William McGeorge

WILLIAM McGEORGE. - The sterling character and pragmatic ability so typical of the sturdy race from which he is sprung indicate this representative business man and influential citizen of Argentine, one of the thriving little cities that add to the civic and material attractiveness and precedence of Wyandotte county. Here he is engaged in the retail drug business and here he has been specially active in the promotion of all measures and undertakings tending to advance the welfare of the city and county. He has served as mayor of Argentine and has been a resident of this county for thirty years, within which he has so applied his energies and ability as to gain large and worthy success, the while he has at all times commanded sure vantage in popular confidence and esteem.

A scion of the stanchest of old Scottish families Mr. McGeorge finds a due measure of satisfaction in reverting the land of hills and heather as the place of his nativity. He was born at Castle Douglas, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, on the 13th of September, 1852, and is a son of Thomas and Jane (Blacklock) McGeorge, both of whom were born and reared in the same section of Scotland, with whose annals the respective names have been identified for generations, extending back to the time when recorded history lapses into tradition. In 1871 the sturdy Scotsman, Thomas McGeorge, severed the ties that bound him to the land of his nativity and immigrated with his family to the hospitable shores of the United States. He purchased a farm near Excelsior Springs, Clay county, Missouri, where he became a substantial agriculturist and influential citizen. He and his wife passed the closing years of their lives at Excelsor Springs, Missouri, and they are survived by three sons and three daughters.

William McGeorge, the immediate subject of this review, gained an excellent academic education in his native land, where he also served an apprenticeship of four years in the drug trade. He thus gained a thorough technical and practical knowledge of pharmacy and also of business methods, and he was nineteen years of age at the time when he came with his parents to America. For two years thereafter he was employed as clerk in a drug store at Liberty, Missouri, and he then engaged in the same line of enterprise on his own account at Camden Point, Platte county, that state. He finally disposed of this business and made a trip through the west. In the spring of 1880 he came to Wyandotte county, Kansas, and opened a drug store at Rosedale. In 1884 he established a drug store in Argentine, and for several years thereafter he conducted both establishments. He finally disposed of his business at Rosedale and has since continued the enterprise in Argentine, where he has maintained his home since 1886 and where he has long held precedence as one of the most substantial and progressive business men of this attractive little city, in the growth and development of which he has manifested a lively interest. After Argentine was advanced from the position of a city of the third class to that of the first class he served as the first mayor under the new dispensation, retaining this incumbency two years and giving a careful and progressive administration of municipal affairs. His interest in the city of his home is of the most insistent order and in addition to having served as its chief executive he has served nearly fourteen years as a member of the board of education, of which position he is now incumbent. For the long term of twelve years he had the distinction of being president of this board, having held that position at the time of the annexation to Kansas City, and he was specially zealous in the work of providing the best possible system of public schools, which have here been raised to a notably high standard. Though a stanch supporter of the generic principles and policies of the Democratic party, Mr. McGeorge has not been insistently partisan in connection with local affairs of public order, but rather has given his support to men and measures meeting the approval of his judgment. He is affiliated with the Knights and Ladies of Security. The attractive home is a center of gracious hospitality, and Mrs. McGeorge has long been a popular factor in connection with the social activities of the community.

In the year 1882 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. McGeorge to Miss Morvie Jones, who was born in Wales and who was a child at the time of her parents immigration to the United States. She was reared to maturity in Wyandotte county, Kansas, where her father became associated with the old rolling mills. Mr. and Mrs. McGeorge have five children, and concerning them the following brief data is given in conclusion of this sketch: John I. is associated with his father's drug business; William, Jr., is a skilled chemist and is in the employ of the United States government at the experiment station maintained in the city of Honolulu, Hawaii; Robert is a student at Lawrence; Kenneth is night ticket agent with the Santa Fe Railroad Company; and Helen remains at the parental home.