Kenelm Lawrence Shirk Sr. (1894-1956)

From the Lancaster New Era, June 13, 1942.

  At the same time as Menno Brubaker Rohrer's service as Burgess of Lititz in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, another curiously named man was serving as that county's District Attorney. That man was Kenelm Lawrence Shirk, a World War I veteran who had previously served as U.S. district court commissioner and as assistant district attorney. Shirk's time as district attorney was cut short due to his resignation to enlist in the U.S. Army, where he attained the rank of lieutenant colonel. Following his return from service, Shirk served nearly a decade on the Lancaster city council, being appointed in 1946. The son of Martin and Anna (Landes) Shirk, Kenelm Lawrence Shirk Sr. was born in Lancaster County on August 11, 1894.

  Shirk spent a portion of his early life in Richmond, Virginia with his family, and his early education was obtained in schools local to Lancaster County. Following graduation from the Ephrata High School in 1912, he enrolled at Washington and Lee University in Virginia and graduated with his law degree in the class of 1915. He was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar the following year and put his career on hold to enlist for service in WWI. By December 1917 he was stationed at Camp Meade in Maryland and was commissioned a lieutenant. Assigned to the 314th Infantry of the 79th Division, Shirk served through the duration of the war and returned to Pennsylvania in May 1919. Following his return, Shirk was commended for his bravery by the Philadelphia Inquirer, titling him the "Damndest Daredevil Yet." In a writeup on his actions, the Inquirer further related that:

"There is another regimental hero who has no decorations at all. He doesn't even have a wound stripe to show for his bravery. His name is Lieutenant Kenelm Shirk, and he resides just outside of Philadelphia. Shirk, he did not. Anytime there was a hazardous job Shirk did it. Where the bullets and shells were thickest Shirk was. Every risk he took. Men were killed all around him, but his was a charmed life, and because nothing happend to him his specialty was walking around with a couple of hand grenades in his pocket, ready for any action."

Kenelm Shirk during WWI, from the Philadelphia Inquirer, June 20, 1919.

  After returning to Lancaster County Shirk was cited for "gallantry in action and meritorious service" in June 1919 for his actions on the evening of November 8, 1918, when he "made repeated trips to keep contact between companies under heavy artillery fire, which necessitated great personal danger." He recommenced with the practice of law in Lancaster, and in the early 1920s was a member of the law firm headed by John A. Coyle.  In February 1922 Shirk married Beatrice Marie Wertz and had two children, Kenelm Lawrence Jr. (1922-2006) and Joan Shirk Janeski (1925-2010). The couple later separated, and Shirk remarried in June 1937 to Alice Margaret Cawood (1895-1991), who survived him upon his death in 1956.

  In the 1920s Shirk was selected as a U.S. district court commissioner for Lancaster County, and in 1930 was elected as the exalted ruler of the Lancaster Lodge No. 134, Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. In October of that year, he was elected president of the Young Republicans Club of Lancaster and held that office until at least 1933. He continued his rise in public life in December 1931 when he was appointed assistant district attorney of Lancaster County.

From the Lancaster New Era, October 10, 1930.

  Shirk's time as assistant district attorney extended eight years, and in July 1939 announced his candidacy for district attorney of Lancaster County. That November he trounced his Democratic opponent, A.E. McCullough Jr., by a vote of 34,360 to 13,681, and took office in January 1940. Several months into his term Shirk made headlines by ordering the arrest of seven Communist Party candidates in Lancaster County for "conspiracy and perjury under the election laws", arising from falsified signatures and duplications. Two of those men, J. Granville Eddy and Reuben Carr, were candidates for state office that year and had circulated petitions which had garnered over 1,200 signatures. Following a two-month investigation, a number of those signatures proved to have been obtained under false pretenses, with dozens being recorded as either duplications or forgeries. Interviewed by the Lancaster New Era in August 1940, Shirk remarked that:

"I think its one of the rottenest things I've ever seen...The further into it you go, the more you find the Communist circulators had no regard whatsoever for the Commonwealth's election laws. One person whose name was on a petition told us that the circulator said 'We've got to get to 2,700 names somehow.' Apparently that's what they did. They didn't care how they got them."

