Eugene Hipple is one of the enterprising young business men of Hutchinson, and is actively identified with the extensive grain and other business interests controlled by his father, Frank E. Hipple, one of Hutchinson’s business leaders for many years.
The Hipple family is of Holland-Dutch ancestry and settled in Pennsylvania during Colonial times. Eugene Hipple’s great-grandfather was George Hipple. He was born in York County, Pennsylvania, November 27, 1790, and was a farmer by occupation. In 1841, with wagon and team, he moved across the country to Eden, Delaware County, Ohio, and lived on his farm there until his death on December 16, 1876. He first married Elizabeth Bowen, who was born January 8, 1799, and died in Washington County, Pennsylvania, April 30, 1831. For his second wife he married Nancy Leonard, who was born April 17, 1807, and died September 18, 1845.
The grandfather of Eugene Hipple was Austin Hipple, who was born May 20, 1837, and was the pioneer of the family in Kansas. He came to this state in 1872 and soon homesteaded 160 acres in Butler County, where he followed farming until his death on September 27, 1879, at the age of forty-two years, four months and seven days. Austin Hipple married Elizabeth Caroline Fry, who was born September 24, 1840, and is now living, at the venerable age of seventy-seven, in Hutchinson.
Mr. Frank E. Hipple was born in Ohio April 8, 1861, and was eleven years of age when his parents came to Kansas. Their first home in this state was near Seneca, but a year later they removed to Butler County, and Frank Hipple grew up on the old homestead there. On growing to manhood he took up the grain business and had made that the central feature in his varied affairs ever since. He had been a factor in the business prosperity of Hutchinson since 1891, and his present offices are in the Rorabaugh-Wiley Building. He was president of the Hutchinson Board of Trade in 1916, is a director of the Four S Razor Manufacturing Company, is president of the Kansas-Tennessee Oil and Gas Company, and is general manager and director of the Liberal Elevator Company, president and general manager of the Hutchinson Terminal Elevator Company, and is a stockholder in the Hutchinson Building and Loan Association. As an extensive land owner he is in close touch with the farming interests of Kansas. One farm of 160 acres lies east of Hutchinson in Reno County, while he owned 1,280 acres in Western Kansas. Frank E. Hipple built a modern home in 1913 at 20 East Ninth Avenue. He is a republican in politics, a member of the Christian Church, and a prominent Mason, being affiliated with Reno Lodge No. 140, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Reno Chapter No. 30, Royal Arch Masons, Reno Commandery No. 26, Knights Templar, Hutchinson Council No. 13, Royal and Select Masters, Wichita Consistory No. 2 of the Scottish Rite, and he also belongs to Hutchinson Camp No. 566, Modern Woodmen of America, the United Commercial Travelers and the Hutchinson Commercial Club.
In Butler County Frank E. Hipple married Mary A. Johnston, who was born at Lafayette, Macon County, Tennessee, October 22, 1867. Their children are: Eugene; Floyd J., who is associated in the grain business with his father and older brother; Kemper E., who is with the Four S Razor Manufacturing Company at Hutchinson.
Mr. Eugene Hipple was born at Augusta, Kansas, August 10, 1888, but had lived in Hutchinson since he was three years of age. He graduated from the high school there in 1906 and then began the regular course of study in the Kansas University. He was midway through his senior year when, on account of his father’s ill health, he left school in 1910 and took up some of the responsibilities of the grain business at home. He is now assistant manager and director of the Liberal Elevator Company and is secretary and director of the Hutchinson Terminal Elevator Company. Mr. Hipple owned his home at 104 15th Avenue, East.
He had been quite active in democratic politics, and was a candidate for representative against Judge F. L. Martin. He is a member of the Christian Church, the Hutchinson Commercial Club, the Country Club, and is a prominent Mason. He is senior deacon of Reno Lodge No. 140, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, principal sojourner of Reno Chapter No. 34, Royal Arch Masons, Junior Warden of Reno Commandery No. 26, Knights Templar, belongs to Hutchinson Council No. 13, Royal and Select Masters, Wichita Consistory No. 2 of the Scottish Rite, and Midian Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Wichita. He also belongs to Hutchinson Lodge No. 453, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.