Source: A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans, 1918
AMOS HINSDALE PLUMB was one of the children of the late Senator Preston B. Plumb and Caroline (Southwick) Plumb. He was born at Emporia, January 31, 1869. He was educated in the public schools of Emporia and the Kansas University at Lawrence. Mr. Plumb's chief business activities were in real estate and mining. He organized and was president of the Mutual Building and Loan Association of Emporia, and during 1915-17 was president of the building and loan section of the Kansas Bankers' Association.
He was married at Omaha, Nebraska, January 1, 1897, to Elva Lawrence Gibson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. E. M. Gibson of Omaha. They had one daughter, Roxanna Plumb [Kendig].
***************************
The Emporia Gazette, 28 Feb 1939, Tuesday
A. H. PLUMB DIES
A. H. Plumb, for 32 years president of the Mutual Building and Loan association, died at 11:57 o'clock Monday night at his home, 202 East Sixth. He had been sick since December 10. Death was caused by heart disease.
Funeral arrangements have not been made.
Amos Hinsdale Plumb was the eldest son of Emporia's most distinguished early day citizen, the late Senator Preston B. Plumb, and the late Caroline S. Plumb. He was the last of the children of Senator and Mrs. Plumb living in Emporia. His father was a member of the Emporia Town company, which selected the site for the town. Preston B. Plumb brought a printing press from Xenia, Ohio, to the pioneer settlement, and started a newspaper in 1857, the first issue of which was printed in an unfinished room of a hotel at the location which later became Sixth and Commercial, the present site of the Mutual Building and Loan association.
ORGANIZES THE MUTUAL.
Mr. Plumb organized the Mutual association in Emporia in 1907. The business first was located in the Emporia State Bank building, later moving to 11 West Sixth and later still to the rear of the present office, with entrance on East Sixth. The present modern stone building occupied by the association was built in 1930.
Mr. Plumb was also the president of the Southern Mineral Land corporation of Birmingham, Ala., and had been a frequent business visitor in Birmingham during the past 45 years.
A NATIVE OF EMPORIA.
A native of Emporia, Mrs. Plumb was born January 31, 1869. He married Elva Gibson, who survives him, on January 1, 1897, at Omaha, Neb. Besides his wife, he is survived by a daughter, Mrs. H. L. Kendig, of Emporia; two grandchildren, Elva Ann Kendig and Harold L. Kendig, jr., Emporia; a brother, Preston B. Plumb, South Pasadena, Calif., and three sisters, Mrs. Caroline P. Griffith, Anaheim, Calif.; Mrs. Ruth P. Brewster, South Pasadena, Calif., and Miss Mary Plumb, Topeka. Mr. Plumb was a member of all the Emporia Masonic bodies and of the Scottish Rite of Topeka. He also was a member of the First Congregational church and served on the board of trustees of the church for many years. He was the oldest member, in point of years of continuous membership, on the church roll, having joined the church in March 1883. Mr. Plumb attended the University of Kansas.
Mrs. Griffith and Mrs. Brewster and Preston B. Plumb, are on their way to Emporia from California. Miss Mary B. Plumb also will be here for the funeral. Fred K. Lewis, of Ashtabula, Ohio, a cousin of Mr. Plumb, has been in Emporia for the past week, and will remain until after the funeral.
***************************
Same Edition:
AMOS HINSDALE PLUMB
The death of Amos Hinsdale Plumb removes the head of the House of Plumb in this town and state. His father, Senator Preston B. Plumb, was a charter member of the Emporia townsite company. Mr. A. H. Plumb's grandfather and his uncles, George and Arthur, came to Emporia pioneering in the Fifties, and until today Emporia has always, from the day the first surveyor's chain dropped on the townsite, has been the home of some branch of Preston B. Plumb's family. Preston B. Plumb, from the mid-seventies until the nineties was a dominant figure in the state and in the United States. In the United States Senate he was chairman of the public lands committee when that committee controlled the terms of the settlement of the trans-Mississippi country. Railroads, telegraph lines, town companies, even territories took their claims to the public lands committee. It was a political powerhouse and Preston Plumb was the engineer in charge.
