USA > Kansas > Reno County > History of Reno County, Kansas; its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 3
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
EUGENE L. MEYER.
Eugene L. Meyer, pioneer banker of Hutchinson, this county, presi- dent of the First National Bank of that city and prominently connected with numerous important enterprises hereabout, though a native Parisian, is a vigorous, loyal and devoted American, having been a resident of this coun- try since he was four years old and during all of the active years of his life he has given of the best there is in him to the cause of progress in his adopted land. Mr. Meyer is the pioneer of all the bankers now residing in Reno county and has been connected with all the enterprises which the position of president of the oldest and largest bank in the county would naturally lead him into, being, therefore, a man of commanding influence in this community.
The First National Bank of Hutchinson for years has been known as "the oldest and largest bank in the Arkansas valley." It has grown as Kansas has grown, and when in the early years there were times of adver- sity the First National Bank of Hutchinson was the synonym for strength and character among the banking institutions of the state. It was founded in 1876. Its business increased as the city and community grew, and then it went beyond the local confines and embraced on its books a greater part of the banking business, either as banker or correspondent, for the local banks of central and southwest Kansas. Eugene L. Meyer has been "the man behind the gun" since the founding of the bank, and during all of this time his hand has been the guiding one and his conservative and yet aggres- sive banking methods have done much to establish the reputation of the
ot
RENO COUNTY, KANSAS.
First National Bank. Its capital stock of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars and its surplus of fifty thousand dollars give it ample means with which to transact its extensive business, and its thorough acquaintance with methods, conditions and securities insures its success along all lines of activ- ity. The First National Bank has made a special. feature of its savings department and through that agency has encouraged many a young person in habits of thrift which have brought success in after years. - Associated with Mr. Meyer in the conduct of the bank are: Directors, George E. Gano, N. B. Sawyer, Pet Nation: Fred C. French, cashier, and E. W. Meyer, assistant cashier. The directors are all strong men financially . and each gives his earnest attention to the affairs of the bank. - Mr. French and the younger Mr. Meyer both are trained bankers and are most efficient officers of the bank, which is always to be depended on by its depositors and is a source of just pride to every citizen of Hutchinson.
Eugene L. Meyer was born in Paris, the capital of France, on April 15, 1849. In 1853. he then being four years of age, his parents emigrated to the United States, landing at the port of New Orleans on November 6 of that year. Thence they proceeded up the Mississippi river, stopping at Rock Island, Illinois, where they remained until June, 1857, when they started by steamboat for Kansas, arriving at. Leavenworth on the Ioth of that month. Thence they moved to Atchison.
Eugene L. Meyer was eleven years old when his family located at Atchison. Upon completing his schooling, Mr. Meyer began the study of the drug business at Leavenworth, Kansas, where he remained until 1867. Later he went East and was engaged as a traveling salesman for three years with a wholesale chemical house of New York City. It was in March, 1872, that he located in Hutchinson. He erected a modern building on lot No. 9, North Main street, and was engaged in the drug business here for twelve years. When the Reno County State Bank was organized, in May, 1876, he was one of the original incorporators of this bank and became its vice-president. In May, 1884, the bank was changed from a state bank to a national bank, and Mr. Meyer became cashier of the First National Bank of Hutchinson. Later he was elected president of the bank, and has ever since served in that important executive capacity.
On April 7, 1874, Eugene L. Meyer was united. in marriage to Mary Emuma Moore, daughter of Rev. D. M. Moore, father of Presbyterianism in this section of Kansas, pastor of the Presbyterian church at Hutchinson and the first formally installed minister of the gospel in that city. In a biographical sketch relating to Rev. D. M. Moore, presented elsewhere in
41
RENO COUNTY, KANSAS.
this volume, there is set out in detail further particulars of the history of that devoted pioncer minister. : To Mr:"and Mrs. Meyer five children have been born, - Anna Marie, Edward W., Margaret E., Daniel E. and Louis F.
SAMUEL H. SIDLINGER, M. D.
