USA > Kansas > Reno County > History of Reno County, Kansas; its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 4
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ondly, Mary J. Erwin and to that union were born four sons and one daugh- ter. Two of these sons, Samuel E. and Lewis, remained in Indiana; George settled near Augusta, Oklahoma; Bennett, the first born, died when he was three years old, and Katie, the only daughter, died at the age of five years. Mrs. Mary J. Mitchell survived her husband about one year.
William H. Mitchell was reared on the paternal farm in Indiana and grew up with very little schooling, the whole number of his days in school aggregating less than a year. On July 9, 1861, he then being but seventeen years of age, he enlisted for service in the Union army during the Civil War in Company A, Twenty-fourth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and served for three years with the Army of the West, being mustered out at the end of his term of enlistment, July 31, 1864, at Baton Rouge, Louisiana. His health being somewhat broken, Mr. Mitchell did not re-enlist. He ·returned to his home in Indiana and in 1865 went to Iowa, where he entered school, but soon withdrew, on account of defective vision, and returned in the spring of 1866 to Indiana and the same year came to Kansas, where he joined his brother, Col. David T. Mitchell, in Neosha county.
In August, 1867, Mr. Mitchell again returned to Indiana, where he was married and in the following month he and his bride, together with his brother, James F., a brother-in-law, H. C. Mallott, and John Stone and wife, drove through with four "prairie schooners" to Kansas and pre-empted claims twenty miles south of Humboldt. In the fall of 1869 Mr. Mitchell's wife died and he took his two small children to Indiana, where he remained for a couple of years farming. In the fall of 1871 he married another Indiana girl and returned to his Neosha county homestead. In 1873, on account of his wife's failing health, he returned again to Indiana, where he -remained until 1884, in which year he returned to Kansas and settled in Reno county. He bought of John Puterbaugh the old Wampler timber claim of a quarter of a section in Huntsville township and later one hundred and twenty acres south of that, and went in quite extensively for raising cattle. Later he engaged extensively in the breeding of purebred Poland China hogs and became quite successful as a stockman. In 1906 he retired from the active labors of the ranch and moved to Hutchinson, where he still lives, though retaining the ownership of his valuable farms.
Mr. Mitchell has taken an active interest in civic affairs ever since com- ing to Kansas and has been conspicuously prominent in the various move- ments designed to better the conditions of farm life and promote the interests of farmers generally. For twelve successive years he was president of the (4a)
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school board of Huntsville township and served for two terms as justice of the peace there. During his residence in Neosha county he served as town- ship trustee. Mr. Mitchell was secretary of the first Greenback party county organization effected in Lawrence county, Indiana, and attended numerous district and state conventions of that historic party. He joined the Grange in Indiana and was secretary of his local organization. He also was lecturer for the Patrons of Husbandry until he left Indiana in 1884. When the Farmers Alliance was formed in Kansas Mr. Mitchell took an active part in the affairs of that organization and was engaged as county lecturer for the same, in that capacity attending all the national conventions of the alliance. When the Farmers Alliance was merged with the Populist party Mr. Mitchell took an active part in the affairs of the latter party and was chairman of the first Populist convention held in Reno county and was later nominated by that party as its nominee for representative in the state Legislature from the seventy-third representative district. In the fall of 1890 he was elected representative and served during the ensuing session of the Kansas General Assembly. In 1892 he was re-elected, but his opponent, W. J. Dix, con- tested the election on the ground of a controversy over boundary of the district. Mr. Mitchell took his seat in the House, but a decision of the supreme court on the issue of the disputed boundary automatically unseated him. During his service in the Legislature Mr. Mitchell was one of the members of the committee appointed to act in the matter of charges in the impeachment of Theodosius Bodkin, a matter of much political moment in that day; which charges Mr. Bodkin successfully resisted. Mr. Mitchell was one of the committee of investigation that investigated the Bodkin mat- ter and was also one of the impeachment board that tried him. After the subsidence of the Populist movement Mr. Mitchell remained absolutely inde- pendent in his political views, but since 1912 has regarded himself as a progressive Democrat.
