USA > Kansas > Wyandotte County > History of Wyandotte County, Kansas, and its people, Vol. II > Part 57
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academie course and was graduated as a member of the class of 1890. He proved a most receptive and appreciative student and that his advancement in scholastic lore was most substantial is shown by the fact that after his graduation he served one year as a valued member of the faculty of his alma mater. In further pursuance of the work of the pedagogie profession, he served one and one half years as principal of the grammar school at Oldtown, Penobscot county, and he then went to the city of Bangor, Maine, where he completed a course in stenography in a business college. Soon after this he made a radical change from the vocation previously followed, as he became a traveling salesman for a wholesale grocery house, and later he was similarly engaged with a tobacco company. His assigned territory in both of these connections was in New England, and he continued to be a commercial traveler until 1895, when he joined his brother Orrin L. in Kansas City. He began the study of law under the preceptorship of his brother, for whom he acted as stenographer in the meanwhile, and he also attended the evening classes in the Kansas City (Missouri) School of Law, in which he was graduated as a member of the elass of 1898 and from which he secured his coveted degree of Bachelor of Laws. He was forthwith admitted to the Kansas bar and since that time he has continued to be actively associated in practice with his brother. under the firm name of Miller & Miller. Hle is well grounded in the learning of his profession and has shown his mettle both in litigated issues in the various courts and also as a counselor. Mr. Miller is found arrayed as a staunch supporter of the cause of the Republican party and he is known as one of the progressive and liberal citizens of Kansas City. of whose advan- tages and attractions he has been fully appreciative.
In 1894 Mr. Miller was united in marriage to Miss Bessie Little- field, who was born and reared in Maine.
LEE O. CARTER .- Fortunately for the perpetual value of this publi- cation it has been found possible to accord within its pages specifie men- tion of an appreciably large percentage of the representative citizens of the county to which it is devoted, and incidentally will be found such consideration of the careers of a full quota of the leading members of the Wyandotte county bar. Altogether worthy of classification in this latter category is the well known and popular attorney and counselor whose name initiates this paragraph and who has been engaged in the practice of his profession in Kansas City. the judicial center of the county, since 1898.
Lee Owen Carter was born on a farm near Smithville, Platte county. Missouri, on the 19th of September, 1874. and is a son of Benjamin H. and Melinda A. (Vermillion) Carter, the former of whom was born in Bourbon county. Kentucky, as a scion of one of the old and honored families of that state, to which the original representative removed from Virginia, where there was a close collateral relationship between the same and the distinguished Lee family of the Old Dominion common- wealth; Melinda A. (Vermillion) Carter was born near the eity of Cincinnati, Ohio. Benjamin Carter was reared and educated in his native state, where he continued to be actively concerned with agricul- tural pursuits until 1843, when he removed thence to Missouri. About one year later, however, he went back to his native state and thence to
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Ohio, where his marriage was soon afterward solemnized. He there- after continued to reside in Ohio until 1853, when he and his family set forth for Missouri. They made the trip down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and disembarked at Liberty Landing, Missouri, whenee they made their way to Clinton county, from which they later removed to Platte county, where the father developed a fine farm and devoted the re- mainder of his aetive career to suceessful agriculture and stoek growing. There he died in 1896, at the age of seventy-four years, and no citizen of the community commanded a fuller measure of confidence and esteem. His cherished and devoted wife survived him by more than a decade and she was eighty years of age when she was summoned to the life eternal, in 1907. They had celebrated their golden wedding April 23, 1896. Of their fourteen children the subject of this review is the youngest and besides him two sons and five daughters survive the honored parents.
On the old homestead farm in Platte county, Missouri, Lee O. Carter passed his childhood and early youth under most benignant sur- roundings and influences, and in this connection he gained his initial experiences in the practical affairs of life. After completing the curriculum of the public schools of the locality he supplemented this discipline by an effective course of study in the Missouri State Normal School at Chillicothe. When seventeen years of age he engaged in teaching in the district schools, and his association with the pedagogic profession covered a period of about one year.
