George was born in Vienna, Austria, and immigrated to the United States with his family when he was a young man. George enlisted in the army and fought in North Africa and Italy. After returning from the war, George Brunn attended Stanford University receiving a bachelor’s degree in Economics in 1947 and a juris doctorate in 1950. George then became a judge for the County of Alameda and worked as a trial judge for twenty years. He was extensively involved in professional and community service. His ties to the Consumer Movement include service on the Pacific Bell Telecommunications Consumer Advisory Panel from 1990–1992, the Consumers Union of the United States Board of Directors from 1966–1978 and the California Attorney General Consumer Fraud Task Force from 1969–1973.
After retiring George continued working as an arbitrator and mediator. He spent much of his time writing handbooks for judges both on search and seizure and the death penalty. To George's family and friends, he was known for his wit, smarts, limericks, jokes, and poems that he had made up over the years. On his 90th birthday, he had a small gathering of family and friends over, as he did for many years. The room was filled with joy and laughter. George was preceded in death by his loving wife Ruth. They had been married for 54 years. George was survived by his daughter Tracy, son Scott, niece Nancy, nephew David and cousin Trudy.

The Dodge family of Kansas is a branch of the distinguished and widely-extended American Dodge family, which descends from two branches of the English Dodge family, one from Richard Dodge (1602-1671) and his brother William Dodge (c. 1604-1685), and the other from Tristram Dodge (c.1628-1683), relation unknown. The Kansan Dodge family can be traced back with reasonable certainty to Richard Dodge, who settled in Massachusetts. Major General Grenville M. Dodge, the eponym of Fort Dodge and Dodge City, Kansas, is descended of John Dodge (c. 1631-1711), son of Richard Dodge and the elder brother of Joseph Dodge (1651-1716), from whom the Kansan Dodges are descended.
The Dodge family arrived in Kansas when Orlando A. Dodge (1824-1897), originally from Ohio, left Illinois for a Blue River farm in Manhattan Township (Riley County), north of Manhattan, Kansas, which he settled with his first wife, Phebe, who died in 1872. He subsequently married Olive Pickett and sired six children in addition to his first five with Phebe. After losing the Blue River farm in a horse race bet, Orlando Dodge settled the 440-acre Springdale farm on Tuttle Creek in the Sedalia neighborhood, where he became one of the early members of the Sedalia Presbyterian Church (renamed the Sedalia Community Church in 1964). Olivia Pickett Dodge was a charter member of the Sedalia Church, and served as Sunday School Superintendent and teacher.
William Pickett Dodge (1877-1966), the eldest son of the union of Orlando & Olivia Dodge, and the sixth-born offspring of Orlando Dodge, was born and raised in Sedalia. He wed Faith Adella Cooper, daughter of Hugh McFadden and Anna Cooper of Sedalia, who were also charter members of the Sedalia Presbyterian Church. Like his father, Orlando, William Pickett was farmer in Riley County, Kansas. He was named one of the Master Farmers of Kansas in 1933.
Robert “Bob” Hugh Dodge (1906-1997), the eldest son of William Pickett Dodge, was a soil conservationist, and graduated from Kansas State University (formerly Kansas State Agricultural College) in 1930 with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture.

Alan Graham Greer is the son-in-law of General Richard J. Seitz. He is an attorney who practices in civil commercial litigations in the state of Florida.

