Granville W. Betts, superintendent of the Shawnee County Infirmary, is probably one of the best qualified men in that section of Kansas for his position. He was born on a farm in Piatt county, Illinois, Oct. 25, 1858, and when two years of age he accompanied his parents, Joseph B. and Susan C. Betts, from their Illinois home to Atchison, Kan., where the parents spent the winter of 1860. In the spring of 1861 the family removed to a farm which the father had purchased in Kaw township, Jefferson county, the home being located about two and a half miles north of Grantville. That became the permanent home, and there the father died on June 17, 1878. The mother is still living at the advanced age of ninety-one years. The father was a native of Delaware county and the mother of Pickaway county, Ohio. They were married in Ohio and became the parents of ten children, of whom Granville W. is the eighth in order of birth.

Granville W. Betts was reared on the farm and received his education in the local schools of his community. In 1887 he secured a position as a blacksmith in the Santa Fe railroad shops at Topeka and continued to work there for seventeen years. He then became a member of the Topeka police force and after four years' service in that capacity he became under sheriff under A. T. Lucas. He served in that position two years and then was engaged at various kinds of employment until 1908, when he was appointed superintendent of the county farm. He has given such satisfaction in that position that he has been reappointed each year since then without opposition. He has brought the farm, which contains but 116 acres, up to the best condition possible with the materials at hand, though it is too small to be self-sustaining. Mr. Betts furnishes all of the farm equipment except ten cows and the hogs. The buildings, several in number, are in good condition and the inmates have all the comforts of a home with the best of food and neat and comfortable clothing. There are over thirty inmates at the home, the oldest of whom is a colored woman who has reached the age of one hundred and thirteen years. She was originally from the Southland and was once a slave. Mr. Betts has been supported by the county commissioners in all of his requests, an evidence of their full confidence in his integrity and good business judgment.

Mr. Betts was married Sept. 25, 1889, to Miss Anna Kimmer of Topeka, but a native of Michigan. They have one son, Clarence E. Betts, who completed the common school course in Topeka and also had one and a half years' work in the Topeka High School. He is now assisting his father in the management of the county farm. Mr. Betts has always been an ardent Republican and takes an active interest in the success of his party. Fraternally he is a Royal Arch Mason, a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and the Knights of Pythias. Mrs. Betts is a member of the Degree of Honor.