USA > Kansas > Wyandotte County > History of Wyandotte County, Kansas, and its people, Vol. II > Part 27
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Grant A. Woodcock gained his early educational training in the public schools of Kansas, and this was supplemented by a course in Duff's Business College in his native eity of Pittsburg. He earned his first money by working in the eastor-bean and tobacco fields, and re- ceived fifty cents a day in compensation for his services. He was some- what past his sixteenth birthday at the time when his father located on the farm in Crawford county. Kansas, and as he had no predilection for agricultural pursuits he secured the position of bookkeeper in the office of William H. Busby, who was a leading grain merchant at Par- sons and MeCune, this state, and Mr. Woodcock had charge of the books of his employer in both headquarters. In 1887 he discerned better
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opportunities in connection with the great basic industry to which he had previously refused to give allegiance, and he secured a homestead «laim of one hundred and sixty aeres of land in Finney county, Kan- sas. He paid the requisite amount for the property within that year and secured title to the same, and he then left the farm and came to
Kansas City, where he was driver of a coal wagon for one year.
He
then became associated in a partnership with his brother Cyrus J. and engaged in the dry goods business in this city, beginning operations on a modest scale. The firm built up a prosperous trade and in 1891 Grant A. Woodeoek sold his interest in the business and engaged indi- vidually in the mercantile business at Rosedale, a suburb of Kansas City, Kansas. Here he handled dry goods, shoes and men's furnish- ing goods, and after building up a successful trade he sold out and en- gaged in the coal and feed business in Armourdale, another suburb. There he continued operations in this line until 1907, when he disposed of his stock and business on favorable terms and established his present flourishing enterprise at 1133 Osage avenue, Kansas City. Here he handles heavy and shelf hardware, stoves and ranges, tools and imple- ments and all other lines usually to be found in a well ordered hardware store, and his careful and honorable business methods have been the forces that have given him consecutive advancement and definite suc- cess in his various business operations.
In politics Mr. Woodcock has ever given an unqualified allegiance to the Republican party and while he has had no desire for publie office his civic loyalty prompted him to assume the semi-publie offiee of which he is now inenmbent and to which he was elected on the 1st of March, 1903, that of member of the board of directors of, the Kaw Valley Drainage District. This board has supervision of a work that will prove of inestimable benefit to this section of the state and the people in general are in full sympathy with the movement, although various corporate interests have insistently opposed the measures, for purely selfish motives. Mr. Woodcock is prominently identified with repre- sentative fraternal organizations and his affiliation with the same af- fords voucher for his personal popularity in the community. In the time honored Masonie fraternity he is affiliated with Rosedale Lodge, No. 333, Ancient Free and Aeeepted Masons, and he has further ad- vanced through the various grades nntil he has received the thirty- second degree of the Ancient Accepted Seottish Rite, in which he holds membership in Caswell Consistory, No. 5. At Kansas City, Kansas, he is identified with Abdallah Temple, Ancient Arabie Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and both he and his wife are affiliated with Chapter No. 156 of the Order of the Eastern Star, in which both have passed the official chairs. He also holds membership in the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Ancient Order of United Workmen.
June 22. 1902, bore record of the marriage of Mr. Woodcock to Miss Lydia B. Neal, who was born in Piatt county, Illinois, and who is a daughter of Samuel and Margaret Neal, the former of whom is de- ceased and the latter of whom now resides in the home of her only child. Mrs. Woodcock. Mr. Neal was for many years engaged in the meat market business and was a resident of Monticello, Illinois, at the time of his death.
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JEP HANSEN MAILAND, vice consul of Denmark in Kansas City for the state of Kansas, is also one of its most snecessful merchants and rep- resentative citizens. He has become known as a tradesman who can be relied on most implicitly. It is because of his trustworthiness that he has had the honor of being appointed to the vice-consulship. In his official eapaeity his record is unimpeachable. As a business man he has shown his ability and honesty. As a private individual he has the qualities that call forth esteem and respect from his family and his numerous friends.
