Long a prominent citizen of Riley County and a successful business man of Manhattan, Delmar E. Deputy, in his capacity of private citizen and as a member of the firm of Deputy & Schellenbaum, publishers of the Manhattan Nationalist, had done much to advance the welfare of his city and county. He was born in Jennings County, Indiana, November 9, 1862, a son of Silvester F. and Jane (Fowler) Deputy, natives also of Jennings County, and descendants of old Virginia ancestors, and with his parents came to Kansas in 1878 and settled in Riley County, where the father became a prominent farmer and stockman and continued to make his home in the same community for more than thirty years, his death occurring at Riley, Kansas, in 1909, at the age of seventy-seven years. He was a stanch republican and a Christian. A contemporary, in speaking of Mr. Deputy, said: “Silvester F. Deputy was a man of strong force of character and was respected by all who knew him. No man ever lived who had a stricter regard for probity; he was strictly honest.”
Delmar E. Deputy was fifteen years of age when his father removed with the family to Kansas. He received his high school training in Manhattan and then took a course in a business college at Indianapolis, Indiana, in which school he was later employed as one of the staff of instructors. He had previously taught in the country schools of Riley, Kansas. After returning from Indianapolis he identified himself with the drug business. His experience in this connection was begun in association with Doctor Crans, at Leonardville, Kansas, and for fifteen years thereafter he continued to center his activities in the same field of endeavor, his last cstablishment being located at Manhattan. In 1892 he was induced to become the republican candidate for clerk of the District Court of Riley County, and was elected four consecutive times to this office, but continued his identity with the drug business, to which he again gave his entire attention after eight years of service as clerk of the District Court. In April, 1901, he was appointed by President McKinley to fill out an unexpired term as postmaster of Manhattan, and by subsequent appointments by Presidents McKinley. Roosevelt and Taft. was retained in that office for thirteen years. The length of his service alone gives evidence of the high quality of his work, and during his long incumbency of the office he made a record for efficiency and service development second to none in the state.
On June 1, 1914, Mr. Deputy and Edwin Sehellenbaum purchased the Manhattan Nationalist, a daily and weekly newspaper, which is the oldest newspaper of Riley County, having been established in 1866, and always published as the leading republican organ of the county. As a member of the firm of Deputy & Sebellenbaum, he had devoted his full time to the publication of the Nationalist since itspurchase in 1914, Mr. Deputy had always given unstinted support to the men and measures of the republican political party, to all civic and welfare betterment and is considered at all times true to principle and to friends, and bears high esteem for his public spirit and fairness to his fellowman. He was instrumental in the securing for Manhattan the splendid postoffice building, and was among the very first to advocate the good roads movement in Kansas. Fraterually, Mr. Deputy is a charter member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Lodge No. 1185, of Manhattan, is a member of the Toltecs at Topeka, and had been a Mason for thirtytwo years. His wife, Mrs. Cora M. Deputy, was born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, daughter of William C. and Armina D. (Longwell) Crissman, is an accomplished lady, and had been prominent socially and otherwise for several years. She had served as prosident of the Women’s Relief Corps at Manhattan, Kansas, also as president of the State Department of the Women’s Relief Corps of Kansas. She was instrumental in the purchase of the John Brown Battle Field by the Women’s Relief Corps of Kansas and was chairman of the committee at the dedication of this old battle ground as a state memorial park. She is an active worker of the Congregational Church, a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Order of the Eastern Star and the Toltecs, and most of all bears recognized reputation for looking after the sick and needy. Their children, Jay T. and B. Florene, are both married, the former living in California and the latter in Texas.