USA > Kansas > Johnson County > History of Johnson County, Kansas > Part 29
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George Washington Brown, a representative citizen of Lenexa, is a native of Iowa. He was born in Guthrie county, July 31, 1856, and is a. son of David W. and Martha A. (Harris) Brown, natives of Indiana,
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the former born in 1830 and the latter in 1839. David W. Brown came to. Kansas in 1858, and settled in Shawnee township near Lenexa on the farm which George W., the subject of this sketch, now owns. David W. Brown was killed by border ruffians in 1860. He was a well educated man and a natural leader of men. He was a pronounced anti-slavery man and entered into the contest to make Kansas a free State, with enthusiasm. At one election, by his activity at the polls, he prevented the casting of over 800 fraudulent pro-slavery votes. He had been warned by the pro-slavery men that they would kill him if he persisted in his activity in favor of a free State, but he was undaunted and went on as. though nothing had happened. He was shot by a pro-slavery man by the name of Nowning in the old hotel at Shawnee, Kan. George W. was one of a family of four children as follows: George W., Elizabeth died at the age of thirteen; Martha married P. C. Woodward, of Kansas. City, and Mary O., wife of O. W. Miller, of Mahaska, Kan. After the death of the father, the mother later married a Mr. Williams, and four children were born to this union : Jennie married Orion Messmere, and resides in lowa; Ida May married Milton Swift, Lenexa; Effie, wife of E. A. Legler, and Maud, postmistress of Lenexa. George W. Brown was educated in the district schools and has been a student of men and affairs all his life. When he was twenty-one years old he worked a year on a farm and saved enough to buy a team, and then engaged in hauling hay and grain to Kansas City. He first purchased forty acres of land for $1,000, paying $100 down, and he later added to that and bought and sold land and accumulated considerable farm prop- erty besides a fine residence in Lenexa and other city property. He was engaged in sand contracting for a year and a half in Kansas City, and for a time lived on a farm near Ellsworth, Kan. He has been interested in raising thoroughbred Hereford cattle and has been very successful in that line of endeavor. He allotted a portion of his land known as Hill Crest addition to Lenexa. Mr. Brown was married January II, 1883, to Miss Jessie McElwain, a native of Knox county, Illinois, born October 7, 1862. She is a daughter of James and Eliza Jane (Bechtle) McElwain, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Ohio. James Mc- Elwain was born in 1827, and died in 1901. He was of Scotch-Irish and German descent. At an early day he left his Pennsylvania home and settled in Ohio, where he married Eliza Jane Bechtle. They later re- moved to Illinois, and in 1866 came to Kansas and settled east of Olathe. They were the parents of six children, as follows: Cecelia; Mary A .; Alice B., deceased ; Jessie, Mrs. George W. Brown; Lillie H., Spokane, Wash., and James H., deceased. To George W. Brown and wife have been born : Rev. George Edward, born March 23, 1885, now a prominent minister in Brooklyn, N. Y. He is a graduate of the Olathe High School, Baker University, Boston Theological Seminary and took special courses of study at Columbia University, New York. Oliver William, born in
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August, 1887, was educated in the high school at Olathe and graduated from Baker University in 1910 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and taught in the Edgerton High School. He died in June, 1913, at Liver- pool, England, while on a vacation in Europe. James Lester, born August, 1890, is a graduate of the Olathe High School and Baker Uni- versity, class of 1915, and Laverne, born June 10, 1895, graduated from the Olathe High School in 1915, with the highest honors, winning a Baker University scholarship, is now a student in that institution. Mr. Brown is a Republican and a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
William C. England, manager of the Overland Guernsey Dairy Farm, perhaps has more new modern and up-to-date ideas about running a dairy farm than any other man in Johnson county or anywhere else. The sanitary condition, the modern conveniences and the detail system of this dairy farm baffle description. The only way to get anything like the proper conception of this modern dairy plant is to go there and take a half day to look it over, and then you will come away without remem- bering more than half of what you have seen. Not but what it is worth remembering, and all that, but there is so much of it that you can not remember it all at once. The closest attention is given to the health and cleanliness of each of the seventy-five Guernsey cows. An ice factory is operated in