George Hodges
George Hodges, co-owner of The Johnson County Democrat, came to the newspaper business late after notable successes in business and politics. By the time he and his brother Frank began publication of the Democrat in 1921, Hodges was partner in a thriving lumber business and had served as a state legislator and governor.
Hodges lived the classic American story of a poor boy who rose through hard work and perseverance to a position of wealth and influence. Born in Wisconsin in 1866, Hodges moved with his family to Olathe three years later. After the death of their father, George and his younger brother Frank helped support the family by herding cows for a dollar a month. In 1886, George Hodges began work at a local lumberyard, first as a yardman and later as bookkeeper.
Within a few years, Hodges had opened his own lumberyard. Lacking capital to buy a team and wagon, he at first made deliveries on foot. Soon Frank joined the business, and eventually the operation included fourteen lumberyards and eight hardware stores in Johnson County. The brothers later owned controlling interest in Olathe’s First National Bank and together started The Johnson County Democrat.
George Hodges’ political career began with two years’ service as an Olathe city councilman. In 1904, he was elected to the Kansas Senate, the first Democrat to be chosen for that office from the Johnson County-Miami County district. While serving in the state legislature, Hodges introduced a good roads bill that became law in 1907. Kansas was the first state in the country to have such a law, which provided for the construction of hard-surfaced roads with funding through county and township governments and from residents of benefit districts adjoining the roads. Hodges traced his interest in improved roadways to an adventure in the mud several years earlier:
I have been a champion of good roads since the day in March, 1899, when we labored up Park Street in Olathe in a hack going to my wedding. The hack got stalled and I got out of the hack in about the first pair of patent-leather dress shoes I ever possessed, and waded to the sidewalk pending help on the way to be married to Miss Ora Murray.
In 1913 Hodges began a two-year term as governor of Kansas. He was only the second Democrat to have been elected to that office. In the state senate, Hodges had been instrumental in passing legislation giving women the vote. As governor he appointed a number of women to key state positions and increased state support for education. Following his term in office Hodges remained active in politics, speaking on current topics and serving as a delegate to the National Democratic Convention in 1920. George Hodges died in 1947 at the age of 81.
--ALBUM vol. 14, no. 1 (winter 2001)related articles:
-The Hodges Collection (ALBUM vol. 1, no. 2 winter 1989)
