Robert H. Ramsey. During the past thirty-five years no name had been more closely identified with the ranching and stock raising interests of Butler County than that of Ramsey. Robert H. Ramsey is a son of A. C. Ramsey, who was the pioneer of the family in the cattle industry. Robert Ramsey himself had handled cattle and ranching as a conspicuous interest of his career, but is also identified with the business community of El Dorado.
He was born in Bellefontaine, Ohio, November 18, 1881. Albert C. Ramsey, his father, was born in Coshocton County, Ohio, June 7, 1837, one of a large family of children. His parents were Scotch-Irish and natives of the north of Ireland and were people of moderate financial circumstances. Albert C. Ramsey was only a boy when his father died, and he removed with his widowed mother to Guernsey County, Ohio. For one year in that section he was employed by a fur trader. Though his salary was only $100 a year he managed to save $80 of this amount. More than that, as a result of his keen and close habits of observation he did not allow a single detail of the fur business to escape him. With his brother he then opened a general merchandise store at Belle Center, Ohio, and an important part of their trade was furs. It was his duty to ride through the wilderness of Western Ohio and Eastern Indiana buying furs from the hunters and trappers, and establishing agencies. For fifteen years he did a large and profitable business, leaving his brother to look after the personal management of the store. They also bought and sold grain, feed, wool, etc.
Selling his interests in Ohio in 1883 and with several thousand dollars of profits Albert C. Ramsey came west and sought the larger possibilities in Kansas. In Butler County with four associates he organized the Buckeye Land & Cattle Company. This company acquired something like 7,000 acres of land, the greater part in Lincoln Township, but also extending into Sycamore and Chelsea townships. The land cost from $3 to $8 an acre. The company was organized primarily to pasture Texas cattle. The cattle were brought up from Texas and were held on the pastures of Kansas until fitted for market, and the cost of pasturage ranged from $1.25 to $2 per head for the season, beginning about the middle of April and ending in the middle of October. At first the company did a large and profitable business. Hard times came upon the cattle industry and other changes made it advisable for the discontinuation of the company as an organized unit. After that Mr. Ramsey operated in cattle alone, and though he had some misfortunes he was on the whole prospered and is properly considered one of the highly successful men of Butler County. He is now retired from business and he divided much of his property among his sons, who are still conducting the stock business on a large scale. The Ramsey ranch consists of twelve sections in Lincoln Township and is one of the largest undivided ranches still remaining in Butler County. Albert C. Ramsey married Miss Margaret Clark, a native of Ohio, and they were the parents of seven children, five sons and two daughters.
Robert H. Ramsey was two years of age when his father came out to Butler County, but much of his early life was spent in Kansas City, Missouri, where he attended public schools. For 1½ years he was also a student in the public schools of St. Joseph, Missouri, and at the age of sixteen he entered the private school conducted by Miss Barstow, which had since become a famous institution of learning in Kansas City.
His education was declared completed at the age of nineteen, and Mr. Ramsey then took up the serious duties of life. At first he worked at farming in Butler County, and since 1890 had been closely identified with the cattle business, part of the time in association with his father and part of the time alone. He is one of the largest cattle feeders in the county.
In the spring of 1907 he went to Morrow, Oklahoma, where he was engaged in farming and stock raising for four years. Selling the farm there in 1912 he had since that time lived in El Dorado, conducting a farm and also an automobile business.
In 1916 Mr. Ramsey engaged in the automobile business and became a gasoline distributor for the El Dorado Refining Company. He had the agency for the Hupmobile. He owned a large ranch of 960 acres ten miles northeast of El Dorado in Butler County and his home is in El Dorado.
Politically he is a republican. While living in the country he served on the school board in Chelsea Township. Mr. Ramsey is affiliated with Patmos Lodge No. 97, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, El Dorado Chapter No. 35, Royal Arch Masons, El Dorado Commandery No. 19, Knights Templar, Wichita Consistory No. 2 of the Scottish Rite, and Midian Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Wichita.
On December 24, 1906, at El Dorado, he married Miss Mary Virginia Holderman. Mrs. Ramsey is the daughter of A. J. Holderman, a prominent Butler County citizen elsewhere referred to in this publication.