USA > Kansas > Reno County > History of Reno County, Kansas; its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 20
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Russell Porter Whiteside was born near Shelbyville, Tennessee, mem- ber of a pioneer family of that section, and was reared on the paternal farm. His elder brother, Thomas C. Whiteside, was a prominent attorney in Shel- byville, and upon completing his schooling he entered his brother's office and began the study of law, presently being admitted to the bar and becoming a partner of William H. Wisener in the practice of the law, with offices at Shelbyville and Lewisburg. quickly taking his place among the leaders of the bar thereabout, entering upon a most promising career, which was cut short by death at the early age of twenty-eight. Russell P. Whiteside married Mary Ann Houston, who was born near Concord, in Cabarrus county. North Carolina, daughter of Dr. William and Sarah ( Phifer) Houston. who emigrated to Tennessee with her parents when seven years of age, her
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father having located there at that time on a large tract of land which had been granted to his father by the government in consideration of his dis- tinguished services in behalf of the armies of the patriots during the Revolu- tionary War, her father having been the colonel of the Third North Caro- lina Regiment, the same in which Doctor Houston's father had served in the capacity of captain. Dr. William Houston became one of the leading planta- tion owners in the Shelbyville neighborhood, a large slave-holder and an extensive breeder of cattle. Russell P. Whiteside was a Whig and a mem- ber of the Presbyterian church, the sterling character of the man being attested by the fact that he had been an elder in the Presbyterian church for some time previous to his death, at the early age of twenty-eight. To him and his wife two children were born, the subject of this biographical sketch having had a sister, Annie, who married William E. Hutchinson, partner of his brother, C. C. Hutchinson, founder of the city of Hutchinson, this county. Upon the death of Russell P. Whiteside his widow married, secondly, George T. Hutton, a farmer of Bedford county, Tennessee, who died about 1890, and to this second union three children were born, Emmette, Samuel and Leota, the latter of whom married Doctor Conn, and all of whom reside in Hutchinson.
Houston Whiteside was reared at Shelbyville, Tennessee, his elementary education being received in a private school there, the same being supple- mented by a course in Shelbyville College, which was interrupted by the military activities in that section during the Civil War, during which time the schools were closed. After the war, Mr. Whiteside began teaching school near Shelbyville and was thus engaged for three years, at the end of which time he went to Mississippi, where for a year he operated a cotton plantation, after which he entered the law office of his uncle, Thomas C. Whiteside, at Shelbyville, where for two years he gave his most studious and intelligent attention to the theory and practice of the law, laying there the foundation for the notable success he later was destined to achieve in the practice of that exacting profession. In the spring of 1872 Mr. Whiteside came to Kansas and on May 16, of that year, arrived at Hutchinson, which had been platted the year before and which at the time of his arrival con- sisted of but a few shanties. Recognizing immediately the need of a proper. medium of expression for the promotion of the interests of the promising town site. Mr. Whiteside, in connection with Perry Brothers, of Miami county, this state, founded the Hutchinson Nozes, he taking editorial direc- tion of the same. The next year. 1873. he bought the interests of his part- ners and operated the paper alone until 1875. in which year he sold the same,
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the growing interests of his already extensive law practice demanding his undivided attention. In November, of the year of his arrival in Hutchinson, Mr. Whiteside was elected county attorney for Reno county and was re- elected in 1874. From the time he retired from editorial direction of the Hutchinson News until the time of his practical retirement from practice, in 1907, Mr. Whiteside occupied a very high place at the bar of Reno county and from the first was recognized by both the bench and bar of this section as a vigorous and useful force in affairs. From the date of its organization, more than thirty years ago, he has been the president of the Reno County Bar Association and in every way has labored to maintain the high dignity of the bar in this county. Though most of the time Mr. Whiteside has conducted his practice alone, he from time to time has been associated in partnership with W. H. Gleason, A. C. Malloy, W. E. Hutchinson and James McKinsty.
