John Henry Smith (1873-1938)

SMITH, MENEFEE, CHRISTOPHER

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 12/30/2022 at 20:18:40

From Nevada Evening Journal July 11, 1938 (page 1)

Former Nevada Man Died In Kansas City

John Henry Smith, age about 70 years, youngest son of pioneer Story county family--Captain and Mrs. I. L. Smith, died very suddenly the evening of July 7, having been stricken with apoplexy during the progress of a club dinner.

Mr. Smith, president of the Kansas City Title and Trust company, died shortly after he was stricken. He had been in excellent health and was joking with a dinner companion when the stroke occurred.

The Kansas City Star of the next morning, said: "John Henry Smith, president of the Kansas City Title and Trust company, died shortly after 10 o'clock today at St. Luke's hospital, after bein stricken at a dinner last night at the Mission Hills Country club.

"Until last night Mr. Smith seemingly was in excellent health and had been discussing his customary late summer vacation in California.

"A partial paralysis came upon him as he was finishing the main course of his dinner where 300 real estate and businessmen had gathered to hear J. C. Nichols talk of his recent trip to South America.

"Few of any businessmen in Kansas City had a wider acquaintance that John Henry Smith and always he was "John Henry." The name J. H. Smith, or John H. Smith, would not have been recognizable.

"John Henry Smith had been president of the Kansas City Title and Trust company almost twenty years and his experience in the title business extended over nearly a half century. His outlook on the physical side of the community was based on first hand knowledge and he knew the confidential inside details of the larger business deals.

"Strong features and a habit of immaculate dress made Mr. Smith a figure instantly recognized by thousands. Always he had been regarded as one of the dozen best dressed men in Kansas City. Long he followed the Ward McAllister ideas about conventions.

"Mr. Smith even then was one of the best informed men in Kansas City on real estate. He was vice-president of the Union Abstract Guaranty company, one of the unit that went into the Kansas City Title and Trust company. From 1915 to 1919 he held the title of secretary of the new expanding corporation.

"The John Henry Smith birthplace was a small town in Illinois, but while he was only an infant the family moved to Nevada, Ia., where the father was in the abstract business, laying the foundation for his later, successful career.

"His marriage to Miss Margery Menefee in 1909. With his wife he later was to find delight in planning and seeing the erection of an English house at 1216 West Fifty-seventh street terrace.

"He is survived by his wife, by a daughter, Mrs. Madeleine Christopher, the wife of Hearne Christopher, and by a son John Henry Smith II.

John Henry Smith turned his back firmly on age and retrospection and talked almost none at all on the intimate incidents of the old past. Square of shoulder, vigorous in expression and action, here was a man who never revealed to his associates any concession to advancing years. A decade would add no weight of years.

"An organization to which he gave active service was the Real Estate Board. He was thirty years a board member and was member of first executive committee when the property owners division was instituted.

"His first employment here was with the old Land Title Guaranty company. In 1898 he had the opportunity to buy the Union Abstract an Guaranty company. His brother, Charles E. Smith, who died five years ago, came from Nevada, Ia.. and entered the Kansas City business."