Jep Hansen Mailand was born in Schleswig, then a province of Denmark, August 28, 1846. His father was Hans I. Mailand and his mother's name was Mette Maria Christensen before she was married. They were both Danes. Jep Hansen went to school in his home town and acted in the capacities of a farmer and musician in his home town, and after he came to America he engaged in briekmaking. He felt that he would never be able to accomplish much in Denmark, where good, honest work does not receive anything near the recognition and com- pensation that it does in this country. He was full of enthusiasm, because of the wonderful stories that he had heard concerning the money to be made in America, and in November, 1865, before he was quite twenty years old, he left his home and friends to cross the ocean and come to the great unknown country. It was an unfortunate voyage in many respects. They were on the ocean three months, landing in
February and forty-six people were lost from smallpox.
Upon his
arrival in the United States, Mr. Mailand went direct to Jefferson City, Missouri, and worked at his trade of briekmaker all the summer. In the winter time he secured a position with the railroad and was em- ployed on construction work. For four years he continued in these two lines of work, changing as the seasons changed. In 1870, having saved some money, he invested it in a grocery business at Jefferson City and was very successful there. Eventually, however, he saw that there were larger opportunities in Kansas City, and on October 26, 1873, he removed there with some of his stock, abandoning the place in Jefferson City and starting a store in Kansas City, Kansas, which was then a comparatively small place, with only about four thousand five hundred inhabitants. He has seen the city grow up around him and has done much to help its growth and advancement. Previous to taking up his residence here he had bought a lot and in 1873 he built a fine new store upon it, which he occupied for seven years. At the end of that time he found the store inadequate for the large business that he had built up, so he built another and much larger storc. He managed the new store until 1899, when he gave it to his son as a wedding present. During the years he has been in Kansas City he accumulated a good deal of property and its management required so much of his time that he was glad to be relieved of all responsibility in connection with the store. In 1897 he had been appointed Danish consul and he has held that office continuously ever since. He finds that the duties which the consulship brings and the care of his various properties are quite suffi- cient to keep him busy.
On April 17, 1867, while he was living in Jefferson City, he was married to Helena Jessen, a young Danish girl who had come to this country with her parents, Christian Jessen and his wife, Anna Multzen.
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Ifelena was born February 27, 1848, and was reared in Missouri on her father's farm. There were very few Danish people in America when the two first met and they were naturally attracted to each other from the first. They have three children. The eldest is Anna, born August 18, 1869.
She is married to R. T. Frederiksen and now lives in Omaha,
Nebraska. She recently took a trip to Europe and visited the old home of her father and the scenes of his childhood about which he had so often spoken. On her return on a Danish boat the captain gave a banquet and presented a flag to one of each nation represented and she was the only American to receive a flag. She and her husband have
five children : Helen, Madie, Fred, Edith and Walter. Helen, named for her maternal grandmother, married Axel Anderson and has one
child,-Donald. The second daughter, born September 25, 1872, mar- ried Robert Anderson and they have two children, Helene and Mabel. Mr. Mailand's two eldest children were both born in Jefferson City, Missouri. The youngest, Walter Henry, was born August 15, 1878, in Kansas City, Kansas. He married Johanna, daughter of John Christo- pherson and two sons, Walter and Karl, have been born to the union. The family now lives in Omaha, Nebraska, where Walter Henry has a fine grocery and meat market.
Mr. Mailand beeame a member of the Commercial Club of Kansas City in 1909, and was formerly a member of the Merchants' Association. For ten years he was a very active member of the Knights of Pythias. lIe has passed through all of the chairs and is the first past chancellor. He has represented his lodge in the Grand Lodge. Although Mr. Mailand is by no means an old man, he is a great-grandfather. The Danish people all marry young and his family have been no exception. He may well be proud of what he has accomplished sinee he came to America. He has not only done great things himself, but he has reared a family to be a credit to himself and to the community. A man can never altogether forget his love for his native country but in his case the interests of Kansas City rival those of Denmark in his affee- tions. IIe is a man of whom it may well be said, let the tenor of his life speak for him. Mr. Mailand was the first president of the Danish Union Freia, started in 1877, to which he still belongs.