At the Senator's death, his eldest son, Mr. A. H. Plumb, assumed the responsibility of a large estate in his mid-twenties. The management of the estate, scattered from Washington, D.C., south into the Alabama iron and coal lands, west to the silver mines of New Mexico, was a tremendous burden on young Plumb. His mother and his younger sisters and his young brother looked to him to save an estate in the depression of the nineties, which naturally was intricately bound with the financial troubles of the times. He went into his work whole-heartedly.
Naturally, this withdrew him from Emporia. It kept him aloof all his life. He was never a familiar figure on Commercial street. He belonged to no service clubs, joined only the Masons. Probably the Congregational church, to which he was deeply devoted, was his single affiliation with the people of Emporia. Certainly it was so until he founded the Mutual Building and Loan association. That became his business idol. He was proud of its growth. Radiating from that, his influence in the town grew among business people and was largely a business association. His lifelong habit of retirement kept him an isolated figure. His father, who knew every man, woman and child in Lyon county, and the names of their dogs and horses, was a strange contrast to this strong, self-contained, rather solitary figure who knew only his duty to a great estate and to a trust that he had taken on and held in great pride. When the depression of 1929 came, Amos Plumb did not hesitate, when he felt that the interest of his clients in the Mutual demanded suspension of payment, to suspend. No indecision held his hand. He faced the storm but did not flinch or falter. He was a strong man in times of stress. His pride was in his business sense.
Personally, he had a kind heart and was gentle and generous with his family and friends. If his loyalties were few they were deep. He could not tolerate fools and had no respect for weaklings. He said "Yes," and meant it, and his "No" was driven in with a hammer and cleated on the other side. He sought no popular acclaim, not the slightest; went his own way and was happy in his own life, was interested in his own achievements, and above all his pride was that he had minded his own business. But he did a good job of that.
His death is significant because it ends the male line of the Preston Plumb family in Kansas. Young Preston Plumb, his brother, lives in California, a successful lawyer. Two sisters live there also, and his eldest sister, Mary, lives in Topeka. They are the Plumbs of the Preston Plumb line--the third generation who came here 80 years ago and more. They have seen it all: Emporia when it was a raw prairie, Emporia a prosperous county seat town with two colleges and a thriving local commerce. To a dozen men, now in their late sixties and seventies who grew up with him, went through high school and new him in college, he was "Dale," the diminutive of Hinsdale, his middle name. But to the town he was Amos, and like Amos of old, a strong, rather solitary figure who had no use for idle dalliance. A hard worker, a man with a single purpose was Amos Hinsdale Plumb. And so passes the last of a great line in this town and country and state. (Presumably written by William Allen White)
***************************
The Emporia Gazette, 03 Mar 1939, Fri
THE PLUMB FUNERAL
Funeral services for Amos Hinsdale Plumb, who died at his home Monday night, were held at 10:30 o'clock this morning at the Sutton-Kinzer Funeral home. Rev. Phillip Sarles, pastor of the First Congregational Church, conducted the services. Honorary pallbearers were Charles Elliot, sr., of Topeka; W. C. Hughes, W. A. White and E. E. Kendig. Active pallbearers were Paul Morrison, Topeka; Clarence DeLong, Roscoe W. Graves, Eugene T. Lowther, Stanley Hagan and Marshall Randel. Burial was in Maplewood cemetery.
AMOS HINSDALE PLUMB was one of the children of the late Senator Preston B. Plumb and Caroline (Southwick) Plumb. He was born at Emporia, January 31, 1869. He was educated in the public schools of Emporia and the Kansas University at Lawrence. Mr. Plumb's chief business activities were in real estate and mining. He organized and was president of the Mutual Building and Loan Association of Emporia, and during 1915-17 was president of the building and loan section of the Kansas Bankers' Association.
He was married at Omaha, Nebraska, January 1, 1897, to Elva Lawrence Gibson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. E. M. Gibson of Omaha. They had one daughter, Roxanna Plumb [Kendig].
***************************
The Emporia Gazette, 28 Feb 1939, Tuesday
A. H. PLUMB DIES
A. H. Plumb, for 32 years president of the Mutual Building and Loan association, died at 11:57 o'clock Monday night at his home, 202 East Sixth. He had been sick since December 10. Death was caused by heart disease.
Funeral arrangements have not been made.
