Frank Madigan

FRANK MADIGAN, cashier of the State Bank of Wallace County, is a comparatively young man and yet has the distinction of being one of the oldest native citizens of Wallace, where he was born February 27, 1882, when that town was still considered far out on the western frontier.

His father, Thomas Madigan, was born March 17, 1839, in Kilrush, County Clare, Ireland. In 1849 his parents came to America, passing through Canada and settling near Montpelier, Vermont. The father of Thomas was taken ill while on this journey and died soon after reaching Vermont. When about sixteen years of age Thomas Madigan went west to Madison, Wisconsin, and a short time later to Leavenworth, Kansas, where he was one of the pioneers of 1858. He worked on farms in that vicinity and in 1860 went to Pike's Peak and was a mining prospector, remaining in Colorado until 1864. On his return to Leavenworth he was drafted for army service, and was employed as a teamster with the government supply trains westward over the trail to Fort Larrabee, Wyoming. After the war he returned to Leavenworth and became a merchant. In 1866 he established his home at Ellsworth, Kansas, was a merchant there a year, and in 1867 moved his stock of goods to Old Rome, near Fort Hayes in Ellis County. He kept on moving westward with the tide of immigration, following the construction of the Kansas Pacific, now the Union Pacific Railway, and going to old Sheridan, Kansas, in 1868. Two years later, moving ahead of the railroad, he located in Kit Carson, Colorado, and in 1871 establishing the pioneer store at Wallace, Kansas. He also served as postmaster under Grover Cleveland and in 1898 returned to his ranch. He had homesteaded 160 acres and a tree claim of a quarter section in 1876, and at the present time this venerable Kansas pioneer has 8,000 acres of farm and ranch property and is one of the leading cattle men. He is a democrat and a member of the Catholic Church.

Thomas Madigan married Mary C. Smith, who was born at Newark, New Jersey, in 1855. They had four children: James, of Denver, Colorado; Katy, at home; Frank; and Mary, still with her parents.

Frank Madigan attended the public schools of Wallace, took a high school and college course in St. Mary's College at St. Mary's Kansas, graduating with the degree A. B. in 1901. In 1902 he entered the Kansas University at Lawrence, pursuing the engineering course for three years. For six months in 1905 he was with the engineering corps of the Union Pacific Railway, working on the level tracking out of Topeka. He was then on the home ranch a year, and spent another six months with the engineering forces of the Santa Fe Railway. In 1906 he took charge of his father's ranch, but in 1913 he became cashier of the State Bank of Wallace County, and is now giving most of his time to that institution, of which his father-in-law, Peter Robidoux is president.

Mr. Madigan is an independent democrat, has served as trustee of North Township and is a member of the Catholic Church. He owns town property in Wallace and a farm of 160 acres three miles south of that town. In 1909 he married Miss Aline Robidoux, daughter of Peter Robidoux.

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