USA > Kansas > Wyandotte County > History of Wyandotte County, Kansas, and its people, Vol. II > Part 56
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November 2, 1895, Mr. Crockett was married to Miss Mellie Wise, a young lady of very attractive personality, who was born in the state of Illinois. Their marriage took place in Kansas City, Kansas, soon after Mr. Crockett went there to live. They have one child.
Mr. Crockett is a member of the Yeoman Brotherhood of America and has many friends in that society. He is a member of the Mercantile Club of Kansas City, Kansas ; belongs to the Missouri and the Kansas City Society of Public Accountants, and the American Association of Certified Public Accountants. He has not departed from the Presby- terian faith of his parents, but is one of the elders of the Grandview Park Presbyterian church and for the past five years has been superin- tendent of the Sunday school. Being one of a large family himself he is genuinely interested in children, their welfare and their future. He was appointed to serve on the school board to finish an unexpired term
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and was then elected for one full term. Politieally he is a Prohibition- ist. There is always something very fine about the man who is willing to place himself with the minority, and whether the eanse will ever triumph or not, whether one agrees with the principles for which Prohibition stands or not, one eannot fail to admire the faith and en- thusiasm of the man who espouses that eanse. Mr. Crockett has performed many noble acts of which the public has some knowledge, but of the number of times he has stretched out a helping hand to those in trouble, the publie knows nothing.
DANIEL J. MAHER .- This representative member of the Kansas bar has been a resident of this state sinee his boyhood days and here he has won advancement through his own energies and ability, with the result that he is now conceded to be one of the strongest criminal lawyers in the state, with a reputation that is unassailable in any connection. He has been concerned with much important litigation in the state and federal courts of Kansas, especially in the department of criminal practice, and through his character and services he has honored the pro- fession of his choice. ITe has been engaged in practice in Kansas City since 1883 and has been a member of the bar of the state for fully thirty- five years. He has brought to his profession the attributes of an alert and well trained mind and the resources of a strong and sterling char- aeter, so that there is signal consistency in according to him in this publication specific recognition as one of the leaders of the bar of Wyan- dotte county.
Daniel J. Maher was born in the city of Alton, Madison county, Illinois, on the 14th of March, 1854, and is a son of John and Honora (Hay) Maher, both of whom were born and reared in county Longford, Ireland. About the year 1832, soon after their marriage, the parents severed the ties that bound them to the fair old Emerald Iste and set forth for America. They first settled on Long Island, New York, and thenee removed to Alton, Illinois, where they continued to maintain their home until 1865, when they removed to Orleans, Morgan county. that state, whence, in 1868, they came to Kansas and took up their abode on a pioneer farm in Franklin county, where the father developed a valuable property and incidentally lived up to the full tension of the pioneer era in the history of that section of the state. There his cher- ished and devoted wife died in 1882, and thereafter he made his home with his son Daniel J., of this review, in Kansas City, until 1888. Of
the ten children the subject of this sketch is now the only one living.
In the common schools of his native state Daniel J. Maher gained his rudimentary education and he was a lad of fourteen years at the time of the family removal to Kansas, where he assisted in the work of the home farm and continued to attend the public schools. at intervals. until he had attained to the age of seventeen years. IIe then left the parental home and for a short time thereafter was employed at rail- road work in the state of Iowa. HIe then returned to the home farm and while assisting in its various operations he began the work of preparing himself for his chosen profession. Riding nine miles morning and night, between the farm and the city of Ottawa, Kansas, he prosecuted the study of law under the able preceptorship of Colonel Charles B. Mason, who was at that time one of the leading members of the bar of Franklin
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county, of which Ottawa is the judicial center. He brought to bear marked energy and perseverance and made rapid progress in his absorp- tion and assimilation of science of jurisprudence, with the result that he secured admittance to the Kansas bar in 1876. His professional novi- tiate was served at Ottawa, where he soon proved the validity of his claim to consideration and support in the work of his exacting vocation and where he consequently built up a substantial practice. In Ottawa Mr. Maher was incumbent of the only political office for which he has consented to become a candidate. He was elected city attorney and as such he administered the affairs of the office without fear or favor. It was mainly due to his determined efforts that the saloons in Ottawa were closed, and he there formulated the city ordinanee whose provi- sions were later incorporated in the present prohibition law of the state.