Amos Hinsdale Plumb was the eldest son of Emporia's most distinguished early day citizen, the late Senator Preston B. Plumb, and the late Caroline S. Plumb. He was the last of the children of Senator and Mrs. Plumb living in Emporia. His father was a member of the Emporia Town company, which selected the site for the town. Preston B. Plumb brought a printing press from Xenia, Ohio, to the pioneer settlement, and started a newspaper in 1857, the first issue of which was printed in an unfinished room of a hotel at the location which later became Sixth and Commercial, the present site of the Mutual Building and Loan association.
ORGANIZES THE MUTUAL.
Mr. Plumb organized the Mutual association in Emporia in 1907. The business first was located in the Emporia State Bank building, later moving to 11 West Sixth and later still to the rear of the present office, with entrance on East Sixth. The present modern stone building occupied by the association was built in 1930.
Mr. Plumb was also the president of the Southern Mineral Land corporation of Birmingham, Ala., and had been a frequent business visitor in Birmingham during the past 45 years.
A NATIVE OF EMPORIA.
A native of Emporia, Mrs. Plumb was born January 31, 1869. He married Elva Gibson, who survives him, on January 1, 1897, at Omaha, Neb. Besides his wife, he is survived by a daughter, Mrs. H. L. Kendig, of Emporia; two grandchildren, Elva Ann Kendig and Harold L. Kendig, jr., Emporia; a brother, Preston B. Plumb, South Pasadena, Calif., and three sisters, Mrs. Caroline P. Griffith, Anaheim, Calif.; Mrs. Ruth P. Brewster, South Pasadena, Calif., and Miss Mary Plumb, Topeka. Mr. Plumb was a member of all the Emporia Masonic bodies and of the Scottish Rite of Topeka. He also was a member of the First Congregational church and served on the board of trustees of the church for many years. He was the oldest member, in point of years of continuous membership, on the church roll, having joined the church in March 1883. Mr. Plumb attended the University of Kansas.
Mrs. Griffith and Mrs. Brewster and Preston B. Plumb, are on their way to Emporia from California. Miss Mary B. Plumb also will be here for the funeral. Fred K. Lewis, of Ashtabula, Ohio, a cousin of Mr. Plumb, has been in Emporia for the past week, and will remain until after the funeral.
***************************
Same Edition:
AMOS HINSDALE PLUMB
The death of Amos Hinsdale Plumb removes the head of the House of Plumb in this town and state. His father, Senator Preston B. Plumb, was a charter member of the Emporia townsite company. Mr. A. H. Plumb's grandfather and his uncles, George and Arthur, came to Emporia pioneering in the Fifties, and until today Emporia has always, from the day the first surveyor's chain dropped on the townsite, has been the home of some branch of Preston B. Plumb's family. Preston B. Plumb, from the mid-seventies until the nineties was a dominant figure in the state and in the United States. In the United States Senate he was chairman of the public lands committee when that committee controlled the terms of the settlement of the trans-Mississippi country. Railroads, telegraph lines, town companies, even territories took their claims to the public lands committee. It was a political powerhouse and Preston Plumb was the engineer in charge.
At the Senator's death, his eldest son, Mr. A. H. Plumb, assumed the responsibility of a large estate in his mid-twenties. The management of the estate, scattered from Washington, D.C., south into the Alabama iron and coal lands, west to the silver mines of New Mexico, was a tremendous burden on young Plumb. His mother and his younger sisters and his young brother looked to him to save an estate in the depression of the nineties, which naturally was intricately bound with the financial troubles of the times. He went into his work whole-heartedly.
Naturally, this withdrew him from Emporia. It kept him aloof all his life. He was never a familiar figure on Commercial street. He belonged to no service clubs, joined only the Masons. Probably the Congregational church, to which he was deeply devoted, was his single affiliation with the people of Emporia. Certainly it was so until he founded the Mutual Building and Loan association. That became his business idol. He was proud of its growth. Radiating from that, his influence in the town grew among business people and was largely a business association. His lifelong habit of retirement kept him an isolated figure. His father, who knew every man, woman and child in Lyon county, and the names of their dogs and horses, was a strange contrast to this strong, self-contained, rather solitary figure who knew only his duty to a great estate and to a trust that he had taken on and held in great pride. When the depression of 1929 came, Amos Plumb did not hesitate, when he felt that the interest of his clients in the Mutual demanded suspension of payment, to suspend. No indecision held his hand. He faced the storm but did not flinch or falter. He was a strong man in times of stress. His pride was in his business sense.
