Page:Kansas A Cyclopedia of State History vol 1.djvu/23

 courtesy of having its reports published as a part of the biennial report of the State Board of Agriculture.”

Since 1895 the academy has received legislative appropriations for its support. The members of the academy were instrumental in securing the geographical survey of the state and have taken an interest in the development of the coal beds and natural gas wells.

A majority of the members of the academy are from the educational institutions of the state, who take an interest and are leaders in the important scientific research of the day. At the present time the offices of the academy and the specimens that have been collected are located in the north wing of the state capitol on the fourth floor. The officers of the society for 1911 were as follows: President, J. M. McWharf, of Ottawa; vice-presidents, A. J. Smith, of Emporia, and J. E. Welin, of Lindsborg; treasurer, F. W. Bushong, of Lawrence; secretary, J. T. Lovewell, of Topeka.

 Achilles, a village of Rawlins county, is situated in Jefferson township, on Sappa creek and about 15 miles southeast of Atwood, the county seat. It has a money order postoffice and is connected by stage with Colby, whence it receives a daily mail. The population was 70 in 1910. Achilles is the principal trading point in the southwestern part of the county. What is known as the battle of Achilles was a fight between a band of 20 hunters and some Indians at a water hole about five miles south of the village on April 24, 1875. (See Sappa Creek.)

Ackerland, a village of Leavenworth county, is located in the western portion on the Leavenworth & Topeka R. R. about 15 miles southwest of Leavenworth. It has a money order postoffice, express office, etc., and in 1910 had a population of 25.

Ackley, Ernest L., lawyer and regent of the Kansas State University, was born at North Ridgeville, Ohio, Nov. 30, 1863, a son of Chauncey and Jerusa (McNeal) Ackley. About 1875 the family removed to Kansas and settled on a farm in Ottawa county, where Ernest attended the public schools until he was eighteen years of age, when he obtained a position in a bank at Minneapolis. After working in the bank for about two years, he entered the state university, and graduated in the law department with the class of 1890. For a time he was employed on the Salina Republican with Joseph L. Bristow, now United States senator, and was also employed by Charles F. Scott on the Lawrence Journal. In July, 1890, he became associated with A. L. Wilmoth, a classmate, in the practice of law at Concordia. W. W. Caldwell entered the firm in 1897, when Mr. Ackley withdrew, and in Feb., 1901, he formed a partnership with P. B. Pulsifer, which lasted until his death the following August. About the same time he was appointed by Gov. Stanley one of the regents of the university. Mr. Ackley was an active member of the State Historical Society; a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America, and belonged to the Phi Gamma Delta college fraternity. In Nov., 1893, he married Miss Ada B. Fry, at one time a teacher in the Concordia schools. Mr. Ackley died at Concordia on Aug. 27, 1901. 