Charles J. Sloop
C. J. SLOOP. In January, 1909, Mr. Sloop was admitted to the bar at Topeka, Kansas, and on July 12th of that year moved to Independence. Since then he has been steadily building up a reputation as a sound and safe counselor and as one who can be trusted with the skillful handling of all important interests entrusted to him, whether in civil or criminal law.
A native of Missouri, Charles Jacob Sloop was born at Queen City, December 10, 1878. His father John B. Sloop was born in Schuyler County, Missouri, November 16, 1845, and he spent his active life there as a farmer and also bought and shipped stock on a large scale. In 1861 he enlisted in a Missouri regiment and in a company commanded by A. J. Smith, and was in the Union army throughout the war. He was once wounded. He was in the battle of Shiloh, siege of Corinth, Meriden raid, through the Vicksburg campaign, participated in the bloody battle of Tupelo, Mississippi, and followed General Sherman on the march to the sea. After the war he returned to Missouri, and took up farming, which engaged his energies until his death at Queen City in October 1906. He served many years on the school board, and was a member of the board of deacons and a trustee of the Lutheran Church. Politically he was a republican and was a member of the Masonic fraternity. He married Mary Anna Miller, who was of German ancestry. She was born in Franklin County, Ohio, August 30, 1849, and now resides at Queen City, Missouri. Her children are John W., a farmer at Queen City; Mary Anna Hickins, lives at Queen City; Frances Elizabeth, wife of E. F. Roberts, in the poultry and produce business at Queen City; Charles Jacob; Lewis Ellison, who was a farmer at Queen City and died at the age of twenty-nine; Pearl Alvin, a farmer at Queen City; and Jessie Esther, wife of John Applegate, a carpenter and contractor at Queen City. Another member of this household who grew up with the children was a cousin, Marguerite Miller, who is now the wife of James West, station agent for the Wabash Railroad at Moulton, Iowa.
Reared on a farm, Charles J. Sloop early conceived ambitions[sic] designs for a career and worked long and diligently to secure the proper preparation. He graduated from the high school at Queen City in 1896, and thereafter for two years taught a country school near his birthplace. In 1903 he graduated A. B. from the University of Missouri, and following his university course he was principal of the High School at Princeton, Missouri, and was superintendent of schools at Grandin, Missouri, for three years. Returning to the University of Missouri in 1907, he remained in the law department until graduating LL. B. in June, 1909. In the meantime as already stated he had been admitted to the Kansas bar, and soon after graduation he came to Independence. His offices are in the Booth Building.
He has also acquired some property interest in Oklahoma. He owns a residence at 320 Westminster Street in Independence. Politically he is a republican and was reared in the Evangelical Lutheran Church, but in absence of any church of that denomination attends the Baptist Church in Independence. He is affiliated with Fortitude Lodge No. 107 Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, with Lodge No. 780 Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, in which he was exalted ruler in 1914. He is also a member of the County Bar Association. In June, 1912, at Springfield, Missouri, Mr. Sloop married Miss Alma Myrtle McGhee, a daughter of James M. and Zillah McGhee, who now reside at Grandin, Missouri, where her father is in the real estate business. Mr. and Mrs. Sloop have one child, William Charles, born February 28, 1916.
Transcribed from volume 4, pages 1823-1824 of 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; originally transcribed 1998, modified 2003 by Carolyn Ward.