USA > Kansas > Wyandotte County > History of Wyandotte County, Kansas, and its people, Vol. II > Part 69
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In the year 1904 was recorded the marriage of Mr. Fisette to Miss Minnie Matney, who was born in Wyandotte county, Kansas, and who is a daughter of the late John R. Matney. Mr. Matney was one of the oldest pioneer citizens of Kansas City and Wyandotte county at the time of his demise, in January, 1911, and he was long one of the leaders in various matters tending to promote the general welfare of his home community. Elsewhere in this volume will be found a sketch dedicated to his career, so that further data at this point are not deemed essential. Mr. and Mrs. Fisette have no children. They are popular factors in connection with the best social activities of Rosedale.
Mr. Fisette is not an active participant in public affairs, as his con-
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stantly increasing law practice demands his entire time and attention. He is connected with a number of professional and fraternal organiza- tions of representative character and in all matters affecting the general welfare his loyalty and public spirit have ever been of the most insis- tent order.
CHARLES E. THOMPSON .- Presiding on the bench of the municipal court of Kansas City, district No. 2, Judge Thompson has gained preced- ence as one of the representative members of the bar of his native coun- ty, and prior to entering the legal profession he had been a prominent and successful factor in connection with educational affairs in Wyan- dotte county, where he finally was called to the responsible office of county superintendent of schools. He is a representative of one of the sterling pioneer families of the county, with whose history the name has been identified in a prominent way for more than half a century, and hoth on this score and on account of his personal accomplishment is he eminently entitled to recognition in this work.
Judge Thompson was born at Edwardsville, Wyandotte county, Kansas, on the 21st of May, 1874, and is a son of John A. and Rhoda E. (Mornock) Thompson, the former of whom was born in the state of New York, and the latter of whom is a native of England, where she was reared and educated. John A Thompson was a child of four years at the time of his parents' immigration from the old Empire state to Kan- sas, and his father, M. L. Thompson, became one of the prominent pioneers of this commonwealth, to whose development and upbuilding he contributed a generous quota. He first settled at Leavenworth, which was then but little more than a frontier military post, and about the year 1865 he removed to Wyandotte county and became one of the early settlers of Edwardsville, where he became one of the leading citi- zens of the county, within whose borders both he and his wife passed the residue of their lives. Their names merit an enduring place on the roll of the sterling pioneers of the Sunflower state. John A. Thompson was reared to maturity at Edwardsville, was afforded good educational advantages, and there he has continued to maintain his home, the while he has well upheld the prestige of a name honored in the history of this favored section of the state. He is president of the Edwardsville State Bank and is manager of the local telephone exchange, in which he is one of the principal stock holders. He has wieded much influence in the development and upbuilding of the town and county in which he has re- sided from his childhood days, and here he holds secure vantage ground in popular confidence and esteem. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party. Mrs. Thompson was born and reared in Eng- land. as has already been noted in this context, and she came to the United States when seventeen years of age, making Wyandotte county her immediate destination, and here she was a successful and popular teacher in the public schools of the pioneer days prior to her marriage. Of the four children, three sons and one dangh- ter. the subject of this review was the first born, and other than him- self one son is living, John A., Jr. The lineage of the Thompson fam- ilv is traced back to stanch English origin and the founder of the American branch was Anthony Thompson, who came to this country in 1627 and settled in New England. Representatives of the name were
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found enrolled as patriot soldiers in the Continental line in the war of the Revolution, and the family has in later generations found represen- tation in many states of the Union.
