USA > Kansas > Wyandotte County > History of Wyandotte County, Kansas, and its people, Vol. II > Part 49
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George C. Smith was a child at the time of his parents return from Iowa to Chautauqua county, New York, and he was afforded the ad- vantages of the public schools of Westfield. Ilis initial experienees in connection with business affairs were gained in the capacity of delivery clerk for a grocery store in his home town, where he was later a elerk in a clothing establishment. In 1877. when about seventeen years of age, he secured the position of messenger boy for the First National Bank of Westfield, and through efficient and faithful service he secured advancement to the position of bookkeeper in this institution, with which he continued to be identified until 1882. when he became cashier of the East Hamburg Canning Company, in Erie county New York. In the winter of the following year he came to Kansas, and on the Ist of January, 1884, he assumed the position of teller of the First National Bank of Ottawa, Franklin county. Here was laid the foundation of his pronounced success in connection with the banking business, as he was advanced to the position of assistant cashier and in 1895 was made cashier of the bank, an incumbency which he retained until 1908, when he came to Kansas City, this state, and became one of the potent factors in the organization of the People's National Bank, of which he has been
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president from the time of incorporation, on the 1st of January, 1909. The bank bases its operations upon a capital stock of one hundred thou- sand dollars, its stockholders are numbered among the most substantial citizens of Wyandotte county, and its management compasses all that is conservative and effective in the matter of executive control. Mr. Smith is also president of the Ottawa Condensing Company, at Ottawa, this state, and is a director and also treasurer of the Bonner Brand Portland Cement Company, at Bonner Springs, Wyandotte county. He is liberal and public-spirited as a citizen and business man and is ever ready to lend his co-operation in the furtherance of enterprises for the general good of the community. That he soon gained serure vantage ground in the confidence and esteem of the business men of Kansas City is shown by the fact that in 1910, within two years after establishing his home in this city, he was elected president of the Mercantile Club, the leading organization of the business men of Kansas City. He is an advocate of the principles of the Democratic party, but has had no desire for the honors or emohiments of public office. He is affiliated with Ottawa Lodge, No. 18, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Ottawa, his former home, and in Kansas City he is an appreciative and valued member of Wyandotte Lodge, No. 440, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, besides which he is identified with the Union Club and the Elm Ridge Golf Club. While not members of a church, the family affiliates with the First Presbyterian church.
On the 31st of January, 1888, was solemnized the marriage of ALL. Smith to Miss Laura Patterson, who was born at Bncyrus, the judiciar center of Crawford county, Ohio, and who is the third in order of birth of the five children born to Frank and Martha (Pettit) Patterson, the former a native of Ohio and the latter of Pennsylvania. Mr. Patterson was, when twenty-one years of age, cashier of a bank in Crawford county, Ohio, and thereafter he passed about three years in Hawaii. He then returned to Ohio and after the close of the Civil war he came to Kansas in company with Major Bowels and established his home at Junction City, Geary county, where he became a specially prominent and influen tial eitizen. He was engaged in the merchandise business at that place and also served as postmaster and as probate judge of the county. Both he and his wife continued to reside in this state until their death and their names merit a place on the roll of the honored pioneers of Kansas. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have two children,-Lawrence P. and Margaret.
JACOB W. LONGFELLOW .- A widely known and highly respected citizen of Wyandotte county, Kansas, Jacob W. Longfellow, of Bonner Springs, has filled various offices of trust, and has been an important factor in advancing the business and agricultural interests of this sec- tion of the state. Coming from substantial New England stoek on both sides of the house, he was born May 2, 1841, in Aroostook county, Maine.
Charles Longfellow, his father, was born in Washington county, Maine, May 28, 1812, and was there a tiller of the soil during his earlier life. Migrating with his family to Kansas in 1855, he took up a land claim in Douglas county prior to the running of lines. He afterwards got a elear title to the land, and on the fine farm which he improved from its original wildness carried on general farming, making a specialty
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of raising cattle and wheat. During his early residence in that state, he took part in the exciting scenes that occurred, and during the border troubles was one of the volunteers that crossed the line into Missouri in order to prevent General Price from entering Kansas, and while thus employed had a hair-breadth escape from death, his horse being shot from under him. He lived to a venerable age, dying on his home farm in Douglas county, Kansas, in 1909. He was a staneh Republican in politics, and although frequently solicited to accept public office per- sistently refused all such honors, preferring to devote his time and at- tention to his farm and his family. He married Mary Day, who was born in Washington county, Maine, and died on the home farm in 1896. They were the parents of six children, namely : Mrs. Iney F. Dougherty, of Douglas county, Kansas; Daniel P., who was killed in the army; Jacob W., the special subject of this sketch; Mrs. Augusta A. Dunn, living in Southington, Connecticut ; Leonard N., of Greenwood county ; and Mrs. Sadie A. Albaugh, of San Antonio, Texas.
