USA > Kansas > Wyandotte County > History of Wyandotte County, Kansas, and its people, Vol. II > Part 48
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74
DUDLEY EMERSON CORNELL .- "A truly great life," says Webster, "when Heaven vonehsafes so rare a gift, is not a temporary flame, burn- ing bright for awhile and then expiring, giving place to returning dark- ness. It is rather a spark of fervent heat as well as radiant light, with power to enkindle the common mass of human mind; so that when it glimmers in its own decay and finally goes out in death, no night fol- lows, but it leaves the world all light, all on fire, from the potent con- taet of its own spirit." Dudley Emerson Cornell, one of the most prominent and influential citizens who ever resided in Kansas City, Kansas, and one who served with all of efficiency in a number of public offices of trust and responsibility, among them councilman, mayor of the city and treasurer of the county, was summoned to the life eternal on the 27th of February, 1911, at which time he had attained to the venerable age of seventy-four years. IIe had been associated with early railroad history. Hle was distinguished in military and patriotic circles, at the time of the Civil war having been captain of the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth New York Volunteers, captain and commissary on the staff of General Rufus Saxton, and mustered out at the close of the war with the rank of brevet major.
A native of the Empire state of the Union, Mr. Cornell was born in Wilton, Saratoga county, New York, on the 15th of January, 1837, a son of Merritt I. and Mercy W. (Howard) Cornell, both of whom passed to eternal rest in Kansas City, the former in 1883 and the latter in November. 1881. The father was born in Washington county, New York, in 1809, and the mother claimed Shaftsbury, Vermont, as the place of her nativity. Mr. and Mrs. Merritt I. Cornell were the parents of five children, one of whom is living, in 1911, namely: Rev. Howard Cornell, who maintains his home at Breakabeen, New York. The father was a farmer and school teacher while a resident of New York, where he served as county superintendent of schools and as county commis- sioner for several terms. He passed the closing years of his life in the home of the subject of this review. In polities he was originally a Whig and later a Republican.
Mr. Cornell came of an old New York family, some of whose inem- bers fought in every war in which America was concerned. The original progenitor of the Cornell family in America was one Thomas Cornell, who immigrated to this country from England in the early Colonial days and who removed from Boston, Massachusetts, to Rhode Island, in 1640. He had a son Thomas, who also had a son of that name and the latter's son George, born on the 11th of October, 1707, had a son named Matthew, whose birth occurred in Rhode Island on the 30th of October,
858
HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
1743. Matthew's son, who likewise bore the cognomen Matthew, was born in Washington connty, New York, on the 22nd of March, 1787, and he was the grandfather of him to whom this sketch is dedicated. Dudley E. Cornell having been a member of the eighth generation of the family in America. Ezra Cornell. founder of Cornell University. was his kinsman.
Mr. Cornell received his preliminary educational training in the public schools of his native place and subsequently he was matriculated as a student in the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, at Troy, New York, in which excellent college he was graduated as a civil engineer. After leaving school he was engaged in teaching for one term and during the years of 1856 and 1857 he was engaged in the work of his profession in the state of Wisconsin, where he did engineering work on the Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad between Madison and the Mississippi river. that road being now a part of the great Chicago & Milwaukee system. In 1858 Mr. Cornell returned to New York, but in the same year he joined a party of gold seekers and made the arduous trip to California, via the Isthmus of Panama. He remained in the Golden state until 1860 and Hle returned to was there engaged in civil and mining engineering. his home state, however, in time to enlist as a soldier in the Union army. Ile served for a short time in the Seventh New York Cavalry, which during the war was known as the Northern Black Horse Cavalry, and then at Hoosie, New York, raised Company A. one of the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth New York, and was commissioned captain of the sal company. lle was left a sword which was presented to him by the citizens of Hoosie in August. 1862. At the close of the war he was on the staff of General Rufus Saxton. Under the administration of John P. St. John, as governor. Mr. Cornell was appointed major general of the Kansas militia.