Judge Charles E. Thompson is indebted to the public schools of his native town for his early educational discipline, which included a course in the high school, and he thereafter continued his studies in the Kansas State Normal School and in Park College, Parksville, Missouri. The future judge soon put his scholastic attainments to practical test and utilization by adopting the pedagogic profession, in which he was destined to achieve mueh of success and popularity. ITe soon proved his power in this vocation and thus secured the position of principal of the Edwardsville high school, in his native town, where he thus set at naught all application of the seriptural aphorism that " a prophet is not without honor save in his own country." Later he assumed the principalship of the Armstrong school, in Kansas City, Kansas, where he continued to labor with all of zeal and efficiency until 1902, when there came further and well merited recognition of his ability and sterling character in his election to the office of county superintendent of schools. At the expiration of his first term, in 1904, he was chosen as his own suecessor, and he thus continued incumbent of this position for four con- secutive years, during which he did much to systematize and otherwise raise the standard of the sehools throughout the county in an adminis- tration that gained to him distinctive popular commendation and also the earnest cooperation of teachers and school officials. In the mean- while he has prosecuted the study of law under effective private precep- torship, and he was admitted to the bar of his native state in 1906. In the following year, upon his retirement from the office of superintendent of schools, he engaged in the practice of his profession in Kansas City, where he soon secured a substantial business, based alike on his profes- sional ability and his personal popularity in his native county. Judge Thompson is serving as municipal judge, and the duties of this office now demand the major part of his time and attention, the while he has proved himself well equipped for the position, through knowledge of the law and through the essentially judicial mind that readily determines the elements of justice and equity in cases submitted for adjudication. The Judge is a stanch advocate of the principles and policies for which the Republican party stands sponsor, and he takes a lively interest in its canse, as does he also in all things tonehing the general welfare of his home city and county. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity. the Improved Order of Red Men, the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows, the Loyal Order of Moose. and the Sons of the American Revolu- tion.
In 1908 was solemnized the marriage of Judge Thompson to Miss Rose Galvin, who is a daughter of James and Mary Galvin. Judge and Mrs. Thompson have three children : Dorothy Rhodes. Francis Howard and Marjorie.
DR. GEORGE M. GRAY, one of the advisory editors of this work, was horn at Waukegan, Illinois, March 4, 1856. His father. the late Rasselas M. Gray. mentioned elsewhere in this history, was a native of Rhode Island, and his mother. Susan "(Doust) Gray, was born in Massa- chusetts. The family moved to Quindaro in the year 1858 and per-
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THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
AUTOR, LENOX TIL DEN FOUNDATIONS
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formed an important part in the development of the city and the state. Dr. Gray is the third of the four children born to them. His early education was in the public schools of Wyandotte connty. At the age of nineteen he was a elerk in the drug store of T. J. Eaton in Kansas City, Missouri. While employed in this service he was filled with a desire to adopt the profession of medicine and surgery. He began studying under the preceptorship of Dr. E. W. Shauffler in Kansas City, Missouri, remaining there three years and taking a course in the Kan- sas City Medical College, then known as the College of Physicians and Surgeons. He was graduated in 1879. In the fall of that year he went to New York city and entered Bellevue Hospital Medical College,
from which he received a diploma in 1880. He at once returned to his home and from that year to the present time Dr. Gray has been a prac- ticing physician and surgeon, advancing from a young beginner to one of the highest places in the profession in the United States. He not on- ly has been connected with the staff of St. Margaret's Hospital from its beginning in 1887 but has rendered valuable service to the sick and in- jured in other institutions, besides having a large private practice. He has at all times exalted the healing art as the noblest of callings, and has been influential in the Kansas State Medieal Society and in the schools of medicine and surgery. Especially has he been interested in the enactment of wholesome health laws in the state and he has labored unceasingly for the advancement and the upbuilding of a great medical school in connection with the University of Kansas. Dr. Gray is a Republican in politics. He has not been a seeker after office of any kind, although his pride of city and state have at times led him to accept official positions for the accomplishment of great things. This was illustrated by his acceptance in 1906, for an unfinished term of four months, of the office of mayor of Kansas City, Kansas, but on the com- pletion of that brief service he declined to be a candidate for the office. As a citizen proud of his city Dr. Grav years ago formulated plans for a system of parks and boulevards. While president of the Mercantile Club in 1907-8 he saw his ideas incorporated in a state law and made a part of the charter of the city, and then by appointment to a membership of the Park Board he helped to put into operation the splendid system that is now developing.
MATTHEW E. PEARSON, superintendent of schools of Kansas City, Kansas, who is one of the advisory editors of this history, was born in Plainfield. Indiana, in 1862. He came to Kansas with his father, E. S. Pearson. who settled on a farm at Hesper, Douglas county. Kansas, in 1874. He was educated in the Kansas State University, receiving his bachelor's degree from that institution, and his master's degree from Baker University, Baldwin, Kansas. After teaching one year at Wallula. Kansas, he entered upon his school work at Kansas City, Kan- sas, in September. 1886, now having completed twenty-five years of servire, nine years of which he has occupied the office of superintendent of schools. During his term of office the growth of the city has more than doubled in number of schools, in the member of pupils, and in the number of teachers. He has been identified with the London Heights Methodist Episcopal church twenty-three years, and in point of service
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is the oldest Sabbath-school superintendent in the city. He is, at present, president of the Kansas State Teachers' Association.
