USA > Kansas > Wyandotte County > History of Wyandotte County, Kansas, and its people, Vol. II > Part 14
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HENRY F. WULF .- A fine education is desirable capital; technical training is something for which to be thankful; a rich inheritance is not to be laughed at, but without any of these it is still possible for a man to attain financial success and social prominence. Henry F. Wulf is a living corroboration of that truth. He is president of the Wulf Laundry Company, which fact gives evidence of his business ability and his many friends bear testimony to his popularity.
He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, September 10, 1863, of German parents, his father, Frederick Wulf, having been born in Germany in 1834. Ile was apprenticed to a cabinet maker but he did not serve out his full time with his master, as the gentleman died before the com- pletion of his apprenticeship. Frederick had been a very apt pupil
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and had learned nearly all that his master could teach him, so that he was able to work for some one else withont finishing his apprentiee- ship. When he was seventeen, he left home and came to America, locating in Cincinnati, where he plied his trade of cabinet making. Ilere he met and married Henrietta Duhalter, a native of Germany born in 1836. There were born to this union the following children, of whom three are (1911) living. The first two died in childhood; Louise, is now the wife of L. Lucus, Cincinnati, Ohio; Henry F .; and John E. Frederick Wulf was very successful in his business, which he followed until 1893, when he retired from active life. In 1908 his wife. Henrietta, died and two years later, in the month of March, he joined her.
Henry F. Wulf attended the public schools of Cincinnati but at that time did not realize the advantages of higher education and he left school at an early age, his father taking him into his shop to learn the cabinet making trade. However, Frederick soon discovered that cabinet making was not his forte and he got a position in the planing mills of his home town. In 1888, having saved a little money, he de- cided to engage in the laundry business, and finding a good opening at Greenville, Mississippi, he went there and opened up a laundry establishment, but it did not prove a financial sueeess. He returned to Cincinnati and became identified with a planing mill there, but on February 7th, 1891, he came to Kansas City and opened up a laundry, which succeeded beyond his expectations. He incorporated the busi- ness under the name of the Wulf Laundry Company, he being the president.
In 1890, on the 5th of January, he was married to Miss Willie Florence Best, a young lady who came from Tennessee and was pos- sessed of the southern sweetness of manner, which has lost none of its charm during the time that has elapsed since her marriage.
Mr. Wulf has risen high in Masonry. being a member of the Wyan- dotte Blue Lodge No. 3, Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons. Politi- cally Mr. Wulf is associated with the Republican party.
L. G. FRISBIE .- Energetic and progressive, possessing sound judg- ment and business ability of a high order. L. G. Frisbie occupies an honored position among the useful and valued citizens of Bonner Springs. He has been associated with various interests in Wyandotte county, and has been an important factor in the advancement of the agricultural prosperity of this part of the state. A native of Ohio, he was born in Huron county, where the first three years of his earthly existence were passed.
His father, Charles T. Frisbie, came from excellent colonial stock, his early ancestors having lived in Connectiont. 3 In 1863 he journeyed across the country with his family from Ohio to Kansas, arriving in Johnson county, his point of destination, on August 22, the very day after a band of guerillas, under Quantrell, had attacked and burned Lawrence. Intense excitement prevailed throughout that part of the country. and he saw many men on the road carrying eoffins in which to bury the dead. Loeating in Johnson county, he purchased eighty acres of raw prairie land. and began the pioneer task of redeeming a farm from its original wildness. He succeeded well in spite of the
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hard times that ensued, adding to his original purchase until he had title to two hundred aeres of land. He was three times married. He married first Hester Frame, who was of Welsh ancestry, being the de- seendant of a boy named Frame, who was stolen from his home in Wales, and brought to America, where he married, and became the founder of a family whose descendants are scattered through many of the states of the Union. She died August 27, 1867, in Johnson county, Kansas, leaving two children, namely: Nettie, wife of H. Clifford Musser, of Cedar Junction, Kansas; and L. G., with whom this sketch is chiefly concerned. He married again, and by his second wife had
one son. After her death, he married Emma Rolfe, and they have two sons, and are now residents of Argentine, Kansas.
