Chase F. Elmore

CHASE F. ELMORE has been an active business man of Western Kansas for thirty years. During that time he has been in business for himself, has been employed by others, but in every capacity has proved the worth of his service and is now rated as one of the most successful men at McCracken in Rush County. Several of his brothers have become wealthy as Kansas business men, and this is proof that Mr. Elmore's individual achievements are partly the result of a strong native ability as well as exceptional energy on his part.

Mr. Elmore was born in Adair County, Missouri, February 27, 1866. He is a brother of Jesse E. Elmore of McCracken, a well known citizen whose career is elsewhere sketched, and the family history will be found given more at length under the name Jesse Elmore.

Chase F. Elmore came to Kansas in 1887, locating at Claflin. He was then a youth of about twenty years, and had as his capital only health and a few dollars. He engaged in the livery business at Claflin with three teams and as many rigs, and was the first liveryman of the town. After five years he gave up the livery business and became one of the firm of Norris Hardware Company. He laid the foundation of his success as a merchant during the five years he spent with the Norris Hardware Company and he was also a factor in the growing prosperity of that company.

On leaving Claflin Mr. Elmore came from Barton County to Rush County in 1897. For a time he was clerk in the hardware establishment of his brother Jesse Elmore, and subsequently became associated with others in the establishment of the Elmore Lumber Company and retired from the firm in 1918. He was the first president of that corporation, but afterward gave most of his time to the duties of manager. Mr. Elmore also has extensive interests as a farmer. He began investing in land soon after coming to Rush County, and now has six quarter sections. He is one of the leading wheat raisers of the county, and practically all his land under cultivation is cropped to wheat. He also keeps some stock, though he has never dealt in stock or shipped any as an individual. He also lends considerable money, and is a stockholder in the Citizens Bank of McCracken.

Mr. Elmore contributed to McCracken one of the good homes of that town. He is interested in local affairs, though in politics is merely a voter. He cast his first vote at Claflin, Kansas, in 1888 for President Harrison.

In Adair County, Missouri, in August, 1892, Mr. Elmore married Miss Mary Kellogg. Her father, Jesse H. Kellogg, was a blacksmith in Adair County, Missouri, and married a Miss Elliott. Mrs. Elmore was one of four daughters. She died at McCracken April 8, 1905. She was the mother of two children, Onis J. and Ruth, the latter for a time a student in the University of Kansas and now a grade teacher in Rush County. Onis J., who was educated in the McCracken schools and is now cashier of the Citizens State Bank of that town, married Lucy Carkuff, a daughter of Frank Carkuff, and they have two sons, Allen Kellogg and Chase Franklin Elmore.

On January 30, 1916, at McCracken, Mr. Elmore married for his present wife Miss Florence Fanning, daughter of William K. and Mary (Newberry) Fanning. Her father was a pioneer in Ellis County, Kansas, where he arrived in 1885 and where he homesteaded. He spent the rest of his career as a farmer. William K. Fanning was a Tennesseean and a Union man during the Civil war. He served in Company E of the Fourth Tennessee Regiment in the Union army and was fighting for the Union 2 1/2 years. He escaped without wounds or capture. Mrs. Elmore, who was born December 15, 1879, was the only child of her father and mother, but her father had a son, Edward Fanning, by a previous marriage.

Mr. Elmore is a past consul of Claflin Camp No. 1711 of the Modern Woodmen of America.