USA > Kansas > Wyandotte County > History of Wyandotte County, Kansas, and its people, Vol. II > Part 37
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The education of Mr. Friedman, the immediate subjeet of this re- view, was obtained in Kansas City, at the Wood Street school at the time that Professor M. E. Pearson was principal. HIe faced the re- sponsibilities of life at an early age,-when fifteen in fact-securing a position with Burnham, Hanna, Munger & Company, a wholesale dry goods company, with whom he continued for ten years and a half and with whom he learned the many details of the important business with which he was permanently to identify himself. In July, 1903, when only abont twenty-three years of age, he entered the mercantile field
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independently and his establishment has encountered fair seas and much prosperity, his executive capacity, sound judgment, fine methods and ability to inspire confidence having had their logical result.
Mr. Friedman was happily married on Christmas day, 1904, when Miss Lottie Ebeling became his wife. They share their attractive home with a little daughter, Doris. The head of the house is an en- thusiastie Mason, holding membership in Kaw Lodge, No. 272, Aneient Free and Accepted Masons, and in Caswell Consistory, No. 5. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, and is likewise affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America.
JOHN LOGAN JACKSON .- A rising young business man of Bonner Springs, public-spirited and progressive, John Logan Jackson is identi- fied with the financial interests of his community as assistant cashier of the Farmers' State Bank. A native of Kansas, he was born in Glenwood, Leavenworth county, January 8, 1885, a son of Thomas and Lonisa (Yeck) Jaekson. He obtained his preliminary education in the district schools, and in 1903 was graduated from the Bonner Springs high school.
The year succeeding his graduation, Mr. Jackson taught school in Leavenworth county, and then, for nine months, was teller in the State Savings Bank at Leavenworth. In the summer of 1905 he was cashier for the Harvey Eating House Company, in the spring of 1906 resuming his old position in the Leavenworth bank. Nine months later, in 1907, Mr. Jackson resigned that position to accept his present one of assistant cashier of the Farmers' State Bank at Bonner Springs.
On April 12, 1911, Mr. Jackson was appointed by Mayor Longfellow treasurer of Bonner Springs, and is now aeting in that capacity. He belongs to the Fraternal Aid Association, is an active member of the Christian church, and for the past four years has been superintendent of its Sunday school.
Mr. Jackson married, September 9, 1908, Mae Riley, a daughter of Thomas and Susie (Carver) Riley. Mrs. Jackson was educated in the Sonthern Kansas Academy at Eureka, Kansas.
RAY SAYERS .- One of the most straightforward, energetic and suc- cessful business men of Rosedale, Kansas, is Ray Sayers, manager of the Wyandotte County Gas Company. Although still a young man, he has for some years been an important factor in business circles, and his popularity is well deserved, for in him arc embraced the characteristics of unabating energy. unusual executive capacity and originality and initiative. He is public-spirited and is an active supporter of all measures likely to result in benefit to the many. In short. Mr. Sayers is to be numbered among the valued and honorable citizens of the thriv- ing little eity.
Mr. Sayers was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on March 7, 1875, and is the son of Henry and Elizabeth (Redfern) Sayers. Henry Sayers who died in Argentine in 1898 was a man well known in this locality and in Pennsylvania. He was interested in the oil fields of the latter state and suffered a loss of one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars at the time of the great oil fields fire. He came west in 1868 and located in Kansas City, Missouri, where he engaged in the Vol. II-18
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shirt manufacturing business. Subsequent to that he tried a new field of endeavor. locating in Colorado where he prospected for ore. After some years in which he was identified with the mining industry, Mr. Sayers returned to Argentine and there passed away in 1898. The mother was born in Buffalo, New York, and died in Kansas City, Kansas, July 19, 1906. These admirable people became the parents of the fol- lowing four children : Clinton II. of Kansas City, Kansas, married Miss Cora Gagle: Warren K. married Miss Katie Vetter and resides in Kansas City, Kansas; Milton. who married Louella Veil, of Kansas ('ity, Kansas; and Ray, the youngest in order of birth.
Mr. Savers passed his childhood days in Kansas City, Missouri, and there attended the public schools. When about fourteen years of age he removed with the rest of the family to Colorado and there became a student in the high school of the place in which the family located, Montrose. After graduation from that institution. he took a special course in mathematies and returning to Kansas City, Missouri, he became an active factor in the world of affairs as an employe of Armour & Company, as processor in the canning department, a position which he subsequently held with the Cudahy Packing Company. Desiring 10 venture upon a more independent business, Mr. Savers then engaged in the grocery business in Kansas City, Kansas. and was engaged in this
field for two years. It was immediately following this that Mr. Sayers entered the employ of the Wyandotte County Gas Company with which concern he has ever since remained. Hle started at the bottom, but has worked his way up, proving so faithful and efficient in small matters that he was given more and more to do, and he is now the manager of the company at Rosedale.
