USA > Kansas > Wyandotte County > History of Wyandotte County, Kansas, and its people, Vol. II > Part 31
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Mr. Barben is a native of Switzerland, where his birth oeeurred in 1862. His parents, Sam and Mary Barben immigrated to America in 1879, eoming direct to Kansas, where they bought a large farm near Lawrence on which they lived for many years and where they died. They were the parents of seven children, all born in Switzerland, six of whom are living. as follows: Samuel. Elmer, Gus, Fred. Maud, now Mrs. Frank Hickoek, and John.
Gns Barben is the third son of his parents. He passed his boy- hood days in his native country, where he obtained his edneational training and when he had passed his seventeenth birthday he aecompan- ied his parents, brothers and sister to the United States. He eame direct to Kansas City. Missouri, and one year later, in 1879. he took up his residence in Wyandotte county. Six years later he established a dairy business in Rosedale and during the seventeen years of its eon- tinnance he was regarded as a remarkably successful dairyman. In 1902 he sold his dairy business and bought property on Kansas avenue. Rosedale, where he built a large business block, opened a general store and proceeded to build up his business. He handles everything in the
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way of grain, hay, coal, wood, groceries, fresh meat, etc., and aims to sell only high grade prodnets at the lowest possible prices. During the nine years which have elapsed since he opened his store the trade has steadily increased, a sufficient indication of the satisfaction he gives to his numerous patrons. He is now building a very handsome ten room residence, which will soon be ready for occupancy.
Mr. Barben married Miss Mary Kettler in Kansas City, Missouri, a native of Germany, although her girlhood was almost entirely spent in America. She is the mother of four children, Charles, Samuel, Emma and Sophia. The eldest son, now a promising young man of twenty-four years, at the conclusion of his public school training. entered his father's store as his assistant, was later taken into partner- ship and now practically has full charge of the business.
Mr. Gus Barben is a member of the Lutheran church. He has not aligned himself with any political party, as he prefers to vote inde- pendently. selecting with great care the man he believes the most suit- able for the office.
.ADAM L. STURTZ .- One of the prominent and important concerns engaged in the real estate and loan business in Kansas City, Kansas, is the Grand View Realty Company, whose extensive and well directed operations have had potent influence in furthering the development and upbuilding of the city and its environs. Of the business of this com- pany Mr. Sturtz is manager, and he has handled its affairs with marked ability and cirenmspection, the while he has gained secure prestige as one of the alert and progressive citizens of Wyandotte county, where he is well known and distinctively popular.
Mr. Sturtz claims the fine old Buckeye state as the place of his nativity. though he has been a resident of Kansas from the days of his youth. He was born at Coshocton. Ohio. the judicial center of the connty of the same name, and the date of his nativity was January 19. 1862. He is a son of Adam and Jane (Wiggins) Sturtz, the former of whom was born in Pennsylvania. of stanch German lineage, and the latter of whom was a native of Ohio. Of the ten children seven are living, and he whose name initiates this review was the ninth in order of birth. The father was a millwright by trade and followed this vocation until about 1881, when he removed with his family to Kansas and numbered himself among the pioneers of Stafford county, where he secured a homestead elaim of government land and developed a pro- ductive farm. Both he and his wife lived up to the tension of the pioneer epoch in the history of this state, but he eventually reaped generons rewards from his efforts in connection with the development of the agricultural resources of the county in which he thus early estah- lished his home and in which he was an honored and influential citizen. ITe was a stanch Republican in polities and both he and his wife were earnest and consistent members of the United Brethren church. He was seventy-four years of age at the time of his death and his devoted wife was summoned to the land of the leal when seventy-five years of age.
Adam L. Sturtz gained his early education in the publie schools of his native state and was about seventeen years of age at the time of the family removal to Kansas. At Stafford, this state, in the station
a L Sturz
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office of the Missouri Pacific Railroad, he learned the art of telegraphy, and he continued in the employ of this railway company for sixteen and one-half years, during the major portion of which period he was station agent and telegraph operator at Anthony, the county seat of Harper county.
