Frank D. Greason

FRANK D. GREASON is founder and proprietor and editor of the Square Dealer of Atwood. He has been in newspaper work since early boyhood, learning the business under his father, the late James D. Greason, who also helped make newspaper history in various communities in Kansas, and was not only one of the first publishers but one of the very first residents of Rawlins County.

The Greason family is of Scotch ancestry and was established in Pennsylvania in Colonial times. Frank D. Greason's grandfather, Thomas D. Greason, was born in Pennsylvania in 1805. In 1867 he came to Kansas and established a home near Paola, where he had invested heavily in land. He died there the following year, in 1868.

James D. Greason, above mentioned, was born near Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in 1841. He received his early education chiefly in an academy near Boston, Massachusetts. At Dayton, Ohio, he learned the printer's trade with the Dayton Journal. Printing was his occupation for a number of years. On coming to Kansas in 1867 he went into the office of the Republican at Paola, and was a partner with W. D. Grayson, the publisher. During the political campaign of 1876 and for some time afterward, when Hayes was president, he conducted a paper at Berryville, Arkansas.

James D. Greason in the early days became acquainted with and was a loyal friend of Senator P. B. Plumb, the great Kansas statesman. It was through Plumb's assistance and influence that he went to Rawlins County as a pioneer, and in 1886 established the Republican Citizen at Atwood, his partner in that enterprise being Cy Anderson. Rawlins County was not organized until the following year, and James D. Greason as proprietor of the only newspaper had a very prominent and influential part in perfecting the organic structure of the county. He continued to be identified with the Republican Citizen until 1900, when on account of ill health he sold out. He was a member of the first school board of Rawlins County, and for twelve years was postmaster of Atwood. He was the second to hold that office at Atwood, beginning during Harrison's administration. He was a republican and a member of the United Brethren Church. In 1861 he enlisted in the First Ohio Light Artillery, and continued in the service a brave and faithful soldier until the end of the war in 1865. Among the great battles in which he participated was that of Antietam, and much of his service was in the army under General Rosecrans. James D. Greason died at Atwood, Kansas, in 1909. He married Emma L. Sampson. She was born in Springfield, Illinois, in 1853. There were three children in the family. The oldest, Gertrude, married C. B. Woodard. Her death was a local tragedy. She was murdered in the newspaper office at Atwood in March, 1899. The second child is Frank D., and the third is Kenneth G., who runs a newspaper at Aberdeen, South Dakota.

Frank D. Greason was born in Linn County, Kansas, August 28, 1877, but was reared and educated at Atwood. He attended the Atwood High School two years and at the age of eighteen began making his own way and followed his regular trade as a printer in his father's shop. In 1902 he removed to Shawnee, Oklahoma, and for three years was connected with the Shawnee Daily Herald. Returning to Atwood in 1905, he established the Square Dealer, first published under the name J. D. Greason & Son. He has been its editor and proprietor ever since, and has given the paper a large influence and circulation all over Rawlins and surrounding counties. It is the official city paper and is republican in politics, formerly being a progressive organ. Mr. Greason owns the building in which it is published on Main Street. This building has a history, since it was the first building moved to Atwood in 1880 from the original townsite 1 1/2 miles northeast of the present town. Mr. Greason owns a modern home which he built in 1906. He is a republican and a member of the Congregational Church.

In 1898, at Lincoln, Nebraska, he married Miss Ella M. Pinegar, daughter of Joseph and Almira (Provost) Pinegar. Her parents reside at Atwood, where her father is in the confectionery business. Mr. and Mrs. Greason have a most interesting family of seven children. The oldest is Glenn G., born August 20, 1899, is a graduate of the Rawlins County High School and is now in the Students Army Training Corps at Kansas University. James D., born October 31, 1900, is a graduate of the Rawlins County High School and is a teacher in Rawlins County. Joseph, born in September, 1904, is in the first year of the County High School. Kermit, born May 3, 1906, Kenneth, born March 3, 1908, Roscoe Stubbs, born November 20, 1911, are all attending the public schools, and the youngest of the family is John F., born March 20, 1915.

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