USA > Kansas > Wyandotte County > History of Wyandotte County, Kansas, and its people, Vol. II > Part 23
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
EDWARD J. EICHOLTZ .- The man who is interested in civie improve- ment is a friend to the carrier of the dinner pail and votes for the best man regardless of party lines-that man is pretty sure to stand in well with the company he represents and the people among whom he lives. Such a man is Edward J. Eicholtz, who has charge of the vards of the Fort Scott and Memphis Railroad at Rosedale, Kansas.
Mr. Eieholtz was born June 7, 1861, in Frederick county, Mary- land, son of Jesse and Malinda (Hahn) Eicholtz, both natives 01 Frederiek county. In 1863, when Edward J. was a small child. his father moved to York county, Pennsylvania, and subsequently went from there to Cumberland county, that state. By trade Jesse Eicholtz was a millwright, and in Cumberland county he operated what was known as the White Hall flour and saw mills. Later he was foreman of a large mill at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to which place he moved in 1876. Ife died in 1907, at the age of seventy-three years. In politics he was a Democrat, and his religions ereed was that of the Lutheran church. To him and his wife were given nine children, namely : John, who died in infancy ; Sarah, wife of David Rudy, died at the age of twenty-four years; Edward J., the direct subjeet of this sketch; Anna, wife of David Rudy, of Pennbrook, Pennsylvania; and George W., William J., Charley H., Mary and Ida.
Edward J. Eicholtz received his education in the public schools of Ilarrisburg, and on leaving school entered the employ of the Ilarris- burg Car Manufacturing Company, with which he remained for a period of ten years. In 1887 he came west to Kansas City, Missouri, and went to work for the Fort Scott & Memphis Railroad, with which he is still connected, having been transferred to Rosedale and placed in charge of the company's yards at this point.
Mr. Eicholtz has fraternal affiliation with a number of leading organizations, including the Free and Accepted Masons, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and Modern Woodmen of America. His popu- larity with the railroad people with whom he is associated, and with the citizens of the town in general has been such as to gain for him offi- cial favor. Twice, in 1908 and again in 1909, he has been elected chief executive of the town, and as showing his influence and work as mayor it may be stated, without fear of dispute, that Rosedale has enjoyed greater prosperity in the past three years than in the fifteen years prior to this time.
On December 13, 1888, Mr. Eicholtz married Miss Carrie Miller, a native of Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, and they have an only child, Mrs. Carrie B. Dye, of Nowata, Oklahoma, whose husband is in the real estate business at that place. Mrs. Eieholtz's father is still living, at this writing being engaged in farming near Kansas City, Missouri.
LUKE BABCOCK .- If we were to seleet one class of men who have helped more than any other to make Kansas the thriving, prosperous state it now is, we should point to the farmers. Where there are so many efficient agrieulturists it seems invidious to piek out one as being more effective than another. We must, however, give to each one his due and Luke Babcock, as one of the pioneer farmers in Kansas, de- serves a front rank in the field of agriculture.
TH . MEN YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX TILDEN FOUNDATIONS
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Our subject was born in Franklin county, Ohio, in 1833, the son of James and Jannetty (Search) Babcock. James Babeock was born in Germany and was a farmer in Ohio and later near Springfield, Illinois, where he and his wife both died. They had fourteen chil- dren of whom there are now (1911) only two living-Luke and his brother Charles, who makes his home at Springfield, Illinois.
Luke Babcock came with his parents to Illinois when he was quite young and the family settled on a farm, Luke attending the district sehool in winter and worked on his father's farm in summer. In 1857, when he was twenty-four years of age he left the old home and went out to make a career for himself. There was one thing that he knew how to do and to do well-namely, to farm, and accordingly considered where would be the best place to locate. He realized the future possibilities of Kansas and came here, locating at West Port Landing, which is now a part of Kansas City, Missouri, but at the time when he first came to Wyandotte county there was no such city as Kan- sas City, Missouri, nor Kansas City, Kansas. He has seen both cities spring up with mushroom growth from the arid plain; he has seen then beeome agricultural centers and then business centers of the state. Mr. Babcock remembers all of the border troubles with the Indians and can tell many interesting reminiscences of those turbulent times. When the Civil war broke out he enlisted in the First Infantry and later in the Second Kansas Cavalry Regiment, Company B, and he served all through the war, fighting in all the engagements in which his company participated. Before the war broke out Mr. Babcock bought a hundred acres of land from the Shawnee chief, Graham Rodgers, which he worked for some years, making it yield to its fullest capacity. Now (1911) he still resides on his farm with his wife, but is living in retirement, renting Iris land out to others.
