JAMES L. MARTIN.

As a worthy representative of an honored pioneer family of southeastern Kansas, as a capable and faithful public official and as a leading and reliable business man of Yates Center. James L. Martin is deserving of mention in this volume, the purpose of which is to perpetuate the life records of those who have contributed to the growth, improvement and stability of this section of the Sunflower state. He is now a member of the well known firm of Martin & Orendorff, of Yates Center, and is a recognized leader in his line of commercial activity in the county seat.

The Martin family is of English lineage and was founded in America by Richard Martin, the grandfather of our subject, who with three of his sons crossed the Atlantic to Canada. His children were James, Isaac, Jonathan, Freeman, William, Ezra and Anson, all of whom resided in the United States, were married and reared families. Of this number William Martin now resides in Fort Scott, Kansas. Freeman Martin, the father of our subject, was married in Ogle County, Illinois, in 1847 to Matilda Cox, a native of Connecticut, and a daughter of William Cox, and in 1866 they came to Kansas locating in Osage township, Allen County, when not a single house stood between their home and the residence of Judge Brown on Rock creek, east of Iola. Mr. Martin secured a homestead claim and re-

sided on the Osage until 1885, when he removed to Osborn County, Kansas, where he remained for four years. In 1892 he removed to Bronson, Kansas, where his death occurred in October, 1899, when he was seventy-six years of age. His wife passed away in the same city in July, 1899, so that after traveling life's journey together for fifty-two years they were not long separated in death. They had six children: Albert E., of Bronson, Kansas; James L., John M., also of Bronson; Lucena N., wife of Tillman Birnbaum of Iola; Harriet C., wife of Dr. Albert Allen, of Ottawa, Kansas, and Fannie T., who resided in Bronson.

Mr. Martin, whose name begins this record, was born in Ogle County, Illinois, April 2, 1859, and was therefore only about seven years of age when he came with his parents to southeastern Kansas. He pursued his education in the common schools and when sixteen years of age entered upon his business career as a clerk in a store in Osborn, Kansas. He subsequently entered the employ of J. Bishop, of Neosho Falls, with whom he remained as a most competent and trusted salesman for fourteen years, after which he was elected to the position of register of deeds of Woodson County in 1895, for a term of two years. On the expiration of that period he was again chosen to the office and in 1900 he retired from office as he had entered it—with the confidence and good will of his constituents and the public generally. He then became a member of the firm of Martin & Orendorff, dealers in dry goods and clothing at Yates Center, and is now enjoying a good and growing trade, having the best equipped establishment of the kind in the city.

On the 5th. of September, 1880, Mr. Martin was joined in wedlock, in Osborn, Kansas, to Miss Jesse A. Crampton, a daughter of Charles W. Crampton, a native of Connecticut. He became a resident of Troy, New York, and was married there to Mary J. Harris. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Martin are three in number: Mary E., Charles F. and Edgar P., all yet with their parents. Like the other members of the family Mr. Martin is a Republican in his political views and socially he is connected with the Masons, the Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America. He is a gentleman of good habits, upright principles and manly conduct, who in the quiet but useful and essential walks of business life has gained the respect of his fellow men and won the friendship of many by reason of his genuine but unostentatious worth.

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