USA > Kansas > Sedgwick County > History of Wichita and Sedgwick County, Kansas, past and present, including an account of the cities, towns and villages of the county, Vol. II > Part 32
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Mr. Hatfield has always been a student of public questions and has held many positions of honor and trust in Kansas, being returned to some of them many times, showing popular confi-
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dence in his ability and integrity. In November, 1884, he was elected to the Kansas house of representatives, and re-elected to same position in 1886. In the session of 1887, he lacked only five or six votes of being elected to the speakership of the house, and failed only because he steadfastly refused to yield to the political demands of the railroad companies, then dominant in Kansas politics. In 1889 he was appointed by Governor Humphrey a regent to the Kansas State Normal School, at Emporia, serving as the president of the regency for his full term of four years. Though not an avowed candidate, nor making any personal effort, the press of Kansas, in 1892-93, very generally mentioned and ad- vocated the election of Mr. Hatfield to the United States senate. In 1898, he was elected a member of the board of education of the city of Wichita, serving thereon for five consecutive terms of two years each, being elected by said board as its president for five consecutive terms of one year each, and until his retirement therefrom.
On June 17, 1878, Mr. Hatfield was united in marriage with Hattie E. Harts, who was an associate graduate with him in the university, born near Reading, Pa., March 23, 1855, a daughter of John and Rachael (Minsker) Harts, both natives of Pennsyl- vania. By this marriage six children were born : Rodolph H., of Chicago; Merle E., of Denver; Herbert H., of Wichita; Paul C., of Chicago; Rachel N., of Wichita, and Kenneth E., of Wichita. Mrs. Hatfield, the mother of said children, departed this life Jan- uary 19, 1906.
January 4, 1910, Mr. Hatfield was united in marriage to Mrs. Allie M. Morehead, who was born at Marion, Linn county, Iowa, September 29, 1867, a daughter and eldest child of John and Charlotte (Miller) Fitch, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter a native of Iowa. Both are living, and in health, though the father served his country in the War of the Rebellion as a member of an Iowa regiment.
Mrs. Hatfield has been a respected resident and efficient edu- cator of the city of Wichita since 1887; is the mother of an only child and son, Howard L. Morehead, residing at Wichita, by her first marriage. Mrs. Hatfield is very well and favorably known in Wichita, having been principal of one of the public schools of the city for several years prior to her marriage to Mr. Hatfield.
Fraternally Mr. Hatfield is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and has filled all the chairs of the subordinate
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lodge of that order. Also of the Modern Woodmen of America, having likewise filled all the chairs of the local camp of that order. Also of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and of the Knights and Ladies of Security. He is a member of the First Presbyterian church of Wichita, is an elder of said denomination, has served some thirty years as superintendent of Sabbath schools in said denomination, and was a commissioner to the general as- sembly of the church at Saratoga, N. Y., in 1896. In politics Mr. Hatfield is and always has been a Republican. By reason of his active participation in the state campaigns and in delivering many educational lectures, he has a very wide acquaintance in Kansas.
Clarence A. Hattan, secretary of the Wichita Supply Company, and one of its organizers, is a native of Indiana, where he was born in the town of Charleston in 1868. His parents were D. H. and Margaret J. (Walker) Hattan, natives of Indiana, who left that state and came to Kansas in 1870, locating at first in Butler county, from whence they removed in 1880 to Sedgwick county. Both are now deceased. Clarence A. Hattan was educated in the public schools and early learned the printers' trade, which he fol- lowed in Wichita for fifteen years. He then engaged in the hard- ware and implement business in Mt. Hope, Kansas, which he continued until 1900, when he returned to Wichita and engaged in the harness and hardware business until 1907, when he became interested in the organization of the Wichita Supply Company, which handles machinery supplies, gasoline engines, etc. The offi- cers of the company are as follows: Charles Waltercheid, presi- dent ; Daniel Martin, vice president; C. A. Hattan, secretary ; E. R. DeYoe, treasurer. Mr. Hattan was married on December 30, 1908, to Miss Cora A. West, of Wichita. Fraternally Mr. Hattan is a member of the Masonic lodge.