In 1866 Mr. Cornell again decided to try his fortunes in the West. and in that year he came to Kansas, locating in Wyandotte county, where he entered the employ of the Union Pacific Railroad, Eastern Division. first in the capacity of clerk in the general passenger and ticket office. later as chief clerk, when the road became an independent line known as the Kansas Pacifie, and finally, in 1876, he was made general passen- gen agent of the road, a position of which he remained incumbent until the consolidation of the Kansas Pacific road with the Union Pacific system. He retired from active participation in business affairs in 1889 and in 1894 went to live at his country home "Highland Farm." near Bonner Springs, in Wyandotte county. thereafter devoting his entire time and attention to the duties connected with the various public offices to which he was elected. In 1902 he was solicited and urged to become a candidate for county treasurer, and was elected by a big majority that fall. The next year he moved back to Kansas City. Kansas, where he afterward resided.
Mr. Cornell was ever aligned as a stalwart in the ranks of the Republican party. in the local councils of which he was a most active factor. In the spring of 1883 he was elected mayor of Kansas City and in that early day there was no salary attached to the office. It is inter- esting to note that at that time Mr. Cornell, although forty-six years of age, was considered almost too young to head the municipal affairs of a city, the custom having been in old Wyandotte to present the office to
859
HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
a man of more venerable years. It was during Mayor Cornell's ad- ministration that the Metropolitan Water Company built a plant and songht a franchise, which was granted, and it was during the first year of his regime that the elevated road, the first large enterprise intended primarily to benefit the city, sought a franchise. In 1883 Kansas City had a population of but six thousand souls; it is now a city of one hundred thousand inhabitants. £ In 1902 Mr. Cornell was elected treasurer of Wyandotte county and he served in that capacity until 1906. In 1907 he was again honored with election to the office of mayor of the city, this time to succeed W. W. Rose, and concerning that event the following extract is here inserted, the same being taken from an article which appeared in a local paper at the time of Mr. Cornell's death :
"Following the stormy political administration of W. W. Rose, when ouster suits and resignations resulted in five men occupying the office of mayor in one year, Mr. Cornell was elected mayor in 1907 by fifteen hundred over Mr. Rose. The administration that followed, 1907 to 1909, has been called the 'peace administration,' because Mayor Cornell succeeded in restoring peace among the warring factions and political quiet followed for two years." He was a man whose honesty and integrity in public and private life had always been above reproach. No taint of graft over sullied his fair name. On the 13th of October. 1868. was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Cornell to Miss Annie M. Speck. who was born in the state of Pennsylvania and who is a daughter of Dr. Frederick and Adelaide (Dennis) Speck, both of whom are deceased. Mrs. Speck was the daughter of Colonel Richard Dennis, of the Eight- eenth Regiment. U. S. Infantry, in the war of 1812, and previously served for a time in the Sixteenth Regiment. Dr. Speck came to Wyandotte, Kansas, in June, 1857, and he became a man of prominence and influence in this section of Kansas, serving for four terms as mayor of the city. Mr. and Mrs. Speck were the parents of two daughters . and two sons. To Mr. and Mrs. Cornell were born six children, con- cerning whom the following brief data is here incorporated: Freder- iek D., who maintains his home at Lincoln, Nebraska, is in the passenger and ticket department of the Missouri Pacific Railroad : Howard M. is a noted physician and surgeon at Las Cruces, New Mexico; Adelaide is the wife of Ernest Blaker, a professor at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York ; Grace is the wife of Captain Fred William Bugbee. U. S. A. now stationed at Huntington, West Virginia ; and George resides at Kansas City, Kansas. One son, Dudley Emerson, Jr., died in 1877. Mrs. Cornell survives her honored husband and is a woman of most gracious personality, one who is deeply beloved hy all who have come within the radius of her gentle influence.
Mr. Cornell ever retained a deep interest in his old comrades in arms and he signified the same by membership in Burnside Post, No. 28, Grand Army of the Republic. In a fraternal way he was affiliated with Wyandotte Lodge, No. 3. Ancient Free & Accepted Masons; and Wyandotte Lodge, No. 440, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He was also a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. In religion he was an attendant of the Episcopal church, with which his widow and children are likewise connected. As a business man, Mr. Cornell bore a reputation for straightforward and
860
HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
honorable methods and as a citizen no one held a higher place in popular confidence and esteem than did he. His death was uniformly mourned and his loss was far more than a local bereavement, his many good deeds having penetrated throughout an extended region.
