F. H. Penley, president of the First National Bank and a leading factor in the business affairs of Augusta, is a native of Maine. He was born at Bethel, Oxford county, in 1856, a son of Charles Freeland and Abbie (Locke) Penley, also natives of Maine. They were the parents of three children, as follows: F. H., the subject of this sketch; Alice Manley, a Baptist missionary in India, who began her career in that capacity in 1879, as a representative of the Augusta First Baptist Church, and A. E. Penley, a grain and seed dealer, Delta, Colo.

F. H. Penley came to Kansas with his parents in 1870, when he was about fourteen years of age. The family settled about two miles north of Augusta where the faher[sic] took up a claim and followed farming and stock raising. This was an early day in the settlement of Butler county, and the Penleys were one of the pioneer families of that section. F. H. spent his youth on the home place and received a good common school education. At the age of twenty-one, he engaged in farming and stock raising, and for thirty years was successfully engaged in that business. In 1901, he was instrumental in organizing the Augusta State Bank, becoming vice-president of that institution, and has been identified with that bank as a leading stockholder and officer to the present time, although the bank has been reorganized and is now the First National Bank.

The Augusta State Bank was organized in 1901, with a capital stock of $10,000.00, and one year later was reorganized, becoming the First National Bank of Augusta, and the capital stock increased to $25,000.00 and it has a surplus of $5,000.00. This bank has a record of fifteen years of prosperous and successful banking to its credit, and is one of the solid banks of the State, and some of the best business men of Augusta and vicinity are among its officers and stockholders. The present

officers are: F. H. Penley, president; H. W. Wilson, vice-president; W. A. Penley, cashier; A. R. Peckham, assistant cashier; and the directors are: J. W Skaer, F. H. Penley, W. A. Penley, H. W. Wilson, John Guthrie, M. F. Taylor, W. W. Peckham, A. R. Peckham and W. B. Earll, and E. C. Penley.

Mr. Penley's activities have not been confined to any one field of endeavor. In 1908, he entered the mercantile field, and purchased the J. H. Butts & Son stock of hardware and implements and organized the Paul & Penley Hardware Company. This concern does an extensive business, and is one of the strong mercantile institutions in southern Kansas. Besides their Augusta store they have a branch store at Mulvane, Kans., which does a business equal in volume to the Augusta store.

Mr. Penley is one of the pioneer oil and gas developers of the great Augusta field, and is extensively interested in that field of activity as a member of the Skaer Gas and Drilling Company. Few men are entitled to more credit for the greater Augusta than Mr. Penley. He is one of the substantial men of the community, and a dominant factor in the recent unparalleled development of Augusta and vicinity.

Mr. Penley was united in marriage in 1877, at Augusta, to Miss Ellen F. Colburn. She belongs to a pioneer Kansas family and was born in Massachusetts. The Colburn family came to Kansas in 1854, when Mrs. Penley was a child. They settled at Lawrence, Kans., and lived there when Quantrill, the notorious guerilla, sacked and burned the town. To Mr. and Mrs. Penley have been born four children, as follows: Walter, cashier of the First National Bank, Augusta. Kans., married Winnie Paul, of Augusta; Earnest C., member of the Paul & Penley Hardware Company, Augusta, Kans., married Pearl Paul of Augusta; Ruth, married Roy J. Paul, a farmer near Augusta, and Charles W., a student of Baker University and member of the class of 1916.

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