USA > Kansas > Wyandotte County > History of Wyandotte County, Kansas, and its people, Vol. II > Part 36
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JOHN EDWIN ANDERSON .- The record of this excellent citizen and enterprising contractor and builder is written in the development and improvement of Kansas City, Kansas, the city of his home, in phrase so substantial and enduring that no one can overlook it in even a casual observation. He is a native of Sweden, where he was born on January 22, 1867, and he brought to this country at the age of eighteen the in- domitable energy and sterling manhood of his race, which became the terror of Europe in war under Gustavus Adolphus, and opened to the world some of the inner courts of the Temple of Science through the masterly penetration of Swedenborg.
Mr. Anderson is in all respects a self-made man. Nature gave him commanding attributes of insight, application, courage and self-reliance, then threw him on his own resources at an early age to work out his own destiny and make his way in the struggle for supremacy among men. He is a son of Andrew and Charlotte (Carlson) Anderson, who were also born and reared, educated and married in Sweden, and never lived in any other country. The father died in 1901, aged seventy-five years. The mother is still living in her native land, at the advanced age of eighty-three years. At the age of ten the son took up the battle of life for himself as a hired hand on a farm in the neighborhood of his home. At the end of a year he left his unpromising engagement, returned to the city where his parents lived and became apprenticed to a Mr. Dholdren to learn the brick layer's trade. After finishing his apprenticeship and working a year or two at the trade in his native land, he came to the United States, in 1885, when he was but eighteen years old, making the trip unaccompanied by relative or friend of any degree. He came at once to Kansas City, Kansas, and here he found a congenial home and a fruitful field for the employment of his skill as a mechanic and his acumen and fine capacity as a business man. The rest of the story
could easily be outlined in a few plain sentences. There was a struggle with difficulties and obstacles, an experience of privation and hope de-
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ferred, a steady improvement in conditions and finally extensive and highly gratifying success, with all of worldly comfort and esteem and consequence among men which such success involves and embodies.
But the story is not wholly a plain one. The difficulties and ob- stacles were met and mastered with a determined spirit and native re- sources ready for any requirement. The privation and delay were borne with patience and cheerful confidence. The success is enjoyed without ostentation and used for the good of the community. Mr. Anderson soon began putting up houses on his own account and selling them when completed. This method of procedure he followed almost exclusively for a number of years. But his superiority as a builder attracted wide attention, and the demands upon him to superintend the construction of buildings for other persons became more and more frequent and in- sistent, and through these demands many of the most massive and impos- ing structures in the city have grown to enduring solidity and artistic beauty under his direction. He built the Stock Yards Exchange build- ing, the Rialto building, the Mernger building, the Westport high school building, and many others, the total cost of their construction running into millions of dollars. Recently he decided to confine his operations to contracts which he secured himself, and now (1911) has three large buildings in course of erection under this arrangement, with plans for additional ones in view.
Deeply and earnestly interested as Mr. Anderson is in all that per- tains to the progress and development of his adopted land, he is still strongly attached to the people of his native country and eager to do all he ean to advance their prosperity and contribute to their happiness. This feeling has led him to become an active member and the president of the Nordes Venner Swedish Society in his home city, which has bound the Swedish men of the community into an effective organization for their common advantage and social enjoyment in frequent meetings and occasional festivities. On October 24, 1889, in Kansas City, Kansas, he married with Miss Emma M. Blumquist, a daughter of Johannes and Anna Blumquist, esteemed residents of that city. Two sons were born of the union, both of whom have been given excellent facilities for seeur- ing good educations. The older, Carl Edwin, whose life began on December 17. 1894, was graduated from the Kansas City high school in June, 1911. The second son, William McKinley, is still attending sehool. Their mother died on April 16, 1909, at the age of forty-two years, she having been born in 1867, in Oregon, Ogle county, Illinois. On April 15, 1911, the father contracted a second marriage, uniting himself with Miss Anna Landen, a daughter of Vogman and Susanna (Jasperson) Landan, all natives of Sweden and worthy representatives of its people.