connection with the dairy for the use of the dairy ; a great refrigerator where the temperature is kept between thirty-three and thirty-five degrees, sterilizing room, where the bottles are thorough- ly sterilized and every detail necessary to the carrying out of the work are found there. Provision is made for giving the cows a hose bath and the udders are thoroughly washed before milking. The milkers and attendants on the place are provided with both tub and shower bath conveniences, and in order for one to get employment at this place in any position where they come in contact with the milk, such as bottling and so forth, they are required to be examined by a physician, in order to insure freedom from any disease which might contaminate the milk. In fact, the whole arrangement of the Overland Guernsey dairy is com- plete in every detail. The several buildings are arranged at most con- venient points, silos, store-houses, tool-shed, in addition to all the other buildings, complete the grand scheme of the arrangement of this place. One of the most important adjuncts to the place is the large spring of flowing water from which the water is mechanically distribu- ted in galvanized tanks for watering the cattle. About eight men are usually employed to do the work on the place and their accounting sys- tem shows the most minute details of profit, loss and the slightest varia- tions. W. C. England, the capable manager of this place, is a native of Monee, Ill., and was born in 1873. He is the son of William and Alice (Holmes) England, the former a native of England and the latter of Mobile, Ala. They were married near Joliet, Ill., in 1862. W. C. Eng- land received his education in the public schools of Johnson county and
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Kansas City, Mo. He entered the employ of C. F. Holmes at the age of eight years and was engaged in pulling mule cars up the hill at Westport, Mo., and when the street cars changed to cable power he was afterwards promoted to division superintendent and remained in that capacity until 1909, when he became manager of the dairy at Forty- third Street and Jackson, which was afterward removed to Overland Park and which Mr. England has since managed as above mentioned. Mr. England has been in the employ of Mr. Holmes, in various capa- cities for thirty-five years. William C. England was united in marriage July 15, 1894, to Miss Nettie E. Benjamin, of Kansas City, Mo., and they are the parents of five children, as follows : Alice, born 1895 ; Lenora, born 1898; Marguerite, born 1903; Helen, born 1907; Conway E., born in 19II.
Henry Azendorf, a well known and successful contractor and builder of Overland Park, is a leading factor in that progressive and rapidly developing town. Mr. Azendorf is a native of Johnson county. He was born at Lenexa in 1881, and is a son of John and Margaret (Kneefe) Azendorf. The father was a soldier in the Franco-Prussian war in 1870 and 1871 and he and Margaret Kneefe were married in the Fatherland in 1878, and the following year immigrated to America and came to Kansas, locating near Lenexa where he was a successful farmer until the time of his death in 1883, and the mother now resides at Overland Park. John and Margaret (Kneefe) Azendorf were the parents of five children, as follows: Henry, the subject of this sketch; John, born in 1884, married Anna Sute, and resides at Lenexa; Herman, born in 1893 is unmarried and resides with his brother on the farm near Lenexa ; William, born in 1889, is unmarried and resides at Overland Park. He is an architect of unusual ability and among his other works he drew the plans of the St. John Memorial building and the main office building of the Hodges Brothers at Olathe, and Theodore, born in 1896, in the employ of a wholesale produce house in Kansas City, Mo. Henry Azendorf was reared on the Johnson county farm of his father and attended the public schools. At the age of eighteen he was employed by a street railway company and in a few months became foreman in the box department. He then took up carpenter work and in a short time was contracting and building on his own account. He came to Overland Park about six years ago, about the time the town was started. There was not more than a half dozen houses there then. He has since been engaged in contracting and building there and the rapid growth of this new town has been an ideal field for his business. He built the E. E. Voight building, H. Breyfogle's hardware store building, the Galloway building, Kammerzell building, two residences for W. B. Strang at Mission Ridge; a residence for John Thorne at Olathe and residences for Herman Klusman, John Walters and Dave Legler at Lenexa, besides numerous other buildings. Mr. Azendorf, althoughi a young man, can
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truly be said to be one of the builders of Overland Park. He is unmar- ried and resides with his mother at Overland Park.
