USA > Kansas > Reno County > History of Reno County, Kansas; its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 5
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Not only in the purely correctional and reformatory aspects of the institution has extensive improvements been noted since Mr. Herr took charge of the reformatory, but in the physical aspect of the place, such as in the improvement of the grounds and the enlargement of the equipment of the reformatory, there has been marked betterment. A manual training department, where the young men are given technical instruction in the leading trades, has been installed by Mr. Herr and an irrigation system has
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been provided as a means for the proper and profitable cultivation of the reformatory farm, while the formerly unsightly tract at the front of the grounds, once a mere ugly weed patch, has been converted into a real beauty spot by the exercise of a bit of intelligent direction in the way of landscape gardening. A large cement fish pond, stocked with several varieties of fish and surrounded by flower pots also has been provided and fifty acres of what once was a barren sand waste has been converted into a beautiful catalpa grove. The effect of all this intelligent direction has been to give the inmates of the reformatory an entirely new outlook on life and the conditions temporarily surrounding them, improving their morals and mak- ing them more amenable to discipline, while the better spirit of contentment that prevails under these altered conditions has been well proved by the fact that there have been but three elopements from the institution since Mr. Herr assumed the superintendency of the same. Mr. Herr's valuable experi- ments have attracted wide attention among sociologists and penologists all over the country and have been the subject of numerous interesting treatises presented in various high-class magazines and periodicals devoted to social betterment.
J. Nevon Herr, superintendent of the Kansas state reformatory. is a native of Pennsylvania, having been born in Dauphin county, that state, on March 3, 1875, son of Abraham R. and Elizabeth (Shenk ) Herr, both natives of Pennsylvania, of that sterling stock known as Pennsylvania Dutch, the Herr family in this country, however, having originally been founded by a Swiss, who emigrated to America in colonial days. Abraham Herr was a farmer and stockman in Pennsylvania, who, in March, 1886. came, with his family, to Kansas, locating in the Kiowa neighborhood of Barber county, where he bought a half section of land, on which he made his home and where he died in the following June. His widow married, secondly. Henry Somner, who died five years later, and the widow now lives in Wellington, this state. Abraham R. Herr and his wife were earnest mem- bers of the Methodist church and their children were reared in that faith.' There are five of these children still living, those besides the subject of this biographical review being as follow: Allan, a prosperous farmer and stockman, of Medicine Lodge, this state; A. L., a prominent attorney. of Chickasha, Oklahoma, who married Bertha Downtain: Uriah C., postmaster of Medicine Lodge, this state, and publisher and editor of the Index at that place, and Ada, a school teacher, who lives with her mother at Wellington.
J. Nevor Herr was twelve years of age when his parents came to Kan- sas and he has resided in this state ever since. His elementary education
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had been received in the schools of his home neighborhood in Dauphin county, Pennsylvania, and this was supplemented by the instructions he later received in the high school at Kiowa, this state, from which he was grad- uated, after which he entered the employ of a corporation department store at Kiowa, with which concern he remained for eighteen years, his advance- ment in service with the company being so rapid that during the last few years of his connection therewith he was president of the corporation. During his residence in Kiowa, Mr. Herr took a prominent and active part in civic affairs and was regarded as one of the leaders in the ranks of the Democratic party in Barber county. For four years he served as mayor of Kiowa and his administration of the duties of that office was marked by many and substantial improvements to the town. For four years also Mr. Herr served as a representative in the state Legislature from Barber county and it was during his tenure in this latter office that he received his appoint- ment as superintendent of the Kansas state reformatory at Hutchinson, his administration in that important office dating from August 1, 1913, since which time he has had his residence in the administration building of the reformatory.
On May 12, 1901, J. Nevon Herr was united in marriage to Edith Potter, who was born in New York state and who came to Kansas when five years of age with her parents, Orman J. Potter and wife, the former of whom was a farmer and carpenter, and to this union two children have been born, Eleanor Lucile, born on March 4, 1903, and Harold. February 3, 1908.
Mr. Herr is a member of the Masonic lodge and of the Knights of' Pythias and the Modern Woodmen, in the affairs of which orders he takes a warm interest.
CHARLES A. RYKER.
