For more than 40 years, Gilmore M Stratton was a respected businessman throughout Clay County. Serving multiple terms as a postmaster, he is also known for building local war monuments, helping secure the Clay Center Public Library building, founding the town’s first telephone exchange, and serving on both the city council and the school board. In addition, he headed up the Commercial Club for a decade, served on the People’s National Bank board, and served with other local committees.
Stratton was born in Salem, Columbiana County, Ohio in 1845. He moved with his family to both Indiana and Wisconsin before he was 10 years old. At 19 he enlisted in Company C, Second Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. He wrote about his war experiences for the local paper, citing that his first battle was met just 35 days in. He was involved in multiple fights before he was injured in 1864 during the Battle of Petersburg, Virginia. Stratton spent five weeks in the hospital, then returned to the ranks until he was mustered out in 1865.
He continued to farm in Wisconsin, where he was also married to Mary Ellen Snider in 1867. In 1870, the Strattons followed GM’s parents to Clay County, where they homesteaded six miles south of town. Stratton farmed for five years, then moved to Clay Center in 1875 and opened a mercantile store.
In 1887 Stratton was appointed as representative to expand the Rock, Island, and Pacific Railroad west of Topeka and into Clay Center. It took him just three months to convince the company.
Stratton then went into the furniture trade business before he was appointed Clay County postmaster in 1878 by President Rutherford B. Hayes. He went on to receive reappointments by Presidents Arthur, Harrison, and McKinley in 1900. Stratton resigned from the job after he was selected to become “Supreme Secretary” of the Triple Tie Benefit Association, a fraternal life insurance company. Stratton co-founded the brand, allegedly as a way to run for state senator.
In 1907, he organized the Clay Center Telephone Company, the first telephone exchange in Clay Center. The company spent $20,000 to furnish and supply their central office with operating equipment. He sold to the United Telephone Company, out of Abilene, in 1916 but remained manager of the location. In Stratton’s nine years of owning the company they went from managing less than 700 phones locally to 1,230. United advertised for investors, paying out 7% interest every three months, including taxes.
Stratton and Mary Ellen had five daughters. Two married brothers from Clifton, Henry and Ed Smies. (Ed Smies was brother-in-law to 5th and Court grocer, Will Peckham.) Another daughter, Addie, married her first cousin, the son of GM’s brother. The wedding took place in Nebraska and they had six boys and one girl, including a son they named Gilmore.
Mary Ellen died in 1916 after a five-year sickness; she spent summers out of state to help her health, but received little relief. She died in the family home on Lane Street.
GM remarried in 1918 to Laura Anthony, who was 31 years his junior. Anthony was the granddaughter of the town forefather, CM Anthony.
Stratton died in 1924 at 79 years old.
Research by Susan Hammond