Spending his boyhood days on the home farm, Jacob W. Longfellow became familiar with the three "r's" in the district schools of Aroostook county, Maine, and after coming with his parents to Kansas, in 1857, attended the public schools of Lawrence. Soon after the breaking out of the Civil war, ere attaining his majority, he enlisted in Company D, Second Kansas Volunteer Infantry, which saw active service in south- west Missouri, and at the battle of Wilson Creek he was wounded. Re- turning home at the close of the war, Mr. Longfellow assisted on the farm for a time, afterward being engaged in the transfer business at Lawrence, Kansas, for a few years. Coming from there to Kansas City, Kansas, he was for seventeen years connected with a large wholesale grocery.
In 1896 Mr. Longfellow was elected sheriff of Wyandotte county, and after holding the office four years settled on his farm near Bonner Springs, and was there pleasantly and profitably employed in the care of his three hundred and twenty acres of land until 1910. Disposing then of his estate, he moved to Bonner Springs, where he has since lived retired from active business responsibilities. A Republican in politics. he is interested in local affairs and is an ardent supporter of beneficial enterprises. In the spring of 1911 he was a candidate, on the Citizens' ticket, for mayor of Bonner Springs.
On November 8, 1866, Mr. Longfellow was united in marriage with Sarah A. Davis, of Illinois, and to them five children have been born, namely : Charles I., of Kansas City, Kansas; Jacob HI., of Los Angeles, California ; Fred D., of Kansas City, Kansas ; Harry S., of Long Beach, California ; and Stella, who died in infancy. An adopted danghter, Mrs. Lena S. Platter, is living in Colorado, near Steamboat Springs.
Mr. Longfellow stands high in the Masonic order, in which he has taken the thirty-second degree. He is a member and past master of the Blue Lodge ; a member and past high priest of Wyandotte Chapter, No. 6, Royal Arch Masons, of Kansas City, Kansas; a member and past eminent commander of Ivanhoe Commandery, No. 21, Knights Templar, of Kansas City, Kansas; and belongs to Abdallah Temple, A. O. N. M. S., of Leavenworth, Kansas.
Mr. Longfellow of this sketch is a second consin of the famous poet, Henry W. Longfellow.
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JAMES MCGREW .- It was given to James McGrew to wield a large and beneficial influence in connection with the development and upbuild- ing of the state of Kansas, and his identification with its history was such as to reflect lasting honor upon his memory as one of the sterling pioneers of his commonwealth. He was a man of broad mental grasp and exalted integrity of character, and, well equipped for leadership in thought and action, he used his powers in behalf of the civic and material progress of the state and especially of Wyandotte county, which was his home for more than half a century. Any history of this county or of the state itself would stultify its consistency were their failure to take due cog- nizance of the life and labors of "Governor" MeGrew, as he was famil- iarly known and affectionately designated by the people of the state. He attained to patriarchal years and was in excellent health until a few days prior to his demise, which occurred at his home in MeGrew's Grove. on Quindaro boulevard, Kansas City. on the 19th of January, 1911. Thus, at the venerable age of eighty-eight years, eleven months and twenty-three days, there passed away one of the last of a striking group of men who were most influential in shaping the history of the Sunflower state.
