Sadlier J. Hodgins. In the practical everyday business world few Topeka citizens have achieved better results and have succeeded in making their careers more effective in the face of obstacles and through constant and hard fighting than Sadlier J. Hodgins. Mr. Hodgins is now head of one of the large commercial establishments in Topeka and has been prominently identified with the business and civic life of that city for a number of years.
He was born in County Tipperary, Ireland, June 1, 1867. After the death of his mother in the old country the family emigrated to the United States in 1877 and came direct to Topeka, where his father William R. Hodgins followed farming and stock raising in Dover Township of Shawnee County. William R. Hodgins, who died in 1881, belonged to a very prominent family in Ireland, and while in the old country was a banker and employer of men. He and his wife had a large family of children, as follows: William H., now deceased; Georgina E., wife of Walter Richards of Topeka; Charles J., deceased; Lillie G., Mrs. George H. Chessman, of Pasadena, California; Hugh A., of Topeka; Richard F. of Topeka; Sadlier J.; Tottenham H. of Doylestown, Pennsylvania; J. Arthur of Topeka; and Fred H. of Kansas City.
Sadlier J. Hodgins has known no other home than Kansas since he was ten years of age. From the time he was eleven he had to depend upon his own efforts and if any man can be called self-made he deserves that title. When he was about sixteen years of age he found employment in the surveying department of the Santa Fe Railway, and is one among many successful Kansas men who had a part of their early experience with that great railway system. He was connected with the railroad work for about seven years. He was next appointed a carrier in the Topeka postoffice and for fifteen years was one of the popular postmen of the city.
Following that he made his experience count in a business way and for two years was salesman for the Topeka Paper Company. In 1907 he was elected register of deeds of Shawnee County, and by re-election filled that office with admirable efficiency for four years. During his first term in the office he organized the Central Paper Company, which subsequently bought the Topeka Paper Company and the two were consolidated under the name of the Central Topeka Paper Company. This is now one of the largest establishments of its kind in the State of Kansas, and Mr. Hodgins is president and treasurer.
Besides his participation in local politics and his service as register of deeds, Mr. Hodgins has constantly used his influence in behalf of the commercial and civic welfare of Topeka, and in 1912 was president of the Topeka Commercial Club. He is also a member of the Country Club, and in politics is a republican. He stands high in Masonic circles, being a past master of the Lodge, past high priest of the Chapter, is a Knight Templar York Rite Mason and a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite and also belongs to the Mystic Shrine.
In 1895 he married Jessie L. Burgess. Her father, Colonel James Burgess, was a prominent early pioneer of Kansas, served as a lieutenant colonel in the regiment of Indiana volunteers of which Benjamin Harrison was colonel, and he succeeded Harrison when the latter was made a brigadier general. Mr. and Mrs. Hodgins are members of the First Christian Church at Topeka.