Marshall County KS Archives Biographies.....Armstrong, Lyman H. 1861 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ks/ksfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com May 31, 2007, 12:34 pm Author: Emma E. Forter (1917) 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 1911, 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 arid 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. Additional Comments: Extracted from: History of Marshall County, Kansas: its people, industries, and institutions by Emma E. Forter Indianapolis, Ind.: B.F. Bowen & Co. (1917) File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ks/marshall/bios/armstron525gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ksfiles/ File size: 4.4 Kb