Samuel Doran is one of the early settlers and prominent men of Cloud county, emigrating to Kansas in January, 1868, homesteaded a claim in Elk township and has been a continuous resident ever since. Mr. Doran was born in West Virginia in the year 1838 and was reared on a farm. His parents both died when he was but twelve years of age and their orphans took diverging paths, Mr. Doran drifting to Ohio when seventeen years of age, followed soon after by a brother and sister, who married and moved to Kansas, which was the main-spring of the others emigrating to the state of great possibilities, where fortunes do not lie scattered loosely about but can be dug out of the soil. Mr. Doran has two brothers, David, of Republic county, and Daniel, of Cloud. Both of their grandparents were slaveholders.

Mr. Doran received his education at Otterbein University, Ohio. After teaching a short period he entered the Lebanon Normal School and later the Central College at Amalthea. Mr. Doran is self-educated and from his emoluments as a teacher paid for instruction at schools and colleges. From the age of nineteen until his enlistment in the army Mr. Doran taught school. His duties of army life were in the signal service of the Western Army, where he remained for two years and three months. He was mustered out at San Antonio, Texas, going thence to Pike county, Illinois, where he taught during the winter of 1866-7.

While in college he studied civil engineering. In the years 1869-70 Mr. Doran was appointed probate judge to fill out the unexpired term of John Fowler. In the year 1870 he was elected county superintendent, holding the office with credit six years. In 1872 he was elected surveyor and held that position two years and by appointment was given the same office in the year 1879. For the first two years he held both the offices of superintendent of public instruction and surveyor. At the expiration of that time he drew a salary, but could not attend both; as the greater part of his time had to be given to the duties of county superintendent, he resigned his office as surveyor. He later took up surveying, which he followed from the year 1884 to 1892. Was elected to the office of county surveyor in 1898 and has held the position up to the present date. During the session of the last convention some of his friends asked him "How long he was going to hold forth?" Mr. Doran took the strap off from his compass box that he had carried thirty years and replied, he wanted it replaced by one that would last another thirty years and at the expiration of that time he "would not care who carried it afterward."

Mr. Doran was married in the year 1872 to Mary McDonald, of Republic county, Kansas. Three children have blessed their union: Albert E., Arthur L. and Myrtle. The eldest is a farmer near Clyde. The second son is a bookkeeper located at Barstow, California. Myrtle is in the sophomore class in the Clyde high school. Mr. Doran owns a block of fruit and garden ground adjoining Clyde. In politics Mr. Doran is a Republican and cast his second vote for Abraham Lincoln, but was reared a Democrat. He is a Mason of over thirty years standing and also a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and Ancient Order of United Workmen. He has figured very prominently in the early and modern history of Cloud county, his services as superintendent of schools in earlier days is an important part of the history of Cloud county. Mr. Doran is well known and well respected by both colleagues and citizens.