James McGrew was born in Adams county, Pennsylvania, on the 26th of January, 1822, and he received his early education in the schools of that state. He accompanied his parents on their removal to Ohio and later to Indiana, and was twenty-two years of age at the time when he came with them to the west. His father was numbered among the pioneer settlers on the Sar and Fox Indian reservation in Iowa, where he took up his residence in the year 1844, and in that state the parents passed the residue of their lives. The subject of this memoir eventually engaged in the general merchandise business at Lancaster, Keokuk coun- ty. Iowa, where he remained until September, 1857, when he came to Wyandotte county, Kansas, where he continued to maintain his home until his death. Concerning this movement and subsequent activities on his part the following statements were made in a Kansas City paper at the time of his death and are worthy of perpetuation in this article : "In September, 1857, while the late Thomas H. Swope and a party of eastern 'boomers' were organizing the old city of Wyandotte, Mr. Me- Grew found the place to engage in trade. He was a free-state man and took an active interest in the shaping of the affairs of the territory of Kansas, as a member of the territorial legislature in 1859 and 1860, and he was also a member of the first state senate after Kansas had been admitted to the Union. He was elected to this office in 1862. In the campaign in Kansas in 1864 there were two Republican state tickets in the field. Mr. MeGrew was the nominee for lieutenant governor on the regular Republican ticket, and he defeated Hon. John J. Ingalls for this office by about four thousand votes, his antagonist having been the . candidate on the Union Republican ticket. Mr. McGrew served his form with Samuel J. Crawford, the war governor of Kansas."
It should be stated further that as lieutenant governor Mr. MeGrew was fearless and loyal in his efforts to maintain peace and order during the climacterie period of the Civil war, when the state was rent by con- flicting elements and was the stage of bitter political and personal animosities. He was identified with various lines of enterprise in Wyan- dotte county for many years after the war and ever held a secure place
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in the confidence and esteem of the people of the state that so long repre- sented his home. ITis co-operation was given in support of all measures and undertakings tending to advance the general welfare of the state and the splendid resources of a resolute and sterling personality were ever given in support of wise economie and governmental policies. He continued to be a stanch advocate of the principles of the Republican party until the close of his life. He lived up to the full tension of the pioneer epoch in the history of the west and was well fortified for the burdens and responsibilities incidental to the same.
Mr. MeGrew was twiee married. He first married Miss Mary Doggett, of Keokuk county, Iowa, and she was summoned to the life eternal in 1866. For his second wife Governor MeGrew married Miss Lydia Slaven, of Alliance, Stark county, Ohio, and she survives him, as do also the following children: Henry, an attorney and representa- tive business man of Kansas City, Kansas, is individually mentioned on other pages of this publication ; Josephine is the wife of Henry II. Smal- ley, of Springfield, Missouri ; Louise is the wife of Thomas S. Moffett, of Kansas City, Missouri : Grace is the wife of Captain William F. Clarke, of the United States army, residing in Kansas City, Kansas; and Miss Mary also resides in this city, in the beautiful family homestead in which the father passed the last years of his long and useful life.
JAMES D. WATERS .- A man of strong convictions, able, aggressive, sagacious and honest, James D. Waters, of Bonner Springs, has contrib- uted in no small measure to the progress and prosperity of this beautiful little city, being ever among the foremost to assist in the establishment of any legitimate enterprise condneive to the advancement of the commun- ity. A son of Aaron P. and Elizabeth (Stroup) Waters, he was born November 25, 1860. in Kansas, on a farm lying six and one-half miles sonth of Leavenworth.
Aaron P. Waters was born and bred in Ohio, and married an Illinois girl. Coming to Kansas with his family in 1859, he located on a farm south of Leavenworth, where he remained abont seven years. In 1866 he bought a large tract of land in Wyandotte county, near Paw Paw Bend, now called Loring. The entire tract was covered with timber, with the exception of twenty aeres which had been farmed by the Indians. He cleared all but forty acres of fine timber, selling the wood which he ent to the Union Pacific Railway Company, which at that time used wood instead of coal in firing its engines. He improved the land, and in addition to tilling the soil was an extensive stock raiser, the farm today being one of the best in Wyandotte county. In 1875 his wife died, and her body was laid to rest in the Bonner Springs cemetery. Three years later, in 1878, he, accompanied by his three sons and three daughters, started overland in a covered wagon for Washington terri- tory, passing enroute through western Nebraska, in which Kearney. City, then a border town, was a supply town for cow camps. When, in May, he reached Cheyenne with his family a snow storm was in progress that lasted three days. While there he was taken ill with mountain fever, died, and was buried at Cheyenne.