During the height of the distress caused throughout this section of Kansas by the grasshopper visitation in ,1874 one of the most sympathetic contributors to the vast relief fund raised by, the good people of the United States was Dr. Samuel H. Sidlinger, an earnest young physician of Napo- leon, Ohio. A year later that young physician visited this county and was so deeply impressed by the promising conditions hereabout that he located at Hutchinson and has lived there ever since ... During all these intervening years Doctor Sidlinger has done well his part as a good citizen and kindly benefactor. As a pioneer practitioner he was called to homes far remote from his home, often being required, to drive as far west as Larned and down into the. "panhandle" of Texas, his practice covering a radius of one hundred and fifty miles, out of Hutchinson. As mayor of Hutchinson, Doctor Sidlinger rendered a distinctive civic. service, the period of his term of office in the executive's chair covering a very important period in the city's growth and development; and in,, all other ways he has performed equally well every duty required of him in either a professional or civic capacity.
During the early years of his extensive practice throughout this region Doctor Sidlinger's faithful companion on his long and lonely drives was his good old horse, "Prince," a rarely intelligently animal, known all over the country for miles about. The Doctor and his friends used to declare that "Prince" possessed more than human intelligence and on "Prince's" un- erring sense of direction the Doctor relied. implicitly while driving through blizzards or in the .. black hours of the night over the trackless and unfenced plains. Faithful old "Prince" lived to be twenty-two years old and died full of honors. "Prince" was an animal .of fine mettle and in his younger days had won honors on the race track and blue ribbons at the horse shows, but his enduring claim, to distinction was based upon the faithful service he for years rendered in behalf of suffering humanity hereabout in the service of his gentle master, the conscientious pioneer physician. In those days Doctor Sidlinger was kept constantly "on the go," as the narration of the
42
RENO COUNTY, KANSAS.
following incident will show: For weeks the Doctor had not been able to take a Sunday dinner at home. One Sunday morning, by rare chance, he was at home and the indications were fair that he should be permitted to have a day of relaxation. His wife promised to prepare for him a dinner that should include all the "fixin's" he liked best and happily set about getting up a meal that should reward him for the many he had missed. Just as he was about to sit down to the bounteously laden table the Doctor was called to the bedside of a patient across the river. Hitching up "Prince" he dashed off on his mission of mercy, assuring Mrs. Sidlinger that he would be back within the hour. Before he had concluded that first call a call came to him from another bedside and thus, one after another, until eight days had elapsed before the Doctor reached home again, he and "Prince" having been kept going night and day meanwhile.
Samuel H. Sidlinger was born at Massillon, in Stark county, Ohio, June 23, 1845, son of John and Orsilla (Weible) Sidlinger, the former of whom was born in the kingdom of Bavaria and the latter near the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. John Sidlinger had been well trained in his native country to the trade of carriage-maker, and at the age of eighteen came to the United States. He had little difficulty in finding remunerative employment in this country and presently found himself at Massillon, Ohio, where for nine years he was engaged as foreman in the machine shop of the Partridge & Russell Threshing Machine Company. He then went to Napoleon, Ohio, where he established a wagon- and carriage-making shop, in his later years, however, retiring to a farm at Liberty Center, six miles from Napoleon, where his last days were spent. John Sidlinger was a fine baritone singer and an expert musician and during the Civil War served as a member of the regimental band of the Fourteenth Regiment, Ohio Vol- unteer Infantry. He and his wife were the parents of six children, namely : Edward, now deceased, who for years was a well-known druggist at Hutch- inson, this county; Jolin, also deceased, who for years was a clerk in his brother's store at Hutchinson: Samuel H., the immediate subject of this biographical sketch: George, now deceased, who was foreman in a factory at Napoleon, Ohio: William, a wealthy retired farmer and large landowner of Napoleon, Ohio, and Ida, who married Amos S. Hess, of the Hutchinson News.
Samuel H. Sidlinger was nine years of age when his parents moved from Massillon to Napoleon and his schooling was thus divided between the schools of those two towns. At the age of ten he entered upon the study of music and became a proficient performer upon the clarinet. cornet and
43
RENO COUNTY, KANSAS.
