| WOODSON COUNTIES, KANSAS. | 457 cont'd |
WILLIAM W. MOFFITT.
WILLIAM W. MOFFITT, who has from early boyhood been dependent upon his own resources and has worked his way steadily upward, is now one of the most progressive and successful business men in Savonburg. A native of Franklin county, Indiana, he was born December 30, 1847, a son of Wesley and Elizabeth (Garrison) Moffitt. The father was a native of Pennsylvania, and when a young man removed to Indiana, where he met and married Miss Garrison, who had gone to the Hoosier state with her parents in her girlhood. Mr. Moffitt was a carpenter by trade, and followed that pursuit for a few years in Illinois, after which he came to Kansas in 1867, locating in Bourbon county, near Uniontown. He died in 1888, at the age of seventy years, while visiting in Nebraska. Five years earlier his wife passed away at the age of fifty-three. They had five children: William W., Mrs. Mary E. Lakin, Emma Pemrock, Charles and Mrs. Ella A. Cation.
Mr. Moffitt, of this review, spent the days of his boyhood and youth in Illinois, and mastered the common English branches of learning as taught in the public schools. He came with the family to Kansas in 1867, when twenty years of age and remained with his parents till the age of twenty-five, when he was married to Miss Anna Morrison, the wedding being celebrated on the 11th of February, 1872. The lady is a native of Guernsey county, Ohio. They began their domestic life upon a rented farm near Uniontown, where Mr. Moffitt carried on agricultural pursuits for a year, and then removed to Neosho county. Here he secured a claim in Grant township, and is today the owner of eighty acres of highly improved land. He continued farming until 1891, when he removed his family to Savonburg, where he has since engaged in the grain and seed business. buying and shipping those commodities. His trade has constantly grown, and his business now amounts to sixty thousand dollars annually, for he handles the greater part of the grain raised in the southeastern portion of Allen county, having a warehouse in both Elsmore and Savonburg. He has excellent facilities for carrying on the business and is prepared to pay the highest market price for grain, seeds and broom corn.
The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Moffitt has been blessed with two children, Edna and Elsa. They occupy a very pleasant residence in Savonburg, which is owned by Mr. Moffitt, whose property interests also include his farm and the buildings in which he is conducting his business. In politics he has always been a Republican, warmly espousing the principles of the party, and he is now capably serving as Justice of the Peace in his township. Of the Odd Fellows Society, the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Modern Woodmen of America he is a representative, belonging to the local organizations in Savonburg. His life illustrates the power of honesty and diligence in the business world and is an example that is well worthy of emulation.
Page 457, transcribed by Carolyn Ward from History of Allen and Woodson Counties, Kansas: embellished with portraits of well known people of these counties, with biographies of our representative citizens, cuts of public buildings and a map of each county / Edited and Compiled by L. Wallace Duncan and Chas. F. Scott. Iola Registers, Printers and Binders, Iola, Kan.: 1901; 894 p., [36] leaves of plates: ill., ports.; includes index.
