George H. Woodhouse

GEORGE H. WOODHOUSE. One has no difficulty in identifying the interests of George H. Woodhouse as a resident of Wallace County. He is one of the largest individual land owners in the northwestern part of the state, is a prominent banker of Sharon Springs, and, considering him in connection with his honored father, the late Col. J. L. Woodhouse, it can truthfully be said that hardly an important interest in the county has not in some way been identified with the name from pioneer times to the present.

Mr. Woodhouse was born in Cedar County, Iowa, July 10, 1864. He comes of old New England stock. His grandfather, James Woodhouse, was born in New Hampshire in 1800, and lived many years as a farmer at Pittsfield in that state, but late in life went out to Iowa, was a farmer in Cedar County, and finally retired to Walnut, Potawattomie County, where he died in 1884.

The late Col. J. L. Woodhouse was born in New Hampshire in 1831. He grew up and married at Pittsfield, and from there went west to Cedar County, Iowa, where he became extensively identified with farming interests. In 1888 he became one of the pioneer settlers at Sharon Springs, Kansas. There, in connection with other interests, he established a private bank known as the Bank of Sharon Springs. He conducted that institution and gave it all the confidence that his personal integrity and fortune deserved until his death. His heirs then incorporated it as the State Bank of Sharon Springs. He died at Sharon Springs in 1907. He became owner of about 12,000 acres of land in Wallace County, and was one of the largest raisers and shippers of cattle from the county. He also owned about 2,000 acres of the rich and fertile soil of Iowa at the time of his death. Among other interests at Sharon Springs he owned the lumber yard, hardware store and other local institutions. He was a republican in politics.

J. L. Woodhouse married Lydia A. Rand, born in New Hampshire in 1831 and died in Cedar County, Iowa, in 1874. Their children were seven in number: Fannie, who lives in California, widow of Doctor Cooling; Fred R., a farmer at Wilton, Muscatine County, Iowa; the third is George H.; Guy E. is a cattleman and ranch owner at Sharon Springs; Mrs. May Kelsey lives at Barnstead, New Hampshire, in which state her husband died; Lulu is the wife of J. E. McClintock, a real estate and abstract man at Roseburg, Oregon; Rush H. is in the automobile business at Long Beach, California.

George H. Woodhouse was educated in the public schools of Cedar County, Iowa, and attended the Academy at Wilton in that state. After leaving school he took up practical farming and remained a resident of Iowa until 1910. Upon the death of his father he was appointed administrator of the estate, and came to Kansas in 1910 to give his personal attention to this business. He is still the administrator and also has numerous business enterprises of his own.

The State Bank of Sharon Springs of which he is president, was established in 1888 and has had a successful history for thirty years. It is capitalized at $20,000 and has a surplus of $9,000. The cashier is W. D. Ervin. Mr. Woodhouse individually owns 10,000 acres of land in Wallace County, and his management of that land helped to swell the volume of grain and livestock in the total of Kansas' agricultural wealth. In politics he is a republican.

In 1886, in Cedar County, Iowa, Mr. Woodhouse married Miss Mattie Blizzard, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. C. Blizzard. Her mother is still living, a resident of Brooklyn, Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. Woodhouse have three children. Grace is a graduate of the Wilton High School in Iowa and of Bethany College at Topeka, and is now the wife of F. P. Bacon, a farmer at Wilton, Iowa. Margaret is a graduate of the Wilton High School and received her A. B. degree from the University of Chicago, and is now a teacher in Chanute, Kansas. J. L. Woodhouse, the only son, is a graduate of the Sharon Springs High School, and is now a junior in the Kansas Agricultural College at Manhattan.

Page 2244.