HENRY H. KERN, who has rendered invaluable service as an ad- visory editor in the preparation of this work, is a native of Ohio, born at Cleveland in 1850. He came to Wyandotte county in 1872, locating on a farm about three miles northwest of Bonner Springs. He was early in life given to agriculture and horticulture, and the part he has taken in the advancement of these interests in the forty years residence in Kansas has had much to do with the fame of Kansas at home and abroad as among the best states in the Union. Mr. Kern not only has shown his ability as among the most successful farmers and fruit growers in the West, but his pride in his county and state has been illustrated in the many exhibits he has conducted at fairs and expositions. He was the first man to take an exhibit from a Northern state into the South after the Civil war, and he won first prize for Kansas in that exhibit at the Southern States Exhibition in Alabama in the late '70s. Before that he was assistant in charge of the Kansas exhibit at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. He was at the head of the Kansas exhibit at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago and at the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition at St. Louis. At the Cotton States Exposition in New Orleans he was in charge of exhibits. He was asked to take charge of exhibits at the Paris Exposition in 1900, but declined to serve. Mr. Kern has done more perhaps than any other living man to tell the world of Wyandotte county's wonderful agricultural and horticultural resources. He is now director of exhibits for the Missouri Valley Fair Association, whose annual events have become world wide in scope. Mr. Kern has the best fruit farm in Wyandotte county. It is one of the best in the West. He has made a specialty of nursery stock and is successful in all his undertakings.
LEWIS WALTER KEPLINGER .- Wyandotte county may well take pride in her professional men, many of whom are known for their gifts far beyond her boundaries. 7 Prominent among those who represent the Wyandotte county bar is Lewis Walter Keplinger, of the law firm of Keplinger & Trickett. Mr. Keplinger enjoys the confidence and admira- tion of the community, both as a citizen of much publie spirit and for his professional attainments. He is an untiring worker in his profes- sion. preparing his cases with the most sernpulons care and with the utmost regard for the details of fact and the law involved. Ile is a veteran of the Civil war and his military career comprises many of the most momentous events of the conflict between the states.
Mr. Keplinger was born on the 8th of August, 1841. in Morgan county. Illinois, the son of Samuel and Permelia (Green) Keplinger. He received his elementary education in the public schools and attended Illinois College at Jacksonville for one year, his studies, like those of many another young man of his day and generation, being interrupted by the outbreak of the war. IIe enlisted in August. 1861. in Company A. Thirty-second Regiment Illinois Infantry and went with his company as escort for Willand's Chicago Battery. from Fort Henry to Fort Donelson in February. 1862. and was in the final engagement which re-
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sulted in the capture of that place. From that time until the close of the war, wherever Sherman went he was present, including Vicksburg. the march to the sea, and the grand review at Washington. He enlisted as private the third day after the battle of Matamora ( Hatehie River) in which the regiment was actively engaged ; he was elected first sergeant and was mustered out as second lieutenant in September, 1865.
In 1868 Mr. Keplinger graduated at the Illinois Wesleyan Uni- versity and in the summer and fall of that year he was a member of Major O. W. Powell's exploring expedition in the Rocky Mountains and with the Powell party in August, 1868, made the first ascent ever made of Long's Peak. The names of the party were found at the summit by the next party to make the ascent some ten years later.
Mr. Keplinger read law in the office of Williams & Burr at Bloom- ington, Illinois, and was admitted to the bar in December, 1869. He began the practice of law at Humboldt, Kansas, in the spring of 1870. In 1883 he eame to Wyandotte, now Kansas City, Kansas. During the next two years and until the death of Judge John R. Goodin, he was a member of the the firm of Goodin & Keplinger. During the next seven- teen years he was in partnership with Hon. C. F. Hutchings, under the firm name of Hutchings & Keplinger. After Judge Hutchings' removal Mr. Keplinger formed a partnership with C. W. Trickett and is now a member of the firm of Keplinger & Triekett.
