History of Atchison County, Kansas

by Sheffield Ingalls

ST. BENEDICT’S COLLEGE.

St. Benedict’s College is the product of Benedictine activity in Kansas, in the cause of Christian civilization. Father Boniface Wimmer, O. S. B., the founder of the Benedictines in the United States, settled in Pennsylvania in 1846, and ten years later he sent missionaries in all directions, and where they settled, promptly there, too, their schools soon were founded. Father Henry Lempe, O. S. B., was the first Benedictine to touch upon Kansas soil in 1856, and he inspired Bishop Miege, S. J., of Leavenworth, with the idea of inviting Abbott Wimmer to make a foundation in Kansas, and thereafter Father Augustine Wirth, O. S. B., was sent out to Doniphan, in 1857, but in 1858 he moved to Atchison. Father Augustine’s management of the college continued until 1868, when he was succeeded by Louis M. Fink, O. S. B., who remained at the head of the institution until 1871. It was under Father Louis that the first printed catalog of St. Benedict’s College appears. Father Giles Christoph, O. S. B., succeeded Father Louis, and held the position three years, from 1871 to 1874, and was succeeded by Father Oswald Moosmueller, O. S. B. The college is situated on the hills north of Atchison and commands an extensive view of the Missouri river and surrounding country. In 1908 the college planned to erect a new group of buildings to crown the brow of the hill, east of the old college, new St. Benedict is to be not only first class, but it is to be a monument of beautiful architecture, which will be in Tudor Gothic and uniform throughout. The administration building, already erected, comprises the first of the group, part of which comprises living quarters of the students. It is a fire-proof building of re-inforced concrete and vitrified brick, spacious, well ventilated, and conveniently arranged. The buildings in the old group are of substantial structure, well fitted to serve their purposes. They comprise an auditorium, recitation room, kitchen and dining rooms, scientific laboratories, museum of natural history, music and typewriting departments. The college has two distinct libraries, one for the exclusive use of the students, and the other, the college library proper. The students’ library contains upwards of 5,000 volumes, in addition to a number of papers and magazines. The college library proper, maintained for the use of the professors, occupies four rooms and the monastery, and it contains more than 27,400 bound volumes and over 5,000 pamphlets. The scientific laboratories are adequate for present use, and the museum is one of the best of its kind in this part of the country. The playgrounds of the college are large and well suited to afford all manner of healthful exercise for the students.

St. Benedict’s College, Atchison, Kan.

The courses available in the college are the academic, the collegiate, business and stenographic, which are presided over by twenty-two professors, and in which are 300 students. St. Benedict’s is one of the finest Catholic institutions in the West.

CHAPTER XVIII.
BENCH AND BAR.

EARLY MECCA OF LEGAL TALENT—ORGANIZATION OF JUDICIAL DISTRICT—EARLY JUDGES—PROMINENT PIONEER LAWYERS—MEMBERS OF THE ATCHISON COUNTY BAR.

Atchison county has always been particularly proud of the high order of talent that has graced its bench and bar. From the very earliest days of its history, the legal profession has been well represented here. Men who have reached a high order of distinction in the profession have had their beginning at the bar of this county. In fact, this county has been somewhat unique in this respect, for there is perhaps no other county in Kansas that has furnished a greater number of distinguished representatives of this noble profession, who have shed their luster upon the fair name of the State. For a long period, indeed, Atchison seemed to be the Mecca towards which the best legal talent from all quarters of the country gathered, and it was the Atchison bar that furnished three chief justices of the supreme court of Kansas, one United States district judge, an attorney-general, a governor, a United States senator, and a general counsel for a large railroad system.

No attempt will be made in this chapter to give a complete roster of names of the many lawyers who have successfully practiced their profession here. The list is too numerous, but reference will be made to a number of conspicuous leaders, whose names stand out prominently in the history of the State, and whose careers have enriched the story of success and achievement.

Atchison county was one of the counties of the second judicial district, which composed, in addition to Atchison county, Doniphan, Brown, Nemaha, Marshall and Washington counties. The first judge of the district was Hon. Albert L. Lee, who lived at Elwood, Doniphan county, and served from January 29 to October 31, 1861. He died in New York City December 31, 1907. The second judge of this district was Hon. Albert H. Horton. Judge Horton was born in Orange county, New York, March 12, 1837, and was educated at Farmers’ Hall Academy, in that county, and at Ann Arbor University. He was admitted to practice in the supreme court of New York, at Brooklyn, in 1859, and continued the practice of his profession at Goshen until 1860, when he removed to Kansas, locating at Atchison. His first public office here was city attorney, to which place he was elected in the spring of 1861, upon the Republican ticket, and the same year was appointed by Governor Robinson judge of the second judicial district, and held this office, by election, until 1866, when he resigned. He was a Republican presidential elector in 1868, and in 1869 was appointed a district attorney of Kansas by President Grant, which office he held until 1873, when he was elected a member of the house of representatives from this county. Three years later he was elected to the State senate, and was also a delegate to the National Republican convention in June of that year, and in the same year was appointed chief justice of the supreme court of Kansas by Governor Thomas A. Osborn, to succeed Hon. S. A. Kingman, who was before that time a prominent practitioner in Atchison. In 1877 Judge Horton was nominated on the Republican ticket to the office of chief justice of the State, and he served in that capacity for seventeen years, at the end of which time he returned to Atchison and formed a partnership with Hon. B. P. Waggener. Judge Horton was an able jurist and lawyer, a strong argumentative and fluent speaker. He displayed marked ability as a parliamentarian while in the legislature, and was, altogether, a man of strong mental capacity, good judgment, coupled with executive ability, and much practical experience. After a number of years’ practice here, following his resignation as chief justice of the State, he subsequently was reëlected to the same position. He died on the second day of September, 1902.

Judge Horton was succeeded as judge of the district court of this district by Hon. St. Clair Graham May 11, 1866. Judge Graham served as Judge until January 11, 1869, and was on the bench at the time that the celebrated Regis Liosel land contest was tried in Nemaha county, in which John J. Ingalls, another Atchison lawyer, represented some claimants to 38,111 acres of land in the counties of Nemaha, Marshall, Jackson and Pottawatomie. It was one of the celebrated cases of that day. The litigation grew out of a French land grant, which subsequently was confirmed by an act of Congress in 1858.