Mr. Whiteside is a Republican and from the time of his arrival in this county has given close attention to the political affairs of the community and of the state at large, though never having been a candidate for office. his large law practice having required all his time. For several terms, how- ever, he served as city attorney, under appointment of the city council, in which public capacity he performed excellent service, and for twenty-five years was district attorney for the Santa Fe system. Frequently, Mr. White- side has been a delegate to state and congressional conventions of his party and has been regarded as a useful factor in Kansas politics. He also has given his close attention to business affairs and helped to organize the Hutch- inson Commercial Club in 1892. He was president of the first flour-mill company in Hutchinson and for years was president of the Water. Light and . Power Company and at different times has been actively connected with various real-estate and banking companies, though not now thus actively connected. He still owns the quarter of a section of land which he pre- empted near Hutchinson, on the west, and is the owner of other valuable farm lands.
On February 22, 1889, Houston Whiteside was united in marriage to Julia Clementine Latimer, who was born at Jackson, Tennessee, daughter of Charles Latimer and wife. Charles Latimer was a Virginian, who was grad- uated from the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis and for many years was an officer in the United States navy. During the Civil War he was federal superintendent of railroads, located at Jackson, Tennessee, and after the war took service in the engineering department of the Lake Shore railroad, which company he served for some years as chief engineer. with
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headquarters at Cleveland, Ohio, later going to the Erie Railroad Company, in the same capacity, and died in Cleveland in 1887.
To Houston and Julia C. (Latimer) Whiteside two children have been born, a son and a daughter. Houston, Jr., born in 1891, graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1912 and served as an officer in the Twenty-third Regiment. United States Infantry, until his resig- nation in 1914. since which time he has been giving his attention to his father's extensive business interests in and about Hutchinson; and Ada, 1893, who supplemented her schooling in the public schools of Hutchinson by a course in a finishing school for young women at Greenwich, Connecticut, and married Wirt Morton, superintendent of the Morton Salt Company, of Hutchinson. The Whitesides live in a handsome and hospitable home at 504 Sherman street, east, in the city of Hutchinson. Mr. and Mrs. White- side are members of the Episcopal church, of which Mr. Whiteside was a vestryman for many years and senior warden for twenty years. He has been chancellor of the diocese since its organization and takes a warm interest in church affairs. He is a member of the Masons, the Knights of Pythias and the Anti-Horse Thief Association. Mrs. Whiteside is highly accomplished in music and has done much to promote music in Kansas. She is well known as the finest vocalist in the state and one of the best amateur singers in the whole country.
JOEL M. ANDERSON.
Joel M. Anderson, son of William D. and Sarah I. (Louder) Anderson, was born in Guilford county, North Carolina, April 16, 1841. His parents were natives of North Carolina and were of Scotch ancestry. His father was a pioneer minister of the Wesleyan Methodist church. Reared in a state where slavery existed he disapproved strongly of the system and, with a view of getting himself and family from its blighting influences, he removed to Henry county, Indiana, in 1851. He remained there until about 1858, when he removed to Decatur county, Iowa, where he continued to make his home during the remainder of his life. He died in February, 1890, and his wife survived him less than a week.
Joel M. Anderson, the subject of this sketch, died at his home in Hutch- inson, Kansas, December 18, 1911. He had the following brothers and sisters : Rhoda, deceased, married W. H. Sanford, of Leon, Iowa; Mary A. married J. P. Dunn, of Abbeyville, Kansas; William S., a farmer, of
JOEL M. ANDERSON.
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Ringgold, Iowa ; Irene married Peter Deck, of Abbeyville, Kansas; Solomon, a member of the Third Iowa Cavalry in the Civil War, died in the service in Louisville, Kentucky; John C., a farmer, at Kennard, Indiana; Isaac B., a farmer, at Cadiz, Indiana.
Joel M. Anderson was educated in the district schools of Henry county, Indiana, and Decatur county, Iowa. He remained at home working on the farm until he reached his majority. He then rented a farm in Decatur county, Iowa, and afterward bought a small farm in that county which he cultivated until the fall of 1873, when he removed to Reno county, Kansas, where he located a homestead claim on the northwest quarter of section 34, township 23, range 8, and during the fall and winter of 1873 broke sod preparatory to spring planting. In the spring he rented some other land that had been broken the preceding year and planted forty acres in corn, but he lost his entire crop by the grasshopper scourge that devasted that section that year. Having nothing left, like many other settlers, he had to leave his claim and seek some other location to obtain a living for himself and family. He returned to his former home in Iowa where he spent the winter working with his team at one dollar per day. In the spring of 1875 he returned to Kansas to make another effort to raise a crop. He planted only a small acreage of wheat because he did not have enough money to purchase seed for a larger acreage. The grasshopper plague had abated and he was able to realize a fair return for his labor that year. His first house was a one-story, fourteen by sixteen, in which he lived for several years, until he was able to enlarge and improve it. He was engaged in general farming and stock raising until September, 1888, when he removed to Hutchinson to assume the duties of the office of county treasurer, to which he had been elected.