On October 24. 1894, Mr. Sayers was united in marriage to Miss Mary Keeper, who was born in Germany and came to this country when a child. Her mother, Anna Keeper, is at the present time a resident of Kansas City. Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Sayers share their delightful home with one son, Clinton R., who is eleven years of age.
In the matter of politics Mr. Sayers is affiliated with no party, but makes it a matter of personal duty to investigate as fully as is in his power in order to find the best man for the office. He esteems the better man and the better measure far ahove mere partisanship. Mr. Sayers and his wife are valued members of the Presbyterian church. ITe is a member of the time honored Masonic order and of the Ancient Order of United Workmen.
ADAM MARXEN, whose post office address is Piper, Kansas, is one of the most substantial farmers of Wyandotte county and owns one of the finest farms within its limits.
Mr. Marxen is a native of Kansas, born in Leavenworth county. November 15, 1860. son of Marx and Eva (Ochs) Marxen, both of German birth. His father, who had learned the trade of blacksmith and had served in the German army, came to America, in 1852, a young man of twenty-two years. During the Civil war he was a member of the ITome Guard at Leavenworth, and after the war he engaged in the brewery business, his brewery being the first one in operation at Leaven- worth. From Leavenworth he came to Wyandotte county and engaged in farming, and here he carried on agricultural pursuits extensively
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until his death. His wife died abont eighteen years ago, and his death occurred in 1908. They were the parents of two children, Adam and Henry. Personal mention of the latter will be found elsewhere in this work.
Adam Marxen was a small boy at the time his parents moved to Wyandotte county, and here he attended district school and early became familiar with all kinds of farm work. He now owns two hun- dred and forty aeres of choice land, well improved, and is carrying on diversified farming and stock raising, making a specialty of the dairy business.
Politically Mr. Marxen is a Democrat. For the past fifteen years he has served as a member of the school board.
In 1888 he married Miss Mary Studer, of Doniphan county, Kansas, whose parents are both deceased. To them have been given eight children, all of whom are living except Philip, the youngest, who died at the age of one year. The others in order of birth are: Edward, Annie, Josephine, Mark, Frank, Pete, and Mary.
WALTER L. LADD .- Among the enterprising and progressive busi- ness men of Kansas City is Walter L. Ladd, who, it is safe to say, has no peer in his knowledge of the livestock business in this part of the country. In this he is following in the footsteps of his honored father, Thomas Ladd, who for many years was a prominent figure in this par- ticular field. Mr. Ladd is now devoting the greater share of his attention to the live stock commission business and he is known over a wide area. As one who is intimately concerned in a line of industry which has important bearing upon the progress and stable prosperity of the community, he oeenpies a representative position in business circles, and it is eminently befitting that he be accorded recognition in this volume devoted to Wyandotte county and its citizens.
Mr. Ladd is a native of New England, the cradle of so much of our national history, his birth having occurred in Laconia, Belknap county, New Hampshire, in the month of Angust, 1868. He is the son of Thom- as and Emma (Plummer) Ladd, both of whom were born in New Hampshire. The dates bonnding the life of the father were 1842 and 1906 and of the mother, 1843 and 1903. Of the three children born to the union of these worthy people two are living-the subject and a sister Delia, who is the wife of John W. Shores. Thomas Ladd came west in 1877 and located in Emporia, Kansas, where he established a meat market and also bonght and shipped live stock in large quantities. In 1886 he came to Kansas City, Kansas, and accepted a position as a cattle salesman and subsequently engaged in the live stock commission business, with which he was identified for the remainder of his aetive life. Ile was a prominent Mason and a member of the Baptist church, in which he held the office of deacon. In his political convictions he was in harmony with the principles advocated by the Republican party.
Walter L. Ladd received his preliminary education in the schools of Emporia, Kansas, and subsequently matriculated in the Kansas State Normal School and in Palmer's Academy of Kansas City. Kansas. HIe may also be said to have grown up with the live stock business, for he first engaged in buying and selling live stock when fourteen years of age, and in 1886, when eighteen years of age, he engaged in buying
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cattle for the Swift Packing Company, with which great concern he remained until 1891. Since then he has been identified with the live stoek commission business and is a member of the Kansas City Live Stock Exchange.