Charles A. Ryker, president of the Kansas Central Indemnity Com- pany, of Hutchinson, this county, is a Hoosier, having been born on a farm in Jefferson county, state of Indiana, on January 21, 1859, son of Joseph H. and Eliza S. (McLelland ) Ryker, both natives of Indiana, the former of whom, born in 1826, died in 1881, and the latter, born in 1830, is still living.
The Ryker family in America had its origin in Holland, the first of the name to come to this country having located in New York in colonial days.
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Gerardus Ryker was the first of the name to settle in Indiana, having been one of the first white men to make a home there. He settled near the northern bank of the Ohio river not far from where the city of Madison later arose. His son, the great-grandfather of Charles A. Ryker, was born on the pioneer farm in what is now Jefferson county, as was his son, the father of Joseph H .; the latter was reared there and spent his last days there. During the Civil War, Joseph H. Ryker served the cause of the Union as a soldier in Company A, Fifty-fifth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and at the close of the war returned to the farm, where he spent the rest of his life, his death occurring in 1881, and his widow is still living there. Joseph H. Ryker and wife were members of the Presbyterian church and their seven children were reared in that faith.
Charles A. Ryker spent his youth in Hanover, Jefferson county, Indiana, and his elementary education was received in the local schools there, this course being supplemented by a course in the sterling old Presbyterian insti- tution, Hanover College. In 1879, he then being twenty years of age. Charles A. Ryker came West, locating at Burlington, in Coffey county, this state, where for eight years he worked for mercantile and lumber firms and where he cast his first vote for the Republican party. In 1887 he came to this county, locating at Hutchinson, where he took charge of the lumber yard of the Wisconsin Planing Mill Company, and continued in the lumber business, as manager for different firms, until his election, in 1900, on the Republican ticket, to the office of county treasurer, in which office he served for five years, his term of office having been extended by the Legislature. From the time of his arrival in Hutchinson, Mr. Ryker had taken a thought- ful part in the political affairs of the city and county and had, previous to his election to the treasurer's office, served the public very acceptably both as a member of the city council and as a member of the school board. In 1906 Mr. Ryker was elected a member of the state railway commission and served in that important capacity until the end of 1910. He, for years, served as a member of the Reno county Republican central committee and has been a frequent delegate to the state conventions of his party. In 1910 Mr. Ryker started in the commission business, under the firm style of the Ryker Realty and Commission Company and has so continued to this time. Early in 1915 he was instrumental in effecting the organization of the Kan- sas Central Indemnity Company, capital stock one hundred thousand dollars, and was elected president of that promising insurance concern, a position he now holds.
In 1881, at Burlington, this state, Charles A. Ryker was united in mar-
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riage to Eva Dickinson, who was born in Kansas and whose father, George H. Dickinson, is still a resident of Burlington, and to this union one child has been born, a daughter. Cornelia, who has been a student at Hanover College, in Indiana, she being a representative of the third generation of her family to attend that excellent old institution. Mr. and Mrs. Ryker are members of the Presbyterian church, and take an interested part in the various social and cultural movements of their home town. They have a very pleasant home at 424 Avenue A, east, which Mr. Ryker built in 1905.
Mr. Ryker is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and of the Modern Woodmen. He is a member of the Commercial Club, which he has served in the official capacity of secretary, and takes a general inter- est in all movements designed to promote the advancement of conditions in all proper ways hereabout.
ARTHUR E. ASHER.
Arthur E. Asher, president of the Commercial National Bank of Hutchinson, this county, has been a resident of Kansas for twenty-nine years, or since he was twenty-one years of age, and has been a continuous resident of Hutchinson since 1906, his previous residence in that city, begun in 1897. having been interrupted in 1903 by a change in business which took him to Stafford for a period of three years, after which he returned to Hutchinson, which has been his home ever since.
Arthur E. Asher was born in Oldham county, Kentucky, on May 14. 1863, son of Milton and Martha L. ( Eddins) Asher, both natives of that same county, both of whom were born in 1835. Milton Asher was the son of James D. Asher, of Irish descent, a pioneer in Oldham county, Kentucky, whose last days were spent there. James D. Asher and wife were members of the Christian church and were the parents of eight children, who were reared in that faith. Martha L. Eddins was the daughter of Abraham and Mary Eddins, both of whom were natives of Kentucky and members of the Methodist church, warmly opposed to the institution of slavery which then existed in most parts of Kentucky.
