Richard M. Kleinhans is a veteran railroad man, having been in the active service more than twenty years. He started in his native State of Michigan, worked through various grades of promotion with the Lake Shore Branch of the New York Central lines, and finally came to the Southwest in the employ of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas. He is now car accountant for that road with headquarters at Parsons.
Born in Detroit, Michigan, September 8, 1877, he is a son of George and Cecelia (Hunt) Kleinhans. His father was born in Pennsylvania in 1813, moved from that state to Ohio, and from there to Michigan. He was a wholesale butcher, a business to which he devoted the best years of his life, and he died at Detroit in 1901. Politically he was a democrat, and was an upright Christian man. His wife was born in Ohio and died in Detroit.
Reared and educated in Detroit, Rlchard M. Kleinhans after graduating from the Detroit High School in 1893 entered the employ of the Lake Shore Railroad. He was with that company one year and then spent two years with the Michigan Central, following which he returned to the Lake Shore and was continuously in its service for seventeen years. Mr. Kleinhans has always been noted as a faithful worker and early gained the confidence of his superior officials by his diligence and keen and active method of transacting every work entrusted to him. He began with the Lake Shore as car checker was promoted to car distributor, then to traveling car agent, then to chief car agent, and finally to inspector of transportation. In 1912 Mr. Kleinhans removed to Denison, Texas, as inspector of transportation for the Missouri, Kansas & Texas, and in November of the same year was appointed car accountant. In the discharge of those duties he moved his headquarters on May 26, 1915, to Parsons. His offices are in the General Office Building at Parsons. Mr. Kleinhans is very popular among railway men generally and all admired the pluck and efficiency which have brought him various promotions from time to time.
Politically he is independent, and retains his affiliation with Detroit Lodge No. 34 of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Mr. Kleinhans comes of a family of German origin, but his forbears have been in America for a number of generations. Their first place of settlement was in Pennsylvania. On August 29, 1906, Mr. Kleinhans married Miss Edith Whiteman, a daughter of Charles Whiteman. To their marriage have been born four children: Dorothy, born June 20, 1907; Harry, born February 8, 1909; Alma, born January 10, 1911; and Edith, born November 5, 1913.