Albert Pyle, owner and operator of the electric light system at Towanda, Kans., has been identified with Butler county for over forty-five years. Mr. Pyle was born at Chillicothe, Ohio, in 1848, and is a son of Harrison and Marie (Horton) Pyle, natives of Ohio. Albert Pyle was reared to manhood in his native State and educated in the public schools. In 1868 he went to Illinois and settled in McLean county, where he was engaged in farming for three years and in 1871 came to Kansas, settling in Rosalia township, Butler county, where he homesteaded a quarter section of land. Later he sold that place and bought another one three miles farther south on the Little Walnut river. Here he was engaged in the stock business on his 440 acre farm for a number of years when he sold it and settled on a place in Towanda township where he followed farming and stock raising until 1913 when he removed to Towanda.

In 1912 Mr. Pyle secured a franchise for lighting the city of Towanda and installed an arc light system at a cost of approximately $4,000, and thus gave Towanda its first electric light. The venture did not prove profitable at first but Mr. Pyle was not discouraged and has been rewarded in recent years by very satisfactory and profitable results. He has considerable other interests in Towanda and vicinity in addition to his electric light plant investment. In 1911 he erected three

store buildings on Main street which are now fully occupied by business enterprises and form an important part of the business district of the town.

Mr. Pyle was united in marriage at Chillicothe, Ohio, to Miss Johanna Piper, a daughter of M. M. Piper, a pioneer of Ross county, Ohio. To Mr. and Mrs. Pyle have been born six children, as follows: Lewis, farmer, near Towanda, Kans.; B. C., butcher, Towanda; W. H. a prominent stockman, Weston, Neb.; Mrs. B. F. McComas, Jackson county, Missouri; Mrs. Nellie Ralston, of Towanda township, and Mrs. Ollie Logan, of Towanda, whose husband, an engineer and electrician, is manager of the Towanda Electric Lighting Plant, for Mr. Pyle.

Mr. Pyle has seen many changes in Butler county, since he and a brother came here in 1871. They had no capital but came to a new and undeveloped country with the determination to succeed and notwithstanding that they encountered many discouraging features incident to early life in Kansas, Mr. Pyle has gone on and succeeded beyond his expectations and today is one of the substantial men of his community and one of the leading industrial factors of Towanda.

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