Wyandotte County Biographies
"Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas--Historical and Biographical"
Goodspeed Publishing Co., Chicago, 1890
Nicholas McAlpine. Personally, and in every private relation and
duty of life, too much praise can not be said of Mr. McAlpine, for he is
liberal, generous, high-minded, the soul of true honor and unbounded
greatness of heart. He is one of Kansas City's most prominent and influential business men, and has always proved himself thoroughly public-spirited. He was born near Belfast, in County Down, Ireland, April 5,
1835, being a son of David and Mary Ann (Campbell) McAlpine, both
of whom lived and died in the "Emerald Isle." Nicholas remained
in his native land until he was seventeen years of age, receiving a good
English education, but at that age determined to seek his fortune in
the New World, and his first experience in America was in the city
of Philadelphia, Penn. He soon after went to Pittsburgh, where his
uncle, John McAlpine, resided and there he secured the position of
messenger boy in a broker's office. At the end of one year he became
an employee of the Pittsburgh Trust Company, and owing to the friendship and aid given to him by John D. Scully, the cashier, he was made
thoroughly conversant with the general routine of banking. He remained with that firm two years, then spent one year as discount clerk
in the Exchange Bank of Pittsburgh, and in 1857, upon the advice of
his uncle, who had come to Kansas and located at Wyandotte the previous year, he was induced to come here also. After one year spent in
clerking in his uncle's storage and commission house, the following
three years were spent in saw and grist milling, as the partner of B.
Washington. In 1861, thinking to better himself, he sold out his
interest in this mill and returned to Pittsburgh, Penn., where his old
friend, John D. Scully, gave him a situation in the First National
Bank as assistant teller, a position he tilled with success for three
years. In 1865 he again came to Wyandotte County, Kas., and here
he has since made his home. During a part of 1865 he was freight
agent for the old Kansas Pacific Railroad, and during the following
year he was a member of the firm of Killin, Parks & Co., railroad contractors, who built a portion of the central branch of the Union Pacific
Railroad, and also a portion of the Missouri Pacific Railroad between
Kansas City and Leavenworth. He was married in June, 1866, to
Miss Maria Walker, a native of Wyandotte, Kas., and a daughter of
Joel Walker. During part of the year 1867 he was employed as a
clerk for the firm of Chick, Browne, Manzanares & Co., who were extensively engaged in the overland Mexican trade. In the fall of 1867
Mr. McAlpine was elected treasurer of Wyandotte County, and although this county has long been well and justly noted for the sterling
honesty and superior capability of her public officials, Mr. McAlpine
was one of her most popular servants and filled the position to perfection for two and one-half years. His office was a model of neatness
and order, and showed the workings of an intelligent, well-directed
mind. In the fall of 1871 he was again elected treasurer, was re-elected in 1873, and this position filled by re-election until the fall of
1877, since which time he has been a dealer in real estate, and is now
one of the leading agents of Kansas City, Kas. In connection with
this he has been in the banking business in Wyandotte, Armourdale
and Argentine, and is at present a member of the Kansas City Circular Belt Railway Company, and the Missouri River Land and Reclamation Company, the Kansas River Water Power Company, the National Smelting & Refining Company, at Lovelace, president of the
North Kansas City Land Improvement Company, and is now actively
engaged in promoting the interests of these corporations, besides being
interested in many other enterprises which have for their object the
development of the county. In 1866 he was elected city treasurer of
Wyandotte, and in addition to filling this office for one term, he has
been a member of the city council the same length of time, making
the beau ideal of a public servant. He is a Democrat in his political
views, and belongs to the following social organizations: the Masonic
fraternity, in which he is a Knight Templar, and the A. O. U. W.
He is one of the well-known and honored residents of Wyandotte
County, and his views on all subjects are sound and shrewd, showing
that he possesses a vigorous and active intellect. He and his wife
have four children living: Robert L., Jessie S., Mary Ann and John,
who are aged respectively twenty-three, fifteen, seven and three years.
His eldest child, Robert L. McAlpine, was born in Kansas City, Kas.,
May 8, 1867, and in the city of his birth his primary education was
obtained, he being an attendant of Palmer's Wyandotte Academy. He
entered the Kansas State University in the fall of 1882, and graduated
with the class of 1887, his career being there marked by a close
application and rapid progress.[KHHP 2012] During vacations he attended Spaulding's Commercial College, obtaining a diploma dated August 20, 1884,
and he was soon afterward employed as a draughtsman under Messrs.
Breithaupt and Allen, civil engineers, of Kansas City, Mo., and during the summer of 1886 was one of the surveyors for the Kansas City,
Wyandotte & North-Western Railway. Upon graduating from the
State University of Kansas, he accepted a position under Maj. H. L.
Marvin, supervising engineer on the construction of the Missouri
Pacific Railway, between McCracken, Kas.. and Pueblo, Colo., and in
the winter of 1887 he entered the city engineer' s office of Kansas City,
Kas., where he remained for two years, being specially engaged upon
plans for a system of sewerage designed by Pierson & Kiersted, civil
engineers, of Kansas City, Mo. He is at present chief engineer of
the Kansas City Circular Railway. For a young man of his years he
is exceptionally intelligent, and as he possesses many of the characteristics of which prominent men are made - moral and personal integrity, and clear, well-balanced, active intelligence - a bright future is
predicted for him.