Personally, he had a kind heart and was gentle and generous with his family and friends. If his loyalties were few they were deep. He could not tolerate fools and had no respect for weaklings. He said "Yes," and meant it, and his "No" was driven in with a hammer and cleated on the other side. He sought no popular acclaim, not the slightest; went his own way and was happy in his own life, was interested in his own achievements, and above all his pride was that he had minded his own business. But he did a good job of that.
His death is significant because it ends the male line of the Preston Plumb family in Kansas. Young Preston Plumb, his brother, lives in California, a successful lawyer. Two sisters live there also, and his eldest sister, Mary, lives in Topeka. They are the Plumbs of the Preston Plumb line--the third generation who came here 80 years ago and more. They have seen it all: Emporia when it was a raw prairie, Emporia a prosperous county seat town with two colleges and a thriving local commerce. To a dozen men, now in their late sixties and seventies who grew up with him, went through high school and new him in college, he was "Dale," the diminutive of Hinsdale, his middle name. But to the town he was Amos, and like Amos of old, a strong, rather solitary figure who had no use for idle dalliance. A hard worker, a man with a single purpose was Amos Hinsdale Plumb. And so passes the last of a great line in this town and country and state. (Presumably written by William Allen White)
***************************
The Emporia Gazette, 03 Mar 1939, Fri
THE PLUMB FUNERAL
Funeral services for Amos Hinsdale Plumb, who died at his home Monday night, were held at 10:30 o'clock this morning at the Sutton-Kinzer Funeral home. Rev. Phillip Sarles, pastor of the First Congregational Church, conducted the services. Honorary pallbearers were Charles Elliot, sr., of Topeka; W. C. Hughes, W. A. White and E. E. Kendig. Active pallbearers were Paul Morrison, Topeka; Clarence DeLong, Roscoe W. Graves, Eugene T. Lowther, Stanley Hagan and Marshall Randel. Burial was in Maplewood cemetery.
Source: A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans, 1918
AMOS HINSDALE PLUMB was one of the children of the late Senator Preston B. Plumb and Caroline (Southwick) Plumb. He was born at Emporia, January 31, 1869. He was educated in the public schools of Emporia and the Kansas University at Lawrence. Mr. Plumb's chief business activities were in real estate and mining. He organized and was president of the Mutual Building and Loan Association of Emporia, and during 1915-17 was president of the building and loan section of the Kansas Bankers' Association.
He was married at Omaha, Nebraska, January 1, 1897, to Elva Lawrence Gibson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. E. M. Gibson of Omaha. They had one daughter, Roxanna Plumb [Kendig].
***************************
The Emporia Gazette, 28 Feb 1939, Tuesday
A. H. PLUMB DIES
A. H. Plumb, for 32 years president of the Mutual Building and Loan association, died at 11:57 o'clock Monday night at his home, 202 East Sixth. He had been sick since December 10. Death was caused by heart disease.
Funeral arrangements have not been made.
Amos Hinsdale Plumb was the eldest son of Emporia's most distinguished early day citizen, the late Senator Preston B. Plumb, and the late Caroline S. Plumb. He was the last of the children of Senator and Mrs. Plumb living in Emporia. His father was a member of the Emporia Town company, which selected the site for the town. Preston B. Plumb brought a printing press from Xenia, Ohio, to the pioneer settlement, and started a newspaper in 1857, the first issue of which was printed in an unfinished room of a hotel at the location which later became Sixth and Commercial, the present site of the Mutual Building and Loan association.
ORGANIZES THE MUTUAL.
Mr. Plumb organized the Mutual association in Emporia in 1907. The business first was located in the Emporia State Bank building, later moving to 11 West Sixth and later still to the rear of the present office, with entrance on East Sixth. The present modern stone building occupied by the association was built in 1930.
Mr. Plumb was also the president of the Southern Mineral Land corporation of Birmingham, Ala., and had been a frequent business visitor in Birmingham during the past 45 years.
A NATIVE OF EMPORIA.