When the American Society of Equity was organized in the early part of the past decade for the purpose of securing to the farmers of the country a more equitable share in the profits of their products, Mr. Mitchell took a prominent part in the promotion of the movement and was made president of the local branch of the society and a delegate to the state and national meetings of the same. He was a delegate to the national convention of the society in Indianapolis in 1907. when the Everett faction was so vehemently resisted. Mr. Mitchell was made the spokesman of the opposing faction and when the minority delegates finally withdrew he was made chairman of the "rump" convention and was elected president of the National Farmers
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Society of Equity, organized to give new life to the demands of the real farmers composing the same. He served as president of the new society for one year and was then elected vice-president and director of the organ- ization, a position he held until 1914, when, at the national convention held at Omaha, he declined to serve any longer, on account of his increasing years and the state of his health, though he still retains active membership in the society. In 1914 Mr. Mitchell was elected vice-president of the American Farmers Federation (a federation of all the societies founded for a like purpose ) and is still serving in that capacity. In 1913. Mr. Mitchell was appointed administrator of the Samuel Adamson estate and much of his time since then has been occupied in administering the estate. Mr. Mitchell is a past commander of Joe Hooker Post No. 17, Grand Army of the Repub- lic, at Hutchinson, and for some time has been agent, by appointment of county commissioners, in a movement to secure the placing of proper head- stones at the graves of all deceased soldiers of the Civil War, the govern- ment having signified a willingness to furnish the stones if the various counties will provide for the erection of the same. Mr. Mitchell was at one time President of the Indiana Old Settlers Society of Kansas and served for three years and has been associated with it since its organization.
In September, 1867, in Indiana, William H. Mitchell was united in mar- riage to Amanda Wood, who died on September 29, 1869, leaving three children, Olla E., born on June 22, 1868, now a farmer living at Carmen, Oklahoma, and Willie and Jesse W., twins, the former of whom died when three months old and the latter of whom is now living in Lawrence county, Indiana. On September 26, 1871, Mr. Mitchell married, secondly, Nancy L. Stipp, who was born in Lawrence county, Indiana, and to this union ten children have been born, as follow: Cadda A., who married J. W. Spilman and lives at Valley Falls, Kansas; Virgil W. and Edward (twins), the former of whom is a farmer living near Abbeyville, this county, and the latter of whom died when four months old; Michael F. and David B. (twins). the former a farmer living twelve miles west of Hutchinson on the Griffin farm. and the latter manager of the White Lumber Company at Fowler, this state ; Hattie M., a graduate nurse at Los Angeles, California; Mattie E., who married J. Frank Rush, a fireman in the employ of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad, with headquarters at Newton, this state; Lottie P., who married Joseph Vazis, a mechanic, living at St. Louis, Missouri ; James L., who operates his father's farm in Huntsville township, and Grace P., who married Elliot H. Chappel and lives in Hutchinson.
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FRED W. COOK, D. V. S.
Dr. Fred W. Cook, who, since April 15, 1914, has been mayor of Hutchinson, and for many years has been actively engaged in the practice of veterinary surgery in Hutchinson, is one of the most talented members of his profession in the state, and has done as much, perhaps, to elevate its standard of excellence as any other man in the profession.
Fred W. Cook was born in Worcestershire, England, May 1, 1858. His parents were Joseph and Martha Cook, who were also natives of that country. His father was a landed proprietor. In connection with his agri- cultural pursuits he also followed the profession of a veterinary surgeon at Bredon, England, where his death occurred in 1876. Two daughters of the family came to America with Fred W. They are: Annie, the wife of J. O. Shuler, a farmer of Reno county, and Laura, the wife of J. C. Bad- deley, assistant manager of the Morton Salt Company, and a member of the Hutchinson school board. Later three other sons of the family came to America, namely : Walter, a building contractor of Hutchinson; Arthur, a farmer of Reno county, and Frank, a blacksmith of Hutchinson. George, another member of the family, still makes his home in Bredon, England, where he follows the occupation of a building contractor.
