1905 History of Crawford County Kansas

Marion G. Slawson, who is engaged in farming and breeding of registered Hereford cattle and Poland-China hogs, as proprietor of the Maple Grove stock farm in Crawford and Washington townships, is a native son of this county, his birth having occurred here on the 10th of September, 1874. He is a son of Charles H. and Lydia (Briggs) Slawson, both of whom are natives of Whiteside county, Illinois. The father was a farmer by occupation, but at the time of the Civil war he put aside all business and personal considerations, offering his service to the government in defense of the Union cause in September, 1861. He became a member of Company H, Eighth Kansas Volunteer Infantry, and served until the spring of 1866, doing faithful service in defense of the old flag. In the year 1869 he located in Crawford county, becoming identified with its agricultural interests. Here he carried on farming until his death, which occurred on the 29th of January, 1889, when he was sixty years of age. His widow is still living and now makes her home with her son, Marion.

Mr. Slawson pursued his early education in the common schools and afterward attended the Girard high school, while still later he pursued a commercial course of study in a business college at Wichita. He next entered the State University of Lawrence, Kansas, where he pursued a course in law and won the degree of Bachelor of Laws. Following his graduation he located in Kansas City, Kansas, where he opened an office for practice in connection with James F. Jacobs, but after four months he returned home, feeling that his services were needed on the farm, as his father was then well advanced in years and unable to perform all the arduous duties of the farm. Here Mr. Slawson has remained continuously since and is to-day the owner of three hundred and sixty acres of valuable land, constituting the Maple Grove stock farm. This is a splendid property well improved and thoroughly equipped for the purpose used. He is very successfully engaged not only in the production of the various cereals adapted to soil and climate, but also in the breeding and raising of registered Hereford cattle and Poland China hogs, and he now has some very fine stock upon his place. In his business methods he is progressive and reliable, and is justly accounted one of the most enterprising young men of Crawford county.

On the 22d of December, 1897, Mr. Slawson was united in marriage to Clara M. Wilson, a daughter of James and Sarah (Utley) Wilson, of Illinois. They now have two sons, Charles J., born on the 12th of November, 1899, and Merrill W., born June 8, 1904. Both Mr. and Mrs. Slawson hold membership in the Methodist church at Girard and are highly esteemed throughout the community, where they have a large circle of friends. While a student in the State University he was a member of Company H, First Regiment of the Kansas National Guard. Socially he is identified with a number of organizations, including the Masonic fraternity, the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Knights of the Maccabees. He belongs to both the subordinate lodge and the uniformed rank of the Knights of Pythias, Castle No. 63, and is also connected with the Anti-Horse Thief Association, No. 279. Mr. Slawson was elected as trustee of the county high school of Crawford county in 1904. Politically he has attained prominence, which is well merited, for he has done effective work in behalf of his party as a loyal and progressive citizen. He gives his political allegiance to the Republican party, and in the year 1904 was sent as a delegate to the state convention at Wichita, Kansas. In 1901 he was elected to represent his district in the state legislature and while a member of the general assembly he gave to each question which came up for settlement his earnest consideration, putting forth every effort in his power to advance the welfare of the commonwealth.