RALPH H. FAXON

RALPH H. FAXON was born near Topeka, Kan., May 9, 1875. His parents were early settlers of Shawnee county, living near the village and old-time territorial capital of Tecumseh. His father, a veteran of the War of the Rebellion, came to Kansas shortly after the close of the war, and for nearly fifty years has lived on the same quarter-section.

R. H. Faxon was educated in the public schools of Shawnee county, in the academy of Washburn College, Topeka, and in business college at Topeka. He became a newspaper reporter on the old Topeka Press while still in his teens, and at different times worked on the Topeka State Journal, the Kansas City World and the Kansas City Star. He was connected with the Topeka bureaus of the two last-named papers. This was from 1895 to 1897. In the latter year he went to Newton to take news charge of the old Newton Republican, of which Noble Prentis was once editor, and remained there one year.

In 1898 Mr. Faxon became secretary to Chester I. Long, then making his third campaign for representative from the seventh Kansas district. He remained with Mr. Long, who was elected United States senator from Kansas in 1903, until the latter's retirement from Congress, March 4, 1909, or eleven years in all. During his career as secretary to Mr. Long, Mr. Faxon became as familiar with Kansas, with its history, its affairs, its men and its geography as perhaps any young man of the state. In his Washington life he also represented various Kansas newspapers, including the Topeka State Journal, the Topeka Capital, and the Wichita Beacon and Eagle.

In April, 1908, Mr. Faxon bought the Garden City Telegram from Henry J. Allen, and personally conducted it for four years. As a daily paper in a small town it ranked very high and achieved considerable reputation.

During his residence at Garden City Mr. Faxon and C. H. Scott of the Hutchinson News organized the New Santa Fe Trail, the first interstate good-roads movement in the West. Mr. Faxon also was active in the National Irrigation Congress, the Transmississippi Commercial Congress, and the International Farm Congress. He organized the Kansas Development Association, merger of state commercial bodies; the Kansas State Conservation Commission, and the Arkansas Valley Commercial Association. Mr. Faxon was also a director of the Kansas State Historical Society for three years, and is a member of the National Historical Association, the National Geographic Society, the American Humane Association and other organizations.

In 1912 Mr. Faxon went to Wichita to become industrial and publicity commissioner for the Wichita Business Association, and in 1914 became secretary of the International Farm Congress. In January, 1916, he went to Des Moines, Iowa, to become general secretary of the Chamber of Commerce.

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