But three years old when he came with his parents to Kansas, L. G. Frisbie received limited educational advantages, attending the short sessions of the pioneer district schools, and one term at Baker Univer-
sity. When he was seven years old, his mother died, and five years later he was deprived of the care of his first step-mother, who lived but a brief time after her marriage. Inheriting in a large measure the habits of thrift characteristic of his New England ancestors, he started life for himself two years before attaining his majority, having as his initial eapital a horse on which he realized fifty-five dollars. His first purchase was twenty-six acres of land on the Kaw Valley bottoms. Sueeess attended his every effort, his subsequent investments proving profitable, and Mr. Frisbie now owns about five hundred aeres of good Kansas and Missouri land, while within the past year he has sold up- wards of twenty-one thousand dollars worth of real estate, all being farming lands. He has made good profit in growing potatoes. He is president of the Farmers State Bank, and has about thirty thousand dollars .invested in Bonner Springs property and industries. He also owns five residences and one business house in Kansas City, Missouri, and two dwelling houses in Kansas City, Kansas.
Mr. Frisbie is identified with various fraternal organizations, being a member of the Knights of Pythias; of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Bonner Springs, in which he has passed all the chairs; of the Modern Woodmen of America, of Wilder, Kansas; of the Alliance; and of others of importance. Mrs. Frisbie is a member of the Metho- dist Episcopal church.
Mr. Frisbie married, April 16, 1888, Clara J. Nichols, a daughter of Charles Nichols, a farmer, who was born in Belmont county, Ohio. and died in Johnson county, Kansas, January 21, 1909, aged seventy- seven years, and was there buried in the rural cemetery. Mr. Nichols married Sarah Branson, who died at the age of forty-six years, Novem- ber 20, 1877, in Ohio, where her body was laid to rest Two children were born of their union, Clara J., now Mrs. Frisbie, and a child that died in infaney.
Into the home of Mr. and Mrs. Frisbie five children have been horn, namely : Charles E., born June 13. 1890; a child that was born and died on January 3, 1895; Edith Adelaide, born December 12, 1897, is attending the Bonner Springs High School; Harold Lee, born Angust 8, 1902; and Wilber, born August 31, 1910.
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JOHN M. SHEAFF .- For more than three decades John M. Sheaff has maintained his home in Kansas City, Kansas, and during those years he has succeeded in building up a splendid real estate business and in gaining recognition as a citizen whose loyalty and public spirited interest in all matters affeeting the general welfare has ever been of the most insistent order. Mr. Sheaff was born at Davenport, Iowa, the date of his nativity being the 13th of March, 1861. He is a son of Philip and Annie (Mecartney) Sheaff, the former of whom was born at Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and the latter in the vicinity of Lancaster, that state. In 1860 the father removed, with his wife, to Cedar county, Iowa, where he was identified with agricultural pur- suits during the ensuing eight years, at the expiration of which he re- moved to Shenandoah Valley, in Virginia, where he likewise followed farming and where he resided during the remainder of his life. He
was a stalwart Republiean in his political proclivities and in a frater- nal way was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He was the father of five children-three sons and two daughters, four of whom are living at the present time, in 1911. Philip Sheaff was called to eternal rest in 1908, and his cherished wife passed into the Great Beyond in 1897.
John M. Sheaff was a child of but seven years of age at the time of his parents' removal to the Old Dominion commonwealth, and there he proseented his studies in the district schools, and the Front Royal High School from which he graduated in 1880. Ile assumed the active responsibilities of life as a school teacher and was engaged four winters in that profession in Virginia and at Belton, Missouri. Later he re- moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where he secured employment in a dry goods store, continuing therein until 1888. During the following
two years he was in business in that city with George H. White, and at the close of that period, in 1890, he came to Kansas City, Kansas. For a time after his arrival in this city Mr. Sheaff was engaged in the real estate business with Mr. White, but in 1894 he severed his alliance with that gentleman and engaged in the real estate business on his own account. He has been very successful in this line of enterprise and in addition to advaneing his own individual interests he has also done a great deal for general progress and prosperity and for the general wel- fare of Kansas City, Kansas.
