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THOMAS HENRY "HARRY" DECOURSEY
Harry went through grade school and attended Concordia College, now a Seminary. After graduation from college Harry took a trip to San Francisco 1 to spend sometime with his aunt, Mrs. Conrad Nagel.2 She was the only member of Jim's 3 family that he stayed in touch with. Harry fell in love with the Wharf. And it wasn't to long before he signed on with a ship headed for the Orient. It would be more than a year before he returned to San Francisco. He would quote Confucius the rest of his life. Mrs. Nagel's son Conrad Nagel was a star in the silent movies but didn't make it when the talkies came in. We didn't miss any of his movies.
This is a good time to describe a college. It was patterned after the European Gymnasium and consisted of two years after grade school. It was not a strict curriculum. They attended school eleven months of the year and were home the month of December. During the Spring months they worked in the fields and thus were taught agriculture. Also in October and November they harvested. At appropriate times they studied books. There was a lot of time devoted to athletics and also to the theater arts and public speaking. It was a total lifestyle.
Elizabeth Ryan attended St. Mary's College. She was a very vibrant person. She considered herself a grand dame of Leavenworth. She and Harry lived in a large home on the Esplanade. Her brother was Frank Ryan the head of the political establishment. He was Secretary of State and held office longer than any office holder in Kansas history. Frank Ryan was awfully good to the "boys" when they were getting their operations started.
Harry was the entrepreneur of his generation. As he said, he liked to buy troubled businesses, get them on their feet and sell them. He had two partners, Martin and Pete Brown, Scandinavians. They would take over a butter company, get it set up and sell it. They pulled off any number of these deals. Martin and Pete decided they didn't want to move any more and Harry reluctantly realized Kansas City was going to be the large city. So in 1910 they started the American Butter Company in Kansas City.
Some of the other companies Harry owned were the Des Moines Baseball Club, The Leavenworth-Kansas City Interurban, a packing house in Leavenworth.
His only hobby was poker and he seems to have been pretty good at it. He attended poker meets in Kansas City, Leavenworth and Wichita.
1 Harry was born in 1866, and he probably would have been no older than 20 when he graduated from college, this would place the trip at around 1886.
2 I do not know who this aunt is, I have not been able to connect the Nagels to the family. She could be an aunt on his mother�s side, or was perhaps not a relation at all. According to Conrad's biography his mother's maiden name was Murphy, so it is possible she was related to Harry's mother.
3 I'm not sure who "Jim" is, my only theory is that it is James, his father. As far as I know, no siblings or other members of his family were living at the time.
