Giffen Culbertson

GIFFEN CULBERTSON is a pioneer in Northwestern Kansas, having been a resident of Phillips County over thirty years. A lawyer by profession, he is only nominally a member of the local bar, having pleaded all his cases before he came to Kansas. At Long Island in Phillips County he is chiefly known as a banker.

The Culbertson family is of Scotch-Irish descent, and settled in Pennsylvania in colonial days. Westmoreland County was their home, where his grandfather, Alexander Culbertson, was born and where he spent his life as a farmer, and died at the age of sixty years. He married Lavinia Sloan, a native of the same county. Westmoreland County was also the birthplace of Giffen Culbertson. He was burn January 4, 1857. His father, Alexander Culbertson, Jr., was born in the same county in 1819, spent his life there as a farmer, and died in 1871. After the formation of the republican party he became one of its stanch adherents, and was very strict in his observance of the doctrines of the Presbyterian Church. He married Amanda Giffen, who was born in Westmoreland County in 1826 and died there in 1908. They reared a family of seven children: Edward, owner of an apple orchard at Hoodriver, Oregon; Jennie, who died unmarried in Westmoreland County in 1881; Lavinia married Chris Hershey, a harness maker, and she died in Westmoreland County; Mary is the wife of P. M. Hill, owner of a bookstore at Greensburg, Pennsylvania; Giffen is next in age; George, who was a dentist by profession and died at Emporia, Kansas, in the fall of 1913; and Alexander, formerly a dentist, but now a farmer in the Province of Saskatchewan, Canada.

Giffen Culbertson was educated in the public schools of Westmoreland County. He received a college preparatory education, and after his father's death lived with his mother in the Town of Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Part of this town was built on the old Culbertson farm. Mr. Culbertson left home at the age of twenty-nine, having in the meantime studied law and having been admitted to the bar at Greensburg in 1884. He practiced law there until 1886, was a resident of York, Nebraska, about one year and in the fall of 1886 came to Long Island, Kansas. He is a member of the Phillips County Bar Association. On coming to Long Island he bought an interest in the People's Bank, and served as president. In 1887 that bank bought the Bank of Long Island and the two institutions were consolidated and incorporated as the Commercial State Bank. The bank has one of the oldest state charters in Northwestern Kansas. It is an institution regarded as safe and reliable as any in that part of the state. The bank has a capital of $15,000 and surplus of equal amount. The owners and executives of the bank are all of the Culbertson family. Mr. Giffen Culbertson is president, his wife, Mrs. M. E. Culbertson, is vice president, and their son Lloyd G. is cashier.

Mr. Culbertson is an elder in the Presbyterian Church, is a republican, and has served as justice of the peace, and is affiliated with Long Island Lodge No. 231, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and Marguerite Chapter No. 397, Eastern Star, at Long Island.

In 1886, at Greensburg, Pennsylvania, he married Miss Margaret E. Hope, daughter of R. A. and Eliza (Wilson) Hope, both now deceased. Her father was a farmer, but nearly all his life was a coal mine superintendent and at one time was superintendent of the Pennsylvania Gas Coal Company. Mr. and Mrs. Culbertson have one child, Lloyd G., above mentioned.

Lloyd G. Culbertson was born at Long Island, Kansas, November 25, 1888, was educated in the local public schools and attended a preparatory school at Emporia, and finished the freshman year of Emporia College. Since he left school he has been in his father's bank. He married Margaret Benninghoven, daughter of Oswald and Eugenia (Pritschau) Benninghoven, of Scottsbluff, Nebraska. Lloyd Culbertson and wife have two daughters: Eugenia Hope, born July 26, 1915; and Margaret Jane, born December 9, 1916.

Pages 2295-2296.