to make this county one of the largest in population as well as in area in the State. The development of this great oil and gas dis- trict has not come about by mere chance nor accident, but by persistent working out of well laid plans, and Walter F. McGinnis is entitled to no small amount of credit in connection with the discovery and develop- ment in this territory, and may well be called the original oil booster of this district.
Mr. McGinnis become interested in the oil business as early as 1886, and he, with others, drilled a well at that time on Riverside, but without results. However, his interest in the delusive fluid did not abate. He kept turning the oil proposition over in his mind, and in 1912, he began taking oil leases in Butler county, and began to interest some outside oil capitalists in this field, and the result was that a test well on the Stapleton place in the fall of 1915, revealed the presence of oil in profitable quantities, at a depth of between 525 and 700 and 2500 feet. Then followed a wild scramble for leases and it was then that it developed that Mr. McGinnis' foresight had been working, and he had hundreds of acres leased before the test on the Stapleton farm pro- claimed the glad tidings of the underground wealth of Butler county. His Linn farm lease alone, on which he, with three other gentlemen, have brought in a number of very profitable oil producing wells. has made a fortune already. Besides being the largest individual lease holder of Butler county, Mr. McGinnis has extensive lease interests in Elk county where he has interests in over 20,000 acres of prospective oil and gas lands, as he also has in Oklahoma. He is an oil optimist, but not the kind who just hopes for the best, but he is the kind of an optimist who gets busy and gets the best by going after it.
WALTER F. MCGINNIS
حاسيه
473
HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY
Walter F. McGinnis is a native son of Kansas; he was born in Cof- fey county, October 31, 1860, a son of Dr. James Allen and Sarah Ann (Benedict) McGinnis, the former a native of Vermillion county, Indiana, and the latter of Meigs county, Ohio. The McGinnis family comes from an ancient and honorable line of Trish ancestors who trace their lineage back through ages of the history of Ireland ; and members of this family were prominent in that country when the four ancient kingdoms of Ireland were in the zenith of their glory.
The McGinnis family was founded in America in the early part of the eighteenth century by John McGinnis who emigrated from Ireland, coming from County Antrim, and settled in Pennsylvania. The direct line of descent from him to Walter F. McGinnis, the subject of this sketch, is as follows; James, son of John; Edmund, son of James; Ed- mund, Jr., son of Edmund; Dr. Ira Edmund, son of Edmund, Jr .; Dr. James Allen McGinnis, son of Dr. Ira Edmund; Walter Fletcher McGinnis, son of Dr. James Allen McGinnis; and Walter Fletcher McGinnis, has a son, Walter Fletcher, Jr., who is the eighth generation of the McGinnis family in America, which, perhaps, covers a period of two hundred years of the family in this country. There were twenty-one members of this branch of the McGinnis family who served in the Revolutionary war, in behalf of the cause of American independence, and there has never been a white man's war in this coun- try since that time in which some member or members of this family have not served under the stars and stripes. There were at least two in the United States fleet that landed at Vera Cruz, Mexico, during the late trouble with Huerta; and Ward Allen McGinnis, a nephew, an officer, is now with the Oklahoma militia on the Mexican border.
Dr. James Allen McGinnis, father of Walter F., was born in Ver- million county, Indiana, June 5, 1836; he married Sarah Ann Benedict, March 28, 1858. She was born in Meigs county, Ohio, December 23, 1837. Dr. McGinnis came to Kansas in 1854, when he was eighteen years of age. He settled in Coffey county and located on a claim ad- joining what is now the town of Hartford. Because he was under age, a professional "claim-jumper" undertook to "jump" his claim, but the boy showed a clear abstract of title in the form of a rifle, and the bad man moved on in search of milder methods of opposition. Dr. McGin- nis was a prominent factor in the early day development of Coffey county, and represented that county in the legislature in 1868-69. In 1869 he came to Butler county with his two motherless boys, and lo- cated twenty-five miles southeast of El Dorado, in Hickory township. That was an early day in the settlement of that part of the county. When he located there he built a good substantial residence, which was perhaps the best one in the county at the time ; it was destroyed by the same storm that wrecked El Dorado, June 16, 1871. He took a prom- inent part in local affairs after coming to Butler county, moving to El Dorado, the nearest school or church, in November, 1873, and served
.
