My Genealogy Hound

JACOB N. STOUT, postmaster of Neosho Falls, editor and proprietor of the Neosho Falls Post, was born in Adams county, Illinois, June 11, 1853. His father was Samuel G. Stout, a native of North Carolina, and his mother was Lucinda Julian, also born in North Carolina. The parents moved up into Indiana and later on into Illinois, where they resided till 1868, when they came on to Kansas. They settled in Bourbon county, where they resided three years. In 1871 they made their final change of location, going into Woodson county, where the father died in 1882 at the age of seventy years. His widow survives him and is a resident of Yates Center, Kansas.

Jacob N. Stout was one of a family of eight children. He was fifteen years of age when he accompanied his parents to Kansas. He was brought up on the farm and was a pupil of the district school. In 1880 he entered the State University of Kansas and spent one year there. The next year he entered the State Normal School of Kansas and finished a course there, with graduation, in 1882. He engaged in teaching at once, as principal of the Howard city schools. He remained there a year and entered the schools at Neosho Falls in a like capacity and remained two years. The fall of 1886 he took charge of the schools at Kinsley, Kansas, and closed his career as an educator with that year’s work. He purchased the Neosho Falls Post in 1885 and he went from the school room to the editorial chair. He has remained in control of the Post since it first came into his hands and has devoted all his energies to its proper editing and publication. The Post is a newspaper with strong republican proclivities and an advocate of the interests of Neosho Falls and Woodson county. Its publisher has performed whatever duties, in his town, that devolved upon him as a citizen and official, and was appointed by Governor Humphrey a member of the Board of Regents of the Kansas State Normal School, where he served two years. April 23, 1898, Mr. Stout was appointed postmaster of his town for a term of four years. He is clerk of the city board of education and is one of the “school men” of the county.

Mr. Stout was married in 1878 to Miss Emma Higginbotham, who died within a few months afterward. In 1886 he was again married to Miss Annetta Michner, which marriage was fruitful, and productive of two daughters, Grace and Marie. Mrs. Stout died in 1893 and for his third wife Mr. Stout married Mrs. Carrie (Lockard) Shears of Lincoln, Neb., a daughter of M. B. Lockard of Fort Scott.

Being interested in fraternities, Mr. Stout has become a member of some of the prominent ones. He is a Mason, a Red Man, a Woodman, and one of the Knights and Ladies of Security.