1905 History of Crawford County Kansas

John W. Martin, president of the McCune City State Bank, has for a number of years been prominently connected with the business interests of this town, and within its environs has practically worked out his entire successful career. He is a young man who has achieved much in the years of his life, and his success is the more deserving because it is the result of conscientious and persevering application since he was a very young lad, having become dependent on his own exertions when he was a boy of twelve years.

He was born in Jefferson county, Illinois, August 12, 1868, being a son of Joseph B. and Mary M. (Dollins) Martin, both natives of Illinois. His mother's father, Colonel James J. Dollins, served three years in an Illinois regiment during the Civil war, being promoted to colonel. Joseph B. Martin died in 1876, when comparatively young, but his wife still survives, and is living in Savonburg, Kansas. Their two children were John W. and Ida M., the latter the wife of Charles Smith, of Chanute.

Mr. John W. Martin came to Kansas in 1880, and since that time has been almost entirely earning his own way. He lived with his grandmother for eight years, going to school whenever he had opportunity. He began his career as a clerk in a general merchandise store in McCune, and was thus employed for eight years. When the A. Hood and Sons organized a large implement store, also a full and complete line of modern vehicles and wagons, in McCune Mr. Martin entered their employ, and has been with them ever since with increasingly important duties, being now the manager of the store. In 1902 he helped organize the McCune City State Bank, and is now its president and one of the directors. He has prospered mainly because of his arduous labor from an early age and his strict adherence to honesty.

He is a Republican in politics, and is held in high esteem by all his fellow townsmen. He affiliates with Temple Lodge No. 237, F. & A. M., at McCune, and with McCune Lodge No. 193, I. O. O. F. He was married in October, 1895, to Miss Scinda E. Hurley, a native of Cherokee county, Kansas.