JOHN KINGAN.

JOHN KINGAN, who is successfully engaged in the lumber business in Toronto, is a native of Peterboro, Canada, his birth having occurred on the 11th of March, 1853. His father, Robert Kingan, was a hardware merchant of that town, and married Jane Jeffrey, daughter of the Hon. Andrew Jeffrey, of Coburg, Ont. Both parents have died in their Peterboro home since their son John came to Toronto. They had ten children, seven of whom are living. The Kingans are of Scotch lineage, the family having come to America from Glasgow, Scotland, where the father was born. The grandfather of our subject was a school teacher there and had a large family of ten children. Two came to this country, Robert and Gordon, the latter becoming a wholesale grocer of Montreal, of the firm of Kingan & Kinloch. Of that family there is one surviving sister, Mrs. Cubbin, who is now living near London, England, and has passed the ninety-sixth milestone on life's journey. Robert G. Kingan, a brother of our subject, is a hardware merchant of Peterboro, Canada. Frank is manager of an electric light and power company of Saint Ste. Marie, Michigan. Fred is an electrician and the sisters are now living in Peterboro, Canada.

John Kingan, the eldest of the family, spent the days of his youth in the place of his nativity, acquired his education in the public schools, and entered upon his business career as an assistant to his father in the hardware store. There he remained for four years, after which he spent five years in Montreal in the wholesale hardware business. On leaving that city he came to the United States, and for about a year was engaged in the grain business west of Chicago on the Chicago & Iowa railroad. He afterward spent two years in Chicago engaged in different occupations and then came to Kansas, arriving in this state in 1879. He first settled at Mound Valley in Labette County, where he was engaged in the lumber and grain business for eight years. He came to Toronto from Emporia, Kansas, where he was connected with the lumber trade for two years as representative of the firm of S. A. Brown & Company. On arriving in this city he bought the lumber business of S. A. Brown, and now has a well equipped yard and is carrying on a successful trade, his patronage steadily increasing owing to his well-directed efforts, his obliging manner and unquestioned honesty.

In Mound Valley, Kansas, in September, 1881, Mr. Kingan was joined in wedlock to Ida C. Hobbs, a daughter of Jacob Hobbs, who was a farmer in that locality. They now have but two children, Fred and Jennie. Etta,

their eldest daughter age 13, died in April, 1899. Fraternally, Mr. Kingan is connected with the Workmen and the Select Knights. He entered upon his business career with some little financial aid and has worked his way upward through determined purpose and resolute will and has advanced far on the road to prosperity.

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