Delbert J. Bussell is clerk of the district court of Mitchell county. This popular young county official was born November 21, 1882, on a farm in Brown county, Kansas. He is a son of Pryor N. and Minnie V. (Conn) Bussell, now residents of Mitchell county. Pryor N. Bussell was born March 31, 1849, in Christian county, Illinois, and came to Kansas with his parents about 1860, who settled in Brown county. They were among the very first settlers of that section of the State. The father died in Kansas in 1892 and the mother passed away in Texas in 1900. They reared a family of six children, as follows: John, enlisted as private in an Illinois regiment during the Civil war and died from a wound received on the field of battle; Charles, Rhoda and James (twins); Pryor N., father of the subject of this review, and Isabel, now the wife of Abraham Helsby, florist, Sulphur Springs, Tex. On November 24, 1878, Pryor N. Bussell and Minnie V. Conn were united in marriage in Brown county, Kansas. She was a daughter of John A. and Amanda (Daily) Conn, of Hiawatha, Kan. The father was a native of Kentucky, followed manufacturing in that State for a number of years, and served in the Confederate army during the Civil war. He came to Kansas in an early day and located near Robinson, where he died in 1875. The mother resides with her daughter, Mrs. Pryor Bussell, in Mitchell county. They had a family of four children: Claudie A., born September 24, 1879, in Brown county, Kansas, married J. A. Nation March 9, 1899, and resides in Chanute, Kan.; Delbert J., subject; Granville, born January 1, 1893, resides on a farm in Mitchell county, and Eldred, born March 6, 1906.

Delbert J. Bussell is a high type of the self-made young man of Kansas. In early life his opportunities for education were limited. He attended the district school very little, when he was not needed on the farm, remaining with his father until he was twenty-one years old. In 1905 he was injured in an accident which necessitated his giving up farming. In 1906 he took a mail contract, at which he was engaged for a few years, at which time he also took a correspondence business course. On December 24, 1903, he married Miss Flora F., daughter of James and Mary (Bain) Skidmore, of Marysville, Kan. She was born in Wheeling, W. Va., June 7, 1880, and her parents were both natives of that State. They came to Kansas in 1886 and located in Thomas county, and in 1899 removed to Marysville. The father died suddenly in November, 1899, near Beloit. The mother now resides at Marysville. To Mr. and Mrs. Bussell has been born one child, Clifford N., born May 9, 1905. In 1910 Mr. Bussell was nominated for clerk of the district court of Mitchell county and elected over his Republican opponent by a handsome majority, assuming the duties of the office January 1, 1911, and in 1912 was reëlected without opposition. He is a capable and obliging official and is deservingly popular with all classes. He is a close student, and has devoted all his spare time to study and has taken special correspondence courses in the leading educational institutions of the country. He has completed a business course and a course in commercial law, and at the present time is taking a three-years course in law. Mr. Bussell has made careful investments of his savings and now owns a well improved farm in Mitchell county, also a farm in the fruit belt of eastern Oklahoma. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and the Order of Owls and secretary of the local nest. Politically he has always been a Democrat.