James R. Young

JAMES R. YOUNG is one of the enterprising newspaper men and publishers of Northwestern Kansas, is editor of three local newspapers, including the Oakley Graphic, where he has his plant and offices and where the other two papers are printed. He has spent all his life in this western country and was born at David City, Nebraska, September 27, 1884. His ancestors some generations ago came out of Holland and settled in Pennsylvania. His father, R. M. Young was born at Knoxville, Illinois, in 1846. He grew up in that town and at Galesburg, and at the latter place married Elizabeth Slutz. She was born in that Illinois city in 1853. Some time before their son James was born they moved out to Nebraska, and in 1885 took a homestead in Thomas County, Kansas. R. M. Young, since 1892, has been a resident of Colby, Kansas. He is now clerk of the district court, and served two terms as probate judge of Thomas County. He is a democrat, is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Rebekahs and is one of the widely known citizens in that section of the State. His wife died at Colby in 1898. Their living children are: Charles Arthur, a steamboat engineer at Cincinnati, Ohio; Henry Irvin, a farmer at Topeka, Kansas; James R.; Robert Carl, who is now with the War Work department of the Young Men's Christian Association in France; and Iva Myrtle, who remains with her father.

James R. Young's earliest recollections are of the old homestead in Thomas County. He attended public schools at Colby, graduated from the Thomas County High School in 1904, and had one year in the Kansas University at Lawrence. Since then he has given his time to newspaper work, and with what success has already been indicated.

The Oakley Graphic, of which he is proprietor and editor, was established in 1888, two years after the Town of Oakley was founded. It first went under the name of the Weekly Press. In the same year the paper changed hands and also name, becoming the News Letter, and in 1889 C. V. Kinney reestablished it as the Oakley Graphic. It has therefore had a continuous existence for thirty years, and is the official paper of Logan County. It is republican in politics. The offices of the plant are in the First National Bank Building at Oakley. From the same office are also published the Russell Springs Leader, which was founded in 1905, and the Grinnell Record, Mr. Young being the editor of both.

Mr. Young served under President Taft five years as postmaster at Oakley. He is a stanch republican in politics, is a past master of Oakley Lodge of Masons, and was the first patron of the Oakley Chapter of the Eastern Star.

October 16, 1907, at Salina, Kansas, he married Miss Justine W. Meyer, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Meyer, both now deceased. Her father was a merchant. Mr. and Mrs. Young have four children: James Gerald, born October 11, 1908; Justine Elizabeth, born in 1910; Marjorie Louise, born in 1912, and Roberta Marie, born in 1916.

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