USA > Kansas > Wyandotte County > History of Wyandotte County, Kansas, and its people, Vol. II > Part 63
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Ilarry Darby has the distinction of being a native of the national capital, as he was born in the city of Washington, D. C., on the 17th of June, 1865. lle is a son of Henry C. and Mary ( Hanna) Darby, the former a native of Virginia and the latter of Maryland, in which state their marriage was solemnized. The Darby family is of Scotch- Trish lineage and was founded in Virginia, the historie Old Dominion. in Colonial days. As a young man Henry C. Darby learned the trade of boilermaking, and he followed the same for some time in the city of Washington. In 1869 he removed with his family to Kansas City.
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Carry, Narty.
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Kansas, and here he held the position of foreman in the boiler shops of the Kansas Pacific Railroad, now a part of the Union Pacific system, for a period of twenty years. He then engaged in business on his own responsibility, by establishing the Kansas City Boiler Works, and through his earnest and honest endeavors lie built up a prosperous enterprise, with which he continued to be identified until his death, which occurred in 1900. his widow being still a resident of this city. Henry C. Darby was a man of sterling character and ever held secure place in the confidence and esteem of the community in which he so long resided and in which he became a representative business man. He was a Republican in his political proclivities and while never a seeker of public office he served as a member of the city council in the early days of his residence in Kansas City. He was a communicant of the Protest- ant Episcopal church, as is also his widow, and he is survived by six sons and one daughter.
Harry Darby was a child of four years at the time of the family removal to Kansas City, where he was reared to maturity and where he was afforded the advantages of the public schools. When but fifteen years of age he began working in his father's shops and he eventually familiarized himself with every practical and technical detail of boiler- making. For some time he was in partnership with his father and eventually he became the head of the large and prosperous business, in the upbuilding of which he had played an important part. He is recognized as one of the substantial and enterprising business men of the city and as a citizen he is intrinsically loyal, liberal and progressive. He is a stalwart in the local camp of the Republican party and has given effective service in its eause. He served three years as a member of the board of county commissioners and then refused to become a. candidate for re-election. Feeling that his business interests demand his entire time and attention he has never since consented to become a candidate for public office of any description, though he is ever ready to lend his cooperation in the furtherance of measures and enterprises projected for the general good of the community. Mr. Darby has completed the circle of York Rite Masonry, in which his maximum affiliation is with Ivanhoe Commandery, Knights Templar, and he has also received the thirty-second degree in the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, besides which he holds membership in the Ancient Arahie Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine and in the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Both he and his wife are communicants of the Pro- testant Episcopal church and actively identified with the parish of Kansas City, Kansas.
In the year 1889 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Darby to Miss Florence Smith, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George S. Smith, of Ellis. Kansas. The three children of this union are Marie, Harry. . Jr., and Florence.
ZACHARIAH NASON, M. D .- Other men's services to the people and state can be measured by definite deeds, by dangers averted, bv legisla- tion secured, by institutions built, by commeree promoted. The work of a doetor is entirely estranged from these lines of enterprise, yet with- out his eapable, health-giving assistanee all other accomplishments would count for naught. Man's greatest prize on earth is physical health and Vol. II-30
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vigor. Nothing deteriorates mental activity as quickly as prolonged sickness, hence the broad field for human helpfulness afforded in the medical profession. The successful doctor requires something more than mere technical training, he must be a man of broad human sympa- thy and genial kindliness, capable of inspiring hope and faith in the heart of his patient. Such a man is Dr. Zachariah Nason, one of the well known physicians and citizens of this part of Kansas. Dr. Nason was born November 27, 1855, in New Brunswick, Canada, and is the son of Ephraim and Elizabeth (Gray) Nason, the father having been born in New Brunswick and the mother in Nova Scotia. Ephraim Nason
was a farmer by occupation. His grandfather, John Nason, and his great-grandfather, Lemuel Nason, were both natives of New Brunswick. The great-great-great-grandfather, John Nason, founded the family in this country, and made his home at New Buryport, Essex county, Massa- chusetts, previous to the Revolutionary war. He was a loyalist, sacri- ficing his belongings to the cause he believed to be just, and voluntarily exiling himself and his family in New Brunswick, Canada. He was the first blacksmith in that province. The family is of English origin.