Mr. Anderson was elected to the office of county commissioner in 1885, for a term of one year, from the third district. This was to fill a vacancy in that office. On the expiration of that term he was re-elected for the full term of three years, but he resigned the office of commissioner to accept the office of county treasurer, to which he was elected in the fall of 1887. He served for two terms, of two years each, in the latter office, being re-elected in the fall of 1889. He was elected police judge of Hutchinson, in 1895. and served in that capacity for two years. He was also township trustee for three years, and one of the organizers of school district No. 58, and served as treasurer of the school board for nine years. In the discharge of these various official duties he was always prompt, efficient and reliable, and
(14a)
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commanded the approbation and the esteem of the community which he faithfully served. His official record is without criticism or reproach. His public honors always came to him unsought, his fellow citizens calling him to office because they recognized his trustworthiness and ability.
After retiring from office Mr. Anderson engaged in the real-estate and insurance business, and also engaged as administrator of estates and guardian of minor heirs. In this capacity his superior business judgment, his unques- tioned integrity in handling public and private interests, gave assurance that business entrusted to him would be carefully handled and honestly accounted for. His entire life was in harmony with his profession-honorable, straight and upright-and was crowned with the high degree of success which is ever accorded sterling worth.
On August 8, 1863, Mr. Anderson enlisted in Company C, Ninth Iowa Cavalry, under the command of Colonel Drummond, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with whom he served for two years. This regiment served in Missouri and Arkansas, guarding wagon trains and doing much scouting and escort duty. On account of disability from hard service and exposure, Mr. Anderson was discharged at the end of two years.
Joel M. Anderson was married, July 31, 1862, in Iowa, to Sarah A. Chambers, a daughter of Daniel E. and Elizabeth ( (Brinneman) Chambers. Mrs. Anderson was born in Pennsylvania, September 8, 1844. Her father was born in Pennsylvania, June 21, 1816. He was a farmer, owning one hundred and sixty acres of cultivated land and forty acres of timber land, near Leon, Iowa, where he settled in 1848. In 1850 Mr. Chambers was attracted by prospects in gold mining in California and went on the long journey across the plains to seek his fortune in that state. After two years of indifferent success he returned to his Iowa home and resumed his farm- ing operations. In 1893 he came with his wife to Hutchinson to live with his daughter, Mrs. Joel M. Anderson. He died here, September 8, 1905. He had been blind for about twenty years. Mr. Chambers had been a suc- cessful farmer and took great pride in his farm, and in the raising and care of fine horses. His wife was born in Pennsylvania, February 25, 1816, and died in Hutchinson, June 4. 1894. Both were prominent members of the Methodist church.
The brothers and sisters of Mrs. Joel M. Anderson are: Austin, born in Pennsylvania, March 29, 1841, was a soldier in the Civil War, serving six months, died in Lyoden, Washington territory, January 17, 1889; Mary Ellen, born in Pennsylvania, December 2. 1847, married George T. Chandler, a farmer, living at Armour, South Dakota: Emma Jane, born near Leon,
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lowa, May 29, 1858, died June 16, 1869; Amos, born near Leon, lowa, October 16, 1854, is a farmer and stock raiser at Leon, Iowa.
The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Anderson are: William A., a farmer of Reno county; Ida L. married M. Wilmot ; Cora married John S. Dauber, of Whitewater, Kansas; Bertha married Walter Meade, of Hutchin- son, Kansas.
Mr. Anderson was an active and prominent member of the Methodist Episcopal church, having served as a member of the official board, and in the work of the Sunday school, in which he was a teacher in the country. He was a member of Joe Hooker Post, Grand Army of the Republic. He was also a supporter of the Hutchinson Young Men's Christian Association. Politically, he was identified with the Republican party, having served on the county central committee, and was frequently a delegate to the conventions of his party. Mrs. Anderson is a member of the Woman's Christian Tem- perance Union, and the Woman's Relief Corps, auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Republic. The family residence is one of the handsome homes of Hutchinson, located at 517 Third avenue, east.