 In addition to the police investigation and Shirk's comments on the arrests, "similar investigations" were announced in other Pennsylvania counties where the Communist Party obtained signatures in 1940. Shirk resigned as district attorney in May 1943 to join in the war effort and reentered the U.S. Army as a major. Early in his service he was stationed at the Army School of Military Government at Harvard University and was later transferred overseas. His full period of enlistment extended 29 months and saw him stationed in North Africa, Sardinia, and Italy, and was a provincial commissioner in the latter two areas. These positions saw him responsible for organizing "local Italian governments and directed operations in hospitals and orphanages." He also was named a trial judge advocate for the Fourth Army Corps near Trieste, Italy. Upon his return stateside in February 1946, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel at Indian Gap, Pennsylvania.

   Just months after his return to Lancaster Shirk reentered city politics when he was appointed to a vacancy on the city council, being assigned to the Department of Public Safety. He won a full term of his own in November 1947 and began his third term in November 1951. He retired from the council in early 1955 as director of accounts and finance, and for the remainder of his life practiced law in Lancaster with his son Kenelm Jr. In addition to his time on the city council, Shirk was a member of the State Tuberculosis Society Board, the Lancaster Post 34 of the American Legion, the Reserve Officer's Association, the Loyal Order of Moose, and the Kiwanis Club, among other organizations.

  After decades of prominence in Lancaster, Kenelm Lawrence Shirk Sr. died at the Lancaster General Hospital on May 18, 1956, succumbing to the effects of a stroke he'd suffered a week previously. He was survived by his wife and two children and was interred at the Keller Cemetery in Springville, Pennsylvania. Public service continued in his family with his son Kenelm Jr., also a veteran of WWII. A past president of the Lancaster Bar Association, Shirk served as chairman of the Young Republicans of Pennsylvania on two separate occasions and from 1964-71 served as chairman of the Lancaster County Republican Committee.

From the Lancaster Daily News, May 18, 1956.

Null Marcus Hodapp (1894-1945)

From the Dayton Daily News, November 6, 1927.

  Shortly before Judge Urbanus S. Saunders was elected to the bench in Wayne County, Ohio, another curiously named judge was beginning his career in Dayton. That man was Null Marcus Hodapp, a World War I veteran and attorney based in that city. In addition to serving as judge of the municipal court of Dayton and as a Montgomery County common pleas court judge, Hodapp gained further distinction as the primary figure behind the construction of Argonne Forest Park, remnants of which still exist today. Born on July 4, 1894, in Ohio, Null Marcus Hodapp was the son of Frank and Delsie Hodapp.

  Hodapp's formative years were spent in East Dayton, and his early education was obtained in the Ruskin and McKinley schools. He was a graduate of the Stivers High School, and during his youth partnered with his brother Ruey to form a newspaper route. The brothers accumulated enough income from their venture to finance their first year of college, with both deciding upon careers in law. Null Hodapp graduated with his law degree from the University of Cincinnati in 1917, and for a time was affiliated with the law firm of Burkhart, Heald, and Pickrel. At the dawn of American involvement in WWI in 1917, Hodapp became one of sixty-six Dayton men to enlist for service. 

 After undergoing training at Camp Chillicothe and Camp Mills in Long Island, Hodapp and his fellow servicemen embarked for Europe in 1918. He and longtime friend Ralph Clemens would take rank amongst the 322nd Field Artillery and with this unit:

"Spent one year on French and German soil participating in the Mause-Argonne Offensive and the Battle of Verdun where the battery played an important part in a successful battle." 

 On November 11, 1918, just hours before the signing of the Armistice, Null Hodapp suffered the death of his friend Ralph Clemens, who was killed by a shell fragment. The next month Hodapp and the rest of 322nd were dispatched to Germany, where "he served on German soil near Coblentz" until May 1919. Following an honorable discharge, Hodapp returned to Dayton and participated in the publishing of the history of his unit, entitled the History of the 322nd Field Artillery. Hodapp was later named president of the 322nd Field Artillery Association, which was "regarded as a model ex-service organization by army officials." 

  After his return to Dayton, Null Hodapp partnered with his brother Ruey in the firm of Hodapp & Hodapp, which continued until the former's election as a municipal judge. On June 15, 1921, Hodapp married in Dayton to LoRean Hulda Dannersbach (1901-1996). The couple separated in the mid-1930s and would have two children, Eleanor May (born ca. 1923) and Null Marcus Jr. (1925-2004). Distinguished in the city musical establishment, LoRean Hodapp was a soprano soloist with the Westminster Presbyterian choir and had earlier toured the midwest with the Redpath Lyceum circuit.