One of the most estimable and admired traits in the character of Mr. Anderson is his strong filial devotion to his aged mother. He ar- ranges for her comfort and freedom from care in life and contributes to her happiness in every way he can. In 1907 he made her a visit of several weeks, finding her as active and energetic as in her earlier life, and eager to accompany him in his trips all over the country. She entered into the spirit of the journeying with as mueh ardor as he had himself, and equaled him in enduring its sometimes wearying exactions. His home at 713 Lafayette avenne is a fine modern dwelling built by himself.
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DENNIS WALSH is the oldest dairyman in Wyandotte county, as he has been in the business for thirty-two years, during which time he has steadily increased his business. He has not, however, been a dairyman all of his life, as when he first came to America from Ireland, he was a farmer; then he was employed by the railroad company, as a laborer. Then back he went to the farm again, later was employed by the city, but finally he returned to the farm and dairy life as one in which he would spend the rest of his days.
Dennis Walsh was born in county Kerry, Ireland, in 1844, and is the son of John Walsh and Mary (Enright) Walsh, likewise natives of the Emerald Isle, where they spent their entire lives, and where they are now buried. John Walsh was reared to manhood in county Kerry, where he was a farmer, and there he brought up his six children, of whom Dennis is the youngest in order of birth. Mr. Walsh, Sr., never succeeded in accumulating much of this world's goods, and his son, Dennis, felt that he should like to do more than make a mere living. He was educated in the schools of his native county, and when he reached the age of nineteen he broke away from family restraints and took pas- sage for America in an old sailing vessel. The voyage was long and dreary, but with the enthusiasm of youth, the young man thought only of the glorious future of the new world for which he was bound. He landed in the United States in 1863, when the whole country was torn by the conflict of the Civil war which was then progressing. He located at Xenia, the county seat of Greene county, Ohio, where he worked on a farm for a period of two years, at the end of which time he went to work for the railroad company. He next came to Johnson county, Missouri, where he again went back to agricultural work, but after an- other year spent on the farm he came to Kansas City, Missouri, where he gained employment as a laborer, and afterward was hired by the city in the capacity of a policeman for several years. In 1878 he felt that he had had enough of working for others, and if he was ever to get ahead he must get into business for himself, and he, therefore, came to Rosedale and bought one cow, which was the beginning of his dairy business. He sold the milk, and with the profit he made, he bought another cow, and continued in this way until he became the owner of forty-eight milking cows. The dairy produces more than ten hundred quarts of milk a day, some of which he sells in bulk, and the rest he puts up in bottles. He has now retired from active connection with the business, which is carried on by his son.
In 1870 Mr. Walsh married Miss Catherine O'Shea, a bonny Irish girl, a daughter of Patrick and Bridget (Griffen) O'Shea, who haled from county Kerry, Ireland, like the Walsh family. Eight children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Walsh, none of whom have married. John is the eldest, named after his paternal grandfather; next is Edward; then Dennis, his father's namesake, who died when he had reached his twenty-fourth year, and is buried in Kansas City, Missouri; the next son, James, carries on the dairy business, and at the present time he has thirty head of cows, and is doing a flourishing business; Joseph comes next in order of age, and is followed by Mary, her paternal grand- mother's namesake, then Catherine, named for her mother, and last Robert Emmet. The seven children all live at home with their father, where they are a very merry crowd.
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In politics Mr. Walsh is a Democrat, and he held his office of city police under Chief Speare during the administration of Mayor MeGec. He has lived in his present home during the last ten years, and he has reason to feel well satisfied with the result of his dairy business. He is a member of the Woodmen of the World, and formerly belonged to other fraternal orders, but he has dropped them. IIe was baptized and reared in the Catholic faith, and holds membership in the Holy Name church of Rosedale, where he has a large eirele of friends, and is greatly respected.
HENRY A. MARXEN, one of the representative farmers of Wyandotte county, Kansas, residing near Piper, was born in Leavenworth, Kansas, November 17, 1866, a son of Marx and Eva (Ochs) Marxen, both natives of Germany. Further reference to his parents will be found in the biography of his brother, Adam Marxen, on another page of this volume.
Mr. Marxen was an infant when his father moved from Leaven- worth to Wyandotte county and established the family home on a pioneer farm. Here he was reared to farm life, and here he has continued to live, engaged in agricultural pursuits. He raises the various erops common to this locality and has always given more or less attention to stock and the dairy business, in all of which he has been successful.
