I am the youngest of five children of Will and Sarah Angell and a decendant of
  two generations of Barber County pioneers. My paternal grandparents, David and
  Ella Angell, farmed in the Lockard community fifteen miles southwest of Medicine
  Lodge in the last decade of the 1800's and the early 1900's. During a similar time
  span, my maternal grandparents, Allen and Lizzie Lasswell, lived a short distance
  south of Locard, where they operated a general store and post office near the old
  Eagle School. This community was named after my grandparents and is known today as
  "Lasswell".
     My father, Will, was my mother's senior by eleven years. Even so, as proudly
  told by my mother, Sarah, she was allowed at the tender age of twelve to occasionally
  accompany Will on "dates" with young women his age, sitting comfortably on the
  buggy seat between Will and the young woman. This speaks of the honorable character
  of my father. Will's courtship of Sarah continued and intensified - some by letters, 
  as the Lasswell family moved to New Mexico in 1911 - and Will traveled to claim
  his bride and return her to Kansas. They established their home on property Will
  was farming in the Lasswell community. Here their family, house, and farm holdings
  grew through the years that followed.
     I was born in March of 1930, nearly nine years after my nearest sibling, Ethel
  Mae. Then, in order, there are Eula, Allen (Bud), and the eldest, Irene.
     My fondest memories from childhood race between our old house perched high on
  a bank above a sandy creek, shaded by giant quaking cottonwoods - the perfect place
  for a child's dreams - and the Eagle school nearby that was not only the educational
  center of the community, but also the social center. I remember especially my first
  grade teacher, Agnes Spurgeon, and later, Esther Revert during my third-fifth grades,
  and in my eighth year, Joy Miller. The Christmas programs at school, followed by a 
  visit from Santa Claus, the community-wide picnics on school closing day in the 
  spring, and July 4 celebrations with ball games, horse shoes, fried chicken, and
  homemade ice cream, highlighted a year's social functions.
     The setting for my childhood, with the open and isolated location of our farm,
  my family, the "close" neighbors, and the community folk in general, provided
  factors from which stable human roots develop. It is only now apparent to me that
  during the Depression and the years of World War II, our community struggled; but
  the positive community spirit that persisted helped each of us to endure and grow.
  Borrowing a phrase, "We didn't know how poor we were," provides a reflection of
  what was: We were poor, but we were great!
     Like many adolescents, my teen years brought decisions that I wasn't prepared 
  to make. My most special momories include time with neighbors, K. and Rachel Bowman,
  who offered a combination of understanding, tolerance, discipline, and love to an
  uncertain youth.
     My pursuits in life have included, like most, a certain degree of financial and
  professional success. I earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees in biology and
  chemistry, but found my niche in working with youth. I have for the past sixteen
  years served on the teaching staffs of a suburban Kansas City, Missouri, high school,
  and the Johnson County, Kansas, Community College. Much of my efforts have taken
  me outside the classrooms to organize and operate special recreational programs for
  youth, with assistance from my wife and other parents and teachers.
     I was married in 1955 to the former Eva Mae Wolf, of rural Coldwater. Our
  children are Jill Cone (1953), Donald (1953), Jan Nugent (1956), and Rene (1957).
  We have been at home in Grandview, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City, since 1963.
               
     Source:Chosen Land - Barber County, Kansas,  pg. 88