PETER A. NELSON.
Peter A. Nelson, well-known hardware merchant at Hutchinson, this county, is a native of Sweden, having been born near the village of Elmholt, in the district of Smaalene, in that kingdom, on January 4, 1864, son of John and Nellie Nelson, both natives of the same district, farmers there. who, in 1869, emigrated with their two small sons, John W., now president of the Nelson Manufacturing Company, of Hutchinson, this county, and Peter A., the subject of this sketch, to America, locating for a short time at Rockford, Illinois, where John Nelson worked at such labor as his hands could find to do.
In 1872, the year after the organization of Reno county, the Nelsons came to Kansas, settling in this county, where John Nelson pre-empted eighty acres of land in Lincoln township, on the present site of the village of Dar- low. He presently sold that homestead and bought a quarter of a section in the same township, two miles west of his original place, where he made his home for some time. He then bought a farm in Castleton township, during the eighties, later buying a quarter of a section in Reno township, south of the town of South Hutchinson, on which he lived until the time of his retire-
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ment from the active labors of the farm, after which he moved into Hutch- inson, where he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives, his death occurring in 1909. His widow survived him three years, her death occur- ring in 1912. During their residence in Sweden, the Nelsons were mem- bers of the Lutheran church, but upon coming to this county, in the absence of a Lutheran congregation with which to worship, Mrs. Nelson joined the Methodist church.
Peter A. Nelson was five years of age when he came to America with his parents and was eight years of age when they came to this county in 1872. He, consequently, has been a witness of the wonderful development of this region since those pioneer days and his recollection of the hardships and privations which the original settlers of this county had to endure in the days of grasshoppers and droughts is very vivid. He grew up on the farm, manfully assisting his father in the development of the same and when his father moved from Castleton to Reno township he gave Peter A. the former quarter-section farm as a reward for his faithfulness and industry. Mr. Nelson lived on this farm for one year, at the end of which time, in 1886, he went to Finney county, where, in the Garden City neighborhood, he homesteaded and then commuted a tract of land, which he still owns and the next year returned to his Castleton township place. In 1889 he joined his brother, John W., in South Hutchinson, where they engaged in the retail hardware business, the next year moving their store to Hutchinson, locating the same in the Rock Island block, where they conducted their business quite successfully for a time, and finally locating at North Main street, which three-story building they purchased, and where they greatly enlarged the capacity of their business and at the same time engaged in the manufacture of galvanized tanks, building up an extensive business in the same. In 1909 this partnership was dissolved, Peter .A. Nelson retaining the store and his brother, John W., taking the manufacturing end of the business, which he is still operating. Mr. Nelson's hardware store is one of the best equipped stores in Hutchinson, fittings and fixtures being up-to-date and stock com- plete.
In 1899 Peter A. Nelson was united in marriage to Hilma Anderson, who was born in Sweden, daughter of Carl and Mary Anderson, both now deceased, and who came with them to America when she was a small girl, the family settling in Wisconsin, later coming to Kansas, and to this union one child has been born, Celestine, born in 1901. Mr. and Mrs. Nelson have a very pleasant home at 428 Avenue A, east.
Mr. Nelson is a Republican in national affairs, but in local elections is
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more inclined to give his preference to the men he thinks best fitted for the office, regardless of party distinctions. He is a thirty-second-degree Mason, a member of the blue lodge at Hutchinson and of the consistory at Wichita. He also is a member of the Order of the Eastern Star and of the Indepen- dent Order of Odd Fellows and in all of these organizations takes a warm interest.
FRANK M. McDERMED.
As an example of what energy, pluck, perseverance and thrift, coupled with an inherent shrewdness of thought and habit, may accomplish in the life of one man, the following interesting bit of biography, the life history of one of the most successful business men in Kansas, well deserves a prom- inent place in these pages. In Reno county, few men are better known than Frank M. MeDermed, merchant and capitalist, of Hutchinson, and it is to a brief review of his successful career since arriving in Hutchinson in 1887, a poor boy, but eighteen years of age, that these lines are addressed.
