Barber County Kansas
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Barber County Kansas |
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The subject of this sketch is a fine example of a young man, breaking away from the allurements for ease and pleasure that lie in wait for those born to an inheritance of wealth, taking upon himself the responsibility of success or failure and making for himself a place in the affairs of men.Mr. Gordon comes of good stock and the name itself is one to conjure by. He is the second son of Judge W.F. Gordon, who, for a period of 35 years, has held the position of president of the Liberty (Missouri) Savings Association and is one of the most highly honored and respected citizens of that state today.
Young Gordon was educated in the common schools of Missouri and the Wm. Jewell College. Later, with the intention of assuming a position in his father's bank, he completed a course of study in Spaulding's Commercial College. But there is a "time and tide in the affairs of men," that changes the whole course of their lives. Frank was in no way intended for the confinement of the counting room. He was not built that way, and when in the early eighties, the waves of the boom swept westward, it is not strange that he caught the fever of excitement and came to Kansas. He, however, did not permit himself to be carried away with the vague illusion that he could get something for nothing, but that in Kansas as elsewhere a man had to hustle for what he got. With wise foresight he decided to settle in Barber county and go into the cattle business. To that end he secured the ranch property he now owns and occupies one mile northeast of Lake City and stocked it with 350 head of the best Missouri native cows. Since that time, with all the fluctuations that have been so frequent in the stock market, he has been successful in his business, meeting with no material losses.
At the present time he has 3,300 acres of deeded land in the locality where he originally settled near Lake City on which he maintains two camps. In addition, he has purchased 2,320 acres of the best watered of the Old Comanche grazing lands and is still buying in the vicinity of Coldwater and Evansville; he also holds control of 3,100 acres of leased lands in the same location known as the Hartwell pasture.
His particular line in the stock business is preparing cattle for the feeder trade, that is, the dealers who feed grain. He is now handling something over 2,000 head, one thousand of them being three year old steers now fit for the feeder market.
Personally, Mr. Gordon is a man of diversified accomplishments and is equally at home in the best society, in business circles, in politics and the cow camp. A rough rider and a gentleman, Frank is a decided success in the business in which he is so largely interested and the chief industry of the community with whom he has cast his lot.
Franklin and Irena (Lake) Gordon are buried in the Lake City Cemetery.
Obituary: Irena B. (Lake) Gordon, wife of Franklin L. Gordon.
Charles B. "Keno" Armstrong, Barber County stagecoach driver; this page has a photo of Frank Gordon.
Thanks to Ellen (Knowles) Bisson for finding, transcribing and contributing the above Medicine Lodge Cresset article to this web site!
It is one of a series of articles published together on 2 March 1900 under the title of Barber County Profiles: Men Who Have Taken a Prominent Part in Developing the Stock Industry in Barber County.
It was transcribed from Kansas State Historical Society microfilm reel #M 870. If a photo is indicated in the above text, the microfilm itself has a photo of the individual or property.
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