F. J. Hatfield, M. D., Olathe, Kan., is a leading member of the John- son county medical profession. Dr. Hatfield was born near Dayton, Ohio, October 19, 1861, and is a son of John and Clarissa (Miller) Hat- field, both natives of Ohio and descendants of pioneer American stock. The paternal grandfather Hatfield was a native of Virginia and settled in the Northwest Territory, a part of which composes the State of Ohio, about 1800. He and two other brothers were making a trip down the Ohio river when they were attacked by hostile Indians and became sepa- rated. The other two brothers were never heard from. John Hatfield, the father of our subject, was engaged in the packing and cattle business at Cincinnati before the Civil war. When that conflict came on, his busi- ness was practically ruined and he met with heavy financial losses, and in 1862 removed to Indiana and located twelve miles south of Fort Wayne, where he remained until 1878, his wife dying there in February, 1863, aged thirty-four years. Later he came to Kansas and died at Grenola, April 3, 1893. The Hatfield family consisted of seven children, as follows: Martha J. married William McBride, and is now a widow, residing in Oklahoma; Horace, a capitalist, residing at Portland, Ore .; Phoebe, now deceased, was the wife of James Heffling; Elizabeth mar- ried L. Robinson, Holdenville, Okla .; Mary B., married George Earl, Fort Wayne, Ind .; John M., retired, Pratt, Kan .; and Dr. F. P., the sub- ject of this sketch. Dr. Hatfield attended the public schools of Indiana until sixteen years of age, when he removed to Illinois and attended a private school at Rushville, Ill. He then taught school in Schuyler county, that State, for two years and in the meantime also attended school. In 1880 he came to Kansas and was engaged in teaching in Brown county for two years when he went to Elk county, where he also was engaged in teaching for two years. He then took up the study of medicine under the preceptorship of Dr. J. B. Lewis, of Howard, Kan., and after pursuing his studies there one year, he entered the Eclec- tic Medical Institute, Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was graduated in the close of 1886, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. During his vaca- tion of 1885 he was engaged in practice at Jackson, Tenn., when yellow fever was epidemic at that place. In 1886 he went to Grenola, Elk county, and was engaged in the practice there until 1908. He also studied pharmacy and passed the State board examination in 1901 and also con- ducted a drug store in connection with his practice. Dr. Hatfield has had an active business career outside of his field of professional work. He has been largely interested in the development of the oil and gas field of Elk county, having bought out a developing company there and after having done considerable work in that line sold his interests to the Standard Oil Company at a good substantial profit. However, he still owns several hundred acres of undeveloped territory in that section of
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the State. In 1908 he came to Olathe where he has since been engaged in the practice of his profession and has, perhaps, the best practice in the county. He has a fine home on a forty-acre tract adjoining the city of Olathe, on the west, and his offices are located on West Park Street, opposite the court house. He is interested in various commercial enterprises in Johnson county, being vice-president and director of the Patrons Bank and a director in the Olathe Electric Light and Power Company. Dr. Hatfield has been twice married, his first wife being Miss Mollie Elliott, daughter of R. M. Elliott, of Grenola, Kan., to whom he was married December 27, 1887; she died May 7, 1903. On June II, 1905, Dr. Hatfield was united in marriage to Miss Mae Haigler, of Elk county, Kansas. They have two children, Marie Patricia, born March 17, 1907, and Franklin P., Jr., born May 26, 1912. Politically Dr. Hatfield is a Democrat and takes a keen interest in the affairs of the party. He has been a member of the Kansas State board of medical examination and registration since 1901, with the exception of Govern- or Stubb's administration. During the course of his residence in Elk county he served three terms as coroner of that county and was a member of the board of United States pension examiners during Presi- dent Cleveland's second administration. He is a member of the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows and a member of the grand lodge. He was trustee of his local lodge for twenty-five years. He is a thirty- second degree Mason and belongs to the Wichita consistory. Dr. Hatfield has taken considerable post-graduate work. In 1897 he took a course at the New York Post-Graduate Medical School, specializing in operative surgery, and for a number of years specialized in surgery but recently is devoting himself more along the lines of general practice, and specializing in ear, eye, nose and throat diseases in which he has met with unusual success.
