1912 Biographical History of Barton County, Kansas
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Rev. Lind
The hospital has room for thirty patients in addition to the rooms that are maintained by the Missouri Pacific railroad. The operating room at the hospital is equipped with all the most modern applianccs and devices for the practice of surgery in its most intricate forms. Dr. Lind spent two and a half years in the study of medicine in the old country before coming to America. He was married September 1, 1910, to Miss Matilda Borell and they have one bright boy, Alexander, who, at this writing, is one year old.
In connection with the hospital a training school has been established under the supervision of the superintendent of nurses, assisted by a competent corps of physicians. The course comprises three years, which will render them thoroughly qualified to receive a diploma. While the didactic work is carried on in the class room, the pupil nurse has every possible chance to study her chosen profession in its practical lines by personal contact with the different phases of her work. During the probationary term the applicant has ample opportunity to discover whether she wishes to continue in the work and also to demonstrate whether she is qualified to remain. Applicants may enter at any time.
[IMAGE]Lind Hospital, Hoisington
HENRY A. C. HARTMAN
ONE of the best known of the really old timers of Logan township was Henry A. C. Hartman. He was born in Prussia in 1840 and came to this country with his parents when he was a child. He was raised in the state of Ohio and came to Barton County in 1875. He located a homestead in Logan township, one mile north and three miles south of the township of Claflin. In 1876 he brought his family to the new country and began the work of building a home. Until the time of his death which occurred in July, 1907,
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he took an active part in the development of the resources of the northeastern part of the county of Barton. His death was due to drowning in Cow creek, where as the result of the water being exceptionally high his wagon in which he was riding was overturned and he was thrown into the water while he was attempting to cross. Mr. Hartman was married to Miss Anne Elizabeth Shellhase in Ohio and they were the parents of eleven children. Mrs. Hartman came to America from Russia where she was born in Hess-Cassel province. She arrived in America in 1845 at a time when this counttry was in the throes of a scare due to the cholera, which caused the death of a great number of people. Mrs. Hartman at that time was six years of age and many of her relatives and people who came over on the boat with her died as a result of being afflicted with this disease. Of the eleven children born to Mr. and Mrs. Hartman, two of them died in infancy. Those who are living are: Louise, who is now Mrs. F. W. Waknitz of Ness County; Lydia, who is now Mrs. W. H. Barnes of Preston, Kansas; Charles A., who resides in Reno County, where he is interested in farming; Matilda H., who is the wife of Dr. S. B. Russell of Yuma, Colorado; John H., who was born in Logan township, February 15, 1877, and now resides in Hoisington where he is vice president of the First National bank, an institution which he founded. He is also engaged in the insurance and loan business in that city. He was married to Miss Dale Nimocks, daughter of G. W. Nimocks of Great Bend, January 1, 1902. They have two children, Blanche and R. Lynn. Edwin E. is a traveling representative of the Acme Harvester company with headquarters at Wichita; James F. is in the hardware business at Preston; Jesse S. is now Mrs. E. R. Jukes of Boise, Idaho; Benjamin H. is farming near Preston; Mrs. Hartman is now living in Idaho with her daughter, Mrs. Jukes. There is no family that is better known in Barton County than the Hartmans and John H., who is mentioned above is one of the best known business men of Hoisington and is an enterprising and progressive citizen.
ROY CORNELIUS
[IMAGE]Roy Cornelius
ROY CORNELIUS was born in McPherson, Kansas, March 31, 1883, and came to Hoisington in 1902 and bought the Hoisington Dispatch which was established in 1889 by Ira H. Clark, who later sold it to Franklin Brothers, who, in turn, sold it to Roy. Mr. Cornelius learned the printing trade in Great Bend under Ira H. Clark and D. T. Armstrong. He was married in 1908 to Miss Theresa Helfert and they are the parents of two children: Helen, 3 years of age, and Esther, about a year and a half old at this writing. The Dispatch office, which is the pride of its owner, is one of the best equipped printing plants in this section of the state. It contatins a modern linotype, a good press for newspaper work and good presses for the job department. The Dispatch is a weekly paper devoted to the interests of Hoisington and Barton County and since Mr. Cornelius has been guiding its policy has made a great number of friends. Roy is a capable, enterprising business man and numbers his friends by the score both in the newspaper profession of the state of Kansas and among the people with whom he comes in contact in other lines of business. He occupies a nice residence in Hoisington and devotes all his time to the management of his business. At the present time he is official printer for the County of Barton having been elected at the county election in 1910. He has filled this office in a satisfactory manner and in a way that reflects credit on himself, his office and his many friends in all parts at the county.
