LUTE P. STOVER.

LUTE P. STOVER, County Surveyor of Allen County, and a gentleman with large farming and live stock interests therein, was born February 10, 1873, in Humboldt, Kansas. He is the oldest son of Tindall S. Stover, of Iola, and was reared in his native county. In the Iola schools where he graduated, he was noted for his original and inquisitorial nature and was noted as a specially bright and well-informed boy. His fund of information extended to subjects where small boys are not wont to tread and his powers of expressing his ideas were remarkably well developed. His teachers learned not to be surprised at any demonstration of learning, any technical inquiry or any impersonation of character from his lips and such a fund of humor ran through it all as easily to mark him an extraordinary and promising pupil. After leaving the Iola schools he went to the old Stover home in Maine and spent two years in the Blue Hill Academy. He finished his education with two years in the University of Kansas where he took an irregular course, chief among his studies being civil engineering and surveying.

Mr. Stover's business life began in the Indian Territory where he spent two years surveying and doing newspaper work. He was on papers in Blackwell, Oklahoma, and in Tallequah, Cherokee Nation, and came back to Iola to take charge of the business of the Stover Abstract Company. During this period of employment the Republicans nominated him for County Surveyor (in 1895) and he was elected by a majority of over 1300 votes. In 1897 he was again a candidate and this time the Fusion candidate succeeded in getting his name on both the Populist and Democratic tickets and the Republican majority for this office was something over 300 votes.

During his incumbency of the surveyor's office Mr. Stover married a lady whose Allen County interests were extensive and he succeeded to the active management of her affairs. For three years from the first of 1897, he was chiefly engaged in the cattle business and in farming.

The marriage of our subject occurred February 1, 1897, the lady of his choice being Miss Madge, a daughter of the late pioneer, Paul Fisher.

January 1st, 1900, Mr. Stover joined Herman Tholen and Ben Achter,

of Humboldt, in the formation of the Iola Wholesale Grocery Company and was chosen its Treasurer.

The political tendencies of Lute Stover are matters of general information. He was a Republican when a boy in knee pants and he took as much interest in elections as the average politician of today. He knew the leaders of the parties in the big states and was conversant with the current political events then as now. Upon the organization of the Iola militia company he was chosen its captain and gave the boys their first serious lesson in military tactics.

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