Harry H. Case, owner and manager of the Olathe Monument Com- pany, is a native of Johnson county. He was born two and one-half miles east of Olathe, October 21, 1869, and is a son of Fred W. and Elma R. (Gregg) Case, the former a native of Oneida county, New York, and the latter of Zanesville, Ohio. Fred W. Case was two years old when his parents removed from Oneida county, New York, to Michi- gan, locating at Ypsilanti where he was reared and educated. During the discovery of gold in California in 1849, he left his Michigan home and proceeded to the Pacific coast by way of New York City and the Panama route. He followed gold mining in California about seven years, and was reasonably successful in this venture. After remaining in the Golden State for seven years he returned to Michigan in 1856 and two years later came to Kansas and located in Johnson county. He bought a quarter section of Government land, and hired a man to preempt another quarter section for him. He devoted himself to general farming and stock raising, in which he was uniformly successful and bought more
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land from time to time until he acquired 520 acres. Shortly after coming to Johnson county, he decided to engage in the mercantile business and built the stone store building which now occupies the southeast corner of West Park Street and Kansas Avenue. This building is one of the old landmarks of Olathe, and one of the most interesting buildings of the city from a historic standpoint. When Mr. Case had completed the building and had it provided with shelves and store fixtures, and was about ready to put in his supply of goods, a troop of United States cavalry happened along and decided that the new store building was admirably adapted for soldiers' quarters, and accordingly they took pos- session in true military style. The shelving and counters were removed but were not wasted nor destroyed, but made into feed boxes for the cavalry horses. The soldiers occupied the building for about three months and in the meantime Mr. Case decided that he would not embark in the mercantile business, but about that time had an opportunity to sell the building to the county and it was converted into a court house, and used for that purpose until 1891 when the new court house was built and since that time the building has been used for commercial purposes. Fred W. Case was successful in his undertaking and a man who took a keen interest in the welfare of his community. He was public spirited. He was a charter member of the Grange and one of the original stock- holders in the Grange store. He died August 16, 1898, being killed by lightning at his home, east of Olathe. His wife came to Johnson county with her parents who were among the early settlers of this county. They came in the fifties. She died in 1899, aged sixty-five years. They were the parents of four children, as follows: Hattie married John Streeper, agent for the Rock Island Railroad Company at Rock Island, Ill .; Harry H., subject of this sketch; Sheldon E. resides on the home place and Lena married William Lemon, Topeka, Kan. Harry H. Case was reared on the home place and educated in the public schools, Paola Academy and Spaulding's Business College, Kansas City, Mo. He remained at home until 1885 when he engaged in the furniture business at Burlington, Kan. Two years later he went to Oklahoma and engaged in general mercantile business and was there when the Sac and Fox Indian reservation was opened up to settlement. After remaining there two years he went to the opening of the Cherokee strip and drew some town lots. He then returned to Olathe and was with Mr. Ryan in the undertaking business for six years, and in 1904 became a partner with J. H. Fraser in the Olathe Monument Company. This business is the only establishment of the kind in Johnson county and was founded in 1882 by Mr. Hedrick, who later became sheriff of the county. Mr. Fraser bought him out and conducted the business alone until Mr. Case became a partner in 1904, and in 1915 Mr. Case bought his partner's interest and is now the sole owner. He does an extensive business in Johnson and adjoining counties and has done some of the finest monu- ment work in that section. They erected the Santa Fe Trail marker
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which stands in the southeast corner of the public square at Olathe, which Mr. Case designed. An illustration of the Santa Fe marker will be found elsewhere in this volume. Mr. Case was united in marriage August 14, 1893, to Miss Mable Swank, a daughter of J. T. Swank, a sketch of whom appears in this volume. Mr. Case is a member of the Masonic lodge and the Fraternal Order of Eagles.
Miss Mary Elizabeth De Tar, the well-known proprietor of the pop- ular Hotel De Tar, Edgerton, Kan., is a native of Johnson county. Miss De Tar was born in Edgerton and is a daughter of B. F. and Sarah De Tar, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Massachu- setts. The De Tar family is of French extraction and B. F. De Tar, the father of our subject, came to Kansas in 1857, where he was suc- cessfully engaged in farming for a number of years. He is now living retired, at Wellsville, Franklin county, Kansas. Miss De Tar, whose name introduces this sketch, is one of a family of eight children, as follows: Curtis married Miss Ella Garrison and resides at Wellsville; James, resides at Edgerton ; Mary Elizabeth, the subject of this sketch ; Mark, resides near Wellsville; married Kate Sloan; Frank, married Esther McCarthy, lives near Edgerton; Belle married Henry Eckerson and has five children ; Cora married Joe Sloan and resides at Wellsville, and Bertha, married Milt Sloan and resides at Wellsville. Miss De Tar received her education in the Edgerton public schools and since that time has traveled a great deal, and has had a great deal of experience in the hotel business, more particularly along the Pacific coast. In 1915 she built the De Tar hotel at Edgerton which was opened to the public in May. This is one of the best equipped hotels to be found any- where in a town the size of Edgerton. It is a commodious building, conveniently arranged for hotel purposes and Miss De Tar has already built up a large patronage among the traveling public. Her vast expe- rience in the hotel business enables her to know the most minute wishes of the public in the way of hotel accommodations and she aims to please, and by that method, is making the new De Tar Hotel at Edger- ton one of the popular hotels of the State.