Edward J. Healy, head of the firm of E. J. Healy & Co., live- stock commission merchants at the Wichita stock yards, bears the distinction of being the pioneer stockdealer of Wichita and of Sedgwick county. Mr. Healy is a native of the state of Daniel Boone, having been born in Woodford county, Kentucky, on July 6, 1851. His parents were J. P. and Elizabeth (Drew) Healy, who were natives of Ireland, and who came to Kentucky in 1848. Here the elder Healy engaged in business as a contractor, but removed to Illinois in 1855, and later to Kansas, where he settled in Brown county. Both the parents of Mr. Healy are now dead. Edward
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J. Healy acquired his education in the public schools of Mt. Sterling, Ill., and after leaving school became engaged in farming and stock raising, which he prosecuted successfully until 1886, when he decided that Kansas offered a larger field for his efforts. On leaving Illinois he chose Wichita as his location, and at first engaged in the real estate business, which he conducted with success for the next three years. In 1889 Mr. Healy decided that the livestock commission business offered a larger field for his activities. Wichita was growing and the cattle business was an important factor in the city's trade. He was one of the pioneer dealers of the Wichita stock yards, and became successful from the very start. He has now the largest business of the kind in the city of Wichita. In addition to his livestock business Mr. Healy is treasurer of the Wichita Livestock Exchange, a position which he has held since 1889, and is also a large stockholder in the Union National Stock Yards Bank, of Wichita. Mr. Healy was married in June, 1881, to Miss Alicia Fitzsimon, of Mt. Ster- ling, Ill. From this union there have been seven children, viz .: Mary E., wife of Albert Ford; Ida, John P., Edward J., Jr., Alicia, Emmet T. and George Healy.
David Heenan, of Wichita, Kan., is a good type of the resource- ful class of Irishmen who come to America and achieve inde- pendence with no capital but their brains and industry. Mr. Heenan was born August 15, 1868, in Belfast, Ireland, his father being David Heenan, a native of the green isle. After acquiring a rudimentary education in the old country Mr. Heenan came to America in 1889. He stopped at Kansas City, Mo., for a short time, but left that city and came to Wichita the same year, where he has ever since resided. The essential characteristics of Mr. Heenan are energy, pluck and perseverance. He has taken a full hand in connecting himself with and organizing some of the lead- ing enterprises of the city of Wichita, and while possessing some of the peculiar traits of the Irishman, has shown good judgment and a high degree of business efficiency in all of his endeavors. He began his business career in Wichita as correspondent for J. W. Hawn, and in 1892 formed a partnership with E. K. Nevling under the style of the Nevling Grain Company. He afterwards, in 1899, took a prominent part in the organization of the Nevling Elevator Company, and became secretary and treasurer of the company. Later on he formed a partnership with J. Sidney Smith under the name of David Heenan & Co., and this firm is now
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doing business in Wichita. Mr. Heenan has been secretary and president of the board of trade and is now a director in the same. He was the organizer of the clearing house and a director of the Clearing House Association. Mr. Heenan is a member of the Masonic fraternity and of Albert Pike Lodge of Wichita. In politics he has not identified himself with either of the two great parties, preferring to remain an independent and vote as judg- ment dictates.
Louis Helmken, proprietor of the Model Grocery and Market, No. 1043 St. Lawrence avenue, Wichita, Kan., is a native of Ger- many, having been born near Bremen on March 18, 1869. His parents were George and Meta (Murhen) Helmken, natives of Germany, where the elder Helmken was a farmer, and the family had resided on the same farm, located near Bremen, for about three centuries. The elder Helmken died in 1870 when but thirty- eight years old, at which time Louis Helmken was only one year of age. His widow is still living. Louis Helmken was one of a family of six boys, all of whom are living. He was educated in the country schools of his native country and left home in 1885 and came to the United States, locating in the city of New York, where he served an apprenticeship in the grocery business. Five years later he moved to Chicago and for a couple of years clerked in grocery stores. In 1892 he opened up in the grocery business for himself, and in 1896 found himself without a penny. He again began as a clerk, and in 1900 began again for himself with a small capital, and in four years' time had a chain of stores on the south side of Chicago, all paying well and employing a large number of salesmen and delivery employes. In 1905 he sold all his mer- cantile interests in Chicago and removed to Oklahoma. There he organized a company to build a large cement mill with $150,000 capital, of which he was president and manager for three years. Then he sold his interest and came to Wichita and bought the Cottage Grocery on South Topeka avenue, and after two years bought the store at his present location of W. H. Shoemaker, re- moved the old building, and by August, 1909, had completed his present building, the only one in Wichita built expressly for the business, and which represents an investment of $25,000. The store is a model of its kind, and is equipped with every modern appliance and sanitary device and convenience known to the retail grocery business. Mr. Helmken does a strictly cash busi- ness and has a force of ten employes in the carefully-kept,
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hygienically clean and finely-managed food emporium. Neatness, cleanliness, pure, fresh stocks of goods, courteous, obliging man- ners of proprietors and employes, all have united to make this store a model one, a credit to the genius of the owner and to the advantage of the large patronage he enjoys. Mr. Helmken is a thirty-second degree Mason, a member of the Shrine and of the Woodmen of the World. He is the president of the Wichita Grocers' Association and a member of St. Paul's Evangelical Church. He was married on September 23, 1900, to Miss Emelie Golk, of Chicago. Of this union five children have been born, viz .: Meta, Elnora, Martha, Louisa and Louis, Jr., the latter being deceased.