Mr. Keplinger was married Jannary 14, 1886, to Miss Jessie Wolfkill of Logansport, Indiana.
EDWARD A. ENRIGHT .- Of the many men who have attained emini- nence at the Kansas bar, achieving distinet success through their own ef- forts, special mention should be made in this volume of Edward A. En- right, a prominent lawyer of Kansas City. A man of broad mentality and strong personality, he has made his influence felt in legal, business and political circles, and as a man and a citizen is held in high regard. A native of New England, he was born September 11, 1858, at West Burke, Caledonia county, and grew to a vigorous manhood among the rugged hills of his native state.
Rev. Joseph Enright, his father, was born at Kilrush, county Clare, Ireland, in 1817. In early manhod he immigrated to America, the land of bright promise, crossing the ocean in a sailing vessel and land- ing in Quebec. His parents were members of the English church, and he was brought up in the same religious faith. Soon after his marriage he joined the Methodist Episcopal church, and for more than forty years thereafter was engaged in ministerial work, holding pastorates in different places. IFe died in Windsor, Vermont, in 1894. He married Catherine Weir, who was born at Waton, province of Quebec, Canada, in 1824, and died in Vermont, March 5, 1867. Nine children were born in their union, five of whom are now living, Edward A. having been the sixth child in succession of birth. After her death, Rev. Mr. Enright married for his second wife Hannah Abbott, who belonged to a prominent and well known Vermont family, and to them two children were born. both of whom are living. Mr. Enright's grandfather, Archibald Weir, a native of Scotland and a Methodist minister. lived to be nearly one hundred years old.
Acquiring his preliminary education in the common schools of his Vol. II-33
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native state. Edward A. Enright was graduated from the Windsor. Vermont, high school with the class of 1878, after which he further ad- vanced his studies at Thetford Hill Academy. In the meantime, being, de- termined to obtain a college education, he set about earning the means to do so, and worked as opportunity afforded in cotton factories or on farms, and taught evening schools. Subsequently entering the Uni- versity of Vermont, at Burlington, he was there graduated with the highest honors in 1882. Beginning his professional career as an edu- vator, Mr. Enright taught school with eminent snecess in Woodbury county, Towa, and in Boone county, Nebraska. He became prominent in edneational circles, and held positions of note in Nebraska, serving as superintendent of the Boone County schools, as president of the State Teachers' Association, and being president of the North Platte Summer Normal Institute for three years.
Taking up the study of law, Mr. Enright was admitted to the bar in 1886, and soon after located at Kansas City, Kansas, where he has since been actively and sucessfully engaged in the practive of his profession. He has ever evineed a warm interest in local affairs, and in 1890 was made chairman of the Republican committee. In 1898 Mr. Enright was elected county attorney, and held the office four years. In 1902, in November, he was elected to the state legislature, and again in 1906 had the honor of being elected to represent his district in the same law making body. Fraternally Mr. Enright is an active member of the Royal Neighbors, and has held the highest offices of that order.
On July 27. 1888. Mr. Enright was united in marriage with Myra B. Brewer, who was born in Manston, Juneau connty, Wisconsin, a dangh- ter of Henry C. and Martha Brewer, she being the oldest of a family of three children. Mr. Brewer was born and bred in New York state. while his wife was a native of England. Migrating with his family to Wisconsin, he was for awhile employed as a lumberman in Manston. From there he removed to Illinois, and a few years later settled in Red Cloud. Nebraska, where he was engaged in the grain business until his death, in 1900. His widow is now a resident of Kansas City, Kansas. Mr. and Mrs. Enright have one danghter, Myra Alice.
SAMUEL CLARKE .- In November, 1910, Samuel Clarke was elected to the office of county commissioner of Wyandotte county. Kansas, and in discharging the duties connected with his office he is acquitting him- self with all of honor and distinction. In 1906 he was elected a member of the city council and so effective were his services in that connection that he was re-elected to that office in 1908. He is now living virtually retired from active participation in business affairs and is devoting his entire time and attention to his official position.
