Albert Hamilton Denton.—To the citizens of Kansas at large Mr. Denton is best known through his connection with the banking interests of Arkansas City. To the citizens of Cowley county he is known, not only as a successful financier, but as a native son, whose father was one of her sturdy pioneers. He is the controlling force in one of her most important financial institutions, has various capitalistic interests in financial and industrial corporations, and is one of the distinctively representative men of southern Kansas. He is president of the Home National Bank of Arkansas City and the Arkansas City Savings Building and Loan Association. Albert H. Denton is the son of Francis S. and Esther (Hamilton) Denton and was born on his father's farm, three miles southeast of Arkansas City, June 18, 1872. His father, Francis S. Denton, was born at Red Wing, Minn., May 10, 1839, and died on the home farm in Cowley county, Kan., in 1878. He served as a private in the Tenth Missouri infantry during the Civil war, enlisting in 1862 and serving until mustered out in 1865. On concluding his services to his country he lived for a time in Galesburg, Ill., coming in 1869 to Kansas, where he pre-empted a homestead in Cowley county, three miles southeast of what is now Arkansas City. He was one of the first actual settlers of this section and the original homestead still stands in his name, the property of his estate. Rev. Samuel Denton, his father, was a native of Switzerland who came to the United States as a missionary and whose labors among the Indians of Minnesota resulted in much good and was productive of a sincere friendship for him. He was an Episcopal minister and was stationed at Red Wing, Minn., at the time of the Sioux uprisings and massacre in that state. The settlement of Red Wing was not molested and this was due to the regard in which Rev. Denton was held by the savages. Francis S. Denton married Miss Esther Hamilton, daughter of William J. Hamilton, a native of Poughkeepsie, N. Y., who came westward to Illinois in 1846 and to Kansas in 1873. Mrs. Denton survives her husband and is a resident of Arkansas City. Albert H. Denton received his education in public schools of Cowley county and graduated in the Arkansas City High School in 1891. Shortly after his graduation he entered the employ of the Farmers' National Bank of Arkansas City as collection clerk. He early showed marked ability for the banking business and received rapid promotion. He was made assistant cashier in 1895 and cashier in 1898. In 1896 the business of the Farmers' National Bank was liquidated and it was succeeded by the Farmers' State Bank, which in 1907 disposed of its business to the Citizens' State Bank, Mr. Denton becoming vice-president of that institution. In February, 1908, he resigned his position and later purchased a controlling interest in the Home National Bank and was elected its president. This is the oldest banking institution in Arkansas City. Organized in 1888, its business has been of sound and continuous growth. Its present capital is $50,000; it has an earned surplus of $50,000; deposits of $500,000, and it has always paid satisfactory dividends to its stockholders. Mr. Denton is recognized among the banking fraternity as an energetic and progressive executive, an able and discriminating financier, and one who has brought the administrative policy of his bank up to the point of highest efficiency. In the organization, development and administration of the business of the Arkansas City Savings, Building & Loan Association, of which he is president, Mr. Denton has been a potential factor. Its growth has been such as to place it among the strongest organizations of like character in the state, and its directorate includes the most representative men of its home city. Mr. Denton is a director in the New Era Milling Company, one of the important industrial enterprises of southern Kansas, and is a stockholder in other corporations. He is the owner of valuable farming property, which is operated under his supervision. Essentially a business man, he has neither the time nor inclination for public office, although he never neglects in the least his civic duties or obligations. A Republican, he is active only in the councils of his party. He is a member of the Loyal Legion, his membership having descended from his mother's brother, Maj. John F. Hamilton, of the First Colorado cavalry. On Sept. 29, 1898, Mr. Denton married Miss Alice, daughter of the late Dr. R. M. Young, a successful physician of Salt Lake City and of Arkansas City, for more than twenty years, whose death occurred in 1909. Mrs. Denton is a graduate of the Arkansas City High School and was for three years prior to her marriage engaged in teaching. She is a woman of culture and is popular in the social circles of Arkansas City, of which she is a leader. She, as well as her husband, is a member of the Presbyterian church. Mr. and Mrs. Denton are the parents of a son, Frank R., born July 16, 1899.