A native of Emporia, Mrs. Plumb was born January 31, 1869. He married Elva Gibson, who survives him, on January 1, 1897, at Omaha, Neb. Besides his wife, he is survived by a daughter, Mrs. H. L. Kendig, of Emporia; two grandchildren, Elva Ann Kendig and Harold L. Kendig, jr., Emporia; a brother, Preston B. Plumb, South Pasadena, Calif., and three sisters, Mrs. Caroline P. Griffith, Anaheim, Calif.; Mrs. Ruth P. Brewster, South Pasadena, Calif., and Miss Mary Plumb, Topeka. Mr. Plumb was a member of all the Emporia Masonic bodies and of the Scottish Rite of Topeka. He also was a member of the First Congregational church and served on the board of trustees of the church for many years. He was the oldest member, in point of years of continuous membership, on the church roll, having joined the church in March 1883. Mr. Plumb attended the University of Kansas.
Mrs. Griffith and Mrs. Brewster and Preston B. Plumb, are on their way to Emporia from California. Miss Mary B. Plumb also will be here for the funeral. Fred K. Lewis, of Ashtabula, Ohio, a cousin of Mr. Plumb, has been in Emporia for the past week, and will remain until after the funeral.
***************************
Same Edition:
AMOS HINSDALE PLUMB
The death of Amos Hinsdale Plumb removes the head of the House of Plumb in this town and state. His father, Senator Preston B. Plumb, was a charter member of the Emporia townsite company. Mr. A. H. Plumb's grandfather and his uncles, George and Arthur, came to Emporia pioneering in the Fifties, and until today Emporia has always, from the day the first surveyor's chain dropped on the townsite, has been the home of some branch of Preston B. Plumb's family. Preston B. Plumb, from the mid-seventies until the nineties was a dominant figure in the state and in the United States. In the United States Senate he was chairman of the public lands committee when that committee controlled the terms of the settlement of the trans-Mississippi country. Railroads, telegraph lines, town companies, even territories took their claims to the public lands committee. It was a political powerhouse and Preston Plumb was the engineer in charge.
At the Senator's death, his eldest son, Mr. A. H. Plumb, assumed the responsibility of a large estate in his mid-twenties. The management of the estate, scattered from Washington, D.C., south into the Alabama iron and coal lands, west to the silver mines of New Mexico, was a tremendous burden on young Plumb. His mother and his younger sisters and his young brother looked to him to save an estate in the depression of the nineties, which naturally was intricately bound with the financial troubles of the times. He went into his work whole-heartedly.
Naturally, this withdrew him from Emporia. It kept him aloof all his life. He was never a familiar figure on Commercial street. He belonged to no service clubs, joined only the Masons. Probably the Congregational church, to which he was deeply devoted, was his single affiliation with the people of Emporia. Certainly it was so until he founded the Mutual Building and Loan association. That became his business idol. He was proud of its growth. Radiating from that, his influence in the town grew among business people and was largely a business association. His lifelong habit of retirement kept him an isolated figure. His father, who knew every man, woman and child in Lyon county, and the names of their dogs and horses, was a strange contrast to this strong, self-contained, rather solitary figure who knew only his duty to a great estate and to a trust that he had taken on and held in great pride. When the depression of 1929 came, Amos Plumb did not hesitate, when he felt that the interest of his clients in the Mutual demanded suspension of payment, to suspend. No indecision held his hand. He faced the storm but did not flinch or falter. He was a strong man in times of stress. His pride was in his business sense.
Personally, he had a kind heart and was gentle and generous with his family and friends. If his loyalties were few they were deep. He could not tolerate fools and had no respect for weaklings. He said "Yes," and meant it, and his "No" was driven in with a hammer and cleated on the other side. He sought no popular acclaim, not the slightest; went his own way and was happy in his own life, was interested in his own achievements, and above all his pride was that he had minded his own business. But he did a good job of that.
