Andrew Dorsey Singleton

ANDREW DORSEY SINGLETON has a most unusual record as a merchant. Through his knowledge of the business and increasing experience he has been able to render a valuable service to the people of Barber County, and his individual prosperity is only a well merited reward for the labor and pains expended.

Mr. Singleton was born on the eastern shore of Virginia in Accomac County, March 25, 1864. His paternal ancestors came from Ireland and were colonial settlers in Virginia. His father, William H. Singleton, was born in Accomac County February 25, 1825, and spent all his life as a farmer on the eastern shore. He died March 9, 1866. He was a member of the Baptist Church. The maiden name of his wife was Elizabeth Dix. She was born in Accomac County, Virginia, December 25, 1828, and died at Philadelphia August 24, 1897. Of her five children Andrew D. is the youngest. The oldest, Emma Frances, who died in Accomac County January 25, 1876, was the wife of George W. Littleton. John J., the second in age, was a merchant tailor and died at Philadelphia. William J. is a farmer still living in Accomac County. George W. died in Accomac County at the age of eighteen.

Andrew D. Singleton had a limited education in the rural schools of his native county. At the age of thirteen he left the parental farm and the next two years was employed as a clerk in a country store at Modest Town in Accomac County. He then supplemented his early education by one term in a graded school, after which he worked steadily in a store at Lemont, Virginia, five years.

It was with this training and experience and with practically no capital that he arrived in Kiowa, Kansas, in June, 1885. He was soon on the payroll as clerk in the Kiowa branch of the York, Parker, Draper Mercantile Company, which operated a chain of stores through Southwestern Kansas. He was promoted to bookkeeper, then to manager, and in 1898 bought a half interest in the business. Since February, 1916, he has been sole owner, and, in the meantime, he has developed his business into the largest department store in Barber County, with a trade drawn from a territory radius twenty-five miles. His store has three fronts on Main Street, and floor space 25 by 140 foot. He also has three warehouses, and all those buildings are filled with a generous stock of select merchandise. Mr. Singleton also owns another store building in Kiowa, also the building in which the Kiowa Daily Record is published, and other property. His home is one of the best in the town and was built in 1896.

Mr. Singleton has served on the City Council and as treasurer of Kiowa Township. He is a democrat, is a supporter of the Congregational Church, of which Mrs. Singleton is a member, and has always been a citizen ready to give his active support to every community improvement.

On April 15, 1896, in Kiowa, he married Miss Belle Streeter, daughter of D. R. Streeter and C. M. (Streeter) Streeter. Her father was born in Pennsylvania in 1839 and served through the Civil war as a Union soldier. He is now living at Kiowa and owns a farm adjoining the town. Mrs. Streeter was born in Ohio in 1839, a daughter of Samuel and Anna (Copeland) Streeter, and her children were Frank, who died as an Oklahoma, ranchman and left a family; Miss Nellie, of Kiowa; Mrs. Singleton, born July 30, 1871, at Youngstown, Ohio, and Roy, who is with Mr. Singleton's store. Samuel Streeter and wife were born in Massachusetts.

Pages 2360-2361.