1912 Biographical History of Barton County, Kansas

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Home of William Werhahn, Biography Page 111.

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Residence of William Mull, Pawnee Rock Township.

In the write-up of Mr. Mull and family failure was made to mention all the members of the same. Grace May, the latest member of the family was born March 17, 1912, some time after the first article. on page 118, was in type.

ºº Claflin ºº

THE city is located on the Missouri Pacific Railroad, which was built during the years of 1885-86; the depot was built in 1887 and was cccupied by M. A. Cummings as agent who remained as such until his retirement from railroad work a few years ago. The first business building was erected by J. H. Cannon on the site now occupied by the J. A. Watson Co. He carried a small stock of general merchandise and also had a bank in one part of the same building. After a few yers Mr. Cannon sold his interests in the store to the Degens who enlarged the business and then in turn sold to B. J. Meyer & Co., who later sold to Watson & Tampler, Mr. Watson later taking over the interests of Mr. Tampler. From the time the depot was built the business enterprises were established to fill the needs of the people. The S. H. Chatten Lumber Co. soon unloaded a stock off building material and also coal. Jas. Williamson erected the first hotel in the city, the building now being occupied by the postoffice and the Clarion office. The livery and feed barn was built by E. J. Ingersoll and did a good business under the different managers until the automobile put the horse and buggy out of business. The first line of drugs was placed in a small building on the corner now occupied by the Evans-Mayo Mercantile Company by Dr. F. M. Campbell who remained in the business until his retirement from active business a few years ago. The Elmore Bros. put in the first stock of hardware and implements but after a few years the E. R. Moses Mercantile Co. placed a much larger stock and the former company sold out. G. A. Dusenberry at one time run the hardware on what is now the Miller corner. The Farmers and Merchants State Bank was organized about 1892 under the management of O. B. Looney who was at that time the cashier of the institutian and remained as such until the bank changed management. The present building was built expressly for the business. The Citizens State Bank was not organized until a few years ago but has built up a good business. The school house for District 80, was erected during the year 1889 and a few years ago an addition was built to it, but it being far too small to meet with the needs it was abandoned and during the year 1911 a new building costing $17,000, was erected which is a valuable asset to the town. In the early days the Methodist and Christian churches were built and during the past few years the German Lutheran and Catholic were erected.

Claflin has today two as modern stores as any city of its size could ask for, two banks that are substantial, two hardware stores, two hotels that offer the best of accommodations to the traveling public, three lumber yards, five elevators and two mills, also all of the various other businesses that make up a city of its size.

Among the early settlers who still live in this vicinity are J. S. Dalziel, W. D. Fairbairn, Frank Roesler and W. L., J. R. and E. O. Jordan. These people can tell of some of the early experiences that they had to contend with.

The present city administration is composed of the following gentlemen: Mayor, S. G. Earlenbaugh. Councilmen, W. B. Pickerill, W. C. Schumacher, D. J. Crowe, C. T. Mayo and J. W. Miller; City Treasurer, H. A. Staeber, Police Judge, G. C. Gilstrap.

The first mayor of the town was H. E. Hill, who at that time was connected with W. B. Pickerill in the grain business, and who is now living at Larned, Kansas, and is in the same business there. Those who followed him as mayor of the town are as follows: J. F. Evans, Hez Gibler, C. T. Mayo, W. B. Pickerill, Clinton Gibler.

BERT FANCHER

ONE of the important agencies in making Claflin a live town is the Clarion, the newspaper owned and edited by Bert Fancher of that city. The Clarion has had a long career which has never been more prosperous than it is at present. It fills its field creditably and there are few things of interest in that section of the country that are not duly chronicled by the Clarion. Under the able position on the Daily Rustler. In 1907 he saw the chance which he had been looking for and bought the Claflin Clarion which he has since owned and edited. He was married in 1900 to Miss Lillie Sanner of Newton and they are the parents of two children, Gladys, 8 years of age and Gerald 6 years of age. Mr. Fancher is an active man in whatever he undertakes and is identified with the Elk, A. O. U. W. and Odd

management of Mr. Fancher it is one of the best small town weeklies in the west and is an agency for good that the town could not get along without. Mr. Fancher is a thorough printer and the paper typographically is neat and well balanced. Mr. Fancher is yet a young man. He is 38 years of age. As a boy he learned the printing trade in the offices at Newton and in 1904 he came to Great Bend to take a Fellow lodges. He is also postmaster at Claflin and is serving his second term in that position. He is popular in his community and has worked and stood for those things which would be of benefit to the section of the state in which he lives. The Clarion will undoubtedly continue to grow and prosper under his able management.

