George W. Tolle, secretary of the Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Butler county, has been a resident of this county for forty-six years and has seen many changes since he was a passenger on the old stage coach that landed him in the little town of El Dorado in 1870. When he came here there were only two or three houses west of where the Santa Fe railroad is now located, in the settlement of El Dorado. George W. Tolle is a native of Illinois. He was born at the old town of Nelson, now extinct, Coles county, in 1849, and is a son of C. J. T. and Mary (Wheeler) Tolle, the former a native of Kentucky, and the latter of Virginia. On his paternal side Mr. Tolle is a descendant of colonial ancestry of English origin. His great grandfather Tolle was a Revolutionary soldier and his grandfather served in the Black Hawk war. C. J. T. Tolle, George W.'s father, was a Methodist minister and spent his life in the ministry in southern Illinois. His wife also died in that State when George was a child.

George W. Tolle was educated in the public schools of Illinois and McKendry College, Lebanon, Ill. He left college at the close of his junior year and would have graduated the following year had he continued his course. In 1870 he came to Kansas. At that time the Santa Fe railroad was not completed as far west as Emporia. He came directly to El Dorado by way of Emporia, and was first employed as a clerk for J. C. Fraker & Company. Charles Folks was the junior member of that company and had charge of the El Dorado business, Mr. Fraker residing in Emporia. Mr. Tolle remained with them about two years, when he went to Douglass, Kans., and six months later returned to El Dorado and entered into partnership with H. H. Gardner, now deceased, under the firm name of Gardner & Tolle. They conducted a general mercantile business on South Main street in what was known as the stone store, near the corner of Central avenue, where Hitchcock's store is now located. This partnership continued to do business four or five years, when Mr. Gardner engaged in the banking business, and Mr. Tolle conducted the business alone until 1899, when he was elected county treasurer for a three-year term, and re-elected for a term of two years. He then served as deputy county treasurer for four years, when

he was again elected county treasurer for a term of two years. About a year after finishing that term of office he engaged in a real estate and farm loan business in El Dorado and has built up a very satisfactory business in that line. In 1914 he accepted the secretaryship of the Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Butler county, and since that time has capably conducted the affairs of that office in connection with his private business. He is also a justice of the peace, having been appointed by Governor George Hodges and elected to that office at the expiration of the term for which he was appointed.

Mr. Tolle was married in 1875 to Miss Mary E. Newbury, of Milton township, Butler county. She is a daughter of Walter Newbury and was born at New Albany, Wis. Her parents were natives of New York and early settlers in Butler county. The father died in 1911, aged eighty-three years, and her mother is well and active at the age of eighty-six years. To Mr. and Mrs. Tolle have been born eight children: Rena, wife of Dr. R. B. Earp, El Dorado; Ralph Preston, teller of the Farmers and Merchants National Bank, El Dorado; George W., Jr., conductor on the Orient & Mexican railway, and resides at Wichita; Harry M., salesman for a wholesale millinery house, St. Joseph, Mo.; Mary Esto, wife of W. H. Noble, El Dorado; Beth, married W. E. Bryant, Wichita; Ruth is teacher in the El Dorado schools, and Luther is a clerk in a furniture store at El Dorado.

Mr. Tolle is a member of the Masonic lodge and is a Republican. He and Mrs. Tolle are members of the Methodist Episcopal church.

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