Linn County, Kansas

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BIOGRAPHIES

ISABELLA McGREW CAPPER

Isabella McGrew Capper, daughter of Rev. Simon McGrew, raised a family of six children who have reflected great credit and honor upon the family name. Herbert Capper, whom Isabella McGrew married in 1862, had a most interesting career. He was born in 1839 in Longton in Staffordshire, the great pottery district of England, his parents being Thomas and Elizabeth Capper. In 1842 the parents brought him to Philadelphia where they became actively interested in the abolition of slavery. The men of the family were metal workers and Herbert was employed in a tin shop in his boyhood, and after the death of his father he moved to Circleville, Iowa, where he followed the metal worker's trade. But in 1857 he wanted to be in the thickest of the fight and he started for Kansas. Arriving at Westport Landing (now Kansas City) he made the acquaintance of J. P. Harris and the two walked from that town on the Missouri river to Ottawa in Franklin county, where "Jack" Harris located and became a prominent citizen, having been nominated on the Republican ticket for Congress in 1898, and his son Ralph Harris now is owner of the Ottawa Herald newspaper. Mr. Capper took a homestead on Pottawatomie Creek near the boundary line between Anderson and Franklin counties. After their marriage Isabella and Herbert lived for a time in Mapleton and later moved to Garnett where they had their home for more than forty years. They had six children: Mary who died in infancy; Arthur, born July 14, 1865, who served the state as governor and is now in his second term as United States Senator from Kansas; May born in 1868 and now residing in Chicago; Bessie who married Prof. Homer S. Myers then of Baldwin (her death occurred in 1910); Edith married Fred L. Eustace and they now have their home in Chicago. The youngest child was Benjamin who died in 1891. Herbert Capper was one of the first members of the city council of Garnett, where he operated a hardware store. About 1872 the family went to Elk county where he engaged in farming and stock raising for several years, helping to found the town of Longton in that county which he named after his birthplace in England. They returned to Garnett and lived out their lives in their first home. The success of the boy Arthur has been remarkable. He learned to be a printer, graduated from the Garnett high school in 1884, and immediately sought employment as a typesetter on the Topeka Capital, and was soon in line to serve as reporter, city editor, managing editor, business manager, and in 1905 became owner. He now owns the Kansas City Kansan and a half dozen of the leading farm papers of the United States. Arthur was the first native Kansan to be elected governor. His wife was Miss Crawford, daughter of the noted war governor and soldier Samuel J. Crawford.

(History of Linnn County, by William Ansel Mitchell, 1928, Pages 354-355)

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