  While still engaged with his law practice in the mid-1920s, Null Hodapp focused his efforts on the purchase of farmland near Dayton's Germantown Pike, with his end goal being the creation of a park for World War veterans and their families. By 1925 he had accrued over 400 acres of land, and with the help of a number of fellow veterans and contractors set out to make his vision a reality. Opened in July 1927, the park was named the Argonne Forest Park, and under Hodapp's direction, the dedication was complete with a fireworks display and a mock-battle. A second mock battle at the park was held three months later on October 15, complete with trenches, dugouts, forts, "and several rows of field artillery." Following its dedication, the Argonne Forest Park would be home to a clubhouse, swimming pool, picnic areas, a dance floor, a baseball diamond, concession stands, pony rides, a shooting range, "and a figure-eight auto race track." At the annual July 4th extravaganza during the 1930s, the park also staged a mock reenactment of the Battle of Argonne Forest, which featured a number of the battle's local veterans, complete with old uniforms and rifles firing blanks.

From the Dayton Daily News, June 5, 1927.

  One month prior to the dedication of Argonne Forest Park Hodapp made his first foray into Dayton politics, announcing his candidacy for judge of the municipal court. Hodapp won the August 1927 primary and through the remainder of that year had his candidacy boomed in Dayton newspapers. One day prior to his election Hodapp was profiled in the Dayton News, which detailed:

"If elected, as judge of the municipal court, on November 8, Mr. Hodapp promises his very best to the citizens of Dayton in the way of a judge. He has gone even further than that and has promised before taking the bench he will make a trip to Cleveland, Colombus and Cincinnati and get from their courts the requisites that go to make up a clean-cut, wide awake, and efficient office and personnel."

  In November 1927 Null Hodapp won out at the polls, defeating incumbent Judge William G. Powell by a vote of 15,747 to 13,854. Just days following his win, Hodapp fulfilled his earlier promise to visit other municipal courts in several major Ohio cities and took his seat on the bench on January 2, 1928. His service extended until 1936, with his tenure highlighted in his 1945 Dayton Daily News obituary, which related:

"His unconventional methods of conducting police court and the fact that he handled much of the building and loan litigation during his tenure in common pleas court made Judge Hodapp a widely known and highly controversial figure."

  Among the methods Hodapp utilized during his time on the municipal bench was the permission of radio broadcasts of sessions of the police court, and early in his tenure noted that he'd be reducing the bail for "pink ticket offenses" (such as parking infractions) to one dollar. Announcing that he "sought to dispense justice rather than enrich the city treasury", Hodapp's reduction of the traffic bail early in his service drew the ire of other city officials, who noted that "approximately thirty thousand dollars would be lost" in city revenue.

From the Dayton Herald News, January 6, 1928.

  By 1935 Judge Hodapp was at the end of his second term as judge and was unopposed going into the August 1935 Democratic primary. That November he defeated Republican candidate Clarence J. Stewart, 28,866 votes to 14,887 and was mentioned by the Dayton Daily Herald as having been "accorded the highest vote of any of the candidates for office whose names appeared on the ballot." 

  Null Hodapp's third term as municipal judge proved to be short, and in the spring of 1936 announced his candidacy for the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas. He won the primary election that May and in November bested Republican nominee E.T. Snediker by a 24,000 vote margin. His term began in January 1937 and in November 1941 was elected to a second term. Hodapp's eight-year tenure on the court of common pleas saw him preside over several "sensational criminal cases", among which was the 1942 murder trial of the Richardson brothers, a gang of four who were convicted for the slaying of Everett Deweese, who had been killed by a shotgun blast following a robbery at an Alexanderville tavern. Hodapp also presided over the 1944 murder trial of 21-year-old Lillie Mae Hartley, who was later acquitted by a jury in the shooting death of Corp. Jack Nathanson, which had occurred at her apartment on December 29, 1943. 

  Through his judgeship, Hodapp remained connected to the operations of Argonne Forest Park, where he had a home, and for several years was an owner of the Southern Hills Sand, Gravel, and Excavating Company of Dayton. With the coming of World War II and gas rationing, attendance at the Argonne Forest Park ebbed considerably, and in the early 1940s had been unsuccessful in his bid to have the Montgomery County fairgrounds relocated to Argonne Forest. On January 2, 1945, Hodapp was discovered unconscious on the kitchen floor of his home by a fellow gravel company employee. Early newspaper reports noted that he had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage several hours before, and following his discovery, was transported to Good Samaritan Hospital in Dayton. Hodapp died in hospital on January 5, 1945, aged 50, never having regained consciousness. Following his death, newspaper reports noted his death as the result of a paralytic stroke.