The subject of this sketch received a liberal education in the public schools of the neighborhood in which he spent his early years. He grad- uated in the Blue school of his native town, after a five-year course, at the age of seventeen years. He then entered an apprenticeship in scientific horse- shoeing, and three years later, after thoroughly mastering the art, he turned his attention to agricultural pursuits and stock raising on a farm of two hundred acres. He continued to devote his time and attention to this busi- ness until 1881. In that year he left the land of his birth and turned his face toward the New World. The oldler settled states did not appeal to him as a desirable place in which to locate and he did not tarry long there. His arrival in America was at a period when there was a great migration towards the western states where lands were cheap and the opportunities for industry and enterprise to win success in their development. Kansas was one of the states in which these opportunities were afforded and to this state Mr. Cook directed his steps. He found a desirable location in Grant township, Reno county, where he purchased a quarter section of land and at once began its cultivation. He gave special attention to the raising of fine stock, princi- pally, Hereford and Shorthorn cattle, and Cleveland Bay and Hamiltonian horses. He followed this line of industry for three years with good suc-
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cess. In the fall of 1885 he entered the Ontario Veterinary College, of Toronto, Canada, where he completed a three-year course, graduating on March 30, 1888, with the degree of Doctor of Veterinary Surgery.
AAfter his graduation Doctor Cook returned to Hutchinson and began the practice of his chosen profession, in which he has met with exceptional and merited success. His increasing practice soon demonstrated the need of a suitable place for the treatment of subjects and, in 1891, he erected his present infirmary which is equipped with all modern appliances and conveniences known to the profession, for the treatment of all classes of disease, and for performing various operations required in the profession. This, without doubt, is the best equipped institution of the kind in the state, and in his chosen profession Doctor Cook stands second to none in the West. During the past twenty years he has also dealt extensively in high grade horses, buying and selling locally, or shipping to outside points, and in this business he is meeting with an equal degree of success; his well known reliability in all trade transactions having gained for him the confidence of the entire public.
In June, 1883, Fred W. Cook was married at Astoria, Illinois, to Min- nie Oviatt, a daughter of Henry and Mary (Jones) Oviatt. The father was a native of New York, and, during the War of the Rebellion, served as a brave and faithful soldier in defence of the flag. One daughter and one son have brightened and blessed this union. Mary Pauline, born in Hutchinson, July 10, 1894, graduate of Hutchinson high school, attended Redlands University, in California, one year, studying vocal and instru- mental music, and is now at the State Normal School, at Emporia, Kansas, studying music and domestic science. William Lawrence, born in Hutchin- son, February 29, 1908, named for the eminent Baptist divine, Doctor Lawrence, of Chicago.
For many years Doctor Cook served as president of the Kansas State Veterinary Association, and is a member of the Missouri Valley Veterinary Association. In 1888 he was state veterinary surgeon of western Kansas. The cause of education has also found in him a stanch and abiding friend. For ten or twelve years he served as a member of the board of the Reno high school, at Nickerson, and for eighteen years as a member of the school board of Hutchinson. For two years he was president of the school board, and for many years was chairman of the building committee in charge of the construction of new buildings.
Doctor Cook devoted his best efforts to secure the establishment of the First Baptist church in Hutchinson, and during his entire residence here
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has served as a member of the official board: for twenty-three years he has served as superintendent of the Sunday school and a teacher of a Bible class in the school.
In March. 1914. Doctor Cook was nominated as a candidate for mayor of Hutchinson, on the law enforcement, or reform ticket, and was elected in April of that year, defeating Lincoln S. Davis, the opposing candidate. He was re-elected in April, 1915, with James P. Harsha as the opposing candidate. In the administration of this office he has followed the same ideals that have characterized his professional and business dealings. As a public official. as well as a private citizen. he enjoys the confidence and esteem of the community. He has a beautiful home at 215 Second avenue, east, where he and his family have resided for many years.
THE CITIZENS BANK OF HUTCHINSON.
Among the substantial and well-established financial institutions of this part of the state of Kansas few. if any, have a wider connection or a solider foundation than has the Citizens Bank of Hutchinson. Organized in 1892. the Citizens Bank was the natural cutgrowth of conditions existing at that time in Hutchinson and vicinity and from its very inception has been a suc- cess, filling, as it did then. and still does. a very vital necessity in the com- mercial and general business life of this community. Founded by men of high purpose, keen business sagacity and of unquestioned financial solidity and responsibility, its stockholders and directorate including the names of some of the best-known men in the local business world, the Citizens Bank of Hutchinson inspired the confidence of the community from the very moment it opened its doors, and that confidence has never been abused in any fashion by the directing heads of the sound old institution.
