Dan M. Vaughan

DAN M. VAUGHAN. The commercial enterprise of Scott City received an important addition in the person of Dan M. Vaughan, who has lived there since 1904. He is now one of the leading grain merchants of Scott County. His business activities have extended over a wide field, partly under his individual name and partly in association with other members of his family.

Western Kansas in addition to its other advantages has an air and climate which have brought improved health and vitality to a great many people, including Mr. Vaughan. His old home was in Northwest Missouri. While he had no reason to be dissatisfied with his material prospects there, he became a sufferer from hay fever, and after an experimental trip which convinced him of the beneficial atmosphere of Western Kansas, he abandoned Missouri permanently and threw in his lot with this country.

During his early years here he was associated with his father and brother in ranching. For three years they handled blooded and pedigreed Galloway cattle and grade horses. After selling that business Mr. Vaughan and his brother established themselves in the feed and grain business at Scott City. Later Dan Vaughan took up the hardware business under the name D. M. Vaughan, hardware and implements, and supplied the farmers for miles around with their machinery and other hardware goods until 1914. In the spring of 1915 he again entered the grain and feed business, and that is now his chief enterprise. He is also a stockholder and director of the First National Bank of Scott City and owns two of the business houses there.

Dan M. Vaughan was born near Chillicothe in Livingston County, Missouri, April 29, 1871. He grew up in that locality, had the advantages of the common schools, and for two years attended the college at Avalon near his old home. On reaching his majority he started farming, a vocation he had learned under his father. His farm was near AvaIon and he remained there until his removal to Kansas, as already noted.

He comes of an old American family originally of German stock, and pioneers of New York. His grandfather was named Daniel Vaughan. Daniel was also the name of the father, who was born in Niagara County, New York, and died at Scott City, Kansas, in 1908, at the age of seventy-eight. Daniel Vaughan, the father, was one of a family of three sons and eight daughters, ten of whom reached maturity. He received a fair education, and was at one time a school teacher in New York. After the close of the war he settled in Northwest Missouri, and was one of the substantial farmers of that section for many years. He was an exceedingly well informed man, and at the end of his life kept up his reading and could discuss many topics and questions intelligently. He was a republican, inclined in religious faith to the Unitarian belief, and had no secret order affiliations. He married Harriet Warren. Her father, Stephen H. Warren, came from Cattaraugus County, New York. Mrs. Daniel Vaughan is now living in Scott City at the age of eighty-one. She has two children: Maggie, wife of Dr. A. Marshall, of Chillicothe, Missouri; and Dan M.

Dan M. Vaughan has shown an appreciative interest in everything connected with Scott City's development and improvement. For three years he was a member of the City Council. During that time he assisted in arranging the details for the construction of the city water and light plant, and was on the council until the matter had advanced so far as the letting of the contract. He is a strong republican, having cast his first presidential ballot for Harrison in 1892.

Mr. Vaughan was married in Livingston County, Missouri, February 15, 1898, to Lydia M. Culling, daughter of George A. and Lucetta (Hamilton) Culling. Her father was born in England and her mother in Virginia, and her people were farmers. Mrs. Vaughan, who was born in 1876, was the oldest of a family of five children, the others being: Laura, wife of James Austin; Mamie, wife of Crockett Siddon; and Evert and Ira. Mr. and Mrs. Vaughan have a householdful of young children, whose names and respective ages are as follows: Daniel George, aged nine; Virginia Cecil, aged seven; Homer Newton, aged five; Gladys Ola, aged three; and Daniel George, aged one.

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