In 1897 Mr. Sturtz came to Kansas City, and somewhat later he formed a partnership with S. A. Darrough and engaged in the real. estate business. With this line of enterprise he has since continued to be aetively and snecessfully identified and he has been concerned with the development of many additions and sub-divisions of the metropolis of Wyandotte county. In 1903 he platted thirty acres in West Ar- mourdale, this county; in 1906 he platted the attractive Wallace Place, in which he erected ninety houses; in 1908 he platted and improved the subdivision of Grandview Park, known as the Jacob Dodd property ; and he has been identified with the development of other eligible and attractive subdivisions in which most desirable investments have been offered for residence purposes. Mr. Sturtz is an authority in the matter of real estate values in this section of the state and has never lacked the courage to exploit his various enterprises and bring them to successful issne. Ile is manager and owner of the Grandview Realty Company, which handles fine properties in Grandview and other sections of the county and which also makes a specialty of rentals and insurance. Its offices are located at Tenth street and Central avenue, Kansas City, and the business of the coneern has been signally prosperous under the effective executive direction of Mr. Sturtz. In politics he is a stalwart supporter of the cause of the Republican party and is well fortified in his opinions as to matters of public importance. In the spring of 1904 he was elected a member of the city council of Armourdale, a suburb of Kansas City, and while serving in this office he did effective work in favor of the granting of the gas franchise, the construction of the inter- city viaduct and other progressive measures. He is thoroughly loyal to his home city and county and is ever ready to lend his aid in sup- port of measures and enterprises tending to conserve civic and material progress. He is a viee president, director and examiner of loans of the Fidelity State Bank, and has other local interests of substantial order.
On the 8th of April, 1883, Mr. Sturtz was united in marriage to Miss Mary T. Creeraft, who was born in Ohio but who was a child at the time of her parents' removal to Indiana, where she was reared and educated. In that state her father, Enoch Crecraft, passed the re- mainder of his life. Mr. and Mrs. Sturtz have three daughters, con- cerning whom the following brief data is given: Fern, is the wife of F. W. Brown, assistant cashier in the Kansas City offices of the Missonri Pacific Railroad; Orpha, is the wife of Clyde R. Clift, agent for the same railroad in Kansas City, Kansas; and Indina, remains at the parental home, all of the daughters having been afforded excellent educational advantages and all are popular in the social circles with which they are identified.
BELTON J. LUTHER .- Honesty is the best policy. . That truism has been corroborated and vindicated and exemplified many times. Per- haps the one characteristic that is most conspicuons in Belton J.
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Luther is his absolute honesty. He believes it to be the best policy, but that is not his reason for being honest. It is a question whether anyone who is honest simply from policy ever succeeded very much. Mr. Luther is honest simply because his nature will not permit him to be anything else.
Belton J. Luther was born in Georgia in 1871. His father, Sam- uel Luther, was born in North Carolina in 1835, and was a farmer in that state. IIe served for three years in the Civil war in the Confeder- ate army and after the war was ended found his home all broken up and so removed to Tennessee. He was a Democrat in polities, and a member of the Methodist church, and was a very good man. He died in 1873. His wife was Martha Hawkins and she survived him twenty- eight years, departing this life in 1901.
Belton J. Luther was only two years old when his father died and he was brought up very lovingly and carefully by his mother and his ten brothers and sisters, seven of whom are now living, 1911. He at- tended the public schools in Tennessee and worked on the farm besides. In 1892, when he was twenty-one years old, he came to Wyandotte county, Kansas, and seeured a farm at Bonner Springs where he was most successful. He now has forty aeres of land which is located on the rock road known as the Parallel, and he is a well known and respected citizen of Wyandotte county and during the twenty years he has lived here has made many friends.
In 1899 Mr. Luther was married to Miss Rosa Montgomery, a young lady of Wyandotte county, whose father was a farmer. The prosperity of a nation depends upon a large proportion of its people cultivating the soil. Mr. Luther, as one of the farmers of Kansas is an important factor in aiding the agricultural interests of the United States. There is no line of work which so readily shows the results of one's labors as in farming. Mr. Luther has worked hard and has already reaped some results and doubtless will prosper still more.
