Harold McGugin. The McGugin family came from Ireland to the United States many years ago, the first of the name in America appearing in Pennsylvania. Removal was subsequently made to Ohio and the family records do not definitely prove whether David McGugin, the grandfather of Harold McGugin, one of the able young attorneys of the Coffeyville bar, was born before or after the family exodus. He was a farmer and a merchant and died in Montgomery County, Kansas, prior to the birth of his grandson. He may thus be numbered with the pioneers of this section.
William McGugin, son of David and father of Harold McGugin, was born in 1861 in Knox County, Ohio, and there grew to manhood and worked as a farmer. From Ohio he moved to Ringgold County, Iowa, where he was married and engaged in farming there until 1885, when he came to Montgomery County, Kansas, and settled on a farm near Independence. On that farm he remained for three years and moved then to another in the neighborhood of Liberty where he remained for twenty years. He owns two farms in Liberty Township and two farms in Cherokee Township and still resides on one of the latter but is making preparations to remove to Coffeyville. In politics he is a republican and has always taken a good citizen’s interest in public matters. He was married to Caroline Bickel, who was born in Iowa in 1863, and they had two children born to them: Eldon D. and Harold, the former of whom is a traveling salesman for the John Deere Plow Company but resides at Coffeyville.
Harold McGugin was born November 22, 1891, in Montgomery County, Kansas, and in boyhood attended the local schools. He early decided on a professional career and after being graduated from the Coffeyville High School in 1912, directed his studies in preparation for the practice of law. For two and one-half years he attended the Washburn Law School at Topeka, Kansas, and in 1914 was admitted to the Oklahoma bar and in February, 1915, to the Kansas bar. He maintains offices at 818½ Walnut Street, Coffeyville, and has built up an excellent practice both civil and criminal. He has made so many friends and his ability is so generally recognized that his candidacy for the office of county attorney, on the republican ticket, meets with general approval. He has been quite active in the republican party and in 1914 was treasurer of the Young Men’s Republican Club of Kansas. He represents the younger element in public life, the alert, educated class, able to make his way professionally but with enough public spirit to desire responsibility in politics as a helpful factor in forwarding movements for the public welfare. Such desire surely is commendable and Mr. McGugin is admirably qualified. He is identified fraternally with two organizations, the Loyal Order of Moose and the Modern Woodmen of America.