John Daniel Walters, M. S., D. A., professor of architecture and drawing in the Kansas State Agricultural College at Manhattan, was born in Unterramsern, a country town in Western Switzerland. There he attended the communal schools and was taught both the German and French languages. In 1860, he entered the high school of Bucheggberg, Switzerland, from which he graduated in 1863, and became a student in the Cantonal College and Normal School of Solothurn, where his previous training enabled him to take up the third year's work of a five-years course. The father of Prof. Walters suffered business reverses at about that time and emigrated to America to repair his fortunes, in consequence of which Prof. Walters was unable to pursue immediately the course he had entered upon and became a teacher, in which capacity he had charge of the upper grades of the public schools of Oberbalm, near Bern, Switzerland. He later became assistant teacher of scientific branches in the Klingenberg experimental station of the Thurgovian Agricultural College. In 1866 he was granted a diploma as a life teacher in the communal schools, after which he inished the course at his Alma Mater. After graduating from the College of Solothurn in 1867, he entered the University of Bern, where he took a course in civil engineering, and afterward engaged in surveying for some time. He then came to the United States, and for a while was employed as architect and civil engineer in several different states. In 1876 he became a member of the faculty of the Kansas State Agricultural College at Manhattan, and in the intervening period of thirty-five years he has successively served as instructor of industrial drawing (1876 to 1885) and professor of industrial art and design (1885 to 1904). From 1904 to the present time he has been professor of architecture and drawing. In 1883 he was given the degree of Master of Science and in 1908 was made Doctor of Arts. Prof. Walters is conolered an authority in his line of education and has published a number of text-books on architecture and drawing for advanced pupils. For many years he was chairman of the landscape gardening committee of the Kansas State Horticultural Society, and has prepared many landscape plans for improving public parks and campuses. His parents, who had first settled in Pennsylvania, later removed to Riley county, Kansas, and his father, who was a civil engineer and contractor, served as surveyor of Riley county in 1893-95. Prof. Walters was married after coming to the United States to Miss Margaret Kienast, and to them have been born eight children, of whomHilda, the eldest, became the wife of Dr. A. Emch, formerly of the University of Kansas, and at present (1911) of the State University of Illinois. Mr. Emch was the first man to receive the degree, Ph. D., in Kansas. The eldest son is at present professor of horticulture and biology in the State Industrial College of Oklahoma, at Chickasha. Prof. Walters is the senior professor of the faculty of the Kansas State Agricultural College. During the almost half century that he has been identified with school work he has not only witnessed the great evolution of modern school methods and has contributed much toward perfecting them, but also helped to demonstrate the value of the study of architecture and drawing as a mental discipline as well as a preparation for a profession.

Frederick William Pollman, deceased, was one of the early settlers of La Cygne, and a resident of that town for over thirty years, and was numbered as one of its most useful and honored citizens. He was born at Billinghausen, state of Lippe Detmold, Germany, Aug. 9, 1838, and was reared in the Fatherland. There he received the thorough education of the German public schools and as is usual, in that country, he was bound out to learn the trade of brick making. He possessed the characteristic German traits of thrift, industry, and determination, which enabled him to carry to a conclusion any project he undertook. The conscientious discharge of duty and close application to business soon transferred him from the ranks of the common workman to the superintendency of the brick yard where he was first employed.

In 1866, Mr. Pollman wedded Miss Amelia Brockman, and two years later they immigrated to America, the land of opportunity to those possessed of pluck and energy. They first located at Quincy, Ill., where Mr. Pollman followed his trade four years. Deciding to push farther west and cast his fortunes in a newer country, he brought his family to Kansas, in March, 1870, and located at La Cygne, Linn county, where he resided continuously for thirty-three years, or until his death, Nov. 17, 1903, except one year, when he engaged in the bakery business at Butler, Mo. Upon locating at La Cygne, he started a brick yard, but as the demand for brick in a new country was light, he abandoned it and began work upon the construction of what was then known as the Missouri River, Fort Scott & Gulf railroad. In 1873 he entered the employ of George J. Miller in the mercantile business. He saved of his earnings until in 1874, when he was able to open a meat market in La Cygne, in partnership with a Mr. Tilinger. That partnership was dissolved a year later. After spending a year in the bakery business at Butler, Mo., he returned to La Cygne, and again opened a meat market, which he continued to operate until 1900, when he sold the market to his son, C. Edward Pollman, and retired from active business cares. In the early nineties he purchased stock in the Linn County Bank, and was until his death, one of the financial pillars of that excellent banking house. He also had investments in much rental property in La Cygne, which together with his other holdings aggregated a comfortable fortune.

While his business career was a success and required from him a great deal of attention, yet he was essentially a home-loving man, and found his greatest happiness at his own fireside circle. To Mr. and Mrs. Pollman were born eight children, all of whom are living, and reared lives of usefulness and honor. They are: Mrs. Adolph Wishropp, of Paola; William, a capitalist of Baker City, Ore.; C. Edward, who conducts the Pollman meat market at La Cygne; Frederick W., Jr., who is cashier of the Linn County Bank; Mrs. Charles H. Miller, of La Cygne; George O., who resides near La Cygne; Paul, who is employed in the First National Bank of Baker City, Ore.; and Hermena, of Lawrence, Kan., the wife of Prof. Herbert Emerson. Mr. Pollman was a Presbyterian in church faith. In his passing the surviving family lost a kind and loving husband and father, and La Cygne and Linn county, one of their most valued citizens, one who always gave his influence and assistance to every laudable enterprise for the benefit of his community and who was known for his kindly words and helpful deeds.