Mr. Cornell was a man of refined and cultivated tastes and no matter what the pressure of other affairs, found time for the finer things of life. He was a great lover of art, his critical judgment being unfailing, and he had a large collection of pictures and other rare artistie posses- sions which afforded pleasure as much to his friends as to himself. Particularly was he interested in books, owning many rare editions, his library being one of the most attractive spots in the city, with its collection of literary and historical eurios. Ilis literary joys were also those of the author, for he wielded a facile pen and his writings were highly admired. He had the keenest possible love for good books, good schools, bright men, sound politics, and right things generally. Of his personal appearance a sketch of him in the Kansas City Journal of 1886 says, "Mr. Cornell is a gentleman of fine physique, rather above the medium height, and well proportioned; his face, although pleasant and expressive, shows the imprint of the careful, hard working business man." Another paper once wrote of him, "Personally the General is one of the most striking figures to be met with any where. A man of fine physique, handsome and intelligent features, he would attraet at- tention in any throng, in any place. Having traveled extensively, he is possessed of a fund of information on almost every subjeet, and is one of the most pleasant and entertaining conversationalists one could meet."
Upon the demise of the honored subject many tributes were paid to his useful and admirable life, and extracts from a few of these will be quoted. Said the Kansas City Star of that date in an editorial :
"In the passing of Mr. Dudley E. Cornell, Kansas City loses one of its oldest and most distinguished citizens. Ile lived in the city forty- five years, and during that time was twice elected mayor. He was honored, also, by election to a number of other places of public trust, and in every capacity he served the city and county with a faithfulness that made him a potential factor in the municipal life of the Kansas metropolis.
"When Mr. Cornell came to Kansas City, forty-five years ago, there was but little here to inspire the belief that a great city would ever be built at the mouth of the Kaw. Kansas City, Kansas, was then called Wyandotte and it was nothing more than a trading point. It was a wonderful privilege, therefore, that Mr. Cornell enjoyed, to witness the development of the city from the pioneer frontier existence in a wild Western state to the present productive and ambitious eity, representing a state like Kansas. Better still, it was a great privilege to be so prominently identified with the building of such a city as Mr. Cornell has been."
Said the Gazette Globe in a review and appreciation of his life, "With the death of Dudley E. Cornell another landmark is gone. He was a railroad man in the early history of the state, twice mayor, county treasurer, and well-known to about everybody in town."
Extraets from an article in the Kansas City Journal are as follows :
"General Dudley E. Cornell, twiee mayor of Kansas City, Kansas,
861
HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
died at 8:30 o'clock last night at his home, 618 Oakland avenue, Kansas City, Kansas. Ile became ill at a voting booth at the special bond election, February 14. He was taken home in ambulance. An opera- tion was performed, but he was unable to survive the shock.
"He was known in Kansas City, Kansas, as a 'young, old man' and was about the streets and at his club two days before the beginning of his final illness. Ilis last administration as mayor of Kansas City, Kansas, was freer of petty quarrels and peanut polities, perhaps, than any other two years of the municipal history. Ile was familiar with every person working for the city, and on sunny days, when the work in his office was slaek, he used to pitch horseshoes with the firemen at headquarters. The firemen about headquarters now count time from his administration, and their regard is shown by the fact that the fine black horse which pulls the chief's buggy to fires is named 'Dudley' in his honor.
"During his last administration the couneil which served with him was of a different politieal faith, but on one occasion, when the argu- ment had waxed hot over a certain municipal proposition and the mayor had offered to resign before he would accede to the measure, the oppo- sition readily gave in and the opposition leader was the first to decline to accept the resignation."
In the resolutions adopted by Burnside Post, No. 28, G. A. R., held at Grand Army Hall, March 11, occurs the following paragraph :
"Be it resolved, that by the death of our comrade, General Cornell, the Grand Army of the Republie has lost one of its most distinguished and respected members; this post has been deprived of one who was es- teemed and loved by his comrades and friends ; Kansas City has parted with one of the most honored of its former mayors; and the surviving widow and children of the deceased have been called to mourn the loss of a kind husband and father, who was loved, not by them alone, but by all his neighbors and acquaintances."
