GEORGE E. HENDEE.
Mr. Hendee is an automobile salesman, machinist and garage proprietor, is one of Atchison’s hustling business men who has made good in the automobile business. Seven years in the motor industry in Atchison has seen him advance in his chosen work until he now owns the largest and best equipped garage in the city, and has a plant including equipment and cars in stock valued at over $15,000. Mr. Hendee is salesman for the Regal, Chalmers and the White automobiles.
He was born on a farm in Lancaster county, Nebraska, July 31, 1872, being a son of George and Loretta (Kistler) Hendee, who were the parents of five children: William, deceased; Mrs. Margaret Bennethy, of Logansport, Ind.; George E.; Delbert, of Logansport, Ind., and Leona, at home with her parents. George Hendee, Sr., was born in Canada, in 1846, removing from his native country to Indiana with his parents when a boy. He was reared to young manhood in Indiana and served as a soldier in Company G, Twenty-first regiment, Indiana infantry, until the close of the war, in 1865. After the Civil war he migrated to Lancaster county, Nebraska, and homesteaded on 160 acres of Government land. He built up a splendid farm from the raw and unbroken prairie and prospered as he deserved, living on his acreage until 1891, at which time he started a general store at Panama, Neb. He retired from active pursuits in 1898 and moved to Royal Center, Ind., where he is now living. The Hendee family is of French origin, and the founders of the family first settled in the Dominion of Canada. The mother of George E. was born in Pennsylvania in 1842, a daughter of Pennsylvania Dutch parents.
He of whom this review is written was reared on the Nebraska farm and received his elementary schooling at Panama and York, that State. Early in life he displayed an aptitude for machinery and determined to fit himself to become an expert machinist. Accordingly, in 1895, he enrolled as student in the State University at Lawrence, and pursued the machinist’s course, having previously studied electrical engineering at York, Neb. When thirteen years of age, George started out to make his own way, educate himself and at the same time earn his living. While a student in the York Technical School, he worked nights in the electric light plant. For a period of three years he was a fireman on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroad and the Santa Fe System, being promoted to the post of railway engineer while in the employ of the latter system, He was then employed by the General Electric Company, of Chicago, in the installation of and erecting mining machinery. his duties requiring him to travel in the South for over a year. He was employed by the Chalmers company for one year erecting heavy engines, and was employed as engineer of the Pearsons’ Flouring Mills at Lawrence, Kan., for seven years. For a time he served as master mechanic at the Leavenworth coal shaft on the Government grounds at Leavenworth, Kan. In the year 1901 he built and operated a machine shop at Cripple Creek, Colo., but his plant was destroyed by fire in 1902. He then moved to Grand Junction, Colo., where he worked in the oil fields and was round house foreman for the railroads in that city until he resigned his position and located in Denver, Colo., where he worked as a machinist in the Missouri Pacific shops until he took employment as engineer on the Colorado & Southern railway. After this he was employed as a machinist in the shops of the Santa Fe railroad, but resigned this place to become foreman in the plant of the Locomotive Finished Material Foundry in Atchison. Following this he was chief engineer for the Blair Milling Company, resigning to take employment as an expert machinist with the Atchison Motor Company until 1908. In that year he engaged in business, and has made a name for himself in the motor and business world of Atchison. Mr. Hendee is looked upon as one of the rising and successful young business men of Atchison, and justly deserves all of the success which has come to him.
His marriage with Laura Hall, of Lawrence, Kan., occurred in 1902 and gave him a faithful helpmate who has assisted him in every way to achieve his present success. Two children were born of this marriage, Velva and Kenneth, both deceased. Mrs. Hendee was born in August, 1879, in Wisconsin, a daughter of John and Nettie (Crow) Hall, natives of Wisconsin. She is a well educated lady and is a graduate of the college at Burlington, Kan. Mr. Hendee is an independent in political affairs, and is fraternally allied with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Modern Woodmen of America.
WILLIAM D. KISTLER.
William D. Kistler, prosperous farmer of Shannon township, is descendant of good old Pennsylvania Dutch stock, and has lived in Atchison county for thirty-six years. He came to this county from his ancestral home in Pennsylvania, in moderate circumstances, if not actually a poor man, and during that time has accumulated a fine farm of 200 acres which ranks among the best and most productive farms of the county. The little shack in which he and his family lived when they first came to Kansas has been superseded by a handsome and comfortable residence and great shade trees have grown up around it. The modest “eighty” in which Mr. Kistler invested all of his small capital on his arrival here has grown steadily with substantial additions from time to time as he was enabled to purchase adjoining tracts. A large red barn alike shows evidence of thrift and good management on the part of the proprietor.
W. D. Kistler was born in Lehigh county, Pennsylvania, December 5, 1853, a son of Nathan J. and Catharine (Dietrich) Kistler, both of whom were born in the adjoining county near Lehigh county. Nathan J. Kistler was born April 6, 1811, and died September 11, 1878. He was a son of Jacob S., who was a son of Samuel Kistler, whose father, John George Kistler, emigrated with his wife, Dorothia, from Germany and settled in Pennsylvania early in the eighteenth century, arriving in Philadelphia October 5, 1737. Nathan J. Kistler was a captain of State militia and died at the old home in Lehigh county. Two brothers of W. D. and a sister out of a family of nine children settled in the West. After his public school training Mr. Kistler attended the Kutztown, Pennsylvania, Normal School and prepared himself for the teaching profession. He taught school in his native State for four years, after which he clerked in a general store for four years, previous to migrating to Kansas. He left the old home in Pennsylvania in 1879 and came to Atchison county, Kansas, investing in an eighty-acre tract in Shannon township which he gradually improved. The small house which he first erected was gradually enlarged as the needs of his family demanded more room and his means permitted. In 1883 he erected the present handsome home, which is one of the most attractive places in the township. Mr. Kistler raises cattle, horses and hogs and feeds his grain products to the live stock on his farm, thus managing to keep up the fertility of his acres and being able to market his farm products in the most profitable manner.
He was married in 1876 to Ellen Brobst, who was born in Lehigh county, Pennsylvania, in 1853, a daughter of Daniel and Lydia (Kunken) Brobst, of Lehigh county, and whose ancestry came from Germany. They are the parents of five children: Mrs. Alice Bunnell, of Lancaster township, this county: Anna, wife of Samuel Du Bois, also of Shannon township; Calvin, a farmer, residing at the Du Bois home, and assisting in the management of the farm; Bertha, wife of James Dooley, residing in Shannon township; William, at home, married Catharine Wolters.
Mr. Kistler is a Republican in politics, but he has never been an office seeker, or sought preferment at the hands of his fellow citizens. He is affiliated with the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He and the members of his family stand well among their neighbors and are highly esteemed by all who know them.