474
HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY
six years as county commissioner, and in 1883 was elected registrar of deeds and served in that capacity four years. He also served as mayor and councilman of El Dorado. In 1894 he removed to Dewey county, Oklahoma, where he died April 5. 1912. His wife had preceded him in death a number of years, she having passed away March 13, 1867, in Coffey county. They were the parents of three children, as follows : Walter F., the subject of this sketch; S. Arthur, born November 10, 1866, a prominent attorney of Guthrie, Okla. He was captain of Troop I of Roosevelt's regiment of Rough Riders, during the Spanish-Ameri- can war, and in his professional capacity, was attorney for the Daws Commission. One child, Flora Viola, died in infancy.
Dr. James Allen McGinnis was one of the first to enlist in response to President Lincoln's call for volunteers to defend the Union in the early sixties, and served for four years. President Lincoln appointed him first lieutenant in the regular army and assigned him to volunteer service. He was a member of Company D. Ninth Kansas cavalry and served in a manner befitting the brave soldier that he was. During the early days, he served in the secret service of the Government along the border. It fell to his lot to deal with the bad men of the plains, cattle rustlers and desperadoes that infested the new country and made life dangerous and property insecure on the frontier. Dr. McGinnis had many encounters with men of that type, and usually got his man when he went after him, and he went after a great many of them during his time. He was one of the dominant factors in organizing the vigilance committee who meted out summary justice to some of the notorious characters of the early history of Butler county, after which the prop- erty and lives of the early settlers were more secure. He practiced med- icine for fifty years, twenty-one of which were in Butler county.
Walter F. McGinnis attended his first school in Coffey county, in an old log house, and later he attended more pretentious public schools as the country developed. After obtaining a good common school education, he attended business college at Topeka, Kans. He then stud- ied medicine two years. It was then that he decided that a medical career was not to his liking, and he engaged in the real estate and loan business in El Dorado. He began business here in 1884. which he has successfully conducted to the present time. He has also been engaged in the general insurance business all these years. On January 1, 1913, the Home Insurance Company presented him with a silver medal in recognition of twenty-five years of continuous and successful work for that company.
Mr. McGinnis was united in marriage, June 23, 1885, with Miss Ida May Surdam of Towanda, Kans. She is a daughter of Tunis Sur- dam, a Butler county pioneer who settled in this county in the early seventies. To Mr. and Mrs. McGinnis have been born the following children : Jennie Faith, married Howard Bennett, an El Dorado attor- ney ; Hazle Hope, married Jud P. Hall, El Dorado; Adah Aletha, a
475
HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY
graduate of the El Dorado High School, class of 1916; Walter Fletcher, Jr., a member of the class of 1917, El Dorado High School, and Pauline Lillian, a student in the grade schools. The McGinnis family is well known and prominent in the community, and Mr. McGinnis is one of the progressive business men who are making a reputation for El Dorado as a city that does things.
William Houston Betz, superintendent of the city water works of El Dorado, is a native of Ohio, born at Lima, July 28, 1868. His parents were Henry and Mary (Shumberger) Betz, the former a native of Ger- many and the latter of Pennsylvania. The Betz family were among the early settlers of El Dorado, locating here in 1869, when William Hous- ton of this review was about a year old. Their first home was on North Main street where the Commercial hotel now stands. They drove the entire distance from Ohio to Kansas, which was a long, tedious jour- ney, and in those pioneer days they followed the trail through much wild and unsettled country, before reaching Butler county. Their outfit con- sisted of four wagons, one of which was a spring wagon, and they cov- ered a distance of about 1200 miles.
After remaining in Kansas about six years, the family returned to Ohio, but two years later came back to Kansas, this time by rail as far as Florence, and continued the journey to El Dorado by stage coach. The father was engaged in buying and shipping cattle for a number of years, and later conducted a meat market in El Dorado, where he died and the mother passed away at Alton, Ill. They were the parents of the following children : Samuel, now deceased ; Elizabeth, married James Johnson, and is now a widow residing at Chicago, Ill .; Christine, married 'Edward Stanley and resides in Kansas City, Mo .; Lewis, died at the age of twenty ; Fred, a farmer, Medicine Lodge, Kans .; Henry, Philadelphia, Pa .; William H., the subject of this sketch ; and Charles, Kansas City, Mo. Samuel, the eldest brother, who is now deceased, was a natural frontiersman. He frequently made extensive hunting trips into the west and southwest, in the early days when those sections of the country had scarcely a white habitation. He was a great hunter and had an exten- sive acquaintance with various tribes of Indians and could speak many of their tribal languages with fluency. He organized a wild west show which he conducted for a time and later sold it to Adam Forepaugh. He was an unerring shot and a great rider, and in many ways an unusual type of man. He was killed in an accident in a spoke factory in Ohio.