On the 12th of August, 1891, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Sheaff to Miss Nina White, who was born at Coldwater, Michigan, and was reared to maturity at Evanston, Wyoming, whither her parents had removed when she was a mere child. She received her education there and at Grinnell College, Iowa. She is a daughter of Charles M. and Evelyn White, both of whom were born in the state of New York and who are now residing at Pocatello, Idaho. The former is a brother of George H. White. Mr. and Mrs. White became the parents of five children, of whom Mrs. Sheaff was the first born and one of two daughters. Mr. White is a lawyer by voeation and has given most efficient service as attorney at Evanston, Wyoming, and was a state representative for several years. Mr. and Mrs. Sheaff have three daughters, namely : Bessie, whose birth occurred on the 20th of July, 1892; Meta, born on the 27th of March, 1893; and Ruth, whose natal day is the 10th of July, 1901.
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In his political convictions Mr. Sheaff is a stanch advocate of the principles and policies promulgated by the Republican party and while he has never manifested aught of ambition for the honors or emolu- ments of public office of any description he is ever on the alert and enthusiastically in sympathy with all projects advanced for the well being of the city and county. Ile is affiliated with the Mercantile Club, and in his religious faith is a devout member of the Presbyterian church, to whose charities and benevolences he has ever been a most liberal contributor. Mr. Sheaff is a man of unusual executive ability and tremendous vitality and in all the walks of life he has so condneted himself as to command the unalloyed confidence and esteem of his fellowmen.
JAMES GALVIN .- In Wyandotte county there are representatives of every nationality and for the most part the foreigners prove them- selves good citizens. Amongst these foreigners are people from Ire- land, (if we may speak of the Irish as foreigners) one of the most beautiful countries of the world. The scenery is pieturesque, the wild beauty of the hills contrasting with the more placid beauty of the river districts. Unfortunately, however, a man cannot live on scenery and there is a great deal of poverty in Ireland, where a man who has no inherited wealth has a hard time acquiring it. That is the reason that men of enterprise, like James Galvin of Quindaro township, come to America, where they have a chance to sink or rise on their own merit.
James Galvin was born in Kings county in the central part of Ireland, in May, 1827. Ile went to school in his native country and then tried to get a start in a business way, but saw nothing a head of him but a life of toil for a bare living. He lingered on until he was twenty-five years old, when he decided to try his fortune in the United States. In 1852 he landed in New York and went to Syracuse, where
he stayed for four years. He next went to Ottawa, Illinois, where he lived for two years, doing farm work. Then he went to Davenport, lowa, worked in the lumber yard for one summer and then came to Wyandotte county in 1857, where he engaged in farming until the Civil war broke out in 1861. He was one of the first to enlist in the army of the north. He enrolled at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in the Tenth Kansas Infantry and was there mustered into service. He took part in many battles, notably those fonght at Newton, Prairie Grove, Arkansas and Kane Hill, Arkansas. He remembers distinctly the battles of Vicksburg, Nashville, Franklin and Mobile in the army of the Cumberland. He remembers Spanish Fort and Fort Blakesley on March 9, 1865. Mr. Galvin was wounded from a shot in the leg at the battle of Franklin and was in the hospital about two months. After the close of hostilities, he was mustered out at Montgomery, Alabama, from which place he got transportation to Leavenworth, where he re- ceived his pay. With the money earned by his very blood, he bought fifty acres of land in Quindaro township. It was very wild, uneulti- vated land, covered with timber and underbrush; there was not a road to his place, but he set to work with the same determination which had carried him through hardships while in the army. Ile built a little log cabin which he divided into two rooms; this constituted his home for a number of years, when he built the home where he now lives on the
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Parallel road. He added to his property by degrees, until he had two hundred and ten aeres. He found this more than he wanted to man- age himself, however, and sold part of it, now owning ninety acres.
In 1865, after the war was over, he married Mary McGurgan. She was the daughter of Patrick MeGurgan, an Irishman like himself. Mrs. Galvin died in 1904, having borne ten children, as follows: William, Henry, Catherine, now Mrs. T. D. MeGraph; Thomas and Rose, twins; Margaret, Lizzie, James, Frank and Jane. All ten children are living.
Mr. Galvin is a member of the Old Settlers' Association. He is also a member of the Catholic church at Delaware. He may well feel that his coming to America was a good move for him. He has gained a position that he would never have had in his own country. Ile has retired from active work on the farm and lives there in contentment, surrounded by his children, who never tire of hearing him tell about his experiences in the army. The battles he was in are nothing but a list of names to outsiders, but to him each name recalls scenes of blood- shed, horror and bravery such as cannot fully be described. He is known all over the county and is universally respected.
