William Stout, president of the Bank of McLouth, is an Englishman, with a family record going back for many generations in the County of Lincoln. However, Mr. Stout had been identified with Kansas for over forty-five years, and after succeeding as a farmer he entered banking at McLouth and had been actively identified with the bank of that city for many years.
Mr. Stout was born in the County of Lincoln, England, May 30, 1836, and can now contemplate life and affairs from the height of four score years. His father, Thomas Stout, was born in Lincoln County. England, in 1803, and died at Donington in the same county in 1855. His life’s efforts were bestowed upon agriculture. He was a member and local preacher of the Wesleyan Methodist Church. The maiden name of his wife was Mary Tunnard, who was born in Lincoln County the same year and died there also in the same year as her husband. Thomas Stout had been previously married to Miss Snowdall, but none of the children of that union are still living. By his second wife there were the following children: Mary A., who lives at Douington, England, widow of Joseph Headland, who was a farmer; Jacob, living retired in Leiceester, England; William; Sarah, who died at Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, England, wife of Charles Thompson, a retired merchant at Melton Mowbray; Thomas, a retired farmer now living at McLouth; a daughter that died in early childhood; John, who had some large peach orchards and is an extensive fruit grower at South Haven, Michigan.
Mr. William Stout received his early training in the schools at Donington, England, and his early business experience were in the shipping trade at Boston, England. In 1871 he left his native land and came to the United States, and in the same year came to Leavenworth, Kansas, and bought a farm four miles north of McLouth. Though previously unacquainted with agricultural conditions in the United States, he was not long in adapting himself to these conditions and had a successful career as a farmer. The farm was his home until 1888, when he removed to McLouth and organized the Bank of McLouth. He acted as its vice president and responsible official until 1916, when he was elected president. The other officers are: H. H. Kimmel, vice president; Eric C. Steeper, cashier; and Harold W. Steeper, assistant cashier. The bank had a capital of $25,000, and its resources are well secured by this and a surplus of $12,500. The bank building is on Union Street in McLouth.
This Bank is a member of the Kansas State Bankers Association. Since he began voting as an American citizen Mr. Stout had steadily supported the republican ticket. He is a member and treasurer of the local church of the United Brethren. Besides his banking interests he owned his home at the corner of Union and Gertrude streets and a business building on Union Street.
In 1861, at Boston, England, Mr. Stout married Miss Sarah A. Stout, who came with him to America and died at Leavenworth in 1876. She was the mother of four children: William T., a hardware and stove merchant at Lawrence, Kansas: Annie M., who lives at McLouth, widow of C. H. Steoper, formerly cashier of the Bank of McLouth; Arthur T., a farmer whose place is thirty miles south of Spokane, Washington; and Gertrude M., still at home with her father. In 1881, in Jefferson County, Kansas, Mr. Stout married Miss Alice M. Steeper, daughter of Jabez and Mary A. (Tinsley) Steeper. Her mother is now living near Spokane, Washington. Her father, a farmer, is deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Stout have one daughter, Alberta M., now the wife of Walter Bradford, a business man at McLouth.