Riley Co., KS AHGP-Portrait and Biographical Album of Washington, Clay and Riley Counties-Dudley Atkins


Portrait and Biographical Album
of Washington, Clay and Riley Counties
Chapman Brothers, Chicago, 1890




DUDLEY ATKINS, editor and proprietor of the Leader, of Randolph, Riley County, was born in Northfield, Minn., Aug. 7, 1868. and is a son of Francis H. and Sarah E. (Edmunds) Atkins, both of whom now live at Las Vegos, New Mexico. The father was born in the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., and the mother in the South of England. They were married in Northfield, Minn. Francis H. Atkins is a physician and surgeon of repute, a graduate of both Harvard and Columbia Colleges. In the former he studied chemistry and in the latter medicine.

During the Civil War the father of our subject served nine mouths in the 45th Massachusetts Infantry, and being discharged was commissioned Surgeon in the navy. He was with the fleet in the attack on Mobile, and was on the flag-ship with Farragut in the attack on New Orleans at the time of its capture. He served until the close of the war, after which he established himself in the practice of his profession at Northfield, Minn., living in that city five years. During part.of this time he was Professor of Chemistry in Carlton College, His war experience had given him a taste for military life, however, and he procured a commission as Surgeon in the regular army and was at various posts on the frontier until 1884, when he resigned his commission and settled at his present place of residence, where he is actively engaged in the practice of his profession.

Dr. Atkins has profited by his varied experiences and great opportunities, and bears the name of a most skillful and successful practitioner in surgery as well as medicine. He is one of the best-read men in the Territory, and especially in the science of medicine he keeps fully up to the requirements and developments of his profession. A man of great generosity and benevolence, he has pursued a strictly moral and upright life, and he is a believer in the doctrines of the Episcopal Church. Though not a politician in the sense of desiring office, he is a stanch supporter of the Democratic party. Francis and Sarah Atkins are the parents of four children, viz: Virginia, Beatrice and Emerson living under the same roof, and Dudley, of this sketch.

Dudley Atkins has, in consequence of his father's constant removal from post to post while in the military service, spent rather a wandering life. His early education was obtained mostly at home, but he attended school at various places as opportunity offered. In due time he entered the Kansas State Agricultural College at Manhattan, and there spent a year and a half. His first business venture was the purchase of the Riley Times from McDonald Bros., in December, 1888, which he sold in September, 1889, to Southwick Bros., after which he founded the Leader. Since then be has given his entire time and attention to his paper and is making a good Republican local journal, striving earnestly to benefit the town in which he made his home. The circulation of his wide-awake paper steadily increases and he enjoys a fair advertising patronage. He has a job printing department in connection with his office, which is a great convenience to the business men of Randolph and vicinity. Mr. Atkins is a young man of integrity and entitled to the united and hearty support of the community for which he is a faithful worker.



Copyright 2004 Riley Co. KS AHGP

Return to Riley County of Kansas