Dr. Nason was educated in the common schools of New Brunswiek and when a youth found employment in the various lumber camps of his neighborhood. With the idea of becoming an instructor he took two courses in the Provincial Normal School and afterwards taught for ten years in New Brunswick. When a young man he met with an accident which incapaciated him from manual labor and after due consideration he concluded to enter the medical profession. During the last six years of his teaching he employed all vacations and spare moments in studying medicine. In 1886 he became a member of the Sophomore class of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Baltimore, Maryland, and was graduated from that institution in 1888. Possessing a native gift for imparting knowledge, he was offered the position of teacher of obstetries in the college of Physicians and Surgeons in Kansas City, before it be- came a part of the Kansas University. 3 At the present time he is an instructor in obstetrics in the University of Kansas and is also obstetri- cian in Bethany Hospital.
Dr. Nason has a number of fraternal relations, being connected with all those medical organizations designed to promote the growth and advancement of the profession, namely the American, State and County Medical Societies. He is likewise a member of the Modern Woodmen. the National Union and the Select Knights. He is Republican in poli- ties and is a zealous and valued member of the Baptist church.
Dr. Nason laid the foundation of a happy and congenial life com- panionship when on January 1, 1891. he was united in marriage to Nettie Maria Fleming. daughter of Robert and Lucy Fleming, of Bloomfield, New Brunswick, and sister of Fred Fleming, secretary of the Kansas Life Insurance Company. Their union has been blessed by the birth of six sons and daughters. Zelmer, the eldest child, died at the age of three months; the others are Robert Harold. Lncy Helen, Franees Eloise. Elizabeth Isabel and Zachariah Miles.
Doctor and Mrs. Nason are identified with the best social life of the city and their home is the abode of culture, refinement and hospitality.
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THOMAS F. CAMERON .- Among the prominent and popular men who reside in Kansas City, Kansas, no one is more widely or favorably known than Thomas F. Cameron. For a number of years he has lived in this city and his influence and strength of character have always been wielded toward progressive lines and for the upbuilding of the eity and state of his adoption. Ile is the present proprietor of the Garno House and is the owner of much valuable real-estate property in this section of the state.
Mr. Cameron was born on the 22nd of October, 1876, in the city of Brooklyn, New York, his parents being John F. and Theresa (Mireau) Cameron. The father was likewise born in New York, the date of his birth being 1855 and he is now connected with the Walter A. Wood Machinery Company, in the capacity of salesman. He is a stalwart in the ranks of the Democratic party and in his religions associations is a devout communicant of the Catholic ehureh. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Knights of Columbus. The mother died in Brooklyn in 1899, and in that place the father still maintains his home. Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Cameron, namely : Harry E., Thomas F., Henrietta, Mary and John, the latter of whom died in infaney.
Thomas F. Cameron was reared to adult age in the city of Brooklyn, New York, to whose publie schools he is indebted for his early educa- tional training, which was later supplemented by a course of study in the Jesuit College, at Cleveland, Ohio. He left the old Buekeve state and returned to New York city, where he secured employment as a elerk in a department store. Some years later he eame to Kansas City, Kan- sas, where he entered upon an apprenticeship at the steam-fitting trade, with which work he was identified until 1905, at which time he married Mrs. Higgins, who was running the "Garno Honse," one of the old land marks of this city. Mr. and Mrs. Cameron are still running this fine hostlery, which is modern in all its equipments and which is recognized as a most delightful abode for transients. In addition to the hotel business Mr. Cameron has other interests of broad scope and importance, including some elegant residence and business property.
By her first husband Mrs. Cameron is the mother of two children, .Iesse E. and Maurice J., both of whom are attending school. In poli- ties Mr. Cameron endorses the eause of the Democratic party and he has long been a prominent member and a hard worker in the Fraternal Order of Eagles. Mr. and Mrs. Cameron are devout Catholics in their relig- ious adherency and they are held in high esteem by their fellow eitizens.
