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George McKinley
GEORGE McKINLEY. In point of continuous service George McKinley is one of the veteran Santa Fe Railway men. He
began railroading with a line that is now part of the Santa Fe system more than thirty years ago, and for over
a quarter of a century has faithfully discharged the duties of station agent at Humboldt. He has also prospered
in a business way, and is the owner of some valuable oil and gas productions near Humboldt.
Mr. McKinley was born in Fairfield County, Ohio, December 8, 1861. His people were of Irish descent and
were pioneers in Ohio. His grandfather, William McKinley, died in Fairfield County, Ohio. The father's name was
also William, and he was born in Fairfield County, Ohio, in 1828, grew up and married there, and made farming his
basic occupation. He was an early settler at Humboldt, Kansas, locating there in 1880, and acquired some
extensive real estate in the town. He died at Humboldt in 1894. Politically he was a republican, and was an active
member and elder of the Presbyterian Church. William McKinley married Grace Mounts, who was born in Warren
County, Ohio, in 1843, and died at Humboldt, Kansas, in 1908. Their children were:
Mary, who lives at Humboldt, widow of Monroe Ashbrook, who
died at Humboldt, having been a farmer in Ohio and in Kansas;
George, who is the second in age;
William, a horticulturist living at Carlinville in Macoupin County, Illinois;
Alice, who lives at Humboldt, widow of Charles Reber, who was a merchant;
Joseph, a banker at Iola, Kansas;
Charles, connected with the Wells Fargo Company Express at Kansas City, Missouri;
Scott, a farmer at Humboldt;
John, also a farmer at Humboldt.
George McKinley had his early education in the public schools of Fairfield County, Ohio, and grew up on his father's
farm. He was nineteen when he came to Kansas and for several years remained on the farm in Allen County. In 1885
he entered the service of the old L. L. and G. Railway, now part of the Santa Fe, and from the first has been connected
with the station service. He became station agent at Humboldt in 1891. Since that year he has been the effective
and efficient medium of the transaction of business between the railroad and the public, and is the type of man
who has done much to popularize the Santa Fe Railway as a transportation system in Kansas.
Mr. McKinley owns a farm of eighty acres four miles south of Humboldt. It is in the center of the oil and gas
district, and it now has ten producing oil wells. His home, which he owns, is at 318 South Ninth Street. Mr. McKinley
is also treasurer of the McKinley Crude Oil Company. He is a republican and a member of the Presbyterian Church.
He first married in 1886, in Illinois, Miss Flora Deffenbaugh. She died at Humboldt in 1904. There were three
children of their marriage: Susan, who died at the age of twenty years, after her marriage to Chester Squire, now
a farmer at Humboldt; Benjamin, an employee of the Santa Fe Railway Company at Forth Worth, Texas; and Junior,
who lives at home and is in the second year of the Humboldt High School. In 1908 at Humboldt Mr. McKinley married
Miss Effie Neff, daughter of Eli and Nancy (Barnes) Neff. Her parents are both deceased, her father having been
an extensive land owner and rancher in Wilson County, Kansas.
Source: A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans, written and compiled by William E. Connelley, Secretary of
the Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company, copyright 1918; transcribed 1997.
http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/archives/1918ks/biom/mckinlg.html.
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