Having carefully formulated plans for his future life work, Mr. Carter came to Kansas City, Kansas, in 1895, and here prosecuted the study of law under the able preceptorship of the firm of Mills, Smith & Hobbs. After two years of assiduous application under these condi- tions he entered the law department of the University of Kansas, at Lawrence, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1899 and from which he received his well earned degree of Bachelor of Laws. In the previous year. however. he had been admitted to the Kansas bar. upon examination before the district court in Kansas City. In this city he initiated the active work of his profession and here he has con- tinued to follow the same during the intervening period, marked by large and definite accomplishment on his party and implying the upbuilding of a substantial and essentially representative practice of a general order. He served as assistant county attorney for two years and then formed a professional partnership with Charles D. Dail, with whom he was thus associated for three years, under the firm name of Dail & Carter. At the expiration of this period Mr. Carter was appointed referee in bankruptcy for one of the districts of Kansas, comprising eleven counties, in July, 1904, and he thereafter ably administered the affairs of this office until his retirement therefrom, in July, 1910 Dur- ing this incumbency he had also continued the aetive practice of his profession in an individual way, and since his retirement from office his substantial law business has engrossed his entire time and attention. HIe has achieved distinctive suceess in his life work and has been depen- dent upon his own resources in pressing forward to the desired goal, as he personally earned the funds with which to defray the expenses of the greater part of his academie and professional education and also to meet the expenses of his personal maintenance during this period of struggle.
Though never desirons of entering the turbulence of praetieal poli-
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ties, Mr. Carter is found aligned as a staunch supporter of the cause of the Republican party. In the Masonic fraternity he has made a noteworthy record of advancement, as he has received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite and is also affiliated with the Ancient Arabie Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. as well as with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. A man of broad mental ken and of earnest convictions, he is liberal and progres- sive as a citizen and never denies his support to measures projected for the general good of the community. Mr. Carter has not assumed matri- monial bonds, and, so far as superficial indications give assurance. he still remains "heart-whole and fancy free."
EDWARD F. BLUM .- The present efficient and honored clerk of the court of common pleas of Wyandotte county has been a resident of this county since his childhood days and is a scion of one of the sterling pioneer families of this section of the Sunflower state. His standing in his home community sets at naught all application of the scriptural aphorism that "a prophet is not withont honor save in his own coun- try." Mr. Blum has been identified with various lines of business enterprises in Wyandotte county and has also served in other positions of public trust than that of which he is now inenmbent, and he holds secure vantage ground in the confidence and esteem of the community that has represented his home during virtually his entire life thus far.
Edward F. Blum was born in the now thriving little city of Pekin, the judicial center of Tazewell county, Illinois, and the date of his nativ- ity was December 13, 1852. Ile is a son of Frederick and Henrietta (Jungk) Blum, both of whom were born and reared in Germany and the marriage of whom was solemnized in the city of St. Louis, Missouri. The father came to America in 1835, at the age of seventeen years, and his future wife was twenty years of age when she left her fatherland to come to the United States, in 1844. Both located in St. Louis, Missouri, and there they were married in the year 1849. Frederick Blum passed the closing years of his life in Kansas City, Kansas, in the section of the city then constituting the village of Wyandotte, and he was summoned to the life eternal in 1866. his widow passing away in 1879. They be- came the parents of four sons and three daughters. all of whom are living. Frederick Blum was a cooper by trade and to this line of busj- ness he devoted his attention for many years. In 1857 he removed from Illinois to Kansas and settled in the town of Wyandotte, the virtual nuelens of Kansas City. Here he continued to follow his trade until his death, and he is remembered as a man of sterling character, earnest, honest and industrious and well worthy of the esteem of his fellow men.