On January 22, 1892, Mr. Ladd laid the foundation of a happy household by marriage, his chosen lady being Martha Little, a native of Jessup, Iowa. Their union has been blessed by the birth of a daughter. Emma, who is a high school student. Mr. Ladd belongs to the Modern Woodmen of America and to the Brotherhood of America, Lodge No. 200. He is a Republican in politics.
JOHN DUDLEY .- Many and varied are the interests that mark John Dudley as one of the veritable captains of industry in the Sunflower state, and he is one of the progressive. liberal and emphatically repre- sentative business men and influential citizens of Kansas City, the metropolis of the county to which this historical compilation is devoted. He has exemplified to the fullest degree the alert spirit of the west, of which he is a native son, and his initiative powers and productive energies have been so brought to bear as to inure to the general good of the city, county and state in which he maintained his home and in which he has a wide circle of friends.
John Dudley was born at Fairfield, Jefferson county, Iowa, on the 6th of September, 1856, and is a son of Franklin and Theekla (Simpson) Dudley, both natives of Ohio and representatives of sterling pioneer families of that state. The father died in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1863, at the early age of thirty-four years, and the mother, now vener- able in years, maintains her home in Iowa. Of the three children the subject of this review was the first-born and is the only survivor. Franklin Dudley, who was of stanch English ancestry, removed to Iowa in the pioneer days and engaged in farming and stoek-growing in Jefferson county. When the Civil war was precipitated upon a divided nation he gave no uncertain manifestation of his loyalty to the Union, as he enlisted in the Nineteenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, with which he proceeded to the front. He virtually sacrificed his life in the canse, as he was taken ill and died in a hospital in New Orleans. In politics he was a staneh Republican and his loyalty in all the relations of life was of the same order that prompted him thus to go forth as a soldier of the Republic when its integrity was placed in jeopardy.
He whose name introduces this review was a lad of about seven years at the time of the death of his father. He early began to con- tribute his quota to the work of the farm and his first independent venture was in hiring out in connection with the operation of a thresh- ing machine. For the service of himself and his team for fifteen or sixteen hours a day, he received compensation at the rate of one and one-half dollars a day. He continued to be actively identified with farming and stock-growing in Iowa until the spring of 1878, when, shortly after attaining his legal majority, Mr. Dudley came to Kansas, where he traded horses for a tract of one hundred and sixty acres of land in LaBette county. After seeuring this property he returned to Iowa, and upon next coming to his new home, in November of the same vear. he was accompanied by his young wife. The entire journey was made with team and wagon, through Missouri, and the intervening
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nights were passed in the open, by the side of camp-fires. He estal. lished himself in a primitive dwelling, and the young couple then bravely faced the life in an isolated section on the virtual frontier. The first railroad in that section crossed the farm of Mr. Dudley, and with the passing of the years success attended his efforts as a farmer and stock-grower.
In 1893 Mr. Dudley moved to Topeka, the capital of the state, where he continued in the live-stock business, in which his operations reached extensive proportions. A decade later, in 1903, he came to Kansas City, where he has since maintained his home and supervised his various industrial and capitalistic interests. IIe is associated with his sons in the ownership of the Grand Canyon ranch, near Beeler, Ness county, where they have three thousand acres of pasture land and carry on a large business in the buying and selling of live stock, as well as in the raising of the same. Few have been more successful or con- ducted more extensive operations in connection with the live-stock industry in Kansas, and Mr. Dudley has shown marked capacity for the handling of affairs of wide scope and importance. The ranch mentioned is conducted under the firm name of John Dudley & Sons, and in addition to the same he owns and leases other tracts of grazing land, including a valuable ranch in Wyandotte county. He leased
the Morris feed yards, at Morris Station, Wyandotte county, and from this point he has shipped an average of one hundred and fifty to two hundred thousand sheep each year. Besides utilizing fully twenty-four hundred acres of leased land in Wyandotte and Johnson counties, his Grand Canyon ranch, of which he became the owner in January, 1907, comprises thirty-one hundred acres. This fine property is devoted more especially to the raising and handling of horses and mules, and the enterprise is excelled by a few of its kind in this section of the country, both in volume of business and high grade of stock.