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ººººº Ellinwood ºººº
[IMAGE]
THE certificate of ownership and dedication of the original plat of Ellinwood is dated September 6, 1873, and signed by Alden Speare, president of the Arkansas Valley Town Company. It was acknowledged before George L. Goodwin, a notary public, in Suffolk County, Massachusetts. The plat was certified to by John M. Cummins, a surveyor, but bears no date. He did not do the actual work of survey, neither did Colonel Ellinwood, but it is understood that J. W. Jackson, one of the quaint characters of that time did the field work. The town company could not file the plat until it got title from the railroad company, and the latter could not obtain title from the government until the road was built to the west line of the state. This was done in 1872 in the month of December. This caused delay in the filing of the town plat, but the plat was finally filed for record with Register of Deeds D. N. Heizer, October 28, 1873 at 9:05 p. m.
The first plat included the south half of block 1, and all of blocks six, seven, ten and eleven. The railroad right of way, a short side track on the north side of the main track, and the depot were shown on the blue print of the plat. The depot was shown to be directly south of the Wolf hotel building. Santa Fe, Topeka and Atchison avenues and Humboldt, Washington and Bismark streets, named and located as they are now. There was nothing south of the railroad included in the original plat.
Main Street, Ellinwood
Ellinwood is located on section 31-19-11, and the center of the section is the southeast corner of the lot on which a part of the business section of the town is built. Washington street is commonly called Main street, it being the main business thoroughfare.
The supplemental plat which includes all of section 31, north of the river, except the forest reservation of 25 and 71-100ths acres and all south of the railroad and east of Schiller street, was filed for record July 8, 1873. The name of the surveyor does not appear. The plat shows the same uneven banks of the river as on the plats of the original government survey. The river has receded from a great distance since this work was done. Both the Catholic and Protestant cemeteries appear on the plat.
All the streets extending north and south were given German names except the main business street which was named Washington. The north and south streets beginning on the east side are Wielan, Gothe, Schiller, Bismark, Washington, Humboldt, Arndt, Wilhelm and Fritz. The avenues beginning on the north in their order are Northern, Colo-
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rado, Barton, Ellinwood, Atchison, Topeka, Santa Fe, and south of the railroad are Chestnut, Maple, Walnut and Cedar. The names of all the streets remain the same as when platted. As the original settlers were not German, nor was the controlling element of the old timers, the Arkansas Valley Town Co., that owned this town, German. The query has often been asked why the streets are given German names. The answer usually is, all the settlers will remember C. B. Smith, probably the ablest German immigration agent who ever did business in the State of Kansas. He happened to select this locality as one of the points on the Santa Fe road where he would colonize German buyers of real estate. On his maps for circulation among the Germans he marked the territory adjacent to Ellinwood Germania. C. B. Smith, the German immigration agent of the Santa Fe Raliroad Co. caused this part of Kansas to be settled by Germans.