Edward F. Blum was four and one-half years of age at the time of the family removal to Wyandotte, and here he was reared to maturity, in the meanwhile being duly afforded the advantages of the public schools. He began to work when a lad of fourteen years of age and in all the succeeding years his application in a practical way has been unceasing, as he is fully appreciative of the diginity and value of earnest endeavor. He followed various lines of employment until 1872 and for the ensuing decade he was identified with railroad affairs, principally in a elerival capacity. For a time he was engaged in the feed and com- mission trade in Kansas City and here he was also identified with the
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real estate business for a short period. Thereafter he served four and one half years as deputy in the office of the register of deeds of Wyan- dotte county and in 1891 he himself was elected register of deeds. Ilis personal popularity was significantly shown on this occasion, as he was the only candidate on the Democratic ticket to be vietorions at the polls in the county. Ile served in this office for two years and for the ensuing two years he followed various vocations, after which he was employed in the offices of one of the large packing houses in Kansas City Kansas, for seven and one-half years. Ile again served as deputy register of deeds in 1907-8, and was then elected to his present office, the duties of which he assumed in January, 1909. His administration was most efficient and acceptable and resulted in his re-election in the autumn of 1910, for a second term of two years.
As a citizen Mr. Blum is loyal and progressive, and, as already implied, he gives his allegiance to the Democratie party. IIe has been a Master Mason for twenty-eight years, has been affiliated with the Knights of Pythias since 1874, has been a member of the Odd Fellows since April 20, 1878, and is also a popular member of Kansas City Lodge, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Both he and his wife hold membership in the Washington Boulevard Methodist Episco- pal church in their home city, where their circle of friends is coineident with that of their acquaintances.
In the year 1881 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Blum to Miss Ida M. Young, of Pomeroy, Wyandotte county, and they have two sons : Frederick H., who is deputy clerk in his father's office; and Edward Y., who is a representative young member of the bar of Kansas City. Missouri.
E. W. POINDEXTER .- There is probably no more renowned man in the insurance field than E. W. Poindexter of Kansas City. He is known not only by the insurance agents of the state of Kansas, but by insurance people all over the country. In order to be a successful insurance man one must have confidence in the value of what he has to offer, must have a pleasing personality so as to be able to approach people, and must have push and determination, not allowing one's self to be easily discouraged, but at the same time must be possessed of taet, so as to know when to drop back, for the time at least. All of these and many other qualifications Mr. Poindexter possesses to a very full extent.
Ile was born in Indiana JJanuary 8, 1854, was edneated in the public schools of Indiana and was graduated from the State University of Indiana in 1879. He paid his own way through the University by teaching school in Indiana, having tanght a part of each year for thir- teen years, when he decided to engage in the insurance business. His first insurance experienee was with the New York Life Insurance Com- pany as district agent at Vineennes, Indiana. He aceepted the general agency for Kansas of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Com- pany, and in 1885 moved to Topeka. In 1907 he moved his offiee and residence to Kansas City, Kansas.
On December 24, 1879, he married Mollie H. Hatfield, who was born in Greene county, Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Poindexter have seven ehil- dren : Clarence H., Urban H. and Marlin H., born in Indiana : Mildred.
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
Early W. Jr., Helen and Mary L., born in Topeka, Kansas. The eldest son, Clarence, attended the Topeka grammar and high school and Princeton College. After his graduation he went into the insurance business and has been associated with his father for the past five years. Ile is a director in the People's National Bank of Kansas City, Kansas. He has taken the thirty-second degree in the order of Masons and is a Republican in politics. In 1904 he married Miss Olive Gundry and they have two children, Richard G. and Jane.
E. W. Poindexter is a very prominent Mason and is regarded by them as a royal good fellow, not to mention that he is a prince among them. He is a member of Topeka Lodge, No. 17, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; of Topeka Chapter No. 5, Royal Arch Masons; of Zabud Couneil and also Topeka Commandery, No. 5, Knights Templars; and Topeka Consistory. He received the Thirty-third Degree at Washington, D. C., in 1901. Mr. Poindexter's private life is ex- emplary, he and his eldest son are unusually congenial, having so many interests in common. Politieally he is a Republican, without any aspirations for offiee.
SAMUEL BEATTIE .- Among the older and more highly respected residents of Wyandotte county is Samnel Beattie, a retired agriculturist. now living at 945 Armstrong avenne, Kansas City. A son of William Beattie, he was born October 13, 1833, in county Donegal, Ireland, where both his paternal grandparents, Samuel and Lena Beattie, and his maternal grandparents, John and Mary (Armstrong) Wilson, were life long residents.
