Tom White Flory, whose name is widely known over Kansas both as a newspaper editor and as former state hotel inspector, is now editor and owner of the Gridley Light. The Gridley Light had a good name in Kansas journalism, and is a strong and successfully conducted paper. Its editorials and pithy paragraphs are extensively printed in the state press. It is worthy of note that this is one of the chief Kansas weeklies which have a legitimate use for an office safe.
Mr. Flory was born at Longton, Kansas, February 11, 1885. His grandfather, Frank C. Flory, was born in Buffalo, New York, and was an officer in the United States Army before the Civil war. During the war he was on duty on a steamboat and suffered death from poisoning.
The parents of the Gridley editor are Fred C. and Alida (White) Flory. The former was born in Illinois December 23, 1858, came to Kansas with his widowed mother in 1870, and at that time, aged twelve, began learning the printer’s trade at Elk Falls. At the age of twenty he was editor of the Times at Longton, and on selling this paper in 1886 moved to Greeley County, Kansas, and was the first postmaster at Horace and also publisher of a local paper. Fred C. Flory in 1889 removed to Pueblo, Colorado, and for five years published a humorous monthly in that city. In 1893, returning to Kansas, he bought the Elk County Citizen at Howard, and is still publishing it. He and his wife were married in 1884. She was born in Illinois in 1865. Her father, Captain Charles White, also a native of that state, was captain in an Illinois regiment during the Civil war. Fred C. Flory and wife have seven children, five sons and two daughters, named Tom W., Floyd C., Mabel, Ruth, C. Allen, W. Ebbert and Frank.
Tom White Flory was practically reared in his father’s printing office at Howard. His first efforts at using a composing stick were made when he was ten years of age. He learned the printing and acquired the newspaper business while attending school. He graduated from the Howard High School in 1903 and for two years was a student in the Kansas State University.
In 1907 Mr. Flory bought the Independent at Burlington, Kansas, changing its name to the Burlington Democrat and publishing it three years. During 1913-14-15 he was Kansas state hotel inspector under Governor George H. Hodges. Then in 1915 he bought the Gridley Light.
Mr. Flory is city clerk of Gridley. He is a Royal Arch Mason and a member of the Presbyterian Church. At Burlington, Kansas, November 18, 1909, he married Miss Florence Hudson, daughter of George H. and Maud (Shurtliff) Hudson. Mrs. Flory was born at Ogden, Utah, November 8, 1892. They have one child, Dorus James, born at Leavenworth, Kansas, March 25, 1911.