Arthur S. Allendorph, one of the largest land holders in Wabaunsee county, owns some 5,000 acres and rents enough more so that he controls 16,000 acres, divided into three farms, all lying in Wabaunsee and Riley counties. He is also a stockman of wide reputation, feeding and pasturing cattle for the market. He was born at Boonville, Mo., in 1867, and is the descendant of German and Scotch ancestry. His parents were Charles Wesley and Martha (Steele) Allendorph, the former born in New York city, March 26, 1837, of mixed German and Scotch blood. Philip Allendorph, the father of Charles Wesley, was a farmer in Dutchess county, New York, for some years, but later engaged as a merchant in New York city. Charles Wesley Allendorph spent his boyhood on the farm and accompanied his parents to the city, where he was sent to the New York Free Academy, where he was graduated with credit. When only twenty years of age he was regarded a good civil engineer, the course he pursued at the academy, and was engaged to help construct a railroad in Illinois. He married in that state, in 1864, but had no permanent home, as his business caused him to go to Dakota, from there to Missouri, thence back to New York, and later he was on the frontier, wherever railroads were stretching out into new territory. There are six children in the family, and, with the exception of two born in Illinois, each claims a different state as the place of his birth. Finally, tiring of the constant changes, Mr. Allendorph came to Kansas, in 1877, and located in Lawrence to educate his children. He opened a mercantile establishment there in the winter of 1877-78 and carried on the business for twelve years before he sold out and went to Kansas City, where he still resides.

Arthur S. accompanied his father to the different parts of the country until in his eleventh year, when the family came to Lawrence, where he was sent to the high school. After graduating there, his father encouraged him to enter the engineering course at the state university, where he remained until the close of the junior year, when he was offered and accepted a position on the Wyandotte & Northwestern railroad. After working for that corporation for part of two years, he went to Wabaunsee county to survey the land and liked the looks of the country so well that he at once invested in land. His father owned it at first, and Arthur rented from him, but in time he bought land of his own and began raising and feeding cattle. With shrewd foresight he saw that there was money to be made in buying range cattle, shipping them to his farm and there feeding them, for the run from Wabaunsee county to the Kansas City market is short and the cattle loose little in weight by transportation. He was backed at first in this venture, in 1888, by P. D. Ridenour, and the business proved so lucrative that he has never given it up. From year to year the business has increased, and Mr. Allendorph now employs a number of men. Each season he has turned his money over, invested in more land and cattle until now the greater part of the cattle he handles he owns outright. Some years he has fed and shipped as many as 4,000 head, a rather stupendous undertaking for a one-man business, but Mr. Allendorph is resourceful within himself, seems by instinct to know just when to ship and reach the top of the market, and is fast becoming recognized as one of the most able business men in eastern Kansas. On June 18, 1891, he was united in marriage with Mame I. Flinton, born in Hyde Park, Vt., in 1871, the daughter of Nelson and Mary Ann (Bordeaux) Flinton, who emigrated from the Granite State and located in Kansas early in the history of the state. One chiId has been born to Arthur S. and Mame Allendorph, but he did not live to brighten the home, having died in infancy. Mr. Allendorph is a Mason and a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, and is a progresive Republican, having taken an active part in local politics for some years. He stands high with his party and has considerable influence with the Republicans in Wabaunsee county. Both he and Mrs. Allendorph are members of the Congregational church.