HARRY MARKS IVES

For almost a half a century and almost a quarter of a century a prominent businessman of Topeka, Harry Marks Ives, founder of the firm of H. M. Ives & Son, Printers and Publishers, is well and favorably known throughout this section of the state. Mr. Ives is not a Kansan, except by preference, but here center his most valued interests, and no native son could be more loyal. Harry Marks Ives was born November 14, 1856, in his parent's pioneer home in Lee County, Iowa. His parents were subsequently located in Wapello County, Iowa, where he had common and high school training and for two years attended Iowa State College at Ames. He learned the printer's trade, serving an apprenticeship in a local newspaper office, afterward working as a journeyman printer until 1881, when he located permanently in Topeka, and for many years afterward was employed at his trade in different printing offices here, his thorough old‑time training, making his services particularly valuable. Mr. Ives married Agnes Martha Toal, who was born in the state of New York, December 15, 1858, and came to Topeka in 1879, They have two sons, Nelson and Earl, both of whom are active businessmen and upstanding citizens of Topeka. Nelson Ives, of the printing and publishing firm of H. M. Ives & Sons, was born at Topeka, September 25, 1883, attended the public schools and after completing the high school course, became associated with his father in business. On September 17, 1904, he married Miss Marion Darlow, who was born and educated at Topeka, and they have two sons: Harry Marks, Jr., who was born May 11, 1906, and is now a member of the sophomore class in Kansas University; and Robert, who was born September 13, 1909, a freshman in Kansas University. Earl Ives, of the printing and publishing firm of H. M. Ives & Sons, was born at Topeka, March 11, 1886, and like his brother, became associated with his father after completing his high school course. On April 29,1908, he married Miss Alice Maud Newland, a graduate of the Topeka High School, and they have four children: Alice Asenath, born May 9, 1909; John Kenneth, born March 31, 1914; Ralph Newland, born June 25, 1916; and William Earl, born December 3, 1920. Mr. Ives is a director and treasurer of the Shawnee Building & Loan Association, and is also on the directing board of the Topeka Provident Association. It was in 1905 that Harry Marks Ives, in association with his two sons, organized the printing company that still bears his name, a business undertaking that for twenty‑one years has been a leader in its line at Topeka, prospering through good management and business foresight. Harry Marks Ives continued at the helm, as the head of the firm of H. M. Ives & Sons, until 1921, when he retired, turning over his interest in the business to his sons, Nelson and Earl Ives, both able business men, who retain the old name and continue the business at 415 Kansas Ave., Topeka. Mr. Ives is of New England ancestry, a descendant of William Ives, who was born in England about 1607 and probably arrived at Boston in 1635 in the ship Truelove from London. He may, however, have come with the company of Puritans headed by Rev. John Davenport, who, owing to troubles with the crown, secretly left England for Boston in 1637. Many members of the company were men of substance, liable for payment of the "subsidy" and prohibited by royal proclamation from emigrating; therefore, there was no official record of the sailing of the two ships that carried the company nor of their passengers. William Ives was a member of this company when it left Boston in 1638 to establish the New Haven Colony. He participated in the allotment of lands, his homestead being at the comer made by the streets now named Hill Street and Congress Avenue. New Haven, with Milford and Guildford, became the New Haven Colony, a kind of federal union, and issued the historic document known as the Free Planters Declaration, which was signed by the leading men of the towns and which bears the signature of William Ives.

In the early New Haven vital records the name Ives usually appears as "Jues," as the capital "I", and small "v" seem not to have been used in writing at that time, such forms as "Jsaac," "Jsaiah," "Dauid," " Steuens" appearing.

Compilers note: refer to; History of Kansas, State and People, written and compiled by, William E. Connelly, secretary of the Kansas State Historical Society. published in 1928 by the American Historical Society, Inc.