HENRY MILLER .- Having passed different portions of the aetive period of his life as a gardner, a farmer, a mechanic and a merehant; residing and contributing to various productive industries in three of the great states of the country ; three times a soldier in the Union army during the Civil war under separate enlistments, and freely shedding his blood for the good of the cause he loved, Henry Miller, of Kansas City, Kansas, has had a varied and interesting career, full of credit to himself and of usefulness to his fellow men in widely distant localities.
Mr. Miller has had his full share of sorrow and trouble, too, but no bereavement or difficulty ever subdued his nerve, daunted his spirit or stayed his industry and devotion to duty. He was born on March 16. 1838. in that part of Virginia which was torn from the mother state by
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the steru arbitrament of Civil war and is now West Virginia, the place of his nativity being Ohio county. He was the first born of the five children of his parents. Benjamin and Nancy (Husselton) Miller, the former a native of Virginia and the latter of Maryland. The mother died in 1843 and the father in 1844, while on a flour boat on the Mississippi river at the mouth of the Red river. Their children were five sons : Henry, aged five when his mother died and six when his father passed away ; Oliver, who is now a resident of West Virginia : Richard, who was killed in one of the battles of the Civil war as a Union soldier; William, who also lives in West Virginia; and Theodore, whose home is in southeastern Ohio.
Thus doubly orphaned in their tender childhood by the death of both parents, the children were put out to be reared and cared for by relatives, and while theywere still young in years were obliged to begin the battle of life for themselves and be wholly dependent on their own exertions. It is greatly to their eredit that they accepted their destiny with alacrity and have employed to good advantage for themselves all the opportuni- ties life has brought them, making their way to comfortable estates in a worldly way and respectable standing in their several communities.
Henry was first employed by a Mr. Hieks at Bridgeport, Ohio, then on a farm in the southeastern part of that state, where he remained until 1861. In April of that year, in response to President Lincoln's first eall for volunteers to aid in saving the Union from dismemberment, he en- listed in Company B. First Ohio Volunteer Infantry, of which he was made first duty sergeant. His enrollment was for three months, and in August. 1861. he was discharged. But his loyalty to the Union made him still eager to be active in its service, and in November of the same vear he again entered the volunteer army as a member of Company D. Forty-third Ohio Infantry. In October, 1862, his left hip was fractured during a frenzied charge on the Confederate forces. and he was sent to Jefferson barracks in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was soon afterward again discharged this time on account of his disability for further service at the time.
Shattered in health and bearing with fortitude the painful mark of his military service, Mr. Miller returned to his former home in Belmont county, Ohio. where he again went to work on a farm and remained until May, 1864. At that time the war was still raging and the need of the Federal government for additional troops was imperative. He there- fore once more shouldered his musket as a volunteer, joining Company A. One Hundred and Seventieth Ohio Infantry. He was again ser- geant of his company, and with his regiment was sent to Washington. D. C., for guard duty. On July 5, 1864, the regiment was ordered to Harpers Ferry, and a few days later took part in a battle at that place. He received his final honorable discharge from the army in September. 1864, and returned to Bridgeport, Ohio, where he followed gardening until February, 1866.
On the twenty-second day of that month he was united in marriage with Miss Mary Agnes Curley. a native of West Wheeling, Ohio, and a daughter of James and Nancy Curley of that place. After his marriage he drove a team for a lumber company in Bridgeport for two years, then moved to Council Bluffs. Iowa. and there was employed in the butchering business a number of years. At the end of his engagement in that city
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he went back to Bridgeport, Ohio, and engaged in the grocery trade a year and a half. He grew weary of mercantile life and again turned his attention to gardening for a short period. He then sold all his in- terests in Ohio and changed his residence to Gardner, Johnson county, Kansas. Near that town he was engaged in farming five years, and after that operated a threshing outfit for a time.
Mr. Miller's first wife died on March 14, 1885, and in September of the same year he moved to Kansas City, Kansas. During the next six years he was employed in a meat market and grocery, and upon quitting that employment became a farmer, continuing his operations in agricul- ture until July, 1892. In September of that year he contracted a second marriage, being united with Miss Christine Johnson, of Swedish nativity. In the meantime he had started as a dealer in coal, feed and hay in Kansas City, Kansas, and to this line of trade he adhered until December 1, 1910, when advancing age and a desire for rest induced him to sell his business and retire from all active pursuits. Since then he has been passing his evening of life in comfortable leisure and a rational enjoyment of the fruits of his long career of arduous and unre- mitting toil.