From the Dayton Journal Herald, January 6, 1945.

   Judge Hodapp's unexpected death was front-page news in Dayton papers, and in the days following his passing received an extensive mention, with one Daytonian, C.K. Moore, writing:

"The late Hon. Judge Null M. Hodapp of the court of common pleas was very well liked by many citizens in this community, as was proved many times at the polls in recent years. He was fair and square in his decisions and many respect his memory."

  Further character assessments of Hodapp were published in the Dayton Journal Herald on January 9, 1945, dating back to his time as municipal judge. He was remarked as having held over cases so that he could personally visit "the home to verify statements of the accused", adopted equitable treatment of workingmen and African-Americans, and on "innumerable" occasions "patched up differences between careless auto drivers and the owners of other cars or property they damaged."

  Null M. Hodapp was survived by his two children and was succeeded on the common pleas bench by Judge Clarence J. Stewart. Following funeral arrangements, he was interred at the Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum in Dayton. Sadly, Hodapp's brainchild, the Argonne Forest Park, did not long survive him. In the years following his death, parcels of the parkland were sold off, and in 1966 it was purchased by the Dayton-Montgomery Park district. Over the succeeding decades, the park's remains were gradually absorbed by the surrounding forest, but remnants of the park, including the dancefloor and swimming pool wall, still can be seen today. The memory of Null Hodapp and Argonne Forest Park still remains strong in Dayton today, with his life and park history being profiled in Dayton newspapers in 1984, 1998, and most recently in May of this year.

From the Dayton Daily News, January 6, 1945

Orceneth Asbury Fly (1894-1976)

Portrait from the Hondo Anvil Herald, April 6, 1955.

   A longtime civic leader and prominent citizen in Hondo, Texas, Orceneth Asbury Fly can rightfully be called the oddest named mayor this Medina County city ever produced, and in addition to his two terms as mayor was a druggist in that city for over five decades. Born in Utopia, Texas on February 16, 1894, Orceneth Asbury "O.A." Fly was the son of John Sidney and Annalee (Fisher) Fly. Bestowed the unusual name Orceneth Asbury upon his birth, Fly's unusual name may have a connection to Orceneth Asbury Fisher (1803-1880), a widely known Methodist minister who spent a good portion of his later life in Texas.

  O.A. Fly attended school in Hondo and following graduation from that city's high school continued study at the Coronel Institute in San Marcos and the University of Texas' Pharmacy School at Galveston. Following his graduation in January 1917 Fly began his career as a pharmacist, briefly residing in Laredo and San Antonio before returning to Hondo. He married in May 1917 to Willie LeRoy Barton (1894-1967), to whom he was wed for fifty years. The couple's union would produce four children, Orceneth Asbury Jr. (1918-1972), Frances Ruth (1921-2004), William Sidney (born 1925), and the Rev. Richard Fly (1930-1959).

  In January 1919 Fly returned to Hondo and shortly after his return "purchased a half interest" in the Martin Drug Store. Following the purchase, the store underwent a name change to the Fly Drug Co. He would remain connected with this business for over fifty years (retiring in January 1970) and was later joined by his sons William Sidney and Orceneth Asbury Jr., the latter also being a surgeon based in Houston. During its existence, the Fly Drug Co. would carry not only medical supplies and pharmaceuticals but also "sundries, candy, tobacco, gift items, school supplies and the like", as well as sporting goods.

   While prominent in Hondo business circles, O.A. Fly also stood tall in city civic affairs, being a past president of the Chamber of Commerce and Hondo Lions Club, a past master of the local Masonic lodge, as well as a Shriner. Fly also was a longstanding member of the Southwest Texas Pharmaceutical Association and the National Association of Retail Druggists.

   O.A. Fly entered Hondo's political life in the late 1940s when he was elected to the city council. In February 1953 Fly announced his candidacy for mayor of Hondo, following incumbent mayor Bob Kollman's announcement that he wouldn't be seeking reelection. In April of that year, Fly won the mayoralty and would serve two terms in that post. Upon entering the mayor's office, Fly envisioned a bright future for Hondo, remarking

"I want many things for Hondo but especially I would like to see all our streets paved, curbs and sidewalks laid, a federal building, a city hall,  a city library, a large park and city playground. Also, I would like for Hondo to have a zoning ordinance, a standard building code, improved traffic regulations, a stricter enforcement on vaccinating and tagging dogs, a cleaner city and a continuation of the friendly hospitality with which Hondoans make visitors and newcomers feel at home in Hondo."

