Walter R. Long

WALTER R. LONG has spent a very busy and influential career in Kingman, where he is the present postmaster. Most of his life has been spent in this county, and when not in public office he was a farmer and business man.

Mr. Long was born in Chariton County, Missouri, February 10, 1875. His ancestors were Scotchmen who came to Virginia in colonial days. His father, Gabriel Long, was born is Virginia in 1833. He grew up in his native state, and when a young man removed to Chariton County, Missouri, where he married and where he engaged in farming. In 1878 he sought a new home and better opportunities in Kingman County, Kansas, then almost on frontier. He homesteaded 160 acres, and had it well developed as a farm and lived there the rest of his life. He died in 1913. The old homestead still owned by his widow, is situated eight miles east of Kingman. Politically he was a democrat. He married Margaret I. Stevenson, who was born in Kentucky in 1841 and now makes her home with her children. She was the mother of nine sons and daughters, all of those living having given a good account of themselves: Edward B., a farmer in Galesburg Township of Kingman County; John S., a farmer in the same township; William C., who died at the age of twenty years; James S., who died at twenty-one; Ernest, a teacher and also editor of a paper near Denver, Colorado; Effie, twin sister of Ernest, wife of F. W. W. Smith, a farmer and school teacher living at Yewed, Oklahoma; Lee L., who was teaching school when he died at the age of twenty-one; Cecil B., engaged in the real estate and insurance business at Elkhart, Kansas; and Walter R.

Walter R. Long was three years of age when the family came to Kansas and he grew up on his father's farm and attended the rural schools. At the age of eighteen he received a certificate and taught a term of school near his old home. He then entered the State Normal School at Emporia, where he remained a student about two years, and followed that with two other terms of teaching in Kingman County. From these duties he was called to the office of county clerk in 1899, and by re-election in 1902 served five years. His home has been at Kingman since 1900. On retiring from office in 1904 Mr. Long entered the real estate and insurance and loan business and enjoyed a large patronage in those lines for ten years. He gave up the business to accept the office of postmaster at Kingman in February, 1914. He has always been an active democrat, and for ten years was a member of the school board of Kingman.

Mr. Long owns a modern home on Avenue A, West, in Kingman. He is a member and trustee of the Presbyterian Chruch, and is affiliated with Kingman Lodge of Masons, which he served as secretary one year, Kingman Lodge of the Ancient Order of the United Workmen and is a former member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. On April 10, 1901, in Kingman County, he married Miss Gilah Wilson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. E. C. Wilson, who are now living retired at Wichita, Kansas. Her father was for many years a farmer in Kansas, coming to this state about 1889. Mr. and Mrs. Long have one child, Velma W., born September 26, 1907.

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