Milton Asher was reared in Oldham county, Kentucky, and became a carpenter, millwright and bridge builder. He married there and inherited a part of the paternal farm, becoming 'a man of considerable means. In 1886 he emigrated with his family to this state and located at Stafford, that
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being before the days of the railroad there, and there he was engaged extensively as a building contractor for years. In 1897, at the time his son, Arthur E., moved to Hutchinson, he and his wife also moved to that city, and there they both spent their last days, Mrs. Asher dying two years later, in 1899, and Milton Asher dying on January 27, 1911. They were earnest members of the Christian church and their children were reared in that faith. Of these children, four in number, Arthur E. Asher, the immediate subject of this sketch, is now the sole survivor, the others having been as follow : Andrew Jackson, a farmer, who died at the age of twenty- four; Alonzo, a pharmacist, who died at the age of twenty-two, and Rosa L., who died at the tender age of four. -
Arthur E. Asher was reared in Oldham county, Kentucky, receiving his education in the district school of his home neighborhood and at the college at Campbellsburg. He was twenty-one years of age when he came to Kansas with his parents and for a time after locating at Stafford he was engaged in the lumber business in the employ of Fair & Shock. He then entered the employ of the Bank of Stafford and thus began his successful career as a banker. In 1895 he was made cashier of that bank, but two years later, in 1897, left that concern and located in Hutchinson, where he effected the organization of the St. Johns Trust Company, a concern for the exclusive use of cattlemen. and was made secretary of the company. In 1903 that company liquidated and Mr. Asher returned to Stafford, where he organized the First State Bank of Stafford and was made president of that institution. In 1906 he returned to Hutchinson and organized the Commercial National Bank, of which he was made president, a position which he has held ever since. In 1908 Mr. Asher extended his banking operations to Mineola, this state, where he organized the First National Bank of Mineola and was made president of that institution, which office he still holds, at the same time retaining an interest in the First State Bank of Stafford, of which he formerly was president, and of which he still is a director. Mr. Asher is an alert, up-to-date business man and is interested in various other enterprises in and about Hutchinson, among which is the Hutchinson Build- ing and Loan Association, of which he is vice-president and one of the directors.
On December 8, 1888, Arthur E. Asher was united in marriage to Gertrude M. Sommers, who was born in Illinois, daughter of Alexander and Elizabeth Sommers, early residents of Stafford. Alexander Sommers was a carpenter and builder, who took a prominent part in the upbuilding of the
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town of Stafford in the earlier days thereabout. He died there and his widow, who is still living. is making her home with Mr. and Mrs. Asher.
To Arthur E. and Gertrude M. (Sommers) Asher three children have been born, namely: Lucile, born in 1890, who married Ernest Dickerson, a traveling salesman, of Hutchinson; Mildred, who married Ray H. Tinder, a lawyer, of Hutchinson, and has one child, a son, Charles Elston, born in April, 1915, and Helen, 1898, who is attending high school. Mr. and Mrs. Asher are members of the Christian church and Mr. Asher is president of the official board of the congregation to which he is attached. He and his wife take an active part in the social life of the city making their presence felt in many useful ways and are held in high regard. Their home at 1009 North Main street is one of the most attractive in the city.
Mr. Asher is a Democrat in matters relating to the policies of the national government. but in local politics is inclined to be rather independent, holding to the view that the man instead of the party should be the guide to the voter in local elections. For seven years he served on the Hutchinson school board and has been a member of the city council for years, his services in both of these offices having proved of large value to the community. Mr. Asher is a Mason and has attained to the York Rite in that order, being one of the most active members of the commandery of the Knights Templar at Hutchinson, and is also an active member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen.
EDWARD TINDALL GUYMON.
Edward Tindall Guymon, one of the best-known and most representa- tive business men in Hutchinson, founder of the town of Guymon, Okla- homa, and prominently identified with many of the most extensive corpora- tions in and about Hutchinson, as well as in other sections of the state, is a native of Illinois, but has been a resident of Kansas since 1879. He was born on a farm near Warsaw, in Hancock county, Illinois, in August. 1859, son of John and Jane (Griggsby) Guymon, both natives of that same state, the former born in 1838.and the latter in 1836.
