W. E. Ward

W. E. WARD. It would be difficult to find any important interests in Wallace County which have not in some way been touched by the career of W. E. Ward during the last twenty years. He is a versatile man and almost since the time he left high school he has been in the newspaper business. He is now editor and publisher of the Western Times at Sharon Springs. He is also a lawyer, is county attorney, has represented the county in the legislature, and, by ownership and management, is also identified with the staple industries of Wallace County, agriculture and stock raising.

Mr. Ward was born at Fort Scott, Kansas, November 5, 1871, and he is of Scotch and English ancestry. His grandfather was born in Indiana in 1818 and was one of the territorial pioneers of Kansas, homesteading a claim near Fort Scott in 1856. He lived a long and useful life and died near Fort Scott in 1901.

D. R. Ward, father the Sharon Springs editor and lawyer, was born in Indiana in 1844, and was twelve years of age when his parents came to Kansas. He finished his education at Fort Scott, married there and took up farming and in 1887 moved to Wallace County, locating there two years before the county was formally organized. He homesteaded 160 acres near Sharon Springs and continued farming until about 1913, when he sold his homestead and retired into Sharon Springs, where he died June 9, 1918. He was always a republican in politics and held to that party for good cause, since he helped put down the rebellion. In 1861 D. R. Ward enlisted in the noted Sixth Kansas Cavalry and was all through the war with that organization, whose exploits have been recounted on other pages of this Kansas history. He was with it in the border warfare through Missouri, Kansas and Arkansas, and among its major battles he fought at Pea Ridge. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. D. R. Ward married Frances J. Weddle. She was born in Missouri in 1841 and is now living at Sharon Springs. Her children are seven in number: W. E. Ward, the oldest; George, a cattle man at Sharon Springs; Glynn, an auditor for the Union Pacific Railway living at Kansas City; Joseph, a barber at Sharon Springs; Ernest, a printer at Sharon Springs; Forest, who is a corporal in the United States Army in France; Jesse, also serving with the colors in France.

W. E. Ward attended public school at Fort Scott and Sharon Springs, graduating from the high school of the latter town in 1889. He soon afterward bought the Western Times, which he has edited and published continuously since. It is the official paper of Wallace County, circulates over that and surrounding counties, and has a thoroughly well equipped plant for newspaper and general printing.

The Western Times has an interesting history. It is a logical continuation of a paper published at Chicago, Illinois, for twelve years by Mrs. M. E. DeGeer. In 1885 this plant was moved to Garden City, Kansas, where it was published as the Western Times by M. E. DeGeer and S. W. Case. In 1886 it was moved to Scott City, Scott County, with Kate B. Russell editor and publisher, and M. E. DeGeer corresponding editor. In the same year it found its permanent location at Sharon Springs, where the first issue was dated October 16, 1886. It has been published now continuously for over thirty years in Wallace County, and has absorbed most of the other papers established as its competitors.

After graduating from high school Mr. Ward took up the study of law and was admitted to the bar in 1901. Since then he has held the office of county attorney for twelve years, and fills that office today. He was county clerk of Wallace County from 1895 to 1897, and was a member of the State Legislature in the sessions of 1899 and 1900, and was re-elected in 1902. Under appointment by President McKinley he filled the office of register of the United States land office at Colby, and was reappointed by President Roosevelt in 1903. He owns 1,400 broad acres in Wallace County, and employs this land for farming and stock raising purposes.

In 1889, at Sharon Springs Mr. Ward married Miss Mary Swartz, daughter of William and Carlotta (Lybrand) Swartz. Her father is still living, a retired carpenter and contractor at Teloga, Oklahoma. Mrs. Ward died at Sharon Springs in 1910, the mother of three children: Bernice is a graduate of the Sharon Springs High School, was further educated in college at Lexington, Missouri, and is the wife of DeLance Clark, of Ellis, Kansas, who is now in an officers training camp. Bess, the second daughter, is a graduate of the Sharon Springs High School, attended Lexington College and is now at home. The youngest child is Mary. Mr. Ward is a member of the Masonic order and affiliates with Colby Lodge.

Pages 2247-2248.