Frank M. McDermed was born in Roanoke City, Virginia, October 4. 1869, son of Oliver and Mary ( Barnes) McDermed, the former of whom, born in that same city in 1830, son of William McDermed, a prosperous merchant, died in Arkansas, November 11, 1886, and the latter, born in Roanoke county, Virginia, in 1835, died in Hutchinson, this county, January 27, 1914.
Oliver MicDermed was reared to the mercantile business and upon reaching manhood became proprietor of a store at Roanoke City. Some years before the Civil War period he moved to Richmond, Virginia, and there engaged in business, becoming the proprietor of a large store. When the war between the states broke out, he enlisted in the cause of the Confed- erate states and served valiantly during that fratricidal struggle in the army of his great general, Robert E. Lee. At the close of the war, he found himself bankrupt, his business in Richmond having been destroyed during the time of the Federal occupation of that city, and after struggling along ineffectually for a few years in Roanoke City, decided to try his fortunes anew in the West. In 1872 he removed, with his family to Lonoke, Arkan- sas, where he and his son-in-law. "Bud" Holloway, engaged in cotton plant- ing with some measure of success, though, after the death of Oliver Mlc- Dermed. in 1886, there was not much left when his estate was settled. Oli- ver McDermed and his wife were the parents of eight children. as follow :
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William E., formerly a merchant at Los Angeles, California, now a com- mercial traveler there; Laura, who died, unmarried, in 1876; John A., a well-known farmer of this county ; Robert F., engaged in the real-estate busi- ness in Hutchinson, a biographical sketch of whom is presented elsewhere in this volume: Luton, a well-known grocer in Hutchinson; Annie, now de- ceased, who .married "Bud" Holloway; Frank M., the immediate subject of this sketch, and James F., merchant, manufacturer, speculator and promoter, of Hutchinson, this county.
Frank M. McDermed was three years of age when his family moved from Virginia to the Arkansas plantation and was seventeen years of age when his father died. During the life on the plantation conditions necessi- tated the labor of all hands and he had little time for schooling, he having had the advantage of attendance at but three terms of district school during the time he lived there. When he was eighteen years of age he and his widowed mother and such of the younger children as had not yet left home came to this county and settled in Hutchinson, where he received the further advantage of attendance at three terms of the common school, his vacations being spent at work in a plumbing shop. In 1890, he being then twenty- one years of age, Frank M. McDermed decided to go into business on his own account and opened a grocery store at 213 South Main street, which he operated quite successfully, continuing to occupy that same location until 1905. in which year he sold it and a poultry yard he had established in 1898 to his brothers, Luton and James E., after which he started a new grocery and hardware store at 519-27 South Main street, where he is still in busi- ness, in connection with this establishment also conducting a large retail coal yard.
It is not too much to say that Frank M. McDermed has become quite a capitalist. When he arrived in Hutchinson, in 1887, he was a poor boy, with but little education, but possessed of a natural aptitude for business and has made money at every turn. Mr. McDermed is interested in many enterprises in and about Hutchinson, in addition to his extensive commercial establishment. He was one of the promoters of the Rorabaugh-Wiley build- ing, the only eight-story office building in the city of Hutchinson, and was one of the original owners and promoters of Riverside Park. He is largely interested in farms in Arkansas, Texas and Oregon and is a director of the Reno State Bank, a director of the Fontron Loan and Trust Company and a director of the Haven Milling Company. and from 1896 to 1903 was largely engaged in raising cattle in this county.
In civic affairs also Mr. McDernied has shown his intelligent interest
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and has found time from his extensive commercial and financial pursuits to give considerable attention to the public service. He is a Democrat and served as a member of the Hutchinson city council from 1903 to 1910, in which latter year the commission form of government for that city was inaugurated, he being one of the first city commissioners. An interesting item in connection with Mr. McDermed's large holdings in Hutchinson is the statement that he is the owner of the oldest building now standing in Hutchinson, a stone building located at 15 South Main street, which was erected in 1872 and was constructed from stone hauled all the way from Newton, which at that time was the terminus of the Santa Fe railroad, there being then no railroad in Hutchinson. Mr. McDermed is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and takes a warm interest in the affairs of that popular order.
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