Butler County Genealogy Trails Kansas Chester Klinefelter Shore Bio

BUTLER COUNTY'S EIGHTY YEARS BIOS

CHESTER KLINEFELTER SHORE

(Transcribed by Peg Luce)

Chester Klinefelter Shore, editor and publisher of the Augusta (Kansas) Gazette, was born in Castleton, Kansas, May 25, 1900, a son of Benjamin Butler and Laura Ellen (Klinefelter) Shore.

Benjamin Butler Shore, who was born in Fort Scott, September 9, 1861, was graduated from the University of Kansas with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1907, and in 1910 received his Master’s degree. He is a retired school superintendent, who now resides at Poteet, Texas. His father served in the Sixth Kansas Cavalry German ancestry, her father coming from a line of Dutch settlers, who settle din North Carolina in 1730 coming from Holland. The family name was changed to Shore during the Revolution, and after that war the family migrated to Kentucky, later to Missouri, and in 1858 to Kansas, settling in Bourbon County.

Laura Ellen Klinefelter was born in Marion, Ohio, January 4, 1865, and died at Lawrence, Kansas, in September, 1906. She was of Pennsylvania Dutch and German ancestry, her father coming from a line of Dutch settlers, who settled in Pennsylvania. The mother was born in Bavaria. The Klinefelters settled in Brown County, Kansas, right after the Civil War. The grandfather, Michael L. Klinefelter served with an Ohio regiment during the war.

Educated first in public schools at Lawrence, Scottsville, and Pleasanton, Chester Shore attended high school at Pleasanton, Moran and Benton, and in the spring of 1921 entered the University of Kansas. He worked his entire way through the University as a printer for the Journalism Press. He had begun to learn the printing trade on the Pleasanton Observer-Enterprise while attending elementary school there in 1913-14. During 1917 and 1918 he worked on the Benton Bulletin, and after his discharge from the army in 1918 he worked as a printer in Kansas City until March, 1921, when he entered the University of Kansas. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from that University in 1924, and while there was president of the Senior Men’s Honor Society, Sachem, in 1924, editor of the Sour Owl, cheer leader, a member of the staff of the University Kansan, a member of the men’s student council, and was elected to membership in Sigma Delta Chi, Owls and Sachem.

During the World War period Mr. Shore served as a private in the Field Artillery Replacement Depot at Camp Zachary Taylor, Kentucky. Since the war he has devoted much time and energy to the American Legion and the military. He was a first lieutenant in Company M, 137th Infantry, Kansas National Guard for four years, and is now a reserve officer in the army. He revived the dormant Leonard Whitehall Post No. 189 of the American Legion at Augusta in 1929, serving as adjutant two years and as commander in 1931-32. He was junior and senior district commander in 1931-32, of the Fifth district. During the years 1930 and 1931 he was membership chairman of that district, and served as chairman of the state publicity committee for the Kansas department of the American Legion in 1933.

He was a lieutenant colonel on the military staff of former Governor Harry H. Woodring. A Republican, Mr. Shore was appointed deputy state oil inspector for the White Eagle refinery at Augusta on November 1, 1932. He was managing editor of Kansas Municipalities and Public Management from 1924 until 1928. He is the owner and editor of the Augusta Daily Gazette.

On September 12, 1931, Mr. Shore was married to Eunice Wallace of Larned, Kansas, at Great Bend. She was born in Iola, February 9, 1907, and is editor of The Harp, a national poetry magazine published in Augusta. She is the daughter of Leslie E. Wallace, editor of the Larned Tiller and Toiler, and Sara Johnson Wallace, his wife, now deceased. There is one son, Ralph Wallace, born November 4, 1932.

Among Mr. Shore’s professional organizations are the Kansas Press Association, the Kansas Editorial Association and the Southwestern Press Association. He is a member of the Kansas State and Augusta Chambers of Commerce, the Red Cross, The Kiwanis Club, the Elks and the Masons (Consistory, York Rite). His favorite sports are golf and equitation, and his hobby is the military.