Biographies Index

BUTLER COUNTY, KANSAS

BIOGRAPHIES

POTTLE, STROTHER GAINES

Strother Gaines Pottle has for a number of years been prominent in the affairs of Butler county, and is one of the best known men in this section of the State. Mr. Pottle was born in Springfield, Ill., February 24, 1862, and is a son of Daniel and Mary Ellen (Jones) Pottle. The father was a native of Bracken county, Kentucky, and a son of Jeremiah and Martha E. (McDaniel) Pottle, the former a native of Maine and the latter of Kentucky. Daniel Pottle was born in 1834, and in 1835 was brought to Illinois by his parents, who spent the remainer of their lives in that State. Mary Ellen Jones, his mother, was a daughter of Strother G. Jones, and came from Kentucky to Illinois with her parents in 1845. The Jones family settled in Springfield, where the father was engaged in the mercantile business for a number of years. He lived to the advanced age of eighty-six, and his remains are buried in Oak Ridge cemetery, Springfield, Ill.

S. G. Pottle was one of a family of four children, born to his parents, the others being Jeremiah and Homer, who died in childhood, and Laura, who married S. J. Ecker, of Leon, Kans., and they now reside at Natchitoches, La. She was a Butler county teacher for a number of years prior to her marriage. The mother of these children died, and the father married for his second wife, Mary E. Ford, of Sangamon county, Ill., and one child was born to this union, Lulu, now the wife of Harry E. Wagenseller, of Springfield, Ill. Her mother died in 1878, and shortly afterwards the father and S. G. came to Kansas, locating in Pleasant township, where the father was quite extensively engaged in the cattle business until 1910 when he retired and went to live with his daughter, remaining there until his death, August 12, 1912. He was seventy-eight years old, and his remains rest in the National cemetery at Alexander, La. During the Civil war he served in Company I, Ninth Illinois cavalry. His sight became impaired, during his service in the army, and he never fully recovered from the affliction. He was a great student all his life and especially well posted on the Bible.

S. G. Pottle was about sixteen years of age when he came to Butler county with his father, and for several years followed farming. He received a good common school education and attended the Augusta High School, and after following teaching for a time, entered the Fort Scott Business College, where he graduated in 1884. He also attended the Fort Scott Normal College after which he again taught school in Butler county, his last position in that line of work being the principal-ship of the Leon High School. He was editor and owner of The Leon "Indicator" for a few months, when he disposed of that paper to accept the position of deputy county clerk, under T. O. Castle and served for four years. He was also deputy clerk to John T. Evans for four years, and in 1895, ^e was elected to that office, and re-elected in 1897, serving two terms, and during the latter year was the only Republican elected to office in the county and also was the only Republican county officer left in the county. In January, 1900, Mr. Pottle accepted a position with the "Mail and Breeze" and took an active part in the State political campaign of that year. In 1901 he was appointed a deputy revenue collector in the United States revenue service for the district of Kansas and Oklahoma, and in that capacity served under Collectors Sutton and Simpson, serving until January, 1, 1905, with headquarters at Leaven-worth, Kans. He then returned to El Dorado and was employed in the El Dorado National Bank for four years, and for about two years was engaged in railroad construction work. In April, 1915, he was appointed receiver of the Citizens State Bank at Chautauqua, Kans., and since that time has given his undivided attention to the affairs of that institution.

Mr. Pottle was married December 25, 1887, to Miss Gertie Godwin of Augusta, Kans., a daughter of H. C. Godwin, a Civil war veteran who was accidentally killed by a boiler explosion when Mrs. Pottle was a child. To Mr. and Mrs. Pottle have been born four children, as follows: Ethel, married H. C. Wear, Wichita, Kans.; Harry, an employee of the Western Weighing and Inspection Bureau, Wichita, Kans.; Floyd, a student in the Miller Business College, Wichita, Kans.; and Lucille, a student in the Wichita High School.

