Clay Co., KS AHGP-Portrait and Biographical Album of Washington, Clay and Riley Counties-Edward P. Caywood
Portrait and Biographical Album of Washington, Clay and Riley Counties Chapman Brothers, Chicago, 1890
EDWARD P. CAYWOOD, senior member of the firm of Caywood & Co.. is, with his junior partners, an extensive dealer in all kinds of grain, they being owners of the Clifton Steam Elevator, which has a capacity of 75,000 bushels and is doing a very large amount of business, shipping annually from 600 to 800 car loads. This elevator was located at Vining in 1878, and was removed to Clifton ten years later. The company handle the grain from a large territory. Mr. Caywood and his brother, Emery W., have done business together
for some time and have probably handled more grain than any other two men in the Republican Valley or in either the three counties of Washington, Clay and Riley.
The male members of the Caywood family have been experts in the grain business for many years and operated extensively at one period in and about the city of Indianapolis, Gifford. St. Joseph, Ogden, Champaign and Urbana. They began buying as early as 1870 and were very successful. The Caywood Bros., with whom we have to deal, are both natives of Fleming County, Ky., Edward P., born in 1844 and Emery W. in 1859. The subject of this sketch was reared and educated in his native county, living there until attaining his majority, and for some time prior to this being engaged as a teacher. When going to Cincinnati, he employed himself in various capacities for R. M. Bishop & Co., a large wholesale house and acquired an excellent knowledge of general business methods. After three years thus occupied, he began buying grain for different companies at different points in Ohio and New York State and in 1871 embarked in business on his own account.
Mr. Caywood was married in his native State, Kentucky, Sept. 30, 1860, to Miss Susan Emma Power. This lady was bom in Mason County. Ky., and spent her childhood and youth there and in Fleming County, making her home with her parents until her marriage. Of this union there have been born seven children, four of whom are deceased. Blanche M. died when eighteen months old; Benjamin M. died in infancy; Edward P. Jr., at the age of six years was accidentally killed. having an iron rod thrown at him by another boy while playing which struck him in the head. Lorenzo died when eight months old. The survivors are Mary L., Carroll H. and Roff P. Mr. Caywood, politically, is a member of the Democratic party. He has served as a member of the City Council in Clifton and as a member of the School Board. He does not mix very much in politics although keeping himself well posted therein, preferring to give his time to his business affairs.
The father of our subject was Mason Caywood, a native of Mt. Sterling. Ky., and whose parents were natives of Hagerstown and Baltimore. Md. The paternal grandfather, Thomas Caywood, married a Maryland lady, Miss Marsteller, who was related to George Washington by marriage. They removed to Kentucky early in the present century and spent their last years on a farm in Fleming County, dying when quite aged. They first settled among the pioneers of Montgomery County when the country was inhabited chiefly by Indians and wild animals. Grandfather Caywood for a number of years kept a public house in Fleming County, which was the stopping place for most of the travelers through that State.
Mason Caywood was married in Kentucky to Miss Mary Roff and afterward they settled in Fleming County on a farm. Thence they came to Kansas in 1878, and Mason Caywood departed this life Dec. 25, 1887, at the age of seventy-two years, having been born Aug. 20, 1815. He was a hale and hearty old gentleman to the last as the result of correct habits and a temperate life. He was successful financially, and in his religious belief was a Baptist. Politically, he was a Democrat of decided views. The wife and mother is still living in Vining, Kan., with her sons, being sixty-eight years old; she is also a Baptist. Only five of the ten children comprising the parental family are living, namely: Edward P., John L., and Emery W., the latter being a partner in the grain trade; the second member of the firm is married to Miss Delia Colt; Ernest, cashier of the Lombard Investment Company at St. Paul; and William T., bookkeeper and clerk for his brothers, the grain dealers. William T. was graduated from the Kansas State Medical University, in June 1889.
Mrs. Edward Caywood's uncle, John C. Power, is the custodian of the Lincoln monument at Springfield, Ill.