Randall C. Hill was born on Sept. 30, 1901. He lived in Manhattan from 1917 to 1979 and attended Kansas State from 1919 to 1924, where he was a member of the Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity. He later became the financial advisor of the fraternity. After completion of his bachelor’s degree in social sciences in 1924, and his master’s degree in sociology in 1927, he was hired to teach at Manhattan High School. Hill decided to further his education by attending the University of Missouri where he completed his doctorate in sociology and rural sociology in 1929.
After returning to Manhattan, he became an associate professor in the Department of Economics and Sociology at Kansas State, and began service as the Kansas Supervisor of Rural Research for the Federal Emergency Relief Association in October of 1934. He was promoted to a full professor at K-State in 1935. Hill was elected secretary-treasurer of the National Rural Sociological Society in 1949. In July of 1956, he became a Rural Sociologist on the International Cooperation Administration-India-Kansas State College Team to Poona, India. Hill had a special interest in India thus he spent much of his time and research there.
He retired from Kansas State in 1969 and died on February 9, 1995.
Maurice Hil, the younger brother of Randall Hill, was born on November 7, 1904. He also was a Manhattan resident and attended Kansas State from 1923 to 1925. While at the college, Hill was a member of Phi Sigma Kappa, and he later served as a financial advisor for the fraternity. After his time at Kansas State, Hill worked as a banker at Union National Bank of Manhattan for 22 years. In 1947 he took a position at Home Building & Loan Association, where he worked for 35 years. Hill was very active in the financial affairs of the Manhattan community. He met Opal and the two were married on December 22, 1928. Maurice Hill died on March 18, 1982.
Opal Brown Hill, the wife of Maurice Hill, was born on September 23, 1903. She attended Kansas State and received her Bachelor of Science degree in Home Economics in 1944. She was employed as a clerk in the business office at Kansas State for seven years when she resigned to pursue a master’s degree in art, which she received from Kansas State in 1950. Mrs. Hill taught interior decorating, along with other subjects, in the art department as an associate professor. At that time, subjects such as interior decorating and architecture were part of the art department. Hill retired from the university in 1969, and in 1983 she received the Art Department Recognition Award. She died on August 14, 1997.

Alfalfa Lawn Farm’s (ALF) primary business involved the breeding, promoting, exhibiting, and marketing the American Polled Hereford for seventy-seven years. The herd started in 1910 as a wedding gift to John M. Lewis, Walter’s father. From ten cows and one bull, John began to develop the herd. When Walter graduated from Kansas State Agricultural College (now Kansas State University) in 1935, John turned over the herd to him. Walter acquired his background in cattle breeding from his days in 4-H and working on the judging teams at KSAC, in addition to his activities around Alfalfa Lawn Farm as a young boy. John Lewis and his two sons, Walter and Joe, the youngest, managed ALF as a family-owned operation until the two sons died in 1987. Walter concentrated primarily on the business aspect of the herd, while Joe worked on the showing of the herd at the many events the Lewis’s entered around the United States.

Aside from being the foreman of the herd, Walter also traveled extensively to judge at shows and fairs. He was heavily sought after for his expertise and knowledge and judged shows in Australia, New Zealand, and England. Walter’s wife, Francis, was also active in managing the herd and farm operations. Judging from the collection, she took care of the various books and registers and performed secretarial duties.

As years passed, the quality and reputation of the herd grew, and, by 1987, progeny from Alfalfa Lawn Farm were found in virtually every state and in numerous foreign countries. Exhibition of its cattle resulted in eighteen National Grand or Reserve Grand Champion bulls and females. As the collection illustrates, people from all over the United States and many foreign countries came to tour the ranch or buy bulls. All sales, births, and deaths, of the cattle, were documented and registered.

Walter and Francis had two children, Robert “Bob” Lewis and Martha Lewis, and both attended Kansas State University; class of 1961 and 1963 respectively. Bob went to the University of Wisconsin where he received his Ph.D., while Martha continued her education at Pennsylvania State University where she received a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in 1969 and married the head of the Department of Agronomy. Walter’s brother, Joe, was married to Margaret and they had a son, John D. Lewis, and three daughters. Both Joe and Margaret were actively involved in managing the ranch. As more family members became involved in the enterprise, the business became known as “Alfalfa Lawn Farms, John M. Lewis and Sons” (records attribute the name of the business to both “Farm” and “Farms”).