Mr. Pottle is a member of the Masonic Lodge, Sons of Veterans, Modern Woodmen of America, Knights of the Maccabees, Knights of Pythias and the Eastern Star. Since boyhood Mr. Pottle has taken an active part in politics, and has always been identified with the Republican party. He has been chairman of the Butler county central committee, a member of the State central committee, and on numerous occasions has been a delegate to county, congressional and State conventions, and in 1900 attended the Republican National convention. He is well known as a capable accountant, and has many friends. (History of Butler County, Kansas, by Vol. P. Mooney, 1916 Pages 469-471)

GLENDENNING, J. F.

J. F. Glendenning, pioneer, farmer, probate judge and for many years one of the foremost influential constituents of Butler county, a native of Missouri, was born in Gentry county, a son of John and Elizabeth (Carter) Glendenning. His parental ancestors were early settlers in America. His great-grandfather, William Glendenning, a native of Scotland, served for eight years as a member of the Continental lines in the War of the Revolution. His son, Henry Glendenning, the grandfather of our subject, was a soldier in the War of 1812, as was also his maternal grandfather, Eliza Carter.

John Glendenning was one of the pioneer settlers of the State of Missouri, locating in that State in 1838. He underwent the vicissitudes common to that pioneer period and took an active part in the Indian wars in his day, as well as suppressing the robber bands which infested the State at that time. John Glendenning was reared on his father's farm and acquired his education in the schools of that day and vicinity. He was one of a family of eleven children, the youngest of whom reached the age of 40 years before a single death occurred. In 1866 he moved to Iowa, locating at Lineville, where he engaged in the drug business with an elder brother who was one of the prominent physicians of that State. This association was dissolved in 1871, and our subject came to Butler county where he located on a claim in Pleasant township, which he later improved, operated and which he still owns and on which he lived until 1901, when he removed to El Dorado to occupy the office of probate judge.

At the time he came to Butler county, buffalo were numerous, and within hunting distance, as were prairie chickens, wild turkeys and wild game of all kinds. During his residence in Pleasant township, he held all of the various township offices, and was also a member of the school board the greater part of the time. In 1900 he was elected on the Republican ticket to the office of probate judge, and his administration of this office was such that he was elected for a second term in 1902, succeeding which he served as police judge of the city of El Dorado for four years.

Mr. Glendenning, during his residence in Butler county, not only filled his offices with credit to himself, but to the satisfaction of his constituents, and was also recognized as one of the most successful of agriculturists. In 1909, ill health necessitated his removal to a more equal climate. He removed to Texas, where he has since resided.

However, he still expects to spend a few of his remaining years upon his old home place and to enjoy spending the fortune which will undoubtedly come to him through the oil and gas which underlies his lands.

On May 29, 1873, Mr. Glendenning married Experience Sarah Martin, a daughter of George and Nancy (Liggett) Martin. She was born and reared in Livingston county, Missouri, and educated in its public schools. She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. They are the parents of two children and have also educated three nieces.

While a resident of Pleasant township, Mr. Glendenning was associated with Sunday school and church work with Daniel Pickett, one of the prominent and influential workers of the Friends church.

Mr. Glendenning, during the late difference between the States, served as a member of the Union forces for a term of eight months, serving under Capt. Joseph Carter. (History of Butler County, Kansas, by Vol. P. Mooney, 1916 Pages 471-472)

McGINNIS, WALTER FLETCHER

Walter Fletcher McGinnis. - Until recently, Butler county has been known only as one of the great agriculture and live stock counties of the commonwealth of Kansas. The development of oil and gas with hundreds of producing wells and others being drilled every day, has added a new and all important phase to industrial Butler county and bids fair to make this county one of the largest iti population as well as in area, in the State. The development of this great oil and gas district has not come about by mere chance nor accident, but by persistent working out of well laid plans, and Walter F. McGinnis is entitled to no small amount of credit in connection with the discovery and development in this territory, and may well be called the original oil booster of this district.

