Marshall County Biographies
LYMAN H. ARMSTRONG.
Lyman H. Armstrong, president of the Bigelow State Bank at Bigelow,
a substantial landowner and stock breeder, member of the Marshall County
Fair Association and formerly and for years one of Marshall county's best-known school teachers, is a native of the great Empire state, but has been
a resident of Kansas since 1884. He was born at Marcellus, in Onondaga
county, New York, January 26, 1861, son of Addison H. and Adelia M.
(Brown) Armstrong, the former of whom, born in Bennington county, Vermont, May 12, 1823, died at his home in New York in 1891, and the latter
of whom, born on May 10, 1833, is still living at Marcellus, New York.
Addison H. Armstrong and wife were the parents of eight children, of
whom the subject of this sketch was the fourth in order of birth and five
of whom are still living.
Reared on a farm in New York, Lyman H. Armstrong received his
elementary schooling in the public schools and supplemented the same by
a course in the Monroe College Institute, after which he began teaching
school in his home county. When twenty years of age, in 1881, he went to
Michigan and taught school near Union City, in that state. In 1884 he
came to Kansas, his destination here being Frankfort, in this county, and
for a year after his arrival here worked on the farm of T. F. Rhodes. He
then taught district schools in this county until 1887. when he entered the
State Normal School at Emporia and after a comprehensive course in that
institution resumed teaching, in 1890, being employed as principal of the
schools at Oketo. During the next two years he was employed as a teacher
in the high school at Marysville and for two years thereafter as principal
in the schools at Beattie. While at Beattie Mr. Armstrong bought his present farm of two hundred and forty acres in sections 3 and 15 of Bigelow
township and began the development of the same, continuing his school
work during the winters and spending his summers on the farm. In 1893
he further enlarged his land holdings and ever since then has lived in and
out of Bigelow. In 1904 Mr. Armstrong retired from the school room in
order to give his whole attention to his rapidly developing agricultural and
live stock interests. At the time of the organization of the Bigelow State
Bank in 1907 Mr. Armstrong was one of the original stockholders and was
elected vice-president of the same. Following the death of John E. Chitty,
president of the bank, in 191 1, he was elected to succeed Mr. Chitty, and
has since been president of the bank, a position for which he is eminently
qualified. In addition to the land holdings above mentioned Mr. Armstrong
is the owner of an "eighty" of valuable land on the north edge of Bigelow
and is regarded as one of the most substantial citizens of that part of the
county.
Mr. Armstrong is a Democrat and ever since he came to this county
in 1884 has taken an earnest and an active part in local civic affairs. For
six years he served as township clerk in Clear Fork and in Bigelow townships and was the first clerk
elected in the latter township after its organization. He also has taken an earnest interest in the agricultural development
of the county and has rendered excellent service as a member of the Marshall County Fair Association. Fraternally, Mr. Armstrong is affiliated
with the local lodge of the Modern Woodmen of America at Bigelow and
is clerk of the same. Mr. Armstrong has a wide acquaintance in banking
and general business circles throughout this part of the state and has long
been recognized as one of the important personal factors in the development
of the business life of the community.
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This website created July 4, 2011 by Sheryl McClure. � 2011 Kansas History and Heritage Project
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