Jul. Kaaz
Julius Kaaz attended the schools of his native land and studied architecture. He learned the trade of carpenter under his father, but could not content himself to settle down in his native land and follow in the footsteps of his forebears. When still a young man the germ of ambition called him to other lands, and his goal was America. His desire to better his condition led him to set sail for this country in 1881, arriving in Atchison, where he at once sought employment. His first work was cutting cordwood in the timber land, south of the city, during the winter, and in the spring of the following year he worked on the Missouri river, making and placing riprap. Soon afterward he was given a job working at his trade for $1.50 per day. For one year he worked for wages, and at length decided to embark in business for himself and began taking contracts at a time when he had no capital worth speaking of. It was even necessary for him to borrow the saw and hammer which he used in his work. In 1885 he formed a partnership with Henry Braun in the contracting business which continued until 1909, when they dissolved partnership. In 1907 Mr. Kaaz erected his first planing mill which has grown into his present extensive establishment consisting of plant, yards and warerooms.
He was married to Ida Schmeling in 1883, and to this union have been born nine children, as follows: Emil, Lena, Robert, Lydia, Julius E., Otto, Fred, Arthur, Martha. Of these children Martha is deceased, Lydia is her father’s secretary, Fred is also employed in the office, and Otto H. is employed in the mill. Mrs. Kaaz was born September 6, 1856, in Prussia, German Empire, and is a daughter of August and Ernestine (Polzien) Schmeling. She left her native land when sixteen years of age and came to Atchison.
Mr. Kaaz, while politically allied with the Republican party, is an independent voter who believes in voting for the individual who seems to be most capable of serving the people, rather than supporting an avowed politician. He and the members of his family are affiliated with the German Lutheran church and are liberal supporters of this denomination.
GEORGE W. REDMOND, M. D.
A greater service in behalf of mankind than a life devoted to healing the sick and curing the halt and the lame can not be considered, and when this service has been rendered far from the comforts of the city and during the storms of many seasons in the open country from the pioneer era in Kansas down to the present time, the value of such service to humanity is inestimable. The unsung heroes of the medical fraternity are the large class of country practitioners who go their way year after year, uncomplainingly and satisfied with the good they are doing for their fellow creatures. Great fortune is not theirs, but the inevitable reward and the satisfaction of a task well and faithfully done is theirs to have. Of this great class the biographer is pleased to record the facts concerning the life and career of George W. Redmond, the second oldest physician in Atchison county, and one of the oldest medical men in Kansas. For nearly half a century Dr. Redmond has practiced his profession among the tillers of the soil in the neighborhood of Potter, and the southeastern part of Atchison county, and in the northeast part of Leavenworth county, Kansas. During all this time he has remained true to his calling, and resisted the call of the towns and cities, where an easier life might be lived. He has likewise progressed with the profession and endeavored to keep abreast of the wonderful developments in the science of medicine, arriving at the point in his career where he is a specialist in his profession.
Dr. George W. Redmond was born in Bourbon county, Kentucky, October 19, 1849, a son of Oscar Redmond and Susan (Orr) Redmond, the former a native of Bourbon county, and the latter a native of Nicholas county, Kentucky. Both were born in the same year, 1820, and the mother of Dr. Redmond was a daughter of William Orr, a captain in the American army in the War of 1812. William migrated to Kentucky from Pennsylvania shortly after peace was declared between England and the United States, and was one of the pioneers of that State. Oscar F. Redmond, father of George W., was a son of William Redmond, was also one of the pioneers in the settlement of old Kentucky. Both the Orr and Redmond families were of that sturdy Scotch Presbyterian stock, who were prominent in the early history of Kentucky, and were noted as true pioneers in several of the middle Western States. Oscar F. Redmond was a farmer in Kentucky, and reared a family of twelve children, of whom George W. was the fourth child. In 1856 the Redmond family removed to Cooper county, Missouri, where they remained until 1858, and then settled in Platte county, Missouri, where the father made a permanent home for many years, afterwards ending his days in Muscotah, Atchison county, Kansas. The mother of Dr. Redmond died in Kansas City in 1892.
When the Redmond family left Kentucky, George W. was five years of age. He received his primary education in the district schools of Platte county, Missouri, and graduated from the Gaylord Institute, after which he began the study of medicine with his uncle, Dr. H. B. Redmond, in Saline county, Missouri, with whom he studied one year. He then entered the St. Louis Medical College, of St. Louis, Mo., completed the prescribed two years course, and graduated therefrom in 1869. While trying to decide upon a location, and almost having his mind set upon a city location, he received a letter from his sister, Mrs. Samuel E. King, in Atchison county, informing him that Dr. John Parsons, of Mt. Pleasant, was in need of a young assistant and partner, and he could have the place if he came to Kansas. This letter decided his course, and he came at once to Atchison county and began his practice with Dr. Parsons. At this period Mt. Pleasant was an important inland town, but it has long since passed into the realm of “disappeared cities.” Dr. Redmond remained in Mt. Pleasant a little over two years, and then located in Oak Mills, where he owned a farm, and built up an enormous medical practice in the village and surrounding countryside. He practiced in Oak Mills for thirty years, although prevailed upon by his many admirers in Atchison to remove to the larger city and open an office. During the winter of 1903 and 1904 he pursued a post-graduate course in the post-graduate school of Chicago, and upon his return to Kansas, in the spring of 1904, he located in Potter, Atchison county. Of late years Dr. Redmond has become a specialist in the diseases of women, and it is in this branch of practice that he is achieving his greatest successes. Obstetrics has long been his specialty, and he undoubtedly holds the record in Kansas for the number of successful confinement cases at which he has officiated, and it can be said of him, that in all of his many years of practice he has never lost a confinement case, although there have been times in his career when he has had three and four cases of this character in one day.
Dr. Redmond has been twice married, his first marriage occurring in 1874 with Anna Douglass, a daughter of J. M. and Sarah Douglass, who were among the earliest of the Atchison county pioneers. Four children blessed this union: Ethel, of Leavenworth, Kan.; Edith, wife of Charles Munger, of Atchison county, Kansas; Virginia, living in Leavenworth, Kan.; Georgia Redmond, also residing in Leavenworth. Dr. Redmond’s second marriage took place in 1906 with Carrie A. Sprong, a daughter of D. H. Sprong, an early pioneer settler of Kansas, a sketch of whom appears in this volume.
While Dr. Redmond is a Democrat in politics, he has never found the time to take an active part in political affairs. For the past thirty-five years he has been a contributor to various medical journals, among them being the Medical World, of Philadelphia, one of the oldest and most widely read medical publications in the United States. He is a member of the Atchison County Medical Society, the Kansas State Medical Society, and the American Medical Association, and was one of the organizers of the county society in 1869, and is the only surviving original member of the society. He is a member of Kickapoo Lodge, No. 4, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.