In 1890 Henry A. Marxen and Miss Alice Seichepine were united in marriage, and the fruits of their union are six children: Mrs. Clara Marquis, Gracie, Lee, Willie, Raymond, and Carl, and a little grandson, Henry James. Mrs. Marxen, like her husband, is a native of Leaven- worth county, where her mother still lives on a farm with the youngest son. Iler father died in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1897. Her eldest brother, Charles, has charge of the home farm. .Another brother, Frank, who married Miss Clara Lamb, lives in Leavenworth county. She has two sisters: Mrs. Annie Polfer of Leeds, Missonri, and Mrs. Emma Walker, of Leavenworth connty.
Mr. Marxen and his family are worthy members of the Catholie church. He has always given his support, politieally, to the Demoeratie party, and has served efficiently in local office, having been township treasurer six years and township trustee two years. He has member- ship in the fraternal order of the Modern Woodmen of America, Camp No. 6989.
MILES W. OTT .- Since 1889 Miles W. Ott has been most successfully engaged in the live-stock commission business at Kansas City, Kansas, and at the present time, in 1911, he is vice-president of the Woods-Egan Commission Company, one of the most prominent concerns of its kind in this state.
Mr. Ott was born in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the 17th of March, 1850, and he is a son of William A. and Eliza D. (Davis) Ott, both of whom were likewise born in Philadelphia and both of whom are now deceased, the former having been summoned to the life eternal in 1891, at the age of sixty-four years, and the latter having passed away in 1893, at the age of sixty-six years. To Mr. and Mrs. William A. Ott were born four children, three of whom are living and of whom the subject of this review was the third in order of birth. The father was reared and educated in the old Keystone state of the Union and he was
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identified with the butcher and meat business during the major portion of his active career. Hle removed west, with his family, to Kankakee, Illinois, in 1857, continuing to reside in that eity for fully a quarter of a century and removing thence to Cherryvale, Kansas, in 1882 and he passed the residue of his life at Cherryvale. Mrs. Eliza D. Ott died at the home of her daughter at Gadsden, Alabama. In politics he ac- corded a stalwart allegiance to the principles and policies of the Republi- can party and while he did not participate actively in publie affairs he was ever on the (mi vive to do all in his power to advance the best interests of the community in which he resided.
Miles W. Ott was a child of but seven years of age at the time of his parents' removal to Kankakee, Illinois, where he was afforded the advantages of the public schools and where he early became associated with his father in his meat and butchering enterprise. In 1878, how- ever, he decided to make a venture for himself and in that year he went to Winfield, Kansas, where he engaged in the meat business for the ensuing three years, at the expiration of which he removed to Fort Scott, Kansas. Thereafter, up to 1889, he was identified with the live- stock and market business-wholesale and retail trade-at Fort Scott, but in that year he came to Kansas City, Kansas, and engaged in the live- stock commission business, with which enterprise he has continued to be identified during the long intervening years to the present time. He is a business man of square and straightforward methods and is recognized and honored as such amongst all his associates. In 1911 he became an interested principal in the Woods-Egan Commission Company and of the same is vice-president. £ The Company was incorporated under the laws of the state of Missouri in 1911 and its other officers are: S. P. Woods, president ; and L. M. Egan, secretary and treasurer. This concern condnets an immense business in the live-stock commission line and is widely renowned as one of the most important factors in the Kansas City commercial world. The offices of the Company are main- tained at No. 521, 523. 525 Live Stock Exchange Building.
On the 12th of September, 1876, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Ott to Miss Bell K. Ullom, who was born in Laporte county, Indiana, and who came to Kansas City in the year 1890. Mr. and Mrs. Ott have one son, Geddes A., who is engaged in farming in Johnson county, Kan- sas, in the vicinity of Olathe. Geddes A. Ott married Miss Katherine Gallagher, who is a native of Kansas City, Missouri; they have one daughter, Helen, whose birth occurred on the 26th of December, 1903.
In a fraternal way Mr. Ott is affiliated with Kaw Lodge, No. 272. Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; and with the Ancient Order of United Workmen. Politieally he is a stanch advocate of the eanse of the Republican party. Mrs. Ott is a member of the Episcopal church. Mr. and Mrs. Ott are numbered among the most prominent and loyal citizens of Kansas City, Kansas, and no one commands a higher degree of popular confidence and esteem than do they.
