Springfield-Greene
County LibraryEarly and Recent History and Genealogical Records
of Many of the Representative Citizens
GEORGE W. CONDON. The fair Sunflower state just to the west of us is a land of great opportunity and a pleasant place in which to live, therefore not a very large percentage of her native sons leave her prairies for other climes; however, some find it to their advantage to do so, and this is well for the communities in which they locate, for the native Kansasan is almost without exception a man of energy, tenacity of purpose, ingenuous and withal a good citizen. We have been fortunate in securing a number of them in Greene county, among whom must consistently appear the name of George W. Condon, foreman of the Oxweld plant of the reclamation department of the Frisco's South Side shops, Springfield.
Mr. Condon was born at Osage City, Kansas, February 4, 1880. He is a son of Charles and Catherine (Hett) Condon; the mother is a native of England, and is now fifty-eight years of age. The father is sixty years old and lives at Hanna, Illinois. He is a native of the state of New York from which state he moved to Pennsylvania where he grew to manhood, and was for some time employed as telegraph operator with the Western Union Telegraph Company, at Williamsburg, Pennsylvania, later worked in the same position at Osage, Kansas, for a year, then went into the coal business for himself at the last named city, operating a soft coal mine for about five-years, then worked for three years as a coal miner, after which he went to Hanna, Illinois, and was a manager in the coal mining fields there for five years, then he engaged in the insurance business for a period of ten years, representing the Home Insurance Company of New York, and was also in the real estate business. He is at this writing assistant state mine inspector for the state of Illinois, which position he has held some time. He has made his home at the town of Hanna for the past ten years. He was justice of the peace there for some time, and was also elected police justice which position he now holds. Politically, he is a Democrat. He is a thirty-second degree Mason and a member of the Shrine and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His family consists of eleven children, namely: Charles died when seven years of age; William died when nineteen years old; the next three children died in infancy; Thomas is a lawyer in San Francisco; George W. of this sketch; Robert is engaged in coal mining in North Dakota; Mary is the wife of Charles Wise, a carpenter and contractor at Arma, Kansas; Margaret married Earl Welling, who is engaged in the hotel business at West Carlisle, Ohio; and Joseph who is engaged in the plumbing business in Des Moines, Iowa.
George W. Condon was educated in the common schools, leaving school when fifteen years of age and worked as clerk in a grain and feed store at Osage City, Kansas, for three years, and then engaged in coal mining there for six years, then operated a coal mine there two years, after which he engaged in the laundry business there for four years. After this he began railroading, working for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad in its shops at Topeka, in 1910, as machinist helper for about six months, then he was promoted to acetylene welder which position he held until 1913. In June of that year he went with the Oxweld Acetylene Company of Chicago, as demonstrator, and remained in that position until October 1, 1913, then came to Springfield, Missouri, and installed this system for the Chicago company in the Frisco shops and now he is foreman of that department, and has ten men under his direction. The plant is under the general direction of the reclamation department of the South Side shops.
Mr. Condon was married on June 16, 1908, to Mary Clerico, a daughter of Louis and Anna Clerico, of Osage City, Kansas, where she grew to womanhood and was educated. To this union one child, Marguerite Condon, has been born.
Politically, Mr. Condon is a Democrat. He belongs to the Catholic church and fraternally is a member of the Loyal Order of Moose and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
Mr. Condon has the distinction of being the first man to use the Oxweld system on any railroad in the United States.
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