George A. Gordon, president of the Kansas State Bank of Holton, who, while fortune has wrought no miracles for him, has been quick to recognize and grasp the opportunities offered and thus become a successful financier, was born in Urbana, Champaign county, Ohio, in 1860. His parents were Andrew A. and Lydia A. (Galloway) Gordon, the former born on his father's farm, near Xenia, Ohio. He was reared in the country and, as his parents were not wealthy, all the equipment they could give him for his battle in life was a good common school education. Andrew A. Gordon remained with his parents until his majority and then became a painter, which vocation he followed in his native state several years. In 1858 he married, and soon took his bride to live on a farm in Champaign county, Ohio, where he engaged in agricultural pursuits twelve years. The same year (1858) he pre-empted 240 acres of land in Kansas, but did not come to the state to live until 1871, when the family moved west and settled on the new homestead in Jackson county. Mr. Gordon, a thrifty, practical farmer, immediately began to make improvements on his farm and lived there until 1893, when, having in that time accumulated a comfortable fortune, he retired from active business and enjoyed the sunset years in ease at his home, in Holton, where he passed from life, Jan. 28, 1905, joining his wife, who died in 1898.

George A. Gordon's early life was passed in Ohio, where he first attended school near his country home. When the parents removed to the Sunflower State he accompanied them and shared all the vicissitudes, discouragements, and hardships that the early settlers of Kansas suffered, from wintry blasts and scorching summer winds that frequently burned their grain and dried up the streams where their cattle drank. He attended the district schools of Jackson county and, after finishing his education, followed in his father's footsteps and became a tiller of the soil, one of the most honorable vocations and the one upon which the stability of the nation depends. Being practical he soon accumulated money and bought one of the finest farms in the vicinity of Holton, where he continued to reside and follow agricultural pursuits until the fall of 1909, when he determined to embark upon a new venture and, with other substantial citizens organized the Kansas State Bank at Holton and became its first vice-president and later its president, which position he is filling with marked ability. Although still in its infancy this banking house is regarded as one of the stable institutions of the state and has a bright future before it. For some years Mr. Gordon has been dealing extensively in real estate, having bought several farms in Jackson county and in Nebraska, all of which are fine farm lands.

In 1886 he married Minnie E., daughter of John Nesbitt of Nebraska, and six children have been born of this union: Nona is the wife of R. G. Jackson of Holton; and Allan, Jane M., Lelia A., Harold F., and Elizabeth are at home with their parents. The family are members of the Presbyterian church, and in politics Mr. Gordon is a supporter of the Republican party.