Walter and Joe were involved in local, national, and international, activities, and organizations. Every spring they sponsored a field day-judging contest at the ranch where students from all across Kansas came to learn about judging and cattle. Walter was active in the Pawnee County Extension Board, Kansas Herford Association, National Western Polled Hereford Association, Kansas Polled Hereford Association, American Hereford Association, American Polled Hereford Association, while serving on other boards including the First National Bank and Trust Company of Larned, Kansas, and the Livestock and Meat Industry Council of Manhattan, Kansas.

Coincidentally, both Walter and Joe died in 1987. After their deaths, Francis and Margaret decided to have a dispersal sale of Alfalfa Lawn Farm in November of that year.

The collection is rich in medical history as one of the Page’s five children, William, graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1852 and practiced in Boston before becoming the resident physician at a resort hotel and hot springs in Las Vegas, New Mexico that was affiliated with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, and Fred Harvey (there are numerous letters from the Santa Fe headquarters in Topeka to Dr. Page).  There is significant information about his medical work, including his involvement with troops during the Civil War.  The experience of the twin daughters, Mary and Olive, of Benjamin and Huldah provide much insight into the lives of women, both personal and professional, during the mid to late 1800s.  The educational experiences of males and females are well documented because the five children attended Phillips Exeter Academy, Mount Holyoke, Wellesley College, Bowdoin College and Harvard.  For example, the twins received notes from classmates at Mount Holyoke encouraging them to become more Christian like in their beliefs!  Daniel Page migrated to Kansas where he became a prominent settler in the Lindsborg area, serving in the Kansas House of Representatives, and daughter, Mary, settled in Missouri.  Letters of both family members describe life in this region of the country.  Agriculture practices are documented through the lives of several members, and military history is an important segment of the collection because of family members’ involvement in the Civil War and War World I.  Cookery is represented by such items as a manuscript cookbook.  While the previous descriptions cover the years 1845-1899, the letters of Nina Page (daughter of William and Nancy Page) describe her travels and employment in several European countries.  She died in Nazi-occupied France in 1943.

The Pillsbury family were early residents of Manhattan, Kansas, who settled in the area as part of the anti-slavery movement. Josiah Hobart Pillsbury was born in 1821 in Hebron, New Hampshire to Stephen and Lavinia (Hobart) Pillsbury. Josiah began teaching in public schools in 1840 at the age of 19 and continued to teach in Orange County, New York and Londonderry, New Hampshire in 1844. From 1844 to 1845, he studied engineering while also working for the National Anti-Slavery Standard. In 1847, Josiah met Horace Greeley and became active in the abolitionist movement. Josiah married Alnora Pervier on August 16, 1853. The couple’s first son, Arthur Judson, was born on January 31, 1854. That same year the family moved to Kansas as part of the New England Emigrant Aid Company, settling in Zeandale Township. In 1855, Josiah was chosen as a free-state delegate to the Topeka Constitutional Convention. Josiah and Alnora’s second child, a daughter named Annie, was born on January 25, 1858. Josiah was also active in the Zeandale Township community, first hosting the post office in the family cabin in 1856 and then serving as Justice of the Peace in 1860. The Pillsburys’ third child, a daughter named Ellen, was born on March 5, 1860. In 1863, the family moved to Manhattan, as Josiah served as the county surveyor from 1863 to 1872. Josiah also bought and owned the free-state newspaper The Independent. Alnora died on July 15, 1868. She bore eight children, with four surviving to adulthood: Arthur Judson, Annie M. (Annie Pillsbury Young), Nellie (Ellen Pillsbury Ellsworth Martin) and Mary A. (Mary Pillsbury Akerley). While Josiah worked as the postmaster for Manhattan from 1869 to 1879, he was remarried in 1870 to Mrs. Emma Steele. The couple divorced in 1874. Josiah died on November 12, 1879. He was honored on August 25, 1936, with the naming of Pillsbury Drive in Manhattan.

