William B. Ream, a prominent real-estate dealer at Turon, this county, who for
eighteen years was engaged in the newspaper business in that thriving town and who is
one of the best-known men in Reno county, is a native of Iowa, having been born on a
farm in Benton county, that state, June 7, 1874, son of George W. and Sarah A.
(Brubaker) Ream, both of whom were born in Summit county, Ohio, the former on March
18, 1839, and the latter, October 20, 1843.
George W. Ream was reared on a farm near Greensburg, Ohio, and in 1864, not long after
his marriage, moved to Iowa, settling in Benton county, where he bought a quarter of a
section of land and there made his home until in November, 1886, at which time he and
his family came to Kansas. Mr. Ream homesteaded a quarter of a section in Scott county
and entered a timber claim to a quarter of a section in Gove county and became a
well-to-do farmer and stockman. In 1894 he retired from the farm and moved to Garden City,
this state, but after living there about a year bought a quarter of a section of land
near Arnold, in Ness county, and moved onto the same, spending the rest of his life
there, his death occurring on April 15, 1915. His widow is now living at Arnold. She
is the mother of seven children and has twenty-four grandchildren and eight great-
grandchildren. The seven children born to George W. Ream and wife, besides the
immediate subject of this biographical sketch, are as follow: Alice, who married Cyrus
Sherwood, a farmer, living near Arnold, this state; Flora, who married J. E. Stout,
station agent and telegraph operator for the railroad company, at Reno, Nevada; Norman
S., of Berkeley, California, superintendent of the Shell Oil Company of Rodeo; Lydia,
who married C. J. VanAntwerp, assistant cashier of the First National Bank of Scott
City, this state; Mary, who married Henry Yasmer, a farmer of Ness county, this state,
and Lottie, who married John C. Mitchell, a real-estate dealer at Scott City.
William B. Ream was reared on the home farm in Benton county, Iowa, where his boyhood
was spent, receiving his elementary education in the district school in the
neighborhood of his home there. He was twelve or thirteen years of age when his
parents came to Kansas and he learned the printer's trade at Scott City, becoming a
very proficient printer and acquiring a thorough acquaintance with the newspaper
business. In March, 1895, Mr. Ream came to Reno county and was engaged as manager of
the Weekly Press at Turon, this county, for three or four years, at the end of which
time he bought the paper and continued as editor and publisher of the same until in
October, 1913, at which time he sold the paper and has since then been engaged in the
insurance and farm loans business, manager of the real-estate and insurance department
of the Farmers' State Bank of Turon, with offices in the bank building, and has built
up a fine business in that line. From the very beginning of his residence in Turon Mr.
Ream has taken an active and a prominent part in the civic affairs of that thriving
town. Before the town was incorporated he held the office of township clerk and then
he was elected justice of the peace, an office which he held for two terms. He was the
first police judge of Turon and then held office as city clerk for one term. He was a
member of the city council for two terms, among the second term of such service
serving also as acting mayor, and was then elected mayor, serving as chief executive
officer of the city when the electric-light and water plants were installed. Mr. Ream
is a substantial citizen of Turon, the owner of real estate there besides his pleasant home
on East Chicago street, and takes an active interest in all movements designed to
advance the general welfare thereabout. He is a Republican and long has been regarded
as one of the leaders of the party in that part of the county.
On September 29, 1898, at Pratt, this state, William B. Ream was united in marriage to
Jennie McNickle, who was born at Mt. Pleasant, West Virginia, in April, 1873, daughter
of William and Elizabeth (Wolfe) McNickle, the former of whom was born in Pennsylvania
and the latter in Meigs county, Ohio, who came to Kansas in 1885, locating in Stafford
county, where Mr. McNickle later bought three hundred and twenty acres of land, where
he still lives and where his wife died in August, 1912. To William B. and Jennie
(McNickle) Ream three children have been born, Etna, born on May 19, 1900; Lloyd,
October 20, 1901, and Arnold, December 29, 1902. Mr. and Mrs. Ream take their proper
part in the social and cultural life of the community in which they live and are held
in high esteem by all thereabout. Mr. Ream is a past grand master of the Odd Fellows
lodge and is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, in the affairs of both of
which organizations he takes a warm interest.
