Wilfull A. Stanley, a Civil war veteran, who perhaps has had more military experience than any other man in Atchison county, is a native of New Jersey. He was born at Salem, November 26, 1838, and is a son of Joseph C. and Rebecca D. (Gosline) Stanley, both natives of New Jersey and descendants of colonial ancestors, who trace their family genealogy back for several generations in this country. The first white child born in the English colony that settled in New Jersey, opposite Egg Harbor, was an ancestor of Wilfull A. Stanley. Joseph C. Stanley, the father of Wilfull A., was a son of Friend Richard Stanley, who was a soldier in the War of 1812. The Stanley’s were Quakers, but there were a great many fighting Quakers distributed along the line of descent. Friend Richard was a son of John Stanley, who was a Revolutionary soldier and served in Lighthorse Harry Lee’s cavalry. He was captured and confined in a British prison ship for some time. He lived to be a very old man and died in 1845, at the age of 102. He was very active physically and mentally to a very old age. Wilfull A. Stanley was reared in New Jersey and received a common school education. On December 22, 1860, he enlisted as a private in the United States marine; and after making a trip around the world was detailed in 1861 as orderly to Admiral Dahlgren at Washington, D. C. He also served as orderly to Commanding Officer C. R. P. Rogers. Mr. Stanley was at the taking of Hatteras Inlet and the operations on Roanoke Sound in conjunction with General Burnside’s expedition. He was at the engagement of Port Royal and served as orderly to Capt. C. R. P. Rogers there. He was also at the engagement at Ft. Walker. The “Wabash,” upon which he was serving then, joined Admiral Farragut’s fleet at New Orleans. Here Mr. Stanley was transferred to the “Hartford,” Admiral Farragut’s flag ship, and served as orderly to Farragut and participated in the engagements at Fts. Jackson and Phillip, and was at the capture of New Orleans when he was again detailed to the “Wabash.” Shortly after that he was taken sick with a fever and sent to the marine hospital at Brooklyn, N. Y. After recovering he was discharged, and with his discharge received a very complimentary letter from Admiral Rogers. After remaining home a short time he enlisted in the Second regiment, New Jersey cavalry. He participated in the battle of Nashville and was at the siege of Mobile. He went from there to Montgomery, Ala. About this time the war closed, but Mr. Stanley’s regiment was kept in the South for nearly a year during the reconstruction period, and in 1866 he was discharged and returned to his New Jersey home. Mr. Stanley had learned the plasterer’s trade when he was a young man and at the close of the war worked at it for some time, when the military spirit took possession of him again and he enlisted at Philadelphia, Pa., and was assigned to Troop L, Seventh United States cavalry, and was sent from Ft. Leavenworth to Ft. Morgan on the Platte river. Capt. Michael V. Sheridan, a brother of “Little Phil,” commanded this troop and they were mobilized at Ft. Hayes for a winter campaign against the Indians in the Wichita mountains. This campaign was against the Arapahoes, Comanches and some other tribes. After an engagement with Lone Wolf’s band the soldiers were forced to retreat, but soon after were re-inforced at Big Timber by a Kansas regiment, and after that captured Lone Wolf and Satanta, chief of the Kiawas, and returned the Indians who had been on the war path to the Ft. Sill reservation. After that Mr. Stanley returned to Ft. Leavenworth and had charge of the hospital stores for two years, when he was transferred to Wingate, N. M., where he also had charge of the hospital stores until 1872, when he was discharged and returned to New Jersey. In 1889 he came to Kansas, locating in Atchison, where he has since worked at his trade most of the time. He had lived in Philadelphia for some time and in Georgetown, S. C. before coming to Kansas, and came to this State on account of his wife’s health. Mr. Stanley was married in 1877 to Mrs. Mary E. (Ingram) Fpuntain, a widow. She is a native of Bellefont, Pa., born June 25, 1842, a daughter of Isaac D. and Deborah (Grant) Ingram, natives of Pennsylvania and descendants of old Pennsylvania stock. Joshua Bloomfield Williams, a major in the Revolutionary war, and at one time colonial governor of New Jersey, was a grand-uncle of Mrs. Stanley’s mother, and Mrs. Stanley is a Daughter of the American Revolution. She is a member of the Ladies’ Corps of the Grand Army of the Republic, and is past department president of Kansas, and National press correspondent, and has filled all the offices from the local circle to the National. Mr. and Mrs. Stanley have one child, Leon Glen, born in 1881. He served in Troop B, Sixth United States cavalry. He was in China at the rescue of the foreign legations and suppression of the Boxer uprising and later served in the Phillipine Islands, and after three years’ service he was honorably discharged. He was the first post printer at Ft. Leavenworth, and is now in the employ of the Atchison Globe, in the capacity of pressman and mailing clerk. He married Sadie Wiggins, and two children have been born to them, as follows: Inez Leona and Richard. Wilfull A. Stanley is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and has been adjutant of the Atchison post for ten years and is past commander.
CHRISTIAN W. STUTZ.