O.A. Fly at work, from the February 17, 1967 Hondo Anvil Herald.

   Fly's second term as mayor concluded in April 1957 and was succeeded by Dr. Thomas Knopp. In 1967 Fly celebrated not only the five-decade anniversary of his entering the druggist trade but also his fiftieth wedding anniversary. He and his wife were subsequently feted with a large party at their home in June of that year, which was attended by over 150 guests from all across the country. Sadly, just two months following their anniversary, Willie Barton Fly died at age 72. In the year following his wife's passing O.A. Fly remarried to Emilia "Millie" Eckhart, to whom he was wed until her death in April 1974. 
  In January 1970 the Fly Drug Co. was purchased from Fly and his son William by Dan B. Conoly Jr., with the business continuing under the name Dan's Drug Inc. Following his retirement O.A. Fly continued prominence in Hondo, being a member of the Board of Stewards for the Hondo Methodist Church. He died in that city on February 3, 1976, just two weeks shy of his 82nd birthday. He was later interred alongside his wife Willie at the Oakwood Cemetery in the Hondo cemetery complex.

Vyrtle Houston Steward (1894-1982)

From the 1935-36 Official Manual of the State of Missouri.

   The following profile highlights the life of oddly named Butler County, Missouri resident Vyrtle Houston Steward, a man who occupied the post of Missouri State Commissioner of Motor Vehicles for over a decade. While this office places Steward in the gray area of a "sort-of-political figure", the office of Commissioner of Motor Vehicles is an office within the Missouri Department of State, and said office receives a substantial write-up in the Official Manual of Missouri, where the above portrait of Mr. Steward was found. Steward is listed in this manual under his initials, and you can imagine the pleasant surprise I received when I found that those initials stood for "Vyrtle Houston"!

   Vyrtle Houston "V.H." Steward was born on December 11, 1894, in Puxico, Missouri, the son of George W. and Mollie L. Steward.  He is recorded as growing up on a Stoddard County, Missouri farm and married in 1917 to Mary Ethel Maddox (1896-1978),  later having two children, Dwight V. (died 1970) and Nelda Leila (1923-1984). Little is known of Steward's early life in Stoddard County, except his having earned the nickname "Lefty" while playing first base on a minor league baseball team in Poplar Bluff, Missouri. 

   In the mid-1910s "Lefty" Steward made the acquaintance of Dwight Huber Brown (1887-1944), later to serve as state senator and Secretary of the State of Missouri. Steward and Brown's friendship later saw the two become partners in the publishing of Poplar Bluff Citizen Democrat newspaper, where Brown served as editor. Upon Brown's entering politics in the 1920s Steward served as his campaign manager and is mentioned by the May 18, 1944 edition of the Chillicothe Constitution as having managed Brown's "four campaigns for state office", including his successful 1932 bid for Secretary of the State of Missouri. Upon being elected to that office, Brown brought Steward with him to the Missouri Capitol, appointing him as State Commissioner of Motor Vehicles, a position in the office of the Secretary of State. 

  Steward's appointment to the commissioner's office took effect in January 1933 and as head of one of the state department's largest offices announced a change to the Missouri state license plate in June 1934, altering the plate's color scheme to a green background with white letters. Steward and Brown worked closely during their time in state government, with the Official Missouri Manual noting that:

"Intensive drives are also conducted by the Department to restrain Missouri motorists residing near state boundaries from using the license plates from other states, where they oftimes may be obtained at a lesser price. Secretary of State Dwight H. Brown and Commissioner V.H. Steward have been most successful in this undertaking during their incumbency."

  Vyrtle H. Steward resigned as Commissioner in May 1944, having served eleven years in office. In April 1944 he announced that he would be seeking the Democratic nomination for Secretary of the State of Missouri in that year's primary. Steward was unsuccessful in his candidacy, however, being defeated in the August primary by Wilson Bell, 1,939 votes to 577. 

From the Southeast Missourian, April 4, 1944.

  Following his defeat Steward continued to be active in Democratic circles in Poplar Bluff, being a member of the Butler County Democratic Committee from 1953-1960. He was preceded in death by his son Dwight in 1970 and his wife in 1978. Steward himself died on July 8, 1982, at age 87, and was interred alongside his wife at the Poplar Bluff City Cemetery in Butler County, Missouri.