Alexis Poulet, president of the State Bank of A. Poulet, at White Cloud, Kan., is one of those pioneer characters who link the old Kansas with the new, for he has been a resident of the state over half a century and has not only witnessed the marvelous civic and commercial growth of the state but has been a factor in its accomplishment. He is a native of France, having been born there in 1831, and is the son of Pierre Poulet and his wife, who was Frances Monin. Pierre Poulet was born in France in the latter part of the Eighteenth Century, or about 1790, and was reared and married in his native country. He was the son of a farmer and business man, and himself engaged in agricultural pursuits in France, where he held valuable land possessions and where he spent his entire life, his death having occurred in 1833. Frances (Monin) Poulet, whose death occurred about 1870, came to America in 1847 with her two sons and daughter, all of whom are now dead except Alexis Poulet of this review.

Mr. Poulet was sixteen years of age when he came to America. He had attended the schools of France, where English had been included in the curriculum of his studies. With his mother and brother he bought 400 acres of land in Missouri, on which they located and began its improvement. In 1850 Mr. Poulet left the farm and went to New Orleans, where he engaged in the mercantile business until 1856, when he returned to Missouri, took out his naturalization papers and, in 1857, came to Iowa Point, Doniphan county, Kansas. He began a general merchandising business at Iowa Point and continued it until 1863, when he closed the business until after the close of the war, when he moved to White Cloud and opened a hardware store, but later took up the general merchandise business again. In 1883 he organized the bank, of which he is president and has a controlling interest. This is the only bank in White Cloud, is the oldest bank in Doniphan county to continue under one management, and has a capital of $20,000, with a surplus of $10,000. The bank he helped to organize has been an important agency in the growing prosperity of White Cloud and its success is, in a large measure, due to the sagacious judgment and the sound business policy Mr. Poulet has adopted in its management.

In 1860 Mr. Poulet married Rebecca Acton and to them have been born two children: Nellie, who is now the wife of H. E. Dickinson of New York city; and Acton Poulet, who is now the representative of the Standard Oil Company in Indo-China and is also the vice-president of the bank of which his father is president. Mr. Poulet was formerly a Whig, but has given his allegiance to the Republican party since its organization. While interested in the party's work he has never aspired to public office. He is a Mason and a past master of the Blue lodge.