WILLIAM BALL .- A prominent and well-to-do stoek-man of Wyan- dotte county, William Ball, of Rosedale, owns and occupies one of the most attractive and desirable farming estates in this section of the state. A native of England, he was born, June 20, 1858, in Yorkshire, and was there bred and edueated.
In 1888 he and his family, and his brother Arthur, immigrated to America. After spending a week in New York city, he came to Kansas, and six years later bought his present property in Rosedale, and on the bluffs built the pleasant house of nine rooms in which he and his family now reside. Mr. Ball has ten acres of rich and fertile land, and as a stock raiser has met with eminent suecess. A man of intelligence and ability, he takes great interest in publie matters, and for seventeen years has been a member of the local school board and for thirteen years president of the same, and at the present writing is serving as township trustee.
On September 3, 1883, in England, Mr. Ball was'united in marriage
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with Amelia Marshall, a daughter of Frank and Ann (Vernon) Marshall, a descendant on the maternal side of Dorothy Vernon, famous in olden days. Four children have blessed the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Ball, namely: Una, born June 9, 1884, is the wife of Rollin Campbell, of Brownsville, Texas; Elsie, born August 6, 1886, is a teacher in the Rosedale sehools; William, Jr., born November 14, 1889, is a plumber, and lives with his parents; and Amelia, born February 15, 1891, is at home.
Mr. and Mrs. Ball also brought up from her childhood one of Mr. Ball's nieces, Annis Ball, a daughter of Arthur and Jennie (Jackson) Ball. She was born September 25, 1883, and married for her first hus- band John D. Hanson. Mr. Hanson was born November 25, 1877, and for a long time was in the service of the Union Pacific Railroad Company as a brakeman. Ile was aceidentally killed March 4, 1908, his body being laid to rest in Forest Hill cemetery. Ile left two chil- dren, John, born August 12, 1905; and Dorothy, born August 1, 1907. Mrs. Hanson married for her second husband, April 2, 1909, Edwin S. Wilbur a farmer in Buffalo, Missouri, and they have one child, Ruth Wilbur, born October 12, 1910.
CHARLES S. TAYLOR .- The state of Kansas boasts, and with reason, of its wonderful agricultural resources. That it is such a successful farming country is due to the presence of such men as Charles S. Taylor, a farmer by inheritance, by nature and from choice.
He was born in Armourdale, Kansas, in 1871, the son of Benjamin F. Taylor and his wife Maggie, whose maiden name was Roundtree. Benjamin F. Taylor was born in Kentucky in 1841 and worked on his father's farm until the Civil war broke out. Then he, with many other Southerners, sided with the North and the cause of freedom. He enlisted in the Union army and fought throughout the four years and more that the war continned. He then stayed in the North and eame to Wyandotte county, Kansas, and started to farm here. Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin F. Taylor had three children, but only one lived to grow up. The eldest, James, died when he was five years old; the second born died in infancy; Charles S. grew to be the pride and comfort of his parents. His mother died in March, 1911, since which time his father has been living with him on his farm.
Charles S. Taylor spent his early years in Armourdale, Kansas. His father gave him a good education; he attended the River View grammar school and then went to the Kansas City high school and later to a business college in Kansas City. £ After he had finished his business course, he started to work for the Union Pacific Railroad and then for the Missouri Pacific Railroad as a machinist in the shops. After this experience of eity life he decided that the life of a farmer was the one he wanted and he came to the farm on which he still (1911) lives, near Bonner Springs. He has eighty-five acres of land and raises eabbages and potatoes. He has built a very nice house on his farm and there he lives the simple life in great contentment and happiness.
In 1896 he was married to Miss Marie Turner, a native of Kirks- ville, Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Taylor have one child, Ruth S., who is the pride and joy of her father, mother and grandfather.
Like his father, Charles S. Taylor is a Republican in his political
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HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
preference and a Methodist in his religious beliefs. As in farming, so in politics and in religion, whole-hearted, energetic, progressive and practical. He is a Mason and very popular in that order.
FREDERICK C. KAUFMAN has the distinction of conducting in Kansas City, Kansas, one of the finest retail meat markets to be found in any city west of Chicago, and his thorough knowledge of this line of enterprise, as coupled with progressive policies and honorable methods, has enabled him to build up a large and prosperous trade, in connection with which he caters to a representative and appreciative patronage.
