Warren S. Plummer, former county clerk of Pottawatomie County, is secretary, treasurer and manager of the Westmoreland Mercantile Company, the largest general merchandise house in business at the county seat. Mr. Plummer started life with an earnest purpose, and had steadily kept that in view and by industry and honorable dealings had attained a position where he is recognized as one of the leading men of his home county.
He is a native of Pottawatomie County, having been born near the present Village of Flush, then known as Myers Valley, on January 7, 1875. He is of old American stock, the Plummers having come from England and settled in Virginia in Colonial times. His father Hezekiah Plummer was one of the early settlers in Pottawatomie County. He was born near Chillicothe, Ohio, in February, 1826, and when a boy entered upon an apprenticeship at the cooper and wagon making trade. He became a skilled workman. He was reared and married near Chillicothe and from there moved to Indiana. In 1862 he volunteered his services in Company I of the Thirtieth, Indiana Infantry, but after six months of service was discharged on account of disability. He then went back to Chillicothe, Ohio, and lived there until 1868, which was the date of his coming to Pottawatomie County. He took up a homestead, developed it as a farm, and sold out in 1878 and removed to Morris County, where he bought a new farm. He was a successful farmer and finally retired into Council Grove in 1887, where he died in January, 1899. Hezekiah Plummer was a republican and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was almost a constant student of the Bible and few excelled him in thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. As an old soldier he was a member of Council Grove Post No. 7 of the Grand Army of the Republic. The maiden name of his wife was Elizabeth Culver. She was born near Bainbridge, Indiana, in April, 1833, and died at Council Grove, Kansas, in December, 1900. They were the parents of eleven children, four of whom died in infancy. Sylvester is a Texas farmer and stock raissr. William had a farm in Oklahoma. Alice, who died in California in 1912, first married Swen Johnson, a farmer, and her second husband, N. H. Howe, a farmer, is still living in California. Clara is the wife of M. S. Snodgrass, a farmer living near Diamond Springs in Chase County, Kansas. George is also a Chase County farmer. The sixth in age is Warren S. Elva is the wife of M. L. Barr, of Westmoreland, who for ten years dignified the office of Probate Judge of Pottawatomie County, and is now in the insurance and real estate business.
Warren S. Plummer was three years old when his parents removed to Morris County and he grew up on his father’s farm there, completing the eighth grade in the country school. When about twenty years of age he left school and began clerling in stores at Council Grove and also at Onaga. At the same time he took a keen interest in local affairs, and being a popular citisen he was elected in 1910 to the office of county clerk. He filled that office six years, three terms, and at the beginning of his official term he removed to the county sest of Westmoreland. On retiring from office in 1916 Mr. Plummer became manager of the Westmoreland Mercantile Company, a large and prosperous concern whose store is located on Main Street. It is an incorporated company with the following officers: S. R. Toothaker, president; Herman Zabel, vice president; and W. S. Plummer, secretary, treasurer and manager.
Mr. Plummer is a republican. He is the present city treasurer of Westmoreland. He is affiliated with Westmoreland Lodge No. 257, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and Topeka Consistory No. 1 of the Scottish Rite, is a member and treasurar of Westmoreland Lodge No. 252, Independent Order of Odd Fellows and a member of Onaga Camp No. 3917 of the Modern Woodmen of America.
Mr. Plummer owned a good home at Westmoreland where he had surrounded his family with every comfort. On January 17, 1906, at Onaga, he married Miss Mary Olive Middleton, daughter of John and Eliza (Kime) Middleton. Her mother is still living at Onaga and her father died there a retired farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Plummer have two children: Arland C., born September 17, 1906; and Elizabeth, born February 17, 1915.