Transcribed from volume I of Kansas: a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc. ... / with a supplementary volume devoted to selected personal history and reminiscence. Standard Pub. Co. Chicago : 1912. 3 v. in 4. : front., ill., ports.; 28 cm. Vols. I-II edited by Frank W. Blackmar.

Humphrey, Lyman Underwood, eleventh governor of the State of Kansas, was born at New Baltimore, Stark county, Ohio, July 25, 1844. At the age of seventeen years he left high school at Massillon, Ohio, to enlist in Company I, Seventy-sixth Ohio infantry, which was mustered into the United States service on Oct. 7, 1861. Subsequently he was a member of Companies D and E of the same regiment, but was mustered out on July 15, 1865, as first lieutenant of Company I. His regiment was first attached to the First brigade, First division, Fifteenth army corps, commanded first by Gen. William T. Sherman and later by Gen. John A. Logan. He was with his command in the engagements at Fort Donelson, Chickasaw Bluffs, Jackson, Vicksburg, about Chattanooga in the fall of 1863, and in numerous battles and skirmishes of the Atlanta campaign of 1864. After the fall of Atlanta he was with Sherman in the famous "March to the sea," and up through the Carolinas, taking part in the battle of Bentonville and being present at the surrender of the Confederate army under Gen. J. F. Johnston. After the war he attended Mount Union College, at Alliance, Ohio, for a short time, and then entered the law department of the University of Michigan, where he was graduated in 1867. The succeeding year he was admitted to the Ohio bar, but soon afterward removed to Shelby county, Mo., where he engaged in teaching and newspaper work. In 1871, with his mother and brother, John E. Humphrey, he came to Kansas, locating at Independence, which city has since been his home. He was one of the founders of the Independence Tribune, and during the early years of its existence took an active interest in its career. On Christmas day, in 1872, Mr. Humphrey was united in marriage with Miss Amanda Leonard of Beardstown, Ill., and in 1873 he engaged in the practice of law. Always a Republican, he soon became an influential factor in the councils of that party in Kansas, and in 1876 he was elected to represent his district in the lower house of the state legislature. While a member of that body he served with ability on the judiciary committee, one of the most important of the house. In 1877 he was elected lieutenant-governor for the unexpired term of Melville J. Salter, who had resigned, and the following year was elected to the office for a full term of two years. In 1884 he was elected to the state senate, and in the ensuing session of the legislature introduced the resolution to strike the word "white" from the constitutional provision relating to the state militia. Mr. Humphrey was nominated for governor by the Republican state convention at Topeka on July 26, 1888, and at the election the following November was victorious by a plurality of over 73,000 votes. At the expiration of his first term he was reëlected, holding the office for four years altogether. Upon retiring from the office of governor he resumed the practice of law. In 1892 he was the Republican nominee for Congress in his district, but was defeated by Thomas J. Hudson, the Populist candidate. Mr. Humphrey is a member of the Masonic fraternity, the Grand Army of the Republic, the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, and several other fraternal and benevolent societies.

Pages 880-881 from volume I of Kansas: a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc. ... / with a supplementary volume devoted to selected personal history and reminiscence. Standard Pub. Co. Chicago : 1912. 3 v. in 4. : front., ill., ports.; 28 cm. Vols. I-II edited by Frank W. Blackmar. Transcribed May 2002 by Carolyn Ward.