WILLIAM H. DANIELS .- Wyandotte county, Kansas, figures as one of the most attractive, progressive and prosperous divisions of the state, justly claiming a high order of citizenship and a spirit of enter- prise which is certain to conserve consecutive development and marked advancement in the material upbuilding of this section. The county has been and is signally favored in the class of men who have con- tributed to its development along commercial and business lines, and in the latter connection the subject of this review demands recognition, as he has long been identified with business interests of broad seope and importance in Kansas City, Kansas. Ile is engaged in the livery and undertaking business and his methods demonstrate the power of activity and honesty in the business world.
William H. Daniels was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on the 23d of October. 1864, and he is a son of Richard and Bridget (Comfort) Daniels, both of whom were natives of Ireland, the former having been born in county Tipperary and the latter in county Kilkenny. The father was summoned to the life eternal in 1903, at seventy-five years of age, and the mother passed into the Great Beyond on the 13th of May, 1910, when past her eightieth year. Richard Daniels immigrated to America from his native land in the early '40s, and after arriving
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in the United States he located in the state of Indiana, whence he later removed to Kansas City, Missouri. Subsequently he settled in Johnson county, Kansas, where he was identified with the great basie industry of agriculture during the remainder of his active career. He passed the closing years of his life in Kansas City, Kansas. He was a stanch adherent of the principles and policies promulgated by the Democratie party in his political affiliations and religiously he was a devont communieant of the Roman Catholic church. Mr. and Mrs. Daniels were the parents of eleven children, eight of whom are living at the present time (1911) and of whom the subject of this review was the fifth in order of birth.
Reared to the invigorating discipline of his father's farm in Johnson county, Kansas, Mr. Daniels waxed strong in connection with the work and management thereof and his early educational training consisted of such advantages as were afforded in the district schools. Later he attended school in Kansas City, Kansas, and in 1886 he en- gaged in the livery and undertaking business in this place. IIe has continued to be identified with those lines of enterprise during the in- tervening years to the present time and his well conducted establish- ments cater to the best trade in the city. For a period of three and a half years Mr. Daniels served with all of efficiency on the police and fire com- mission of Kansas City and in 1905 he was elected one of the commission- ers on the Kaw Valley Drainage district of Wyandotte county. In 1908 he was honored by his fellow servitors with election to the office of president of the board of directors of the above commission and in that connection he acquitted himself with all of honor and distinction. In his political convictions he is aligned as a stalwart supporter of the cause of the Democratic party and while he has never manifested aught of ambition for the honors or emoluments of political office of any description, he is ever on the alert and enthusiastically in sympathy with all measures and enterprises projected for the good of the general welfare. Ile is decidedly loyal and public-spirited as a citizen and he ranks as one of the most prominent business men in Kansas City, where he is everywhere accorded the highest confidence and esteem by all with whom he has come in contact.
Mr. Daniels stands high in fraternal orders in this section of the state and he is a valued and appreciative member of the Modern Wood- men of America, in which he is connected with Wyandotte Lodge, No. 440; Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; Fraternal Aid Associa- tion ; Royal Order of Moose; and Wyandotte Aerie, No. 87, Fraternal Order of Eagles. His religions faith is in harmony with the tenets of the Catholic church, to whose charities and benevolences he has ever been a most liberal contributor. Hle is a man of fine mentality and broad human sympathy. His life has been exemplary in all respects and he has ever supported those interests which are calculated to uplift and benefit humanity, while his own high moral worth is deserving of the highest commendation. Mr. Daniels is unmarried.
PETER DAVIS HUGHES, A. M., M. D .- Engaged in one of the most exacting occupations to which a man may devote his time and energy, Peter Davis Hughes, M. D., of Kansas City, Kansas, has not only gained marked prestige as one of the foremost physicians and surgeons
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of Wyandotte county, but is widely known as a public-spirited and pro- gressive citizen. He was born, February 13, 1855, in Newport, Eng- land, and as a lad of seven years was brought by his parents, John R. and Elizabeth (Davis) Hughes, to the United States, where he was brought up and educated.