In 1853, Charles W. Rogler, age 17, left family in Asch, Austria, for the United States.  At age 23, he settled his first 160 acres in Matfield Green, Chase County, Kansas.  By 1883, Charles had increased his holdings to 720 acres and by the time of his death in 1888, he had acquired 1,800 acres.
By 1900, under the management of long-time friend, Henry Brandley, the estate encompassed 4,020 acres when it was divided among Charles’ five children.  In 1902, Henry Rogler, an 1898 graduate of Kansas State Agricultural College, purchased one of his sisters’ sections of the ranch that included the original 1872 homestead and old barn.
In 1901, Henry Rogler married Maud Sauble, a 1901 graduate of Kansas State Agricultural College.  They designed and built a large home on the property in 1908. They named the ranch Pioneer Bluffs Ranch.
Between 1905 and 1925, Henry made the transition from farming to ranching.  He was a farmer-stockman and pastureman.  Pasturemen were local agents who brought together cattle owned by capitalists from outside the Flint Hills.  Therefore, Henry was key to the development of the transient grazing industry that dominated twentieth century land use in the uplands of Chase Country.  Transient grazing provided stable and conservative income for ranchers.  The size of the Pioneer Bluffs ranch fluctuated dependent on the acreage rented or held as payment/security.  As Henry managed more cattle for others, the more his own herd grew.  By 1931, Henry’s son, Wayne, a 1926 graduate of Kansas State Agricultural College, grazed 2,000 head of cattle during the summer.
In the 1930s, the ranch became a leader in modernized production of feed crops, cooperating with Kansas State Agricultural College in pioneering alfalfa production, some sorghum and soybean crops.  In addition to the livestock and crops aspect of the ranch, the Rogler’s also sold poultry and dairy products.  Maud Rogler was a founder of women’s farm bureau work in Chase County and carried out model projects in poultry raising to exemplify self-sufficiency and diversification.  She bragged that she put their four children through college with her “egg money.”
Henry Rogler served the state by serving two years in the Kansas House of Representatives (1914-1916) and four years in the Senate (1928-1932). Henry served eight years as Vice President for the Chase County Farm Bureau and his involvement in agriculture was noted when he received the first Kansas Master Farmer Award in 1927.  He operated the ranch until the late 1950s when he sold a large part of it to his son, Wayne.  After Henry died in 1972, Wayne purchased the remainder of the farm and ranch land.
The younger Rogler followed in his father’s footsteps as a prominent farmer-stockman, serving four consecutive terms (1929-1946) in the Kansas House of Representatives and was appointed one term in the Kansas Senate.  Wayne served as president of the Chase County Farm Bureau, the director of the National Farm Loan Association and as chairman of the state Chamber of Commerce.  He was a member of various other organizations and a charter member of the National Cattlemen’s Association.  Wayne owned and managed Pioneer Bluffs Ranch until his death on April 8, 1993.  His wife, Elizabeth died on January 24, 2004.
The Rogler Ranch or Pioneer Bluffs Ranch was one of the best known in the region.  Under Wayne’s management the ranch grew to some 60,000 acres, including leased pastureland and managed 15,000 head of cattle a year.  After Wayne’s and Elizabeth’s death no other family member was interested in the ranch and it was placed in trust.  In 2006, Pioneer Bluffs Ranch was sold at auction for $6.92 million.  A group of local Chase County members knew the value and importance of the ranch and were able to purchase 12-acres that included the house and outbuildings.  Today, the Pioneer Bluffs Ranch is a historical tourist site (http://pioneerbluffs.org/).
Charles W. Rogler (1836-1888) married Mary Mariah Satchell in 1869.  They had five children: Albert (1870-1953), Katherine (1872-1915), Emma (1875-1961), Henry (1877-1972) and Mary Jane (1879-1854).
Henry Rogler married Maud Sauble (1880-1972) on July 21, 1901. They had four children: Helen (1902-1999), Wayne (1905-1993), Irene (1908-2000) and George (1913-2003).

