Butler County Genealogy Trails Kansas Judge Volney P. Mooney Bio

BUTLER COUNTY'S EIGHTY YEARS BIOS

JUDGE VOLNEY P. MOONEY

Judge Volney P. Mooney, legal counselor and former judge of the probate court, former clerk of the district court, teacher, merchant, poet, publicist, author of “Mooney’s History of Butler County” and one of the most scholarly, courteous and influential citizens of this section of the state, is a native of Darke County, Ohio, being born September 23, 1852.

Judge Mooney’s career, extending as it does, from back in the pioneer period to the present era of modern development, has been decidedly worthwhile. His prominence has been outstanding and his accomplishments constructive and enduring. His has been the experience of the child of the pioneer. As a small boy, his parents removed from Ohio to Whiteside County, Illinois, and, a few years later, to Bureau County, in the same state. When he was 16, they came to Kansas, and the first winter, 1869-70, was spent at Emporia. In the spring of 1870, the family removed to Butler County, settling on a farm, upon which a part of the present city of Towanda is located.

Judge Mooney, during this time, attended rural schools, in season, in Illinois and Kansas and upon removal to Butler County assisted with the farm work and, 1871 to 1873, hauled merchandise from Emporia to Towanda. He was principal of the Towanda school in 1874-75. After two years in a store, he removed to El Dorado and engaged in merchandising one year, when he disposed of his stock, in 1880, to become deputy county clerk. In 1882, he was elected clerk of the district court and served until 1889. In the meantime, he had studied law, was admitted to the bar (1886), and upon his retirement as clerk, entered into active practice. He was appointed probate judge by Governor Arthur Cooper (now United States senator from Kansas) in 1915, and elected to that position in November, 1916, being re-elected at subsequent elections up to and including 1932.

During Judge Mooney’s entire residence, he has taken a leading part in constructive movements, serving on committees and contributing generously to church, lodge, progress and any developments looking toward the welfare of the community. He has been a Mason for more than a half century, with membership in Patmos No. 97, A. F. & A. M.,El Dorado, and El Dorado Chapter No. 35, R. A. M., together with the El Dorado Commandery, No. 19, Knights Templar, and is a past master of the lodge, past high priest of the chapter and past eminent commander of the commandery. His religious affiliations are with the First Baptist Church. In politics, he has been a consistent Republican throughout his mature life. Judge Mooney’s greatest achievement, however, wrote R. H. Fisher, historian, is his “History of Butler County,” published in 1916. It is probably that no more thorough book of its kind, viewed from every angle, has been written anywhere in America—it is a prized volume in all the standard libraries of this county. He also has written numerous special articles for newspapers and his poems, notably “The Pioneer” and “Chores,” are classics of their character.

He is of Irish and German descent and traces his American ancestry back into earliest periods of the old Northwest territory, into that section now known as the state of Ohio. His great-grandparents were Joseph and Rebecca (Freeman) Mooney, both natives of Ohio. His grandfather was John Mooney, who married Nancy Terry, daughter of Judge Terry of Greenville, Ohio. Of this marriage was born, among their children, Isaac Mooney, at Dayton, Ohio, 1820, who married Eliza Rhodehamel, who became the mother of Judge Mooney. Isaac Mooney was destined to become a pioneer preacher and one of the genuinely beloved men of his generation. His influence, as a man of God in this country during the early period of settlement, merits an entire chapter, but space permits only an outline. Of his character and his accomplishments and services, it is probable that the following, written many years ago by the late J. B. Adams, is most accurately descriptive:

“The first sermon I ever heard preached in my life came from the lips of Rev. Isaac Mooney, and it gave me a favorable impression of the ministry. It was in the little old Diamond Creek school house that stood in what is now the western edge of Potwin. I was about six years of age and it was in the days before churches in northwest Butler. The county was sparsely settled, but neighbors came from distances to hear the sermon, which was the first to be preached in the community for some time. I well remember the particularity with which I was cautioned by my good mother as to my behavior, and my childish curiosity as to what a sermon was like and how a preacher would look. I had heard of preachers, but had never seen one. There were no song books in the neighborhood and the services were conducted without music. Rev. Mr. Mooney did not charge for preaching and ‘a hat’ was not passed. It was the primitive beginning of a religious awakening in the community. Mr. Mooney came up from Towanda about once a month to preach and the ‘neighbors’ all attended, and if Isaac Mooney left the same impress upon others as he did upon me in my early childhood, as he no doubt did, his memory will brighten with an impreshable luster throughout all eternity.”

