F. A. Cassady is one of the most successful business men of his age in the State of Kansas. He is proprietor of one of the largest general stores at Neosho Rapids and is also vice president of the Neosho Rapids State Bank. He had reached this position in business circles before attaining his twenty-second year.
He was born in Graysville, Missouri, September 24, 1894. His grandfather was a native of County Londonderry, Ireland, and in the old country spelled his name William O’Cassady but dropped the first syllable when he came to the United States. He lived a time in New Jersey and from there brought his family to Missouri, where he spent his active career in Graysville.
W. O. Cassady, father of the Neosho Rapids merchant, was born in Missouri in 1861, and for a number of years lived at Graysville and had been an active merchant for the past thirty-four years, his business interests having taken him to a number of different points. In 1900 he moved to Glencoe, Oklahoma, in 1903 to Severy, Kansas, in 1904 to Latham, Kansas, in 1905 to Exline, Iowa, in 1906 to Unionville, Missouri, in 1907 to Harvard, Iowa, in 1909 to Jasper, Missouri, in 1910 to Lindsborg, Kansas, and shortly afterwards to Hartford, Kansas, where he now resided. He had an interest in the store at Neosho Rapids and also owned a fine farm of 137 acres situated just southeast of Hartford. Politically he is identified with the prohibition party and is a member of the United Brethren Church. W. O. Cassady married Estella Geeslim, who was born in Iowa in 1872. They are the parents of nine children: Maude, wife of R. T. Spriggs, a traveling salesman with home at Lindsborg, Kansas; F. A. Cassady; Blanche, who assists her brother in managing the store at Neosho Rapids; Jennie, a senior in the high school at Hartford; Vashti, Wilbur, Octa and Fay, all of whom are in the public schools at Hartford; and Arvid, who is the baby of the family.
F. A. Cassady spent his boyhood in various towns where his father had his business interests, and attended the public schools until eighteen years of age. In 1913 he graduated from the Hartford High School, but in the meantime had taught several terms in the schools of Burlington, Kansas. After graduating from high school he spent one year in a wholesale dry goods house in Kansas City, Missouri, and in August, 1914, came to Neosho Rapids and had since conducted one of the principal stores of the town. He also gives much of his attention to the Neosho Rapids State Bank, of which he is vice president. Mr. Cassady is a republican, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and is affiliated with Camp 1734 Modern Woodmen of America, at Neosho Rapids.