Francis G. Emerson of Wellington, Kan., a successful and prominent member of the medical profession is Sumner county, is a native of Iowa, born in Union county, Dec. 8, 1861. His father, Francis M. Emerson, was born at Keene Ohio, July 13, 1825, and died April 4, 1884, at Afton, Iowa. Agriculture was his life occupation and the most of his career was spent in Union county, Iowa, where he served two terms as county auditor. In November, 1847, he married Miss Susan E. Hunt, a daughter of Garner Hunt, a substantial Iowa farmer. To their union six children were born, viz.: Mary Elizabeth, born Jan. 1, 1849, who is the wife of Lewis Deitrick, a farmer of Afton, Iowa; Charles T., born May 31, 1853, who is now an undertaker at Creston, Iowa; Dr. Francis G. Emerson of this review; Balt, born March 25, 1865, now a merchant at Afton, Iowa; Ella May, born May 11, 1869, now the wife of Bert L. Keating of Denver, Col.; and Lula Jeannett, born April 15, 1872, who is the wife of Alonzo Pollock, a merchant of Afton, Iowa.

Dr. Emerson was educated in the Afton (Iowa) High School, where he was graduated in the class of 1881, and at the Iowa State University, graduating in the medical department in 1885. On completing his professional training he located for the practice of medicine at Wellington, Kan., which has been the field of his endeavors since that time and where he has attained a standing that places him at the head of his profession in Sumner county and among the foremost in the state. His practice is not only extensive but also lucrative and his career at Wellington prosperous in every sense of the word. He served as United States pension examiner of Sumner county sixteen years, and has been the medical examiner for a number of leading old-line fraternal insurance companies a number of years. He has been a member of the Wellington board of education fourteen years and has been its president four years. He is a Republican in his political views and an interested worker in behalf of his party, though not a political aspirant for official honors. He has served two years as chairman of the Sumner county Republican central committee. Fraternally he is a Knight Templar Mason and has held all the offices of the Blue lodge, Chapter and Commandery. He is also a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. His church membership is given to the Presbyterian denomination.

On Sept. 23, 1885, Dr. Emerson married Miss Florence Durham, a daughter of James Durham, a prominent stockman of Iowa City, Iowa. Mrs. Emerson is a member of the Baptist church. She is a musician of exceptional talent and accomplishment, a vocalist of local renown in her home state of Iowa, and conceded to be the most skilled pianist in her Kansas home at Wellington. Dr. and Mrs. Emerson have two children—a son and a daughter. The son, Burt Y. Emerson, was educated in the Sumner County High School and is now managing a drug store in Wellington for his father. Miss Beatrice Marie Emerson, born April 7, 1890, is a graduate of the Sumner County High School, class of 1910. She has inherited a talent for music and with her cultivated gift has already entertained much in private and in public. She is attending the University of Kansas to complete her literary and musical education.

Dr. Emerson has acquired large commercial interests aside from his professional work. He owns oil property in Wilson county, Kansas, large and profitable blocks of stock in Mexico copper mines, besides extensive real estate interests in Sumner and other Kansas counties and large holdings in Arkansas timbered lands. He is also a large stockholder in the State Valley Bank of Belle Plaine, Kan., and is regarded as one of Wellington's most progressive business men. Dr. Emerson has been unremitting in his energy and close application to his professional and business interests and his name stands among those Kansans who, by superior ability, energy and keen business judgment, have not only achieved a personal success and become men of wealth, but have also added to the prosperity of their home town or city and have increased its importance as well as that of the whole state. The Emerson family are prominent members of the social circles of Wellington and hold an enviable position in the esteem of its people.