Frank Winfred Shelton, M. D., one of the young but leading members of the medical fraternity of Independence, Kan., is of German and English extraction, a mixture that has produced so many of the successful Americans of the Twentieth century. He is a native of Kansas, born on a farm in Miami county, May 7, 1876. His grandfather, Elias Shelton, was a Virginian by birth, descended from the English family of Sheltons, one of whom emigrated from the Mother Country at an early day and located in Virginia. The grandfather emigrated from his native state and located in Missouri, when it was little settled, cleared a farm, built a house and established his home in the great new western country. At this homestead in Cass county, Stephen Shelton, Frank's father, was born. He attended the district schools provided by the first settlers for their children, herded cattle, broke prairie, plowed corn and led the usual life of a country lad on a frontier farm. When only sixteen years of age, he enlisted in the Union army, in 1863, and served until the war was over. The doctor's mother, Marilda L. Hinds, the daughter of Alexander Hinds, is of German descent, and it is from her that the boy inherited his tenacity and perseverance, which, combined with sterling traits handed down on his father's side of the family, have made him a man of rare character and ability. The parents of the doctor were married in Kansas and immediately located on a farm, where they resided until 1906, when they gave up active life in the country and moved to Paola, Kan. They reared a family of seven children, six of whom are living.

Frank W. Shelton was reared in Miami county, where he attended the district schools, and after finishing the common branches, began teaching school. He taught and attended school alternately, defraying the expenses of his education by teaching. He attended the Kansas State Normal School at Emporia, and in 1898 accepted a clerical position in a drug store at Kansas City, Mo., and held the position for two and a half years, during which time he entered, in the fall of 1899, the Kansas City Medical College, from which he graduated in 1904. Realizing that this is the age of specialization, Dr. Shelton went East and took a year of post-graduate work in the medical department of Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. On his return to Kansas he received the appointment of house physician in St. Joseph's Hospital, Kansas City, Mo., where he remained for two and a half years, gaining wide experience in surgical and clinical work. After leaving Kansas City, Dr. Shelton located in Independence, Kan., where he has built up a large practice and operates a sanitarium that has every modern equipment for the care of the sick and for surgical work. In 1904 he was united in marriage to Violetta Gilman, who is a trained and skilled nurse. Both Dr. Shelton and his wife are members of the Presbyterian church, while fraternally he is a Mason and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Though politically a Republican, Dr. Shelton takes no active part in politics, as his time and attention are devoted to professional duties.