Mr. Dudley is a stockholder and director of the Argentine State Bank at Twenty-seventh street and Strong avenue, Kansas City, Kansas, and was vice-president of the same until the election held by the stock- holders on the 3d of January, 1911, when he was elected chairman of the board of directors. No stock can be bought in this bank for less than two hundred dollars per share. He is a stock holder and district man- ager of the Bank Savings National Life Insurance Company, of Topeka, Kansas, one of the strong and popular institutions operating in Kansas and Missouri, in which it has paid up two hundred thousand dollars cash, deposited with the State Insurance Commissioners, and he has other interests of important order. Mr. Dudley is well known through- out Kansas as one of its aggressive, able and enthusiastic men, one of utmost loyalty, indomitable perseverance and broad views. He takes a keen interest in all that tends to advance the social and material progress of the state and this has been shown in no uncertain or ineffec- tive way. He was a delegate to the waterways convention held in Sioux City, Iowa, and also went to San Francisco in 1908 as a delegate to the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress, at the nineteenth annual session, October 6th to 10th, 1908. His selection for this latter post well indicates the estimate placed upon him in the industrial and busi- ness circles of his home state.
In politics Mr. Dudley accords an unswerving allegiance to the
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Republican party, and notwithstanding the demands made upon his time and attention by his large personal affairs he has given effective service in the promotion of the cause of the "grand old party." He had the distinction of serving as sergeant-at-arms at the National Re- publican Convention, in Chicago, in 1904. He was one of the charter members of the Hoof and Horn Club, at Kansas City, Missouri, and is the only honorary member of the Commercial Club of Topeka, Kansas. He also holds membership in the Kansas City Mercantile Club and is a member of the Kansas City Clearing House Association. In the Masonic fraternity Mr. Dudley first became a member of Lodge No. 218, at Mound Valley, this state, and his present affiliation is with Topeka Lodge, No. 17, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, in the capital city of the state, and he is Past Master of the lodge at Mound Valley.
On the 6th of October, 1879, Mr. Dudley was united in marriage to Miss Ida M. Fogleman, who was born in the state of Indiana and who is a daughter of John E. and Mary (Bray) Fogleman, both of whom were likewise born in the old Hoosier state, whence they came to Iowa when Mrs. Dudley was a child. The father and his wife now maintain their home at Parsons, this state. Mr. and Mrs. Dudley have two chil- dren, both of whom are fine young men who are well upholding the honors of the family name. Burleigh F. and Hugh Byron Dudley are both associated with various interests of their father's and have well proved business powers, though the latter is still a student in the high school in Kansas City, Kansas.
Burleigh F. Dudley, who succeeded his father as vice-president of the Argentine State Bank, previously mentioned, still holds this position. He gained his early education at Mound Valley and Topeka. and sup- plemented this by a course in Pond's Business College, in Topeka. He was at Cheyenne, Wyoming, at the inception of the Spanish-American war and forthwith enlisted in the volunteer service. He proceeded to Fort Logan, where he took an examination for service in the hospital corps. He was in the hospital service in the Spanish war and later he was with the hospital corps in China, at the time of the Boxer uprising, when the American troops were on duty in protecting the lives and property of citizens of the United States in that part of the Orient. He was stationed at Tien-Tsin and took part in an engagement near that vity, after which he assisted in guarding the United States legation in the city of Pekin. He has been associated with his father in the live- stock business, as is also the younger son, and in connection with this line of industry he is making a noteworthy success. He now resides at Yankton, South Dakota, where he is secretary and general manager, as well as a director, of the Yankton Stock Yards Company. He mar- ried Miss Frances Van Tassel and they have one son, Van Tassel Dudley.
John Dudley has accomplished much as one of the world's pro- ductive workers, and his career offers both lesson and incentive. His sons have not failed to emulate his example, and it must prove a matter of constant gratification to him to note their sterling characteristics and their advancement in the business world.
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTON, LENOX TILDEM FOUNDATIONS
Ougne MOchinek
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EUGENE A. SCHENCK, A. I., M. E., prominent in the commercial and social life of Kansas City, has had a most unusual career. A man's pursuit cannot be guided entirely by his own wishes-new con- ditions arise-old conditions ehange. Fortune will not always come to a man at the time and place of his selection, and Mr. Schenek early realized that if he would become successful, he must go and hunt for- tune, for she would never hunt him. There is one truth, however, that it is well to take to heart, that if a man is really competent, there is need for him somewhere, and it behooves him to find out where he is needed. That is exactly what Mr. Schenck did; he felt that he pos- sessed potentialities by means of which he could accomplish great things, and he changed occupation as well as location, until he finally found the niche into which he fitted, and he is now known as one of the most representative business men in Kansas City. A brief resume of his career will prove of interest to his many friends, and will serve to show what a man can do by not drifting, but by shifting.