John Guymon was a farmer. When the Civil War broke out he enlisted in behalf of the Union cause and went to the front as a private in Company F. Seventy-eighth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, with which he served valorously until captured by the enemy. He was confined
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in Andersonville prison, where he died in 1864. After the unhappy death of her soldier husband, Mrs. Guymon took her three children and went to live with her parents in Missouri, remaining there for several years, but later returning to Illinois. She is now making her home with her only remaining son, the subject of this biographical sketch, at Hutchinson, as is her only daughter, Irene, who married Henry Ellison. The other son, Roy, a resi- dent of Los Angeles, California, died in 191I.
Owing the straightened circumstances surrounding his youth, Edward T. Guymon had little opportunity for securing an education in his boyhood, his schooling having been confined to attendance for two or three months each winter for a few winters in Illinois and Missouri, and at eleven years of age he engaged his services to an Illinois farmer for eight dollars a month and worked for that man for four years, at the end of which time he began clerking in a store at Coalsburg, Illinois, where he worked until the spring of 1879, when he came to Kansas, stopping at McPherson, where he was employed for a time as a carpenter's helper. He then secured a place as a clerk in the store of L. H. Thompson, now a resident of Hutchinson, who was then engaged in business at McPherson, and remained thus engaged for two or three years, at the end of which time he was engaged in the Barnes general store, where he remained for some time. He then left McPherson and went to Lakin, a coal-mining town, where he remained two years, a part of which time he was employed as a railroad section hand, after which he returned to McPherson and began clerking in the Fegley store, later going to the Hacklethorn & Northup grocery store, in the same town. Pre- sently, Mr. Guymon bought the interest of Mr. Northup in the store and was a partner in the business for three years, at the end of which time he sold his interest and secured a half interest in a meat-packing plant and was thus engaged for two years. Then Mr. Guymon, in partnership with Messrs. Irvin, Lloyd and Oakley, established the Star Grocery Company at McPherson and from that time on began to make his influence felt as a man of affairs. In 1888 the firm established a branch store at Liberal, this state, and Mr. Guymon took charge of the same in person, remaining there for three years. In 1901 he moved to Lewistown, Illinois, where for two years he was engaged in the manufacture of a grain weigher, at the same time retaining his ownership of the store at Liberal, the Star Grocery Company meanwhile having dissolved. The Star store at Liberal had grown to be an extensive wholesale as well as retail store, supplying the trade throughout that section of the state, as well as in parts of Oklahoma, Texas, New (5a)
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Mexico and Colorado. In the meantime Mr. Guymon was rapidly developing other interests and in 1902 moved to Hutchinson, where he ever since has resided, operating his extensive business connections from that central point, and has long been regarded as one of the most substantial citizens of central Kansas. Upon locating at Hutchinson he bought the beautiful Wood home at 1019 North Main street and is still living there.
Among the numerous concerns in which Mr. Guymon is actively inter- ested is the Guymon-Petro Wholesale Grocery Company, of Hutchinson, of which he is president; the Commercial National Bank, of Hutchinson, of which he is vice-president: a director and one of the founders of the Hutchinson Electric Light and Water Company; vice-president of the Lib- eral Elevator and Hutchinson Terminal Elevator Company and director of Hontran Loan and Trust Company; vice-president of the American Ware- house Company; former president of the Guymon Bank of Oklahoma, be- sides which he is the owner of grocery stores in several towns in Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Nevada and Canada, and has been interested in a num- ber of cattle ranch corporations. It was in 1902, the year in which he took up his residence in Hutchinson, that Mr. Guymon laid out and founded the town of Guymon, named after himself, in Oklahoma. That town has grown to be a place of more than eighteen hundred population, with about forty- five business establishments. Mr. Guymon was president of the company which promoted the town and is actively interested in a number of enter- prises in the place, such as grain elevators, stores and the bank, the latter of which Mr. Guymon founded and was for some time its president. Mr. Guy- mon also has railroad and other interests, his combined connections easily making him one of the leading capitalists of Kansas. Mr. Guymon is a Republican and while living at Liberal served as a member of the city coun- cil, but has never sought other offices.
