Henry Clay Primm, a pioneer Kansas merchant of Freeport, is a native of Virginia. He was born December 25, 1838, at Clarksburg, Harrison county, Va. (now West Virginia), and is a son of Thomas S. and Anna Minerva (Davis) Primm, the father a native of Farquhar county, and the mother a native of Shenandoah county and both descendants of old Virginia stock. They were the parents of nine children: Mary, deceased; Margaret, deceased; Salina, deceased; Emma, married Frank Coles, and resides at Tecumseh, Neb.; Sarah, married B. F. Miller, Muncie, Ind.; John Davis, deceased; Henry C., the subject of this sketch; Charles Edward who served as a lieutenant in the Twelfth Regiment, West Virginia infantry, during the Civil War, and is now a merchant at Weston, W. Va., and William J., deceased. Henry C. Primm received his education in the public schools of Clarksburg, and attended the academy from which he graduated at the age of eighteen. His father was a merchant, and the boy was practically brought up behind the counter. In 1866, he became a traveling salesman for a Baltimore wholesale dry goods house, and was a "knight of the grip" for six years. In 1872, he came west, and was variously engaged until 1880, when he embarked in the mercantile business at Strong City, Kans., where he opened a dry goods store. In 1884, he sold that business and came to Freeport, and engaged in the general mercantile business. His was the first establishment of the kind in the town, and in addition to the mercantile business he bought grain for ten years, and since then has devoted himself exclusively to merchandising, and by his square dealing, and straightforward method has won the confidence of a host of customers. He was married December 9, 1884, at Strong City, Kans., to Miss Mary Spritzer, a native of Mannington, W. Va., born in 1858, and departed this life at Freeport, Kans., July 20, 1895. She was a devout member of the Presbyterian church and a woman of noble Christian character. To Mr. and Mrs. Primm were born three children: Reuben P., born August 20, 1885, a banker of Kiowa, Kans.; Milton W., born January 20, 1887, now a merchant at Sharon, Kans., and Carmel, born August 20, 1889, resides at home. Mr. Primm's long experience in the mercantile business has been successful, and he has accumulated a competency. He is an exceptionally well preserved man for his years, although he is nearing his seventy-seventh milestone on the journey of life, he is as active as the average man at forty. His vigorous mind and body at this advanced age is, no doubt, due to his even temperment, and mode of living. He is a vegetarian and lives the simple life, and is a believer in outdoor recreation. He is liberal in his religious and political views, believing in the universal creed and Jeffersonian Democracy. He believes in the golden rule, but says: "If any doubt exist, do the other fellow before he does you."