Eugene A. Schenek is a native of Auburn, Illinois, where he was born October 29, 1871. His paternal grandfather was a native of Baden, Germany, where he was educated and reared to manhood. Dr. Walter Schenek, father of E. A. Schenek, elaims Columbus, Ohio, as his birth place, and there he received his early preliminary educational training. After the completion of his school course he engaged in the ministry and early in his career married Mattie J. Wyatt, and to the union five children were born, but we will only make mention of one, Eugene A. Sehenek. Mr. Schenck's father is a physician of Ed- mond, Oklahoma, of good repute and is also a poet of considerable ability and renown. Amongst his effusions is one that has claimed considerable attention amongst literary men and women ; the "Reverie" which he published in October, 1910. No one can read that poem, deeply religious in its character, but at the same time imbued with the sense of ignorance of the miraculous working of nature, without being impressed with the wonderful force of the man who penned the lines. Throughout, the mother-love, the beanties of nature, the power of God and the powerlessness of man are mingled in one beautiful, prayerful outery, which is torn from the soul of the man. If space permitted, we should like to print the whole of this "Reverie," but as this is in- tended for the life record of Eugene A. Sehenek, we will confine our- selves to the above references.
Eugene A. Schenck has only a very vague remembranee of the house where he was born, as when he was very small his parents removed from Illinois to Westport, Missouri, and it was in this town that he spent his boyhood, attending the public schools of the town, and engaging in athletie sports of all kinds. Later the family moved, and Kansas City was the scene of his continued educational training, as he became a pupil in the public schools of this city. Upon completion of the course prescribed by the schools, he became a pitcher on the Indiana State League ball team, and for two years he followed this calling. He felt, however, that there was no future in the life, and devoted as he was to the game and to sports of all kinds, he was ambitious for a career of another character. He had shown considerable interest in all kinds of machinery from his earliest childhood, and he turned to that as the one thing in which he was fitted to excel. He learned the machinist
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trade in Kansas City, Kansas, and he specdily beeame a very skilful workman. As soon as he had thoroughly mastered the trade he went to Keokuk, Iowa, and there built everything in the way of store fronts, doors, sash and blinds, but after the fall of the Kansas City boom, he came back here and was assistant steward of the University Club, which was situated on the site of the present Keeley Cure building. H served the elub in the above mentioned capacity for a period of three years and then made another change. He made a most thorough study of the heating and ventilating business; he studied physics and the laws which govern heat, taking a course in correspondenee and also he studied with Professor J. M. Kent, teacher of physics in the high school, and a man of considerable knowledge in that line. Mr. Schenck applied him- self to the mastery not only of the subject itself, but to all of its rami- fications, and that he is a master of his business none will dispute. He is the inventor of three separate contrivances which have been placed on the market and have come into general use. There are very few people who have not at least heard of his hydro-pneumatic vaeuum clean- ing apparatus, which has been so successfully used. Then he invented a metal bowling ball with adjustable grip, as an outgrowth of his experienes as a pitcher on the ball team, referred to above. The in- vention, however, which is most peculiarly his own, is the apparatus in a hot water heater by means of which the water is circulated after leav- ing the heater. This device was patented August 25, 1908, and, al- though this is no advertising medium, it is our opinion that his inven- tion is of great value, and the contractors and builders are beginning to install the device in their various buildings where heating plants are required. These inventions were not the result of a few days thought, but were the outcome of observations made during the years that he was employed as foreman for the leading firms of his locality. Indeed that is the way in which most inventions are wrought out, and they are perfected after many trials and experiments. In May, 1910, Mr. Schenck engaged in business on his own account, with his office at 209 Keith & Perry building, Kansas City, Missouri, and at 725 Arm- strong avenue, Kansas City, Kansas, and he takes orders for gas fitting and for hot water heating and ventilating of schools and other large buildings. During the short time that has elapsed since he opened his office, he has completed many big jobs, amongst which may be men- tioned the Pierson Paper Box Company bouilding, two heating systems for Attorney Frank Hagerman, one in his modern home and one in his garage; the new home of Dr. R. A. Roberts, located at 712 Ann avenue; the residence of P. J. Hughes, the real estate dealer; Frank Richards' residence at Fifty-seventh and Wyandotte; the Country Club; P. W. Price Furniture Company (now under way) ; the Rand Flats at 3517 Wyandotte street (a modern apartment building) ; and J. I. Bailey's residence at North Fremont and Quindaro boulevard. In addition to the above mentioned work, Mr. Sehenck has the contract for a new plant in the new City Hall in Kansas City, Kansas; also a seven thousand dollar contract with the Baptist church on the corner of Tenth street and Forrest avenue; a plant for C. D. Gilquist at 3404 Agnes street, as well as a great many minor jobs. We must not forget, how- ever, the heating plant he is about to establish in the home of Tom Garton near Tremble, Missouri, as the plant is to be a masterpiece-the
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