Dickinson Co., KS AHGP-Portrait and Biographical Album of Dickinson, Saline, McPherson and Marion Counties-Monroe Davis Herington
Portrait and Biographical Album of Dickinson, Saline, McPherson and Marion Counties Chapman Brothers, Chicago, 1893
MONROE DAVIS HERINGTON the founder
of the city of Herington, Kan., was born
in Lenawee County, Mich., April 23, 1844,
and is a son of David Herington. He removed
to Iowa when ten years of age, and afterward
spent thirteen years in Linn County, Mo. At
the close of the war he removed to Bloomington,
Ill., and in 1869 located on a farm. He afterward
became proprietor of four meat-markets, and on
selling out came to Kansas with about $16,000,
which he invested in land. He was married June
17, 1880, to Mrs. Jane Parker, a widow, who by
her first marriage had a daughter, Brucy. Mr. Herington
had three children by a former marriage: Diana
H., Alice and Monroe Davis.
On the 4th of March, 1881, Mr. Herington came
to his present home and purchased two thousand
acres of land at from $1.35 to $4 per acre. He also
purchased fourteen hundred acres elsewhere,
trading city property in Bloomington, Ill., for
his land. He then embarked in stock-raising,
buying four hundred head of cattle, and he now
handles about seven hundred head of cattle annually.
In 1882 he purchased thirty-one thousand
acres of land at $2.30 per acre in Dickinson and
Morris Counties, mortgaging them for one-fourth
the amount, but in 1884 and 1885 he sold at from
$10 to $20 per acre, thus securing a handsome
profit.
In 1883, Mr. Herington secured thirty thousand
acres at $1.97 per acre, and at the expiration of
sixty days had disposed of twenty thousand acres.
A company was organized in Staunton, Va., and
sent to the West a committee which purchased that
amount at $5 per acre. This land was located in
Stafford County, Kan., south of Great Bend. On the
thirty thousand acres an organized company made
settlements and then sold to actual settlers. No
railroad had been built to this part of the county
at that time, but in 1886 the Missouri Pacific was
built. Mr. Herington gave the road a four-mile
right of way, eighty-one lots, and $1,000 in cash,
and the township gave $6,000 in bonds. In 1887,
the Rock Island Road was built, and to it Mr.
Herington gave a half-interest in twelve hundred
lots at this place, a half-interest in the same number
in Latimer, the deed to seventy-one acres at Herington,
where the depot shops now stand, and the
right of way through the county from the main
line.
In the city which bears his name Mr. Herington
platted forty acres of land before any railroad was
built, and in the early days gave lots to settlers
who would locate there. There were two hundred
and fifty residents before the railroad was constructed,
and now the population amounts to about
two thousand. He built and started a bank, and
in 1887 built a hotel and opera house at a cost of
$90,000. He has placed about $140,000 worth of
buildings in the city. Every improvement has
been aided by and promoted through his earnest
efforts, and every house in the place is now occupied.
The town is the division point for four
branches of the Rock Island Railroad, running out
in every direction. A round-house and repair shops
have been built, and about ten miles of sidetracks.
There is also a fine stone passenger depot. The
city owns an electric-light plant, having both the
arc and incandescent lights, and water-works have
also been built. In 1884, Mr. Herington sold enough
land to clear 840,000, after paying a commission
of 85,000, and he sold six hundred and eighty
acres of land to M. R. Mosher, two miles south of
Herington, to be converted into a fruit farm.
In politics Mr. Herington is a stalwart Republican,
and in 1887 was elected the first Mayor of the
city. It is just such a man as our subject who successfully
founds a city. He is sagacious and farsighted,
possesses excellent business ability, is enterprising
and progressive, methodical and reliable.
He has suffered much loss, especially through assisting
all who wished to establish business in Herington.
He would put up a building for that purpose,
back them in purchasing stock, and if the
parties were without experience and would make
injudicious investments and ultimately lose, the
loss would come upon Mr. Herington. He has recently
paid $60,000 in such security debts, but the
enterprise and perseverance which have characterized
his life will not fail him now. He is an enthusiastic,
earnest worker, and Herington may well be
proud of its honored founder. In manner he is a
pleasant, genial man, and no one in Dickinson
County has more friends than he.
(c) 2009 Sheryl McClure for Dickinson County KS AHGP