CHARLES C. ENSLEY .- One of those thriving and well managed con- eerns which add in material fashion to the general prosperity and com- mercial prestige of the city is that of Ensley & MeKay, dealers in glass and paint, of which firm Mr. Charles C. Ensley is a member. Although still a young man in years, he has already given proof of no small amount of ability and the business with which he is identified has ex- perienced a sound and wholesome growth. In the legitimate channels of trade he has won the success which always crowns well directed labor, sound judgment and untiring perseverance, and at the same time he has concerned himself with the affairs of the community in an ad- mirably public spirited fashion.
Mr. Ensley is a native son of the state, his birth having occurred in Greeley, Anderson county, December 30, 1885. He is a son of Nelson S. and Mary (Varner) Ensley. Nelson S. Ensley's birthplace was Franklin county, Kansas, and the date of his nativity July 26, 1860. His parents were John and Hattie (Allen) Ensley, the former a native of Hebron, Lincoln county, North Carolina, his birth occurring in 1830 and his demise in 1887; and the mother born in Blount county, Tennessee, in 1833, and dying August 25, 1899. The subject's grand- parents were married near Marysville, Tennessee, and the four sons who came to bless their union were James A., Isaae A., John K. and the subject's father. The first son was born in Tennessee; the second in Illinois, shortly after the removal there; the third had Iowa as a native state, the family going there from Illinois; and Nelson S., youngest member of the quartet was born in Kansas, where this some- what roving family finally set stakes. They located in Franklin eoun- ty about the year 1858, the father being one of the pioneers in that section of the Sunflower state. HIe secured a most desirable homestead of one hundred and sixty acres and from time to time increased it by buying additional tracts, until his holdings represented about six hun- dred acres. Here he engaged sueeessfully in general agriculture and stoek raising and set out what developed into one of the finest apple orchards for many miles around. He was a prominent citizen and
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acted as justice of the peace for many years; while other offices to which he gave efficient service were those of township trustee and member of the school board. He was one of the founders of the Presbyterian church and in polities was a Whig, later, upon the organization of the new party, becoming a Republican. He was an abolitionist in convie- tion and a firm supporter of the Union canse at the time of the Civil war.
Nelson S. Ensley was reared in Kansas and upon coming to man's estate married Mary Varner, the date of their nuptials being February 17, 1885, and the place of its celebration Muscatine, Iowa. The mother is a native of Muscatine and a daughter of Harvey and Phoebe (Ridge- way) Varner, both native Iowans and both deceased. Mrs. Ensley has one brother, William. Mr. Varner, the father, was born on the old homestead in Iowa and there has spent all his days. He was deputy sheriff of his county at the time of his death and was chief of police at Muscatine, Iowa. Ile assisted in the support of the Metho- dist Episcopal church and was Republican in polities. During the great conflict between the states Mr. Varner served in the Iowa cavalry and after the war he became a prominent member of the Grand Army of the Republie.
Mr. Ensley's father received his education in the public schools of Franklin county, Kansas, and until the age of twenty-five years was engaged in the great basic industry. He then made a radical change of occupation and entered the field of general merchandise and humber, locating at Welda, Anderson county and at Greeley, Kansas. Ilis identification with Kansas City, Kansas, dates from the summer of 1891, although his first residence in this city was of brief duration, he devoting something over a year to the management of his real estate holdings. In the winter of 1893, he removed to Memphis, Tennessee, and there accepted a position with the Citizens' Electric Railroad which he retained for four years. In November, 1897, he returned to Kan- sas City, Kansas, and for twelve years was with the Metropolitan Street Railway Company in the capacity of a motorman. In February, 1910, his son having organized the business of Ensley & MeKay, Mr. Ensley, senior, entered the employ of the same and has become a most useful factor in this thriving business. He and his wife have two children, a daughter Fay, being at home.
Charles C. Ensley, immediate subjeet of the review, was educated in various places, pursuing his studies in Greeley, Kansas, Kansas City, Kansas, and Memphis, Tennessee. He faced the serious issues of life at an early age, engaging with the Campbell Glass & Paint Com- pany of Kansas City, Missouri, where in his six years identification with the concern he learned all the details of the business. Being a young man of initiative and independence, of the type from which come the country's successful men, he established a business of a similar kind in association with James E. McKay and prosperity has visited their efforts.
