Dempsey St. Clair Haines

DEMPSEY ST. CLAIR HAINES. - One of the foremost citizens of Edwardsville and its leading general merchant, Dempsey St. Clair Haines is widely known not only as cashier of the Edwardsville State Bank, but as postmaster, a position which he has held for upwards of thirty years. A son of Joseph Haines, he was born March 31, 1847, in Guernsey county, Ohio.

Joseph Haines was born in New Jersey in 1808, and as a boy moved with his parents to Ohio, and was there subsequently engaged in agricultural pursuits until his death, in 1880. He was a staunch Republican in politics, and religiously was a Quaker. He married Mary George, and they became the parents of nine children, of whom two died in infancy and seven grew to years of maturity, as follows: Esther Ann, widow of Emerson Lowry, of Senecaville, Ohio, is now eighty years of age; Rachel died January 27, 1911; Simpson G., of Texas, served througout the Civil war as a member of Company E, Fifteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was wounded at the battle of Pittsburg Landing; Maria E., wife of George W. Wilkinson, of Belmont, Ohio; Selden T., a resident of Florida; Dempsey St. Clair; and Vilinda J., of Belmont, Ohio.

While living on the home farm in Ohio, Dempsey St. Clair Haines obtained a practical education when young, and from 1866 until 1872 taught in the district schools of Ohio and Illinois. Coming to Kansas in 1872, he taught one year in Johnson county, and the following year had charge of a school of Edwardsville. Embarking then in business, he opened a general store, which he has since conducted successfully, having an extensive and lucrative local trade. Enterprising and progressive, he has ever been a supporter of projects calculated to advance the interests of Wyandotte county, and was one of the promoters of the Edwardsville State Bank, of which he is the cashier. He is a staunch Republican in politics, and with the exception of six years has been postmaster since 1874. In 1895 Mr. Haines was elected to the State Legislature, in which he rendered good service to town, county and state.

Mr. Haines married, in 1874, Ella Kouns, of Edwardsville, Kansas, a daughter of William Kouns, the founder of Edwardsville, and a sister of C. W. Kouns, general manager of the Santa Fe Railroad. Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Haines, one of whom, Edna, died when but three years old, while four are living, namely: Alta M., a graduate of the State Normal University at Emporia, Kansas, and wife of Kay H. Beach, of Kansas City, Missouri; Metta Kouns, who assists her father in the post office and the bank; Dana Dee, a graduate of Baker University at Baldwin, Kansas, is living at home; and Ina St. Clair, a student at the University of Kansas. Religiously Mr. Haines is a birthright Quaker, but his family are Methodists.

Mr. Haines is closely associated with the fruit industry of Wyandotte county, and has been reasonably successful in this enterprise.