Cyrus K. Holliday (1826-1900) - Capitalist and railroad builder, Holliday was born at Carlisle, Pennsylvania on April 3, 1826. He was educated for the legal profession at Alleghany College in  Meadville, Pennsylvania, but soon set his mind on different business venues. His first venture was the building of a short line of railroad in his native state, in which he accumulated some $20,000. This provided the foundation of his success in later life. Deeming the West a better field for the exercise of his peculiar talents, he left Pennsylvania and in October, 1854, settled at Lawrence, Kansas. He took an active interest in the free-state cause, was one of the founders of Topeka, and was for many years the largest landowner and heaviest taxpayer there. Holliday's greatest achievement was in projecting and building the first portion of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway. He was the first man to dream of a line of railway along the old

Thomas Sears Huffaker (1825-1910) - One of the pioneer teachers of Kansas, Huffaker was born in Clay County, Missouri on March 30, 1825, a son of Reverend George Huffaker, who had come from Kentucky five years before. He was educated in public schools and in 1849 came to Kansas in connection with the manual training school for the Shawnee Indians at the mission in what is now Jefferson County. The following year, he went to Council Grove, where he took charge of the Indian mission school which had been established on the Kaw Reservation by the Methodist Episcopal Church South. He remained at the head of this school until it was abandoned in 1854. On May 6, 1852,  Huffaker married Eliza A. Baker.. About the time the Indian mission school was abandoned, the . Huffakers organized a school for white children, which was probably the first school of the kind in Kansas. Huffaker was one of the incorporators of the Council Grove Town Company; was the first postmaster at Council Grove; was elected to the state legislature in 1874 and again in 1879; was a regent of the State Normal School from 1864 to 1871. He was frequently a delegate to Republican conventions, and as late as May, 1906, was a member of the state convention of that party. He died on July 10, 1910.

Lyman Underwood Humphrey (1844-1915) - The 11th governor of the State of Kansas, Humphrey was born at New Baltimore, Ohio on July 25, 1844. At the age of 17 he left high school at Massillon, Ohio to enlist in Company I, Seventy-sixth Ohio infantry, which was mustered into the United States service on October 7, 1861. Later, he was a member of Companies D and E of the same regiment, but was mustered out on July 15, 1865, as first lieutenant of Company I. His regiment was first attached to the First Brigade, First Division, Fifteenth Army Corps, commanded first by General  William T. Sherman and later by General John A. Logan. He was with his command in the engagements at Fort Donelson, Chickasaw Bluffs, Jackson, Vicksburg, about Chattanooga in the fall of 1863, and in numerous battles and skirmishes of the Atlanta Campaign of 1864. After the fall of Atlanta, he was with Sherman in the famous "March to the Sea," and up through the Carolinas, taking part in the battle of Bentonville and being present at the surrender of the Confederate Army under General J. F. Johnston. After the war he attended Mount Union College at Alliance, Ohio,for a short time, and then entered the law department of the University of Michigan, where he graduated in 1867. The succeeding year he was admitted to the Ohio bar, but soon afterward moved to Shelby County, Missouri, where he engaged in teaching and newspaper work. In 1871, with his mother and brother, John E. Humphrey, he came to Kansas, locating at Independence, which he then called home for the rest of his days. He was one of the founders of the Independence Tribune, and during the early years of its existence took an active part in the newspaper. On Christmas day, in 1872, Humphrey was united in marriage with Amanda Leonard of Beardstown, Illinoisand in 1873 he engaged in the practice of law. Always a Republican, he soon became an influential factor in the councils of the Republican Party in Kansas, and in 1876 he was elected to represent his district in the State Legislature. While there, he served on the judiciary committee, one of the most important of the house. In 1877, he was elected Lieutenant-Governor for the unexpired term of Melville J. Salter, who had resigned, and the following year was elected to the office for a full term of two years. In 1884, he was elected to the State Senate, and in the ensuing session of the legislature introduced the resolution to strike the word "white" from the constitutional provision relating to the state militia. Humphrey was nominated for governor by the Republican State Convention at Topeka on July 26, 1888, and at the election the following November was victorious. At the expiration of his first term he was re-elected, holding the office for four years altogether. Upon retiring from the office of governor he resumed the practice of law. In 1892, he was the Republican nominee for Congress in his district, but was defeated by Thomas J. Hudson, the Populist candidate. Humphrey died on September 12, 1915 in Independence, Kansas.

About the Article: The majority of this historic text was published in Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, Volume I; edited by Frank W. Blackmar,  A.M. Ph. D.; Standard Publishing Company, Chicago, IL 1912. However, the text that appears on these pages is not verbatim, as additions, updates, and editing have occurred.