Jobes, Andrew C.

The following data is extracted from A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans.

Andrew C. Jobes. Though vice president of the First National Bank of Kansas City, Missouri, Mr. Jobes still had his home in Kansas and had been a resident of the state for thirty-two years. Throughout that time he had been an active factor in banking, and made his reputation which preceded him to the metropolitan district of Kansas City at Wichita, where he assisted in building up one of the largest and strongest banks of Southern Kansas.

Like many men who have gained prominence in the financial world Mr. Jobes was born in a home of comparative poverty, and was reared close to the simple realities of life, finding some encouragement outside and much more within himself to make the best of his opportunities. He was born at Damascus in Mahoning County, Ohio, April 21, 1857, youngest of the four children of Andrew and Mary (French) Jobes. Both parents were natives of Ohio, and the grandfather, Louis Jobes, was a native of New York State, his wife having come from Ireland about 1801. Andrew Jobes, Sr., was a cabinet maker by trade. He died just sixty days after the birth of his youngest son Andrew. That left the widowed mother and four children. The two oldest sons, William and Charles, were respectively eight and four years of age. The town where Mr. Jobes was born was the center of a Quaker community and a Quaker Aeademy was maintained there. In order to support her little family the widowed mother for some years boarded the students in the academy. The sons as they attained sufficient age and strength did their share by working on farms in the community and attending school in town as opportunity offered. By much self sacrifice and hard work they finished the course of the Quaker Academy and Andrew C. Jobes graduated there.

He went to Philadelphia in 1876, when nineteen years of age. The great Centennial Exhibition was being held at Philadelphia that year. Through the influence of his uncle, O. C. French, of Mississippi he secured a position in the transportation department of the Centennial, and while there he learned telegraphy. As a telegraph operator he worked with the Pennsylvania Railway at Philadelphia from November, 1876, to November, 1878. In the meantime his brother, Charles S., had gone south and for four years had conducted a private bank at Kosciusko, Mississippi. Andrew joined him there late in 1878 and became the cashier of the bank.

On June 22, 1881, he married Miss Florence Coleman, of Kosciusko, Mississippi, but a native of Charleston, South Carolina. After his marriage Mr. Jobes bought the private bank from his brother and continued its operation under his control until 1885. In the meantime he also organized and built a telegraph line extending from Kosciusko to Lexington, Mississippi. He sold these business interests in the fall of 1884.

Acting on the advice of the late Frank Hammond Mr. Jobes came to Kansas. At that time the town of Attica in Harper County was the terminus of the Southern Kansas Division of the Santa Fe. Locating there Mr. Jobes organized and managed until 1887 the Attica State Bank. He left that to become vice president of the Kansas National Bank of Wichita, subsequently acquired a controlling interest and was the chief factor in its management until he sold out in 1895. In June, 1896, Mr. Jobes organized the Bank of Commerce in Wichita. In January, 1889, this was made the National Bank of Commerce, and for a number of years had ranked as one of the largest and strongest banking houses of Wichita and in that section of the state. Mr. Jobes continued as president of the National Bank of Commerce until January, 1908, when he severed his connection to remove to Kansas City, Missouri, and became vice president of the First National Bank.

In August, 1898, Mr. Jobes was elected a director of the Santa Fe Railway Company to succeed the late Governor Osborn, and had been a director in the Santa Fe ever since. He is a director of the Citizens National Bank of Fort Scott, had been a shareholder in the Farmers State Bank of Wellington since its organization in 1891; in 1913 organized the Satanta State Bank of Satanta, Kansas, and in 1915 organized the Elkhart State Bank of Elkhart, Kansas, of which he is vice president. Mr. Jobes is financially interested in Kansas agriculture as the owner of lands in the western part of the state and a large farm of 634 acres south of Lawrence.

After his removal to Kansas City, Missouri, he bought 5½ acres in Mission Township of Johnson County, Kansas. He had developed that as a beautiful country home, with a modern dwelling, and it is located at what is known as Mission Hills, one of the most attractive residence suburbs around Kansas City, Missouri. Mr. Jobes is a stanch republican and had remained loyal to the party through all the various influences which have sought to disrupt its organization. Office had never attracted him.

He is also a director of the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, and is a Scottish Rite Mason, a member of the Consistory No. 2 at Wichita, is a Knight of Pythias, belongs to the Kansas City Country Club, the Blue Hills Golf Club, the Kansas City Club, the Wichita Commercial Club and the Chamber of Commerce of Kansas City, Missouri. He had given liberally to church and charity and his wife is a Presbyterian and his children are members of the Episcopal Church. Mr. and Mrs. Jobes have three daughters. Hey is the wife of Walter S. Hoyt, an oil and gas operator at Wichita. Mr. and Mrs. Hoyt have two children, Walter Stiles and Andrew Jobes. Alice Camilla Jobes, the second daughter, had developed rare talent as a violinist. Frances M. Jobes is now a student in the Kansas University.

Source: A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans

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