Judge Graham was succeeded by Hon. Nathan Price, of Troy, Doniphan county, January 11, 1869. Judge Price served until March 1, 1872. He practiced law in the district for a number of years thereafter, and died in Troy March 8, 1883. B. P. Waggener, who began his wonderful career as a lawyer during the administration of Judge Price, and who has been in the active practice in Atchison since that time, is authority for the statement that Judge Price was one of the most brilliant judges that ever adorned the bench. He is described by Mr. Waggener as being a man of a powerful personality, and thoroughly grounded in the principles of the law.

S. C. KINGMAN

P. T. ABELL

During this period in the history of the county, Atchison had one of the strongest bars in the State of Kansas. Among the able lawyers then in the active practice were: P. T. Abell, about whom much has appeared in this history; Gen. Benjamin F. Stringfellow, Alfred G. Otis, John J. Ingalls, George W. Glick, Samuel C. Kingman, J. T. Hereford, Gen. W. W. Guthrie, Albert H. Horton, Cassius G. Foster, S. H. Glenn, F. D. Mills and David Martin, and one of that number, Mr. Waggener, is also authority for the statement that Benjamin F. Stringfellow was the most brilliant. General Stringfellow was a brother of Dr. John H. Stringfellow, one of the founders of Atchison, and, like his brother, was a strong pro-slavery leader. He was famous before he came to Atchison, because of his widely known views with regard to the opening of Kansas as a slave State, and for the depth and force of his arguments upon the points then at issue. General Stringfellow was born in Fredericksburg, Va., September 3, 1816, and before coming to Kansas he was a resident of Missouri. He first located in Louisville, Ky., and then went to St. Louis, and from St. Louis to Huntsville, Mo., finally locating at Keytesville, where he settled down in his profession, and was recognized as being a young lawyer of fine ability. He declined the position of circuit attorney, but upon the earnest solicitation of the governor, he finally yielded and entered upon the duties of that office, and subsequently was elected without opposition, and held that office for a term of four years at a salary of $250 a year. He subsequently was elected to the legislature, with the largest majority ever received in a county, and immediately became a very active, popular and influential member of that body. Shortly thereafter the position of attorney-general of the State of Missouri became vacant, and General Stringfellow was appointed to that place. He held the office of attorney-general for four years. It was then that he formed a partnership with Hon. P. T. Abell, which continued until the fall of 1851, and they removed to Weston, Platte county, Missouri, in the fall of 1853.

At the opening of Kansas to settlement in 1854, General Stringfellow found the abolitionists preparing to get control of the country, and, in opposition to the formation of the Massachusetts Immigrants’ Aid Society, he took part in the organization of a pro-slavery organization at Weston, Mo., known as the Platte County Self-Defensive Association, of which he was secretary, and one of its most active members. General Stringfellow, foreseeing the conflict, insisted that the only means of preventing or deferring it, was to make Kansas a slave State, and thus retain sufficient power in the United States Senate to defeat aggression by the abolitionists on the rights of the South. General Stringfellow, with all the power and enthusiasm of his southern temperament, labored ceaselessly for the success of his cause. He was the active man of what was generally called “Atchison, Stringfellow & Company.”

When the pro-slavery forces finally succeeded, and the destiny of Kansas was fixed, General Stringfellow went to Memphis, Tenn., in 1858, but not liking the climate, and compelled by his financial interests to look after property in Atchison, he brought his family here and became a resident of Atchison county in the fall of 1859, and remained here during all the bitter conflict that followed, beloved and respected by friends and opponents alike. He submitted gracefully to the final decision, and, while never seeking office, and influenced in his political action by what he deemed the best interests of the people of the State, he cordially coöperated with the Republican party in Kansas, but he was preëminently a lawyer, although he had a large outside business interests during his residence here. He was active in the organization and construction of the Atchison & St. Joseph railroad, which was the first railroad connecting Kansas with the East, and was its first attorney. Shortly before his death he made a trip around the world. He died in Chicago in the early nineties.

GEN. B. F. STRINGFELLOW

COL. J. A. MARTIN

A few years after General Stringfellow immigrated from Missouri into Kansas, there came another famous lawyer, who was also formerly an attorney-general of Missouri, Gen. Bela M. Hughes. General Hughes was also one of the brilliant lawyers of an early day, who remained in Atchison but a few years as general counsel for the Overland Stage Line. Before coming to Atchison, General Hughes was a resident of St. Joseph, where he was the president and general counsel for the Central Overland California & Pike’s Peak Express Company. When this line was sold, under a mortgage foreclosure, to Ben Holladay, in 1862, General Hughes came to Atchison. He served as general counsel for Mr. Holladay until the line was purchased by Wells, Fargo & Company. He was retained by this company as its general counsel, which continued to operate the overland stage line, until a railroad was built across the plains, meanwhile moving to Denver, where he was elected the first president and general counsel of the Denver & Pacific railway, the first railroad to enter Denver, in July, 1870, and he later became general counsel for the Denver & South Park railroad, and a member of the last territorial legislature of Colorado. General Hughes was born in Kentucky, educated at Augusta College, and removed with his parents at an early date to Liberty, Mo. He was a member of the Missouri legislature, prosecuting attorney, and receiver of the United States land office at Plattsburg, from which place he went to St. Joseph. In his early youth he was a soldier in the Black Hawk war, serving with the Missouri volunteers. He took up his residence in Denver in the late sixties, when the city had less than 5,000 inhabitants. He died in Denver in 1904, at the age of eighty-six years.

Judge Samuel C. Kingman was born in Worthington, Mass., June 6, 1818. He attended a common school and academies of his home town, and became proficient in higher mathematics and Latin, but his regular attendance at school ended when he was seventeen years old. He was always a sickly man, and at times during his life was compelled to lay aside all study and attention to active affairs. At the age of twenty he drifted to Kentucky, where he remained eighteen years, teaching school, reading law and practicing as an attorney. He held offices as county clerk and county attorney in Kentucky, and was a member of the legislature of that State in 1850. In 1856 he came to Iowa, and in the following year moved to Brown county, Kansas, where he lived on a farm for a year, and then opened a law office in Hiawatha. Judge Kingman was a member of the Wyandotte Constitutional convention, which framed the constitution of the State, and the same year was elected a judge of the supreme court, taking his seat upon the admission of the State into the Union in 1861, holding his office for four years. In 1866 he was elected chief justice, and reëlected in 1872, but because of ill health he resigned in 1877, and retired from active professional life. Judge Kingman was for a time a resident of Atchison and a law partner of John J. Ingalls. He died in Topeka September 9, 1904.

