JOSEPH C. BEATTY.

JOSEPH C. BEATTY, one of the large feeders and farmers of Allen county, came to Kansas in 1877 and settled in Osage township. At that date Humboldt was the county metropolis and many of our leading settlers were located from that point, being located by the well-remem-

bered real estate man, G. W. Hutchinson. Mr. Beatty was one of these settlers. He chose the valley of the Osage river, bought a farm therein and has since called it his home. For some years beginning with 1880 Mr. Beatty was not an active farmer. He engaged in the butcher business in Iola, being interested with "Beatty Brothers," and later their interests were transferred to the furniture business there. In 1386 he became a partner in the Fort Scott Wholesale Grocery Company and remained with the concern till 1888, at which date he returned to the Osage River farm.

In the conduct of the farm Mr. Beatty has given the stock business the chief place in his affections. This branch of industry calls for a genius not common to the average farmer and its successful conduct, upon a large scale, is consequent upon the especial adaptability of its promoter. The growth made in this industry by our subject within the past dozen years marks him as one of the successful feeders and the extent of his operations gives him a wide acquaintance through Allen, Anderson and Bourbon counties.

By nativity Mr. Beatty is an Irishman. He was born near Belfast July 8, 1854, and was a son of David Beatty who left Ireland in 1855 and took up his residence near Kincarden, Canada. In 1869 the family took another jump westward, this time locating in Sonoma county, California. David Beatty, father of our subject, was married to Mary Crawford, whose death occurred in Allen county in 1880. Their children were: William, who died in California; John C., of Los Angeles, California; Elizabeth, wife of William Caldwell, of Cloverdale, California; Mary J., widow of R. A. Kerr, of Los Angeles, California; Joseph C.; James T., of the Fort Scott Wholesale Grocery Company, and David R. Beatty, of Beaumont, Texas.

Joseph C. Beatty was equipped for a career of business in Healds Business College in San Francisco, California. He began life in the sheep business in Sonoma county and drifted from that into the cattle business, on a moderate scale. The conditions for handling cattle extensively were not so favorable in California and he was induced to return east, to Kansas, where there was a prospect of acquiring cheap land and greater range for stock. In Allen county the area of his farm and ranch has kept pace with the extent of his herds and his six hundred and twenty acres comprises one of the desirable pieces of property in the county.

Mr. Beatty excels not only as a man of affairs but as a citizen. His conduct has been, toward his neighbors, of such a character as to win and maintain their confidence, commercially, socially and politically. He has been identified with county politics, as a Republican, for many years and, as an intimation of the weight of his opinion it is only necessary to say that candidates for office are always anxious to know "how Beatty stands" with reference to them.

July 29, 1880, Mr. Beatty was married to Mrs. Mattie Fielding, a daughter of W. W. Neville, of Garnett, Kansas. The Nevilles were from Hart county, Kentucky, to Illinois and from Illinois to Kansas in 1870. Mr. Neville married Catherine Conover who bore him four children: John, of Lawrence, Kansas; Mrs. Melissa Hunley, of Garnett, Kansas, and Mrs.

Beatty. All are surviving. Mr. Neville died in 1895 at the age of seventy-five years while his widow makes her home with Mrs. Beatty.

Mr. and Mrs. Beatty's children are: Luretta May, Sophomore in University at Ottawa, Kansas; Clarence N., a student in the Moran high school, and Joseph Harold. The family are members of the Baptist church.

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