"The Business Educator" [Columbus, Ohio]
N. S. WESTROPE
Through our good friend, Mr. P. A. Westrope, the penman of Denver, Colo., we learned of the death of his brother, Mr. N. S. Westrope, the left-handed penman, merchant and attorney, on December 21, 1931 at his home in Omaha, Nebr. Mr. N. S. Westrope was born in 1875 on a farm near Grant, Montgomery County, Iowa, the lineal descendent of the Historic Daniel Boone. At the age of six his parents moved to a farm near Harlan, Shelby County, Ia. As a youth he was an expert horseback rider and cattle driver, his father being one of the foremost Short-horn cattle breeders in the United States. At the age of eleven, the boy suffered an attack of hip joint disease from which he suffered a number of years. It was during his sickness that he became interested in penmanship through his brother, P. A. Westrope, who was at that time teaching handwriting in Iowa. Being naturally left-handed it required a lot of practice and perseverance, but he finally acquired a remarkable, beautiful ornamental hand and became known as the left-handed boy penman. He never had any personal instruction from any penman. Mr. Westrope probably had no superior and very few equals among the left-handed penmen and card writers.
He finished his grade and high school work in Harlan, also a short business course at the Capitol City Commercial College, Des Moines, Ia., and a law course at the State University of Iowa in 1899.
Mr. N. S. Westrope opened a law office in Harlan where he carried on a successful practice until in 1906 when he moved to Nebraska with his wife and three sons. There he maintained a real estate office. Later on he accepted a position with the J. I. Case Co., as an attorney and collector, which position he held until his death.