Samuel Baughman. In the career of Samuel Baughman, now one of the leading real estate and insurance men of Chanute, there are found those qualities which make for success in business life. Industry, perseverance, a wise direction of talents and a quick grasp of opportunities have always characterized his actions, and throughout his life he has governed his operations by principles of fair dealing, so that his reputation in business matters is one which places him in an enviable position. He has been interested in a number of lines of endeavor, and in each has made a success, and the same statement applies to his management of the affairs of several public offices in which he has served.
Samuel Baughman was born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, January 6, 1842, and is a son of Peter C. and Barbara (Heck) Baughman. He belongs to a family which came from Hessen-Castle, Germany, in 1746 and located near the City of Philadelphia, from whence it removed to the western part of Pennsylvania in 1764. Peter C. Baughman was born in 1807, in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, and was there reared and educated and for many years was engaged in agricultural pursuits. In 1850 he removed to Illinois, and engaged in farming in the vicinity of Rock Island, and in 1874 made his way to Altoona, Wilson County, Kansas, where he continued his agricultural operations. Later he moved on to Neosho County, and in the evening of life retired from active pursuits and took up his residence at Chanute, where his death occurred in 1895. Mr. Baughman was an industrious and energetic man, a skilled agriculturist who readily became conversant with conditions in the various communities in which he carried on his operations and a citizen who assisted his home vicinity’s interests to grow and develop. He was a republican, although not active as a politician or seeker for personal preferment, and was a strong member of the United Brethren Church, the faith of which he brought into his every-day life. Mr. Baughman married Miss Barbara Heck, who was born in 1807, in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, and there reared and educated, and died at Shaw, Neosho County, Kansas in 1889. Mr. and Mrs. Baughman were the parents of the following children: Elizabeth who died at Moline, Illinois, in 1910, as the wife of the late Henry Truxell, who was a mechanic; Daniel, who came to Kansas in 1874, became a farmer and died in Wilson County in 1881; J. W., who came as a pioneer farmer to Kansas in 1869, and now a retired resident of Chanute; Margaret, who is the widow of Adam Fries, a carpenter and mechanic of Moline, Illinois; Catherine, who died in Wilson County, Kansas, in 1906, as the wife of the late Aaron Gamble, a farmer; Samuel; and Lydia, who married first George Pearce, a farmer, now deceased, and is now the wife of W. A. Golden, a retired mechanic of Moline, Illinois.
Samuel Baughman was educated in the graded schools of Rock Island and the high school at Moline, Illinois, and was nineteen years of age when he answered the call of his country and enlisted in Company C, Fourteenth Regiment, Missouri Volunteer Infantry. Later he veteranized in the Sixty-sixth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, his service extending from his first enlistment, in September, 1861, until his final muster out, in June, 1865. During this time he participated in numerous battles, including Fort Donelson, Shiloh and both Corinths. He was with General Sherman at Missionary Ridge and Resaca, all the battles that took place in the great march to the sea, and Atlanta, and in North Carolina, during Sherman’s campaign in that state, was at one time taken prisoner by the enemy, but managed to make his escape. His record was an excellent one, both for bravery and faithful performance of duty, and he returned to his home a seasoned soldier and better man, steadied by the stern discipline of the army and with a better understanding of life’s responsibilities.
After a short stay at his home at Moline, Mr. Baughman went to Davenport, Iowa, where he attended Bryant & Stratton’s Commercial College, and shortly after completing his course in that school engaged in the butchering business at Milan, Illinois. This he conducted until 1874, when he came to Wilson County, Kansas, and began farming in the vicinity of Altoona, a vocation to which he devoted six years. In 1880 he was elected sheriff of Wilson County and served in that capacity for two terms. When he retired from that office Mr. Baughman built the Gold Dust Hotel, at Fredonia, Kansas, and continued as the proprietor of that popular caravansery until 1893, when he traded the establishment for a large tract of land in Dent County, Missouri, and again took up farming as his vocation. After two years, however, he disposed of this land and came to Chanute, where he again took up his first business, that of butchering, and continued to be engaged therein for six months. Following this, he embarked in a wholesale bakery and ice cream business, with his son, Walter S., and continued therein for seven years, and was then elected police judge of Chanute and acted in that capacity four years. Since that time he has devoted his attention and talents to the real estate and insurance business, in which he has met with unqualified success, his offices being at No. 113½ West Main Street. Mr. Baughman handles much Chanute and Neosho County land, residential, business and farming, and owns his own residence at No. 711 South Highland Avenue, and dwellings at No. 110 South Steuben Avenue and 101 South Lafayette Avenue. He has an excellent knowledge of realty values, and in the insurance line is the representative of all the large and reliable companies.
Mr. Baughman is a republican. In the offices to which he has been elected he has shown a conscientious desire to discharge his duties faithfully, and his public record is as clean and creditable as those which he established as a soldier, a business man and a citizen. With his family he belongs to the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Baughman is widely known in fraternal circles, having joined the Masonic fraternity more than a half century ago, at Corinth, Missouri, while in the Union army, at which time he was given a traveling charter. He now belongs to Cedar Lodge No. 103, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Chanute; Chanute Chapter No. 21, Royal Arch Masons; Chanute Commandery No. 44, Knight Templars; Mirza Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Noble Mystic Shrine, at Pittsburg, Kansas; and the Council at Iola, Kansas. He is a member of Chanute Post No. 129, Grand Army of the Republic, of which he is past commander, and is now one of the state officers in the council of administration of the State Department of the Grand Army of the Republic.
Judge Baughman was married in 1868, at Moline, Illinois, to Miss Lenora F. Kidder, daughter of Nelson and Marinda (Curtis) Kidder, both deceased, Mr. Kidder having been a mechanic. Mrs. Baughman, who was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and a lady of many graces and accomplishments, died at Chanute in 1912. Judge and Mrs. Baughman were the parents of the following children: Nellie Z., who married Charles S. Reed, for twelve years a judge of the Court of Common Pleas, at Sandusky, Ohio, who resigned from the bench to form the leading law firm of Reed & Eichelberger, at Cleveland, Ohio; Walter S., who was formerly engaged in business with his father at Chanute, but now engaged in farming four miles north of Chanute; Ernest, who died at the age of three years; Mabel, who died when 4½ years of age; and Elsie B., who is the wife of B. B. Blackburn, of 711 South Highland Avenue, Chanute, a locomotive engineer in the employ of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad. Both Mrs. Reed and Mrs. Blackburn are members of the Daughters of the American Revolution and were delegates to the national convention of that organization held at Washington, District of Columbia, in 1915. Mrs. Reed is prominent as a club woman and speaker and has gained national prominence. She was Grand Ruth of the state lodge of the Order of the Eastern Star, and was a member of the party which accompanied Charles Evans Hughes in his trip through Ohio, during his political campaign.