Adam Loch

ADAM LOCH. The rewards attainable through a life of industry are forcibly illustrated in the career of Adam Loch, one of the leading and successful business men of Chanute and vice president of the Fidelity State Bank. Since early youth he has depended wholly and solely upon his own resources, working out his own success and steadily advancing to success and position along the commercial and financial path. His career should be an incentive for renewed effort by the youth of today who are starting life without friends or fortune to aid them.

Mr. Loch was born at Springfield, Illinois, April 13, 1852, a son of Conrad and Barbara (Hahn) Loch. His father was born in 1825, in the City of Frankfort, Germany, where he learned the trade of shoemaker, and came to the United States as a young man, first locating at Baltimore, Maryland, and after a short time removing to Springfield, Illinois, where he was married. While he was living at Springfield, he became acquainted with Abraham Lincoln, of whom he was always an ardent admirer, although a stanch democrat. He made the shoes which the President wore to Washington. Mr. Loch was a master shoemaker, but did nothing but cut and fit, as he had eighteen men in his employ for the other work. About 1865 he went to Auburn, Illinois, and there his death occurred in 1866. He was a member of the German Lutheran Church, and was fraternally affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Mr. Loch married Barbara Hahn, who was born September 15, 1829, in Bavaria, Germany, and now a resident of Lane, Kansas, and they became the parents of nine children, as follows: William who is a retired merchant of Virden, Illinois; Adam; George, who died when young; Henry, who was a painter and decorator and died at Moberly, Missouri, in 1912; Conrad, who died when young; Charles, who is a tinner and furnace maker of St. Louis, Missouri; George (2), who died when young; John, who is a druggist of Lane, Kansas; and Minnie, who is the wife of John P. Wells, a carpenter and contractor of Lane.

Adam Loch was but fourteen years of age when his father died, and up to that time had attended school at Springfield and Auburn. As a lad he had attended the debates between Lincoln and Douglas, and on one occasion, when introduced to "Honest Abe" informed him that he would not vote for him, as his father was such a strong Douglas Democrat. When but a boy he had shown himself ambitious and industrious as a newsboy, and during the war period often made as high as from $4 to $5 a day. On one occasion, when given a number of druggist's advertisements to peddle, on which there was some matter in regard to the war, he succeeded in selling $1.50 worth of the bills at five cents each, a stroke of business which prophesied a successful commercial career for the lad. When his father died his mother was left with a number of small children, and Adam at once put his shoulder to the wheel and his heart in the work to assist in the family support. The lad of fourteen years proved a good provider, doing a man's work in the field on farms in the vicinity of his home, and whenever he was able attended the district schools during the winter terms. He continued to assist in his mother's support and remained in Illinois until March, 1879, at which time he came to Kansas, feeling that here he could find better opportunities for gaining a fortune. For six months he remained at Wichita, where he worked at any honorable employment that presented itself, and then succeeded, in company with a Mr. Isham, in gathering together a small bunch of cattle which he wintered in Kansas. He then took the herd to Indian Territory, where he handled stock for three years, having a ranch on Red Rock Creek from 1880 until 1883, and in the latter year went to Lane, Kansas, where he established himself in the livery business. For nearly twenty years Mr. Loch continued to conduct this enterprise, of which he made a satisfying success, and during four years of that time, in Cleveland's last administration, served as postmaster of Lane. In 1904 Mr. Loch came to Chanute where he entered the grocery business at No. 1001 North Santa Fe Street, a store which he is still conducting and the business of which he has built up to large proportions. As his interests have increased, he has invested his capital in other enterprises, and at this time is a stockholder in the Dodge City Wholesale Grocery Company and in the Fidelity State Bank of Chanute, of which he is vice president. He owns his own home at Chanute, and is now building a residence at No. 501 North Forest Avenue. Mr. Loch is a democrat in politics, and served for a time as township committeeman of Pottawatomie Township. He joined the Baptist Church at the age of eighteen years, and his fraternal connection is with Chanute Camp No. 852, Modern Woodmen of America.

Mr. Loch was married in 1886, at Ottawa, Kansas, to Miss Sula Meador, daughter of J. A. and Julia (Steel) Meador, both now deceased. Mr. Meador was a merchant of Ottawa and well known in business circles. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Loch: Zetta, who is the wife of Lester Purdy, of 915 South Lincoln Avenue, stamp and register clerk at the Chanute Postoffice; Marguerite, who is the wife of Carl Lemmert, of 19 North LaFayette Avenue, Chanute, a clerk in the offices of the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad; and Esther, a graduate of the Chanute High School, who resides with her parents and is a teacher of music.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
VOLUME 1 & 2
BIOGRAPHIES — VOLUMES 3, 4, & 5
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z