Sheridan M. Dick. By choosing a line of activity and sticking to it closely for many years Sheridan M. Dick has attained an enviable position in business affairs. He is now foreman of the Baldwin Shirt Factory at Parsons. This industry is probably the largest of its kind in the State of Kansas.
Mr. Dick was born in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, May 10, 1866. He is of Irish descent, his Grandfather William Dick having been born in Ireland and having come to the United States when a young man. He spent his life as a farmer in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, where he died in 1870. The father of S. M. Dick was John W. Dick, who was born in 1819, also in Indiana County, Pennsylvania. He lived there the life of a farmer, and though quite an old man at the time and past military age he gave three years of faithful service to the Union army during the Civil war. In 1884 he moved out to Kansas, farmed in Douglas County near Lawrence, and was still a resident there when his death occurred. He died in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, in 1907 while on a visit to the scenes of his birthplace. He was an old school republican and a member of the Presbyterian Church. John W. Dick married Isabelle Sleppy, who was born March 4, 1833, in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, and died at lawrence, Kansas, in 1905. Their children are: Isaac, a rancher at Tulare, California; James N., who was for many years with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and died at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in 1912; Abram, a granite cutter living at Grand Rapids, Michigan; Mrs. Lizzie Bryan, who lives in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, a widow; William Lincoln, a railroad man at Grand Rapids, Michigan; John, a farmer in Indiana County, Pennsylvania; Grant, who died at Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1915, and was also a marble and granite cutter; Sheridan M., who is the eighth in order of birth; Harry, who is connected with the Cambria Iron Company at Johnstown, Pennsylvania; Chalmers, who was an employe of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and died at the time of the great Johnstown flood from the effects of exposure while performing rescue work; Mrs. Maggie Grumbling, of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, the wife of a contractor and builder; Kate Rosa, wife of an employe of the Pennsylvania Railroad, their home being near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; Mattie, wife of Rolla Ferris, a farmer in Chautauqua County, Kansas. As will be seen all the members of the family have filled substantial places in the world and have given a worthy account of themselves.
S. M. Dick received his early education and training in the public schools of Indiana County, Pennsylvania. The first twenty years of his life he spent on his father’s farm, and then came west and for two years was employed in a grocery store at Lawrence, Kansas. After that business experience he took up his real work in the world. Entering the shirt manufacturing business with the firm of Wilder Brothers at Lawrence, he learned the trade of shirt cutter, and spent seventeen and a half years with that concern. During the last two years he was foreman, and in July, 1907, was called from Lawrence to Parsons to take a similar position in the manufacturing department of the Baldwin Shirt Factory. This is a well known company, and its president is E. B. Stevens and the manager is George B. Karr. The Parsons plant, located at 2400 Broadway, makes only high grade shirts, night shirts and pajamas, and the market for the output is found in twelve states. Fifteen traveling representatives are kept on the road, and there are forty-five employes at Parsons. The factory over which Mr. Dick has active supervision has a capacity of 1,200 shirts per week.
Mr. Dick is a member of the Parsons Chamber of Commerce, is a republican of the progressive type, and is affiliated with Lodge No. 94 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Parsons, Lodge No. 7 of the Ancient Order of United Workmen at Lawrence, and Camp No. 14 of the Woodmen of the World at Parsons. He owns a comfortable home at 2609 Belmont Avenue in Parsons.
In 1887 at Lawrence Mr. Dick married Miss Sophia Nelson, daughter of John and Sophia Nelson, both of whom are now deceased. Her father was a cabinetmaker. To their marriage have been born six children: Ralph, a shirt cutter in the Baldwin shirt factory at Parsons; Phillip, who is a moulder by trade and lives at Kansas City, Missouri; Frank, a shirt cutter in the Baldwin shirt factory; Fay, who graduated from the Parsons High School in 1916; Ella, a junior in the high school; and Teddy, the youngest of the family.