The successful contractor is not only a skilled mechanic but must also possess the qualifications of sound business judgment and above all a thorough integrity and honesty in carrying out every detail of his work. Those are the qualities at the basis of W. S. Mourning’s success as a contraetor of Wichita. While one of the younger men in the business in Kansas, he had a record of many contracts successfully carried out and his business is still growing.
He was born at Quincy, Illinois, May 22, 1883. In 1884 his parents moved to Northwestern Kansas, his father taking up a claim in Sherman County. Besides farming be was also a manufacturer of brick. He conducted a brick yard in Sherman County until 1895, and then continued in the same line of business at Lamar, Colorado.
While getting his edncation in the local schools W. S. Mourning learned the business of brick manufacture from his father and also acquired the trade of brick layer. For several years prior to coming to Wichita he followed brick contracting in various cities, and thus gained a broad knowledge of the business. Mr. Mourning had been a resident of Wichita since 1910. As a contractor his specialty is heavy construction and brick work. A number of handsome residences also attest his activity here, one of then being the Evans residence on Belmont Avenue. He was one of the contractors and superintendent of the brick construction of the Domestic Laundry.
November 1, 1911, he married. Miss Gertrude Ellen Abbott. a native of Chicago. Mrs. Mourning died May 20, 1915, leaving Mr. Mourning and two daughters. These daughters are: Lorena Ollengrace born September 11, 1912; and Sidney Abbott, born March 18, 1914.
Mr. Mourning is an accomplished musician, and is especially known as a singer, After leaving school he decided to take up music as a profession, and with that in view spent two or three years in the Denver College of Music, specializing in vocal and harmony. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Wichita.