Charles Samuel Bendure

CHARLES SAMUEL BENDURE, M. D. One of the best known families in Southeastern Kansas is the Bendures. Many of the name have gained honorable distinction in their several vocations, and among them is Charles Samuel Bendure, one of the widely known physicians of Labette County, who has practiced for a quarter of a century at Bartlett.

He traces his descent along the Bendure line to France originally, but the family has been represented in America since colonial times and were among the pioneers of the Green Mountain state. His grandfather, Stephen Weeks Bendure, was born in Vermont in 1803. He was reared in that state, was an early settler in Ohio, thence moved to Indiana and later to Illinois, and he died while on a visit in Cowley County, Kansas, in 1877. By occupation he was a farmer.

W. H. Bendure, father of Doctor Bendure, was born in Xenia, Greene County, Ohio, March 16, 1838. In 1852, when he was fourteen years of age, his parents moved to Marshall County, Indiana, and he was reared and married there. He was both a farmer and carpenter, and was one of those faithful and skillful masters of the latter trade who had a mechanical efficiency such as few carpenters of the present day could measure up to. It is said that he would go into the timber, hew the logs and then convert them into frames for a house, performing practically every step in the building of a home from the time the timber was standing in the forest until the house was ready for occupancy. W. H. Bendure moved to Kansas and arrived in Neosho County on May 29, 1870. He homesteaded a claim of 160 acres there, and while developing it also followed his trade for ten years. In 1880 he moved to Longton, Kansas, where he was in the mercantile business for a year, and then traded for a farm in Elk County, on which he lived three years. In 1885 he went south into the old Indian Territory, taking a lease upon some land thirty-five miles south of Vinita. He remained there until 1889, the year when the original Oklahoma was first opened to settlement. Returning to Labette County, Kansas, he bought an eighty-acre farm which he occupied two years, and on selling that engaged in the hardware and implement business in Bartlett. He was one of the pioneer merchants there, but after three years sold his stock and on September 16, 1893, participated in the opening of the Cherokee Strip in Oklahoma. He made the run and was successful in obtaining 160 acres. After proving up his claim and occupying it as a farm until 1899 he sold out and bought another farm north of Howard in Greenwood County, Kansas. At the end of three years he sold that and went to Dutch Mills in Arkansas, buying a farm nearby and a residence in the town. That was his home until his death on December 18, 1913. W. H. Bendure was an active republican, but after the war became a democrat and actively supported that party until 1892. He then became aligned with the union labor ticket and with other parties advocating social and economic reforms. He was an active member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. W. H. Bendure also made an army record. During the Civil war he was for three years a gallant soldier in the Eighty-fifth Indiana Volunteer Infantry.

W. H. Bendure married Rebecca J. Stallard, who was born in Rush County, Indiana, in 1841, and is still living at Coffeyville, Kansas. Her children were: Ollie, who died at the age of eighteen months; Dr. Charles S.; C. B., who is a blacksmith by trade and is now street commissioner and city marshal at Mound Valley, Kansas; Ida Rosetta, wife of C. L. Lane, an auctioneer living at Coffeyville; N. F., who is a teamster in the factory of the National Sash and Door Company at Coffeyville; A. E., a blacksmith at Independence, Kansas; W. V., who is employed by the Cudahy Refining Company at Coffeyville.

One of these children, Dr. Charles Samuel Bendure, was born near Plymouth in Marshall County, Indiana, August 3, 1860. He received his early education in the schools of Kansas, and for the first twenty-two years of his life lived on his father's farm. In 1882 he entered the University Medical School at Kansas City, remained there for a time, and by private instruction was qualified for practice. He practiced one year at Sedan, Kansas, then at Harts Mills three years, looked after the welfare of the residents around Vinita, Oklahoma, for four years, and in 1889 returned to Kansas and identified himself permanently with Bartlett in Labette County. Since then he has conducted a general medical and surgical practice. Doctor Bendure graduated from the University of Kansas Medical Department with the degree of M. D. in 1897.

His offices are on Main Street, and he owns his home at the corner of Sixth and Hackberry streets. For many years Doctor Bendure has served as city health officer of Bartlett. He was clerk of the school board in 1890 when the district was formed out of five other districts, and has always taken a great interest in schools and every other institution reflecting the welfare of the community. He is a member in good standing of the Labette County Medical Society, the Southeastern Medical Society, and politically is a socialist.

In 1883 in Elk County, Kansas, Doctor Bendure married Miss Ellen M. Ashmore. Her father, Judge R. N. Ashmore, was for many years probate judge of Elk County, but is now living retired at the age of eighty-six in the State of Washington. Doctor and Mrs. Bendure have four children: Harl W., who is connected with the Topeka Iron Bridge Works and spends much of his time on different contracts for that company in various localities; Harvey Leonard, who is a brakesman with the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway living at Parsons; William N.; Gertrude May, who lives at home and is attending the public schools of Bartlett. The son, William N., is now postmaster at Bartlett, and is one of the brilliant young men of Southeastern Kansas. He has recently been admitted to the Kansas bar, and has for a number of years been active in democratic politics. He was born at Bartlett in 1890, and has depended upon his own exertions to push him ahead in the world. For a time he read medicine under his father, but gave up the idea of becoming a physician and studied law. He worked hard at other occupations while getting his legal education, and was graduated from the Hamilton College of Law at Chicago in 1916. He has been postmaster of Bartlett since November 23, 1914, and in 1915 was journal clerk in the State Legislature. Will N. Bendure was married July 2, 1913, to Miss Estella M. Long, who was a well known teacher in Labette County before her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Will Bendure have one child, Mary Ellen, born June 22, 1915.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
VOLUME 1 & 2
BIOGRAPHIES — VOLUMES 3, 4, & 5
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