David Winfield Mulvane

HON. DAVID WINFIELD MULVANE. For years one of the prominent characters of Kansas who have helped to influence and direct national life has been David W. Mulvane of Topeka. In his home state Mr. Mulvane is best known as a lawyer and his power in republican politics has not been exercised through office but through his chieftainship in the party itself. For many years he has been identified with the state organization, and also with the national party organization, and was one of the national party committee for a dozen years.

He was born in Princeton, Illinois, January 4, 1863, but has had his home in Kansas since early boyhood. His parents were Joab and Sarah Ann (Ross) Mulvane. In 1876 the family moved to Topeka and David W. Mulvane finished his education in the common schools of that city and afterwards attended Washburn College. From Washburn College he entered Yale University, where he was graduated A. B. with the class of 1885. Thus Mr. Mulvane is a man of eastern university training and has fused the culture of one of the oldest eastern colleges with the practical idealism of the Central West.

After leaving college he found employment with a railroad construction outfit, and though his father was one of Topeka's leading business men and financiers he was by no means disposed to a life of leisure. He early took up the study of law under the direction of Gen. A. L. Williams, one of Topeka's leading lawyers, and was admitted to the bar in 1890. During a quarter of a century of practice in Topeka he has long enjoyed almost a pre-eminence in the local bar, and is now senior member of the firm of Mulvane and Gault, with offices in the Mulvane Building at Topeka. His junior associate is Charles Gault.

Much of his time and attention have been diverted to banking and business affairs. In 1900 he was one of the chief organizers and incorporators of the Bank Savings National Life Insurance Company. He is also a director in the American Cement and Plaster Company, with headquarters at Lawrence, Kansas, is a director of the M. K. & T. Railroad Company, a director of the Capital Vitrified Brick Company, and a director of the Chickasha Cotton Seed Oil Company in Oklahoma.

Almost from the time of casting his first vote during the '80s he has exercised an increasing influence in republican party circles. In 1898 he became a member of the Republican State Central Committee, and served ten years. He was a member of the Republican National Committee from 1900 to 1912 and in 1904 was selected a member of its executive committee. For many years he has been one of the familiar figures in republican national conventions and has wielded a great influence in that party.

Mr. Mulvane is a member of the Shawnee County, the Kansas State and the American Bar associations, belongs to the Commercial Club and the Country Club of Topeka, is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Knight Templar, also a Mystic Shriner, and is a member of the Elks Club at Topeka. His church is the Methodist.

Mr. Mulvane married Helen M. Drexel of New York City in 1906.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
VOLUME 1 & 2
BIOGRAPHIES — VOLUMES 3, 4, & 5
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