In June, 1887, Edward T. Guymon was united in marriage to Frances Mary Flagg, who was born in Illinois, daughter of George and Mary Flagg, the former of whom died in 1900 and the latter of whom is still living. To this union one child has been born, a son, Edward Tindall, Jr., born on June 8. 1900. Mr. Guymon is a thirty-second-degree Mason and a noble of the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, a member of the consistory and the shrine at Wichita, and takes a warm interest in Masonic affairs. He is a member of the Hutchinson Commercial Club and the Country Chib and in the affairs of both of those local organizations he takes an active interest.
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REV. DANIEL MONNTIETH MOORE, D. D.
The minutes of the first meeting of the presbytery of the Presbyterian church of this section of Kansas following the death of the lamented Rev. Daniel Montieth Moore, D. D., in 1900, carries the following tribute of respect and expression of esteem for the memory of a great and good man; a man who had done very much for the spiritual and cultural advancement of this part of the state :
"Doctor Moore was a ripe scholar, always a student, not only of the Scriptures, but also of the best literature and current events. The honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity was worthily bestowed upon him by his alma mater in 1897. Doctor Moore was an old-time gentleman of rare dignity and commanding presence and was distinguished for his urbanity and hos- pitality. His religious experience was rich and refined in his declining years."
Daniel Montieth Moore, who was the first ordained clergyman to pro- claim the message of the Gospel in Reno county, was a native of Ohio, having been born in the village of Cortsville, in Mahoning county, that state. on January 2, 1824. At the age of fourteen, having then completed the course in his home school, he was sent by his parents to live with his uncle, the Rev. John Montieth, at Elmira, Ohio, and under the fine influence of that good clergyman he was reared to useful manhood. Upon completing the high-school course at Elmira, the studious lad was sent to the academy at Darlington, Pennsylvania, from which he was presently graduated, after which he entered Western University at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated at the age of twenty-two. after which he entered Lane Theological Seminary at Cincinnati, from which sterling old sectarian institution he was graduated three years later, and presently was ordained a minister of the Gospel by his home presbytery. For a short time after his ordination. the Rev. Daniel M. Moore was engaged as acting pastor of a country church in Brown county, Ohio, and it was while thus living his "day of small things" that he married, in June, 1849, Ellen McMillan, daughter of Captain McMillan, of Ripley, Ohio, who died on November 6, 1850, leaving one child, born on April 22, 1850, which died on August 11. of that same year. At Manchester, Ohio, December 30, 1851, Rev. Daniel M. Moore married, secondly, Mary A. Ellison, daughter of William and Mary K. Ellison, who was a faithful and competent helpmate during his long and difficult ministry.
The first charge to which the Rev. Daniel H. Moore was called and in
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which he was installed as pastor was the Second Presbyterian church of Greenfield, Ohio, the congregation of which he served as pastor for a period of twelve years, at the end of which time he accepted a call from the Pres- byterian church at Yellow Springs, Ohio, and was pastor of that church for nearly five years. In 1868 he accepted a call from the "new school," or "free." Presbyterian church at Lawrence, this state, and thus began his long period of ministerial service in Kansas. Doctor Moore, during ante- bellum days, ever had been possessed of strong anti-slavery convictions and had acquiesced in the division of the church on that question, but upon the removal of the cause of this division was among the first to seek a recon- ciliation between the two wings of the church and it was during his pastor- ate of the "free" church at Lawrence and largely through his efforts that the "new school" and the "old school" churches in that city were reunited, both pastors resigning in order that the united church might call a new pastor. In 1873. two years after the founding of the town of Hutchinson, Doctor Moore accepted the call of the little Presbyterian church at that point to "come over and help us," and thus became the first ordained minister of the Gospel to preach in Reno county. The Presbyterian church at Hutchinson at that time was composed of but seven members, but during the seven years of Doctor Moore's pastorate there the growth of the congregation was pro- portionately much larger than was the growth of the town. During these seven years of earnest and consecrated effort on the part of Doctor Moore that good minister so impressed his individuality upon the congregation and upon the community as a whole as to give to that pioneer church the sterling characteristics that still distinguish it, he clearly having laid the firm foundation upon which its present strength is built.
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