Richard Heinig, of Goddard, Kan., is a native of Germany, where he was born on February 26, 1868. His father was Gottlieb Heinig, a native of Germany. His parents immigrated from Ger- many to the United States in 1870 and located in Orange, N. J., where they remained four years. In 1874 they came west and located permanently in Sedgwick county, Kansas, where the father bought a quarter-section of land in Attica township, and before his death added two other quarter-sections. He died Janu- ary 16, 1905. In religious belief he was a Lutheran, and in political belief a life-long Republican. His wife died June 10, 1889. Mr. Heinig, Sr., served in the German army eight years. He had a family of nine children, seven of whom are now living, viz .: Richard, the oldest child; Rosa M., born February 21, 1870; William T., born October 1, 1871; Anna, born August 17, 1874; Mary, deceased; Charles, deceased; George O., born September 14, 1881; G. Arthur, born October 26, 1883; Alfred T., born May 1, 1886. Richard was seven years old when he came west with his parents to Kansas. He received a common school education in Sedgwick county and remained with his parents on the home farm until he was twenty-seven years old. At that time he rented land of his father up to the time of the latter's death. After that he bought the interests of the heirs to the home place of 160 acres in Section 27, Attica township, and is now residing there. He is a bachelor, a public-spirited citizen, and fraternally is a mem- ber of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows' Lodge No. 266, the Knights of Pythias and Rebecca Lodge No. 78 of Goddard, Kan., and the Warrick Lodge No. 44 at Wichita, Kan. In politics Mr. Heinig is a Republican, and a director in the Goddard State Bank.
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Harry S. Henderson,* veteran of the Spanish-American War and farmer by occupation, of Valley Center, Sedgwick county, Kansas, was born March 20, 1882, in Sumner county, Kansas. His parents were Harry H. Henderson and Clara (Fassett) Hender- son, both of genuine Yankee stock. The elder Henderson died in Rogers, Ark., to which state he had gone for his health when his son was nine years old. After a residence of four years in Ar- kansas with his father, Harry S. Henderson came back to Kansas and made his home with his grandfather, Lewis Fassett, who owned 160 acres in Section 10, Grant township, and afterward moved to Texas. On January 8, 1901, Mr. Henderson enlisted for the Philippine War in B Troop, Fifteenth Cavalry Regiment, or- ganized about February 15, under the command of Colonel Wallace, as a private for three years. Mr. Henderson left Wichita when he enlisted and was sent to San Francisco, and on March 18, 1901, sailed for the Philippine Islands, arriving at Manila bay on April 17. His regiment was placed in General Wood's expedition on Jolo Island from August 27, 1901, to Au- gust 31, 1903. Mr. Henderson served three months as a special prison guard. The regiment being divided up into battalions, he was placed in the First Battalion, where he served up to the time of his discharge on October 15, 1903. Mr. Henderson was mar- ried on February 14, 1906, in Sedgwick county, to Miss Mabel W. Bingham. Two children have been born of this union, Florence Lavina, born April 9, 1907, and Ceres Irene, born No- vember 9, 1909. Fraternally Mr. Henderson is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Sons of Veterans. He is the owner of a well-improved farm in Section 10, Grant township, and is a well respected man in the community in which he lives.
