Arthur D. Catlin, superintendent of the city schools of Yates Center, is a graduate of Baker University, and began teaching before he reached his majority. He is largely self educated, a man of broad and liberal ideas and of high standards of citizenship, and is doing much to increase the efficiency and usefulness of the city school system at Yates Center.
Mr. Catlin was born at Hopkins in Northwest Missouri December 26, 1882, and spent his boyhood years there. The Catlins came out of England, and Mr. Catlin is probably descended from a branch of the family which established itself in New York in colonial days. From the East they came west into Ohio and later to Indiana. The Catlins were among the very earliest settlers in Western Indiana. Mr. Catlin’s grandfather, William Catlin, was born in Indiana in 1830, spent his life as a farmer, and died in Parke County of that state in 1863. His wife, a Miss Stewart, was also a native of Indiana and died in Parke County. They had three children. One of them died in infancy, a daughter grew up and married but is now deceased, and the only surviving son was Charles S. Catlin, who is now a resident at Olathe, Kansas.
Charles S. Catlin was born in Parke County, Indiana, in 1860, grew up and married there, in 1881 removed to Hopkins, Missouri, and in 1904 came to Olathe, Kansas. He had spent his career as a farmer and is still looking after his extensive interests at Olathe. He is a republican and a member of the official board of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Charles S. Catlin married Emma B. Roberds, who was born in Parke County, Indiana, in 1862. Arthur D. was the first of four children. Myrta died when nineteen years of age, William is a farmer at Olathe, Kansas, and Lawrence is a teacher in the high school at Neodesha, Kansas.
The Town of Hopkins, where Mr. Catlin was born, is in Nodaway County, Missouri. After leaving the public schools of Hopkins, he taught three years in that county, and was twenty-two years of age when he came with his parents to Kansas in 1904. In 1905 he completed the course in the Academy of Baker University, and then followed this with the regular college work of Baker University, where he was graduated A. B. in 1909. For two years following he was principal of the schools at Marysville, Kansas, and then returned to Baker University and put in a year as instructor and also pursued studies leading up to the degree Master of Arts, which he received in 1912. In the fall of that year Mr. Catlin became superintendent of schools at Irving, Kansas, but later accepted the more responsible position he now holds. Yates Center is an independent school district, had two schoolhouses, and there are twenty-two teachers under the supervision of Mr. Catlin. The enrollment of scholars is 625.
Mr. Catlin is a member of the Southeastern Kansas and the Kansas State Teachers associations and belongs to the Zeta Chi Greek letter fraternity. He is also a member of Marysville Camp of the Modern Woodmen of America and of Ivanhoe Lodge No. 94, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Marysville. He is serving as a steward in the Methodist Episcopal Church at Yates Center, and in matters of politics exercises his independent judgment. In August, 1912, at McPherson, Kansas, he married Miss Ruth Bukey, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. S. Bukey. Her mother is now deceased, and her father is cashier of the McPherson Bank. Mr. and Mrs. Catlin have one child, Marjorie, born February 21, 1916.