Besides his public school education, Peter Davis Hughes also re- ceived a good military training, from 1874 until 1877 serving as a pri- vate in Company B, Seventeenth Regiment, Pennsylvania National Gnards. His inclinations turning him towards the study of medicine, he was graduated, at Fort Wayne, from the Fort Wayne College of Medicine in 1884, with the degree of M. D. In 1903 he was granted the degree of A. M. by Taylor University at Fort Wayne, Indiana. Dr. Hughes began the practice of his profession at Brooklyn, New York, from there coming, in 1884, to Kansas City, Kansas. He has been a constant student since, keeping in elose touch with all of the more mod- ern methods used in his profession, taking courses in polyelinies in New York City in 1884 and 1887, and in northern Indiana in 1897. Since locating in Kansas City the Doctor has held many positions of im- portance and responsibility. From 1894 until 1905 he was professor of surgery at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Kansas City, Kansas; sinee 1892 he has been senior surgeon, and chief of the medical staff of the Bethany Hospital, which he sneceeded in having established in Kansas City, Kansas, after four years of effort. In 1906 the Doctor was given the chair of clinical surgery at the University of Kansas, and has held it until the present time. In 1890 and 1891 he was Inspector Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Agricultural Department.
In 1905 and 1906 Dr. Hughes was president of the Northeastern Kansas Medieal Society, of which he is an active member; he also be- longs to the American Medical Association, and to the Kansas State Medical Society. Fraternally he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Order of Masons being a York Rite Mason. He is also a member of the Kansas City, Kansas. Mercantile Club. Politieally the Doctor supports the principles of the Republican party and religiously he is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
Dr. Hughes married, May 10, 1885, at Fort Wayne, Indiana, Katharine Stemen, and they have one daughter, Rheua, who was born at Kansas City, Kansas.
ARTHUR THORNHILL .- In the whole of Wyandotte county there is probably no one in any walk of life who has had the advantage of so many different kinds of training as has Mr. Thornhill. A man who traveled as extensively as did Mr. Thornhill in his youth must of necessity be a broad-minded citizen, and indeed he is no exception. He has become identified with the agricultural industry of the county which he honors by his residence, and he is also connected with the real estate business of Rosedale.
Arthur Thornhill was born February 5, 1860, in one of the East India isles, where his father was a watchmaker and jeweler of some reputation. Soon after the birth of their son, Arthur, Mr. Thornhill, Sr., lost his wife, and within a few years he married again. In 1864 the little family removed from the far east and took up their residenee in England, where the Thornhill family had originated. After four
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years spent in his native land, Mr. Thornhill took advantage of a busi- ness opening on the Isle of Man and, accompanied by his wife and son, he established himself on that island. After a couple of years he again pulled up stakes and removed to South Wales, and at the end of the second year's residence in Wales he crossed the channel to Cork, the southern metropolis of the province of Munster. Four years later he removed to the northern part of the province, located in county Clare and there died, Mrs. Thornhill continuing to reside in the British Isles.
Next to the birth of Arthur Thornhill the first event of any special importance in his life was the death of his mother and at the age of four he began his wandering life. From that time until he was twenty years old he lived successively in England, the Isle of Man, South Wales, the city of Cork and county Clare, Ireland, and was educated in the public schools of these various places. In 1880 he made what has proved to be his final change of location, when he came to the United States and settled in Kansas. For three years he was in Kansas City, employed in various capacities, and in 1883, desirous of establishing a fixed abiding place for himself, he bought ten acres of land at Rosedale -land which was in a wild state, with absolutely no improvements thereon. But within the next few years he bought ten additional acres of land, built his house and barn, a greenhouse and a wind mill. He set out grapes on a portion of his farm and the balance is devoted to general crops. Mr. Thornhill has for years been a successful farmer and has recently become interested in the real estate transactions of Wyandotte county. £ His knowledge of the value of land has become so universally acceded, that his judgment is regarded as final, and he is as successful in his real estate transactions as he has been in his own farming operations.
In 1887 Mr. Thornhill married Miss Elizabeth Powelson, a native of Kansas whose mother still maintains her residence in the Thornhill home.