Isaac Mooney was born in Miami County, Ohio, May 22, 1820. He died at Towanda, Kansas, October 20, 1902. Coming to Kansas in 1869, he purchased from J. R. Mead, the old Indian trader, the land lying south of Main Street, upon with the town of Towanda now stands and homesteaded the land north of Main Street, moving thereon in 1870. In 1872, he platted and laid out the townsite. Mr. Mooney was ordained a preacher in 1843. He never preached for pay. His first sermon in Butler County was preached in June, 1870, and he preached until the time of his death. He was a farmer before coming to Kansas, preaching during the winter season. He married more than 1200 couples during his ministry and held about the same number of funeral services. Elder E. Cameron, of Sycamore Springs, associated for a quarter of a century in church work with Rev. Mr. Mooney preached the sermon at his funeral, which was the largest ever known in this county at that time. An enduring monument to this good man recently has been erected at Towanda by the building of the Mooney Memorial church, a gift to the community by his son-in-law, the late Mike Organ, Jr.

On August 8, 1875, Judge Mooney was married to Miss Frances E. Mooney, a native of Allen County, Indiana, but then residing in Towanda. Judge Mooney, dedicating his History of Butler County, to the memory of Mrs. Mooney said, in part: “Dedicated to the memory of my wife, Frances E. Mooney, who fell asleep—crossing the Great Divide—February 21, 1916. For forty years, my companion and friend; always departure took away the motive, the incentive, the inspiration of life, leaving an existence of chaos, desolation and gloom. Her household was her joy; her home, her treasure; her friends, her pride; her faith in the Almighty God and the immortality of the soul, her comfort.” Mrs. Mooney was the daughter of Osborne Tilton and Adelaide Ann (Kikly) Mooney, the father serving four years in the Civil War, with the 88th Indiana Infantry and being a pioneer in Indiana and Kansas. Mrs. Mooney’s grandparents were William and Betsy (Reece) Mooney, and John and Josephine (Pishon) Kikly, both natives of France. John Kikly acquired renown by writing a book of travels, based upon his tour of the world.

The children born of the marriage of Judge and Mrs. Mooney, to whom married and their present addresses are: Mrs. Corah Mooney Bullock,El Dorado; Dr. Earle Raymond Mooney, dentist, Wichita, married Helen Leila Gibson, of El Dorado; Walter Harmon Mooney, assistant superintendent of safety, Missouri Pacific Railroad Company, Wichita, married Esther Louise Truesdell, of Wichita; and Volney Paul Mooney, Jr., attorney, Los Angeles, California, and at this time National Commander of the Disabled American Veterans of the World War. He married Frieda Frances Myers, of Los Angeles. There is one grandchild, Walter Harold Mooney, son of Walter Harmon Mooney, who received his master degree as Business Engineer from the University of Pennsylvania. He was married in January, 1934 to Esther Miriam Stephens of Philadelphia.

December first, 1933, in the 19th year of his service, Judge Mooney resigned from the office of probate judge to devote his time to private practice. He was recognized throughout the state as an outstanding judge, and is highly respected and loved by the thousands who know him. On his final day of office, Judge Mooney said:

“My friends have supported me loyally and I have endeavored to give them the best service of which I was capable. I have tried to realize that public office is a public trust, and not a private snap; that I was the servant and not the boss, the employee who had the interest of his employer, the public, at heart.

“I have been in public life, a greater number of years in Butler County,Kansas, than any man, living or dead. I flatter myself on this record. But my greatest pride is in the friendships formed during that time. I leave with the kindliest feelings and the best wisher for every citizen of the county; and in the language of Rip Van Winkle, ‘May You All Lif Long Und Brosper!’”

Judge Mooney performed 3, 397 marriage ceremonies officiating at marriages of as many as six members of one family.

January 11, 1934, the Butler County Bar Association honored Judge Mooney with a public dinner. More than 150 of his friends sat at the table in the Masonic building dining room. William Allen White and Victor Murdock joined in making complete a community expression of respect and esteem to Judge Mooney.

R. A. Clymer commented, editorially in the El Dorado Times:

El Dorado and Butler County honored themselves last evening in honoring Judge Volney P. Mooney. Here is a man whose life was bridged the long gap between the days when Kansas was virgin prairie and the present state to which it has come under the marvelous changes of the mechanical age. He came from the stock that has given Kansas its rugged and distinctive character in the sisterhood of states. Through all his more than four score years he has been honest, upright and intelligent. He has maintained that role to this day and his ripened and virile mentality is by far not the least of the trinity. He has served the public in important particulars. He has not been a rich man, judged by monetary standards, but a real millionaire in the wealth of friendships bestowed upon him and fairly won. He has maintained a striking poise and serenity through the astounding change that have come in his time—all of which he saw, part of which he was. And so his friends, animated by the agency of the Butler County Bar Association, paid him deserved tribute in a public way last evening, going on the theory that “you’d rather have some kindness while you tread this vale of tears, than to have your dust lamented o’er for fifty million years.”