Cassius G. Foster, another one of the brilliant galaxy of lawyers, who practiced in Atchison during the term of Judge Price on the bench, was born at Webster, Monroe county, New York, June 22, 1837. He was brought up on a farm until he was fourteen years of age, and having only the advantages of a common district school, he attended high school at Palmyra, N. Y., after which he went to Michigan, where he lived on a farm near Adrian, where he worked for his uncle. Meanwhile, he attended school at the academy in Adrian. He studied law with Fernando C. Beaman, of Adrian, and afterwards removed to Rochester, N. Y. In June, 1859, he came to Kansas, having previously been greatly interested in the Free State struggle, and upon arriving in Atchison, he formed a partnership with Judge S. H. Glenn, and immediately won for himself a high position at the bar of the State and Federal courts. He was elected State senator from Atchison county in 1862, and was mayor of Atchison in 1867. He practiced law here until 1874, when he was appointed United States district judge of Kansas.

Hon. P. L. Hubbard, of Atchison, succeeded Judge Price on the bench March 2, 1872, and served until January 8, 1877, and following Judge Hubbard, Hon. Alfred G. Otis was elected judge of the second judicial district January 8, 1877, and served until January, 1881. Judge Otis was born in Cortland county, New York, December 13, 1828, and came to Kansas in October, 1855, and immediately became engaged in land litigation, which at that time was very active here. During the early career of Judge Otis in Atchison county, and for many years thereafter, land litigation was the chief source of revenue for lawyers. There were no great corporations then as now; no railroads for clients, and aside from land litigation and a general practice of the law, including criminal cases, there was but little business for lawyers. At that time the criminal practice was not looked upon with the same disapprobation on the part of the profession as it is in these days. A good criminal lawyer then was an ornament to the profession, and a good criminal advocate was in constant demand and his services brought him large remuneration. Judge Otis was a Democrat, but a Union man, and in addition to his activities in his profession, he was also prominent in the business affairs of the town, and for a long time took an active part in the management of the Atchison Savings Bank, of which he was for many years president. Judge Otis died in Atchison May 7, 1912.

Judge Otis was succeeded by Hon. David Martin in January, 1881. Judge Martin served until April, 1887, and was one of the eminent members of the Atchison county bar. In personal appearance he was unique among his fellows, and in physical appearance was the counterpart of Dickens’ famous Mr. Pickwick. He was a partner of B. P. Waggener for a number of years, and was subsequently elected to the position of chief justice of the supreme court of Kansas, where he served with great distinction. He was a thorough lawyer and a scholar. He died at Atchison March 2, 1901.

It was between the terms of Judge Price and Judge David Martin that the bar of Atchison county reached its greatest eminence, and, while there have been good lawyers here since that time, there never has been a period in the history of the county when there were so many brilliant practitioners at the bar. During several years following Judge Martin, the second judicial district, which constituted Atchison county alone, was torn by internal dissension, and upon the resignation of Judge Martin, Hon. H. M. Jackson was elected to the bench, April 1, 1887, and served until January, 1888. There never was a more conscientious or painstaking lawyer a resident of Atchison than Judge Jackson. He was not only a fine lawyer, but he was a good citizen, useful to clients and the public alike. At his death, May 7, 1912, he left a large practice, which has since been conducted by his son, Z. E. Jackson. Following a bitter contest, Hon. W. D. Gilbert succeeded Judge Jackson in January, 1888, and served until 1889, and then came Hon. Robert N. Eaton, whose term began in January, 1889, and ended in January, 1893. Judge Eaton was succeeded by Hon. W. D. Webb, who in turn was succeeded by Hon. W. T. Bland, who served from January, 1897, to January, 1902, and resigned to go into the wholesale drug business. Hon. Benjamin F. Hudson, one of the oldest practitioners at the bar, succeeded Judge Bland and served until October 11, 1909, and was succeeded by Hon. William A. Jackson, the present judge, a sketch of whose career appears in another part of this history.

During the turbulent years that followed the organization of the second judicial district, down to 1916, there was no greater lawyer at the Atchison county bar than B. P. Waggener, about whom there appears an historical sketch in another part of this history. Mr. Waggener, in addition to being a native genius, inherited or acquired a faculty for unremitting toil. These qualifications make him stand out in 1916 as a brilliant leader of his profession in Atchison county. He has been associated as a partner with many men who have been preëminent in their profession at different periods in his career, Horton, Martin and Doster, all of whom served as chief justices of the State, were his partners, and in addition to these, Aaron S. Everest was at one time a partner under the firm name of Everest & Waggener. In January, 1876, this firm was appointed general attorneys for northern Kansas of the Missouri Pacific and the Central Branch railroads, and from that date to 1916 Mr. Waggener has been in the constant service of this road, first as general attorney and later as general counsel for the states of Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado.

Col. Aaron S. Everest was an interesting member of this bar. He was a native of Plattsburg, N. Y., and located in Kansas in 1871. His first partner was A. G. Otis, and when he and Mr. Waggener were associated, they were not only attorneys for the Missouri Pacific Railway Company, but for the Pacific Express Company, the Western Union Telegraph Company, three Atchison banks, the Atchison Bridge Company, and the firm was also connected with the Union Pacific Railroad Company. Mr. Everest retired from active practice a number of years before his death, having acquired a comfortable fortune in the practice of law and in business operations. He died in St. Louis a number of years ago.

The present membership of the Atchison county bar is composed of lawyers of fine abilities, and the active members are as follows: James W. Orr, for many years a partner of Mr. Waggener, and now special counsel for the Government in important litigation against the Central Pacific railroad; W. P. Waggener, general attorney for the Missouri Pacific Railway Company in Kansas; J. M. Challiss, former county attorney, and a member of the firm of Waggener, Challiss & Crane, of which A. E. Crane is the other member; W. A. Jackson, district judge; Charles J. Conlon, county attorney, C. D. Walker and T. A. Moxcey, both of whom were former county attorneys; W. E. Brown, city attorney; Z. E. Jackson, of the firm of Jackson & Jackson; Judge J. L. Berry. P. Hayes, Hugo Orlopp, E. W. Clausen, Ralph U. Pfouts, Charles T. Gundy, judge of the city court, George L. Brown, William Q. Cain, and Andrew Deduall.

CHAPTER XIX
MEDICAL PROFESSION.

FIRST PHYSICIANS—EARLY PRACTICE—PIONEER REMEDIES—MODERN MEDICINE AND SURGERY—PROMINENT PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS—ATCHISON COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY.

Any history of this county would be incomplete did it not dwell at some length upon the activities of the splendid service rendered the community by the physicians and surgeons who were among the earliest arrivals upon the frontier, and have presided at the births and administered to the sick and dying for the past sixty years.