Previous to the time of the organization of the bank, in 1892. James B. Mackay, a banker who had moved to Hutchinson from Illinois during the later eighties, he having had a bank in a small town near Galesburg. had been engaged in the banking business at Hutchinson and when the need of a new bank became apparent to him he associated with himself James Duke- low, T. F. Leidigh. Dr. Fred W. Cook and Frank P. Hettinger and organ- ized the Citizens Bank. They bought the building at Second and Main. which is still occupied by the bank, from the old Bank of Commerce, paying about ten thousand dollars for the building and site. The bank started
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small. There was probably not more than twelve thousand dollars capital stock to start with. It is characteristic of Mr. Mackay that when the new bank showed a loss the first year or two, not making expenses, he paid from his own pocket to cover the deficiency, telling his colleagues that he was responsible for getting them into it and that he would stand the loss. But the bank soon got onto its feet and was going good. It prospered from year to year and is now one of the strongest financial institutions in central Kansas. Mr. Mackay remained in active charge of the bank as president and cashier for many years, his fine conservatism and sound judgment, together with his wide knowledge of financial conditions hereabout, unde- niably adding much to the solid success achieved by the institution which he thus served. A few years ago, when the business became so heavy as to require it, Charles M. Branch was called from the First National Bank to become cashier of the Citizens Bank, and in 1915, when Mr. Mackay was forced to leave the bank and take a season of rest in California, Mr. Branch stepped into his place as acting president. In the middle of January, 1916, Mr. Mackay definitely retired from the presidency of the bank and at his suggestion and request Mr. Branch was elected president to succeed him.
James B. Mackay is a native of Scotland, having been born in the city of Edinburgh. Some time after coming to this country he located in Iowa, where he was engaged in the banking business for some time, later going to Illinois, where he continued his banking business until his removal to Hutchinson, as above noted. Mr. Mackay has long occupied a high posi- tion in the business life of this community. He and his wife have a charm- ing home at 725 Washington street, north, in Hutchinson. The veteran banker continues his interest in the bank and will remain on the official staff as vice-president.
Charles M. Branch, president of the Citizens Bank of Hutchinson, may properly be regarded as a pioncer of Reno county, he having been fourteen years of age when he came to this county with his parents in 1873. He has been a witness of the wonderful development of this section of the state from the very earliest days of its settlement and has ever done his full part in the promotion of that development, long having been regarded as one of the most active factors in the business life of the community. Charles M. Branch is a native of Iowa, having been born in the town. of Vinton, in Benton county, that state, September 27, 1859, son of Phineas C. and Sarah (Chapin) Branch, the former of whom was born at Middleton, near Rut- land, Vermont, in 1824, and the latter in 1826 in Massachusetts, who later
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became pioneers of this county and both of whom died in Hutchinson, to which city they had retired from the farm in their declining days.
Phineas C. Branch was fourteen years old when his parents emigrated front Vermont to Illinois, the family settling on a homestead farm in that state, where the parents spent the remainder of their lives. Phineas C. Branch became a dentist in Illinois and in 1855 moved to Vinton, Iowa, where he engaged in the practice of his profession and was thus engaged until he came with his family to Reno county in 1873. During the Civil War, Mr. Branch enlisted as a private in Company G, Thirteenth Regiment, Iowa Volunteer Infantry, with which regiment he served for three years. In the fall of 1873 he gave up his practice as a dentist, desiring a change to outdoor life, and having been attracted by the glowing reports then pro- ceeding from this section of Kansas, came to Reno county. He entered a soldier's homestead and a timber claim in Medford township and there established his home. He enlarged his original holdings by the purchase of two hundred and forty acres additional in Medford township and when he retired from the farm and moved to Hutchinson, in 1901, was regarded as one of the most substantial citizens of his part of the county. He was a stanch Republican in earlier life, but later became an ardent Prohibitionist and was an carnest laborer in the cause during the height of the anti-saloon campaign in this state. He and his wife were devout members of the Bap- tist church and were counted among the leaders in all good works in their neighborhood. But two children were born to them, sons both, Charles M. and Andrew C., the latter of whom is living at Sterling, Kansas. Mrs. Branch died in 1902, the year following her removal to Hutchinson, and Mr. Branch survived her about ten years, his death occurring in 1912.
