Austin T. McKay

AUSTIN T. MCKAY, court reporter of District No. 5, Division No. 1, in Kansas City, Kansas, is an altruistic and public-spirited citizen, who has the best interests of the community at heart and whose contribution to progress and development in this section of the fine old Sunflower state has ever been of the most insistent order.

At Marseilles, Illinois, on the 5th of November, 1872, occurred the birth of Austin T. McKay, his parents being Hiram and Elizabeth (Etherton) McKay, the former of whom was born in the state of Virginia in 1822, and the latter of whom was born in Indiana, in 1829. The father was seven years of age at the time of his parents' removal from the Old Dominion commonwealth to Evansville, Indiana, where the paternal grandparent of him whose name introduces this article was long a resident. In 1879 Hiram McKay came to Kansas, locating at Independence, where he engaged in the great basic industry of agriculture and where he passed the residue of his life, his death having occurred in the spring of 1897. He was a stanch Democrat in his political proclivities and his religious faith was in accordance with the teachings of the Baptist church. His cherished and devoted wife survives him and now maintains her home in Oklahoma, where she resides on a farm with her children, George W. and Miss Sophia. Concerning the other children of Mr. and Mrs. McKay the following brief data is here recorded: Mrs. Mattie Hopper is a resident of the city of Chicago, Illinois; Mrs. Myra Mountain is deceased; Francis Marion is engaged as a principal in Chicago; Benjamin F. resides at Independence, Kansas; Archie S. operates a large farm near Enid, Oklahoma; Mrs. Emma Miles and Mrs. Josie Miles reside at Garden City, Kansas; Charles died in infancy; and Austin T. is the immediate subject of this review.

Austin T. McKay accompanied his parents to Independence, Kansas, when a lad of but six years of age and thence removal was later made to Anthony, this state, to the public schools of which place he is indebted for his early educational training. In 1889 he was matriculated in the Valparaiso University, in Indiana, in which excellent institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1893. Thereafter he secured a position as court stenographer at Anthony, Kansas, and subsequently at Enid, Oklahoma. In 1904 he came to Kansas City, where he has since been court stenographer of District No. 5, Division No. 1. He and his wife are devout members of the Baptist church, in whose faith he was reared and they are both highly respected citizens in the community in which they reside.

On the 11th of July, 1894, Mr. McKay was united in marriage to Miss Della Simpson, of Medicine Lodge, Kansas. To this union has been born one child, Hazel, whose birth occurred on August 18, 1895, and who is now attending the public schools in this city.