It was peculiarly fitting and appropriate when Atchison was born, that a prominent physician of those days was on hand to assist in the delivery. In truth, Dr. J. H. Stringfellow was not only the physician in charge, but he also was one of the parents, and from that time to the present the medical profession has been active in the affairs of the county. There have been many splendid representatives of the profession here since the days of Dr. Stringfellow, and the vicissitudes and trials and hardships they went through make up a romantic chapter in our history. The oldest physician in the city of Atchison in 1916 in point of service is Dr. E. T. Shelly, and it might be said, without disparagement to others, he is not only the oldest, but he is perhaps held in as high esteem and respect as any other physician who ever practiced here. Dr. Shelly combines the qualities that make for good citizenship. He treats his profession as a good Christian treats his religion. He is a man of ideals, of vision, of integrity, and his life rings true. Yet, withal, Dr. Shelly is not a professional hermit. While his profession comes first, he does not allow it to exclude him from an active interest and participation in the affairs of life. He is a student of political and economic questions, an essayist, and a vigorous advocate of a liberal democracy. His views on these questions are wholesome and instructive, but it is to the profession of medicine that Dr. Shelly addressed himself in a recent interview the author of this history had with him, and his views were expressed as follows:

“What changes have occurred in the practice of medicine since the days of the first physicians here! He did his work on horseback with his medicines in saddle-bags thrown over the horse, and often had to go many miles to visit a patient over a sparsely settled prairie with roads that were little more than trails. The streams he had to cross were bridgeless, and the larger ones could be crossed only at fords, which, after heavy rains or during freezing weather, were very dangerous.

“Today, in this section of the State, these primitive conditions can hardly be imagined. Nearly every country doctor now has an automobile, and crosses gullies and streams on concrete bridges and travels over ‘dragged’ roads. Instead of passing through a sparsely settled country, he finds a fine large farm house on nearly every ‘quarter’ or ‘eighty’ supplemented by a substantial barn and spacious granaries. He passes a school house every few miles and occasionally a rural church, and lives in a comfortable, modern home in a flourishing, well kept country town.

“In the science and art of medicine the change has been no less marked than in its general practice.

“Until forty years ago, doctors possessed a few great remedies which they often used very skillfully, but the knowledge of the nature of disease was very slight. Treatment was largely symptomatic; that is, remedies were expected chiefly to combat certain symptoms, rather than to treat underlying causes.

“A notion very prevalent until then, and which has not yet disappeared entirely, was that there is a remedy for every disease, and that whenever a patient is not cured of his illness it is due, not to the limitations of the healing art, but to the fact that treatment was not begun early enough, or his doctor didn’t know enough, or didn’t care enough to give him the right medicine. About that time it began to dawn on the most thoughtful and capable medical men that the course of disease can usually not be quickly checked; that most diseases run a definite course; that most patients recover spontaneously, or the disease persists to the end and is not much influenced by any of the remedies used. About that time medical men began to appreciate also another fact: that underlying most diseases, there is a natural tendency toward recovery, which means that most diseases will cure themselves if given time enough.

“While medical men insist that the practice of medicine is both a science and an art, they are also perfectly willing to admit that it is neither an exact science nor a perfect art. In other words, modern medicine admits that it has not yet scaled the heights or fathomed the depths of scientific knowledge in regard to the nature of disease or of its cure. It is still willing to learn. Indeed, it realizes the fact that there is still infinitely more to learn than has yet been found out. And there is no avenue of human knowledge which it is not willing to explore in order to find out things that will get the sick well and keep the well from getting sick.

“A stunning blow to the old notions of the nature of disease and to the old methods of treatment, was administered about thirty years ago by the discovery that most diseases are due to infinitely small, living organisms, called germs or bacteria, which prey upon, or poison the tissues of the body, and thereby disturb, more or less seriously, some, or all, of the normal functions of the body. The scientific laboratory thereupon became the shrine of modern medicine; a new epoch in medicine had arrived.

“This new epoch meant not only that medical and surgical disorders were henceforth to be treated in a much more scientific and rational way than they had been in the past, but that one of the greatest scientific conquests of the ages was underway—the intelligent prevention of disease. Preventive medicine had been born. Soon thereafter a new and unprecedented popular interest in medical matters became prevalent. Newspapers, magazines and the public forum took a hand in popularizing this new knowledge of the nature of disease and the methods of preventing disease, which was founded on the new knowledge. Disease began to be looked on no longer as only a mysterious dispensation of Providence, but as a thing which, as scientific medicine advanced, was more and more to come under the knowledge and control of science.

“In no domain of modern medicine have greater advances been made than in surgery, due chiefly to the discovery of the role which germs play in the causation of surgical troubles. Because of the discovery of the necessity of asepsis (the absence of germs) in surgical operations and its practical application, operations, which, if done thirty years ago, would have been almost invariably fatal, can now be done nearly with impunity. Then, surgical operations in large surgical clinics were done by men in Prince Albert coats. Today, the surgeon and his assistants are arrayed in sterilized white gowns and rubber gloves with caps for their heads and special coverings for mouth and nose, which are worn in order to prevent any unfiltered, contaminated vapor from these orifices coming in contact with the freshly made wound. Where proper precautions are taken, and no pus or other filth has come in contact with the wound, some of the most extensive operations are followed by immediate repair, without the formation of pus in the wound. To enumerate even a small part of the triumphs of modern surgery would occupy too much space and is uncalled for here, and these triumphs would have been impossible before the advent of surgical cleanliness.

“But modern medicine does not stop at treating or curing people. It does something even bigger and better—it tries to keep them well. Indeed, the medical profession is the only immolating profession there is—the only profession that is all the time trying, by its efforts in the direction of preventive medicine, to destroy its only source of income—the treatment of disease—by doing all within its power to make disease less and less prevalent. It is continually urging better personal and public hygiene and sanitation. Because medical men understand the stunting effects of ill health on the growing mind and body of the child, they are urging careful medical inspection of schools and school children, and they call for better health conditions in the family, the factory, and the mine, and they denounce without measure unhealthy child labor. Modern medicine tries to banish from the home and school, as nearly as may be, that brutal precept—“He that spareth the rod, hateth his son”—because it knows that the irritable, petulant, stubborn child may be a sick child, or has fools for parents, while the incorrigible boy or girl needs the attention of an expert in nervous and mental diseases rather than the brutality of an impatient, ignorant parent or policeman.

