James H. Beddow

JAMES H. BEDDOW. - After a varied and instructive experience in many different lines of employment, extending over twenty-seven years and taking him to many places in the western half of the United States, James H. Beddow has recently settled down to what he hopes to make a permanent occupation and of good service to the people of Kansas City, Kansas, as well as profitable to himself. In the spring of 1911 he bought the boarding and feed barn of M. Frazier, one of the leading establishments of the kind in this part of the country, knowing that he would thereby secure a means of providing for the comfortable accommodation of the horses of persons living in and coming to the city, and thus relieving the owners of inconvenience and annoyance in the matter, while at the same time he would provide work for himself that would be both agreeable and remunerative.

Mr. Beddow was born on December 8, 1866, at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and is a son of James H. and Mary M. (Ruder) Beddow, the former born near Harrisburg, Owen county, Kentucky, and the latter in Lorain county, Ohio. They were married at Fort Leavenworth, to which the father was assigned directly after the close of the Mexican war. He enlisted for that memorable and decisive conflict at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, and served through it with credit to himself and benefit to his country. After his discharge from the field service of the army he was appointed to a position in the quartermaster's department at the Fort and filled it until 1861. He then re-enlisted in the regular army and he remained with his command to the end of the Civil war. From 1865 to 1893 he was trainmaster at Fort Leavenworth, and since 1893 has occupied the position of forester there. He is now well advanced in years but still hale and vigorous, possessing great activity for his age and showing as much spice and sprightliness in word and action as many men who carry only half his burden in length of life, extent of labor and hardship of experience. He and his wife are the parents of four children: William A., who is now government trainmaster at Fort Leavenworth; Robert J., who lives in Kansas City, Missouri; May E., the wife of Joseph Shillo of Fort Leavenworth; and James H., who is the oldest in the order of birth.

James resided with his parents until he reached the age of eighteen, and found, after leaving school, employment through the quartermasters departments of the United States army in different parts of the western states. He obtained his education in the parochial and public schools of Leavenworth, but his attendance at them was often interrupted by pressing duties in connection with the government service. When he was nineteen he located in Kansas City, Missouri, where he remained during the next fourteen years engaged in a variety of occupations, but steadily making his way to worldly comfort and good standing and influence in the community. In 1898 he accepted employment as a city salesman for the Standard Oil Company, and he did excellent work for that great corporation until the spring of 1910, when he severed his connection with it.

For a year Mr. Beddow took time to look about him for a business engagement that would be agreeable to him and open the way to greater success and prosperity. In the spring of 1911, as has been noted, he purchased the establishment of M. Frazier, at which horses were regularly boarded and transients were accommodated. He has given this undertaking his undivided attention ever since, and the results have fully justified his judgment and self-reliance in making the purchase.

Mr. Beddow was married to Miss Cora R. Crawford, who was born in the state of New York on March 17, 1869, and is a daughter of J. V. Crawford. He takes an earnest interest in the public affairs of his city and county, and does what he can as an active working Democrat to secure their proper administration according to his views. In fraternal life he is connected with Cecilian Lodge, No. 39, Knights of Pythias, in Kansas City, Missouri; Penn Valley Camp, No. 4458, Modern Woodmen of America; White Rose Camp, Royal Neighbors; and Central Court, No. 635, Independent Order of Foresters. He is energetic and intelligent in the promotion of all public improvements in the city and county of his residence, and takes an active and helpful interest in all the agencies at work among the people to augment the mental, moral and material welfare of the community. On all sides he is accounted a very worthy and estimable man and an admirable citizen.