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Below is a family biography included in History of Shawnee County, Kansas and Representative Citizens by James L. King, published by Richmond & Arnold, 1905.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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T. B. SWEET.
T. B. Sweet, one of Topeka’s leading capitalists, who is closely identified with almost all of her most successful business enterprises, a large land owner in various sections of Kansas and in seven States of the Union, was born April 11, 1841, in Maine, and is a son of Lorella and Mary W. (Bailey) Sweet.

The Sweet family, with its various branches and connections, remains to this day a prominent one in New England. Ebenezer Sweet, the great-grandfather, and Col. Ellis Sweet, the grandfather, were men of affairs in their day, the latter also serving with distinction in the War of 1812. The father of our subject was a trained mechanic and assisted in the building of the great Merrimack mills at Lowell, Massachusetts. He married Mary W. Bailey, of Tewksbury, Massachusetts, and they had three children. In 1859 the family moved to Champaign, Illinois, where the parents spent the rest of their lives and where one son still resides, a leading attorney.

T. B. Sweet was educated in the common schools at Farmington, Maine, and then at Farmington Academy, the latter being now the great State Normal School, which he left at the age of 14 years. He began his business career in the mercantile line and then went into the drug business, following the latter for 10 years. Then he became cashier of the First National Bank of Champaign. His attention was first attracted to Kansas after the Civil War, and he visited the State in 1869 with a view to investing in land. His observations convinced him that there was a great future for this section, and in October, 1872, he located permanently at Topeka. Shortly after, he organized the Kansas Loan & Trust Company and for 25 years or more continued as its head. Since September 1, 1898, he has given his attention exclusively to his personal affairs, his many enterprises requiring his time and close consideration. A few of his business connections are: Director in the Bank of Topeka; director in the Edison Electric Light Illuminating Company; trustee of Washburn College; one of the original trustees of Christ’s Hospital; and director in the Missouri & Kansas Telephone Company. He is also a trustee and on the directing board of the University of Topeka, a Methodist Episcopal organization; a trustee in the Methodist Old Peoples’ Home; and was for years an official in the State and local Y. M. C. A., and chairman of the Methodist Episcopal State Sunday-School organization. For 16 years he represented Kansas on the International Sunday-School Committee. He was the first president of the Brotherhood of St. Paul, connected with the First Methodist Episcopal Church and takes a very active part in all its work, financially furthering its many benevolent enterprises.

Mr. Sweet was married at Jacksonville, Illinois, to Annie Brown, who was a daughter of Judge William and Susan (Finley) Brown, the former of whom was born in 1810, served in the Illinois Legislature when it met in Vandalia and died in 1871. Judge Brown’s father was born in the South and was a slave-holder, but moved to a free State in order to rear his children differently. The maternal grandfather was president of the college at Athens, Georgia, for many years. Four members of Judge Brown’s family still survive. Mr. and Mrs. Sweet have had five children, viz: Susie Brown, an accomplished lady, who was educated at the College of the Sisters of Bethany, Topeka, and at the Woman’s College, Baltimore; William Brown, deceased; Mary Bailey, educated at the College of the Sisters of Bethany, the State University at Lawrence and the Woman’s College, Baltimore, who is a teacher in the Chicago Training School; Paul Bailey, educated at Washburn College and at Yale College, who took honors at Yale; and Annie Brown, who is a graduate of Washburn College. The family home at No. 231 Topeka avenue is one of the finest residences in the city. Aside from his business prominence, Mr. Sweet has been so interested in religious and philanthropic work that he is known and esteemed over the whole State, especially so in all organizations connected with the Methodist Episcopal Church.

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This family biography is one of 206 biographies included in History of Shawnee County, Kansas and Representative Citizens by James L. King, published by Richmond & Arnold, 1905.  For the complete description, click here: Shawnee County, Kansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

View additional Shawnee County, Kansas family biographies here: Shawnee County, Kansas

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