“Modern medicine enters the jungle and by proper sanitary rules and regulations makes a deadly, miasmatic swamp a model of cleanliness and healthfulness, as was done in the Panama canal zone, and without which the building of the canal would have been impossible.

“Modern medicine seeks to help and to save mankind, not only from physical ills, but from moral ills as well. By the careful study of the influence of inheritance and environment on the development and the conduct of the child, it tries to make his physical inheritance as favorable as possible, and his economic and social environment as helpful as may be, realizing that much of our moral delinquency is due to unjust civic and economic conditions.”

It would require a volume to tell the story of the lives of all the early-day physicians of this county. Investigation discloses the fact that they were numerous, and that in addition to Dr. Stringfellow, who gave more of his time to political matters than to his profession, there was a Dr. D. McVay here prior to 1860. He was a southern gentleman, but apparently had more discretion than valor, for he fled from Atchison at the beginning of the Civil war. Dr. William Grimes, concerning whose life brief mention has been heretofore made in this history, was a physician at Atchison in 1858. Dr. W. W. Cochrane was another physician of the old school, a courtly, amiable gentleman, and a good physician. He was for a number of years treasurer of the Kansas Medical Society, and was a pioneer among physicians in administering chloroform in childbirth cases. Dr. Arnold was here in 1859, and later, on a trip to Denver, he was scalped by the Indians. Dr. Joseph Malin, of Weston, Mo., who married one of the McAdows, was a physician in Atchison in 1861, and Dr. J. V. Brining practiced in Atchison in 1862, and remained a practitioner here until 1914.

Dr. William Gough, who had been a Confederate army surgeon, located in Atchison shortly after the war. He practiced in St. Joseph before coming to Atchison, and also at DeKalb, where he married Mrs. Annie Dunning. From DeKalb he moved to Rushville, and then came to Atchison, where he formed a partnership with the late Dr. J. M. Linley. Together they enjoyed an extensive medical and surgical practice, until 1887, when Dr. Gough moved to Los Angeles, Cal., for the benefit of his health. He died there in 1908. Dr. Gough is described by his friends as being a man of large physique, the soul of honor, and displayed the utmost care and gentleness in the care of his patients.

Dr. W. L. Challiss came to Atchison in 1857, and while standing high in his profession, gave most of his time to business affairs, and practiced only spasmodically. There was also a Dr. Buddington in Atchison in 1864, who ran a drug store at Fourth and Commercial streets.

One of the most interesting members of the medical profession in an early day was Dr. Charles F. Kob, a German physician, who lived here about 1858. Dr. Kob had been a surgeon in the army and a member of the Massachusetts and Connecticut Medical Society. He founded the town of Bunker Hill, on Independence creek, ten miles north of Atchison, to which reference has already been made in this history. He lived and practiced in Boston before coming to Atchison. Dr. Amaziah Moore was another very early day physician, who located on a farm three or four miles west of Lancaster, in 1857. He came from Ohio. In 1861 he helped organize a company for the Civil war, which became Company D of the Second Kansas cavalry, of which he was captain.

DR. W. W. COCHRANE

WILLIAM L. CHALLIS

Dr. John C. Batsell lived about two and one-half miles northwest of Monrovia. He was a native of Kentucky, and was born in Marion county March 16, 1818. He was reared and educated in his native county, where he took up the study of medicine, and became proficient in the science. He commenced the practice of his profession in Valeene, Orange county, Indiana, where he continued successfully for over seven years. In the autumn of 1855 he came to Atchison county, along with John Graves and others, and after looking around, went to DeKalb, Mo., where he remained until the spring of 1866, when he returned to Atchison county, and preëmpted a quarter section, upon which he lived, northwest of Monrovia. He engaged in the practice of medicine in connection with farming, being frequently called into Doniphan and Brown counties. Malarial diseases prevailed to a great extent in those early days, and the people were in straitened circumstances. He furnished medicine and attended to their wants, losing largely in a financial way, as the greater portion of the first dwellers moved away. In 1863 Dr. Batsell organized one-half of Company D, Thirteenth Kansas, of which he was tendered the captaincy, but declined and accepted the position of first lieutenant. On account of serious illness he only served three months in the army. He was major of the Thirteenth Kansas during the Price raid, and at the close of the war was elected to the legislature by the Republican party. He was originally an old-line Whig, but upon the organization of the Republican party he joined it, as he was in favor of the abolition of slavery. During his latter years he discontinued his practice and devoted his time to his farm. He died about ten years ago.

Dr. David Wait came from Missouri to Kansas in 1859 and settled on a farm near Eden postoffice, now known as the Vollmer farm. He was a striking-looking man and was looked upon as very proficient in his profession. He was an ardent Union man. In fact, Dr. Moore, Dr. Batsell and Dr. Wait were all of great help to the Union cause in the days before the war.

Among other leading physicians of the county, outside of Atchison, of the early days, were Dr. J. F. Martin, Dr. S. G. Page, Dr. C. C. Stivers, and Dr. Desmond, concerning whom the following information is available:

Dr. J. F. Martin was one of the first practitioners in Atchison county. He was a native of Bourbon county, Kentucky, and was born September 29, 1828. He graduated at the Transylvania Medical University, in 1854, and afterwards took a course of lectures in St. Louis Medical University. Subsequently he removed to DeKalb, Mo., where he practiced until 1856, coming to Kansas about the same time that Dr. Batsell came. He had a large practice in Doniphan and Brown counties. He practiced ten years, and returned to Decatur, Ill., in 1866, where he remained seven years, and returned to Kansas, locating in Effingham. He died in Effingham in 1877.

Dr. S. G. Page, a native of Juniata county, Pennsylvania, was born July 16, 1845. He attended Bellevue Hospital Medical College in New York in 1867: came to Kansas in 1868, and located in Center township, five miles south of Effingham, where he located on a farm which he operated a few years, and then located in Effingham.

Dr. C. C. Stivers, a native of Brown county, Ohio, was born January 6, 1842. He enlisted in Company A, Sixtieth Ohio Volunteer infantry; participated in the battles of Bull Run, Cross Keys and Port Royal. Returning from the war, he took a course of lectures at Miami University in Oxford Ohio; located in Eden in 1877 and practiced until 1881, when he became a resident of Effingham. In 1880 he attended Keokuk Medical College, graduating from that institution. He had the reputation of being a brilliant conversationalist and a very interesting gentleman.

