John M. Sheaff

JOHN M. SHEAFF. - For more than three decades John M. Sheaff has maintained his home in Kansas City, Kansas, and during those years he has succeeded in building up a splendid real estate business and in gaining recognition as a citizen whose loyalty and public spirited interest in all matters affecting the general welfare has ever been of the most insistent order. Mr. Sheaff was born at Davenport, Iowa, the date of his nativity being the 13th of March, 1861. He is a son of Philip and Annie (Mecartney) Sheaff, the former of whom was born at Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and the latter in the vicinity of Lancaster, that state. In 1860 the father removed, with his wife, to Cedar county, Iowa, where he was identified with agricultural pursuits during the ensuing eight years, at the expiration of which he removed to Shenandoah Valley, in Virginia, where he likewise followed farming and where he resided during the remainder of his life. He was a stalwart Republican in his political proclivities and in a fraternal way was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He was the father of five children - three sons and two daughters, four of whom are living at the present time, in 1911. Philip Sheaff was called to eternal rest in 1908, and his cherished wife passed into the Great Beyond in 1897.

John M. Sheaff was a child of but seven years of age at the time of his parents' removal to the Old Dominion commonwealth, and there he prosecuted his studies in the district schools, and the Front Royal High School from which he graduated in 1880. He assumed the active responsibilities of life as a school teacher and was engaged four winters in that profession in Virginia and at Belton, Missouri. Later he removed to Kansas City, Missouri, where he secured employment in a dry goods store, continuing therein until 1888. During the following two years he was in business in that city with George H. White, and at the close of that period, in 1890, he came to Kansas City, Kansas. For a time after his arrival in this city Mr. Sheaff was engaged in the real estate business with Mr. White, but in 1894 he severed his alliance with that gentleman and engaged in the real estate business on his own account. He has been very successful in this line of enterprise and in addition to advancing his own individual interests he has also done a great deal for general progress and prosperity and for the general welfare of Kansas City, Kansas.

On the 12th of August, 1891, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Sheaff to Miss Nina White, who was born at Coldwater, Michigan, and was reared to maturity at Evanston, Wyoming, whither her parents had removed when she was a mere child. She received her education there and at Grinnell College, Iowa. She is a daughter of Charles M. and Evelyn White, both of whom were born in the state of New York and who are now residing at Pocatello, Idaho. The former is a brother of George H. White. Mr. and Mrs. White became the parents of five children, of whom Mrs. Sheaff was the first born and one of two daughters. Mr. White is a lawyer by vocation and has given most efficient service as attorney at Evanston, Wyoming, and was a state representative for several years. Mr. and Mrs. Sheaff have three daughters, namely: Bessie, whose birth occurred on the 20th of July, 1892; Meta, born on the 27th of March, 1893; and Ruth, whose natal day is the 10th of July, 1901.

In his political convictions Mr. Sheaff is a stanch advocate of the principles and policies promulgated by the Republican party and while he has never manifested aught of ambition for the honors or emoluments of public office of any description he is ever on the alert and enthusiastically in sympathy with all projects advanced for the well being of the city and county. He is affiliated with the Mercantile Club, and in his religious faith is a devout member of the Presbyterian church, to whose charities and benevolences he has ever been a most liberal contributor. Mr. Sheaff is a man of unusual executive ability and tremendous vitality and in all the walks of life he has so conducted himself as to command the unalloyed confidence and esteem of his fellowmen.