Seven children were born to him in his first marriage: Eva, the wife of James Snodgrass of Gardner, Kansas; Maud, who died in 1883 at the age of sixteen years; Rose, who is also a resident of Gardner in this state : Nellie, the wife of Jesse Reed of Sheffield, Kansas; Charles, whose home is at Oakley, this state; Wilbur, who died at the age of twenty-two; and Walter, whose home is at Gardner. There were no children of the second marriage.
Mr. Miller is essentially a self made man. He had but few oppor- tunities for attending school, and these were of short duration. The exigencies of his situation as an orphan dependent on relatives for sup- port drove him to his own resources for advancement at an early age, and the greater part of his mental training came to him in the severe but thorough school of experience. He has profited by its lessons, how- ever, and is a well informed and intelligent man. In politics he is a Republican. but has never been a very active partisan. For many years he has been a devoted member of the Masonic Lodge at Gardner, and taken an active part in promoting its welfare and the social enjoy- ments incident to its meetings and occasional festivities. His member- ship in his lodge is valued highly, as is his citizenship in his home city and wherever else the people have knowledge of his worth and esti- mable character and public spirit.
HEMING LINDBERG .- Many of the most honest, thrifty, law-abiding citizens of Kansas are of foreign birth and breeding, and bring to their adopted homes those sterling habits of industry and enterprise that have long characterized their ancestors. Prominent among the number is Heming Lindberg, of Kansas City. £ A son of G. A. and Amanda L. (Anderson) Lindberg, he was born in Sweden December 8, 1885.
Ambitious and full of bright hopes for a prosperous career in the future, Heming Lindberg, in 1904, immigrated to the United States, com- ing directly to Kansas City, Kansas, to join an uncle. £ The following two years or more he was in the employ of the Swift Packing Company. In June, 1907, Mr. Lindberg assumed charge of the Swedish building, in
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Kansas City, Kansas, and has sinee filled the office efficiently and satis- factorily, performing the duties devolving upon him in a most pleasing manner.
Mr. Lindberg, in December, 1904, became a member of the Inde- pendent Order of Sweswitod, which is also a Swedish organization, and has been active in promoting the interests of the order. He is still heart-whole, free from domestic cares and trials.
THE KANSAS CITY CUT STONE COMPANY .- Kansas City, Kansas, has her full share of industrial interests, prominent among those of import- ance being the Kansas City Cut Stone Company, which was formed in 1906 by Otho E. Laird and F. Lang, men of progressive views and of un- doubted enterprise and ability. At the end of two years of prosperous operations Mr. E. F. Dix bought a share in the business, with which he has since been actively associated. This company deals in cut stone for building purposes, and since its formation has furnished material for many large private residences and blocks, and for many handsome publie buildings, including among others the substantial high school building at Westport, Missouri, and the City Hall in Kansas City, Kansas.
E. F. Dix, a member of the Kansas City Cut Stone Company, was born in 1858, in Quiney, Adams county, Illinois, where he lived until sixteen years old, while there acquiring the rudiments of his education in the public schools. Subsequently moving with the family to Sedalia, Missouri, he learned the trade of a stone cutter, which he there followed a few years. Locating in Kansas City, Kansas, in 1895, Mr. Dix was for ten years in the employ of the Phoenix Cut Stone Company. Subse- quently resigning his position with that firm, he became a member of the company with which he is now actively identified, and is meeting with satisfactory success in his operations. Fraternally Mr. Dix joined the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks in 1906, in Kansas City, Missouri.