Though he has been a resident of the United States from his in- fancy, Mr. Kaufman finds a due measure of pride in reverting to the great empire of Germany as his fatherland. In Erfurth, Germany, which was also the birthplace of his parents, he was born on the 6th of March, 1853. He is a son of Charles and Annie Kaufman, both of Frederick C. is the youngest of the number.
whom are now deceased. Of the seven children four are living, and The father was identified with the meat business throughout his active career. In 1857, when the subject of this sketch was about four years of age, the family came to America and established a home in St. Louis, Missouri, whence removal was made to Booneville, that state, in 1867. There the father was en- gaged in the meat-packing business until 1888, when he removed to San Francisco, California, where he established a meat market and where he passed the remainder of his life. He was a Republican in his political proclivities and both he and his wife were members of the German Lutheran church.
To the public schools of St. Louis and Booneville, Missouri, Freder- iek C. Kaufman is indebted for his early educational training, and as a youth he learned the butchering and meat market business under the able direction of his father. In 1881, shortly after reaching his legal majority, he located in Kansas City, Kansas, where he entered the service of the Fowler Brothers Packing Company, of whose sausage department he was superintendent for twenty-two years, at the expira- tion of which, in 1896, he severed his connection with the concern and has been ever since successfully engaged in the meat-market business. Ilis fine establishment is located at 532 Minnesota avenue and is thor- oughly metropolitan in all its appointments and facilities. He in- sistently demands the according of the best possible service to his many patrons and he purchases the cattle and hogs used in his market, so that his direct supply source gives him assurance of the highest grades of meat at all times. The public appreciation of the service thus given is shown in the large and substantial business controlled. Mr. Kaufman is known as a reliable and progressive business man and as a citizen who is ever ready to do his part in the furtherance of the best interests of the community.
On the 28th of May, 1873, Mr. Kaufman was united in marriage to Miss Sophie Miller, who was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, as was also her father, William Miller.
CHARLES N. LEINBACH .- The fine old Keystone state of the Union has contributed its quota to the sterling citizenship of Kansas, and among the representative business men of Kansas City, the metropolis
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of Wyandotte county, who can thus elaim Pennsylvania as the place of their nativity is Mr. Leinbach, whose well equipped establishment is located at 527 Minnesota avenue, where he handles wall paper, paints, oil, glass, etc., and where he has built up a large and substantial enterprise.
Mr. Leinbaeh was born in Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, on the 8th of September, 1863, and is a son of Ephraim and Mary M. Leinbaeh, both of whom were residents of Kansas City, Missouri, at the time of their death. The father was born in Pennsylvania in the year 1833 and was a scion of one of the old and honored German families of that commonwealth, where he continued to be identified with agri- cultural pursuits until 1872, when he removed with his family to Constantine, St. Joseph county, Michigan, where he was engaged in farming until 1879, when he removed to Belmond, Wright county, Iowa, where he was identified with the same line of enterprise until the spring of 1885, when he removed to Kansas City, Missouri, where he was en- gaged in the general merchandise business until his death, about three years later, in 1888. Of the four children three are living and the eldest of the number is he whose name initiates this review; Samuel U. is a resident of Odessa.
Charles N. Leinbach was about nine years of age at the time of the family removal from Pennsylvania to Constantine, Michigan, where he attended the public sehools, as did he later those of Belmond, Iowa. This discipline was supplemented by a course in the Spaulding Com- mereial College, in Kansas City, Missouri, and from 1886 until Septem- ber 1, 1899, he was in the employ of G. M. White, who was engaged in the wall-paper and paint business in that eity. He became familiar with all details of the business and was a trusted and valued employe at the time when he severed his association therewith. IIe forthwith eame to Kansas City, Kansas, and established his present enterprise, whieh, through careful and progressive policies and fair dealings, he has developed into one of the most important of its kind in the city, with a patronage of distinctively representative order.