William H. Betz was educated in the public schools in El Dorado, and attended high school, and was a schoolmate of Willam Allen White. From the time he was twelve years old, he practically made his own way in the world. He worked at odd jobs until he was seventeen years old, when he entered the employ of the Missouri Pacific railroad as switchman and remained in the train service of that road for thirteen years. He then entered the employ of C. L. Turner as an implement and buggy salesman, and followed that vocation for seven years. In Febru-
476
HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY
ary, 1906, Mr. Betz became superintendent of the El Dorado city water- works. He is also superintendent of the sewer system, which includes a septic tank, which was built at a cost of $12,000 during his administra- tion of that department. Mr. Betz is a close student of the intricate and important problem of city water supply and the most efficient and eco- nomical systems. He is a constant reader of current literature on that subject and keeps in close touch with the views and experiments of the leading experts along those lines throughout the country.
Mr. Betz was united in marriage in November, 1889, with Miss Wi- nona Payton, a native of Ironton, Ohio. She came to Kansas with her parents, William and Sarelda Payton, when she was a child. The father is now deceased and the mother resides at Newton, Kans. To Mr. and Mrs. Betz have been born the following children: Grace, married William Rowell, proprietor of the Gem Theater, El Dorado; Mabel, mar- ried M. S. Smock, El Dorado; William and Irene. Mr. Betz is a Repub- lican and is a member of the Masonic Lodge; Independent Order of Odd Fellows : Modern Woodmen of America, and Knights and Ladies of Se- curity. The family are members of the Christian church.
L. L. Kiser, well known in the affairs of Butler county, is a native of Tippecanoe county, Indiana. He was born November 2. 1855, and is a son of Levi and Elizabeth (Chester) Kiser, the farmer a native of Ohio and the latter of New Jersey. Levi Kiser came to Indiana with his parents when he was a child. He grew to manhood in that State, and in 1856 went to Iowa with his wife and family, settling in Johnson county, near Iowa City. He was one of the pioneers of that section and remained there until 1878, when he removed with his family to Kansas, settling in Little Walnut township, Butler county. He was one of the. of the incorporators of the town of Leon, a member of the town- site company, and served as mayor of the town for two or three terms. He was engaged in the mercantile business at Leon for a num- ber of years, but retired from active business a few years before his death. He died at Leon in 1908, aged eighty-four years. His wife died in Iowa in 1872.
L. L. Kiser was one of a family of seven children who grew to maturity. He was about a year old when his parents removed from Indiana to Iowa where he was reared and educated in the public schools and in 1878 came to Butler county, Kansas, and for fifteen years, he and two of his brothers were engaged in contracting and building. He then entered the real estate, loan and insurance business at El Dorado, and in 1915, moved to his farm three miles south of El Dorado, where he has 280 acres of land and is engaged quite exten- sively in general farming and stock raising.
Mr. Kiser was first married in 1882, to Miss Grace A. Gard, a native of Illinois, and two children were born to this union: Louis, Bristol, Col., and Clara, married Jesse L. Biggs, Potwin, Kans. The wife and mother died in 1887, and in 1889, Mr. Kiser married Miss
477
HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY
Mary L. Applegate, a native of Wintersett, Iowa, who came to Kansas in 1882. She was a successful Butler county teacher for a number of years prior to her marriage. To Mr. and Mrs. Kiser have been born three children, as follows: Glen E., a reporter on the Wichita "Bea- con ;" Ruth, a stenographer in El Dorado, and Celest E., residing at home.
Mr. Kiser has taken an active part in public affairs since coming to Butler county and since coming to El Dorado has been active in the development and betterment of the city. He has served as chairman of the Commercial Club, and was active in promoting the oil develop- ment in this section as well as taking an active part in the furthering of municipal improvements such as pavement and other progressive and substantial city improvements. He is independent in politics and · for twenty years has been an opponent of partisan politics in city gov- ernment, and has had the satisfaction of seeing his principles in that particular finally win in El Dorado. He is a member of the Fraternal Aid and the Modern Woodmen of America and belongs to the Chris- tian church of which he has been an elder for a number of years. He was active in the work of giving the congregation in El Dorado a new church and served as a member of the building committee. Mr. Kiser is one of the foremost and public spirited citizens of Butler county.