Charles M. Branch was about fourteen years old when he came to Reno county with his parents and his schooling, which was interrupted by his removal from Vinton, was resumed in the district school in the neighbor- hood of his pioneer home in Medford township, which he supplemented by one year of attendance in the high school at Sterling. In 1886 he was engaged as a teacher in the schools at Sterling and was thus engaged for three years, at the end of which time he entered the service of the Rice County Bank at Sterling as a bookkeeper, a position which he occupied for nearly two years. His services then were engaged by the First National Bank of Hutchinson and for fourteen years he served in the capacity of bookkeeper in that institution, after which he was made assistant cashier, a position which he occupied until January 1. 1902, on which date he assumed
.
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the position of cashier of the Citizens Bank and was so engaged until his elevation to the presidency of that institution, in January, 1916.
On January 5, 1910, Charles M. Branch was united in marriage to Lenora Scott, who was born in Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Branch have a very pleasant home in Hutchinson and take a proper part in the general social activities of the city.
J. NEVON HERR.
The notable improvement in the morale of the inmates of the Kansas state reformatory at Hutchinson, this county, since Superintendent Herr took charge of that institution in 1913, has been the subject of congratula- tory comment in all parts of the state, so many improvements having been made by him not only in the system of institutional administration, but in the general equipment of the reformatory and the beautification of the grounds, all reflecting most generously the humane spirit underlying mód- ern correctional methods, that the inmates have been affected most whole- somely; so much so, indeed, that an entirely new spirit may be said to be dominating the entire population of that admirable correctional institution.
Immediately upon taking charge of the reformatory, or as soon there- after as he could acquire a proper working acquaintance with the institu- tion and its more vital needs, Superintendent Herr extended the honor system among the inmates, this humane expression of his confidence in the basic uprightness of mankind having had an immediate effect upon the gen- eral deportment of the unhappy young men under his care, who at once felt themselves "on honor" bound to give conformance to the general rules laid down by this humane new administration. One of the first of these new regulations was a complete reformation in the matter of the institutional dress of the inmates, all institution marks carrying the brand and stigma of the old "convict" system being eliminated, the effect of which alteration in the reformatory "uniform" being an immediate improvement in the spirit of the inmates, who responded most readily and with unanimous heartiness to this appeal to their better natures. In the way of provision for whole- some relaxation during the idle hours of the inmates, Superintendent Herr has installed a motion picture outfit in the reformatory, through which medium the inmates are at proper times and for the time being lifted out of their self-centered lives and given an opportunity thus to keep in touch with
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the outside world, attendance on these exhibitions being practically unre- strained and without guard, an appeal to the pride and self-respect of the institution's population which has been met in the spirit in which it has been made. The population of the reformatory also is given the privilege of the grounds on such evenings as are marked by proper weather conditions, these "outings" also being practically unrestrained and unguarded. The value of these two experiments in institutional management has been exemplified to to the complete satisfaction of the reformatory authorities, it having been demonstrated that the moral tone of the institution has been elevated thereby in an extraordinary manner, the young men there under restraint having thus been given an outlet for their thoughts that has resulted in most cases in a complete rehabilitation of their mental attitude toward the place, which, naturally enough, has resulted in a general betterment of their morals and in their more decorous behavior. A striking manifestation of this improved attitude on the part of the inmates toward the institution to which they temporarily are attached has been found in the organization by the young men there restrained of a "Betterment League," which holds regular meetings, unrestrained and without guard, at which all matters looking to the general betterment of the lives of the members of this league are given proper consideration. the members of the league binding themselves to report to the administration any infringement of the mild rules laid down for the conduct of these meetings which might result in any way in a curtailment of the privileges thus accorded. These reports are not in any manner under- stood as being based upon a system of "spying" on the part of the members of the league. the members agreeing to resort first to proper moral suasion in the case of a possibly refractory member before reporting delinquencies on the latter's part. The effect of improved conditions in the conduct of the school and library in connection with the reformatory also have proved largely beneficial and it is understood that a great work of real and perma- nent reformation is going on in the lives of many unfortunate young men under the humane system now operative under Superintendent Herr's ad- ministration.
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