In 1869 Mr. Babeock married Mary Layton of Pennsylvania. Her parents were Jesse and Esther (Shoup) Layton and were both born in Pennsylvania. They came to Kansas in 1865 and located in Wyan- dotte county with their twelve children. At that time there were not very many farmers in the county and they all knew each other, so that the acquaintance of the Laytons and the Babcocks eventually re- sulted in this marriage. They have had eleven ehildren, but six of them have already passed on to the other land. The living are as fol- lows: Jannetty, wife of John Ferera; Druzella, who is married to Robt. Ferera ; Luster J. Roy, who is living at home with Mr. and Mrs. Bab- cock ; and Sylvia at home.
Luke Babcock is a Republican and there is no more stanch upholder of the principles of that party than he. To know a man of such wide experience, such sterling merit and withal such a pleasing personality is a real blessing.
PETER S. MINDEDAHL .- As a general thing it is only the ambitions, enterprising foreigners who come to America from other countries. Men who are content to jog along in the same old way as their parents did before them remain in the old country. Peter S. Mindedahl of Bethel, Kansas, is ambitions. He was desirous of owning a farm of his own and he has succeeded, through his own unaided efforts.
Peter S. Mindedahl was born in Denmark, April 10, 1882, and is
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the son of Peter and his wife who was formerly Ella Ferdinand. Both parents were born in Sweden and went to Denmark soon after they were married. Mrs. Peter Mindedahl, senior, died twenty-two years ago when her son Peter was only a child seven years of age. Her husband is living in Denmark still and is farming there. Peter S. Mindedahl went to school in his native village and then worked on his father's farm until he was twenty-two years old. He made up his mind that he could do better if he came to America, so he crossed the ocean and a good part of the continent and located at Kansas City, Kansas, in 1904. For a time he worked in a dairy, milking eows. Then he was seized with the desire to go still further west and went to Portland, Oregon. Here he worked for the railroad and saved money enough to buy a farm, and came back to the fine agricultural state of Kansas and bought his farm near Kansas City. For four years he worked on this farm and prospered so well that he was able to buy the farm on which he now lives, in Prairie township. Besides general
farming he raises stock. He breeds nothing but fine stock. He has a beautiful Hamiltonian horse and has Holstein cows. Mr. Mindedahl is unmarried at present, but he is not all alone, as his brother John and sister Jennie are both in this country. Ile has one sister Mary still in Denmark and she is very proud of the success which her brother has achieved.
CALVIN ELLIS KLINE, widely known in Kansas City as a blacksmith and a wagon maker, is a self made man, as he has earned his own living since the time he was twelve years old. For a man to make a success of his life under any circumstances is a subject for congratulation, in this age of competition, but when he has all of the difficulties to sur- mount that Mr. Kline has encountered, he may justly be proud of him- self. As a matter of fact, however, Mr. Kline is a very modest man in regard to his own abilities and attainments. In addition to his busi- ness career, which has been exemplary throughout, Mr. Kline has been connected with many public improvements of different nature, he has for years been deeply interested in the educational progress of the county, and perhaps he feels the more concern because he was deprived of very much schooling in his boyhood days, and for that reason he wants to do all that is possible for his children and for others of the present generation. He is not, however, an ignorant man, as he has observed much that was useful to him and has besides read a great deal about those subjects which are of vital interest to any citizen of the United States.
Calvin Ellis Kline was a native of Columbia county, Pennsylvania, where he was born December 9, 1851. Hle is the son of Leonard and Mary Ann (Labour) Kline, both natives of Pennsylvania. the father be- ing of German descent and the mother of English and German. They were the parents of eleven children, of whom Calvin Ellis Kline was the sixth in order of birth. He attended the public schools in his native township, but was only able to stay in school until he was twelve years of age, owing to the necessity there arose for him to begin to earn some- thing to help defray the expenses of the family. Ile made excellent use of the few years that he was in school and there learned to think. something that many a college graduate never learns. Mr. Klin.