the violin. When sixteen years old, after two unsuccessful attempts to enlist for service during the Civil War, being rejected on account of his youth, he succeeded in getting in as a musician and for eighteen months served as a member of the regimental band of the Fourteenth Ohio Infan- try. He then enlisted in the hospital corps of the One Hundred and Twenty- fifth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in which he served until the close of the war, being mustered out on June 30, 1865. Upon the conclusion of his military service this young soldier returned to his home at Napoleon and for nearly nine years was engaged there as a clerk in a drug store, mean- while giving his serious attention to the reading of medical literature. He then entered the medical department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and was graduated from that institution in the spring of 1874, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Thus admirably equipped for the prac- tice of his profession, Doctor Sidlinger returned home and opened an office at Napoleon and was engaged in practice there for six months. It was dur- ing this time that the great grasshopper scourge turned the attention of the whole country to the sufferings of the victims of that visitation in Kansas, and there was no more sympathetic contributor to the relief of those suffer- ers than Doctor Sidlinger. That fall Doctor Sidlinger decided to locate in the West. At Hutchinson he found what seemed to him the very spot he was seeking and in 1875 he settled in the struggling little village on the plain and established a permanent office, an exercise of judgment he never has regretted. Two years later, in 1877, the Doctor's brother, Edward Sidlinger, joined him at Hutchinson to take charge of the E. L. Meyer drug store and in 1882 engaged in the drug business in that city on his own account, establishing his store in a one-story brick building on the site of the present Sidlinger drug store. The Doctor from the first was a silent partner in the business and later erected the two-story building in which the store long has been located.
From the very beginning of his residence in Hutchinson, Doctor Sid- linger gave his most earnest attention to local political affairs. In those days he was what was called an "Abe Lincoln black Republican" and he never has departed from the faith. He was one of the most energetic pro- moters of civic pride in the new town and for four terms rendered valuable service as a member of the city council. He then was elected mayor and during his two terms of service in that capacity Hutchinson's streets were graded and the sidewalk's brought to a level, the mayor in other ways also striving to arouse a higher degree of civic consciousness in the minds of the settlers. Of course, it was as a physician that his great service was ren-
.
44
RENO COUNTY, KANSAS.
dered, and a record of that service is written on the hearts of all survivors of that fine generation of pioneers who made possible the present high stage of development of this favored-section of the state. In 1875, shortly after locating at Hutchinson, Doctor Sidlinger was appointed local physician for the Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company and has ever since been retained in that position. He also lias been physician for the Missouri Pacific Rail- road Company ever since that road reached Hutchinson. In 1913 he practi- cally retired from his private practice, but continues to maintain the liveliest interest in local affairs.
On June 30, 1868, Dr. Samuel H. Sidlinger was united in marriage to Lucinda Welty, who was born at New Philadelphia, Ohio, daughter of John and Sarah Welty, the former of whom was a farmer who later moved to Newton, Jasper county, Iowa, where he and his wife spent their last days. To this union one child was born, a daughter, Lila, who married Fred A. Innes and lives in Oklahoma. In 1875, the year he located in Hutchinson, Doctor Sidlinger built a comfortable brick house at the corner of First and Poplar streets, and there he and his wife still make their home, being very pleasantly situated. The Doctor is a Knight Templar, a past eminent com- mander of the commandery at Hutchinson ; a past worshipful master of the Masonic blue lodge and past high priest of the local chapter, Royal Arch Masons, and thrice illustrious master of his council. He also is a charter member of the Hutchinson lodge of the Ancient Order of United Work- men, and in the affairs of these several organizations takes a warm interest.
HON. GEORGE A. NEELEY.
The life of former Congressman George A. Neeley, president of the Farmers National Bank of Hutchinson, this county, and a prominent lawyer of that city, has been a busy one. Though still a comparatively young man, he has accomplished much and his friends confidently predict for him even greater accomplishments. His defeat for election to the United States Senate in 1914 was accomplished by so close a margin that there are not a few persons, even among those who were politically opposed to his candi- dacy, who insist that had certain allegations of election frauds been fully investigated it would have been found that he had heen triumphantly elected to a seat in the greatest deliberative body in the world.
George A. Neeley was born in the hamlet of Detroit, Pike county,
45
RENO COUNTY, KANSAS.