Nathan B. Hern, real estate operator of Cheney, Kan., was born January 7, 1866, in west Tennessee. He is a son of George W. and Mary C. Hern, and traces his remote ancestry back to England. His parents removed from Tennessee to Reno county, Kansas, when he was a small child, and there he was reared with the benefit of a common school education. At the age of fifteen he left home and spent several years on a cattle range in western Kansas. In 1885 he took up his residence in Cheney and obtained employment as a clerk in a hardware and implement store con- ducted by D. M. Main, for one year, when he engaged as salesman for the McCormick Harvesting Machine company, and remained
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in that capacity up to 1907, when he engaged in real estate, which business he is engaged in at the present time. The firm of Hern & Northcutt, of which he is a member, transacts a large business, selling and buying ranches running into thousands of acres. Mr. Hern holds large real estate interests in Kingman and Sedgwick counties, Kansas. He is modest in recalling his successful career in real estate, yet no man in the state is better posted on realty values than he, and through careful operations he has accumulated a large fortune. Fraternally Mr. Hern is a Mason, a member of Morton Lodge No. 258, A. F. & A. M., in which lodge he has occupied all the chairs, and is a member of Wichita Consistory No. 2. On February 3, 1893, Mr. Hern was married to Miss Nellie M. Marble, of Cheney, daughter of A. S. Marble. Mrs. Hern was born at La Cygne, Linn county, Kansas, on April 20, 1875. On her father's side her ancestry is Scotch, and on her mother's German. No children have been born of this union. Mr. Hern is a Democrat of the Jefferson school.
Severen E. High, a prosperous and substantial farmer of Rock- ford township, in Sedgwick county, Kansas, is a native of Van Wert county, Ohio, and was born in 1853 to Lewis and Erga (Mattox) High. The father was a native of Pennsylvania and a plasterer by trade. In 1877 he settled with his family on a quar- ter-section of land in Rockford township, Sedgwick county, Kansas, and lived there till his decease in 1889. He enlisted as a private and served four years in the Civil War and was mustered out as second lieutenant of Company K, Sixty-fourth Regiment Ohio Volunteers. He belonged to Wichita Post, Grand Army of the Republic. The mother died in Ohio in 1859.
Our subject lived in Ohio and Illinois during his early life and first came to Sedgwick county in 1876. He then returned to Illinois and went thence to West Virginia in 1878, and there mar- ried Miss Mary Powell, a daughter of Mr. John Powell. Return- ing to Illinois he lived on a rented farm till March, 1880, whence he came again to Sedgwick county and settled on his father's farm in Section 9, in Rockford township. Four years later he bought a quarter-section in Gypsum township and lived there till his father's death in 1889, when he sold it and returned to the family homestead, where he has since continued to live. He afterwards bought 160 acres in Section 4, 80 acres in Section 5, and 80 acres in Section 9, making a total of 480 acres, which he now owns in Rockford township. Mr. High carries on general
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farming and stock raising, and has made his money by the sale of cattle and hogs. He has made a financial success of his farm- ing operations and lives in the enjoyment of a beautiful home, surrounded with all the comforts and conveniences of the modern prosperous farmer. In politics he has always been a Democrat and has served as trustee of Gypsum township and treasurer of Rockford township.
Of four children born to Mr. and Mrs. High, Charles P., born in 1879, married Miss Izah, a daughter of Mr. George Rickerds. They have one child, Helen, and live on the father's farm in Sec- tion 4. Glenn, who was born in 1881, married Miss Nellie, a daughter of Mr. Elias Mitchell. They live on the father's farm in Section 9, and have two children, Ruth and Severen. Carl C., who was born in 1888, died in 1906, and Lemuel, born in 1884, passed away when three years of age.
A. H. Hill, president of the Hill-Engstrom Lumber Company, of Wichita, Kan., is a native of Illinois, having been born in that state on March 29, 1864. His parents were Asa L. and Charlotte (Pratt) Hill, of Pittsfield, Ill. His early education was obtained in Pittsfield, Ill. After leaving school he was engaged during 1890-1891 as cashier of the Winona bank, Winona, Ill. In 1892 he went into the lumber business, and in 1907 he came to Wichita.
Mr. Hill organized the corporation which bought out the old- time lumber interests of ex-Mayor Ben McLean, added to the capital and yards under control and started a career of consolida- tion that places him now in a class all his own-that of having handled and transformed, united, expanded and consolidated probably more interests in large figures than any other man in the city in his line, or perhaps in any line. Since coming to Wichita he has acquired interests in or consolidated nineteen line yards. His own company has a string of sixteen yards and is adding to or rearranging the system all the time. Mr. Hill has been for nineteen years in the lumber business. His first busi- ness venture, a small yard at Winona, Ill., he clung to until 1908, when he sold it. He operated many yards in Illinois, and then acquired control of the Chihuahua Lumber and Manufacturing Company, of Old Mexico, which operated a string of sawmills, sash and door factories, and owned 20,000 acres of fine standing timber. Mr. Hill has now closed out all his Mexican holdings, his yards in Illinois and Missouri, and has centered and con- solidated all his interests in Wichita, where he has built a beauti-
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ful home. He is president and general manager of the syndicate whose headquarters are in this city, where supplies and purchases are all made for the yards scattered throughout Kansas and Okla- homa. Mr. Hill, besides his lumber interests, has large land hold- ings in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, and is a stockholder in several plants and companies, including the Portland cement in- dustry, and is a member of the chamber of commerce. He was married in 1891 to Miss Alice Vaughn, of Winona, Ill. They have two children, Ruth and Roland.
