Sedgwick County KS Archives Biographies.....Cone, Rufus 1853 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com March 20, 2007, 6:52 pm

Author: O. H. Bentley (1910)

   Rufus Cone, president of the Kansas Steam Laundry Company, the plant of which
is located at No. 124 South Market street, Wichita, Kansas, is a native of
Illinois, where he was born at Farmington on September 11, 1853. His parents
were Lucius and Amanda (Woolsley) Cone, natives of Ohio and Kentucky,
respectively, who came to Kansas in 1890, locating at Wichita. The elder Cone
was a mechanic and died at the age of seventy-two; his widow is still living.
Rufus Cone was educated in the public school, the primitive log school house of
his native town in Illinois. After leaving school he came to Wichita in 1878
with the sum of $1.40 in his pocket, and obtained employment in the grocery
store of Ezra Scheetz, receiving $1 per day for his services. This store was
located on the spot where the store of Hermon & Hess is now located, and the
building was afterward removed to the corner of Main and Third streets, where it
now stands. John A. Ratliff, who came with Mr. Cone from Illinois and was
employed by John A. Wallace Implement Company as a salesman in the spring of
1881, with Mr. Cone bought the business of Mr. Scheetz, which was conducted
under the firm name of Ratliff & Cone, they making a payment of $500, which they
had saved out of their earnings while clerking. In those days they delivered all
goods to customers by hand, as they could not at the time afford a delivery
wagon. The firm was continued until the fall of 1885, when they sold out to
Fur-man Allen, of Danville, Illinois. Mr. Cone was elected city constable the
same year, 1885, for a term of two years, and was re-elected for two successive
terms. While serving his third term he was put in nomination for sheriff of
Sedgwick county, and elected on the Democratic ticket, although the county had a
majority of some 3,000 Republican voters. His term of service was 1890-91. At
the expiration of his term he entered the real estate business and located his
office in the rear of the Fourth National Bank, and continued in this business
until the fall of 1893, when he was appointed chief of police, and held this
office during the years 1893 and 1894. In the spring of 1895 Mr. Cone bought the
Palace Livery business, and conducted it until the fall of 1896, when he was
again elected sheriff of Sedgwick county, serving the term of 1896 and 1897. In
1897 he bought a half interest in the Kansas Steam Laundry, which business he
has since continued. At the time of purchase the business amounted to $185 per
week, but has since grown to $1,600 per week, being one of the greatest
industries of its kind in the state of Kansas. It was at first located in small
quarters and continued there until 1901, when the company built the Cone-Cornell
building, which it now occupies, the dimensions of the building being 120x124.
The company has also built the Cone-Cornell hall since that time. In 1905 the
business was incorporated with a capital stock of $75,000, of which $45,000 was
paid up. The officers of the company are as follows: Rufus Cone, president; G.
W. Cornell, vice-president and general manager; A. W. Stoner, secretary and
treasurer. Mr. Cone has been a city commissioner since April, 1909, and is a
member of the committee on finance and revenue. He is a thirty-second degree
Mason, a member of the Shrine, a charter member of lodge No. 22, Ancient Order
United Workmen, and a charter member of the local lodge of Elks. Mr. Cone was
married on August 26, 1878, to Miss Ella Center, of Chantlerville, Illinois. Of
this union three children have been born, viz.: Sylvia, wife of Frank Garrety,
of Wichita; Edwin and Walter Otis Cone. In 1909 Mr. Cone, with his family, made
a trip around the world.

Additional Comments:
Extracted from 

History of Wichita and Sedgwick County: past and present, including an account
of the cities, towns and villages of the county

Editor in chief: O. H. Bentley
Chicago: C.F. Cooper & Co. (1910)


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