Nicholas Boos, proprietor of one of the best improved farms in Shannon township, has resided on the land which he now owns for over fifty years, and is widely known as a progressive farmer who has applied his accurate knowledge of the best farming methods to such good account that he is now the owner of 250 acres of good land, upon which he erected in 1912 a handsome brick residence, modern throughout, at a cost of $4,500. Mr. Boos installed his own light and water plant, and in the rear of his handsome home he has built a large and commodious bank barn. His residence faces the main highway running northward from Atchison, and presents a substantial evidence of the enterprise of its owner.
Mr. Boos was born November 11, 1862, in Germany, a son of Nicholas and Catharine Boos, who left their native land with their two children and came to Atchison county, Kansas, in July of 1865. After one month’s stay in the city they removed to a point in Shannon township, about three miles north of Atchison, and settled upon eighty acres of land which the elder Boos purchased. Nicholas Boos and his wife reared their children here, and lived on the farm until death called them away. Nicholas Boos, Sr., was born in 1833, and died in October of 1899. Catharine, his wife, was born in 1833, and died in November of 1898. Their two children are: Nicholas, with whom this narrative is directly concerned, and Catharine, now known as Sister Hilda of the Order of St. Benedict’s, Mt. St. Scholastica Academy, Atchison.
Upon the death of their parents, Nicholas Boos and his sister inherited the eighty acre farm upon which they had been reared. Nicholas bought his sister’s share of the estate, and by dint of hard, unremitting labor, and the exercise of frugality and good financial judgment, has added 170 acres to the original tract. There are 205 acres in the home farm on the east side of the highway and forty-five acres on the west side, some distance from his home.
Mr. Boos was married May 1, 1889, to Mary Wolters, born in Atchison county, and daughter of Matthew and Catharine Wolters, both of whom were natives of Germany, Matthew being now deceased and his widow residing in Mr. Boos’ home. Ten children have been born to this estimable couple, namely: William, aged twenty-five years; Albert, aged twenty-three, employed by Dolan Mercantile Company; Nicholas, aged seventeen years; Edward, twelve years of age; Harold, aged eight years; Hilda, twenty-three years of age, and a dressmaker; Marie, aged twenty-one, second bookkeeper for John J. Intfen, grocer; Frances, aged eighteen, bookkeeper for Byrnes’ drug store; Bertha, aged fourteen, and Rosa, aged ten years: William, an employee of the Symns Grocer Company, married Marie McGraff. Mr. and Mrs. Boos have endeavored to give all of their children good school and college educations, and have succeeded in rearing a fine and worthy family, of which they have a good and just right to be proud.
Mr. Boos is a member of St. Benedict’s Catholic Church and is a liberal supporter of Catholic institutions. He is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen lodge. While a Democrat in politics, he endeavors to exercise the right of suffrage in a manner befitting his own ideas, and supports such candidates for office as come the nearest to his ideal of a good man and official regardless of political protestations.
JUNE E. MOORE.
June E. Moore, president of the Symns Grocer Company, of Atchison, Kan., is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, and a son of Thomas H. and Lydia Ann (Gordon) Moore, the former a native of Virginia, and the latter of New Jersey. The Moore family came to Kansas in 1865, and the father engaged in the mercantile business at Iowa Point, Doniphan county. He was engaged in business there about ten years, or until 1876, when he sold his business and removed to Kansas City, where he remained until his death, in 1889. His wife died in 1886. June Moore, the subject of this sketch, received a good common school education, and remained at home, at Iowa Point, until 1873, when he came to Atchison and accepted a position as bookkeeper in the grocery house of A. B. Symns. About three months later he went on the road as traveling salesman for Mr. Symns, and was the first man to represent Mr. Symns in that capacity. After remaining in Mr. Symns’ employ for about three years, he went to Falls City, Neb., and engaged in the mercantile business for himself, and conducted a business there for seven years. He then returned to Atchison, and in 1879 engaged in the grocery business for himself. Mr. Moore continued in the grocery business in Atchison from 1879 to 1887, when he again became connected with the Symns Grocer Company, which had been reorganized in the meantime. Since that time Mr. Moore has been connected with the Symns Grocer Company, which is one of the leading institutions of the kind in the State. From 1889 until 1907 Mr. Moore had charge of their Topeka branch. During the year of 1907, M. S. Peterson, who had been the buyer of the company for a number of years, died, and Mr. Moore was obliged to return to Atchison to assume the responsibilities in connection with the purchasing department. He looked after the purchasing department of the company for one year, when he became president of the company, and has since capably filled that responsible position. Mr. Moore is a stockholder in the company, and is one of the men who have contributed many of the best days of their lives to the upbuilding and development of this great commercial institution, of which the people of Atchison are justly proud.
Mr. Moore was united in marriage July 27, 1871, to Miss Rebecca Armstrong, a native of North Carolina. Mrs. Moore was a daughter of Francis K. Armstrong, of Virginia, who moved to North Carolina, and there married Jerusha Eliza Belt, and returned to Virginia, and in 1859 migrated to Missouri, remaining in St. Joseph until the fall of 1860, and then settled on a farm in Doniphan county, Kansas, where he died in November, 1861. Mr. Moore is a member of the Masonic lodge, and one of the substantial business men of Atchison.
W. PERRY HAM.
The powers of leadership are inherent in some individuals, and there are in every community such men who seem naturally gifted to lead their fellows in political affairs. In reviewing the life career of W. Perry Ham, the official head of the Republican party in Atchison county, the fact is brought out that his natural gifts have tended to lead him to activity in political affairs, and that he is gifted with ability of a high order, which is universally recognized by the men of his party who look to him for leadership. Mr. Ham is a thorough American, whose ancestry goes back to the earliest days of the foundation of the Republic.