AUGUST JOHNSON .- Numbered among the active and substantial business men of Kansas City, Kansas, is August. Johnson, who is held in high repute as a man and a citizen, and as one of the leading manufae- turers of monuments, mausoleums and other memorials, has established an extensive and herative patronage throughout this section of Wyan-
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dotte county, beautiful specimens of his handiwork being found in near- ly every "city of the dead" in this vicinity. He was born March 15, 1857, in Sweden, a son of Jonas and Brita Stina (Gummesdaughter) Ingermarson.
Brought up in his native land, August Johnson immigrated to America in 1881, and for three years followed, at Saint Paul, Minnesota, his trade of a stone mason, which, in connection with stone ceiling, he had previously learned in Sweden. Embarking then in the wood and coal business, he carried it on three years, when he sold out and turned his attention to the industry with which he has since been prominently identified. Coming to Kansas City, Kansas, Mr. Johnson located at 1118 Minnesota avenue, in 1906 buying his present property, which con- sists of a house, shop and two lots. Artistic in his tastes and designs, Mr. Johnson has become widely known as a manufacturer of handsome and durable monuments, mausoleums and other memorials, either in marble or granite, and in the comparatively short time that he has been in this city has won a substantial patronage, his business profits amount- ing to about five thousand dollars each year.
Mr. Johnson has been three times married. He married first, in November, 1882, Julia Solomonson, a daughter of Solomon Swanson. She died in 1892, at the age of thirty-two years, leaving one child, Lydia Johanna, wife of Charles Peterson, of Garfield, Kansas. On June 18, 1892, in Kansas City, Kansas, Mr. Johnson married Sophia Carlson, a daughter of Carl Johannesson. She passed to the life beyond March 13, 1909. Mr. Johnson married on July 24, 1910, Bettie Anderson, daughter of Andres Gemmeson.
Mr. Johnson is a fine representative of the self-made men of our day. Left an orphan when a mere child, he has made his own way in the world sinee mne years of age, his eourage, ambition and enterprise carrying him safely over all obstaeles, leading him onward and upward along the pathway of success. Ile was for a time a member of the Kansas City Lodge of Woodmen of the World, but is not now connected with any fraternal organization or affiliated with any church.
FRANK C. ROHRBACH, of Piper, Kansas, was born and reared in Wyandotte county, and for the past seven years has been successfully engaged in the dairy business. Prior to that he was for several years a, fruit grower and gardener.
As his name indieates, Mr. Rohrbach is of German extraction. His father. William F. Rohrbach, was born in Heilsbrom, Germany, in 1835. In 1853, at the age of eighteen years, he came to Ameriea, and as a farm laborer found employment at various places, and was thus ocen- pied until the outbreak of Civil war. Then he offered his service to the Union canse, and as a member of the Booneville Home Gnards fought for the preservation of the country of his adoption. At the close of the war, in 1866, he came to Wyandotte county, Kansas, and engaged in farming. In the meantime. in 1862, he married, in Mis- souri. Miss Margaret Fisher, who bore him ten children, and was the companion of his joys and sorrows until her death, in July, 1881. He died in May, 1910. Of their ten children five are still living, the record being as follows: William F., deceased : Henry J .; Mary Mar- garet ; Joseph, deceased; George, deceased; George Conrad. deceased :
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX TILDEN FOUNDATIONO
Jacob Baum
2
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
Frank C., the subject of this sketch; Christina Henrietta; Theodore A., deeeased; Adolph J.
Frank C. was born May 5, 1874. His father being a farmer, his boyhood days were spent in farm work and in attendance at the dis- triet school. Later he took a course in a commercial college. While farming, fruit growing and dairying have successfully claimed his attention, they have received his best efforts with the result that a fair share of success has been his.
Mr. Rohrbach has been married twice. By his first wife, Miss Minnie Ochs, he has two children, Carl and Katy. The present Mrs. Rohrbach, formerly Mrs. Aribel (Thompson) Mccown, is a native of Iowa, and a daughter of "Unele Mose" Thompson, for many years a prominent commission man in the stock yards at Kansas City, Missouri, now deceased. The three children by her former husband are: Viola E., Grace and Earl.
