Upon his removal to Atchison he immediately became identified with the leading financial interests of the city and in 1873 organized the German Savings Bank which was for many years one of the strong financial institutions of the city. He was also identified with the first bank established in Muscotah, Kan. He engaged in the real estate and farm loan business in Atchison and organized the Eastern Kansas Land and Loan Company, a concern which is still doing business and of which his daughter, Mrs. Louisa J. Lips, is president. Mr. Storch served as president of the German Savings Bank until its stock was purchased by the United States National Bank, and also filled the office of president of this bank during the period of its existence. He was engaged in banking pursuits for a period of eighteen years.
He was married in 1859 to Miss Elizabeth Fox, a daughter of John and Elizabeth Fox, who removed from Evansville, Ind., where Mrs. Storch was born, to Carroll county, Missouri, and settled on a farm. Two children blessed this union of George and Elizabeth Storch: George H., who will be remembered as a bright, intelligent and capable Atchison citizen and who was associated with his father in business for several years, and died in July, 1911, and Louisa Justina, widow of Oscar Lips. Mrs. Storch died in February, 1905, and almost three years later followed the demise of the husband and father, who departed this life in January, 1908. Oscar Lips and Louisa Justina Storch were married in 1891, and that union was blessed with a son, Charles, born in October, 1896. Charles Lips received his primary education in the public schools of Atchison, his preparatory work in the Culver, Ind., Military Academy, and is now pursuing a collegiate course in the Kansas University at Lawrence. Oscar Lips was born in St. Louis, Mo., a son of Dr. Charles August Lips, a former practicing physician of St. Louis, and who was of German descent. Oscar was reared and educated in his native city, and when a young man engaged in the wholesale drug business. His demise occurred in Atchison, August, 1905.
George Storch was a Republican in politics and took an active and influential part in political affairs during his long years of residence in Kansas. Not long after establishing himself in business at Kennekuk he became postmaster of the town, and assisted in establishing the first union school in the village, serving as a member of the board of education which had charge of this school. The Horton Headlight has the following historical account of this school in an issue of August, 1905, in part: “The old stone school house was not the first school building in the Kennekuk neighborhood, but it was the first substantial one in this part of the country and marks an important epoch in its development. It was built in 1867. It was a joint district, eight miles north and south. The west line was the road between Atchison and Jackson counties. A strip of country two miles wide and eight miles long was in Atchison county and a corresponding trip of country was just over the line in Brown county. The school house was quite a structure to be builded in that early day, but the settlers did not complain at the high taxes, since their children had a good place to attend school. The cost was about $3,000, quite a good sized sum for early settlers to expend, but it shows their determination to provide an education for their children. The first school board was composed of George Storch, Squire Willis and Henry Claunch....”
Mr. Storch was always greatly interested in the cause of education and after his removal to Atchison he served as a member of the Atchison board of education and was president of this body for a time. While a resident of Kennekuk he was elected to represent Atchison county in the Kansas legislature in 1864. During the ensuing session he voted for Gen. James H. Lane for United States senator and voted to ratify the fourteenth amendment to the National constitution. In 1876 he was elected a member of the legislature from the city of Atchison, and during the session following his election he was a member of the ways and means committee and voted for P. B. Plumb for United States senator. Mr. Storch made an excellent record as an able and honest legislator, who had the best interests of his State at heart. He was active in civic and political affairs in Atchison and served as a member of the city council of which body he was president for one year, declining re-election when his term of office expired. The following tribute to his ability as a city father appeared in the Atchison Champion of April 6, 1873: “One of the best councilmen our city has ever had leaves that body after two years’ service in it. We refer to Hon. George Storch, chairman of the committee on improvements. He has been industrious, independent, and energetic. Having the chairmanship of the most important and laborious committee, he has given his time and attention to the discharge of the duties devolving upon him, and in the decision of all questions in the council he has exhibited a clearness of judgment and a carefulness in guarding the interests of the city that entitle him to general commendation. He declined re-election.”
Mr. Storch served for three years as city treasurer and exhibited the same judgment and careful management of the city’s affairs in this important capacity that has marked the performance of his official duties as a councilman and school trustee. It is worthy of record that in 1865, while in Kennekuk, he was elected a member of the board of county commissioners and served as chairman of that body.
