Norman B. Mapes

NORMAN B. MAPES, a business man of Ogallah, is one of the few men active in affairs who can claim Trego County their birthplace. He has spent his life in the county, largely as a farmer, and represents one of the first of the pioneer settlers in Western Kansas, and one of those who stuck to his post during the hard times of the '70s and '80s and finally won success.

Mr. Mapes was born in Trego County December 7, 1886. He is of remote German ancestry in the paternal line. His great-great-grandfather came from Germany and settled in New Jersey. Benjamin Mapes, father of Norman B., was born in that state in 1853. The latter spent much of his early life in New York State, was married in Iowa, and soon afterward came west to Hamilton County, Nebraska. After one year there he walked across country to Trego County, Kansas, and in 1878 took up a claim of 160 acres there. The following year he brought his family to the claim, and they shared in all the vicissitudes and hard experiences that befell the lot of the early settlers in that region. The old homestead which he owned until his death was located twelve miles southwest of Ogallah. In 1887 he moved to Ogallah, but continued farming, acquiring an estate of about 400 acres. He died in Ogallah September 25, 1916. He was an independent voter and a very active member of the Christian Church. In Iowa Benjamin Mapes married Martha E. Brotherton, who was born at Chariton in that state in 1856 and is now living at Ogallah. Benjamin Mapes and wife had five children: Edna, wife of James Scott, a railroad telegrapher at Platteville, Colorado; Blanche, wife of Rev. W. E. Green, a Methodist minister at Neligh, Nebraska; Mattie, wife of Charles Scott, a telegraph operator at Kit Carson, Colorado; Norman B.; and Roland Valentine, who died in infancy.

Norman B. Mapes attended the rural schools of Trego County and finished his education in the Spalding Commercial College at Kansas City. After leaving school in 1910 he farmed in Trego County, and still owns and operates a farm there. Since May, 1918, he has been manager of the Paul Huycke Lumber Company of Ogallah. He has served as clerk of Ogallah Township and has interested himself in military affairs, being first lieutenant of Company C of the Thirty-Eighth Battalion, Kansas State Guards. He is an independent democrat.

May 20, 1913, at Ogallah, Mr. Mapes married Miss Leda Denny, daughter of William and Irva (Smith) Denny. Her father is deceased and her mother lives at Garwood in Southern Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Mapes have one child, Keith B., born February 25, 1918.

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