MATTHIAS NOLL

This well-known and popular pharmacist of Atchison, Kansas, was born in Weston, Missouri, July 23, 1858, a son of German parents. His father and mother, Matthias and Grace (Kurtz) Noll, were natives of Germany, the father of Horb and the mother of Herlingen, both in the province of Wurtemberg. The father, then a single man, came to America in 1848, landing at New Orleans, where he took a boat for St. Louis, but in the same year went to Weston, Missouri, where he found employment, and later engaged in wagon and carriage making for himself. Here he became acquainted with and married Grace Kurtz, the wedding taking place in 1850, and they now reside in Weston, Missouri, he being seventy-four years of age and she seventy-six. They are the parents of four children -- three daughters and one son -- all married and settled in life, viz.: Victoria, Augusta, Matthias and Mary.

The younger Matthias Noll was reared and received his early training in his native town, attending both its common and high schools. Later he took a course in the Christian Brothers College at St. Joseph, Missouri, after which he commenced his business career as a clerk. He served three and a half years as an apprentice to the drug business under Fred Scheibe, one of the most competent druggists of St. Joseph, and was one year in the employ of the Samuel Q. Smith Drug Company of that place. Then, in order to still further prepare himself for his chosen work, he went to Ann Arbor and entered the University of Michigan, where he took a course in pharmacy and graduated in 1881. Immediately after his graduation he took charge of a store in St. Joseph, but a few months later came to Atchison, Kansas, and from 1881 to 1884 clerked for Augustus Lang. On Mr. Lang's going to California in 1884, Mr. Noll became a partner in the business, under the firm name of Lang & Noll, and was thus associated one year. At the end of that time Mr. Noll purchased his partner's interest and became the sole proprietor of the establishment which he has since successfully conducted.

Mr. Noll was married, in 1885, to Miss Bertha Forbriger, a daughter of Robert Forbriger, and they have one son, Robert M.

Mr. Noll has always manifested a deep interest in everything pertaining to the welfare of his city and stands high as a public-spirited, enterprising citizen. He is a director in the Mount Vernon Cemetery Association and a stockholder also in the Oak Hill Cemetery Association. In 1884 he was the secretary of the Atchison board of education. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen, the Knights of Pythias, A. O. U. W. and the Sons of Herman. Also he is a member of numerous organizations which are connected with his profession, and in them centers his chief interest. He has been the president of the Kansas State Pharmaceutical Association, and was at one time a member of the state examining board, is the secretary of the Atchison Home Retail Druggists' Association and is a member of the American Pharmaceutical Association. In politics he is a Republican and is at present a member of the Atchison city council. In 1899 Noll postoffice was established on the Missouri Pacific Railroad six miles south of Atchison, the office being named in honor of Mr. Noll.