JOSEPH COUPE.
Joseph Coupe, late of Benton township, was born December 6, 1852, in Utica, N. Y., and was a son of James and Jane (Latus) Coupe, both of whom were born in England. James emigrated from his native land when a young man and located in New York, where he married and reared a family, cultivating a farm located one mile from the limits of Utica. He died on his farm. Joseph was reared on the family farm and attended the Utica public schools, receiving an excellent education, after which he took up the study of law and was admitted to practice in his home city. He practiced his profession in Utica until 1881 and then came west and located at Falls City, Neb., where he continued his practice with considerable success until 1906, when he removed with his family to his farm, west of Effingham. Failing health induced him to make the change, and it was thought by his physicians that the open air life would be beneficial to him. He died February 10, 1908.
Judge Coupe was married in 1890 to Miss Anna Mooney, and to this union were born six children: Margaret, a graduate of the county high school, and a teacher in the Effingham public schools; James, who is managing the home farm with his mother; Richard, a graduate of the county high school; Anna, likewise a high school graduate; Mary, a junior in the high school; and Joseph, a pupil in the Sisters’ school at Effingham. The mother of these children was born in Atchison, Kan., confirmed and baptized in St. Benedict’s church, and was a daughter of James, born in 1833, and Julia (Ryan) Mooney, born in 1837, both of whom were natives of Ireland. James Mooney emigrated from Ireland when a youth, was first a resident of Buffalo, N. Y., and in 1857 moved to Nebraska, and was later employed at the nursery in Atchison, Kan. From Atchison he removed to Rulo, Neb., where he still lives. He was married in 1860, and the family lived in Atchison during the Civil war. James and Julia Mooney were the parents of five children, namely: Thomas, deceased in March, 1908; John and James, farmers: Margaret, at home in Rulo with her parents; Mrs. Joseph Coupe.
Previous to locating in Kansas, Mr. Coupe had resided on a farm near Falls City, but was induced to remove to Effingham and here purchased a farm of 194 acres west of the city in Benton township, this farm consisting of 160 acres of excellent tillable land and thirty-four acres of pasture. He was prominently identified with civic and political affairs in Falls City and Richardson county, Nebraska, and had built up a large and lucrative law practice. He was a Democrat in politics and was one of the leaders of his party in Nebraska, serving four years as county judge and was successful in re-election to a third term, but resigned on account of poor health. He was popular with the masses of the people and well liked by all who knew him, being universally admired for his many excellent qualities of mind and heart.
JOHN SEATON.
The name and accomplishments of the late John Seaton appear prominently in the history of the constructive period of the development of Kansas and the city of Atchison. Destiny and natural endowments designed Mr. Seaton to become a creator and builder; inherent ability also made him a statesman and leader of men; design and inducement led him to locate his enterprise, which was the work of his own hands and brain, in the city of Atchison. In the course of time he was the gainer, becoming one of the first citizens of Kansas, and Kansas and Atchison were doubly gainers, because of him and his great work. What John Seaton wrought, in an industrial sense, will live long as a monument to his energy and enterprise; the record of right doing, honesty, plain living and his work in behalf of his fellowmen in the halls of the State legislature will live in the minds and hearts of his fellow citizens in the long years to come.
John Seaton was a builder whose vision of a great industrial enterprise in the city of the great bend of the Missouri came true in a material sense, inasmuch as Atchison will continue to benefit through the continued whirring of the industrial wheels which his genius set going. While the evidence of his handiwork is visible, and the smoke of the factory which he built will continue to be seen day after day as time goes on, the greatest reminder of Mr. Seaton’s life on this earth will be the lesson which his manner of living and his strict attention to the highest duties of citizenship have left to posterity. Atchison suffered a sincere loss when his demise occurred and his departure from the realms of mortal ken created a void which could never be filled, although Mr. Seaton’s work continues to exist after him.
Eng. by E. G. Williams & Bro. N. Y.
John Seaton
John Seaton was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, June 11, 1834, a son of John M., and Elizabeth (Jones) Seaton, the former a native of Virginia and the latter having been born in Vermont. John M. Seaton, the father, was a soldier in the Mexican War and was killed in battle at the storming of the heights of Cerro Gordo, Old Mexico. When John was three weeks old his parents removed from Cincinnati to Louisville, Ky., where his boyhood days were spent. He was eleven years of age when his father was killed on the field of battle. He attended school until he was fifteen years of age, and then began learning the trade of a machinist. A few years later finds him working as a journeyman machinist in St. Louis, Mo. In 1856 with a cash capital of two dollars and fifty cents, John Seaton started a foundry at Alton, Ill. A natural aptitude for mechanics and machinery appliances, combined with pluck, energy and perseverance, enabled him to make a success of his first undertaking and the enterprise prospered.