Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 695 - 696 

EDWIN W. ENOS, photographer, is one of the proprietors of the Wichita Art Gallery, and one of the most successful members of his profession in the West. He is of mingled Welsh and English descent, although the family from which he springs long ago settled in America. His grandfather, Orange Enos, was born, bred and married in New York, and there reared a family of seven children, and there finally closed his eyes in death, having rounded out a useful and honorable life of eighty-eight years. His son, Solomon C., father of our subject, was born in Jefferson County, N. Y., and when he arrived at a suitable age he learned the printer's trade. In 1837 he left his native State to take up his abode in Wisconsin, and became associate editor of the Milwaukee Commercial Advertiser. At that time Milwaukee was nothing but an Indian trading-post, with no indications of its present size and importance.

            In 1839 Mr. Enos married Miss Sylvia Edwards, of Jefferson County, N. Y., and to him and his devoted and amiable companion three children have been born, namely: Sylvia, Mary E. and Edwin W. Two years subsequent to his removal to Wisconsin, Mr. Enos purchased a farm near Milwaukee and turned his attention to the cultivation of the soil, and is still living on the old homestead, which by his care and labor is now numbered among the finest farms in the vicinity of the Cream City. He is now seventy-one years old, and is held in universal esteem and honor for his sterling integrity and blameless life. He has been from early youth a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in political views has always sided with the Democrats.

            Edwin W. Enos was born in Milwaukee, April 20, 1840. He received a partial college education at Lawrence University, Appleton, Wis., and then utilized his knowledge in the calling of a teacher, following that profession for nearly five years with marked success. He then abandoned that pursuit and returned to the city of his birth, where he engaged in the bakery commission business, which he conducted several years with satisfactory financial results. In 1866 he married Miss Tamar E. Parish, of Milwaukee, and to them has been born a son whom they named George L. Mr. Enos finally closed out his business in Milwaukee and opened a broker business in St. Louis, which he conducted in that city from 1872 till 1877. In the latter year he turned his attention to photography, and after having acquired a thorough knowledge of that art in all its details, opened a studio in his native city from 1880 to 1885. He represents on the road the photographic supply house of H. A. Hyatt, of St. Louis, Mo.

            In 1884 our subject came to Wichita and opened the Wichita Art Gallery, which was the first fine and complete establishment of the kind in the city; it is finely equipped with the best instruments used in photography, consisting of ten instruments, one of the largest for life-size work costing $500. His work is of a superior order, and he now uses the bromide process which makes a perfect photograph. His moldings and frames are greatly admired for beauty and variety, and he carries the largest stock in the West, supplying other houses. Mrs. A. R. Sternberg is associated with him in the ownership of the art gallery, and also is the joint owner with him of ten city lots situated in a desirable part of Wichita.

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