GEORGE BEMARKT .- Identified with business interests in Kansas City for many years and known as a man of sterling character, Mr. Bemarkt is held in high esteem in the community and has shown at all times a distinctive interest in those agencies that tend to promote the social and material wellbeing of the eity and county. He has served as a member of the city council and has otherwise shown his loyalty to and appreciation of the institutions of his adopted country. He is a man of broad mental ken and well defined opinions, and his strength has been shown both in his advancement to snecess in business activities and in his attitude as a eitizen.
Near the beautiful eity of Breslau, capital of the province of Silecia, Prussia, George Bemarkt was born on the 28th of May. 1847, and in that same seetion of the great empire of Germany his honored parents passed their entire lives. He is a son of Andrew and Caroline Bemarkt, the former of whom was born in the year 1801 and who lived to attain the patriarchal age of eighty-nine years and ten months. His cherished and devoted wife was summoned to the life eternal at the age of seventy years, and both were devout and consistent members of the German Lutheran church. George Bemarkt, of this review, was the sixth in order of birth in a family of eight children, of whom five are
862
IHISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
now living. The father was a grain dealer during the major part of his active career and was one of the honored and influential citizens of the community in which he so long lived and labored to goodly ends.
George Bemarkt received excellent educational advantages in his native land, and his academic studies were of advanced order, as may be inferred from the fact that he was educated for the ministry of the Lutheran church, in deference to the wishes of his loved mother, who was most desirons that he should thus become a clergyman. After due consideration and introspection, however, Mr. Bemarkt became con- vinced that he was better fitted for secular pursuits than for the work of the ministry, and thus he did not receive ordination. In 1869, soon after attaining to his legal majority, he severed the gracions ties that bound him to home and fatherland, and turned his face toward the great American republic in which so many of his countrymen had gained distinctive success and assured position. He crossed the Atlantic and landed in New York city, whence he made his way to Johnstown, that state, where he engaged in the manufacture of gloves. The panic of 1873 worked havoc in all business lines in the eastern states and under these conditions Mr. Bemarkt deemed it advisable to remove to the west, where the financial tension was less severe. He accordingly located in the city of St. Louis, Missouri, where, after following the same line of enterprise for a short period, he engaged in the leather- supply business, in which he there continued about six years. He then came to Kansas City, in 1879, or rather to the old city of Wyan- dotte, the uneleus of the present thriving metropolis of Wyandotte county. Here he established himself in the leather-supply business, in which he built up a substantial and prosperous enterprise, to which he continued to give his attention until the great packing houses of this city entered the same field, when he found it inexpedient to continne operations in the face of so formidable competition. In 1890, therefore, he made a radical change in his field of activity, by engaging in the foundry business, in which he has brought to bear his characteristic energy and discrimination, with the result that he now has a well equipped and extensive plant and controls a large and prosperous business.
Ever taking a loyal interest in all that touches the welfare of his home city, Mr. Bemarkt, while never a seeker of public offiee, has not denied his services in such civic position, as is shown by the faet that for two terms he represented the Second ward in the city council, in which his influence was given to progressive policies and in furtherance of careful and conservative administration of municipal affairs. In a generic sense he is a stanch Republican, but in local matters, where no national issues are involved, he is independent of strict partisan lines and gives his support to the men and measures appealing to his judg- ment. Both he and his wife are earnest members of the German Lutheran church and he is liberal in the support of the various depart- ments of its work, as well as that of the German-American Lutheran church in his home city. Of genial and affable nature, tolerant in his judgment and considerate of the views of others, Mr. Bemarkt has the elements of character that ever beget objective confidence and esteem, and he is thus held in high regard in the city and county that have so long been his home and the stage of his successful activities along normal lines of business enterprise.
863
HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
In the year 1876 Mr. Bemarkt was united in marriage to Miss Jane Dopp, who was born and reared in Montgomery county. New York, and the two children of this union both died in infancy. Mrs. Bemarkt was summoned to the life eternal in 1901, and on the 6th of Jannary, 1904, Mr. Bemarkt wedded Anna F. Knoekstedt, who presides most graciously over their attractive home.