Kirk and Noel Schulz were married in 1987 after meeting as students at Virginia Tech. Kirk served as the thirteenth president of Kansas State University, 2009 to 2016, and Noel was associate dean for research and graduate programs in the university's College of Engineering and director of the Engineering Experiment Station.
Kirk Herman Schulz was born to Carl and Judy Schulz in Portsmouth, Virginia, in 1963. He attended Old Dominion University before transferring to Virginia Tech in 1984, graduating from there with his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in chemical engineering in 1986 and 1991, respectively. Noel Nunnally Schulz was born in Virginia in 1966 to Charles "Butch" and Joan Nunnally. She met Kirk while attending Virginia Tech, graduating from there with her B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering in 1988 and 1990, respectively. In 1995, she received her Ph.D. in the same field of study from the University of Minnesota.
Kirk and Noel Schulz have two children, Timothy and Andrew. The family lived in Virginia from 1987 to 1991 while Kirk and Noel attended school, after which they moved to North Dakota as Kirk became an assistant professor and Noel was an instructor at the University of North Dakota. In 1995, the family moved to Michigan where Kirk and Noel had professorships at Michigan Technological University. Kirk received tenure and was promoted to associate professor in 1998 and Noel received tenure and was promoted to associate professor in 2000. Kirk and Noel then moved to Mississippi State University in 2001 where Kirk began as director of the school of chemical engineering and Noel was associate professor of electrical engineering. By 2009, Kirk was vice president for research and economic development and Noel was the Tennessee Valley Authority professor in power systems engineering. They came to Kansas State University in 2009 when Kirk began his presidency and Noel became the LeRoy C. and Aileen H. Paslay professor of electrical and computer engineering. In 2012, Noel became associate dean for research and graduate programs in the university's College of Engineering and director of the Engineering Experiment Station.
In April 2016, Kirk left K-State to become the president of Washington State University in June 2016. Noel became a professor in the Washington State University School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture.

George Smith was born January 15, 1809 in Burlington, Chittendon County, Vermont, the son of John and Mary Smith. In 1832, he began his law career in Vermont, Moved to Illinois, and eventually settled in the Iowa Territory. Mr. Smith served as a county judge from 1837-1841 in Tipton, Cedar County, Iowa and then resumed his law practice. On March 26, 1845, he married Elizabeth Davy Richards, whose family had recently immigrated from Devonshire, England. They had six children: Mary Eliza, Marcia Emma, Flora Ella, Frank Melville, Rollin George, and Jenny Lind. In 1871, George Smith set out alone to settle a homestead in smith County, Kansas. He died of suffocation on September 4, 1872 when the dug-out he was living in caved-in. His youngest daughter, Jenny Lind Smith, was born December 26, 1856 in Tipton, Iowa. She taught school at Dubuque High School in Dubuque, Iowa from 1875-79 and then moved to Kansas with her mother and brother Frank in 1880. In Kansas, she met and married Volney Bottomly in November 1882. They had two children, Herbert Jefferson and Helen Elizabeth. Mrs. Bottomly died on March 20, 1950. Helen Elizabeth Bottomly was born December 9, 1886 in Cedarville, Smith County, Kansas. She graduated from Kansas State Agricultural College in 1905. She taught school for a year in Cleburne, a country school north of Manhattan, Kansas. She then attended Kansas Wesleyan College in Salina the next year. On May 6, 1908 she married Percy Eugene Lill, son of Michael and Joanna Lill of rural Mt. Hope, Kansas. Percy had two brothers, Harry and Joe, and two sisters, Genevieve and Gertrude. Percy and Elizabeth Lill lived on a farm near Mt. Hope for most of their lives but moved to Oxford in 1947. They had seven children including Marjorie Elizabeth, Eugene Michael, Volney Bottomly, Wayne Percy, Gordon Grigsby, Dean Thomas, and Richard Alan. All but one, Volney, received degrees at Kansas State and he alone of the brothers did not fight in World War II. Dean Lill was killed in action in November 1944, in Germany and was buried in Holland. The rest of the family are all married and living in various locations in the U.S. Their parents, Percy and Helen Lill, have both passed away, he on July 28, 1967, and her on October 22, 1977.