James D. Waters, the special subject of this sketch, was the third child, and the two older sons are also residents of Kansas. Heck Broth- ers. of Cheyenne, the leading cattle men of Wyoming, noticed the little
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funeral procession that left their stable in a spring wagon, in which the mourners were sitting beside the coffin on the way to the cemetery, and when the children came back with the wagon Mr. Heck questioned James D. regarding his financial situation. On being told that the entire assets were the horses, wagon, harness and about seventy dollars in money, asked the lad what he proposed to do. He told Mr. Heck that his father had requested him to send two of the girls back to Kansas, and that he proposed to send Janie to Colonel Baker, an old- time settler of Leavenworth, while billie was to be sent to Robert Jaggard, also a pioneer of Leavenworth county. The older girl, Alice, he wished to place with some one in Cheyenne, and Mr. Ileck asked for the privilege of taking her into his own family and giving her a home. The brother at once assented.
Charlie Waters, the fourth son, also returned to Kansas, while William Waters, the youngest boy, secured a position with a cow outfit eighteen miles from Cheyenne. On the day that he left for the row station, at Laning ranch, Willie asked his brother James for ten cents to buy a plug of tobacco, and James, who had not before known that Willie chewed tobacco, went into a store and gave fifty cents, the only money he had between himself and the world, for a plug of tobacco, which he gave to William, at the same time bidding him God speed.
James D. Waters having found homes for his brothers and sisters, was hired by a big Missourian to work for F. M. Phillips, the "Metallic h" Cow Outfit, at the mouth of Chngwater, Wyoming, ninety miles away. The big Missourian loaded a four-mule team with provisions and started the tender-foot northward, telling Mr. Waters that when overtaken by night he was to stop at certain eow ranches, and when the meal was called walk in, sit down at the table and satisfy his hunger, and after a good sleep and his breakfast, hook up his team and con- tinne his journey without offering to settle for his bill. This kind of proceedure did not appeal to Mr. Waters, who asked for money with which to pay his expenses. The Missourian langhed, and told him to tell the people along the line that if they needed money to charge the hill to F. M. Phillips. Mr. Waters found, however, that in those days no charges were ever made for meals or accommodations at the cow outfits. Meandering across the prairie and through the canons with his load of provisions, he arrived at his point of destination in a few days, and after working a short time for Mr. Phillips, hired out to Charlie Charlton, who was hauling freight from Cheyenne to the Black Hills. Mr. Waters whacked bulls from Cheyenne to Leeds and Dead- wood two trips, living at night in the open air with nothing but the stars of Heaven above him, with buffalo chips to warm himself, that being the only visible supply of fuel, and now often tells of the cow birds that accompanied him across the dreary trail.
In the fall of 1878 the Charlton outfit went into camp for the winter on the head water of Hat creek,'one hundred and sixty miles north of Cheyenne. Shortly after establishing the camp. Heck Brothers, who owned the C. R. Cow Outfit, bought Charlton's freight outfit, and Mr. Heek, the man who had befriended Mr. Waters at Cheyenne and given his sister Alice a home, became his employer. Giving to his em- ployer his best service, he was made foreman of the outfit. a position that he filled ably and well for six years. In the spring of 1884, Heck
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Brothers sent Mr. Waters to the John Day country, Oregon, to buy three thousand head of cattle, which he was to take across the trail to Wyom- ing during the summer. The price of twenty-five dollars a head for all Oregon cattle that were branded, three-year old steers being ent out. seemed prohibitive to Heek Brothers, who wired Mr. Waters to return and seek cattle in Texas.
On his return trip Mr. Waters visited his unele, Jacob Stroup, an old forty-niner then living at the mouth of Payette river, Idaho, and through the urgent solicitation of his uncle wired Heck Brothers asking if they objected to his remaining in Idaho. The reply stating that the firm had no objections if he could thus better his condition, Mr. Waters conelnded to stay, and bought the improvements on a tract of land containing one hundred and sixty aeres, lying a mile from the present site of Payette City, paying the owner. Ross Clements, two hundred and seventy-five dollars for improvements. Going to Boise City. Idaho. Mr. Clements released his claim back to the government and Mr. Waters filed a pre-emption aet.