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stayed in Pennsylvania until he was twenty-eight years old, engaged in the work of wagon-making and blacksmithing, both of which trades he learned when he left school. In 1879 he came to Kansas and located in Wyandotte county, where he worked in the Union Pacific shops for a time, about eight months, and then he moved to Quindaro township and went to work in a shop there. At the expiration of four months he bought out the interest of his employer and since that time has been the proprietor of a very prosperous business, which has changed its location three times. He himself superintends each piece of work that comes into the shop and he employs a man and a boy to assist him.
Mr. Kline has been twice married. As a young man in Penn- sylvania, he married Miss Laura L. Preston, the daughter of the Reverend James L. and Carrie T. (Lukins) Preston, respected resi- dents of that state, where their daughter, Laura, was born. To Mr. and Mrs. Kline eight children were born, as follows: Emma L., now Mrs. A. C. Cooke; Carrie, now Mrs. Harry Cooke; J. Wilbur, who en- listed in Company L, of the Twentieth Kansas Infantry, to serve in the Spanish-American war, and was killed in the Philippine Islands, and whose body was bronght back to Kansas and buried in Quindaro cemetery, where his grave is carefully tended; Myra Elizabeth, now Mrs. George Tooley; Elsie M., wife of Fred Spellman; Calvin E. Jr., who married Miss Nellie MeNaughton and lives in Quindaro township, where he carries on the business of carpentering and blacksmithing; Boyd L., who married Margaret Miller and lives on Eighteenth street, where he works as a grocery clerk and a butcher; Mabel, who is Mrs. Charles Painter. In 1892 Mrs. Kline died, at the age of thirty-three years, and she is buried beside her soldier boy in Quindaro cemetery. In 1893 Mr. Kline married Mrs. Myra N. barish, widow of Wallace Larish, and sister to the first Mrs. Kline. Four children were born to this second inion; James L. Preston (named after his maternal grandfather) is a carpenter living with his father; Chester Bryan is an apprentice in his father's shop and a graduate from the public schools ; Virginia and Ruth are both students in the public school.
In the midst of his business and domestic life, Mr. Kline has taken time to attend to matters of public interest and his fellow citizens have shown their appreciation of his uprightness of character and keen mind by bestowing honors on him, honors which involved work, however. Mr. Kline was a member of the school board for one term, and was for four terms township clerk ; he served two terms as township trustee and was for twelve years justice of the peace, during which period his de- eisions were remarkable for their fairness and leniency at the same time. Ile is affiliated with various fraternal orders, holding membership with the Improved Order of Red Men. and he has passed the chairs and represented his lodge in the Great Conneil at Pittsburg, Kansas, in 1910. He has held offices in the Pocahontas Society, and holds mem- bership too with the Woodmen of the World, his direct affiliation being with the Kansas City, Kansas, chapter. Ile is also a member of the Masonie order and among the very oldest in Wyandotte county, having joined the old Delaware Lodge, No. 96, at White Church, Wyandotte county, in 1886, where he passed through the chairs and is Past Master of that lodge. He was instrumental in organizing Roger E. Sherman Lodge, No. 369. Quindaro, and became a charter member by his transfer
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from Delaware Lodge, in 1903. Thus does Mr. Kline interest himself in affairs that have a tendeney to broaden him in intellect and in views, and there is no one in Quindaro township who stands higher in the esti- mation of its residents.
A. R. JAMES .- A native of Kentucky and reared among its people, also inheriting from ancestors living in that state for two or three generations before him the salient eharaeteristies which have made the inhabitants of that state progressive among themselves and influential in the affairs of the country. A. R. James eame to Kansas in his young manhood well qualified to meet in a brave and manly manner the requirements of any situation in which he might find himself and per- form with ability the duties of any business to which he was adapted. In this state, where he found a new home while it was still in a some- what backward condition of development, he has employed the traits of character and training in self-reliance and readiness for emergencies he had acquired in that of his nativity, making them promotive of his own interests and benefieial to the region around him, and has thus built up a career that is at the same time creditable to him and valuable in its results and its influence to the community in which he lives.