Mr. McGinnis become interested in the oil business as early as 1886, and he, with others, drilled a well at that time on Riverside, but without results. However, his interest in the delusive fluid did not abate. He kept turning the oil proposition over in his mind, and in 1912, he began taking oil leases in Butler county, and began to interest some outside oil capitalists in this field, and the result was that a test well on the Stapleton place in the fall of 1915, revealed the presence of oil in profitable quantities, at a depth of between 525 and 700 and 2500 feet. Then followed a wild scramble for leases and it was then that it developed that Mr. McGinnis' foresight had been working, and he had hundreds of acres leased before the test on the Stapleton farm proclaimed the glad tidings of the underground wealth of Butler county. His Linn farm lease alone, on which he, with three other gentlemen, have brought in a number of very profitable oil producing wells, has made a fortune already. Besides being the largest individual lease holder of Butler county, Mr. McGinnis has extensive lease interests in Elk county where he has interests in over 20,000 acres of prospective oil and gas lands, as he also has in Oklahoma. He is an oil optimist but not the kind who just hopes for the best, but he is the kind of an optimist who gets busy and gets the best by going after it.

Walter F. McGinnis is a native son of Kansas; he was born in Coffey county, October 31, 1860, a son of Dr. James Allen and Sarah Ann (Benedict) McGinnis, the former a native of Vermillion county, Indiana, and the latter of Meigs county, Ohio. The McGinnis family comes from an ancient and honorable line of Irish ancestors who trace their lineage back through ages of the history of Ireland; and members of this family were prominent in that country when the four ancient kingdoms of Ireland were in the zenith of their glory.

The McGinnis family was founded in America in the early part of the eighteenth century by John McGinnis who emigrated from Ireland, coming from County Antrim, and settled in Pennsylvania. The direct line of descent from him to Walter F. McGinnis, the subject of this sketch, is as follows; James, son of John; Edmund, son of James; Edmund, Jr., son of Edmund; Dr. Ira Edmund, son of Edmund, Jr.; Dr. James Allen McGinnis, son of Dr. Ira Edmund; Walter Fletcher McGinnis, son of Dr. James Allen McGinnis; and Walter Fletcher McGinnis, has a son, Walter Fletcher, Jr., who is the eighth generation of the McGinnis family in America, which, perhaps, covers a period of two hundred years of the family in this country. There were twenty-one members of this branch of the McGinnis family who served in the Revolutionary war, in behalf of the cause of American independence, and there has never been a white man's war in this country since that time in which some member or members of this family have not served under the stars and stripes. There were at least two in the United States fleet that landed at Vera Cruz, Mexico, during the late trouble with Huerta; and Ward Allen McGinnis, a nephew, an officer, is now with the Oklahoma militia on the Mexican border.

Dr. James Allen McGinnis, father of Walter F., was born in Vermillion county, Indiana, June 5, 1836; he married Sarah Ann Benedict, March 28, 1858. She was born in Meigs county, Ohio, December 23, 1837. Dr. McGinnis came to Kansas in 1854, when he was eighteen years of age. He settled in Coffey county and located on a claim adjoining what is now the town of Hartford. Because he was under age, a professional "claim-jumper" undertook to "jump" his claim, but the boy showed a clear abstract of title in the form of a rifle, and the bad man moved on in search of milder methods of opposition. Dr. McGinnis was a prominent factor in the early day development of Coffey county, and represented that county in the legislature in 1868-69. In 1869 he came to Butler county with his two motherless boys, and located twenty-five miles southeast of El Dorado, in Hickory township. That was an early day in the settlement of that part of the county. When he located there he built a good substantial residence, which was perhaps the best one in the county at the time; it was destroyed by the same storm that wrecked El Dorado, June 16, 1871. He took a prominent part in local affairs after coming to Butler county, moving to El Dorado, the nearest school or church, in November, 1873, and served six years as county commissioner, and in 1883 was elected registrar of deeds and served in that capacity four years. He also served as mayor and councilman of El Dorado. In 1894 he removed to Dewey county, Oklahoma, where he died April 5, 1912. His wife had preceded him in death a number of years, she having passed away March 13, 1867, in Coffey county. They were the parents of three children, as follows: Walter F., the subject of this sketch; S. Arthur, born November 10, 1866, a prominent attorney of Guthrie, Okla. He was captain of Troop I of Roosevelt's regiment of Rough Riders, during the Spanish-American war, and in his professional capacity, was attorney for the Daws Commission. One child, Flora Viola, died in infancy.

