Jacob B. Hipple

JACOB B. HIPPLE. - As editor and publisher of the Armourdale Press, a weekly paper issued at Armourdale, one of the important suburban districts now included in Kansas City, Kansas, Mr. Hipple has gained prestige as one of the able and popular representatives of the newspaper fraternity in this section of the state, and during the long years of his identification with journalistic enterprises in Wyandotte county he has made his paper an excellent vehicle for the furtherance of the best interests of the community as well as an exponent of the best civic ideals and policies. His experience in connection with the practical affairs of life has been varied and interesting and he is a man of broad mental ken and positive views. His sterling character and genial personality have gained to him unqualified esteem in the county that has represented his home for more than a score of years, and he is well entitled to recognition in this history of Wyandotte county and its people.

A scion of stanch German ancestry in the agnatic line and of Ger man and English on the maternal side, Jacob Baker Hipple claims the old Keystone state of the Union as the place of his nativity. He was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, on the 3rd of February, 1857, and is a son of Jacob and Hannah (Baker) Hipple, of whose three children he is now the only survivor. The parents were both born and reared in Pennsylvania and the respective families were founded in America in the Colonial era of our national history. Jacob Hipple was a skilled mechanic, and for many years he sturdily plied his trades of blacksmith and wagonmaker, a man of industrious habits, independent views and impregnable integrity of character. Both he and his noble wife continued to reside in Pennsylvania until their death and they left the gracious heritage of goodly lives and kindly deeds.

Jacob B. Hipple was reared to maturity in his native county and in addition to the advantages afforded in the public schools he availed himself of those of the Pennsylvania State Normal School at Millersville where he gained a discipline that well equipped him for pedagogic endeavors. He began teaching in the country schools of his native county when he was twenty years of age, and he continued successfully in this line of work in Pennsylvania for seven years. His closing services were those of principal of the Pennsylvania State Soldiers' Orphan School, at Mount Joy, and after retiring from this position he became managing editor of the Lancaster Examiner and Express, in the county of his nativity. He retained this incumbency about four years and then removed to Manheim, Pennsylvania, where he founded the Manheim Sun, of which he was editor and publisher for one year, after which he located in Lebanon, that state, as special correspondent of the Philadelphia Daily Press.

In 1889 Mr. Hipple came to Kansas and established his business in Armourdale, one of the leading industrial centers of Wyandotte county and now an integral part of Kansas City, this county. Here he has since been continuously and effectively identified with newspaper work, and he has been the owner, editor and publisher of the Armourdale Press for twenty odd years. He was the founder of this paper and has kept the same up to a high standard in all departments, with a well equipped and essential modern office. The paper is issued on Friday of each week and is a four column quarto, clean in letter, press and especially effective in the presentation of local news and the exploiting of home interests. The paper is independent in politics, though its editor and publisher is a stanch supporter of the generic principles and policies of the Republican party. He has never been imbued with office seeking proclivities and the only public office he has held is that of which he has recently become incumbent, deputy collector of internal revenue for this district. He is a member of the Armourdale lodge of Free and Accepted Masons and as a citizen he is broad minded, loyal and progressive.

At Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, in the year 1887, Mr. Hipple was united in marriage to Miss Laura Leib, who was born and reared in that town, and they have two daughters, Maude and Corinne.