Christian W. Stutz, a substantial farmer of Center township, Atchison county, was born and reared in Lancaster township, this county, and is a son of pioneer settlers of the county. The Stutz family came to Kansas from Missouri in 1859. Christian W. is a son of Christian and Catharine (Schweitzer) Stutz, both of whom were born in Germany from whence they came to America in 1855, and first settled in Jackson county, Missouri, coming from there to Lancaster township in Atchison county four years later. Christian, the father, was born in Germany, March 25, 1825, and when thirty years of age decided to locate in the new country where there were better opportunities for gaining a livelihood and laying up a competence. Accordingly, we find that after a residence of four years in Jackson county, Missouri, he came to Atchison county, and with his savings invested in eighty acres of timber and prairie land in Lancaster township. He hired a man to break this land with ox teams, and proceeded to cultivate his land. He made extensive improvements on his farm from time to time as he was able, and added to his acreage to such an extent that at the time of his death, December, 1898, he was the owner of 380 acres of land. Christian Stutz was the father of seven children as follows: Mrs. Caroline Demel, of Central City, Neb.; Mrs. Katherine Wilkins, of Atchison, Kan.; Frederick, a member of the Atchison police force; Christian W.; Gustave, a prosperous farmer of Lancaster township; John, a farmer in Center township; one child died in infancy. The mother of these children was born in Germany in February of 1829, and died in Lancaster township, in December, 1888.
Christian W. Stutz, whom this review directly concerns, was reared on the old home place of the Stutz family in Lancaster township, and educated in the Lancaster school. He assisted his father in the operation of the home farm until he was twenty-three years of age, and then began farming for himself on land which he rented from his father. He continued to till the rented land for four years, all the time saving his earnings, with a view of eventually owning a farm of his own. He made his first investment in 1891 when he purchased and inherited, partly, eighty acres of improved farm land in section 8, Center township. He at once began to remodel the home and make extensive improvements, and it might be said that he has never ceased to improve his surroundings. In 1908 he erected a new barn, 50×50 feet, and now has one of the attractive places of his township and county. Mr. Stutz has continued to add to his land holdings until he is now the owner of 393 acres of land, all of which he has secured through his own efforts. During 1915 he had planted 160 acres to corn which gave him an excellent crop. He keeps good graded stock and maintains a herd of Shorthorn cattle. He has made quite a reputation as a breeder, and in 1914 exhibited a “Mahrath Jack” at the Atchison county fair which was awarded the second prize. In addition to his farming interests he is a share holder in a copper mine located in Arizona.
Mr. Stutz was married in 1891 to Kathrine Walz, and of this union have been born ten children, as follows: Charles F., William, John E., Clara, a graduate of the Atchison County High School; Arthur, Mary and Margaret (twins), the latter deceased; Francis, Nora B., Reidel, all of whom are at home with their parents. Mrs. Stutz was born September 8, 1868, in Atchison, Kan., a daughter of Charles and Kathrine (Reidel) Walz, both natives of Germany. Charles Walz emigrated from Germany to Cincinnati, Ohio, and there learned the butcher business and trade. When nineteen years of age he left Germany to seek his fortune in America, and about 1857 came to Atchison and worked in the first butcher shop ever operated in that city. He later bought the shop of Phillip Link, and after operating it for a time bought a farm in Shannon township, where he lived until his death, in 1891, at the age of sixty-one years. Kathrine, his wife, was born in 1842, and died on the old home place in Shannon township.
Mr. Stutz is a Democrat, but has never sought political preferment, having no time other than for the management of his large farming interests. He is fraternally connected with the Odd Fellows and the Fraternal Order of Eagles.
MICHAEL JOSEPH HORAN.
In observing the management of the leading commercial houses of Atchison, the fact is determined that, invariably, the executive departments are in charge of young men who have practically grown up with the business. The Dolan Mercantile Company is one of the oldest wholesale institutions of the city, and one of the most successful and substantial. Its affairs are conducted by young men who entered the employ of its founder when boys, and have advanced, step by step, in the management of the concern. M. J. Horan, the president of the Dolan Mercantile Company, began his career in a humble capacity in the business of which he is now the chief executive, and has become an honored and able member of the body of commercial men who have made Atchison preëminent among the cities of the West. The story of a self-made man is always interesting and this review is a story of a self-made man.
Michael Joseph Horan is a native of Atchison, born November 12, 1875. He is a son of Michael Frank Horan, a native of Bir, Kings county, Ireland, born in 1824. The elder Horan left his native heath when a young man, with his young wife, who died later in Atchison. He first located in Peru, Ind., and there met William Dolan in 1840. He came to Kansas in 1865 and located some land at Wetmore, proved up on his homestead, and one year afterward located in Atchison. Here he engaged in the real estate business, and became fairly well to do. For years he was a well known figure in Atchison and took an active interest in Democratic politics. He died in 1888. His second wife was Anna Dean, whom he married in her native county of Queens, Ireland. She was born in 1844 and died in February, 1910. They were the parents of the following children: Mrs. John A. Reynolds, Atchison; Miss Bridget Horan, Atchison; Anna, at home; Michael Joseph, Atchison; Frank, Marshalltown, Iowa; Charles L., secretary of the Dolan Mercantile Company, and in charge of the shipping department.
M. J. Horan was educated in the parochial schools and St. Benedict’s College, of Atchison. At the age of sixteen years, or in 1892, he entered the employ of the Dolan Mercantile Company, as office boy. He applied himself diligently to his duties and promotion step by step followed, as a matter of course. His next position was that of bill clerk. This was followed by his promotion to the post of bookkeeper and then buyer. When the company was incorporated in 1900, he was elected vice-president. He succeeded Mr. Dolan as president of the company, upon the latter’s death in 1913.