Mr. Maher continued in the practice of his profession at Ottawa until 1883, when, realizing the superior claims of Kansas City, which was rapidly growing in population and commercial importance, he removed to this city, where he has since continued in active practice and where his clientage has long been of distinctively representative character. H has appeared in connection with many important causes brought before the courts of this section of the state and he has shown splendid powers in the handling of criminal cases. In this department of practice his reputation far transcends local limitations and he is known as one of the most brilliant and resourceful criminal lawyers of the state. He appeared for the defense in the case of Mrs. Mary Hudspeth, charged as an accessory in the C. & A. train robbery ; was similarly retained by the Pullen boys, charged with wrecking a train on the Wabash Railroad; the cases known as the Fowler conspiracy cases; was attorney for the prosecution in the trial of "Tutes" Rambo, charged with murder; and appeared for the defense in the Rumble murder case. These represent only a few of the more important eriminal cases in which his services have been enlisted, and he has to his credit a large number of victories gained in this department of professional work.
Though he gives a staunch support to the generic principles of the Democratic party Mr. Maher holds himself aloof from striet partisan dictates and in local affairs especially he gives his support to the men and measures meeting the approval of his judgment. He is a man of broad intellectual grasp and is well fortified in his opinions touching economie and civie matters. He is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America and both he and his wife attend and support the Congrega- tional church, though he is not formally a member of the same.
In the year 1879 Mr. Maher was united in marriage to Miss Jennie M. Robb, who was born in the city of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, on the 15th of August, 1858, and who is a daughter of James and Mary (Fox) Robb, the former of whom was born in county Down, Ireland, and the latter in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, their marriage having been solemnized in Pittsburg, that state. Mr. Robb was for forty years one of the representative merchants of Pittsburg, whence he removed to Ottawa, Kansas, in 1868. He became one of the influential eitizens of Franklin county, which he represented in the state legislature, and he also served as postmaster of Ottawa for several years. He was a Repub- lican in his political proclivities, was a man of fine mind and sterling character, and was a leader in thought and action in the community.
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He attained to the venerable age of eighty-four years, and his noble wife was also eighty-four years of age when she was summoned to the life eternal. Mrs. Maher was graduated in the Ottawa high school and is a woman of distinctive culture and most gracious personality. She has proved a valuable coadjutor to her husband, whom she has assisted as a stenographer and in other lines of his work, and for several years she has been a prominent factor in furthering the eause of woman suffrage. Both on the lecture platform and through other specific efforts she has done much to advance the cause, and she has also been deeply interested in charitable and benevolent work, in which connection she has secured pardons for a number of young men serving prison terms. In each instance she has made careful investigation and upon presenting her causes before the governors of Kansas and other states she has shown conclusively the justice of her claims for such elemeney to be extended in the way of pardons. After the release of such prisoners she has given a number of them kindly advice and timely aid, and thus has helped them to live honest and useful lives. Mrs. Maher was the delegate from Kansas to the national woman's suffrage conven- tion held in the city of Washington on the golden anniversary of the cause, as well as on the seventy-eighth birthday anniversary of that noble woman and earnest worker, Miss Susan B. Anthony. At this conven- tion she delivered a most effective address, and the same was made the subject of most appreciative and complimentary mention by the news- paper press throughout the country, in reports of the convention.
Mr. and Mrs. Maher have two children. Daniel Robb Maher, who is now a captain of the city fire department of Kansas City; and Nettie Honora, who is the wife of Edward L. Doores, of this eity.
