Julius Jarvis

JUDGE JULIUS JARVIS, for ten years probate judge of Smith County, has been a resident of this part of Kansas more than thirty years, and is one of its oldest and most esteemed citizens. Everyone has confidence in his judgment and integrity, and he has given a splendid administration of that responsible office to which he has been repeatedly re-elected.

Judge Jarvis was born in Mahaska County, Iowa, September 22, 1850. He is of an old English family, one that settled in America in colonial days. His grandfather, John Jarvis, was a native of Kentucky, was a farmer, and late in life moved to Rose Hill, Iowa, where he resided until his death in 1862. Re married Miss Lee of Kentucky, who also died at Rose Hill. Four of their sons, Maurice, Wallace, Bruce and Wade, were soldiers in the Civil war, all of whom are now deceased, Wade having been killed at the battle of Pea Ridge and Maurice died while still in the army.

Dr. W. M. Jarvis, father of Judge Jarvis, was born in Franklin County, Kentucky, in 1823. He lived in that state to the age of eighteen, later went to Indiana and studied medicine at Terre Haute, and when still a young man established himself in practice in Mahaska County, Iowa, where he gave a long and faithful professional service, retiring when past the age of sixty. He died at Rose Hill in Mahaska County in 1909. He was a republican in politics. Doctor Jarvis married Miss M. F. Bowles who was born in Connecticut in 1823 and died in Mahaska County, Iowa, in 1910. Their children were: Julius; John P., who for thirty-five years has been an agent with the Missouri Pacific Railway, and for the past twenty-five years a resident of Sedan, Kansas; Jennie first married Eugene Slocum, a merchant, but is now the wife of Norman Johnson, a marble and monument manufacturer at Norton, Kansas; F. M., now deceased, was the wife of Herbert Cox, a merchant at Los Angeles, California.

Judge Jarvis was educated in the rural schools of Mahaska County, Iowa, leaving school at the age of twenty. After that he farmed in his native county until 1885, when he moved to Smith Center, Kansas. Here he became a merchant and as such became widely known over the county. Much of his time was taken up by public service. He was elected in the fall of 1893 sheriff of Smith County and filled the office from 1894 to 1898, and for eighteen months, he was also deputy United States marshal. He was elected probate judge in 1908, and the people of Smith County have not failed to appreciate his services and re-elect him every two years since. His office is in the I. O. O. F. Building on Main street. Judge Jarvis is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America.

In 1870, at Rose Hill, Iowa, Judge Jarvis married Miss Mary E. Browning, daughter of E. J. and Alvina (Williams) Browning, both now deceased. Mr. Browning was a farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Jarvis had three children, R. P., Myrtle and C. B. R. P. Jarvis enlisted for service in the Spanish-American war, was sent to the Philippines, where he was sergeant of his company, and after returning in 1899 went into the copper mine district of Mexico. He returned from the South and became a locomotive engineer with the Canadian Northern Railway. He was stricken with pneumonia and died at Minneapolis, Minnesota, November 15, 1913. The daughter, Myrtle, is the wife of Jess B. Wyatt, an oil salesman and land owner at Clayton, New Mexico. C. B. Jarvis, the youngest child, is a farmer at Greenville, New Mexico.