The first doctor to locate at Lancaster was Dr. Desmond, who went there in the latter seventies. While there he married a Miss Streeper, of Good Intent, and about 1885 moved to Stewartsville, Mo. Dr. Desmond was succeeded at Lancaster by Dr. A. L. Charles, who came there from Bunker Hill, Russell county, Kansas, where he had gone four years previously, after graduating from the Kansas City Medical College. Soon after locating at Lancaster, Dr. Charles married Miss Alice Keeney, who lived near Lancaster. Dr. and Mrs. Charles raised a family of seven children, the eldest of whom is the Atchison surgeon, Dr. Hugh L. Charles. Mrs. Charles died of pneumonia in the Atchison hospital in January, 1915. Dr. Charles has been a very successful physician. He enjoys the profoundest respect of his colleagues throughout the county, who regard him as an ideal physician. It is needless to add that he also enjoys the utmost confidence and esteem of a clientele whose numbers are limited only by his ability to serve.

The first physician at Mt. Pleasant was Dr. Eagle, who located there during territorial days and practiced for a number of years. Dr. Jacob Larry also located at Mt. Pleasant about 1856. He was a South Carolinian, and a graduate of Charleston Medical College. During the war he was a surgeon in the army. He located in Iatan, Mo., and was building up a large practice when he committed suicide by taking strychnine and then blowing his brains out with a pistol. Before moving to Iatan Dr. Larry induced Dr. John Parsons, of King’s Bridge, N. Y., who also had been an army surgeon, to come to Mt. Pleasant. Dr. Parsons practiced there several years, and his practice became so large that he finally induced Dr. George W. Redmon to locate at Mt. Pleasant and assist him. Dr. Redmon located there in the fall of 1872, and remained a number of years, later locating at Oak Mills. There was also a Dr. W. W. Crook at Mt. Pleasant, in the seventies. Dr. Crook also practiced in Doniphan, and later moved to Wyoming. Dr. P. R. Moore was another physician who located in Mt. Pleasant township during the seventies, as was also Dr. Johnson. Dr. Charles H. Linley, now a resident physician of Atchison, practiced in Mt. Pleasant for a number of years, and following Dr. Linley came Dr. Miller and Dr. Rice. Dr. Roberts had a small drug store and practiced medicine at Oak Mills in the early days. He was addicted to the liquor habit, and was found dead in his office one morning. He had been preceded in practice at Oak Mills by Dr. Earle, who lived about half way between Oak Mills and Kickapoo, and who settled there during the fifties.

Dr. J. M. Linley came to Atchison March 14, 1865. He was born in Concord, Ky., October 28, 1837. He attended college at Princeton, Ky., and was graduated from Miami Medical College at Cincinnati, Ohio, in March, 1858, and subsequently attended lectures in Bellevue College, New York. He was post surgeon at New Madrid, Mo., in 1864. Dr. Linley was one of the most successful practitioners of Atchison and was held in high esteem. In 1891 he went abroad and attended clinics in hospitals of Berlin and London. He died in Phoenix, Ariz., November 28, 1900.

The following are the members of the Atchison County Medical Society as reported in 1915: Dr. C. H. Johnson, Dr. H. L. Charles, Dr. M. T. Dingess, Dr. E. J. Bribach, Dr. Robert Dickey, Dr. E. P. Pitts, Dr. C. A. Lilly, Dr. Charles Robinson, Dr. C. H. Linley, Dr. T. E. Horner, Dr. F. A. Pearl, Dr. P. R. Moore, Emmingham, Dr. S. M. Myers, Potter, Dr. G. E. White, Effingham, Dr. G. W. Allaman, Dr. W. F. Smith, Dr. Virgil Morrison, Dr. E. T. Shelly.

CHAPTER XX.
INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL.

MUCH WEALTH AND ENTERPRISE ABOUND—MANUFACTURING—MILLING—EXTENSIVE WHOLESALE HARDWARE AND GROCERY ESTABLISHMENTS—PLANING MILLS—VARIOUS JOBBING AND RETAIL INTERESTS.

Industrial enterprises of Atchison county, so far as manufacturing and jobbing interests are concerned, are confined exclusively to the city of Atchison. There are no mills or factories or large manufacturing institutions in any of the smaller towns of the county. Outside of Atchison the labor and industry of the citizens are directed in agricultural pursuits; the tilling of the soil, the breeding of live stock and the development of all the other arts of husbandry, but in the city of Atchison there are a number of establishments which give employment to labor, and which in a number of instances ship their finished products to all parts of the United States and into the ports of foreign countries.

Atchison, however, strictly speaking, is not a factory town, nor a great manufacturing center. There have been times in its history when it was more important, commercially, than now, but that was in the days before the great onrush to Kansas City. Yet the town today is a substantial, solid community, where much wealth and enterprise abound, and where there has been a steady, healthy commercial growth.

The largest manufacturing plant is the John Seaton Foundry Company, and the Locomotive Finished Material Company, an associated enterprise, established by the late John Seaton, who moved to Atchison from Alton, Ill., in 1871, having been induced to come to Atchison by a handsome donation from the citizens of the town. Mr. Seaton originally manufactured much architectural work; iron and brass casting, boilers, jail and sheet iron work. For a while it was conducted under the firm name of Seaton & Lea, but shortly before the death of Captain Seaton, a few years ago, the Locomotive Finished Material Company was organized to put the finishing touches on castings and at the death of Mr. Seaton, H. E. Muchnic became president and general manager of the company, with John C. Seaton, Clive Hastings, W. S. Ferguson and G. L. Seaton as associate directors. The average number of employees is about 226, when the total horse power is 500. They have a payroll of over $14,000 a month, and are doing a large business with railroads and other big industrial plants throughout the country.

The Manglesdorf Brothers Company is one of the oldest establishments in the city. It began in 1875 as a side line in connection with the retail grocery business, by August and William Manglesdorf, and is now conducted by the sons of the founders. It is one of the largest seed houses in the West. The business was incorporated in 1887, and the officers in 1916 are as follows: August Manglesdorf, president: A. F. Manglesdorf, vice-president: Ed. F. Manglesdorf, vice-president: F. H. Manglesdorf, treasurer, and F. W. Manglesdorf, secretary.

The business has grown to such an extent that it was thought advisable to close out the retail end of it and it is now conducted as an exclusively wholesale seed house. The new warehouse, which the firm now occupies, was erected last year and gives it one of the largest and most complete plants in the West. The new building is modern in every way, strictly fire-proof and provides an enormous space for storing and handling the stocks, which are accumulated for the spring trade. The seed line, perhaps more than any other, is a seasonable one, and by far the greater proportion of the year’s business must be crowded into a few spring months. It is necessary, therefore, to move goods quickly and in large quantities, when the season is on. For this purpose, the warehouses are equipped with suitable machinery and devices, which are kept up to the highest possible efficiency for handling and cleaning the seed. The stocks are obtained in all parts of the world. When crops fail in one part of the country, it is the business of the seed dealers to supply the deficiency from some other sections, where conditions have been more favorable. Thus, the source of supply and the outlet for it are constantly shifting and it requires keeping in touch with the progress of the crops and market conditions in many different producing districts.