Phil McAnany is numbered among the successful business men of
Kansas City, having by his natural ability and energy, gained his present lucrative position as foreman of the canning department, with the
Armour Packing House. He entered the employ of this firm in 1882,
and after serving two years was promoted to his present position. He
is a man of vast experience, having at one time worked for Slavin's
Packing House. He is a wide-awake, public-spirited man, and one
who believes in doing full duty alike to self and neighbor. His generosity and liberality of views has won for him many warm friends,
and his competence has, at all times, been appreciated by those whose
interests he guarded. Mr. McAnany" s birth occurred in Westport,
Mo., in 1860, and his parents, Nicholas and Mary (Plunkett) McAnany,
of the Emerald Isle, where they continued to reside until 1840.
The subject of this sketch passed the years intervening between infancy and manhood in his childhood's home, receiving a moderate
education, and even at an early date practicing habits of industry and
perseverance. In 1885 he married Miss Mary Gallager, daughter of
James and Rose Gallager. Both Mr. and Mrs. McAnany are members
of Father Dalton's church, and manifest great interest in the success
of every worthy cause. To such men America is indebted for the enviable reputation she sustains in the commercial circles of other
country's men whose watchword is duty, and who, following Hamlet's
advice, "Take arms against a sea of troubles, and, by opposing, end
them."
George M. McDougal, another early settler, came to Wyandotte
County, in 1865, and has been a resident of the same ever since,
following agricultural pursuits. He raises about twenty acres of corn,
averaging about forty bushels to the acre, and ten acres of wheat, fifteen bushels to the acre. He bought his first land in 1867, a wild
piece covered with heavy timber, paid $5 an acre, and now, with the
improvements made on it, it is worth at least $50 per acre. He has
since added eighty acres to the original tract, making 120 acres in all,
and the entire tract is valued at $50 per acre. He has a fair orchard
of good bearing trees, is extensively interested in the development of
improved methods in agricultural life, and securing the best results
attainable in that line. He bought his first land of the Blue Jacket's
heirs. Mr. McDougal was born in Richland County, Ohio, on January 22, 1838, and he is the eighth of eleven children born to John A.
and Rachel J. (Hall) McDougal, natives of New York. The parents
left that State in 1835, emigrated to Ohio and there they resided until
1841, when they moved to Allen County, Ind., where the father's
death occurred in 1845. The mother died in 1879, at the age of
seventy-eight. George M. was reared to manhood in Allen County,
Ind., and there he obtained a good common-school education. He
learned the carpenter's trade, followed it in that county until he left
in 1860, when he went to Colorado, and worked in the Georgia and
French gulches. There he remained until the fall of 1860, when he
went to Iowa, but returned the next spring and was successful in mining. He was prospecting most of the time. He enlisted in Central
City, Colo., on January 21, 1863, in Company E, Third Colorado Infantry Volunteers, under Capt. Moses and Col. James H. Ford, and
their regiment was sent to guard the railroad in the Iron Mountains.
In December, 1868, they were sent back to St. Louis, where they
joined the Second Colorado, were mounted and sent to Western Missouri to fight the guerrillas. There they remained until November,
1865, when they were ordered out to the plains and joined a scouting
expedition, being thus employed until October 3, 1865. After the war
Mr. McDougal came to this county and began farming, which occupation he has successfully followed ever since. He does carpentering at
odd times. Mr. McDougal was married on November 11, 1865, to
Miss Lizzie E. Paul, a native of Sheffield, England, born on January
12, 1846, and is the daughter of George and Ann J. Paul, natives of
England. To Mr. and Mrs. McDougal have been born live interesting children: Ida (wife of William Perkins), Frank, Paul, Roy and
Arthur. In his political views Mr. McDougal affiliates with the Republican party, and he has tilled the office of school trustee nearly the
entire time of ^is residence. He has also been road overseer. He is a
member of the G. A. R., Capt. Kingscott Post No. 463, and is also a
member of the Farmers' Alliance. Mr. McDougal is enterprising and
progressive, and a man who is active in his support of all worthy enterprises.
M. F. McCall, merchant, Emmet, Kas. Among the enterprising
business houses of this town, whose operations are worthy of record,
is that conducted by Mr. McCall, who is one of the prominent business
men of the town. He was born in Platte County, Mo., in 1861, to
the union of William and Elizabeth (Porter) McCall, natives of Ohio
and Missouri, respectively. M. F. McCall was sixth in order of birth
of the nine children born to his parents, all of whom grew to maturity
and are still living: Robert, Lottie, Josephine, Jesse M., William,
John and Morton. The maiden name of Grandmother McCall was
Calhoun. William McCall, father of our subject, was one of eleven
children who grew to maturity: Jesse, Moses, Samuel, Montgomery,
Robert, Israel, Nancy, Rebecca, Elizabeth and Mina. M. F. McCall
grew to manhood and received a good common -school education in his
native State. He began business for himself as a farmer in 1880, and
followed this until 1887, when he engaged with Woolmann, selling
clothing in Leavenworth. He continued at this but a short time and
then embarked in the real estate business, which he carried on until
1889. At that date he bought a stock of goods at Pomeroy, remained
but a short time, and then located where he now resides in September
of that year. He has a large and well- assorted stock, and is a capable
and enterprising business man. Mr. McCall was married in March,
1889, to Miss Clementine Turner, daughter of Thomas Turner, a native of South Carolina. One child is the result of this union - Oley
B. Mr. McCall is a Democrat in politics, and exercises his franchise
on every occasion.
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