[IMAGE]Plowing Outfit of G. H. Ernsting Near Ellinwood
City Government
Ellinwood became a city of the third class, April 22, 1878. On that date a petition signed by nearly every qualified elector on the townsite was presented to District Judge Samuel R. Peters at Newton, Kansas. The judge immediately issued an order creating the City of Ellinwood. Its boundary lines were the exterior lines of section 31-19-11, according to the original government survey. The order directing the first election was given and the election was held on the first day of May, 1878, at the office of J. D. Donstadt, and George Bowers, George B. Gill, and Vancil S. Musil selected to be judges, and W. B. D. Monow, clerk. It also named J. D. Ronstadt, George W. Ashton and Charles W. Williamson to act as the board of canvassers. The latter were ordered to meet at the close of the polls and canvass the returns. The board met as directed and chose J. D. Ronstadt as clerk. The election resulted as follows: Mayor, F. A. Steckel, 43; J. D. Ronstadt, 14; Councilmen, Wm. Mangelsdorf, 56; Wm. Meisner, 46; George W. Ashton, 41; John W. Conroy, 39; O. M. Dotson, 35; L. M. Story, 20; W. W. D. Monow, 20; John Mousel, 15; James Ward, 9; John Wind, 1. Police judge, George Towers, 56. Certificates of election were issued as follows: Mayor, F. A. Steckel; councilmen, Mangelsdorf, Meisner, Ashton, Conroy and Dotson. Police judge, Towers. The first council met and with all present, organized. H. J. Reints was city clerk by appointment, and the mayor appointed all the councilmen a committee on ordinances and then adjourned to May 7. No other business was transacted and the first business meetsing of the council was held May 14. At this meeting a petition was granted Beal and Phipps to keep a dram shop, and a like petition was granted to Hess and Harmick. The council passed ordinance Number 1, which provided for the drafting and compiling of ordinances for the city of Ellinwood. At this meeting fourteen ordinances were passed, all relating to the duties of the city officers, except thirteen, relating to elections, fourteen concerning animals running at large and 15, relative to the sale of intoxicating liquors. The first council of Ellinwood laid the foundation for the building of a city and their work was thorough and had for its purpose the betterment of the community and the people residing therein.
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Schools
Ellinwood was included in the second school district to be organized in Barton County, in 1872, and was known as school district number 2. The first school was taught by Miss Carrie Bacon, daughter of Isaac Bacon. Later she married Thomas Towers. The first term of school began September 1, 1873, and ended January 1, 1874. For teaching this term Miss Bacon received the sum of $125.00. The scholars were housed in a small frame building owned by William Misner. The school was later taught in a frame school building built especially for a school on the ground now occupied by the modern school building of which the town is so justly proud. Among those who attended the first school in Ellinwood may be mentioned Kittie Ellsworth, Wm. Halsey, John and Sina Hewitt, May Whitten, Lotta and Frank Towers, Charles L. Bacon, James and Lillie Hutchinson and Abraham Forsyth. The schools of Ellinwood have progressed with the town and nowhere in the state can there be found better educational advantages than are obtainable in Ellinwood.
Ellinwood has a populaticn of about 1,300 and is growing every year in importance as a trading point and as a shipping point for agricultural products. It is on the main line of the Santa Fe railroad about forty miles west of Hutchinson and eleven miles east of Great Bend. It is also the western terminus of the Florence branch of the Santa Fe. This line runs through some of the richest portions of the state. Ellinwood has modern stores representing nearly all lines of retail trade, the best of churches and schools and its population is steadily growing in like proportion to other parts of Barton County.
THE WOLF MILLING CO.
[IMAGE]Wolf's Mill, Ellinwood
The Wolf Milling Company's establishment at Ellinwood is one of the largest and best equipped flour mills in the state of Kansas, and its products have had a great deal to do with earning Barton County's enviable reputation as a producer of the best of milling wheat. The mill is operated by John Wolf and his son, Fred. It was established in 1908, and has a capacity of 600 barrels per day. Since the first mill building and elevator was erected in the year mentioned additions have been made from time to time and the machinery and process in use have been kept up to the highest standard. John Wolf is one of the old timers of the county having come here from Ohio in 1877. He was born in Bremen, Germany, November 23, 1848. He was married in Toledo, Ohio, to Miss Kate Haas, July 5, 1871, and it was in that city that Fred was born May 23, 1872. Fred was married to Miss Lotta Schaefer of Kansas City, Mo., July 1, 1901, and they are the parents of two children, one of whom is an infant at this writing, and the other being John Frederick. The elder Mr. Wolf has another child, Kate, who is now Mrs. George M. Heim of Ellinwood. The mill buildings and surroundings cover about a square block of ground and in addition to this interest the elder Mr. Wolf owns considerable town property in Ellinwood and Great Bend as well as two sections of farm land in the county of Barton. The flour sold under the name of "Wolf's Premium" has made a most gratifying record wherever it has been used and reflects great credit on the establishment where it is made. The Wolf family is one of the best known in this section of the state, the members of it being enterprising and progressive and among the most substantial citizens of the county.
