From A Biographical History of Central Kansas, Vol. II, p. 1335
published by The Lewis Publishing Co, Chicago & New York, 1902

J. L. DEEDS

   The essential qualifications of success in business are found manifest in the active career of Mr Deeds, who is now engaged in conducting real-estate transactions in Lyons.  He is a well-known, intelligent and highly respected citizen of Rice county, where he has made his home for twenty-one years, having come to this section of the state in 1880.

   Mr Deeds was born in Greene county, Pennsylvania, in the city of Waynesburg, July 8, 1853, and is a representative of one of the well known and prominent families of that portion of the state.  His parents were Isaac and Mary J (Bryan) Deeds.  The father was born in Pennsylvania and was descended from Holland ancestors, who located in the Keystone state at an early period in its development.  His wife was also born, reared and educated in Pennsylvania and was of Scotch-Irish lineage.  They became the parents of two sons and four daughters.  The father followed farming as a life occupation, and died at the age of forty-eight years, while his wife passed away at the age of thirty-six, in the faith of the Christian church, of which she was a consistent member.  Our subject was thus left an orphan at the early age of fourteen years and was reared by an uncle, Andrew Deeds, a prominent and well-to-do farmer and breeder of fine sheep, residing in Licking county, Ohio.  Mr Deeds, of this review, spent his youth upon the farm, but was provided with the educational privileges afforded by the schools of Centerville, Ohio.  After attaining man’s estate he resolved to seek a home in the west, believing that better opportunities were afforded young men in portions of the country which were not so thickly settled and where competition in consequence was not so great.  Accordingly, in 1880, he came to Rice county, Kansas, locating in Allegan, where he entered into business as a partner in the store of Hays & Arthur.  For six years he carried on mercantile pursuits there, after which he came to Lyons and embarked in the hardware business, conducting a store whose patronage steadily increased, returning to the owner a good income.  He was also interested in the banking business as a stockholder in the Bank of Lyons, being associated in this enterprise with E Dupree, Joseph Webb and Joseph Slatten.  At the present time Mr Deeds devotes the greater part of his attention to the real-estate business and has conducted some important real-estate transactions.  He is thoroughly informed concerning the value of properties in this portion of the country, and through avenues of his business has done not a little to improve the city and promote the upbuilding of Lyons and the surrounding districts.

   In 1879 Mr Deeds was united in marriage to Miss Mary J Murphy, who died in 1898, leaving two children, - Edwin and Helen.  On the 10 of October, 1900, he was again married, his second union being with Shurley Woodson, of Hutchinson, Kansas.  She was reared and educated in this state, and for some time prior to her marriage was a successful teacher.  In his political views Mr Deeds is a stalwart Republican, and both he and his wife are members of the Christian church, in which he has filled the office of trustee.  The cause of education, temperance and morality find in him a friend, and he is deeply interested in everything pertaining to the uplifting of his fellow men and the improvement of the county, state and nation.  He is highly respected by all with whom he is associated by reason of his sterling worth and fidelity to principle, and in business circles he bears an unassailable reputation.