Name: Smyser, William Christie
Burial Date: 1917, 08/11
Age at Death: 77
Plot Location: 528 G
Notes: husband of Lavinia Jane (Brown)

 

William Christie Smyser had been a resident of Sterling for 35 years when he died August 9, 1917.  He was born in Milford, Ohio, and graduated from its seminary.  He was a descendant of a noble family in Germany and bore the coat of arms of his knightly kinfolk dating back to 1128 A.D.  He came to Kansas with his wife and three children in 1882.  His first job here was staying nights with a fellow member of the Odd Fellows Lodge, who had a broken leg.  The job paid $1.50 a night.  He owned a drug store in the early days but never ran it himself.  He began buying tracts of land and seemed to know soils and crops would grow on that land. His success with land brought him in touch with broomcorn. Sterling was the center of the broomcorn industry, and Mr. Smyser was the Broomcorn King. He began to buy the crops outright – the dwarf variety grown in Kansas and the standard size in Oklahoma. He hauled the crops to stor in his buildings in Sterling, and he had to rent more storage space for he hauled as much as 1100 tons a year.  He sold broom corn anyplace where factories were operated. He acquired much land and was well-known over the state as the largest sheep feeder in Kansas. He fed from fifteen to twenty thousand sheep a year.  He was a most successful man but he acted in a very quiet way so as not to attract notice to his success, his wealth, and his power.  He was a quiet, honest, generous man, a Bible student, a member of the Congregational Church and he belonged to several lodges. At his death he left his entire estate to his wife as executrix. HJC

Birth:	Sep. 6, 1839 Milford, Clermont County Ohio, USA
Death:	Aug. 9, 1917 Sterling Rice County Kansas, USA
Family links: Spouse: Lavinia Jane Brown Smyser (1845 – 1921)* Children: Harley Brown Smyser (1869 – 1950)* Mary Alberta Smyser Johnson (1871 – 1947)* John Ward Smyser (1874 – 1942)* *Calculated relationship
Burial: Sterling Cemetery Sterling Rice County Kansas, USA
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Created by: Richard Schultheiss Record added: Oct 26, 2010 Find A Grave Memorial# 60667882