McKICHAN, T. A. - 1914

MCKICHAN, MAY, MATHEWSON, SWAN

Posted By: Volunteer
Date: 7/1/2009 at 00:08:41

HISTORY OF
Cherokee County
IOWA
VOLUME II
ILLUSTRATED
CHICAGO
THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY
1914
By Thomas McCulla

T. A. McKICHAN.

T. A. McKichan, founder and sole owner of the business operated by the Illinois Coal Company, wholesale dealers in Cherokee, was born in Liverpool, England, December 8, 1866. He is a son of John and Mary (May) McKichan, natives of Scotland, the former of whom, a sea captain, died in England. The mother came to the United States in 1882, locating in Sioux City, Iowa, where she passed away November 18, 1906. In this family were four children: T. A., of this review; Grace and John, who have passed away; and Elizabeth, the wife of R. H. Mathewson, of Wakefield, Nebraska.

T. A. McKichan acquired his education in England and accompanied his mother to America in 1882. He began his independent career as an employe in a wholesale drug establishment conducted by Hornick, Webb & Van Dyke, of Sioux City, and after three years in that connection became a clerk in a retail drug store owned by Moore & Moore. He afterward bought an interest in this concern but in 1894 sold his stock, coming two years later to Cherokee, where he has since resided. In 1897 he founded the Illinois Coal Company which deals wholesale in the interests of the Oglesby Coal Company of Oglesby, Illinois, representing this concern in Iowa, South Dakota and part of Minnesota. Mr. McKichan has two salesmen on the road and controls a large business which he has built up through his own energy, enterprise and well directed labor.

On the 15th of June, 1892, Mr. McKichan married Miss Gertrude Swan, a daughter of F. C. and Irene Swan, of Sioux City, Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. McKichan have three children, Maude Irene, Gertrude and Grace. Mr. McKichan is a member of the Masonic fraternity and is a democrat in his political beliefs. Although he has been a member of the city council he is not active as an office seeker, preferring to concentrate his attention upon his business affairs, in which he is meeting with notable success.