Reason R. Vermilion, a prominent lawyer of Wichita, was born on a farm in Putnam county, Indiana, Nov. 24, 1852. His father, Rev. Joseph Vermilion, was a Virginian by birth and was of Welsh descent. He was a local minister of the Baptist church and was also engaged in farming in Putnam county, Indiana, where he died Dec. 15, 1871, when seventy years of age. The mother of our subject was a Miss Martha Shaw prior to her marriage. She was born in Mercer county, Kentucky, and died in Putnam county, Indiana, July 4, 1871, at the age of sixty-five.

Reason R. Vermilion was reared on the farm and obtained his collegiate education at De Pauw University, Greencastle, Ind., and was graduated in that excellent institution June 24, 1875, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He had taught school in the meantime, however, and thus earned the funds to pay for his college course. He had also taken up the study of law and was admitted to the bar in the fall of 1875 at Centerville, Iowa, where he practiced his profession eight years. In 1884 he came to Wichita, where he has since practiced law continuously for over twenty-five years. For ten years he was the law partner of of[sic] Kos Harris; then, on Jan. 1, 1896, he formed a legal partnership with the late Gov. William E. Stanley, who was elected governor of Kansas in 1898, and in 1900 was reëlected to that office. This partnership continued until Governor Stanley's death on Oct. 13, 1910. Earl W. Evans had joined the firm on Jan. 1, 1899, since which date the firm name has been Stanley, Vermilion & Evans. This is one of the best known law firms in Kansas and has been identified with much of the important litigation in the state during the past twenty-five years. Mr. Vermilion is a member of the Sedgwick County Bar Association and of the Kansas State Bar Association and has been admitted to practice in all state and United States courts. While engaging in a general practice, he has made a specialty of corporation law, in which he is recognized as an authority. He is local counsel for the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company and is the solicitor for Kansas for the Frisco system. In politics Mr. Vermilion is a Republican, but he has never been a candidate for official honors. Fraternally he is a Thirty-second Degree Scottish Rite Mason and a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is also a member of the Wichita Commercial, Riverside, and Country clubs.

On June 21, 1883, Mr. Vermilion was united in marriage to Miss Emma Goss, of Centerville, Iowa. They have one daughter, Clara Vermilion, now a young lady and a social favorite of Wchita.[sic]