Butler County Genealogy Trails Kansas John P. Winters Bio

BUTLER COUNTY'S EIGHTY YEARS BIOS

JOHN P. WINTERS

(Transcribed by Lori DeWinkler)

John P. Winters was an oil man, born and bred. He grew up in the Pennsylvania fields with the smell of crude in his nostrils and the sound of the chugging drill in his ears. It was a hard school but he reveled in it. Blessed with a body of unusual vigor and a disposition of always optimistic mien, he lived his happiest moments out among the rows of lofty derricks. He early learned to work with his hands and he possessed in great degree the practical knowledge of the fields. He had been all the way from roustabout to superintendent. He held numerous important positions and while it was his nature to carry them lightly, he did not shirk the heavy responsibilities they entailed or neglect them in any part. He drove himself at furious pace in his business; the day was never too stormy or the night too dark for him to go where duty called him. Withal he was friendly and happy and generous. He rollicked his way through life, he was open-handed and fair-spoken, and drew men to him by force of a rugged and winning personality. In every way he was typical of the fine characters that the oil development has brought to El Dorado and ingrained into its citizenship. This town that knew and cherished him for sixteen years will not cease to regret his untimely end. – September 27, 1932.