William Beattie married, in eounty Donegal, Ireland. Nancy Wilson, a buxom Irish lassie, and they became the parents of three children. He died in 1843, when his son Samnel was a lad of ten years. His widow subsequently married for her second husband John Long, and in 1849 eame with her family to the United States, crossing the ocean in a sailing vessel, and after a tedious voyage of seven weeks landing at New Orleans. They continued their journey northward up the Mississippi river to Savanna, Illinois, thence to Freeport, Stephenson connty, where Mr. Long embarked in the grocery business, and where Mrs. Long died the following year, in 1850.
Samuel Beattie obtained his rudimentary education in Ireland. completing his early studies in the public schools of Stephenson county, Illinois. After the death of his mother he entered the employ of a cousin, clerking for him in a grocery until 1853, when he went to New Orleans. Yellow fever being then prevalent in that city, Mr. Beattie went back to Illinois, and remained there two years. In 1856 he made another trip to New Orleans, going there for medical treatment, having been crippled in his right knee. Coming to Kansas in 1858. he spent a year in Kansas City, and in 1859 embarked in mercantile pursuits at Shawnee, Johnson county, opening first a grocery, and subsequently putting in a stock of dry goods, converting it into a general store, which he operated successfully until 1863, when, in the month of October, bushwhackers, under comand of Quantrell, burned the town. Mr. Beat- tie was taken prisoner and robbed of all the money and clothing that he had. The town was again burned in the following June, and in the fall of 1863 Mr. Beattie took a stock of goods to Colorado, locating near Pueblo, where he remained until June, 1864.
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Locating then in Kansas City, Missouri, Mr. Beattie became part owner of a wagon train, which he conducted safely to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Returning to Kansas City, Missouri, he, in company with ('aptain Keeler, took the contract to open up what is now Twelfth street, from Main street to the Bottoms, being a year in completing the work. He then invested his money in land, buying five hundred acres on the Kaw river, sixty-five aeres being on the hill, and the remainder, all but thirty arres of which was covered with timber, being on the bottoms. Erecting a log cabin in an opening, Mr. Beattie began clearing the land. and until 1895 was busily engaged in tilling the soil, raising large crops of corn and potatoes, until 1895 being employed in general farming.
Mr. Beattie married, in April, 1875, Florence C. Hoffman, who was born in Wyandotte county, Ohio, a daughter of Henry and Mary Hoff- man. Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Beattie, namely : Delphine, who died in infancy; Dyssie; Bertha died when a year old; William A., engaged in the real estate business in Kansas City, Missouri ; and Evelyn. Politically a sound Democratic, Mr. Beattie served fonr years as commissioner of Wyandotte county. Fraternally he belongs to Shawnee Lodge, Ancient. Free and Accepted Masons, of Shawnee. Kansas. Religiously he is a member of the Presbyterian church.
CHARLES BLOMQUIST .- The great valley of the Mississippi and the states bordering on the Rocky Mountains in this country are deeply indebted to many varieties of citizens of foreign birth for their develop- ment and the progress they are making toward the full usefulness of their resources, and they appreciate the fact. One of the leading factors in their growth and expansion in material wealth, industrial activity. commercial greatness and mental and moral force is the Swedish element in their population. Charles Blomquist, who is a member of the lead- ing tailoring firm in Kansas City, Kansas, belongs to this element and works for the good of the city and county in which he lives with the characteristic enterprise and prudence of his raee.
Mr. Blomquist was born in Sweden on December 3, 1856, a son of Jonas and Christina (Nelson) Blomquist, also natives of that country and descended from families domesticated there for many generations. The father was a soldier in the Grenadiers and faithfullly served his country for a number of years in that capacity. He owned a small farm, to which he retired on being mustered out of the army in 1855 and on which he lived in case and comfort until his death in 1871, at the age of about seventy years. Two years after his death the mother followed her son Charles, to the United States, whither he had come the vear previous and she lived with him during the last years of her life. dying at his residence in Kansas City, Kansas, in 1910, aged ninety- five years.