Samuel Clarke was born in county Down, Ireland, on the 24th of September. 1861. and he is a son of Samuel and Agnes (MeDowell ) Clarke, both of whom were born and reared in county Down, Treland. The mother was summoned to the life eternal in 1861, at the age of sixty years, but the father is still living at the old homestead in Treland. They were the parents of seven children, four sons and three daughters. three of whom are living, namely : Samuel, the immediate subject of this review : William : and Agnes. Samnel Clarke, Sr., devoted the greater part of his active career to the boot and shoe business in his native land
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but he has lived retired sinee 1890. He is a consistent member of the Presbyterian church in his religious faith.
To the public schools of county Down, Ireland, Mr. Clarke, of this notiee, is indebted for his preliminary educational training. He re- mained at home attending school and assisting his father in the latter's store until he had reached the age of twenty years, when he decided to seek his fortunes in the new world. Accordingly he embarked on the steam ship "City of Rome" and was one of her passengers on her maiden trip to the United States. He landed in New York city, where he remained for a short period and whenee he later journeyed to Kansas City, Missouri. Immediately after his arrival in that place he entered the employ of the Fowler Packing Company, thoroughly familiarizing himself with the various details connected with the packing business. He had charge of the rendering department of this concern for a period of nine years, at the expiration of which he was made superintendent of the rendering and lard department, retaining that position for the ensning ten years and finally retiring from business life in 1901.
He is ever on the alert and enthusiastieally in sympathy with all measures and enterprises advanced for the good of the general welfare. In April, 1906, he was honored by his fellow citizens with election to membership in the city council of Kansas City, serving in that capacity until 1908, at which time he was re-elected as his own successor. Dur- ing his incumbency of the above position he exerted a powerful influence among his colleagues for the furtherance of all matters connected with the well being of the city. In November, 1910, he made the race for and was elected county commissioner of Wyandotte county. While he has but recently assumed the responsibilities connected with this office, he has taken hold of affairs with a firm hand and his regime promises to be a vigilant one. In a fraternal way he is affiliated with Kaw Lodge, No. 272, Aneient, Free and Accepted Masons, with Caswell Consistory, No. 5, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, in which he has attained to the thirty-second degree; and with Abdallah Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of Lawrence, Kansas. Ile is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
In August, 1891, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Clarke to Miss Catherine Grinrood, who was born and reared in Kansas City, Kansas. Mr. and Mrs. Clarke are devont members of the Presbyterian church in their religious belief and they are highly esteemed by all with whom they have come in contact.
Mr. Clarke is a man of broad information and deep human sympa- thy, one who extends his friendship and aid to all in distress or in need of help. Ile is a great lover of home, preferring the quiet and cheer of his home fireside to the excitement of elub life and the mad whirl of political strife. In all the avenues of life he has so conducted himself that his entire career is without blemish and commands the highest re gard of his fellow citizens.
THOMAS E. MYERS .- Energy, close application and good judgment have been the elements that have brought Mr. Myers definite sureess and gained to him a secure place as one of the representative business men of the metropolis of Wyandotte county, where his eirele of friends is limited only by that of his acquaintances, and where he is known as a loyal and public spirited citizen.
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Thomas Edward Myers was born in the city of Bloomington, Illi- nois. on the 1st of February, 1869, and is a son of Jacob J. and Nancy (Collyer) Myers, both of whom were natives of the state of Indiana and both of whom passed the closing years of their lives in Kansas, where the former died at the age of sixty-seven years, and the latter in 1879, when her son Thomas E .. the fifth in order of birth of nine children, was a lad of eleven years. As a young man Jacob J. Myers went from his native state to Illinois, but he returned to Indiana and there engaged in agricultural pursuits until the outbreak of the Civil war, when he subordinated all other considerations to go forth as a soldier of the Union. Ile enlisted in the Thirty-third Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and he continued in the military service of his country for four years, covering practically the entire period of the great conflict through which the integrity of the nation was perpetuated. He participated in many of the hard fonght battles of the war and for nine months was held as a captive in old Libby prison, of odious memory. After the war he re- mained for a few years in Indiana and then removed to McLean county. Illinois, where he was engaged in farming and stock raising until 1871, when he came to Kansas and located at Emporia, the judicial center of Lyon county, where he remained about one year. He then located on a homestead farm near that city and there he passed the residue of his life. which was marked by consecutive industry and by uprightness in all its relations. He was a stalwart Republican in politics, was a valued and appreciative member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and both he and his wife were consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal church.
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