The firm does a considerable export business also, particularly in blue grass and timothy, which are produced here, cheaper and in better quality than they are in Europe. During each year the firm’s travelers cover the States of Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, parts of Nebraska, Colorado and Texas. Its line of garden seeds may be obtained from the local merchants in nearly every town in this territory.

The Bailor Plow Company, of Atchison, organized in 1910 with an authorized capital of $50,000. J. M. Schott, president; Charles Linley, vice-president; W. P. Byram, secretary; E. V. Jones, treasurer and manager. Manufacturers of a two-row cultivator. S. E. Bailor, then of Beatrice, Neb., some twenty years since built and began experimenting with a two-row cultivator. About 1905, the late David Rankin, of Tarkio, Mo., placed fifty Bailor cultivators in use on his 25,000–acre farm near Tarkio, giving them a thorough test for efficiency. The result was such that he induced Bailor to build a plant for their manufacture at Tarkio. In 1910 the Atchison Commercial Club, which had previously investigated the possibilities of Bailor’s factory as a valuable addition to this city’s industrial institutions, induced him to locate his business in Atchison. The Bailor Plow Company was promoted and incorporated by the following successful business men: Balie P. Waggener, Henry Klostermeier, T. R. Clendinen, at that time president of the Commercial Club; O. A. Simmons, vice-president of the First National Bank; E. V. Jones, J. M. Schott, W. P. Byram, Charles Linley, at that time treasurer of Atchison county, and S. E. Bailor, inventor of the cultivator. During the year 1910, the first year of operation in Atchison, one hundred cultivators were sold. The year 1915 shows an output of product valued at about $250,000. The company’s plant has a floor space of 25,000 square feet; forty men are on its payroll and it disburses in wages over $50,000 per annum.

The National Poultry and Egg Company. This institution is one of the largest of its kind in the West, and is located on the corner of Fourteenth and Main streets. Under the able management of G. E. Hanna, it has steadily increased its capacity and enlarged its business operations until at the present time it employs an average of fifty-four men and women a month and pays out in wages almost $30,000 each year. The plant and machinery represent an investment of about $70,000 and its sales are over a half million dollars a year. It is engaged in buying and selling poultry, eggs and butter, and ships fancy dressed poultry to eastern markets.

Deer Creek Creamery Company. This company has a capital stock of $10,000; employs eight men and four girls, with an annual payroll of $8,000. In addition to the employees in the local office, it also employs twenty men in the country to operate its numerous cream stations. The company manufactures over a half million pounds of butter a year, and it puts up and sells in Atchison from 80,000 to 100,000 gallons of milk every year, in addition to 6,000 or 8,000 gallons of ice cream. Over $125,000 annually is paid out to Kansas farmers for cream; about $25,000 of this amount going to farmers in the immediate vicinity of Atchison. It is one of the growing institutions of the city, and the excellence of the products it turns out is the cause for its constant increase of business.

Atchison is also the home of two large manufacturers of saddlery. The Atchison Saddlery Company is the successor to Louis Kiper & Sons and occupies a large building on Kansas avenue between Fourth and Fifth streets. Its officers are George Diegel, president; George T. Lindsey, vice-president, and Henry Diegel, secretary-treasurer. It has a capital stock of $150,000; employs seventy-nine people. It ships its products into many States of the West and has been doing an exceedingly large business in the past few years.

Kessler-Barkow Saddlery Company was incorporated several years ago, with G. T. Bolman, president; F. A. Barkow, vice-president, and H. B. Kessler, secretary and treasurer. This company has a capital and surplus of $85,000, and employs sixty-five people, and has an average annual payroll of about $40,000.00. It manufactures harness and saddles for the jobbing trade exclusively and has large accounts with the Blish, Mize & Silliman Hardware Company, Montgomery, Ward & Company and Sears, Roebuck & Company.

The Atchison Leather Products Company is another growing institution of Atchison, the officers of which are the same as that of the Kessler-Barkow Saddlery Company. This company are producers of cut leather parts of all kinds, and are large buyers of scrap leather. It has a capital stock of $7,000.00 and employs fifteen people. Its sales for 1915 amounted to over $65,000.00, and it also handles various leather specialties and automobile accessories.

Atchison is also the home of three large mills. The Blair Milling Company, the Cain Milling Company and the Lukens Milling Company, and these mills handle an average of 20,000 to 25,000 cars of grain annually, and ship out finished wheat and corn products of 4,000 to 5,000 cars every year. The Lukens Milling Company has recently erected cement storage tanks for storage of grain, of the capacity of 125,000 bushels, and the Blair Elevator Company, which is operated by J. W. and W. A. Blair, in 1915, also erected cement storage tanks to the capacity of 200,000 bushels. The growth of the mills of Atchison is logical, for they are located in a rich agricultural section, and consequently the mills are among the most important enterprises in the city. In each case the mills of Atchison are being operated by the sons of its founders. The Blair mill was established by E. K. Blair, in an early day of the history of Atchison, and is now managed by his sons, J. W. and W. A. Blair. The Lukens mill was founded by David Lukens, who came to Atchison in 1857. He operated a sawmill and raised corn in Missouri bottoms until 1877, when he built the Diamond Mills, now conducted by his sons, Arthur Lukens, Edwin Lukens and David Lukens. The original Cain Mill Company was established by John M. Cain and Alfred Cain, and its successor, the Cain Milling Company, is operated by Douglas M. Cain, the son of Alfred Cain.

Atchison is also the home of two of the largest wholesale hardware stores on the Missouri river, both of which began operations here at approximately the same time. The operations of the Blish, Mize & Silliman Hardware Company are the largest of the two companies. This company travels thirty men and has an office and store force of eighty-eight men and women. It has an annual payroll of $115,000.00. It was founded by D. P. Blish, E. A. Mize and J. B. Silliman, who were all related by marriage. The company began in a small way as a successor to J. E. Wagner & Company, and has branched out in its business until it covers several States and territories. It occupies a magnificent re-inforced concrete fire-proof structure at the corner of Fifth and Utah avenue, and its business has been increasing from year to year.