CHARLES W. LOVELACE .- The present incumbent of the dual office of municipal purchasing agent and license inspector of Kansas City, Kansas, is a scion of well known and highly honored pioneer families of Wyandotte county, of which he is a native son, and here both his paternal and maternal grandparents established homes when the county was on the very frontier of civilization. Special emphasis and signifi- rance is given to this statement hy the noteworthy fact that the mother of Mr. Lovelace was the first white child born within the borders of the county. He has well upheld the prestige of names long prominent and highly honored in connection with the history of Wyandotte county. and thus is distinctively worthy of representation in this publication, whose province is the consideration of the history of the county and its people.
Charles W. Lovelace was born in Kansas City, Kansas, on the 9th of September, 1881, and is a son of Eldridge H. and Maggie (White) Lovelace, the former of whom was born in Raytown, Jackson county. Missouri, and the latter of whom was, as already noted, the first white child born in Wyandotte county, Kansas, where her father, Isaac N. White. took up his residence when this section of the state was practi- cally an untrammeled wilderness. He was one of the first settlers of the county and here developed a farm, besides which he was a most influential factor in public affairs in the pioneer days, during which he contributed in generous measure to the social and material advancement of this section of the state, where he passed the residne of a long and
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useful life. Charles Lovelace, the paternal grandfather of him whose name initiates this review, was likewise one of the early settlers of the county, to which he removed with his family from Missouri. He is still living, secure in the high esteem of all who knew him. The names of both of these worthy men merit enduring place on the roll of the sterling pioneers of Wyandotte county. Eldridge H. Lovelace was a boy at the time of the family removal to this county and here he even- tually became one of the representative business men and influential citizens of Kansas City, where he was engaged in the retail hardware trade at the time of his death, which occurred in 1906. He was a man of fine character and marked ability, broad minded and public spirited as a citizen, and he contributed his full quota to the upbuilding of the greater Kansas City, where his widow still maintains her home. The genealogy of the Lovelace family, whose name has been identified with the annals of American history since the Colonial era, is traced back to distinguished English origin, the family having been one of patrieian order in the "right little, tight little isle," as Max O'Rell entitled England.
Charles W. Lovelace is indebted to the public schools of Kansas City, his native place, for his early educational discipline, and after his graduation in the high school, in 1900, he entered the University of Kan- sas, at Lawrence, in which he completed the prescribed course in mining engineering and was graduated as a member of the class of 1904. Thereafter he devoted his attention to the work of his profession until the death of his honored father, in 1906, when he assumed charge of the substantial hardware business that had long been conducted by his father in the section of the city known as Argentine. This was a thriving town at the time of the annexation to Kansas City, within re- cent years. To this enterprise Mr. Lovelace continued to give his atten- tion until May. 1910, when he was appointed to his present municipal office, the affairs of which he has administered with marked discrimina- tion and carefulness. He is a stalwart Republican, as was also his father, and he is affiliated with the Tribe of Ben Hur and with the Masonic fraternity. He has a secure place in the confidence and esteem of the people of his native county and is popular in both business and social circles.
In the year 1908 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Lovelace to Miss Eva Ilirst, daughter of J. A. Hirst, a representative citizen of Kansas City.
ELDRIDGE Il. LOVELACE .- He to whom this memoir is dedicated passed virtually his entire life within the borders of Wyandotte county, with whose history the family name has been prominently identified for more than half a century, and here he found ample scope for effective effort in connection with the productive activities of life. He gained definite precedence as one of the representative business men of the county, and his character, the positive expression of a strong and noble nature, was such as to gain and retain to him the unqualified confidence and regard of his fellow men. Ile was a citizen whose interest in the welfare of the community, was of the most benignant order and his loyalty to the state in which his life was passed was of insistent and appreciative type. Such was his standing as a man and such his accom- Vol. II-27
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plishment that it is altogether consonant that within the pages of this publication be incorporated a tribute to his memory.