His death is significant because it ends the male line of the Preston Plumb family in Kansas. Young Preston Plumb, his brother, lives in California, a successful lawyer. Two sisters live there also, and his eldest sister, Mary, lives in Topeka. They are the Plumbs of the Preston Plumb line--the third generation who came here 80 years ago and more. They have seen it all: Emporia when it was a raw prairie, Emporia a prosperous county seat town with two colleges and a thriving local commerce. To a dozen men, now in their late sixties and seventies who grew up with him, went through high school and new him in college, he was "Dale," the diminutive of Hinsdale, his middle name. But to the town he was Amos, and like Amos of old, a strong, rather solitary figure who had no use for idle dalliance. A hard worker, a man with a single purpose was Amos Hinsdale Plumb. And so passes the last of a great line in this town and country and state. (Presumably written by William Allen White)
***************************
The Emporia Gazette, 03 Mar 1939, Fri
THE PLUMB FUNERAL
Funeral services for Amos Hinsdale Plumb, who died at his home Monday night, were held at 10:30 o'clock this morning at the Sutton-Kinzer Funeral home. Rev. Phillip Sarles, pastor of the First Congregational Church, conducted the services. Honorary pallbearers were Charles Elliot, sr., of Topeka; W. C. Hughes, W. A. White and E. E. Kendig. Active pallbearers were Paul Morrison, Topeka; Clarence DeLong, Roscoe W. Graves, Eugene T. Lowther, Stanley Hagan and Marshall Randel. Burial was in Maplewood cemetery.
AMOS HINSDALE PLUMB was one of the children of the late Senator Preston B. Plumb and Caroline (Southwick) Plumb. He was born at Emporia, January 31, 1869. He was educated in the public schools of Emporia and the Kansas University at Lawrence. Mr. Plumb's chief business activities were in real estate and mining. He organized and was president of the Mutual Building and Loan Association of Emporia, and during 1915-17 was president of the building and loan section of the Kansas Bankers' Association.
He was married at Omaha, Nebraska, January 1, 1897, to Elva Lawrence Gibson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. E. M. Gibson of Omaha. They had one daughter, Roxanna Plumb [Kendig].
***************************
The Emporia Gazette, 28 Feb 1939, Tuesday
A. H. PLUMB DIES
A. H. Plumb, for 32 years president of the Mutual Building and Loan association, died at 11:57 o'clock Monday night at his home, 202 East Sixth. He had been sick since December 10. Death was caused by heart disease.
Funeral arrangements have not been made.
Amos Hinsdale Plumb was the eldest son of Emporia's most distinguished early day citizen, the late Senator Preston B. Plumb, and the late Caroline S. Plumb. He was the last of the children of Senator and Mrs. Plumb living in Emporia. His father was a member of the Emporia Town company, which selected the site for the town. Preston B. Plumb brought a printing press from Xenia, Ohio, to the pioneer settlement, and started a newspaper in 1857, the first issue of which was printed in an unfinished room of a hotel at the location which later became Sixth and Commercial, the present site of the Mutual Building and Loan association.
ORGANIZES THE MUTUAL.
Mr. Plumb organized the Mutual association in Emporia in 1907. The business first was located in the Emporia State Bank building, later moving to 11 West Sixth and later still to the rear of the present office, with entrance on East Sixth. The present modern stone building occupied by the association was built in 1930.
Mr. Plumb was also the president of the Southern Mineral Land corporation of Birmingham, Ala., and had been a frequent business visitor in Birmingham during the past 45 years.
A NATIVE OF EMPORIA.
A native of Emporia, Mrs. Plumb was born January 31, 1869. He married Elva Gibson, who survives him, on January 1, 1897, at Omaha, Neb. Besides his wife, he is survived by a daughter, Mrs. H. L. Kendig, of Emporia; two grandchildren, Elva Ann Kendig and Harold L. Kendig, jr., Emporia; a brother, Preston B. Plumb, South Pasadena, Calif., and three sisters, Mrs. Caroline P. Griffith, Anaheim, Calif.; Mrs. Ruth P. Brewster, South Pasadena, Calif., and Miss Mary Plumb, Topeka. Mr. Plumb was a member of all the Emporia Masonic bodies and of the Scottish Rite of Topeka. He also was a member of the First Congregational church and served on the board of trustees of the church for many years. He was the oldest member, in point of years of continuous membership, on the church roll, having joined the church in March 1883. Mr. Plumb attended the University of Kansas.
Mrs. Griffith and Mrs. Brewster and Preston B. Plumb, are on their way to Emporia from California. Miss Mary B. Plumb also will be here for the funeral. Fred K. Lewis, of Ashtabula, Ohio, a cousin of Mr. Plumb, has been in Emporia for the past week, and will remain until after the funeral.
