Daniel P. Cathcart

DANIEL P. CATHCART has been a Kansan since 1900 and throughout that time has been busily engaged in ranching and farming in Garfield Township of Finney County, his holdings being at the headwaters of Pawnee Creek.

Mr. Cathcart is of old American family, originally of Scotch stock. His remote ancestors were William and Mary Cathcart, who came from Ayr, Scotland, to America and settled in the colony of Virginia. John Cathcart, the son, was born in Scotland, and came to America and located in York County, South Carolina, in 1783. Some other members of the family had come prior to the Revolution. John Cathcart subsequently moved into North Carolina, where his children were born. His third son was Pierson Cathcart, grandfather of Daniel P. Cathcart. Pierson married Polly DeWeese. Of their four children the oldest was John M. Cathcart.

John M. Cathcart was born in Washington County, Indiana, in August, 1819. He spent practically all his life as a farmer, and for his time and day secured a very good education. As a young man he taught school in Indiana. He became an early settler in Iowa, and though a farmer was a man of considerable political prominence, serving in township and county offices and also representing his district in the Iowa State Senate. He possessed a fine mind and a wide fund of information, though he never used his gifts as a public speaker. He was always a republican, and devout member of the Methodist Church. He died at Knoxville, Iowa, in 1888. John M. Cathcart married Nancy Sherwood, who died in 1900. Her parents, Hugh and Mary Sherwood, were of Welsh ancestry and from Kentucky went to Indiana and from that state in 1857 to Iowa. The children of John M. Cathcart and wife were: John J., who spent his life as a farmer in Marion County, Iowa; William, who entered the Union army in the first year of the war and was killed at the battle of Corinth; Thompson S., for many years a merchant and later a shipper, who died at Des Moines, Iowa; Daniel P., next in age; Mary, wife of G. W. Neff, of Fonda, Iowa; Rev. Ezra M. a college graduate who was a successful merchant and business man and later entered the ministry of the Methodist Church and now lives at Graettinger, Iowa; and Elizabeth, who died at Chehalis, Washington, wife of John Forrest.

Daniel P. Cathcart was born in Washington County, Indiana, June 9, 1848. He was a child when his parents moved to Iowa and as he grew up he attended the public schools and also had a business college course. His life was spent on a farm until the age of nineteen. He then became a merchant at Attica, Iowa, and after thirty-five years in that state he took his family out to Colorado in 1892, and for the next eight years lived at Colorado Springs. While there his children were educated in a good college, and the entire family greatly benefited from the mountain atmosphere and climate.

In 1900 Mr. Cathcart came to Finney County and he and his associates secured a portion of the old Van Arsdale and Welch ranch. This land had lain unproductive for some years, but stocked it with grades of range cattle, completed the fencing, and with the addition of the J. F. Hoadley improvements the ranch of Mr. Cathcart was shaped up as it is today. He has 3,500 acres of deeded land and about 600 acres of leased land. His old range stock has disappeared, and he now runs high grade Polled Angus cattle, which it has been his experience produce twice as much beef as the old range stock. He has also been in business on a commercial scale, raising horses and mules, and his activities have been an important business contribution to Finney County.

Aside from his business career he has taken an active interest in local affairs, serving as a member of the township board and clerk, and some years ago was appointed county commissioner from the Third District to succeed J. V. Killion. He has been twice regularly elected to the same office. His present colleagues on the board are A. R. Toles and I. J. Carter, and another member was Gilbert M. Holmes. This Board has done much to promote good roads. They have busied themselves with the development of the old Santa Fe trail and grading several highways across the county from north to south and east to the borders of adjoining counties. This board also had the task of remodeling the Court House after the fire and the construction of an engine house. Mr. Cathcart cast his first presidential vote for General Grant while living in Attica, Iowa, so that his republican affiliation goes back half a century.

At Attica, Iowa, September 7, 1871, Mr. Cathcart married Isabel Swain, daughter of Martin and America (Kendrick) Swain. Mr. and Mrs. Cathcart have three children, all of whom are people of note. The oldest, Arthur M., whose record is found in Who's Who in America, was admitted to the bar in 1903, practiced law in Colorado Springs, but since 1904 has been connected with the law faculty of Stanford University in California, has been a lecturer on law in several American universities, and is also widely known as an author. He married Edna Wallace of Indianapolis June 28, 1905, and has three children, Wallace, Robert and Arthur. May Cathcart, the only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Cathcart, is the wife of Richard J. Hopkins, former lieutenant governor and now nominee for attorney general of Kansas. James Cathcart, the youngest child, is a successful rancher and farmer in Finney County. He married Elsie Boon and has two children, Gale and Eula Belle.