Luman E. Munson

LUMAN E. MUNSON. For a man of his years Luman E. Munson of Colby has had a wide experience as a newspaper man. As a lad of twelve he had a practical working knowledge of many things in a newspaper office, and he has been connected with numerous newspaper enterprises in and out of Kansas, and is now editor of the Colby Free Press.

Mr. Munson was born at Montrose, Jewell County, Kansas, August 4, 1894. His grandfather was Titus Munson. His father, George B. Munson who is new living at Hill City, Kansas, was born at Hanover, Missouri, in 1861, grew up there, and in 1879 came to Kansas and was one of the early settlers at Mankato in Jewell County. He was at first a farmer, later a druggist at Montrose, and in 1908 entered the newspaper business as editor of the New Era at Hill City, Kansas. In the fall of 1909 he removed to Durango, Colorado, was editor and proprietor of the Duraago Herald until 1912, since which date he has been in the real estate and insurance business at Hill City, Kansas. He served one term as county treasurer of Jewell County. He is a republican and a member of the Modern Woodmen of America. George B. Munson married Mary Hichardson, who was born in Jewell County, Kansas, in 1867, and died at Montrose in 1897. Of her four children Luman E. is the youngest. Mayme married Martin Curtis, a farmer at Burlington, Colorado; Fred G. is a druggist at Olympia, Washington; and Grace is the wife of John Johnson, a farmer at Burlington, Colorado.

Luman E. Munson attended the public schools of Montrose and Esbon, in this state, and at Colorado Springs, and finished the eighth grade work at Hill City. He was about twelve years of age when he entered his father's newspaper office, and was associated with his father in the newspaper business in Colorado. In 1912, at the age of eighteen, he took a place on the Lincoln Republican at Lincoln, Kansas, was there two years and then for a short time was on the Commercial Headlight at Horton, Kansas, working for Charles Brown, and was employed successively on the Jewell City Republican and the Lincoln Sentinel until 1915, when he located at Colby and entered the office of the Colby Free Press. In May, 1918, he leased that old and well known paper and is now its responsible editor. The Free Press was established in 1889, and is one of the older and more influential journals of Northwestern Kansas. It is published democratic in politics, and has a large circulation through Thomas and surrounding counties.

In March, 1914, at Salina, Kansas, Mr. Munson married Miss Hilga Myers, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Leopold Myers, who now live in Graham County, north of Hill City. Mr. and Mrs. Munson had one child, Barton, who died in infancy.

Pages 2263-2264.