Dr. James Allen McGinnis was one of the first to enlist in response to President Lincoln's call for volunteers to defend the Union in the early sixties, and served for four years. President Lincoln appointed him first lieutenant in the regular army and assigned him to volunteer service. He was a member of Company D, Ninth Kansas cavalry and served in a manner befitting the brave soldier that he was. During the early days, he served in the secret service of the Government along the border. It fell to his lot to deal with the bad men of the plains, cattle rustlers and desperadoes that infested the new country and made life dangerous and property insecure on the frontier. Dr. McGinnis had many encounters with men of that type, and usually got his man when he went after him, and he went after a great many of them during his time. He was one of the dominant factors in organizing the vigilance committee who meted out summary justice to some of the notorious characters of the early history of Butler county after which the property and lives of the early settlers were more secure. He practiced medicine for fifty years, twenty-one of which were in Butler county.

Walter F. McGinnis attended his first school in Coffey county, in an old log house, and later he attended more pretentious public schools as the country developed. After obtaining a good common school education, he attended business college at Topeka, Kans. He then studied medicine two years. It was then that he decided that a medical career was not to his liking, and he engaged in the real estate and loan business in El Dorado. He began business here in 1884, which he has successfully conducted to the present time. He has also been engaged in the general insurance business all these years. On January 1, 1913, the Home Insurance Company presented him with a silver medal in recognition of twenty-five years of continuous and successful work for that company.

Mr. McGinnis was united in marriage, June 23, 1885, with Miss Ida May Surdam of Towanda, Kans. She is a daughter of Tunis Surdam, a Butler county pioneer who settled in this county in the early seventies. To Mr. and Mrs. McGinnis have been born the following children: Jennie Faith, married Howard Bennett, an El Dorado attorney; Hazel Hope, married Jud P. Hall, El Dorado; Adah Aletha, a Walter Fletcher, Jr., a member of the class of 1917, El Dorado High School, and Pauline Lillian, a student in the grade schools. The McGinnis family is well known and prominent in the community, and Mr. McGinnis is one of the progressive business men who are making a reputation for El Dorado as a city that does things. (History of Butler County, Kansas, by Vol. P. Mooney, 1916 Pages 472-475)

BETZ, WILLIAM HOUSTON

William Houston Betz, superintendent of the city water works of El Dorado, is a native of Ohio, born at Lima, July 28, 1868. His parents were Henry and Mary (Shumberger) Betz, the former a native of Germany and the latter of Pennsylvania. The Betz family were among the early settlers of El Dorado, locating here in 1869, when William Houston of this review was about a year old'. Their first home was on North Main street where the Commercial hotel now stands. They drove the entire distance from Ohio to Kansas, which was a long, tedious journey, and in those pioneer days they followed the trail through much wild and unsettled country, before reaching Butler county. Their outfit consisted of four wagons, one of which was a spring wagon, and they covered a distance of about 1200 miles.

After remaining in Kansas about six years, the family returned to Ohio, but two years later came back to Kansas, this time by rail as far as Florence, and continued the journey to El Dorado by stage coach. The father was engaged in buying and shipping cattle for a number of years, and later conducted a meat market in El Dorado, where he died and the mother passed away at Alton, 111. They were the parents of the following children: Samuel, now deceased; Elizabeth, married James Johnson, and is now a widow residing at Chicago, 111.; Christine, married * Edward Stanley and resides in Kansas City, Mo.; Lewis, died at the age of twenty; Fred, a farmer, Medicine Lodge, Kans.; Henry, Philadelphia, Pa.; William H., the subject of this sketch; and Charles, Kansas City, Mo. Samuel, the eldest brother, who is now deceased, was a natural frontiersman. He frequently made extensive hunting trips into the west and southwest, in the early days when those sections of the country had scarcely a white habitation. He was a great hunter and had an extensive acquaintance with various tribes of Indians and could speak many of their tribal languages with fluency. He organized a wild west show which he conducted for a time and later sold it to Adam Forepaugh, He was an unerring shot and a great rider, and in many ways an unusual type of man. He was killed in an accident in a spoke factory in Ohio.

