George W. Grandy

GEORGE W. GRANDY, of St. John, is one of the old time citizens of Stafford County, and his varied interests make him a man of standing in financial affairs throughout the state. He is president of the McPherson Hail Insurance Company, and also conducts a large real estate business at St. John.

Mr. Grandy was born at Pontiac, Illinois, June 28, 1862. His father, Nathan Grandy, was born in Vermont in 1821, grew up in that New England state, and when a young man moved to Pontiac, Illinois, and was an early-day farmer in Livingston County. He died at Pontiac in 1894. He was much honored in local citizenship, holding county and township offices, including that of highway commissioner of Livingston County. He was a democrat and a member of the Baptist Church. Nathan Grandy married in Illinois, Harriet Christy, who was born in Green County, Illinois, in 1827 and died at Pontiac in 1909. They were the parents of a large family of children: T. E. Grandy, a real estate man in Arkansas; Harriet A., unmarried, and a resident of Pontiac; Clara, wife of A. G. Mason, a farmer at Wichita, Kansas; Charles E., also a farmer at Wichita; George W.; William A., in the lumber business at Mason City, Illinois; Henry, a farmer at Pontiac; and Mary J., who was killed in an automobile accident in October, 1917, at Lamar, Colorado, was the wife of William C. Young, who resides at Bristol, Colorado.

George W. Grandy was educated in the public schools of Pontiac, including the high school, and up to the age of twenty lived on his father's farm. Most of his mature experiences have been in some business field. For a time he taught school at Mendota and Amboy, Illinois, and during the summer of 1885 conducted a farm near Carrollton, Missouri. He arrived on the scene of his permanent activities at St. John in the fall of 1885 and is numbered among the old-time citizens of Stafford County. He was soon busy in the court house as deputy register of deeds under F. B. Gilmore and later as deputy clerk of court, and put in four years in those official positions. He then entered the State Bank of St. John and was assistant cashier several years, since which time he has given his entire attention to many other business affairs under his immediate direction, chiefly real estate and abstracts, and still conducts a large real estate office in the St. John National Bank Building.

In 1896 Mr. Grandy bought the County Capital at St. John, and was its editor eight years. He has been identified with the McPherson Hail Insurance Company for a number of years and has done much to build up the creditable record of that Kansas Company, whose headquarters are in McPherson, Kansas. For eight years he was treasurer and for the past three years has been president of the company. Mr. Grandy owns farms aggregating 2,000 acres in Ford, Hodgeman, Gray and Stevens counties. He is an independent voter and served one term as mayor of St. John. He owns a modern home built in 1910.

In September, 1888, in Cass County, Missouri, George W. Grandy married Jennie Dudley, daughter of Moses T. and Sarah (Wills) Dudley, both now deceased. Her father was an early day farmer and stockman in Cass County, Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Grandy have one daughter, Pearl Emily, a graduate of the St. John High School. She is now the wife of Edward A. Gaut, but lives with her parents during the absence of her husband with the Eleventh Regiment of United States Marines in France.

Pages 2414-2415.