Mr. James was born in Seott county, Kentucky, on November 25. 1855, and is a son of Henry and Emeline (Munson) .James, also natives of Kentucky. ITis mother died when he was but three years old, and the home training he might have had if she had lived to rear him was largely neglected, although his father did the best he could for his children and gave them every advantage within his power. When the son was six years old the family moved to Louisville, and there he grew to manhood and obtained his education. remaining until he reached the age of twenty-four years.
The conditions around him at that age were not all he desired for himself in the way of opportunity for advancement, and he determined to seek circumstances more favorable in a new locality and develop his course in life according to his own desires and the bent of his mind. Ile therefore came to Kansas in 1879 and located in Independence. His father, who died in Scott county. Kentucky, at the age of sixty-six years, was in early life a farmer in that county, although he passed nearly all of the last twenty years of his earthly existenee in Louisville.
The son, while he had probably some inelination to farming, was not wedded to the ocenpation by long experience in it, and gave his attention to other pursuits when he started out for himself. In Inde- pendence he was variously employed until 1886, then moved to Kansas City, Kansas, and began operations as a contractor. TIe followed this line of work for about five years, and prospered at it. But while doing this he saw an opening for something more agreeable in the way of merchandising, and in 1891 became a dealer in all kinds of building materials and also in coal and wood. The need for his commodities was great and pressing in the city. and he found a ready and remunera- tive market for everything he had to offer. His trade grew in a short time to large proportions, and has kept on growing steadily ever sinee, until he is one of the leaders in his business in this part of the state in both the volume and the value of his operations. In 1895 he took his son Arthur F., into partnership with him, making the firm name A. R.
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James & Son. The business is located at the corner of Fourth street and State avenue, with its headquarters in a fine modern structure which the firm built in 1904, the house it previously occupied having been destroyed by fire in 1903. £ The new building is ninety-eight by one hundred feet in dimensions and one story high, and since its erection cement and cement blocks have been added to the articles handled by the firm.
Mr. James was married in Davis county, Kentucky, on the 28th, of September. 1880, to Miss Pomelia II. Petree, a daughter of E. M. and Pomelia (MeClain) Petree. Four children have been born of the union : Arthur F., who is in business with his father; Rollo, who died at the age of four years; a child who died in infancy; and Edith, the wife of William Quinley, of Kansas City, Kansas.
The father has always been active in local public affairs. He is a Democrat in political faith and allegiance, and ardently supports the candidates of his party in national elections. But in local matters he votes independently and for what he considers the best interest of the community, choosing his candidates with a view to this and withont reference to partisan considerations. He has been the nominee of his party for city councilman and membership on the school board, but is not ambitious for official station, and has never sought it of his own motion. Fraternally he belongs to the Modern Woodmen of America and the Court of Honor, holding his membership in these orders in the city of his present residence. All who know him esteem him as an up- right and estimable man and an excellent citizen of broad views and a progressive spirit, with an abiding and helpful interest in the welfare of his city, county and state.
JAMES H. BEDDOW .- After a varied and instructive experience in many different lines of employment, extending over twenty-seven years and taking him to many places in the western half of the United States, James H. Beddow has recently settled down to what he hopes to make a permanent occupation and of good service to the people of Kansas City, Kansas, as well as profitable to himself. In the spring of 1911 he bought the boarding and feed barn of M. Frazier, one of the leading establish- ments of the kind in this part of the country, knowing that he would thereby seeure a means of providing for the comfortable accommodation of the horses of persons living in and coming to the city, and thus reliev- ing the owners of inconvenience and annoyance in the matter, while at the same time he would provide work for himself that would be both agreeable and remunerative.
Mr. Beddow was born on December 8, 1866, at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and is a son of James H. and Mary M. (Ruder) Beddow, the former born near Harrisburg. Owen county, Kentucky, and the latter in Lorain county, Ohio. They were married at Fort Leavenworth, to which the father was assigned directly after the close of the Mexican war. He enlisted for that memorable and decisive conflict at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, and served through it with credit to himself and benefit to his country. After his discharge from the field service of the army he was appointed to a position in the quartermaster's de- partment at the Fort and filled it until 1861. He then re-enlisted in the regular army and he remained with his command to the end of the
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Civil war. From 1865 to 1893 he was trainmaster at Fort Leaven- worth, and since 1893 has ocenpied the position of forester there. He is now well advanced in years but still hale and vigorous, possessing great activity for his age and showing as much spiee and sprightliness in word and action as many men who carry only half his burden in length of life, extent of labor and hardship of experience. Ile and his wife are the parents of four children: William A., who is now govern- ment trainmaster at Fort Leavenworth; Robert J., who lives in Kansas City, Missouri ; May E., the wife of Joseph Shillo, of Fort Leavenworth ; and James II., who is the oldest in the order of birth.