Mr. Rohrbach was reared a Intheran, his parents being of that faith, and he is a member of the Lutheran church. Also following in his father's footsteps as regards politics, he affiliates with the Demo- cratie party. Ile is a charter member of the Roger Sherman Masonic Lodge, No. 369, located in Kansas City, Kansas, and he is also a member of the Knights of Tented Maccabees, No. 10, of Kansas City. He has always taken an interest in public affairs, is liberal in his views, and is of that makeup which constitutes the reliable, worthy citizen. He has filled such local offices as trustee of Wyandotte township and member of the school board. Ile has three and one-half acres of land at the city limits of Kansas City, Kansas, and he is a model farmer in his township, as every detail of the farm indicates.
JACOB BAUM, the proprietor and manager of the Geyser Mineral Springs is a man who is not only a benefactor to the people of Wyandotte county, but to the people at large. Although of course he runs his business on a financial basis, yet he is most humane in his dealing with patients and there are many who have laeked the necessary funds who have received treatments gratis. He does not publish these good deeds, but the recipients of his kindness are deeply grateful to him.
Mr. Baum was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, December 29. 1867, the son of John and Henrietta (Ackerman) Baum. The Ackermans were the founders of the mineral springs resort and when Mr. and Mrs. Ackerman died the springs were left to the estate.
Jacob Baum came to Kansas City with his parents in 1873, when he was but five years old and he was educated in the public schools of Kan- sas City. He had always shown a great deal of aptitude for raising plants and vegetables and after he left school he took up market garden- ing, running a little establishment of his own. Later he received a good position as superintendent of a fruit farm in Porkville, which position he held for ten years, at the end of which time, desirons of reaping the profits of his own labor, he bought a farm at Holliday, Kansas, which he ran very successfully for several years. In 1904 he sold his farm and bonght ont the mineral springs from the Ackerman estate, located on South Rosedale avenue, just at the foot of the bluffs and on the banks of Turkey creek. After he made the purehase he had the springs dug to a depth of six hundred and fifty feet, and, finding the analysis justi-
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fied his belief in the curative powers of the water, he erected some bath- houses on the property. The waters are beneficial for many diseases and are used for drinking as well as for bathing purposes. He has trained attendants who give massage treatments to men and women and has erected a bottling plant, where he puts up mineral and distilled water and everything in the way of flavored sodas. The plant covers about four acres and the grounds are laid ont as a park, Mr. Baum hav- ing used his experience gained in farming by applying it to floriculture. The result is a park of great beauty in which are planted flowers in extreme profusion. Mr. Baum is making plans to erect in the near future a large hotel, modern and up-to-date, and to still further beautify and enlarge the grounds.
In the month of March, 1896, Mr. Baum married Rosa Binninger, the daughter of Leo Binninger. On June 13, 1897, a son was born to this union, his parents naming him John Leo, and he is now, 1911, attending the Rosedale high school.
Mr. Baum is a member of the Moose fraternal order and of the Woodmen of the World. He stands very high in all of these organiza- tions and is a popular man generally, respected and esteemed by all who know him. TIe has made his bath houses an ornament to the vity as well as a benefit to the siek.
DAVID FRIEDMAN is one of the city's progressive young merehants and good citizens. He comes of German stoek on both sides of the family and shares in those many excellent qualities which have made the German one of our favorite sources of immigration, Ameriea having everything to gain and nothing to lose from the assimilation of this brainy, honest and generally admirable stock, which has given to the world so many of her greatest men. The subject's parents, Jacob and Jennie Friedman, were both born in the Fatherland, the former in 1856, and their marriage occurred in Evansville, Indiana. The father came to this country when a young boy and located in Detroit, Michigan. There he entered upon his career as a factor in the world of affairs by selling goods, and subsequently removed to Evansville, Indiana, where he became established in the mercantile business. Subsequent
to this he spent two years in Illinois and his identification with Kansas City dates from the winter of 1885, sinee which time he has been en- gaged in merehandising. He is one of the publie-spirited, progressive citizens of Kansas City. In polities he has Republican tendeneies, but is independent in local affairs, ever giving his support to whichever he believes the better man and the better measure. Of the six children born to the elder Mr. Friedman and his wife, the following four are living: Etta, Lena, David and Joseph.
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