Arthur E. Topping, who owns and operates one of the best drug houses in Overbrook, Kan., was born at Morrison, Whiteside county, Ill., Nov. 26, 1861, the son of Edwin E. and Rosella (Chapman) Topping. His grandfather, William Topping, was a native of New York, where he was reared, educated and where he married. At an early day he moved to Illinois, where he spent the remainder of his life. Edwin E. Topping was also born in the State of New York in 1831. His education was that afforded by the frontier schools of the period, and at the age of twenty-one he immigrated to Illinois. After the close of the Civil war, when there was a heavy tide of immigration to Kansas, he determined to try his fortune in the young state and located at Sedgwick, where he engaged in farming. Subsequently he became a real estate dealer and a prominent figure in local politics. He died at Sedgwick in 1907. Rosella Chapman was the daughter of Reuben Chapman, who was born in the State of New York, served in the army during the war of 1812 and passed his life in the state of his birth.

Arthur Topping received his elementary education in the public schools and after graduating from the high school entered the pharmacy department of the state university at Lawrence, Kan., where he graduated in 1888. After looking around for a good location he opened a drug store in Overbrook, where he has since been in business. He has built up a fine trade and is one of the progressive business men of Overbrook.

In 1895 Mr. Topping married Mae, the daughter of Samuel and Adaline M. (Lovingier) Marshall. Mr. Marshall was engaged in the carpenter and undertaking business at Baldwin, Kan. Two boys have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Topping. The family are all members of the Congregational church and Mr. Topping belongs to the Masonic fraternity.