Clarence E. Todd, manager of the Edgerton creamery, is one of the progressive and successful business man of Johnson county. Mr. Todd is a native of the Sunflower State. He was born at Gardner, February 26, 1879, and is a son of John B. and Sarah (Cramer) Todd, natives of New York and Ohio, respectively. John B. Todd came to Johnson county, Kansas, in the early seventies and engaged in the mercantile business at Gardner. He is now the proprietor of the Gardner cream- ery, engaged in the manufacture of ice cream and ice. John B. and Sarah (Cramer) Todd, are the parents of five children, as follows: Helen resides at Gardner ; Clarence E., the subject of this sketch ; Anna, married Harry Pierce and resides in California; Andrew C. was killed in a mine accident, in Colorado, when twenty-four years old and Charles caster.
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Nelson resides in Gardner, with his parents. Clarence E. Todd was educated in the public schools of Gardner and the Central Business Col- lege, Leavenworth, Kan., and when nineteen years of age went west and engaged in mining in Colorado, and for fifteen years remained in that business. He was associated with the Smuggler Union Mining Com- pany at Telluride, Colo., for a number of years. Mr. Todd engaged in the creamery business at Edgerton, in 1913, and has built up an exten- sive business in dairy products and ice. His business extends to and includes the towns of Paola, Wellsville, Spring Hill, Hillsdale, Gardner, Baldwin, Eudora, Prairie Center, Clearfield and De Soto. In addition to his vast creamery business, Mr. Todd has other important interests. and owns 320 acres of land in Colorado. Mr. Todd was united in mar- riage in Denver, Colo., in 1913 to Miss Eva Waggoner, and they have one child, John Sherman. Mr. Todd takes a commendable interest in public affairs and is a member of the city council of Edgerton, and is an enthusiastic booster for the business interests and betterment of his town and county. His fraternal affiliations are with the time-honored Masonic lodge and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Both he and his wife are members of the Eastern Star and attend the Presby- terian church.
D. R. Hale, manager of the Edgerton Lumber Company, Edgerton, Kan., is a native of the Sunflower State, born in McCamish township, Johnson county, Kansas, October 4, 1874. He is a son of Joseph O. and Margaret (Kramer) Hale, the former a native of Ohio and the latter of Missouri. Joseph O. Hale was a son of Joseph and Alvina (Gibson) Hale. He was born at Macksburg, Washington county, Ohio, June 19, 1843, and removed to Iowa with his parents in 1860. They settled on government land near Chariton, Lucas county. In 1864 they removed to Gentry county, Missouri, where they remained a little over a year, and in 1866 came to Kansas and settled in McCamish township, Johnson county. Joseph O. Hale was one of a family of six children, as follows : Benjamin died in Johnson county ; Jerry was a soldier in the Civil war; Joseph O .; John died in Johnson county in 1911; Jane married George W. Pitman, and died in Johnson county in 1887; and Willard L., who resides at Edgerton. All the deceased members of the family are buried at Prairie.Center, Johnson county. Joseph O. Hale followed farming in McCamish township until his death, which occurred on March 18, 1890; his wife, Margaret Kramer, was born at Albany, Mo., February 3, 1854, of German perentage. She now resides at Edgerton. To Joseph O. and Margaret (Kramer) Hale were born three children: Rena Hale Jewett, who resides at Edgerton; D. R., the subject of this sketch, and Dell F., who resides at Anthony, Kan. D. R. Hale spent his boyhood days on the home farm in McCamish township and attended the district schools and the Edgerton High School. He worked hard to obtain his education, and while in school worked for his board among strangers. At the age of eighteen, in 1893, he entered the employ of the Edgerton Lumber Com-
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