KARL GONSER is a young man who has already shown the mettle that is in him. Ile has already won the esteem and the good will of all who are brought in contact with him in a social or business way.
Karl Gonser was born January 18, 1887, at Cameron, Missouri. His father, Jacob Gonser, was born in Germany, where he married Anna Baumann, also a native German. Together they came to this country in 1884 and located in Missouri, where they bought a farm. He now owns one hundred and twenty acres of land and raises cattle and hogs. Mr. and Mrs. Gonser have had four children, all boys. The eldest, Fred, died when very young; Martin, the second in age is now a professor in Trinidad College of Business; Karl is the third in order of age; Nick, the youngest is living at home with his father on the farm in Missouri and together they manage the place.
Karl was brought up on his father's farm and when he was old enough he attended the district school and then the high school, also working on the farm. He did not care for farm life and at the age of nineteen he went to Leavenworth, Kansas, and worked in a grocery store. In 1910 he came to Wallula, where he engaged in the general store business for himself and is also postmaster of this little city. In politics he is a Democrat and has many opportunities to air his own
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views and hear the views of others as they meet in his store. IIis business is growing rapidly as everything in his store is up-to-date and he is well liked by all the farmers in this locality. Ile is unmarried.
R. L. TURNER .- Largely endowed with the spirit of activity and enterprise characteristic of the true-born American, R. L. Turner, of Kansas City, Kansas, is carrying on a successful business as one of the proprietors of the West Side Garage, his partner in the concern being P. T. Shortall.
Mr. Turner was born in Brown county, Kansas, in 1886, and for fourteen years has been a resident of Kansas City. Possessing much native mechanical taste and ingenuity, he began as a boy to develop his special talent, and learned the machinist's trade in Kansas City, Mis- souri, in the works of the Pope Motor Car Company. He subsequently worked as a journeyman in various shops until starting in business on his own account in the spring of 1910. Forming then a partnership with Fred Winters, he established his present garage, and the two gentlemen operated it for a year. In February, 1911, Mr. Shortall bought out the interest of Mr. Winters, and he and Mr. Turner are now carrying on a large and lucrative business, being especially well patronized.
The garage is finely equipped with a full line of cars for publie ser- vice, and has rent space for other cars. This firm keeps constantly on hand a complete line of auto supplies of all kinds, and its machine shop for auto repairing is one of the most modernly furnished, with everything needed in their line of repairing, in the city. Messrs. Turner and Shortall deal in the E. M. F. and the Overland cars, and in addition to their regular automobiles own and operate a seven-pas- senger car, keeping it exclusively for picnics and parties, it being at all times in charge of a competent and skilful chauffer. The firm employs four men, and all are kept busy in repairing or handling the many machines and attending to the wants of the many patrons of the establishment.
JOHN LLOYD has been in the dairy business for almost a quarter of a century, and it is only natural that he should be regarded as an authority on all matters pertaining to the business which he has fol- lowed for so many years. He is known throughout Wyandotte county as an industrious, upright man, and that he has succeeded is due en- tirely to his own efforts, for he was thrown on his own resourees at a very early age.
John Lloyd is a native of Wheeling, West Virginia, where he was born in 1856. Ilis father, John Lloyd, is of English birth, but of Welsh descent. He was educated in his native country, where he married and the couple immigrated to America soon after their marriage, Mr. Lloyd being engaged at the machinist trade. In 1864 he moved to Steubenville, Ohio, and in 1884 he came to Jackson county, Missouri, and the following year he rented a farm in Wyandotte county. .John Lloyd, Sr., devoted most of his time to fruit farming, and was very sue- cessful in that line of agriculture. Ile remained in that business until he died, in 1900. Of the five children who were born to Mr. and Mrs. John Lloyd, Sr., only two are living now, John, JJr., and his sister,
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Rebeeea, who is married to Mr. John Ashbaeh and lives at Coffeeville, Kansas. Mr. Lloyd was married a second time to Caroline Young, and they had no children of their own, but they took a boy into their home when he was but two weeks old, naming him Robert Lloyd, and have treated him as an own son.
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