Agriculture
Claude C. Cunningham
Robert H. Hazlett
James W. Robison
Claude C. Cunningham
Claude C. Cunningham, master farmer known for growing certified seeds, was born July 5, 1883 in Riley County, Kansas, and grew up in Manhattan, Kansas.
Following graduation from Kansas State Agricultural College and post-graduate work at Cornell University, Cunningham spent several years as an educator at Kansas State Agricultural College.
He retired early to fulfill his dream of farming, purchasing 200 acres north of El Dorado, Kansas. He became one of the nation’s leading plant breeders, producing and improving seed adapted to South-Central Kansas. Building a record of major contributions in the field of agriculture in an agriculture state, he was dedicated to the cause of improving agriculture, all the way from seed to harvest.
Cunningham died of a heart attack on Feb. 12, 1959. Among recognitions he had received was the Skelly award for Superior Achievement in Agriculture, Kansas State College’s award for distinguished service in the field of agriculture, and several premier seed grower awards.
Robert Hazlett
Lawyer, land speculator, mine owner, banker, cattle breeder, petroleum producer and refiner, Robert H. Hazlett’s greatest accomplishment was his award-winning purebred Herefords. Born in 1847 in Illinois, he moved to El Dorado, Kansas in 1885.
Educated at the Illinois Industrial University and the University of Michigan, he practiced law and was elected state attorney. Moving to El Dorado, he worked as a lawyer and speculated in land. He invested his profit from a Colorado silver mine in the banking business, and continuing to buy up Butler County land. In later years, during the oil boom, he became an oil producer and refiner, operating El Dorado Refinery Company.
At age 50, he purchased a small herd of Hereford cattle, deciding to see what he could do to improve the stock. Through innovating breeding, this developed into the world’s greatest Hereford stock of the day.
In this accomplishment, Hazlett probably did more to put El Dorado and Butler County on the map than any other El Doradoan in the town’s history. He died on Dec. 29, 1936.
James W. Robison
Founder of Whitewater Falls Stock Farm, home to prize-winning Percheron horses, James W. Robison was born in Scotland on March 19. 1831. His family immigrated to America the following year.
Robison grew up in Illinois, where he attended local schools in Tremont, followed by the Illinois College at Jacksonville. Already a successful farmer and senator in Illinois, he bought land in Butler County, Kansas in 1879, and moved his family here in 1884.
Northwest of Towanda, Kansas, J. W. established what would become one of the largest Percheron draft horse ranches in America, known far and wide for the quality of its prize-winning stock.
Robison was elected as Republican senator from this district of Kansas in 1897. He died on July 2,1909.
Among the many awards his horses received were 14 silver cups and more than 60 gold medals, many bearing seals of world fairs in the U.S. and national shows in foreign countries.