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JOHN McMULLEN
[IMAGE]John McMullen, Editor of Leader
JOHN McMULLEN was born July 21, 1881, in Barton County and since 1895 has been engaged in the printing and publishing business with the exception of five years while he was engaged in farming west of Great Bend. He received his education in the schools of Barton County and began to learn the printing trade in the office of the Barton County Democrat in 1895. He was married October 7, 1892, to Miss Mabel DeMotte and they are the parents of five children, four of whom are living, two boys and two girls, while their first child died in infancy. January 1, 1911, Mr. McMullen took charge of the Ellinwood Leader having purchased the plant, and since it has been under his management he has made of it one of the leading weekly publications of this part of the state. The Leader was established in September, 1896 by J. W. A. Cook who published it until the fall of 1909 when John C. Meyers was appointed manager of the plant. Mr. Meyers continued the publication of the paper until Mr. McMullen took charge.
There are few, if any, young business men of the county who are better or more favorably known than John McMullen. Being a product of the county he is naturally very proud of his home town and county and he devotes his paper and his personal efforts to the best interests of the community in which he lives.
EDWARD L. SMITH
[IMAGE]E. L. Smith, Pres. of Citizens State Bank, Ellinwood
EDWARD L. SMITH was born in Edwardsville, Illinois, February 5, 1864, and is is a son of Mr. and Mrs. Christian P. Smith. He remained in his native state in his boyhood and attended the public schools, later finishing a course at the Central Wesleyan at Warrenton, Mo., in 1884. He received the degree of A. M. at this institution which is the Alma Mater of some of the country's best known statesmen and business men. While Mr. Smith's parents did not come to Barton County, they invested in Kansas land, after their son had located here. Soon after Mr. Smith arrived in Barton County he with others organized the Citizens Bank of Ellinwood and since that time he has been closely identified with the financial and commercial life of the county. This was in 1889 and soon after the organization of the bank and at different times in the early nineties farmers living in the neighborhood of Ellinwood became discouraged with the prospects and it was frequently the case that a farmer would request Mr. Smith to return the farmer's note in return for which he would give him a deed for his land. Mr. Smith being possessed of unlimited confidence in the future of the county invariably advised against this procedure and many of the farmers who
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had grown discouraged and afterwards "made good" thank Mr. Smith for his advice. Mr. Smith also owns the Smith Hardware Company's establishment in Ellinwood. Before coming to Ellinwood Mr. Smith taught school for three years in Illinois. After the organization of the Citizens Bank Mr. Smith was appointed assistant cashier and after serving four years in this capacity he became cashier and president which offices he now holds. Mr. Smith is a prominent member of the Elks, Eagles, Masons and Odd Fellows and is one of the best known men in Barton County. He was married in November, 1891, to Miss Mattie S. Harrison, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. B. L. Harrison of Barton County, and they are the parents of two children, E. Aubrey, 17 years of age and Elbert, 14 years of age, both of whom are being educated in the schools of the county. Mr. Smith in addition to his business interests owns considerable farming land in this and other counties and his mother and father are also interested in Kansas land. Mr. Smith has served the city of Ellinwood as mayor and has been a member of the school board a number of years and is at present treasurer of the board. He is an enterprising and successful business man and is well known in all parts of Kansas and Barton County.
CITIZENS STATE BANK, ELLINWOOD
[IMAGE]Citizens State Bank, Ellinwood
Along in the latter 80's E. L. Smith and other well known residents of the eastern part of the county of Barton decided that Ellinwood needed a good bank. Therefore in 1889 the Citizens State Bank was organized with a capital of $5,000, with an authorized capital of $50,000. It first bore the name of the Citizens Bank but when it was chartered under the new state banking laws five years later it became known as the Citizens State Bank and the capital was made $15,000. The officers of this bank are: E. L. Smith, president and cashier; Robert Shouse, assistant cashier and secretary and these with P. B. Kimpler, G. H. Ernsting and H. P. S. Smith form the board of directors. The bank now has a surplus of $32,000 and the deposits are approximately $175,000. This bank has gained the confidence of the people by square dealing methods and by extending to its friends and customers every accommodation that is consistent with safe banking methods. The bank occupies a modernly equipped building with an electrical burglar alarm and all modern appliances for protecting the valuables contained in the vaults.