Christopher Leonidas Aikman was born at London, Ky., October 22, 1865, and is a son of William A. and Martha A. Aikman. He located at Towanda, Butler county, Kansas, with his parents in 1871, and attend- ed country scchool, and school at Augusta and El Dorado for a number of years, and afterwards he attended Fort Scott Normal College, Fort Scott, Kans.
Mr. Aikman taught school for a number of years at Towanda, Haver- hill, Rosalia and White Station. He was admitted to practice law in 1889. For two years he was a partner in the practice of law with the late Major Kilgore at El Dorado. Afterwards he became a partner with Judge G. P. Aikman, when in 1905, the partnership was dissolved by the elec- tion of G. P. Aikman to the office of district judge of the Thirteenth judicial district.
In 1905 C. L. Aikman was elected county attorney of Butler county. and was renominated for the same office in 1907 without opposition and was reelected. In 1912 Mr. Aikman was again nominated without op- position for the office of county attorney, but he declined to make the race. In 1915, he and his brother, Judge G. P. Aikman, again formed a partnership in the practice of law. Their practice is second to none at El Dorado, and they enjoy a large practice in different parts of the State. Besides being a lawyer, Mr. Aikman is a lover of thoroughbred Jersey cattle and has some of the best to be found anywhere.
Mr. Aikman was married to Anna D. Gilbert December 31, 1894. at Nevada, Mo.
478
HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY
W. E. Brown, cashier of the Geo. W. Brown & Son State Bank, Augusta, Kans., is one of Butler county's substantial bankers, and is identified with one of the oldest financial institutions in the county. W. E. Brown is a native of Illinois and a son of Geo. W. and Mary J. (Weav- er) Brown, natives of New York. They were the parents of three chil- dren, W. E., the subject of this sketch, being the only surviving member of the family. George W. Brown, the father, was a Butler county pion- eer and established one of the first banks in the county.
In 1870, he came to Augusta to build the land office building for the Government, an institution which was located at Augusta for several years before its removel to Wichita. About the time that he completed his government contract, in 1870, George W. Brown and his brother, C. W., organized Brown Brothers Bank at Augusta which was the begin- ning of the Geo. W. Brown & Son State Bank which is doing business in Augusta today. This is one of the substantial banks of Butler coun- ty and has a long and honorable business record to its credit. It might be said of this bank that it is big enough to accommodate its customers and not too big to appreciate them. George W. Brown, one of the found- ers of this institution, was the pioneer banker of Butler county. The bank did business under the firm name of Brown Brothers until 1887, when it was changed to Geo. W. Brown & Son and later incorporated un- der the name of the State Bank, George W. Brown remaining president of the bank until his death December 25, 1914.
While Mr. Brown remained a dominant factor of the institution dur- ing his lifetime, he spent the last fifteen years of his life in travel and maintained his home at Daytona, Fla. In 1902, he made a trip around the world, starting from San Francisco and visiting Honolulu, Japan, China, Philippine Islands, and returning home by way of the Mediter- ranean and New York. George W. Brown was not only a pioneer banker of Butler county but was also a prominent factor in the early day settlement and development of Augusta. He was one of the incorpo- rators of the town of August and took a keen interest in the social, moral and industrial development of the town during his lifetime. He was a capable business man and known for his methodical methods in the daily conduct of his vast business affairs. He was a quiet, unassuming man, and while best known as a successful financier, he possessed many noble qualities of mind and heart that towered above any sordid nature and was best liked by those who knew him most intimately.
W. E. Brown, whose name introduces this sketch, came to Butler county with his parents in 1870. He received his education in the public schools of Augusta, the Western Military Academy, Alton, Ill., and Baker University, Baldwin, Kans. He then engaged in the jewelry business in Baldwin, Kans., which was his first business venture. In 1886 he en- tered his father's bank at Augusta, in the capacity of bookkeeper, and shortly afterward was made cashier, which position he has since held. Mr. Brown has had a broad experience in the banking world, besides
479
HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY
having had the advantage of a careful training in the intricate field of finance under the supervision of his father. He is recognized as one of the able financiers of southern Kansas. Notwithstanding his busy ca- reer in the private field of finance, he has taken a commendable interest in public affairs and when twenty-four years of age was elected mayor of Augusta and as such conducted the affairs of the city in such a com- mendable way that at the expiration of a term of three years, he was re- elected. He has also been a member of the city council.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.