Otho E. Laird, one of the founders of the Kansas City Cut Stone Company, was born in Seymour, Jackson county, Indiana, a son of Albert R. and America Jane (Anderson) Laird. Albert R. Laird en- listed in an Indiana Regiment during the Civil war, and was in active service four years, taking part in many important battles. Leaving Seymour, Indiana, when his son Otho was an infant, he took up a home- stead claim in Washington county, Kansas, and having proved up on his one hundred and sixty acres, he returned to Indiana with his family and there remained nine years. Coming then again to Kansas, he took up another homestead claim of one hundred and sixty acres in Hodge- man county, where he lived a year. The ensuing four years he was in the employ of the Union Pacific Railway Company, being located at Wamego, Kansas. From there he removed to Oklahoma, where he took up a claim on which he resided two years, after which he returned to Kansas, and is now a resident of Olathe.
Attending school in the various places in which his boyhood and youth were passed, Otho E. Laird became a contractor in stone at the age of nineteen years, and has continued until the present time, erecting many handsome stone structures, notable among those of importance being the Christian Science church building in Kansas City, Missouri. Mr. Laird was one of the original members of the Kansas City Cut Stone
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Company, which is well known throughout this section of the state for the excellent quality and durability of its work.
Mr. Laird married, in 1887, Alice Becker, who was born in Missouri, a daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth (Mossman) Becker. Five children have been born into the home of Mr. and Mrs. Laird, namely : Erna Elsic, Earl and Pearl, twins; Ruby and Fred.
HOMER B. GRAY .- Although he is so young, Homer B. Gray has al- ready become very well known in the business world of Kansas City. It is a remarkable thing for a man to be able to fill his father's "shoes" at so early an age as did Mr. Gray. When such is the case it is safe to predict that the shoes will soon become too small for him, or at least that he will soon outgrow the shoes. As superintendent of the Wood- lawn cemetery he has fulfilled the duties devolving on this position in a manner that has left nothing to be desired. From this fact one natural- ly infers that Mr. Gray has the ability to yet do greater things.
Stephen Gray, father of Homer B., was born in 1848. He came to Wyandotte county in 1898 and was appointed superintendent of the Woodlawn cemetery in September of that year. He filled the position in a highly satisfactory way until the time of his death, which occurred November 29, 1906, when he was fifty-eight years old. His widow is still living in Kansas City, surrounded by her four children: Avis M. Homer B., Robert D. and Earl S. The youngest boy is a student in the Kansas City High School.
Homer B. Gray was born at Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1888. When he was ten years old he came to Kansas City, Kansas, with his parents. He attended the public schools of Leavenworth and of Kansas City, but at the age of fifteen he left school and went to work on a farm. He con- tinued this work for three years, when his father died and he returned home. Three months after the death of his father, although he was only eighteen years of age, he was appointed superintendent of the Woodlawn cemetery. Since 1906 he has held this position. He understands his business thoroughly and is most courteous in his treatment of all who require his services.
JOHN J. CASSIDY .- Since man is still prone to do evil and forget or ignore his duty to his fellows and the community in which he lives, a multitude of police and tipstaves is still required to keep him in sub- jection, protect life and property from unlawful assault and preserve the peace and good order in all localities. The primary consideration in this connection is to secure good, upright and courageons men for the service, and the second to stand by and sustain them in the proper per- formance of their duties.
Kansas City, Kansas, has in its service in this capacity a man of undoubted uprightness. courage, ability and fidelity in the person of John J. Cassidy, who has been connected with the police department since September 18, 1904, and has made an excellent record in his work, meeting many perils withont flinching and risking his safety and even his life in the effort to give the people the full measure of his useful- ness in upholding the law and aiding in its proper administration.
Mr. Cassidy was born in the city which has had the benefit of his services on September 28, 1868, and is a son of Mark and Margaret
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(Goodwin) Cassidy, natives of Ireland, the father born in county Monag- han and the mother in county Fermanagh. They came to the United States and located in Kansas City, Kansas, in early life. Here they became acquainted and in 1857 were married, their wedding being the first ever celebrated in St. Mary's parish, Wyandotte, and attracting great attention on that account.
The father was a contractor in stone work and the first man to do any stone paving in the city. IIe also did all the stone work in the eon- struction of the tunnel of the Metropolitan Railroad in Kansas City, Missouri, and contracting in Independence, grading the fine roadway from that city to Lee Summit. His interest in the public affairs of the county, and the intelligence and capacity he showed concerning them, induced the people to elect him constable at one time, but he declined the office and never qualified legally for its acceptance.
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