D.H. Judy is proprietor of the popular and leading millinery store of Concordia, and we may safely say one of the best appointed stores of Cloud county. This prosperous business was established in 1889 and since that time has been conducted continuously, with credit to himself and to the benefit and delight of the public at large. He carries a stock of twenty-five hundred dollars and has made for himself and family a beautiful home; its modern conveniences are in great contrast to many of the earlier homes of Kansas, which were built of sod or small dugouts scarcely large enough to hold the few worldly goods brought by the owners from their old eastern homes.

Mr. Judy is a native of Xenia, Green county, Ohio, born in 1838. His parents, Absalom and Martha (Ford) Judy, were natives of Virginia and were farmers. Both the paternal and maternal grandparents were slaveholders, but disposed of them and moved into Green county, Ohio, in an early day. Subsequently Mr. Judy's parents emigrated to Indiana, where they died, his father in the year 1887 and his mother in 1896. Mr. Judy is one of ten children, five of whom are living, one brother near Ft. Scott, Kansas, and another at Abilene.

The subject of this sketch began his early studies in the country schools of Ohio and Indiana and later attended the graded schools of Fairview. While a mere boy he clerked in a store and when eighteen years of age left his home to make a career alone in the world. He returned to Ohio, where he worked on a farm in summer and attended the high school at Fairview during the winter season, and in this way acquired a good common school education.

In September, 1861, he enlisted in Company E, Thirty-sixth Indiana Regiment, under Captain S.G. Carney and Colonel Gross, commanding. Their service took them through Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. His regiment showed great valor and bravery in some of the important battles, among them Shiloh, Perryville, Stone River and Lookout Mountain. His term of service expired soon after the taking of Atlanta, covering a period of three years. After having been honorably mustered out of the army he went to Indiana and worked on a farm during the summer of 1865. His brothers, with the exception of two, were all soldiers of the Civil war.

While yet a pioneer state, Mr. Judy emigrated to Iowa; remaining but one winter, he removed to Missouri, where he taught school, his first and last experience in that vocation. In the autumn of 1866 he returned to Iowa and in 1867 he engaged in the drug business in Johnson City, St. Clair county, Missouri. Two years later he sold his drug, store and after a brief sojourn in Ringo county, Iowa, left there to explore the new country of the "great and only Kansas."

This occurred in 1870 and he settled at Clyde, where he occupied a position as clerk in the drug store of J.S. Burns, and later clerked in the dry goods store established by S.D. Silver until March, 1871, when Mr. Silver moved his stock to Concordia, then the beginning of this thriving city. S.D. Silver failed shortly afterward and the stock was bought in by R.E. Allen, of Leavenworth, and Mr. Judy remained with him in the capacity of head clerk for seven and a half years and during this period gained a large experience.

He then decided to open a business of his own, and in 1879 formed a partnership with P. Levereaux, in a general merchandise store, under the firm name of Levereaux & Judy. They transacted an extensive and prosperous business for five years, or until Mr. Judy's health failed, and he sold his interest in favor of H.N. Hansen. After a rest from business cares of two years he took up a new field of work and opened a real estate, loan and insurance business, which he conducted successfully until the spring of 1889, when he sold and the following spring took a trip to the Pacific coast, and on his return opened his present business enterprise as before stated, a millinery store of vast resources.

Mr. Judy was married in October, 1871, to Lucy Short, of Washington county, who was deceased in May, 1891. They were the parents of three children, two sons and one daughter: Hattie is a resident of Boston, Massachusetts, in the employ of a publishing company of that city. Charles A., the oldest son, is a graduate of the Commercial College of Salina. he drew a claim at the opening of the strip in Oklahoma and is now a resident of that country and occupies a position in a large dry goods establishment of El Reno. Lora, the youngest son, is a student of the Great Western Business College of Concordia.

Mr. Judy was married to his present wife in December, 1893; Lizzie Page, a daughter of Owen Delaplaine, and the widow of George Page. Mrs. Judy has readily and with rare intelligence adapted herself to the millinery business and its requirements.

Mr. Judy In his politics is a staunch and true Republican. He was president of the school board for more than seven years, and during his reign all of the school buildings, with the exception of one, were erected. He was police judge of Concordia for a term of two years, has been city assessor for a period of fifteen years and is at this writing (1903) a member of the school board. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the oldest initiatory member and carries a veteran badge from this lodge. He is also the oldest member from the Rebekah Lodge and the only existing charter member residing in Concordia. He joined the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in the year 1872, is the only one left of the original organizers, and has seen the lodge grow to its present portions - one hundred and twenty-five members. Mr. Judy belongs to the Ancient Order of United Workmen, also the Sons and Daughters of Justice and the Grand Army of the Republic post. He joined the latter society in Clinton, southwestern Missouri, in the year 1869.

Mr. Judy is an enterprising, public-spirited man in any cause of interest to the welfare and progress of the city. He never forgets where to put his hand when called upon to defray his share for improvements, likewise he always has a fund for the needy, does not proclaim his good deeds "from the house tops," but many live to bless his warm, generous and helpful words of comfort and also the more substantial aid in times of distress and want. He has walked over the site where Concordia now stands when it was a bleak and barren prairie and was forced to go to Lake Sibley for lodging. When on his first visit to Concordia J.M. Hagaman was running a ferry. The evening shades were gathering and his fears of being benighted occasioned repeated calls from Mr. Judy, which grew louder and more loud as he shouted and hallowed, until at last, not receiving a response, he gave up in blank despair and sought the protection of a friendly cottonwood, where he lay all night. The next morning about nine o'clock he again called Mr. Hagaman to come and ferry him across, whereupon he stuck his head out of the window of his cabin, and coolly remarked, "You're in a h_l a hurry, there."

This same trip Mr. Judy saw two women fighting something with clubs, he knew not what, but went to their rescue, where he found them in a prairie dog den that was writhing with countless "rattlers" that had come to take up their abode with these animals, as is their habit. They killed thirty of them and left many on the field. The two frightened women to whom Mr. Judy lent his valuable aid were Mrs. Collins (then Mrs. Read) and her daughter.

During Mr. Judy's trip from Iowa to Kansas he met with rather an amusing experience. He was overtaken by an Englishman and they traveled together to Marysville and on to St. Joseph, thence to Atchison, Topeka and Manhattan, and after leaving the last named town they met an old fellow who told them of the Republican valley, and in company with two other Englishmen they came to Clyde, and the following day repaired to a point two and one-half miles north of Concordia, where they each located a claim and built a dugout on the land to be filed on by Mr. Judy. The two Englishmen went to Sibley, leaving Mr. Judy to hold the claims from the numerous "jumpers" of government land. He sat up on the outside of the dugout until twelve o'clock, imagining all sorts of horrors. He could nor endure the awful silence and when midnight arrived he grasped his gun and started for Sibley to join his companions. Fearful that the Indians were on his trail he did not venture to even look backward, lest his scalp should soon be dangling from the belt of some brave. After getting lost and wandering aimlessly about, at three o'clock in the morning, footsore and weary, he finally reached their place of rendezvous, a Sibley dugout.