Thongh never imbued with any desire for public office Mr. Lein- baeh takes a loyal interest in all that tends to further the general wel- fare of the community, and his political allegiance is given to the Republican party. He is one of the prominent members of Summun- duwot Lodge, No. 3, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of which he is past noble grand and in which he has passed all of the official chairs. He has been treasurer of the lodge since 1907. He is also identified with the Fraternal Aid Society and the Knights of the Modern Macca- bees. In his church relations he is a Presbyterian.
The 6th of December, 1887, witnessed the marriage of Mr. Leinbach to Miss Carrie Justus, who was born in the state of Illinois, and they have two sons and two daughters, namely: Leeta M., Grace M., Barto J. and C. Elton.
EDWARD ALLEN, one of the leading carpenters and builders of Kansas City, Kansas, and ranking among its most substantial and repre- sentative eitizens, came honestly by the disposition to rove and seek pulse-quiekening adventure in life which made him for some years something of a wanderer. His ancestors for two or three generations
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exhibited this trait, but, as in his case, only used it in aiding the development of new sections of country and building them up from the waste to fruitfulness and beneficent activity for the good of the country and the enlarged enjoyment of its people. The American branch of the family on both sides of the house started in Massachusetts, where the great-grandfathers of Mr. Allen of this sketch, Ephraim Allen and Joseph Clendenin, were born and reared. They left their family firesides in early life and became early settlers in Ohio, and in Cincin- nati Stephen Allen married Miss Mary Clendenin. Soon afterward these two took a new flight in the wake of the setting sun and located in Shelby county, Indiana. There their son Stephen was born on January 7, 1830, and there he was reared and obtained a limited country school education. In that county also he met with and married Miss Sarah Russell, who was a native of the county, too, born on January 17, 1833. They were the parents of Edward Allen, whose life began on December 15, 1856, on his father's farm near Edinburg, in the adjoining county of Johnson, where his parents had taken up their residence some time before.
In addition to the dangers, hardships and privations which were inevitable ineidents in the life of the frontier, this adventurous family had its early history in Indiana darkened by a tragedy which cast a gloom over it during many subsequent years. Stephen Allen, Edward's grandfather, met an early death while digging a well on his farm. The well eaved in on him without a moment's warning. This occurred three months before his son Stephen, the father of Edward, was born. llis widow afterward married a Mr. Hartman and moved with him to Marion county, Indiana, where she passed the remainder of her life.
Stephen Allen lived in the home of his mother until he was fout years old. He was then taken to the residence of an uncle and grew to manhood under the care and direction of that relative. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to a cabinet maker to learn the trade. He completed his apprenticeship in three years, and then worked for his preceptor seven years. He was industrious and frugal, and by the end of the period mentioned had acenmulated a small sum of money and developed into a mastery of his spirit a desire to go into business for himself.
In obedience to this desire he worked at his trade on his own ac- count seven years in Indiana. On March 15, 1858, yielding to another overmastering impulse created by the winning voice of the farther West, he arrived at Leavenworth, Kansas, and settled down there for further industry at his trade. During the next four years he worked as a journeyman, making knock-down furniture, wood coffins and similar products of his craft. In 1862 he bought the business in which he was employed, and during the succeeding three years conducted it profitably for himself. At the end of that time he sold it and bought a farm in Leavenworth county, containing one hundred and sixty acres of prairie and forty acres of timber land. lle remained in the county and engaged in farming seven years, occupying three different farms during this period, the first one being purchased of the Indian chief, Wolf.
While living in Leavenworth county Mr. Allen was a member of the State Militia, and was in active service in the field forty-eight days. The command to which he belonged passed a few days in Shawneetown,
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Kansas, then marched into Missouri, stopping for a time at Blue Mills, and later camping for two days at Independence in that state. Mr Allen took part in seven skirmishes, and. although the engagements were not severe, he got a fair taste of the danger and excitement of the battlefield.
In 1885 he located in Kansas City, Kansas, and soon afterward, in association with his youngest son, started a carpenter shop and contraet- ing business, which they carried on together eleven years. Then his son John's health broke down and he went for recuperation to Siloam Springs, Arkansas, where he died in 1898. Since then the father has conducted the business alone. It has grown to large volume and keeps him very busy. But he gives every detail of it his personal attention and makes the most of the opportunities it affords him for profit and advancement.
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