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BIOGRAPHIES
(Transcribed by Sharon Wick)
JAMES F. BLACKLEDGE.
Protective laws are passed in every state that seemingly
assure the safety of all money that may be deposited either by
the laborer or the capitalist in a bank, and still permit
enough latitude in the bank's policy to make the business
profitable. On the president of the concern rests the
responsibility and thus, at th ehead of financial institutions
of solidity are usually placed men of business experience and
known integrity, of sterling character and conservative habit.
It reflects credit on Coffeyville, Kansas, that just such a
man is president of the Caney Valley National Bank, James
F. Blackledge.
James F. Blackledge, was born October 29, 1869, at
Rockville, Parke County, Indiana, and is a son of William
and Phebe (Johns) Blackledge. William Blackledge
was born in 1829 in Columbiana County, Ohio, and died in 1913
at Caney, Kansas. He grew up in Columbiana County and
worked as a builder and contractor, removing to Rockville,
Indiana, prior to the opening of the Civil war. In 1861
he enlisted for service in the same in an infantry regiment,
and continued his soldierly duties until the close of the war
when he returned to Indiana. He had survived the many
dangers to which he had been exposed but he found business
conditions disturbed in his old home and in 1876 removed to
Peoria, Illinois. In 1878 he came to Kansas and located
at Oswego, subsequently, as his business demanded, living at
different places, going to Salina then back to Oswego, then to
Carthage, Missouri and to Kansas City, in 1896 settling
permanently at Caney, Kansas. In politics he was a
republican. He belonged to the Masons and was a member
of the Rockville Lodge. He and wife were members of the
Presbyterian Church and brought their six children up honest
and industrious and gave them every advantage their means
would allow.
William Blackledge was married to Phebe Johns,
who was born in 1832 in Columbiana County, Ohio, and died at
Caney Kansas in 1909. The following children were born
to them: Nettie, who is the wife of G. Torbert,
a retired farmer and vice president of a bank at Altamont,
Kansas; Seward, who owns a farm near Chetopa, Kansas,
for the past five years has been building mills in Old Mexico;
Elmer E., who travels over the country as his trade of
Millwright demands; Mary E., who is the wife of J. F.
Johnson, a schoolteacher at Altamont Kansas; Sallie F.,
who is the wife of A. L. Utterback, who terminated two
terms as postmaster of Caney in 1916, is an employee as metal
weigher for the American Zinc, Led and Smelting Company; and
James F.
James F. Blackledge attended the public schools of
Oswego, Kansas, and then took a commercial course in the
business college at Salina. From 1888 until 1893 he was
a United States railway official between Fort Scott and Webb
City. On May 10, 1893, he came to Caney, Kansas, and
became bookkeeper for the Caney Valley Bank. Two months
later he was made cashier of the institution and in 1914 he
was chosen its president.
The Caney Valley National Bank was established as a state bank in
1886, with a capital of $10,000. Its founders were:
Thomas G. Ayres, Joseph Savage, George
Sosson and P. S. Hollingsworth, all Coffeyville
capitalists. The bank became nationalized in 1900 and
its present officers are: James F. Blackledge,
president; Charles Owen, vice president; H. V.
Balcom, cashier, and R. W. De Hon assistant
cashier.
The bank is in very prosperous condition, with a
capital and surplus of $70,000, all made out of the original
capital. The bank building is situated on the corner of
Fourth and State streets and the bank owns the entire business
block which includes the postoffice.
At Independence, Kansas, February 19, 1891, Mr.
Blackledge was united in marriage with Miss Martha H.
Allen, daughter of the late E. P. Allen of that
place. Mr. and Mrs. Blackledge have had four
children: Ralph P., who died at the age of thirteen
years; Pauline b., who is the wife of Dr. B. E.
Fellis, of Chicago; Gwynn E., who is agent for the
Studebaker Automobile Company, at Caney, Kansas; and Mercedes,
who is bookkeeper for the Caney Valley National Bank.
The elder daughter of Mr. Blackledge, Mrs. Fellis, is a
graduate of the Columbia School, Chicago, and for two years
with the Redpath Circuit.
