Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 1110 - 1111

 JOHN C. RUTAN, Secretary of the Kansas Loan and Investment Company, became a resident of Wichita in 1878, and is at present pleasantly located at No. 110 North Topeka street. He was born at Lexington, Ohio, Dec. 17, 1840, and is the son of William Rutan, a native of Pennsylvania, but of German ancestry.

             When William Rutan was a young man he migrated with his parents to Lexington, Ohio, where they were among the early settlers, and married Hannah Clark, a native of Pennsylvania. He then engaged in the dry-goods trade, which he conducted until 1864, and then retired from business. The father of our subject died in 1880, while the mother still survives. Of the eight children born of this union, six are still living, as follows: Bella A. is the wife of W. W. Kirkwood, of Portland, Ore.; Jennie married Hon. William Phillips, of Des Moines, Iowa; John C., our subject; William is a stock-raiser of Washington Territory; Ianthe is the wife of O. C. Donaldson, of Cass County, Iowa, and Wesley resides with his brother in Washington Territory.

             John C. Rutan was educated at the common schools of his native town and at the Iowa State University at Iowa City. In 1861 he enlisted in Company A, 14th Iowa Infantry, but was subsequently transferred to the 41st, and finally to Company L, 7th Iowa Cavalry, and was promoted Captain. He was Second Lieutenant of the 14th, entering with that rank, and First Lieutenant of the 41st. After earning a good war record he was mustered out with the rank of Captain, and shortly afterward went to Idaho, and spent the next two years engaged in mining there and in Montana and Washington Territories. He then returned to Iowa City, and spent the next year engaged in the insurance business, and was then chosen Cashier of Johnson County Savings Bank, a position he held until 1878, when he came to Wichita and engaged in the lumber trade as a member of the firm known as Kirkwood, Rutan & Co. In 1884 he sold out his interest in this business and assisted in organizing the Kansas Loan and Investment Company, of which he has since been Secretary. Their business extends over the southern half of Kansas, and is conducted in such a manner as to gain the confidence of all with whom they have business relations.

             Our subject was united in marriage, in 1867, with Mary E., daughter of Anson and Hester A. Hart, and a native of Iowa City, Iowa. Anson Hart was a prominent man of Iowa City, being Postmaster and Register in the State Land Office. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Rutan has been blessed by the birth of three children—Mary, Anson C. and Morton.

             In politics our subject is a Republican, and was at one time candidate for the office of Mayor of Wichita. He is one of the organizers of the Y. M. C. A., at Wichita, and served as its first President, during which its growth was rapid and a building was erected costing $75,000, the finest of the kind in the West. He has also served twelve years as Deputy Sheriff, and has been Justice of the Peace four years. Socially, he is a member of the I. O. O. F., and is also a Knight Templar, and is a highly respected and leading citizen of Wichita. In religion Mr. Rutan is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he at present serves as Trustee.

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