Thursday, April 3, 2014

Minor Burge Hupp (1836-1892), Minor Roach Stansell (1886-1960), Minor Kuhn Johnston (1866-1947)

Portrait courtesy of the Kansas Memory website.

    A one-term member of the Kansas State House of Representatives, Minor Burge Hupp was a native of the Buckeye State, being born in Monroe County, Ohio on January 26, 1836, the firstborn son of Phillip and Miranda Burge Hupp. His childhood was spent in Ohio and in 1843 moved with his parents to Iowa, eventually settling in Iowa City. The family relocated to Kansas in the early 1850s and Minor married here in January 1856 to Margaret Eagon (died 1880), later having a family that consisted of several children, including Henry (died in infancy in 1857), Phillip T. (died aged 3 years in 1861), John Minor (1861-1953), William W. (born 1865), Howard E. (born 1867), James Minor (1869-1939) and an infant child who died in 1863.
   During the Civil War Minor Hupp joined the Union Army, enlisting as a private in Co. A of the Kansas Calvary's Ninth Regiment. He was later promoted to lieutenant, serving under the command of Col. Marshall M. Murdock (1837-1908), and participated in the Price Raid with Co. B of the Kansas Calvary. 
   Following his return from military service, Hupp settled in Osage County and in the 1868 election year won a seat as one of Osage County's representatives in the Kansas Legislature, serving during the 1869-70 term. Hupp left the statehouse after one term and later removed back to Iowa, and would later resettle again, this time in Omaha. In the 1880s he returned to Kansas, only to leave a few years later, settling in Joplin, Missouri in the year before his death. 
   Minor B. Hupp resided in Joplin until his unexpected death on April 27, 1892. As the Wichita Daily Eagle reported in his obituary (published the day following his death), Hupp had gone into downtown Joplin to undergo an examination for a pension claim for his war service, visiting the office of a Dr. Minnick. Following the examination Hupp left the office and entered an elevator, "seeming quite weak" and after taking a seat was joined by a woman with a dog. At some point, after the elevator began moving the dog jumped from the woman's arms, causing Hupp to make a grabbing motion to catch the dog. As he did so, he suffered an attack of some sort and fell to the floor of the elevator. Seeing the stricken man, the elevator operator reversed movement and returned to the floor on which Dr. Minnick's office was located, and Hupp was later carried from the elevator to the doctor's office, where he was diagnosed with a heart ailment. Hupp was later taken to the first floor of the building but expired before more help could arrive.
    A few days after his death Minor Burge Hupp was returned to Kansas for burial at the Maple Grove Cemetery in Wichita. He was later memorialized in his Daily Eagle obituary as:
"A well educated man of strong chartcter (sic) and strict integrity and his voice was often heard in defense of  the principles he held dear."
Hupp's obituary from the Wichita Daily Eagle, April 28, 1892.

Portrait from the 1933-34 Iowa State Red Book.

  Another "Minor" that made his name known politically was Minor Roach Stansell, a one-term Iowa state representative in the early 1930s who had previously served twice as Clarke County Attorney. Aside from having a first and middle name that can conjure up images of a small roach scurrying around, Stansell was an attorney of distinction in Clarke County and continued his practice following his relocation to Los Angeles, California in 1937. Born in Clarke County on July 9, 1886, Minor Roach Stansell was the son of Frank and Adaline Stansell.
  During his youth, Stansell attended the public schools of New Virginia, Iowa, and later removed to the city of Osceola. In the early 1900s, he took employment with the Bell Telephone Co., eventually rising to the position of district area manager. Before he resigned from that company in 1918 Stansell married in 1911 to Lenora Sylvia Wade (1890-1972), to whom he was wed for nearly fifty years. The couple would have two children, Norris (1913-1990) and Marna (1917-2010).
  Bitten by the law bug during his time with the Bell Telephone Company, Stansell began reading law under county newspaper publisher Henry Stivers (1849-1917) in 1914 and in 1917 was admitted to the Iowa bar. Soon after he opened his practice in Osceola and within a few years had entered the political life of the county, becoming a Democratic candidate for the Iowa House of Representatives in 1918. While he would lose that election to Republican Marcellus Luther Temple (who had served five previous terms in the house), Stansell wasn't finished with pursuing public office, as he subsequently won election as Clarke County attorney in 1923. He would earn a second term in 1925 and also served as a member of the Osceola Board of Education for a time.
   In February 1932 Stansell was urged by the Democratic party leadership of Clarke County to enter into the race for state representative. In a write-up urging his candidacy in the February 2nd Osceola Tribune, Stansell's law practice and time as county attorney was boosted, while also acknowledging that:
"His wide experience would be valuable and his knowledge of conditions in these very strenuous times is a quality that the legislature needs. Too many men seek the legislative office without knowing what it is all about. Mr. Stansell is not in this class."
From the Osceola Tribune April 5, 1932.

  Following his victory in the June Democratic primary, Stansell faced off against Republican nominee LeRoy Shields. At the close of the polls in November Stansell won out, garnering 2,017 votes to his opponent's 1,812. During the 1933-35 session, Stansell chaired the committee on Railroads and also sat on the committees on Fish and Game, Horticulture and Forestry, the Judiciary, Police Regulations, Tax Reductions, Telegraphs and Express, and Ways and Means.
  Two years after leaving office Stansell and his family left Iowa for Los Angeles, California, where he continued in the practice of law. He retired from practice in 1959 and died on September 8th of the following year, his burial later occurring at the famed Forest Lawn Memorial Park in that city.


From the Osceola Sentinel, September 15, 1960.

From the Legislative Manual of Ohio, 1919-20.

  Longtime Richland County, Ohio resident Minor Kuhn Johnston served three terms in the Ohio General Assembly and had earlier practiced law in Buffalo, New York. The son of Edward and Hannah (Kuhn) Johnston, he was born in Richland County on July  24, 1866. His early education was obtained in schools local to Shelby, Ohio, and later graduated from the National Normal University, earning his A.B. degree in 1891. He would turn to law studies in the early 1890s, and, following graduation from the Buffalo Law School entered into practice in that city in 1896.
  Johnston's stay in Buffalo extended until 1905 when he returned to Richland County.  He would locate back at his old home in Shelby where he would farm for many years afterward. In 1918 he was elected to his first term in the Ohio House of Representatives, having never before held elective office. His service in the 1919-21 session saw him named to the committees on Dairy and Food Products, and Public Printing. 
  Johnston lost his 1920 reelection bid due to the "overwhelming Republican majority throughout Ohio", but rebounded politically in 1922 when he won a second term. In 1924 he won a third term, and in the 1925-27 session sat on the Finance, Highways, and Taxation. Following his terms, Johnston returned to practicing law and for many years had been a member of the Knights of Pythias, Masons, and the Presbyterian church. A lifelong bachelor, Johnston died of a stroke while in Pavillion, Wyoming on January 22, 1947, at age 80. He was later returned to Ohio for burial at the Greenlawn Cemetery in Plymouth, Richland County.

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