Their son Charles was but fifteen years old when he came to this country in 1872, and the step was one of great daring for him. He knew but little of the world, but was well informed as to his own powers and faculties, and the knowledge gave him faith in himself and courage for the future. Ile had obtained a limited education in the state sehools of his native land. and he had acquired self reliance and independence of thought and action by depending on himself from boyhood. He was therefore well qualified to win success in this country, and from the time of his arrival on American soil he has not failed to do it.
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His first location was in northeastern Illinois, where he remained fifteen years, working at his trade as a tailor, most of the time in a town named Sandwich, about twenty miles from the larger city of Aurora, and the last five years he lived in Illinois he was in business for him- self in Sandwich. Ilis brother John, came to Kansas City, Kansas, in 1884, and established himself in the same business here. In 1877 Charles became convinced that he could do better in a larger field, and he joined his brother in Kansas City that year. They formed a part- nership in the tailoring business and have ever since been carrying it on together, expanding their trade and enlarging their operations from year to year, keeping abreast of the times in all respects and meeting in the most satisfactory way the exactions of their growing business. Their establishment is located at 607 Minnesota avenne, and is the lead- ing merchant tailoring house in the city.
Mr. Blomquist was married in Sandwich, Illinois, on December 27, 1883, uniting himself with Miss Amanda Christence Johnson, a daughter of Nels and Ingre Johnson. A native of Sweden, she came to America in 1870, two years after her father landed in this country. She and her husband have had seven children, five of whom are living: Charles Edgar, Arthur, Mabel, Carl and Ruby. A daughter named Hilldur died at the age of nine, and a son named John, at the age of five.
The father is prominent and very active in the Masonic order, hay- ing been made a Blue Lodge Mason in Sandwich, Illinois, and a Knight Templar in Kansas City, Kansas. He also belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in both Lodge and Encampment, having united with these organizations while living in Sandwich and transferred his membership to Kansas City since his residence in that city began. He is prominent in the Nordes Venner Swedish Society, of which he has been president several times and in which he has filled acceptably all the other offices. He and the members of his family belong to the English Lutheran church, and he and his brother have united their business firm with the activities of the Commercial Club of Kansas City in zealous and loyal membership.
The Blomquist brothers are great promoters of the welfare of their city and county, fostering and aiding every undertaking that will ad- vance the interests of the people or contribute to their convenience and enjoyment. They are firm believers in American institutions and have an abiding faith in the future of the region in which they live, making their faith practical and beneficial in their daily lives by giving to the community around them exeellent examples of good citizenship in the faithful performance of every public and private duty. They are everywhere esteemed as most estimable and truly representative men.
NELS A. ANDERSON belongs to the thrifty Swedish nation. He won for himself a position of trust and responsibility by reason of his good common sense, his industry and enterprise. Ile is well known and greatly respeeted in Kansas City. He was born in Sweden July 14. 1862, the son of Ander Anderson and Mary, his wife. The father came to this country in 1871, and the son came in 1882. The father first went to Des Moines, Iowa, where Ander worked as a laborer. A few years later he went to Mississippi and gained employment as a stave worker. Ile continued at this kind of work until 1888, when he joined
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
his son in Kansas City and has since then lived a retired life with his son. Ilis wife died in 1898 in Sweden.
Nels A. Anderson received his schooling in Sweden. £ In Kansas City, Kansas, he learned the blacksmith trade, and later he obtained a position with the railroad as spring maker. Hle is now employed at the Frisco shops.
In 1887, on the 14th of July, Nels A. Anderson married Carrie Olson, who was born in Sweden July 11, 1867, and was the daughter of Olaf Erickson, who had married Carrie Olson. In 1900 Mrs. Ander- son's father and mother came to live with them and in the month of April, 1901, he died. His widow went to live with her other daughter, Mrs. A. G. Anderson, of Enterprise, Kansas, and is still there. Mr. and Mrs. Nels A. Anderson have three daughters, all living at home. Selma, Edna and lIelen.
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