Butler County Genealogy Trails Kansas C M McCaughan Bio

BUTLER COUNTY'S EIGHTY YEARS BIOS

C. M. McCAUGHAN

(Transcribed by Lori DeWinkler

Charles McMillan McCaughan, oldest local druggist in point of service, owner of the Rexall Store, half owner of the El Dorado National Bank building (tallest in the city), heavy taxpayer, civic leader and a representative in the legislature from Butler County for three terms, is a native of Iowa, but has been a resident of El Dorado since 1906. He was born at Morning Sun, Iowa, July 9, 1872.

He received his early education in the public schools of Morning Sun and Superior, Nebraska, to which latter city his parents removed when he was a boy. Following his graduation from the Superior High School, he took a course in pharmacy and was admitted to practice that profession by both the Nebraska and Kansas boards. His first business venture was the purchase of a drug store at Colony in 1897, and five years later he removed to Pittsburg, Crawford County, where he bought a pharmacy and conducted it for five years. In 1906, he came to El Dorado and located on South Main Street. In 1914, he removed from that location to North Main, just off Central Avenue, into a one story brick. In 1917, he joined with the El Dorado National bank, occupying the building at Central Avenue and Main Street and erected the present huge structure in which he now is located.

Since coming here, Mr. McCaughan has developed a big business by reason of courteous service and absolute integrity. He has taken a consistently active interest in the civic affairs of El Dorado and is identified not only with the Chamber of Commerce, but with the Credit Men’s Association and the Kiwanis service club, of which he served as vice president. He also served as president of the Kansas State Pharmaceutical Association and is an active member of the National Pharmaceutical Association. He is a Republican in politics. His services in the legislature have been valuable in that he introduced and secured the passage of a law placing paregoric in the list of narcotics and unlawful of sale except upon a doctor’s prescription. This law was fostered by the state association and the health boards and physicians. His votes and his influence upon other measures have been uniformly constructive and progressive. It is a matter of genuine pride to his friends too, that he was unopposed for re-election in both the primary and regular election of 1928. He was unopposed at the primary in 1930 but was defeated at the election by Frank H. Cron.

Mr. McCaughan is of Scotch descent and is the son of James and Catherine Eleanor (McClurken) McCaughan. James McCaughan was born in Ireland, but was brought to this country by his parents when he was a child. They settled in Illinois, later removing to Iowa, where he became a farmer. He enlisted in the 80th Illinois Volunteer Regiment and served throughout the Civil War. Upon his removal to Nebraska, he homesteaded a tract of land and farmed. The mother Catherine Eleanor (McClurken) McCaughan is the daughter of Thomas and Julia Ann McClurken. The McClurkens are descended from a long line of Carolina forebears the first of whom was a part of that great Highland emigration just preceeding the Revolutionary War and who settled in the southern and southeastern areas of North Carolina. Hundreds of the descendants of these hardy Scots continue to reside in that state, while hundreds of others have scattered throughout the South, the Central West and the far Northwest.

On January 7, 1896, Mr. McCaughan married Margaret Mitchell, at Olathe, Kansas. Mr. McCaughan is the daughter of William S. and Mary Jane (McCulloch) Mitchell, both natives of Ohio. The father came to Kansas in 1868, a few years after the Civil War in which he served with the Ohio Volunteers. He died iin Olathe at the age of 94 years. He was the son of Matthew Mitchell, born in Pennsylvania, but an Ohio pioneer. His father, Matthew, Sr., was a native of Pennsylvania, and a farmer. Matthew Senior’s father, also was named Matthew and he was the founder of the family in America, coming here prior to the Revolution and taking a patriot’s part in that great struggle. The original Mitchells settled at the forks of the Yough (Yaw) river in Pennsylvania. On the maternal side, Mrs. McCaughan’s mother, Mary Jane (McCulloch) Mitchell was born in Ohio and is descended from a line of Pennsylvania. She was the daughter of John and Martha (McGee) McCulloch, who moved into the old Northwest territory early in the Eighteenth century. Mrs. McCaughan is a past regent of Susannah French Putney Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution and in 1934-35 is registrar of that chapter. She also is a member of the Daughters of the Union Veterans.

Two children have been born of the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. McCaughan. They are: Mary Catherine, wife of Henry Thomas Collins, of Chicago, and Clara Ethel, wife of Burch Shuler, member of a pioneer family of Denver, Colorado. Mrs. Collins is an accomplished musician, and formerly taught in Cosmopolitan School of Music, in Chicago. Mrs. Schuler has, since graduation from college, been a chemist for the city of Denver.