William H. Betz was educated in the public schools in El Dorado, and attended high school, and was a schoolmate of William Allen White. From the time he was twelve years old, he practically made his own way in the world. He worked at odd jobs until he was seventeen years old, when he entered the employ of the Missouri Pacific railroad as switchman and remained in the train service of that road for thirteen years. He then entered the employ of C. L. Turner as an implement and buggy salesman, and followed that vocation for seven years. In February, 1906, Mr. Betz became superintendent of the El Dorado city waterworks. He is also superintendent of the sewer system, which includes a septic tank, which was built at a cost of $12,000 during his administration of that department. Mr. Betz is a close student of the intricate and important problem of city water supply and the most efficient and economical systems. He is a constant reader of current literature on that subject and keeps in close touch with the views and experiments of the leading experts along those lines throughout the country.

Mr. Betz was united in marriage in November, 1889, with Miss Winona Payton, a native of Ironton, Ohio. She came to Kansas with her parents, William and Sarelda Payton, when she was a child. The father is now deceased and the mother resides at Newton, Kans. To Mr. and Mrs. Betz have been born the following children: Grace, married William Rowell, proprietor of the Gem Theater, El Dorado; Mabel, married M. S. Smock, El Dorado; William and Irene. Mr. Betz is a Republican and is a member of the Masonic Lodge; Independent Order of Odd Fellows; Modern Woodmen of America, and Knights and Ladies of Security. The family are members of the Christian church. (History of Butler County, Kansas, by Vol. P. Mooney, 1916 Pages 475-476)

KISER, L. L.

L. L. Kiser, well known in the affairs of Butler county, is a native of Tippecanoe county, Indiana. He was born November 2, 1855, and is a son of Levi and Elizabeth (Chester) Kiser, the farmer a native of Ohio and the latter of New Jersey. Levi Kiser came to Indiana with his parents when he was a child. He grew to manhood in that State, and in 1856 went to Iowa with his wife and family, settling in Johnson county, near Iowa City. He was one of the pioneers of that section and remained there until 1878, when he removed with his family to Kansas, settling in Little Walnut township, Butler county. He was one of the' of the incorporators of the town of Leon, a member of the town-site company, and served as mayor of the town for two or three terms. He was engaged in the mercantile business at Leon for a number of years, but retired from active business a few years before his death. He died at Leon in 1908, aged eighty-four years. His wife died in Iowa in 1872.

L. L. Kiser was one of a family of seven children who grew to maturity. He was about a year old when his parents removed from Indiana to Iowa where he was reared and educated in the public schools and in 1878 came to Butler county, Kansas, and for fifteen years, he and two of his brothers were engaged in contracting and building. He then entered the real estate, loan and insurance business at El Dorado, and in 1915, moved to his farm three miles south of El Dorado, where he has 280 acres of land and is engaged quite extensively in general farming and stock raising.

Mr. Kiser was first married in 1882, to Miss Grace A. Gard, a native of Illinois, and two children were born to this union: Louis, Bristol, Col., and Clara, married Jesse L. Biggs, Potwin, Kans. The wife and mother died in 1887, and in 1889, Mr. Kiser married Miss Mary L. Applegate, a native of Wintersett, Iowa, who came to Kansas in 1882. She was a successful Butler county teacher for a number of years prior to her marriage. To Mr. and Mrs. Kiser have been born three children, as follows: Glen E. a reporter on the Wichita "Beacon;" Ruth, a stenographer in El Dorado, and Celest E., residing at home.

Mr. Kiser has taken an active part in public affairs since coming to Butler county and since coming to El Dorado has been active in the development and betterment of the city. He has served as chairman of the Commercial Club, and was active in promoting the oil development in this section as well as taking an active part in the furthering of municipal improvements such as pavement and other progressive and substantial city improvements. He is independent in politics and for twenty years has been an opponent of partisan politics in city government, and has had the satisfaction of seeing his principles in that particular finally win in El Dorado. He is a member of the Fraternal Aid and the Modern Woodmen of America and belongs to the Christian church of which he has been an elder for a number of years. He was active in the work of giving the congregation in El Dorado a new church and served as a member of the building committee. Mr. Kiser is one of the foremost and public spirited citizens of Butler county. (History of Butler County, Kansas, by Vol. P. Mooney, 1916 Pages 476-477)