Butler County Genealogy Trails Kansas James R McCluggage Bio

BUTLER COUNTY'S EIGHTY YEARS BIOS

JAMES R. McCLUGGAGE

(Transcribed by Lori DeWinkler)

James McCluggage, Butler County pioneer, civic leader and banker, was born in Holmes County, Ohio, in 1846 and was a resident of Butler County since 1872.

At the time of his birth, Ohio was still frontier farming country, and as a farmer boy he early learned what it was to build a home and win his living from the land. Attending school in the short winter sessions of nearly a century ago, he grew to value education and all it meant, working hard to gain it for himself and to procure it in later life for his own family. From his parents he learned the work of farming and stockraising which later helped him to success, and also the simple but important lessons of honesty, industry, and Christian faith.

As a young man of twenty-six, James McCluggage came to Butler County and filed on a government homestead. He went through the hardships and labors of the early times, conquered them all and eventually achieved competence. Together with other public-spirited citizens, he founded the Rose Hill State Bank and served as its president for many years, and was also a prosperous farmer and stockman. The beautiful home he built in Richland Township has long been a landmark in Butler County.

He was an active member of the Church of Christ and an ardent Democrat. He served as trustee and treasurer of Richland Township for several terms, but did not seek political office except as a means of serving his community. In 1917 he and Mrs. McCluggage moved to Rose Hill, where Mrs. McCluggage still lives. Both enjoyed a wide acquaintance throughout Butler County and elsewhere.

On May 3, 1877, James McCluggage and Miss Jennis McMillan were married. Mrs. McCluggage, the daughter of Mrs. John Weston, a prominent pioneer woman, also was filled with the desire to see her community advanced. Before her marriage she had organized the first school in the neighborhood, and had held her classes in Mr. McCluggage’s one-room claim shanty. The McCluggage household has always been one of culture and refinement, and the husband and wife were wise teachers and brilliant inspirations to five children, each of whom has won success in his or her chosen field; J. Ralph McCluggage, a prosperous farmer; Francis J. McCluggage, now in charge of the family homestead; T. Verne McCluggage, a Wichita attorney; Robert Tyler McCluggage, El Dorado attorney and First Assistant United States District Attorney for Kansas; and Miss Jennie C. McCluggage, a teacher in Rose Hill High School.

James McCluggage reached the age of 88 years, remaining alert in his possession of his faculties. Taken suddenly ill, he was rushed to a hospital at Wichita, Kansas, where after a week’s illness he died on March 28, 1934.

He is deeply and sincerely mourned by his hundreds of friends to whom he was a help and an example throughout more than sixty years of service in Butler County. He was a devout Christian, yet always tolerant. His life was one of unsullied purity and integrity, and to the end he was one of Butler County’s foremost and most valued citizens. It is rare praise to say that the McCluggage sons and daughter are worth of their parents.