***************************
Same Edition:
AMOS HINSDALE PLUMB
The death of Amos Hinsdale Plumb removes the head of the House of Plumb in this town and state. His father, Senator Preston B. Plumb, was a charter member of the Emporia townsite company. Mr. A. H. Plumb's grandfather and his uncles, George and Arthur, came to Emporia pioneering in the Fifties, and until today Emporia has always, from the day the first surveyor's chain dropped on the townsite, has been the home of some branch of Preston B. Plumb's family. Preston B. Plumb, from the mid-seventies until the nineties was a dominant figure in the state and in the United States. In the United States Senate he was chairman of the public lands committee when that committee controlled the terms of the settlement of the trans-Mississippi country. Railroads, telegraph lines, town companies, even territories took their claims to the public lands committee. It was a political powerhouse and Preston Plumb was the engineer in charge.
At the Senator's death, his eldest son, Mr. A. H. Plumb, assumed the responsibility of a large estate in his mid-twenties. The management of the estate, scattered from Washington, D.C., south into the Alabama iron and coal lands, west to the silver mines of New Mexico, was a tremendous burden on young Plumb. His mother and his younger sisters and his young brother looked to him to save an estate in the depression of the nineties, which naturally was intricately bound with the financial troubles of the times. He went into his work whole-heartedly.
Naturally, this withdrew him from Emporia. It kept him aloof all his life. He was never a familiar figure on Commercial street. He belonged to no service clubs, joined only the Masons. Probably the Congregational church, to which he was deeply devoted, was his single affiliation with the people of Emporia. Certainly it was so until he founded the Mutual Building and Loan association. That became his business idol. He was proud of its growth. Radiating from that, his influence in the town grew among business people and was largely a business association. His lifelong habit of retirement kept him an isolated figure. His father, who knew every man, woman and child in Lyon county, and the names of their dogs and horses, was a strange contrast to this strong, self-contained, rather solitary figure who knew only his duty to a great estate and to a trust that he had taken on and held in great pride. When the depression of 1929 came, Amos Plumb did not hesitate, when he felt that the interest of his clients in the Mutual demanded suspension of payment, to suspend. No indecision held his hand. He faced the storm but did not flinch or falter. He was a strong man in times of stress. His pride was in his business sense.
Personally, he had a kind heart and was gentle and generous with his family and friends. If his loyalties were few they were deep. He could not tolerate fools and had no respect for weaklings. He said "Yes," and meant it, and his "No" was driven in with a hammer and cleated on the other side. He sought no popular acclaim, not the slightest; went his own way and was happy in his own life, was interested in his own achievements, and above all his pride was that he had minded his own business. But he did a good job of that.
His death is significant because it ends the male line of the Preston Plumb family in Kansas. Young Preston Plumb, his brother, lives in California, a successful lawyer. Two sisters live there also, and his eldest sister, Mary, lives in Topeka. They are the Plumbs of the Preston Plumb line--the third generation who came here 80 years ago and more. They have seen it all: Emporia when it was a raw prairie, Emporia a prosperous county seat town with two colleges and a thriving local commerce. To a dozen men, now in their late sixties and seventies who grew up with him, went through high school and new him in college, he was "Dale," the diminutive of Hinsdale, his middle name. But to the town he was Amos, and like Amos of old, a strong, rather solitary figure who had no use for idle dalliance. A hard worker, a man with a single purpose was Amos Hinsdale Plumb. And so passes the last of a great line in this town and country and state. (Presumably written by William Allen White)
***************************
The Emporia Gazette, 03 Mar 1939, Fri
THE PLUMB FUNERAL
Funeral services for Amos Hinsdale Plumb, who died at his home Monday night, were held at 10:30 o'clock this morning at the Sutton-Kinzer Funeral home. Rev. Phillip Sarles, pastor of the First Congregational Church, conducted the services. Honorary pallbearers were Charles Elliot, sr., of Topeka; W. C. Hughes, W. A. White and E. E. Kendig. Active pallbearers were Paul Morrison, Topeka; Clarence DeLong, Roscoe W. Graves, Eugene T. Lowther, Stanley Hagan and Marshall Randel. Burial was in Maplewood cemetery.
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