On June 1, 1910, Mr. Ensley was united in marriage to Miss Beulah Railsback, daughter of A. W. Railsback and a native of Win- field, Kansas, their home being one of the city's delightful abodes.
Mr. Ensley has various affiliations, belonging to Fellowship Lodge, No. 1, Knights of Pythias; to the Modern Woodmen of America; to
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the Union Club; and to the Mercantile Club. In politics he is inde- pendent, esteeming the best man and the best principle far above mere partisanship. Ile and his wife are members of the Christian church.
JAMES W. CATLEY .- An essentially representative and public spirited resident of Rosedale, Kansas, is James W. Catley, who is here engaged in the general grocery business and who is also interested in railroad construction. For a number of years he has lived in Wyan- dotte county and his influence and strength of character have always been wielded toward progressive lines and for the upbuilding of this great western commonwealth. Ilis success in life is not attributable to any element of chance, but on the contrary to a persistent purpose and a marked determination to forge ahead.
A native of England, James W. Catley was born at Leeds, on the 15th of June, 1863, and is a son of Amos and Sophia (Pickard) Catley, the latter of whom is deceased. The Rev. Amos Catley is pastor of the First Episcopal church of Annapolis, Maryland. In 1869, when James W. was a child of but six years of age, the Catley family immi- grated to America and located in Philadelphia, where until 1876 the father was pastor of an Episcopal church in that city. Immediately after the close of the Centennial Exposition of 1876 the family came west and located in the state of Kansas. However, residence was maintained here but a few months, the family then returning to their native land-England-where the mother passed on to the Undis- covered Country.
In the public schools of Philadelphia and in those of England James W. Catley, of this review, received his preliminary educational training, which was later supplemented very effectively by a goodly course of instrnetion in the school of experience. At the time of the Russian scare, young Catley entered the civil service branch of the British navy and gave service to that institution for a period of nine years. In that time he assisted in the construction of railroads he- 1ween Jaffa and Damascus, Sydney and Melbourne, New South Wales, Adelaide, South Australia, and Malta, and Auckland, New Zealand. In 1891 he determined to return to America and in that same year came again to Kansas, bringing with him a bride. After his arrival in this state he entered the employ of the Rock Island Railroad Company as car inspector, and continued as such for a period of seven years, at the expiration of which he began to work for the Santa Fe Road, his headquarters being at La Junta, Colorado, where he was chief car in- spector and general car foreman. He served in the latter position for five years and then began to work for the Frisco system as car inspee- tor and general car foreman. Ile served in the latter position for five years and then began to work for the Frisco system as car inspector at Memphis, Tennessee, where he was also assistant foreman for some three years. In 1905 he resigned his position with the Frisco Com- pany in order to take charge of the Missouri Pacific Railroad yards on the East Bottoms of Kansas City, where he remained one year. He is now with the Missouri, Kansas & Topeka Railroad Company as rar carpenter, his headquarters being at Rosedale. For a time he was deputy marshal in Phillips county, Kansas, and in that office he served with unusual ability and efficiency.
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In 1908 Mr. Catley opened up a grocery store at Rosedale, this being located at 1143 Kansas City avenue. His present location is a leased property, but in a short time he will be upon more independent footing, the ground and building materials being already purchased for a new store and residence building at the corner of Merrian Boule- vard and Argentine Road, a most desirable and advantageous location. The Catley store is one of the most select establishments in the eity and caters to a very fastidious trade. In his political adherency Mr. Catley is aligned as a stalwart supporter of the cause of the Socialist party, in the ranks of which he is a most active and zealous worker. There is something fine about a man who thus allies his forces with the minority faetion and manifests the courage to stand by the principles he believes to be just. He is a valued and appreciative member of the Triple Tie Benefit Association, and his religious affiliations are with the Baptist church, to whose charitable work he is a most liberal contribu- ter. He is a strong advocate of labor rights and is president of Lodge No. 364, Railway Carmen, and vice president of the Joint Protective Board of Railway Carmen for the Missouri, Kansas & Topeka Railway Company. In January, 1907, Mr. Catley edited and published a pamphlet under the name of "Truth," in which he showed the work- ings of the Democrats and Republicans inside the Socialist party, said pamphlet being circulated in every state of the Union.
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