LUMAS M. JEWELL.
Potter is one of the coming and enterprising towns of Atchison county and Kansas. During the past few years the town has taken wonderful strides in the matter of public improvements and new buildings. A considerable portion of this push and enterprise is directly due to the energy and influence of Lumas M. Jewell, retired merchant and banker, who can well be called the “father of the present day Potter.” Mr. Jewell has been a consistent booster for the town ever since his advent in the town, and has given of his time and money toward its development. Mr. Jewell is a self-made Kansan, who has had an interesting career, and whose rise from a poor boy to a position of comparative wealth and affluence is well worth recording in the annals of Atchison county.
L. M. Jewell,
Potter, Kan.
L. M. Jewell was born on a farm in Wayne county, Kentucky, December 3, 1861, a son of Heman S. and Susan Mary (Weaver) Jewell. His father was a native of Vermont, who immigrated to Kentucky when a young man, and engaged in farming operations. He followed farming during his life, until a few years before his demise, at the home of his son, G. W. Jewell, at Kidder, Mo., in 1913. L. M. Jewell received a meager education in the schools of his native State, and his later success in life has been due entirely to his own efforts. His greatest education has been received in the stern school of experience, which is the best after all, and most useful, in developing the real attributes of a man. When he was seventeen years of age, he left home and went to the home of an uncle in Michigan, where he attended school for a time. When he had attained his majority in 1882, he went to South Dakota and homesteaded a tract of prairie land. He stayed in South Dakota for two years and developed his homestead to such an extent that he was able to dispose of it for a good round price, and he then moved to Caldwell county, Missouri, and bought another farm, which he cultivated with a fair degree of success. Later, he embarked in the mercantile business in Marvel, Mo., for a period of three years, disposing of his business in 1892, and locating in Potter, Kan. His first employment in Potter was with the general merchandise firm of Paxton & Kemper. Three years after entering the employ of this firm, Mr. Jewell purchased Mr. Paxton’s interest for $1,500, paying $400 cash, and borrowing the remaining $1,100 with which to complete his purchase. It is remarkable that he could have so established a reputation for business ability and integrity in that time as to be able to command that amount of capital to swing his first business deal in Kansas. His later successes date from that time on, and in the short time of three years he was out of debt, and the business had taken on larger proportions. W. T. Kemper, his partner, then sold his interest in the store to a cousin, Madison Kemper, from whom Mr. Jewell purchased the remainder of the business and became the sole owner. During this time the stock of the store had been increased, and the business had taken on a wider and a more general scope through Mr. Jewell’s enterprise and the exercise of his decided business ability. He became sole owner of the store in 1897, and during the next three years the business was placed upon a permanent and stable footing, which yielded large profits for its owner. In 1900 Mr. Jewell conceived the idea of engaging in the real estate business, primarily for the purpose of building up the town of Potter and attracting more residents to the place. He acquired several business lots and began to erect buildings to such an extent that Potter soon began to take on the airs of a growing city. Where there was but one store building on the side of the street occupied by the Jewell store, he erected five new store buildings, which are occupied by merchants who have moved into the town in the past fifteen years. It is due to Mr. Jewell’s enterprise in this regard that the business part of Potter has been developed. Whereas, when he first came to Potter the town boasted but three stores—his own store, a small hardware shop, and a grocery. All the stores were small and the town did not have a bank. At the present time Potter has two banks and every line of business is represented. As Mr. Jewell’s business expanded his enterprises included a lumber yard, furniture stock and a grain elevator. Seeing the need of a bank, he started a plan of organizing the Potter State Bank in 1899, and after almost a year’s effort, he received the assistance of O. A. Simmons in effecting the organization, and Mr. Simmons was the first cashier of the bank. Mr. Jewell later served as cashier, and is now the president of this bank. In 1910 Mr. Jewell disposed of his mercantile interests, and is interested mainly in real estate and farm lands in Jackson county, Missouri, and Atchison county, Kansas. He has also made a number of large trades in merchandise stocks.
Mr. Jewell was married in 1897 to Sinnie M. Shaw, a daughter of Henry Shaw, who was an early settler of Kansas. One child was born to them, Edna Fern Jewell, born in 1901. Mr. Jewell is a Democrat in politics, and Mrs. Jewell is a member of the Methodist church.
Mr. Jewell’s efforts to advance Potter among the Kansas municipalities have not been confined to commercial activities alone, but he has always had in mind the welfare of the people along other lines. He had not been a citizen of the town but a few years when he conceived the idea that a newspaper would be of great benefit to the community in more ways than one. Consequently, he used every effort to have a paper established in the town, and the Potter Kansan, one of the best edited small weeklies, and one of the most prosperous newspaper enterprises in the State, is the result of his dream. He has been foremost in the cause of education, and he worked unremittingly toward the erecting of the present modern school building and the establishment of a graded school system in the town. Such men as Mr. Jewell are the kind of citizens every town needs, and Potter has been the gainer for his civic enterprise and the fostering of the growth of his adopted city.