Charles M. Hendricks
CHARLES M. HENDRICKS came to Jewell County about thirty-three years ago in the role of a farm renter, and has made practically all his substantial success out of the fruits of Kansas agriculture and his capable business experience. He is now a banker and active citizen at Webber.
Mr. Hendricks was born at Rochester, New York, January 8, 1861. His father, Lawrence Hendricks, was born in Ireland in 1836 and came to this country when eleven years of age. At Rochester, New York, he followed farming and railroad work, and from there went to Michigan and was engaged in farming in that state. He died at his farm home six miles west of Grand Rapids in 1897. He was a democrat and a member of the Catholic Church. The maiden name of his wife was Mary Jones, who was born in Ireland in 1828 and is still living in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in her ninetieth year. Their children were: Mary, unmarried, and living at Grand Rapids; Anna, living at Grand Rapids, widow of William Koch, an undertaker at Grand Rapids; Lawrence, a lumberman who died in Northern Michigan; Charles M.; Mrs. Bridget Laura Eness, living at Grand Rapids, wife of a railway conductor; Mrs. Julia Jennison, wife of a farmer at Bath, Michigan; Francis, a stationary engineer living in Grand Rapids; and Martin, a farmer at Calgary, Canada.
Charles M. Hendricks received his early education in the public schools of Michigan, and from the age of seventeen until twenty-one worked on a Michigan farm. The following 2 1/2 years he was employed in Grand Rapids, and in 1884 he brought his modest capital and experience to Jewell County, Kansas, and for a time rented a farm. He then bought some land of his own and gave his time and active supervision to his farming interests until August, 1911, since which date he has lived in the Town of Webber. Mr. Hendricks is vice president of the Webber State Bank, and has participated actively in all co-operative movements for the benefit of the schools and other local institutions. While living in the country he served a number of years on the school board in Sinclair Township, and for the past four years has been a member of the Webber School Board. In politics he is a democrat.
In the fall of 1886 in Jewell City, Kansas, Mr. Hendricks married Miss Cora M. Warren, daughter of Thomas and Louisa (Vaugh) Warren. Her father was a farmer and both her parents are now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Hendricks have five children. Ray, clerk in a wholesale drug house at Glasgow, Montana; Ralph Dale, who is now manager of his father's large farm of 360 acres 4 1/2 miles southeast of Webber; Lula May, a graduate of the Salina Normal School and a teacher in Republic County; Hollis, who lives at home and works at Webber; and Vida, still a student in the local high school.
A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans, written and compiled by William E. Connelley, Secretary of the Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company, copyright 1918; transcribed 1997.