Roy M. Deever

ROY M. DEEVER, one of the young and energetic business men of Norton County is cashier of the First National Bank of Edmond. He comes of a family of ministers and educators and was himself liberally educated in preparation for the serious responsibilities of life.

A native Kansan, he was born in Geary County September 12, 1889. The Deevers were established in Ohio in the early part of the nineteenth century. Mr. Deever's grandfather, Jesse E. Deever, born in 1824, came to Kansas when it was a territory and in the midst of the disturbances resulting from the free state fight. He settled in Shawnee County in 1858, homesteading 160 acres on Muddy Creek. He lived on his farm and reared his family there. When the Civil war came on he volunteered to serve the cause of the Union and permanently lost his sight in the service. He died at Topeka in 1904.

J. B. Deever, son of this Kansas pioneer, was born in Wisconsin March 5, 1856. He was only two years old when his parents came to Kansas, and he grew up on the old homestead on Muddy Creek in Shawnee County. He was educated in Lane University at Lecompton and was one of the earlier ministers of the United Brethren Church in Kansas. His work as a minister was conducted in Eastern Kansas and for twelve years he was Conference Superintendent of the North East Kansas District. His last regular pastorate was at Meriden, where he preached two years, and one of the greatest revivals in his church in Kansas was directed and inspired by his leadership. On account of ill health he has been retired several years. He is a republican in politics.

Rev. J. B. Deever married Jennie Etherington at Lecompton, Kansas. She was born May 19, 1856, in Pennsylvania, and is also a graduate of Lane University. Her father, Thomas Etherington, a native of England, came to the United States in 1855, and about 1866 located on a farm near Overbrook, Kansas, being one of the early and esteemed settlers there. He acquired 640 acres of land and worked it productively. He died at Overbrook in 1915. J. B. Deever was the father of the following children: O. T. Deever, a graduate of Campbell College at Holton, Kansas, and of the Bonebrake Theological Seminary at Dayton, Ohio, with the degree Doctor of Divinity, is a minister of the United Brethren Church at Dayton, Ohio. O. H. Deever has had a similar history to his brother, being a graduate of both Campbell College, and the McCormick Theological Seminary at Chicago, and is now a United Brethren minister at McLouth, Kansas. A. L. Deever graduated from Campbell College and from Bonebrake Theological Seminary and is pastor of the First United Brethren Church at Winfield, Kansas. Florence, the fourth child, is the wife of Dr. C. F. Atwood, a physician and surgeon at Abilene, Kansas.

Roy M. Deever, the youngest of the family, received his education at Topeka. He graduated from the Topeka High School in 1907, and finished the sophomore year in Washburn College. Leaving school to take up a business career, he was cashier two years of the Berryton State Bank, and for two years was cashier of the Commercial State Bank at Abilene, from there coming to his position at Edmond in the fall of 1915. The responsibilities of the management of the First National Bank of this city have devolved upon him in the capacity of cashier.

The First National Bank of Edmond was established in 1902 under a state charter, and has been a national bank since 1908. It has a capital of $25,000 and surplus and profits of $7,500. Its other officers are O. A. Sproul, president, and W. H. Miller, vice president.

Mr. Deever is also president of the Northern Kansas Loan Company of Edmond, a farm loan corporation doing a nice volume of business, with capital of $6,000. He is treasurer of the Town of Edmond, a republican, a trustee of the United Brethren Church, and is affiliated with Lenora Lodge of Masons and Edmond Camp of Modern Woodmen of America.

August 25, 1910, at Topeka, Mr. Deever married Miss Glessie Burton, daughter of J. P. and Margaret (Stingle) Burton, residents of Topeka where Mr. Burton is a car inspector with the Missouri Pacific Railway Company.