Returning then to Payette river, Mr. Waters, with others, organ- ized the first irrigation ditch company that took water from that stream, and after proving up his claim sold it and also his stock in the irriga- tion ditch to Henry Irvin. The trade being completed. he had a receipt from the land receiver at Boise City for the money he had paid to the government for the land, on the back of which he indorsed- "For in consideration of four thousand dollars, I hereby relinquish my right, interest, and title within described land to llenry Irvin," and took in payment for the same Henry Irvin's note drawing interest at the rate of one per cent a month. The note he placed in his inside coat pocket.
Accepting then a position at the Emmon Brothers horse ranch. under foreman John Lackey, Mr. Waters, with Tom Hall. a Texas lad. "busted bronks" for a year. Becoming then foreman for Mr. North. general manager of the Clover Valley Cow Outfit, he drove three thou- sand head of cattle across the trail to the Humboldt river, Nevada, and continued with the company until the spring of 1887. Having then arranged to enter the employ of the C. R. Ontfit, of Wyoming. then under the management of Tom Swan, of Indianola, lowa, Mr. Waters left Golconda, Nevada, with six hundred dollars in cash reposing in his inside coat pocket beside the nearly worn-ont note given him by Henry Irvin. After stopping two weeks at Ogden, Utah, he spent a month in Salt Lake City, going thence to Colorado Springs, Colorado, and a week later to Denver.
While in Colorado Springs, Mr. Waters wired to the Ontfit to send a draft to him for one hundred dollars at Denver, realizing that his cash would be exhausted soon after he reached that city. During the eleven days that he remained there, he visited the post office seven times daily, but failed to find draft, and for the first time in all of his wild and woolly experience was broke, and owed the hotel proprietor twenty-two dollars. Pawning his diamond ring, he went to Cheyenne, Wyoming. where he was to wire the landlord money that he owed him, while the landlord was to express to him his bed, saddle, spurs, bridle, ring and trunk, the trunk being a seamless sack with a buckskin string as a lock. Reaching Cheyenne the following morning, one of the first men that
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greeted him as he walked up the street was Henry Irvin, of Idaho, who was there for the purpose of selling three thousand head of three year old steers. After, as a matter of course, the two men had taken a little dnek fit. Mr. Irvin asked Mr. Waters what in the world he had done with his four thousand dollar note. Replying that he still retained that portion of the paper not worn out, Mr. Irvin advised him to loan the money to some one in Wyoming. Indorsing the note, he delivered it to Tom Swan, manager of the C. R. Outfit and the Western Live Stock people, and having figured np the interest thereon took Mr. Swan's note in lien of Mr. Irvin's. Mr. Waters subsequently worked either for the C. R. Outfit and the Western Live Stoek people or the Node Outfit until the fall of 1899, when he returned to Bonner Springs, Kansas, and married Rose M., daughter of Dr. Doherty.
After his marriage Mr. Waters was in the employ of the Fred Heim Brewing Company, of Kansas City, Missouri, as bookkeeper, until 1893, having charge of the Kansas City side of the business. Making a race into the strip country in 1893 from the south side, he seeured one hundred and sixty aeres on Turkey creek, and having proved up bought an adjoining tract of one hundred and sixty acres. Moving baek to Bonner Springs, Kansas, in 1895, Mr. Waters matriculated at the Electric Medical School, of Kansas City, Missouri, from which he seeured a diploma in 1898. For several years he was connected with Dr. Coy's Sanitarium, leaving it in 1901, when he organized the Farmers' State Bank at Bonner Springs, of which he has since been cashier. This is a strong financial institution, with a capital which has been increased from five thousand dollars to twenty-five thousand dollars, and has paid large dividends.
Mr. Waters has been prominent in the installation of all the Bonner Springs enterprises. A stockholder of the Electric Light plant, he acted as secretary and treasurer of the same, and is a stockholder and the president and manager of the Wyandotte County Telephone Com- pany, which is a Bonner Springs organization. The organizer of the Bonner Springs Oil and Gas Company, a thirty-thousand dollar organi- zation, he was active manager of the same until its holdings were sold to the Bonner Portland Cement Company for the neat sum of fifty- three thousand dollars. Ile afterward became treasurer of the Bonner Portland Cement Company, and when it passed into the hands of a receiver tendered his resignation as treasurer and severed his connec- tion as an officer. He also organized the Lake of the Forest Club, which has a membership of two hundred, and is part owner of the property known as Forest Lake.
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