In politics Mr. Blackledge has always been a
stanch republican, never wavering in his allegiance to party.
On numerous occasions he has been called on to serve in public
office and capacities and his whole course in reference to
every duty has been honorable and efficient. He is
treasurer of the board of education of Coffeyville, has served
on the city council and as treasurer and for five years was a
member of the school board. He has long been identified
with standard fraternities and belongs to Caney Lodge No. 324
Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; the Benevolent and
Protective Order of Elks, No. 1215, and the Fraternal Order of
Eagles, No. 1,000, both at Caney.
The Blackledges are of Welsh, Scotch and Irish
extraction but they have been Americans for a very long
period, having settled in Pennsylvania prior to the
Revolutionary war and participating in it. Both Mr.
Blackledge and wife are eligible to membership in the
exclusive societies of Sons and Daughters of the American
Revolution.
(Source: A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans - by
William E. Connelley - Vol. IV - Lewis Publishing Company -
Chicago - New York - 1918) |
CHARLES ALBERT CONNELLY,
whose long and able connection with the Independence
Tribune has already been noted, has been one of the live and
progressive citizens of Independence and has accepted many
opportunities to serve the community in addition to his work
as a newspaper man.
He was born in Parke County, Indiana, Aug. 12, 1869.
His father, Charles T. Connelly, who was born in Parke County,
Indiana, in 1845, is especially deserving of note in a history
of Kansas. He was reared and married in Indiana and in
1885 moved to Garden City, Kansas, and proved up a claim
there. In 1887 he came to Independence, and resumed his
earlier profession as a teacher. In the meantime he had
made as honorable record as a soldier of the Union during the
Civil war. He enlisted in 1862 at the age of seventeen
and served 3 1/2 years until the close of the struggle, being
a member of the Ninth Indiana Battery. From Independence
he moved to Coffeyville, and served as principal of schools
there, and during the summer vacations filled post of city
marshal. It was while in the performance of his duty
that he was killed in 1892, when the Dalton gang of outlaws
raided Coffeyville. He was a republican, a member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, was affiliated with the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows and was clerk of the camp of
the Modern Woodmen of America at the time of his death.
Charles T. Connelly married Mary McCord, who was
born in Parke County, Indiana, in 1846 and died there in 1873.
The two children of that union were Charles Albert and
Grace. The latter, who died in 1908, at the age
of thirty-eight, was the wife of William N. Cox, county
assessor of Parke County, Indiana. Charles T.
Connelly married for his second wife Sarah Alexander,
who died in 1896, survived by one daughter, Jessie May,
now wife of Harry W. Lang a druggist at Coffeyville,
Kansas. This branch of the Connelly family came
from Ireland to North Carolina in colonial times, and
subsequent generations moved to Kentucky and from there into
Indiana.
Charles A. Connelly, best known among his
friends and business association in Independence as Bert
Connelly, spent the first sixteen years of his life in his
native Parke County, Indiana, attended the public schools
there and the Bloomingdale Academy of Indiana, and after
coming to Independence was a pupil in the high school until
1888. However, in the meanwhile, in 1885, he had entered
the office of the Tribune Printing Company. He made
himself a master of its various details, and is an expert
printer and newspaper man. In 1898 he was made an expert
printer and newspaper man. In 1898 he was made a
partner, and for a number of years has been business manager
of the Tribune.
Mr. Connelly has served as
director of the Independence Building and Loan Association, is
a member and served as director of the Independence Commercial
treasurer of the school board, during which time four new
modern school buildings were erected and for two years was a
member of the city council. President Taft appointed him
postmaster of Independence, but his appointment was not
confirmed on account of the closely following election of
President Wilson. Mr. Connelly is a republican, is a
trustee of the Methodist Episcopal Church, is affiliated with
Fortitude Lodge No. 107, Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons,
and a Royal Arch Mason at Independence; with Independence camp
of the Modern Woodmen of America, of which he was banker four
years, and his name is usually closely associated with any
enterprise for the public good of his home city.
