While some folks may have thought his profession to be somewhat eerie, there was nothing scary about John James Nash, better known to the community as Jack or J.J. A long-time undertaker and Kearny County coroner, Jack was the third child of John Keating and Mary O’Connor Nash. He was born October 6, 1874 in Pittsfield, Illinois and came to Kearny County with his family in February of 1888. He attended Kearny County schools but would later make the move to Colorado where he engaged in farming and raising stock.
On Valentine’s Day in 1904, Jack married Evelyn Kearny in the beautiful home her father had built in 1900 on the northwest corner of Waterman Avenue and Kansas Street. Born in 1876 at Kenosha, Wisconsin, Evelyn came to Kansas with her parents and two brothers in 1887. After her mother passed away in 1889, her father moved the family from their claim north of Syracuse to Hartland and then to Lakin in 1893. Evelyn was a member of the class of 1897 at Lakin, and she taught in the rural schools after completing her education. Both she and Jack were Catholic. Two days following their wedding, the couple left Lakin for Las Animas, CO., where Jack had prepared a cozy home for his bride. In October of 1906, their daughter, Margaret Frances, was born.
When Evelyn’s father died in 1910, Jack and Evelyn returned to Lakin. Jack took charge of his father-in-law’s business, D.P. Kearny & Co., and Evelyn assisted in the management. The store carried a line of farm machinery, wagons, windmills, pumps, pipe, etc., and a complete stock of hardware and housekeeping supplies. Within a few months, Jack’s younger brother, Bern, joined him in the business, and the name of the store was changed to Nash Brothers. The two brothers made large additions of implements and other lines to their stock at the old established stand located on the north side of Waterman Avenue, just east of the alley between Main and Kansas streets. They advertised as, “Good goods for less money. More goods for more money. Quality is king.”
Brother Bern moved from Lakin in 1914 and died in 1918, but the firm name remained Nash Brothers for several years. In 1914, Nash Brothers purchased the undertaking business and stock of B.B. Sefton. The Nash Funeral Parlor was in the back of the furniture and hardware store initially, and Jack attended school in Kansas City in 1917 to become a licensed embalmer. By 1920, he was serving as the Kearny County Coroner, a position he held for many years, and Jack eventually went into the mortuary business at Syracuse and Ulysses too.
In July of 1922, the Advocate announced that Jack was putting the finishing touches on his new undertaking parlor located across the street from the hardware store and behind his home. After Jack’s nephew, Leon Davis, attended the Williams Institute of Embalming in Kansas City, the two went into business together. The announcement came in the September 2, 1932 Independent that the funeral home name was being changed to Nash & Davis. According to the Independent, Leon had been working with his uncle “since he was big enough to look over the counter.” Leon also went into the furniture and hardware business with Jack, and the name of that store was also changed to Nash and Davis about 1939. After Leon acquired the Weber building at 109 N. Main in a sheriff’s sale in 1940, Jack and Leon moved their furniture and hardware business there for a few years. In 1953, the Independent announced that Nash & Davis had opened the doors of a new furniture store one door south of the Kansas-Nebraska office at 117 South Main Street.
With so many businesses to juggle, one would think that Jack Nash had more than enough to do, but he wasn’t one to let the grass grow beneath his feet. He headed the Lakin Cemetery Board for many years, and much credit was due him and J.O. Parker, Jr. for their untiring efforts in caring for and improving the cemetery. Nash also served on the Lakin City Council from 1913 to 1925 and again from 1935 to 1939. He served as assistant fire chief on the volunteer fire department, retiring in December of 1945 after 36 years of service. Jack was also an active member of the Commercial Club, Chautauqua Committee, Kearny County Fair committee, Rotary Club, World War I Fund Committee, served as president of the Kearny County Old Settlers’ Association and as an officer in the Lakin Dance Club.
Jack Nash worked as a funeral director up until a few months before his death on July 29, 1955. He was the last remaining Nash sibling and left behind several nieces and nephews to mourn his passing. Evelyn had preceded her husband in death in 1947 after an illness of several weeks, and their daughter died in 1952 of a heart attack.
SOURCES: Diggin’ Up Bones by Betty Barnes; History of Kearny County Vols. I & II; archives of The Advocate and Lakin Independent and Museum archives.