Few pioneer citizens of Atchison lived a more useful or busier life than he of whom this review is written. The name of George Storch figures prominently in the historical annals of Atchison county as a builder and creator and an honorable and upright citizen, who left behind him when his soul winged its way beyond the knowledge of mortal ken, a record imperishable, and a name unblemished and untarnished of which his descendants may well be proud. While opportunities for achieving fortune and fame may not be as great at this day as they were in George Storch’s time and era, the story of this poor German emigrant boy who made his own way in Kansas from poverty to affluence and won an honored place in the history of his adopted county and State is well worth reading and may serve as an inspiration and guidance to others of the present and rising generations.
THOMAS BROWN.
There is considerable satisfaction in writing the life story of a man who has worked his way upward from poverty to a position of wealth and influence in the space of a lifetime, and accomplished it all with his own strong arms and mind. When one adds to this accomplishment the rearing of a large family to lives of usefulness, and to bring up a bevy of young men and women to comfort their parents in their declining years, there is not much for any one individual to wish for. Thomas Brown, retired farmer, of Effingham, Kan., has done all of this and is the proud father of one of the largest families in Atchison county. Had he done no more than to bring into the world his thirteen children, he would have been worthy of praise and been entitled to honorable mention in this volume, as a patriotic and sturdy American citizen. A native of the Emerald isle, he came to America in his youth, and now ranks as one of the Kansas and Atchison county pioneers.
Thomas Brown was born in the little village of Altone, Ireland, and is a son of John and Mary (Dalton) Brown. His birth occurred on February 10, 1847. His father was a farmer in his native country, and made a good living for his family, later moving to the town of Altone and engaging in the transfer business, in which occupation he was fairly successful and enabled to provide for his family in comfort. He was the father of ten children, seven of whom came to America to seek their fortunes in the land of opportunity. The seven who came across the Ocean were: J. P. Brown, a pioneer merchant and capitalist, of Atchison, now deceased; Mrs. Bridget Norton, who died in 1913 at her home in Pittsfield, Mass.; Mrs. Mary Scully, of Troy, N. Y.; Mrs. Anna Elkhorn, of Troy, N. Y.; Mrs. Margaret Hewitt, of Independence, Mo.; Mrs. Kate Waters, deceased, who was the wife of a soldier in the British army. The father of these children died in Ireland, and the mother died in Troy, N. Y.
Thomas Brown emigrated from his native land to this country in 1865, and hired out to a farmer in Orange county, New York, at $20 per month. The farm where he was employed was located seventeen miles north of Newburg, on the Hudson river. He worked there for two years and carefully saved his earnings until he had $300. With this capital he set out for the West and joined his brother, J. P. Brown, who was then located in Atchison. His first employment was on his brother’s stock farm, located north of Monrovia. Unfortunately, he was taken ill not long after his arrival, and lay sick for a long time with typhoid, all of his savings going to pay for medical services and nursing. He remained on his brother’s farm for ten years and laid by another stake during that time. During this period he cultivated three farms, owned by J. P. Brown, who did not require him to pay any rental fees. Even the taxes were paid by his brother who was only anxious to keep the land in cultivation and give his brother, Tom, a start in the world. In the year 1877, Thomas, having saved enough money to buy a farm of his own, invested his savings in a tract of 160 acres of high prairie land, northwest of Effingham, in Benton township. His first land investment cost him $2,250. The land had on it only a small shack which was soon replaced by a comfortable home. It is now one of the best improved places in this section of Kansas, and the Brown farms are among the most productive in the whole State of Kansas. A handsome white farm house graces the home place, which can be seen for miles around, and it is quite imposing. Mr. Brown prospered as he deserved and increased his holdings to the grand total of 640 acres of good Kansas land. The remarkable part about his purchases of land is that he paid cash for every tract of land which he bought and never went in debt for a single acre. This land, purchased at varying prices, is now easily worth $125 an acre. Mr. Brown carried on general farming and live stock raising until February of 1911, when he turned over the management of the home farm to his son, and removed to Effingham, where he has a beautiful and comfortable residence in the west part of the city.