Illinois, on August 1, 1879, son of George M. and Mary Elizabeth ( Ste- phens) Neeley, the former of whom was born within one hundred yards of that spot on March 1, 1839, and the latter in lowa, August 15, 1851, both of whom are still living. George M. Neeley is the son of Henry and Mar- garet Neeley, the former a native of Tennessee and the latter of Illinois. Henry Neeley was an early. settler in Pike county, Illinois, and bought a large tract of land on which he later laid out the town of Detroit. He was one of the most influential men in that section of the state of Illinois and became quite well-to-do. He was an active member of the Methodist church and was prominent in all good works thereabout. Upon the death of his wife, in 1846, he married again and lived to a ripe old age. One of his brothers was a soldier during the Mexican War. Mary Elizabeth (Ste- phens) Neeley is the daughter of Elijah M. and Catherine Stephens, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter of Iowa. Elijah Stephens left Kentucky during the days of his early manhood and went to Missouri. where he becanie a pioneer physician. Upon the breaking out of the Civil War, he enlisted in the Union army and during the latter part of the war was made surgeon of his regiment. At the battle of Wilson's Creek he was seriously wounded, but recovered and lived many years of usefulness, his death occurring in 1904, he then having been eighty-three years of age. His widow, whom all the family lovingly call "Kittie." is still living at Carl Junction, Missouri.
George M. Neeley, father of the subject of this biographical review, was bereft of his mother by death when he was seven years of age and he was taken into the home of the Defontaine family and grew to manhood on an Illinois farm. He then went to Texas, where he spent eighteen years as a cotton planter and broker, at the end of which time he returned to Detroit, Illinois, where he engaged in merchandising until 1884, in which year he went to Joplin, Missouri, where he remained until 1893. after which he went to Oklahoma, where he homesteaded a considerable tract and is now living, very comfortably situated, at Wellston, Oklahoma. During the Civil War. George M. Neeley served as a soldier in the Confederate army, a member of Company D, Third Arizona Regiment, which was recruited in northwestern Texas. He served three years and nine months, among the notable engagements-in which he participated having been the battle of Red River, and he was wounded twice. At the close of the war, under the mis- taken apprehension that Confederate soldiers were to be shot by the Federal government, he departed for Mexico and remained over the border for two years before learning that it would be perfectly safe for him to return.
46
RENO COUNTY, KANSAS.
Upon returning to Texas, he took the oath of allegiance and presently was appointed county judge. Upon the expiration of that term of office he was appointed United States marshal for the eastern district of Texas. Upon his return to his boyhood home in Illinois, he entered actively into the politi- cal life of that community, as a Democrat, and served as a justice of the peace much of the time during his later residence there. George M. Neeley was twice married. By his first wife, who was a Mckeever, he had two children, Albert Marion, who died in Texas in 1883, at the age of twenty years, and Emma, who married John D. Howard, a merchant of Joplin, Missouri, where she is still living. To his union with Mary Elizabeth Stephens, four children were born, namely: Lillie, who is living with her parents at Wellston. Oklahoma; George A., the immediate subject of this sketch ; Elva, who married John Dunham and lives at Wellston, Oklahoma, andi Lola, who married James A. Dunham and lives in the same city.
George A. Neeley was but five years of age when his parents moved to Joplin and was thirteen years of age when they moved from that city to Oklahoma, his elementary education therefore having been gained in the common schools of both Missouri and Oklahoma. This he supplemented by a course in the Southwestern Baptist University at Jackson, Tennessee, after which he entered the law school of the University of Kansas, from which he was graduated in 1904. Prior to that time he had taught school for four years in the schools of Oklahoma and had likewise been sedulously engaged in the private study of law at home. Following his graduation, in 1904. Mr. Neeley opened an office for the practice of his profession at Wellston and remained there one year. He then married and moved to Chandler, county seat of his home county, where he entered the law office of Malcolm D. Owen, as junior partner, a mutually agreeable connection which con- tinued for three years and six months, or until the time of his decision to locate in Hutchinson. Upon going to Hutchinson, Mr. Neeley entered the law office of Carr W. Taylor, with whom he was engaged in practice for two years and six months, at the end of which time he opened an office of his own.
At a special election held on January 1, 1912. George A. Neeley was elected to represent this district in Congress, to fill the unexpired term of Congressman Edmund H. Madison, and in November following was elected for the full succeeding term, at that election receiving the greatest plurality ever given a candidate for Congress in the state of Kansas. Congressman Neeley arrived at Washington to fill out Mr. Madison's unexpired term on
.
47
RENO COUNTY, KANSAS.