The A. J. Harwi Hardware Company is owned and controlled largely by F. E. Harwi, the son of its founder, and a full account of its operations appears in a sketch of the life and career of A. J. Harwi in this history.

Atchison is particularly proud of the fact that it is one of the best jobbing centers in this part of the country, and in this connection the wholesale grocery business is well represented in the two splendid firms of the Dolan Mercantile Company and the Symns Grocery Company. The Dolan Mercantile Company was established by W. F. Dolan, one of the pioneers of Atchison, who started in a small way as a retail grocer merchant, and died leaving a splendidly established wholesale grocery business, which is now conducted by M. J. Horan and Leo Nusbaum. This house, under the able management of these two young men is rapidly making for itself a big reputation among wholesale dealers and grocers. In addition to jobbing regular lines of merchandise this company has recently installed its own plant for the manufacture of fluid extracts, baking powder and pancake flour, and also roasts its own coffees. It has a large traveling force, visiting the States of Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma, and the Dolan brands are well known throughout this whole territory.

The Symns Grocery Company was established by A. B. Symns, who came to Kansas from West Virginia, with his three brothers, in 1858, where he settled in the town of Doniphan and engaged in mercantile pursuits, until he removed to Atchison in 1872. He opened a wholesale and retail grocery here in that year, and continued in business without a partner until March, 1878, when the firm became Symns & Turner, under which name it was run until 1880, when it was changed to A. B. Symns & Company. It was subsequently incorporated into the Symns Grocery Company, and at the death of A. B. Symns, the business was run by J. W. Allen, J. E. Moore, C. A. Lockwood and Tom Gray. It operates in about the same territory that the Dolan Mercantile Company operates in, and its present enterprising management is keeping up the splendid reputation established by its founder.

The Odell Cider & Vinegar Company is a new institution in Atchison. A. Leo is manager, and $30,000.00 is invested in the plant and equipment here. This company pressed out over 200,00 bushels of apples in 1915, and made 650,000 gallons of vinegar. Forty men are employed during the pressing season, and over $30,000.00 a year is paid out for apples, which are converted into 150,000 gallons of vinegar, which is shipped to various points in the United States during 1915.

The Stevenson planing mill employs twelve men, with a payroll of about $10,000.00 a year and annual sales aggregating $27,000.00. S. R. Stevenson, who for many years was employed by the old Atchison Furniture Company, is at the head of this business. He settled in Atchison in 1865, and learned cabinet making with Dickinson & Company, of this city.

It would require a volume to properly elaborate upon the operations of the various commercial enterprises of Atchison. What has been given is the merest outline of the industrial activities here. The brief reference to the several business houses and manufacturing plants is made merely for the purpose of showing the character of the industrial life of the county.

In addition to those enumerated there are other jobbing and manufacturing interests operating, in some instances on as large a scale, and in other instances on a smaller scale, but which in themselves are just as important. Reference has not been made to the Klostermeier Hardware Company, one of the largest jobbers in hardware in northeastern Kansas, or to L. W. Voigt & Company, large shippers of fruit, vegetables and produce, or to Kean & Tucker, operating along the same line; neither has the James Poultry Company been mentioned, which is one of Atchison’s growing concerns. There are also manufacturers of cigars, brooms and barrels; large distributors of automobiles and automobile accessories, and candy manufacturers. The Railway Specialty Company, manufacturers of gasoline propelled railway track cars is making substantial progress. From a small beginning it has forged ahead, under the able management of Clive Hastings, until it has reached a point where it will soon take its place among the leading track car manufacturers of this country. Already the company has shipped its cars to foreign parts, and it has also supplied many of the large railroads of the United States with its cars. The Weiss Cornice Company is the latest arrival in Atchison. This company makes metal cornices, window frames and other builders’ fire-proof specialties. It recently moved here from Kansas City and is already a large employer of labor. The Washer Grain Company, established by Maj. S. H. Washer, does a large grain business, and is still managed by Major Washer, who recently passed his eightieth birthday. He is ably assisted by his son, W. R. Washer, who is also otherwise prominently identified with the commercial and shipping interests of the county.

Atchison also is a fine retail center, and draws trade from the surrounding territory for a distance of from fifty to seventy-five miles. It has fine dry goods stores, which carry the latest merchandise; good shoe stores, millinery shops, grocery and hardware stores and shops of all kinds, all of which are run by enterprising merchants. Atchison is a good town in which to live; a city of beautiful homes; fine paved and well lighted streets; a good water system and adequate street car service, and a fine, prosperous set of people. The future of Atchison, as a commercial center, is particularly bright, and it may look back with a justifiable pride to what has already been accomplished, and forward to a better day that is yet to come.

CHAPTER XXI.
PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND INSTITUTIONS.

ATCHISON POSTOFFICE—COURT HOUSE—COUNTY HOSPITAL—YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION—STATE ORPHANS’ HOME—ATCHISON PUBLIC LIBRARY—ATCHISON HOSPITAL—MASONIC TEMPLE.

The first postoffice in Atchison opened in a small, one-story, stone building, on the south side of Commercial street, between Second and Third. The room was about 20×26 feet in dimensions, but large enough for the purpose for which it was intended at that time. The location of the postoffice was removed in 1856 to the store of Messrs. Woolfolk & Cabell, on the levee. During the war in Kansas, in August, the headquarters of the United States mail service were removed to the law office of P. P. Wilcox. From there the office was removed to a building on the north side of Commercial street, between Third and Fourth, and it was there that in July, 1882, the free delivery system was inaugurated in Atchison, which, with her money order department fully equipped the postoffice. A number of years later agitation was started for the erection of a new postoffice, and through the efforts of Senator Ingalls a site at the northeast corner of Seventh and Kansas avenue was purchased from Dr. Cochrane by the Government, and the contract was awarded for the erection of the postoffice June 24, 1892, at a cost of $61,703.17.

The names and terms of the postmasters of Atchison since the founding of the office are as follows: Robert S. Kelly, March 15, 1855; John H. Blasingham, December 20, 1855; Henry Addoms, July 28, 1857; John A. Martin, April 26, 1861; Benjamin B. Gale, March 5, 1874; John M. Price, February 6, 1879; Melleville C. Winegar, March 10, 1882; H. Clay Park, March 30, 1886; Solomon R. Washer, March 20, 1890; Edgar C. Post, June 7, 1894; James M. Chisham, June 3, 1898; William D. Casey, December 14, 1910; Louis C. Orr, December 29, 1914, who is postmaster in 1916.