Eldridge 11. Lovelace was born at Raytown. Jackson county, Missouri, on the 31st of October 1856, and was a son of Charles and Louisa ( Hewitt ) Lovelace, the former of whom was born in Tennessee and the latter in the state of New York. Their marriage was solemnized at. Raytown. Missouri, where the father was at the time identified with farming and in addition to which he was a railroad contractor. Mrs. Lonisa (Hewitt) Lovelace, whose death occurred November 26, 1890, was a daughter of Dr. Richard Hewitt, who was one of the first white men to settle in Wyandotte county, whither he came as Indian agent from Ohio, in company with a party of Indians in the year 1844, and his daughter Louisa here attended school when a child, with none but Indian children as schoolmates. Dr. Hewitt served as surgeon in the Union army in the Civil war and then returned to Wyandotte county. where he practiced his profession for many years and where he also owned and operated a farm, in the meanwhile maintaining his residence in the village of Turner. Both he and his wife continned to reside in
this county until their death. Charles Lovelace removed from Missouri to Wyandotte county in 1857 and established his home at Turner, where he has resided during the long intervening years. He is one of the venerable pioneers of the county, now eighty years of age (1911), and he holds secure place in the esteem of the people of the county, with whose civic and industrial development and upbuilding he has been prominently concerned. He was one of the intrepid argonants who made the journey across the plains to California, with ox teams, in 1849.
Eldridge IT. Lovelace was reared to maturity in Wyandotte county, where his parents established their home in the year following his birth. and here he was afforded the advantages of the public schools of the pioneer days, a discipline which was effectively supplemented by private study and reading and by close association with the practical affairs of life. Ile continued to reside at the parental home until the time of his marriage, and in the meanwhile he was associated with his father in the operation of the latter's flour mill at old Wyandotte, on the Missouri river. Soon afterward he became cashier of the Northrup Bank at Wyandotte in 1884, and he held this position until the institution failed, and after the death of Mr. Northrup he served for several years as one of the excentors of the estate. In 1900 be opened a general hardware store at Argentine, this county, and his excellent management and high reputation enabled him to build up a large and prosperous business. Since his death, which occurred on the 30th of April, 1905, this enter- prise has been continued by his widow, and the same is under the active management of their youngest son, Hewitt E. Mr. Lovelace was thoroughly progressive and public spirited as a citizen and was ever ready to lend his cooperation in the furtherance of measures for the general good of the community. Though he had no predilection for public office he was well fortified in his opinions and was a staunch adherent of the Republican party. He was affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America.
On the 25th of November. 1880, Mr. Lovelace was united in mar- riage to Miss Maggie White, who was born in the old town of Wyandotte. this county. now a part of Kansas City, and who further had the dis-
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tinetion of being the first white child to be born in the little frontier village, which was the virtual nucleus of the present thriving metropolis of the county. She is a daughter of Isaac M. and Harriet (Cable) White, the former of whom was born in Ireland and the latter in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The parents of Isaac M. White were of Scotch and Irish lineage and their marriage was solemnized on the Isle of Man, in the Irish sea. They came to America in an early day and were pioneers of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where he was em- ployed in the arsenal. Both are buried in Kansas City, Kansas. Isaac M. White removed with his family to Wyandotte county, Kansas, in 1856. and was accompanied by his venerable father, who here passed the residue of his life. The father of Mrs. Lovelace had previously been employed in the United States arsenal in Pittsburg, as stated, and here his marriage was solemnized. Upon coming to Kansas he brought from St. Louis, by means of hoat, a stoek of general merchandise, and he established his home in the village of Wyandotte, as one of its earliest merchants. Here he continued in active business, one of the honored and influential citizens of the county, until his death, which occurred in 1871. His widow long survived him and was summoned to the life eternal in the year June, 1890. He likewise was one of the historie band who made the long and hazardous journey across the plains to California in 1849, and there he continued his quest for gold for some time, after which he returned to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and thence he came to Kansas City. Concerning the children of Isaac M. and Har- riet (Cable) White the following brief data is entered: Maria, is the wife of William Wagner, of Olathe, Kansas; Fannie is the wife of Wil- liam Baldridge, of Eseondido, California; Mollie, is the wife of Robert McKay, of Chicago, Illinois; Mrs. Lovelace was the next in order of birth ; Emma, is the wife of William Nichols, of Berkeley, California ; and Bessie, is the wife of Henry Haynes, of Kansas City, Kansas.