In 1894, at Independence, he married Miss Olive
May Stout, daughter of E. W. and Margaret Stout. Miss
Stout is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution
and Eastern Star Lodge. Her mother is still living at
Independence, and her father, now deceased, was a grocery
merchant of that city, member of the school board and stood
high in the community. Mr. and Mrs. Connelly have two
children, Glenn, born Nov. 28, 1897, a graduate of Montgomery
County High School, and now attending Baker University, and
Margaret, born Nov. 14, 1901, now a sophomore in the
Montgomery County High School.
(Source: A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans - by
William E. Connelley - Vol. IV - Lewis Publishing Company -
Chicago - New York - 1918) |
JAMES SCOTT CUMMINGS, M. D.
A former president of the State Board of Helath, a member
of the Legislature, and otherwise prominent in local and state
affairs, Doctor Cummings is a pioneer physician of
Bronson in Bourbon County, and both through his profession and
as a citizen he has found many ways in which to make his
career count for benefit to his community.
Doctor Cummings represents
a pioneer family in Southeastern Kansas. He was born in
Parke County, Indiana, June 8, 1851. His Cummings
ancestors were emigrants from the North of Ireland to Virginia
in colonial times. Doctor Cummings is a grandson
of Samuel Cummings, who was born in 1784 in Greenbrier
County in that portion of Virginia now the State of West
Virginia. He was both a tanner and a farmer. He
brought his family west during the '30s and settled in Parke
County, Indiana, where he died in 1858, seven years after
Doctor Cummings was born. Samuel Cummings
married Rachel McClung.
John M. Cummings, father of Doctor Cummings,
was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, Sept. 13, 1820, and
spent the first sixteen years of his life in his native
locality until his parents moved west to Parke County,
Indiana. In Parke County he was thirty years of age, and
married at that time in life, and afterwards gave his
activities to farming. His attention was early attracted
to Kansas. In 1867 he visited in this state in Allen
County, and in 1869 came to that county as a permanent
settler. He bought a farm in the vicinity of what is now
Carlyle, and remained there a prosperous and substantial
citizen until his death on April 22, 1876. John M.
Cummings was a republican and a very active member and
supporter of the Methodist Episcopal Church, serving on its
official board for a period of years.
In 1850 John M. Cummings
married Catherine Ann Beadle. She was a member of
a prominent family. Her brother, Gen. William H.
Beadle, who died at San Francisco in 1915, was sent out to
the Dakotas in 1867 as surveyor of the territory, and
subsequently became author of the school laws of South Dakota,
a body of laws especially noteworthy because they assure every
child an education. In one of the prominent locations in
the City of Pierre, South Dakota, stands a handsome statue to
this Beadle was also a man of more than ordinary note.
He was author of "The Crimes and Mysteries of Mormonism,"
" The Danites," and other works, and for many years held the
position of editor for the Associated Press in New York City.
Catherine Ann Beadle was in Clark County, Kentucky, in 1832,
and died at Bronson, Kansas, in 1898. Dr. James S.
Cummings is the oldest of their nine children. Nannie
is the wife of William Linebarger, a retired
farmer living at Chrisman, Illinois. Laura V.,
whose home is at Uniontown, Kansas, has been twice a widow,
her first husband having been Thomas Jobe, a minister
of the Hardshell Baptist Church, and her second was Benson
Dark, a farmer. William A. Cummings entered
the legal profession and died quite early in his career in
1884 at Iola, Kansas. Lizzie is the wife of C.
H. Sater, a retired farmer at Golden City, Missour.
Charles M. is a rancher at Standish, California.
Rachel, who lives at Bois D'Arc, Missouri, is the widow of
John New, who was a farmer in Linn County,
Kansas. Mattie married C. C. Pavey, a real
estate and insurance man at Muncie, Indiana. Edmond
Beadle Cummings, who was born in Carlyle, Kansas in 1872
and died at Bronson in 1914, practiced medicine and surgery
with notable success for many years and is a graduate of the
Kansas Medical College of Topeka.
James Scott Cummings
was eighteen years of age when his parents came to Kansas.
In the meantime he had made the best of such advantages as
were afforded by the public schools of Parke County, Indiana.
