Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Page 699 

HAWN, HERRON & CO., of the Wichita Elevator and Zephyr Mills, and grain and commission merchants, have their headquarters at the intersection of First and Fifteenth avenues, Wichita, where they command a large proportion of the business in their line. Mr. Hawn, the senior member of the firm, is a native of Medina County, Ohio, and was born Feb. 15,1842. It will thus be seen that he is a gentleman now in the prime of life, possessing excellent business capacities, and has gained for himself a good position, socially and financially, among the prominent men of Sedgwick County. He received a common-school education, and early in life learned the business of milling.

            Mr. Hawn, when a youth of nineteen years, having already crossed the Mississippi into Iowa, enlisted in Company F, 3d Iowa Infantry, for the three-months service, but was finally mustered in for three years. He was under the command of Gen. Grant in the Western army, and participated in the battles of Shiloh, Corinth and Jackson, being also present at the siege of Vicksburg, and meeting the rebels in various other minor engagements. He was twice wounded, once at Shiloh and once at Blue Mills Landing. These wounds, however, were not serious, and he fortunately escaped capture by the rebels, and at the close of the war was mustered out in comparatively good condition, and ready for the future business of life.

            Young Hawn, after leaving the service, engaged in the milling business at Edgewood, Ill., thence went to Missouri, of which State he was a resident until coming to Wichita in the spring of 1884, where he associated himself in partnership with G. H. Humble, and they conducted the Zephyr Mills, which were then mostly employed in grinding feed, the elevator being since added. In January, 1888, Mr. Hawn having retired from the former partnership, became the partner of Mr. Herron, and they are now running the Wichita elevator and Zephyr Mills elevator, and as wholesale grain and coal merchants are building up an extensive and profitable trade. Their transactions are mostly in the South and Southwest, and they ship as far as New Mexico and Arizona, and also through the Southern States. They have also received many orders from Florida.

            Patrick Herron was born in Ireland, in 1842, and came with his mother to this country when a boy five years of age. They located first in Louisville, Ky., where young Herron received a common-school education, and learned the trade of coppersmith. This he followed nine years in that city and Jeffersonville, Ind. In 1869 he embarked in the grocery trade at Jeffersonville, where he continued until selling out, intending to settle in Southern Kansas, which he did in June, 1887.

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