Alva H. Warner, cashier and vice-president of the Garden City National Bank, comes of distinguished colonial and Revolutionary ancestry and is one of the older native Kansans, having been born on a farm in Douglas county, July 23, 1858. His parents, Horatio H. Warner and Jane Northup, were married in New York state, Dec. 30, 1853, and in 1857 came to Kansas, locating on government land in Douglas county, where they resided a number of years. The father, born Nov. 2, 1823, in Otsego county, New York, was a farmer by occupation, and after leaving Douglas county located at Burlingame, Osage county. He died at Eskridge, Kan., in 1893. Having come to Kansas while it was yet a territory, he witnessed all the turbulent days prior to and during the Civil war and took an active and prominent part in the life of that period. When the turmoil and strife of that conflict was ended he was an equally active worker in contributing to the upbuilding and development of the new state. To the marriage of Horatio H. and Jane (Northup) Warner were born four children—Alva H., Clarence A., Frank (deceased), and Adelbert E. Alva H. Warner is a great-grandson of Eleazer Warner, who was a captain in the Continental army during the Revolution, and he is also a direct descendant of Gov. William Bradford, the Colonial governor of Massachusetts, and of Nathan Hale, the patriot.

Mr. Warner received his education in the public schools of Burlingame, Kan., and after student days was a hardware salesman at Topeka and Burlingame for ten years. He then married and went farther west to grow up with a newer part of the state. In 1886 he secured a homestead in Finney county, proved it up and for ten years was very successfully engaged in the live stock business and in the mercantile business at Pierceville, both lines of endeavor being very profitable. For several years after that he engaged in the lumber and hardware business at Garden City; then, in 1898, he bought stock in the Garden City National Bank and became its cashier and vice-president, positions he has continued to fill to the present time. A shrewd business man, he has given to that institution the benefit of his knowledge and ability in matters of finance and has made it a strong and successful bank, establishing for himself and his bank a reputation for the strictest integrity. Garden City is exceptionally favored in the number of enterprising men it numbers as its citizens, men who are ever on the watch for some means to further the development of their city and of Western Kansas. One of the most energetic of these citizens of progress is Mr. Warner, who has already done much and is always willing to contribute his part toward any movement which will promote the welfare of his city. He has served as a county commissioner and as president of the Garden City Commercial Club, and in politics is an active and enthusiastic worker in behalf of the Republican party, but has never sought official preferment. Fraternally, he is a Knight Templar Mason and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine.

On Aug. 16, 1882, Mr. Warner was united in marriage to Miss Jennie, daughter of Morris R. and Ann Eliza (Hilton) Logue. Mrs. Warner, who was born Nov. 18, 1863, on a farm in Bureau county, Illinois, accompanied her parents to Kansas in 1879, and was a teacher in Pawnee county prior to her marriage. Her father was a veteran of the Civil war and died in 1895; the mother died in 1892. They were the parents of ten children—six daughters and four sons. To Mr. and Mrs. Warner four children have been born—three daughters and one son: Edna, born Nov. 2, 1884, is a graduate of the Garden City High School, took a two-years course at the University of Kansas, and resides at home with her parents; Grace, born Aug. 28, 1887, graduated from the Garden City High School, took her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Kansas, and was married June 21, 1911, to Carl W. Abercrombie, an automobile dealer at Kansas City, Mo.; Orville H., born May 16, 1890, is a clerk in the Garden City National Bank and will graduate in the law department of the University of Kansas in 1912; and Vivian, born July 16, 1892, is a student at Central College, Lexington, Mo. The daughters, by virtue of lineal descent, are Daughters of the American Revolution, and Edna holds her membership in the Betty Washington chapter at Lawrence, Kan. Mr. Warner and his family are citizens of the highest social standing in their city.