Interior View of Scott & Lintz's Big Department Store.

The history of Concordia would be incomplete if particular attention were not called to the far-seeing sagacity and business acumen of the two young men, M.D. Scott and F.W. Lintz, who have overleaped obstacles that would have seemed to many more experienced merchants insurmountable. They are successors to Kennett, Matson & Scott, who laid the foundation for what has become one of the most complete and up-to-date enterprises in Cloud county. They draw a large patronage from the surrounding towns even beyond the limits of their own county. The firm was organized in 1896. Homer Kennett, who had been a prominent lawyer for some fifteen years in Concordia, Mr. Matson, who had been associated with him in the profession for about five years, and M D. Scott, the junior member of the combination, who was employed as clerk in the Bon Marche, discovered there was an opening for a first-class dry goods and general merchandising establishment in the city of Concordia, and accordingly opened a store in the building formerly occupied by John Harkness. They first carried an exclusive dry goods stock and occupied one room only. One year later they added shoes. The house prospered and gradually grew in proportions until in March, 1899, they were compelled to purchase the E.T. Dunning stock of groceries, thus enabling them to enlarge their capacity. This firm also conducted a general merchandise store at Cuba, Republic county, Kansas. In October, 1902, M.D. Scott and F.W. Lintz formed an association and bought the entire interests of Kennett & Matson. From this date began a revolution of affairs. While the old firm was built on a solid financial foundation, the day and age demand modern establishments, and the new combination, not lacking in taste for the beautiful and artistic, as well as business ability, closed out their stock of groceries at retail within sixty days, threw out the partition, remodeled the entire interior and filled the one extensive room with a complete stock of dry goods, shoes, gents' furnishings carpets and matting. Their stock invoices in the vicinity of thirty thousand dollars and is turned about three times annually. Their patronage is constantly increasing and requires the services of twelve people regularly and an additional force during special sales.

The capital stock in the beginning of this organization was small, but not limited, however, for the senior member of the firm had ample funds, while Mr. Scott furnished the experience which ultimately proved a winner, and to all concerned a good financial investment. The following biographies of the present firm will be of interest to their patrons as well as their legion of friends, for they are both exceedingly popular socially as well as in the business world:

M.D. Scott is proud to herald the fact that he is a native Kansan, having been born in Americus, Lyon county, in December, 1870. His father, W.C. Scott, homesetaded[sic] in Lyon township, Cloud county, just over the line from Ottawa, in 1871. In 1885 his parents removed to Concordia, where Mr. Scott was educated and began the clerkship that was but a stepping stone to an important mercantile career. His father's family are now residents of Oklahoma. Mr. Scott is one of three children, a brother in Aurora, Kansas, and Mrs. L.E. Abbott, of Concordia, is a sister. Our subject's mother died when he was a small lad and by a second marriage there was one child. The fifth day of the fifth month in the year 1895, Mr. Scott was married to Miss Louise Crumrine, who for three years had been a popular teacher in the Concordia city schools. One child has been born to gladden their home a little daughter, Frances, aged one and one-half years.

F.W. Lintz, the junior member of the firm, although several years on the sunny side of middle life, has had years of experience. He began battling for supremacy at the age of ten years. After following various minor vocations of uphill sailing he signed as clerk for the Burnham-Hanna-Munger Dry Goods Company, of Kansas City. Mr. Lintz began at the foundation - that of a stock boy - piling overalls; but his genius was versatile and two years later found him on the road as a special salesman. His activities in this line were a success, and subsequently he was placed in charge of the northeast Kansas territory with a general line of dry goods. Mr. Lintz, starting out in life before finishing a regular college course, exemplifies the recent statements made by Louis Stern, the great self-made New York merchant: "The youth who starts on the lowest rung of the ladder in a great business house has every chance of reaching the top if he shows energy and will power." In whatever line Mr. Lintz turned his attention he succeeded, and although identified with a firm of fine business men he decided to locate permanently. After a year at Beatty and Kansas City, Kansas, Concordia, giving much promise, was the town of his choice; hence, the association as heretofore mentioned. Mr. Lintz was born in the state of Michigan in 1876. He came to Kansas City in 1895. He with his sister Nellie, now with her brother in Concordia, visited Denver with an idea of locating there prior to his services with the Burnham-Hanna-Munger Dry Goods Company. His father, William H. Lintz, located at Beatty, Kansas, but later removed to Kansas City and subsequently returned to their old Michigan home. There are three sons and four daughters in the Lintz family: A brother, Henry Lintz, succeeded to our subject's position as traveling salesman and is also possessed of a combination of traits that lead to success. A sister, Miss Nan Lintz, is a stenographer in the employ of the Geiser Manufacturing Company, of Kansas City, Missouri. A younger brother and a pair of twin sisters, aged ten years, remain in the home of their parents.