Mr. Lovelace is survived by three children, Charles W., who is the municipal purchasing agent of Kansas City, Kansas; Howard White, who is a telegraph operator in the city for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad; and Hewitt E., who remains with his widowed mother and has active charge of the business established by his father in the village of Argentine.
GEORGE RUSHTON, of The George Rushton Baking Company. Rose- dale, Kansas, is the son of a baker and all of his three sons are bakers. Thus the Rushtens come rightfully by the appelation, "the family of bakers," by which they are known.
George Rushton was born in Manchester, England, in 1861, a son of George F. and Martha Rushton, natives of that place, both having died in England many years ago. At an early age George F. Rushton learned the bakery business, and was engaged in it all his life. And it was in his father's shop that George. the subject of this sketch, when a boy of eight years, began to work at the trade which he has since fol- lowed. Having been put to work at this youthful age, he grew up without schooling so far as books and teachers are concerned, but in the broad school of experience he has learned life's lessons, and today ranks with the self made men of the community in which he lives.
In 1880, at Bolton, England. Mr. Rushton and Miss Jane Wheatley.
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of Manchester, were united in marriage, and the following year they came to this country. He engaged in the bakery business in New York city until 1883. when he came west as far as Kansas City, Missouri In 1888 he moved out to Rosedale and opened a small bakery. which has grown until at this writing it is the largest incorporated bakery in Greater Kansas City, and the largest bakery in the state of Kansas. The business is conducted under the name of The George Rushton Bak ing Company, of which George Rushton is president ; Frank . Rushtor., his son, vice president ; and Mrs. Jane Rushton, his wife, secretary and treasurer. They own and occupy a two story brick building. having a floor space of fifty-two thousand, two hundred sq. feet. and require as many as fifteen wagons to handle their ontput. It is the present inten- tion of the father to retire from business in 1912, and at that time to turn the entire business over to his three sons, all of whom are now interested with him. They are: Frank, who married Miss Lnrah Smith ; George, Jr .. who married Frances Guyrtte: and Richard W .. who married Miss Daisy Craine-all of Rosedale.
From the time he became a resident of Rosedale Mr. Rushton has taken an active interest in its welfare. He was one of the promoters who seenred the paving of Southwest Boulevard, which is the main en- trance to Rosedale from Kansas City. Kansas. Politically he has al- ways affiliated with the Democratic party, and has been a conscientious voter, but when approached on the subject of office holding, his answer has been that with him business is before politics. He maintains fraternal relation with numerous organizations, including the Fraternal Aid Association. National Union, Degree of Honor. Ancient Order United Workmen, Odd Fellows and Masons, and his religions creed is that of the Baptist church, he being a worthy member of this denomination.
CHARLES A. MILLER .- Associated in the practice of law with his elder brother. Hon. Orrin L. Miller, of Kansas City, he whose name initiates this sketch has won for himself a secure place as one of the able members of the bar of Wyandotte county, and the firm of which he is a member controls a large and important practice. Coneerning Ilon. Orrin L. Miller specific mention is made on other pages of this work, and in that connection may be found further data concerning the family history.
Charles A. Miller was born at Newburg, Penobscot county, Maine. on the 17th of September. 1869, and is a son of Sewell and Lodaski (Cowan) Miller, both of whom were likewise born in the old Pine Tree state, where the father continued to follow the vocation of farming throughout his active career and where he maintained his home until his death. Ilis wife still resides in Maine, amidst the surroundings and associations hallowed by many years. Of the eight sons seven are now living, and of the number the subject of this review was the eighth in order of birth. Charles A. Miller early gained his full quota of ex- perience in connection with the work of a somewhat stubborn New England farm, and in the meanwhile he was afforded the advantages of the public schools of his native county. For a short time thereafter he continued his studies in the Maine Central Institute, and he then entered Hampden Academy. in his native county, where he completed a thorough
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