He also had two years of private instruction under D. M.
Smith, later a prominent Kansan. At the age of
twenty-one he entered the ranks of the teaching profession,
and taught school in the country districts of Allen County
until 1879. In the meantime as opportunity offered he
had diligently pursued the study of medicine in the office of
Dr. G. D. Whittaker of Carlyle, now of Kansas City,
Kansas. In 1876 he took his first course in the College
of Medicine and Surgery at Cincinnati, Ohio, following which
he resumed teaching, and was finally graduated from the
Cincinnati institution in 1880 with the degree M. D.
Doctor Cummings is as much a student today as he
was thirty-five years ago, and keeps in close touch the
advanced medical and surgical knowledge. The spring of
1908 he spent in the Chicago Policlinic and the fall of the
same year he took a course in the New York Post-Graduate
School.
In 1880 Doctor Cummings began practice at
what is now called Rocklow in Allen County, but in the spring
of 1882 came to Bronson when that townsite was first laid out.
The choice of a home and professional location which he made
then he was never recalled nor regretted, and he has remained
steadily with the community, at first doing largely a country
practice and undergoing the hardships of riding and driving in
all sorts of weather and over all sorts of roads. In
later years the hardships of practice have been largely
mitigated by telephones, automobiles, improved highways, and
many other facilities which the doctor of thirty-five years
ago could not command. In 1882 Doctor Cummings
built a home on Randolph Street, but he now owns sad occupies
another residence on Clay Street, a thoroughly modern home.
He has two business buildings on Clay Street and has a well
improved farm of 160 acres four miles west of Fort Scott.
He is a stockholder and director in the Bank of Bronson.
Doctor Cummings is a member of the County
and State Medical Societies, the Southeast Kansas Medical
Society and the American Medical Association. He has
served as health officer of Bronson, was for five years
coroner of Bourbon County during the '90s, has been a member
of the town council of Bronson, and is now secretary of the
Board of Education. In politics he is affiliated with
the democrats. In 1912 the Nineteenth District of
Bourbon County went him to the Legislature and during the
session of 1913 he was chairman of the health and hygiene
committee and a member of the state library and other
committees. In 1913 Doctor Cummings was
appointed a member of the State Board of Health, and he served
in that organization three years, one year as president.
With all his many other interests Doctor Cummings does much
for church and charitable causes and is a firm believer in the
benefits of fraternalism. He is chairman of the board of
trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church and president of
the Church Brotherhood. For two terms he filled the
office of Master in Bourbon Lodge No. 268, Ancient Free and
Accepted Masons at Bronson, belongs to Fort Scott Consistory
No. 4 of the Scottish Rite, to Abdallah Temple of the Myrtle
Shrine at Leavenworth, is past chancellor commander of Granite
Lodge No. 88, Knights of Pythias at Bronson, and a member of
the Bois D'Arc Camp No. 1010, Modern Woodmen of America at
Bronson.
Doctor Cummings has an unquestioned reputation as an
orator of very effective and persuasive eloquence. As a
public speaker his services have been much in demand,
particularly for making addresses on public health questions
and as a speaker at Masonic reunions and at various gatherings
under the auspices of his church. His presence and
active part have been considered almost essential to the
success of any public occasion in his part of the state for
over thirty years. Doctor Cummings is a man of
wide travel, and has thus a culture derived not only
from books but also from varied associations with men and
affairs. He has traveled over the United States from
coast to coast, and south to Old Mexico.
On September 22, 1881, the year before he came to
Bronson to take up practice, Doctor Cummings was
married in Allen County to Miss Libbie Ray. Her
parents A. J. and Permelia (Hovey) Ray are both now
deceased. Her father was for a number of years a
merchant at Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Doctor and Mrs.
Cummings, have one child, Mabel. She married
G. R. Hughes, a clothing merchant at Fort Scott, where
they reside. Mr. and Mrs. Hughes have two
children: Elizabeth, born September 28, 1904; and
Kathryn, born in 1907.
(Source: A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans - by William
E. Connelley - Vol. IV - Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago -
New York - 1918) |
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