I. N. Hockaday, of Wichita, Kan., president of the Hockaday Paint Company, of that city, is the head of a concern of which the city is proud, and so also are the stockholders. The concern is only five years old, but already its trade extends all over the Southwest, and into the far Northwest and the Pacific slope. Mr. Hockaday was born in 1868 at Plattsburg, Mo. His parents were I. N. and Fanny (Lincoln) Hockaday, and his early education was obtained at Plattsburg College, Plattsburg, Mo. After fin- ishing his education Mr. Hockaday located at Kingfisher, Okla., in 1889, where he went into the hardware business and had the first store of that kind in the territory. In 1899 he came to Wichita, and the first wholesale hardware store in this section of the Southwest was organized through his efforts and was known as the Hockaday Wholesale Hardware Company. The company at once entered upon a remarkable period of growth and dividend paying business. Five years ago the hardware house was bought out by a syndicate, but Mr. Hockaday would not leave the city, and saw then, as now, incalculable possibilities in its future. So the Hockaday Paint Company was organized, and has been even a greater success in its brief career. It is the only concern in the city, probably, except the packing houses, whose products reach such a wide extent of territory. Large branch houses are maintained in Denver and Kansas City. Mr. Hockaday is a thirty- second degree Mason.
He was married in 1901 to Miss Birdie Bohart, of Plattsburg, Mo. They have three children.
Ferdinand Holm, a successful farmer of Sedgwick county, Kan., was born June 17, 1846, near Meldorf, Germany. His parents were Hans and Margaret (Jurgan) Holm. He is in line of direct descent from the house of Piel, who were court officials under Adolphus of Sweden. Mr. Holm received his education in Ger- many, after which he entered the wholesale and retail grocery
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business in Meldorf, Germany. Because of ill health he left this work and spent the next seven years on the ocean, stopping at all ports of the commercial world. He came to the United States in 1869 and located first at Pittsburg, Pa., where he spent three years mining. On February 4, 1872, Mr. Holm was married to Miss W. Elizabeth Lorenz von Frederickshof, Eddelac, Germany. This was the culmination of a romance which had begun in their school days. Miss W. Elizabeth had come to New York in 1871 with school friends.
In July, 1872, Mr. and Mrs. Holm came to Sedgwick county, Kan., and preëmpted 160 acres of land in what is now Section 23, Attica township. Seven children were born to this union, of whom five are now living, viz .: Lily, Emma, Ida, Florence and Elizabeth. Two boys are deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Holm together braved the pioneers' struggles and won the land from the prairie to make it their own. Fraternally Mr. Holm is a member of the Masonic order, being a member of Florence Lodge No. 86 of Wichita, and of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows of God- dard, Kan.
E. F. Holmes, of Wichita, Kan., is the head of one of Wichita's best known and most successful retail clothing stores. "There is no place like Holmes," has become a household word in Wichita and Sedgwick county. Mr. Holmes was born in Michigan, His parents, Robert and Elizabeth (Fisher) Holmes, being resi- dents of Livingston county, coming from England. The early edu- cation of young Holmes was acquired in the public schools of his native town. About 1881 he decided that a better career was open to him in the West and came to Kansas. Here he remained for four years, during which time he had a mixed career as a farmer, school teacher and stock raiser. In the fall of 1885 he returned to Michigan and took up mercantile training, with the result that again he migrated to Kansas in the spring of 1886 with Charles M. Gregory, and the two started the firm of Holmes & Gregory at Cottonwood Falls, this partnership continuing for seventeen years. In 1891 Mr. Holmes again went into stock rais- ing on a large and valuable ranch in Chase county with great success, and there he remained for ten years. In 1902 Mr. Holmes withdrew from the firm of Holmes & Gregory and came to Wichita. Here he formed the firm of Holmes & Jones. Three years later Mr. Jones retired and Mr. Holmes became the sole owner of the Holmes company. From the start the highest pos-
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