Michael T Tracy

Daniel H. Kean (1850-1926) Michael T Tracy

Like his father before him, Daniel H. Kean was an architect and builder of his time, who built structures, part of a railroad, hotels, banks and residences across the western United States. He began his life-long work starting in Chicago working as a carpenter. Kean later traveled west to Pittsburg, Crawford County, Kansas where he married and had a family firstly of two children. While there he built many residential homes, a one-mile railroad track for the St. Louis, Pittsburg & Southern Railroad including the coal shaft for the Pittsburg Coal Company plant. He also built two new wings of the Yankton, South Dakota Insane Hospital and escaped the jaws of certain death when the walls gave in. Kean was later arrested for perjury and alleged work negligence. He was considered a prominent businessman of his time and established a jewelry store in Canton, South Dakota and later a shoe store in Perry, Noble County, Oklahoma where the family settled in 1895 before moving to Oklahoma City. This then is the narrative of the life and times of Daniel H. Kean, a builder and architect of the American West.