James resided with his parents until he reached the age of eighteen, and found. after leaving school, employment through the quarter- masters' departments of the United States army in different parts of the western states. He obtained his education in the parochial and public schools of Leavenworth, but his attendance at them was often interrupted by pressing duties in connection with the government ser- vice. When he was nineteen he located in Kansas City, Missouri, where he remained during the next fourteen years engaged in a variety of occupations, but steadily making his way to worldly comfort and good standing and influence in the community. In 1898 he accepted employment as a city salesman for the Standard Oil Company, and he did excellent work for that great corporation until the spring of 1910, when he severed his connection with it.
For a year Mr. Beddow took time to look about him for a business engagement that would be agreeable to him and open the way to greater success and prosperity. In the spring of 1911, as has been noted, he purchased the establishment of M. Frazier, at which horses were regular- ly boarded and transients were accommodated. ITe has given this undertaking his undivided attention ever since, and the results have fully justified his judgment and self-reliance in making the purchase.
Mr. Beddow was married to Miss Cora R. Crawford, who was born in the state of New York on March 17, 1869, and is a daughter of J. V. Crawford. He takes an earnest interest in the publie affairs of his city and county, and does what he can as an active working Democrat to secure their proper administration according to his views. In
fraternal life he is connected with. Cecilian Lodge, No. 39; Knights of Pythias, in Kansas City, Missouri ; Penn Valley Camp. No. 4458, Modern Woodmen of America ; White Rose Camp, Royal Neighbors ; and Central Conrt, No. 635, Independent Order of Foresters. ITe is energetic and intelligent in the promotion of all publie improvements in the city and county of his residence, and takes an active and helpful interest in all the agencies at work among the people to angment the mental, moral and material welfare of the community. On all sides he is accounted a very worthy and estimable man and an admirable eitizen.
JOSEPH R. KAUFMAN, who is most successfully engaged in the grocery, meat and feed business at 1629 Dodd avenue, Rosedale, Kansas, is a citizen whose contribution to the material and eivie welfare of Wyandotte county has ever been of prominent order. Mr. Kaufman has resided in Kansas since 1886 and has been engaged in his present line of enterprise since 1897 and the years have told the tale of an eminently successful eareer due to persisteney of purpose and a stanch
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determination to forge ahead. Born in the city of Indianapolis, Indiana, on the 19th of September, 1861, he is a son of Aaron and Beulah (Knight) Kaufman, the former of whom was born and reared in Germany and the latter of whom claimed Iowa as the place of her nativity. the father immigrating to the United States as a young man. Aaron Kanfman was summoned to the life eternal about 1902 and his cherished and devoted wife is also deceased. They were survived by six children, of whom the subject of this review was the youngest in order of birth, but there are only two living at this time.
Reared to maturity in the capital city of the fine old Hoosier state, J. R. Kaufman early availed himself of the advantages afforded in the public schools of that place. In 1886 he came to Kansas, locating at Kansas City, where he entered the employ of Lee Bower as clerk in his grocery store, remaining with him for a period of nine years. In 1897 he decided to launch out into the business world on his own ac- count and accordingly opened up an establishment at 1629, Dodd avenue, where he has remained during the long intervening years to the present time. He has gradually increased the scope of his opera- tions until he now handles everything in the line of groceries, meat and feed and he caters to the most fastidions trade in town. His place of business is a large, modern structure, convenient in all its appoint- ments. In his political convictions Mr. Kanfman is a stanch advocate of the principles and policies propounded by the Democratic party. Ile has never held any publie office other than that of president of the school board, to which he was elected for a term of four years, in 1909. In a fraternal way he is affiliated with the local lodges of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and of the time honored Masonic Order, in which latter connection he is a valued and appreciative member of Lodge No. 333. Ancient. Free and Accepted Masons.
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