The subject of this sketch, Nichols Klein, is the owner and manager of the Oakes House, one of the best business properties in the city of Glasco. Mr. Klein is an old resident of Mitchell county, Kansas, having settled there in 1876 and was the first white proprietor of a barber shop in the city of Beloit, remaining there until 1901, when he purchased the hotel of Mr. and Mrs. Oakes, trading some good Beloit real estate in the transaction.

Mr. Klein was born in the southern part of Germany in the year 1849. His boyhood days were spent on the farm in his native land, but when he reached the age of twenty-three years he started out to see something of the world and with his parents settled in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, where he learned the barber trade, became an adept tonsorial artist and has followed that occupation ever since. Mr. Klein's father emigrated west and died in Beloit. His mother was deceased in Ohio.

Mr. Klein was married in 1878 to Mary Arnoldy, of Mitchell county, Kansas, where her father, Nichols Arnoldy, was an early settler and prominent citizen. He owned nine hundred and forty acres of land, part of which extended into Osborne county. He emigrated to Kansas in 1873 from Minnestoa, his former home, and where Mrs. Klein was born. He died in Downs in the year 1887, where he owned a hotel at the time of his death. Mrs. Klein is one of a family of ten children, five boys and five girls, all of whom are living. Three of her brothers are residents of California; one of them being county attorney of Yuba county, California, and resides in Marysville. One brother is in Chicago, and another in Mitchell county, Kansas. Three of her sisters live near Tipton, Mitchell county, and one in California. Mrs. Klein is an estimable woman and an indulgent mother, devoted to the welfare of her family.

To Mr. and Mrs. Klein eight children have been born, viz: Anna, who was married about a year ago to John Smith, a young farmer of Mitchell county. Ella, the second daughter, assists in the duties of the hotel. Arnold and Leo are young men aged twenty and eighteen years, respectively. Frances, Willie and Maxie attend the Glasco schools, and Marie, an interesting little girl of five summers, completes the family circle. Their family of children are Kansans, born, bred and educated in Beloit. Arnold, the eldest son, was a student for one year of St. Benedict's College at Atchison, Kansas. The family are members of the Catholic church.