JOHN AUGUSTUS STARK .- Eminently qualified by reason of his natural talents and his acquired attainments for a business career, John Augustus Stark is successfully engaged in mercantile pursuits at Bon- mer Springs, and is also rendering good service as postmaster of the city. Ile was born June 12, 1869, in Westmoreland county, Pennsyl- vania, which was also the birthplace of his parents, James and Sarah (Blair) Stark.
James Stark, a life-long resident of Westmoreland county, Pennsyl- vania, early chose the independent occupation of a farmer, and followed it successfully for many years. Becoming owner of two hundred and sixty-five acres of rich and fertile land, he carried on general farming and stock raising, for years furnishing fat cattle for the Philadelphia and Pittsburg markets. Retiring from active labor in 1907, he has since resided at Export, Pennsylvania. A Democrat in politics, he has filled various township offices. Religiously he is a member of the Presbyterian church, and fraternally he belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In 1868 he married Sarah Blair, and to them nine children have been born, as follows: John Augustus, the subject of this sketch; Minerva Jane, who died in infancy; Robert B .; Francis W .; William ; Eva, who died at the age of twenty-four years; Nannie K., wife of John MeKown, of Apollo, Pennsylvania; and Alphens and Louis F., residents of the Keystone state.
Brought up on the home farm, John A. Stark attended the district schools of Westmoreland county and the Murraysville Laird Institute, after which he took a business course in Pittsburg. In 1893, at the request of an unele, who was an expert horticulturist and nurseryman, he came to Kansas, and remained with him twelve years, after becoming familiar with the fruit and nursery business managing his uncle's affairs. In 1905 Mr. Stark embarked in mercantile pursuits at Bonner Springs, where, as a dealer in flour and feed, he has since built up a large and lucrative business. In 1910 he was appointed postmaster, and is filling the position ably and faithfully. True to the religions faith in which he was brought up, Mr. Stark is a valued member of the Presby- terian church. Fraternally he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
Mr. Stark married, October 4. 1897, Alice Cooper Bugbee, a native of California, who, as a girl of twelve years, came with her parents to Kansas, locating at Wilder. Iler father, George E. Bugbee, was government inspector of sugar in California prior to coming to Kansas. On coming to this state he bought several hundred acres of land in the vicinity of Wilder, and was engaged in farming and stock raising until 1903, when he brought his family to Bonner Springs, which has since been his home. Mr. and Mrs. Stark are the parents of three children, namely: John Bughee, ten years of age; Edward Cooper, five years old; and Helen Alice, three years of age. They have a beautiful home in Bonner Springs.
864
HISTORY OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY
GEORGE C. SMITH .- The president of the People's National Bank of Kansas City, Kansas, has gained secure status as one of the substantial and essentially representative business men of the metropolis of Wyan- dotte county, and his personal popularity shows that he has admirably measured up to the gange of public approbation in the community that is the stage of his activities. He was one of the organizers of the bank of which he is the executive head and it is largely due to his careful and well ordered administration policies that the institution has gained such distinctive success and definite precedenee.
George Clarence Smith claims the Hawkeye state as the place of his nativity and thus, in exemplifying the progressive western spirit, he shows that he is "to the manner born," although he was reared in the east. IIe was born at Osage, Mitchell county, Iowa, on the 6th of June, 1860, and is a son of Hiram R. and Lydia (Culver) Smith, both of whom were born and reared in Chautauqua county, New York, and both of whom now reside at Westfield, that county, within whose borders the respective families settled in the early pioneer days. He whose name initiates this review is an only child, and he has the satisfaction of being a scion of families specially notable for longevity. His father, who was born in the year 1834, was one of a family of ten children, all of whom lived to be more than sixty years of age, and his mother was the four- teenth in order of birth in a family of sixteen children, none of whom died until he or she had attained to the age of sixty years. Hiram R. Smith is a son of Richard Smith, who was one of the pioneers of Chautauqua county, New York, where he erected the first flour mill in the village of Smith's Mills, which still bears the name given to it in his honor. Soon after his marriage Hiram R. Smith same to the west and. established his home in Iowa, where he remained a few years, at the expiration of which he returned to his native state and county and engaged in the retail mercantile business, in which he continued until 1908, since which he has lived virtually retired in that attractive little city, where he and his wife find their circle of friends coincident with that of their acquaintances.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.