John W. Shrader

JOHN W. SHRADER. Some people take an interest in the selling of goods, others in art and literature, some in one thing, some in another, but all perforce are compelled to acknowledge a vital interest in the production of the meat which supplies their table. It is therefore for his enterprise in establishing and maintaining some of the finest herds of White Face beef cattle in Western Kansas that John W. Shrader's career became a matter of interest to thousands of people outside his immediate community. Among Hereford cattle growers and cattle men generally Mr. Shrader has indeed a national reputation. His home is at Bird City, and he has been ranching in that corner of Kansas for a great many years.

Mr. Shrader was born at Jacksonville, Illinois, May 12, 1863. A number of generations ago his forefathers emigrated from Germany to Maryland. His great-grandfather sealed his devotion to the cause of America by service in the War of 1812. His grandfather, Conrad Shrader, was born in Maryland in 1785, pioneered in Kentucky, later to the vicinity of Moberly, Missouri, and finally retired to Jacksonville, Illinois, where he died in 1865. He was a farmer all his active career. He married Catherine Smith, who was born and died in Kentucky.

The father of John W. Shrader was Jacob A. Shrader. He was born in Kentucky in 1829, and was taken as a small boy to Moberly, Missouri. At the age of sixteen he went to Jacksonville, Illinois, was married there, and in 1865 established a home in Marion County, Iowa. From 1904 to 1908 his home was at Krimlin, Oklahoma, and he died at Helena in that state in 1908. He was a farmer all his life, was a democrat in politics and a member of the Christian Church. Jacob A. Shrader married first, Jane McKerley, who died in Jacksonville, Illinois. Of their six children the only one now living is the second in age, Martha Jane, a resident of Dallas, Iowa, widow of Frank Clingman, a farmer. The other children were Mary, Emma, Jacob, Alice and Mary, second of the name. For his second wife, Jacob A. Shrader married Nancy Jane Smith. She was born in Kirksville, Iowa, in 1848 and died at Dallas in that state in 1879. John W. Shrader was the first child of this marriage. His brother Jacob Albert died at the age of seventeen years. Alphonso and the next two in age all died in infancy. James Franklin was with his father until the latter's death and he died in Helena, Oklahoma, in September, 1916. The youngest, Edward, died at the age of six months.

John W. Shrader was two years old when his parents moved to Iowa. He grew up on his father's farm, getting an experience as a boy that has been the groundwork and foundation of all his subsequent effort. He was educated in the rural schools of Iowa. After reaching the age of twenty-one he farmed for himself one year and in December, 1885, pioneered into Northwestern Kansas, locating near Bird City in Cheyenne County. He filed on a homestead, and commuted it by the payment of $1.25 an acre. He later sold the homestead but from time to time has accumulated lands until he now has 1,720 acres in Cheyenne County, comprising one of the best equipped ranches on the western line of the state. He has always done more or less grain farming, but his real specialty is Hereford cattle. Years ago he recognized the superior merits of the White Face as beef cattle and has spared neither time nor expense to get his herds graded up to the best standards of perfection. He laid the foundation for one of the best herds of Hereford cattle in Kansas, finally selling it to Thad Mendenhal of Nebraska. For twenty years Mr. Shrader has been one of the largest stock dealers and for four years of that time a large grain buyer in Western Kansas. Recently he and his son re-entered the White Face business on the Shrader ranch. He is one of the well known members of the National Hereford Association. Since 1910 he has lived in Bird City. In politics he exercises an independent franchise and is a past master workman of Bird City Lodge No. 210, Ancient Order United Workmen.

In 1892, at St. Francis, Kansas, Mr. Shrader married Miss Rosa Hartley, daughter of G. W. and Susan (Williams) Hartley, both now deceased. Mr. Hartley was a farmer and came originally from Fulton County, Illinois. Mrs. Shrader died at Bird City in 1904, and of six children the five youngest, George, Everett, Alice, Floyd and an infant son, died in early age, none of them reaching school age. Mr. Shrader's only son is Roy A., who has followed in the footsteps of his father and already has a reputation as one of the leading growers of Hereford cattle in Western Kansas. He lives on and manages his father's ranch thirteen miles south of Bird City. He finished his education in an academy at Franklin, Nebraska.

Roy A. Shrader married Lulu Taylor. Their three children are Lloyd, Marvin and John Woodrow.