1905 History of Crawford County Kansas

Carl C. Cockerill, a prominent coal operator and proprietor of the C. C. Cockerill Coal Company, at Pittsburg, Kansas, has large interests in Crawford county's great mining industry and is numbered among Pittsburg's most enterprising young business men. He has been interested in coal operating and its allied industries from boyhood, and has been at the head of his present business for four years. He belongs to the class of men of whom Pittsburg is most proud—enterprising, public-spirited, alert to make use of opportunities for building up their own business, yet willing to sacrifice time and labor for the general development and progress of the city and county.

Mr. Cockerill was born at Glasgow, Missouri, in June, 1872, a son of Judge H. Clay and Kate (Almond) Cockerill. His father was born at Richmond, Missouri, in 1831, and is one of the old-time and prominent citizens of that state. He received a good education, studied law, and became a leading member of the Missouri bar. He was elected judge of the district court for Platte county, and was an honor to the bench during his incumbency. For the past thirty-five or forty years he has lived at Glasgow, Missouri, and was elected and served one term as state senator from Howard county. One of his sons, Hon. Harry W. Cockerill, who died in 1893, also served in the legislature from that county, and was taken away when well entered upon a distinguished career. Judge Cockerill's wife was born in Platte county, Missouri, in 1845.

Mr. C. C. Cockerill received most of his education in the Glasgow schools. He entertained a liking for the coal business when a boy, and in 1889, at the age of seventeen, came to Weir City, Kansas, and took an office position with the zinc works in that place. In 1891 he came to Pittsburg to fill a position with the Cherokee Zinc Company, which later became the Cherokee-Lanyon Spelter Company, operating one of the largest smelters in this district. He continued his connection with this company until its Pittsburg plants were discontinued in 1900, when he engaged in the coal mining business, under the name of the C. C. Cockerill Coal Company. He operates two mines and employs about three hundred men. Mine No. 12 1/2 is three miles and a half northeast of Pittsburg, and mine No. 16 is a mile and a half south of Chicopee.

Mr. Cockerill was married at Pittsburg in February, 1894, to Miss Minnie Nesch, whose father, Robert Nesch, is now a resident of Kansas City, but who still retains his large interests in Pittsburg, being vice president of the Pittsburg Wholesale Grocery Company, and also connected with some of the leading manufacturing plants of the city. Mr. and Mrs. Cockerill have three sons, Robert Clay, Carl and Almond. He affiliates with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and he and his wife are prominent members of the social circles of the city.