William R. Gordon

WILLIAM R. GORDON has had more than a casual part in the life and affairs of Western Kansas during the past thirty years. At one time he was interested in ranching and the cattle business in Comanche County, but for a number of years has been a farmer and merchant around Bucklin in Ford County, and is now living retired in the Town of Bucklin, where he is city clerk and secretary of the Bucklin Commercial Club.

Mr. Gordon was born at Marlboro, New Jersey, August 14, 1861, a son of Lewis I. and Lydia (Victoria) Gordon. His father was born in Monmouth County, New Jersey, was a farmer, and died there in 1874, at the age of sixty-four. His ancestors came from Scotland. The mother was born in Illinois in 1840 and is now living at Passaic, New Jersey, at the age age[sic] of seventy-seven. She is a daughter of Charles and Sarah E. (Walters) Victoria, the former a native of Illinois and the latter of England. Louis and Lydia Gordon had the following children: William R.; Elizabeth, who is unmarried and lives at Los Angeles, California; Georgia, deceased; Robert, of Passaic, New Jersey; Jonathan, deceased; Nellie, wife of Charles Aldous of Passaic, New Jersey.

William R. Gordon grew up in his native state, attended the district schools and had one term of instruction at Mount St. Mary's College at Emmettsburg, Maryland. Except while in school he worked on his father's farm and was in vigorous young manhood at the age of twenty-two when he came to Kansas in 1883.

In Comanche County Mr. Gordon took up a claim on which he built a dugout. The front of this was walled up with sod and not a single board was used anywhere in the construction. While living on the claim and proving up he worked at a monthly salary with the Horsehead Ranch. What surplus money he had he invested with the company and finally turned his claim into the same concern. Later for five years he was in the employ of Drake & Sibley, ranchmen in Clark County. While with them he sold his interest in the Horsehead Ranch. Having had a widely varied experience in Western Kansas, Mr. Gordon then went back east, and for a year or so was a hotel clerk at Cleveland, Ohio.

In 1891 he returned to Kansas, locating in Ford County, and after his marriage he farmed his wife's place adjoining Bucklin on the south. From the farm he retired into Bucklin in 1904, and for six years was a successful hardware merchant in that town, since which time he has been retired.

In 1891 Mr. Gordon married Ida E. Sibley, daughter of Morris Sibley, one of the pioneers of this section of Kansas. Mrs. Gordon died in 1897, at the age of forty. In 1899 he married Carrie E. Rush, daughter of Absalom and Sarah Rush, of McDonough County, Illinois. Mrs. Gordon was the youngest of a number of children, the others being named as follows: Mary, deceased; John S., of Girard, Kansas; Samuel, of San Dimas, California; Margaret, wife of J. F. Price, of Cherokee, Kansas; J. A., of Pueblo, Colorado; Frank, deceased; Josie, deceased wife of A. A. Shulter, of Bucklin.

While always voting the straight republican ticket, Mr. Gordon has been interested only in local politics. During much of his residence in Clark County he was trustee of his township and he filled a similar office in Bucklin Township after his removal to Ford County. He assisted in organizing and building the schoolhouse for the second district organized in Clark County. He is member and consul of Bucklin Camp of the Modern Woodmen of America and is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks at Hutchinson.