F. W. "Woody" Hockaday

A Kansas Portrait

F. W. "Woody" Hockaday was born in Mount Hope in 1884 and later became a highly successful auto supply and tire company owner in Wichita.

In 1915, he began to mark distances between towns with a big read H and arrow directing the motorist to the next town. By the time he was finished there were Hockaday signs on approximately 60,000 miles of roads from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles. "Woody" Hockaday gained fame as the first person to recognize the need for highway marking in the United States.

Hockaday was a great booster of Kansas and Kansas products. He traveled widely distributing miniature sacks of wheat and coined the slogan "Kansas grows the best wheat in the world." Hockaday died in 1947 and was remembered with great respect by those who recognized his contributions. One Kansas editor said of him, "Woody Hockaday deserves a respectable niche in the history of intelligent and patriotic Kansans who served their state well."