Ortho O. Wolf, M. D. C., while yet a young man, has become quite prominent as an importer and breeder of fine strains of Shorthorn cattle and as a successful veterinary surgeon. He is president of the Franklin County Agricultural Society, ex-president of the Kansas Improved Stock Breeders' Association and a member of the State Board of Agriculture. In the veterinary societies he has served as secretary of the State Board of Veterinary Examiners and is president of the Kansas Veterinary Medical Association.

Mr. Wolf is a native of Allen county, Ohio, where he was born June 4, 1874. His parents are Charles F. and Mary (Abbott) Wolf, both natives of Ohio, where the former was born in Fairfield county, July 12, 1851, to Ezra and Barbara (Spangler) Wolf. Ezra Wolf was born in Frederickstown, Pa., Jan. 1, 1804, and was descended from German ancestors who came to America in an early day. His death occurred in Ohio, where the most of his life had been spent as a farmer. His wife, Barbara Spangler, born Sept. 6, 1810, in Fairfield county, Ohio, was the daughter of Col. Salem Spangler, an officer in the Revolutionary war, whose original home was in New England, but who removed to Ohio and there became an eminent statesman. Barbara (Spangler) Wolf, the paternal grandmother of our subject, owned the ground on which the battle of Gettysburg was fought. The maternal grandparents of Otho O. Wolf were John and Ellen (White) Abbott, the former of whom was a descendant of one of the oldest American families, and traced his lineage back to Morris Abbott, who was lord mayor of London in 1638. Mr. Abbott was engaged in the mercantile business in Clearport, Ohio, and later as a farmer in Fairfield county, that state, where he lived retired until his death. Charles F. Wolf, the father of Otho O., was a merchant and a farmer in his native state of Ohio, but removed to Kansas in 1884 and located in Humboldt, Allen county, where he remained two and a half years, then removed to Franklin county where he bought a farm of 287 acres five miles west of Ottawa and to this tract he has added by subsequent purchases until his farm now includes 627 acres of valuable and improved land, besides which he has a pleasant home in the suburbs of Ottawa. He is a Republican but has never taken an active part in political affairs. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church.

Ortho O., the immediate subject of this review, received his common school education in Kansas, and his collegiate and professional training was obtained at Baker University, the Kansas State Agricultural College at Manhattan, and the Chicago Veterinary College, Chicago, Ill., graduating at the last named school in 1898, receiving the degree of M. D. C. In 1900 he traveled in Great Britain, where he visited many prominent live-stock breeders and made himself familiar with their methods. While in Scotland he found a strain of Shorthorns which so pleased him that he imported some of the finest of the herd, and now has about sixty head of registered cattle on his farm. He has made the breeding and raising of Shorthorn cattle his specialty, and his unquestioned success has been due not only to his educational training for that work, but also to his industry, perseverance, sound judgment and practical experience, requisites, which, with his executive ability, have made him a valued member of the organizations previously mentioned. His practice as a veterinary surgeon is very large. He is also a member of the executive committee of the Franklin County Fire Insurance Company, which was established five years ago and has been more than usually successful, having $5,000,000 worth of insurance on its books for 1910. He was superintendent of the cattle division of the Kansas State Fair in 1911.

In 1904 occurred the marriage of Dr. Wolf and Miss Daisy Sterling, a native of Missouri and the daughter of George Sterling, a farmer now living southwest of Ottawa. Dr. and Mrs. Wolf reside in a beautiful home near Ottawa and have one son, Charles, born in 1908. They are members of the Methodist Episcopal church.