IRA HAMILTON CLARK

CADIZ, Hamilton County, Ohio, was the the birthplace of Ira Hamilton Clark, of Great Bend, who was born in that town, in 1866. At the age of 11 years he move to Harvey County, Kansas, with his parents in 1875. When twenty-one years of age he published the "Independent" at Walton, Kansas. He owned this paper for two years, 1886 and 1887 and then established the "Independent" at Frederick, Kansas, in 1888. March 1st, 1889, be became a resident of Barton County when he established the "Dispatch" at Hoisington, remaining there as editor and owner of that paper for ten years or until 1899. He has always been one of the prominent men of whatever community he may have lived in and in Hoisington he was city clerk for one term, and Republican township committeeman of Homestead township for five years. In 1899 he moved to Great Bend where he bought the Register. In connection with this paper he established the Daily Item in August, 1900. In 1908 he sold his two papers to the Tribune Publishing Co., and retired from newspaper work. In 1905 he was president of the Southwest Kansas Republican Editorial Association and for six years was a member of the Congressional committee of the Seventh district. He served for two terms as member of the Board of Education of Great Bend. He was married June 27, 1889 to Nellie G. DeLong at Walton, Kansas, and they are the parents of seven children, Mary Hazel, now Mrs. Walter Healzer, Bessie Margaret, Ethel Gertrude, Flora Janette, Dwight DeLong, Edna Louise, Elizabeth Lorene. Since retiring from the newspaper profession Mr. Clark has been in the land business and his duties have been such as to prevent his taking as active a part in public affairs as in former years but his interest has never flagged and he may always be found working for those things which will be of benefit to his town and community. Quiet and unassuming he has done much to forward the progress of Barton County. As an editor he was a writer of force and ready and capable of defending and supporting the things he believed in. Barton County has been fortunate in having him as a citizen and that he has many years of usefulness still ahead of him.

THE GREAT BEND TRIBUNE.

IT is with considerable satisfaction that The of Barton County and we hope that in the Tribune presents the Biographical History[sic] future the experience gained in arranging this edition may be utilized in the preparation of auxiliary volumes that will be a complete and accurate account of the county, its events of historical interest and of its citizens. No book of this sort can be as complete as its compilers would like to make it but as it is the book represents a great deal of detail work and expense.

The Tribune is one of the oldest institutions of Barton County, established in 1876, and in the years that have gone by has enjoyed its small share of prosperity and its years of adversity. Through it all the key-note of optimism and belief in the future of the county as expressed in every issue by its founder, Judge C. P. Townsley, has been preserved and The Tribune of today has seen the county become one of the richest and most substantial farming communities in the world and has seen this optimism and belief substantiated.

Elsewhere will be found an acccunt of the founding and growth of the Tribune and the changes in ownership. The present owners and publishers are Will Townsley and Warren Baker.

Warren Baker was for a number of years superintendent of the city schools of Great Bend and later moved to Eldorado. Since 1909 he has had the business management of the paper. His family consists of his wife and two children, Vernon and Lucile.

Will Townsley is known to practically all the people of the county having been born and raised in Barton County and being raised in newspaper work. He is married. His family consists of his wife and baby daughter, Helen.

The standing of The Tribune is well described by the following article from "Retail Equipment," one of the larger trade journals of the country, which has been investigating trade conditions generally:

"The Tribune, of Great Bend, Kansas, is published every afternoon except Sunday, with a weekly edition on Friday. The tendency as well as the evolution of the modern newspaper toward a conservation of energy and effort is well exemplified in the career of the Tribune. The Tribune was founded in 1876. Since then it has incorporated the Great Bend Weekly Register, Great Bend Daily Item, Great Bend Rustler and the Morning News. I do not know what were the character and characteristics of these defunct newspapers, but it is a universal law that the fittest survive, and in the survival of the Tribune amid the wreck of its contemporaries, we have really an excellent evening newspaper, edited by Mr. Will Townsley, one which covers the local field fully; that goes into the homes in Great Bend, is read and appreciated. Great Bend has a population of five thousand, and ninety percent of these are subscribers and readers of the Tribune. On the six rural routes leading from Great Bend, eighty per cent of the people take the daily Tribune and fifteen per cent the weekly Tribune. In the other parts of Barton County and surrounding counties contiguous to Great Bend, the daily only reaches ten per cent of the population, while the weekly Tribune is taken in by fifty per cent. Of course the discrepancy is due to the diversity of rural postal delivery facilities. The Weekly is disappearing on the trail of the rural free delivery, and as a consequence of it Mr. Warren Baker, the business manager of the Tribune, informs me that the combined circulation of all the papers in the territory which his papers cover, including one weekly in Great Bend, is less than the combined circulation of the daily and weekly Tribune, with rates only one-fifth as much as the combined rates of the other papers. Barton County, I am told, is the greatest wheat county in the world, and its farmers are as a class correspondingly wealthy, owning their own homes and farms, there being one automobile to every eighteen of population, men, women and children. Great Bend has three departments stores, ten grocery and provision stores, four banks with deposits amounting to two million dollars. There are other material indications of wealth and prosperity in abundance in Great Bend."

Press Work.

In order to facilitate the issuing of this volume the press work has been done by Gunn & Wattson.

INDEX