PEOPLES STATE BANK
The Peoples State Bank of Ellinwood waa organized in March, 1908, with a capital of $25,000, with the following officers and directors: J. H. D. Bosse, president; D. C. Johnson, cashier; Charles Mellies, assistant cashier and C. Buck, Fred, Fred Wolf, E. D. Isern and the president make up the board of directors. The bank has enjoyed a steady growth since its organization and at this writing has a surplus and undivided profits of
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Peoples State Bank, Ellinwood
$10,221, and the approxmate average deposits amount to $210,000. This bank has the largest deposits of any bank in the county outside of Great Bend and is one of the county's substantlal financial institutions. The bank is located on the main street in a building that is furnshed and equipped in a neat, convenient manner for the carrying on of a general banking business. The interests of the bank's customers are carefully looked after by the officers of the bank and by careful management and by the use of modern banking ideas this institution has gained the Confidence of the people of that section of the county.
[IMAGE]
German Lutheran Church, Ellinwood
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J. H. D. BOSSE
[IMAGE]D. Bosse
JOHANN HERMAN DIEDRICH BOSSE, or D. Bosse, as he is better known in Barton County, was born in Hanover, Germany, November 1, 1852. He came to America in 1871 and located first in New York state where he remained two years, after which he went to Ohio, and from that state came to Barton County, Kansas, in 1875. He married Miss Catrina Lampe, in June, 1876, and they are the parents of two children: Marie, who is now Mrs. E. S. Brodie of Wichita, and Milton August Bosse, who resides in Ellinwood and is engaged in the farming business with his father. Milton August married Moneta Butts of Wichita, Kansas, in 1910. The elder Bosse farmed for twelve years after his arrival in Barton County and has been one of the most successful of the old timers of Lakin township. After Mr. Bosse moved to Ellinwood he accepted a position as book-keeper for the Edwards & Fair Lumber Co. He was twice elected to the office of treasurer of Barton County, Kansas. The first property he obtained title to was railroad land northwest of Ellinwood. He now owns about 1,760 acres of land in the county, all of which is under cultivation and is being worked mostly by renters.
Although Barton County lays no claim to being an exceptionally good fruit country, this line of business has been made a specialty by Mr. Bosse and he has met with success in raising many varieties of apples. Near the town of Ellinwood Mr. Bosse maintains an orchard consisting of twenty acres in which are found trees bearing apples of such well known names as Jonathan, Grimes' Golden, Nero, Akin, Arkansas Black, Wine Sap, Schackleford, Black Twig, Missouri Pippin, etc. Here can also be found choice varieties of cherries. Mr. Bose's orchard has attracted a great deal of attention not only at home, but it has been visited by government experts who on different occasions have spent a great deal of time in observing the ideas that have have been used by Mr. Bosse in the cultivation of his trees. The trees are suppiled with moisture by a large irrigating system; the water being conducted to all parts of the orchard by the means of tiling placed under the surface of the ground. The water is pumped from below the surface by two large windmills and rotary pump supplied with power by a 5-horse power gasoline engine. The pump has a capacity of 200 gallons per minute. When moisture is supplied by rain the pumping plant is not needed but when the seasons are dry it is sometimes found necessary to operate the pumps as much as three weeks at different intervals during the year. A large pond confines the water that is pumped until it is needed. The pond has six outlets that make it possible to irrigate two acres of the orchard at a time. In all
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Residence of D. Bosse, Ellinwood
[IMAGE]
Residence of Milton Bosse, Ellinwood
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Transcribed from Biographical history of Barton County, Kansas. ; Illustrated. Published by Great Bend Tribune, Great Bend, KS : 1912. 318 p. : ill. ; 28 cm. Transcribed by Carolyn Ward, July 2006.