January 29, 1912, the fiftieth anniversary of the admission of Kansas to the Union of states. Upon being presented by one of his colleagues to receive the oath of office in the House, he was pleasantly greeted by Speaker Clark, who, gravely addressing the House, said that he had two important events to announce : "The taking of the oath of office by the second Democratic congressman ever elected from the state of Kansas; and that on the fiftieth anniversary of the admission of his state," which announcement was re- ceived with much applause on the part of the assembled representatives. Representative Neeley took a very active part in the deliberations of the Congress and, for a new member, received some very important committee appointments, a mark of distinction which his friends in his home district properly appreciated. As a member of the celebrated Pujo "money trust" investigation committee, he assisted materially in that extensive inquiry and helped write the exhaustive report of the committee. He also was a men- ber of the important committee on banking and currency, which framed the federal reserve act, and it was he who led the fight both in the committee and in the majority caucus for the inclusion of the "agricultural credits" clause in that act. In 1914 Representative Neeley received the nomination in the state-wide primaries as the Democratic candidate for the United States Senate in this state, and in the memorable election of that fall, in which more than five hundred and twenty-six thousand votes were cast. he failed of election by the narrow margin of three thousand eight hundred and ninety-four votes, a circumstance which caused even some of those who had most earnestly opposed his candidacy to admit that if certain alleged election frauds had been cleared up he would have been found to have been elected. In January, 1912, Mr. Neeley formed a partnership, for the practice of law, with A. Clare Mallory, which partnership still exists. In 1915 he was made president of the Farmers National Bank of Hutchin- son, which was organized in that year, and is now serving in that capacity, and is also vice-president of the Farmers Hail Insurance Company, having its principal office at Hutchinson.
On Monday, October 31, 1904, George A. Neeley was united in mar- riage to Eva M. Hostetler, who was born in Bedford, Indiana, daughter of Jonathan and Martha Hostetter. Jonathan Hostetter, whose wife died on December 26, 1912, is a veteran of the Civil War and for many years was a prominent merchant in Indiana. He is now living at Mulvane, this state. To Mr. and Mrs. Neeley two children have been born, George Newland, born on August 5, 1905, who died on December 21, 1907, and Eva Mar-
48
RENO COUNTY, KANSAS.
garet, born on February 17. 1911. Mr. and Mrs. Neeley are members of the First Christian church at. Hutchinson and Mr. Neeley is a member of the Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Modern Woodmen.
HON. WILLIAM H. MITCHELL.
The Hon. William H. Mitchell, former member of the Kansas state Legislature, a prominent retired stock farmer of Huntsville township, this county, now living at 411 Seventh avenue, east, in the city of Hutchinson, is a native-born Hoosier, a fact of which he never has ceased to be proud, though for many years he has been a stanch and loyal Kansan. He was born on a farm near the city of Bedford, in Lawrence county, Indiana, March 8. 1844, son of William C. and Mary J. (Francis) Mitchell, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter of Indiana, whose last days were spent on their Indiana farm.
William C. Mitchell was the son of James and Nancy (Campbell) Mitchell, the former of whom was born in Pennsylvania on October 14, 1767, and died in Monroe county, Indiana, June 9, 1846. James Campbell and wife reared six sons and three daughters, all of whom save one daughter married and. reared families of their own. One son, Joseph, removed to Iowa about 1850 and there reared a large family, one of his sons, James, being a veteran of the Civil War. Another son, George, also removed to Iowa in an early day and two of his sons, Thomas and William Oscar, were veterans of the Civil War. The latter became a state senator in Iowa and was twice elected to the Legislature. Another grandson of James Mitchell became one of the leading lawyers of Ottumwa, Iowa, and was elected to the bench. William C. Mitchell was born in Kentucky in 1807 and died in Indiana on July 30, 1885. He married in Indiana, Elizabeth Francis, and to that union six children were born, namely: Elizabeth M., who married I. H. Waynick and reared a large family: Mrs. Martha A. Norris, who lived at Charlton, Iowa; David T., who became a lieutenant-colonel during the Civil War, later moving to Kansas, where he became one of the organ- izers of Neosha county in 1865; later moving to Columbia, Missouri; Mrs. Nancy A. Douglas, a resident of Charlton, Iowa ; William H., the subject of this review, and James F., who remained in Indiana, a dealer in lumber. The mother of these children died in 1848 and William C. Mitchell married, sec-
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.